The president was a young man at the age of 30. His hair was dark brown, matching his tannish skin color. He had a deep set of light brown eyes and a pointy nose. His lips tilted up to a smile as Hyeri and Tao approached, bowing and formally sitting at their spots.

"Welcome," the president warmly greeted them, "Just call me Jung." Both of them nodded just as silence filled the room. The waiters had began to bring out the meals. 

"You guys don't speak much do you?" Jung observed. 

"No," Hyeri dryly answered. They did, with their friends, not with a bunch of strangers. 

"I see," a waitress approached them a placed a dish of some sort of noddles with lobster in them. It looked repulsive to Hyeri. She thought that it was only the food's appearance that looked good. She would trade anything to eat her mother's cooking right now.

"Eat," Jung waited for them. Tao used his chopsticks and got half a plate full of food. As for Hyeri, she got as little as possible.

"So," Jung, who had began to eat spoke in a conversational tone, "What do you think?" He gestured at all the extravaganza. Jung, as the president, expected them to be awed at the pretty things and wonderful looking food. What he got was a straight face from Tao.

"It's nice," Hyeri tried to be as pleasant as possible. She was here to make her mother proud. Her mom wouldn't want her to be unmannerly in front of the president would she?

Jung fired another question that he wanted to know the answer to, "How do you suppose you guys will win this game?" Tao and Hyeri's eyes discreetly met, their thoughts both on the dreaming communication.

"I will fight hard." Tao simply replied.

"I have faith in him. Never stop believing," Hyeri added, though her words were a lie. In her philosophy, she thought that it was best that she shouldn't believe so if the outcome was bad, she wouldn't be disappointed or sad.

"You know what?" Jung wiped his mouth daintily. It reminded Hyeri of Kyungsoo, back at home, where he'd have the best able manners. A smile unconciously graced on her lips at the thought of home. Oh how she missed it.

"What?" Tao's eyes were on Hyeri's sudden and mysterious smile.

"I think you guys are going to win." This snapped Hyeri back to the current discussion and shocked both parties that were sitting across from the president. Jung laughed at their shocked expressions just as another plate of food was brought by the waitress.

Hyeri yawned, feeling a bit of drowsiness come upon her. The sky was just barely dark and Hyeri was sent to her quarters, which she was supposed to stay at until dawn broke the next day. Hyeri's maid folded her clothes and stood at the corner of her room, obviously watching Hyeri. As Hyeri's eyes began to flutter shut, the maid assisted her to her bed.

"Thank you," Hyeri sleepily murmured before falling into a deep slumber, her somewhat full stomach content.

"Tao!" She embraced him giddily.

"Hyeri," Tai hugged her back, glad to be part of her dream. They stood like that for a while, the moonlight softly shining above them, casting a somewhat mysterious glow around them.

"Tao, I saw tigers on the left," the words left her lips as soon as they parted.

He came to a conclusion slowly. "So I must stick to the right." Hyeri bit her lip, wanting to nod, but perhaps there were many risks at the right as well.

"Just follow your heart. Remember, I always see the courses beforehand so they can 'torture' me more, so I'll tell you things in these dreams." Hyeri smiled gently at Tao's sudden worried face, "This is risky. If you get caught, you'll be executed."

"I'd rather die than have you suffer all those," she shuddered at the thought of watching Tao get clawed apart by a tiger. In the past mazes, there have been quicksand in which many contestants got dragged into, venomous snakes biting here and there, ninjas attacking so abruptly, there couldn't possibly be a way to react, and even harder ones.

"You must live," Hyeri looked at Tao with sad eyes. Tao managed to nod before the dream faded. A five minute dream was a whole night of sleep already.

The maid was hovering above Hyeri as she woke up, giving Hyeri an uncomfortable feeling. She swung around the bed and with the maid's help got her morning duties ready, dressed and ate a breakfast that was sent to her room. At exactly 10 sharp, they were told to meet at a manor just outside of where Hyeri stayed at. There was a shiny black limousine with tinted windows parked right in front of the manor. The maid delivered her to the limo and left. Once inside, a blast of air conditioning hit her. The air smelled like lemons. Across from Hyeri was Tao. Guards were on either side of the couple and president in the middle.

"Let's go," Jung called out in a velvety voice. The half hour drive there was absolutely silent. There was only the purr of the engine. Jung's curious gaze was penetrating into Hyeri. Tao kept his eyes on Hyeri as well, while she just looked back at him, her eyes holding a lot of emotion, from disgust of the government, to love to Tao and to loneliness of the thought of a month without anyone she knew. 

When the car pulled up, they all exited and stood there. Jung clapped his hands and gave Tao and Hyeri time to have a final word with each other. Like always, there was a guard near to hear the conversation.

"I love you," her voice was raw from emotions.

"I will live for you," Tao looked her in the eye.

"I know," Hyeri hugged him and they stood like that until Jung cleared his throat.

"Bye, I love you," Tao lightly brushed his lips on her forhead before walking with some tall guards to the entrance of the maze, not givng a last look backwards. Hyeri's eyes filled with tears as she watched after him. Jung escorted her onto a smaller vehicle to get to the maze. He saw the tears in Hyeri's eyes and cast her a sympathetic look. Hyeri quickly pushed her tears away, seeing that more people around her began to see her vulnerablitiy.

When they kept giving her pitying glances, Hyeri snapped, "Just go." They drove for five minutes and Hyeri was placed in a cell which they called a room. She sat on the small cot and the TV was open. It was for her to watch. Only for her. Her torture. Hyeri's disgust for the game had never been so great before.

Back at the entrance, Tao stood, his fists trembling. The heavy latched lifted and the guard pushed Tao roughly into the maze. The heavy latch shut behind him.

The game had just begun.