“Do your parents love you?”

“Huh?”

“Do they? The way they look at you is different from how my parents do to me.”

Myoui Mina rarely talked.

Everyone knew that. None of them expected her to give a proper response after every explanation. They could simply look straight to her eyes to tell what she wanted them to do next. Many would conclude that Myoui Mina was just impolite because, well, look at who she was. A genius multi-billionaire. She wouldn’t waste her time just to talk.

But it wasn’t entirely true. Not many knew, or even guessed, that the real reason was actually that Mina found it really hard for her to just talk, to speak up, to state her opinion. It hadn’t changed a bit. Mina still didn’t know how to talk in a right way.

Just like at the moment.

She didn’t like it. Minatozaki Sana was too quiet the past days. Was it because of that marriage thingy? Did it really bother her that much? Mina wanted to ask but she couldn’t, like, what’s new. She just sat there, in her working room, staring blankly at Minatozaki Sana, who was standing some steps ahead of her, showing her back to Mina.

“Minatozaki Sana,”

When Sana turned around with raised eyebrows, Mina paused for a few milliseconds to find something random to ask, or say.

“You dyed your hair.”

She sounded so stupid.

But Sana still smiled, hand grasping the tips of her newly dyed black raven hair, “Yeah, I did. I got bored with blonde.”

Mina awkwardly coughed and looked down to the papers on her desk, “You shouldn’t do that so often. You’re going to get bald.”

A sigh, “It’s partly the reason too. I think I’ve damaged my hair too much. So I went back to black since it’s the natural color. How? Do you like it?”

“You look the same.”

“Well, yea, dyeing my hair won’t change my face.” Sana rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, “Have you ever thought of that, by the way?”

“What?”

“Dyeing your hair, or changing your hairstyle. You’ve been living with that hair for years.”

Mina glanced at her shoulder-length hair. She quickly shook her head.

“No.”

“Why not? It’s nice, though, trying new things for once.”

“You were the reason for me to cut my hair this short. Remember the red hair-dye? It was your fault I almost became bald.”

Sana laughed. Of course she still remembered. Mina had long black hair before, just like hers at the moment. She often asked Mina to do something different to her hair, since she never did it, unlike Sana who changed hairstyle every time she wanted to. Mina refused many times but eventually gave up and dyed her hair red. But things turned out bad as Mina’s hair got damaged and in the end, she had to cut it short to shoulder-length.

But Mina seemed to like it. She didn’t let her hair grow more than it for years.

“Look,” Sana suddenly turned serious as she walked to Mina’s working desk and bent down to run her fingers into Mina’s hair softly, “you might become bald for real because of how stubborn you are. You never take a break. That’s not healthy.”

Mina sighed. Sana started to talk like a mom again. It was annoying.

“I can always afford a wig anyway.”

And Sana burst into a laughing fit again.

“Okay, I’ll leave now. Remember to eat your lunch or else you’ll be bald.”

Mina made a face to Sana as the latter left the room, still giggling. After the door was closed and Mina was alone, she paused and slowly brushed her own hair, a slight fear inside her chest.

She wasn’t really becoming bald, was she?

-

“Miss Minatozaki.”

Kim Dahyun gave her a deep bow as she walked there. She bowed her head slightly before stopping by the window, looking outside where the Workers were being trained. Her laughter had died down as soon as she stepped out of Myoui Mina’s room and was reminded of her worries and anxiousness.

The Nine-Six. Chou Tzuyu. Her responsibility.

“How is she doing?”

“She’s doing great, as usual.” Kim Dahyun answered proudly, “She has a very decent energy and quick movements.”

Minatozaki Sana had never heard bad news about Chou Tzuyu so far. The youngest Worker was doing so well it actually almost, almost, made Sana sure she was just thinking too much about everything. But then again, it was all training sessions. The actual tournament hadn’t happened. Doing well in training couldn’t completely guarantee anything.

“The Players have also started registering today, Miss. We can count the amount of registrants starting from tomorrow.”

Sana nodded, “That’s good to know.”

Kim Dahyun looked at her for a moment before she mumbled, “You look different, Miss.”

“The hair?” Sana could already tell what Kim Dahyun meant, “Yea, I dyed it last night. I don’t really know why so don’t ask.”

It was true. There was no apparent reason. She just felt like dyeing it.

They went silent again as both of them eyed the Workers, or just Chou Tzuyu for Sana. She personally hadn’t talked to Chou Tzuyu since that first time weeks ago, she didn’t remember. She was too busy here and there. But Sana wasn’t the type to let the time control her. When she felt like she had too many things to do, she just simply put them aside to have her free time before continuing it when she wanted to. Then again, she was also a boss.

Lunch break!

“I want to talk to her.” Sana said, “Give me one of that.”

Kim Dahyun quickly gave her a bottle of water. The doors opened simultaneously and Sana walked out to Chou Tzuyu, followed by Kim Dahyun and some staffs. The young Worker was lying on the ground after the heavy training. The other Workers didn’t seem so fazed at her presence because Sana checked on them pretty often. They seem to know where the CEO was walking to so they excused themselves.

Chou Tzuyu was still lying on her back, panting, looking at the sky, until someone suddenly hovered above her. Her mind went blank for a few seconds before she realized it was Minatozaki Sana… with dark hair.

She gasped and got up on her two feet clumsily, feeling a bit dizzy when Minatozaki Sana smiled at her.

“Can we have some time?” Sana turned around to the people behind her.

“Yes, Miss.” Kim Dahyun nodded her head, “Take your time.”

The two still stood there, with Chou Tzuyu intertwining her fingers to one another, didn’t exactly know what to do. She of course didn’t expect Minatozaki Sana to come right to her after the training. And she had black hair this time that made Chou Tzuyu take a little longer to recognize the CEO.

“Come and sit here.”

Sana said as she walked to the grass and sat there, under a tree. Chou Tzuyu hesitated but she still followed her, sitting beside her boss awkwardly. From her peripheral she could see some butlers and staffs, including Kim Dahyun, watching over them closely. This woman beside her was a CEO, a very important person. It kept replaying inside her head.

“Here,”

A water bottle was handed to her. When Chou Tzuyu unconsciously looked up to thank Sana, she immediately regretted it because Sana was still smiling, and quickly looked back down. She hesitantly took the bottle but she just held it in her hands.

Sana found it cute.

With a light chuckle, Sana grabbed the bottle, opened it, and gave it back to the young Worker. It made Chou Tzuyu even more flustered and stared at Sana with wide eyes.

“Drink.” Sana said, like an order.

So Chou Tzuyu obeyed. She was indeed thirsty.

“Are you doing well?” Sana said, looking to the front, an empty yard.

“Y-yes, Miss.” Chou Tzuyu stuttered, wiping her lips.

“I’m sorry that you have the most hours of training among the others. You must be tired.”

“No, it’s okay.” Well, she was a newbie so it was normal, “I need to train more or else I won’t be able to keep up.”

“I heard you lost weight.”

Chou Tzuyu frowned and turned to Sana. How could she know?

“Did you skip meals?”

“N-no, I didn’t.” She shook her head, “I… I lose weight easily.”

Sana knew Chou Tzuyu was naturally skinny so she didn’t like it that the Worker losing weight bothered her so much. Workers lose and gain weight every day, what was so worrisome about Chou Tzuyu until Sana couldn’t sleep thinking about that?

“It’s not balanced.” Sana said, sternly, “Your meals to your work outs. It’s heavier on one side. I know you didn’t skip meals, you just ate less.”

This CEO knew everything. Chou Tzuyu gulped.

“I-I’m sorry, Miss. I’ll take care of myself better.” She said with her head hung low.

Hearing the apology made Sana frown. Wait, she didn’t sound like she was scolding, did she?

“That’s not what I meant.” Sana smiled, turning back to Chou Tzuyu, “I’m not blaming you. It’s not your fault.”

But the latter was still too scared to look up.

Sana pursed her lips and eyed the water bottle being held loosely in Chou Tzuyu’s hands. It was half-empty. She sighed and snatched it from the younger’s grip, and drank directly from it, emptying it.

Chou Tzuyu was once again bewildered. Did Minatozaki Sana just… drink straight from her bottle?

“It’s really hot, I don’t get it.” Sana threw the bottle to the nearest trash can, “The weather forecast said it’s at least going to be chilly.”

Again, the young Worker kept silent. She pressed her lips to one another and Sana just noticed that Chou Tzuyu had a dimple.

Suddenly the CEO stood up.

“No more training for you today. Eat your lunch, take your time, and then meet me again after that because you should take a break before you get too skinny.”

Chou Tzuyu had that dumbfounded face as she looked up to the standing Minatozaki Sana, “W-why?”

“Because I say so. See you later.”

And with that Minatozaki Sana walked away leaving a confused Chou Tzuyu under the tree.

-

“She said that to you?”

Yoo Jungyeon and Hirai Momo stared at her with their blank expressions after Chou Tzuyu told them what happened earlier. The youngest could only nod, slowly munching her food, all in her mind was still Minatozaki Sana. She couldn’t believe it too, if that was what the two would ask her next.

“Man,” Jungyeon sighed, “I suddenly want to be a newbie too.”

Momo side-eyed her and said, “Then you should resign and reapply again with a different identity.”

“Good idea.”

“No, but seriously, she basically told you to skip training.” Momo turned to Tzuyu again, “I mean, that’s expected of Miss Minatozaki, but all I can imagine is an enraged Miss Myoui.”

Tzuyu frowned but Jungyeon was faster.

“Yeah, I wonder if Miss Myoui knows about this.”

“She doesn’t like it? I mean, of course she won’t be happy if a Worker skips training but what if Miss Minatozaki tells them to?”

“She hates it even more.” Momo shrugged, “I think it’s worse if Miss Minatozaki is the one with that idea. Like I said, they fight all the time. It’s just one of the reasons.”

“But Miss Minatozaki never stops doing it.” Jungyeon continued, “She pays attention to us so she can know if a Worker is stressed, or sick, or tired, and so on. She usually approaches them and tells them to stop training for a while.”

“But I’m not stressed. Or sick. Or tired.”

“You’re a newbie.” Momo pointed her fork at Tzuyu so it made the latter unconsciously back away slightly, even though Momo was sitting across her, “That reason is enough. You have that privilege every Worker wants for at least… a year. Also you’re young, the youngest from all of us here. So don’t question our angry, envious stares every time Miss Minatozaki comes to you because we don’t have our reasons for her to do the same to us. “

Tzuyu just smiled. That sure explained the fork gesture.

“Seriously, you should be delighted by now. It’s all rainbows and unicorns with Miss Minatozaki.” Jungyeon bitterly munched her food.

Tzuyu actually had that image in her mind. Rainbows, unicorns, colors, and Minatozaki Sana. She giggled and put her elbow on the table, chin on her palm. She wasn’t going to lie, she’d enjoy this privilege and those jealous stares from other Characters, especially Jungyeon and Momo because they were so obvious.

“Is she going to make me do health checkups again…” Tzuyu mumbled, because that was all Minatozaki Sana had said to her, everything was related to her health.

Not that she minded.

“She dyed her hair.” Tzuyu suddenly remembered.

“Yeah, she does that a lot.” Jungyeon said, shrugging.

“I couldn’t recognize her at first.”

“Yeah, she gives off different vibes with different hair color.”

“I heard she had pink hair once.”

“Yeah, pink, gray, blonde…”

“I wonder if she--”

“Oh, shut up and just eat your food, will you?” Jungyeon grumpily shoved a piece of meat to Tzuyu’s face with her fork.

The youngest of the three giggled as she happily ate the meat from Jungyeon, “Okay, I’ll shut up now.”

-

“Miss Minatozaki isn’t the type to stay still when she wants to have a talk. Even during meetings she walks around the room instead of sitting down. It’s kind of weird but that’s just how she is. It will be fine, you don’t have to worry.”

Chou Tzuyu could only nod as she listened to Kim Dahyun’s explanation. They, along with some other staffs and butlers, were walking through endless corridors to wherever they were heading. She couldn’t even remember her way back to the cafeteria. It was another different building. Tzuyu wondered how these people could memorize the whole place. The buildings were alike and the corridors were confusing. If they could, the maze would’ve been easy for them to memorize too.

She clearly wasn’t going to get another health checkup because it wasn’t the way to go to the hospital. They even let her if she wanted to clean up a bit, resulting in her changing to a comfortable sweatshirt and jeans. And it was great. Health checkups were a pain in the and Tzuyu didn’t want to go through those processes again. The doctors and nurses weren’t quite polite too when Minatozaki Sana wasn’t around. They frowned if Tzuyu said she had some complaints about her body.

It felt like forever before they finally stopped in a corner. As she saw Minatozaki Sana standing by the huge window, she realized she had never been in this place before. The whole island of The Constraint had several buildings and that one wasn’t where Tzuyu, and the other Characters, stayed or trained. She felt nervous all over her when Minatozaki Sana turned her head to her, and smiled.

“You all can leave now.”

As the others started to leave, Minatozaki Sana turned around to the window, not facing Tzuyu, some meters behind her. She was silent for a few moments, leaving Tzuyu confused of what she should do there.

“What are you doing there,” Minatozaki Sana finally asked, “come here.”

Carefully, Tzuyu walked closer to the woman, keeping her head down. Minatozaki Sana was looking at the sight outside the building, and when Tzuyu bravely lifted her head to look at what it was, she was left in awe seeing a sight of a beach in the edge of the island.

Since the island was strictly guarded, there was a super tall ring fence surrounding it, separating the inside area and the endless sea outside, so there was no way the people could take a look at the beach beyond the ring fence.

She then realized she was in building A, the tallest one among the others there. She didn’t know which floor she was at, but it was a bit higher than the ring fence, so that she could see the sight of the beach and the sea outside.

It was beautiful. She now knew why building A was just for the officials.

MInatozaki Sana looked at the stunned Worker and smiled. Of course Chou Tzuyu liked the sight. It was refreshing to be able to look at some nature. She always wondered how fun it would be if the people other than the officials were allowed in this building too. They would love to see this sight every time they wanted to. The thoughts would always bother her when she was there.

Myoui Mina and the difficulty to persuade her, really.

“Do you know how many times my ideas got rejected by Myoui Mina?” Minatozaki Sana randomly asked, not looking at the Worker beside her.

Tzuyu just shook her head slowly. She didn’t know why suddenly Myoui Mina was brought up, but she just kept silent.

“All the time.” A scoff, “To be fair, I reject a lot of hers too so I always feel bad to the people affected by our inconsistency and unconformity, including you and the others.”

When Minatozaki Sana grasped the metal trellis with both hands and leaned forward a bit, Tzuyu quietly observed her. She noticed how the CEO kept biting her lip, clenching her hold, and letting out loud breaths sometimes. She looked anxious and it only made Tzuyu’s nervousness increase. When she looked down, because being in awe while staring at Minatozaki Sana’s side profile was too obvious, she raised her eyebrows seeing how tall the high heels the woman was wearing. Tzuyu was wearing running shoes and yet Minatozaki Sana wasn’t much taller than her.

She couldn’t help but wonder if she were taller than Minatozaki Sana.

“Chou Tzuyu,”

“Y-yes?” Tzuyu quickly stopped staring at the CEO’s legs and looked up a bit, hesitantly.

Minatozaki Sana had her eyebrows raised, “Why did you decide to work here?”

Tzuyu gaped for a moment, but before she could mutter a word, Minatozaki Sana was faster,

“Do you really think you can do it?”

And then she suddenly panicked.

Did she do something wrong? Was she disappointing? Was it decided that she was not capable? Was she going to get fired?

“I-I…” She stuttered, rubbing her hands harshly to one another, “I-I’m trying my best--”

Minatozaki Sana suddenly sighed loudly and if it weren’t for her next words, Tzuyu would’ve had a heart attack because of how nervous and scared she was.

“I must’ve sounded like I’m scolding you again.” She rubbed her temple and turned around, elbows on the trellis, “I’m not, you know. I’m not scolding you. I’m just… asking. Wondering. Being curious. That’s all. No biggie.”

Tzuyu only looked down, pursing her lips. Minatozaki Sana couldn’t help to peek and she was right, that dimple showed up again. It made her smile.

“Hey.” She suddenly tugged the sleeve of Tzuyu’s sweatshirt and it actually surprised the young Worker until she unconsciously jerked backward, “don’t so be so tense. I’m not scary. Do I look scary? I don’t look scary, right?”

“N-no, Miss.”

“And stop stuttering too. Can you do it?”

She noticed how Tzuyu took a deep breath first before she answered, “Yes, Miss.”

“That’s better.”

Abruptly, Minatozaki Sana then walked away. Tzuyu felt like she had lost counted of how many times she was left confused by how this CEO acted, because once again she found herself to be dumbfounded.

“So, should we take a walk-- wait, why aren’t you coming with me?”

“Yes, Miss!” Tzuyu hurriedly ran a bit to match Minatozaki Sana’s steps.

The CEO kept walking, with her high heels clacking loudly against the floor, “This is building A. Here’s where the officials stay. You’ve never been here before, right?”

Tzuyu just nodded.

“I take Workers here sometimes. I don’t know, I just want them, all of you, to see the sight of the beach.” She pointed to their left, “It’s beautiful, right?”

“Yes, Miss.”

Minatozaki Sana had a lopsided smile on her face as she said, “These corridors, they aren’t empty. There are people behind the walls, watching you.”

Tzuyu frowned, “Yes?”

“Do you see any camera?”

The young Worker looked up, observing the white walls surrounding them, “No, Miss.”

“Good, that’s the intention.” The CEO turned right and Tzuyu followed her, “There are cameras even though you don’t see them. And they’re everywhere, in the corridors, elevators, except in three kinds of place.”

Minatozaki Sana stopped walking so did Tzuyu.

“Our working rooms, the Worker’s bedrooms, and all the restrooms in the whole place. By ‘our’ I mean mine and Myoui Mina’s. Invasion of privacy, she said, when she was the one who initiated those cameras at the first place.”

Tzuyu only pursed her lips. She didn’t know Minatozaki Sana would be that open talking about Myoui Mina.

“That’s just some tips from me. You need to be careful. There are more people in here than you thought.”

“Yes, Miss.”

It actually made sense for her. Of course Myoui Mina would want to place surveillance cameras everywhere. Tzuyu knew she was being watched and she didn’t buy the calm atmosphere in this island because there was no way the island was literally that calm. There were people watching her, every movement, every word, everything. It always rubbed the wrong way for her but she was still trying to get used to it.

“Okay,” Minatozaki Sana pressed the elevator button, Tzuyu just realized they stopped in front of one, and it opened instantly, “now let’s go.”

-

It was a well-known fact that among the big three officials, there was only one of them who was brave enough to knock into Myoui Mina’s working room when the CEO didn’t ask for her. If they were told to, anyone would hurriedly knock the CEO’s room but if they weren’t, they wouldn’t even go near it.

Because Myoui Mina didn’t tolerate anyone else who barged into her room like that, except for Minatozaki Sana but that was completely different. If there was something urgent and there was no other choice but to go to Myoui Mina, only her who could do it.

So when Myoui Mina heard a knock on her door in a sudden without any notice, she didn’t have to lift her head to know that it was Lim Nayeon.

“Miss Myoui,” Lim Nayeon bowed.

Myoui Mina just hummed, eyes looking down to her notes on the desk, “What?”

But Lim Nayeon didn’t answer immediately.

It made Myoui Mina lazily lift her head with her eyebrows raised, “What is it?”

Lim Nayeon nervously clutched a document in her hand, some papers, and Myoui Mina narrowed her eyes at them.

“What are those?”

“It’s,” Lim Nayeon quickly handed the papers to Myoui Mina, “we-- we opened the registration for the Players today and as expected there are a lot registrants that have signed up for our upcoming tournament but…”

She didn’t know if she should continue because Myoui Mina read like literally in a flash. But seeing how Myoui Mina just lazily flipped through the papers, not really reading them, she decided to just continue.

“But something we didn’t expect just came by now, Miss.”

Myoui Mina nodded lazily until she reached the last page, and her laziness disappeared instantly.

Lim Nayeon bit her lip nervously seeing Myoui Mina’s widened eyes and tensed shoulders. The CEO had read it before Lim Nayeon could tell her. It was exactly like she said, unexpected. Even Lim Nayeon hadn’t really grasped into the absurd situation they were facing out of the blue.

Myoui Mina’s frowned got deeper as she re-read the papers more carefully. She harshly flipped through the pages and the more she knew, the more confusing it became. Tons of questions popped inside her head nonstop before she eventually gave up and stopped reading. She glared at Lim Nayeon, who unconsciously flinched in fear.

“Are they being serious?”

“Apparently yes, Miss.” Lim Nayeon couldn’t believe it either but that was really happening, “We just did a little research and it’s… true. The information is true and… umm… there were strange people contacted us about it too--”

“Contacted you?”

“They even asked us to reach directly to you, Miss, but we insisted that they couldn’t.”

Myoui Mina scoffed. She was getting pissed.

This was one of her worst nightmare. She already said countless of times of how she didn’t want anything to do with governments. Be it Korea’s, Japan’s, or other countries, she simply didn’t want them to get their hands on her game. She followed the procedures, she paid taxes, she did everything to shoo them away, but they were simply insufferable.

Did they still think Myoui Mina was a joke?

“What should we do, Miss?”

Myoui Mina rubbed her temple and said while gritting her teeth, “Minatozaki Sana. Minatozaki Sana.”

“Y-yes, Miss. Just a moment.”

Lim Nayeon quickly bowed and exited the room. Myoui Mina spun her chair and sighed into her palms. She indeed never believed that the government wouldn’t bother her again, because they obviously would and they wouldn’t stop, seeing how big The Constraint was, but she obviously didn’t expect that kind of bother.

Myoui Mina clenched her fists as she felt her anger got harder to control. She really couldn’t think straight at that state. She needed Minatozaki Sana. She needed her.

****