𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟏

"i don't give a shit about the crystal chandeliers, platinum doorknobs and if the train flies or not! i just want to be home." jihyun yelled at hana after she had shown her the inside of the train while ranting about everything she found exciting.

but jihyun didn't find anything exciting. there was not even an ounce of thrill in her body. the only time she felt excited was when she'd sneak around at night, stealing, or when she'd climb up the mountains. that's when she felt the adrenaline rush.

"look, dear, this will be your home for less than a day and then the capitol will be leading up to the hunger games. then when you win, you can go back to your district." hana shrugged, tracing her fingernail on a teacup. after her words left her mouth, she jolted in her seat, eyes wide. she hadn't even realised what she had said till it was too late. it had reached jihyun's ears.

"i'm sorry, what?" jihyun nearly yelled as she took a threatening step forward. "you think i'm going to win? does it look like—"

"alright, alright! that's enough! let's get you some food." doyoung clapped his hands, the sound ringing in her ears. he pushed her towards the table of food and drinks and bent to meet her height. "you need to calm down, okay? when we get to the capitol, you're going to have to learn to control your anger. you want the audience on your side, not against you. do you understand?"

"i understand." jihyun mumbled, feeling slightly guilty that she was being stubborn and making her cousin's job ten times harder.

"doyoung, i'll leave you to speak to our champions then." hana said. she left out the door and into the next compartment, the door clicking shut behind her.

"champions? you mean guinea pigs." jihyun whispered.

"i'm not going to start mentoring you two today. i think it's been a very long day. i want you to eat, drink, and sleep. then tomorrow, in the morning, we'll begin before we arrive at the capitol." doyoung told them as he handed jihyun a plate of pastries and an unfamiliar maroon liquid in a glass.

jihyun bit into one of the pastries and then stormed out of the compartment, not admiring the sweet aroma or, contrasting spicy taste. she passed the boy tribute, wren, who she hadn't spoken a word to. she didn't need to.

she entered the compartment that was going to be her room for the night and flopped down onto the bed, flakes of pastry falling onto it. doyoung followed her into the room, taking a seat on the corner of the bed watching as she aggressively brushed the mattress to rid of the crumbs.

"word of advice, try to talk to wren. what i learned from my hunger games was that making alliances is important. you can't survive alone out there." he said.

"i'll be better off on my own than having someone to drag me down. thank you very much." jihyun grumbled.

"stop with the tough girl act. you were literally sobbing an hour ago. it's fine to be weak. you're scared — heck, even i'm scared! but i'm going to do my best to help you." he reassured her, placing a hand on top of her head. "so is there anything you want to know right now?"

she needed to know everything she could find out about the other tributes before meeting them. doyoung and hana had gotten the list of names and doyoung was quick enough to gather information.

"i know you have information on other tributes. tell me."

"of course you know i always come prepared in advance." he smirked, pulling out a notepad from his pocket. "i can tell you their names and a bit about them, but i don't know much such as how they look and all their abilities, but that—"

"—i will be able to figure out myself. i'm good at that." she finished his sentence, smiling.

"exactly. let's begin, shall we?" he flipped the notepad open to the first page. "starting with district twelve..."