hyunbin emerges himself into his photographical memory.

the lights go out. his instincts was to sprint his way to the exit door, with him already memorizing every inch of the house so he didn't have trouble finding the way out. he ignores the countless screams from his hyungs and proceed on finding his way out.

yongguk says not to trust anybody. i'm not even going to trust him.

once he finds himself on the exit door, he tries to open it but the door handle was somehow stuck on the other side. cold sweat starts forming on his forehead, his eyes enthralling to the edge of darkness.

"help!" he cries out, but he knows it's as useless as his hyungs' mourns of help, but it was the only thing he could do at this kind of situation.

darkness is the only thing he is able to see, but he swears to god he feels like someone uninvited is wandering around the room at the moment.

he only remembers his desperate yearning, his hands bruising after hitting the door a thousand times, tears rolling on his cheeks, and the lights turning back on.

–

the first thing kenta does after the lights are on is to check the others.

he's been hiding in the wardrobe that doesn't feel like it's his, it's not hard to realize that he is in donghan and taehyun's room seeing their clothes scattering everywhere. he goes out with drying tears on his cheeks. the room didn't change a bit; only the door is wide open because he had to barge in because he was blinded in darkness. he slowly goes out the room, his hands trembling earnestly. "h-hello?"

"kenta-hyung?" donghan approaches the older one, checking his condition. "are you okay?"

kenta nods. he looks at the side of the room, his attention suddenly grazes at the boy who cornered himself in front of the exit door. "hyunbin-ah!"

hyunbin raises his head, hearing to a familiar voice. his eyes widen. "h-hyung," he reluctantly gets up on his feet and approaches the two, hugging them in relief. "you don't know how happy i am to see the both of you alive and well."

"well, we're not planning to die without you, hyung." donghan embraces the boy in return.

kenta, however, stays skeptical and cuts off the moment of unplanned reunion for the three. "we can't relax now, we still got 3 people missing." he reminds, not leaving sanggyun behind.

"i have a feeling they're still in your room, hyung." hyunbin points at the 95-liners room, the place where things got worse.

"let's just—"

yongguk's scream is heard coming from kenta's room. the three boys immediately rush their way to where the voice was heard, the door's already wide open once they reach the place. "hyung?" donghan calls out, but there's no certain answer.

it's because yongguk isn't able to articulate a single word.

the boys get into the room to see yongguk holding taehyun's unconscious body on the floor, helplessly cradling him to comfort himself. "h-hyung," he whimpers softly, his hands trembling after crying so much.

kenta, noticing yongguk's sensitive state, did not approach him but approach taehyun instead. the unconscious boy still holds the phone in his hand, and there seems to be written a message on the screen of the phone. kenta slowly grabs the phone from taehyun's grip and reads what's in it.

don't worry, he's not dead –
just taking a short nap, that's all.
he'll wake up once round two starts.
2:08:31

"round 2?" hyunbin groans in frustration. "i guess it's still going on, then."

"the next round starts in about 30 minutes," donghan informs. "we better get ready, then."

kenta sighs. "i'm still confused, though; how did this happen to him?"

"the real question is," yongguk raises his voice after he had his moment to stabilize. "whose name did he send through the text?"

"you all seem to forget the biggest mystery of it all," donghan eyes on the empty bed. "where the hell is sanggyun-hyung?"

—

happy new year y'all! let's just hope i could finish this book this year lol

– yuehwa