The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[01] - Hand sanitazer and coke

In a far distance I could hear Jaehwan's familiar voice. "Yah Nora, what's going on over there? What's that light?" He was calling for me but my brain had enough to process already and words weren't able to come out of my mouth.

With a thud from an aluminum can hitting the floor along with some sizzling from the carbon dioxide in the soda leaking out over the floor, everything went black and I was out.

Then I woke up in this old elevator with no idea what was going on, feeling trapped and drained. Even if it wasn't dark inside I felt as if I was trapped in a suffocating darkness. It was almost like ropes that had tied me down to keep me still. Like the will to live had left my body, making it hard to breath. I felt as if my lungs had stopped working and I couldn't use the air I was breathing in.

I had just woken up in an elevator at an unknown place, it really wasn't too bad, it's not like I was sitting tied up to a chair in a dark room just waiting for someone to come and torture me. Yet there was something about this place really giving me anxiety. Maybe it was because Jaehwan told me about all those people who'd disappeared when visiting the Arcade. Something just didn't feel right.

This is a dream right? Although the fact that I could think it was a dream worried me. Usually when you're in the dreams everything makes sense for you, it's first afterwards that you're like "what the fuck was that". Now things don't make sense, which worried me that I could think of.

I took a step outside to look around, not expecting to see much, but you never know. I might have the whole city of Seoul right behind me.

I wasn't that lucky.

The elevator really looked out of place. I wondered how it even ended up here in the first place. It's not like it actually served a purpose since it had no wires attached to it. Also the ground underneath it looked rather solid. It definitely didn't go up and I doubt it could go down as well.

Behind the elevator I noticed a big round building that was towering up high above. Not really endless fields then. Not Seoul either, but hey, at least there was something here, so I'm not completely deserted in purple flower fields.

Maybe the elevator came from that building. But then, how the fuck did it end up outside it, just standing there? You don't exactly just throw out an elevator or have I missed something?

"So you decided to wake up" a really deep voice could be heard from behind me and I immediately turned around back to the endless fields.

A wave of relief washed over me as I heard the voice of another human, but at the same time it made me uncomfortable and worried. I had no idea if the person speaking was good or bad, and I didn't like that.

I panicked at first because I couldn't see where the talking had come from. I stopped to stare straight forward but saw nothing that could talk because where I'm from flowers don't talk. Maybe it is a dream after all. "Down here" he spoke again and I looked down as a boy sat up in the flowers after he'd been laying down. Well there goes that hope for it all being a dream.

Wait he's the person who'd been talking? No way in hell. He had dyed blonde hair and looked around my age but his face really didn't match the voice. He had a very youthful appearance, like a serious baby face. Big round eyes, a cute button nose and a narrow, kind of heart shaped mouth where the upper lip looked slightly fuller than the bottom lip. The cutest part were his freckles that covered his face like chocolate sprinkles.

"What's with your voice?" I asked bluntly, without thinking before speaking, but then, when do I ever use my brain before acting? I ended up here didn't I.

He seemed a bit taken aback by my question. "What do you mean?" He asked and this time I saw it with my own eyes. That voice had really been coming from his heart shaped mouth.

I put my hand over my mouth because of the shock. "How can you sound like that? You look like 12 and sound like... well, not 12" I said because logic had definitely left the chat at this point. So had my brain, but that left a long time ago. Maybe it was a dream anyway. No way this boy would sound like that.

He looked done with me already. "Good to know I look like a 12 year old" he said with sarcasm. Guess I'm not the first one to point out how his voice didn't match his face.

"I was more surprised by your voice though, how old are you? Close to my own age I guess, born 2003, 2002?"

He looked even more done with me now as he looked over at me with both disbelief and annoyance. It was like he couldn't decide wether he should judge me or despise me, but like to be honest, understandable... "2000" he then said.

"Ooh, we're the same age then" I said with excitement. He didn't look as excited.

"Oh wow, I don't care" he said and stood up.

I noticed he wasn't very tall either. About the same height as me, just slightly taller. He was shorter than my brother at least and he's not that tall either.

"You're shorter than I thought you would be" I said. I realized first after I'd said it that he might be offended and I put my hand over my mouth again when the realization hit me.

He glared at me. "At least I'm taller than you" He didn't seem too happy.

"But I'm a girl, the average height for girls is lower, in general we're genetically shorter than guys" I said, because it's true. Although that might just have made it worse, I realized first after saying it. I really didn't mean to be so rude, it just kind of happened. I felt sorry towards the boy but didn't pity him enough to tell him so.

"Who are you anyway?" He wondered and he was definitely very much done with me. Same.

"Why would I tell you who I am? I don't know you, maybe you're evil" I said. It's stranger danger you know.

He looked at me with disbelief "what do you expect me to do with your name even if I'm evil? Search you up and leave hate comments on your Instagram posts?" He asked.

"I don't know" I said and shrugged. He didn't look evil, but isn't it better to be careful?

"Whatever, just don't expect me to tell you who I am either then" he grunted and started walking, towards the building I suppose.

Guess that's the place to be, so I followed him around the elevator and towards the building.

"Why are you following me?" The boy asked

"What do you expect me to do? Walk the other way, out on the endless fields?" I asked him with sarcasm. I wouldn't exactly say I followed him, we just had the same destination, since that building is all here is.

"You could at least take the other way around the elevator" he muttered under his breath, very low, but I still heard it.

I looked at him with disbelief. "That's just ridiculous"

"Just get lost" he said and continued walking, not looking behind towards me anymore.

"I already am" I said, and now I was starting to get mad. This boy was just being immature right now.

"Too bad, so am I" he said before entering the building.

***

A/N
Okay so I broke my right elbow, and pinky, and scratched up like half of my palm on the left hand, and some others stuff I don't need to go into detail about, just four days ago, fitting enough since I had set the goal to release this story June 1, so I'm not the fastest at writing at the moment and won't be for a while. I'll try my best to keep the updates going though. Luckily I already have like half the thing more or less completed.

With that said, welcome back to the Arcade. Let's see if you can escape...