I looked at Dongmyeong who slept peacefully. Things seemed to be okay within the game. He and Youngjo were the talk of the school. Different rumors of what happened that night spread like a wild fire. What made it funny was that none of the rumors were remotely correct. However, seeing Dongmyeong happier than he used to be made me happy. Though, the happiness was only temporary as there were still problems that lurked in the shadows of our friend group.

Yonghoon had ultimately given up and ran from home as well. It didn't take Giwook long to locate him and convince him to live with him. Myeong, Hwan and Giwook hardly talked to each other. I could understand him and Hwan, but what happened that put distance between him and Giwook? Geonhak had started to miss school too. His parents were just as confused as they always saw him leave for school. No one could get in touch with him, not even Seoho.

Then there was my own problem. Sneaking around with someone else's boyfriend. I couldn't understand why they couldn't break up already. I couldn't help but laugh at times at Seoho's naivety. Though, if what Harin and I were doing got out, it'd ruin the group all together. So I sort of understood why he wanted to wait. The TV made a noise, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"'Gameplay evaluation'? What are they planning to evaluate..." I muttered then shook Myeong. "Wake up, something's happening."

He slowly sat up then stretched. His gaze rested on the screen and soon he was on alert.

"What is this?" he asked as if I knew.

"Well, I didn't want to find out without you." I said then pressed A. "'Did you find the game fun?'. Uh, Myeong..."

"What are we playing? Interview? This is ridiculous." he grumbled before selecting no on his side.

I selected no as well. It then asked us if we felt if our problems were solved. Myeong selected yes, I said no. It then asked us if we'd ever play again. We both selected no without hesitation. Being trapped in our room for god knows how long and being forced to view ugly truths weren't the best experiences. The screen turned black and we waited.

"You know, I'm a bit nervous. What if everything that happened is applied to real life?" he asked.

"I'm sure it's already happened. You cut marks are key." I said.

Words appeared on the screen in a pink box. One death occurred during your gameplay. We looked at each other with worry. Who was it? We went through a list of people in our mind but couldn't come up with anyone. We hoped the game would tell us. It changed to a stats screen and displayed all of our happy points.

"Oh... when did you get so low, Don?" I asked curiously.

"Eheh... lets just keep going." he said, obviously avoiding my question.

Check marks appeared beside a few of our friends, but x's outnumbered the check marks. What did they mean? Keonhee, Kanghyun and Yonghoon were the only ones without x's. We continued on and were greeted with a black screen. Soon the title screen appeared and many things had changed. Keonhee and Kanghyun were playing checkers instead of fighting. Yonghoon was sleeping on Giwook's lap instead of sinking in water. Youngjo was eating ice cream with a bright smile. The others were pretty much the same.

"Are we done...? Can we...?" Myeong asked then left his spot to try the door.

It opened. He sprinted out of the room, shouting at the top of his lungs. Not too long after, our mother yelled for him to quiet down. I crawled over to the console and successfully ejected the game. I put it back in its case then debated whether to put it away or find a way to destroy it.

"Ju, come down quick! Mom brought ice cream!" Dongmyeong shouted then dashed away.

I felt a smile creep onto my face as I placed the game on our gaming shelf.

"Coming!" I shouted then hurried out the room.

We never fully understood the game's true intentions, but in reality we never would. The game had mysteriously disappeared once we had arrived back in our room after enjoying a bowl of cool ice cream.