10: Hypercube

      A few days had passed since the incident with Zico, and the two had been avoiding each other ever since. 

Suzy had no idea how she thought of Woo Tae-woon; she never had anyone tell him his name but everytime she saw his face she knew that Woo Tae-woon was his real name. It was more like an intuition rather than a fact, and she didn't know why.

But she couldn't avoid him forever.

Today was hypercube training.

Suzy zipped up her windbreaker to her neck and walked down the stairs, roughly squeezing her shoes on and walking outside to where Myungsoo and Irene waited, Zico right beside them. Suzy cleared awkwardly and joined them, completely cluess about what was about to come. 

"Are you feeling better?" Irene asked as she checked her body.

"Yeah," she nodded and glanced at Zico who diverted eyes with her. 

"Let's go," Myungsoo clapped. "We have a long day ahead of us."

The four unclacked the bike from the rack and got on, cycling along the wonky pebblestone path that led into the thickets of the forest. Suzy closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh forest air and smiled in what seemed like ages. 

"You say hypercube," Suzy asked. "But tesseracts aren't theoretically possible."

"In earth, the space we are familiar with has 3 dimentions all at right angle to another."

"Up ,right, forward ,backward, and left and right."

"Right," Myungsoo nodded. "You can specify the location of any point in our 3D space by giving its coordinates in those directions. In dimentions higher than the third, you've got other directions that is at right angle to all of the original ones."

"H..ow?"

"It's quamtum mechanics," he shrugged. "It's hard to picture it in your head but mathematically it's perfectly fine."

     The four pulled up infront of what looked like a huge white cube with a small entrance in the right corner. Suzy watched as all the other competitors and the leaders from the other districts began appearing from different parts of the thicket, trashing their bike on the floor as they started stretching their limbs. Suzy was scared because everyone seemed to know what they were doing in this hypercube but she had no idea what to expect.

"Don't pay attention to them," Irene sighed as she stared at the others bitterly.

"They're just doing that to forestall others." Myungsoo snorted and stared at the other competitors. "They've never been in a hypercube before either."

"But don't worry too much Suzy," Irene wrapped her arms around Suzy. "You've got Zico. He's been in this thing before."

Suzy shrugged and glanced at Zico who spat on the floor.

     An automatic smile came up Suzy's face as she saw Joohyuk appear out of the opposite side with his bike tucked beside him. Competitors were forbidden from seeing other districts during game period for obvious reasons, so every minute she could see Joohyuk was a minute well spent. 

Suzy followed Irene and Myungsoo as everyone started walking toward the small door in the cube. 

All the leaders gathered together infront of the door and each of them scanned their fingerprints on the little screen next to the door. With the scan of the last person, the door slid open with a deep fog and revealed a completely white room lit with transparent LED lights. 

"Welcome to Hypercube training." Myungsoo said firmly.

"As you know, I'm district 6's leader. I'm the main establisher for Hypercube training."

The nominees all stayed silent.

"The rules are simple. Just.. escape the cube." he nodded.

"This isn't going to help in any way," the guy that Suzy met at the club said in annoyance. "We aren't that stupid."

"Yes," he nodded interestingly. "This is a cube for the smart; the logical; the witty; and the fast. In this hypercube, time; gravity; space, they're its own entirity."

Myungsoo slipped out a small bag from his pocket and tossed a small watch to each of the competitors. It was set to 24 hours exact.

"The main factor to the midnight circus is teamwork; especially for this game. We've never had a duet survival before in ages, and it's crucial that every single one of you train your teamwork and cooperation skills to survive together."

"Stick together," Irene stepped up. "That's the main key to this hypercube."

Myungsoo stepped aside and made way for the first district to enter the door. Suzy watched as the first couple from the district entered the door, wandering inside the small entrance room. On either side of the wall was a small door in the center that slid open with a sensed touch of the hands.

The guy touched the door on the right wall and crawled through the door, screaming as the guy fell up to the ceiling. 

Myungsoo shrugged and gestured for the next people.

"They got the gravity switch room." he grinned. 

Suzy felt more tense as each couple entered the room. Suzy noticed that each time a team chose the same door as the team before them, there would be a different space behind the door, and each time a team went through the door strange things were messing with the space they were entering. 

     Suzy gulped as she trailed behind Zico who walked upto the entrance like it was nothing. 

"Good luck," Myungsoo said to the two as he looked into Suzy's eyes with a look of assurance. 

Zico looked around the room once and knelt down, touching the door that was on the floor. Suzy looked at him with fear as she watched Zico jump through the door and disappear through the room. 

"I- I can't do this Myungsoo," she stood up and shrilled. 

"Suzy," Irene said firmly. "You see this line here?" she pointed at the lazer line drawn at the tip of the entrance. 

"Once you go past this line, you can't get out of the cube unless you find your exit out."

"I'm scared-"

"Zico is with you," she nodded. "He knows what he's doing. He'll protect you."

     Suzy gulped and looked down at the room. If she jumped through this door, she was going to plunge right to the floor with a huge thud, and there was no way she was going to throw herself down the massive space. She looked down at the room that was entirely white with a silver door on the center of each wall. She couldn't find Zico anywhere in the room which made her even more scared.

"Zico," she called out. "Where are you?"

No response.

"I'm not kidding Where are YOU?" She screamed. 

No response.

"BECAUSE OF YOU I HAVE TO JUMP TO MY DEATH AND YOU'RE SERIOUSLY GOING TO-" she paused. 

What if he had already gone through another door?

"Suzy," Myungsoo whispered. "Please, don't waste your time." 

Suzy looked down at her watch and saw she had already wasted a few minutes. 

She gulped and closed her eyes, slowly sticking her legs through the door. With a loud gulp, she threw her body down the door with a loud shriek.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Suzy closed her eyes but didn't feel the hard impact she was expecting.

She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying on the surface of the wall of the door she had just entered through. She gasped heavily and sat up, looking around the room. She saw Zico sitting in the opposite corner staring at her pathetically. 

"I guess.. it wasn't as scary as I thought.." Suzy said awkwardly.

"You know you're pathetic right?" Zico said with a cringe. 

"What's happening to this room..? W-why didn't I fall there..?"

"Gravity switch," Zico said. "We enter through the floor and arrive at a floor. That's how the hypercubes, at least the ones around here work." 

"You could have told me it was a gravity switch," Suzy sighed. 

"Why?" he stared at her. 

"We're a team Zico," she seethed. "Didn't you hear what Myungsoo said? Teamwork is important."

Zico snorted. 

"Why'd you snort? Do I seem like a joke?"

"Why do you want to live so much?"

"Unlike you, I have a life that I remember. I have a life that I want to get back to and fulfill."

"Is that why you went to a club with hormone raging guys ready to ?"

Suzy stuttered and went silent.

"It's not my fault! Jungyeon dragged me and-'

"Jungyeon's not the type of kid to drag someone if they say no."

"Huh," Suzy scoffed. "Are you saying that it's my fault that this happened to me?"

"You did this to yourself," he glared at her. "I saved you from it."

Suzy stood up and stomped toward Zico but stopped at the abrupt thud behind her. 

She looked back and saw two guys fall from the ceiling, splat on the ground. 

Suzy stared at the two boys and screamed.

It was the two she had seen at the club.