Jeongmin dashed down the dark corridors of the maze, determined yet terrified. He had never been a big fan of dark places. He turned left and nearly slammed into a wall. A dead end. Silently cursing, he turned back from the way he came from and tried a different route.

As he ran, he thought about what could possibly be coming for him. A pirahna tank? A ring of fire? Jeongmin always had wild imaginations of challenges, thanks to watching morning cartoons every Saturday. But now he realised that it probably wouldn't be as fun as it looks in cartoons. He glanced at his watch. 5 minutes had passed since the game started. He needed to hurry up if wanted to make it to the centre in time.

Quickening his pace, he searched the maze until he found a clearing with a door directly opoosite him. The should be it! The door! But standing between him and the door was a grand piano under a single spotlight. On the piano there was a note. Jeongmin picked it up, and it read:

A beautiful instrument

Has a painful deadly potential

Play the given song

But beware of wrong notes

Too many and it's goodbye

To you, Minwoo and the mission

At first Jeongmin was confused as to what could go wrong while he was playing the song. But as he looked more closely at the piano, there were small, sharp and barely visible needles on some of the keys. He comapred it with the score sheet and noticed all those with needles aren't used in the song. There had to be some consequence for pressing the wrong keys.

Now Jeongmin was scared. He didn't really want to do it. What if he died? What if he wasn't successful? Then he looked at the door across him. But Minwoo... he was just merely 2 doors away from him. He needed to save his dongsaeng. 

Screw it, he thought. I'll do it for Minwoo.

Sitting down, he then noticed a small digital number at the side of the piano scores in front of him. The number was 10, flashing continuously at him. Jeongmin had no idea what it was for. He sat down and looked through the piano score. He knew this song. All too well. It was the song that helped him win a piano competition a few years back. He pressed the keys and started to play the beautiful melody flawlessly. He was doing good, as he grew more and more confident.

However as he reached the end his pinky finger reached too far out and pressed a wrong key. Jeongmin felt a sting in his finger and immediately yelped, lifting his hand away from the piano and cradling his hand. There, on his pinky finger was a spot of blood starting to come out of the tiny wound. But somehow the colour of the blood looked weird. Instead of it being all red, there were traces of green seen around where the needle had poked him. He winced and looked up at the piano score, and that's when he noticed the tiny number flashing was now a 9 and not 10. 

At first he stared and raised an eyebrow, confused as to what was happening. Then as he thought about it his eyes widened in realisation. The green! It was poison! And the number stood for the number of times he had to get pricked before he failed and probably die. 

Now it was terrifying. So that was the catch. The master really was cruel. 

Jeongmin sat on the piano bench debating if he should try again or not. Make just 9 more mistakes and he'll fail. No, not just fail, he'll DIE. But he walked away. he will never be able to live with the regret of letting Minwoo drown. He promised, he had promised Minwoo that he would always protect him. 

Taking a deep shaky breath, he tried again and pressed the keys, beginning to play the song. Halfway through he felt another sharp sting on his index finger. He gasped and cursed under his breath, wiping the spot of blood on his shirt, he took it from the top again.

He played it 4 times already and still he kept pressing a note wrongly, just a slight mistake yet he was met with a painful wound on his fingers. He needed to try a different approach. Before, he kept looking intently at the score and back at his fingers making sure he was playing the right notes. This time, he took a risk and placed his hands at the starting position. Closing his eyes, he began to play according to memory, just allowing the sound of the music to engulf him and for him to relax. 

On and on, Jeongmin was just smiling to himself as he listened to the beautiful song he loved so so much. Before he knew it, he added a dramatic ending and lifted his hands from the piano. Opening his eyes, he suddenly remembered he was playing the game. He was so engrossed in the music that he completely forgot where he was or what he was doing. He glanced at the small digital red number. It still remained at 6, but it was no longer flashing.

Then without warning, the number turned to green and a clicking sound was heard from the piano. The lid lifted slowly to reveal a key in between the piano strings. Jeongmin reached in and grabbed it. After a few seconds, the door opoosite him swung open by itself, revealing another room. Wasting no time and smiling to himself at his victory, he dashed through the door.

The room was dimly lit and had a musty smell. It was in the shape of a semicircle. On the middle of the curve there was a huge door, chained and locked with 5 different locks. He turned to his side and saw a another 4 doors on his left all line up in a row. There must be where the others will come from. There was no one else in the room. He must've been the first one to complete the game.

He hurried over and tried his key with all the locks. One of them popped open, and one of the chains dropped to the floor. Kicking it away, he tugged at the door, pushing and pulling with all his might. But of course, the heavy door was chained shut. the other 4 locks are needed to open it. 

Pressing his ear to the door, he could vaguely make out the sound of rushing water. The tank! It must be on the other side! Then Jeongmin heard a slamming sound from behind. Spinning sharply around, he saw one the the other doors swinging open....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minwoo had given up banging his fists against the glass tank or pulling at the chains. It seemed like the more he tugged, the tighter the metal band around his waist had become. His knuckles were also bleeding from hitting the glass too much. He was aleady sobbing quietly as he looked hopeessly at the door. Maybe his hyungs wouldn't wana to save him. He was not worth risking their lives for. They could just walk away. The water level was now at his neck, and his chin, his mouth, his nose....

At this point Minwoo knew he had to thread water or he won't be able to breathe. Kicking his legs, he kept his head above water as he gasped for breath. His hair and clothes were obviously already soaked, plus the weight of the metal band weighing him down. 

He needed someone. No, he needed Donghyun. He wanted nothing more for that door to burst open and for his hyungs to come save him, save him from this all too real nightmare. 

But he was losing hope. He DID push Donghyun away. What if he never wanted to see him again? What if...he does today, feeling lonely, rejected and abused?

Minwoo was so deep into thought that he forgot to kick for a while. When he came to his senses, he quickly kicked vigorously as his head was already submerged underwater. Choking on a bit of water, he continued to stare at the door, just hoping...