EAVESDROP

PRiSN\

We both stood there, hands away from the knob as Baekho's hand still clutched my wrist.

"Don't say that," Ren responded to the despondent sentence Jonghyun had uttered that affected even me. "That's why you have to win this. We have to win this."

"But can we? I almost cost both of them their lives earlier. They went ahead and protected the rest of us... I'm just... What's the point of knowing how to play the games but being unable to save the one I meant to save...?"

I peeked through the parted door and saw as Ren placed his hands on Jonghyun's shoulders with a serious look.

"You will save him. You will save everyone. You just have to be better. We have to be better. Don't let Prism win or else you would have wasted this chance."

"I'm the reason he died before this... What makes you think I won't be the reason again? And if not me, Baekho would be the reason. He's too reckless."

I blinked and felt Baekho's grip tighten on my wrist. I looked at him and he seemed torn apart. I couldn't exactly tell what his expression was saying but it seemed worried and furious mixed with uncertainty.

"Then we just have to figure out our game plan as we did before. Make them stop playing and winning this in 5 rounds. Figure out who the player is."

"It's not that easy, Ren and you know it yourself. Our moves are limited sometimes. I don't think our previous game even earned us any points." Jonghyun clicked on his cuff and the same menu screen as ours popped up. He also had the objectives box and he clicked into it. "See? We got nothing. This isn't going to work..."

"Then let's do that..."

"What?"

"You want to win, right? You have to. Then... We should... Do things people want to see."

"I told you, I can't."

"You can't or you just like Minhyun so you don't want to? It's just like you said, 5 rounds won't be enough for us to win so we have to find a way to boost our popularity and you told me this was one of the ways a pair managed to gain lots of popularity."

"Ren..." Jonghyun looked dejected and he sighed before nodding. "I understand. Just give me a bit of time to prepare mentally."

"BAEKHO!" Both of us flinched as a loud voice called out to Baekho and we backed off from the door just as Hoshi came crashing into Baekho.

"Wah! Hoshi!"

"I'm so glad we are alive," he wailed as he clung to Baekho. Woozi showed a tiny smile and lifted his hand for a wave.

"I'm glad you're alive too. I was wondering what happened to you two," Baekho said and smiled, sighing in relief that his friend was fine even though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We worked with Aron and Joel and beat those chess guys to pulps!" Hoshi went on gushing about how they all won by working together as a whole team. Aron and Joel both came over to join the talk but I could tell Baekho and I were both thinking about Jonghyun's conversation with Ren instead. The door creaked open and Ren blinked, staring at the 6 of us.

"Why are you guys making a ruckus outside our room?" he sighed and Hoshi chuckled.

"Sorry. I was just too excited to tell Baekho about how we won!"

"Alright. Keep it down."

Before Ren closed the door fully, I noticed Jonghyun looking at me with a saddened look. I blinked and turned away to find Baekho looking at me.

"Let's go back to the room."

"Okay."

"Well, Woozi and I will be at the hot spring if you need us!"

"I guess Joel and I will head back to our room then."

Baekho pulled me all the way back and locked the door before letting out a dragged out breath.

"I can't believe it... You'll die because of my recklessness?!" Baekho said in both an exasperated and horrified voice.

"Calm down. We don't know the full context behind their words..." I clicked on my cuff and waited as Baekho sat down on the bed. Confused, I clicked it again and again. Baekho grumbled quietly to himself as I took his arm and clicked on his cuff. The menu popped right open and he raised his brow at me. "I think my cuff is broken..."

"What?!"

"Here, try it," I said and held out my arm to him. He clicked, rotated and clicked again but nothing happened.

"Oh god. Is this what he meant? Are we going to die now? Because I couldn't prot-"

I grabbed Baekho's shoulders and gripped it tightly.

"Stop it! It's not because of you and it won't be because of you!" I snapped and he flinched. "Don't let it get to you. There's no way you'll be the cause of my- wait..."

"What?"

"I died," I blurted out as realisation just hit me. Baekho stared at me like someone just hit him as well. I guess that's what realisation seems like. "He said it earlier. I died because of him... Then how am I still alive?"

"Oh... Maybe... He used his wish for you? The end game... The wish we get if we win."

"Yeah but... Why didn't he just wish for the game to end?"

Baekho pursed his lips, not knowing what the answer is as well.

"You see...? There has to be conditions or limits to what the wish can do too. What if it doesn't allow those dead in this round to come back alive? Maybe that's why he wished for... A reset or something?"

"That's dumb... He should have just stopped the game..."

"Not if he wants me to live... And the wish couldn't grant both of that..."

Baekho gasped and gritted his teeth. "We need to know how... We need to know what happened so we don't repeat it."

"It's useless asking them straight ahead... They won't tell us..."

"Enough of that for now. Your cuff... If it doesn't work, how are we going to participate in the next game?"

"We don't."

"What?!"

"Think about it, Baekho. Jonghyun and Ren wants to win this and they're even willing to try to stop us playing for 5 rounds. We let them have it. We get 5 free rounds to... Do other things. Train our endurance, read more books, things like that."

"I don't think 5 days of training would help much."

"It's better than fighting with the two and... Like you said, my cuff is broken and Prism never mentioned if we have to both be in agreement to skip or not. So you just have to say no to all 5."

The next day was just as we expected, we opened the door to find Jonghyun and Ren outside our door but before either could say a word, I spoke first," You don't have to convince us of anything. Baekho and I aren't joining in today's game nor the next 4 either."

"What? How did you...," Jonghyun whispered.

"That works for us. Don't question it, Jonghyun. Let's go."

"Okay..."

The two left to the main hall in a hurry and Baekho turned to me. Again, I noticed a long stare from Jonghyun before he finally turned away.

"Why didn't you let them speak first?"

"And what? How do you think they'll be answering any questions we have. Oh, we can't tell you. That'll be more irritating to deal with so let's just get it over with."

"Hey, why aren't you two going to the main hall?" Hoshi asked as he walked by us.

"We aren't participating in today's game," Baekho replied and Hoshi blinked.

"Why not? Don't you guys want to get out faster?"

We exchanged glances and Baekho cleared his throat.

"We do but Minhyun got hurt yesterday so we are sitting this one out."

"Oh . Do you need help or something?"

"No, I'll be fine. Thank you, Hoshi. Good luck with the game. Alright. So what do we do now?" Baekho asked.

"Hmm? Train, of course. I highly doubt we can trust in Jonghyun and Ren to clear this game for us. What happens if they meet... An end? We wouldn't know," I replied and he nodded in response. It made my heart fall to have to think like this but it was an honest opinion.

"Let's go with something light for today. How's your shoulder?"

"It's... Fine. Still stings a little but I'm fine overall," I replied and moved my shoulder to show him that I could still move it around. He nodded and we headed towards the library to read up on the books there after the rest had set out to play and Baekho clicking on the 'X' button worked out for us. Halfway through the day, we got tired of reading and went to the gym to work out a little. It was difficult to really do much with handcuffs restricting the larger movements and also my still numb shoulder but we managed somehow.

On the way back to the room, we decided to just take a bath in the room instead of making another trip to the hot spring. It was eerily quiet somehow without all the ones who joined the game.

"Maybe we should explore the place a bit more. We haven't really gone around since we just kept playing," Baekho suggested and I nodded. We detoured to look around the area, not having much luck in finding anything of interest.

"It looks so... Well built. As if it was made to be some kind of... Facility...," I said.

"For this game? Seems unlikely..."

"I do wonder what's going to happen to us now since we didn't join the game."

"I've been wondering about that too. Do you think we will be able to meet Hoshi and the others again? Or is it like some sort of level thing?"

We didn't have answers and we definitely didn't have anyone that we could ask either. Jonghyun couldn't tell us and God knows where Prism would be. And if he would ever tell us too.

After spending the day around, we noticed a person flashing back into the main hall. His cuffed partner followed shortly after. They looked haggard and tired. I suppose most of us would be after going through such arduous games. I hadn't noticed Baekho dragging me towards them until he held his hand out to help them up.

"Are you two alright?"

"Ah! You're the two from the chess game!"

"Huh?" We exchanged glances and turned back to them.

"Thanks for clearing that game, man. It was crazy. Wait. You two cleared this game already? That sure was quick of you."

"Um... No? We didn't join... Wait. You were in the chess game with us?"

"Yeah. I was the one who shot the arrow. I'm Minhyuk and this is Kihyun. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too. We were able to survive that thanks to your arrows honestly," Baekho said and I nodded in agreement.

"Oh. Care to bump fists?"

"Sure." They bumped fists with Baekho and lifted their hands to me. I froze for a split second before someone else materialised beside me, making me move away in surprise. It was almost too good to be true that they got distracted before they could find out about my broken cuff.

"Huh? Oh! You two are still here," Hoshi said as he appeared with Woozi. "I thought we wouldn't see you anymore!"

More people started to reappear and Minhyuk's partner seemed worried while Baekho asked Hoshi about the game they had just played.

"It was some kind of laser tag. We had to find for these little targets and shoot them. If we shot it at a person, it seems like they would die too... So we had to be really careful."

"Are you... Finding for someone?" I asked Kihyun who flinched and nodded.

"Yeah... A friend."

I blinked and tilted my head as something felt wrong. I looked at Baekho and Hoshi before turning back to Kihyun.

"A friend? You've known him... Or her for awhile now?"

"It's a him and yes, I've known him for most of my life."

"Oh..."

"Why do you ask?"

"N-no reason. Just... Wondering."

"Minhyun?!" Someone said my name in such a confused and shocked tone that I couldn't help but to look up in surprise too as my eyes met Jonghyun and Ren's wide ones.

"Oh. You guys made it safely," I said and smiled naturally but Jonghyun shook his head. He seemed unhinged all of a sudden as if this couldn't be real. "Um..."

"Something wrong?" Baekho asked and I shrugged.

"This can't be... How are you two still here?"

"Wow. Rude," Hoshi remarked and placed an arm on Baekho's shoulder. "Isn't it better that they're still here and alive?"

"No... Show me your arm." Jonghyun reached out for my hand but Baekho pushed Jonghyun's arm aside.

"Hey. Don't just try to grab him."

"Jonghyun, what if your memories are wrong?" Ren blurted out and Jonghyun shook his head again.

"There's no way. I remember clearly." Jonghyun looked at my arm again and frowned. "There's only one reason this could be happening."

"Why are you two talking as if we aren't here?!" Baekho snapped and crossed his arms. "Spit it out. Whatever you're hiding."

"Aft-"

"Chop, chop, chop!" Prism said with a joking tone as he suddenly popped out of nowhere between us. He seemingly turned his head towards Jonghyun and tilted it. "You know the rules."

"You didn't stop me before. And they already overheard some of it too," Jonghyun responded and Prism clapped his hands.

"Now, now. Don't be agitated or you'll get wrinkles fast."

"What the hell is actually going on, Prism?! What are you?" Baekho asked.

"Look, boy. I don't appreciate being spoken to with that tone but since you are being favored, I won't say much."

"Favored?" I asked and blinked. A chuckle escaped from his non existent mouth followed by a nod.

"Is that why they're still here?" Jonghyun asked and Prism waved his hand in a funky motion.

"Well, well. It just makes the games all the more interesting, doesn't it? Oh and it's time for the winner's gift."

"We don't need gifts. Just let us go!" Jonghyun snapped. "I've had enough of this already."

"Tsk, tsk. Don't be such a party pooper."

Ren held Jonghyun back even though he hadn't really shown any aggression yet but I guess he would know considering how they were currently partners.

"For the winners, I give you the gift of magic."

"That's wasn't in the previous game."

"No one said anything was like the previous games."

Baekho looked around and gasped softly. "Wait. You're telling me only this many survived earlier?"

"Sir, yes, sir. You'll be able to choose what type of magic you wish to command in your menus but you can only pick one magic ability."

I realised that might be a good gift to have and it would probably aid us in the games a lot but something still felt weird. Magic? How does one give us magic? Was this really a game world? A world that Prism could control or was there something beyond here that was controlling all of us? I recalled Jonghyun and Ren's conversation earlier and a question slipped out from my lips before I could stop myself.

~~~

Questions? Answers? Are they really that important?

> What is a PlaYEr?

> Are we being controlled?

> Who is favoring us?

 

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Baekmin3701 #1
Chapter 16: Hmm.. I just realized each title miss the “i” or you use a lowercase.. hm...
asmolbean #2
Chapter 1: i love how you include profiles, its cool