𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟐𝟔

"there's absolutely no backing out?" jisung asked.

"none at all." renjun said, fiddling with the piece of paper in his hand. "put your game faces on. remember we're the best pretenders in panem."

"kids, gather around." mark said, pulling them to form a circle. he put his hand out, and they stared at him, confused. "put your hands on top."

"why?" jaemin asked but they all did so anyway.

"we are the eight dreaming stars and we are in this together. let's get it!" mark yelled but the others were silent, still staring at him. "you're supposed to say let's get it with me. let's do it again."

"oh!" haechan exclaimed. "how were we supposed to know that?"

"it sounds awkward." jisung mumbled.

"just do it." mark sighed. "we are the eight dreaming stars and we are in this together..."

"let's get it!" they yelled together, throwing their hands into the air.

"i'm still unsure of the name." jihyun mumbled.

"ladies and gentlemen, the victors of the seventy-fourth hunger games!"

there was mild applause as the doors opened and out walked the eight victors with fake smiles plastered on their faces. mark stepped up to the microphone and the others stood on either side of him.

he began his speech, thanking the district and addressing the families of the dead tribute. he scrunched the paper from his escort and used his own words, briefly mentioning his sadness, his words hitting everyone with such emotion and then to end it he offered money to the girls family.

haechan hesitated, wanting to say a few words but alas couldn't bear to speak when he saw the distraught faces of the girls family and turned away, but as he did, he heard someone whistle a tune. he recognised it all too well and when he looked over his shoulder, people had their hands raised, portraying the sign from the first rebellion.

(a/n: okay okay i just had an idea. think of the hello future wave 😭😭no i take it back. it's too funny.)

the man who whistled was grabbed by peacekeepers and the eight were pushed through the doors, it clicked shut behind them but didn't mask the sound of a gun going off.

"what happened?! what just happened?!" jihyun exclaimed, looking around frantically.

"they killed him! i knew that man! they... they..." haechan began to cry and taeyong pulled him into his arms.

"why? why did this happen?" mark asked.

"you made them too emotional. from now on, you read the cards we give you."

"do..." jihyun fell into doyoung's arms, burying her head into his chest.

"it'll be alright..."

♆

they boarded the train that would take them to district eleven overnight and sat at the dinner table, listening to the escort from district one babble about how annoyed she was that they had messed up the speech. jihyun noticed the way haechan was staring down at the table as if he was about to burst into tears. the death of that man had clearly affected him a lot and it wasn't helping that the escort was being so unbelievably disrespectful.

finally, jihyun had enough. she slammed her hands down onto the table and stood up, her chair screeching against the floor as she grabbed everyone's attention and shut the woman up.