The sunlight barely shone through the bright yellow tinted glasses when morning arrived. The unwilling participants would’ve lost all track of time if it weren’t for the mental clock integrated in their body and mind. It was hard to tell day and night apart when the atmosphere remained dim and mysterious by the passing hours.   “Morning,” Ho Seok mumbled as he entered the dining room. He found several others eating breakfast, which had been prepared without anyone’s knowledge. “If we didn’t have to play the games and risk our lives, this would’ve made a pretty good homestay.”   “Except that we do have to play the games and risk our lives,” Mi Joo corrected, pulling the empty seat beside her for him.   “Did you sleep well?” He asked, noticing the dark eye bag under her eyes. No matter how tough she may seem, he knew she wasn’t mentally strong enough to face the games. It worried him.   “Soo Jung allowed me to use her bed, but I couldn’t sleep,” answered the girl who decided to sleep with a female friend to keep her company. “Oh, woe is me! I am too young to die. I haven’t even made it to Broadway yet! I haven’t even graduated yet.”   “Tell me about it.” Seok Jin was busy rearranging the plate in front of him, trying out different poses as one hand held unto his smartphone. “I am nearing my 4 million followers on Instagram, and they have to survive a whole day without my updates. Woe are they.”   The others weren’t exactly sure how to respond to his incredible and quite admirable narcissism. It took great skills to be so oblivious to the surrounding danger and be so full of oneself.   “So, does anyone have a good way out to escape?” Ji Ae continued last night’s discussion. She finished her third round of toast while everyone else only grabbed one.   “Once we get to the swimming pool, we shall see what options we have. Or else we can all take a swim and cool our heads off,” Nam Joon suggested with a grin. It was probably a normal suggestion, but the way he spoke and smiled had an untrustworthy connotation to it.   “Ha ha, I am not getting in that pool with you unless my life depended on it,” Ji Ae gave him a disgusted look.   “Ironic, considering we aren't the ones to judge what happens to our lives anymore,” Nam Joon shrugged and took a bite from his toast. No matter how frivolous he acted in front of others, inside he was just as scared and frightened as they were. But there had to be at least one person strong enough so the fear wouldn’t overshadow the others.   Ji Ae shook her head, brushing her long locks off her shoulders. She picked up her plate and took it to the kitchen, assuming they had to clean up after themselves. But once inside the semi cramped area, she noted Soo Jung standing against a cabinet, anxiously biting her nails with a face so pale as if she had seen a ghost.   “Are you okay?” The younger one asked worriedly, rushing over to set the dirty plates in the sink.   “Oh Ji Ae, I have to show you something.” Soo Jung’s voice trembled, terribly. She grabbed the younger one by the hand and pulled her down on her knees. With arms quivering as if she had been trapped in a block of ice, Soo Jung opened one of the drawers and took out the steel bottle.   Ji Ae inspected the item, growing more confused when she saw the bunch of numbers and letters scribbled on the paper attached to it.   “It’s strychnine.”   The revelation aroused a sudden panic and fear in Ji Ae’s system. She may not know its effect scientifically, but she was a linguistic major who had to read numerous literature work as part of her assignment. Strychnine was no stranger in the literary world as it was commonly used to kill fictional characters off. It was a deadly poison.   “H- Has it been used yet?” She asked quietly.   “The bottle is half empty. Considering the first game is played in water, I am afraid the Game Master has infected the water with it.” Soo Jung panicked.   “We got to tell the others.”   “No! It will scare them!”   Ji Ae frowned, unsure what they were supposed to do. The elder was nearly broken down and it was such a tragic sight to witness. “Is it going to affect our body if it makes any physical contact with the skin?”   “No! It’s only dangerous when we consume it,” Soo Jung replied.   The two stared at each other with an enlightening solution. They figured out a way to sabotage the Game Master’s plan.     Tae Hyung was in the living room, busy tinkering with the olden style TV as Jung Kook and Ye In kept him company. Out of the entire mansion, the living room was the only place where the device wasn’t upgraded beyond the millennium. Tae Hyung was sure it must had some reason.   “Can you not change the channel?” Ye In requested when Tae Hyung had—for the twentieth time—accidentally changed the channel she was trying to watch. There was nothing wrong in enjoying the little pleasures in life as long as time permitted them to.   “Did a hidden mystery channel appear? Or anything relating to the Game Master?” Tae Hyung asked.   “Nope.” Ye In pressed the remote controller to change the channel back to the one she had been watching, but to no avail since Tae Hyung continued messing with it. Finally she gave up and threw the remote on the sofa.   “We watched through 20 or so channels, all news related, and not one of them reported us as missing children or announced this as a kidnapping case. There is nothing being said about this House of Trap thing,” she then whined. “Is this normal?”   “What if,” Jung Kook swallowed when Ye In gave him her undivided attention, “This entire show never existed and was just a bait to get us here?”   “But why would our teachers go along with it? They were the ones who encouraged us to join,” Tae Hyung questioned.   Jung Kook pursed his lips together, knowing he hadn’t said the smartest thing. Maybe it was better to remain silent. After the small intermezzo, Tae Hyung was back to messing with the TV, forcing Ye In and Jung Kook to watch the flipping channels, until the second disturbance appeared.   “Guys! Guys!”   Everyone looked up from whatever they were doing and automatically gathered together in front of the staircase after the frantic cries from Soo Jung and Ji Ae.   “When are we going to play the game?” Ji Ae questioned.   “Considering we don’t have anything else to do, we might as well do it now,” Nam Joon said.   “True. The faster we can figure out a way to escape this wretched place, the better,” Ji Soo nodded, convinced the garden or backyard could lead to their freedom.   “Yes! Then we can go home!” Myung Eun cheered gladfully.   “What if there isn’t a way?” Yoon Gi interrupted.   Ji Soo rolled her eyes and lazily turned to face her nemesis. “Can’t you just shut up and stop being such a pessimist? What’s wrong with trying to find a way out?” She folded her arms.   “Nothing.” Yoon Gi smirked at her know-it-all attitude. “Except that this Game Master, whoever he may be, isn’t dumb. He wouldn’t go all the way to kidnap us here and force us to play deadly games if our escape route was as simple as finding a garden entrance. You don’t know how a criminal’s mind works, so you better shut up instead of giving others false hopes.”   Ji Soo’s eyes darted towards Myung Eun, somehow sensing Yoon Gi was talking about the girl as the one being given false hope. Myung Eun was nearly in tears and looked like she could pass out at any moment.   “What’s wrong with hope if it is what keeps us sane despite this lunatic trying to kills us off?” Ji Soo asked him, tone rising in anger.   “It is more insane to trust your delusional make-belief happy ending we might not even experience,” Yoon Gi spoke calmly. He knew it was that calmness in him that boiled her patience.   “Don’t fight, please!” Ye In stepped in between the two with her arms stretched to keep them apart. There had always been this invisible tension among them, and it could lead to a quicker downfall. “We should focus on the game.”   “Right, the game,” Soo Jung then remembered what she initially came to say. “Do not swallow any of the water.”   “What? Why?” Seok Jin questioned.   Soo Jung bit her lips, conflicted whether she should relay the truth or not. But in order to keep them away from the paranoia, she decided they were better left in the unknown.   “Did you discover anything last night?” Nam Joon then asked her, tone more serious.   Soo Jung nodded.   And that was all it took for them to easily believe her words. Because they were all on the same side, they guilelessly assumed.     Jung Kook showed them the location of the swimming pool through the window, and led them through the door which connected to the backyard in order to reach the swimming pool. Once they reached what was supposed to be the outdoors, the twelve came to realize how terrifying their prison cell truly was.   The open space was a good escape route, but as Yoon Gi had mentioned, the Game Master was a step ahead of them. Glass was used to build a dome wall around the entire surrounding with no entrance or exit except from the one they came from. Everything looked like a normal backyard with a bright green grass field, flower bed in beautiful array of colors, and trees that stretched out to the sealed off sky. But the truth was, they were like pesticides trapped within a greenhouse.   Seok Jin was the first one to take action as he took up a nearby shovel and banged its metal end against the glass. It did nothing; no scratch, no riptures, not even the slightest bit of vibrations.   “We are screwed. We are sooo screwed!” Tae Hyung pulled his hair and began walking around in frantic circles.   “The only way out is to do what the Game Master wants and play the game,” Yoon Gi said as he headed towards the swimming pool not too far away. Soon, he was astounded by the peculiar sight.   The tiles were blue and pink in color, creating patterns of diamonds underneath the water based on the limited vision their eyesight had. There were multiple balls of steel spread across the floor of the swimming pool; each had a some sort of a sensory button in the middle along with strange symbol engraved on them.   “The zodiac sign,” Nam Joon spoke.   And upon closer inspection, several balls indeed had the zodiac sign drawn on them. Numerous others were close resemblances, but still fake distractions.   A medium sized monitor countdown timer monitor was at the side of the pool. It was like the ones used in sports game, but customized in size to fit the Game Master’s needs. Whatever they had to do, it had become a race against the time.   “Dear Lord, can’t you do that later?” Ji Soo questioned when she heard the shutter going off and noticed Seok Jin making peace signs for his selfie.   “My followers need to know how I’m doing,” he argued, and the rest decided it was better to let him be.   “I don’t understand what