THE CONTROL ROOM

It’s horrible to watch without being able to do anything. Jeonghan’s eyes dart between the now three screens that are live on the wall in front of him—Seokmin still unmoving on his chair, countdown passing twenty minutes; Sunyeong in the room next door, water reaching his hips and trying to climb on top of the lockers; and Junhui unconscious in a bathtub also filling with water, unresponsive to Jeonghan’s desperate calls.

And worst of all, the text flashing across Sunyeong and Junhui’s screens:

승철의 결정을 기다리고 있기. 
(Awaiting Seungcheol’s decision.)

Is Seungcheol in a room somewhere too? Is he supposed to choose who to save? It‘s obvious that they will drown if the water doesn’t stop.

“Damn, the water’s cold!” Sunyeong swears from inside the Locker Room.

“Just hang in there,” Jeonghan says with a heavy heart. Right then, the flashing text on the screens changes.

결정이 접수되었기. 
(Decision received.)

The text vanishes altogether, and a metallic scraping sound can be heard through the walls. The waterfall from Sunyeong’s ceiling stops, and a small whirlpool appears when the drain in the floor opens again. Hearing Sunyeong’s celebratory calls, Jeonghan looks over to Junhui’s screen. To his horror, the tap doesn’t stop running. The water is seconds from covering Junhui’s mouth when the live feed ends and he’s left with a black screen.

Jeonghan doesn’t know what to feel. His heart is beating like crazy, brain struggling for a solution. Is Junhui drowning right now so that Sunyeong can be safe? What situation is Seungcheol in to be able to make such a decision? When he tells Sunyeong what he saw, the younger is speechless and horrified.

After a long while of silence and terrible mental images of Junhui in that bathtub, a popping noise scares Jeonghan so bad he jumps and hits his hip on a table corner. He swirls around to look and sees nothing out of the ordinary.

“Why’d you scream?” Sunyeong asks.

“I heard a noise...” Then he notices what must’ve happened. “One of the drawers! It opened just now.”

He walks over and pulls the previously locked drawer out—there’s another handbook inside. When he opens the book he finds a note very similar to the one before.

통신은 핵심있어. 
(Communication is the key.)

Although he’s furious that they are being toyed with like this, Jeonghan sees no other option but to play along. He skims through the handbook to the Korean section and finds that it is instructions on how to operate another part of the huge control panel. Jeonghan walks over, carefully reading and identifying the different buttons and knobs. He follows the steps which are supposed to turn on the communications system, and to his big surprise, all of the screens suddenly come to life. He can only see Sunyeong and Seokmin’s live feeds still, the rest are black screens with names on them.

Twelve screens. Two feeds and ten names. But one of the names is Jeonghan’s own. He goes through them all and finds that Minghao’s name is missing. Why of all people is Minghao not up there with the rest? Does that mean he isn’t part of this cruel game of terror? Somehow Jeonghan doubts that he’s safe, and it hurts his heart more than he can describe.

“The water’s all gone now,” Sunyeong says with a sigh of relief. “What’s going on in your room? Anything on Jun?”

He explains to Sunyeong about the screens, who suggests there might be a way to activate the same kind of surveillance system in the other rooms as in Sunyeong and Seokmin’s. Jeonghan continues the step-by-step guide that woke the screens up and finds which buttons to press.

A much smaller screen set into the control panel lights up, and there’s a menu on it titled ‘Communications System’. The options are ‘Activate’, ‘Reboot’, ‘Management’ and ‘Power Down’. Feeling like he’s getting somewhere finally, Jeonghan selects ‘Activate’, and a new list of options appears.

–Corridor–

–Bathroom–

–Interrogation Room–

–Select area to Activate–

Jeonghan doesn’t know what any of these things mean, although he has a clue since they all seem to be locked in different rooms. A dreadful feeling hits him. Is it his turn to choose now? Will he only get to choose one? He thinks of Junhui in the bathtub, of the countdown behind Seokmin that’s still ticking away fast.

He has to pick one.

THE SMALL ROOM

At first, Minghao thought that he’d been buried alive. He’d almost had a heart attack when he woke up, screaming and crying and thrashing around to no use. The space he’s in is only a little bigger than a coffin and seems to be made of stone slabs. It‘s absolutely impossible to move the walls. His throat feels like it’s in tatters from the yelling, his eyes are swollen and his back hurts from lying down on the hard surface. He turns to his side and hugs himself. He doesn’t want to look at the ceiling of his tiny space anymore, or the words that seem to be written in blood into the stone:

친구의 실수에 대해 지불 할 거야. 공정하네? 
(You’ll pay for your friends’ mistakes. That’s fair, right?)

So far the side walls have already moved in on him twice, about a centimetre both times. Minghao dreads that whatever his friends are currently doing, if they do it wrong, eventually the walls will crush him. It’s so horrible that he can’t even imagine it happening.

Do his friends know where he is? Do they know that their mistakes can cost him his life soon? Minghao can only hope, and he does.

He’s hateful. So filled with rage that it makes the small space seem warmer than it is. He knows where they are, and the reason why they are being forced to play this game. Because that’s what it is—a stupid, heartless game. Unlike his friends who were unconscious when they were brought here, Minghao remembers everything about the kidnapping and the Horror House before being drugged and put in here.

Unlike his friends, Minghao knows that there’s a big chance most of them won’t make it out of here alive.

SHOULD JEONGHAN ACTIVATE THE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR

THE CORRIDOR

or

THE BATHROOM

or

THE INTERROGATION ROOM?

(Winning option marked in bold font.)