Nayeon pursed her lips, indecision written all over her face. It caused me to worry about the subject of this secret.

Her eyes had shined brightly only hours ago, and she had been so smiley, but at that moment, her smile didn't show up once and her eyes looked cloudy, totally unreadable. Plus, if she felt like she couldn't tell her own best friends about this, then clearly something awful had occurred.

“Okay, before I begin,” Nayeon said, interrupting my thoughts, “I have a question for you: do you know what grinding is?”

I shook my head. “Like...the dancing kind? When you basically rub yourself against someone?”

Nayeon made a face. “No… what the hell, man, I meant grinding in a videogame!”

I raised my arms in defense. “Alright, alright, tell me what grinding is!”

“Jeez, Chaeyoung… Grinding is like when you do something over and over in a videogame so that your character can level up bit by bit. That way you can unlock newer content and stuff like that. Not too long ago, Jeongyeon, Jihyo and I were very low level, so we planned on fighting waves of enemies inside a broken and abandoned castle, hoping to gain EXP that way. We were gonna do that repeatedly, just hack and slash away until we got to level 20.”

“Ah! Okay, I get that… Why did you ask, though?”

Nayeon paused and rubbed her chin.

“Something happened in that crumbling castle…We got separated after a horde of skeletons suddenly attacked us. I tried pushing them away, shouting for Jihyo, but soon I found myself in the west wing of the castle. I called out for both of the girls, but I never got a reply. I was frustrated and scared, but mostly frustrated. Skeletons weren't strong enough to separate three higher level players. It seemed very... off. I tried to find my way back by retracing my steps, but I felt more lost than I had before. All the hallways looked the same to me. My heart kept beating faster and faster. I felt like I was going to pass out. I felt so alone...

"Being an Assassin in such small and cramped hallways was terrifying. Jeongyeon was always the one leading the way when it came to walking in narrow areas, as her skills as a Ranger were more useful in that situation. A crossbow is too much of a hassle to hide and pull out often. I regretted not choosing a dagger to fight with. I fought a small horde of skeletons with my bulky crossbow and after defeating them, I expected them to fade away and leave some drops. But they didn't. Their remains stayed there, and I was given the prompt to loot their bones. That was weird, since AI enemies always turn to dust and leave behind orbs of EXP and maybe some leveled items. I looted them and found that they had some weird items. Stuff that I had previously only found in the bodies of summoned creatures, like demons. Only enemies summoned by players have cool alchemy ingredients like those that these skeletons had.

"I didn't think much of it, though. I was too paranoid about getting ambushed by stronger enemies to focus on a small detail like that. I let myself believe that I was just wrong about the behavior of defeated enemies. I only started getting really suspicious when the only type of enemy attacking me was the skeleton. Tons and tons, just rushing towards me with their clubs raised.  At one point, I was jumped by 10 of those bony jerks as I was checking this treasure chest I had spotted. I was sure that that would be the end of me, that I was going to die a really painful death. I mean, they caught me by surprise and I didn't have my crossbow loaded, nor could I load it in time. I killed maybe one of them by kicking them over, but since they caught me off guard, the others overwhelmed me quickly. They drove me into a corner and, as you know, The Phenomenon affects me in this game, just like you, so I felt every battle axe strike and slice my chest, every spear penetrate my skin.

"I thought I was done for. I couldn't defend myself, so I assumed I'd be dead within a minute. Then… the pain stopped. I looked up and saw a pretty girl fighting off the skeletons, kicking them and blasting them with her magic staff. When she finished killing off the horde, she came to me and asked if I needed healing, or if I had my own potions. I didn't have anything on me, so I asked her to heal me. She waved her staff around and did exactly that. I immediately asked her for her name. She told me her name was Mina. She asked me for my name as well. I introduced myself and thanked her for saving me. She admitted that it wasn't her intention to save me; she hadn't even seen me! She was just grinding, the same as 3Mix had been doing, and she had spotted the chest I had gone through earlier and decided to risk fighting the skeletons.

"I decided to repay her for her trouble. I took out the rare item I’d found inside the chest and offered it to her. She shook her head and refused to receive compensation for her good deed. After a minute of insisting and failing to get her to accept my offering, I asked her if she had seen two other girls around. I explained my situation to her but to my dismay, she hadn't seen either of my friends. She did ask me if I wanted to join her on the quest that had led her there, though, telling me that if we worked together we could defeat any enemies and maybe find my friends along the way. That convinced me to join her. I really didn't want to be alone. As we walked around the hallways, wary of any skeletons, I noticed that the girl, Mina, was seriously pretty. Even with her back turned to me, I felt attracted to her. Her dark hair looked great in the low lighting; her armor accentuated areas of her body that, almost like a magnet, attracted the eyes."

I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to tell me about all the ual fantasies you had about her?”

Nayeon frowned. “It's important to the story.”

“How is that important? If you happened to meet the same Mina that I know, then I'm listening to you talk about the curves of my best friend. I really don't want to hear any of that, thank you very much.”

Nayeon narrowed her eyes. “Why not? You don't know if this is crucial information or not.”

“I doubt it's imperative for me to know that you thought she was hot.” I crossed my arms across my chest and avoided looking at her. The last thing I wanted was for her to see how jealous I was getting.

Nayeon stepped into my view.

“You like her, don't you?” She stared at me intently, making me very self-conscious.

“It's okay. I get it. You're in love with your best friend. It happens.” She mirrored my stance and crossed her arms as well. “But I swear there's a reason I'm telling you this. Let me continue, please.”

I wasn't going to mention the accuracy of her statement, so I swallowed away any bitterness and breathed in deeply. “Yeah, okay, continue.”

Nayeon nodded.

"She was crazy good looking. It felt like every step we took, I fell more for her. It was strange. It felt like I was under some sort of spell. The only time I wasn't totally focused on her was when we encountered skeletons. There were so many that I started to get suspicious. As I fought them, I couldn't help but think that maybe they were being summoned by a powerful necromancer. They clearly had enough magic points, MP, to continuously summon tons of them. During one of the more peaceful moments, I asked Mina if she knew what was going on. I mentioned the evidence I had gathered: the bodies not disintegrating, the items found in the corpses, the massive amounts of skeletons that we encountered.

"For a second a flicker of worry took over her face, but that went away as quickly as it had appeared. She told me that it was probably just in my head, that enemies sometimes did that. She didn't have an explanation as to why, though, so the doubts in my head didn't go away. I’m not completely sure how long we explored the castle, but eventually Mina suggested we sit down and check her map to see if we had made any progress in the quest. We hunkered down in a corner and checked her quest log. She was concentrated on the menu, but I was concentrated on her. My heart wouldn't keep still. I think it was like love at first sight. Every little gesture and facial expression of hers made my heart flutter.

"It got to the point where she noticed my staring. She asked me if something was wrong. I shook my head and half-ashamedly I told her that she was freakishly hot. Her facial expression became unreadable, and I was worried that I had been too forward. My worry died down when she giggled and thanked me. She told me I was cute and—"

“Enough, Nayeon.”

She stopped mid-sentence and gave me a confused look. “What?”

I shook my head. “What is the point of this? Why are you telling me this? This sounds like a badly written movie.”

Nayeon frowned and grabbed my hands. She continued her story as I tried to escape from her grasp.

“When she called me cute, my heart lurched! I found myself leaning closer to her until our lips touched.”

My heart lurched too, but not the same way Nayeon’s had. I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to know what happened next.

“Maybe I shouldn't have kissed her without consent. I admit, it's pretty weird to kiss a girl you'd just met an hour ago. But it seemed like she didn't mind.”

“Please, stop, I don't want to know, Nayeon.” I couldn't get away from her. Her grip was tight. “I don't see the point of your story. Are you making fun of me for having a crush on my best friend? Did I do something to you that made you feel like you should exact revenge like this?”

Nayeon frowned. “No. I'm not doing this to hurt you. Listen to me. Don't make this a bigger deal than it actually is. We are not in a drama. Think straight, Chaeyoung.”

I did think about it for a second and let her finish her story. She was right. I had to think rationally and not make everything harder. She had no reason to want to hurt my feelings like this.

“Like I was saying… She kissed me back. I leaned in more and dug my hands into her hair, feeling how silky it was. She seemed to like that, so I kissed her a little more roughly.”

My heart rotted more and more with each word that escaped her lips.

“That's...when a skeleton came in.”

I had my head down, but at that I bolted straight up to look at Nayeon.

“I caught it sneaking up on us while we were kissing. I pulled away from her and reached for my crossbow, but was startled by Mina screaming at the skeleton. The skeleton froze and fell apart when she screeched about ‘not summoning it yet.’ She said that right in front of me.”

Nayeon sighed. She scratched her head and looked at me apologetically.

“She was the necromancer. I pushed her away from me and asked her what was happening. She stared at the floor, breathing heavily. I'm not sure if that was because we had been making out or if it was because I had caught her admitting that she was the reason there were so many skeletons.”

“What did she say?” I wanted to know what happened. The Mina that Nayeon met was also a necromancer, so it was evident she had met my Mina, and I needed to know what it was that she had done to Nayeon.

“She didn't say anything. It was like time froze. She wiped her lips and shook her head, as if it was hard to believe that her cover had been blown. I asked her why she had done that, why she raised skeletons and attacked them like as if she was an innocent adventurer defending herself. She finally reacted and told me to shut up, then raised her staff and blasted me with some lightning spell. I hit a wall and slumped to the floor. Mina inched toward me, her face completely blank. She closed the distance between our faces and out of the blue she kissed me, and it was a long kiss, the kind that leaves you breathless. It was kind of romantic…”

“Nayeon, she had just blasted you with lightning. How is that romantic?”

Nayeon blushed and turned away dramatically. “Forget it. But after she kissed me, she put one end of her staff of my chest and shoved it deep inside of me. Let me tell you, it's one thing to be penetrated by a sharp weapon, and it's another thing to be penetrated by a blunt one. Her staff wasn't meant to stab. It's just a stick with an orb on one end. It made me howl like crazy.”

Nayeon ended her story with a few final words.

“I can tell by your face that this was your Mina that I met. I don't know what happened to her to have made her change so dramatically, but… you've got the three of us, Jihyo, Jeongyeon and I, to help you. She's crazy strong, and we both know that, so you're going to need a lot of help.”

I nodded, once again thankful that I had come across such kind people. Who else would be so willing to help a virtual stranger?

“So did Mina leave you like that, with a giant hole in your chest?” I asked, curious as to how she was reunited with the rest of 3Mix.

“She sure did, in more ways than one... Jeongyeon and Jihyo found me about thirty minutes later. Jihyo screamed and gave me almost every potion she had until I regained all of my HP. They asked me what had happened, begged me to tell them who did that to me but I– I couldn't tell them. So I would really appreciate it if you kept this a secret as well.”

I crossed my arms and stared at her for a good ten seconds. “Why do you want to keep this a secret? This could have happened to anyone, Nayeon. I'm sure they'll understand completely.”

“No, they won't. Trust me on this.” Nayeon shook her head, adamant about her decision to remain quiet.

“Tell me why you can't tell them.”

Nayeon huffed and looked at me awkwardly. “This is gonna sound a little weird… I don't know how you'll react.”

“God, Nayeon, what could it possibly be? I'm sure you're just making a big deal out of it. C’mon, spill!”

She leaned against a wall and looked dramatically to the side. “Jeongyeon, Jihyo and I are… dating.”

I'm sure my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline.

“We’re in a polyamorous relationship. I know it sounds weird, I promise it's—”

“—It's not my business, Nayeon, don’t worry. I was just surprised. You three definitely have a gay vibe about you.”

Nayeon didn't look very convinced, so I made eye contact with her, assuring her that I wasn't reacting negatively to her news.

“I actually think it's very nice that you guys did that. It eliminates feelings of competition between you guys.”

Nayeon nodded and said “Yeah. We went to high school together and found out we all were in love with each other. We didn't really do anything about it until two years ago, when we decided to be in this kind of relationship. So, please… don't tell them. I– I know I technically cheated on them. Please, please, it'll break their hearts.”

“Nayeon, listen. I can't keep this a secret,” I began, watching her defeated expression grow worse. “But– you have to tell them about this yourself. You won't be able to keep this quiet for long. Something will happen and they will find out, and if it doesn't come directly from you, then it's gonna hurt them a lot more. It's best you don't wait this out; go and tell them the truth.”

Nayeon kicked a nearby tree. She seemed to think about it, which was good, since I strongly believed that Jihyo and Jeongyeon deserved to know what happened.

“Plus,” I added, “they really love you. I can see it. If you tell them the whole truth, nothing held back, then I'm sure they'll understand.”

“But what if they don't?” Nayeon asked with extremely wide eyes.

“If they don't, then that's on you. You allowed this to happen and they have the right to be hurt by your actions.”

Nayeon nodded. “Dammit. I really hate myself right now. But you're right. I have to tell them. If they get mad, it's all my fault.”

I smiled at her, proud of the decision she made. Maybe, just maybe, I could also help 3Mix grow and be better. It was the least I could do for all the kind things they've done for me.

Back at the camp, Nayeon tentatively approached her two girlfriends and lightly grabbed their shoulders. She seemed to whisper something to them, which made Jihyo put on a worried face. It looked like Nayeon comforted her, probably promising that everything would be okay.

Jeongyeon turned to me and mouthed the words We’ll be right back. I nodded in response, giving them two thumbs up to show them that I would be okay with being by myself for a couple minutes.

They stepped away and headed to where Nayeon and I had had our own secret meeting.

After a few minutes, I began to get restless. I was glad that they were talking about such a touchy subject, but I was also tired of sitting down. I resorted to walking around the camp, keeping away from where the other members were.

Out of nowhere, I remembered the recorder that Nayeon had found and tossed towards me earlier that day. I ran around looking for it in the tall grass until I finally spotted it. I lifted it into the night air and saw that it wasn't a recorder; it was a flute! It was also no ordinary flute, as the instrument in my hands was a pan flute.

How Nayeon could have possibly confused a recorder with a pan flute was beyond me.

I checked it all over, seeing if it had taken any damage at all. It didn't even have one scratch on it, so I cleaned the lip piece and planned on playing it until I heard something that made the hairs on my neck stand up straight.

It was an earth-shaking slap.