Dongmin had been walking around the school, trying to find a quiet place to study for his upcoming quiz. He ended up going to the library, where he saw a familiar face. He tried to ignore Yoobin and was about to sit somewhere else until he noticed that Jisoo came over to bug her. Yoobin looked completely in distress and she looked at Dongmin for some help. He let out a soft sigh, then reluctantly walked over to Yoobin and dropped in a seat across from her.

Jisoo glanced at him with dead eyes while Dongmin smiled.

"Sorry, Jisoo, but I kind of need to use Yoobin today," Dongmin said. "Can you talk to her next time?"

"You? Talk to Yoobin? For what?" Jisoo asked, her lips and crossing her arm. She seemed slightly amused in his lie. "Is it for… TP?"

"No, it's for the upcoming quiz we have," Dongmin said. "Eunbi is joining us soon. It'd be a mess if she came and saw you."

Jisoo clicked her tongue. She glared at him, but left without another word.

Dongmin let out a shaky sigh. Even though Jisoo normally left him alone and was nice to him, it was still terrifying for him to try to talk to her.

"Thank you," Yoobin whispered softly.

"Just study quietly," Dongmin said. 

Yoobin nodded. She twirled her pencil in her left hand and started to scibble something in her notes. Dongmin took note of that.

"You're left-handed?" he asked.

"Huh?" Yoobin looked down. "Oh, yes."

"I didn't notice that until now," he quietly remarked.

"I tend to you my left hand for everything. I'm surprised that you just noticed," she said. Then, she bit her bottom lip. "I-I'm sorry. I'm bothering you. I'll be quiet."

Dongmin stared at her for a few seconds before glancing down at his notes.

Now wasn't the time for chit-chat. He really had to study and do well on his test…

* * *

That night, Dongmin was studying late for his classes. At one point, he ended up yawning and stretched out his arms. He looked down at his textbooks and closed it. He eyes glanced upwards at the clock. It was getting late, and Dongmin knew that he should rest up well. He was pretty confident with the materials he studied and all his homework assignments were completed. 

I should sleep, he told himself. He turned off the lamp on the desk and walked over to his bed. The room was filled with darkness except for the moonlight that seeped through the curtains. He blinked and stared at the ceiling, realizing that he didn't feel very sleepy.

He thought about his meeting with Eunbi's old teammates. They were definitely strange, but they were very confident. Even though they seemed wild and reckless, they had a strange aura that made them seem important.

"I wonder if I'll be as cool as them," he whispered to himself. A small smile appeared on his face, but quickly disappeared when he thought of Junyoung. A heavy feeling of burden dropped in his chest. I definitely will not end up like Jun.

He closed his eyes, hoping that the darkness would help him clear his mind. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock…

Dongmin's heart nearly stopped. He shot his eyes wide open and sat up. Immediately, he could hear the clock ticking and a grandfather clock chiming in his mind. He looked around, noticing that the space around him was starting to glitch away.

He shut his eyes, rubbed them…

< GAME: THE DISGUISE >

< TEAM: GROUP VS. FAKER >

< TIMEHOST: MOTH >

< ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: THE FAKER WINS SEPARATELY FROM THEIR GROUP >

< THE CLOCK TURNS CLOCKWISE >

< GAME BEGINS WHEN THE SPOTS ARE FILLED AND THE TIMER COUNTS DOWN TO 0. PLEASE SUBMIT ANY EVIL EYES PRIOR TO THE START OF THE GAME. >

…A cold wind came out of nowhere. Dongmin's eyes shot wide open.

He found himself standing in a circle small enough to make sure that he was restricted to his spot. There was a strange glow and light coming out of the circle. It was a clear warning for him to not go out of the circle.

He looked up. He saw his face displayed on a large screen hovered above at the center of the circle. Along with his face, there were other faces down the column. He instantly recognized IU's face among everyone else's.

T-The rules…! 

Dongmin looked down at his hands and checked the rules on his phone:

Dongmin was confused when he saw the different amount of points, but he remembered how the three of them had played a game in Japan and figured that they had gotten their extra Timetick points there. 

Suddenly, he heard a loud whoosh! from the four open spaces. He looked up and saw Yoobin, Eunbi, Jungkook and Mingyu teleport in their own small circle respectively. Yoobin seemed completely shocked while Eunbi quickly assessed the situation. Jungkook yawned, still a little bit sleepy. Mingyu looked around, then quietly placed his phone back in his pocket.

Dongmin carefully looked at everyone in his group. It seemed like everyone had already read the rules and were aware of the situation. Jungkook and Mingyu were looking at each other, trying to figure out if one of them was the FAKER. Eunbi had her eyes on the scoreboard and Yoobin continued to look nervous and pale as usual.

Then, three clear balls fell from the sky and floated right in front of Dongmin. He grabbed one of the ball and the two vanished for the moment. He figured that the other two would appear if he needed another one.

"H-Hey guys," Dongmin stuttered.

"Why did they make Dongmin the LEADER?" Mingyu complained. "I should've been the LEADER."

Eunbi glared at him. "Shh! Be quiet!"

Her eyes were glued back to the holographic scoreboard at the center. Dongmin pursed his lips while Mingyu frowned at her. While Eunbi seemed too preoccupied, Dongmin couldn't help but let out a sigh. He looked at the four, trying to figure out who could possibly be the FAKER of the group.

This is hard, Dongmin thought. He stared at Eunbi for a long time. "Eunbi, what are you looking at?"

"The board," Eunbi said. She gestured her chin to the scoreboard. "Specifically IU's group."

All five of them kept their eyes on the scoreboard. They saw IU's name and face on the board. Nothing seemed to be happening until a timer appeared above the hologram.

< 3 EVIL EYES HAVE BEEN ADDED. CALCULATING... >

Thirty minutes were displayed on the screen. Then, 29:59 appeared and the numbers started to count down.

The game had begun.

Roughly four minutes later, the words "SUCCESS" were displayed on IU's name in green. Dongmin, Jungkook, Yoobin and Mingyu reacted with complete shock. Only Eunbi seemed relatively calm over the results. In fact, she seemed more reassured when she saw that IU's team successfully found the FAKER.

Jungkook dropped his jaws. "Already? They caught the FAKER already?"

"The game barely started!" Dongmin cried out.

Thirty seconds afterwards, another team leader had the words "FAIL" on the board. Eunbi looked a bit relieved.

"It looks like IU's team succeeded," Eunbi said. "I was worried that we would have one of her teammates in our group."

"Why?" Dongmin asked.

"IU's team is really good," Eunbi said. "We would've lost in an instant if she was part of our team."

"I wonder who was chosen to be the FAKER in IU's group," Jungkook murmured.

"That doesn't matter. It's time to focus on us," Eunbi said. She pointed at herself. "Obviously, since I pointed out that we should wait until IU's team won and another team lost, I'm not the FAKER." Eunbi looked at Dongmin. "So CLEAR me."

Dongmin nodded. He was casually about to hand the clear ball to Eunbi until Mingyu stopped him.

"Hold up," Mingyu said. He glanced at Eunbi. "How can we be sure that the team that just lost had someone from IU's team?"

Eunbi paused. "Because I just told you how good IU's team is?"

"How do we know that you're not someone from IU's team? True, Eunha should know how good IU's team is, but wouldn't the members of IU's team also know that they're good at playing this game?" Mingyu pointed out. He crossed his arms. "I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were actually Park Kyung disguising yourself as Eunha."

Eunbi narrowed her eyes. "Mingyu, are you testing me right now?"

"I'm trying to play this game," Mingyu said. "The FAKER shares the memories of the original user. We can't know for sure that you're real or not."

"Well, I find it strange that you're opposing me like this. Maybe you're the fake," Eunbi snapped back.

"Guys, calm down," Jungkook said uneasily. "You two might be innocent in the end! We might be fighting each other for no reason—"

"Leave us alone, Jungkook," Eunbi and Mingyu both said in unison. They glared at each other, trying to figure out if the other person was real or not.

Dongmin gulped and nervously looked at the gem. Boy, am I in trouble.

* * *

IU, Park Kyung, and Sandeul were watching the players from another room. They were easily able to identify who was the FAKER in their team and were the first to finish the game. Rather than leaving, they opted for watching the other players play the game. In the surveillance room, there were multiple screens in front of them. Each screen featured a different team, and the angles would change occasionally as if they were being filmed live.

A moment later, L appeared behind them through a portal. He exchanged high-fives with Sandeul and walked over to Park Kyung and IU, who were looking through the screens. Then, IU finally beamed and pointed at the screen.

"There they are!" IU exclaimed. "That's Eunha!"

They all had their eyes glued to the one screen that featured Eunbi's team. IU giggled when she saw how tensed everyone looked at their current situation.

"Who do you think is the FAKER in their team?" Park Kyung asked.

"Well, it's not Cha Eunwoo," IU said.

"Obviously."

"Do you want to put a guess, L?"

"No," L mumbled.

"This is definitely one of the harder games, especially when you're with people you don't know," Park Kyung remarked. "It's a lot easier to play when you really know everyone."

"Like our team," IU added.

Park Kyung nodded. "By the way, how did your challenge go, L? You finished a little bit slower than I was expecting."

"Mine was pretty simple. My acting was just stiff, that's why it took a little bit longer to convince my opponents," L said.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of all this, hm?" Park Kyung said. He turned to Sandeul. "You want to add anything? We're going to start placing bets."

Sandeul paused, then looked at him. "What's the point of placing bets when we all know who the FAKER is in Eunha's team?"

Park Kyung laughed. "Oh, are we all thinking of the same person?"

IU smirked. "Maybe."

"Well, then it'll be interesting to see how they'll pull it off," Park Kyung said. He chuckled and stared at the screen, watching everyone.

* * *

Dongmin stared hard at everyone. He squinted his eyes sometimes and widened them at other times. Eunbi and Mingyu were still bickering and Jungkook was still trying to figure out a way to calm the two down. While the three were making a scene of themselves, Dongmin was trying to figure out who the FAKER was.

"It's tough, isn't it?" Yoobin said quietly.

"Yeah, it is," Dongmin muttered. "Who do you think is the FAKER?"

"I-I don't know. I don't think it's Eunbi and I feel like it's Mingyu, but it seems like Mingyu seems okay as well? I'm not sure what I think about Jungkook," she said. She paused. "Ah… No, don't listen to me! I-I'm also a suspect, too…"

"Yeah, but I trust you a little more than the others. I have a feeling that you'd be a terrible FAKER," Dongmin said, chuckling. "You still act the same and I feel like out of all of them, it'd be hardest to relate to you and act like you."

Yoobin rubbed the back of her neck. "I… I don't know what else to say. Is that a compliment?"

Dongmin smiled and shrugged. Yoobin pursed her lips and watched the other three deal with the situation.

"So it's just between those three," Dongmin muttered. "What should I ask them?"

"U-Um… What about how we all met?" Yoobin suggested.

"Wouldn't the FAKER know? They share the original person's memories, right?"

"But the FAKER only has the memories. They don't necessarily have the person's personality, so if the person seems a little odd based on their original personality, it's likely that they might be the FAKER," she pointed out.

Dongmin raised his eyebrows. That was a different way of thinking about the situation. That thought would have never occurred to him if Yoobin hadn't told him about it.

"Did you play this game before?" he asked.

Yoobin laughed softly. "I've played a whole variety…"

She looked away and grimaced. He figured that the memory of playing so many games and being stuck in Timepiece was unpleasant for her. He cleared his throat and decided to focus his attention on the other three.

He took a deep breath before shouting, "Okay, please pay attention to me!"

Mingyu and Eunbi stopped yelling at each other. They turned to Dongmin with a heated expression on their face. Jungkook let out a small sigh of relief, glad that Dongmin finally took the initiative to calm everything down.

"I'm going to ask everyone an important question," Dongmin said. "You guys need to answer, okay?"

Eunbi grunted. "We don't have time for this, Dongmin! We're on a time crunch—"

"When did I first meet you?" Dongmin asked them.

There was a short pause. 

"We met at a Timepiece game," Eunbi answered.

Mingyu rolled his eyes. "How the hell am I supposed to remember when we first met? I could care less about that!"

"We met at a Timepiece game, too, didn't we?" Jungkook asked. "It was the Apocalypse one, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was," Yoobin said with a small nod.

"So it's Mingyu," Eunbi said. She let out a loud scoff. "Ha! See!"

Dongmin opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped and thought carefully. He checked the rules again. The rules didn't clarify how clear the memory would be for the FAKER. Even though Mingyu wasn't able to answer the question properly, there was a chance that he genuinely did not remember when they all met.

That makes this harder, Dongmin thought, a little bit peeved.

Yoobin noticed Dongmin's hesitance. She gulped and took a deep breath. "W-What about your first impressions on everyone?"

Mingyu snorted. "Oh, I can answer this one." He pointed at Eunbi. "Obnoxious." Then, he pointed at Jungkook. "Annoying." He looked at Yoobin. "Total wimp." Then pointed at Dongmin. "Selfish."

There was an icy pause in the air. Jungkook blinked and looked at everyone.

"I don't know about you guys, but it sounds like mine is not as bad as all of yours," Jungkook said with a little pride.

Dongmin grimaced. Based on Mingyu's personality, it seems like he's pretty real. It does seem a little out of character for him to say all this so bluntly, but it might be that he's just really mad because of Eunbi, which is why he's being irrationally rude to all of us.

"M-Maybe we should ask another question!" Yoobin squeaked. She fumbled over her words a little. "U-Um… H-How about we say something nice to each other? Just one thing!"

"How is this going to help us?" Eunbi asked, letting out a tired sigh. "We're seriously just wasting time."

"I-I don't know," Yoobin stammered. "I just don't want you guys to fight anymore…"

"Maybe we should just do rock-paper-scissors," Jungkook said. "I'll have enough points if we end up losing. I'm not too concerned about this game."

"That's a bad idea for both Binnie and Cha Eunwoo," Eunbi said. "Don't forget, we're ahead of those two because we played a game in Japan. These two haven't and they're behind us by a few points. If we end up losing, they face a greater consequence than us three."

"Honestly, I'm glad that Cha Eunwoo is the LEADER and not Binnie," Mingyu said. He turned to the nervous girl. "No offense, but you'd take forever to decide and we'd probably lose because you'd panic so much."

Binnie turned red in embarrassment, but didn't say anything else. She looked away and rubbed the back of her neck.

Dongmin stared down at the clear ball again. He checked the rules one more time.

"If I want to use this ball, I have to hand it to someone, right?" Dongmin asked the group.

"That's what the rules say," Eunbi said, nodding her head.

Dongmin frowned and stared at the ball for a few minutes. Then, he threw it at Mingyu. Mingyu, taken aback, widened his eyes in anger when the ball hit his arm. The ball fell to the ground and disappeared before it reappeared in Dongmin's hand.

It looks like since I didn't hand Mingyu the ball, he's not "CLEAR," Dongmin thought to himself.

"Hey! What was that for?" Mingyu snapped.

Dongmin pointed at him. "The real Mingyu would've seen that coming and would've caught it."

"Yeah, if you gave him a ing warning!" Mingyu yelled.

"He's speaking in third person!" Eunbi cried out.

"I don't think it's Mingyu," Jungkook said. "His personality is too close to the real him. I don't believe that the FAKER would be able to react like this."

"Honestly, I think it's Jungkook," Eunbi said. "You're the only one who hasn't done much. Besides, you do a better job of calming Mingyu and holding back his reigns."

"My what?" Mingyu repeated.

"Okay, but I think it's fair for us to think that you're the FAKER," Jungkook said to Eunbi. "I mean, you talked about your old teammates without any personality. You realize that you talk about our old teammates like they're some kind of god you need to worship, right? You were probably just basing your memories off of them, weren't you? Besides, you're acting strange and you're the one accusing all of us."

"What do you mean that I wasn't talking about them without any 'personality?'" Eunbi inquired.

"She doesn't have personality," Mingyu countered.

"Excuse me?"

Dongmin looked down at his hand. He spun it around in his hands, then threw it at Eunbi.

Eunbi glared at him and caught the ball with her hand. She gritted her teeth.

"Were you suspecting me?" Eunbi asked. "Or were you handing me the ball?"

Dongmin gulped. "I-I just wanted to see—"

"I'm not the FAKER!" Eunbi argued. "It's one of these two!"

Since Dongmin didn't hand her the ball and tried to hit her with it, the ball started to grow extremely hot. Eunbi yelped and threw it back at Dongmin. He managed to catch it with his two hands after the ball cooled down in the air. Dongmin pursed his lips as the three continued to argue each other.

This ball is in this game for a reason. I'm supposed to do something with this. I don't know if it's supposed to help me win or not, but it's supposed to give me a clue, Dongmin realized. There's really no benefit for me to CLEAR anyone if I wanted to do process of elimination, but I can only do that if I'm a hundred-percent sure that the person is clear. With how the game's designed, I can't completely confirm it. So there has to be another way to use this ball, or it's some kind of distraction for me…

"U-Um, Cha Eunwoo?" Yoobin called him.

"Hm?"

"That ball… I don't think you should use it," Yoobin said.

"Why not?"

"Well, first, I don't think it's really helping, but…" She glanced at the scoreboard. Dongmin looked up and widened his eyes.

Nearly half the groups faced a LOSS. It seemed like people were randomly guessing and incorrectly identifying who the FAKER was in their group. Dongmin paled and looked down at the ball in his hand.

I seriously don't know what to do at this point, Dongmin thought. He looked at the clock. There's not a lot of time. I only have less than five minutes.

"…I think the FAKER is Jungkook," Yoobin finally said.

Dongmin turned to her. "What makes you say that?"

"He's too quiet. He talks a lot, but he's not doing a lot of talking right now. He's only talking when he's trying to quiet everyone else, which is strange because Jungkook is the most social one," Yoobin said. "Eunha suspects Jungkook, too, and I'm pretty sure that Eunha isn't the FAKER."

Dongmin quietly nodded his head as he repeatedly tossed the ball in the air. "Jungkook seems suspicious, but he's not as bad as the rest. If anything, Mingyu and Eunha are both standing out a lot…"

"My bet is on Jungkook," Yoobin said. She looked at him straight in the eye. "Trust me."

There was something odd about how Yoobin asked him to trust her. His heart skipped a beat when he stared into her gaze, acknowledging the pure determination she had for this game. Dongmin stopped throwing the ball in the air. 

"Are you sure about this?" Dongmin asked.

Yoobin nodded. "It's definitely Jungkook."

Dongmin pressed his lips together. Then, with a shaky sigh, he took another deep breath to prepare himself.

"Hold onto this," he said. He handed the ball to Yoobin, who reached out with her right hand…

Dongmin did a double-take. 

Right hand?

Before Yoobin could take the ball, Dongmin tightened his grip around the item. Yoobin looked up at him and slightly tilted her head.

"Cha Eunwoo?" she called him.

Dongmin stared at her. He looked down at her hand that was around the ball.

Her right hand.

Right.

Hand.

Dongmin jerked away and took a step away form Yoobin before he shouted:

"I declare Binnie as the FAKER!"

The room lit up red. Yoobin widened her eyes and seemed completely shocked that Dongmin would even suggest such a thing. Eunbi, Mingyu and Jungkook looked around, surprised with the sudden announcement.

Eunbi glared at Dongmin. "Cha Eunwoo, how could you make such a declaration when we haven't dec—"

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Yoobin gave Dongmin a hateful look before she screamed and fell in a hole that opened below her. The red room switched to a green light. Eunbi looked around and noticed that two portals appeared behind them.

"Congratulations! Team Cha Eunwoo, Eunha, Mingyu and Jungkook wins! The FAKER was successfully caught! Your Timehost has opened a portal for you to exit on the right. If you wish to spectate other players, please enter the Spectator's Room in the portal to your left." 

"Spectator's Room?" Jungkook repeated. "Did Timepiece have that?"

"No. It must be part of the new update," Eunbi mumbled. "We should go in and check it out."

She entered the portal to the left. The boys followed after her.

The Spectator's Room was a black space with holograms displayed at the front. There were two or three strangers gathered around to view a screen or two, but it was clear that not a lot of people opted to watch the game. Eunbi's eyes quickly landed on Park Kyung's team. She approached the four, surprised that they were in watching even though they were all down.

Park Kyung turned as if he had been expecting her. He smiled and patted her head when she came close. She blushed while Mingyu looked annoyed.

"You did great! You only had a few minutes, so we were getting worried," Park Kyung commented.

"You guys finished really fast…" Eunbi's voice became small and slightly more high-pitched so sound cute. The boys instantly realized the shift in her tone and couldn't believe their ears.

"Well, we know each other pretty well," IU pointed out. "Besides, it was a lot easier that it was L who was the FAKER. I would've struggled a little bit with Park Kyung or Sandeul, but thank god it was just L."

"I seriously find it hard to believe that you two aren't dating," Jungkook told her.

"We're just really close friends," IU told him. "Have you ever had a close friend before?"

"I got one right here," Jungkook said, putting his arm on Mingyu's shoulder. Mingyu shoved him away and walked over to Eunbi to grab her attention.

"Eunha, if Binnie is the FAKER, that means that Binnie is disguised as one of these people, right?" Mingyu asked.

"Or it could be that she already won or lost while we were still arguing," Jungkook said.

"You're correct!" IU chirped. "Yoobin already left the game."

"She lost?" Jungkook asked.

"The opposite: she won," Park Kyung said. "You probably didn't notice the scoreboard since you guys were pretty into the game, but she one one of the first to come out of the game."

"You should've seen her acting! It was crazy! I would've been fooled if she was disguised as one of my teammates," IU commented.

"She was disguised as that guy." Park Kyung said, pointing to an old footage.

Dongmin blinked. "That's the guy I saw at the airport. He was talking to Binnie before I came to get her."

"Really? Well, she did an amazing job," IU said. "His name is The8. He's a pretty good player. L and I met him in China two times and we worked pretty well with him. I'm surprised that he's in Korea. I wonder what he's doing here."

"Anyway, looks like we're all done with the game," L said. "We should get out."

"Okay!" IU looked at Park Kyung and Sandeul, who didn't budge. "Are you two staying?"

Park Kyung smiled. "We're going to look through for a little bit. Some of these are interesting to watch."

IU shrugged. "Alright, but make sure you get back soon! L and I will head back first."

The two entered the portal, leaving the game until next time.

Eunbi looked at Park Kyung. "Did Binnie leave?"

"She left a long time ago. It didn't seem like she wanted to spectate the scene. I mean, the way she tricked everyone was pretty brutal," Park Kyung told her. "You noticed something odd about her, too, right?"

Eunbi kept quiet for a few seconds. "…It's shocking to know that she's been surviving the game for so long. I knew that she had some kind of capability, but I just wasn't sure what it was and when it would come out."

"So acting is her strong suit," Park Kyung mumbled. He looked at her. "Are you afraid?"

"Of?"

"Her backstabbing you."

Eunbi smirked. "Binnie wouldn't do that."

"How do you know? What if she's just pretending to be close to you?"

"She was closely affiliated with Yuju."

"And what if she used Yuju and now Yuju's stuck somewhere because of her?"

Eunbi kept quiet. There was a long silence between the two.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" she asked him.

He gave her a weak smile. "I'm just asking you to be cautious. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Eunbi's cheeks flushed red a little. She awkwardly looked away.

"Y-You know… I—"

"Park Kyung." Sandeul interrupted the two. He looked at Eunbi, then at Mingyu. "Sorry, but can you take Eunha back? I need to talk to Park Kyung in private."

Mingyu didn't even wait. He eagerly nodded his head, grabbed Eunbi's shoulders, and pushed her away. Eunbi tried to protest, but she was pushed to the exiting portal before she had the chance to make a full sentence. The rest of her teammates followed in silence.

Once they were gone, Park Kyung looked at Sandeul.

"Sandeul, if you keep acting like this, they're going to catch on that you're up to something," Park Kyung warned him. "I'm keeping quiet for your sake, but you're making it really hard for me to do that."

"Never mind that," Sandeul said. "Don't get distracted."

Park Kyung smiled. "I'm not a very distracted person. You know that."