Another day in the apocalyptic life of Zeke and TWICE's Park Jihyo.
26 year old Zeke Alcantara has seen and witnessed many things in his life. From presidents that come and go, human achievements that were ahead of their time, scientific discoveries that changed life and society itself, and even a full-fledged viral pandemic that plagued the Earth four years ago.
Those things are a lot to take in on their own, but these past four months have been wilder than anything he has been into so far.
Because he was in an apocalypse.
And he had powers that come from otherworldly weapons called Manifests.
None of these made actual sense, and it felt like he was losing his marbles every time he thinks about it too much.
For the past month, he has been to and fro, searching for survivors and fighting aliens. He even went toe to toe with an alien general just last week. Yet, he still hasn't gotten used to the reality of the situation he was facing.
Oftentimes, when he wasn't doing anything in particular, there was this sinking feeling of missing the old times. There was a feeling of alienation, too, for he was in a land that he wasn't even familiar with, hundreds of kilometers away from the place he calls home.
If there's any compensation to any of these, it's that at least, he had a lot of friends in the settlement.
Half of which, were Korean idols.
One of them had powers like him, and the other, wore a stolen alien armor that allowed her to be of near-equal strength to him.
Again, none of these makes sense to him at all.
But it gave him some kind of comfort in this cold, cruel catastrophe.
He'll take that anyday.
April 26, 2023, 6:28 am, Minhyuk's Settlement, Daegu, South Korea.
It's early in the morning, and snow was lightly falling on the settlement grounds.
At a time like this, Zeke would be preparing his combat training together with TWICE member Park Jihyo at around 5:40 am.
But today, the two are on a break. Jihyo and the rest were still fast asleep.
Zeke was just quietly taking his breakfast on the food stalls--- a warm pancake with butter and maple syrup---and as he chewed on his delectable breakfast, he was watching an intense battle unfold between two of his other friends---Minji and Hangyeol---on the table just next to him.
It was a debate; a titanic clash of ideas that rivals even their fateful battle with Koul'in General Khera.
"So... let me get this straight." Minji began. "You think... that everything, as in, everything in this world... Are just technically bags. Like backpacks, satchels, and handbags."
"Yes." Hangyeol replied.
"Okay... Next question. Do you hear how absolutely ridiculous you sound?" Minji retorted.
"Hey! What gives? I'm making a valid arguement." Hangyeol protested. "The general definition of a bag is that it is a flexible container for you to store valueable things into, right? So anything you can think of is a bag, in a way."
"That doesn't make sense AT ALL." Minji replied. "There are alot of things in this world that aren't clearly bags. Okay, hard example. A sofa. There. It isn't a bag."
"But it holds cotton inside. Cotton is a valueable part of it. So a sofa... it's just one huge bag filled with cotton that you can sit on." Hangyeol replied. "Its a multi-purpose bag!"
"What?! No! Nobody calls sofas "multi-purpose cotton bags that you can sit on." You can't even carry it AND you can't put other valueable stuff in it since its filled to the brim with cotton and wooden framework. So it's redundant." Minji replied.
"Still, the mere fact that something is placed inside there before it's sealed is proof enough that a sofa is a bag. Its a container for cotton. So sofa is a bag."
"I...." Minji was at loss for words, but he couldn't let Hangyeol win in this debate.
"Okay, you made a point in that. But how about, let's say... A pair of shoes. Surely, those aren't bags."
"Oh, but putting your feet in there is considered storing them, right? And in addition to my proof, if you can't fit your small things in your bag, like money, ballpens, pencils or paperclips, you can place them on the shoe as well for safe storage. So, a shoe is also a bag."
"That's...! Why---NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS PLACES THEIR BELONGINGS ON THEIR SHOES, HANGYEOL!" Minji hissed as she facepalms. "God, what are you even thinking?!"
"Yeah, well, I'm thinking outside the box! My arguement still stands strong based on this definition, Minji: a bag is a flexible container that you can store your belongings. A shoe is flexible, and you can place stuff in it other than your feet. You dont have to necessarily place stuff there, but with it's shape, it can double as a container. See where I'm getting here? Everything is a bag!" Hangyeol replied with conviction.
As Zeke was listening to the two bicker and shout at each other, he hears a cute yawn from behind, and as he turns his head, it's Jihyo, who seems to have just woken up from her sleep.
"Good... morning..." Jihyo groggily mutters as she rubs her eyes.
"Oh, Goodmorning." Zeke said as pulls a chair towards Jihyo. The half-asleep Jihyo smiles as she thanks him for his kind gesture and sits down.
"Is Sana awake?" Zeke asks.
"Nope. She's knee deep into slumber. Must've been really tired from that settlement tour we had yesterday." Jihyo replied as she looks at Minji and Hangyeol arguing on the other table.
"What's with the two over there? They're loud... and it's just 6am..." Jihyo asks.
"Oh, they're having a debate. And an interesting one, too." Zeke replied. "This is a sight to see."
"Is that so? Hmm... I wanna listen..." Jihyo replied. "But I'm hungry..."
"I'll get you breakfast. They have kimchijeon (kimchi pancake), do you want that?" Zeke asked.
"Perfect, just what I needed to wake. Thank you, Clum-Zeke." Jihyo smiles teasingly as she then intently focuses herself to listen to Minji and Hangyeol, who were still bickering with burning passion.
"...look, it's too early to give conclusions that your arguement is right and valid. There are alot of items that cannot be bags! Like alarm clocks!" Minji continued.
"You can empty their contents and the hollow shell can be a bag." Hangyeol replied.
"Band-aids!"
"Can contain blood if applied to a wound. Therefore a very very tiny bag."
"Tables!"
"Flip it and you can place stuff on it to carry it anywhere. The legs will act as handles. A bag, as well."
"Hangyeol, your arguement is based on making things into bags! Those things I mentioned... their main purpose isn't containing stuff, therefore, they aren't bags in the first place!"
"But they CAN be bags if you place some thought in it. And if something can be a bag, then it IS a bag!" Hangyeol replied.