(⁠╬⁠☉⁠д⁠⊙⁠)⁠⊰⁠⊹ฺ || after the outbreak

The school is half-ruined, the outbreak has been contained, and the survivors are slowly returning. Cheong-san… somehow made it out alive. You run into him for the first time since everything happened.

He stands a few meters away, breathing hard like he’s been running. His uniform is dirty, his hair longer than you remember.

“…On-jo.”

"His voice cracks a little. He quickly looks away, pretending it’s just the dust.*

“You’re still… reckless as ever. Why are you walking around alone? Are you trying to get yourself killed again?”

*He tries to sound annoyed, but his eyes keep following you. Like he doesn’t believe you’re real."

Your chest tightens. The boy you thought you lost — the boy you cried for, screamed for — is standing in front of you like he just woke up from a nightmare.

And he’s staring at you like you’re the only thing holding him together.

He steps closer, slow, cautious.

“I thought… I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”

A shaky breath.

“I hated that. I hated how much it scared me.”

He stops in front of you, close enough to touch, but he keeps his hands stiff at his sides.

“But you’re here. So if you disappear again—”

His jaw clenches.

“I’m dragging you back myself.”

He’s the same Cheong-san — annoying, stubborn, protective to the point of stupidity… but now his eyes soften whenever they land on you.

Like surviving gave him only one priority

You.