“What’s going on? We need to start moving.” Soobin approached the small circle a handful of metres away from the collapsed wall. He noticed the looks of concern and sheer anguish written over the faces of a few of those huddled together. “Is everything okay?”

“Period.”

His eyes widened slightly as he realised the slight slouch in Yuqi’s posture. He nodded, offering a bottle of water, before asking in a rather soft tone of voice: “Do you have pads or tampons to use? We can wait till you’re ready, so take your time.”

“I’ll be just a few minutes. You all can start moving ahead. I’ll be fine on my own.”, reassured Yuqi as she began to tie up her hair into a bun. She then rummaged through the contents of her bag and pulled out a thin, cylindrical packet. She ripped it open. “You all should go ahead.”

Just as everyone assembled near the eerie, messy entrance marked by the piling rocks and debris, they realised that they were about to embark on a dangerous journey, far more dangerous than sitting in a circle with nowhere to go, yet they were hopeful about the new road to follow.

“Okay, does everyone have everything that they need?”

Taehyun looked over his shoulder and waited for a response, and upon seeing a few of them nod just briefly, he turned his attention back to the tempting entrance. He carefully stepped over and onto the rubble, putting his arms out to maintain his sense of balance. Just as he jumped off the final piece and landed straight on the flat, smoother ground, he stepped aside to let the others follow.

“Do we just keep going ahead or-”

Yeonjun shrieked, not at being cut off but because he felt a terrifying tremble under his feet, so he immediately crouched down to steady himself over the shaking ground. He watched carefully, as did the others, how the grey platform began to change drastically.

Tall pillars rose from beneath the ground, rising up at a rapid pace, only to stop at about twenty feet high in the air; the walls were oriented at right angles, varying in length and thickness, some forming corners and others forming straight paths. As if all of that wasn’t startling enough, the entrance that the team used to make their way through, suddenly closed up.

“Move, move, move!”, yelled Yeosang as he pulled Jisung and Yuqi towards himself. The horror in his eyes told the other two that they would’ve otherwise been crushed by the merging wall, crushed to death with no room or time to grieve at all.

“What the ?!? What is going on?!?”

It was not a surprising question; they were all confused, all lost and trying to make sense of what they were given, trying to find what else they can find to get out of the seemingly floating platform that held them down like sedated creatures, helpless, hopeless, horrified. However, it was a surprise that the mortified cry came from Kai. The youngest was known to be hopeful, to think positive and do his best, but for Kai to ask such a dreadful question in such a dreadful tone of voice meant that the fear in the team’s hearts was normal.

“I want to go home.” Kai looked straight at Soobin. “I want to go back home. I can’t do this again. We already did it once, and I lived in fear for three years straight, and just as that fear was starting to fade away, all of this happened!”

The look on his face almost broke Soobin’s heart, and the latter wished he could do something about it, anything to make Kai – and the others – feel just a little bit better. Hesitantly, he approached the younger and placed his hands firm on the other’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Kai, but you said it yourself, yeah? We did it once, and we’ll do it again and we’ll succeed. This isn’t a lovely place, I know, but I believe in you, okay?”

“He doesn’t believe in himself because he can’t put his power to use anymore.”

All eyes turned towards the source of the voice – Taehyun. He kept his sight fixed on the newly formed pillars in front of him even as he spoke, “But Kai, you’re more than just that. It’ll take a while for that to get in your head, but there’s no time to waste.”

He then his heels to face the others. “Let’s all sort this out together. It seems like the platform is capable of changing…”

The silence that followed irked Taehyun more than he had expected, but the frown on his face slowly curved upward as Beomgyu spoke up amid the cruel silence: “Actually, it looks like a maze to me, which means we can split into groups and keep track of our motion until we find the correct path.”

“Wait, before we do that… If this really is a maze, we can take a shortcut.” Jisu kneeled and breathed out softly. She then put her hands together with her palms angled to face the ground. In just a few seconds, small specks of snowflakes began to form. With her brows furrowed in and her eyes shut with sheer concentration, she visualised a ladder – and prayed for it work this time – and waited for the structure to form. However, as she opened her eyes and saw the lack of change, she fell back.

“Oh…” Yeonjun trailed off as he helped the other get back on her feet. He then stared at the daunting pillar just in front of him, gulping at the realisation of the extreme height. “It’s fine. We’ll just tackle this the traditional way.”

Finally, the others began to show some sort of response, even if they were in the form of hums and nods. After some further discussion, they all began forming small groups of three and four. With a piece of paper and a pen for each group to trace out their paths, they began navigating through the maze of tall pillars, towering over the members, casting large shadows even though the environment around them was quite dim already. A part of them was thankful that they could still see without the aid of a torch or flashlight of any sort.

“Okay, dead end.”

Taehyun marked a cross on the paper in his hand. He then turned around to make his way back to the route he just swerved at, but there was a wall rising at a substantial speed. Panicking, he rushed forward to get his hands on the surface, only to see Beomgyu and Haseul doing what he wanted to do.

He took a step back, shaking in his place with uneven and shallow breaths, and he watched as the two in front of him tried their very best to grab onto any crack in the wall, anything that they could use to pull themselves up and escape.

“!”

The wall rose far too quickly for any of them to react on time, and that left Beomgyu and Haseul dumbfounded within the four walls. It was Taehyun, however, who suffered the most.

He dropped his pen onto the ground and watched how the scribbled paper slowly made its way down, tears welling up to blur his vision. Trying not to stumble within the dark, he quickly sat down and buried his face into his hands, his lips quivering with soft breaths. It was all falling upon him – the gravity of their situation, the time that has passed, the false hope that they were all holding on to, the burden of having to lead the others once again, and how nothing seemed like a beacon of light.

“Taehyun, please, take a deep breath. You’re okay, you’re fine, we’re both here and we’ll find a way out, okay?” Beomgyu began drawing circles on the younger’s back, his other hand running through Taehyun’s hair to soothe him even just slightly. He then held his hand out to Haseul, and just as he received a bottle of water, he quickly unscrewed the cap and gently guided Taehyun to have a sip.

Haseul crouched down, concern written all over her face. “Why is he…”

“Claustrophobia.” Beomgyu didn’t need to hear the end of that question. “This isn’t the first time. He just… He can’t be in enclosed areas, he said it feels like he won’t be able to breathe, but I know that it’s more than just his phobia this time. It’s more than that.”

He kept his eyes on Taehyun, wondering what he could do to help. He put an arm around the younger, rubbing his hand gently on his waist. He then heard a soft murmur, to which he replied, “You need to be louder.”

But before he could give the younger another chance, he found himself flinching at a chorus of voices coming from all around him, some voices louder and sharper than others. For a short moment, he just let it happen; he let his ears absorb all the questions and complaints, all the panicked and enraged voices, and he knew that the others were met with the same obstacle – a dead end, a confined space that separated each group from one another.

The maze was not only changing with new walls forming, but it was cornering and trapping them too.

“G-Get away from me…”, Taehyun finally spoke. “Get the away from me!” He pushed the other away and sent a strong glare towards Haseul.

Helping himself back on his feet, he pointed at Beomgyu accusingly: “This is your fault! You told us we have to split up and explore the maze, and look at us now!”

“Taehyun, you-”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare try and reason with me! I told you we need to stick together, I told you all that the platform will change again, but you never seem to agree with me! Even three years ago, you always wanted to argue, you always countered my ideas, and you did it again! W-Why can’t you ever just take my side?!?”

Taehyun had no idea how miserable, how vulnerable, how weak he looked despite his strong tone of voice – but it was so obvious to Beomgyu and Haseul, and they simply remained quiet and let the younger say what else he had kept inside all along.

“You don’t ever trust me, and I hate it. I hate this. I hate this stupid maze, and I hate that we’re stuck in here, a-and I feel like I cannot breathe!”

Haseul tried to step forward and do something, but she noticed how Beomgyu shook his head. She knew that if anyone in that maze were to know most about the agitated man in front of her, it was Beomgyu. Helplessly, she remained quiet in her place, and she wondered if the others could hear Taehyun’s loud voice.

“I hate all of it, and I hate what we have, Beomgyu. I just- I can’t do this anymore. It’s not working, and it never did work. I hate that you can’t just take my side, and I hate that I have to look at the others more than I look at you, simply because they agree, because they take my side when you don’t…”

Taehyun’s breathing was gradually calming down, and his trembling voice was no longer evident in his dialogue. He no longer had tears rolling down his cheeks, and he didn’t have the aching pain in his heart anymore.

“Beomgyu, you are not the l