taehyun plans on searching his phone before getting on to sanggyun's, as he felt like it'll be better to get rid of the distractions before going on to the real thing. he could sense someone crouching not far from him, judging by the different shade of black and movement the object in front of him showed. "who's this?"

"donghan." the guy already had his phone on him, and the lights coming out from his phone is bright enough to reveal his face. "hyung, i think we have a countdown going on."

taehyun arches an eyebrow. "the woman didn't say anything about a countdown."

"but this," donghan shoves his phone to the latter. "i hit the dismiss button, but showed as if i hit snooze instead. the strange thing is," he taps on the ongoing countdown. "the number's on 6 minutes. snoozes goes on from 9. i can't unlock the phone, it just stays like this."

taehyun curses under his breath. "we better get going. you keep this phone and keep me updated with the time."

donghan stops him. "but what about you? you got no light."

"just like the other boys." taehyun lets go of the maknae's grip. "stay alarmed, watch the strings." he leaves donghan and continues to search his phone (and sanggyun's). "guys, there's a countdown! y'all got 6 minutes."

kenta groans. "why is there always a countdown?!"

taehyun couldn't help but agree. along the way, he passes by hyunbin, who seems to already have gotten his phone. it explains the reason why he didn't seem to hear the song eyes nose lips again. "4 minutes." hyunbin reminds the older one. "and we got a message." taehyun stares at the new message notification that popped into hyunbin's lockscreen.

unknown
seems like you're all having fun.

unknown
don't worry

unknown
i'm playing too

"does that mean he's here?" taehyun asks curiously, but he only gets a shrug by hyunbin.

"but here's the thing hyung," hyunbin looks around his surrounding before leaning on the older one, attempting for a whisper. "don't you think kenta-hyung's suspicious?"

taehyun groans. "i'm not up for this discussion anymore—"

hyunbin steps closer again, self-subsequently held the older one's arm. "but think about it. he answered my question quite slower than the rest. it's like he had to ponder for a long time before knowing his own ringtone."

"maybe he forgot about it."

"just.. reconsider about the possibility, hyung." hyunbin whispers before moving on to a different direction, leaving taehyun alone.

taehyun sighs. if you keep that up, i'll consider you as the culprit.

luckily for him, taehyun has finally found his own phone, 'rookie' still playing along. as he dismisses the alarm (and notices that he only had 3 minutes left) he notices that the someone kept sending him messages.. and they weren't quite nice either.

unknown
i'm somewhere there

unknown
creeping

unknown
watching your every move

unknown
it'll be a shame if you fail

"hyung!" taehyun was surprised by kenta's sudden appearance, him coming out of the darkness in front of him. "you found your phone."

taehyun nods. "3 minutes." he says to himself. he could find himself still remembering hyunbin's theory about kenta, but he tries to get those thoughts away. "are you alright?"

kenta nods. without any warning, he pulls taehyun down with him, leaving the both of them crouching on the floor. "hyung, i need to tell you something."

taehyun was simply done by all of these accuses his brothers kept saying one by one. "if it's about the culprit—"

"it's about sanggyun's ringtone." he interrupts, hoping to be able to spare more time.

oh, this is different. taehyun moved closer to take a better listen. "what about it?"

"that's why i answered hyunbin a bit slower than the others, it's because i was thinking." kenta explains quickly. "i kept listening to the ringtones playing and only heard one 나야나. just one. and that's the point, hyung—" he stops. "sanggyun's ringtone is 나야나."

but yongguk was the one who said his ringtone is 나야나..? "are you sure about that?"

"the guy snoozes his alarm. every. single. day. and i'm his roommate." kenta points out. "i know him. it's always been 나야나 for him, nothing else." he looks around his surroundings. "and the reason why i said i used the japanese version of sayonara hitori is because there is the korean version playing somewhere around here. i don't know who that is, but i'm positive that it's not sanggyun."

"so you're saying.." taehyun pauses. "you're saying that yongguk lied about his own ringtone?"

he didn't appear to say yes, but he wasn't against the statement either. "hyung, you got to trust me. i don't know who's lying here, but i do believe the 나야나 ringtone belongs to sanggyun. not him."

taehyun felt like his head could burst after all of this accusations. hyunbin accusing kenta, kenta accusing yongguk— it's all too much for him to decipher. "and why should i trust you?"

"i found my phone!" yongguk's voice appear out of nowhere, making it the end of the 나야나 ringtone.

all it was left are both sayonara hitoris, the japanese and korean version.

kenta is right.

hyunbin moves to wherever the song is coming from. "i'm going to find the korean version—"

"stop!" taehyun instructs. he stares at his phone: 1 minutes and 12 seconds. he eyes kenta before revealing the next move. "find yongguk, take his phone! the one with him is not his."

"what the fuck?!" yongguk shouts in desperation. "this is my p-phone i'm holding, what do you m-mean?!"

kenta moves to the source of yongguk's voice and replies to him. "if you're so sure about that, why are you stuttering?!"

the boy doesn't answer.

taehyun is now sure of kenta's theory.

and by true coincidence, donghan's position was not that far from yongguk's, who was lying at the corner of the room. without thinking twice he approached the guy, noticing the phone he was holding on to was not his, but rather is his other hyung's phone, sanggyun.

donghan stares at him in disbelief as he steps closer to him. "why did you lie?"

yongguk is stuttering under his breath, his mouth not able to articulate a sentence correctly. "i d-did it to p-protect myself."

donghan ignores the older one's plead and snatches the phone away from him. he notices that he hadn't even dismissed the alarm, he just muted the phone. that's why the game was still going. donghan taps the dismiss button, resulting the lights to turn back on.

•••

i'm sorry if this is confusing i'm bad at explaining stuff lolol