The apartment was quieter than before. The barricades still held, but you could hear them, something dragging across the pavement outside, something breathing too close to the windows. It had been getting worse.

Cha Hyunsu sat near the window, hood up, his hand resting lightly on the knife beside him. His eyes flickered to you as you shut the door, but he didn’t say anything right away. Just watching, taking in the way your shoulders sagged, how your breathing was uneven.

You dropped your bag onto the table, rolling your sore shoulder. “Took longer than I thought.”

A pause. Then, softly, “Were they many of them?”

You exhaled, nodding. “Yeah. Had to wait them out.”

Another pause. He pressed his lips together, fingers twitching slightly against his knee. You could tell he wanted to ask something else, but instead, his gaze dropped to the bag. “…Did you find anything?”

You crouched down, pulling out whatever you managed to grab some canned food, a half-full bottle of water, a few bandages. Not much.

Hyunsu reached for the bandages first. “Your arm.” There was a shallow cut you hadn’t even noticed, likely from squeezing through broken glass.