"Mmm... Let's join them. Maybe we can get to know more about his... Capabilities," I replied and Baekho gave me the quirky brow to which I gave him back the same look. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Just thinking about how you didn't want to spend time with Hoshi before but you want to spend time with this stranger wh-"

"Saved our asses from sword wielding statues."

Baekho crossed his arms and pursed his lips in a way that I couldn't really grasp what was bothering him just yet until it just clicked.

"Right. Hoshi is your friend... Jonghyun is a stranger. I get it."

"Look, just give my friend a chance next round, okay? If we end up playing in the same game. I'm telling you he's good at games too. Just that one caught everyone off guard and it's not like you need to big brain it."

"Okay, okay. I'll give him a chance...," I sighed.

"Good." He grinned and we started heading back to our room. I chuckled and shook my head, thinking about his little childish display earlier but it made me feel a little more comfortable around him. The way he wore his emotions on his sleeves made me feel reassured somehow that maybe, just maybe everything was going to be okay.

Or that was what I wanted to think until we entered the bath.

I consider myself a decent person. I do not peek at Baekho when he baths and in return, he doesn't either. We give each other that space we need but in a bath like this? It was an open war. Peaceful but war. We made our way to the hot spring and there was a male and female section surprisingly enough. The cuffs unlinked once we were close enough to the entrance and we both entered the male's hot spring obviously. It resembled that of an indoor bath house as we took off our dirtied clothes in exchange for a small towel that barely covered anything. I hesitated at first but the moment I saw Baekho turn towards me, I froze.

"What's wrong? You seem stunned."

"Ah... I uh... Just forgot... That..." I started to blink furiously and he tilted his head.

"Huh?"

"That we need to be fully in a hot spring. I mean... Wow.. I mean, no. Not... I'm babbling."

He chuckled and my face felt warm as I pulled my eyes away.

"Hey. They have swimming trunks over there if you don't want to, you know... Be ."

"Right." I snapped my fingers awkwardly as I was about to grab ahold of one of the swimming trunks but paused as I thought about the possibilities that someone else's junk might have been inside it before. Maybe it was better to be but then again, everyone's junk would be in the water so...

Why does any of this matter when I was the one who agreed to come here?

Baekho just laughed at the sight of my predicament and ended up dragging me in by the arm instead. I could see his muscles much clearer without his clothes of course. I already knew the guy was fit from the way he moved and looked but I wasn't quite expecting the tattoos as well. Two on his chest, one on his arm and so on. They weren't large or menacing looking but I just hadn't noticed them before this. We entered the showers and washed the blood off before meeting up again at the bath area. I could see his body clearer now that they weren't smeared over with blood. I would be lying if I said I didn't think he was quite the hunk but I kept those thoughts to myself as we slid into the hot spring, moving over to Jonghyun who was there too.

"Hey, so the two of you came here after all," he said and smiled.

"Sure did. Say, you seem to know a lot about the game...," Baekho started and trailed off as he thought about the question he wanted to ask. Jonghyun chuckled and tilted his head.

"You're going to ask if I've done this before, aren't you?"

He seemed surprised before nodding. "Well, it's suspicious how we were able to clear that so easily... After we teamed up. The speed those things were moving at was no joke and yet they were beaten just like that?"

"Truthfully, I can't tell you," Jonghyun replied and we both blinked, stunned.

"Prism's rules?" I asked and he shook his head. "Huh? Your own rules?"

"Not quite either. It's just..." Jonghyun stared at me and I tilted my head in confusion. He sighed and shook it after. "Things might change if I told the both of you..."

"But you did win, didn't you?" Baekho asked eagerly.

"I did."

"Then... Could you tell us how?"

"And risk my chances of winning?"

Baekho gasped and shook his head. "Sorry... I didn't think about that... Of course I would prefer if all of us could win together... Is that possible?"

"I don't know. Maybe if you wished it..."

Something uneasy clicked in my stomach at that moment as Jonghyun said that.

"Why didn't you wish it?"

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you wish for the game to end?" I asked and he pursed his lips uneasily before putting on an apologetic smile.

"I can't tell you... Sorry..."

We left after we were done and Baekho looked at me worriedly. I knew he had concerns and plenty more questions just like I do now but neither of us had any answers.

"You think..."

"Yeah?"

"Maybe it had something to do with you?"

"Whatever are you talking about? I don't even know Jonghyun."

"But you trusted him..."

I stared at Baekho and frowned. I wasn't frowning because of what his sentence entailed but because it was the truth. I trusted Jonghyun without a second thought at that moment. It had felt as though I knew he would help us win without even realising it.

"Am I right?"

"Look...."

"No, Minhyun. I'm not saying it's a bad thing... Its just... You're not hiding anything from me, right? I mean, you don't have to tell me your whole life story but...if its important..."

I pursed my lips and shook my head. "No.... I really don't remember ever participating in this before. Trust me or not... That's up to you but I'm telling you the truth that I know right now. If... I really had played this before, I don't have any memories of it..."

"Right..." I could see the conflicted expression in his face but I wasn't lying to him. I really didn't know anything about the game when I woke up on that first day or any day before it either. We headed back to our room quietly and he sighed as he sat down. I felt bad for not being able to make him feel reassured about my trustworthiness but what else could I say?

"Hey... Its still not night yet, I think. Do you want to... Head down a different path... See what we can do?" I asked nervously since the tension started to eat up at me suddenly. He nodded and just as he got up, our door burst open and startled both of us as two people charged into the room. They tackled both of us to our shock before we could even retaliate, pushing us down onto the bed.

"Hey! Let him go!" Baekho snapped and we struggled against the two who didn't even seem that strong compared to Baekho but they pulled out guns and we froze almost instantly.

"That's not real, is it?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. One of them grinned while the other clicked his tongue.

"Want to test it out?" he chuckled and pressed it against my temple. It was cold and definitely had a metallic feel to it but I couldn't tell. Baekho gritted his teeth and the room fell silent. "Good. Now that we have your attention, get up."

"What? You pushed us down only to ask us to get up?" I hissed as they got off us and waved their guns threateningly. We got up slowly and kept a close eye on their weapons.

"Sit there by the table."

"Why are you doing this?" Baekho asked as we moved as we were told, definitely confused by their actions. We didn't clear those games just to be threatened out here too.

"Why? Because it's who we are," the other answered and approached us. "Squat down."

We lowered our bodies to the floor and he zip-tied the chain to the table's leg. "That doesn't mean it's who you should be. We should be working together to clear this... Not against each other."

They started to look through our cupboard and threw our clothes out as if they were searching for something. They looked under our bed and even the drawers.

"You've got a whole load of jack."

"If you're finding for something, we don't have anything," I said and frowned. I noticed Baekho trying to scoot his leg outwards. Unsure of his actions at first, I quirked a brow at him.

"Tch. Useless."

"We should leave."

They squatted down in front of us and scowled.

"What item did you get in exchange for winning?"

Baekho and I exchanged glances before shaking our heads. "We didn't get that option."

One of them slammed their hand against the table and I flinched out of the way while Baekho's hand moved almost in a protective stance over me.

"Don't you lie to my face."

"It's not a lie. We weren't offered any items. We have nothing on us either that we can offer."

"Tsk. Seriously useless."

"Come on. Let's just hit another room."

They left and Baekho let out a long breath of relief before looking at me.

"You alright?"

"Alright? Not going to be if we don't get out of this," I sighed and rubbed my neck. "What were they even thinking?"

"I don't know but there is a way to get out of this... I need you to bring your hand closer to the zip tie though."

"What are you planning?"

"It unlinks when we enter the bathroom so if I can just get there..." I watched as he stretched his body towards the bathroom, barely reaching it. "Hah... Should we just... Pull the table?"

"Or we could call for help," I said and raised a brow at him. He blinked and pursed his lips.

"Yeah but we don't know if they even have anything to help us..."

"You know what... I'm taller than you so let me do it," I sighed since he seemed reluctant to ask anyone for help. We switched places and I stretched towards the bathroom, succeeding a little easier since I was taller. I sat down and sighed again, feeling even more drained than earlier.

"Sorry I couldn't do anything."

"It's fine. It's not your fault," I replied him. "Why don't we just rest for today?"

"Right..."

We fell into an awkward silence again and sat down on the bed.

"Well, this is awkward," I said and he nodded.

"Not like either of us expected that..."

"You think they went after Hoshi too?"

Baekho gasped and immediately started dragging me towards the door.

"Woah. Slow down." I rushed up to him and we headed to Hoshi's room. He knocked on the door and Woozi opened it while Hoshi's hand was stretched from the bed. They didn't seem to have been disturbed until I noticed that they were both shirtless with some questionable marks on their body but that didn't seem to bother Baekho as he stepped right in.

"You two alright?"

"Y-yeah, what's up?" Hoshi asked breathlessly, cheeks seemingly red as he sat up from the bed. Oh yeah, no. We shouldn't be here. I grabbed Baekho's arm and pulled him back slightly.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just think they're doing perfectly fine without us."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We are totally good here," Hoshi said with a nervous smile.

"Okay...?"

We backed out and headed back to the room where I realised something. I looked at the door lock and turned it.

"Oh god. I'm such... Ugh..."

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot to lock the door earlier when we walked in... Its my fault those guys managed to come in."

"Hey, it's not your fault..."

"We could have avoid that from happening if I had just..."

He patted my arm and shook his head.

"It's fine, Minhyun. Anyways, how did you figure that they were fine?"

"It was pretty obvious, Baekho... I think your friend and his partner... Well, they're hitting it off."

Baekho still seemed confused and I wondered if my partner was also an innocent person.

"Don't tell me you don't know what they were doing."

"What were they doing?" Baekho asked and blinked. I took a deep breath and shook my head.

"Nothing. I'm bushed. I think I'm going to call it a day or night..."

"Okay...?"

###

"What on earth..."

Baekho and I stood at the edge of a table but the size of the table was about a hundred times our size and maybe more.

Meowrrrr

"Crap. We have to jump!"

"What makes you think we can even survive a jump this high?!"

~~~

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