Notes: [1] Long chapter ahead. Unedited, too…

[2] This chapter will raise a lot of questions, but some of them should be answered by the next.
 

Contrary to popular guesses and hushed rumors, the first round of Produce 101 isn’t the battle royal bloodbath everyone imagined it to be. Instead, they’re set to spend a day in an amusement park and will be escorted back to the academy by the school-issued buses when the place closes at 10 PM.

The catch? They’re (unwillingly) equipped with a bracelet made of light metal and a system of machinery inscribed inside. The bracelet itself is tame most of the time, unless prompted by the wearer’s emotion (measured from the wearer’s heart rate, probably, though the school didn’t really disclose the bracelet’s mechanism). As one’s heart rate exceeds the limit, the bracelet dishes out pain that travels throughout the wearer’s body through their nerves, the level of pain corresponding to how intense the wearer’s emotion is – the higher in intensity, the more severe the pain will be.

Dubbed Control Evaluation, the purpose of the round is to weed out those who can’t control their emotions. A hero’s fire reflects their power. The world doesn’t need a hero who gets pricked at the slightest inconvenience, however empowering the emotion of rage is. IOI is a place of well-rounded heroes who has mastered every aspect of themselves, proving how an “ideal of heroes” isn’t just a muscle head with the mental fortitude of a tofu. Nayoung’s personal deduction: governments find it difficult to tame heroes with wilding fire. Cool-headed robots who go roger that, affirmative, yes sir at every command however, are ideal for dogs. (The description oddly echoes a little bit too hard with the student council president Im Nayoung! Coincidence?)

But that’s just her own personal deduction.

“Daydreaming even in the middle of a theme park? You’ve reached a new low!”

Leave Lee Suhyun to puncture her thought bubble. Though, it’s expected, as she’s currently grouping with the other participants from her class. “Sssh, leave me alone. I’m plotting ways to come outta this alive.”

Juna is their makeshift pack leader as she recommends them rides she’s been on, leading the group discussion. Nayoung caught wind of some bits, something along the line of wanting to ride the “Azure Dragon” rollercoaster ride.

Heehyun is oddly slightly outside the discussion circle. Considering how vocal she is at things like this, it throws Nayoung off a bit, so she discreetly crab-walks closer to Heehyun.

“What’s bothering our little doggo?”

Heehyun shoots her a nasty look before steering her eyes back to the front. “Thinking about stuff.”

“Mind to share?”

“Are you that free ‘cause Sejeong’s possibly spending the whole day mushing together with Chungha?”

That hits a sore spot, but not enough to get Nayoung worked up. “Sort of. I don’t wanna waste a whole fine day with Suhyun. She’s gonna drag me to stuff like the haunted house. Juvenile entertainment!”

“Best for you to stay outta the scarier ride, yeah. They don’t sell pants here.”

Nayoung laughs dryly, and tops it with a shoot of elbow to Heehyun’s side. “Humorous today, aren’t you…”

“Just feeling civil today. Not in the mood to ing end you. Anyways, have you seen the news?”

Heehyun’s question demands a quirked eyebrow from her. “No. Was busy preparing for today ‘cause I expected a bloodbath, and haven’t been catching up to the recent news,” she turns her body to the side, showing Heehyun the backpack she brings with her instead of her usual sling bag, “tell me about it.”

“A jailbreak managed to headline. Not your usual one or two convicts slipping out of a rat hole outside the guards’ watch… a group of people managed to break outta the slammer. Not just any jail, mind you, it’s that one.”

Seoul houses one of the most tightly secured underground jail in the world. Rumored to function doubly as a torture camp, the jail itself is situated feet under the ground of an isolated island.

Nayoung hums for a bit. “How did they get out of the island?”

“The guards sighted a red helicopter getting further away from the island but it was way too late.”

The “red helicopter” bit sends Nayoung alerted. “Red heli? Wait. Hold on a sec.”

“I wouldn’t dismiss that cult, but the govts supposedly ended the whole thing years ago. He and all his followers were jailed. Unless your bro Taekwoon managed to miss some rats to throw into the slammer… which is unlikely. He went full-force years ago.”

Juna begins to guide them for a walk. If Nayoung remembers the map correctly, they’re heading to the “Black Turtle” haunted house right now… in the far north of the theme park, according to the map in the brochure she received at the entrance…

“Wait a sec! Not the haunted house! Ghosts are not real and they should stay unreal!”

The alpha of the pack, Juna, turns around with a besmirching smirk. “True. They don’t sell pants here just in case you ruined yours.”

Nayoung only grumbles her reply, seeing it’s too late now that her classmates are dead-set on trying out the haunted house. For this round of Produce 101 (or maybe the rest of the rounds too, though she doesn’t know as it is a confidential info…), they were told to wear their gym uniforms along with the training pants instead of the usual too-short shorts.

She’s thankful, but it might be a foreshadowing of a possible lurking danger…

Her steps are halted by Heehyun, who grabs her forearm. The manifest of Epimetheus says in a volume closer to that of a whisper, “Head up in the clouds or you’re ditching the idea?”

“What?”

There’s a small snort coming from Heehyun. “They fled to northwest. The island’s southeast from Seoul.”

“Oh.” She goes silent for a moment, considering the idea. It still doesn’t ring the alarm. “No reason for them to drop by Seoul though, unless they’re planning for a suicide mission. Unlikely, since they just pulled a carefully planned and budgeted jailbreak. They’ve been jailed for years, I don’t think they could frugally spend bucks on a heli.”

“True. Unless…”

“On the edge today, aren’t you?”

She doesn’t have her eyes on Heehyun as she’s eyeing her surrounding; it’s Sunday, which explains the amount of people crowding the park. Yet, she could imagine the tension permeating Heehyun’s usually casual expression.

Heehyun finally replies when they’re close to the haunted house. “Nah. That’d be ‘cause I’ve been following the news. You, on the other hand…”

Nayoung admits that she has been out of touch from the world. Suhyun pointed it out earlier, her roommate, a third-year Mimi with a penchant for troubles, doesn’t bother her as much, and Mina’s snarks towards her is considerably toned down these days. She has a lot to dig regarding the Jang Geunsuk issue – Kim Taeha and Kwon Eunbean have returned, but both didn’t provide much help to shed light on the whole mystery surrounding the “possession” incident. Either they’re both scarily tight-lipped about it, or there really is nothing to dig about the case.

She has her suspicion casted on the former. Sejeong too. The whole investigation is a challenge tackled by a small circle of three: Nayoung, Sejeong, and…

“Nayoung!”

They’re interrupted by a familiar voice. Nayoung has been staring to the far left, so she’s startled when Sejeong appears at her right, pouncing onto her right arm with a grin. Her eyes are pushed to crescent-shaped slits. She looks… happy. “Ey, calm. Aren’t you supposed to be with your classmates?”

Sejeong laughs as she gives Nayoung a light shove. Typical Sejeong stuff.

“Really?” Her tone grows suspiciously cheekier. “Screw them, then. I wanna tag along with you.” And adds a wink.

Nayoung feigns looking nonplussed. Her heart rate is saying otherwise.

And Sejeong, with a hand on her shoulder, adds, “Get rid of Heehyun if possible. And Suhyun. I want it to be just us.”

She yelps as a wave of pain shoots along her nerves, going from the point the bracelet is to every inch of her body. Passerby have their eyes on her. Her classmates are gaping, probably haven’t experiencing the bracelet’s effect first-hand. Sejeong is laughing out loud, clapping her hands over her mortal pain. Typical Sejeong stuff.

Until in a blink of an eye, she transforms into Suhyun. “Meet Lee Suhyun, Ace Impersonator!”

“Asstwat!” Nayoung pulls a slap towards Suhyun’s behind, but the manifest of Morpheus manages to run off, hiding herself behind Chaeyeon. Nayoung won’t be caught dead accidentally hurting Jung Chaeyeon in the middle of her Suhyun Hunt.

The two things she get from this is. One, a first-hand experience with the bracelet.

Two, the real Sejeong will never, ever say that kind of thing to her. (So she better stop hoping.)
 

Fate is a funny thing. They’re not the only class here, as class 2-2’s kids and some first-years are present near the entrance as well. As the squad of class 2-2 kids lounge around and discuss who’s going with who, Juna hits them up, signaling the class 2-2 kids of their presences.

The famed “Black Turtle” is shaped like a dome. The building encapsulates tons of “ghostly” tricks inside and labyrinth-like trajectory for the challengers to comb through. There are guides on checkpoints, and even with the complexity of the labyrinth, everyone’s sure to make it out alive to the other side. A set amount of team could enter the Black Turtle at once and a team consists of a duo.

“Suhyun. I hate you. But.”

“Naw, I need a partner worthy of me.”

“We’re friends! I let you eat my snackoos!” She claws her hands around Suhyun. The latter wriggles free and power-walks to Chaekyung while yapping “you’re just gonna leave me alone in there ‘cuz you’d be too busy skedaddling outta the house!”.

The others are partnering up. As much as she wants to hook a first-year she knows, Mina is already claiming the bench near the entrance, probably signing out in the last minute. Doyeon’s already partnered up with a first-year much shorter than her, and she’s about to ask Yeonjung – probably Mina’s partner at first – to team up with her, but it looks like Yeonjung has found herself another first-year. Still looking for a partner, (Nayoung isn’t going to back down, they’re going to call her names if she skips this!) she looks around. She feels a tap on her shoulder. It’s Heehyun. “Partner up with me.”

“Not going with Chaeyeon?”

“Not today. She’s gonna miss me a whole lot for sure, but daddy needs to work on her stuff.”

Nayoung blinks off an eye-roll. “You two on a fight?”

“Nope.” Heehyun’s grin leans a little to the left. In a mocking girlish tune, she continues, “Screw her, I wanna tag along with youuuuu.”

Heehyun’s mocking girlish impersonation dissolves into a mocking full-on laugh. She whines to her face. “Leave me alone, I’m sad.”

Juna calls them out, telling them that the next session is starting and they have to slip into the line. Now safely divided into pairs, Nayoung itches for the scoop. She elbows Heehyun. “What are we gonna talk about? Spoil.”

“The jailbreak headline.”

“Are we really gonna play detectives in a theme park?”

“Not when you aren’t interested. Then boo, go shoo.”

With the impending entry into the horror house and the sight of Sejeong latching onto her girlfriend, a discussion over the news and Boring Stuff might do for a distraction. “I’m all ears.”
 

The first five minutes inside, Heehyun didn’t even hint a start of the promised discussion. Instead, she shoved her into the fake skeles, laughed at her high-pitched screams, and hid when she needed her the most. The bracelet made it worse, dishing out pain whenever Nayoung got too worked up.

At the sixth minute, she lost Heehyun. The purposefully dim flashlight doesn’t help. But at least the flashlight is in her possession and not Heehyun.

“I can’t see anything. Classic.”

The walkway is surrounded by black curtains instead of walls, decorated by artificial “ghastly” things, such as plastic skulls, hanging skeletons, creepy paintings, occasionally the staffs dressed up as fake ghosts.

Convincing make up and coordi make them look creepier than they should be.

The curtain beside her rustles. Nayoung jumps into a fighting stance, the dimming flashlight spotlighting the spot the rustling comes from. After an embarrassingly loud , she shouts, “Who’s there?! Hands up in the air!”

“Oh god, Nayoung!”

Sejeong’s forehead shines brighter than her rigged flashlight. Nayoung yelps even at the familiar face, and winces from the slight pain sent by the bracelet. “Oh , it’s just you.”

“Just me.” Sejeong un-crouches herself to her full height after getting past the curtain. “Jesus, me and Chungha got separated after some Count Dracula knock-off jumped out of the painting. The flashlight is with her so I was stuck feeling around in the dark.” Sejeong huffs, and points to a faint red on the upper part of her forehead. “Knocked my head a few times to the props. I think I also head-butted a staff on the way here.”

“Condolences to the staff.”

“Ey,” Sejeong playfully snorts at her. “Sooo… since you have a flashlight with you and you are very much alone and scared, you won’t mind me tagging along, will you?”

“Alright Suhyun. Have your way.”

“Um. I’m Sejeong.”

“You should consider joining the drama club. You might land a lead role!”

“I am Sejeong.”

“Yeah. Suuuure. Anyways, let’s gossip.”

“Okay.”

They take a turn, and another. Nayoung silently prays for a safe trip, since they’re probably halfway into the track. “How much longer till Sejeong breaks it off with that hotshot?”

“I am Sejeong.”

“That’d be nice if it’s true. If only—“

“Oh my god,” Sejeong rattles her arm, the one that’s holding the flashlight, and the splotch of light emitted from the flashlight runs around in the dark, “I am Sejeong.”

“Prove me.”

“How?”

“Break it off with the hotshot.”

“Oh wow I’m suddenly Suhyun!”

“See.”

‘Sejeong’ blanches at her. “Are you kidding me?”

“Not… really?”

“Sure. Bottomline is, I’m Sejeong.”

Nayoung laughs it off dryly as she fixes their lighting back. “Okaaay then. Back to the topic. So when will Sejeong break up with – “

“Never. She’s going to take it to the next level with Chungha and adopts baby puffins since two females can’t reproduce.”

“You aren’t supposed to answer with like that, you’re on my side.” There’s a follow-up to her sentence, but she’s forced to shut the moment she hears even more rustling, this time louder than the one from before. She also hears footsteps and mumbles of a hushed conversation. “Um, okay, who’s there?”

The curtain to their left is flipped upwards and Nayoung screams into the arms of ‘Sejeong’. Two figures emerge from the curtain and she, in reflex, points her flashlight to them – to the figure’s eyes, and suddenly she isn’t the only one screaming.

“ing – don’t point the light at me – , !”

“Three s in a sentence! You sound like Heehyun—“

“I AM HEEHYUN,”

Nayoung, still cradled in ‘Sejeong’’s protective arms, moves her flashlight away from the duo’s eye-level. Heehyun stares back at her, eyes twitched with fury, teeth gritted (she might be experiencing the bracelet’s pain!). Beside her is Suhyun, whining about her eyes.”

Beside her is Suhyun…

Still in the arms of Not Suhyun, she looks up to meet her unamused gaze. “So, uh, you’re Sejeong for real? Not Suhyun?”

“Au naturel Sejeong, yes.”

Suhyun cuts their exchanges short. “Well, um, I dunno what y’all are talking about but let’s team up and find the exit.”

“Weren’t you with Chaeky?”

“Yeah. Until she ran off to the direction of the entrance, leaving poor me alone.”

“Ha ha ha.”

“Aw, don’t laugh over my misery, Nayoung, it’s not nice.”

Heehyun coughs, grabs the flashlight from Suhyun’s hand, and assigns herself as the leader of their pack. “Ha ha. ‘Aight then, let’s move it, ers. I need the exit fast ‘cause I’m hungry for a grub.”

Nayoung replies her, “After you, but after Sejeong has let go of me.”
 

“Want to hear a horror story?”

Heehyun threw the question out in the open with a deadpan expression. It pisses the scaredy cat in Nayoung. “Not when we’re in the middle of a friggin’ haunted house, lady!”

Even after Nayoung’s unsubtle refusal, Heehyun goes on anyway. “Me and Suhyun heard footsteps but I think it wasn’t from you. The labyrinth’s huge and we thought it may be just the other teams, but…”

“Oh!” An imaginary bulb lights up above Suhyun’s head. “Yeah, the footsteps are too rowdy for the two of you. It sounded like we were near a group of people… more than two people at least. When I called out to them though, they didn’t answer. If anything, the footsteps stopped.”

“That’s… fishy.” Sejeong probes her. “Did you tack your names on when you called out to them?”

“Yeah. I even made sure to say we’re from Illiad. Anyone from our school would’ve responded, or at least, kept going.”

Suhyun’s statement asks for a raised eyebrow, but the way Heehyun stops in her track demands a verbal question. “Heehyun?”

Heehyun’s reply comes a little bit too late for a casual response. “Footsteps. Not of two people. All of them gathered in a point.”

They couldn’t really pinpoint anything aside from the foreboding feeling of something happening near them, so none of them questions Heehyun’s sharp, animalistic senses.

She hears the manifest of Epimetheus whiffing the air. That’s also when Heehyun turns around, looking alarmed. “Gunpowder. I smell gunpowder.”

Nayoung couldn’t resist the urge to palm her face. “Must’ve smelled like trouble.”

“The smell’s strong.” Heehyun’s eyes wander to the left, eyebrows knitting tighter, and that’s when Nayoung knows there’s no escaping this. “A shooting just happened.”

“They must’ve used a suppressor.” Sejeong joins to look to the left.

After an affirmative silence, the four of them begin to move – Suhyun unwillingly and only because Nayoung’s stringing her along – passing the layers of curtain separating one track from another.

Until they arrive in a rather spacey area where three tracks meet, meeting a group of people in black. One of them has a gun pulled out, and Nayoung finally smells it - the strong scent of gunpowder.

“How did these kids find us…?”

“Hands in the air or Imma shoot!” The man with the suppressed handgun aims to Suhyun, who tenses up beside her.

The other men sneakily take a step back. And another. They’re running away!

Until their movements are stopped and panic washes over their faces. The gritted teeth, strained grunts, and sudden immobilization leads Nayoung’s eyes to their feet. Holding them in their places are black vine-like shadow, all the branches leading to one shadow – Sejeong’s.

“A person shadow’s grows larger in the dark.” Sejeong does the explaining in the middle of the men’s confusion. Typical of action flicks. “Which foretells my win. As one put it, hello darkness, my old friend.”

Suhyun sounds her own panic, “Yee-haw, this isn’t the time to quote internet memes! I’m at gunpoint!”

The man with the gun curses and Nayoung notices his finger on the trigger moving ever so slightly. In reflex, she holds onto Suhyun’s wrist, whether to pull her closer to push her away out of the bullet’s track, as long as Suhyun isn’t in the bullet’s way. The bullet is never shot though, as branches of Sejeong’s shadow snakes up along his body to his hand, immobilizing the joints throughout his arms too.

Heehyun makes her move, swiftly moving in-between the men and pummeling them into a black-out one by one. Chops to the back of their head, roundhouse kicks for those who attempt a fight back, and all of them fall apart, unconscious, at the hands of Heehyun.

The man with the gun goes out last. Heehyun graces him a straight punch to his abdomen before elbowing the back of his head. He, too, falls, and the suppressed handgun falls with a clatter.

Nayoung loosens up when she feels the tenseness in Suhyun diminishing. “Safe for now, I guess. Good thing Heehyun managed to pick up the silenced gunshot.”

Suhyun blinks her eyes and questions. “How did she do that though? Don’t silenced guns make no sound?”

Nayoung carefully walks closer to the abandoned gun and picks it up, feeling the warmth spreading along the barrel and its silencer extension. It might be best to keep the firearm; it might come in handy, and she feels things are far from over. She takes the silencer off and shows it off to Suhyun. “A silencer couldn’t perfectly silence a gunshot. This is because, when you shoot a bullet, the compressed air will still leak out of the end of the barrel. The silencer mostly dulls the sound the bullet makes when it moves fast through the air… and there’s still the clicking sound the mechanical parts of the gun make.”

“Oh… Nayoungie really knows everything.”

“I read a lot cause I had no friends.” She puts the gun – with its silencer back on – into the front pocket of her backpack. When she settles her backpack back, Suhyun asks why she isn’t bringing her usual sling bag. “This baby’s reserved for special occasion like this. I thought the first round might be an every man for himself slaughter!”

Sejeong changes the topic into something grimier. “Hey, Heehyun heard a gunshot before, right? But who did they shoot?”

Heehyun’s still quiet, eyes on the ground. It looks like she’s thinking about something… so Nayoung answers for her. “Someone’s here with us.”

“Th-that would be me.”

As if materializing from the thin air, a girl shows herself not far behind Sejeong. The latter looks taken aback, but softens when she recognizes the voice and the face… “Yeonjung?!”

“Oh! Mina’s friend! You alright?” Suhyun approaches her, stepping on one of the unconscious man’s spread arm on the way. Nayoung could only hope that won’t wake him up.

“I am... thank god for invisibility.”

Even though they’re hailed from an academy of heroes-in-training, not a lot has experienced a real fight against some shady crime syndicate. They’re still in-training after all. Yeonjung is visibly stricken as she crumbles into Suhyun’s comforting arms. Though it doesn’t sit well with her, Nayoung still has to question her. “How did you even meet them?”

“I was separated from Chaeeun. I didn’t have the flashlight with me so I just walked wherever, thinking I’m going to stumble upon anyone on the way anyway…”

She presses on. “And you hit it jackpot?”

“I guess so,” Yeonjung sighs against Suhyun’s shoulder. “I guess they were doing something and had to silence me—“

She’s cut by Heehyun, who immediately runs to the corner of the area, specifically to the heaps of plastic bone replicas. She and Sejeong immediately follow after her and help Heehyun setting aside the plastic femurs and crooked joints and that’s when Nayoung notices a beeping noise, the spaces between the beeping is perfectly timed…

“Oh. Oh .” Sejeong is the first one of the three to say her disbelief.

Under the heaps of bones is an explosive, hurriedly planted with adhesive tapes, a red sensor blinking and beeping, accentuating its active status. Heehyun mutters a low , and Nayoung’s internally banging her head to the wall.

“Is everything alright?” Suhyun calls out from behind. Nayoung is the one who breaks the news to her. Afterwards, Suhyun looks dead. Yeonjung looks even deader.

Back to the bomb. Sejeong turns to her. “Should we report this?”

“Maybe—“

Another interruption comes in the form of a buzzing sound. Heehyun with her blade-sharp senses immediately locate the object emitting the buzzes: in the pocket of one of the men. Nayoung’s pleasantly half surprised, half relieved when Heehyun reveals it to be a walkie-talkie. The buzzing is put to an end when Heehyun pushes a button. “Who the are you?!”

“I see that I’ve been found out.”

Nayoung whispers to Sejeong, “The guy even sounds like a criminal overlord,” and earns a slap on the thigh from the latter.

At first, there’s no reply from Heehyun. (She notices the way Heehyun’s shoulders tense for a second, though.)

At last, Heehyun barks back into the speaker. “Show yourself so we could beat the hell outta you and turn the bomb down, er. There are people here.”

“Wow, scary.” Even through the horrible reception, Nayoung can still hear the amused disposition from the Villain Guy. “No amount of threatening could stop me, though. How about a game? It’s a theme park, after all… you kids still need to have some funsies.”

Real explosives don’t count as “funsies”. Nayoung keeps it to herself.

“My men have planted more funsies throughout the park. You might want to deactivate them all… but combing through the place sounds like a hassle, hm? Especially when you can’t contact the police. I’m watching you all, okay? No cops, no outside help. It’s a game between us.”

“Are you ing nuts?! We can’t just search the whole ing park with this number!”

“Hmmm… then fine, to tip the imbalance, I’ll drop you some hints. Get your notes ready, kids.”

Nayoung takes her phone out. “Go on, sir!”

“Three more to go. N, 06. W, F6. The answer is at E34234. Try to stop me before the clock hits number 16. Fail, and face erasure…”

The line dies. Heehyun says something about the walkie-talkie modified to a one-way call, meaning they couldn’t contact the man unless they’re contacted first. It ruptures what little hope of asking for more hints, or negotiating their way out of this. Nayoung stares at the screen of the phone, the note program she opened functioning as a substitute notepad for the codes dropped.

“A C4 bomb... can you defuse it?”

Nayoung sighs at Sejeong’s question. To think that the only trouble today would be the Pain Bracelet. “Sorta.”

“Hardcore.”

“Even more hardcore: thank god I’m crazy prepared.” She unslings her backpack, s the much smaller front compartment, and shows Sejeong the handy tools she brings along. Tapes, switchblade, scissors, bubble gums…

Suhyun, Yeonjung, and Heehyun have joined them back, semi-circling around the C4. Not to anyone’s surprise, Heehyun takes the scissors and crouches down. Nayoung lets out a sigh of relief – no wire-cutting tension!

“Let me do it,” Heehyun says from under, “this thing will get your heart race too damn fast. You might die before you could disarm this .”

“Thank heavens!”

“But this isn’t enough…” Heehyun loudly wonders, the scissors and switchblade in her hand. Suhyun lights up immediately, noticing a bag one of the man carries. After a quick rummaging, Heehyun finds a useful tool in the middle of the many handy tools the bag carry – a shunt. The bag is definitely a first-aid kit for the men in-charge of this haunted house bomb.

Suhyun, with an arm still around Yeonjung (who looks like she has her lifespan cut), says a reminder. “We still have the codes to crack though… what are those numbers?”

N, 06. W, F6. Nayoung racks her brains for some eureka moment or two, but her mind is jumbled with possibilities. They still have roughly 3 hours left to save the entire theme park. Even with the whole lot of variables (why the need to blow up the park, who are they really…), she couldn’t risk it this time. The codes. The codes.

“Um, you’re experienced with explosives?”

Yeonjung asks Heehyun, who’s slaving over the C4. The lid’s opened, revealing complex wires in color red, blue, white, and black, and the scissors are ready upon them menacingly. Heehyun humors Yeonjung’s curiosity anyway. “Kind of. At least between the five of us, I’m the safest choice for this.”

“Heehyun’s raised in the streets. She knows all the ratty crime syndicate stuff. She can even name all the prison idols.”

“Thanks for the backup, Sejeong, I really appreciate you -ing me out like that.”

Defusing a bomb is, supposedly, not a one-man show. It occurred to Nayoung that they could just blow the bomb up with a firearm before the current could lit the explosive, and one of the man carries a shotgun with him, but the area isn’t wide enough for a shotgun-style bomb-defusing. Plus, it’s too risky, as people might notice. With such an uncompromising setting, they’re forced to do it the Hollywood way, re-enacting the Cut the Blue Wire cliché.

“Contrary to Hollywood myths,” Nayoung supplies for Yeonjung and Suhyun, “disarming an explosive is usually done by robots these days as opposed to sending out their men… but Heehyun should do the job. First, you have to look for the explosive. Find the detonator attached to it and try to carefully detach the detonator away from the explosive as far as the wires could allow. This is where the shunt comes into place. It could join two points of a circuit, it could divert a current. Bare the wires, shunt them with another piece of wire. This should divert the current away from the detonator… and that’s when you can finally cut the wires on the bomb side of the shunt.”

Suhyun sighs a heavy sigh. “Totally unlike those action flicks.”

“It also takes time… will we be able to find them all?”

Nayoung understands that everything might be new to Yoo Yeonjung. The girl’s a first-year, and Nayoung doubts she has been through tougher things. She’s no Nayoung, no Sejeong, no Heehyun.

No more kids should experience what the three went through.

“We’ll split into teams. Don’t worry, you won’t be in any of the bomb tech team! I sorta know how this works and Sejeong’s been watching Heehyun. She’s a quickie when it comes to survival stuff. She’s God Sejeong, after all.”
 

By the time they’re outside the haunted house, it’s 13.10.

Nayoung’s surprised that they manage to look civil and… not hurried. Then again, she, Sejeong, and Heehyun are already immune to situations like this. (It brings back memories.) Suhyun should get a Grammy for acting. Yeonjung looks panicked twenty-four-seven already anyway, so even with The Death looming over her, it doesn’t make much difference.

Just to make sure, she asks Yeonjung, “How are you feeling?”

“Um… I’m trying to be positive. I have to keep myself calm and watch out for the bracelet.”

The bracelet. A handicap to their predicament. “Good. Keep calm, we’ll crack this together.”

Right now, in their possession are the codes they have to crack, a walkie-talkie which is the only connection they have to the bombs’ brains, and some more goods looted from the unconscious men back in the haunted house: the shunt, the handgun and its silencer, and the shotgun (Nayoung took it with her along with the golf bag for stealth).

She displays the codes to all of them, who are standing around in a close circle, except Sejeong, who’s busy with her own phone.

“N, 06. W, F6. The answer is at E34234.” She recounts the codes. “I have an idea of alternatives regarding how to read the code. The last code has 6 items in total, unless the E doesn’t count as an item. If we read the first two codes like six 0’s and six F’s, all of them would have 6 items in total…”

But what kind of code carries six items? Flight number wouldn’t make sense with the first two codes. And—

The walkie-talkie in Heehyun’s pocket buzzes hard. Quickly, Heehyun takes it out. “Bastard, show yourself already!”

 “Some warm welcome! But I do not intend to pick a fight through this call. I’d like to remind you that this is a game between us, OK? No calling the cops. No grassing out. Since one of the bombs I planted has a sensor detector…”

“, so one of them is controlled by remote?”

“Spot-on! So make sure not to anger me, hm?”

And the call ends.

“Arrrghghgh.” Heehyun furiously pockets the device back. “After we split up into teams, watch out for the bomb with a radio-wave sensor attached. Usually a small box, or hell, judging from the sorta low-budget of this bombing case, a cheap old Nokia phone model.”

“Nokia phone used as a receiver of the signal? Classic. That means the guy has another Nokia phone with him, to call the one strapped to the bomb, which then sends a signal to the circuit board and activates the detonator…” Nayoung turns her attention back to the codes. “What have 6 digits?”

Heehyun steals their attentions though. “Hey, does any of you have the brochure they handed out at the entrance? The one with the map.”

“Hah, fear not! Kim Nayoung comes crazy prepared. Someone please grab it from the front zipper.”

Suhyun does it for her, rummaging through the front compartment of her backpack. The brochure’s crumpled beyond belief, but Heehyun straightens it anyway and flips it over to the side with the map.

“The N and W,” Heehyun starts, “do you think it stands for north and west? Since we’re talking about locations.”

Looking at the map, it makes sense. In each main direction (north, east, west, south) there’s one of the park’s “major rides”. The Black Turtle haunted house at the north, the White Tiger pendulum ride at the west, the Azure Dragon rollercoaster at the east, the Vermillion Bird Ferris wheel at the south.

“They’re all based on the Chinese’s Four Mythical Beasts!”

Yeonjung’s statement successfully connects the dots. Heehyun continues for her, “That means we’ve claimed the ‘N, F6’ bomb. Which means there are three more.”

It finally clicks in Nayoung’s head. “That means the 6 digit codes are color hex codes! Six F’s is #FFFFFF which stands for the color black. The six 0’s should be for white, since the code stands for the White Tiger ride.”

“What about the last one?”

Suhyun’s question makes sense, but right now they’re running out of time. “Should be either for blue or red, since the only ones left are the Azure Dragon rollercoaster and the Vermillion Bird Ferris wheel. Anyway, we’re gonna split into two teams. Heehyun, you and Suhyun get the shunt. Disarm the bomb at the White Tiger. Sejeong’s going with me to the Azure Dragon just in case those men are there too. I can’t fight, I might need her. Yeonjung, you’ll be on a stand-by at the center. At 3, meet up at the center. If you’re done before 3, then rush there immediately. Am I clear?”

“Crystal.” Suhyun answers for her. “C’mon, Heehyun, time’s a wasting!”

The other team begins their march to the west. Yeonjung speed-walks towards the center. She taps Sejeong’s shoulder and informs her the details she must have missed since she’s been on the phone.

A glance to the clock displayed on her phone’s screen shows her it’s 13.30 already. “Wanna sprint?”

Sejeong grins back at her, devoid of any exhaustion. (How’s that possible? Only God Sejeong!) “Might as well!”

Sprinting all Baywatch-like under a fine Sunday would warrant curious eyebrows, so Nayoung plays it off by holding Sejeong’s hand in hers, their fingers taut, giving off a “overly-enthusiastic couple on their first date” vibes. It sort of works – they’re getting judging stares instead.

“Pray that Chungha won’t spot us!”

Nayoung only laughs into the tepid air. “Don’t I get a pass as your dear childhood bud?”

Sejeong flashes her a grin, eyes pressed into smiles, and Nayoung feels waves of pain shrouding her, blooming from the bracelet, “That only makes it worse!”

They stop when the Azure Dragon rollercoaster comes into their sight, catching their breaths. A quick glance at the time; it’s 13.45.

“The line doesn’t look so bad. Heaven is on our side.” Nayoung pulls her to the line; not a lot of people are crowding for a monstrous ride of the famed tummy-shaker Azure Dragon, probably because it’s still too hot to be so exposed under the sun, and people just had lunch. They manage to slip into the line snugly. “Hey, Sejeong, you were on your phone back then. Did something happen?”

“Aside from Chungha and my friends texting me for my whereabouts, no. I was just reading the news.”

“Ohhh. The jailbreak?”

Sejeong’s voice is lower, as if afraid that someone they know might overhear. “Heehyun’s father was jailed years ago along with his followers, right? Little Heehyun, however, was taken to the city’s orphanage and spent some nice years there. From a street urchin to a… disciplined orphanage kid.”

“Yeah, that summed up Heehyun’s life nicely.” Without getting into details we’d rather not remember.

“Years ago, the cult founded by Kim Kwangsoo was ended by the govts. They were stuck in the torture camp… perhaps, until as of late.”

“Wait. Are you saying…?”

“Kwangsoo and his men escaped.”

“Oh crap—“

They couldn’t discuss the topic further. Comes their turn, they’re seated in a row near the back. Ideal, as it allows them an overall view to the rows in front of them. There’s only a row behind them and before the safety harnesses are locked by the staff, Sejeong has checked the seats and even under. Also luckily, Nayoung manages to sneak her golf bag with her, just in case the bomb’s really planted on the very roller coaster.

Hopefully, it didn’t.

“No bomb so far.”

She replies Sejeong’s report with a, “Okay, just be on alert even during the ride.”

The speaker goes off, telling them the ride’s starting, the car’s moving slowly, beginning to ascend…

And that’s when they realize the bomb, unlike before, isn’t displayed out in the open; instead, they’re very sure the box taped to the back of the seat four rows in front of them contains the bomb. The seat behind them is empty; others probably avoided that seat since anyone sitting there will be cramped along with the conspicuous-looking box. It must have been installed recently, since the staff haven’t taken it off!

“, Sejeong, what to do now?!”

They’re ascending higher. The air isn’t the only thing suffocating Nayoung; images of the bomb blowing up all twenty-ish of them to bits sicken her to the guts.

“Want me to make it all better?”

Sejeong looks impressively calm about it. So, she decides to trust her partner. “Do it, ma’am. Our lives, in your hands.

They don’t have much time. They’re nearing the peak and from there onwards, the drops and loops might hinder their defusing operation.

“But I dunno if this will work… it’s too bright for a Medusa.”

Nayoung spots Sejeong’s shadow forming into thin, but jagged hands creeping to the front, snaking between the seats, just a row away from the bomb…

After the peak comes the drop. With the air current against them, trying to shove them back to their seats, Nayoung sees the way Sejeong grits her teeth trying to reach farther. A row away. A row away from the bomb!

“Will it reach?!”

“I—I think so!” Sejeong struggles between keeping her eyes open so she can direct her shadow, steering her shadow so they won’t hold onto the roller coaster’s passengers instead, and trying to reach further – the sun is totally against their side right now, as the brightness diminishes the size of Sejeong’s shadow. “Nayoung—get ready!”

“Alright,” her movement is severely limited with the safety harness pushing her back, but she blindly hooks her leg to the strap of the golf bag. In one swift movement, she strains her leg by pulling it upwards, just enough for her arm to reach the strap of the golf bag so she could pull it into both her arms.  “Oh—oh goddamnit!” The safety harnesses are their handicap; and to top it all off, they’re nearing the first loop.

Fear and anger towards her own incompetence drives her emotion off the kilter. As a result, she has to suffer through the pain from the bracelet while fumbling around the zipper. The moment it’s ped enough for Nayoung to grab the neck of the shotgun, she quickly takes it off and pulls the golf bag back under the seat. “Ready—wait, SEJEONG?”

They’re entering the first loop. The car rises, climbing the loop, and Sejeong’s shadow-hands work on the box, forcefully pulling it from whatever gluing it to the back of the seat.

“We aren’t gonna wait until we’re past the loop??”

“Nope, if anything—now’s the time!”

Exactly at the middle of the upper loop, Sejeong’s shadow-hands manage to unglue it apart from the seat. Along with the faster drop, the box is thrown to the right – the side away from the theme park area – the force from Sejeong’s shadow-hands enough to propel it into a safe distance from the roller coaster lane. Nayoung, with the shotgun ready, pulls the trigger and feels the pain of the kickback shooting throughout her body and her pained scream mixes into the other passengers’ screams.

The box explodes when it’s shot, indicating the real content of the box – the C4. The roller-coaster jets out of the first loop. Some passengers look taken aback by the daylight-firework show.

So, it’s time to improvise. With her remaining strength, Nayoung shows off her shotgun, and at the top of her lungs, she bulls an Impromptu Firework Show. “THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!”
 

14:55. She and Sejeong safely hit the center area at 14:55.

The center of the park is dubbed The Yellow Dragon. Instead of a huge eye-catching fountain with European design, the director of the park opted for a shelter instead, shaped a circle, with a beautifully carved dragon statue gallantly resting on top of it. It’s promoted to be made of gold, hence the yellow and the allusion to the Yellow Dragon figure in Chinese mythology.

Heehyun and Suhyun are already there, looking restless. No time to catch their breaths.

“An hour left…” Suhyun does the obligatory reminder. “No sensor on our side. I guess that means the radio-sensor bomb is the one planted on the Ferris wheel.”

Sejeong looks around – perhaps trying to locate the sole first-year in their bomb-disarming makeshift squad. “Where’s Yeonjung?”

“I asked around for her number and tried to contact her, but the line won’t get through…”

Suhyun’s answer alarms her even more. But, Nayoung deduces, “I think she’s safe. I don’t think the guy has any more men with him. Pretty sure you guys didn’t counter any more henchmen in the pendulum ride?”

Heehyun shakes her head, “Yeah, we didn’t. Hell, he might be alone now too. But the thing is, I don’t think we need to worry about Yeonjung.”

“Why so?”

“Heard that there’s gonna be a show in the building next to the Ferris wheel. The director of this park, along with the town’s mayor, are gonna attend. Heard that they’re gonna hand out free diamond brooches too, and I saw a lot of people sailing there. Maybe Yeonjung’s roped along by her friends? I saw Kim Doyeon and her midget friend running going that way too. They’re probably in it for the freebies.”

No wonder her surrounding looks emptier; the atrium beside the Ferris wheel is an indoor facility where an underground jet coaster resides. Not to mention the snack bars inside, the air-conditioning, the game-center, and a stage that holds a lot of events – the atrium is usually crowded, but Nayoung could only imagine how packed it’s going to be today.

At 15:00, the walkie-talkie buzzes to life. Heehyun punches the receiver button, though not as seething as she was hours ago.

“So, you kids managed this far…”

Nayoung leans in closer to the speaker, trying to pick up hints as to where he might be. His voice, though muffled by the horrible reception of a walkie-talkie, isn’t obscured by background noises at all. He’s in somewhere calm.

The atrium? But it should be crowded by now…

“Then, I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Good. We’re coming for you.”

The line ends.

Nayoung leads their last meeting. “Okay. We got this in the bag. The reason he said he’s watching us – he’s probably somewhere high. Perhaps he has long-range binoculars with him.”

“Oh,” Sejeong interrupts her, “the Ferris wheel.”

“Yeah. Sejeong, be on a stand-by near the atrium. Suhyun, I have an important mission for you.”

“Uh. Bad news, I’m horrendously bad at missions.”

“Only you can do this.”

“Uh. Bad news, I’m horrendously bad at miss—“

“Transform to Heehyun now.”

“Now?”

“Yup.”

Suhyun follows suit. Not only she switches to a carbon copy of Ki Heehyun, Ace Impersonator Suhyun gets Heehyun’s expressions down to a pat. Hell, even the way she stands, the way she moves…

“Perfect.”

“I know.” Suhyun returns her compliment with a Heehyun Grin. Heehyun is visibly perturbed, bothered by the perfect replication. Who wouldn’t?

“Alright. Suhyun, Sejeong, you two sprint to the atrium. Heehyun, you stay here.”

“Ohhh. I get it now.” Sejeong laughs. She gets it. Of course she would. Heehyun too, only sighs, but the sound is fond.

“What? What? Oh man, I’m such a slowie.”

Sejeong pulls the still confused Suhyun with her anyway, promising a proper explanation when they’re already in the atrium. Heehyun leans back against one of the pillars supporting the shelter, accepting the golf bag Nayoung throws at her with an easy hand.

“If you want to run after me, do it when I’m already in the Ferris wheel.”

“I know.”

“Quite a smart aleck, aren’t you…”

“Nayoung?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Consider this another apology gift!”

Nayoung takes off to the Ferris wheel, armed with her own modified backpack, she’s sure she has this in the bag.
 

The Ferris wheel doesn’t attract as much when some rich man is busy handing out diamond brooches as freebies. Human is a materialistic creature; the novelty of Ferris wheel long forgotten. Which makes it easier for Nayoung to get in line – and the car she’ll get in is a car away from alighting.

She’s still unsure where the boss might be, but a ride perhaps might inspire her an eureka moment.

Her thoughtful silence is disrupted the moment someone pounces onto her right arm.

“Hm? Sejeong?” Nayoung blinks.

Sejeong only blinks back before breaking into a smile. “Miss me?”

“Oh god, you’re stationed in the atrium. Shoo.”

“Heehyun’s already there, don’t worry. Two heads are better than one; I’ll help you think about where he might be. Might be already in the Ferris wheel, in another car.”

Their car alights. The door automatically slides open and the staff welcomes them in. Sejeong jerks a chin, telling Nayoung to go in first, and Nayoung complies, flopping onto the comfortable cushion that is the seat. Sejeong holds onto the door first, leaving it open for a bit longer, before sliding it into a shut closure herself (not the staff?). The car rattles into a movement and she hurriedly sits, saying something about the weather.

Nayoung doesn’t really listen, as she’s busy unslinging the left strap of her backpack, leaving it huddled onto her right side.

Casual chatter. Talking about the weather. Some quiet invading them here and there. They laugh at a funny hot air balloon passing them, cracking jokes at it. When Nayoung’s sure they’re halfway into the circle of a Ferris wheel’s car track, Nayoung heaves the words out.

“Sejeong?”

“Hm?”

Nayoung attempts to stand, but the abrupt rattling of the car – signifying a move to upwards – throws her a bit off-balance. Just as calculated. Sejeong worriedly half-stands too, trying to support Nayoung’s hobbling. “Nayoung? You okay?”

“Sorry – I was just about to sit beside you.”

“Oh god. Stay in your seat, it’s not going to kill you.”

The close proximity. All she needs to do is hooking her hand, snaking it to the back of Sejeong’s hand, and pulls her a tad closer. That would result in a kiss; in a car of a Ferris wheel. A perfect K-Drama penultimate scene.

Her own heart races, thudding against her ribcage. Slight pain travels throughout her nerves, and it takes every inch of her willpower not to visibly flinch in front of Sejeong. Her own heart races, and it shouldn’t be.

Sejeong’s chuckle sounds nervous. “Why the stare? Captivated by my—“

“Your beauty.” She adds, in the same breath, “I—you’re so pretty, Sejeong…”

Silence invades them. Sejeong blinks. Nayoung immediately throws herself back to her seat, quickly retrieves it from the front compartment of her backpack, and aims the .45 handgun to Sejeong. “Hands in the air, no resistance, else I’ll shoot… Not Sejeong!”

“What…?”

“Well, guess someone hasn’t put a lot of research into the target of their disguise.” Behind the trigger, Nayoung smiles triumphantly. In a way, she just hit the jackpot. “The bracelet. It should’ve gone off when I complimented you. All participants of Produce 101 are equipped with bracelets that go off the moment their hearts race.”

Sejeong’s face contorts into an unsmile. “Meaning…?”

“The real Sejeong would’ve reacted. After all, Sejeong likes me.” Still with the gun stretched, Nayoung goes off on her beatdown-tangent. “So, how about you switch back to your real appearance… Kim Kwangsoo?”

His disguise knocked away, a chuckle escapes Sejeong’s lips before, in a blink of an eye, Nayoung witnesses another manifest of Morpheus morphing into his real form. Kim Kwangsoo would’ve looked like an average white-collared worker if it weren’t for his nearly all black attire, red turtleneck, unkempt hair, and stubble carrying lots of prison stories.

Now in his very much male voice, he speaks. “You do realize that a handgun couldn’t really kill anybody in one-shot, don’t you? This is no Hollywood.”

“I do. Can’t be helped.” The kickback from the shotgun prevented me from blowing your head up with the damn thing in one shot! Be thankful.

“Plus, I’ve won this game, Kim Nayoung.” His laugh is easy, as if he’s not the brains behind a possible bombing. The moment he moves, Nayoung shoots, but he ducks and the bullet nestles itself deep into his left shoulder instead. His face crumples in pain, but that doesn’t stop him from taking out an old model of a Nokia phone from his pants’ pocket.

The “remote control” of the bomb.

Nayoung aims the muzzle to his head, voice getting sterner when it dawns on her. “Let that phone go. I might spare your life then.”

“Why should I, when I only have to dial the other phone to blow the atrium to bits?” His smirk loosens Nayoung’s patience. But, the bracelet. Nayoung reminds herself to keep her cool.

“You won’t.”

“Explain, kid.”

“Because Heehyun’s there. You said it yourself. Heehyun’s in the atrium, that’s why Sejeong felt like it’s okay for her to get into the Ferris wheel with me.”

His smirk twitches. That’s when Nayoung knows he has fallen into her trap – she told Suhyun to mimic Heehyun because she needed Kwangsoo to witness Heehyun being there in the atrium. The real Heehyun, however, should be either under the shelter or waiting for her at the bottom of the Ferris wheel.

Heehyun’s presence in the atrium. That’s enough reason for him to not set off the bomb.

“As much as you want to set the place on fire, killing the director and the mayor and all the rich asses in the theme park today, you can’t do it. Not when your daughter is in the same building as them, and exploding the place off means pulling a bye-bye on your sweetheart too.”

“Well, well…” Kwangsoo heaves a sigh, and it soon dissolves into a laugh. “I admit, you’re quite the fine apple. Good brains on your head. You might make a good government rat in the future!”

Her reply is a mocking gag. “Not the govt, ew.”

“But you do realize that it’s this Ferris wheel and not the atrium that’s named after the legendary phoenix, right?”

“Yes, but… you intend to explode the atrium off anyway, not this Ferris wheel—“

That’s when she knows the tide has turned. Kwangsoo’s laugh is deriding, and Nayoung tries a little bit too hard to fight off the unsettling feelings creeping into her. The fear.

“Wait, so there’s a bomb here too?!”

“Yes. In this very car, I must say.”

“Wh—“

It finally hits Nayoung. Why “Sejeong” opened the door for a little bit longer.

There’s someone else beside the two of them in the car.

“Yeonjung…?”

A beat passes. In a blink, a figure materializes out of the thin air, and Nayoung sees no mistake – all along, Yeonjung is with them, and in her hands is the third C4 she has seen in the day.

This revelation should mark her loss.

“It’s easy making her cooperate with me, really. Her friends are in the atrium after all.”

Nayoung asks slowly this time, “Are you really going to kamikaze your way out of this…? Blowing this car up?”

“Dear, I don’t do suicide missions.”

“What the hell is your intention!?”

Nayoung doesn’t mind killing this man. The world despises him. Heehyun herself despises him. There’s no stopping her – except for the bomb in Yeonjung’s trembling hands.

“The panic. I intend to spread the panic. So we can move this game into a start…”

“No time to be cryptic, sir! There’s a bomb with us!” And we might hit 16:00 soon…!

The man moves, and Nayoung fires another bullet, but her arms are giving out – two kickbacks handicapping her hard – and the bullet only grazes his cheek. He forces the window open, swiftly climbs onto the metal handle and jumps out of the window. Instead of splatting flat on the ground, Nayoung watches him grabbing onto a rope ladder, and the moment Nayoung brings the upper half of her body outside the window, he’s already clinging onto a rope ladder that ends in a red helicopter, bringing him higher, out of Nayoung’s reach…

When she realizes the damned Nokia phone is still in his hold, “Yeonjung, quick, throw the bomb out!!”

Yeonjung’s dazed for a second before she throws the bomb with all her willpower. Gravity pushes it towards the ground, but halfway into it’s plummet … the bomb’s set off.

The boom is deafening for both Nayoung and Yeonjung, but they have no time. The explosion severed the center of the support wheels, leaving the Ferris wheel severely unbalanced. She could feel their carriage – along with the whole Ferris wheel slowly tipping to the left – to the side with the broken center of support wheels.

All hope is lost until she spots a flying… humanoid ripping through the sky.

“Yeonjung!”

“Wh, what?”

Nayoung snakes an arm around her waist, hoists her upwards, ignoring her panicked cries, and throws her outside the window. Her scream is cut-off the moment she’s caught in mid-air by Heehyun, who flies off with Yeonjung in her arms. That’s a life saved. Okay, now how to stop the Ferris wheel from falling sideways and killing everyone inside…!

She, too, jumps out of the window, and pulls the black rope hanging from her special backpack. The backpack noisily unfolds itself into a parachute-glider. Now that she’s gliding through the air, does she realize the mortal danger the others in the carriages are in.

Until, from the sky, she sees Sejeong sprinting into the scene. The real Sejeong. Sejeong could stop this with her shadow… but could she generate her shadowy stuff large enough to stop a ing Ferris wheel?

It’s still sometime before 16:00. The sun’s still rather bright. Sejoeng’s own shadow couldn’t hold the whole Ferris wheel, and the shadow casted by the falling Ferris wheel doesn’t touch Sejeong’s own shadow, meaning she couldn’t utilize the shadow casted by the Ferris wheel into her own.

Is this game over…? The fall of the Ferris wheel will kill the people in other carriages. The Ferris wheel is huge; parts of it will definitely plant themselves onto the atrium. More damages will be done. Too risky. More people might get killed off. Below, Sejeong still couldn’t release her shadow, as the scale couldn’t rival the Ferris wheel’s.

Until it hits her. Her own shadow could bridge Sejeong’s and the falling Ferris wheel’s. She forces her joints to push her glider through, just to the spot where her shadow could bridge the two shadows. Even when her muscles strain – even when she could feel some of her muscles snapping apart.

Please, just a little bit more…!

The moment the two shadows are bridged together, dozens—hundreds of hands shoot out from the conjoined shadows, all of them palming the crumbling Ferris wheel and even the falling rubbles, keeping them in place.

As the bridge, she couldn’t glide anywhere, so rests her weight to her feet, slowly pulling herself to the ground but staying in the same position. A wrong movement will break the joint shadows. “GO AT IT, SEJEOOOONNGG!”

The shadow-hands push the Ferris wheel back, and dusts are kicked up as Sejeong makes sure to rest the half-intact Ferris wheel against the still-standing center of support wheel on the other side. And it works, as not only the Ferris wheel is no longer falling over sideways, Sejeong’s shadow-hands gently put aside the falling rubbles.

The last thing Nayoung sees before blacking out from the sheer pain coursing through her body is Sejeong giving her a tired thumbs up, and the feeling of Sejeong’s shadow cushioning her fall after her grip on her parachute-glider slackened…
 

Notes: [3] Thank you for making it to the end! ;;