Chapter 26

Author’s POV

“I thought I saw...” Krystal looked up and stared Amber straight in the eyes. “Hyuna.”

Amber clenched her jaws when she heard the name of the person she has now come to strongly dislike and could only hope Hyoyeon was able to catch the girl like she said she would.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Krystal asked when she didn’t get a response.

Amber blinked and shook her head. “Sorry, what?”

“I said, I think I saw Hyuna back at the lobby,” Krystal repeated herself and closely observed the girl next to her. She wanted to see her reaction.

“Hyuna? You saw Hyuna?” Amber kept her face as expressionless as she could knowing that Krystal was watching her.

“Yeah...”

“What?” Amber faked a laugh. “That’s crazy. What would she be doing here?”

“I don’t know... maybe she’s visiting too...” Krystal furrowed her brows. There was something off about Amber’s behavior that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but it was definitely there.

Amber gulped a little under the intense stare. The others have always told her that she wasn’t very good at acting. She just hoped she was decent enough to fool Krystal.

“There’s... there’s no way that it was her,” Amber dismissed the comment casually.

“Why not? We have a week off and maybe she wanted to visit Paris too. It’s possible.”

“Yeah but –”

DING.

The sound of the elevator coming to a stop on one of the floors before theirs stopped Amber.

The doors slid open to reveal an empty hallway.

Amber frowned and waited until the elevator doors closed before continuing.

“But don’t you think that’s unlikely? I mean, even if she did decide to visit Paris too, the chances of her staying at the same hotel as us and being in the lobby at the same time as you is very low. I really don’t think it was her. Maybe it was someone who looked like her.”

“True...” Krystal nodded slowly and scratched her chin in thought. “But—”

DING.

The sound of the elevator stopping again stopped their conversation for a moment. The doors slid open to reveal yet another empty hallway.

Seeing this for the second time when their floor was the only button pressed, Amber did not like the strange feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach. It’s too much of a coincidence that people would be pressing the elevator button then leaving before it arrives, especially considering the current time.

“But the person I saw was waving at me,” Krystal continued when she saw no one entering the elevator, “She even called out my name.”

Amber took a small step towards Krystal as the doors closed. There were five more floors until they arrive at their floor. If anything were to happen before then, it would be hard to protect Krystal in such a small enclosed area.

“Maybe you heard wrong? She could be waving at someone behind you.” Amber casually looked around the elevator, noting the security camera in the corner and the hatch at the top. The small rectangular door seemed to be bolted close from the outside so therefore trying to escape through there was useless.

“I don’t think so... I’m pretty sure I heard Krys—”

DING.

“Aish, what is with this elevator?” Krystal grumbled when the elevator stopped again to reveal another empty hallway.

“I don’t know,” Amber chuckled at the frustrated outburst and reached forward to press the door close button on the panel, but on the inside, she wasn’t liking the situation either.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Krystal crossed her arms, “I’m pretty sure I heard Krystal. That person was definitely calling my name.”

“You do know you’re not the only Krystal in the world, right?”

“I know.”

“So it might’ve not been you. That person could also have said something that sounded similar to Krystal.”

“Like what?”

“Well, err...” Amber scratched the back of her head in thought, trying to think of all the words that rhymed with Krystal. “Maybe she was saying whistle? Pistol? Or Fiscal?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Krystal deadpanned. “Do those even make sense? Why in the world would anyone shout out any of those words while waving at someone?”

Amber shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a guess. That person could’ve said Distel for all I know.”

“Distel? Is that even a word?”

“Yes it is. It’s a surname, to be exact. I have a friend who has that surname.”

Krystal didn’t look convinced and was about to retort when the elevator stopped for the fourth time.

DING.

This time however, there was someone on the other side as the doors slide open. A man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.

He stumbled into the elevator and right towards Krystal.

“Ah!” Krystal yelped in surprise as his rough hands landed on her shoulders. She tried to push him away but couldn’t as she found herself backed up against the corner.

Amber was already next to the girl trying to pry the guy’s hands off her. Her face contorted in disgust when she smelled the strong scent of whiskey in his breath. The guy reeked of alcohol and was clearly intoxicated. 

“Mademoiselle!” The guy shouted as he looked at Krystal, his head bobbling around in front of her. “You are ze most beauziful zhing I have ever seen.”

“Get off me!” Krystal cried as she turned her face away from the guy when he tried to kiss her.

“Don’t. Make. Me. Hit. You.” Amber was finally able to pry the guy off Krystal and sent him stumbling backwards towards the closed doors.

The guy chuckled and tried to make his way towards Krystal again when the elevator came to a stop. The tiny shake of the elevator sent him falling to his knees.

Amber saw that it was there floor and quickly ushered Krystal out.

“Hey, wait, are we just gonna leave him there?” Krystal asked when she noticed the guy had slumped against the side of the elevator and seemed to be fast asleep.

“Yes,” Amber replied and tried to pull Krystal away but the girl wouldn’t budge.

“We can’t just leave him there,” Krystal reached out and held her hand against the elevator doors to keep it from closing.

Amber stared at the girl in disbelief. “What? Why not?”

“Because he’s drunk.”

“Which is all the more reason for us to leave him there.”

“No, I think we should help him back to his room.”

“Are you crazy? Why would we do that?”

Krystal frowned. “No I am not crazy. Wouldn’t you want someone to help you too if you were passed out inside an elevator or somewhere out on the streets?”

“No, because I rarely drink and I don’t get drunk, therefore there will never be a time when I pass out somewhere strange.”

“Fine, then what if it was Yuri unnie or Yoona unnie? What if they drank too much and pass out somewhere. Wouldn’t you want people to help them out? Or at least call someone to pick them up?”

“No, because they rarely drink too so the chances of that happening would be close to zero.”

Krystal huffed and pulled her hand free from Amber’s grasp. “Fine, then what if it was me? And don’t say that I rarely drink too because you don’t know that. And even if I don’t drink, let’s say I got drunk one night because something upsetting happened. It could be school related, problems with friends, or a fight with my sister. Would you really want people to just walk by me as I lie on the ground somewhere? What if I got robbed or ? Do you really want that to happen to me?”

“No...” Amber wasn’t sure where all this anger was coming from.

“Then we shouldn’t let that happen to this guy either. Maybe something bad happened to him, that’s why he’s like this. It never hurts to be a good Samaritan once in a while, you know.”

All this sudden righteousness was giving Amber a headache and she sighed in defeat.

“Fine. You’re right. He shouldn’t be left here like this... no matter how weird your logic is...”

Krystal immediately broke into a big smile.

Amber rolled her eyes and walked back into the elevator. “Wait there,” she ordered the girl. She then bent over and stuck her arms under the guy’s armpit. With a huff, she slowly dragged him out of the elevator and leaned him against the wall.

“Okay, now check his pockets for—”

“No.” Amber cut the younger girl off.

Krystal stared back in confusion.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna leave him here,” Amber reassured the girl. “I’m just gonna take you back to the room first and come right back to help him. It’s really late and you need to get some rest. I can take him back to his room on my own. There’s no need for the two of us to do a one person job,” Amber explained, not wanting to take any chances of wandering the hotel with a drunken man and Krystal unguarded. It would be much safer for the younger girl if she was back at the room with Yoona. “I’m not taking no for an answer.” Amber forcefully pulled the girl down the hallway before she could protest.

After dropping Krystal off in the room and letting Yoona know what she was doing, Amber went back down the hallway towards where the elevators were. She had expected to still see the man passed out by the wall where she had left him earlier but to her surprise, he wasn’t there.

“Did he wake up?” Amber muttered to herself as she looked around. She pressed the button on the wall to see the elevator they had gotten off of open up immediately. That means the guy didn’t get back into the elevator. She frowned and was about to turn away when something red in the corner caught her eye.

Amber furrowed her brows as she walked into the elevator to pick up the object. It was a single go-stop card that was lying near the corner where Krystal had been pushed into just moments ago. Two things immediately struck Amber as strange.

One, the card was definitely not there before. Not even after dragging the drunk guy out of the elevator.

Two, they were in Paris and go-stop is a Korean card game. Neither Amber nor Krystal play go-stop let alone carry the set of cards around. So then what was a go-stop card doing there?

Amber turned the card over to examine it more closely. This wasn’t just an ordinary go-stop card but one with an image Amber had never seen before. Half the card was black and the other half white. There was a yellow lightening in the middle. But what really caught Amber’s attention weren’t the images on the card but the words at the bottom.

It read: No pain, no game.

 

~~~

“No pain, no game? Isn’t it supposed to be no pain, no gain?” Yuri asked as she looked up.

The girls had spent the last day in Paris souvenir shopping and are now on their way back to Korea. Everyone was clearly exhausted and had all fallen asleep the moment they boarded the plane. It was quite funny and cute to see each and every one of them snoring away in their seats. Amber and her friends took this time to move to the back of the plane to discuss some things.

“Yeah, I thought it was no pain, no gain too.” Yoona snatched the card from Yuri’s hand to examine it up close. “Whoever made this obviously got the phrase wrong...”

“No, I think they purposely wrote game instead of gain.” Taeyeon looked over at Amber. “Remember that unknown text message you got before? Enjoy it while you can, the game has only just begun,” Taeyeon quoted word for word and Amber nodded.

“Taeyeon’s right. Whoever left this card for me to find is clearly giving me a warning. This was done intentionally.”

“Did you ask Hyoyeon to pull up the footage from the security camera in that elevator?” asked Victoria.

“I did, but it seems someone hacked in and wiped out the data, even from our systems. We’ve got nothing.”

“What about in the hallways?”

“Same. Nothing. They planned it well.”

“And Hyuna?”

Amber sighed and shook her head. “It wasn’t her. They tricked us.”

“So she didn’t actually come to Paris?” asked Sulli.

“No, she did. Hyoyeon’s 100% sure she was the one following us around Paris but that night at the lobby, that girl our people saw wasn’t Hyuna. She was probably somewhere else in the hotel watching all of us. Whatever she’s pl—”

“Hey, what does the lightening mean?” Yoona suddenly cut Amber off. She was staring at the images on the card intently. “And the tiny blue dots in the background...”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t been able to figure it out yet...” Amber massaged her neck in frustration. “I mean, no pain, no game. They’re obviously telling me something’s going to happen and most likely soon. As for the lightening...” she trailed off.

“Maybe the lightening represents the word pain? Meaning, whatever they have up their sleeves, it’s going to physically hurt us?” Yuri offered. “Like electrocution.”

“It’s possible.”

“Then what about the tiny blue dots?” Yoona held the card out for everyone to see.

“I haven’t been able to come up with anything for that.” Yuri shook her head and leaned back in her seat. “They look more like an accident with the printer ink than anything else to be honest.”

Taeyeon who had been quietly listening to everyone finally spoke up. “Well, whatever it is, we’re going to do our best to protect the girls. Since there’s no use brooding over a small go-stop card, let’s all get some sleep while we can before we land. Because as soon as we step off this plane, everyone needs to be extra alert. Let’s not give them a chance to play out this game of theirs, shall we?”

Everyone nodded in agreement before slowly dispersing; each going back to their respective seats to get some much needed rest.

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End of chapter 26.