Approximately twenty minutes ago...

"I already have a plan to guarantee our win." Shownu said.

"Really?" Jooheon widened his eyes, revealing his round, chocolate-brown orbs.

"When Hyungwon recruited me, he dropped one of his business cards on the floor- wait a minute," Shownu fished his wallet out and took out a professional-looking card with tiny words on it.

Chae Hyungwon

Lawyer

Seoul Headquarters

2-11, Yongsandong 5(o)-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Tel +82 032-5064-1202

Mobile +82 037-7082-5016

Email chaeturtle@shqlawfirm.com.kr

A/N: all of the above are fake, and the address probably doesn't make sense

Whilst Jooheon was examining the card, Shownu continued, "so now we have his full name. As for his friend with the red hair, I have no idea whatsoever."

"How about Minhyuk?"

"I would never ever forget him." Shownu sighed, but in a happy way. "When I was on duty one day, he came running into the station in such a panic that he slammed into the glass doors, passing out as well. A few police officers had to help him with first aid, and after he woke up we asked him whether he had a case to file, but he forgot why he came in the first place."

Jooheon giggled a little at Shownu's story as he watched Minhyuk back hug I.M. in the distance.

"Anyways, there were still documents to fill in, so we got his full name, Lee Minhyuk. Now each of us will have 3 points, and this pretty much guarantees our win if we keep our names a secret."

I.M. and Minhyuk were now bickering, and Jooheon could not help but find the maknae's face familiar.

He squinted his eyes and strained to recall where he saw that face before.

"OH!" Once his memory caught up with him, Jooheon jumped up from the couch and exclaimed.

"Jesus, what was that for?" Even Shownu got scared, and he tried to ignore the eyes pointing at their direction.

"Sorry, hyung. I suddenly remembered where I saw I.M. before."

"You know him?"

"Yes! Actually, not really... we just study in the same university, and I saw him a few times." Jooheon laughed nervously. "Somehow I know his name, it's Im Changkyun."

"Hmmm that's nice. Now we are sure to win." Shownu had his police notebook out, but he was clever enough to cover the logo so his identity remains a secret to the others. He was also clever enough to notice the slight blush on Jooheon's face at the mention of Changkyun.

"So... what do we do now?" Jooheon asked after Shownu finished writing down notes.

"We wait."

-

The Present...

"Congratulations to the winner- oops, I meant winners... Shownu and Jooheon! They are only one point away from gaining full marks!"

Everyone, no doubt, was a little disappointed at losing, but something that bothered Hyungwon more was how they managed to know all their names.

They stuck with each other the whole time, and we don't use full names to address each other... how did they figure out my surname?

"Now, before we move on to the next game, there are some... matters for me to attend to, so, please take a break, and check out the current points." Smiley announced, (with a smile), and switched the screens off.

"I hope the next game will be more fun than this." Minhyuk was the only one who spoke, and he was, as always, overly excited. However, almost everyone was staring at their phones at the updated scores, too busy to even glance at Minhyuk.

Hyungwon - 1+0+2+0=3

Jooheon - 1+1+6+0=8

Shownu - 1+1+6+0=8

Wonho - 1+0+2+0=3

Minhyuk - 0+0+2+1=3

I.M. - 0+0+2+1=3

-

Shownu stood, speechless.

He stared at the screen, speechless.

Was astonished a good enough word? Bewildered, maybe? Perhaps overwhelmed would be better. Astounded, stunned, dumbfounded... there were a lot of words that could describe his feelings.

There are 171,476 words in the English dictionary, so he'd thought at least one of them would be suitable. But sometimes one's thoughts are far from the truth, especially from the moment Hyungwon went up to him one Saturday afternoon.

Everything changed since then.

So now words meant nothing to him.

Nothing could possibly explain this situation, describe this feeling.

It was as if someone asked you to rate the other out of 10, and you wanted to say 11, or even 100. It wasn't possible, and it wouldn't have made sense. 10 was the given range, and 100 is clearly above that limit. The number 100 is incomprehensible.

So, to put it short, nothing made sense. It was out of his comprehension.

He didn't know what he felt.

And that was exactly how Shownu felt.

Next to him, Jooheon was more scared and nervous than surprised.

Farther to the right, Hyungwon was staring, frozen just like Shownu was, but his level of surprise was nowhere near Shownu's. Wonho was next to him, hand on the taller's shoulder, caressing gently in an attempt to calm his nerves.

Somewhere else in the room, Minhyuk and Changkyun were already discussing, Minhyuk blabbering everything that came to his mind, and the younger one trying desperately to calm his friend down.

There were gasps, mumbling, and strings of curse words. But Shownu heard nothing.

It was almost as if he was drunk, on wine or on drugs, surroundings blurred like the background when you use portrait mode on an iPhone camera. Only the background is moving now, swirling like someone is mixing it with a spoon, when in fact it was as simple as people moving in the background. All sounds were disregarded, brain unable to process and being discarded as meaningless mumbles, mistaken as useless background noises.

Nothing made sense to him. His brain wasn't able to filter anything into things that made sense.

Nothing, but that one word.

"...K-Kihyun?" Shownu almost jumped.

"Did he say his name was Kihyun? I forgot."

And that was enough to send the world spinning. Nothing made sense. Shownu felt like he was going to fall if he didn't grab onto something at that moment. So that was exactly what he did.

He grabbed the thing nearest to him, which happened to be Jooheon's arm. This time, Jooheon jumped. He even let out a surprised shriek.

"Shownu-hyung? Are you ok? Don't scare me like that!" Jooheon took Shownu's hand and gently loosened its grasp, while raising his other hand and settling it on Shownu's shoulder.

Yea I'm ok. Was what Shownu wanted to say, but nothing came out of his mouth.

Jooheon saw Shownu's opened mouth and sighed, "You looked...lost back there. Like your brain shut down, and you can't control legs, and that's why you're swaying, like you're about to fall..." Jooheon trailed off, aware that he was just making things scarier for both Shownu and himself. He cleared his thoughts and said instead, "Are you sure you're ok?"

Yea I'm ok, just...shocked about this sudden...event. His brain pitied him and gave Shownu his voice back so he was able to voice out his answer.

Jooheon nodded slowly after hearing the answer, looking at Shownu with worried eyes. He wasn't convinced, and Shownu saw that, so he added, "Really, I'm fine. Don't worry about it. You looked pretty shocked too, so it's only right if I reacted like a normal human."

"Ok...but, I mean, you were all calm and unfazed back then. With the note in the water bottle I mean. You seemed like you knew what to do, but now, now you're surprised? You looked like you have no idea what to do next, and even now your face tell me something's wrong. Like you're lost and worried." Jooheon sighed again. "I mean, are you even listening?" He raised his hand and waved it in front of Shownu's face, trying to bring those eyes back into focus.

Shownu grabbed Joohoen's hand and removed it from his view to show that he was indeed listening.

"Yes, his name is Kihyun." Jooheon blinked twice, not expecting a sudden change in topic.

"Wait, so you actually listened to the announcement? But you were...you looked like your mind was in Mars or something!"

"Yes I did, and you were shocked too, so how would you know if my mind wandered off?" Shownu blurted out before he could stop himself.

No, you didn't listen to a word Shownu. You zoned out the moment you saw him. You know his name because you knew him. Personally.

Jooheon stayed silent, knowing Shownu had a point.

It was obvious that both of them tried to avoid looking at the screen, heads turned slightly and eyes darting around looking for something else, something less scary, to settle on. After a while Shownu gave up and closed his eyes, convincing himself that nothing was real as long as he couldn't see it.

However, this method clearly didn't work well, because Shownu knew clearly, that what happened, has already happened, and nothing could change it.

Also, he had forgotten about his ears. He couldn't close his ears. And it didn't help that the speakers were turned on again.

"So! Have you guys decided yet?" Every time Smiley started talking, everyone else went silent immediately, and it was no different this time. It was like an unspoken rule. Or maybe that was just how it was.

"No? Not yet? Hmmm....Shownu? What do you think? Give us some feedback."

Those words hit Shownu like rocks. And not just ordinary rocks, either. They were red hot, burning boulders that came flying towards him, lighting him on fire and igniting the anger in him. He felt eyes staring, but he didn't care. He stared back harder.

Jooheon caught his ice-cold stare and returned it with a worried look. Shownu softened up a bit in front of the young kid, but the hate for Smiley didn't go away. Once it started, it stays.

He knew he didn't need to, that he could just ignore it like he ignored people's stares, but Shownu wanted answers. You should've listened instead of staring into nothingness. It was too late to hate himself anyways, so Shownu thought of a reply. Through gritted teeth he forced out, "Who's that person on the screen?"

Kihyun. Yoo Kihyun.

"Have you forgotten already?" Smiley laughed. It sounded like hyenas laughing, which wasn't a pleasant sound. "Fine, I will tell you again. I realised we would need more contestants for the upcoming games, so I found one myself while you were busy with the previous games. And then I thought it wouldn't be fair if I just added him without your permission, so now I'm giving you the choice whether to invite him or not. See, I'm even letting you see what he looks like, so you can choose better."

Are you kidding? Dragging him into this bullshit? No thank you.

Shownu was about to protest, but someone was faster.

"You don't have to think anymore Shownu, let me answer for you. No, we're not going to invite this person. One more contestant means one more competitor, which means one more person to go against, which means less chance of winning. So no thank you!" Shownu turned around. Of course it was Minhyuk. Somehow he managed to process everything and think of something to say when everyone else was still drowning in the new information.

Shownu relaxed a bit, glad that someone else agreed with him. He was going to add a vote to "no" when someone else spoke. Why is he always one second slower than everyone?

"Are you sure?" The voice came from the speakers. "You know, I spent a long time looking for the suitable contestant, and I would be fairly disappointed if you denied just like that."

Now Shownu really wanted to punch something. If Smiley had spent so much time looking for a contestant and had already decided that he wanted him in, why would he even let them choose?

Apparently Hyungwon shared his thoughts, and voiced it out. "What? Why would you let us choose then, if you've already decided? Also, are you spying on this person? Why the fuck do you have this live footage of him cooking in his home? Do you have hidden cameras?"

Hyungwon's voice had gotten increasingly louder with each question, but something tells Shownu he was just trying to drown away his fear with fake anger and noise.

As if the noise did make an impact, the screen flickered and it went static for a moment, before flickering back on again. The screen showed a male in his early adulthood, sitting down and eating. But Shownu never knew what he had cooked for his dinner because his eyes were forced to look away. He had to, or else he would've lost it.

Hyungwon was still huffing with his superficial anger, probably trying to convince himself that he was mad.

The room was quiet and for a moment all you could hear was the uneven breathing off the six contestants, most of them looking at their feet, confused, anxious, nonplussed.

Only Minhyuk seemed okay, even a bit annoyed. Before Changkyun —the only person that could stop him from saying something hurtful and insulting — could say anything, Minhyuk broke the silence.

"Jeez it's obvious that the Smiley guy won't answer our stupid questions. Let's just decide already! Who cares if he gets disappointed if we deny his stupid offer? I just want to win this game and win something."

Wonho was the first to defend. "You can't say that! Do you even know what he did to Hyungwon? You weren't even here from the beginning for gods sake. Stop bullshitting if you don't don't know anything!" As insignificant as it sounds, the first thing that came into Shownu's mind was that Wonho was defending for Hyungwon and not himself.

Hyungwon shot Wonho a quick smile, so short-lasting that only Wonho caught it. Shownu didn't see whether Wonho returned it. But at the back of his mind he knew Wonho did.

Jooheon decided to speak up too, having gained confidence from the first rebuttal.

"Wonho-hyung's right. You know nothing. You have no right to say that when you know nothing. In fact, you have no right to say anything. And you are telling me you just want to win this game?! Have you realised, maybe even the slightest bit, that we are practically kidnapped and forced to play weird games?" Shownu was surprised that Jooheon, no more than a young adult, can sound so contemptuous.

And since even the youngest one here, excluding Changkyun who was technically on Minhyuk's side, was opposing, Shownu decided to add on to it.

"Minhyuk," Shownu said, trying to sound affable. "Hyungwon could've died. Honestly, we could've all died. Smiley is crazy as far as I know. No normal person would do this. And while inviting another person to join this game would be putting another man's life on risk, I'm pretty sure everyone here agrees that it would be even more dangerous to leave that person alone with a disappointed, even angry, Smiley. Am I right?"

Shownu let out a sigh of relief, silently to himself, that he didn't accidentally reveal Kihyun's name. That would've been no good.

Well you must be glad you're a police officer that knows how to deal with situations more or less like this one.

And sure, Shownu was glad, glad that he didn't expose his secret, but he wasn't sure if his career mattered anymore. Would Minhyuk listen if he revealed his occupation? Probably not.

Changkyun looked like a lost puppy next to Minhyuk, being stared at by five other people who probably presumed he shared Minhyuk's intentions. And all he did was stand next to his friend.

"U-um...sorry everyone, I'm sure Minhyuk-hyung didn't want to say it that way. He's just a bit frustrated and impulsive...sorry." Shownu felt sorry for him, seeing how he gave a bow of apology for something he didn't do.

Minhyuk refused to give in, and tried to looked indifferent about his friend apologising for him. Minhyuk crossed his arms and asserted.

"Fine, you got a point. I wasn't here and apparently something bad happened. But how do I know you're not just lying? You could be teaming up and making up a story for all I know. Even if it's true, you can't guarantee that person is in danger like Hyungwon was. How can you know for sure that Smiley would do something bad again this time?"

Shownu almost forgot about the possible dangers coming for Kihyun, his mind having clouded by his annoyance towards Minhyuk.

As if mind-reading was an actual thing, Smiley chose this exact moment to give a reminder. Not a good one either.

"I can answer your question this time! You think it's stupid, but this one isn't." Smiley let out a mirthless laugh, which sounded deep and hoarse through the speakers. "You're right, you can't guarantee if I'd do something 'bad' again. But I can. And this time I'm going to be completely honest. I will get really disappointed if you don't accept my offer. And when I get disappointed, I need something to vent my anger on."

Shownu felt a sudden lump in his throat. It choked him and he wanted to vomit it out.

"Since you will be playing the next game, I guess I can't just shout at you and complain. No, because that would disturb your game wouldn't it? Look at the screen," Smiley waited for everyone to do as they were told, but Shownu didn't look. He couldn't bring himself to.

But it didn't matter, because his ears were available.

"Oh look, he's resting on the couch, watching TV. I guess he's free then. I wouldn't be interrupting him. I can complain to him while you guys play."

Something exploded in his chest, which released a string of curse words and a bunch of other insults. Shownu was sure that he would've revealed everything there and then, if those words hadn't got stuck in his throat.

So instead he coughed violently, getting rid of his thoughts in the form of spit and germs.

"Hyung! Are you ok?" Shownu Jooheon's hand on his back, patting it lightly.

Of course he wasn't ok.

Kihyun's in danger, he knew it from the beginning, the moment his face appeared on the screen. He wanted to say something. He needed to.

All Shownu managed was a small nod and a forced smile.

Jooheon wasn't convinced, but he needed to keep asking, anxiety forcing him to forget about his friend's well being, even if it's only for a short while.

"H-hyung...does that mean that person is in d-danger?" Jooheon gulped so loud Shownu heard it. "Smiley's gonna do something, isn't he?" Jooheon had asked him with a lowered voice, trusting only him.

And Shownu answered, but not only to Jooheon.

"Is this enough evidence? Do you believe us now? Do you finally get what's going on?" Shownu tried to sound calm and steady, he didn't like hating someone, and he definitely didn't want someone to hate himself. And sounding angry and impetuous would just make him sound suspicious. He couldn't let anyone find out.

"Answer me, Minhyuk." At this point Shownu had to grit his teeth to swallow his anger.

Maybe Shownu wasn't careful enough, or maybe Minhyuk was bright. He didn't know, but the worse had happened. So it doesn't matter which one was right.

"Wait a second...are you scared?" Minhyuk tilted his head as if he was confused. His arms were uncrossed and fell down on his sides. He walked closer and tried to look like he's worried, but Shownu saw it in his eyes. Minhyuk was teasing him.

"Why are you scared? That person in the screen, he's just a stranger, who cares if he gets shouted at? Unless... he isn't a stranger." Minhyuk smirked, a perfect match with his degrading tone.

Shownu