THE CONTROL ROOM

“You have to talk to us, hyung!” Junhui commands through the speakers. “We can’t see what you see.”

It’s almost that Jeonghan can’t see it either, he’s crying too much. The tears won’t stop coming, even while his heart still refuses to believe what the screen tells him—that Seungcheol and Chan have managed to get into the dreaded Boiler Room, and that their desperate attempts to save Jisoo have failed.

That Jisoo is dead.

“I... I... There’s... I don’t...” No words can pass his trembling lips. If only he could hear what’s going on in the Boiler Room, then maybe he could confirm. But the sight of Seungcheol holding Jisoo’s limp form is starting to suffice. “I think that... that Jisoo-ya...”

“That Jisoo is what, hyung?” Sunyeong presses.

As if on cue, the sound of feedback through the speakers come again. Mingyu’s voice is ragged and lifeless when he speaks.

“Jeonghan-hyung, can you hear me?”

“Mingyu-ya!” Jeonghan cries out in some version of excitement.

“Oh, my god, you’re alive!” Hansol exclaims in English, then switches back. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Mingyu replies weakly. “Jeonghan-hyung... you can see the Boiler Room. I can hear them from here. What do you see...?”

Frantically, Jeonghan tells him. Jisoo is not moving, and he hasn’t since the screen came on. He reads the message again, which says that Jisoo has been ‘deleted’. In return, Mingyu sighs and swallows his sobs.

“He’s dead,” he says. “He died because he saved Wonwoo, because Hansol saved Seungcheol, and because Wonwoo saved Seokmin.”

Jeonghan collapses on the floor, his knees too weak to carry him.

THE CLASSROOM

As all of them let their emotions free, Mingyu waits. Right now, everyone in every room is crying—even Wonwoo and Seungkwan in the Mirror Room. Wonwoo has figured that perhaps he has caused Jisoo harm with his decision, and it eats at Mingyu’s heart to hear his guilty words and deep, guttural crying. But somewhere, somehow, he has already pushed everything aside and switched into player-mode. He won’t let anyone else get hurt or die, and if he is to keep that promise, he needs everyone to cooperate.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have time. Or rather, Jun and Hansol don’t have time. Your trap is set off, it won’t stop until we solve the puzzle or one of you die.”

This jumpstarts Jeonghan, Sunyeong and Jihun. “How do you know? You sound like you know something we don’t,” Jihun says.

“I know everything, that’s my room, the Classroom. I’ve heard you guys from the start. Everything is connected and every one of us has a role to play, that’s the game. No matter how much we hate it we have to play, or else someone is gonna end up like Jisoo-hyung and I won’t let anybody else die.”

No argument, no questions. Mingyu continues.

“We have completed two Objectives now, according to the game book. The first was waking up and the first puzzles and traps, the second was the Communications System. If I made the right choice, choosing to be able to talk to you instead of Seungcheol-hyung, we should now be entering Objective 3. We need to unite. All of us.”

“How do we do that?” Junhui asks.

Mingyu hesitates. “I don’t know. It’s not instructions I have, I just know which choices have what consequences and what comes next, I don’t know exactly how to do every single step.”

“So what comes next?” Jihun presses again. “What do you know?”

“I know that whatever happens, Seungcheol and Chan have to use Jisoo’s key to save Wonwoo and Seungkwan from the Mirror Room. Isn’t there a countdown on any of your screens? They have just over fifteen minutes before the room explodes... which is also the same amount of time we have before Jun’s trap electrifies the entire floor.”

For a moment, everyone is silent and thinks hard. Then Sunyeong drops the question Mingyu’s been dreading the entire time. “Are you sure that what your game book tells you is true? You don’t think it could be a trick, like with Hansol’s ropes?”

Mingyu decides to be honest. “I have no idea if they are true or not. But so far they haven’t been wrong.”

THE CORRIDOR

Once the worst of the shock settles and pure grief takes over, Seungcheol lifts Jisoo in his arms and carries him out of the Boiler Room. He puts him down in a corner, as peaceful as a sleeping beauty, and turns away before he starts crying again. His gut is telling him the same thing Mingyu already knows—he can’t break down now. If he does, more people will die. So Seungcheol swallows it all, acts strong for Chan, and takes forth the key from his pocket.

It’s Jisoo’s key, hidden inside a crumpled note in Jisoo’s hand.

다시 같은 실수를 하고 싶어? 다음에 “미러 룸” 열자. 준희가 좋아할 거야. 
(Want to make the same mistake again? Let’s open the Mirror Room next. Junhui will like that.)

“What does that mean?” Chan asks after reading over Sungcheol’s shoulder. “Should we use hyu... hyung’s key..?”

“I think so,” Seungcheol agrees and pulls out his own key as well. He’d found it attached to the back of the steel collar when it released him, right before he used the bomb inside it to blast Chan’s door open and save him. “Question is, if this is what Jisoo’s key is for, then what’s mine for?”

Chan thinks about it but comes up with nothing. His hand feels his own key through the shirt, hanging from a thin rope around his neck. It’s broken, worthless, but he keeps it anyway. Seungcheol used it to unlock his wrist chain, something Chan himself did not think about when he was being pulled towards the cutting machine.

“What do you think, Channie?” Seungcheol says, calm and cold. “Which room should we open?”

Chan finds that Seungcheol is not looking at him, but rather at something closer to the floor—the touchpad he’d been forced to watch while locked to the neck ring. They haven’t seen it until now, but there’s a short, flashing message and a six-minute countdown on the screen, ticking away fast.

발리 발리. 
(Hurry now.)

THE BEDROOM

Through the open Bathroom door, Hansol and Junhui can see that the water flow from the drain under the bathtub is increasing quickly. The water is already knee high and covering both rooms, and the two boys are standing on Hansol’s bed to keep from touching the water. It hasn’t reached the live power lines yet, but it’s not many minutes until it does.

“Any ideas, little brother?” Junhui asks.

“Nothing,” Hansol admits reluctantly.

“Don’t worry, and stay still,” Mingyu tells them. “Trust that Leader-hyung makes the right decision.”

“Hello, that decision is opening the Mirror Room, right? And we have the same amount of time they do!” Hansol counters.

“You’ll be okay as long as you don’t touch the water.”

“That’s just it though, Mingyu,” Junhui says. “It’s a metal bed, and the water will reach the underside and soak through the mattress after it hits the live wires. It’ll fry us!”

“Now you tell me that!?” Mingyu exclaims, then starts rummaging through his books. “Wait, okay, I’ll see if there’s anything here...”

Junhui waits, puts an arm around Hansol’s shoulders to keep them both balanced on the uneven bed. The water’s flooding faster and faster.

“Hurry, Mingyu-ya!” Jeonghan calls, voice still cracking from the grief and crying. “Two minutes!”

Junhui is starting to freak for real, and when he does he feels his survival instincts clouding his common sense. He looks around the room, sees things in a way he would never do if it wasn’t life or death—like how the scythe can be used as a swing, and the Bathroom door is open and can be held onto...

“Screw the book, Mingyu, I have an idea,” Junhui says suddenly. Hansol gives him an anxious but hopeful look. “I’m gonna jump.”

“You’re gonna what!?” Mingyu, Jeonghan, Sunyeong and Jihun exclaim almost in unison.

“That’s crazy!” Hansol adds, gesturing around them.

Junhui isn’t so easily swayed. He pulls Hansol closer, then points just to the side of the Bathroom door.

“You see those wires? The ones about to electrocute us?” Hansol nods. “See how they disappear through the wall up there by the doorframe? I think I remember seeing an electric box or something inside my door. If I can get to it, I might be able to turn the electricity off.”

“That’s a whole lot of ‘maybe’s, hyung,” Hansol says and shakes his head, dark eyes pleading. “Don’t.”

“I agree, Jun, stop it,” Sunyeong says. “I know your moves better than anyone here, and you can’t do it. It’s too far.”

“How do you know, you can’t see in here,” Junhui counters. His voice is steady—he has already decided. “And there’s one person who knows my moves better than you. If he was here he’d know I can do it.”

Sunyeong goes into leader mode in seconds, matching the cool of Junhui’s voice with his own power and authority. “Minghao wouldn’t want you to die.”

Junhui ignores him, prepares his body to swing from the scythe and jump for the open door.

He says the last thing with a sad smile. “Like I said, he isn’t here.”

SHOULD SEUNGCHEOL OPEN THE MIRROR ROOM

or

SHOULD HE OPEN THE BEDROOM?

(Winning option marked in bold font.)