On Wednesday, Eunbi found herself staring at the board. The board was filled with columns of papers, filled with names and groups for the upcoming trip to Japan. When she had found her name on the list, she discovered that Yoobin was added to Jisoo's group along with her little gang.

God damn it, Yoobin! Eunbi thought, realizing that Yoobin had probably added Jisoo's name when she wasn't looking. She heaved a sigh. Soon, Mingyu came over, reading the list. He frowned.

"What happened to Yoobin? Didn't she put our names?" Mingyu asked.

"Jisoo probably got to her and forced her to write their names or something," Eunbi muttered.

"Well, at least I'm with you," Mingyu said. He squinted his eyes. "Who's the fourth person?"

There was an enthusiastic squeal from the crowd, crying out, "Yes! Yes! I'm with Jungkook!"

"Some girl named Jo Haseul," Eunbi said. She gestured her chin to the direction of the ecstatic scream. "I'm sure that's her."

"Oh my god," Mingyu groaned. 

Jungkook appeared behind the two with a smile. "Hey! What's up!"

"We got one of your fangirls in our group," Eunbi said, sighing.

"My fangirl? I thought Yoobin was joining us."

"Your ex-girlfriend took her from us."

"Ah…"

"Can we change it?" Mingyu asked.

"No, Yoobin said that we can't change it after this list is posted," Eunbi responded.

"Then why did she go to that group?"

"Like I said, Jisoo probably forced her."

"Can you talk to Yoobin about it?"

"I'd rather not."

"Damn it."

The bell starting ringing. The teachers began to yell at the students to enter the building. Eunbi sighed and looked at Mingyu and Jungkook.

"I guess I'll see you two at the field trip," Eunbi said. She walked inside first, heading to class.

* * *

Weeks had passed by in a breeze. On the day of their field trip, the second years got on the plane and arrived safely at their destination. Upon walking out of the airport, everyone gathered in their groups and were assigned to a bus. Mingyu, Eunbi, Jungkook and Haseul were sitting at the back of the bus, taking the corner. Mingyu and Eunbi sat in the far back while they left Jungkook to sit with Haseul in front of them. They could see that Jungkook was slightly annoyed with how Haseul kept trying to feed him snacks, but out of politeness, he led her feed her and do as she desired.

Yoobin was on the same bus, except she was sitting closer to the middle-front. She sat next to Jisoo, who pretty much pushed her and squeezed her against the window. Jisoo pretended like everything was fine and happily chatted with Minkyung and Yuri, who were sitting on front of the two.

Dongmin, on the other hand, sat at the front with his group of friends. He seemed quite happy and would sometimes look at the very back to see how the rest of his teammates were doing.

"Jungkook, ah!" Haseul squeaked, pointing the end of the biscuit near his lips. Jungkook laughed weakly and bit the snack, causing her to squeal. The two exchanged smiles, but once she looked down to grab another snack, Jungkook gave Mingyu and Eunbi a desperate look. Mingyu smirked and gestured his fingers to look back in the front while Eunbi lacked interest.

"Sit down, sit down!" one of the teachers shouted. "We will be moving soon!"

Everyone was too excited to listen. The teachers didn't seem to care so much. They continued to shout over the voices of the students. When the bus started moving, everyone cheered even louder and got even more excited.

"Everyone's so noisy," Mingyu complained. He closed his eyes. "I'm going to sleep."

"Sounds good," Eunbi agreed, closing her eyes.

"Hey, hey! Don't leave me to stay awake alone!" Jungkook whispered.

"You have me, Jungkook! We can talk," Haseul exclaimed.

Yoobin and Dongmin kept looking back. It seemed like the three were enjoying themselves at the back of the bus. They couldn't help but want to be a part of them, to join them and to talk to them like the others. It felt like there was an empty spot in their chest, longing to regroup with them.

Suddenly, they started hearing a grandfather clock chime in their ears. For a second, they thought that it was probably a building nearby with a clock tower, but when they realized that they were driving in the open with no large buildings, they new exactly what was going on: Timepiece.

Dongmin and Yoobin looked back with wide eyes. They made eye contact with Eunbi, who gave them a serious expression and nodded. The ringing in their heads got louder and louder. The world around them began to bend and shift; the game continued to manipulate time and space around them.

"We're going through the tunnel!" the teacher told them. 

Dongmin and Yoobin closed their eyes. Suddenly, the ringing stopped abruptly. The two slowly opened their eyes and looked down, realizing that they were still on the bus. They whirled around, widening their eyes as they saw Eunbi, Jungkook, and Mingyu gone from their seats. Haseul casually started a conversation with the two people sitting in front of her as if she was a part of their group.

Yoobin quickly looked back in front. Her whole body trembled as Jisoo, who was still sitting next to her, grinned evilly. 

What? What happened? Dongmin wondered.

"Dongmin, is there something wrong?" the teacher asked.

Dongmin panicked. What was he supposed to say?

"U-Um… M-Mingyu… E-Eunbi… Jungkook…"

"What?" The teacher tilted her head. "Are you feeling sick?"

"No, I mean… The back of the bus. The people there."

"People…?" The teacher looked up. She smiled and looked down. "Dongmin, you're being funny. The teachers are the ones who are sitting in the back."

Huh? Dongmin stared. "No, there were three additional students in the back and—"

He met eye contact with Yoobin. She carefully placed her finger over her lips, telling him to be silent of the situation. Dongmin frowned, still confused, but awkwardly nodded as he stared back at the teacher, who continued to smile at him.

"No, it's nothing," he lied. "I saw your bag in the front and wondered what happened to it."

The teacher laugh. "Oh, I only had it in the front for a few seconds to make sure everything is okay up here. I'm heading to the back now."

She grabbed her backpack, then began to walk to where Eunbi had sat a few minutes ago. Dongmin stared, still confused as he made a mental note to ask Yoobin what was going on.

* * *

When the group got off the bus for a bathroom break, Dongmin quickly chased after Yoobin, who managed to separate herself from Jisoo's friends. They hid behind the building, keeping their voices low in case someone came to find them.

"What's going on?" Dongmin whispered. "Where's Mingyu, Jungkook and Eunbi? I mentioned them to others, but they have no clue over who I'm talking about!"

Yoobin gulped. "Okay, you remember how Eunbi is looking for her friend, Choi Yuna? You remember how you didn't recall her until you joined Timepiece?" Dongmin nodded. "Yeah, this is basically what's happening."

"What do you mean?"

"When we passed that bridge, it must've been the borderline. That bridge was probably a landmark, the boundary. Those within the boundary are sent to Timepiece. If you are out of the boundary, then you're safe from the Timehost who regulates that territory."

"So does that mean they're never coming back?"

"It's not like that," she said. "They're playing the Timepiece game. After the game is over, they'll return to whatever is the original state by the time they return. Until then, their existence is gone."

"I don't get it."

"Timepiece gets ahold of your existence temporarily when you play the game. Since the three are in Timepiece, it's like Jungkook, Mingyu and Eunbi never existed in the first place. You saw the changes. The three were supposed to be sitting in the back, but the second they were gone in Timepiece, the teacher took over their spots," Yoobin explained. 

Dongmin ran his fingers through his hair. "Oh my god. So how long is it going to take for them to come back?"

"I don't know," Yoobin said quietly. "It might be a few hours. It could be the next second. It could be days, weeks—even months." She gulped. "Sometimes, even years. The timeline is random—it's impossible to determine the return of anyone back to our world."

Dongmin gritted his teeth. "So what changed so far besides the fact that the teacher is sitting in the back of their seat?"

Yoobin shrugged. "Who knows. You'll just have to wait and see how things play out." She checked her watch. "I need to go. I know Jisoo is going to be looking for me."

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Dongmin asked before she left.

"Nothing," she replied. "Just hope that they'll return and act like everything around you is normal."

Eunbi woke up, her eyes blurry from the light. It took her a few minutes to realize where she was. She quickly found herself in front of a school building with a Japanese spring sailor uniform. Instead of sitting down, she was standing at the gates. She looked around, noticing that the arena was much brighter than usual. Sakura petals fluttered down from the branches and the rich green grass swayed in unison.

"What in the…"

She took out her phone, then widened her eyes. Everything was written in Japanese. She looked around, trying to find anyone, but she only saw girls all around her. They, too, were holding their phones out, except they seemed to be able to read the language.

"Eunha."

She turned and saw Mingyu and Jungkook walking up to her. They were also wearing the same school uniform as her, except they were wearing a long-sleeved shirt, the school's tie, and pants. Jungkook loosened his tie a bit while Mingyu rolled up his sleeves.

"Can any of you two read Japanese?" Eunbi asked. Mingyu shook his head.

"I can read a little," Jungkook said. "I'm not fluent at it. Just the basics. I only brushed up a bit to get me through the trip in case I got lost or anything."

"Did you read the Timepiece rules?" 

"Yeah, but I couldn't make out most of it."

"Great. We are so screwed," Eunbi muttered.

"Hey, it's not so bad," Mingyu said. "I mean, it doesn't look like this game is messed up or anything."

"You don't know that. Who knows, at a certain time, ghosts can start coming out of this map," Eunbi said coldly.

"Maybe there's someone who speaks Korean and can translate for us," Jungkook said, being hopeful. "By the way, where's Cha Eunwoo and Binnie?"

"Doesn't look like they got into the game with us. That bridge must've been the border, and we must've been caught in it when the game was forming," Eunbi explained. "I'm sure Binnie is used to it, so she should blend in real life pretty well. Cha Eunwoo is probably going to have to adjust, but I'm sure he'll be okay, too."

"Wait, so are they in a different universe? Like, a universe where we don't exist?" Mingyu asked.

"Kind of. It's more like they're in the same universe, except our existence is washed away. Just know that we don't exist, so there are probably a few things that are tweaked here and there in the real world," Eunbi said.

"Looks like we need to walk into the building," Jungkook said, pointing to the other players. They were also dressed in the same uniform, except they seemed pretty confident knowing what was going on. Eunbi took a deep breath, sighed, then faced the building with a serious gaze.

"Mingyu, Jungkook." The two boys looked at her. "Let's go."

"We trust you, Eunha," Mingyu said in a warning tone. She nodded and led the two into the building.

Not too far from them, a fair girl with a cool and chic vibe took off her headphones. She gazed at Eunbi's back and stared at her as her short black hair fluttered like the sakura petals falling from the sky, speaking in her native tongue:

"Eunha…?"

< GAME: DATING SIMULATION >

< TEAM: NONE >

< TIMEHOST: KOI >

< ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: ALL MINOR CHARACTERS ARE SAFE. MAJOR CHARACTERS MUST RAISE THEIR LOVE POINTS TO WIN >

< THE CLOCK TURNS CLOCKWISE >

< GAME BEGINS WHEN THE BELL FOR SECOND PERIOD RINGS. PLEASE SUBMIT ANY EVIL EYES PRIOR TO THE START OF THE GAME. >