"So what'd you two hear?" Sunggyu zipped up the tent as he entered and gave all the Infinite members a quick glance before turning his attention over to Sungyeol and Hoya.
The two of them looked at each other, almost as if they were mentally exchanging notes, then nodded at the same time.

Sungjong told me that back in Korea they were known for being 99.9% in sync when they were dancing, but I had no idea it applied to everything else they did.

"You go first," Sungyeol nudged Hoya's arm with his elbow, who took a deep breath that literally made the situation seem 1000x more intense.
I was already getting nervous and he hasn't even said anything yet.

"So as you guys know, me and Sungyeol used some of our stealth magic and picked up some interesting pieces of information from EXO. Now...what me and the choding here are about to tell you is only suppose to be for Infinite members only. If EXO ever does come clean about this, which I highly doubt, you guys all have to act like it's your first time hearing it. Otherwise, we might have a guild war on our hands."
"As if there isn't one already," Woohyun mumbled beside me. Dongwoo nodded in agreement. "For reals. We don't even know if we can actually trust them."
"Focus guys," Sunggyu yelled over the increased whispering in the tent. I jumped a little in my seat, only to feel Myungsoo's hands on my back.

I think he was trying to calm me down but it didn't really help.
It actually may have made things a tad worse.

"I'm pretty sure we can all agree that we all suspected EXO knew something we didn't and that they were hiding it from us," Hoya started, talking kind of slowly as he was trying to pick and choose his words as he spoke them, "and we were right."
"I so knew it!" Dongwoo exclaimed, almost ripping a hole in the ceiling of the tent as he rocketed upwards. Thank goodness he wasn't as tall as Sungyeol, otherwise we'd all be sleeping in the cold tonight.
Hoya nodded slightly while Sungyeol's face darkened a little more. I've never seen him look that serious before.
"Kai has the ability to see people's auras. It's one of his special skills he developed after....the 3 EXO members were killed," Hoya continued. "He told the other EXO members that the second he saw Melodia, he noticed that her aura was different from everyone else's. I think he mentioned something about how everyone else's aura matched what they should be but her's was different from what the usual magician aura color is."
"And that means?" Woohyun asked, his fingers fiddled with the tassels on his character outfit.
"That means Melodia is apparently special. Like some rare anomaly in the game," Sungjong explained, typing away on the elf archives. "According to the information that the elves have, elemental magic where a player controls one element is perfectly normal since grease hyung here controls water and grandpa controls fire. But controlling all four elements hasn't been accessible to players since the beta version of the game."
"Why'd they take it away?" I asked, feeling my stomach unconsciously turn.
"And why didn't I see that option on the chara selection menu when we first started the game?" Woohyun leaned in closer to the center of the circle. "I mean, Melodia got it as an option so why didn't me or Sunggyu see it in the start up menu?"

"Well...I don't know about your question hyung," Sungjong's pointed ears twitched a little as he typed away on his floating keyboard, "but to answer Melodia, apparently in the beta game, there was also a girl who could control all 4 elements, but that version had a lot of mistakes in the programming that the original game makers didn't pick up on before they released the game. So halfway into the game, everything was starting to fall apart. Floors were collapsing and monsters started to run wild, not doing they were programed to. Players who died in the game were all suffering from brain damage in the real world after they left the game. The girl had some special ability that allowed her to defy the boundaries of the game but in order for her to save the game and the lives of the remaining players, she used up everything and sacrificed herself in the game to save everyone else. The game left her in a coma and according to the archives, she's still in the hospital. The game makers never really took it away. It just never reappeared during a chara selection until now. But the game makers were so touched that for the 10th anniversary of the game, they put her in the center of the front cover."
"Dang...but the beta version came out-"
"10 years ago," Myungsoo finished, his head slowly bending lower with every word he spoke, "She's been in that coma for the past 10 years. And this game that we're stuck in now is the 10th anniversary edition. The girl glowing blue on the front cover is her."

Our eyes met for a split second.
I knew what he was thinking.
And that sinking feeling in my stomach seemed to eat a huge hole through my insides by this point.

Hoya nodded, "I'm glad someone remembers what the front cover of the game looks like. Cause apparently, so does Kai. After he told the other members that he noticed Melodia's aura was different, he mentioned that the aura reminded him of the girl on the front cover of the game."
"Except we're not sure if Kai and the rest of EXO know the back story to all this," Sungyeol interrupted, "cause by the time I switched off with Hoya, they were talking about how they should trick Melodia into coming with them to fight the boss without us and see if she can glow blue like the girl on the front cover and beat the boss for them."

"Those lying little-" Woohyun's voice came out almost like a snarl as his hands curled into fists on his lap. No one did anything to calm him down cause I'm pretty sure everyone was feeling the same way.
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Almost suffocating.
Everyone was basically sitting there with grim expressions on their faces during that short pause that seemed to last for eternity.

"So what are we going to do?" Dongwoo finally broke through the silence, looking up from the ground. His eyes were met with confusion and a sense of near dispair.
Sunggyu took a deep breath. I could see he was physically and emotionally exhausted.

But then again...we all were.

"I'm...not sure..." he finally croaked out. "We can't let them take Melodia, and if what they're saying is true, we need to get her out of here as soon as possible."
"But then we won't have enough fire power to beat the boss," Sungjong pointed out.
"No. We will," Myungsoo spoke up, his hand finding mine and giving it a squeeze.

I knew what he was about to do.
And I wasn't sure if I was okay with him telling everyone about how I can glow blue and how I look like the girl on the front cover.
But right now, there wasn't really another choice.

"Melodia can glow blue. I've seen her do it. And the things she can do when she glows is absolutely," he turned his head and looked at me, the shine back in his eyes, "amazing."
"We were going to tell you all eventually," he continued, returning his attention back to the rest of Infinite, "but we decided to wait until she could control it better. But considering how things have become..."
"This is getting really scary," Sungyeol finally lifted his own head. "Everything is literally the same as they were 10 years ago. So what if..."

The silence fell again.
Because this time, Sungyeol didn't need to finish his sentence.
Everyone was already finishing it for him in their heads.

What if I have to sacrifice myself? What if I have to die to beat this stupid game?

Author's Note
whoa...2 updates lol xD i've had urban zakapa on repeat for the past hour that i was writing this so i guess k-indie puts me in the writing mood haha
if you guys have good k-indie suggestions, let me know! cause i honestly think k-indie helps to write more/better.
title quote: "but fate wouldn't leave us alone"~Diamond