Rapunzel

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me."

Suho heard the sound of a gunshot being released but he didn’t know who did it or who got shot but all he heard was the sound of someone in pain, clearly he heard a male’s voice. He had been locked up in this place for days that he lost count of it. For all he could remember was that when he arrived home, no one was home. He didn’t bother though since his parent’s aren’t one to stay home for a long time but it was weird when his maid wasn’t there too and when he got to his room, everything turn black.

The next thing he knows is his neck hurt so bad and he’s in a strange room with no windows but only a door that has no handle nor lock, which he assumed that it was an automatic one. He heard the announcement and for a moment he had a mental breakdown. He didn’t know who else nor how many of his friends is stuck like him. When he was thinking of how to escape, the sound of the door’s mechanism clicking brought him out of his deep thoughts. He look up and saw that the door has finally open.

He got up and walk out of the room, he stop walking when his feet hit something hard. Suho look down at his feet and saw a box, then he remember the voice saying that there’s spectators and they would vote for who would have an advantage and he guess that he got most of the vote then. He kneel down and press the button of the box, it open and inside the box was a paper— or rather a map of the maze but it didn’t show the exit, instead only several X’s, the next thing was a .45 Beretta PX4 semi-automatic pistol. He check the amount of bullets in it and notice that it only has 5 bullets.

“Well, at least it has some.” Suho shrugged and safely tuck the gun at his back. He look at the map again and find it weird that it didn’t show the exit but several X’s was place, so he decided to go to the nearest X. After walking for a few minutes or so he thought, he arrived at a dead end but in front of him was a table that has a letter place on it along with a knife. He pick it up and read the content.

For Rapunzel held the other half.

“Rapunzel?” He whispered. Suho kept the letter inside his pocket and continue to the next X. While going to the next X, he thought about the possibility of who could be Rapunzel. He thought of his classmates and their personalities but his mind feels numb at the moment, maybe the effect from the hit he got before haven’t recover.

“Junmyeon?” He heard someone call him out. He turn around and saw her. Joohyun? The girl ran to him and immediately crushed him in a hug, “Thank god it’s you. What’s going on?” Irene asked. His hands that was at his side, slowly went up to her torso and pat her back. “I don’t know but we’re going to get out of here safely.”

Suho then remember the letter he had read, For Rapunzel held the other half. Could it be her? He thought because Suho is the closest one to Irene or what he would call her, Joohyun. Irene’s real name. No one knows it but he does. He first met her when he was 8, they were neighbours and it was the first time to see someone as beautiful as her, even if he was looking from 10 ft high. Irene, as what he had recall has always been lock up in her house and she always look out the windows from her room. After several times of noticing her, he find it weird for someone like her to be lock up in the house instead of being outside like how kids at their age should.

It was then he decided to befriend her and Irene had ignore him at first but Suho was a stubborn kid back then that would do anything, literally anything for the things that he want. So one day he had climb up the tree that is situated near her window. She didn’t notice but when she did, he caught her off guard and at the same time causing him to fall off the tree with her scream. He literally spent a week at the hospital and a month grounded. The next time he went to her place, he accused her that she made him like this, saying “You’re gonna pay for this.”

Irene was a kid back then and guilt was something new since she had always been lock up in her tower. Ever since she was born, she had been diagnosed with a weak heart thus her parent never let her out of the house. Of course she wanted to experience the things that other kids at her age do and so she always find herself looking outside the window of her room, from there she look at the park that was near her house and stare at the kids. Jealousy was something that she always felt when she look at them. So when a boy suddenly try to talk to her, she didn’t know what to do and when he got hurt because of her, she decided that maybe he would forgive her if she give him some of her toys.

One thing her parent’s didn’t know was that, sometimes she sneaks out of the house with the blankets or clothes that she had tied together and made a long rope. That is also how Suho had got inside her room and from then on, he would always go to her house and play with her after school ends. Irene didn’t attend school until she enters high school. That was when she had beg her parent to let her go and promised that she wouldn’t do anything that would worsened her condition or anything but they were lucky that at that time the hospital had found a suitable donor. So just when she was slowly recovering from the surgery, it was the exact time when school starts.

Looking back at the past, Suho knows that no one else but her could be Rapunzel. He had showed her the map of the maze and told her that he’s going to the next X which possibly could be where the other half of the map. He lied though. Irene didn’t say anything about a map, it’s either that she didn’t know she has it or that she didn’t want him to know but why would she? More than anyone, she trusted him.

When they arrived at the X which is also another dead end, a table in front of them and a box. Irene was excited to find it as she immediately went to the box. Suho slowly took out the knife that he had gotten along with the letter. He hid it behind his arm as he walk towards her. Her back was facing his and he didn’t want do this, out of all the people, why must it be her? Why must it be the girl that I loved?

Do you?

“.” Youngjae cursed along with letting out a long moan of pain when the bullet penetrate his shoulder blade. His blood is slowly drenching his clothes as he put some pressure on the wound with his other hand. He clearly heard the voice telling the rules of this sick game.

He still remember how he got caught. It was after the family meeting that his family would usually hold at his house— his real house, not the one that he stays by himself and a maid that comes regularly to clean the place. His house where all of his family is, his mother had called him and requested him back home along with his sister. After the meeting, he had gone back home although his mother had persuade him to stay for the night, he told them that he doesn’t feel good to stay there. Youngjae decided to stop by the convenience store to buy some snacks.

After getting the snacks, well the truth was that ever since he left his house, he had felt like someone was following him and when he entered the store, he was right about it. Someone in a completely black attire was smoking outside the store as his eyes occasionally look inside. Youngjae walk slowly towards his apartment and when he was just a few blocks away, which happened to be dark at the moment and somehow the person was actually just a feet away from him. He turn around and throw the plastic bag to the guy and dash off. Youngjae was known as the ace of Gangnam’s Soccer team. He is also known for his speed and thus he ran off as fast he can and sure the person was after him but he was faster. By the time his apartment came in view, he had lose sight of the guy.

He arrived in front of the elevator and right after he pressed the button, the elevator dinged as he catch his breath. The door open, “Hello there.” Someone said and everything turn black because the person he thought he had lose was at his back and had hit him.

“I couldn’t believe it.” He whispered as beads of sweats trickled down his face. He is losing a lot of blood and when the door to the room open, he thought about going out but then stop for a moment before taking off his jacket and then his shirt. He rip his shirt, then tied it and place it around his neck before placing his arm in it too. His other hand then continue placing pressure on the wound. He got out and just go wherever his legs go. He didn’t know for how long he has been walking but it was sure tiring him. He didn’t know how many dead ends he had met or maybe he met the same dead end because everything looks the same.

Youngjae got to another dead end but this time there was a table on it and on top of it was a knife along with a letter.

For Gratel has the key to the door.

One thing Youngjae knows is that all this while the perpetrator had label them with fairy tales characters. Gratel. In this case, he knows exactly who Gratel is. No one else knows but him because everyone knows the story of Hansel and Gratel who killed the witch. They were siblings, “Not her. .” Youngjae didn’t expect that they had also taken her into hold— his little sister, Choi Jinri. No one knows that they were siblings. They weren’t blood related but they had known each other since they were kids. His father and her mother had gotten married when they were 10 but when they grew up, Youngjae had told her not to tell anyone that they were related.

He had always thought she was a burden to him, a heavy rock that was place on his shoulder. Now that he knows