A Meaningful Sacrifice || All of Us Are Dead

18. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Yes. What you're looking at is a 9,413-word chapter. Consider this a way to repay for my third long absence.

...

Though it doesn't feel like it at all, the winter holidays are upon them.

In the girls' cell, Oh Soowi shrieks joyously, waking up the other girls sleeping. Further down the hall, Yang Daesu shouts in surprise after shooting up in his cot with a sneeze, to which Jang Woojin snappishly tells him to go back to sleep. But neither Daesu nor Soowi are fazed by the muted response to their excitement, forcing their respective groups to wake up and enjoy the first proper snowfall of the year.

Morning routines are completed much faster than usual for the kids of Class 2-5, mostly due to Soowi's and Daesu's respective badgering.

"What do you mean you can't brush faster?" Daesu barks at the other boys, just as Soowi pleads with the girls, "The snow might melt tomorrow! Here, let me help with that boot!"

Once everyone has completed their morning ablutions and dressed up in their winter gear, the kids are practically forced out of their cells.

"Yah!" Park Mijin cries in protest as she lands against her girlfriend, Jang Hari. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Go! Go!" Soowi and Daesu yell at once. This is when they, now out in the open, realize they're of the same mind. Nam Onjo pinches the bridge of her nose as she sees them come to the realization, dreading even more bursts of energy from the two.

"Come on, Soowi-ya!" cries Daesu. "Let's bring happiness to everyone!"

"Aye-aye, Captain!" Soowi agrees, rushing to Daesu's side. "Let's go!"

Together, they drag the kids out into the open, where pristine, untouched snow lays at their feet. Spots of snow have collected on top of the fences and walls, and the roofs of the other buildings are blanketed with a pure white batch of it.

"Yah, let's have a snowball fight," Lee Suhyeok suggests cheekily, slinging an arm around Daesu. "Boys against girls?"

Daesu smirks at the other boy.

"Oh, it's on."

But as they're about to take their positions, Soowi cries, "Wait! What about Joonyeong-oppa and Namra-unnie?"

Daesu's eyes widen. He can't believe he forgot about them.

—

While the other kids of Class 2-5 are reveling in the snow-filled morning, Joonyeong has just woken up and discovered the snow.

A small, sad smile appears on his face.

Before Soowi was born, he and his parents had a little tradition for the morning of the first snowfall. Eomma would crouch on one side of his bed, and Appa would crouch on the other. Then, they'd start to quietly sing a song they made up: "Snow has come today, so let's go out and play!" They'd sing it in his ears over and over until he registered their voices, and once that happened, Eomma and Appa would hook their arms under his and lift him off the bed, lightly swinging him forward to the floor. In that instant, Joonyeong would know that it had snowed, and he'd shriek in delight, racing to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Through the small window in his cell, Joonyeong sees nothing but white landscape. It hides all the horrors of the outbreak. It hides the screams of the people who didn't make it. But most of all, it hides the cowardice of the military who abandoned them—the military who let more of them die.

He'd normally be ecstatic on the morning of the first snowfall, but today, his good mood doesn't show. All he can think about is what's been taken from him. Though he has good friends, a loving sister, and the best boyfriend he can ask for, it doesn't feel like enough. He's had to change in irreversible ways. He's had to deal with so much devastation that he doesn't know if his relationships are enough. Can they be enough?