Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

Prying in Faith (Trial 42)

Word count: 1379

Chapter warnings: Mild language

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"Did you sleep alright?" Kai asked as she walked up with Lay, leaning over so that the others wouldn't notice his question. They were back in the studio, so the sound was fairly muted. She wondered to herself if he thought he was any less masculine for caring. In this, she also thought back to their unplanned sleepover as a group. Not to be rude to her friends, but she much preferred sharing a room with one to sharing with twelve. She nodded silently, watching as Suho tried to make sure everyone was in line.

"Baekhyun! You're still in pajamas!"

"That was on purpose."

"Go get dressed, please-"

"It's fine!"

"Suho," Kyungsoo cut in, trying to stop them from bickering. "We need to agree on a plan for the trials going forward."

"We need to find Tao." She argued, cutting in at the thought of moving on without him.

"Y/N." Lay said under his breath. "We're not gonna go over this again- he dropped out."

"We don't know that!" She began to protest, but Suho had already moved on, asking her for her phone. Looking over suspiciously, she agreed to pull it out, but held it up for everyone to see rather than hand it to him. He stared her down for a moment, then just sighed.

"What does it say?"

"It's... it's a new section introduction. You read through it with me yesterday. Do you not remember?"

"Oh, right. Well, read it again."

"Um... Congratulations, you have completed the time trials. Welcome to Round 4, the Faith Trials. Round 4 will consist of 11 trials for any and all players. If a player cannot continue or chooses to drop out, the trial will be null for that player and they will be penalized with the dropout fee. Other players are not affected. Round 4 will end after trial 52."

"Alright, so we're back together again." Chen reasoned. "That's not so bad."

"Or it could be worse." Kris mumbled.

"What does it mean by 'faith trials', though? That doesn't make sense." Xiumin said. "That could mean anything. Or nothing at all."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find out!" Baekhyun said with a smile. "So, go on, hit the next button!"

"Do we really want to jump into this too quickly, after..." Chanyeol swallowed, not wanting to finish his sentence. "I mean, Y/N could have died. Any of us could have died."

"And now we've lost the ability to turn back time." Kyungsoo pointed out. "Which was oddly selfish of Tao."

"Which is why I'm telling you he didn't drop out!" She snarled.

"Y/N." Suho demanded. Then, he looked over to the rest of the questioning boys. "We have no other way of preparing for this. Everyone has their items?" They nodded. "And you've eaten?" Again.

"Wait, Lay, you didn't eat." She pointed out, eyes narrowing. "You made me breakfast."

"Oo, what a gentleman." Baekhyun snickered, receiving a look.

"I'm not hungry." He said in explanation. "And for some reason, swallowing is still... weird for me. Anyway, my stomach is all tight, I'm really not that hungry."