This Time, We'll Make It (Cheong San X Su Hyeok)

Chapter 2: Contingencies

Author's Note: Hello everyone! SnivyLord here! Ummm so... I kinda lied, I ended up finishing this chapter first since I was so inspired but I promise A Snowdrop Blooms Twice will be released this week. I just find this plot so interesting and I can't to see where I take this. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and the next chapter will probably be out after my finals are over, so uhh pray for me. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and things are starting to get a little more intense!

Let's get the most obvious thing out of the way: How do I prevent everyone's deaths?

Cheong San thought to himself as he flipped to a new page in order to create a profile on every person who died. Cheong San figured that he should start with himself, and with a heavy heart, Cheong San wrote his name under the Death profiles.

Lee Cheong San

Age: 17

Cause of Death: Bitten by Gwi-Nam and I tackled him into an elevator shaft during the Hyosan Bombing. Incinerated by explosion when the building blew up.

When It Happens: When we make it to the building under construction after we escape the auditorium about three days after the apocalypse starts, Gwi-Nam finds all of us out on the scaffolding and me and Suhyeok try our best to fight him off, but he ultimately overpowers us both. I get bitten by Gwi-Nam, and I help everyone escape by directing the zombies to the top of the building. Gwi-Nam and I fight one more time and he manages to get my left eye. I think Gwi-Nam gets momentarily incapacitated by the drones and as the building gets blown up, I tackle him into the elevator.

Contingency Measure:

Cheong San stopped his pen here because the answer wasn't obvious to him. How will he even save his own life? It had been a couple of days since he found himself back in his former self and he found peace in looking out the window at the silent moon and the countless stars in the sky. It was calm and silent, unlike the restless yet still silent nights he spent in the zombie apocalypse. Every night, Cheong San was afraid of what would be lurking beneath the shadows or what would be behind every corner. Every encounter their group had came with a possibility that one of them would die, and Cheong San hated that. Even his mom had found it strange that he had reacted so emotionally to seeing her come home on that first day. She was happy to hug him and make him chicken nonetheless, but Cheong San made sure to reiterate how much he appreciated her. It was almost enough to make him consider just keeping the name for the chicken restaurant.... almost.

Cheong San groaned, lying back in his bed as he held his notebook up to the lamp light on his bedside table. He had been filling up the notebook with vital information about everything he could remember about the apocalypse. Now, Cheong San was just filling in the profiles of every person who died and how to avert each of their deaths. Now that his head was in proper order, Cheong San could think of several things about his death.... or let's just say conditions. One big reason Cheong San died was because Gwi-Nam just really had it out for him. Cheong San stabbed him in the eye with a phone after all, on top of recording him murdering the principal, calling him pathetic, a loser, among other things. Cheong San didn't realize that would make the delinquent literally too angry to die. So Cheong San thought of a few ways in order to counter his death and wrote them under the contingency section:

1. Kill Gwi-Nam properly this time

2. Don't record Gwi-Nam killing the principal

3. Don't put myself in a position where I'm cornered by Gwi-Nam

4. Convince Gwi-Nam to join our group if the time comes

Two is out of the question since Cheong San's moral fiber would never let Gwi-Nam have his way in killing the principal. It goes against everything Cheong San stands for since he's the hero after all. One is tricky because Cheong San knows that Gwi-Nam still retains sentience after turning into a zombie. The guy is virtually immortal in all of the encounters that Cheong San has had with him, so Cheong San would have to settle for killing him a different way. Gwi-Nam can't be zombified because that's ultimately what led to Cheong San's death. Cheong San's ideal circumstance would either be trying to get him to join the group, or killing him properly this time. However the thought of that scared Cheong San, could he really go through with it? Murdering Gwi-Nam? Cheong San had already resolved to believe that he did what had to do when he threw Gwi-Nam to the zombies, and that was that. This present Cheong San isn't that type of person, but Cheong San thought to himself that eventually, he will turn into that person who would do what he has to do in order to protect his friends. What if Cheong San brings Gwi-Nam to the group and it backfires on him because he ends up being a problem like Nayeon? Weighed with these choices, Cheong San tossed and turned in his bed, hitting his head lightly with the notebook.