Chapter 50:  08:23– A Countdown to Third Death [3:37pm]

Seungho POV

Our lips are touching in the most intimate of ways that means no air, no sound, no words can escape the vacuum we have created. Where one starts the other ends. As I trace my fingertips down each ridge of Thunder’s spine he twists and moans and I swallow them whole.

We break apart, panting for breath. In any other instant I would be embarrassed out of my mind, but right now my mind is a haze, white and misty, and all I can concentrate on is how red his lips look.

“Hyung…” he whispers and I have to restrain the part of me that rears up with red eyes.

“Yeah?” I manage.

I can feel his fingertips dig into my skin, the nail pressing small crescent marks in.

I raise a hand to his cheek, caress it, let the fingers glide down from the cheek to edge of his jawbone, and up across to his lips. He parts them ever so slightly and lets out a small breathy sigh.

“What is it Thunder?” I say.

His lips part further and he’s about to speak, about to say something… about to-

Thunder POV

What am I going to say?

To tell him the truth?

To tell him that I-

From the very beginning I-

I-

Seungho POV

“What is it Thunder?” I asked softly, gently, treating him like a precious bird in my hands, eyes glittering with so much potential.

He pressed his lips together firmly. There were tears in his eyes.

“Tell me.”

He looked at me like he wanted to cry.

“Hyung,” he whispered. “What would you do if I was the wolf?”

Who again was it who wanted to cry?

Mir POV

I skidded to a halt just meters away from them. What was this scene that I was seeing? Thunder and Seungho, my two hyungs, arms around each other, cheeks flushed red from something other than the heat of the baths and those words slipping out of Thunder’s mouth.

“What would you do if I was the wolf?”

“W-what are you saying Thunder?” Seungho said, almost snapping. His voice sounded brittle. “You know the wolf is just a trick of the Ringmaster’s to make us doubt each other. You shouldn’t even consider the possibly of one us being the wolf, let alone yourself!”

“But hyung, Mir was right. It’s suspicious that I’m so good at hacking, and-“

“And so what?” Seungho said icily. “So what if you are. I told you didn’t I? It makes no difference to me whether or not you have this talent. Because the one that I like is you and only you.”

Thunder drew a shuddering breath. I couldn’t see them clearly through the steam but I could sense the seriousness in his tone. I could imagine his posture, eyes clear and hands tight on Seungho-hyung’s shoulders.

“And so if I was the wolf. If hypothetically there was a wolf, and I was the wolf. Would you still like me then?”

“T-thunder…?” Seungho sounded puzzled. I didn’t blame him either. I was as well. Why was Thunder pressing the matter so strongly? Unless he was truly…

“You can’t be the wolf Thunder,” Seungho said firmly. “You can’t.”

And Thunder was shaking his head, a gentle act almost. “How would you know hyung, unless you yourself were the wolf.”

An outright challenge.

“Are you accusing me Thunder?” Seungho asked in a whisper of a voice, thin as ice, fragile as a butterfly’s wing. Devoid of all magic.

“No hyung,” Thunder said softly in return. “I know you’re not the wolf.”

My eyes widened. If Seungho was not the wolf then that left only Thunder and I as contenders and I-

“Because I know who killed Joon-hyung,” Thunder said in the exact same silken-soft tone. “And it wasn’t the Ringmaster.”

My blood froze.

Seungho POV

How could he know? How could anyone know? That the one who killed Joon was-

Thunder POV

He knows. He knows that I know. And he knows that knowing who killed Joon means…

Mir POV

A whiplash of wind struck out at us all like a hurricane expanding outwards. I closed my eyes and raised my hands up against the force but even then I was pushed back slightly. When I opened my eyes the steam was clear and the Ringmaster stood floating above the water, the eye to the center of such destruction.

Thunder and Seungho stared, first at him, then at me. They weren’t too sure which to be surprised at: the Ringmaster’s appearance, or the blatant fact that I had been listening in on them.

“Mir-“ Thunder started, eyes wide, with what I’m not too sure.

I opened my mouth to speak. To accuse him? To demand he tells me who it was?

[IT SEEMS WE ARE DONE WITH THIS FLOOR] the Ringmaster said.

“This floor?” Seungho said, sounding a little disarrayed. “This floor was a game as well?”

[AND HERE I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE THE FIRST OF THE THREE TO DISCOVER ITS TRUTH] The Ringmaster said with clear disappointment. [UNDERSTANDABLY THOUGH, YOU HAD SOME DISTRACTION] His gaze lingered on Thunder. And oh… that sort of distraction.

My eyes lingered a little too long on their faces and the clear evidence there. I tried to swallow down the bitter feeling of what I myself did not have.

[YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE FIFTH FLOOR, THE GAME OF TRUTH OR DARE. FOR THAT I GIVE YOU YOUR DUE CONGRATULATIONS.]

What? That was it? No challenge? No ‘fight to the death’ or whatnot?

[YOU MAY CLOSE YOUR MOUTH MIR,] he said, directing his smirk towards me. [BECAUSE YES, THAT IS ALL THIS FLOOR REQUIRES OF YOU. FIRST FOR YOU TO REALIZE THE EXISTENCE THAT THIS WOLRD IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT FIRST SEEMS, AND SECONDLY FOR YOU ALL TO POSSESS THE WILL TO BREAK FREE OF A FANTASY. IT MATTER NAUGHT THAT NOT ALL OF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO DO SO, THE FACT THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH]

I could not get rid of the image of his gaze focused on me. It was intense. Expectant almost.

[TIME IS TICKING] The Ringmaster said, slowly drawing his gaze away from me. [WE MUST PROCEED QUICKLY]

“B-but, what about-“ I twisted to look at Seungho and Thunder, still chest-high in water. There were so many questions to still ask, so many equations still unresolved. I out an arm, a shabby attempt to reach them, but before I could even take a step the floor underneath me erupted. Water parted as the floor beneath us rose, propelling us upwards dizzingly fast. “No!” I tried to yell out. There were still questions I had to ask Thunder. Who had killed Changsun-hyung? And why did Seungho-hyung look so shocked at Thunder’s declarations that he could have been the wolf and…

And as the floor enclosed on me my last glimpse was not of Thunder or Seungho, but of the Ringmaster and his expression. Eyes that flickered with static and stared right back at me. That expectant gaze.

But what was it that he was expecting of me?

As I thought that question, a second realization hit me. That if the Ringmaster expected something of me then it could bode nothing good. I swallowed hard and let the darkness engulf me and my thoughts.