"I don't know how long has it been. I guess, four weeks. Or five. I don't know, I'm not sure anymore."

Taeyeon carefully eyed the other members who were sound asleep, holding her phone close to in order to convey her message quietly. Power saving mode was a powerful tool to conserve battery usage, so is 'airplane mode'. But she knew it was going to die, and by that fact, she's going to make the best of it.

"Whatever day it is, whatever time we spent stuck in this hole, it's already pointless. Everyone's tired. I'm tired. We just wanted a way out of this," Taeyeon whispered, her lips as they had been dry for some time that tiny cracks began to appear. Water has been the only thing they've been drinking, and by now, it tasted stale.

The food was certainly not helping either, as the only menus were dumplings and noodle soup. Their stomachs longed for normal appetizers, but for now, they could only savage with the ones given to them.

"I just..." Taeyeon paused, blinking a few times to knock out the drowsiness in her eyes. "I just want to know why we're here. What did we do the deserve this."

Sighing, she decided to let herself get some rest for a few hours. Taeyeon scratched her head, the results of being unhygienic  and not taking a single bath since day one.

"This is Taeyeon, signing off."

-

Morning arrived. But neither of them was welcomed with sunlight piercing through the bedroom window. Instead, a plain ceiling was all they see.

Taeyeon fluttered her eyes, breaking the blurry vision as her pupils started to focus by itself. Taking a deep breath and letting out an audible exhale, she let her arms and legs stretch as loud as possible. A loud groan ensued, and soon enough, Taeyeon sat up from her uncomfortable spot for sleeping. She yawned, scratching her head and slightly disgusted at how dry and odd her hair felt under her fingertips.

'If only the ignorant er was kind enough to set up a bathroom in this place,' Taeyeon thought, and right before she was about to wake the others up who were busy snoring the seconds away in the slumber, her eyes caught onto something off. Turning her head to the source of the attraction, it was then she was unable to conceal her loud gasp to herself. And then, everybody was awake.

"What the ..." Taeyeon whispered loudly, ignoring the calls and yawns of the other members as she started running towards the black, shiny object lying on the floor in the center of the room.

"Mornin', guys," Sooyoung said sleepily, stretching her arms as it felt sore to the core. "Mornin', Taeyeo- what the is that?"

Sunny was still rubbing the sleep on her eyes when she heard Sooyoung cursing first thing in the morning. Following the girl's direction, she couldn't help but to be taken aback by the unexpected sight. "That's a gun."

"Oh, my God," Tiffany muttered, whilst Jessica and Yuri stayed in place realizing the exact same thing. Her eyes widened when she noticed Taeyeon reaching out towards the weapon. "Tae, be careful with that thing!"

"I know, I know. I just..." Taeyeon trailed off, observing the object when she got it in her hand. "This doesn't make any sense, what does this-"

A familiar voice rang out through the speakers. “I see that everyone’s awake. Good morning.”

“How’s it a ‘good’ morning, ?” Yuri uttered, her voice only audible to Jessica’s ears.

“Now, you guys are probably wondering why, in such a very early hour, there is a handgun that so happens to appear magically on the floor overnight? I wouldn’t call it magic, more like ‘sneaking into the room while everybody’s asleep kind of thing,” the man said, his voice hinting a humorous tone.

“Cut the bull, and on with the point. What’s with the gun?” Jessica voiced angrily. A low chuckle emitted from the speakers.

“I know for a fact that all of you don’t know how to properly use a gun. So, I’ll just say this: there is one bullet in there. One bullet, one choice that can either change the situation for the better or for the worse. It’s up to you to decide what decision you want to make, but make it count. Take all of your time, no need to rush since I didn’t set up a countdown,” the girls listened to the man carefully, eyeing the weapon in Taeyeon’s grasp.

“Wait, that’s it?” Taeyeon spoke, only to be met with silence. The man had turned off his mic.

Sunny groaned, rubbing her temples. “Now what are we going to ing do? Tae, I suggest you put that thing down on a table somewhere.”

Instead of doing what she was told to do, Taeyeon set it down on the floor and kicked it slightly without aim. Sunny immediately reacted towards the action. “Whoa, whoa, what the hell, Taeyeon?”

“I don’t know, okay?” Taeyeon blurted out, gripping her hair tightly as her thoughts began to take over again. Her head was spinning out of control, filling itself with paranoia and fear of the unknown. “This guy has been messing with us for weeks, and now he decides to let us take over control of our fate? I don’t trust him in even the slightest.”

“For ’s sake, listen to yourself!” Sooyoung exclaimed, stepping in next to Sunny as her frustration towards the leader’s nonsensical reason. “This could be our chance to get the hell out of here with a course of one single bullet. Your trust issues regarding that isn’t going to help us.”

“Open your eyes! We are trapped in here, goddamit! You try shooting that door with one bullet, it wouldn’t do anything when there’s a ful of locks on the other side. You try shooting that air vent, who the ’s going to fit in that? Sunny? As small as a ing midget she is, she wouldn’t fit into that tiny space,” Taeyeon spat, not being able to control her emotions.

Sunny pushed the leader harshly, slapping her cheek in the process.  “Back the up, Taeyeon. Do you see me talking behind your back when you’re not looking?”

Tiffany immediately stepped in, breaking Taeyeon away from the other short girl while Sooyoung does the same with Sunny. “Guys, stop! Please, if we’re trying to think of a way, we gotta stay calm and get ourselves together.”

“Yuri, what are you doing?!” Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard Jessica shouting at the said girl. They turned their heads, only to find a shocking sight.

Taeyeon let herself out of Tiffany’s hold, and started walking towards Yuri when the latter ordered her to stop. “Don’t. Don’t come any closer.”

Taeyeon halted her steps, backing away slightly. “Yuri... put the gun down,” she said carefully, trying not to set up a horrifying scene to watch. “Just... calm down.”

Yuri shook her head, an emotionless expression plastered on her face. Sleepless nights made her eyes grew dark bags underneath them, followed by tear-stained cheeks due to the countless nightmares she had gone through. She raised the gun slowly.

“Let’s face it guys. We’re never getting out of here.”

Jessica took a step, reaching out her hand to her friend. “Yuri, plea-“

A gunshot was heard.

A dreadful silence followed.

The sound of a body falling to the floor can be heard.

No one said a word, their faces filled with horror and shock.

Time felt like it slowed down, according to Taeyeon. She could only watch as she watches Yuri’s lifeless body slowly falling to the floor. Crimson blood oozed out of the wound on her head. Her eyes were widened and hallow, creeping into Taeyeon’s mind and leaving a permanent picture in her brain. She could only watch as Jessica ran towards to their now dead friend, bumping into the leader’s body in the process.

Taeyeon didn’t react. Even whe she heard Jessica’s painful sobs echoing through her ears, the sight of Tiffany and Sunny covering their mouths with tears streaming down their faces, the face of Sooyoung as she tried to comprehend what just happened, Taeyeon didn’t react.

She couldn’t.

Because it was all said and done.