Noi Karn got out of the van and stood in a little bit of awe.
His face, usually a bit dull due to his eyes, now seemed very lively, and the corners of his lips arched into a smile.
"This place is a dump, I give it 0 stars," Shae Harris said as she hopped over to Noi Karn.
"There might have been a popular movie coming out that day," Ming Jun got out of the van and walked to the two standing at the entrance of the now-destroyed movie hall.
The building, which once had the look of a vibrant place, was now smeared with blood and corpses.
The place that was once filled with laughter was now deathly silent, with a creepy breeze wafting through.
"I seem to remember a lot of anime I watched where the main character would open the doors of a movie theatre, then zombies would flood in," Ming Jun shivered and stuck closer to Shae Harris.
"That's it, I'm officially not leaving this van," Wei Zhi stuttered and locked the door.
He was staring at the building in fear when he felt Mori Aoi shift closer to him until they were almost pressed together.
Wei Zhi stiffened at first but tried to bear with the strange feeling that passed through his body upon their close contact.
"Yeah, the three places great for farming are the mall, the hospital, and the movies," Shae Harris hummed.
Wei Zhi: …Thank you for that information, now I'm even more scared.
Mori Aoi felt like something was staring at her from the darkness of the movie hall.
She trembled and completely buried herself directly against Wei Zhi's back.
Wei Zhi, now terrified, paused for a moment and swiftly got down from the car.
Mori Aoi: ???
She looked at him with tears pooling in her eyes,
and Wei Zhi had to go back and coax her to stop crying.
She pouted at him and completely hugged one of his arms to her body,
gazing at him suspiciously as if he was going to run away again.
Which—she was right to think so, because Wei Zhi was resisting the urge to bolt all over again.
Instead, he tried to get rid of the scattered thoughts in his head about how warm she felt,
and how it was like an electric current that caused his entire back to tingle when she approached.
"Nice of you to join us," Shae Harris said, patting the both of them on the back with a huge smile.
Wei Zhi snorted at her and threw her hand away, while Mori Aoi showed an embarrassed smile.
"Old man Yi is still in the van," Mori Aoi spoke.
Yi Zheng looked at the idiots and finished his cigarette.
"Alright then, let's go." He walked out of the van and took the lead, followed by Shae Harris who dragged Noi Karn and Ming Jun in.
Then came Wei Zhi and Mori Aoi, trembling at the back.
Yi Zheng, holding a gun he'd picked up on the trip, searched every inch of the place from top to bottom.
The result was that there were only two zombies in the entire building, and that was because they were locked in the bathroom and couldn't open the door.
Yi Zheng took care of them swiftly amidst the screams of Mori Aoi and the trembling of Wei Zhi.
"Tsk, it wasn't even remotely close to us," Shae Harris said to the two of them while they hid far away behind the corner of the hallway.
Ming Jun was scared too, but he oddly felt that he didn't want to lose face in front of Shae Harris,
so he could only swallow back the scream that was about to erupt.
"That doesn't stop it from being scary," Wei Zhi said proudly while rubbing the head of the crying girl beside him.
Mori Aoi wiped her tears, but they kept falling, so she finally gave up.
She nodded along to what Wei Zhi said because she was crying too much to speak.
Her throat was blocked by her sobs.
Yi Zheng looked at Shae Harris, who was condemning the others while peacefully hiding,
and just felt that these kids were idiots.
"Let's go," he rubbed his head.
Shae Harris was the first to jump out and started to chatter excitedly.
Then Wei Zhi and Mori Aoi were the last, because both their legs were still a little weak.
"This is my first time in the movies," Shae Harris said.
"Me too," the other four hummed.
Ming Jun was too busy working as a servant in the Ming household,
so he didn't have time to go to the movies.
Wei Zhi was too poor to afford it.
Mori Aoi was too busy working and studying to have the time.
Noi Karn was blind, so that's out of the question.
Shae Harris couldn't leave the hospital without dying—until just recently.
"Then where do we go?" she scratched her head.
They all thought for a moment and turned to Yi Zheng.
"Don't look at me. I was too busy working," Yi Zheng raised both hands.
"You didn't even spare time to go with friends or family?" Shae Harris looked at him in surprise.
"I am an orphan commoner whose entire life was spent working for nobles,
so there was no one genuine enough around me to try," Yi Zheng said calmly.
The five of them looked at him with pity.
They didn't say anymore but went to pat him on the back as if to comfort a dog or a bullied puppy.
Yi Zheng found their pity a little funny, but he did not reject it.
Instead, he hit them with this statement:
"Your lives were probably just as bad as mine."
The five of them paused and then proceeded to pat themselves on the back.
Yi Zheng rolled his eyes and walked forward until he finally saw a map of the entire building.
They hadn't paid attention to it when they first explored the building,
but he carefully observed it now to ensure he didn't miss a spot.
"Look, it's the theatre," Yi Zheng pointed to the location on the map.
"Wait up, we need popcorn," Shae Harris appeared beside him.
"And drinks," Ming Jun added.
"The youngest needs to pick a movie," Wei Zhi said, patting the bright blind boy who stood beside Ming Jun and stared eagerly at the spot pointed out by Yi Zheng.
"3D glasses too," Mori Aoi followed closely after Wei Zhi.
"Then let's split up," Yi Zheng said.
Wei Zhi wanted to refuse, but Yi Zheng had already left and Noi Karn was following closely.
Shae Harris skipped away, dragging Ming Jun with her to look for snacks.
That left the two of them, and Wei Zhi had no choice but to move forward.
"Do you know where the glasses might be?" Wei Zhi asked her.
Mori Aoi nodded and pointed at the reception.
Wei Zhi took a huge breath and walked forward with Mori Aoi grabbing his shirt from behind.
The two reached the reception without any trouble,
and Mori Aoi walked forward to take six 3D glasses from a stand before returning to his side.
"Let's meet those two at the snack shop," Wei Zhi said and walked to the shop according to directions.
They found Shae Harris and Ming Jun staring at the popcorn machine in a daze.
"What are you doing?" Wei Zhi had to ask.
"We don't know how to use it," Shae Harris said, glaring at the machine.
"Um…I do," Mori Aoi raised a hand awkwardly.
"Really?" Shae Harris said excitedly.
"Yeah…I used to work here for a month," she said timidly.
"Oh…and you still never went to watch a movie even though you worked here?" Ming Jun asked curiously.
Mori Aoi shook her head but secretly said in her heart that her sister certainly went to the movies using the benefit of her job.
Mori Aoi walked up to the popcorn machine.
She refilled it with fresh corn, popped it, and placed it in a paper bucket.
"The toppings are shown here," she explained the operation to them.
Her movements were fluid and confident, as if she were merely reciting the alphabet.
"Wow, you're amazing," Ming Jun praised.
"From now on, you're my sister," Shae Harris said, jumping to give her a hug and a kiss.
Mori Aoi blushed and patted the hand around her neck awkwardly.
"Yeah, you're really amazing," Wei Zhi said, rubbing her hair.
Mori Aoi didn't know why, but hearing his praise made her hot, the red on her face spread, and her heart skipped a beat.
"That's enough time, let's go," Yi Zheng appeared at the door with Noi Karn, who had a bright smile on his face and six tickets.
Shae Harris poked her tongue out and went to choose some popcorn.
Then she grabbed any snack that wasn't expired yet and balanced it on top of her popcorn.
So she held the popcorn and snacks in one hand and the cola in another.
Then she walked to Noi Karn and put the ticket he handed her in her mouth.
The others followed suit, though the two people with tons of snacks were Ming Jun and Shae Harris.
The rest stuck to a huge bucket of popcorn and a small can of cola.
Yi Zheng led them once again to the movie theatre.
It was empty, and there were corpses placed randomly.
Some were in the aisle.
Some were in their seats.
Some had their bodies ravaged across the rows.
The five of them had slowly gone numb to the sight of corpses, because they were everywhere in the apocalypse.
So even though they were uncomfortable, they chose to bear with it.
But as they stepped into the aisle, the surroundings changed.
It was too quick a process to catch, but it was certain that the ravaged theatre was now spotless and had returned to normalcy.
They were so shocked that they did not dare move another step, and their breath hitched.
Just then, a black cat made out of shadows,
with black holes for eyes, walked in front of them from the row beside them.
"Did you help us again?" Noi Karn was the first to speak.
The cat nodded and took a seat right in front of them.
The next thing they knew, the cat was holding a bucket of popcorn,
with a little can just the right size for it appearing beside it.
The five of them rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
"Sure, why not," Shae Harris said incredulously and went to sit beside the magic cat.
Ming Jun, though, got rid of his surprise and became excited.
He ran to sit on the other side of the cat, who was seated in the middle.
He wanted to ask a question, but the cat put a paw on his mouth.
Ming Jun kept quiet, but he couldn't help but glance at the cat beside him.
Noi Karn walked over and sat down beside Ming Jun.
Wei Zhi was more afraid of such a powerful cat who could perform magic,
but that didn't cancel the fact that the cat had saved his life many times by giving him his body back.
Still, a magic cat was too scary.
He was eventually convinced by Mori Aoi, who looked at the cat with sparkly eyes and was already pulling him forward.
She sat beside Shae Harris, and he sat beside her.
He looked at her helplessly while she looked at the cat in awe.
Mori Aoi: So cute!
Yi Zheng, the most alert of them all, silently sat in the row behind them, far away from the cat.
His idea was simple.
He knew that he couldn't lay a finger on the cat, so it was better to obediently follow along.
The movie started, and everyone began to watch quietly.