Official comic · Zombie Stage · 17 July 2026
Ache
Nineteen pages, one sunset, two teenagers. VIVINOS's only Zombie Stage comic is the backstory Round 1 refuses to say out loud — and it is named after a line in Candy Scar.
- Posted
- 17 Jul 2026, 09:00 KST
- Length
- 19 pages
- Universe
- Zombie Stage (ZOMST)
- Cast
- Mizi, Sua
Content warning
VIVINOS shipped this one with a warning and it earns it: an animal killed on page one, visible injuries on a minor, an abusive home referred to obliquely, and a long sequence in which one character asks to be hit. If Round 1 was already at your limit, this is heavier.
What happens, page by page
We do not re-host the artwork — read it at the official links above. What follows is an annotation: the order of the beats, and the lines that carry them, quoted short from the official English translation.
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pp. 1–2
It opens on a dead rat
Page one is not a character. It is a rat lying dead on the pavement in flat orange sunset light, blood pooled under it, a stone dropped beside its head. Page two cuts to Mizi and Sua lying side by side on the ground, heads almost touching, in school uniforms. Mizi's knuckles are freshly scraped and spotted red, and there is a scab across her cheek. Her first line is not about the rat: “It's not like I haven't thought about running away from home.”
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pp. 3–4
The ask
Mizi has already tried. “But it turns out there's no way… Apparently, minors can't even get a room without a guardian's consent…” Then, sideways, without looking at her: “Well… your place is pretty big, isn't it?” She offers terms — a part-time job, a few weeks, money, then out — and finishes with “I'll pay you back double for everything you've done for me, so please…”, grabbing Sua's hand hard enough for the page to letter the sound.
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pp. 5–6
The yes, and the confession attached to it
Sua does not negotiate. “You don't have to pay me back. It's okay.” “Just knowing that you're relying on me is enough…” And then, in the same breath, blushing, holding the hand that grabbed hers: “I really like you, Mizi.” She keeps going over a reaction shot of Mizi's face — rely on me as much as you want, don't feel guilty, I'm just happy I can help you.
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pp. 7–10
Mizi cannot take it clean
Mizi's answer to being loved is to insult them both. “…Are you some kind of pushover?” “Don't you think you're just letting a beggar take advantage of you?” The beggar is herself. Sua refuses the frame — “Why would you say that? You really don't know yourself at all.” — and the comic pushes into two eyes in close-up, hers purple and Mizi's gold behind cracked glasses, for the thesis line: “You're the kindest, warmest person I know. You hate yourself so much, yet you still try to understand everyone else.”
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pp. 11–13
The slap
Sua reaches for the bruised side of Mizi's face — “Don't be like that…” — and Mizi knocks her hand away hard enough to sting. She is furious in a way that gives the game away: “Are you kidding me? What the… I'm not some pet you keep around the house.” Sua's reply is flat, immediate and much worse than anger: “Fine. Then just hit me. You can hit me instead.”
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pp. 14–17
Pain offered as proof
This is the section the comic is named for. Sua smiles: “If I can prove it to you… then maybe that'll be enough.” She explains the arithmetic Mizi already lives by — “The sting in your cheek numbs the pain inside”, “It's ironic, isn't it? Using pain to forget pain” — and then asks for it: “Through the feelings and pain etched into my very cells, let me feel what you feel. Let me understand you.” Their faces close in the last sunset panel: “Ah… How much pain you were in… How lonely you were…”
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pp. 18–19
The cut
The sunset drops out entirely. Page 18 is a kiss drawn in a white void with coloured confetti falling through it, Sua's visible eye streaming dark. Page 19 is a flat pink field with one small bubble in the corner: “Only then…” The sentence is never finished.
What Ache changes
The title is a lyric
Candy Scar's line “The reason the wound still aches” sits in the middle of the song, between “At last we became one” and “A stinging candy tongue”. The comic takes that clause and spends nineteen pages on the referent: the wound is not the infection. Read the full lyric sheet.
Sua's kiss stops being a plot device
Round 1 establishes that Sua infects herself deliberately rather than be separated from Mizi. Ache gives that act a grammar — “let me feel what you feel, let me understand you” — years before there is a virus to catch. Whether page 18's kiss is that kiss, or a teenage one drawn in the same visual language, the comic does not say.
Mizi's self-hatred predates fame
The usual read of ZOMST Mizi is that the idol industry hollowed her out. Ache puts the hollow in place first: a bruised kid who calls herself a beggar for accepting shelter, who cannot let a hand near her face, and who already knows the trick where outside pain covers inside pain.
One line reaches across universes
“I'm not some pet you keep around the house” is an ordinary insult in a Korean high school. It is not ordinary in Alien Stage, where Sua and her older sister Hia are literally kept as a Segyein's pet humans. Whether VIVINOS meant the echo is a reading, not a fact — but it is the kind of reuse this series does constantly.
What Ache does not establish
- ◆No date, no age, no year. The uniforms and the “minors can't rent a room” line put it in high school; nothing narrows it further.
- ◆Mizi's guardian is never shown or named. The home is inferred from injuries and one sentence.
- ◆We are not told whether Sua ever took her in.
- ◆The final pink page finishes no sentence. Anyone telling you what “Only then…” completes is guessing.
In this comic
Mizi
A former K-Pop idol turned Zombie Idol. She sings "Candy Scar" against Sua in Round 1 and wins by a single point. As an idol she withdrew from Sua — in the MV she takes Sua's bouquet and immediately hands it to a staff member. On the zombie stage she performs a loud, clumsy, cutesy persona instead.
In this comic
Sua
Sua deliberately infected herself with the zombie virus — with a kiss — so that the outbreak could not separate her from Mizi. She sings "Candy Scar" against Mizi in Round 1 and loses by a single point; her arm is then cut off and sold to the public. She is at peace with it.
FAQ
What is Ache?
Ache is a 19-page comic by VIVINOS posted on the official ALIEN STAGE account on X on 17 July 2026. It is set in the Zombie Stage AU and features Mizi and Sua as high-schoolers, before the outbreak. It ships with a content warning.
Where can I read Ache in English?
There is an official English translation on VIVINOS's Patreon. The Korean-language original is free on the official ALIEN STAGE post on X. Both are linked at the top of this page; we do not re-host the pages.
Is Ache canon?
It is official material posted by the rights holder inside the Zombie Stage AU, so it is as canon as the AU gets. It does not contradict Round 1 — it fills in the pre-infection relationship the episode only shows in flashback.
Do I need to watch Round 1 first?
Yes, ideally. Ache reads as backstory. Round 1 gives you the stage, the infection, the one-point loss and the auction; Ache gives you the two teenagers those characters used to be.
Why is the comic called Ache?
The Candy Scar lyric sheet contains the line "The reason the wound still aches". The comic is a 19-page answer to that line: it shows what the wound was before the stage ever existed.
Sources
- Official post: @Official_ALNST, 17 July 2026 — 19 pages, caption “ache #ZOMST #좀비스테”.
- Official English translation: patreon.com/VIVINOS. Quotes above are from that translation, kept short.
- Page order and page count cross-checked against the ALIEN STAGE Wiki entry for Ache (CC BY-SA).
- Lyric quoted from our own Candy Scar sheet.
Ache is © VIVINOS / SCALAR / STUDIO LICO. This page is fan commentary and quotes short passages for annotation; no comic pages are reproduced here. Rights holders can reach us via DMCA.