After leaving the building, they had dinner.
Took a shower and went to sleep.
Noi Karn woke up the next morning feeling very uncomfortable.
And that was because the creepy whispers he hadn't heard for a while were back.
They kept whispering words of death and destruction, making Noi Karn feel like he was going to go crazy.
He rubbed his head and decided to ignore it.
Instead, he focused his attention on the restaurant they were planning to go to.
Shae Harris had decided to celebrate and thought of having a party at a restaurant.
The whole place was bloody and messy, so they moved the location of the party to the kitchen.
Then they spent hours cleaning up the kitchen because the cat disappeared all of a sudden.
"Finally," Shae Harris said, dumping the wet rag on the cleaned floor.
"Tsk, why couldn't they have run out instead of hiding here," Ming Jun said while returning the bloody mop to a corner.
"They must have been too scared to think," Wei Zhi said, placing the second mop in a corner.
"But now it looks pretty," Mori Aoi said, placing the rag in a trash bag by the corner.
"So what are we doing here?" Noi Karn bent down to pick up the other rag that was tossed on the floor.
He used the cover to massage his aching head.
Then stood up to place the rag in the trash bag without anyone noticing his weird state.
"Let's see what's on the menu." Shae Harris went to a room and started bringing out goods from the cold room.
"Why don't you decide," Mori Aoi asked Noi Karn.
"I don't have anything I particularly like," Noi Karn said.
He usually ate what they gave him in the orphanage without any complaint.
"Let's make any Thai dish we can from what we have," Ming Jun offered.
"But does anyone know how to make it?" Wei Zhi said with an eyebrow raised.
"Use this," Yi Zheng, who had been watching, spoke up.
He handed them the phone that they used to watch the dance video.
Now it was showing a man in a chef's attire cooking food while explaining.
"Just leave it to me then," Mori Aoi said, smiling.
The others offered to help, including Noi Karn.
But Shae Harris just squashed his face and told him to sit on a chair they brought in from the dining area.
Mori Aoi got busy making the food while listening to the video.
Wei Zhi would help wash and cut the ingredients.
Shae Harris would pass the ingredients over to them when needed.
Ming Jun was the only one who could manage to withstand the cold from the cold room—
On account that the fat on his body was a great conductor of heat.
Just great enough to withstand the cold from the cold room that had been left on since the beginning of the apocalypse.
The electricity was unlimited, so it had been running for a full month without pause.
So Ming Jun was responsible for going to the cold room to look for ingredients.
He would also occasionally wash dishes with Shae Harris when he wasn't looking for something.
After another two hours, the food was done.
Mori Aoi wiped her wet hands tiredly as Wei Zhi used a tissue to wipe the sweat off her forehead.
She blushed and said thank you.
Well, she was tired but she was also used to it.
After all, she had lived a life of constant work before the zombies arrived.
And because of her rather special identity, she got to work everywhere.
There was one time her sister liked a restaurant, so she made her work there—
Just to see her serving food and to embarrass her when she felt like it.
Thinking of her sister made Mori Aoi blank.
She didn't snap out of it until she saw a palm wave in front of her.
It turns out that everyone was sitting down.
She blushed and followed Wei Zhi, who led her by hand to a seat beside his.
They sat around a long metallic rectangular table in the kitchen.
The dishes were placed in a line in front of them.
Then they each had a plate and cutleries in front of them with a glass beside them.
There was a bottle of cola in front of each person that was chilled and straight from the cold room.
"Let's start with introducing the dish." Shae Harris coughed and gestured to the bowl in front of her.
"This is an appetizer named Satay," she said.
"It is grilled chicken and beef skewers," she explained while they passed the bowl around.
Shae Harris ate the most, followed by Ming Jun.
Wei Zhi and Mori Aoi weren't big eaters.
Noi Karn and Yi Zheng ate the normal amount.
"Next is the Thai Beef Noodle soup, made out of beef chunks, rice vermicelli, and a special broth we just invented," Ming Jun said, pointing to his bowl.
They passed it around.
"Next is Krapow Gai, made with stir-fried chicken with basil, chilies, and served with steamed rice," Wei Zhi said as they passed the bowl around.
"Lastly is the dessert Mango Sticky Rice, made of mangoes and sticky rice cooked in coconut milk," Mori Aoi said as the bowl was passed.
After devouring their food, they sat on the chair rubbing their stomachs.
"How have you not exploded yet?" Wei Zhi looked at Shae Harris, who had a flat belly.
"And how is your stomach so flat?" Ming Jun looked at her flat stomach, then at his bulging, flabby belly.
Hiss.
Comparison really is the root of all depression.
Why can she still remain so slim even though we ate the same portion—
While I managed to grow another fatty fold?
Ming Jun wailed in his heart while pinching his folds.
"It's my superpower," Shae Harris said.
"What kind of superpower makes you permanently slim?" Ming Jun rolled his eyes.
"It's called terminal illness," Shae Harris said nonchalantly.
"I guess because I passed my death date, my body just takes the fuel from all the food I eat." Shae Harris rubbed her stomach and spoke calmly.
"How much fuel does one person need?" Wei Zhi retorted.
"Unless she swallowed a person before we met her," Ming Jun said while scooting back and shivering.
Wei Zhi also gasped and scooted away.
Shae Harris rolled her eyes at them.
"They're bullying me again," she said while walking to Mori Aoi and hugging her, who had already stood up.
"I think you're very pretty this way," Mori Aoi consoled her while blushing.
"Don't inflate her ego." Ming Jun appeared beside Shae Harris.
"Get off." Wei Zhi frowned and peeled Shae Harris off.
Shae Harris wanted to stick back but was interrupted by Ming Jun, who said:
"It's also sad to never have flesh." Then he poked her arm, which was mostly skin and bones.
And Shae Harris couldn't take it lying down, so she twisted his fat.
Ming Jun glared at her and wanted to pinch her back, but she dodged.
And ended up attacking Wei Zhi.
Shae Harris also jumped Mori Aoi and pinched her.
Mori Aoi yelped with tears, which attracted Wei Zhi.
Only to see Mori Aoi running away from Shae Harris, who stretched out her hands like claws.
Ming Jun chased her.
Wei Zhi was chasing Mori Aoi.
They ran around the restaurant for a while, then dragged Noi Karn into it.
But now Ming Jun and Shae Harris were chasing the other three.
Yi Zheng sat on a chair with his hands folded as he watched them howl and laugh.
They always found new ways to surprise.
He wouldn't peg the only lively one among them to be terminally ill.
And he certainly would have never expected their response to be what it was.
They didn't ignore it or offer comfort.
Instead, they responded to her nonchalance with joking according to her lively character.
They really are a unique group of people.
Naïve and childish, but mature in their own childish way.
"I can't take it anymore." Ming Jun was the first to quit and sat in front of Yi Zheng on the floor.
The three who were being chased also came over to sit.
Shae Harris also wiped her sweat and sat beside Ming Jun.
"Tired?" Yi Zheng asked.
They nodded.
"Then let's go to the pool," Yi Zheng said.
Shae Harris was the first to follow behind him.
Yi Zheng led them to a medium-sized pool that was surprisingly clean.
They didn't have swimsuits on, so Shae Harris took the lead by jumping into the water with her clothes on.
Then also dragged the rest in.
Luckily, they could all swim.
Though Shae Harris was taught before she got sick and never swam after that.
Ming Jun had been pushed into the lake in his family's villa, so he was forced to figure it out.
Wei Zhi had been nearly drowned countless times by some people in the slums, so he also figured it out.
Mori Aoi learned because she got a job as a lifeguard in the pool her sister liked to go to.
Noi Karn was the poster boy for the orphanage, so he was taught.
They swam and played all day.
Yi Zheng then called them for dinner.
At night, they all went to bed and fell asleep.
Noi Karn, on the other hand, was having a bad dream.
His eyebrows were furrowed, and he found that the whispers were talking loudly, directly into his ears.
Outside the dream though, his body was trembling.
His eyes were closed, and red vines started to snake across his skin.
He rose up with his eyes still tightly shut.
Then he disappeared quietly without alarming the others.
They were sleeping quietly and deeply after playing all day.
In fact, they didn't notice he was gone until the next morning.
Yi Zheng returned from his normal routine of checking the surroundings.
Only to be met with Shae Harris, who rushed over to him crying.
"Yi Zheng, Noi Karn is gone," she sobbed in distress.
Yi Zheng looked at her blankly.
That was the first time she had said his full name and not Old Man Yi.
Which showed how scared she was.
"Calm down, we can still find him." Yi Zheng patted her shoulder.
"We have to hurry," Shae Harris said, dragging him out the door.
"Why are you in so much of a hurry? What do you guys know?" Yi Zheng didn't budge.
He felt that they were too scared.
It wasn't the fear of his vanishing, but the fear that comes with already knowing what was going to happen to him.
"He's going to die," Mori Aoi choked out while sobbing into Wei Zhi's arm.
The two boys trembled along with her words, and Shae Harris froze.
"How do you guys know that?" Yi Zheng grabbed Shae Harris by the shoulder and asked.
"I don't know and I don't care, let's just go," Shae Harris said, trying to remove his hands.
"Damn it, answer me!" Yi Zheng refused to be kept in the dark this time.
He felt chilled to the bone at Noi Karn vanishing.
It was too sudden and without any sign.
And anything that could kidnap a person without alarming five other people was terrifying.
Yi Zheng had opted for the role of a bystander all the time.
But he realized that he couldn't completely extract himself from these naïve idiots.
Along the way, he found himself entangled in their antics and came to relax in their childishness.
But suddenly, he was slapped by reality.
These five kids, though cowardly and naïve, were a part of something beyond his comprehension.
"Please… Yi Zheng, please." Shae Harris was on her knees, weeping.
"Get in the van." Yi Zheng felt like he was mad for saying this.
"Thank you," Shae Harris choked and rushed to the van.
Wei Zhi dragged over a weeping Mori Aoi.
The four of them sat in the van with anxious expressions while the whispers in their heads kept telling them that Noi Karn was going to die.
.......
Noi Karn, who they were anxious about, had reappeared in the basement of the orphanage.
His body was laying down straight in the middle of a symbol drawn in blood.
The principal knelt down beside the symbol and stretched his hand to draw another on Noi Karn's forehead.
Noi Karn twitched, and the red lines on his body grew.
Meanwhile, his consciousness was in another place.
He was completely unaware of the outside world, and all his senses were gone.
The only thing in sight was just darkness.
Noi Karn looked down at his body and found he was wearing his school uniform and stood on the darkness.
Just then, his sight was caught on the familiar black shadow cat that suddenly appeared.
The same cat whose body squirmed into a human shape.
Then the shadow cat turned into a solidified shadow human.
No facial features, but the shape of his face was considered handsome.
It was wearing a black suit and stood facing Noi Karn.
"Hello," it said.