"Hello young man, you look like you need some entertainment in your life."
Hyungwon narrowed his eyes at the man that popped in front of him blocking the way to his home.
"Excuse me?" The sun wasn't going to stay up for long, and all Hyungwon wanted that moment is to return home and curl under his blankets on his bed he calls heaven. Not to be confronted by a creepy weirdo wearing an even creepier mask.
"I mean, you look bored don't you?" The man was around the same height as Hyungwon, which he had to admit, was impressive. His voice was muffled slightly by the mask but the question was stated clear enough for Hyungwon to practically hear the smile forming on the stranger's face.
"No I'm not bored sir, I'm just tired." Hyungwon was starting to lose patience, especially in the late afternoon of a cold winter day. He rolled his eyes, and decided to say whatever he needed to get this man out of his face. "Look, I just want to go home and sleep. So will you please leave me alone?"
Hyungwon stepped forward, ready to push the man aside if needed, but instead almost came into contact with the yellow mask with a smiley face printed on it, because the man decided miraculously that it would be a great idea to suddenly press his face as close to Hyungwon's as possible.
"Ok what the hell to you want from me?" Hyungwon was done being nice; it was frustrating enough that he had an annoying case to deal with on a Friday. He was very tempted to push the man away from him, but luckily his lawyer instincts were there to prevent him from doing stupid things.
Hyungwon stepped backwards, creating more space between the two so that their faces aren't going to stick together. He let out a sigh he didn't know he was keeping in, clearly tired of the weird and annoying things that kept happening to him. At that moment he wished nothing more than to erase the smiley face out of his memory, and if that's not enough rip his mask off and burn it. Because damn that smiley emoji thing is starting to look unsettling.
"Let's try again!" As if things weren't ridiculous enough, "Smiley" tilted his head and his voice brightened up ten times as if he just woke up as a new person. "Call me Smiley," oh there we go. "So now that I know what you want, will you join my game?"
Saying Hyungwon was confused would be an understatement. Hyungwon was baffled and perplexed, and if he could he would stare holes through that yellow mask. But something caught his attention, and his mouth moved faster than his brain (even though a lawyer should be doing the exact opposite of that), "Game? What game?"
Smiley giggled, but Hyungwon decided smartly to ignore that, afraid that it might creep him out if he didn't do so.
"Hyungwon, you will get whatever you desire in this game." Smiley started his explanation, the excitement in his voice too obvious for Hyungwon to be comfortable with.
"Wait how do-" Of course the tone of Smiley's voice wasn't the only thing that concerned Hyungwon. How do you know my name, you creep?
"The game will need more contestants," Hyungwon was totally ignored, and the rudeness just added to the distastefulness of the man. The man he wished he never bumped into.
"So will you please, seeing how kind you are, invite 3 more friends by tomorrow? I will give you 24 hours, and please arrive in the venue 10 minutes before so we can get ready." Smiley stuffed a piece of paper into Hyungwon's hand, with only what Hyungwon assumed to be the venue address scribbled on it.
Everything was happening too quickly for the lawyer to comprehend. His mind was trying to grasp hold of the situation, but everything kept slipping away and breaking apart, unable to assemble themselves into something that made at least a little sense to him.
Ok Hyungwon. Calm the fuck down. This creepy man just wants to play a game. Nothing weird right? Nothing you should be worried about.
He shut his eyes to recompose himself, but when he opened them again the yellow mask was nowhere to be seen. Hyungwon would have gotten on with his life accepting this as a ridiculous dream if it wasn't because of the paper still crumpled between his long fingers.
Thoughts harassed his mind all the way home, but one stood out from the others.
How in the world will you find 3 people Hyungwon? You have no friends.
It was also this thought that proved to Hyungwon that he had accepted to join the game, without really knowing why.
-
The next day Hyungwon woke up at a surprising early hour of 8:30am, unwelcome thoughts already invading his mind before he even got the chance to leave his bed. He pulled the thick warm sheets over his head, trying desperately to get back to the thing he loved most, but to no avail.
Instead he found himself forming a plan silently of how to invite 3 strangers to the "game" that would start today. A frustrated groan left Hyungwon's lips, his frown the only evidence needed to prove how dumb he is to just impetuously oblige to the stranger he known for 15 minutes.
After a few minutes of lying on bed and hating himself, he finally got up from his favourite place in the house and cleaned up.
He styled his hair so his bangs fell over his forehead covering his eyebrows, and made sure to wash his face so a slight blush could be seen on his cheeks. If he was going to meet strangers he needed to make sure he looked alive and cheerful.
10 minutes of looking in his wardrobe was all the time he needed to decide on the perfect outfit. He slipped on a pair of ripped jeans, pulled a black t-shirt over his head with a green turtleneck on top of it. The weather forecast said it was going to be a sunny day, so it wasn't going to be freezing like yesterday.
Hyungwon gulped down a cup of coffee before leaving, smiling at his reflection in the hallway mirror, pleased with his fashion choice. Finally he put on his blue converse shoes and was ready to go.
On the way down the building, Hyungwon hoped silently that his casual wear and a bright smile looks friendly enough to befriend 3 people in 8 hours.
A stroll on the park right beside his apartment building and he already spotted a potential target. Hyungwon approached the young male leaning against a tree a phone in his hands.
The male had brown hair just like Hyungwon, but it was slightly longer, the hairline separating it into two parts so that one side was neatly gelled up and the other side was left hanging over his forehead brushing his eyes.
Hyungwon met enough people in his lifetime to be able to distinguish a good face from a bad one.
Hopefully this time too.
"Excuse me?" A frown appeared on the young man's face almost immediately those words escaped Hyungwon's mouth. Panic rose quickly and the self-conscious Hyungwon couldn't help but to feel responsible of the sudden change in the man's expression.
Once again Hyungwon was just jumping to conclusions, for the panic was quickly thrown to the back of his head when the man turned his head and looked at Hyungwon with the cutest eye smile he had ever seen.
"Yes?" Hyungwon quickly smiled back, and opened his mouth to say something. Only he had no idea what to say, and had almost face palmed in front of a stranger.
Great job Hyungwon. You didn't even plan this out properly. What are you going to say? "Do you want to play a game?" I don't think so.
Luckily the man waited patiently, and didn't seem uncomfortable with the awkward silence. In those few moments Hyungwon managed to say, "Why the frown just now?"
As if the man was preparing for this moment, he answered right away, talking so casually even to a stranger he had never met in his life. "I was supposed to play soccer with my friends, but they ditched me last minute." Hyungwon failed to suppress the excitement in his eyes, feeling lucky to meet such a friendly guy on first try.
"Oh I see." Feeling refreshed, Hyungwon grasped the opportunity right in front of him. "I'm Hyungwon, nice to meet you." He stretched out a hand and the man put away his phone to shake it. Before the stranger can introduce himself in return, Hyungwon continued. "I was wondering, do you want to play soccer with me? There's a game this afternoon."
Everything came spilling out of Hyungwon's mouth like an autopilot function was turned on. He didn't even care that his words couldn't have made any sense to anyone, nor did he care about any resolutions he had of not lying. It wasn't all lies anyways. There is a game. He just didn't know what.
He shouldn't have to, but Hyungwon assumed the man stared back at him, because he had really small eyes and all Hyungwon could see was two black lines in the place where eyeballs should be. The slight hesitation was enough to make Hyungwon worry about the answer he was going to get.
Great. This guy probably thinks you're crazy.
However Hyungwon felt his hand being lifted up, and he had never felt any luckier in his life when he heard the man say, "Sure, I don't know who you are, but I love soccer too much to miss out a game. And I don't have anything to do anyways."
Hyungwon almost jumped and screamed in the unexpected success, but that would most likely scare the man away, so he pushed those feelings away and shook the hand again.
He quickly recited the address he saw on the paper he read this morning, and told the man to arrive at 4:00pm, the same time he met Smiley yesterday.
Before leaving, he asked, "Sorry, I forgot my manners back then. What's your name?"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jooheon."
-
Hyungwon was a bit worried everything was just a little beginner's luck, but that theory was quickly proven wrong when he met yet another friendly stranger.
It's funny how Hyungwon had been meeting thieves, liars and even murderers in his lawyer career, convinced that this world is just a horrible place for breeding evil. And now after all this he realizes there are many still good people out there, enough for him to meet two in a row.
The new "friend" calls himself Shownu, and is roughly the same height as Hyungwon, but is probably 99% muscle and 1% human, a flip side with Hyungwon, who was 100% skin and bones.
Hyungwon had found Shownu sitting on a bench in the same park looking really miserable and deep in thought. After a few minutes of conversing he learnt that Shownu had broke up with his boyfriend hastily without much thought, and he wanted to get back together.
Once again, Hyungwon told half the truth and promised Shownu that playing the game will help him get his boyfriend back.
Now that there was only one person left, Hyungwon decided to walk a bit so he could get brunch afterwards.
On the streets someone with bright red hair caught his attention. And it wasn't only the hair that caught Hyungwon's attention either. Just like Shownu, the man standing on the other side of the road was really muscular. Even from this distance, Hyungwon was able to make out the white skin that shone under the sun, as well as the beautiful facial features on his face.
Being a workaholic Hyungwon is, he had never thought about his sexuality, but one thing was sure and that was Hyungwon finding the man handsome and attractive.
The light turned green and the red haired man walked towards Hyungwon, who was already ready for another conversation.
"Good morning!" Surprisingly, it wasn't Hyungwon that said those words. The man stopped right in front of Hyungwon and stared at Hyungwon's lips.
"Good morning!" Hyungwon quickly replied, already used to people complimenting and getting strangely interested in his big lips.
After talking a little about the weather, Hyungwon felt comfortable enough to get to his point.
"I'm Hyungwon by the way. And I was wondering, are you interested in playing a game?" This time Hyungwon waited for the man to introduce himself too.
"Oh um, you can call me Wonho."
What's with the nicknames? First Shownu then Wonho. That can't be their real names.
But nicknames or not, it didn't matter, so Hyungwon just smiled politely and waited for Wonho's answer.
"I'm actually really hungry right now, so if you come eat with me maybe I will play this game of yours." Wonho nodded towards a nearby restaurant and winked at Hyungwon.
Hyungwon had no idea what the wink was for, but instead of feeling uncomfortable like his old self would, he felt his body heat up a little, as if his heart was suddenly beating faster, pushing more blood to rush into his veins, the kinetic energy generating heat.
You're probably not making any sense Hyungwon. Just agree and get done with your mission.
Trusting his thoughts, he shook those feelings away and accompanied Wonho to the restaurant and ate brunch with him.
-
Hyungwon walked out his apartment once again at 3:40pm, took a bus and walked for 3 more minutes, arriving at the venue where the "game" would be held. He frowned and look around, but there was no other buildings nearby.
The building in front of him was an abandoned station, and everything was so old the wall turned yellow. Well what's left of the wall turned yellow. Most of the wallpapers were torn off.
He almost squealed when someone tapped his shoulder, but he clamped his mouth shut with his hand, turned around and rolled his eyes instead.
There was no one else around, so it was acceptable to shout without ruining his impression. So that's what Hyungwon did. "WHAT THE-"
"I see you arrived 10 minutes earlier like I asked you to." Hyungwon stared furiously at the yellow mask, and barely managed to stop himself from giving Smiley a middle finger, for interrupting him and scaring him.
"Come in." Without waiting any further, Smiley turned around and walked towards the door, not even turning around to see if Hyungwon was following.
But Hyungwon did anyways, with a sense intrigue even he didn't know why he had in the first place.
Once the door closed behind him, he was surrounded with pure blackness, and Smiley was nowhere to be seen.
Well of course you dumbass. It's so dark you can't even see your fingers, so how would you be able to see a person?
He stood patiently on one spot and waited for further instructions.
Suddenly a light turned on to the right, revealing an opened door. Somewhere, through speakers, Hyungwon heard the familiar voice of the masked man. "Go in the room, the other contestants will go in there too after they arrive."
Hyungwon shrugged and did as he was told, closing the door behind him.
Before he could turn around and look around the room, he felt something connect hard with his head, the impact making him stumble and fall to the ground.
Only the head was affected, but everything felt sore and tired as if the pain spread out throughout his body.
Good news is, the pain was no longer there when Hyungwon closed his eyes and fell into a coma.
At 4:00pm sharp, all 3 contestants arrived at the building. Just like Hyungwon, they were puzzled by the weird choice of venue, but it was quickly replaced by disappointment and anger.
"How are we supposed to play soccer with only 3 people? Where is the ball? Why is it so dark? Are we playing with night vision goggles?"
"Soccer? What do you mean? Is the game soccer? Hyungwon didn't tell me that."
"Wait. You know Hyungwon too?"
"Yea, we met this morning."
"Me too."
"What? You too? Is he playing pranks on us?"
"Who the hell would play pranks on people they've just met?"
"Apparently this Hyungwon does."
"What the hell is wrong with him?"
"Yah Hyungwon where they hell are you?!"
"What is this bullshit?!"
"You liar!"
"You know what, let's just leave."
"Yea ok."
"Bye Hyungwon. We don't have times to play stupid games with you."
The three contestants turned around and reached for the door handle. They pulled, but the door didn't move at all. No matter how hard they try, it didn't even budge. Strings of curses escaped their mouths and filled the room, echoing in the darkness.
"Leaving already? The game hasn't even started yet."
All movements stopped, and the echoes slowly faded away. Three heads turned around, looking for the owner of the new voice.
Three pairs of eyes settled on the huge screen in front of them, new questions already forming in their heads.
"Is that Hyungwon?"
"That mask is so-"
"SHUT UP!" The contestants jumped at the sudden outburst, instinctively huddling closer for safety.
"I'm Smiley," One mouth opened to say something but shut it again when he got nudged in the elbow. "As you know already, Hyungwon invited you to play a game. Don't worry, you will have a lot of fun."
Silence filled the room; no one dared to talk anymore.
"Jeez why do you talk when I don't want you to talk, but magically turn dumb when I expect you to talk?"
When Smiley realized no one was going to talk, he continued. "Weren't you angry? Don't you want to see Hyungwon? Don't you want to leave?" The emphasis on the last word was provoking enough to bring the anger back.
"Yes we want to leave! Who the fuck are you anyways?"
"I don't care who you are, just let us go!"
The last contestant mumbled something like "can't believe such a handsome person can be such a dick".
Smiley giggled, "That's the spirit! Before the first game, go grab a drink by the vending machine! Don't worry, it's free."
Another light turned on, revealing a lone vending machine by the corner of the room. The room turned out to be quite small, just a bit bigger than the normal living room. Well a living room without the furniture.
The three contestants looked over to the vending machine, not sure what to do exactly. The machine looked...normal. You can even see the same old advertisements at the side and the familiar white glow from the glass case. It looked out of place to the three people. It was a normal object to be seen, but not so normal when you are surrounded by anything but normal. And this, and the yellow mask guy, was definitely anything but normal.
"What if this is the 'game' and you are just messing with us?" One contestant wondered out loud, and the other two muttered in agreement.
"Oh come on, I just want my guests to feel hydrated before the games! Believe me, this isn't the game. There's nothing I can do with a stupid vending machine."
"I...I can go first, if that makes it better?" Another spoke out, but with obvious uncertainty. He quickly went on to explain, "I'm not trusting that guy ok? It's not what it sounds like, I'm just really thirsty all of a sudden." He waited a while, as if expecting permission, but he set off before anyone said anything.
He pressed a button, and the sound of the bottle dropping pierced through the silence.
Everyone saw, even from far away, that a bottle of water was chosen.
Apart from that, they saw safety.
So the other two contestants went and bought their drinks, and after a drink they return to the spot in front of the screen.
"Great! You're ready now!" Smiley exclaimed, "Here's the first game!"
A light turned on, revealing a glass box. Everyone stopped drinking when they realize who is in the glass box. Some orange juiced spilled out from an open mouth, staining the contestant's clothes.
One by one they gasped, each one louder than the previous one.
Gasps were only supposed to be sounds. But this time it had a meaning. And everyone knew what it means.
What the fuck is happening?
"You want to leave right?" Smiley continued as if nothing was happening, talking to the three people as if they were kids waiting for an adult's permission to leave. "In 5 minutes, I will press a button that will release gas into the box. And I can't say for sure what gas they will be." Smiley stopped talking, unable to talk because he was too busy laughing like a maniac.
Smiley cleared his throat.
"Anyways. Here's the game. If you want to leave, I will press the button in 5 minutes. But if you want to save Hyungwon, you just have to stay and play the game with me. Just choose. You have 5 minutes. It's as simple as that." Smiley's laughter filled the room again.
The laughter sent chills down the contestants' spine, stealing their breaths away.
>>>>>>>>>>
First chapter!!!!! Hope you guys liked it, and will look forward to the upcoming ones! This is my first Monsta X fanfic that are not oneshots, so I really hope you enjoyed it :)))
Please vote and comment because it is great motivation!
Also, if you don't mind do check out my instagram account :D
baby_joohoney