“It’s getting dark… We really just have to rely on our torches and our phones, huh?”, Yeji trailed off in doubt, suddenly feeling unsafe and terrified as the sun faded from view. She leaned against the painted wall of the gym, glancing outside and frowning at the sight of the curious people outside the barrier on the other side of the river. “Wait…”

Taehyun noticed the uncertain tone in the other’s voice; he stood next to her and carefully focused on the barrier – and then he saw it; there was a line of people bordering the barrier just a few minutes ago, and he knew that the barrier expanded slightly, yet no one was able to enter. “What the hell? That streetlight was outside the barrier, but look, it’s inside now. So…”, he stopped midway as he pointed at the helpless yet safe citizens outside.

“Wait… You mean to say that no one else can enter?!?”

“Seems like it…”, Taehyun looked at Yeonjun with just as much confusion as everyone else. He cleared his throat and looked at his wristwatch, wondering if there was a pattern or set intervals for the barrier to spread out. “We need to get closer to the edge of the barrier as soon as we’re done checking the river.”

Suddenly, there was a muffled scream from within the same room. All eyes turned towards the source of the sound, and they felt panic surge through their bodies – Jisu was struggling, a pistol pointed towards her head and the cold metallic surface only made her shake tremendously in fear.

“Excuse me?!? What are you doing to her?!?”, the nurse yelled as she glared at the two police officers.

Jisu was captured in a headlock by the male officer, his arm tight around her neck while his hand held a gun to her head. The other officer, a woman with a stern look, held back Jisu’s arms, another gun pointed towards Taehyun. “If anyone’s suspicious in this room, in this entire city, it’s the red-haired kid, acting all tough and strong, loaded with information! Who sent you here?!? Who’s in on this?!? What kind of trap are you setting up?!?”

“What the- No one! I’m just trying to help! Let her go, you senseless cop!”, Taehyun argued as he tried to sneak a glance at the machine; he didn’t want a bunch of delusional but trained police officers to ruin his plan. However, as the female officer stepped forward with her gun still pointed at him, he flinched and stepped back out of instinct.

Kai suddenly felt the fire inside him roar; he looked all around the room, seeing Yeonjun and Yeji frantically glancing between Taehyun and Jisu, while the butler and the nurse stood in shock. He gulped down a lump in his throat, but as each second passed, he only felt his body warm up even more. He wondered if he could somehow control his fire and attack the police officers, but he didn’t want to attempt it without knowing for sure, fearing that he may hurt someone else accidentally.

But before he could make a wise decision, the pistol near Jisu’s head flew out of his grip and landed a few metres away, giving the latter the chance to kick herself out of the strong hold. Jisu immediately held a posture, ready to fight, while Jungkook quickly crouched down and grabbed the gun; he scooted forward and aimed the gun at the unarmed policeman. Just as the others tried to comprehend what just happened, the gun in the policewoman’s hand soared out of her hold too, landing on the cold floor in a crash.

“Step back.”, an unfamiliar voice said, quiet and husky, before there was a small chuckle. His presence was marked by the shadow reaching into the gym through the window. Slowly, he climbed over the ledge and entered the room, a pistol in his hand that was quite similar to the ones the police officers had. Suddenly, the situation was clear – the guns of the police officers were shot away from their grasps, thanks to this unknown figure.

“Yeosang-ssi!”, Yeonjun called out in relief. He put on a smile, before swiftly moving forward as he grabbed a skipping rope, swinging his arm to catch the two stunned police officers, tightening the rope around their waists before tying it up. He smirked as he successfully pushed them to the corner, clapping his hands softly as he leaned over them. “Huh, Soobinnie would’ve loved to see me in action. Aww, I kind of miss him now…”, he trailed off as he turned his attention back towards the new arrivals.

As if on cue, Beomgyu burst through the door with Wooyoung right behind him, the latter’s arms struggling to wrap around Beomgyu’s waist. “Tae!”, the aforementioned yelled as he finally freed himself from Wooyoung’s grip, rushing over and engulfing Taehyun in a tight hug. “Are you okay?!?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. Oh, and Yeosang-sunbaenim, thank you.” Taehyun nodded towards Yeosang, who only nodded back in response and continued swinging the pistol around his fingers – Taehyun already liked him.

“I would’ve totally beaten up these idiots if it weren’t for Wooyoung-ssi holding me back! Anyways, I found Felix-ssi but I couldn’t find Jungeun-sunbaenim…”, Beomgyu pouted as he observed each person in the room, looking for any injuries.

“Right, okay, that’s great but why the hell are there so many people here with you? And why are you- I just wanted you to send them here, you shouldn’t have come!” Taehyun let himself be hugged by Beomgyu while he began to count the number of people that just walked into the small lobby of the gym.

“Hey, you called for Lix, so I’m obviously going to tag along, which naturally means that Wooyoung will tag along, which means that San-ssi and Yeosang-ssi are to follow. And because our Lixie is potentially going to enter a dangerous zone, Jisungie and Seungmin tagged along too.”, Changbin explained as he held the door open for Felix to enter.

“H-Hi.”, Felix bowed slightly at the unrecognisable faces. He was far too timid, and it was quite a contrast to his gravelly yet smooth voice.

Taehyun let out a sigh as he looked at Yeonjun helplessly. “Okay, I mean, there’s no going back now. It’s just going to be more troublesome. Uh, is everyone okay with being involved in this crazy plan?”

“Sure, but can we all drop the formalities? It’s slightly confusing. Oh, and what about the cops? Plus, you’re going to have to explain why we’re assembled somewhere so close to that thing.” San piped in as he let his eyes linger on the two police officers that were tied up at the corner.

“Alright, one by one. Firstly, these police officers are full of . They really think that a human’s behind this… How ridiculous! I don’t know about you all, but I’m thinking of leaving them here.”, Taehyun paused for a moment, leaning closer to Beomgyu out of instinct. “As for the machine out there, well, umm…” He began to look around the room, his hand gesturing that of writing; he paced around the room, before pulling open the drawers and cabinets of the gym’s lobby, picking out a marker. The papers were too small to be used though.

He walked back to the centre of the room, kneeling down and biting off the cap of the marker. “Let’s go over the current circumstances, yeah?” He began to draw a circle on the floor, along with some boxes of various sizes spread across, and two horizontal yet curving lines touching two points of the circumference