"I'm sorry, but a girl named Choi Yuna doesn't live here," a middle-aged woman with permed hair said. "She might have lived here before we moved, but that was years ago…"

Eunbi smiled. "Okay. Thank you. Sorry to bother you, ma'am."

The woman nodded and closed the door. Eunbi stepped away from the house and sighed. She had went to Yuna's house to check if she had returned from the game, but when she arrived, Yuna's mother had no clue who Yuna was and that she was a mother. As far as Yuna's mother knew, she was married to Yuna's father, but instead of being parents to two children, they were parents of a single child: Yuna's older sister.

Of course, Mrs. Choi didn't recognize Eunbi at all, which made sense. Without Yuna, there would be no reason for Mrs. Choi to recognize Eunbi or associate with her at all.

She began to walk down the street, figuring out how to spend her Sunday morning. She didn't really have any friends in her new school to hang out with, so she couldn't call anyone to hang out. Besides, people were probably attending cram school or doing some extracurricular activities.

It's a little boring, she thought to herself.

She decided to walk around, trying to figure out what she could do alone. She kept eyeing on her phone, scrolling through to see if there was any news of Yuna's status. Instead, the words "IN GAME" continued to appear below her name. Eunbi sighed to herself and shoved her phone back into her bag before entering a random arcade.

Upon entering, she saw two familiar boys arguing over the claw machine: Kim Mingyu and Jeon Jungkook.

"You can't pick up that doll!" Jungkook cried out.

"Shut up! I can do whatever I want! I got this," Mingyu snapped. He pressed the button to lower the level. The claw pried open and sunk down. It wrapped itself around the doll's head, but the doll's head was too heavy for the machine to pick it up. The claw ended up going back to its original place, causing Mingyu to slam his hand against the screen while Jungkook groaned in annoyance.

"See? I told you that it wouldn't work," Jungkook taunted.

"One more. I can do one more."

"I don't have any cash."

"."

Mingyu clicked his tongue and looked away from the machine, making eye contact with Eunbi. Eunbi quickly looked away and attempted to run back, but Jungkook hollered her name and dashed towards her with a bright smile on his face:

"Eunbi! Eunbi, hey!"

Damn it, Eunbi cursed. She took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled loudly for them to hear. Then, she turned around to face them properly. Gripping the strap of her bag, she forced a smile. "Hello."

"Are you here to play?" Jungkook asked.

"I was, but now I'm planning to leave," Eunbi said.

"Perfect! We just ran out of money so we're leaving, too. We can hang out together!" he exclaimed.

"I'd rather not—"

"Oh, come on! I know you like to hang out with us," Jungkook said. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Besides, we're friends, aren't we?"

Mingyu snorted. Eunbi glared at him.

"Is there a problem?" Eunbi asked Mingyu.

"Nah, nothing," Mingyu said, whistling away.

"No, Mingyu has a point. We're not just friends," Jungkook said. He pulled Mingyu closer and huddled the two so that he could whisper, "We're comrades."

Eunbi felt chills when she heard such a cringe-worthy title. She pushed Jungkook away while Mingyu rolled his eyes.

"I've warned you plenty of times, but you shouldn't talk about TP so much when you're outside," Eunbi said.

"You know, 'TP' isn't the best acronym to use. People will think that we're talking about toilet paper instead of a game app," Jungkook pointed out.

"You don't want people to know that you're playing TP. I've told you this over and over again."

"Whatever. We beat that Demon Lord in a breeze. I'm sure we can get 24 Timeticks soon and maybe replay it if we're all up for it," Jungkook said, punching the air as the three headed out of the arcade.

"Eunha defeated the Demon Lord." Mingyu glared at Eunbi. "You didn't let us have all the fun."

"I do things alone, remember? It's you guys who keeps clinging onto me," Eunbi complained.

"D.O said that if we want to survive Timepiece, we need to work as a team," Jungkook said, checking his phone. "We've been messaging each other frequently these days. He said that he managed to get up 20 Timeticks. Four more and he's finally out of the game."

"Well, lucky him," Eunbi said. "He seems to be one of the lucky ones."

"Hey, is it that hard to survive Timepiece?" Jungkook asked. At this point, he completely gave up calling the game by its two letter.

"Depends on your luck. There are some people who go through one game and end up losing their Rights to Existence right away, but those people are pretty rare. The Timekeepers don't pick anyone random," Eunbi said.

"Huh," was all Jungkook said before they saw Yoobin walk out from a bookstore. Distracted, he quickly beamed and ran up to her. "Yoobin! It's me, Jungkook!"

He grabbed Mingyu and Eunbi and dragged them closer to Yoobin, who seemed quite startled. She gave them an awkward bow, unsure of how to act casual around them. 

"W-What are you guys doing here?" Yoobin stuttered.

"Hanging out," Jungkook said. "You?"

"I came to buy a book," Yoobin said.

"You like to read books?" Mingyu asked her. She nodded. "I don't."

"No one asked," Eunbi retorted.

A few minutes later, another familiar figure walked out of the bookstore: Dongmin.

Dongmin almost jumped and screamed when he saw people he knew standing out at the bookstore. He gave them all a skeptical look, wondering if they had gathered for some secret meeting that he wasn't aware about.

"Were you guys hanging out?" Jungkook asked Yoobin and Dongmin.

"No. I wasn't even aware that she was in the bookstore," Dongmin said honestly.

"I-I saw you, b-but I didn't think it was a good idea to say hi," Yoobin blurted. She looked away, unsure of how to handle the awkward situation.

"So what are you guys up to?" Dongmin asked the trio.

"We were hanging out. We were talking about Timepiece before we saw Yoobin come out of here," Jungkook explained.

"Oh. That reminds me," Dongmin said, turning to Eunbi. "D.O kind of explained some stuff to me, but I wanted you to clarify everything. It's about the game."

Eunbi looked around. "I'll answer them, but not here. Do you know any quiet and private place?"

Jungkook snapped his fingers. "I know the perfect place."

Mingyu couldn't believe it. Sure, he lived alone, but his apartment was a small studio room. Not only that, but it was an old building with strange bugs appearing here and there. The only reason why Mingyu decided to move out to this apartment was because it was cheap and a good distance away from the school. When he had bought the house, he initially planned to be the only one hanging around in the house.

He would've never expected to have friends come over, especially four people. Moreover, he never would've expected Jungkook to suggest to hang out at his place. He tried to protest against them, but Jungkook already seemed to know where he lived, which wasn't a surprise because Jungkook had tried to walk to school with him a couple of times.

Dongmin and Yoobin uncomfortably sat on the ground. Eunbi waited for everyone to settle down in a circle while Mingyu scavenged for any snacks and drinks he had in the fridge. Jungkook, anticipating that Mingyu would probably have nothing, went to the nearest supermarket.

Eunbi glanced at Mingyu, who was muttering something under his breath as he closed the fridge and looked in the cabinets.

"Are you and Jungkook close?" Eunbi asked him.

Mingyu snorted. "Nah, he just follows me everywhere."

"Why?"

"Probably because I'm not a two-faced like the rest of the people at school," Mingyu blurted.

Dongmin glared at him. "Are you talking about me?"

"Definitely you," he said, closing the cabinet. "Well, I have nothing to offer you guys except for this bag of chip that I ate two days ago. Here."

He tossed it. Dongmin dodged it while Eunbi caught it with her hands. Mingyu whistled.

"You have good reflex," Mingyu said.

"I've trained myself. Training yourself in the real world helps when you get into Timepiece," Eunbi explained.

The door opened. Jungkook finally appeared with a bag of items. He quickly closed the door behind him and took of his shoes. He gestured Mingyu to sit down in the circle, which he did reluctantly. Jungkook squeezed himself between Dongmin and Mingyu while Mingyu took a seat besides Eunbi.

"I got drinks, plastic cups, and paper plates to put the snacks on," Jungkook said, taking out all the items. "You guys don't have to pay me back. Just buy me drinks or snacks next time."

Eunbi and Mingyu kept quiet and stared at each other.

We fell for Jungkook's trick, they realized. They heaved a sigh while Jungkook happily set up the meal in the circle. 

"Let's just hurry and move on with this," Eunbi said. She looked at Dongmin. "You said you wanted to ask about Timepiece?"

"That's right," Dongmin said. He leaned closer into the circle. "Timekeepers and Timehosts. What's the difference?"

Eunbi kept quiet for a minute, trying to figure out how to explain the situation. After thinking about it for a second, she turned to her left.

"Yoobin, do you know the difference?" Eunbi asked.

Yoobin jumped in her seat. "W-Well, I kind of thought of it like the T-Timekeepers are the boss of the Timehosts…"

"Close," Eunbi said. "Timekeepers are those who control a whole area of land. They are the ones who select the Timehosts and invite the users to play Timepiece. For example, let's take the cities. Let's say that there's a Timekeeper in Seoul. Then that Timekeeper controls the Timepiece players in Seoul only. They cannot control the players who are in other cities. Now, let's say that you're a Timepiece player and you're in Seoul's territory, but go to Busan's territory. Then you're in the hands of the Timekeeper who is in charge of Busan."

"So are Timekeepers based on cities?" Dongmin asked.

"No. It's a random plot of land that you can't really map out. You just have to know that there are borders and that at any time, you're prone to cross the borders and be in another Timekeeper's territory."

"What about Timehosts?"

"Timehosts are the ones who host the game, the ones who wear those animal masks."

"What about the clock-headed guy?" Mingyu asked.

"He's a Timekeeper."

"So the animal masks are the Timehosts?" Dongmin repeated.

"Yeah."

"Why do they wear animal masks?"

"The animal mask matters. They speak about the Timehost’s personality and the kind of game you’re heading into. Like, let's take the recent Timehost we saw: the serpent. Why is it a serpent? The serpent are reptilian creatures that resemble dragons, which is why we had that fantasy RPG theme. Why was the serpent colored in green and why did it have horns? Probably to emphasize the dragon aspect," Eunbi explained.

The group paused and looked at her for a long time.

" this ," Mingyu muttered, leaning back. "This is just like Literature class during our Poetry Unit. ‘Why did the poet decide to use a black cat instead of a blue dog?’ I don’t ing know—because the poet wanted to?"

Jungkook cracked up while Dongmin elbowed him, telling him to shut up.

"Don't look at me. I'm not the ones who made the game," Eunbi said. 

"I asked D.O about the fourth rule on the contract," Dongmin continued. "The ability for the Timehost to 'Lock' you in a game. Does that mean we're able to exit a game?"

"Yeah. In the few seconds when the game is starting, you have the ability to quit out. You have to be fast, especially if it turns to be a counter-clockwise game. Although I wouldn't advise you to use it because if you ever chose to use your evil eyes, you don't get it back, and if the Timekeeper notices that you're quitting out of the games often, they'll encourage the Timehosts to lock you," Eunbi explained. "Plus, you want to get 24 Timeticks. Otherwise, you're stuck in game and trust me, it's a pain to be stuck in the games for years."

"Like your friend, Yuju?" Mingyu said.

Eunbi glared at him. "Yuju isn't stuck in the game because she kept quitting out of the games. She's not the type to do that. As for why she's still IN GAME, I don't know."

"So how are you going to find her?" Jungkook asked. "The friend thing doesn't tell you which game she's in."

"I'm planning to play enough games to figure out what happened to her. Ask people who heard of her or at least think they've heard of her. Once I find out that she's safe, I'll either finish playing the game or play the game with her until we both get out of this loop," Eunbi told them.

"So until then, we can be your teammates, right?" Mingyu asked.

"I don't really—"

"You heard D.O before. You at teamwork and socializing," Mingyu said, crossing his arms. "How do you expect to get information out of people when they're more willing to kill you when they get to know you?" He pointed to Jungkook and then Dongmin. "These two guys have a better chance of finding out what happened to Yuju than you. If we were to simplify the situation, Jungkook and Dongmin have high charisma points while you don't."

Eunbi clenched her jaws. Originally, her plan was to keep Yoobin on her team so that they could both look for Yuju together, especially since Yoobin seemed to have a history with her friend. However, the more Mingyu argued for his point of view, the more Eunbi couldn't help but agree with him.

"Well, I don't need all of you," Eunbi said. 

"You know that if you want Jungkook on your team, then you're going to want me," Mingyu argued.

"I'll just keep Dongmin. He's smarter and just as social as Jungkook," Eunbi declared.

"Dongmin's weak and quick to backstab you if you don't protect him," Mingyu said. Dongmin glared at him. "Oh, don't give me that look. We've all seen you sacrifice Yoobin to the zombies in our first game."

"T-That was a mistake," Dongmin stuttered.

"We all know that it wasn't," Jungkook murmured.

"Your best deal is to take me and Jungkook. We can throw away Dongmin," Mingyu said.

"Hold up, wait!" Dongmin exclaimed. "You can't just throw me out!"

"Why not?"

"Jungkook is good with talking to people. I get that he's social, but he's not so good with adults," Dongmin said quickly. "What if someone older knows something about Yuju? Then what?"

"Well, if the older person is a woman, then I can still get information," Jungkook said, "but if the person is a man, then we might run into a small issue."

"Exactly! See?" Dongmin cried out. He looked at Eunbi. "You need me on your team." He glanced at Yoobin. "If anything, we should throw away Yoobin off the team…"

"No, we can't," Eunbi said. "Yoobin is the only one who knows Yuju and has played a few games with her before. It'll be much easier for me to search for Yuju with another pair of eyes."

"Do you have a photo?" Dongmin asked. "Maybe I—"

"I don't because in this reality, she doesn't exist," Eunbi said in a cold voice. "Any photos I have with her are completely erased. The only sign of existence that I have of her is on the app, where under my friend's list, it says that she's IN GAME."

Dongmin sighed. "Okay, so doesn't that mean you need all four of us?"

Eunbi stared at them. Then, she finally heaved a sigh and gave in.

"Okay, but here's the thing—" She gave a sharp look at Dongmin. "If we're in a team, you can't sacrifice one of us to live." She looked at Mingyu and Jungkook. "You guys can't move around without my orders unless we're on the brink of death." She looked at all the three guys. "Got it?"

"Don't you have anything to say to Yoobin?" Jungkook complained. "It's not fair for you guys to lecture only the guys."

"Yoobin follows my orders. She's good," Eunbi said.

Mingyu grunted. "Fine, but you can't do everything alone."

"What do you mean?"

"Like what happened in the RPG game? You can't do that anymore. No tricking us to thinking that we're helping you," Mingyu said.

Eunbi paused. "Fine."

"Good."

There was a minute of silence before Jungkook spoke up:

"You said that you were in a team before with Yuju. Was there anyone else?"

Eunbi presed her lips for a second. Then, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, she stared down at her drink sentimentally.

"Yeah," she said softly. "There were five people older than Yuju and me. We were the youngest. We had a really smart tech-wizard, a cool but caring guy, a really bubbly girl, and—" She stopped herself. "—two more people."

"Two more people? Who were they?" Yoobin asked. She was finally starting to speak after she felt comfortable to ask.

"The leader of the group and a really brave girl," Eunbi said. She cleared . "Well, that's enough about me. Anyway, those five were the ones who saved Yuju and me. Without them, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Are they still alive?" Dongmin asked quietly.

"Four of them are." Eunbi grimaced. "One of them died."

Eunbi reached down and picked up a shrimp cracker. She popped it in and didn't say a word. Mingyu stared at her in silence as he sipped his orange juice. Sensing that the conversation took a dark turn, Jungkook decided to talk about school in order to light things up. Dongmin quickly understood Jungkook's attempt and began to start a new conversation with him while Yoobin quietly joined them. 

I should leave soon, Eunbi thought after a minute of reminiscing.

But she stayed a little longer, feeling slightly less bored with her newly formed teammates.