“Yeosang, what’s that?” Wooyoung pointed ahead, taking slow steps into one of the cubes that seemed to have just recently lowered one of its four walls.

He approached the strange object in front of him. He scoffed, “What the hell is happening?” He quickened his pace and approached the glowing sphere, completely unaware of its capabilities.

“Stop!”

“What?!?”

“Don’t touch it!”, yelled Yeosang as he made his way towards Wooyoung, pulling the latter closer to him and away from the giant ball. “We don’t know what that is, so we’ve got to be careful.”

“What if that’s our path home?” It was Felix’s turn to share his thoughts. He squinted his eyes, uncomfortable with how bright the sphere was, blinding him in the dark. “Maybe this is it.” He remained in his place, not wanting to make a haste move. He looked over his shoulder, putting on a soft smile as he noticed Yuqi behind him. “Are you feeling better?”

“A little, I suppose. I don’t understand, it’s never this bad on the first day.” Yuqi lowered her head, hugging her stomach, breathing out slowly as she felt an uncontrollable, agonising pain in her lower abdomen. “Second day? Sure, but this is ridiculous.”

“You can stay here and wait. We can figure something out for us to escape, even if it’s this colourful, mysterious sphere.” Yeosang was still confused about the presence of this apparent clue, and he wondered if its positioning and existence meant anything for the survival of the team.

Yuqi shook her head, “No way. I’m not going to just sit around and do nothing. Wherever you three are going, I’m coming with you.” She then averted her gaze to the elephant in the room – at least it was similarly large in size, quite literally. “Something feels off. I can’t explain it, but that thing seems important. My body is sort of, well, awakened by it.”

“What?”

She laughed at Wooyoung’s quick response, “I know. It’s ridiculous but-”

“Your tattoo!”

At that, she detached her arms from around her stomach. Pulling up the sleeve, she observed her tattoo, and surely, the pattern was glowing the same colour as the sphere. She snapped her head up to meet the others’ eyes, and in a regretful tone, she explained, “I’m not sure if this is a good sign or not. Am I supposed to do something?”

“Well, what about your tattoo, Yeosang-hyung?” Felix quickly approached the other and took it upon himself to check the small tattoo. He felt a little awkward, the bruises on his face still stinging from a while back, but he understood why Yeosang had reacted that way, so instead, he only hummed in approval, “Okay, so both of you.”

While Wooyoung continued to stare at the bright sphere with curious eyes, keeping a safe distance so as to not evoke any concern from the others, Yeosang approached him and placed a firm hand on the other’s shoulder. He just needed to look at someone while he sorted out his thoughts.

With stern eyes, he began to think to himself, whispering out, “Our tracks… We’re getting closer to the other end, and our tattoos are lighting up, so the distance has something to do with the powers… What could this mean? Why is it getting stronger?”

Yuqi didn’t bother paying much attention to the thoughtful questions; she was still entranced by the sphere floating a few metres ahead of her. Carefully, she approached the supernatural object, slow steps ensuring that she doesn’t make a reckless move.

However, before she could say or do anything at all, a collective chorus of gasping and crying, along with a dangerously cold gust of wind, forcefully pushed her out of her state of balance. She fell to the ground on her back, kicking her legs up out of reflex.

“Yuqi!”

Perhaps for a moment, Yuqi was the centre of everyone’s attention, but as the shining sphere gradually dissolved away and shrouded the area in utter darkness, the presence of additional voices alarmed them at once.

“Taehyun? Beomgyu?” Yeosang rushed forward and gently held the duo within his arms, guilt bubbling up within him as he noticed for a split second the sheer sorrow and distress on their faces even in the dark. He then noticed further behind that Haseul was leaning against the corner, an equally horrified expression on her face. “What the hell happened?”

For once, Taehyun, despi