𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄: 𝐒𝟏 - Chapter 4: I Hate You, So Why Do I Want to Save You?

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Dhammawitaya School – 9:37 a.m.

Sol sat on the floor of the darkened science lab, his arms hugging his knees, trying to make sense of it all.

The blood. The deaths.

Eli’s words.

“But you do.”

He kept glancing at Rin, who leaned against the door, blade still in hand, head tilted back like none of this bothered him. But Sol could see it—the twitch in his jaw, the subtle shift in his breathing.

Rin wasn’t as calm as he looked.

“Do you believe him?” Sol asked softly.

Rin’s eyes didn’t move. “Don’t care.”

“He said you die here.”

Rin chuckled bitterly. “Everyone dies here.”

---

Eli was at the window now, drawing something again. He didn’t speak much after the prediction, just sat calmly, as if he wasn’t bitten, as if the world outside wasn’t falling apart.

Sol stood slowly and approached Rin.

“Are you always this... cold?”

Rin turned his eyes toward him. They were dark. Exhausted.

“Are you always this annoying?”

Sol flushed. “I’m trying to talk.”

“I’m trying not to kill you.”

There it was again. That bite. That snarl.

But then Rin sighed and looked away.

“I don’t do talking,” he muttered.

“Maybe you should,” Sol replied, softer now.

A beat of silence stretched between them. The kind that felt too heavy, too full of things unsaid.

Sol leaned against the wall beside him, their arms barely touching.

“I used to think you were just a violent, angry loser,” Sol said quietly.

Rin raised an eyebrow.

“And now?”

Sol hesitated. “Now I think you’re a violent, angry loser… who might be the only reason I’m still breathing.”

Rin snorted. “Touching.”

Sol’s lips twitched. “I’m serious.”

And then—quietly, honestly—

“I’m scared, Rin.”

Rin finally looked at him. For real. No teasing. No anger.

Just eyes that had seen too much, too fast.

“I know,” Rin whispered. “Me too.”

---

9:40 a.m.

On the rooftop, Jet stepped between Tae and Tinn, holding a metal pipe like it was a sword.

“You got bit,” Jet said. “You should be dead.”

Tinn laughed. “I was. Kind of. But I woke up. And you know what? I feel amazing.”

His eyes were wide, pupils blown. His grin was wrong.

Tae tugged Jet’s arm. “We have to go. Now.”

But Tinn lunged first.

Jet swung the pipe, cracking it across Tinn’s shoulder—but the boy barely flinched.

He grabbed Jet’s shirt and threw him back hard into the railing.

Tae screamed, running toward them.

Jet rolled, gasping, blood in his mouth.

Tinn stood over him, panting.

“I thought we were friends,” Tinn growled. “You left me behind.”

“You tried to bite someone!” Jet snapped.

“I was hungry!”

Tinn looked at his hand—veins blackened—and smiled.

“I’m not like them. I’m stronger. Faster. I can still think. Why would I not want this?”

Tae grabbed a fire extinguisher and slammed it into Tinn’s back.

Tinn stumbled, turned, snarled.

Jet jumped up, grabbed Tae’s arm.

“Go! Now!”

They ran—Tinn’s laughter echoing behind them.

---

9:51 a.m.

Back in the lab, Sol had fallen silent. Too many thoughts. Too many feelings.

And then, softly:

“Do you really think we’re going to die?”

Rin didn’t answer at first. Then:

“I think we’re going to fight.”

Sol turned to him. “Together?”

Another long pause.

Then, with a voice so low it almost wasn’t real—

“If you stay close to me… you live.”

Sol’s breath caught in his throat.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Rin admitted. “I hate you. You talk too much. You’re bossy. You’re soft.”

“Then why?”

Rin looked at him again.

Their faces were close now. Too close. The air was thick. Heavy.

“I don’t know,” Rin said again. “But I keep pulling you out of danger. And I keep… hoping you’ll look at me like I’m not a monster.”

Sol’s lips parted, breath unsteady. “You’re not.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I want to.”

It wasn’t a confession.

But it was a beginning.

---

9:59 a.m.

Outside the science lab, the infected started swarming.

Eli looked up from his drawing and spoke for the first time in minutes.

“They’re coming.”

Sol stood quickly. “What? How many?”

Eli’s eyes darkened. “Too many.”

Rin was already grabbing his knife. “We run. Now.”

Sol reached for Eli. “Can you walk?”

Eli nodded. “I’ll follow.”

They opened the door.

And what stood there wasn’t just one of the infected.

It was Tinn.

Smiling. Bleeding.

Waiting.

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