“Fact-O-Rama?” Kai snorts. “What the hell is that? Some kind of cheesy board game you picked up at the dollar store?”

    “Uh, no.” Hana crosses her arms. “It’s a fun activity that helps people get to know each other. I learned it at teaching school.”

    “So what are you supposed to do in this fun activity?” Kai asks, rolling his eyes.

    “I name a word, any word, and you have to tell me your deepest, darkest fact involving that word. For example, if you said the word “dogs”, I would tell you that I despise them.”  

    He gapes at her. “First of all, what kind of deplorable human being are you? And second, are you saying we have to play a game where we talk about our secrets and and our feelings?”

    “Yup.”

    “What?” Kai looks utterly helpless. “I don’t know how to do those things. Can’t we just... make out or something?”

    “Uh, you wish.”

    “Wait, why are you bossing me around?” Kai suddenly realizes. “I can make you do whatever I want. Hana, if you don’t cut this Fact-O-Rama business out, I’m going to expose you.”

    Hana scoffs. “Wow, so the only way you can deal with me is hiding behind a threat? Pathetic.”

    “Pathetic?” Kai slams a hand on the sofa right next to Hana’s face and leans in dangerously close. A strange skittering sensation runs through Hana’s stomach. “Are you saying I’m scared of you?”

    “Well, judging by the fact that you don’t want to play a harmless game, yes,” Hana replies, struggling not to stammer.

    “Fine, then.” Kai narrows his eyes, inching closer to Hana’s face. She visibly gulps. “I’ll play this game. But I’m going to find out about your most humiliating, personal secrets. And there are so many things I can do with those."

Oh, yeah, so many things you can do with those, Hana thinks, twisting upwards into a smirk. But you seem to be forgetting that I'll have your secrets, too.

 “I’ll go first,” Kai tells Hana. “Your word is ‘stress’.”

Hana freezes. The smile slides off her face. No, not this. I don't want to talk about this.

Kai waits for one minute, two minutes.

"Did you not hear me?" he asks sharply.

"I heard you," Hana whispers. "Panic attacks. I had to go to therapy for stress-induced panic attacks my first 2 years of college. That's... my fact.”

Kai’s eyes widen. “You were getting panic attacks at the age of 14?"

“I was 12,” Hana responds dully. Her voice is starting to take on a detached quality, preventing any emotions from seeping through her tone. It is better for Hana to deal with this by alienating herself from her feelings of humiliation, anger, sorrow.

Kai’s stomach is churning.

He thought his life and Sehun’s life was . But Hana...

She has to deal with over 100 people 2 years older than her that despise her. She has to deal with him. And Hana was under so much pressure that she had to go to therapy for stress? Why was she suffering from anxiety anyway? Hana's parents loved her, the world viewed her as a genius, and she got into MIT at such a young age.

But why is Hana's life so ed up?

Kai snaps out of his wonderings when Hana says, “It’s my turn. Your word is Jongin.”

    “Jongin,” Kai says, almost inaudibly, “is the name that the only person I loved called me. My stepmother.”

    Hana nods slowly. So that’s why he doesn’t want me to call him Jongin. I’m mistreating something special of his, in a way.  

    “Your next word is love,” he informs Hana.

She immediately replies, “Never given it, never received it.”

    “Liar,” Kai spits. “Your parents idolized you. Even Sehun loves you.”

    “Wrong. My parents idolized me, but they didn’t love me. My mother and father merely viewed me as an object that could get them fame, money, and prestige,” Hana defends. “And Sehun... well. The two of us lost all sibling love the moment I won my first national science competition. We’re working on it, but Sehun and I do not love each other right now.”

    “So you’re alone.” Kai states. Hana closes her eyes.

    “Don’t say it like that,” she tells him, but Kai merely stares at Hana.

    “Don’t hide the truth,” he murmurs. Kai's gaze pierces into Hana's, making her feel like her entire body is being X-rayed. But she firmly holds eye contact with him, refusing to back down.

The light-hearted, competitive air which was surrounding Hana and Kai's game has disappeared. Instead, the two feel as if they are venturing into a field wrought with y traps, tiptoeing around an explosive landmine.

    “Your word is family,” Hana tells Kai. He unsuccessfully hides his cringing.

    “My father has married 4 times,” Kai tells her. “My mother was his 2nd wife.”

    Hana’s eyebrows shoot up. “Was the stepmother that called you Jongin the 3rd wife?”

“Yes.”

    Hana furrows her eyebrows, trying to make sense of this new revelation. How could Kai have come to love his stepmother more than his own mother? What happened to Kai’s real mother? Her mind whirls around as it attempts to wrap itself around the case of Kai’s family.

    "Go," she tells Kai quietly. "It's your turn to ask."

   Kai presses his lips together, his mind flitting from word to word. Should he say hatred? No, that would be too easy for Hana to give irrelevant commentary to. How about childhood? Parents?

  Finally, Kai decides.

"Happiness.”

    Hana’s tensed body deflates. She is relieved that Kai has not posed a treacherous word to her. It will be easy to talk about happiness.

Hana opens to answer...

    But she doesn’t know what to say.

    “Happiness is... when I’m happy,” she says lamely. Kai folds his arms and gives her a pointed look.

Hana coughs. “Okay, sorry. I’ll say something else. Well, for me, happiness is- I mean, I felt happy when I... got my teaching job. Yeah.”

    “That’s been the happiest moment of your life?” Kai confirms in a hushed tone. Hana shakes her head rapidly.

    “Of course not! I mean, I was really happy when I won my first math competition,” she says. “And I get super happy when I eat my favorite foods. I’m really happy. Really.”

    Hana is fully aware that she is rambling.

Kai attempts to suppress the pity rising up in his chest. He hates Oh Hana, he really does. But it is nearly impossible to feel anything but sorrow for the girl right now.

Kai was planning to coerce Hana into something embarrassing, or forcing her to kiss him. Something that would make her feel horrible and make him feel good.

But all Kai does now is turn away from her. "Go home, Hana," he commands in a soft tone.