The wail of sirens outside grew deafening, joined by the heavy, rhythmic thrumming of helicopters sweeping across the sky. It felt as though the very glass walls of his apartment were vibrating under the pressure.
Han Juho closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to cut through the noise and steady his spiraling thoughts, and took a deep breath, trying to scrape together the last remnants of his courage.
He kept his head low for a second before finally opening his eyes. From the way his brow furrowed as he stared at the floor, he had just come to a grim realization; that cowering in the corner of his room would only make him easy prey if the chaos spread upward.
Then, slowly, he lifted his gaze.
The trembling in his hands hadn't stopped, but the hollow fear in his eyes had been replaced by a sharp, grim necessity. He had to see it with his own eyes and confirm how far this "reality" had shifted.
He grabbed the keys, threw on a light jacket, and walked toward the door. As soon as it swung open, he was greeted by the sight of a chaotic, crowded hallway. People were running with ashen faces, the sound of hurried footsteps clashing with panicked shouts that bled into one another.
His brows furrowed tightly. The anxiety that had only been speculation before now hit him physically. Juho quickly closed the door behind him, locking it with stiff movements, then began walking toward the emergency stairs.
But just a few steps in, a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, stopping him in his tracks.
"?!"
Suddenly, Juho snapped his head back, his heart nearly leaping out of his chest. He found Kang Seung-ki, the uncle living in the unit next to his, standing there. Panic was etched clearly on the man's face, his usual calm demeanor had vanished, replaced by a look of desperate urgency.
"Juho-ya," Seung-ki whispered, his voice cracking. "What's happening? I heard screams, explosions... everyone is running. Is it a riot? But on the television, there were clearly strange-looking things. What is actually going on here?" He bombarded Juho with questions that were difficult to follow.
"That..." Juho whispered back, then continued honestly, "Unfortunately, I don't know for sure either, Ahjussi." His voice was nearly drowned out by the noise in the corridor.
He couldn't possibly say that he might know the truth, that all of this might have originated from a novel.
His eyes flickered toward the stairs. He should keep moving, yet Seung-ki's presence held him in place. Juho asked, "Ahjussi, you look very panicked. Did something happen?"
Seung-ki ran a hand through his hair, his fingers trembling. "My daughter," he muttered.
"She went to the store to buy something. I told her to be quick, and now... this situation happened. I've tried calling her, but it only goes to voicemail." He paused for a moment, clutching his phone tightly. "I have to find her."
Juho went silent for a moment. "But it's very dangerous outside. Maybe it's better if you wait…?"
Before he could finish his sentence, Seung-ki shook his head quickly. "I can't just wait. What if something happens to her? I..." his voice trembled as he took a step back, his face turning even paler.
Juho wanted to say something to stop him, perhaps to warn him about the hooded figure that had appeared in the emergency broadcast. But the words sat heavy on his tongue, and he swallowed them back.
How could he explain that the figure wasn't just a ripple in the chaos, but of something far worse? To speak now would be to offer a warning he had no power to back up.
"Just... please make sure you're careful, Ahjussi," he said softly.
Seung-ki nodded, his expression still tense but now slightly more controlled since he interacted with someone familiar. He patted Juho on the shoulder, and said.
"Thank you. Don't forget to take care of yourself too, okay? If you want, you can come with me to look for my daughter, Seung-ji. It's dangerous to wander around alone at a time like this," he offered, tilting his head as he waited for Juho's answer.
Juho looked away, his eyes fixed on the floor, clearing his throat quietly to dispel the tightness in his throat. He declined politely. "I'm sorry, Ahjussi, but I... there's somewhere I have to go first," he said, not daring to meet Seung-ki's eyes.
Imagining the possibility of meeting Seung-ji in the midst of this chaos... his stomach churned with a strange anxiety. No, don't get him wrong, it wasn't just about the danger out there. Juho just felt that adding awkwardness between them on top of all this disaster was the last thing he needed
Seung-ki stared at him intently, sensing that something was wrong, yet he didn't try to pry any further.
Instead, his expression softened as he let out a long sigh. "Alright. Promise me you'll be careful, okay? Your parents would have my head if anything happened to you," he added with a forced, thin smile, his playful tone failing to mask his deep worry. He patted Juho's shoulder once more.
Juho returned the smile—a hollow effort to lighten the mood, and nodded. "I promise. You too, Ahjussi, don't forget to take care of yourself."
After a few parting words, Seung-ki hurried away, his figure swallowed by the hustle and bustle of the corridor. Juho just stood still, watching Seung-ki's retreating back until he finally disappeared around the bend of the crowded hallway.
He ran a hand through his hair, his breath coming in heavy, shallow gasps. In the midst of the chaos, he let a single sentence slip from his pale lips.
Why..." he whispered, his voice nearly swallowed by the sirens outside. "Why does it feel like I've just done something I'll deeply regret later?"
It was a natural thought for someone who had just rejected the only hand reached out to him in the middle of the apocalypse. Juho quickly shook his head, trying to banish the anxiety before he drowned in it.
He gripped the pocket of his jacket tightly, realizing he didn't have time for indecision now. He didn't even know if he would survive until the end of the day. However, his body seemed pinned to the floor, his mind still lingering on the strange events and the disappearing novel.
Since his unit was near the end of the hall, he felt momentarily safe from the surge of people, until the door of the last unit, right next to Seung-ki's room, slammed open.
"Hey! What are you doing standing around?! Get moving!" A man rushed out, slinging a large bag over his shoulder. He nearly collided with Juho, who was blocking the way to the main corridor. The man's face was flushed red with panic.
"You want to die for nothing, huh? Get down there! Everyone from the upper floors has already bolted!"
Juho flinched, nearly losing his balance as the man brushed past him roughly. That harsh rebuke finally shattered the spell that had been paralyzing him.
By reflex, he swallowed hard. An apology already sat on the tip of his tongue for being in the way, but the man had quickly sped off before he could even say anything, making the sentence gradually die in the back of his throat.
He stood there, blinking rapidly, the stinging sense of guilt arriving just a second too late to be useful.
He cleared his throat, a small habit to mask the sudden surge of discomfort, as a bitter, awkward smile tugged at his lips while watching the man disappear. "I'm sorry..." he muttered under his breath, the apology directed at the empty space where the man had been.
But his whisper was immediately swallowed whole. The hallway that had felt briefly silent now turned suffocating as several sounds of footsteps from the floors above grew louder.
Without wasting another second, Juho cut off his thoughts and began to stride forward. He hurried after the man, merging into the stream of people shoving past one another. Between the main stairs and the emergency exit, he chose the emergency stairs.
He kept moving with hyper-vigilance. His head throbbed, and he felt a wave of dread seeing people just like him pouring out from the upper floors, pushing and shoving with no regard for one another just to reach the exit.
He descended the stairs one by one. The entire time, he kept his body pressed against the wall like a lizard, moving from the seventh floor down to the ground level. By the time he reached the bottom, nearly fifteen minutes had passed, a duration that felt like an eternity in that frantic state.
Juho didn't dare to rush, especially after nearly tumbling when someone slammed into his shoulder. However, when he finally stepped out of the apartment lobby, the sight before him made his stomach churn instantly.
A woman was hunched over on the asphalt, her body shaking violently as she cradled the lifeless body of her friend, her hands stained deep red with blood. In another corner, someone was sobbing in terror, while a man ran aimlessly, looking for any place to hide.
Juho's feet froze, and the tips of his fingers trembled violently, as if his body were screaming for him to turn around and run back to his room. But, even though he couldn't bear to witness the sight, his instinct forced him to keep dragging his steps, one step after another.
"This chaos..." he whispered, his voice faltering. If this really is based on the novel, how could that possibly happen?
He narrowed his eyes, staring at a thin trail of blood on the floor with a mixture of nausea and disbelief. He tried to convince himself that this was just a nightmare that happened to feel familiar, but every scream and the metallic scent of iron in the air began to tear down his logical defenses.
The story he knew so well was now forcing its way in, invading his reality. And deep in the darkest corner of his heart, he knew... this was only the beginning of the horrors written within those pages.