Follow me || Red Velvet & Seulrene

Chapter 75

„NOW JUMP!", Seulgi yelled, her hands getting more and more sweaty while grabbing the edge of the pool. She had to bear all her weight plus Mina's who was hanging down from her.

„These are three meters!", Mina shouted back. Seulgi felt her hands giving up. She was maybe muscular, but couldn't hold hers and Mina's weight for more than a minute. Besides, the wet edge of the pool wasn't the best grip one could get.

„IF YOU WON'T JUMP, WE WILL FALL SIX METERS!", Seulgi again screamed, clenching her theeth now. Mina looked up at her, now even she had a worried expression on her face.

„Please Mina!", Irene begged from above, lying on the ground. She had her hands wrapped around Seulgi's arms to support her. But still, Seulgi could feel how her strenght disappeared. She couldn't endure this longer than a minute.

„Please!", Irene pleaded another time, now tears showing up in the corner of her eyes. Seulgi squinted her eyes. Right in the moments she thought she couldn't hold the grip anymore, the weight on her feet disappeared. Half a second later she could hear the loud noise of Mina hitting the ground. A painful groan followed.

Irene helped her out of the pool. Seulgi spread her body on the ground, her limbs feeling numb. A breath later, Irene appeared above her, the concern all over her face. „You did great,  baby." With that, she disappeared again out of Seulgi's eyesight.

„Are you okay?", her voice echoed in the room. Another groan filled the air. Seulgi couldn't hear another answer from Mina, giving her the slight assumption that the girl really was injured. She lifted her upper body and crawled to the edge of the pool, still not feeling any life in her arms.

Mina stood at the ground, caressing her head. So she wasn't unconscious...

„Press that button!", Irene yelled.

Mina looked at her in confusion. Then her eyes widened in realization. She quickly approached the red button and pressed it. A silent mechanic noise appeared in the air. But nothing else happened.

Two seconds.

Four.

Six.

„THEY HAVE DIED!", Irene hysterically screamed after a few more seconds. Then, the tears came. Seulgi stared at the emblem at the tiles, couldn't really proceed what just happened. They couldn't stop the mechanism. They couldn't prevent that Chae, Jihyo and Jisoo had drown next to them.

Irene started to freak out next to her. She cupped her cheeks and turned red, her tears falling uncontrolled like her sobs did. Like in trance, she took her into her arms. This complex really killed people. There was no mercy left in Arnold Priston's heart.

Now the tears came too, ranning down her face. She still hadn't realised it.

„Calm down guys, the water-level is already rising again..."

Seulgi opened her eyes. For a moment, she stared at Irene's eyes, being as confused as her. „I'll swim to you", Mina's voice appeared again. Within a second, both jumped to the egde, seeing it with their own eyes. The water was rising. And that meant: It was sinking in the other room.

Irene attacked Seulgi with a tight hug. She patted the elder's bag, feeling the relief that spread in their bodies. "We succeeded!", she whispered into Seulgi's ear. Seulgi just nodded.

They got up and walked to the door, waiting for the pool to fill again. As Mina could climb out too, they all grabbed the steel wheel and pulled, this time, the resistance was gone. Seulgi sighed in relief and opened the door.

As they stumbled out of the room, the parallel door opened too. It was like a heavy weight got lifted from her heart.

Chae broke out and fell to her knees. Seulgi immediately kneeled down and was about to hug her, but the girl just coughed out:

"Help- help Jisoo."

Seulgi left her behind, telling Mina to care for her. She bursted into the room. Three meters in front of her, Jihyo was sitting, her back turned to them. In front of her was Jisoo, lying on the ground.

"Oh fuck!", Irene yelled and walked to her sister. Now Seulgi could see the blisters and swollen skin Irene informed them about if Jisoo got in contact with water. She covered her mouth with both hands.

"Ugh... I hate this Arnold Priston", Jisoo groaned, squinting her eyes. A light chuckle escaped Irene. 

"And you dumbass had to reenter it." A light smile appeared on Jisoo's lips as she saw her sister, leaning over her face. 

"I'm sorry Johyunnie."

Irene rolled her eyes, obviously because of her birth name. Seulgi stood up and helped Jihyo to get up, then they both grabbed Jisoo's arms. She clenched her theeth. 

"You should be grateful that we had Mina who got the idea with the pump", Seulgi mentioned.

"Chae thought about exactly the same", Jihyo stated.

"Maybe they have a brain connection or something?", Jisoo coughed and took another heavy step forward. Jihyo and Seulgi were supporting her. 

"And Mina got 99 percent of that intelligence? That's actually pretty-", Jihyo didn't finish her sentence and just giggled.

They left the two parallel doors, entering another path that got opened after they had finished this 'task'. Jisoo's state rapidly improved, but she was still struggling to walk by her own. "We won't cancel this trip now!", she told them about a million times.

Chae was oddly silent after the incident. She seemed to be in her own thoughts. Jihyo was already lively as always.

"Are you... alright?", Seulgi could hear Mina whisper from behind. 

"Just thinking. I'll tell you later", was Chae's reply. Seulgi shrugged it off. Maybe the girl needed her time to proceed all the events. Even Seulgi was quieter than usual.

"Why does this complex want to kill all the people?", Irene almost sweared and threw her hands in the air. 

"Because Arnoldie was a psycho?", Jihyo blurted out.

"Partly. But he was a friend of teaching. I don't think that torturing students is a way of teaching..."

"He might have been frustrated", Jihyo suggested.

"Couldn't it just be a defender mechanism for unwanted guests?", Seulgi spoke out, out of nowhere.

"What do you mean?" Mina joined the speculations.

"He is hiding all his precious teaching studies plus the money under the school. And you have to get through the complex to get them. So maybe he just built this mechanism so he can defend his treasures."

"Could be. At least we found out that Arnold Priston is convinced of his students' abilities concerning chess", Mina said.

"He believed that his students are well taught and could easily pass these tests, but his 'enemies' would fail and die...?" Irene questioned.

"We don't know."