The Ranch

Fairytale Maze (2)

The group disperses after breakfast to do their own thing. As the sky turns dark, Tih returns to his dorm to see Kai sitting on his bed, staring at the wall with an unusual expression.

Hearing the door open, Kai forces his expression to return to normal, almost accomplishing it," ...You came back pretty early today." Kai takes a while to find something to say, unlike usual. It's also unusual that he stopped after only one sentence.

Tih doesn't really understand, but he knows this quiet Kai is something new. He goes over to inspect it.

Piercing blue eyes stare into Kai's soul as he plops right beside him, shoulders touching. Thinking Tih's worried about him, Kai says he's fine while sliding some distance between them," Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I just..." He whispers the next part to himself," didn't expect him to realize."

A small smirk appears on Kai's face as he offers a short chuckle," Guess I did underestimate him a tiny bit."

Recalling their argument, a frown surfaces. Kai turns to Tih," Hey, Tih...do you like the five aces?"

Tih hears a name he's heard before but didn't put much importance on. He tries to remember who "five aces" is.

Kai looks at Tih with amusement, unconsciously relaxing. He proceeds to describe all five of them.

After knowing who Kai is talking about, he recalls the time he spent with them and nods. Those memories were interesting.

"Do you...trust them?" Kai asks hesitantly.

Tih wants to answers Kai's question, but "trusting someone"? He doesn't understand the context of that situation.

"Trusting is..." Kai wants to explain it, but realizes he doesn't know how with his own experience. He then refers to the dictionary," Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something."

That explanation doesn't help Tih, but Kai can't do anything more, so he asks another question. "Who do you like more, me or them?" Kai is slightly afraid of the answers.

Tih sorts through his memories. There are a lot of different personalities between the five, one of them even gives him food, but for some reason, Tih finds the lone Kai to be more interesting. He stares at Kai.

Kai kind of understands, but needs firm confirmation," Me?" He points to himself.

Tih nods and a weird feeling of relief washes through Kai. He laughs like a happy child, pouncing on Tih. He gives the child a fierce hug full of emotion, pulling him to lay down on the bed. He spoons Tih and he giggles with a giddiness he himself doesn't quite understand.

He thinks to himself," Yes, it's fine just the way it is. No need for more people to compete with Tih's time for." He falls asleep with firm resolution.

Tih blinks a couple times. He adjusts his posture before closing his eyes and having a dreamless sleep.

Kai wake up to the morning sun. Kai yawns, feeling around to try to figure out what he's holding. Realization dawns on him as he remembers his conversation with Tih last night. Kai reflexively pulls back, falling off his bed with a thud.

The sound awakens the sleeping Tih. He leans off the side of the bed with no particular expression and looks at the slightly embarrassed Kai. Tih glances at the window that's muffling many voices outside. Tih gets off the bed to get ready for the day.

As Tih brushes his teeth and gets dressed, Kai feels the need to get some fresh air. He slides the window open and is met with a bustling crowd.

Many people are up earlier than usual and seem quite energetic at that. Kai listens on to some of their discussions.

"There's no limit to what we can bring, so we should go to the market to grab supplies."

"What supplies, we don't even know what's going to be inside? We shouldn't burden ourselves with a heavy load."

"He's right. If they really rented the entire colosseum, we'll be covering quite a bit of distance."

*murmurs* *footsteps*

"You do you think set it up? There's not many people that can afford such an expense."

"Who knows. What I'm wondering is their goal? Are they planning to turn a profit?"

"If that's their goal, they'll probably succeed. It's already been spread to the entire island, and with the cheap entrance fee, everyone will want to participate."

"I heard even instructors and the headquarters are joining."

"What? I thought headquarters doesn't participate in games?"

"Ehh, I wouldn't blame them for interfering and secretly join when Turbo Wings is on the line.

"Wait what?!? I thought those were a myth!"

"Yeah yeah, have you heard the legend of how they were brought into existence? The collaboration of a silver-ranked cobbler, gold-ranked engineer Instructor Neum, AND gold-star blacksmith, Instructor Verno!"

"I heard the invention itself can make one move as fast as light! You don't even need to lift your feet, you lean in the direction you want to go in!"

"Incredible! No wonder so many people are interested!"

*chatter*

"It won't be easy to find the prize. According to the rules, they're will be a lot of puzzles and trick clues."

"Don't overthink so much. How hard can it be when they took less than a day to set it up. I mean, it only appeared a couple hours ago, right? How sturdy could it be when it's set up so hastily."

"Don't jump to conclusions. The entire game seems well thought out. Think about it. They're giving us detailed rules and 72 hours to search, meaning whoever designed it expects us to need those three days."

"And it's opening at a certain time. Isn't that to create a lot of chaos and waste time in the beginning?"

"By the way, when is it going to open?"

"Uhh, we should have a couple hours to prepare."

"We better hurry."

Kai gets the jist of the situation. He leaves with Tih and plans to talk about it in detail with the other two during breakfast.