𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗨𝗖𝗞↷엔하이픈 (en-)

𝘅𝘅𝗶𝗶 : 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿

'hyung, his message was not sent' Sunoo said.

'and we found his phone on the ground.'

'so that means, he's still in the house ?'

'he said he knows the meaning behind the phrase, so he must have found something.'

"The hybrid is the cause of it all,
Stay away and you're safe
Be here and you suffer
The device will have the key
To the Cupid's door."

'let's take a line at a time.' Heeseung suggested and sat down while the other boys followed him.

The hybrid is the cause of it all,

'so, it says there's this hybrid who is the reason why we got stuck here in the first place.' Sunghoon scratched his head.

Stay away and you're safe

'and only if we manage to stay away from this person, we'll be away from the mess.' Jungwon said.

'so, doesn't it mean that we need to stay away and not meddle with this house ?' Jake questioned.

'that's basically an indirect warning then ?'

'most probably yes, but let's proceed.' Heeseung read the next line.

Be here and you suffer

'the longer we stay in this place, the more the trouble arises.'

'so that explains why we got injured in this place as well ?' Jake questioned.

'yes it does and it makes me more pissed off.'

'never did I ever think an injury would become that bad' Jay's voice trembled as he pointed at Sunoo's leg which was bleeding (tho it had been wrapped with some medicine) and Heeseung, who was still having a blurry eyesight with his head injury.

The device will have the key

'so, this device has something to do with it ?' Sunghoon questioned.

'a device which has no function other than playing a dinosaur game has to do with it ? It's not possible.'

'guys, let's think about it from the positive side' Heeseung warned.

'Hey, what if it's the older one ?' Sunoo said. 'remember, Jay hyung when I said the older one felt heavy and you said it was just the interior parts '

'yes―OH GOD, WAIT ! YOU'RE RIGHT !' Jay agreed.

Jake was quick enough to rush to the old, broken computer kept under the shelf and with the help of Sunghoon, he carefully pulled it out.

'so, we open it ?'

The others nodded. The echoing sound of aggressive hits and screams were heard until a sudden click was heard and the old device was finally cracked open.

Wires, more wires, small bits of electronic pieces, and plenty of parts which the boys themselves had no idea about were revealed.

'found it !' Jay exclaimed, holding onto a silver key which he had discovered from amidst the electronic parts.

'i-it's unbelievable'

'but why would someone just put out a whole treasure hunt for us ?' Sunghoon questioned.

'uh, maybe he was stalking us ? Knew we're jobless during break and put out some game ?―OUCH OKAY SORRY' Jungwon suggested but was quick enough to retreat when he felt a pinch from Sunoo.

'let's move on.' Sunoo eyed Jungwon.

To the Cupid's door.

'i wish we had Nishimura here, he knows too much about mythology and these stuff' Heeseung sighed.

'Cupid ? Wait, isn't that the goddess of love or something?' Jungwon questioned with a baffled expression.

'I can't defend you anymore, Jungwon' Sunoo whispered to Jungwon.

'Jungwon, I did not raise you for this, Venus is the goddess of love, Cupid is the GOD of love' Jake, the only intellectual excelling in mythology corrected.

'yeah' Jungwon mocked and then turned to the others, 'so we should go to some magical world to discover Cupid now ?'

'no stupid human, that's a metaphor.' Sunoo explained.

'guys, fortunately our Ni-ki left us some hint for that' Sunghoon proudly announced, looking at Ni-ki's smartphone.

The cracked screen displayed the message which was not sent. Infact, the several messages he had sent to Heeseung and Sunghoon but because of the bad network were not delivered were also visible.

'Hyung, the paintings, the c-

That was the last message which (probably) was being typed when the boy had disappeared.

'paintings ?' The boys said in unison and turned towards the paintings on the wall.

the first one showed a girl playing the paino, fingers carefully placed on two keys, the second one portrayed a small boy, with wings, who had a bow and arrow in his hand, the other two contained portraits of some personels. He was certainly interested in these types of hobbies for that's what helped him get away from his thoughts.

'you guys do realize that we were just not thinking right, do you ?' Jay questioned.

'huh ?'

'guys ! Cupid ! It's the second picture !' Jay exclaimed and ran up to the pictures, pointing at the second one.

'A boy with wings, a bow and an arrow―it's the painting of a Cupid !The god of love !' Jake explained to the other boys.

'this is heavy !' Heeseung who had run up to Jay to help bring the painting down exclaimed.

The brown paper at the back of the painting had an inscription at the bottom of the page.
'TM'

'TM ? What does that mean ?' Jungwon questioned.

'Can mean anything, "take money", "tie monkey", "Trot music", "tall man"―

'Sunoo, shut up, those don't even make sense.' Jay snapped.

'there must be something inside this' Heeseung said and Jay quickly pulled out the back paper to reveal the backside of the paper but there wasn't anything inside.

'this place playing tricks on us makes me wanna curse so bad !' Jake sighed with disappointment.

'we took down the painting, now what else ?'

But just then, a sudden heavy sound was heard. The boys turned around. The wall with the paintings was split into halves and they stood in awe. Obviously you don't see walls splitting into halves in your everyday life !

'what just happened ?'

'how did that happen!?' Sunoo questioned.

'uh, I-I don't know.' Sunghoon shuttered and the other boys turned towards him to see him sitting on the chair in front of the computer. 'I just scored some high point in this game and that happened.'

'what !?'

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