A/N: so.... this took a few weeks, im sorry!! College got on top of me, and i kinda... yeh.... it died... but finally, here is chapter 2! i hope you all like it! the story itself is already written in rp form, but if anyone has suggestions for improving the writing style, feel free to comment! and if you like it, have something else to say... comment!!! i love comments... they make me happy ^^

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Lay slowly stood up, a hand on his back. It always gave him trouble, but the past couple of days it had really been playing up. He stumbled slightly, steadying himself, before looking down to see a small box on the floor in front of him.

“The hell....?” He carefully sat back down on the floor, leaning back against the tree behind him, picking up the box. Lay turned it over in his hands, examining it. It was a small wooden box, quite plain, with a little handle at the top for carrying. He opened it, blinking at the contents.

“A first aid box...?” he said quietly to himself. “Why....”

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Tao groaned, his eyes slowly opening. Blinking slowly, he sat up, seeing a staff on the ground in front of him. He looked at it questioningly, before picking it up, standing himself up, slowly looking around.

‘W-where...?’ he breathed. ’Gege? Gege are you here?’ Tao bit his lip when no reply came, gulping slightly. He gripped onto his staff tightly, starting to walk around.

‘Hey!!! I'm sure somebody can hear me!!! Whatever stupid trick this is, I don't want to know!’ Tao blinked as he heard the voice. He didn’t fully understand the Korean, but ran towards it, knowing it meant there was someone else, he wasn't on his own. He stopped, seeing someone else, with their hands cupped around their mouth.

‘Hey!!! Cut the crap already!’ the person continued.

‘S-someone else...’ Tao muttered in Chinese. The boy blinked, turning to see him. Tao gasped slightly, a little unsure now, not knowing who it was. He gripped his staff tightly, prepared to fight or make a run for it if necessary.

The boy seemed to notice something behind Tao, reaching round him to pull something down from the tree. He held it up, a small water pouch.

‘....This yours?’ he asked. Tao blinked, digesting the words, before shaking his head. The boy shook it slightly.

‘Great.... it’s empty’ he bemoaned, before looking up at the sky. ‘Very funny!’ he called. ‘I bet you’re just busting yourselves laughing at us, huh?’ Tao just stared at him, as the boy shook his head.

‘Aish....’ he looked at Tao. ‘You’re very quiet....’

‘N-not.... f-from... uuuuh...’ Tao tried to reply with his very limited broken Korean. Thankfully, the boy seemed to understand.

‘...Not Korean?’ he replied. Tao shook his head, and the boy looked at him for a minute. ‘......Ni hao?’ he tried. Tao blinked in surprise. He knew Chinese?

‘Do you speak Chinese?’ he asked in his native tongue.

‘I speak enough,’ the boy replied, his Chinese imperfect, but understandable.

Tao sighed, slowly relaxing, safe in the knowledge he could at least communicate with the boy, even if he didn’t yet know exactly who he was.

‘Seen anyone else?’ the boy asked. Tao shook his head.

‘I just woke up’ he told him, and the boy sighed.

‘Alright then...’ he began. ‘Well.... I guess we haven’t got all day, let’s see if we can find a way out of here....’

‘...Is there a way out?...’ Tao asked. The boy just shrugged.

‘There’s obviously a way in, or else how would we be here? There must be a way out somewhere.....’ he started walking off through the trees. Gripping his staff a little tighter, Tao found himself following.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Kyungsoo clutched his cloak tightly around himself. He’d woken up with it lying beside him, and though he’d been a little wary of where it may have come from, he was frozen, and grateful for the extra layer. He’d also woken up near a cliff edge, and was now walking along it, shivering against the cold wind, eyes wide and fearful.

Leeteuk came running out of the forest ahead of him, almost falling off the cliff, but stopping himself just in time.

‘...Shoot...’ he said, looking back behind himself. Kyungsoo’s eyes widened further, seeing him. Leeteuk slowly looks towards him before running over;

‘Run!’ he told him. ‘There’s wolves coming this way!’ Kyungsoo blinked.

‘W-wolves......?’ Leeteuk nodded.

‘Like, hungry angry wolves!’ Kyungsoo looked at the forest, seeing the wolves running to the edge, before starting to run with Leeteuk. Leeteuk reached behind himself, grabbing Kyungsoo’s arm so he doesn’t get left behind. Kyungsoo tried to listen to the sound of the wolves behind them, but couldnt seem to hear them anymore.

Aaand good morning to you all,’ came a voice from a loudspeaker, though where the speakers were placed, Kyungsoo couldnt see. ‘Trusting everyone had a good sleep, but now the game is about to start. If you would all like to turn your attention to your right wrist, there's a timer. As soon as I finish it'll start to go down. I sure do hope you remember who you were roomies with because it's time to find them. Good luck!’

‘In case any of you have a terrible memory,’ a second voice sounded. ‘there is also a lovely little number on the back of your hand. Your roomie will have the same number. And in case any of you were wondering... if you haven’t found your partner by the time your little timers run out....’

‘Well, it won’t end well for you,’ the first voice chipped in. ‘So you better get to it.’

‘Tick.... Tock.... Tick.... Tock....’ the second voice continued, ominously counting down the first few seconds of their ‘game’. Kyungsoo blinked. He didn’t know what all of that meant, but he didn’t really want to find out. He’d have to start searching for his dark skinned room companion, before the time ran out, but for right now, he had other concerns.

‘I... I don't think they came.... out of the forest....’ he gasped, struggling for breath after running. Leeteuk was panting lightly himself.

‘...They stayed in the forest?’ he asked.

‘I t-think so.....’ Leeteuk nodded slightly, before looking at his timer, and cursing lightly.

‘We both better start looking...’ Kyungsoo nodded, staying close to Leeteuk for now. He didn’t know what other dangers lay in the vicinity, and he had no weapon with which to fight them. ‘I’d rather not go back into the forest...’ Leeteuk continued. ‘Let’s keep in the open...’

‘No objections...’ Kyungsoo replied, happy he’d be able to see anything coming a long way off.

Lay slowly walked out of the forest, a little further down from them, a hand still on his back. Leeteuk saw him, running over.

‘Hey, you alright?’ he asked him. Lay blinked, staring at him blankly.

‘...You ok?’ Leeteuk repeated.

‘I...’ Lay shook his head slightly, not understanding the Korean. Leeteuk looked at him, realising he didn’t understand.

‘...Chinese?’ Leeteuk hazarded a guess. Lay nodded slowly, recognising the word for his own language. ‘...Aish...’ Leeteuk ran a hand through his own hair. ‘I don't know any Chinese...’

‘C-Chinese?’ Kyungsoo asked, coming over. ‘I know a little.... Not a lot though....’ Leeteuk looked at him.

‘Really...?’ he asked in disbelief. Kyungsoo nodded.

‘Only a little.....’ he told him. ‘I can’t hold a conversation for long.... but, what are you trying to ask?’

‘Just want to know if he’s ok...’ Leeteuk told Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo turned back to Lay, trying to speak in Chinese.

‘You.....ok?’ Lay blinked slowly, before replying in Chinese.

‘...My back.... I have problems with it.’ Kyungsoo turned back to Leeteuk.

‘He said something about his back....’ Leeteuk nodded slightly.

‘I don't know what we can do with that right now...’ he said. ‘But we should go look for our partners....’

‘Need to find....’ Kyungsoo tried in Chinese again. ‘uh.... friends?’ Lay nodded.

‘Can I stay and look with you?’ he asked Kyungsoo.

‘He wants to come with us,’ Kyungsoo told Leeteuk. ‘That’s ok, right? We can... we can stay together?’ Leeteuk nodded again.

‘We might have a better chance of finding them...’ Kyungsoo told Lay he could stay, and Lay brightened a little.

‘Oh...’ Kyungsoo began. ‘Did... did either of you.... find something, then you woke up?’ Leeteuk pulled out a small vial.

‘I get the feeling that it’s poison...’ he told them. Lay held up his box. Leeteuk blinked at it.

‘A first aid kit...?’ he asked. Lay blinked, not fully understanding, but opened the box to show them.

‘...Waaaa’ Leeteuk said. ‘Gotta make sure no-one stays hurt’ he grinned. Lay smiled, closing the box.

‘...You guys have such useful stuff....’ Kyungsoo mumbled. Leeteuk looked at him.

‘If you think your cloak isn't useful then you're wrong.’

‘But... Your things can help lots of people... My cloak will only help one....’

‘...Mine can’t help loads...’ Leeteuk responded. Its only a small vial... Maybe enough for one person.’

Lay reached out to touch Kyungsoo’s cloak.

‘Big...’ he began in very broken Korean. ‘When cold.... together....’ Leeteuk smiled.

‘See, not useless.’ He told him. Kyungsoo blinked.

‘...We... We could all fit under here?’

‘Probably...’ Leeteuk said. Lay smiled, moving to huddle under the cloak with Kyungsoo, to demonstrate. Leeteuk smiled before looking at his timer.

‘...We should get going...’ Kyungsoo blinked, looking at Lay, who was relaxing slightly into the warmth of the cloak. Kyungsoo wrapped an arm around him, keeping him under the cloak, before nodding at Leeteuk.

‘Come on then...’ Leeteuk urged them, slowly starting to head off. Kyungsoo followed, taking Lay with him.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.

Tao blinked, looking at his timer.

‘F-five hours...?’ he exclaimed. ‘That can’t be enough time! We don't know our way around here!’ The boy cursed.

‘This is ridiculous....’ he muttered. ‘Where the hell are we even supposed to start?!’

‘Well...’ Tao began. ‘We’d better start looking....’ The boy continued to mutter curses to himself. Tao bit his lip slightly, before starting to wander off, the boy following close behind.

A while later, Tao was jumping at every little noise, whimpering lightly. The boy sighed.

‘It’s just a game...’ he told him. ‘I doubt the trees in this place are even real... Probably made of polystyrene or something ridiculous...’ Tao looked at him sceptically.

‘H-how are you s-sure of that...?’

‘They said it was a game....’ the boy reasoned. ‘Games aren’t real.’ As he spoke, a big plant along the path started leaning towards the boy from behind, a row of sharp teeth around the top of each petal. Tao gasped, running towards him before hitting the plant away with his staff. The boy turned.

‘What the......?!’ The plant recoiled slightly, before aiming its attack at Tao. ‘Hey!!’ the boy shouted. ‘You can’t just attack him!!’ Tao gulped hitting the plant away.

‘Aish... Damn plant...’ The boy narrowed his eyes at it before turning away again. The plant flicked out, scratching his shoulder. He cried out, bringing a hand to his shoulder, falling to one knee.

‘Hey’ Tao shouted, whacking the plant hard, finally convincing it to recoil away. ‘Thankyou! Tch....’ he turned back to the boy. ‘Hey, you ok?’

‘I-it burns....’ he replied. Tao bit his lip.

‘I... water...’ he decided. ‘We need to find some water...’ The boy nodded, trying to pull himself up. Tao helped him, pulling him to his feet. The boy was already panting and sweating slightly from the pain.

‘...Still think it’s not real?’ Tao asked him, and the boy just glared at him. Tao rolled his eyes, gripping his staff, before walking off with the boy, trying to find some water. The boy tired to look with him, arm hanging limp from his injured shoulder, trying to focus through the pain.

It wasn't long before Tao spotted a spring, leading the boy over to it., who promptly fell to his knees beside it. Tao bit his lip slightly, placing his staff down on the ground, before cupping some water, pouring it over the boys wound.

The boy cried out slightly, before pressing his lips together, trying to hold in the pain. Tao grumbled to himself about how his shirt was limited edition before ripping a strip from it. He soaked it in the spring, using it to dab at the wound. The boy flinched away slightly.

‘Would you stop!’ Tao exclaimed, his patience starting to run thin with him. ‘Aish....’ The boy cursed him loudly, but tried to stay still. Tao rolled his eyes, before ripping more from his shirt, wrapping up the boys shoulder.

‘Should be fine...’ he told him.

‘You try getting torn up by a damn psychotic plant, and then tell me it’ll be fine!!’ the boy exclaimed.

‘Please, if it wasn’t for me you would probably be dead!’ Tao retorted. The boy grumbled, but stopped shouting at him. Tao cursed him in Chinese.

‘There, done. We should probably go find people now....’ The boy ignored him, pulling out the water pouch, dipping it in the spring. Tao slowly stood up, picking up his staff, before the boy jumped back from the spring.

‘Holy....!!’ Tao blinked, looking at him questioningly, before noticing the head poking out of the water. It blinked at them before focusing on Tao.

‘...Oh...’ it said. ‘Well that was easy... What do we do now, go home?’ Tao blinked, recognising his roomie, Kris.

‘H-how...?’ Kris shrugged, climbing out of the water, missing a shirt.

‘Found this when I woke up...’ Kris told them, holding up a snorkel. ‘Figured I may as well use it..... Your friend here was making so much noise though, you never heard me coming....’

‘...Not a friend... Annoying guy that made me rip one of my favourite shirts...’ Tao told him, pouting. Kris looked at the boy, who was sat watching them, holding his shoulder again.

‘Given the fact he’d injured, I’d say you ripped the shirt yourself....’ Kris said.

‘...He made me rip my shirt...’ Tao insisted. ‘ If I didn’t then he would’ve whined and complained. Do you know this shirt?! D you know how limited edition it is?!’  Kris rolled his eyes.

‘Alright, I found him.’ He said to the air. ‘Let us out of here....’ The boy was muttering to himself.

‘And he calls me the annoying one....’ Tao lightly hit him in the head with his staff.

‘Ow!! The hell was that for?! I’m injured already!!’

‘I'm not any more annoying than you are!’ Tao asserted. Kris sighed, pinching the bridge his nose.

‘Great... I found a couple of children....’ he said. Tao huffed, before walking off on his own.

‘Hey, you can’t just walk off when I just found you!!’ Kris called, following him.

‘....Aish.... Guess it’s just you and me now....’ the boy muttered, looking at the now full water pouch.

‘Our timers have stopped now so it doesn't matter!’ Tao shouted back at Kris.

‘But what if they start again if we separate?!’

‘Then you better keep up!’ Kris sped up a little catching up with him.

‘What is it with you?!’ Tao looked at him.

‘I got pulled away from a shopping date with my brother, I get stuck with a whining little.... UGH! I just want to get out and go home!

‘Well clearly that isn't happening immediately, because in case you haven't noticed, we’re both still here!’

‘I see that!’ Tao replied, cursing in Chinese.

‘Then stop running away from me!!!’

‘We’ve found each other, it doesn't matter now!’ Kris caught up with him properly, grabbing his arm.

‘Will you just stop!!’ Tao stopped, turning his head to glare back at him.

‘We obviously can’t leave the game until the time is up, which means there has to be more to this than just finding each other.’ Kris told him. ‘So.... We should stick together.’

‘I'm not much use, so...’

‘Well you must have had something when you woke up, something we can use....’

‘...I had this staff... That’s it...’ Tao told him.

‘...Just... a staff?’ Kris questioned. Tao nodded.

‘Just a staff.’

‘...I guess... it’s kind of good for... uh... hitting things?’ Kris said.

‘...Well I did end up hitting a plant away..’ Kris looked confused.

‘...A...plant?’

‘Some of the plants are alive...’

‘Well I should think all of the plants are alive...’ Tao rolled his eyes.

‘I meant that they're alive, attacking people... ‘ Tao elaborated. ‘There’s something not right with this forest...’

‘The plants attack people?!’ Kris blurted out.

‘How else do you think that guy got hurt?!’ Tao exclaimed.

‘Holy.... We should get out of the forest then...’ Tao nodded.

‘But... how?’ Kris shrugged.

‘I guess we walk until we find a way out?’ Tao sighed and nodded again.

‘True...’

‘Come on then....’ Kris said, heading off. ‘Oh, Kris... by the way...’ Tao blinked.

‘...Tao... you’re... Western?’

‘I was in Canada for a while, but I'm originally from China.’ Kris informed him. Tao nodded slightly.

‘Well... I'm from China...’ Kris nodded.

‘I gathered.’

‘And... you... you have someone don't you?’ Tao asked. ‘From the rooms... I think I remember...’

‘Lay...’ Kris said softly. ‘Dammit, we have to find him!’

‘Maybe he’ll be out of the forest...?’ Tao tried to reassure him.

‘Maybe....’ Kris agreed. ‘But... he has a bad back, he cant move as quickly or as easily, especially since its been playing up recently.... though that may have been my fault...’ He bit his lip, worrying. Tao blinked, before blushing lightly.

‘O-oh...’ he replied. ‘Then... we better get to finding him then...’ Kris nodded.

‘Have you seen anyone else besides the noisy kid?’ Tao shook his head, and Kris sighed. ‘Me neither.... maybe...’ he cupped hands around his mouth. ‘Lay!!!!’ Tao gripped onto his staff tightly.

‘Lay!!!!’ Kris called a little louder. Tao froze, as the bushes around started to rustle.

‘K-Kris...’ Kris stopped.

‘....You heard that?’

‘...T-there’s something coming...’ Tao stammered.

‘....Should we run?’ Kris asked.

‘...It... it could be someone... but... I.... I-I don't know...’

‘Do we want to wait and find out...?’ Kris asked again. Tao shook his head before turning and running, Kris following behind. Tao stumbled slightly, but kept going, eager to get away from whatever was hiding in the bushes.

Onew emerged from the bushed in front of him, causing Tao to skip to a stop.

‘B-but... he...’ Tao aimed his staff at Onew. Onew reached for him, apologising in his mind, but unable to stop his body from doing the will of others.

‘...Didn't he....’ Kris began. Tao took a step back from Onew.

‘I-I thought h-he died... H-how is h-he in the game...?’ Onew lunged forward, grabbing Taos neck, eyes black. Tao gasped, trying to hit him off with his staff. Onew just grabbed his neck tighter, stance unmoving.

‘Hey!!’ Kris’s eyes widened, trying to pull him off. Tao started to choke, trying to kick Onew away, but Onew didn’t move. ‘What is with this guy?!’ Tao dropped his staff, struggling to breathe.

‘Let... go of him!!!’ Kris shouted, still trying to pull him off Tao. Onew hit Kris to the ground with his free arm.

‘K-K.... K-Kris....’ Tao gasped, trying to pull Onew’s hand off, scratching at his wrist. Kris hit the ground hard, wincing as he hears a rib crack.

‘...Tao....’ Onew was seemingly oblivious to Taos attacks, but his mind was screaming at his body to stop, knowing he was going to kill Tao. Tears built up in Taos eyes.

‘...M-Mi g-gege... I-I... I-I'm s-sorry...’ Tao spoke weakly, tears rolling down his cheeks as he lost consciousness. Onew kept hold of him, wanting to make sure he's dead, dropping him to the floor when his body fell limp. Taos heart slowly stopped beating, as Onew disappeared back into the bushes.

‘Tao...?’ Kris carefully made his way over to him, one hand holding his ribs. Tao didn't respond.

‘Dammit Tao...’ Kris shook him. ‘Come on, wake up!’ he tried to feel for a pulse, but could find none, despite the tears still rolling down Taos cheeks. Kris let him go, cursing.

‘And that's Huang Zitao, out.’ came the voice over the loudspeaker.

‘....W-what?!’ ZhouMi exclaimed.

‘Tick tock kiddies. Only 4 more hours left...’