Eunbi made a small grunt when another pink petal fell on her head. She shook her head, brushing away the flower as it fell to the ground. Eunbi glared and crossed her arms.

"I can't tell what kind of game we're playing," Eunbi murmured.

"Looks like there's a lot of flowers," Mingyu remarked. "A lot of pink. A lot of blue. A lot of white."

"Maybe it's a school game?" Jungkook suggested.

"I doubt it. Everything seems romanticized," Eunbi said. A petal fell on her head. She groaned. "Honestly, why are there so many of these fallings? There's barely any wind! We're in the freaking classroom!"

"The window's open," Jungkook said. He went over to close the window and noticed a few girls staring at him from outside. He smiled and waved, causing the girls to giggle and rush inside.

"Even here you're pretty popular, huh?" Mingyu remarked.

"Don't say that," Jungkook told him. "It was just a friendly wave."

The door slid open. The three looked up, noticing a girl with cold eyes and rich black hair. She locked eyes with Eunbi and approached her. Eunbi glowered, remaining still in her seat.

Then, the girl said something in Japanese. Eunbi squinted her eyes, trying to figure out what she had just said. She glanced over at Jungkook and Mingyu, who shrugged their shoulders. The girl said something in Japanese, but Eunbi wasn't sure what she was saying. Then, the girl sighed.

"You're Eunha, right?" the girl said in Korean. She still had an accent and had a sluggish tone in her voice, but that was probably because she wasn't used to speaking Korean. 

Eunbi raised an eyebrow. "And you are?"

Mina scoffed at her attitude, but looked at her seriously. "I'm Mina. Yuju told me that if I ever meet you, I should help you out."

Eunbi stopped acting cold. "You know Yuju?"

"I owe one to Yuju. She saved my life," Mina explained. "She told me that in the worse case scenario, I would have to help you get through a Timepiece game."

"The worse case scenario?" Eunbi repeated.

"I'm not sure what she was trying to say, but that's all she left me before the game ended."

"Wait, so you're trying to say that Yuju was in Japan, right?"

"No. I met her in Korea when I was on vacation. I only knew a little bit of Korean and it was a quiz. Yuju ended up helping me out and I managed to get enough points to pass the game," Mina told her. "So, do you want my help or not?"

Eunbi furrowed her eyebrows. It seemed to good to be true that this girl knew Yuna, but it definitely didn't seem like she was lying to her. Eunbi let out a small sigh and nodded her head.

"Yes, please help us," Eunbi murmured. "We can't read anything in Japanese."

"Well, don't worry too much. This is a dating simulation game in a school setting," Mina explained. "It's clockwise, so there's no twist or anything."

"Oh, a dating sim—" Eunbi stopped herself. She widened her eyes. "A dating simulation? Who's being seduced?"

Mina pointed out the window. Eunbi got up and went over to the window, noticing that there was a koi-headed man wearing a male school uniform. A bunch of pink flowers fluttered down, swirling around him. His creepy black orbs winked, causing Eunbi to pale and shudder.

"We have to seduce a fish?" Jungkook asked. He laughed. "Oh my god! I'm so glad I'm not a part of this."

"It's a koi fish," Mina told him. "You need to raise as many love points as you can. Have you guys ever played a dating simulation game? You run into the protagonist, create 'events' with the protagonist, give him gifts, and so on. There's a lot of ways to raise your love points with him. There doesn't seem to be a limit except for the fact that you only have a week to raise enough points."

"I'm feeling sick," Eunbi muttered.

"Does she have to seduce him?" Mingyu asked, a bit concerned.

"Only the main characters. Minor characters can just sit back and wait for the week to be over," Mina said. She walked over to the chalkboard. "If you see these characters, that means 'main character.' The word on the right is 'minor.'"

The three looked down at their screens. Eunbi blinked.

"Oh. I don't need to seduce the fish," Eunbi said. "I'm a minor character."

"Same," Mingyu added.

There was a long silence from Jungkook. The two looked at him, noticing his paled expression. He looked at the three as if he was about to throw up.

"Mine says main," Jungkook said in a quiet voice.

At that moment, Mingyu and Eunbi both felt sorry for him, but ended up bursting into laughter as he protested against seducing the fish.

Dongmin wasn't quite sure what he was doing. Without Mingyu "existing," the teachers seemed to target a different group of students, but they weren't as bad as Mingyu himself. Without Eunbi around, things didn't change much except for Yoobin getting picked on more by Jisoo and her gang.

But for him, the biggest impact was without Jungkook. Since Jungkook didn't "exist," the title of the most popular guy was naturally handed down to Dongmin. Sure, Dongmin was used to having attention and eyes on him, but he wasn't sure what to do with so many people gushing around him, begging for his attention. Was this what Jungkook had to go through? It seemed like Jungkook made everything so natural and easy.

"Hey, Dongmin! Where is your group going to go?" a random student asked. The students were given a couple of hours of free time, but they were instructed to follow the schedule they had submitted prior to coming on the trip so that the teachers would know where they would be at during a certain time.

There were so many people he didn't know who came up to him and tried to talk to him. It was so weird, especially since he had to act natural.

"Stick to the plans you made earlier," Dongmin urged. "Don't go off your schedule just to follow us."

"I'm pretty sure if we follow you, you'll show us great things!" another student said.

They act like I'm some kind of god or something, Dongmin thought. He looked around, then spotted Yoobin looking down. Jisoo, Minkyung, and Yuri were crowding around Yoobin, laughing and snickering. I guess everything is the same for Yoobin, though.

Yoobin glanced up and made eye-contact with Dongmin. He flinched and looked away, smiling at a random group of his peers.

"Come on, Dongmin! Let's try out this café!" someone said.

"Um, I'm sorry. I'm hanging out with my group and we're going somewhere else," Dongmin said politely.

His classmates kept surrounding him, pestering him to form a bigger group so that they could all have fun. He started walking, but the group continued to follow him. After a few minutes of attempting to walk away in peace,  he let out a small laugh and looked up.

Jisoo, Minkyung and Yuri seemed to be heading in one direction, but he didn't see Yoobin with them.

Where did she go? he wondered. He heard stopped. Did she get teleported to a Timepiece game?

Dongmin nervously looked at a student. "Um, Yoobin is with Jisoo's group, right?"

The student looked at him strangely. "Yoobin? Yeah. Why?"

He let out a small sigh of relief. "Oh, nothing. I just saw Jisoo's group but I didn't see Yoobin."

"She probably ran off somewhere," another student said coldly. "Why is she always making things harder on Jisoo? Like, geez. How annoying."

Dongmin pressed his lips, but he didn't say anything to defend her. During the whole time, Dongmin could only politely reject with a fake smile as he struggled to make his way exploring the foreign city.

* * *

Yoobin felt sick.

I can't do this anymore, she thought. She took a deep breath and looked up. Her eyes widened when she no longer saw anyone familiar around her.

Where did everyone go? Did they leave her? She wandered around the area, hoping to catch a glimpse of them before deeming herself lost. However, there was no one familiar around her. She let out a sigh and started feeling dejected.

Eunbi, where are you? Please tell me you're actually coming back soon, Yoobin thought. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the group's plan. If I remember correctly, we're meeting back at the hotel at 6PM, right? She looked up at the sky. I can go to the hotel right now, but I'll probably get Jisoo in trouble. If anything, it's probably better for me to wait out until six o'clock. She checked her phone. We had a list of places that we were going to visit, but I doubt that Jisoo and the rest will follow it. 

Yoobin ended up wandering around until she arrived at an area near a shrine. She walked up the steps, then looked back down behind her. When she deemed that no one would be coming up or down the steps any time, she sighed and sat down for a brief moment. She hid her face in her arms and felt her tears swelling in her eyes, temporarily blurring her vision. She sniffed.

If only I didn't feel pressured to be in the same group as Jisoo, she thought. I could've been with Eunbi. 

She let out a heavy sigh.

"Are you okay?" someone said in Japanese.

"Huh?" Yoobin turned around and noticed a shadow looming over her. She looked up and made eye-contact with a rather cute skinny boy. From the tone, it didn't seem like he was fluent in Japanese at all.

Ah… yoobin started to sweat nervously. Then, in English, she stammered, "S-Sorry?"

The boy, realizing that Yoobin didn't speak Japanese, tried to speak in Korean: "Are you okay?"

This time, it was clear to Yoobin that the man didn't speak fluent Korean at all. He had a cute accent that matched with his friendly expression. She sniffed and composed herself before accidentally letting a tear slip from her eyes. 

"Y-Yes, I'm fine," she stammered.

The man handed her a piece of tissue. "Here, take this."

She nodded. She thanked him and wiped away her tear before smiling at the boy.

"I'm fine, thank you," she assured him. "I'm just feeling a little sick, but I'm good."

The boy looked at her skeptically. "Are you not from here?"

"I'm from South Korea," she told him. "We're on a field trip."

"Same," he said, "but I'm from China."

She nodded. Then, she noticed a fresh scar on his arm.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"Huh?" The boy looked at his scar. "Oh, yeah. I slipped on the stairs here and fell. I was at the top and saw you coming up, but you stopped half-way so I thought that you were injured."

"…Here," Yoobin said. She dropped her bag on the floor and took out a small first-aids kit. She gestured him to sit down. 

"Oh, I'm fine! I'm fine," he said. "It doesn't hurt."

"I don't want to get it infected," she said. "Sit down. It's not a bother."

After a few minutes, the boy finally obeyed. He sat down in front of Yoobin and allowed her to disinfect his wound. The entire process, he kept his gaze on her as she looked at the wound. After applying ointment, she covered the scar with a cute pink bandage with bunny patterns. She blushed.

"S-Sorry if the bandage is tacky. I usually have these for me and the pattern usually helps drive away attention," she said, then finishing her sentence in her thoughts: because it looks like a minor injury in front of the teachers when I get hurt.

"It's fine," he said. He smiled. "It's cute." He let out a small chuckle before asking, "So where's your class?"

"Oh, um, I got lost," she stammered. "It's okay. I know when and where I'm supposed to meet the rest of my class."

"Is that so?" he asked. He kept quiet for a few minutes. "You know, if you want, you can hang out with me."

Yoobin widened her eyes. "Oh, no! No, I need to go find my group soon, anyway."

He was about to say something, but a few of his friends appeared from the top of the stairs. They called for him in Chinese, urging him to come back up. He said something back in Chinese, then turned around to invite Yoobin once again.

Before he knew it, she was already at the bottom of the steps, scurrying off with her bag swinging around her back. He blinked and stared at her innocently.

"Are you still down there?" his friend asked again in their native tongue. "Come on, let's go!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he responded. He looked back, only to see that Yoobin was gone. He let out a small disappointing sigh, then looked at the cute bandage. He made a small smile. "Korea…huh…"

* * *

"Yoobin! Yoobin! Where are you?" Jisoo called out. She was practically screaming from the top of her lungs. 

It was finally six-o-clock, and majority of the students were at the hotel. However, students were not able to enter the hotel if they were not with their group. Some people were getting scolded for not coming in with their original groups, while others were buying some time and waiting for their group mates to return.

Dongmin made a small whistle as he watched Jisoo and her friends call for Yoobin. He looked around, trying to find Yoobin as well.

Then, he saw her rushing towards everyone. Since she was practically invisible, she blended in right away with the remaining students. Jisoo saw Dongmin staring, then followed his gaze. She smirked and lightly stepped towards Yoobin.

"Yoobin! There you are!" Jisoo cried out. She locked her arms around Yoobin's neck, almost choking her.

"T-Too tight," she stuttered.

"Oh, oops! I'm sorry! I was just worried!" Jisoo lied. "Minkyung! Yuri! Let's go!"

The two followed her and the four were able to go in.

Dongmin, too, was able to enter the hotel with no problems from the teachers. He arrived at his room and quickly settled down. While his roommate decided to go and wash up, Dongmin chose to leave the room for a few minutes to grab some snacks to eat while he waited.

He walked down the halls, heading to the elevators. At that moment, he heard a faint sound of clocks chiming. Alerted, he looked up and whirled his head, only to realize that it was only a clock chiming in the hall. He let out a small sigh of relief until he heard someone throwing up. Curious of the sound, he walked down the halls, skipping the elevators, and followed the direction of the noise.

Dongmin swung over to the corner of the halls. He widened his eyes and froze when he saw Jungkook throwing up in a potted plant. Eunbi was helping him out while Mingyu was howling with laughter, tears b his eyes. Dongmin blinked and stared, confused over what was going on. Eunbi looked up and sighed with ease when she saw Dongmin.

"We're back," she whispered.

Dongmin felt a bit weird. It was so weird how naturally it seemed like the three returned. It almost felt like they were never gone in the first place, but he knew that they were gone for nearly the entire day. 

"What's going on? What happened?" Dongmin asked, approaching the three.

Mingyu laughed. "He kissed the fish! He actually kissed the fish!"

"The…fish?" Dongmin repeated, confused.

"We were in this dating simulation game and Jungkook was one of the main characters. The Timehost had a koi fish for a head. Needless to say, Jungkook won the match," Eunbi quickly explained.

"Oh my god! I wish I took a picture of that," Mingyu said, wheezing.

Jungkook glared at him. "I'd like you see us go into another dating simulation game and see you kiss a fish."

Yoobin came running in with a water bottle in her hand. Clearly, she had witnessed the three's return before Dongmin got to the scene. She glanced at Dongmin and gave him a small nod to greet him. Then, she handed Jungkook the bottle of water.

"Thanks," Jungkook grunted. 

"Was it that bad?" Yoobin asked.

"It wasn't counter-clockwise, so it was fine," Eunbi informed them. She looked at Yoobin. "More importantly, we met someone who knew about Yuna."

Yoobin and Dongmin widened their eyes.

"Yuna… That's your friend who's been missing, right?" Dongmin asked.

"Yes. We were playing this game with a Japanese girl named Mina," Eunbi said. She looked at Yoobin. "Sound familiar?"

Yoobin nodded. "Yes. I was there when Mina was in Korea and was struggling. Is she doing well?"

"Yeah. She's going to finish soon," Eunbi told her. Yoobin smiled softly. "More importantly, she said something interesting…"

"I met Yuju twice. Once was the first time we met in Korea, where she helped me out. Then I met her in Japan, but we weren't able to work together because it was one of the rules," Mina said as she and Eunbi watched Jungkook seduce the Koi-headed Timehost from the window. 

"Japan?" Eunbi repeated. She frowned. "I don't recall her coming to Japan…"

"She said that she came without anyone knowing. She said that she was looking into something," Mina explained. "That's when she told me about you. She told me that if 'Eunha' came into play, help her out."

Eunbi kept quiet. "So you're trying to tell me that she was expecting me."

"Basically," Mina said cooly, "but she did add that this would be the worse-case scenario."

"Worse-case scenario?" Eunbi asked.

"I'm afraid that I can't help from there," Mina said. "She remained awfully vague. The second time I met her, Binnie wasn't with her. Actually, I don't think any of her original team was with her. It seems as if she found a new group."

"A new group, huh," Eunbi whispered. "Did she tell you anything else?"

"Just told me to help you if you ever needed it and to urge you to finish the game as soon as possible," Mina told her. "Whatever you decide to do is all up to you, but it seems like Yuju really wanted you to stay away. Apparently she's chasing after someone dangerous because she urged me to finish the game as soon as possible, too."

"Are you almost done?"

"Almost. I'm going to lose this game purposefully and let your friend win. Besides, I don't want to kiss a fish," she said, giggling. "Anyway, good luck. If you end up meeting Yuju, let her know that I fulfilled my debt to her by helping you."

Eunbi nodded. Mina waved and walked away, leaving her alone with Mingyu, who had been completely immersed with watching Jungkook flirt with the fish.

"…Is that all she said?" Yoobin asked.

"Yeah." Eunbi sighed. "Now I'm hoping to go back soon so that I can look into Yuna's whereabouts. Maybe I'll encounter someone else who knows about her like Mina."

"I don't want to play this game anymore," Jungkook said with a groan. He wiped his mouth one last time. "I'm going back to the room to brush my teeth. My lips feel weird."

"I still think that was hilarious," Mingyu said, snickering. He walked with Jungkook, leaving the rest behind.