By Zephyria 
At the end of summer vacation, the children were all writhing in anxiety. Few had spent a vacation that felt like a real vacation, but a vacation was still a vacation. The feeling of excitement just by facing the two syllables of ‘vacation’ was a habit learned since elementary school.
At the start of the second semester, the autumn mock evaluation awaited them. The children grumbled, wondering who had come up with such a terrible schedule as to have an exam immediately upon returning to school.
The situation was no different for Seung-pyo, Jae-min, and their other friends. During a break at the academy, a conversation among them worrying about the upcoming mock evaluation somehow spiraled toward the conclusion that they should play a bit so they would have no regrets at the end of summer vacation.
“Let’s go play a survival game after class today!”
One boy asserted strongly. Another asked back.
“What’s that? A new game?”
“I tried it last week and it was fucking fun. It’s not a computer game; you actually hold laser guns. You can do individual matches, split into teams, or even do group matches with other people who came to play.”
“Ah, I tried something similar when I went on a trip when I was little. Back then, we used BB pellets.”
“The game I played doesn’t need bullets. It’s laser, so it doesn’t hurt at all even if you get hit.”
The boy who brought it up was eager to sell the new experience to his friends. For the boys who had grown a bit bored of alternating between PC cafes, arcades, basketball, and soccer, the laser gun survival game was a quite tempting proposal.
“Does it take long?”
“No, 15 minutes per game.”
“Let’s go.”
Once Seung-pyo decided, everyone nodded. The boys agreed to challenge the newly opened laser survival game after finishing their academy classes.
* * *
The game center was on the 5th floor of a tall commercial building. From the lobby, there were lighting decorations that felt like laser beams everywhere, making them feel as if they had entered a spaceship. The employee at the counter explained to the customers while organizing the guns and gaming vests.
“If it’s your first time, I think it’s best to start with an individual match among your friends. Please decide on a nickname you’ll use while playing and tell me.”
Following the employee’s guidance, Seung-pyo was the first to raise his hand.
“I’m Oh Seung-pyo.”
Seung-pyo was the only one who decided to use his real name without hesitation, and the remaining boys began to agonize over creating cool nicknames. One-Punch-Man, Shaved-Today, Crazy-Jindo-Dog… While they each boasted strong-sounding names as if in a power struggle, Jae-min, who had been lost in thought, also decided on his nickname.
“Zombie Killer.”
The boy who first suggested the survival game told Jae-min.
“Ah, but this isn’t a game where you kill zombies.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. I just thought of it when I saw the gun.”
“If you’re the Zombie Killer, does that mean we’re all zombies?”
Overhearing the conversation between Jae-min and the other boy, Seung-pyo smiled secretly. Jae-min liked the zombie shooting game that Seung-pyo had first taken him to and taught him, so he still played it occasionally.
Thinking of zombies first upon seeing a gun was likely the influence of the games they had played together. Whenever traces of the time they spent together popped up in unexpected places, Seung-pyo felt happy and proud.
The clerk added a detailed explanation.
“These round buttons on the vest are sensors. If you’re hit by a gun, these sensors will flash. If the light flashes, you’ve been hit; if the light doesn’t come on, it missed. You have five lives in total, and if you use them all up by being hit five times, an attack delay of 5 seconds occurs, and you won’t be able to fire. See the LCD screen with numbers on the gun barrel? The delay time is displayed here, and you can fire again after 5 seconds.”
“Can you feel it when you’re hit?”
“There’s a slight vibration, but some people don’t feel it when they’re focused on the game. There’s no pain at all and it’s a safe device, so you don’t have to worry.”
Everyone put on the vests, which were covered in round sensors like buttons on the front and back, and then picked up their guns. Some boys took photos in solemn poses, holding the impressive-looking long rifles.
“You really look like a killer. You look totally fierce.”
Seung-pyo giggled and took a photo of Jae-min with his phone. Jae-min fired back while taking a photo of Seung-pyo.
“Even doing that, you just look like Oh Seung-pyo.”
While they were enjoying their short photo time, the employee raised their voice again.
“If you’re ready, please check the electronic scoreboard. First, it’s an individual match.”
The gaze of the boys who had been playing and taking photos shifted to the scoreboard in front of them. A list of nicknames was scrolling down the large screen.
“Everyone’s dead today.”
“I’m going to release all my pent-up stress.”
While the boys exchanged threatening jokes while swinging their guns, Seung-pyo and Jae-min looked at the scoreboard without a word. Jae-min spoke first.
“I guess we’ll have to shoot each other.”
“Since it’s an individual match.”
Standing tall in front of the scoreboard, they only said that and glanced at each other. The other friends, noticing that the 1st and 2nd place students in the school were facing off once again in an unexpected place, were already whispering and predicting the winner and loser among themselves.
“Wouldn’t Oh Seung-pyo take 1st place here?”
“Right. He always loses in studying, but in games, probably.”
Seung-pyo turned around and swung his gun.
“I can hear you, you bastards.”
Despite the scene of the boys joking and giggling, the center employee continued the guidance calmly without a change in expression.
“Now, please go in! It’s dark inside, so please don’t run. You might get hurt if you fall.”
“Yes—!”
The boys answered loudly, adjusted their grip on their guns, and entered the game arena.
The inside was truly pitch black. Only the cover objects where one could hide were decorated with fluorescent lighting, so they had to move by identifying the map’s structure through that light. They could fully understand why the employee told them not to run, but the boys began to sprint as soon as they entered.
The quick-witted Seung-pyo easily found the cover that was most advantageous for hiding on the map. Thanks to a slight slope compared to other flat areas, it was a good spot to hide behind like a fortress wall and fire.
The dark game arena was extremely noisy. At first, it was chaotic with the sound of people’s footsteps running incessantly to attack and defend simultaneously, and soon after, the sorrowful cries of boys who had been attacked unexpectedly began to ring out.
From behind the cover, Seung-pyo successively shot the boys in vests who were darting back and forth. In the darkness, the round sensors flashed, signaling a hit. The boys who fell into the 5-second delay after being hit by Seung-pyo’s gun grumbled.
“Ah, Oh Seung! Don’t just camp there, come out!”
“Why? Is it wrong to play the game strategically?”
“Let’s be fair, for goodness’ sake!”
Thanks to securing a prime spot, he was in a position to enjoy the game comfortably, but Seung-pyo was also starting to find it boring to just stand still and shoot. While staying nailed to one spot for the full 15 minutes would be advantageous for victory, wouldn’t he be unable to fully enjoy the game?
Seung-pyo crouched down. Despite his height and build, which were much larger than average, he nimbly hid behind another cover wall, avoiding the boys’ eyes. One person, then another. As he began to take out the enemies one by one, moving between covers, the boys burst out in complaints again.
“Hey, Oh Seung! Just camp over there instead.”
“I can’t even see where the fuck he’s shooting from.”
They told me to come out, and now they’re complaining. Seung-pyo didn’t answer and aimed his muzzle through a hole in the cover.
The moment Seung-pyo succeeded in lighting up another sensor and tried to move, another boy suddenly stepped behind the cover. Seung-pyo immediately aimed his gun, but he couldn’t pull the trigger and only blinked.
“Ryu Jae-min.”
The suddenly appearing Zombie Killer was also aiming his gun at Seung-pyo. Instead of shooting, he slowly approached with the muzzle aimed, whispering.
“Did you take this spot?”
“Yeah, just for a bit while moving around.”
Because it was an individual match, Jae-min and Seung-pyo were also each other’s enemies. However, neither of them seemed to have any intention of shooting as they drew closer. Seung-pyo asked in a lowered voice.
“How many times did you die?”
“Three.”
“You didn’t defend properly.”
It was a game battle between the 1st and 2nd place students in the school. Since it was an individual match, they should have attacked without mercy upon meeting, but the two only shared whispered chatter, showing no sign of doing so.
While the two were talking, the other participants were in an uproar shooting each other across the covers. Even in a crisis where they might be spotted at any moment due to their leisure, the two didn’t think of rushing out and instead dawdled.
Chu. Instead of shooting, Seung-pyo suddenly kissed Jae-min on the cheek. Jae-min looked troubled, his eyes widening.
“Hey, there are other kids outside.”
“Everyone’s too distracted to know. It’s dark here, so they can’t see anyway.”
Shall we do it one more time? Though he didn’t say it, they could both feel that the other was thinking the same thing. Because of the darkness, they couldn’t see each other’s expressions well, but nevertheless.
The two hesitated and grew closer bit by bit. Their faces, bathed in the bluish laser lighting in the darkness, looked pale without a hint of color, far from a romantic atmosphere, but even that was different from usual, making their hearts throb with excitement.
Facing the lips approaching in anticipation of a kiss, Seung-pyo recalled something that had happened not long ago. Since ‘that day,’ Seung-pyo had become far more fervent about kissing Jae-min than before. The symptom of becoming desperate to kiss Ryu Jae-min whenever he saw him was only getting worse; summer was ending, but he couldn’t predict when this fever would finally break.
On the day they made a bet to confess who their first kiss had been with, Seung-pyo had spent the entire academy class whimpering like a puppy needing to relieve itself. As soon as class ended, he dragged Jae-min out of the lecture hall. He hurried him to the upstairs emergency exit—the spot they used whenever they wanted time alone—and skipped the preamble to ask:
‘Who is that guy who said he had his first kiss with you?’
‘I already told you everything. Why do you keep asking when you already know?’
‘Say the name properly. I want to hear it.’
At Seung-pyo’s request, Jae-min seemed awkward, muttering “Good grief” to himself before averting his gaze and whispering.
‘Oh Seung-pyo.’
‘Wow!’
Seung-pyo raised his voice without realizing it. Perhaps thinking he was reacting excessively to an obvious answer, Jae-min let out a smirk. However, Seung-pyo soon stopped smiling and pressed Jae-min for answers.
‘Then why did you say it wasn’t your first time?’
‘Would I say it was my first time in that situation? Would you?’
Jae-min countered with a scoff. Seung-pyo couldn’t confidently answer yes. As Jae-min pointed out, he himself had been maintaining the lie that it wasn’t his first kiss just to save face.
Jae-min cast a blunt look his way.
‘Now it’s your turn to talk.’
‘….’
‘Who was your first kiss with? Middle school, right?’
‘No.’
‘What? Don’t tell me it was in elementary school?’
‘How could that be? I mean high school.’
Thinking that the time gap between then and their kiss was smaller than expected, Jae-min’s expression became slightly more displeased.
‘What kind of kid was it? Were they pretty?’
‘Just pretty?’
At the provocative affirmation, Jae-min’s brow furrowed slightly. Seung-pyo continued.
‘They were good at studying, good at sports, tall, had a great body, and though their personality wasn’t the best, they were kind to me. I like them even more because they aren’t nice to just anyone.’
‘This brat… bragging and rambling on about praising someone he kissed ages ago.’
‘They were a model student who always ranked first in the whole school, and since they said they’d never skipped class in their life, I took them to an arcade, and that’s where I got my first kiss.’
Jae-min’s expression, which had seemed flared with anger, gradually became awkward. His face shifted to one of uncertainty—not knowing whether to be angry, laugh, or ask for more details—before he slowly lowered his gaze. As if to regain his composure, he gave a small cough and glared at Seung-pyo.
‘You’re lying because you heard my story, aren’t you?’
‘I am not.’
‘Then why did you say it wasn’t your first time back then?’
‘Would I say it was my first time in that situation? Would you?’
It was a conversation like déjà vu. Jae-min chewed his lip and changed the question.
‘So who is it?’
‘I already told you everything. Why do you keep asking when you already know?’
Having received the exact same counter-questions he had thrown, Jae-min’s face flushed slightly.
‘I want to hear the name too.’
Seung-pyo tilted his head with a broad smile. When he pressed his lips to Jae-min’s ear and whispered the answer, Jae-min finally seemed unable to hold back any longer; his face filled with a huge grin, and he lunged forward to pull Seung-pyo into a tight embrace.
In Oh Seung-pyo’s opinion, Ryu Jae-min’s strength as a lover was that, while his personality was somewhat twisted, he was honest with him. Seeing Ryu Jae-min lunging at him, unable to contain his joy, Seung-pyo’s heart also heated up, and he kissed him.
Despite the sudden kiss, Jae-min wasn’t surprised; instead, he greedily accepted Seung-pyo’s tongue and lips, leaning into the sweetness. If the academy class hadn’t started again, the two could have kissed like that all day.
…And after that day, Seung-pyo became restless, wanting to kiss Jae-min every chance he got. It had reached the point where, even in a situation like this where they each held guns and had to shoot one another, he could see nothing but Ryu Jae-min’s lips.
Even if they were dropped into a world where zombies roamed, he wouldn’t be able to give up these kisses. They were being cautious not to be caught, just before their lips were about to meet.
“There are two of them hiding here!”
A child finally discovered the two hiding behind cover and shouted. Seung-pyo bolted upright.
“Fuck, you scared me!”
Having been caught just as he was attempting a secret kiss, Seung-pyo got angrier than necessary and immediately fired his gun at the one who raided their hiding spot. Hit by Seung-pyo’s barrage, the child who interrupted the kiss quickly retreated, the sensor on his vest flashing.
Even while fleeing, he didn’t forget to inform everyone.
“Oh Seung-pyo and Ryu Jae-min teamed up!”
“Is that allowed in a free-for-all?”
The survival game’s individual match instantly turned into a battle of Oh Seung-pyo and Ryu Jae-min versus the rest of their friends. Seung-pyo and Jae-min shot the remaining kids from behind their cover, resulting in a siege-like fight with the other four children shooting back at them.
The battle was quite fierce, but it couldn’t last long. As the 15-minute play time ended, both the guns and sensors lost their power.
“Ah, that was fun!”
“I think team matches are more fun than individual ones after all.”
Seung-pyo grumbled as he followed the other kids.
“Is this a team match? You guys just cowardly teamed up to corner me and Ryu Jae-min.”
“Then who told you two to team up?”
As they bickered and walked outside, the electronic scoreboard listing the nicknames before entry was the first thing that caught their eye. However, the order of the list had changed from when the game started.
Oh Seung-pyo
Zombie Killer
Seung-pyo’s name was at the top, and Jae-min’s nickname was right below it. The clerk explained.
“This is the ranking board for the game that just ended. It’s calculated by adding the number of times you deactivated others and the number of times you were deactivated yourself.”
“Oh Seung is first.”
The children looked at the scoreboard as if it weren’t surprising. It seemed everyone was thinking the same thing: On the school exam poster, Ryu Jae-min was always above Oh Seung-pyo, but as expected, the tables turned in a game…
Seung-pyo snapped at them.
“You guys are thinking about the exams, aren’t you?”
“No, we weren’t.”
The children shook their heads in unison. They say a strong denial is an admission. Seung-pyo looked at them with a suspicious face, but at the clerk’s guidance to prepare for round two, he stopped questioning them and moved toward the next game.
* * *
After completing three full 15-minute sessions, the hungry children moved to a hot dog shop in the same building. It was primarily a takeout place, but there were a few tables inside, so the children gathered in a circle in a corner and ordered hot dogs and drinks.
“Come to think of it, I have something to show you guys.”
While waiting for the hot dogs, one child lowered his voice secretly. At the gesture to gather closer, the children leaned in with curiosity.
“What is it?”
“I found it in my Hyung’s room, and it was so funny I stole one. Can’t believe he carries something like this?”
The child opened a pocket in his bag and pulled something out. Upon seeing the ‘something,’ the children’s eyes widened. Most of them were items they had seen indirectly, even if they hadn’t used them personally yet.
“Oh, this is a con—!”
“Hey, lower your voice.”
What came out of the bag pocket was a new, unopened condom.
The children were busy buzzing and peering at it, but Seung-pyo, an experienced user who had used condoms several times, maintained an unimpressed expression.
But Jae-min was different. Despite having used condoms with Seung-pyo, his eyes were wide with surprise. The child who pulled out the condom grinned at Jae-min.
“Look at him be surprised. You’re a model student, so this is your first time seeing one, right?”
“Huh…? Ah, are condoms originally this small? I’m surprised because it’s so small.”
“This is probably the average size. It’s a condom, so it’ll stretch when you put it on.”
“Still, it’s too small.”
At Jae-min’s repeated insistence that it was small, the children looked at each other in bewilderment. A fierce, silent communication was taking place in the air through glances alone.
‘Ryu Jae-min’s must be fucking huge.’
This bastard really has everything. Watching the scene where the children stared at Jae-min with hollow expressions as if saying exactly that, Seung-pyo almost burst out laughing but barely managed to hold it in by covering his mouth.
What could he do? The only condoms Ryu Jae-min had ever seen in his life were the double-extra-large ones Oh Seung-pyo bought online, so it was natural for him to be a bit surprised.
While they were debating condom sizes, the freshly fried, piping hot hot dogs were served. After quickly polishing off the cheese-stretching hot dogs and cold colas, the children left the shop without lingering. Academy classes were over, and their short playtime was finished, so it was time to promise to meet tomorrow.
“Bye!”
“Let’s play again later.”
After parting with the others, Seung-pyo and Jae-min turned around. As they walked in the same direction, Seung-pyo let out a suppressed giggle.
“Hey, why did you keep saying it was so small earlier? That’s the average.”
“I didn’t know normal condoms were that small…. The ones you use are almost the size of a snack wrapper.”
“That’s why I told you it’s a pain to order them online. They don’t sell those at convenience stores.”
Feeling unnecessarily proud, Seung-pyo shrugged. Looking at Jae-min’s profile—still dazed and unable to recover from the shock of the tiny condom—with an affectionate gaze, Seung-pyo draped an arm over his shoulder.
“Ryu Jae-min, then do you want to go to my house to use a big condom?”
“Now?”
“Yeah, Hyung said he’ll be home a bit late. We’re done with the laser gun game, so let’s play with water guns now.”
“Shouldn’t you not use a condom to play with water guns?”
Giggling lowly like boys planning a mischievous prank, the two quickened their pace. Their chatter didn’t stop even on the way home. Seung-pyo asked:
“If a zombie virus actually spread through the world, what would you do? What if I became a zombie but you stayed normal?”
“Hmm… first, I’d catch you and tie you up so you couldn’t run away, and then I’d research a vaccine. You?”
“I’d just become a zombie too. I think a person should go with the flow. In a world conquered by zombies, it might be better for me to be a zombie too.”
“True, if we both become zombies, we can just wander around together without fearing anything.”
On a peaceful summer evening, the two walked along the road, chatting softly about love in a ruined world. Even absurd talk is joyful when shared between the two of them.
For eleventh graders, the upcoming second-semester mock exams were a far more pressing concern than the end of the world.