You definitely didn’t think that you would end up in a video game when you go over to your next neighbour’s slash Mark’s best friend’s house to fetch him up because it was way past midnight and you wouldn’t want to encounter your mother’s rage in the morning when they come back from their wellness weekend with your father and your little brother isn’t yet at home, but it happened nevertheless.

It was Johnny’s birthday and after celebrating it with his uni friends, he invited your little brother - Mark - over to have some guy time to themselves. What you didn’t know was that Mark would stay there later than previously agreed upon and that Ten would also be there. It was understandable though, Ten and Johnny were good friends, and the three of you had been in the same year at the local high school. However, you and Ten also went to the same dance academy, and it would have been fine just seeing him perform at the same festivals and competitions, but once he had dared to tell you in front of both his and your team that you had the perfect butt for twerking, and you couldn’t look at him the same way ever since.

Ten and Mark had also been on good terms due to the fact that they had known each other through Johnny, but you tried to avoid that guy ever since. Not that you would think that he was a pervert based on just one of his comments since you two were dancers and dancing required a certain amount of self-confidence and lessened shyness when it came to body image, but you sure didn’t have a good opinion of him ever since that day.

So it didn’t help either that you needed to bear his gaze while you tried to persuade your little brother to come home as soon as possible.

“I swear if you join this game that can only be played with four players, I’ll go home after we finish!” Mark pleaded with his puppy eyes that always worked on you, and upon seeing them, you needed to let out a frustrated huff.

“Fine, but just one round! One! And then you come with me without complaint. Deal?”

You suggested with a slight raise of your eyebrows, and your little brother nodded fervently while his friends grinned to themselves, knowing that they could make the guy stay for at least half an hour, and that you could have been more persistent if you had wanted to, but you didn’t want to be an evil big sister.

So you joined the three of them with the video consol they had given you, and you started wondering how good you could play despite only playing when Mark was bored playing alone, but then, you felt the air being sucked out of your lungs, your stomach taking turns and your body landing on something cold and hard, something that was definitely not the carpet of the Seo house’s living room.

You felt as if you had been on a plane that had gotten into turbulence, your head aching from the sudden happenings and your body sore from the abrupt crush. You blinked rapidly, hands reaching for something around you to get a better hold of your surroundings when someone let out an ouch sound. Apparently, you slapped Johnny in the face.

“What the heck is this?” You stood up as you looked around, a totally dark room around of you without seemingly no exit or whatsoever. It felt like you were on stage with that light being shone upon the four of you, everything else in total darkness.

As you examined the others, you realized that they wore the clothes their characters in the game wore, and that’s when you frantically looked down on yourself, only to realize that you had randomly chosen someone who was said to be a badass female character - the only downside to it was that she wore little to no clothing with only a tight crop top, a very short short and black leather boots. Ten was wearing a black low-cut shirt with leather jeans and Converse trainers, he looked like he was about to go to a dance competition rather than anything that was happening around you all. Mark was wearing a school uniform with a loosely tucked shirt and a black tie, cotton pants and training shoes, he even had a backpack to match his school boy image while Johnny looked like a scientist with his doctor’s gown and black jeans, shoes as shiny as newly made teeth. It seemed that whatever had happened, you were all wearing the clothes of your chosen characters.

“I think we are in the actual game,” Johnny mused out loud as he took a turn to look around, no sign of panic in his voice.

“Dude, I think you’re right!” Mark hollered excitedly, clapping his hands as if he had been waiting for this to happen.

“I don’t think this is something to celebrate, Mark,” you reprimanded your little brother with a pointed glare and before he could even open his mouth, the one who really shouldn’t have actually butted in.

“Don’t be so hard on him. We don’t know what it means for us that we ended up here,” Ten remarked, and as you turned to him, your deadly glare was on him this time. He merely shrugged his shoulders, clearly not being able to detect the frustration boiling up inside of you. You would have been fine with Johnny telling you such things, but when it came to Ten, you were more than angry. How dared he?

“Probably nothing good,” you spitted, furiously. You had just wanted to get your little brother home, and now? You were dressed in your character’s clothes in the middle of a totally dark room except that light, and you had no idea what to do.

“Well, if it’s really a video game, this is going to be the part where we’re going to get to know what our mission is,” Johnny mentioned before chaos could erupt between you and Ten, and he casually pushed his glasses further up on his nose bridge. Even though you really didn’t know a lot about video games, he was probably right, it was just the uncertainty that was killing you from the inside.

However, a few seconds later, a screen came up out of nowhere - hovering in front of the four of you, the game’s name written on it with big, burgundy letter. You gulped down a nervous lump in your throat, giving your little brother a side-glance, but instead of appearing scared, he was actually excited. Great...

Then, a moment later, a low, generated voice was heard from the screen and it felt like its words were coming from speakers, but there were no speakers in sight.

“Dear players! Thank you for joining the game! We’ll announce your mission now, so listen carefully! You’ll only hear it once,” the voice said slowly yet firmly, the authoritativeness lacing every single one of its words. It was frightening, the fact that it was not even a human being that was talking to you. Though at least the announcement was made in time, so Mark could get a notebook out of his backpack and start jotting down what was being told about the mission. “To reach the brightest jewel out of all, you need to fight through fire and water. The web of lies can't distract you either, you have this one shot or game over,” it continued and then the screen evaporated and instead of a dark room, the four of you found yourselves in front of a huge chess board, ‘Level 1’ hovering above it and then disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared. The only thing that was suspicious about the otherwise common-looking black and white chess board was the fact that there were no chess pieces on the board, only the board itself.

“Okaaaay, this seems quite interesting,” your little brother commented while holding onto his backpack as if his life depended on it. Maybe it did, you thought to yourself as you caught sight of a white square literally disappearing from the board. To be precise, burning into ashes as it seemed like the ground - or whatever it was beneath the chess board - had eaten it up, flames searing the edges of the neighbouring squares.

“This doesn’t seem promising.” You gulped upon seeing the sight in front of you and exchanged a glance with your little brother who didn’t seem as excited as before, his smile wavering a bit. Maybe he started to realize that no matter why you were in an actual game, you were supposed to play it for real, and games weren’t always as fun as they seemed.

“Well, if it’s really a game and we are characters in it, we must have some abilities that can help in situations like this,” Johnny concluded after giving it some thought, and you had to give it to him that his words did make sense. Or at least, they made more sense than the fact that you had gotten inside a video game, dressed up as the characters you had chosen for yourself and you were supposed to be carrying out a mission. “Does anyone remember theirs?” He averted his eyes from one of you to the other, but none of you really remembered. Truth to be told, you wanted to bring Mark home as soon as possible, so you didn’t even look through the characters, you just opted for a female one.

“Maybe mine is seducing?” Ten threw in his idea, pointing at his low-cut shirt, earning a scandalized look from you. He merely shrugged his shoulders with an all too smug smirk, and you really wished you weren’t reminded of his words regarding your butt every single time he displayed that trademark smirk of his.

“Well, it could be,” Johnny remarked instead, staying as neutral as possible, as he was searching through the pockets of his gown. Then, as he was hit by an idea, he stopped searching and looked up, his eyes wide. “You know how there’s always a ‘help’ button in games? Maybe we should find that first.”

“Or maybe if this game really monitors us, we can send Morse codes,” Mark suggested enthusiastically, his brain cells apparently working as he was jumping up and down in excitement. “Guys, I think I know how to do Morse codes! I don’t know how but I think I can,” he explained oddly giddily, and threw his backpack onto the ground, searching for something.

You would reprimand him under other circumstances for throwing his backpack onto the ground, but this was no ordinary day and no ordinary circumstances, so you let him be and watched curiously as he brought out a LED torch and started sending signals. You looked around, your eyes scanning the place that seemingly didn’t have any walls around the chess board, except that same old creepy darkness that you had already encountered when you had been thrown into this game. It was understandable though, since it was a game, the non-gaming parts might not have been designed, but you didn’t even dare to imagine what would happen to you if you accidentally walked into the darkness.

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard, the same screen from before appearing right above the chess boards, showcasing the character profiles of the four of you.

Player no. 1 - the high schooler (male)

good at solving riddles

knows Morse codes

is the team spirit

can’t swim

Player no. 2 - the doctor (male)

good at making plans

reasonable

is the team leader

has slow reflexes

Player no. 3 - the smoulder (male)

good at seducing

has quick reflexes

is the physically most competent player

can’t say no

Player no. 4 - the smoulder (female)

good at seducing

can hypnotise others

is the glue of the group

quick-tempered

“Well, I’m just saying that we are the same kind of characters, we might as well be a match made in heaven,” Ten couldn’t help but point out the evident, a smug grin painting his lips, making you roll your eyes.

“Well, and I’m just saying then that the same kind of characters might not come in handy in such a game. We share one strength, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” you counter-attacked him with a fake smile, hoping that it was enough to make him back off a bit, but he was grinning at you just as widely as before. Maybe it be because he was really a smoulder in general, but you definitely didn’t enjoy being stared at like that and him being that unbothered all this time.

The screen buzzed a bit and the pictures changed, showing you that all of you had three lives for the three levels that led up to you either winning the game or losing it all. You didn’t want to think about what would happen if you lost all three of your lives because you highly doubted that it would be that easy to go home yet. You had this eerie gut feeling that if it was game over here, it would be game over outside. A creepy, cold shiver ran down your spine at such a thought.

Then, the screen disappeared yet again, and instead of appearing again, similar to the panel hovering above the chess table, there were four maps hovering above the last row of squares on the chess board. You probably had to get there and snatch the maps to move onto Level 2.

“Okay, so combining what we have, I think Ten should go first because he is said to be the most physically competent player. I have slow reflexes, so I should probably stick with him, and since there’s no water around, Mark would probably be okay as well,” Johnny suggested as he looked at each of you, the last part of his sentence signalling that he wanted you to stick to your little brother that would probably not be a bad idea since Mark was quick to freak out, and you had learned how to calm him down. It may come in handy this time as well. “Remember, it’s about teamwork as well, so be sure to shout or scream when there’s something suspicious going on or you have an idea where to step,” Johnny continued with unwavering confidence.

“Dude, you really sound like a team leader,” Mark complimented him in awe, a genuine smile making its way onto his lips. Johnny looked at him with equal fondness and urged all of you to start going slowly and carefully.

As discussed, Ten went first, then Johnny and then the two of you with your little brother. However, you soon realized that it wouldn’t be that easy to follow the smoulder guy’s footsteps because sometimes the squares he had stepped on disappeared into thin air or burned down like you had seen for the first time. Panic was slowly creeping its way into your heart as a small bomb was thrown onto the chass table, exploding right between Ten and Johnny. It seemed like you couldn’t go the same way no matter how much it would have seemed like an efficient idea.

Ten and Johnny being separated meant that Johnny needed extra time to look around and not fall into his death right away, but it didn’t mean that he could escape his weakness of having slow reflexes.

“Johnny! Arrow from the left!” You screamed at the top of your lungs as you saw it sprung into your field of vision, but the guy was so surprised about the weight of your words that he didn’t crouch down or moved further, he only looked to his left and the arrow went straight through his body that immediately evaporated right then and there. You let out another scream at the sight of his body dissolving, your eyes wide in fear and heart beating crazily loudly.

“Dude…” Mark mumbled sadly, blinking frequently to avoid crying while even Ten’s features seemed to get solemn. Even though all of you were aware that you had three lives in the game, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling to see someone being shot by an arrow in front of you and disappear into thin air.

“This is really no joke,” Ten commented as well, gulping down his nervousness.

“You realize it only now?” You raised your voice, frustration building up inside of you. You swore you had never been as angry as this time, and it didn’t help either when Johnny’s body came back to life right where he had been shot by the arrow. “This shouldn’t have happened if you had just had the party until we’ve discussed with Mark and if you had just come home when I told you to,” you looked from the two older guys to your little brother, angry at each and every one of them, angry at this stupid game with its stupid tricks.

“It’s okay. I still have two lives. We’ll get through this together,” Johnny tried to lift the mood with his positivity and a kind smile, but you were not having any of it. You kept going sulkily, looking ahead of yourself in case something happened to the squares under your feet, trying to concentrate on the task instead of the other three guys.

“Yeah, and you are the glue of the team, so you’ll help us stay together, I guess,” Ten remarked with a shrug of his shoulders, and that’s when you snapped your head back in the middle of a step, not looking where you stepped and immediately felt nothing under your feet and then darkness.

It was a weird experience to get back to life after losing a life. It was like you had had a pretty bad night of tossing and turning in bed without being able to sleep and your body immediately showed signs of exhaustion, limbs weak, vision blurry and eyelids heavy. You felt like throwing up, but nothing happened in the end.

“Oh my gosh! Never do this again, please! I thought that I would have a heart attack,” Mark pleaded as you came back to life, his hands holding onto your shoulders, steadying you in the middle of the chess board. You shook your head, unable to believe that you had just lost a life and came back to continue the game. Even Mark’s face seemed a bit distant in that moment. Everything happened so fast.

“I guess our strengths and weaknesses are really showing,” Johnny noted with a bitter smile, referring to your quick-tempered self. Well… you couldn’t say anything because he wasn’t wrong, so after making sure that Mark knew that you were okay and sending a deadly glare in Ten’s direction, you prompted the team to move forward and be extra careful.

You were halfway to the end of the chess board, and until you reached the last row, you had one more bomb, two more squares that burned down, one more that disappeared into thin air but Ten was quick enough to step onto another one and you had two more arrows, but you managed to grab Mark and push him down while Ten had quick reflexes, so he didn’t have a problem with avoiding it.

You definitely realized how keeping your emotions at bay, helping each other and working together as a team could help this mission, and since you weren’t willing to lose another life over such a stupid mistake, everything seemed more serious yet a lot smoother, thus you could reach the maps one by one and the moment you touched them, the scenery changed and the screen with Level 2 was hovering above you all.

You found yourself in front of a metal door, guarded by two muscled guys who looked like they didn’t even look at anything in particular, they merely stared ahead with lifeless eyes. You exchanged a glance with the guys by your side, and even if you wanted to deny, you had to realize that Ten was looking at you with nothing else but worry in his pitch-black orbs, and that one stare was enough to send shivers down your spine. You hadn’t been used to such an affectionate glance by him because he had always been so smooth and flirtatious, and him flirting in that low-cut shirt was exactly how you would imagine him at a club, seducing someone.

You shook your head, trying to clear your mind from such thoughts and averting your eyes back to the guards.

“They are probably non-player characters if they haven’t showed any sign of realizing that we are here,” Mark broke the silence that had fallen upon the four of you, eyes shining a bit more alarmed than before. “Usually, these are the characters who give out the tasks for each level,” he added as he caught sight of your perplexed expression. You shot a thankful smile in his direction because your video gaming knowledge was definitely lacking, and it was always Mark who explained such things during the games, you didn’t really remember any info afterwards, so he needed to tell you about such things each and every time he asked you to play with him.

“I guess we’ll just have to walk up to them and ask what’s up,” Ten suggested casually, his feet already taking him forward. Even though your initial reaction was to disagree, you couldn’t help but realize you had no other choice anyway, so you followed the guy who walked until the guards started talking in unison.

“To enter the room, you must solve the following riddle. You have 10 minutes or you all lose a life. Then, you have 10 more minutes, but if you still haven’t gotten the right answer, you lose a life yet again. You can guess until it’s game over. You can guess as many times as you want under the time limit,” the guards gave you the instructions, their voice as monotonous as if it had been a translator app’s voice. You gulped nervously before they gave you the riddle in the same manner. “What goes through a door but never goes in and never comes out?”

There was a moment of silence after their question, then you started exchanging glances with the others, eyebrows furrowed, jaws tensely clenched. You didn’t expect this level to be based on a riddle after the first level’s physically exhausting part, and this one seemed in a way a lot more difficult yet also less difficult than the first one. However, the time limit was definitely disturbing, to say the least, especially since a visual countdown was hovering above your head, its ticking dressing your skin in goosebumps.

9:31

“Mark’s character is said to be good at riddles,” Johnny pointed out with a click of his fingers.

“Dude, I would answer it right away if I knew what’s the answer, but I don’t know. Maybe it’ll hit me just like the Morse codes,” he mused out loud, the weight of his character’s skills and the weight of this level definitely pressuring him. You could see how hard he was thinking, chewing on his lips out of uneasiness while the others were also throwing random words at the guards, but neither of them moved an inch, signalling that you didn’t get the answer right.

“It’s okay, Mark. Don’t panic! One way or another, our strengths have saved us last time as well, so I’m sure the answer will get to you soon,” you made an attempt to cheer up your little brother who seemed under the weather for the first time since the beginning of this real-life video game.

“She’s right. Don’t worry too much about it,” Johnny added with a supportive smile and even Ten joined the little heart-to-heart pep talk, patting the younger guy’s shoulder while smiling at him and cheering him on. No matter the tight feeling in your chest, the sight definitely eased your worries a bit. After all, you were all one team.

8:02

“Okay, okay… uhm… wind? Luck?” Mark guessed as he monitored the guards’ facial expressions, but they stayed as neutral as before, the ticking of the clock above your head moving forward as per usual.

Everyone was trying to guess the answer, throwing in random words by the end because riddles were sometimes very ridiculous, and sometimes the things that didn’t seem to make sense came out as the actual answers, so everyone tried with everything. However, the clock was ticking and Mark was getting more and more tensed, the chewing on his lips intensifying, and when the one minute countdown started, he crouched down, putting his hands onto his ears, cupping them as if he wanted to eliminate the ticking of the clock.

You crouched down beside him, drawing circles on his back, hoping that your presence could soothe his nerves a bit. You knew that if he didn’t get this right, Mark would forever feel guilty even if all of you had at least two more lives to spare.

“I get it!” He bolted upon suddenly, the clock reaching 10 seconds. “A keyhole!” He announced excitedly, drawing your attention to the door that was opening up and the clock that stopped at 8 seconds.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe a keyhole was the answer,” Ten said out loud what all of you had been thinking about, but instead of pondering over it, you hugged your little brother and ruffled his hair.

“Good job!” You complimented him with a genuine smile, and the one that you got in return was worth everything that you had felt in the last 10 minutes and all that emotional rollercoaster you had been experiencing ever since you had started the game.

However, your happiness couldn’t last long since the door may have opened up, but you saw absolutely nothing on the other side. That eerie darkness yet again, and if it was around, it never meant anything good. Knowing that, all of you tried to stick together, Mark holding onto your arm like a clingy koala, and the other two guys were also walking right by your side. You didn’t even realize that you were letting out a scream once you reached the darkness because then your voice was muffled, water filling up your mouth instead, making you gasp for air as you pushed yourself to the top.

You looked around, blinking the water out of your eyes as you took in your surroundings; it seemed as if you had been in a giant pole, but as always, there was a certain kind of darkness around the visible areas, making you question yet again what would happen if you went there.

However, you didn’t have more seconds to ponder over such a question because the realization that Mark’s character couldn’t swim hit you at the same time as the boy started drowning on the other side of the pole. It seemed like the four of you were scattered in four different parts of the water, and watching as your little brother was drowning while the three of you raced to get to him as soon as possible was physically and emotionally exhausting, not to mention when Ten reached him first, but he couldn’t grab onto anything anymore.

You didn’t need to be told what happened, your heart already skipped a beat and you already let out a yelp, your voice hoarse. You kept swimming in the direction Mark had disappeared at because you knew that he would appear at the same place, so you could welcome him when he came back to life. All three of you closed up on him when he did so, trying to hold him up while you were trying to hold yourself up as well. Words stuck in your throat at the sight of your little brother yet again. You didn’t really realize how painful it must have been to see you evaporate while losing a life last time until you actually experienced it for yourself. It was torture even though in the back of your mind, you knew that he still had two more lives. It was just the fact that he had indeed lost a life and the sight of seeing your brother drowning to death that pained you so much.

“Okay, okay, guys. I’m okay,” Mark reassured all of you while you were holding him up. “But what’s the mission?” he inquired quite understandably, yet ever since you had been basically thrown into this pole of water, none of you had actually cared about the mission. Yet, hearing his question, all of you looked around and found a hovering screen above the water just like every single time before this task.

Get the box from underwater and don’t let it open up, not until you reach the next level. Grab onto it altogether, and the new level will unravel.

The screen said, and you exchanged a worried glance with the others, discussing that none of you had seen a box underwater - though it hadn’t been the focus, to be honest. However, knowing the mission and the fact that Mark couldn’t swim, you needed to plan where to start the searching and who would start it.

“Well, Ten is said to be the physically most competent member, so I think he should go for it,” you spoke up first, remembering the details written on his character profile.

“You want me to go?” Ten inquired with a knowing smirk, mischievousness tinting his lips. It was unfair how handsome he looked even with his pitch-black hair totally drenched and that low-cut shirt hidden underwater. There was just something charming about his smirk, yet you knew that he knew his effect, that’s why you didn’t want to admit it yourself.

“It’s purely based on your character’s abilities, not my preferences,” you clarified alongside an eyeroll, making Johnny and Mark burst into laughter. “What?”

“Nothing. You two just sound like a bickering married couple,” your little brother dared to mention with a smile, and if it hadn’t been for the water weighing down on you and making this situation a hundred times more difficult, you would have kicked him in the shin.

“Then, I’ll go,” you offered without hesitation, wanting to move forward from this level as soon as possible. Even if you weren’t going to make the same mistake with Mark as before, you definitely didn’t want to stay here more than it was absolutely necessary.

“No, no, I’ll go. I feel like I can keep my breath for long,” Ten objected almost immediately, showing off his widest, most confident smile, and you didn’t even have time to question him, he was already helping Mark to lean onto Johnny’s shoulder and diving underwater.

It was nonetheless nerve-wracking to wait for him to come back up and to watch him try a couple of times, gasping for air when he reached the surface and then trying again until eventually he brought a metal box with him, pushing it to the center of your semicircle with Johnny and Mark.

“As stated, we should grab onto it together,” Johnny repeated what was given to you as the task, and you hoped that it would really work but just in case you sucked in a deep breath before putting your hands on the box, followed by Mark, Ten and Johnny.

And then darkness again.

When you got to the next level - Level 3 hovering above your head -, the first thing you noticed was the mass of noise around you. During the past two levels, you had encountered basically zero to no voices from around you, but this time was different. Now, you were in a buzzing city with people shoving past you, huge baskets under their armpits, pieces of silk being thrown onto their shoulders, outfits reminding you of one of your favourite childhood stories - the Aladdin’s. Then, came the sight of a tremendous, elegant, well-built palace in front of you, burgundy carpet leading the way to its enormous doors, men dressed up in fine Arabish clothing and women in dresses from the whole colour palette, being given the pass to go into the palace as they lined up on the carpet and waited for their turn.

“Oh man, what are these clothes on us?” Mark exclaimed a bit too loudly to your liking, but the others around you didn’t seem to care about his raised voice. Maybe they were non-player characters just like Mark had mentioned before.

Upon hearing his exclaim, you automatically looked down on yourself and your eyes immediately widened. It wasn’t that the dress was as revealing as the crop top and tight short combo because your legs were covered and your arms were covered too in baggy pants and sleeves, however your shoulders were totally bare and the blouse-like top had a low, V-shaped cut in the middle - a lower one than you would feel comfortable in -, tightly hugging your chest and your breasts. The main part of the outfit was coloured in deep-blue that seemed almost black while the baggy parts were somewhat lighter, closer to ocean-blue and a bit translucent.

“Now, that is a look!” Ten commented in awe, looking you up and down, an impressed expression painting his features. Of course, it wouldn’t have been him if he hadn’t felt the need to comment on your outfit, but before you could counter-attack him, your little brother pointed at Ten’s outfit.

“Yo, dude, you look like a prince!” Mark concluded as he examined the older boy’s all-white and thankfully decent outfit consisting of not only pants, a chest-covering top, a golden belt and golden, pointed shoes but also a turban. Compared to Mark and Johnny’s rather average merchant-like outfits, he did look like a royal. “And maybe you are his princess,” Mark continued as he averted his eyes to you, and Johnny had to hold his stomach while laughing when he saw your expression.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t mean it that way, you know. It’s just that maybe you two are some power couple on this level,” Mark tried to clarify himself, but he did a horrible job because Johnny couldn’t stop laughing and Ten was wiggling his eyebrows at you as if he had been stuck doing that for eternity.

“Okay, let’s just focus on the mission! What do we gotta do now? Where’s the box from level 2?” The questions fell from your lips, your confidence not wavering by the situation that was unfolding around you. Maybe that’s why you were the glue of the group; you always managed to keep the whole group together while being focused on the mission, though you didn’t really know if it was just you being you or your character’s skills. You felt like you couldn’t draw the line between the two anymore.

“I-” Ten started a bit hesitantly, looking around and searching through his pockets only to find a neatly wrapped letter in his left pocket. “I guess this must have been in there,” he explained as he told everyone to gather closer around the letter, so that everyone could read what was written inside of it once he opened it. “We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Midnight Land’s anniversary night with your lovely companion.” he read out loud, looking up from the letter when he finished.

“I guess your lovely companion isn’t us, bro,” Johnny confirmed what you had been expecting while listening to the content of the letter, and it seemed like it had been just what Mr. low-cut shirt had been waiting for because he held his arm out to you and flashed a bright smile.

“Well then, my lovely companion…” He raised an eyebrow expectantly, making you roll your eyes at his antics.

“Oh please!”

“What?” he asked back, a pout making its way onto his lips. “It can’t be harder than dancing. When you’re on stage, you’re also a different person, you are more fierce, more confident, more sassy. Pretending that you are my lovely companion can’t be more difficult than doing well-practiced moves,” he explained to you all too confidently, making the other two guys coo.

You had to admit that he did have a point because while dancing was based on the moves and transitions and team work, it was about so much more than that; it was about becoming one with the rhythm, using facial expressions that you wouldn’t normally use to showcase the emotions channelled into the choreography and appearing as someone else if needed. It was a bit like a choreographed play and if you were good, people actually tended to believe that who you were on stage was the exact same you were off-stage.

“Okay,” you mumbled under your nose, taking his arm and letting him intertwine it with yours as you saw around you with other couples. His touch felt unfamiliar, yet oddly reassuring at the same time, and you didn’t know what to do with that silly turn of your stomach. You liked to think of yourself as someone who wouldn’t want a guy like him break down your walls, but you were starting to do a bad job at hiding your feelings, so you tried to tell yourself that it was all for just the game. Just the game.

Thankfully, Mark didn’t let silence stretch for too long between the four of you as he asked a very understandable question given the situation you had gotten yourself into.

“But how do we get in there? You know, we are probably needed for back-up,” your little brother pointed out, and since the invitation was written for Ten and his lovely companion and neither of the other two guys looked like a bodyguard or some kind of the sort, you knew you couldn’t get them in as easily as you would (hopefully) get the two of you inside with Ten.

However, thinking back to your character profiles and the strengths of each character, a sudden idea popped into your head.

“I can hypnotise others according to my profile. Maybe we can try that out now,” you suggested with a shrug of your shoulders because the worst case scenario was that they wouldn’t let the boys in. It was always worth a try.

Needless to say, your abrupt idea made you uncharacteristically nervous because you couldn’t even imagine how you would hypnotise others, but you tried to remain calm and engage in the conversation with the guys who started wondering just how much time must have passed outside of the game. You hoped not too much because your parents would totally freak out if they didn’t find either of you at home by the time they get home from their wellness weekend, and you had uni the next morning and Mark had school, so no matter how trivial those activities seemed, you really wished you could go back to the world outside of the game and listen to another boring lecture instead of wearing such clothes, holding onto Ten’s arms and waiting for your turn in the queue.

Time passed by quickly, and sure, you tried to get the two guys into the palace without mentioning anything after handing the invitation to the guards, but they stopped them. So you made an attempt at staring at them very intensively, whispering convincing words and not breaking the eye-contact. That’s what you had seen in movies and that’s what you felt like would be the right thing to do, and luckily, it worked. You immediately let out a sigh in relief when you stepped into the huge ball-room like place with golden and bronze decoration, the smell of spices and freshly made food and lots of music and noise.

“Okay, what do we do now?” Mark inquired giddily as soon as you overcame the first obstacle of this level, and as the team leader as he was, it was Johnny who took it upon himself to start coming up with a plan.

“Well, our mission is: “To reach the brightest jewel out of all, you need to fight through fire and water. The web of lies can't distract you either, you have this one shot or game over. I guess we’ve done everything, except the brightest jewel part, so I guess we are looking for a bright jewel,” he explained as briefly yet informatively as possible, and all of you nodded to his words.

“Should we start searching here or-” Mark started excitedly, looking around like a little boy in a candy shop, but was cut off by the sound of trumpets that signalled the arrival of three magnificent-looking people.

“Please, welcome dearly our majestic Sultan, his lovely wife the Sultana and their bright daughter, the princess of Midnight Land,” an announcer said, silencing the crowd, all eyes on the elderly couple in elegant golden and white clothes - similar to Ten’s colours - and their daughter who wore a peacock-like dress with feathers and lots of bright jewels. Especially the one around her neck.

“I guess we found it,” Ten pointed out in awe, totally mesmerized by the beauty of the princess. You rolled your eyes yet again. Boys.

“I don’t want to be the person to point it out but we have a smoulder here whose specialty is seducing, and while I think he should have the most innocent intentions, somehow we need to get hold of that necklace and get it from her,” Johnny summed up the plan pretty quickly, and while Mark looked like a kid at a festival who was dumbfounded at the sight of not only the royal family but every single thing from the table of delicious-looking food to the huge flags hanging from the ceiling, Johnny seemed more composed than any of the boys.

Yet, hearing his plan, Ten averted his eyes back to the little group and let out a smug grin.

“How difficult it can be?” He shrugged his shoulders, not even questioning anything regarding the plan. His confidence that usually came in handy while dancing was now concerning you. “Now, if you excuse me…” He grabbed the opportunity to leave, but you fervently pulled him back by the arm and reprimanded him not to go alone.

“Is it jealousy that I smell?” He wiggled his eyebrows right immediately, and oh how much you wished you could punch him in the face or at least make that stupid grin go away. You definitely didn’t think that anything more than what was necessary could happen in an innocent game like this, but it was always better to have someone look over him in case he was asked to go somewhere else you wouldn’t be able to follow him.

“If anything happens to you, it’s better to have someone by your side and remember, I can hypnotise people,” you reasoned firmly, not letting his overconfidence mess up your plan. It took a bit more to convince him, but eventually, Ten gave in to Johnny’s reasoning, and they also said that they would be lurking around you two just in case something happens to either of you.

Making your way to the princess was seemingly easy as no one seemed to be wanting to talk to her or block you, and it actually made you worried. Would it be that easy? Or would you be shot with an arrow as abruptly as during the first level if you dared to even go close to her? Knowing how this game could turn the tables so quickly, you weren’t sure about anything anymore. You all seemed to have found ways to showcase your strengths and sometimes your weaknesses too, so you had no idea what this game still had in store for you all.

Such questions were going through your head while you were walking closer and closer to the pretty princess - who seemed too unnatural in your opinion, but you blamed it on her being a character and not being as real as you were -, her face lightening up when she caught sight of you two.

“Princess…” Ten bowed respectfully, you following his example and forcing a smile onto your face. It seemed like the boy beside you didn’t have to force that smile, it was as radiant as always.

“So lovely to have you two here. Did you have a safe journey?” The princess tilted her head as she averted her eyes from Ten to you and then back at the boy. You had no idea that such monologues could take place in a video game, but this level seemed to be totally different from the other two, so it shouldn’t have taken you aback.

“It was rather… exciting,” Ten replied with his widest smile, and you felt like a third wheel watching them smiling at each other. Not like he was forced to treat you any differently than he normally would and not like he should have paid more attention to you than the one who wore what you needed to escape this stupid game but still… It hurt a bit to feel this neglected and ignored.

“I’m glad you had a safe journey,” the princess mentioned after a bit of silence, and you started to doubt that she had actually understood the meaning of the boy’s words. Or she might have been one of those characters who had a limited amount of lines, and they used the same ones no matter the response.

“What a beautiful necklace you have there,” Ten continued on with the plan nevertheless, and his voice was indeed seducing, seemingly as sweet as honey. You almost believed that he was genuinely curious and not just doing what he was told to do so and what he was good at.

“I have gotten it from my father for my birthday. It is said to be the brightest jewel in the kingdom,” she responded brightly, her smile not wavering. Your hold on Ten’s arm tightened hearing the exact same words you wanted, and he immediately squeezed your hand back, the weight of her words making you two sure that it was the princess’ necklace you were looking after.

“Can we have a look?” Ten asked straightforwardly, and there was a moment of silence when your throat closed up and your heart skipped a whole beat, you were so expectant to see the princess’ reaction. You were afraid that she would get suspicious, but she merely let out an endeared laughter.

“Not yet,” she remarked, her lips curling upwards. Then, she clicked her fingers and a servant appeared with a trace of chocolate-coated sweets. She reached out for two chocolate-coated apples and handed them to you two. “Let’s have these first,” she suggested as she took one for herself as well and took a big bite. You had a bad feeling about anything that was meant to be taken into becoming a part of the game here, so you declined the offer kindly while the boy didn’t give it a second thought.

“Ten, I don’t think it’s-”

“Sure, why not?” Ten gave in immediately, and you didn’t even have time to stop him referring to your own worries, he was already taking a big bite from the apple. He gulped down the sweet with a wide grin. “It’s delicious, thank you so-” he started but then he literally disappeared.

Then, it hit you - his weakness on his character profile, the fact that he can’t say no.

“Men can’t even take a little bit of poison,” the princess said naturally before she walked away, becoming one with the crowd. You blinked a few times, looking around, and indeed, Ten re-appeared by your side, coming out of his transitional phase between that period when he was dead and now coming back to life. Once he steadied himself, you hit him in the shoulder.

“I’ve told you not to do this alone! And I’ve wanted to warn you but you didn’t even think twice!”

“Well, I can’t say no as you can see,” he reasoned as he put his hand over the shoulder you had hit, frowning as if you had hit him so hard. You let out a frustrated huff just in time the other two boys came up to you, asking if Ten was okay. He nodded, reassuring everyone that he was, but even if he was, you lost the princess and you needed another plan.

Johnny started coming up with one yet again, and listening to all of the others’ feedbacks and assumptions, plan B was to wait until the ceremony would end, until the princess would take the necklace off and probably put it somewhere safe. Then, you would hypnotise or seduce the guards if there were any around the place she kept the jewelry in while the guys would get it. If it was something like Level 2’s mission, then you would all probably need to grab onto it to finally escape the game, hopefully not losing any more lives while doing so.

So you waited until Mark actually realized that there was sometimes a fast forward button in the some games, so he tried to use his Morse codes to send signals to this forsaken game, and somehow it worked. You still couldn’t wrap your head around the fact how and why Morse codes and how the heck all these added up, but fast forwarding the events helped to be closer to the time the princess retreated to her room. The four of you were following her in the shadows, sometimes fighting and hypnotising guards who noticed you but other than that, the plan worked because the princess went into a room with her necklace on and came out of it without the jewelry, so you knew where you had to look for it.

However, just like the time you needed to hypnosite the guards by the entrance, you weren’t so sure about this whole thing working this time as well, and you seemed to fail at first, so that’s when you turned to seducing; whispering sweet words into the guards’ ears and complimenting their muscled arms, words that you would never use on someone else, but they really did come from your character more than you, so you couldn’t really control what was going on, and until you could make them back away from the doors and let the boys have their way into the room, you could keep it up.

You didn’t know how long you would need to keep acting all sweet and sexy in front of the guards, and truth to tell, you were already ready to murder the guys in your head for making you do this, but they came just in time your patience would wear thin, and gripping the necklace that they were holding in their hands, you felt like you were swept off your feet and then darkness.

You fell onto the couch with a loud thud, half of your body falling off the furniture anyway and the other half following it because your coordination wasn’t on point from the very beginning. You felt dizzy, nauseous and actually very hungry. Your stomach grumbled loudly at the realization of it.

You snapped your head back at the other noises, counting quickly that all of the other three guys were thankfully with you again, all seemingly hurting from the landing but very much alive and in one piece. You let out a long sigh in relief, falling back to the carpet, resting your head on its material, trying to pacify the crazy beating of your heart.

“Oh my gosh, we did it! We actually won the game!” Mark hollered as he pushed himself off the ground into a cross-legged seat, putting his arms on the ground behind him.

“What happened in the last room?” you inquired as you tried to pick yourself up, but the ground was so stable and comfortable, you didn’t feel like moving an inch for the next minutes. Or hours.

“We’ve fought with some more guards, Johnny lost another life while being injured with a sword, and Mark also needed to solve another riddle to open up the box where the necklace was,” Ten summoned as he held a hand out to you, worry flashing across his orbs. You gave a pointed look in his direction, but his intentions seemed genuine, so you let him help yourself into a sitting position with your back to the couch, him being in the same position as you. He kept looking at you as if he was hoping for some kind of a reaction, but you just let out an amazed wow and looked away. You were still not ready to face reality and your feelings after what had happened in the game.

It was all crazy. One minute, you were here, worried about not getting Mark home on time and agreeing to play with the three guys, so that your little brother would actually get his ass home. Then in the next minute, you were sucked into this game, your life on the line. Never have you ever had such a bizarre experience before. The way the flashbacks flooded you actually made your head hurt.

“Guys, I think we were in the game for almost 7 hours!” Johnny noted as he walked around the living room, putting away the game consoles into a box as if they had been infected and pointing at the clock on the wall.

6:45

Your eyes immediately widened at the sight. This was not good. Definitely not good, but at least you didn’t spend whole days or weeks there.

“Oh god, we gotta go home now! Mom and dad are going to come home by 7,” you remembered suddenly, facepalming yourself as the realization hit you. Though your little brother also knew just how much of a lecturing you two could get if you weren’t found home, so he also bolted up, quickly saying goodbye to the guys and walking back to your house with you by his side, him clinging onto you like he had done so when he had been younger.

“What?”

“I’ve just realized that I really do love you, and I don’t want to see you lose your life like in the game,” he explained as you gave him a glance, but your features immediately softened hearing his words. You ruffled his hair as you let yourself into the house, and your parents actually found you two sleeping on the couch, Mark clinging to you like a baby koala because neither of you could make your way to your separate room, that’s how exhausted you were.

This was one hell of a game for sure, and you even dreamt about it in that one hour you had before your parents arrived and woke you up, chattering about their wellness weekend, you two not even really listening.

Needless to say, you were like a zombie at uni that day, and you needed a couple more days to recharge your batteries and actually face Johnny and Ten when they wanted to see you two for a chill, casual chat about your shared experience.

You decided to meet at a smoothie and shake bar in the neighbourhood that was famous for its overly sweet treats yet cheap deals, so you knew the place because you had also been there with friends before and you knew it was Mark’s favourite place around.

However, when you arrived at the bar and looked around, no familiar face was in sight, so you decided to take a seat at an unoccupied table nearby the entrance door, hoping that whoever would arrive first would notice you immediately. You knew Mark had an after-school class until 5pm and you guessed that Ten and Johnny had uni classes that day, so 6pm seemed like a reasonable time to meet, but seemingly no one ran too early as you were there 15 minutes before the agreed time and no one was around. 5 minutes before and still no one. Since Mark was known for running late, you didn’t even attempt writing him a message, asking where he was.

When the clock hit 6, you looked up from scrolling your phone just in time to catch Ten’s slightly panting self by the door, his lips breaking into a smile when his eyes landed on you. You reciprocated his smile, only to have a shiver run down your spine, unable to believe that you just smiled genuinely at the boy who had said that you have the perfect butt for twerking.

“I’ve thought I would be the last one to arrive,” Ten admitted with a joyous giggle as he took the seat opposite of you. His smile was just as radiant as always, but at least he was wearing something decent now, a beige turtleneck hiding under his black leather jacket, the warm clothing due to the chilly and unpredictable February weather.

“It seems to me that you aren’t the last one,” you pointed out with a small smile. Gosh, why were you smiling at him again? He wasn’t even working his smouldering techniques on you, he was just… being himself.

The boy went on about asking how your day was and so you told him about your classes and a few bits and bobs, him enthusiastically asking questions about your uni major and little nothings, and it was so weird actually talking to him - you hadn’t even realized before just how odd it was because you had never actually needed to hold a proper conversation with him. It had always been about seeing each other at the dance academy or at competitions or scarcely with Mark and Johnny, you hadn’t even talked to him while you had been in the same year at school. It was unfamiliar, yet it felt like talking to an old friend - the way it went so smoothly and casually.

Then, you asked him about his day and he started talking about the most random things and actually unbelievable things that had happened to him, it was just crazy what could happen to a person under just one day. You were listening to him attentively, finding yourself smiling and laughing at what he was saying because he was just too genuine and too enthusiastic to listen to with a stoic expression.

When he got to the end of his stories, there was an awkward silence that fell upon the two of you, and you were now ready to message your little brother about his whereabouts, but Ten spoke up before you could reach for your phone.

“Look, I’m sorry if my remark from the past has affected you in a bad way. Mark has told me that it’s because of my twerking comment that you don’t necessarily feel comfortable around me, and I just want you to know that while what I said was my opinion and I still think that it’s true, I didn’t mean to hurt you with it or anything like that. I also don’t think that you are just your body, of course not. You are smart, precise, caring and you give your all to whatever you are doing, so really, I hope you don’t think that I’m a pervert,” he confessed without stopping and kept his eyes on you, waiting for your reaction without any hint of a smile.

That’s how you knew that he was being genuine, and what he was saying was definitely the truth in his eyes; he didn’t try to flash a smile or wriggle his eyebrows, he seemed completely and utterly genuine. Which was weird because you had never even seen him like this before, he was more or less carefree during the game as well, thus his confession took you aback to say the least, but in the best possible way.

“Okay, I believe you.” You nodded to his words, trying with a friendly smile that he reciprocated almost immediately, his shoulders slumping. Maybe he was actually afraid of your reaction, you thought as you saw his lips curling upwards and shoulders being less tense. “Just don’t smirk at me like that, and we’ll be okay.”

“Like this?” He couldn’t let this opportunity slip away and directed a wide smirk at you, making you roll your eyes at him, convincing him to stop while he was doing anything but stopping because he knew the effect he had on you.