stayvillain

Seungmin sipped a fresh black coffee and settled into his seat. He finally had enough free time to sit down and read a book. A book he’d found under his Christmas tree, Dream Garden. He wasn’t sure where it had come from, as he’d thanked all of his family members for the gift, yet they all denied buying it for him. Seungmin had put the book away in his room hoping its rightful owner would come and fix the mix up soon, but curiosity got the better of him and he had come to a quiet little cafe so that he could read it. This spot was his favourite to come to when he needed some alone time. This cafe was fairly unknown in the area, meaning that it was almost always empty, welcoming some much needed deep relaxation.

Fueled with caffeine, Seungmin turned the first page. The book told a tale of a whimsical land called the Dream Garden, full of mischief and wonder. It was clear from the beginning that this was no ordinary novel, with the main characters being a purple cat, a pair of air-headed twins referred to as the Nuggets, and an unusual character merely named the Host. 

Seungmin reached for his coffee cup, wanting to take another sip. He was hooked on Dream Garden, and almost couldn’t tear his eyes from the pages, but as he pulled his beverage closer, he spotted something moving in the liquid. Upon closer inspection, Seungmin found a goldfish inside his drink. He was certain that it hadn’t been there before, and began poking at the animal, just to make sure it wasn’t an apparition. Seungmin jumped back, startled as his finger met the swimming creature in the coffee, his eyes following its every move. Confused, but curious, Seungmin leaned in towards the cup, watching. He leaned in closer and closer, and closer yet until he lost his balance and fell face first into what should’ve been scalding liquid. 

Seungmin found himself falling through the coffee. The scent filled his nose and swirled all around him. Multi-coloured goldfish swam past, yellow, green, blue, orange. The black abyss looked endless and Seungmin was falling for what he thought was forever. Seungmin felt his eyes beginning to close, the sound of the fish bubbling and the aroma of the tunnel lulling him to sleep. He tried to fight it, to keep his eyes open, to remain aware of his surroundings, but his efforts went to waste.

Seungmin awakened, laying flat on his back. He rested in a bed of flowers that cushioned his fall. He couldn’t get up, however, as an animal had settled on his torso. From the angle he was looking at, it appeared to be a furry purple blob, but it was heavy and Seungmin wanted it off. He poked the blob, hoping to awaken the sleeping creature. On contact, the animal’s ears pricked up, and it began to uncurl itself, turning its face towards Seungmin. It was a cat! A purple cat. Seungmin recognised the animal straight away, “The cat from…” he whispered to himself.

The animal yawned and stretched out its body from its paws right down to its tail. Seungmin smiled softly and reached up to stroke the cat’s head, feeling honoured that it chose him as its resting place. The purple cat welcomed petting, and began to purr, kneading Seungmin gently with its paws.  “You’re a very cute cat but unfortunately, I have to get up now,” Seungmin said aloud to himself, as he tried to lift the cat off of his body. The cat didn’t seem to like this and hopped off by itself with a small yowl, freeing Seungmin and letting him sit up. Seungmin brushed down his shirt and the back of his hair, looking around at the area. 

Seungmin was sitting in the middle of a lovely meadow with colourful flowers all around him. But none of them looked like what they were supposed to. The roses were blue and the daisies were red, and the grass wasn’t green but a vibrant plum colour and the sky a pastel pink. 

“Are you ready to go now?” Asked an unfamiliar voice. The voice almost made Seungmin jump out of his skin. He was sure he had been out there alone, just him and the cat. As Seungmin turned back in the direction of the sudden voice, his gaze was met with another young man, who looked about the same age as him, the cat nowhere to be seen.  “G-go where?” Seungmin stumbled over his words, surely his mind was playing tricks on him. How could someone have approached so quickly without him knowing about it? Seungmin examined the boy in front of him. He looked familiar, though Seungmin was sure he’d never seen him before. Seungmin didn’t want to let himself think that this boy could be the cat that was asleep on him just minutes ago. 

“To the tea party, of course.” The boy laughed and reached out his hand, an offer to help Seungmin up, “Did you hit your head too hard or something?” Seungmin hesitantly took the boy’s hand and stood up beside him. Seungmin had so many questions. Where was he? What tea party? Where was the cat? And who was this boy in front of him? Deep down inside himself, Seungmin knew the answer to those questions, he just didn’t want to believe that he was right.

“I’m sorry but, who are you?” Seungmin managed out, hoping the boy wouldn’t say what he didn’t want to hear. “Ah, that’s right! You haven’t seen me like this yet.” The boy laughed, and grabbed Seungmin’s wrist, “Let’s walk and talk.”

The boy introduced himself as Jungsu and, much to Seungmin’s dismay, also as the cat from before. As if his purple hair and cat-like features didn’t already give it away. Jungsu believed that it would be rude to attend a party in the form of an animal, though he would much prefer to be in his natural body. 

The cat-boy led Seungmin through the meadow, and through a nearby stretch of trees. As the pair progressed through the small forest, they began to hear a commotion that got louder with each step. Jungsu brought Seungmin to a clearing, where a long, rectangular table was laid out with six seats, two occupied and four empty, three on one side, two on the other, and one at the head. Each seat at the table had a name embroidered into the back of it.

The head seat was occupied by a young man who at this time wasn’t saying much. He had been watching when Seungmin had arrived with Jungsu, and began smiling when Seungmin’s eyes met his. His eyes were full of kindness and his smile was pure and warm. This was the nature of he that they called the Host. The seat to the Host’s right was occupied by a boy with long black and red hair that was sprawled out across the table as he leaned, hunched over in his labelled seat, “Joo”.  Joo was asleep, mumbling words whilst dreaming, “Red, orange, yellow…”.  The seat to the Host’s left was labelled “Gaon”, but it was empty. The seat belonged to the other black and red haired boy, who was not at the table, but on it. Gaon was sitting, cross-legged on the table, filling two teapots, talking nonsenses loudly to himself, “Bananas are long, long, long…”

It seemed that the noise was solely the result of the two matching haired attendees, as the Host sat in complete silence, overseeing all. “Wild geese are still wild geese…” Gaon continued, “Green, blue, navy…” Mumbled Joo at the same time, “Even if you flip them over!”  “Purple… Rainbow…” The two continued like this, simultaneously uttering their meaningless words, one sleeping and one working. Seungmin quickly deduced that these two were the dummy Nugget twins introduced in his book.

Jungsu hastily made way to his reserved seat beside Gaon’s and sat down, motioning for Seungmin to do the same. Seungmin, however, did not have a seat with his name on it. He stood floundering, eyes looking to Jungsu and then to the Host for assistance. The Host gestured towards a seat at the end of the table on the right side, labelled “Ode”. As soon as Seungmin took Ode’s seat, the Host called for the tea party to officially begin. At the order, Gaon stood up, a teapot in either hand, and began to serve the partygoers. Gaon first crouched down and poured his own cup, but what came out of the spout didn’t look like tea. The water was clear and seemed to be frothy, like it was full of soap bubbles. 

Lacking any sense of spatial awareness, squashing cakes and snacks, and smashing cups and saucers as he went, Gaon walked down the length of the table to serve Jungsu.  “Tea or coffee?” Gaon asked with a smile, and crouched down once again to pour from the teacup in his left hand. Jungsu seemed pleased at his choice of drink, which looked like pond water full of goldfish. Goldfish! The same ones from Seungmin’s coffee back at the cafe. 

Gaon’s next stop was to Seungmin, who was seated directly across the table from Jungsu. Seungmin chose his drink, left — the same side as Jungsu — but Gaon didn’t care. Asking was just a formality, and Gaon chose to pour from whichever pot he deemed suitable for the guest. Thus, Seungmin was served a nice teacup full of bubbly water. Gaon continued past the empty seat beside Seungmin and up towards Joo.

Seungmin glanced at the seat beside him, between his and Joo’s. At first, the seat appeared empty as there was no one in it, but it wasn’t actually empty. The seat, labelled “Jun Han”, was occupied with a stack of books and atop the books was a handheld mirror, propped up as though it was a guest. Seungmin leaned over to peek in the mirror, startled to find a red-haired boy inside, huddled into himself, looking rather sad.  “Who’s that, inside the mirror?” Seungmin asked, curious as to why no one was paying the mirror boy, Jun Han, any attention. 

Jungsu looked up from the fish in his cup, a confused look on his face, “You mean the rabbit?” Seungmin made a face back, and picked up the mirror, showing Jungsu the boy inside. Jungsu laughed and asked if Seungmin had his head screwed on right, how could he not see that the mirror just showed the image of a red rabbit? Jungsu looked back down at his tea, or more so, at the fish, poking and playing with them, as a cat would do. 

Seungmin looked at the mirror once again, he was sure he wasn’t crazy, it wasn’t a rabbit. Seungmin absent mindedly tapped at the glass, feeling sorry for the ignored guest inside it. But his eyes widened as Jun Han responded to the tapping, coming closer to the glass, his mouth moving as though he was trying to speak. 

Getting out of his seat, Seungmin walked around the table, first to the Nuggets, to show them the mirror and ask for some help. Joo raised his head to listen to Seungmin’s query. The Nuggets looked first at each other, then back to Seungmin, then back to each other before bursting into hysterical laughter. Joo suggested that Seungmin was going insane, or that he was just stupid for thinking there could be someone trying to talk to him through a mirror, let alone someone living inside it. Gaon, through laughter, informed Seungmin that what he was seeing in the mirror was a mere rabbit with red fur, who could not speak. 

Seungmin, a little bit defeated after being called an idiot by the resident dummies, continued around the table to the Host, hoping that if someone was going to be even a little bit normal, it would be him. But unfortunately, he was met with the same answer everyone else gave, that inside the mirror was just a rabbit. Seungmin did start to feel as though he was going crazy as he stared into the glass, Jun Han on the other side frantically tapping and trying to speak. As Seungmin passed Joo once again, he was knocked into by the second Nugget jumping out of his seat. Gaon had broken Joo’s teacup, standing on it while Joo had been asleep, and with nowhere to serve his drink, Gaon poured the fish-filled water directly into Joo’s lap. 

Joo ran back and forth around the edge of the table in a poor attempt to catch Gaon for drenching him. The first Nugget, safely up on the furniture, avoided his twin by running up and down, destroying almost everything in his path. Jungsu and the Host simply lifted their teacups out of the way as Gaon passed, completely unbothered and entirely familiar with this type of situation. 

The commotion and sudden chaos made Seungmin accidentally drop the mirror face down onto the ground. Apologising out loud to Jun Han inside, Seungmin quickly bent down to pick it back up. The impact with the ground caused a crack to appear right across the centre of the mirror.  “I am so sorry, I’ll put you down now,” Seungmin said, upon seeing the now slightly distorted image of Jun Han in the glass. He hurried to prop the mirror back up on the books, but stopped when he heard a small voice, “Don’t put me down! Get me out of here, please!” It was Jun Han! The crack in the mirror had broken part of the seal and his voice could be heard.

Jun Han explained that he’d stayed late alone out in the forest one night and had gotten himself stuck in the mirror after everybody else had left the party, and nobody would pay any attention to him to help get him back out.  “If I break it completely, will you be free?” Seungmin asked. He certainly could have guessed the answer to that question by himself, but it felt rude to start destroying a mirror that someone had been residing in without permission. Jun Han nodded eagerly, desperate to be released from his prison. Seungmin did as permitted, and hit the edge of the mirror against the frame of Jun Han’s seat, smashing it instantly. The glass shattered and shards and dust rained onto the grass surrounding the chair.  

Jun Han climbed out as quickly as he could, just happy to be free. At first it was nice inside the mirror, allowing him a much needed break from the anarchy unravelling outside, the unorganised tea parties, the disarray, the noise, the mess. But the longer Jun Han watched, captive, separated, the more he wanted to be reunited with his friends, the chaotic but loveable Nuggets, the odd but gentle cat, the abnormal but kind-hearted Host. Jun Han shook Seungmin’s hand vigorously, thanking him for helping him escape the mirror, and took his seat at the table.

“Late!” Exclaimed Gaon, halting in his tracks. “Late!” Repeated Joo, also coming to a standstill, arm, hand and finger extended, pointing right at the red haired Jun Han. It appeared that no one had realised that Jun Han had just climbed out of the mirror, they treated his arrival as delayed despite him having been present the entirety of the party. Jun Han reached for one of the few intact teacups on the table and silently held it out for a serving of Gaon’s special “tea”. 

The Host watched, as he had been the entire time, his eyes full of affection, but he began to stir in his place once all of the seats at the table were full. It was a rare occurrence that all six seats were occupied so the Host grabbed this opportunity to say what he had been holding in. He tapped his cup with a teaspoon, calling for everyone’s attention. As disorderly as the group was, not a single one of them dared disobey the Host. At the tap of his cup the table fell silent. The Nuggets sat up straight, Jun Han placed his cup neatly on the table and turned in his seat towards the head of the table, and Jungsu spat out the innocent goldfish he had been taunting. Nobody said a word. The Host had everyone’s undivided attention. 

“I would like to thank Ode for honouring our invite,” the Host raised his teacup above his head, smiling. His eyes explored his messy table and his attendees, before settling on Seungmin in the seat belonging to the still absent guest, Ode. The partygoers began to clap and cheer, raising their teacups in what seemed to be Seungmin’s honour. Seungmin’s eyes darted between Jungsu, the Nuggets, Jun Han, and the Host. He opened his mouth to speak, but the Host continued. “Ode, if you would be so kind as to share with us, a piece of your hair,” The Host smiled again, ever so politely. Seungmin looked around, all eyes were on him. He was Ode. “I’m sorry but my name is Seungmin, I’m not who you’re looking for.”  

Seungmin noticed Gaon climbing up out of his seat and onto the table once again, something in his hand glinting in the sun. Something that looked like a very large pair of scissors. The Host spoke once again, his tone different to last time, “We are so thankful that you honoured our invitation, Ode. Now if you would be so kind as to share your hair with us.” The once soft and gentle demeanour of the Host had completely vanished. His voice was stern and his eyes strict. How dare Seungmin oppose him? The entire table stared daggers into Seungmin, shocked, appalled, disgusted. How dare Seungmin oppose the Host? Gaon took a step forward along the table, scissors ready in his hand. 

Seungmin thought about his hair that he’d recently had treated and dyed a pretty shade of baby pink. Sure, they had been nice to him, but there was no way he’d let these lunatics start hacking away at his hair with a pair of shears. Who knows what they would do with it! “I’m sorry, I can’t give you my hair,” Seungmin protested, as politely as he could. Of course, he didn’t mean to offend the Host, as he’d been so nice as to welcome him to their party at such short notice. Gaon snipped his large scissors a few times, a signal of warning, whether Seungmin liked it or not, Gaon was going to get that hair. 

Nobody at the table spoke a word. Seungmin daren’t move. He trembled in his seat, afraid of what would happen next. Seungmin watched, shaking as the Host placed his teacup gently on the mess of a table. As soon as the cup touched its saucer, Gaon sprang into action. He leaped forward, scissors outstretched, snipping, cutting. 

Seungmin fell backwards in his seat, shocked and afraid, terrified for his life. He scrambled to get up but was pinned down by Gaon, who flew from the table and landed on top of the Seungmin sprawled across the floor. Gaon grabbed a chunk of Seungmin’s hair and swiftly snipped it off. Tightly clutching his prize, Gaon retreated back up and across the table towards the Host, where he would present the soft tuft of pink.

Seungmin lay, panting and shaking on the floor, watching helplessly as his lock of hair was tucked away neatly into one of many pockets on the inside of the Host’s jacket. As the Host closed his garment, his sweet smile returned. And he raised his teacup once more, “Welcome, Ode. We hope you’ll be happy here.”

Ode sat up from the floor to the sound of cheering and applause. He no longer felt fearful or trembled. He smiled warmly, picking up his chair as his eyes met his friends around the table. 

Over the horizon, the amount of trebulon pawns appearing was gradually reducing. Wave one was coming to an end. Jaemin and Jeno continued to fight the aliens off while the remaining four searched for a way to pause the game. Mark tried shouting out all of the variations of the word “pause” that he could think of, Donghyuck scanned the area for some physical button, Chenle frantically searched his own body for some sort of pause trigger, but Jisung, still unable to move, still consumed by shock and fear, sat crouched exactly where he’d been when Renjun had vanished. Their combined efforts were useless, as none of them found a way to stop the game, not temporarily or permanently. Jaemin gunned down the last of the pawns while Jeno called a group huddle, but before any of them could speak, a familiar female voice spoke into their ears once again. “Don’t let your guard down yet, more are coming.” “You bitch!” Jeno screamed in response, “What have you done with Renjun?” “Pause the game!” Mark added, but the voice couldn’t respond. She was just an NPC after all. 

The game, as expected, didn’t pause. The boys had little time to compose themselves. Figures began to come over the horizon again, bigger this time but still blue in colour coated in that same oily sheen. These trebulons weren’t as skinny as their pawn counterparts, meaning they would be harder to defeat. Quickly, Jeno asked for an update on each of the boys’ states, had they taken damage? If yes, how much. It was almost unanimous that everyone had taken half a heart’s worth of damage as a result of Donghyuck’s cheering, all except Chenle. He’d been just out of range, safe in the air. Despite that, he confirmed that he’d taken damage when helping Renjun, and was down to four and a half hearts just like the others.  “Do not take any more damage,” Jeno ordered, an obvious command. “And Haechan, stand far away,” Jaemin said, joking but with a serious look in his eyes. It was true, they could really benefit from Donghyuck’s ability, but not if it was going to hurt them. If Donghyuck stationed himself with his friends out of his range, he could use his ability all he wanted.

The boys broke the huddle and sprung into action as the aliens drew near, all except Jisung, who crept to the back of the group in an attempt to stay out of sight. In this desert his ability was completely useless, but he was ashamed to say it. Trying to hang back and out of sight didn’t work as Mark spotted Jisung sneaking around behind them all, and called out to him to help. Of course, Jisung refused, but wouldn’t explain why, until Mark encouraged it out of him. “My ability is ice manipulation! We’re in the desert!” Jisung finally said, defeated. He had tried upon entering the game to generate ice from nothing, but he couldn’t seem to do it without water and as far as Jisung was aware, there was none anywhere to be seen. Mark stopped for a second, stumped. He, too, had no idea what Jisung was to do, but he couldn’t help but shake the idea that the game wouldn’t allow cryokinesis if there were no liquids available. Mark scanned the area, all there really was around here was sand, aliens and the petrol station. Then it hit him, the petrol station! There was bound to be liquid inside the petrol pumps.  “Jisung, there’s liquid in those things,” Mark pointed over to the petrol pumps that were untouched for the entire game so far, surely Jisung would be able to utilise those.

The youngest went over to the pumps, sceptical. How did Mark know there was liquid in there? Jisung lifted one of the pumps from its place, inspecting the thing. Sure enough, to Jisung’s surprise, a drop of petroleum fell from the opening and onto the ground. Liquid! Jisung’s eyes grew wide and he took a small jump back as the drop landed right by his feet. The ignorance of youth still had hold over Jisung, there were a lot of things he didn’t know about despite being in his 20s. His naivety even made him question whether or not he would be able to freeze whatever came out of the pumps, after all, ice was made of just water, right? Jisung shook the pump, hoping more liquid would come from the machine, but nothing. He bent over to look up the nozzle, shaking it some more. How the hell was he supposed to get the petrol out? With his face pressed up to the nozzle, Jisung shook it hard, and a few more drops fell from the pump and landed onto his face, further startling him and making him drop the pump to the floor. After the first drip had proven the existence of liquid in the pump, Jisung had been ready to test his power the moment he began shaking. His readiness had caused the drops that landed on his face to freeze instantly, leaving little snowflakes on his nose and cheeks.

Jisung swatted at the air as the drops froze onto his face, luckily none of it went into his eyes. As soon as the liquid solidified onto his face he couldn’t feel the chill of the cold. His cryokinesis came with cold resistance. But this little accident confirmed that the liquid in the pumps was freezable! Jisung had learnt a record breaking two new things today: that petrol pumps contained liquid and that ice could be made from liquids other than water.  Bending down to pick up the pump once again, Jisung spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something moving inside the petrol station. He quickly grabbed the pump and stood back up, pulling on it as he stepped closer to the window for a better view. 

The inside of the petrol station had been in complete darkness, too dark to see through the windows, until a white light came on. The inside of the petrol station was the exact opposite to the outside, it was decorated with lush greenery, grass and vines all over the floor and up the walls. Daffodils, buttercups and daisies in various shades of yellow grew out of the green and sparkled under the light. In the middle of the vegetation lay Renjun, cushioned by the flowers. He opened his eyes slowly, shielding his vision from the bright light, was he dead? He sat up in the flowers and looked around, he was alive and in no pain. The last thing Renjun could remember was the trebulon pawns that had gotten hold of his leg, tearing it apart. He grabbed his leg, but there was no pain or anything out of the ordinary. His trousers were fully intact, and upon rolling up the fabric, there was no sign of injury. Not a single scratch. 

Renjun noticed the text in his vision, Name: yellow_3to3 Ability: Telekinesis Health: ♡♡♡♡ Only four hearts. Renjun quickly deduced that he had died, or lost a heart and been ejected from the game to regenerate. He let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had a safe space to heal from any damage. Renjun looked around some more. The petrol station was completely empty except for him. He could see out of the windows, Jisung wasn’t too far away fiddling with a petrol pump, his face pressed right up to the nozzle. Jaemin was blasting aliens left and right like a professional, and he looked really cool doing it. From where he was sitting, Renjun couldn’t see the other boys, but he assumed they were still out there, considering that he was alone on the inside. He briefly watched a muted version of the gameplay outside as the petrol station was completely soundproof.

He didn’t want to sit for much longer, so Renjun got up and carefully walked through the flowers. He didn’t want to destroy any of them even if this was just a game. He went right up to the doors of the petrol station and tried to pull them open. Locked. He looked around for a keyhole, tried to push the door, rattled it, pulled harder. Nothing. Why wouldn’t it open? Searching for an answer, Renjun noticed a number above the door, 1:38. Another countdown. Smart Renjun figured that the door wouldn’t open until the number reached zero. He was stuck inside the petrol station for another minute and a half. He decided to walk up and down. The inside of the petrol station was nothing like one from the real world. Despite the greenery growing all around, Renjun could tell that the inside was modelled after a videogame store. Underneath some flowers and bushes at the edges of the room were shelves stocked full of cases. The cases had the same neon green heart from DR34M.exe, from the DR34M.exe cases of the real world. It was DR34M.exe! Every single shelf was full of the same case, the same game over and over. Renjun shook his head, a small hatred grew inside him. How could this game get away with even existing? Did it usually suck people in like this? But he and his friends were here now and all Renjun could do was hope that they would be freed once they completed the game.

There was a ding, like the sound of a lift reaching its floor, and then the doors to the petrol station opened. Renjun broke into a run, all sound coming back as he exited the room. Once outside, the doors closed behind him and the white light switched off, the petrol station returning to its state of darkness. 

Jisung had been watching Renjun through the window, he was still, but his eyes followed as his friend ran from the gas station and back to join the game. He was wide-eyed, looking mostly shocked but feeling completely overjoyed that his friend had returned safe and unharmed. Renjun announced his return with a cheerful shout. A few of the boys cheered back, but were mostly occupied with the trebulons. These ones were proving harder to defeat than the pawns that came before them, but with the full team of seven restored, the boys had a much better chance at victory. 

The boys, with no need to worry after hearing Renjun’s explanation of the “safe space”, allowed themselves to get back into the swing of fighting. They all had their abilities under control, even Jisung who had learned how to properly use the pumps and made weapons for the boys to use in battle. His main role was armament, freezing the liquid into any lethal shape he could think of, small spears for Renjun to throw around, spikes for Chenle to drop aliens on, and a sword for Mark – his personal request. Jeno and especially Jaemin didn’t feel the need for weapons, they were already doing fine with their abilities as they were and Donghyuck was too far away, dealing with his own set of incoming trebulon soldiers to be able to come back and get a weapon from Jisung. 

The boys continued like this, until wave two was over. Trebulon slime was everywhere, the once dry desert was almost covered and so were the boys. They took a moment to catch their breath, having each experienced the safe space at least once by the time they’d destroyed all of the aliens. Some of the boys collapsed in an exhausted heap, proud of themselves for getting this far. Jeno, who had assumed the role of team leader, checked in with each of them to make sure they were okay in terms of health. None of them knew what was next, and he wanted to make sure they would survive. The remaining hearts of each of them varied from Jeno on four, Jisung and Jaemin on three, and the rest of the team on two. 

The game was eerily silent, apart from the sounds of the seven catching their breath. Nothing was out of the ordinary except the time between wave two and the expected wave three. The boys felt as though they were waiting for a long time before something happened. The sky had been clear the entirety of the game, but suddenly it began to get dark, and the blue transformed into a blood red. For the third time, the unknown woman’s voice spoke, clearer this time, but still broken up, “There’s only one left. You can do it! I will beam you back to the ship as soon as it is exterminated.” Shortly after, the ground began to shake rhythmically and over the horizon came a large, buff figure. Another trebulon. The last one. This was the boss battle. It moved much slower than the aliens that came before it, but that lack of speed was most definitely going to be accounted for in its strength.

Jeno and the boys jumped into action, with Jaemin shooting as soon as the trebulon was in range. His bullets seemed to have minimal, if any effect on the large alien. Green goop slipped from the bullet holes, but the boss didn’t flinch. The boys tried the same strategy as before. They were drawing blood, but the boss didn’t seem hurt at all. Chenle asked for a sword, he knew he wouldn't be able to lift this thing, and thought it better to fight from above while the others covered the bottom. He headed straight for its upper half, ready to fight at close range but his plans came to an instant halt when the boss grabbed him and crushed him in its hand. All of Chenle’s bones snapped and broke in its grasp, and he disappeared in a poof of pixels.

“What the fuck was that?!” Came from Donghyuck, just far out enough to scream without hurting his team. “The boss is always stronger,” Jeno took a moment to deduce the situation, if Chenle had two hearts before, and he was in the safe space after one hit, “It deals a whole heart of damage! Do not go near it!” The boys continued to try to harm the boss, even just a little bit, but it just kept getting closer and closer. Wanting to obey Jeno’s order, Mark didn’t approach the alien, afraid that he wouldn’t be fast enough to escape it. His eyes flicked back and forth, watching the other boys fighting long distance, wanting to help but not knowing how. The only thing he could do was get close, he just had to be fast, faster than he’d been at any other point in the game. With one last look at his friends, Mark sped ahead, directly towards the boss, his ice sword pointed outwards, ready to impale it and then zoom back. Mark ignored the shouts of concern, the boys telling him to come back, and ran ahead, closer, closer, until… Mark shoved the sword as far into the alien as he could, through the middle, which at his level was its abdomen. It responded with a roar of pain, but continued forward. Mark, already on his way back to his team, had figured that somewhere near its centre was its weakest spot. 

Finally with a hint on how to defeat this thing and Chenle back from the safe space, the seven boys directed all of their attacks to the centre, its abdomen and its chest. They threw whatever they could, whatever Jisung could freeze, but they were throwing faster than he could create and the trebulon drew ever nearer.  “Faster, Jisung!”  The poor boy was trying his best, only so much liquid came out of the pump at once, and he still had to freeze it and pass it onto whoever was waiting with their hands extended. He physically couldn’t go any faster just by himself. 

The closer the boss got to the team, the more apparent it became that it wasn’t interested in them. It began to direct itself towards the petrol station, its heavy steps making the windows rattle gently. “Protect the petrol sta–” The woman’s voice spoke again, but cut off. Her faulty receiver had reached its limit and she could no longer contact the boys. In their view, red text appeared, flashing, obscuring their vision, CONNECTION LOST. The text wouldn’t go away, it just flashed on and off, making it hard for the boys to see. The boss continued on its route towards the petrol station. Luckily, the boys understood the advice before the receiver broke and they were able to move to block the alien’s path to the doors.

Their shooting was damaging the boss, but it wasn’t enough. It still pressed forward, threatening to reach the petrol station. The boys didn’t know what would happen if it reached the safe space and they didn’t really want to find out.  “What do we do? This is not enough!” Jaemin asked, still shooting the alien’s core. Jeno knew he had to think fast. He scanned the area, Jisung was still by the pump, struggling to create projectiles fast enough. That was it. Jeno ran over, pushing the others out of the way, his strength knocking them to the ground. Without time to apologise, he yanked the pump from Jisung and ripped it from the machine. Petroleum began to spill out of the machine and onto the floors as Jeno tore pump after pump off until there were four streams of liquid. He shot a look to Jisung, a silent order to freeze on his command. Jisung nodded to confirm his understanding and watched as Jeno concentrated his strength and lifted the machine from the ground. He yelled out as he tossed it aside and petroleum spewed from the ground, making it rain. Now was Jisung’s moment. He began to freeze all of the petrol, the fuel that had spilled onto the ground and the fuel that was spraying out into the air. 

The oily sheen covering the trebulon boss began to harden as Jisung froze all of the liquids in the area. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop the alien entirely, but it was enough to slow it down, giving the boys more time. Jisung smiled widely, proud of himself, but not stopping, the petrol kept spewing from the ground and Jisung kept on freezing it to keep the air cold. 

Chenle, Mark and Renjun were unable to help, with no more projectiles to use, but they watched in anticipation at Jeno, Jisung and Jaemin as they worked together to stop the boss. Donghyuck also was unable to help, as the trebulon had gotten too close to the others for him to safely use his powers. He couldn’t risk lowering their hearts at a time so crucial. It was hard to remain silent as the other three cheered their friends on but Donghyuck knew he would be able to cheer once he was rid of this ability after they had completed the game.

Still trying to shoot, Jaemin shook his gun hand as it beeped and the green light in the barrel faded. His scouter informed him that his energy levels were low, which meant that he could no longer shoot. Jaemin, now also redundant, looked to Jeno for help. Jeno and Jisung were the only two left with abilities that were useful for this part of the boss battle and the two knew it. Jeno and Jisung shared a look. Jisung smiled at his friend in encouragement while he continued to freeze. Jeno managed a weak smile back before turning his attention to the final trebulon. It was dangerously close to the petrol station. Jeno rubbed his fist and resumed his position between the alien and the building. Once again, he began to gather all of his strength, every bit the game had granted him. At the same time, the boss was gathering up its power. It knew that the only thing between it and the gas station was this player. 

Jeno readied himself and charged at the alien. In response it began to swing its fist at Jeno, both of them ready to strike the other. With a jump, Jeno managed to plant his fist right in the centre of the trebulon’s chest. He put all of his power into one final blow. The alien cried out in pain. Then everything went black. 

In their rooms, the boys sat, eyes glued to their computer screens. Little neon green hearts exploded like confetti around a congratulations screen. They’d completed the game with a score of 299,792 points. The woman’s voice spoke, clearly this time, into their headsets, “You wiped out all of the trebulons! Great job, team!”  Jisung turned to his second monitor where he had the server open. All of the boys were in the voice call, too shaken up to speak, but their profiles were lit up, they were online, they were all there. All but one. Jeno’s profile was greyed out, and to the right of his username was a little exclamation mark in a yellow circle. There was a problem on his line. Jisung broke the silence. He called out Jeno’s name. No response. Again. Still nothing.

Jeno’s eyes opened. It was dark and cold, but he was alive. He was lying in a bed of flowers. Just as he’d struck the trebulon’s chest, he felt it strike his entire left side. He remembers seeing it vanish in a burst through his own swarm of pixels. Jeno sat up as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he was in the safe space. This time the white light from before was off, and the flowers beneath him crunched as he moved. The greenery was completely frozen. Jeno wandered over to the door, he couldn’t see anything through the glass, it was too dark. He searched the door for the countdown, but couldn’t find it. Jeno pulled at the door, thinking it would open. It didn’t budge. He pushed and pulled and rattled the door. Nothing. Jeno turned and looked at the inside of the Dream petrol station. A sick feeling grew in his stomach. Something was very wrong. Jeno frantically shook and hit the door. He knew he had to get out of here. He tried to scream for help, but it was no use. There was no one left inside the game. Jeno was all alone, trapped inside the frozen petrol station.

The familiar tone chimed as the last of the seven boys joined his friends in the voice channel. They were finally ready to begin the latest game on the market, DR34M.exe. Jeno had been begging since before its release and some of his friends were easier to convince than the others. Renjun, the last to join the group call, had been rejecting playing with them right up until joining the call. Somehow, he’d let his friends convince him to purchase and download the game, peer pressure, if you will. Bar Renjun, they all had already bought and downloaded DR34M.exe and switched from talking in the group chat to starting a group voice call the moment they received the coaxed-out “yes”.  “I’m creating the lobby,” came Jeno’s voice down the phone line. On all things regarding games, the boys put him in charge, “I’ll put the link in the chat.” “Woah, character creation?” came another voice, “Wait, I want to dress up first.”  “We’re just testing it out. Don’t spend ages designing a character,” Renjun protested in response.  “You have to design a character, you can’t continue without,” Jeno chimed in. He was so eager to play that he’d already logged into DR34M.exe and had a look around at the game features. 

The boys got to designing their characters while Jeno waited. There were exclamations of awe at the large range of options although the colour selections were fairly limited, and even Renjun, who'd not been too interested in character creation, had fun dressing up and selecting his avatar traits.

Some words flashed up on Jeno’s screen, onyourm__ark has joined the Dream Lab. Instinctively, Jeno and, now in the lobby, Mark’s avatars jumped and ran circles around each other as a greeting while the two laughed. zhongchenle01 has joined the Dream Lab. Next to join the lobby was Chenle, who quickly joined in the other boys’ antics. jisungpwaaark has joined the Dream Lab. yellow_3to3 has joined the Dream Lab. na.jaemin0813 has joined the Dream Lab. Soon enough, the top left of each of the boy’s computer screens read “Dream Lab: 6/7”. One of them was missing. “Haechan, hurry up,” came from Jeno, sick of waiting. “I am, it’s just spinning!!” Donghyuck was referring to the loading symbol, a little neon green heart. 

While the boys waited for Donghyuck to enter the lobby, they questioned each other on the features of the game. Does it have spatial audio? Were there other gameplay modes? Why did Renjun choose that hairstyle for his avatar? fullsun_hyuck has joined the Dream Lab.

The Dream Lab was a purple-toned room that slightly resembled the control room of some sort of spaceship. The walls were covered with markings and readings in the made up language of the DR34M.exe in-game universe. Around a screen in the middle of the room was a keyboard of all sorts of buttons and controls as well as seven seats for seven players. As soon as Donghyuck had entered the lobby, the once black screen lit up with a number. 10. Then 9, 8… It was a countdown. The boys were certain that neither of them had pressed anything as all of the controls were not player interactive. As the countdown reached 0, static appeared on the screen, along with its sound. Through the fuzz was a blurred silhouette with its hair tied back. As the silhouette moved on the screen, a female voice began to speak through the static. The game was beginning.  The woman’s voice was broken up, glitching like her receiver was broken, “The trebulons have reached a small planet in the N-127 solar system called Earth. There isn’t much time. I am transporting you there now. Exterminate them all.” 

None of the boys spoke, they quietened down as soon as the voice had started to speak. The instructions seemed vague, but none of them could ask a thing. Their eyes were glued to the neon green heart that had appeared on the screen. It was animated as though it was beating. First slowly and then faster, and then faster and faster. The faster the heart beated the louder the frequency was through the boys’ headsets. It got louder and louder until it was piercing their ears. Then suddenly, it fell silent and the images on the screen vanished. All was black.

The sun shone down onto Jeno’s face as he opened his eyes. Had he fallen asleep? He lifted his hand to shield his vision from the light. He was outside. The sky was bright blue and completely clear, but his vision was a little obscured by text covering the left side of his field of view.  Name: zenolee0423 Ability: Strength Health: ♡♡♡♡♡ On the right side in the bottom corner read, Enemies defeated: 0. Shocked, Jeno jumped up. What the hell was going on? He scanned his surroundings, he was out in the desert somewhere, or so it looked like. There was dry, sandy ground as far as the eye could see and one long, dusty path that stretched from horizon to horizon. The only building around was a brightly coloured petrol station. It was pink and yellow and white, and there was a large sign reading, “DREAM”. 

Luckily, Jeno wasn’t alone. His friends were sprawled out across the floor, all still sleeping, passed out, who knows what.  Jeno ran to his best friend’s side, “Jaemin, Jaemin what the hell is going on here?”  Jaemin stirred as Jeno shook him, also rubbing his eyes in the light. It didn’t take long for the rest of the boys to begin doing the same. Their combined shock and confusion made them all panic as they realised they were no longer in their rooms and on the phone, but here, together, in what could only be DR34M.exe. 

Chenle caught a glimpse of himself in the reflective petrol station window, but what he saw was odd. It was him, that’s for sure, but he didn’t look anything like he had five minutes ago in his bedroom. In fact, he looked exactly like the character he’d designed on the creation screen. His hair was black with pink highlights instead of an ashy blonde, and he certainly wasn’t wearing his pyjamas anymore. He turned back to the rest of his friends, none of them looked like themselves anymore. They were all wearing brightly coloured outfits, pink to match the DREAM petrol station, and Chenle had seen them recently enough to know that Jeno did not have baby pink hair, his best friend Jisung didn’t have white hair, and Renjun definitely did not have that short, choppy haircut that the boys had commented on before.  Unable to take him seriously, Chenle just had to laugh, “Renjun, why, just why did you choose that haircut??” It came out in his mother tongue, Chinese, the shared language between the two.  Renjun had nothing to say but to argue that he didn’t expect to really have to don this look, or he maybe wouldn’t have risked choosing it. 

As the boys grew accustomed to the idea that they were inside DR34M.exe, they allowed themselves to joke with each other, criticising and complementing each other’s avatars, and sharing which abilities they’d selected in character creation. 

The sound of the woman’s voice from before cut through their conversation, she spoke close to their ears as though they still had their computer headsets on. Her voice still glitched and was masked by static, “The trebulons are approaching. Good luck. Don’t die.”

Over the horizon, a small figure began to approach. It looked thin and dark in colour. It was unclothed and bald, but it walked like a human. Then it began to run. It ran like a human.  “What is that?” Jisung, the youngest in the group, now with bright white hair, spotted the figure first. He pointed at it in the distance. It seemed to run as soon as he spotted it. It must know it had been seen. “Does anyone actually know what a trebulon is?” Mark asked. The boys looked among themselves, then at Jeno, who shrugged. The game description and release trailers had been vague, yet the mystery captivated him. He didn’t know what DR34M.exe was, but he had wanted to play it.

As the figure in the distance ran closer, a few more identical figures appeared over the horizon. As the first one came close, it was clear that it was not human. Its skin was navy blue and looked like it was covered with an oily sheen. It had beady black eyes and no nose, just two holes for nostrils. Its head was long and wider than its body, but still eerily thin. This one looked like it didn’t have a mouth. It was a trebulon pawn, the weakest of the trebulon army. Weak it may be, but it was getting close and the boys didn’t know how to use their abilities yet. 

“If I knew we’d have to fight things I wouldn’t have chosen sound manipulation!!” Donghyuck exclaimed, he felt useless, unknowing how this ability would help them complete the game. Donghyuck received only sarcastic responses from his friends, making him feel absolutely no better.  “At least you got yours, I chose robot parts! Do I look like a cyborg to you??” Jaemin lifted his arms, and twisted his completely human body back and forth. He was not covered in robotic enhancements, to which Jisung helpfully confirmed. 

The trebulon kept running towards the fumbling group, its friends not far behind. It looked like it was headed straight towards Jeno. He clenched his fist as the gap between him and the creature closed, ready to strike. He’d selected superhuman strength as his ability, one of the few powers that didn’t require any practise. Jeno aimed his fist and swung straight at the trebulon’s face. His strength ability almost caused his hand to punch straight through the creature’s head. The blow from Jeno’s hit caused a murky green goop to come from the trebulon’s nostrils and onto Jeno’s hand. It was warm and sticky, like some kind of slime.

In the bottom right of Jeno’s vision, the text changed. Enemies defeated: 1. “Make them bleed!” Jeno called to his friends, as gory as it sounded, he’d figured out the game. These aliens seemed pretty weak as they could be defeated in one hit. But his knowledge of games let him know that a set of stronger ones were surely soon to come. “Gross!” Came from Chenle, who shuddered as soon as he saw the liquid spew. The boys didn’t have time to rest, the other aliens were approaching, and fast. They knew they couldn’t rely on Jeno to take them all out. 

Renjun’s eyes frantically searched the area for something to throw. His power was telekinesis, not the most helpful in an empty desert. He had nothing to pick up but the trebulons themselves, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to lift them. Renjun shouted for help from the other boys, what was he supposed to do if his powers didn’t work? Jisung, lover of games after Jeno, suggested the idea of a range. “You’d be too OP if you could just grab anything from anywhere,” Jisung explained. Renjun didn’t hesitate to question what “OP” meant, him being the one in the group who games the least, with a server level of only 26. After a quick explanation of game terms from Jisung, Renjun felt more ready to play. He just had to wait for them to get into his range, whatever distance that may be, and start throwing the aliens around. Couldn’t be too hard right?

During Renjun’s struggle, Mark and Chenle had begun to use their powers, super speed and flight, respectively. Mark had used his speed to round up the pawns, he sped circles around them so they couldn’t escape, while Chenle plucked them one by one from above, dropping them for Jeno to beat up. The three of them had a pretty good strategy in place, with a space for Renjun to take up a similar activity to Chenle once he got the hang of his telekinesis.

The remaining three were not having much luck with their abilities. Donghyuck, having completely given up, was trying to help Jaemin find his cyborg abilities. Jaemin complained that he thought the game had bugged out, having not granted him his power, until Donghyuck, innocently prodding around, hit a spot on Jaemin’s bicep. Donghyuck jumped back as Jaemin’s body began to beep and whir like a computer starting up. Jaemin turned to face his friend, terrified as the whites of his eyes glowed neon green and pain began to shoot up and down his arms under his jacket, the same green light emanating from his sleeves. A sharp pain shot through Jaemin’s head, behind his right ear, as his skin opened up and a scouter unfolded from the now exposed circuit boards that were inside his head. The glass on the scouter was a clear green with a pink target mark that followed Jaemin’s eye line. As he looked at Donghyuck who’d backed away from the whirring, the target locked onto Donghyuck, and beeped. Then appeared white text on the green glass, NO THREAT DETECTED.

Suddenly, the pain in Jaemin’s arms increased tenfold and he screamed out in pain. Whatever was happening to his body was obstructed by his jacket sleeves. Jaemin winced, trying to pull the garment off. The fabric kept getting caught on Jaemin’s arms, there was something moving around underneath his skin and the pain was torture. Almost as soon as Jaemin had freed himself of the jacket, he saw what was happening to his body. The same green light in his eyes that had been glowing out of his sleeves was coming from his arms. His skin had split like patchwork and the light was leaking out of the gaps. Now that his arms were exposed, his separated skin began to open and turn itself inside out.

Together, Jaemin and Donghyuck screamed, one in agony and one in horror as the prior’s upper limbs contorted themselves into what looked like machine guns. Inside Jaemin’s arms were the same circuits from the inside of his head. It looked like he was some sort of cyborg. This was so much more than what Jaemin had expected when choosing his ability, no built in circuits and excruciating pain but just a few cool gadgets attached to him or, at the bare minimum, to his clothes. 

Some stray trebulons had managed to avoid Mark’s round up technique and were heading straight towards Jaemin and Donghyuck. Jaemin readied himself and aimed through his scouter at the aliens heading towards him, THREAT DETECTED. The end of the gun in Jaemin’s hand glowed in the familiar green as it charged to shoot, and Donghyuck crept behind his friend, protecting himself from whatever was about to come out of Jaemin’s literal hand gun. A bright energy blast flew from the barrel of the gun and didn’t stop when it hit the trebulon pawn. It shot straight through its centre and the one behind it and the one behind that. Slime dripped from the hole in the centre of their bodies and pooled onto the floor as they collapsed. The alien bodies didn’t remain on the floor for long after defeat, they laid for about 30 seconds before the counter in the bottom right of the boys’ view increased and the corpses disappeared in a flurry of pixels. 

Donghyuck began to cheer loudly at Jaemin’s awesome gameplay, causing everyone around him to flinch, to his surprise. Donghyuck looked around, his teammates clutching their ears, but no trebulons in his vicinity to be seen, instead, their green goop covering his friend’s clothes. Their heads had exploded at the high frequency cheer. Donghyuck had accidentally used his voice to eliminate those in range, but damaged his friends in the process, a useful ability with a price. “What the fuck??” Renjun yelled out. His heart counter had decreased by half a heart at Donghyuck’s noise causing him to go from his full five to four and a half hearts. Each hit from a trebulon took half a heart’s damage, and as the boys had just discovered, their powers could harm each other, dealing another half heart’s worth of damage. 

Distracted and glaring at Donghyuck for his mistake, Renjun quickly became a target for the increasing number of trebulons approaching. They swarmed him mercilessly. Renjun had just gotten decent control of his telekinesis but lost his concentration at the sudden damage. He was surrounded by aliens, too many to use his ability on. They closed the circle around him, closer and closer, reaching out with their oily, slender, blue hands. Renjun shut his eyes tight, he couldn’t bear to look at them any longer but couldn’t fight them off on his own. He was rather short and slim, not blessed with the body of a fighter. Renjun could feel the sensation of the trebulons’ hands on his legs, at first they just grabbed him, until something sharp started to dig into his left leg. He winced at the pain, opening his eyes to find its source. The aliens had their nails digging into Renjun’s shins and calves, nails that they definitely did not have before. 

“Chenle, get him!” Jeno screamed, trying his best to fight off the ever growing number of trebulon pawns. He’d seen the crowd gathering around Renjun and panicked, unknowing what would happen if they actually got hold of him.  As ordered, Chenle used his ability to fly overhead, looking for an opening to rescue Renjun from the swarm of aliens. Upon spotting a gap that looked about safe enough to get into, Chenle swooped down, pushing himself in between the group of aliens and grabbing onto Renjun to carry him to safety. Luckily, Renjun was light enough for Chenle to carry without a problem, but escape still wasn’t easy. The pawns weren’t happy about Renjun being stolen from their grasp. Their focus switched instantly to Chenle trying to free himself and his friend from the swarm. One of them extended its skinny arm and wrapped its hand around Chenle’s leg, unsheathing its two inch nails that it had hidden in its fingers. 

Luckily for Chenle, he managed to escape the pawn’s grasp, with just a few rips in his trousers though the enemy did manage to draw blood. Losing half a heart was worth it to have saved Renjun, or so Chenle thought. He placed Renjun down by Jisung who had strayed away from the battle, still unable to use his selected ability. Renjun’s entire left trouser leg had been torn off, and his calf looked like it would’ve been next. His leg was covered in blood, scratched right down from his knee to his ankle, with nothing left but what looked like shreds of blood drenched skin. Chenle tried to shake Renjun awake but he was unresponsive, his body floppy as though he was dead. Jisung tried calling out Renjun’s name with Chenle shaking him some more, both of them trying to ignore the sight of his leg, but nothing worked. Still holding onto his friend, Chenle felt his hands start to tingle, it tickled and it felt like touching the bubbles in a fizzy soda. Pixels began to surround Renjun where Chenle touched him. More and more appeared, it was the same animation as when a trebulon had been defeated. Chenle tried to hold on as his friend’s body disappeared right before his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to pull him back, Renjun disappeared into the pixels. 

Chenle could do nothing but stare at his empty hands, panic building up inside him.  “We need to pause the game,” His voice was loud, piercing, full of panic, “How do we pause?!” Jisung couldn’t answer, he was frozen in place unable to believe what he’d just witnessed. His friend had vanished before his eyes, seemingly dead. So many things were racing around his head, fear, confusion, and the obvious questions, where did Renjun go and more importantly, how would they get him back?

Finally, it had arrived! At the top of the house, Lee Jooyeon ran into his bedroom, the door flying shut behind him. In his hands he clutched his very own copy of his favourite band’s brand new album, ‘Heroes’. He’d barely managed to keep himself ignorant to the contents of the album, every day since its release having to fight with himself to not listen to a digital copy on his computer. But at long last, the day had come that Jooyeon could indulge himself in brand new music, and he had no doubts that it wouldn’t be full of amazing songs after amazing songs. Jooyeon slowly unpackaged the album, careful not to drop it in his excitement, and took the disk from its case. It was pastel pink, and was printed with the band’s logo, an image not unfamiliar to Jooyeon. He placed it into his CD player. Jooyeon always thought it best to listen to new music for the first time through headphones at full volume, that way the ‘essence’ of the music could really be captured. He slipped his headset over his head and hit play. As the first song began, Jooyeon couldn’t help but move to the music. Not usually one for dancing, this meant that all he could really do was bounce in place, mimicking the guitar chords in the air. As the song played on, his movements got bigger, matching his excitement and his enjoyment. 

Before Jooyeon knew it, he was jumping and dancing around as much as he could whilst still bound to his CD player by the headset wire. But the more he moved, the more it threatened to fall out – and it did. The cord pulled with the force of Jooyeon’s movements and yanked the CD player along with it, but the state of the player was saved by the aux plug slipping from the input. With his music now blaring and his restraint gone, Jooyeon was free to dance and jump around as much as he wanted. Throwing his headphones to the corner of his room, his first stop was the mirror, to watch himself headbang and play the air guitar. 

Directly underneath Jooyeon’s bedroom was a completely different atmosphere. Han Hyeongjun had been working on modelling his new city kit. His room was silent, and focus and patience were all he had in mind. He’d gotten started on it earlier in the week and it was already threatening to take up all of the space in his bedroom, but Hyeongjun didn’t care. It was a limited edition set and the size and time it takes to build is worth it for the feeling of accomplishment he knew would come with finishing it. He wanted to spend the entirety of the day working on it, not expecting the disruptions about to come from the storey above.

As soon as the aux cord slipped out of the jack, the sound spread around the house. The sudden noise made Hyeongjun jump, dropping the figurine of a man he held so carefully in a pair of tweezers. His eyes darted to the ceiling above, as though he could see Jooyeon jumping right over his head. Hyeongjun shook his head, shook away the distraction and tried to continue. He picked up the figurine again with his tool and began to place it in its assigned position. Slowly, his hand edged towards the space on the pavement, about to unite the man with the rest of his family but he was disrupted again when Jooyeon jumped from his bed to the floor and made the house shake. Hyeongjun’s figure fell from his grip again, along with a few other figurines already placed in their spots. United with his family, the man was, but not as Hyeongjun had hoped. He looked up at the ceiling again, cursing Jooyeon with his eyes. The shake had made a car piece fall from Hyeongjun’s desk and go rolling around his room. Hyeongjun hopped out of his seat to chase the runaway car, stopping it with his foot and bending down to pick it up. Not one for confrontation, Hyeongjun silently hoped that Jooyeon would calm down soon, so that Hyeongjun could continue on with his modelling. 

Next door to Hyeongjun, another house resident’s afternoon was disturbed by Jooyeon’s inconsiderate behaviour. The oldest in the house, Goo Gunil had been napping, peaceful and unbothered. The sudden guitar chord ringing around the house when the aux fell from the input had jolted Gunil from his sleep and he was not happy about it. Having to quickly come to his senses, he soon suspected Jooyeon as the noisy culprit. Gunil looked around his room for any means to express his disapproval of the volume of Jooyeon’s music. Gunil spotted a plunger. With no time to question why such an item was in his room in the first place, Gunil grabbed it with intentions of using it to bang on the ceiling. However, standing at only 169 centimetres tall, Gunil knew that he would need some sort of assistance in reaching the ceiling to make his point. 

A little bit of interior redecorating is what it took for Gunil to be able to reach. He pushed the little sofa he had out to the centre of his room and was using it as leverage to jump and reach the ceiling with the plunger. Hitting on the ceiling was proving useless as Jooyeon’s music was too loud, Gunil wasn’t hitting hard enough, or the troublemaker Jooyeon was just outright ignoring the noise. Gunil couldn’t tell which but he had an inkling it was the latter. Putting all of his strength into one last jump, Gunil flung the plunger at the ceiling but it was to no avail. The suction cup end stuck to the ceiling and Gunil came back down from his jump with just a wooden stick. He sighed and shook his head. If he wanted Jooyeon to quiet down a little bit he would have to tell him face to face. 

Gunil took himself up the stairs to Jooyeon’s attic bedroom, the album getting even louder as he approached. Gunil winced at the noise, wondering how someone could actually enjoy music so loud. As he pounded on Jooyeon’s door, he wondered if he’d even hear it. Inside the room, Jooyeon, purposely ignoring the banging that had come from below but not rude enough to ignore the banging on his bedroom door, jumped down from his bed as the song died down and the next one started up. He played a game with himself to guess who was at his door, speculating it would be either his friend Seungmin, or one of the oldest boys. Jooyeon pulled open his bedroom door, revealing Gunil with an unimpressed look on his face. The older boy raised his eyebrow at Jooyeon, a gesture with obvious meaning. Jooyeon shrugged his shoulders and smiled cheekily, beginning to shut his door in Gunil’s face. “Don’t you dare,” Gunil began, stopping Jooyeon with his hand, “Turn it down, Jooyeon.” Jooyeon whined in response, “But I’m enjoying myself.”

The younger boy pouted, hoping he could get Gunil to leave him if he showed some of his cutes. Gunil shook his head, unwavering. He continued to look at Jooyeon with a serious expression, Gunil was usually lenient and let the youngsters in the house do what they wanted, but this situation activated his inner responsibility. He knew that others in the house like Hyeongjun and Jungsu might appreciate a bit more quiet, and took it upon himself to achieve that for them. “Fight me for it,” Jooyeon stepped back, pointing to the pillows on his bed, “If you win I’ll turn it down. Deal?” Gunil knew there would be no way to win this debate other than to take part in Jooyeon’s pillow fight. Jooyeon led Gunil into his room, and allowed the older boy to take his pillow of choice. Jooyeon smirked, he had no intentions of going easy, he was going to fight to win. 

On the ground floor of the house, sneaking around underneath the guise of the ruckus upstairs, Kwak Jiseok crept around the kitchen, followed by another boy, Seungmin. Somehow, Jiseok had managed to convince the usually well behaved Oh Seungmin to take part in his antics. Their shared goal was the fridge. Inside was the cake Hyeongjun had baked in the morning as a surprise for Jungsu. The pair wanted to taste it, but waiting until after dinner this evening was proving to be too much for them. Jiseok had decided that now was the perfect time to commit the crime of stealing the cake, he knew that Hyeongjun had gone upstairs to work on his modelling, Jooyeon was occupied with his album (although Jiseok would’ve loved to have his best friend partake in the tasting of the cake), Gunil was supposedly taking a nap, and Jungsu didn’t even know there was a cake. 

Jiseok and Seungmin had planned their crime not long before putting it into action. Jiseok would sneak the cake from the box and Seungmin would grab utensils to cut and taste it with. How much the two would eat between them was to be determined by the taste of the cake itself, and their levels of self-control.

Jiseok motioned for Seungmin to enter the kitchen past him. One could say he was taking this a little bit too seriously, but there’s no fun in simply taking a cake and eating it. Jiseok began tiptoeing extravagantly through the kitchen like a cartoon burglar, while Seungmin slid open the utensil drawer. “Do we need a plate?” Seungmin whispered, turning and spotting Jiseok bouncing around on his tiptoes, “Gaon, what are you doing?” Jiseok laughed then stopped abruptly, “This is serious, okay? Yes, we do need a plate.” Jiseok continued onwards towards the fridge, pulling it open. “Target located,” Seungmin joined Jiseok by the fridge, staring at the box Hyeongjun had put it in. Somehow it had been successfully disguised as a box of leftovers. The pair shared a look, before reaching into the fridge to pull the box out. Both of them were eager to see the cake, as Hyeongjun had baked it that morning, long before Jiseok had woken up and while Seungmin was busy elsewhere.

Seungmin and Jiseok placed the cake in the middle of the table, and the latter pulled the lid off of the box. The cake was covered with white icing and cream, topped with fresh blueberries and strawberry sauce. Seeing the dessert in its perfect condition instantly made Seungmin feel bad. He began to protest, reaching for the box lid, claiming that they should put it back. He was close with Jungsu and knew that Jungsu would never do something like this if he knew there was a surprise cake for one of the other boys. Jiseok shook his head and placed the cake lid out of Seungmin’s reach. Now that he’d seen how delicious the cake looked, he knew he wouldn’t be able to wait any longer to taste it. Jiseok ordered Seungmin to pass him the cake slicer so he could begin on the cake, to which Seungmin obeyed despite the guilty feeling developing in his stomach. 

As Jiseok defaced the perfect cake, his eyes grew wide. The piece he cut was close to being a quarter of the entire cake. He knew that it would taste amazing and a slim slice would not quell his growing greed. Seungmin began to protest again upon seeing the size of the slice, but was quickly silenced as Jiseok lifted the slice and a stream of bright red strawberry sauce flowed from the middle of the dessert. The sweet scent of strawberry and sugar filled the room. Seungmin felt himself begin to salivate, whatever aura this cake was emitting had captivated him along with Jiseok. The slice was placed on the centre of the small plate that Seungmin had brought over from the cupboards and neither Jiseok nor Seungmin could wait to indulge themselves in this dessert that appeared to be sent down from the heavens.

Between them, Seungmin and Jiseok finished the slice, and though one boy was satisfied, Jiseok felt as though the taste he’d had wasn’t enough. The strawberry smell of the dessert still had him under its influence and it didn’t seem like he wanted to be free. Jiseok’s eyes were still locked on the cake as he reached for the cake slicer a second time to serve himself again. “Haven’t you had enough?” Seungmin watched, concerned that Jiseok was being a bit too selfish, what they’d already done was bad enough. Jiseok didn’t reply, instead he shoved another fork full of cake and strawberry sauce into his face. Seungmin watched on, bothered by Jiseok’s behaviour but seemingly unable to do anything about it. 

It wasn’t long before Jiseok had single handedly devoured almost the whole cake along with the mysteriously alluring strawberry sauce and the quantity of sugar wasn’t doing well in his small body. He quickly began to react to the sugar high, trembling and shaking as he attempted another bite of the dessert. Seungmin finally found the ability to move and hit the fork from Jiseok’s hand, not that there was much cake left to save. Finally freed from eating the cake, Jiseok flew out of his seat, bumping into the table and knocking a few things onto the floor on his way up. Jooyeon’s music from upstairs was still flowing through the house, and Jiseok’s sugar-induced newfound energy, complimented by his pride for successfully stealing the cake, was causing his body to move. He danced for joy, for excitement, to the music, and to celebrate a mission success. His mannerisms mimicked that of a small child, running circles around the kitchen, pushing the chairs out of his way, using the counters to propel himself into the air as he jumped and cheered. Seungmin watched, a concoction of horror, guilt and distress spread across his face as his eyes darted back and forth, trying to keep up with Jiseok’s movements.

Eventually, Jiseok managed to expel his energy. So tired from what his body had just endured that he just collapsed face down onto the kitchen floor. Immediately going to crouch down beside him, Seungmin frantically tried to shake him awake, calling out his name. He rolled Jiseok over onto his back and swept the pink and blue strands of hair out of his face, smacking his cheeks and shaking him more and more. In a panic, Seungmin had no idea what to do other than ask someone for help, even if it meant getting in a lot of trouble.

Completely naive to any of the endeavours going on in the various rooms of the house was Kim Jungsu, fully dressed in a costume, practising some lines in the bathroom mirror. He was an aspiring actor and he’d just landed his first real role as a pirate. He’d gone into the bathroom so that he could work on his facial expressions and recite his lines without using his script. The usually soft and sweet Jungsu felt as though he needed a lot of practise to master his role as the cool and charismatic pirate captain. He had everything he needed in the bathroom with him, his prop gun, his hook hand and a mirror for monitoring himself. Jungsu felt a little bit shy at the thought of some of the other boys seeing him rehearse which was why he’d locked himself into the bathroom, or so he thought. 

Midway through acting out one of his lines, the bathroom door flew open and in ran Seungmin, trying to explain what had happened to Jiseok. Unbothered as to whether Jungsu was in need of privacy or not. “Jiseok ate the cake and he- and then the sauce- and he fell and-” Startled but concerned by the words Jungsu managed to pick out, he tried to calm Seungmin, with the hopes of getting a clear telling of the story. Jungsu put both his hands on Seungmin’s shoulders and encouraged him to breathe slowly before talking. Listening to his older friend, Seungmin managed to slow down his speech and inform Jungsu of the stolen secret cake and the passed out Jiseok on the kitchen floor. 

Seungmin led Jungsu to the kitchen where Jiseok lay, passed out on the floor. He ordered Seungmin to bring some water to splash on Jiseok’s face, but it didn’t work. Jiseok remained on the floor unresponsive as though he was dead. Seungmin looked at Jungsu, panic in his eyes.  “We should take him to Gunil. Put him on your back,” Jungsu ordered. Seungmin whined disapproval, why should he have to be the one to carry the passed out Jiseok all the way upstairs? Jungsu didn’t hesitate to remind Seungmin that he was the one who accompanied Jiseok in stealing the cake and he was the one who allowed him to eat the majority of it. With a discontented sigh, Seungmin shuffled closer to Jiseok, trying to lift his entire weight onto his back, but the smaller boy just fell loosely back onto the floor. Seungmin tried again, this time with Jungsu helping to lift the passed out Jiseok onto Seungmin’s back. Success!

Jiseok was draped loosely onto Seungmin’s back, his head hung limply and swayed as Seungmin struggled to stand up and begin walking, legs trembling with each step as Jiseok flopped around with each of Seungmin’s movements, unevenly distributing his weight on his poor friend’s body. Jungsu did nothing to help stabilise the swaying Jiseok, just led the way as though Seungmin didn’t also live in the house and know the way to Gunil’s room. 

At the top of the stairs the three boys ran into Hyeongjun holding one of his model cars, who’d left his room after finally gathering up the courage to tell Jooyeon to be quiet. Hyeongjun usually just sat by and let the other boys play around, but this model kit was so important to him that he wanted to put his shyness aside and stand up for himself. No matter how hard he tried, the music was a huge distraction and he just couldn’t ignore it any longer. Hyeongjun informed the other boys that Gunil was upstairs with Jooyeon, believing that he had gone up there to join in with the mini party. “Disappointed but not surprised,” Hyeongjun shrugged his shoulders and looked down at the car in his hands. In a house of six men, it was a bit unreasonable to expect silence, but a bit of quiet isn’t too much… right?

The four boys made their way up to Jooyeon’s attic bedroom, Jungsu at the front and Hyeongjun at the back, holding Jiseok’s head steady as Seungmin carried him up the stairs. The inside of Jooyeon’s room was trashed, with pillow feathers and blankets strewn across the room. Gunil sat on the floor beside Jooyeon’s bed, out of breath and tired from the battle and an also tired Jooyeon laid spread out on his bed. He had lost the pillow fight and had to turn his music down, as per the deal. He turned his head as his bedroom door opened, his housemates on the other side looking all but happy. 

The entire front page of Chris’ newspaper was articles about that new drug, warnings about its side effects, all the bad ones, how to avoid it and what to do if it gets in your system. Chris tossed the paper aside, he couldn’t read anymore, he didn’t want to read anymore. He knew Smiles was the man behind it all, the man who right now was making deals with the pharmaceutical companies, lying about what he’d found, what he’d created. He also knew that he needed to get in on that. 

Chris had already sent four of his boys out to get hold of some, directly from Smiles himself. The remainder of his boys were watching them, making sure nothing went wrong. Chris had already laid down his rules, do not use your gun unless you need to, do not do anything except pay Smiles and bring the goods back. There was no way they could mess this up, it was probably their easiest mission yet. The drugs were ready, they just needed to take them. 

“They’ve arrived,” One of Chris’ smartest, Kim Seungmin, was monitoring the computer screens, watching his teammates’ locations from the trackers placed under their shirts. They’d just reached Smiles’ warehouse, alert was up. The team’s youngest, Yang Jeongin, watched the screens, the red dots flashing and moving, the numbers that corresponded to each of his teammates, the wobbly video footage live streaming the actions and whereabouts of the other four. Jeongin didn’t speak, just looked at Seungmin who had his eyes on the screen, hoping that his teammates could follow Chris’ instructions completely. Seungmin had wondered why Chris had chosen the four that he did for this mission but he would never challenge Chris’ leadership. Seungmin had complete respect for his team leader and unlike some of the other boys, always did his job with absolutely no questions asked.

On the other side of the room, Lee Minho paced back and forth. He’d wanted to be chosen for this mission. He’d wanted to be the one to come back victorious, a briefcase full of substances, a bullet in the back of Smiles’ head and rising figures in his bank account. Minho was a bit pissed at what Chris had said to him during the first briefing, “I don’t know if I can trust you to play nice. You’re one of my best but this isn’t your job.” Play nice, Minho could play nice. Just thinking about those words as getting him riled up. He spun around, tightening his grip on the gun in his left hand and fired. The bullet hit the photo of Smiles pinned up on the wall. Minho’s aim was immaculate. He was one of, if not the best, gunmen on the team. So why didn’t Chris choose him?

The sudden shot startled the other three. “What the fuck are you doing?” Seungmin asked, his eyes breaking away from the screens towards Minho. The older man didn’t answer, why should he? Seungmin had no right to know what went on inside the secretive Minho’s head.  “What are they doing,” Jeongin, who’d been startled by the bullet, hadn’t looked in Minho’s direction. Jeongin found him scary, and there was something inside stopping Jeongin from looking at him for too long if he even looked at Minho at all, just in case. Jeongin remained focused on the screen, watching the movements of his other four team members. “Chris?”

Chris came over at Jeongin’s call, Minho following behind. Seungmin turned back to face the screen once again. They watched on the camera footage as a man pulled out a gun and pointed it at his own head and pulled the trigger. A blank. Chris sighed and punched the table. He should’ve known Smiles wouldn’t let them go so easily.  “We’re going there. Get your things,” Chris ordered. He’d been smart to set up not too far from Smiles’ warehouse, just in case of an event like this. He had to save the others, he knew his team well, he knew a couple of them wouldn’t last long under the pressure. He cursed at the photo of Smiles on the wall as he left, grabbing his gun and leading his teammates out.

The rusty warehouse door slid open. Behind it was one of Smiles’ henchmen.  “So what’s this one’s name? Toothy? No, no he looks like he’s been to the gym, it must be beefy,” Han Jisung’s mouth started going as soon as the door opened. He talked a lot, but almost never said anything worth listening to. The oldest of the four, Seo Changbin, gave Jisung a little punch to the arm to shut him up. They were here for business and only that. Chris had trusted them. Changbin raised the duffel bag in his hand to the henchman, indicating that they were here for business. The henchman nodded and gestured for them to enter, glaring at Jisung as he passed. “Drop the names, yeah? This isn’t a Hollywood movie,” Jisung commented as he passed, not caring who he pissed off.

Changbin, Jisung and their other two teammates, Hwang Hyunjin and Lee Felix, were led by another of Smiles’ henchmen to a dimly lit room with a large table. They took their seats and waited for Smiles to arrive with the goods. Soon they would be out of there and on their way back to Chris with exactly what he wanted. 

The four sat in silence, waiting for Smiles, his henchmen in the doorway like some kind of bodyguards. It wasn’t long before Smiles himself entered the room. Three of Chris’ boys, Jisung, Hyunjin and Changbin, stood up from their seats, a sign of respect. Australian-born Felix stood up a few moments later, merely following his team’s behavior, still ignorant to some of the customs of this country. Smiles gestured for the boys to resume their seats, making his way to his own on the opposite side of the table. He was followed by one of his men, a bit shorter than Smiles, with his hair in two braids and sunglasses hiding his face. The two men by the door took their seats as well and the transaction was ready to begin.

Smiles sat directly across from Changbin, that horrid expression painted across his face. Usually a smile was a symbol of happiness, a beacon of joy and safety. Not this one. Smiles had earned his name for his unusually chilling smile, like a Chelsea smile, but he hadn’t faced any torture. This was just how his face looked. Smiles knew this and used it to his advantage. He’d mastered exaggerating his already scary smile into something even more terrifying, angling his face to really bring out his expression. His eyes were piercing and full of bloodlust, their natural state.

Felix trembled in his seat as Smiles looked up and down the table at them all. This was one of Felix’s first missions, and he was still a bit cowardly. He’d only ever seen photos of Smiles, but they didn’t do him any justice. Witnessing that terrifying expression in person, only a table’s length away, made Felix feel a fear that he hadn’t before. He wanted to look elsewhere, at one of the tattooed henchmen, at the table, at the wall, at anything but once your eyes were locked with Smiles’, it was almost impossible to tear them away. 

Without speaking, Changbin raised the duffel bag onto the table and pushed it forward. He knew that Smiles knew why they were there. Smiles waved his finger, a gesture his henchman recognised as an order to pass on the briefcase. The case was lifted onto the table and slid across, and the henchman took the duffel bag and placed it on the floor beside his seat. That was it. The transaction was completed in complete silence, so quickly, so smoothly. But Changbin wasn’t ready to lead his team away just yet. He’d been in the business long enough to know that any checks had to be made right in front of the seller. 

“Check it,” Changbin broke the silence of the room. He was speaking to the scared Felix, who quickly obliged, anything to not have to look at Smiles for much longer.  “Doubting me, are you?” Smiles taunted, leaning to rest his elbows on the table, his expression worsening somehow, provoking them. Changbin didn’t answer. He kept his eyes on Felix, watching, also checking for anything unusual. Felix unclipped the briefcase and opened it, revealing four vials of a yellowish green liquid. Everything looked like it was intact, but the boys didn’t know for sure. Part of them wished Chris had come along himself, or at least sent Seungmin along, someone who knew for sure what the drug was supposed to look like.

Again, Smiles waved his finger, and his henchman began to move. The one that Jisung had named “Beefy” earlier placed a gun in the middle of the table, and spun it.

“Why don’t we play a game?” Smiles asked, his face contorting into something made of pure menace.  The gun stopped spinning. It pointed directly at Hyunjin. There was no mistaking it, he was up first. Remaining composed, Hyunjin took the gun and raised it to his own head, the tip of the weapon gently brushing his blonde hair. He pulled the trigger, he was scared but knew how to hide it. A blank. Safe, Hyunjin placed the gun down and spun it once again. 

The weapon pointed to the same henchman that had placed the gun. He placed the lighter in his hand on the table and lifted the weapon to his own head. Jisung’s eyes were drawn to the lighter, they flicked back and forth from the henchman to the table. He wanted that lighter. Jisung had left his back with Chris, but he knew he wanted to smoke on the way home, he had some weed already rolled in his pocket which was calling his name. He hadn’t smoked yet all day and was feeling the effects. While the henchman was distracted, eyes locked with Hyunjin, Jisung slipped his hand to the table and grabbed the lighter, putting it into his pocket beside the roll up.

The gun was placed on the table again and spun. Changbin shuffled in his seat. He wanted to get out of there. They’d made the transaction, why wouldn’t Smiles let them leave? He hoped that Chris had accurately read the situation and was on his way to help them. Changbin worried that the others wouldn’t last long. Felix was too cowardly to even play the game, his eyes glued to the gun, praying it wouldn’t land on him. Hyunjin was too cocky, and soon enough would get sick of this, and Jisung was too unstable. He wouldn’t last long under the pressure of potentially shooting himself in the head. Eventually one of them would turn the gun against Smiles but that was the last thing Changbin wanted and possibly the worst thing that could happen after one of his teammates dying. But it wasn’t a matter of if someone would turn the gun, it was a matter of when. 

Hyunjin reached for the weapon. What were the chances that it would land on him again? His heart thumped in his head as the gun caressed his hair for a second time. His finger trembled on the trigger, but he couldn’t pull it. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t fire at himself again. His finger was frozen in place and his gaze locked onto the henchman across from him. Hyunjin remained like this for about a minute, staring, afraid. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the bullet was in this round. He would die if he pulled that trigger, his beautiful insides exploded onto the table, onto his teammates, and so close to victory. Hyunjin turned the gun away from his head, aiming at the henchman and fired. Sure enough the bullet flew from the barrel of the gun, right towards the man, straight past him and hit the wall.

At the gunshot, Smiles and his men leaped into action, pulling their weapons from their trousers and jumping out of their seats, firing shots across the table. Chris’ boys wriggled in their seats, dodging what they could, frantically trying to grab their own weapons, or better yet, make their escape. Changbin led the boys towards the door, they ran, Jisung at the back, firing his gun back at Smiles and his men, ducking as he ran. 

Almost out of the warehouse, almost safe, Changbin and the four were stopped by someone coming towards them, they ran into each other, both toppling over, knocking down those behind them like human dominoes. It was Chris and the other three at the worst timing possible. The bullets from Smiles and his men ceased, and as Smiles approached, the familiar expression crept across his face. Christopher Bang was in his warehouse, guard down, sprawled across the floor, unable to save himself. 

The sound of a door closing in the darkness was heard, and the room was silent. Was it safe to speak now? “Boys?” Said a familiar voice, it was Chris. Smiles had blindfolded Chris’ boys and left them in an abandoned hospital as a threat, however, he’d made the mistake of leaving the entire team of eight in the room together. Their hands were tied with ropes and they had black bags over their heads to hide their vision. Changbin quickly discovered that the bags were loose enough to fall off if they shook their heads around enough. 

With their vision back, the boys now knew where they were, and that they were tied in a circle with their backs to each other. The ropes around their wrists were thick and tight, there was no easy way to wriggle free from them. Jisung remembered the lighter he’d stolen from the table earlier and wondered if he could use it to help. But he couldn’t get his hands into his pockets. The restraints were keeping his wrists bound to the chair – he was going to need some help. 

“Hyunjin,” Jisung said to Hyunjin who was on his right, the same side his lighter was “Reach into my pocket and get the lighter out.” “I can’t I’m tied up,”  “No shit,” Jisung tried his best to bounce and shuffle in his seat, angling himself so that Hyunjin could slip his hand into the pocket of his jacket.

With their backs to Jisung, some of the other boys tried to twist their heads to see what was going on, the sound of the chair legs scraping against the ground echoing around the abandoned room. After a short disagreement and a bit of swearing at each other, Hyunjin successfully retrieved the lighter from Jisung’s pocket and managed to get it into Jisung’s hand. As hoped, Jisung was able to burn the ropes with the lighter, making them weak enough for him to pull apart. Jisung, hands now freed, rubbing his wrists, looked at his teammates, all still bound to their chairs. 

Jisung circled the group, smiling to himself, “Now who to free first?” The seven looked at him, their eyes following as far as they could as Jisung walked around the circle. Jisung almost never took anything seriously, and the group knew that this would be one of those situations where they needed him to care, but he just didn’t. “Each of you give me a compliment and whoever’s I like the most can go free first, okay?” Jisung spun the lighter in his fingers, he had complete control over whether or not the team could be released and relished in the opportunity to hear something good from them. Usually the butt of the team’s jokes, he took whatever opportunity he could to have them fuel his already large ego. “Fuck off,” Hyunjin spat. Already not too fond of Jisung, Hyunjin refused to say anything nice, especially when there was no real reason to. Jisung retaliated with a reminder that Hyunjin was the reason the group were even in this situation in the first place, “If you had just pulled the trigger we could’ve all gone home.” “I would’ve died!!” Hyunjin screamed, jumping in his seat. “Taking one for the team. Ever heard of that?” Jisung spun the lighter once again, in Hyunjin’s face this time. Hyunjin was much taller and larger than Jisung, but with him restrained, Jisung had the chance to provoke as much as he wanted without consequence. “Knock it off, you two,” Chris finally butted in, being no stranger to the bickering of Hyunjin and Jisung.  At Chris’s order, Jisung began to free the team one by one, without any compliments required. Jisung was almost uncontrollable, Chris being the only person he would ever listen to. 

The team of eight, now freed, could finally focus on what had happened. Smiles had gotten away with not only their money, but their share of the drugs. They hadn’t managed to escape with the substance they were supposed to have bought from him. Chris cursed at Smiles again, beating himself up for having trusted him despite knowing better. Angry, Chris kicked over one of the chairs. What was he to do now? But all of his questions were answered when Felix spoke up. Felix had managed to retain one of the vials from the briefcase, stating that he hadn’t had time to put it away before the game of Russian Roulette had started. From his pocket, Felix pulled a tube full of the substance and raised it for the group to see.  “Lix, you mad cunt!” Chris slapped his friend on the back, a gesture of praise, and took the tube “Seungmin, can you do anything with this?”

Back at Seungmin’s lab, he was fiddling with tubes and beakers. Seungmin was quite possibly the smartest on the team and had claimed to be able to replicate the substance after a few rounds of testing, so the boys had returned to their base and left Seungmin to do his work. He was monitoring the state of the liquids, three test tubes bubbling away simultaneously as Seungmin tested out different methods to get the desired result.

Hyunjin liked to come and sit with Seungmin while he was working, even if Hyunjin didn’t understand what exactly Seungmin was doing. He was the closest on the team to being Hyunjin’s best friend but that didn’t mean their relationship wasn’t rocky. Hyunjin watched as Seungmin messed with the equipment, working hard to replicate the sample that Felix had luckily managed to keep hold of.

“You know,” Hyunjin began, through the sound of bubbling substances, “You should pierce your ears. It’d suit you.” “I don’t want to.” Seungmin’s voice was cold. He didn’t want to break his focus, he knew a slip up would not end well, especially when it was Chris that Seungmin was working to impress. Chris did already hold Seungmin in high regard, always complimenting his smarts and recognising him as one of the most trustworthy in the team, but that didn’t mean that Seungmin would let his work performance drop. 

Hyunjin tried a little harder to persuade Seungmin to pierce his ears, he was the only member of the team that hadn’t gotten any piercings yet. Over the duration of their companionship, the boys had managed to convince Jeongin to pierce an ear, and Felix to add to the piercings he already had. “I said I don’t want to,” “It’ll help you get girls!”  “Why would I want to get girls? I don’t do one night stands. Never have, never will.” Seungmin continued with his work, ever so carefully adding drop by drop of unknown liquids into a beaker. He felt that he was close and didn’t want to ruin his experiment. He hoped that his last response would be the end of this peevish conversation.

The door to the lab opened and in walked Jisung, looking smug. He’d been eavesdropping outside the door, “Leave the virgin alone, he couldn’t get a girl if he tried.” “And you could?” Hyunjin laughed, not meaning to come to Seungmin’s defense but rather with intentions to offend Jisung. Jisung retaliated, boasting about how many girls he’s slept with, to which Hyunjin and Seungmin just laughed, not believing him. Jisung got more and more pissed, his language getting more and more vulgar describing what he’d done in the past, revealing all of his past experiences in a desperate attempt to get his teammates to believe him. After all, he was telling the truth. Jisung did have a history of sleeping around, the other boys just didn’t know it, and seemingly didn’t believe it upon finding out. 

Eventually, Seungmin had had enough. He slammed his hands on the table, kicking out both Hyunjin and Jisung from his lab so he could continue his work in complete silence. There were only a few stages left of his experimenting, and he wanted to focus all of his attention on it, something Seungmin knew he couldn’t do with Jisung whining about his sex life and Hyunjin antagonising him. 

A few more rounds of testing and Seungmin was done. He’d replicated the drug, and the samples were a perfect match. He called the boys to his lab to announce the good news. They now had their own batch of the drug, and, realistically, an unlimited supply of it. Seungmin knew how to produce it, and was more than happy to be left alone in his lab to pump out more of the stuff if needed. 

“We need to name it if we want to sell it,” Chris said, examining the tube his teammate had given him, “Seungmin?” Seungmin shrugged his shoulders and looked around the group. He hadn’t the slightest idea what to call it. He’d made it, and as far as he was concerned, his job was done. The menial tasks like naming drugs could be left to the others, those who hadn’t brought anything to the table yet, those who, in Seungmin’s mind, were just going to be taking credit for the hard work of few members of the team that actually contributed to this mission.

Some hours were spent brainstorming, questioning Seungmin on the side effects of consuming the liquid, until a name came to mind. Minho introduced to Chris the substance’s potential name, Massively Addictive Newly Identified Authentic Coagulant. “MANIAC,” Chris smiled to himself. He liked it.  Chris had tasked Jeongin with researching into the current market, and to return to him with what was needed. Whatever information Jeongin came back with is whatever they’d sell MANIAC as. Once it was bought by an innocent pharmaceutical company, they would wash their hands of it, claiming they knew nothing about its effects. 

The boys didn’t have MANIAC for long before they started to receive offers, but Chris refused every single one. He already knew how much he expected to sell the product for and after the trouble he went to to get hold of it, he wouldn’t settle for any less. The boys needed to earn back what they’d lost to Smiles, and they definitely needed to make enough to be satisfied with disassociating from the substance completely. A standout offer eventually came in of a very large amount from a small company wanting to grow their stocks, seemingly willing to spend a huge amount to boost their popularity by stocking a highly sought after drug. 

Warily, Chris agreed to meet up with this buyer. He made sure to keep his guard up, just in case it was a trap. Chris scheduled a meeting with a representative from the company and he and his boys went out with a share of MANIAC to sell for the big money they wanted so badly. 

Changbin, in charge of transporting MANIAC, held the briefcase tightly, as they approached the location that seemed a bit too familiar.  “Guns out boys, it’s a trap.” Chris ordered, reaching for his own weapon.  Somehow, he’d let himself be tricked into bringing his own stash of MANIAC out to Smiles’ warehouse, the man himself coming out of the shadows.  “Slacking a lot lately, aren’t you, Christopher?” Smiles taunted, grinning as he always did. He and Chris knew each other well. The two used to work together as henchmen under the same boss until Chris left to build his own team and Smiles, unable to take orders any longer, murdered their old boss and used fear to take over. 

The two were rivals, and had been for a long time. Even whilst working together there was an unspoken competition, each of them wanted to be the boss’ favourite, deep down both wanting to be the boss themselves. Smiles was a man made of complete evil, murdering in cold blood to get his way. Chris was a man of morals – as much as one can have in this industry – respectful enough to leave and build his own team from the ground up. 

Smiles had known that his first encounter with Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung and Felix was in fact the closest he had gotten to Chris in a long time. That was the reason Smiles didn’t give up his share of MANIAC so quickly. He knew that Chris valued his team more than any business transaction, and successfully lured him to his warehouse the first time with a premeditated game of Russian Roulette. Smiles however, was unsuccessful in attempting to scare Chris into backing off by throwing him and his team tied up into the abandoned hospital. Smiles knew that Chris had gotten hold of MANIAC when he found his briefcase missing a vial, all he had to do was wait for Chris to attempt distributing it before luring him back. 

This time, Smiles wouldn’t be so nice. He crept out of the shadows, his trademark smile printed across his face. He waved his finger, signalling for his henchmen to come out of their hiding places, guns cocked, ready to shoot. Ready to kill. Chris had his boys ready too, they would fire on his signal. Chris remained calm on the outside, but inside he was beating himself up, beating himself up for letting himself fall for Smiles’ trick and for letting his greed lead his team into this situation. Everything that has happened to them so far, Chris blamed himself for. He knew the offer was suspicious, and he cursed at himself for not listening to his gut. 

He feared that this was the end. Smiles had him surrounded and outnumbered. The henchmen closed the circle around them. Chris’ boys looked amongst each other, waiting for the signal, wondering why Chris hadn’t ordered them to shoot yet. If he kept waiting, surely they’d all die. All Chris could do was stare at Smiles. Chris knew he’d lost, but he wouldn’t back down, not until he was dead. He would never give Smiles the satisfaction of knowing that Chris had gone down without a fight. 

The eight backed up, closer and closer into each other as Smiles’ men surrounded them. In the middle of the group, Changbin whispered something to Jisung, not taking his eyes off of Smiles and the henchmen coming closer. Jisung responded, slipping Changbin his lighter with his free hand. He didn’t know why he wanted it, but Jisung trusted him anyway. The two had been working with Chris for the longest in the group and had learnt a few things from their leader over the years. The most important thing they’d learnt was that it wasn’t over until it was over. Changbin knew Chris wouldn’t back down in the face of defeat and neither would he. Concealed in the middle of the group, Changbin slipped his hand into the briefcase and pulled out a vial of MANIAC and unscrewed the cap. 

Changbin made a comment about the drug exploding as he lit the liquid on fire with the lighter. If it did explode, he didn’t want it to happen in his hand. Quickly, Changbin threw the vial as far as he could, whatever happened would at least buy them some time. The flaming vial flew through the air, towards Smiles’ warehouse and hit the wall, exploding on contact. The burst of liquid carried the flames further, lighting the building ablaze, distracting Smiles, the henchmen and Chris’ team of boys. 

“Now!” Chris yelled out his signal to start shooting while Smiles was distracted.  His boys obeyed and the first to fire was Minho, who’d been waiting to shoot for longer than anybody else. Gunning down as many henchmen as he could, he aimed for the most lethal spots, the head, the chest, and the face. The rest of the team began shooting too, the henchmen surrounding them dropping like flies as Chris’ boys shot to protect themselves. 

Chris raised his gun to the back of Smiles’ head. His rival had turned around at the sound of the explosion, at his warehouse being set alight, at his stolen empire falling before his eyes.  “Slacking a lot lately, am I?” Chris didn’t wait for a response.  The gunshot sounded and Smiles’ lifeless body fell to the floor.