chapter nine / gu
Not Today
(009)

"Noona," Jimin calls from across the trendy clothing store, his voice barely audible over the loud music thumping through the speakers, "does this look okay?" I stop my own clothing search, and walk over to the younger boy who is shyly hiding behind the dressing room curtain.

"Well I kind of need to see what you've got on," I laugh.

"O-oh, right." He looks down at his feet and wraps his arms around himself as he waits for my reaction.

"Jiminie," I gush, "You look so cute!" That's not what he wanted to hear. He immediately frowns and slumps his shoulders.

"I'm not cute," he argues, poking his bottom lip out, not doing much to prove his point. "I'm a man! Tell me I look hot or sexy." I look down at his faded blue shorts, his black and white striped shirt, tall socks, and fuzzy blue hooded jacket, and sigh.

"If you want me to tell you you're sexy you're gonna have to wear something a little less..." I trail off, trying my best not to upset him.

"Soft. The definition of mochi," Yoongi bluntly finishes my sentence, which earns a glare from Jimin. I try not to laugh at Yoongi's statement, knowing it'll only make Jimin more defensive.

"Here, I'll help you find something else," I suggest. I look through the racks of clothing, showing different things to Jimin, to which he all makes a face at. Eventually, I get tired of him saying no to everything, so I ignore him and shove an outfit into his hands.

"Try this on."

He hesitates. "But I don't think-"

"I didn't ask, now go try it on."

He let's out a frustrated groan and mumbles something under his breath as he trudges to the dressing rooms.

"I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't hear you," I question, jutting out my hip and crossing my arms.

"I was just saying how much I love you, Noona." He gives me a fake smile before returning to his annoyed look.

Yoongi scoffs, laying down on a bench near the dressing rooms. "Bullcrap."

While Jimin changes into the clothes I picked for him, I walk to the bench that Yoongi is completely sprawled out on. I look at him expectingly as I wait for him to make room. He rolls his eyes and groans as he lifts his head up, just enough for me to take a seat, then plops his head back down in my lap.

When we came to the mall, Yoongi was only interested in visiting two stores; a music store and a place that sells street clothes. Once he was done looking there, nothing else really interested him, so he's been lazily hanging around us while we look around, that is, me, Jimin, and Taehyung. Normally, we do most shopping with our holopad, but I thought it'd be a good idea to get out of the house. Jimin wanted to check out the new clothing store that just opened, the one we're at now, called De Novo, Taehyung wanted to get Panda Express in the food court, and I'm not sure why Yoongi came. He didn't need or want anything specific, and he seems bored out of his mind, but then again, when does he not?

"What's taking so long, Chim?" I call out to him, slightly worried about the boy who's been in the dressing room a little too long for trying on just one outfit.

"I can't come out," he whines.

I furrow my eyebrows and tilt my head. "What's wrong?"

"I don't like it."

I sigh. "Come out and show us, we won't make fun of you if it looks bad, right Yoongi?"

"I wouldn't count on it," he deadpans.

I flick his forehead and he hisses in pain. "Yoongi promised he wouldn't make fun of you!" I lie to Jimin. It takes a few more seconds, but he eventually steps from behind the curtain, his cheeks tinted a bright shade of red. The same color that I'm sure paints my face at this point, too.

My jaw drops when I see him. His black jeans fit his legs perfectly, showing off the muscles in his thighs. His black t-shirt, red flannel, and leather jacket almost completely transforms his appearance from soft and cute, to, well, the opposite of that. What happened to my mochi?

"You look- uh... You look hot, Jimin," I awkwardly clear my throat, not feeling very confident in paying him such a compliment.

Jimin immediately covers his face with his hands to cover up his growing blush. "Stop! Don't call me that," he shakes his head.

"That's what you wanted her to say earlier," Yoongi exclaims.

"Well I changed my mind!" Jimin turns around and quickly closes the curtain behind him. I shake my head and laugh at the boy's actions.

"Are you gonna get the clothes?" Yoongi calls out.

"I don't know," he grumbles. Me and Yoongi both laugh at his indecisiveness, but are quickly distracted from the situation when loud footsteps come rushing towards us.

Taehyung stumbles through the racks of clothing. When he finally stops running, he bends over, his hands on his knees, gasping for air. Yoongi and I both give him a worried look, waiting for him to tell us why he was in such a rush to find us.

"They're making... an announcement in the... food court," he informs us through ragged breaths. We both know what he's talking about. The game moderators are making their daily announcements about their progress in getting us out of the game, but for Taehyung to be so worked up about it, it has to be something we haven't heard before. Everyday it's always the same message, so people don't usually pay much attention to it. My heart jumps around in my chest, a spark of hope being ignited inside of me. I try to keep myself from getting too excited before that spark burns everything down in it's path.

For the first time since we've been here, Yoongi gets a burst of energy and quickly lifts himself from the bench. I start to follow the boys out of the store before remembering that Jimin is still in the dressing room.

"Come on, Jimin," I yell, "we need to go to the food court!"

"I'm having trouble getting these pants off," he says through grunts. I look between the dressing room and the other boys who are about to leave me behind, having an inner battle about what to do.

"Meet us in the food court when you're done!"

"Noona, don't leave me," He pleads. I cringe at his request. I don't want to leave him, but I don't want to wait for him either.

"Sorry, Chim Chim," I hear his loud complaints as I run outside of the store, pushing myself to go as fast as possible to catch up with Yoongi and Taehyung.

We race to the food court, the smell of different fried foods filling the area. Every seat in the room is taken, a large amount of other people left to stand, including us. Everyone's attention is fixated on a large four walled post that stands in the middle of the cafeteria. A screen sits on each wall, making sure everyone can see, no matter what spot in the room you're standing at. Normally, an announcer will appear on every screen in Elysium at the same times every day, once in the early afternoon, and again in the late evening. The message stayed the same for the past few weeks, but they found it important to make sure we heard some news from them daily. Today was different, though. The message didn't just immediately start playing like it usually does. Since no one paid attention to the reports anymore, there was no reason for them to make sure everyone was watching, but today, they're doing everything they can to get every eye on the screens.

No one dares to speak a word as a clock counts down on the screen, only two minutes left.

"What's going on?" Jimin asks, obviously out of breath as he was probably running to meet us once he was done getting dressed.

"The moderators are about to make a special announcement," I answer breathlessly, my lungs finding it difficult to fill themselves with air. My mind is spinning and racing. This has to be something big. I can feel it. This will be the day they tell us our fate. I try to prepare myself for bad news just as well as good news.

Only a few seconds remain, but watching the clock tick down, each second feels like an eternity. I rock on the tips of my toes, feeling anxious for the announcement to finally be made.

My heart cries out in relief when I see the man that I've grown so accustomed to seeing everyday on our screens. I try to read his expression, hoping for a hint on what message he's about to relay to us.

"Hello, players, thank you for your attention," his deep and gravelly voice echoes through the speakers. "You have all been so patient with us these past few weeks, and we are very grateful for that. We've been extremely thorough in our search for what has been causing issues with the gaming system. We've made sure to gather all of the possible information before releasing the knowledge to the public. Here's what we've discovered." The world around us almost seems to stop, the universe sitting on the edge of it's chair, just as eager as we are to hear what he has to say.

"Yugen has found traces of a hacker in our systems." I suck in a breath. Someone purposefully trapped us here. "Whoever it is has covered their tracks very well, it was almost impossible to find anything. We have studied the defenses the hacker put up to prevent you from logging out of the game. They are very complex, to say the least, so I'll save you the trouble of explaining them in detail. On the outside, from our perspective, it appears as binary codes, but on the inside, the defenses will appear to you as part of the game. We have tried getting past the defenses, but," the man purses his lips and breathes heavily through his nose, "it seems that the only way to get through them is from the inside. Only you can break through the hacker's defenses."

The room erupts into loud protest. I'm sure everyone is worried since our salvation is now solely our own responsibility, but I still feel hopeful. From what I'm hearing, there's still a chance for us to go home.

"I'm sure you may be thinking that since you don't have advanced training in computers and hacking, that this will be impossible, but like I said, on the inside, the defenses appear as part of the game," he explains, silencing the nervous crowd.

"We're still gathering information on what it's like in Elysium, but to give you an idea, you may see the defenses as game bosses that you have to defeat. Think of Bowser from Mario, Jinpachi from Tekken 5, the Ender Dragon from Minecraft, Riku from Kingdom Hearts, I'm sure you get the point by now. There's different 'bosses' in Elysium that you have to defeat. Once you defeat the last one, we'll be able to get you out of the virtual world. The only thing is that you're just as vulnerable in there to dangers as we are to dangers in the real world. We don't encourage you to go after these bosses. They are incredibly dangerous, and we can't ensure your safety. If you all decide to live out the remainder of your lives in Elysium, we will fund your families with the money to keep you hospitalized so that a medical staff can take care of your physical bodies. If you decide to take on the bosses, a map will be sent to everyone's inventory, showing where the bosses are, what to expect from each of them, and ways to, hopefully, destroy them. Yugen sends their deepest apologies. We will be repeating this announcement again at our usual evening time."

Chaos breaks out around me, but it's nothing compared to the riot going on inside of me. My mind spins, faster and faster until it feels like I might hurl. Freedom could still be attained, but at what price? How many could lose their lives trying to get back to the real world? Should I just stay here and live out the rest of my life? If I decided to leave, would I have the support of my friends, or would they stay behind?

I'm snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of Taehyung choking on his sobs. Without even thinking, I grab hold of him, letting him collapse in my embrace as he falls apart. I look at Jimin and Yoongi who just stand frozen, too shocked to do anything.

The raging crowd around us grow louder with screams and wailing. Random objects are thrown around the room in protest.

"We need to go," Yoongi commands worriedly. I nod my head in agreement, and basically drag a limp Taehyung through the large crowd, Jimin following close behind, holding onto the fabric of me and Yoongi's shirts to make sure he isn't swallowed by the sea of angry people.

When we make it to an empty area we finally have enough room to move freely. We pull up our holopads and teleport back to our safe domain.

When we materialize in the living room, Namjoon, Jin, Hoseok, and Jungkook are already there. The only sound being made between us being Taehyung's sniffles and soft whimpers.

"You saw the announcement," Namjoon asks, but it comes out more like a statement. He can tell from the look on our faces that we already know. I nod, a grim look on my face.

"What're we gonna do?" Hoseok looks to everybody, nerves racking through his body.

All of the boys stay silent, trying to decide what they want to do, but I already have chosen. I refuse to let the hacker take away my life in the real world. I won't go down without a fight. I picture my Mama, gently brushing a loose strand of hair behind my ear, her eyes shining brightly as she tells me the story of a man who lost what he loved because he couldn't love himself. I don't want to lose Mama because I was too afraid to accept the real me. Even if the real world has it's challenges, my disability being one of them, I'm willing to face it so I can be with Mama again, so I can proudly tell her that I love and care for the life that formed inside of her, so much so that I fought tooth and nail to get it back.

"I don't know about you guys," I sigh, "But I'm gonna take down some game bosses."

I don't know why the hacker trapped us here, I don't know what his plans were, but I know he didn't think everything completely through. I don't think he expected us to put up a fight, not with our lives on the line, I think he expected us to give up, but that won't happen.

Not today. Not ever.

__________

A/N -

Oof short chapter, I know, but I wanted to end it here.

Do you see my new book cover?!?!?! VERSACHEN made it! Ugh I love it so much. The pastel aesthetic is giving me life UwU.

So, as I'm sure you can tell, stuff is about to get intense. Wren is going to go and fight the game bosses. If they die in the game, they die in the real world. You may think, but author-nim wouldn't kill off her characters. Hahahahaha oh, but author-nim most certainly would. I think a book is only good if it can get your emotions involved, so I'm hoping to make all of my readers cry in misery. Love you guys 😊💓

Peace out my dudes ✌🏻