“What the hell does ‘let the games begin’ mean?” Himchan asked as he stood up and quickly walked to where Jiyeong and Yongguk was standing and grabbed the rock out of Yongguk’s hands, careful to not touch the smeared blood. “Don’t tell me this is Jongup’s.”

“We can’t assume that,” Sooyeon replied as tried to ease her mind from what had happened. “It might not even be blood, so we shouldn’t say it’s Jongup-sshi’s blood. We should be happy that no one got hurt- especially Minjung.”

“The girl with the red shirt.” Daehyun mumbled to himself as he replayed the creepy conversation in his head. He turned and stared at Minjung with wide eyes and repeated himself. “The girl with the red shirt! He knew Minjung was wearing a red shirt!”

“Minjung, did you leave the hotel earlier today?” Youngjae asked as he stood up and hastily walked towards Minjung.

“Y-yeah,” Minjung stuttered as she tried to calm herself. “But I was wearing a different shirt! I changed right before I left my hotel, and the only people that saw me were you guys!”

“He can see us,” Yongguk spoke in a trouble tone as he eyed the glassless window, wishing that it wasn’t true. “I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we’re stuck on this floor.” He let out a long, troubled sigh as he sat on the floor, head in his hands. “Not anymore.”

There were three short knocks at the door and everyone’s heads immediately turned to face the door. Yongguk and Himchan eyed each other uneasily as Yongguk slowly got up and walked towards the door with Himchan following closely behind him. As Yongguk opened the door, he was surprised, but thrilled, to see that there wasn’t anyone at the door. “That’s weird.” Himchan muttered to himself as Yongguk opened the door wider.

The moment the door was wide enough for everyone to see out the door, a mysterious object was thrown inside the room. Everyone backed up, eyes locked on the round object that rolled into the middle of the room. “W-What is that?” Jiyeong stuttered as she slowly walked to Airi, who was right in front of the object, and safely pulled her away. “Should we leave the room?” Airi asked as Jiyeong pulled Airi behind her.

“I think Airi-sshi is right,” Yongguk said as he motioned at the door. “We need to leave this room immediately.” As soon as the others took one step, the mysterious object began making a ‘clunking’ noise and vibrated. “What is it doing?” Annabelle mumbled to herself as she took a few steps backwards. The first thing everyone thought to do was run out the door and into the hallway, but the door was suddenly shut, leaving everyone inside.

Yongguk grabbed the door knob and began twisting and jiggling it, but it would not budge. He knew that someone had closed the door, but all of his focus was placed on the object that he didn’t noticed who was actually near the door. “Open the ing door!” Yongguk and Himchan yelled as they tried to knock the door down. “Himchan, did you see who closed the door?” Yongguk asked as he kicked the door.

“You guys, it’s moving!” Sooyeon exclaimed as the round object suddenly opened up, showing hollow compartments. “What is…?” Minjung began, but stopped as soon as a big white smoke began spraying out of the object. “What’s going on?” they all asked as everyone tried to get as far as possible from the object. “Open the door!” Yongguk yelled once again as he began pounding on the locked door.

“Unnie, are you getting tired?” Airi asked Jiyeong as her eyes drooped. “What’s happening?” Airi and Jiyeong fell to the floor, feeling as if they had not slept for thousands of years. “Are you guys… okay…?” Jiyeong inaudibly asked the others as they fell the floor with weak knees. “We can’t sleep,” Himchan tried to stand up, but it was no use since he fell right back down completely unconscious.

“Are you guys okay?” Youngjae heard a faint voice as he struggled to open his heavy eyes. “Hyung, are you okay?” He heard the voice again, but could not locate where the voice was coming from. “Youngjae hyung!” the voice exclaimed, hoping Youngjae would notice him. ‘Jongup!’ Youngjae widened his eyes and shook his head to get rid of the drowsy feeling. There he saw that he, Jongup, and the others had their arms cuffed onto the visible pipes.

They were in a dark, musty room that had a small window high up near the ceiling. It would be thought that they were stuck inside a basement of some sort from the high window. The visible pipes and hand cuffs were the only things keeping them away from helping the others out. The only people who were conscious were Youngjae and Jongup.

“Jongup-ah,” Youngjae sighed in relief that he was able to see his dongsaeng safe and alive. Youngjae studied Jongup who has dried blood on the side of his face, as well on his clothes. “Are you okay?” Youngjae asked.

“Never been better,” Jongup joked, hoping to lighten the atmosphere. “Try waking up the others.” Youngjae sat in the corner of the room, and on his left were Sooyeon, Himchan, Airi, Jiyeong, Yongguk, Daehyun, Minjung, Junhong, and then Annabelle. Their right arms were bounded to the pipes, so Youngjae stretched his sore leg and proceeded to nudge Sooyeon.

As if by chance, everyone began to open their eyes, slowly getting used to the sudden change in scenery. “What is going on?” Annabelle mumbled as she tried to move her arm, but quickly realized that it was cuffed to the pipe. “Jiejie!” She shrieked. She took the vacation to get away from having to stay home alone and being able to relax, she did not sign up to be kidnapped and bounded to a pipe.

“I’m right here,” Sooyeon muttered in a low, tired voice. She looked around the room to memorize the surroundings, but there was nothing besides the visible pipes and the others. “What the hell was that spray anyways?” Junhong asked in an annoyed tone as he pulled his arm away from the pipe. “General anesthetic,” Sooyeon replied as everyone turned to face her. “It’s a drug that is used to subdue a person into unconsciousness before a surgery is performed.” She sighed as she rubbed her eyes, “in other words: knockout gas.”

“You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” The door was opened, allowing a bright light into the dark basement-like room. A man walked down the wooden steps with his hands behind his back, followed by another familiar man. “You’re Jiho!” Airi whispered as she pointed at the man everyone was talking about earlier.

“Yes, I am Jiho.” He chuckled as he covered his mouth with his a fist. “I’m glad that you all know who I am.” Jiho looked at the man in front of him and his smile quickly turned into a serious expression. “Hyung,” he said with a bow.

“You all maybe wondering why you’re all here,” the man started, but was interrupted by a furious Jiyeong. “You’re damn right we’re wondering why we’re here.” The man chuckled as if he was amused by Jiyeong’s anger. “Please let me introduce myself first.” He smiled. “My name is Jaehwan, and I’m the owner of Hotel Lively. It’s truly an honor to meet you all in person.” Jaehwan was an older looking man, but he and Jiho did not look related at all. Although Jiho was younger, he looked far more mature and aged compared to his hyung. Jaehwan seemed to be in his mid-forties, but the aura that came out of him made him seem even younger.

“An honor?” Jiyeong scoffed. “Kidnapping us and holding us hostage in a basement is an honor? You’re ing crazy.” Jaehwan chuckled once more as he stared at Jiyeong in amusement. “Just wait until someone notices that we’re missing.” Yongguk growled. “You won’t be laughing then.”

“On the contrary, Bang Yongguk-sshi,” Jaehwan smiled. “I don’t think any of you have anyone that cares that much about you.  Do you think your parents will come save you? Tell me, Yongguk, when was the last time you spoke with your parents? Your parents are disappointed that you decided to become a musician. Did you even tell them you went on a trip?”

Jaehwan began walking in front of each and every person and asking if they had anyone that they cared about. No one spoke back because no matter how irritating and annoying he was being, he was right. Everything he was saying was correct.

“Moon Jongup, who will help you when the only people who care about you are in this very room? Your parents shunned you because all you wanted to do was dance. Don’t you think that is a big mistake? How long has it been? Three, four years since you’ve last spoken to them? You’ve tried to call them, haven’t you? Every time you call them, don’t they always reject your phone call?”

 “Yoo Youngjae, how long has it been since you were out of high school? A year or two, correct? I’m pretty sure since you were the poor kid on scholarship at such a prestigious school; you were always shunned by classmates. Your parents also shunned you as well, didn’t they? Such a smart kid that could have become the CEO for a large group is in a crash-and-burn wannabe idol group. I wonder what your parents think about that.”

“Choi Sooyeon, aren’t your employees busy having comebacks and what not? Even though they were the ones that persuaded you to take this trip, they’re busy with their own jobs. Did you know that your shop is closed down because no one is able to work? Amber is busy preparing for her comeback, Cheondung is getting ready to go on that world tour with MBLAQ, Dongwoo is still promoting with Infinite, and who knows what Minhyuk is up to ever since that scandal.”

“Kim Himchan, do you think your mother will be able to help you? People say that she became a , did you know that? I doubt your drunkard father and drug addicted brother will notice that you’ve been missing since you left the house years ago. They probably didn’t even notice that you left since the only think in their minds is how to earn money for alcohol and drugs.”

“Park Airi, one of the most well-known models in Korea. It’s an honor to meet you after seeing you on so many ads. Although you’re so famous, there isn’t much information on your background, so it was so hard to find out about you! Born in Busan to a loving father and mother, right? It quickly changed when your father started harassing you. Tell me, Airi, was him screaming and hitting you the only thing he did to you? Is there something else? And your mother, your poor mother; committing suicide because she couldn’t handle the stress. Tsk tsk.”

“Jang Jiyeong, you have such an interesting background! Disowned at the age of fifteen because you ran away? Lived underground and sold drugs before finding your way to South Korea? Such a warrior, this one is. Tell me, have you ever done drugs yourself? You sell them like street vendors sell their food, have you ever wanted to try them yourself? Your drug addicted friends won’t be able to help you either; busy trying to stay alive from all the they take in. Min won’t be able to help either from the looks of it. Busy with Miss A’s comeback, is she not?”

“Jung Daehyun, although you look like you would kill in an instant, you’re as harmless as a butterfly. Wow, all of you have parents hate how you guys decided to throw away your future and joined this stupid group. Tell me, how stupid are you to always fall for tricks that people play on you? Did you honestly think that those girls liked you for who you are? You’re as interesting as watching paint dry.”

“Choi Junhong, should we ask your mother to come back to save you? Oh, that’s right, you’re mother gave you away the moment you were born, why would she come back to save you? You always act like you’re the top dog, but you’re scared, aren’t you? Scared of having people leave you. Is that why you’re always irritating to people you first meet so when they leave, you don’t feel bad? That’s basically why you’re so nice to Yongguk, yes? Because he was the only one who believed in you and gave you a place to call home?”

“Annabelle Lee, the non-Korean of the group. It’s very interesting, actually. Our past patients were all Korean with other ethnicities mixed, but you are nowhere near Korean. I wonder how you became a part of this group. Your mother is clinically insane, your father is dead, and your grandmother is gone on a trip to Spain. Will someone at the school notice that you’re gone? Have you ever noticed that your students and the other teachers hate you? They’re happy and probably going party when they find out that Miss Annabelle Lee is completely gone out of their lives.”

Jaehwan stared at Minjung with a blank expression as if it was the first time Jaehwan has ever seen Minjung. “I believe we’ve never been introduced before.” Jaehwan waited for Minjung to say who she was, but all she did was glare at him with hostile eyes. “Quite the charmer, aren’t we?”He chuckled as he crouched down in front of her. “Oh, I know who you are.  You’re Kwon Woosung’s twin sister, aren’t you? I remember now; we were so surprised to hear from him asking if you could take the trip instead. Weren’t you the one that killed your mother back in New York?  It’s so interesting to know that Woosung’s depression was caused by you: his lovely twin sister. How does it feel to know that your brother sent you to your death?”

Minjung spat in Jaehwan’s face in annoyance, “don’t you dare talk about my mother or brother with your filthy mouth.” Jiho quickly ran up to Jaehwan and wiped his face with a handkerchief. “Feisty - I like it.” Jaehwan smiled deviously. “I need to learn more about you, Kwon Minjung-sshi.”

As he walked back to the middle of the room with his hands behind his back, Jaehwan cleared his throat. “Now you all may be wondering exactly why I have brought you all here. I am your angel of death; I will take you out of your misery. I am your doctor, and you are all my patients. Don’t you know what our hotel is called?” Everyone stared at Jaehwan with fear in their eyes as he continued on.

“We are Hotel Euthanasia.”

Author’s Corner:
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN~
Ehe, so I organized the chapters a little bit so it wouldn’t seem so long!^^ Also, if there are ANY mistakes in this chapter, or the others, please don’t be afraid to tell me! I hope you all like this chapter like you guys liked the last one! I shall now go and sleep because I haven’t gotten much sleep.

Bbyong!<3