GAME RULES ━ ATEEZ

04.

It was nearing midnight. Mingi couldn't sleep.

He had tossed and turned in his second-floor bedroom in the East wing, waiting for sleep to claim him, but every time he nearly drifted off, images of Yunho invaded his mind. What Yunho must have looked like when he got dragged under. What Yunho was feeling in the few seconds it took for everything to change. What Mingi would have done, had he been there.

Eventually, he gave up and turned on the light, grabbing Yunho's book from his bedside table. He flipped through the copy of Alice in Wonderland, wondering if Yunho had fallen down a rabbit hole and instead was somewhere else. Somewhere else, some other world. Not dead, just far away.

Mingi stood up. He couldn't be in this room anymore.

He stuck his head through the doorway, looking both ways to see if anyone else was awake. The lights were on in both rooms next to his, but the doors were shut tightly. Mingi doubted anyone would want to talk right now.

He walked down the hallway and came to the large, golden-rimmed mirror next to the study door.

He heard socked feet padding against the hallway. He looked in both directions, but he was alone.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

No one responded. The walking got louder.

Who's making that sound?

He looked down. His feet were moving. He didn't remember moving them.

Suddenly, he was five feet away from the mirror, further down the hallway, toward San's room.

I must be going crazy. Mingi walked back, holding onto the marble table in front of the mirror. He stared at his swollen, tear-trekked reflection—but something in the background distracted him. He could make out the shape of a figure materializing on the other side of the hallway.

"Who's there?"

"Mingi."

"Seonghwa? What are you doing up here?" Mingi took a few steps forward. "I thought you were downstairs."

Suddenly, socks were padding against the hallway again, and Seonghwa was in front of him. Mingi turned. He was away from the mirror—he never remembered moving.

"Mingi. Walk with me." Mingi was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Seonghwa grab his palm. "Walk with me."

"Why are you talking so weird?" Mingi yanked his hand away. "I'm walking, but you don't need to grab me so hard. Calm down."

"Okay. Walk with me."

Seonghwa started down the hallway. He wasn't holding Mingi's hand anymore, but he might as well have been—Mingi felt a compulsion to follow; an invisible string tying Mingi's sternum to Seonghwa's spine.

"I can't believe Yunho is gone."

"Maybe he's not."

Mingi frowned. "How can you say that? We spent all of today screaming his name inside that dumb jacuzzi room. Those stupid creature things took him away."

Seonghwa spun suddenly. Mingi couldn't make out his face, but he could feel his intent gaze. He shrunk away.

Seonghwa turned back and continued to walk. "Right. The creature things."

Mingi stayed silent. His palms were beginning to sweat, and his feet were slowing. His limbs were heavy as lead.

There was a fog settling into his brain, muddled and gloomy, a state of stupor. Steps were getting harder and harder to take. Mingi stumbled forward, bumping into the wall.

"I'm getting tired. Let's go back now."

Seonghwa turned sharply. His hand curled around Mingi's wrist.

"We've been walking for a while, Seonghwa. I didn't know the hallway was this long."

Seonghwa said nothing. Mingi frowned, looking forward, then backward—there were no doorways in sight. There was just the hallway and its skinny red carpet, going on forever in both directions.

"Rule #15, Mingi."

Rule #15. Rule #15. 

What was Rule #15 again?

Mingi's slow eyes darted to the gold watch Seonghwa always wore. 12:59. One more minute. Mingi would be safe. He waited for the second hand to come full circle, but right before it passed the 12, it clicked to a stop.

Mingi heard a shout downstairs. It sounded like Seonghwa's voice.

"Seonghwa?"

But Seonghwa was right in front of him.

"You want to go back, Mingi?" The hand around his wrist tightened. Mingi couldn't make out Seonghwa's features in the barely-lit hallway. It sounded like he was smirking.

"You can try."