"Lee Minhyuk, you fucking traitor." Shownu said through gritted teeth. He didn't notice his fingernails digging into the other man's skin until Minhyuk let out a painful yelp.
Minhyuk grabbed Shownu's hand with his free one and yanked his arm free. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Minhyuk looked up at Shownu with so much hatred in his eyes he could almost feel the burn under his eyelid.
Shownu looked away for a millisecond, just long enough to catch the others leaving the room to play the sixth game. He barely gave the door enough time to shut completely before letting all the hatred out.
"Stop playing dumb with me, Minhyuk." Shownu met Minhyuk's fiery eyes with he's own ice-cold pair. "You know what you did. You lied to us about your password. We should've gotten six."
"I didn't lie. I let Jooheon read the password straight from my phone screen. You saw it." Minhyuk defended.
Shownu didn't want to admit it, but Minhyuk was right. He saw Jooheon read Minhyuk's password right off the phone screen. Shownu could sense Minhyuk getting triumphant for winning the argument. He knew he would sound childish, but he couldn't help it when the anger inside him was literally ripping his throat apart to get out.
"Oh yeah? Then show me your phone right now. You haven't changed your password back right? Show me your password, type 1993113JOOHEON and see if it unlocks."
Minhyuk kept staring, having no plans to listen and do what he was told.
It was this moment when the voice in Shownu's head reminded him that this was nothing other than a game. He had no reason to be this outraged. He wasn't even losing; all that happened was a little bit of lying and deception. A sliver of regret made its way into Shownu's heart, but that feeling disappeared as quick as it has appeared. The voice was too soft, too quiet, to be heard. It was too small and insignificant under the storm of white-hot rage that was taking over every single part of his body.
In one swift movement Shownu lunged for Minhyuk's pocket, his hands slithering in between the soft fabric, searching for the familiar touch of hard metal.
But everything else happened so quickly, like the world was sped up. The next thing Shownu felt was a blow on the back of his head, and then everything went black.
-
Call it an instinct, a reaction, anything but intention. Minhyuk was just afraid. So he did what his body told him to: grab the nearest weapon and attack.
Now that Shownu's lifeless body was in front of him, his hands started trembling. He dropped the bat that just magically appeared on the table next to him moments ago.
With a pulsating heart, he ran for the door. Not the door leading to the next game, but the one he and Shownu went through just now.
His eyes scanned through the nametags frantically, going back and forth a few times before finally landing on his own. He grabbed his own phone and switched it on, gripping the device so hard as if his life depended on it.
Suddenly, his mind went on replay, pulling Minhyuk back to last night's events. All the things he had done, all the words he had said, came crashing down on him. The amount of emotions and information in his moment of horrified realization were way too overwhelming to handle.
He was playing a game but treating it as war.
I hear something, like a cupboard being moved and the sound of wood scraping against the floor. I look around to see if anyone hears it, but what am I thinking? Of course no one hears it. They are all talking. In pairs. Funny how this game is made for 7 contestants, like they expect one of us to be left alone while the others pair up automatically.
Whatever. For all I care now is the mysterious sound at this moment. I stand up quietly and look around to find where the sound came from.
Then, I see it. Right next to my bed, a faint door frame leading into a dark abyss.
I don't question how it appeared all of a sudden when it had been a blank black wall just a few minutes ago. The real question is, why me? The door appeared just for me, it has to be. Otherwise why did it open in a place where only I can hear it?
No one cares about what I'm doing. But how can they, when they don't even know about it? Even Changkyun, who's supposed to be my best friend, acts like I am invisible. He didn't even ask why I chose a different bed.
I walk through the door and sure enough Changkyun gets distracted by Jooheon and totally overlooks me. At least he's happy though. He looks happy. I don't think he ever smiles to me the way he do to Jooheon. He deserves someone better than me.
But why does it have to be Jooheon? Jooheon's only my crush and he's already trying to win him over.
Once I pass the threshold, the invisible door slide close, and I am alone, with no sound other than my breathing.
Everything is pitch black. Somewhat like the nights when I go camping with my family, but this time there's not even stars or the moon to guide me.
I raise my hands in front of me, but I see nothing. I reach for the walls on my sides, and realize how narrow of a corridor this is. My heart starts to go wild again, but I force myself to calm down.
"What are your desires, Minhyuk?" Suddenly a sound resonates. I'm surprised, but not scared. I look towards my right, where I think the voice came from. But there's no way to tell. Losing my vision distorts my auditory sense...
"What do you mean?" I breathe heavily and shouted into the darkness. A 'tsk' comes back.
"Who are you?" I shout again. He, or she, sighs.
"I'm the reason you're here. And I mean what do you want right now? You get whatever you want after you win the game. Have you forgotten, Minhyuk?"
I'm the reason you're here. It's Smiley. He's talking about the game.
"I didn't forget. But why do I have to tell you?"
I hear some footsteps, but I still see nothing but blackness. My head pulsates along with my heart. I'm getting a headache from seeing nothing.
"Because I can help you. Don't you see, Minhyuk? You're the only one that saw the door, that came in. The door is going to disappear after you leave."
I don't like the way he talks. It's making my palms sweat. I can just leave and pretend nothing happened. But he's making it sound like I will be missing out on a great deal if I leave.
"But if I win, do I actually get what I want?" I have to make sure.
"I thought you already had an answer." He pauses. "You were quite sure of yourself when you were talking to Shownu."
I don't understand how Shownu is part of this.
"What?" He doesn't reply, but then I remember. The conversation with Shownu during game 4 and the messages on the tablet. I told Shownu I believed that he would actually get whatever he wanted as long as I won.
A combination of terror and disgust rises from my toes all the way to my throat. "You spied on us?"
"Well, I wouldn't say spy." I want to punch him. Is that why he chose a pitch-black room? "I was spectating the game. And a competition needs a judge. I have the right to look over you."
I want to walk around until I find him so I can finally land my fist on his ugly mask, but I'm dumb. What if this leads to a maze? I'll never find my way back to the door.
"Fine. Then you should know what my 'desire' is."
"Yes I do, I just wanted to confirm." I hear shuffling, and he clears his throat. "We are running out of time. I'm going to get straight to the point, Minhyuk. I can tell you what the next game will be, and I will tell you the passwords necessary for your win."
I wait for more, but he keeps quiet.
So I ask, "for what? What do I have to do in return?"
"Nothing. Just win the game."
"But winning this game barely helps me win the whole damn thing. They all formed teams and allies, and I have to fight alone." Alone. Never lonely. I never get lonely. I'm just alone, by myself. It doesn't mean I'm lonely.
"Sometimes having less ties will be better in the long run. Do you want my help or not? Someone's going to find out soon."
I need all the help I can get. That's the only thing my brain is telling me now.
"Of course. But what will happen if I don't win?" My calm state belies my feelings deep inside. I have a terrible feeling that I am getting myself into serious trouble.
"If you don't win, then too bad."
It is so unexpected, that I am too shocked to say anything and for a few seconds I just stand there dumbfounded.
"Wait, really?" I can't believe it. How can someone who kidnaps 7 people to play games, not give any punishment when making a deal?
"Yea, why would I be lying? Besides, you will know yourself when this ends."
I feel my hands. They weren't sweaty anymore.
Minhyuk couldn't help it. He had to change the password. Smiley had given him a fake password to show the others. It showed "1993113JOOHEON" on the app, but the real one is "1993113CHANGKYUN". Of course, the name didn't mean anything.
Was it the fear? Of not knowing what would happen if he lost? Suddenly winning seemed mandatory. Was it something Smiley said? Or was it in him all along? The desire to win.
"Minhyuk? Are you in there? The game is starting!" The door directly behind him shook violently. Someone was knocking on the door, definitely not lightly.
Minhyuk shoved his phone back into his pocket and opened the door, almost crashing face first into Jooheon.
That was the first time Minhyuk felt himself heat up.
"What were you doing?" Jooheon asked as they walked towards the next room. "Are you ok?"
Jooheon didn't know, but Minhyuk was constantly fighting the urge to hold the other's hand that was inconveniently brushing against his. Why were they walking so close together anyways?
"Yea, I'm ok. Thanks for asking."
Jooheon knew Minhyuk was everything but okay. But he knew better than to ask.
"Sorry for not calling you hyung just now. I forgot." Jooheon apologized. They were very close to the door now, and it was then that Minhyuk realized Shownu wasn't here anymore – he must've woke from the coma gone in already.
Minhyuk couldn't stop himself from laughing. "You don't have to apologize. It's not a big deal. I don't start biting people just because they don't honorifics once or twice." Minhyuk opened the door smiling, giving up on the effort to delude him that he smiled thinking about how cute Jooheon is.
"Whatever happened, both of you have to calm down. It's just a game," was the first thing Minhyuk heard when they entered.
"Oh, speak of the devil." Wonho said. He was sitting on a couch against a wall, Hyungwon and Changkyun next to him. On the other side of the room was another couch of the same type, size and colour, forming a perfect symmetry. Shownu was sitting on that couch, leaning backwards and arms crossed while listening to Wonho talking. Minhyuk nearly overlooked Kihyun, who was sitting on a random chair on the far corner of the room, his peach hair the only thing that was visible in the shadows.
Minhyuk glanced at Shownu, but got a death glare in return, so he turned away immediately afterwards. It didn't have to be this hard, but the selfish pride in him wasn't going to let him apologize first.
The tablets didn't go unnoticed; everyone was either holding it or had them resting on their laps. The remaining two were lying on the table, in between the two couches. Minhyuk recognized them immediately – they were the same brand and type from game 4.
Everything he was doing felt wrong, but he made his way towards the tablets anyways, hoping to find some kind of resolve in the virtual world given by this electronic device that acted more like a refuge.
The tension in the air was indisputable; the prolonged silence was evident enough for anyone to know. Shownu and Minhyuk's unfinished argument left this invisible force in the air, unmistakably making it hard for everyone to breath.
They read the instructions on the notice board in the Smiley app in silence.
Barely a minute has passed when a fast reader posted a message in the group chat.
Kihyun: So basically like Clash Royale. It's just that we're using weapons instead of troops and cards.
Kihyun didn't want to talk. Minhyuk understood. No one wanted to. They'd rather suffocate in this silence than to force a word out of their mouths.
Jooheon: So what, do we separate into groups? Or is this going to be a tournament?
Wonho: Did you guys even read all of the instructions? It's at the bottom of the page. We use our points to buy weapons, and then we attack the opposing team's castle in the only other app in this tablet. The groups are randomized already.
No one replied, checking the groupings Wonho was talking about.
And then this was one of the moments where speaking is necessary, where the emotions carried in the words couldn't be carried out with a simple text.
"What the hell? How can this be randomized?!" Hyungwon blurted, standing up from his seat. "All the people with highest points are in one group, while the ones with the lowest scores are dumped into another. This is so unfair!"
Everyone turned to look at Hyungwon, taking a moment to register that the silence had finally been broken.
When they finally got the words into their minds and actually made some sense out of them, Hyungwon, Wonho, Changkyun and Kihyun turned to look at the other three. Their gazes were a mixture of anger, indignation and disbelief, as if it was the others fault the groups were so ridiculously arranged.
Of course, Minhyuk wasn't taking any of it. "Why are you looking at us like that? We didn't arrange the groups, it's not our fault!" Minhyuk despised the idea of working with Shownu, even if that meant working with Jooheon. But he wasn't going to say it. Not in front of Jooheon.
"That doesn't change the fact that you are the three people who have the highest points right now." Minhyuk was surprised to find Changkyun the one saying it, but there was nothing he could do; he was the one who suggested going against each other.
"Calm down guys, it's just a game. We have to stop acting like children and actually discuss this properly." Wonho said, placing a hand on Changkyun's shoulder.
It's just a game. This sentence repeated over and over in Minhyuk's mind. It seemed to be the only thing that he was hearing today. Those four words, no matter coming from whose mouth, effectively calmed him down every time. Well, every time before Wonho said it just now. Minhyuk mouthed those words silently and finally made the disheartening discovery that the sentence had become redundant. If it was just a game, why was everyone so tense, reserved, and defensive all the time? If it was just a game, why did he go through all the lying to get that one extra point in the previous game? It couldn't possibly be just because of Jooheon, right?
Minhyuk wanted to tell himself he could win Jooheon over even without winning the game, but something about what Smiley said made it impossible to think in that way.
"So what? What do you suggest we do? What is there to discuss anyways?" Minhyuk raised his voice, unwilling to let this go. He didn't even wait for an answer. "The answer is there is nothing to discuss. No matter what we do, nothing's gonna help. You're just unlucky. So just deal with it."
Jooheon grimaced at Minhyuk's words. He knew how bad that must've sounded, because he felt the pain despite the words not directed to him. Regardless, he couldn't do anything to help Hyungwon, whose face is slowly turning red from anger and shock.
"Y-you...fucking disgrace." Hyungwon said through gritted teeth, too shocked to even shout. Wonho shot him a worried glance, but did nothing more than that subtle action.
Jooheon really wanted to help, and that's why he hated himself when his mind went blank. Somehow he still managed to register Shownu walking towards the middle of the room.
"You're wrong, Minhyuk." Shownu looked at Minhyuk. "We can do something. We use our points to buy weapons right? We can use up our points until we are equal. We don't have to do anything with the weapons."
Everyone stared at Shownu, silent and thinking over this "deal" offered to them. Realization wash over some of the faces, but the rest remained unconvinced. Meanwhile Minhyuk was filled with even more hatred than before – it was written all over his face – he was clearly not in the right state to say anything.
Wonho kept his promise, carefully choosing the suitable words and preparing himself to say it in a suitable tone. "That sounds good, but how can we be sure that you won't actually attack us after you buy the weapons?" He really wished they could just skip this game somehow by simply not doing anything, but he knew it was just his, well, his wishful thinking. This was the best he could do right now.
Shownu switched his gaze to Wonho and gave him the smallest smile. "You can't be sure, but I hope you could trust us. That's the most we can do together, if you want this to be fair."
Wonho looked sideways towards Hyungwon, glad to see he had softened up, and he was more than relieved to see in Hyungwon and Changkyun's eyes, that they were starting to accept Shownu's idea. He saw Kihyun too, still standing in his own little shadow, but it was too dark to make out an expression that actually meant anything.
And just like that, Wonho was convinced everything would be fine. Jooheon's smile was possibly the sweetest thing he had seen in this terrible weekend. He felt like something heavy was lifted from his heart, and wiped clean.
That's why he felt so incredibly pained when nothing happened the way he had expected them to be, when everything went in the worse way possible.
Minhyuk chuckled, but it didn't sound like a good sign at all. "Yea right. Like they're actually going to trust us. They were complaining just a minute ago, what makes you think it's that simple? You might have another plan for all I know." Truthfully, Minhyuk knew he was speaking without thinking. But the ball of mixed emotions in the pit of his stomach was too overwhelming and too complicated for him to decipher and define. He had no time to clear his thoughts and think straight, so he resulted in saying whatever he wanted to say.
Jooheon was getting really frustrated, and he could tell that Changkyun did too, from the deep frown that replaced the previous calm expression. Why did Minhyuk have to make everything so difficult?
Minhyuk's head jerked towards Jooheon with dark and bitter eyes. Jooheon didn't realize he said that question out loud. He covered his mouth with his hand when he realized what he did, but the words had already escaped. Desperate, he looked at Shownu for some kind of reassurance, but was disappointed by the stern look Shownu gave in return.
"I mean, let's just go with the plan, it's probably the best way. Don't you want this to end?" Jooheon said, hoping that he didn't sound as scared as he really was.
But Minhyuk didn't reply, and instead got sadder by the moment, his lips curling downwards, his smile from the chuckle already gone. "I just wanted to win, and maybe help my team win as well." Minhyuk's voice was barely a whisper.
Jooheon couldn't help but to feel bad when he saw how Minhyuk hunched, as if he was about to curl and keel over, from whatever was bothering him.
"Well, everyone wants to win, Minhyuk. And we can let you win, if you really want to. We just have to discuss. There has to be a plan that everyone accepts." Hyungwon said softly, but Jooheon can tell he was half forcing it from how stiff he was.
In the few minutes of arguing and failing to come to a conclusion, Jooheon had learnt to anticipate the worst. But apparently he couldn't grasp the idea of what "worse" really is, because he definitely didn't expect this from Minhyuk.
For some reason what Hyungwon said angered Minhyuk even more, and all of a sudden he was saying nonsense like a spoilt kid. "No, you don't understand Hyungwon. Out of all the people here, you have the least right to suggest we discuss."
Hyungwon didn't understand the situation he was handling. "What?"
That was the tipping point.
Minhyuk lashed out. "We wouldn't have to discuss if it wasn't for you. We wouldn't even be here, if you didn't agree to invite three people that day!"
Before anyone could stop him, Minhyuk rushed forward and landed a punch on Hyungwon's beautiful face.