The End of Fire and Ice

chapter 11: the art of persuasion

"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides."
ೃ⁀➷ André Malraux

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The following morning held nothing surprising and I would have even been excited to go up to the library with Jay during training, only I was no longer sure if he existed anymore. I hadn't seen him at all since yesterday morning when he went to his interrogation room and the concern was consuming me.

Either he couldn't face me during socializing because he ratted me out and it was only a matter of time before I was crucified, or he got caught and was the one being punished instead. Neither option was ideal, but I couldn't find the sanity to do much about it.

I wanted to talk to Sunghoon about what happened but was terrified of pulling him under with me.

I didn't have to say anything for him to notice the distress I was in though.

"Jin, I've been dangling this granola bar in front of your face for the past five minutes. Please tell me what's wrong."

"I can't tell you. At least not here," I whispered the words so as to not catch the attention of the others. Secrets weren't allowed under any circumstances, and this was a pretty big one. I'd maybe tell Sunghoon, but not here in the cafeteria where the entire world could participate in my tragedy.

"Then, let's head back to our room now before the others. You can tell me there."

"I really don't think that's a good idea-" Before I could finish my thought, he'd shoved the granola bar in the back of my boot and dragged me by the arm up to our room.

I couldn't help but notice the few looks thrown our way, but fortunately the majority was too invested in their food to pay attention to Sunghoon beelining for our dorm.

We made it out of the cafeteria and up the stairs, all while he was still tugging my arm like some noose.

"You can let go of my arm now, Hoon. I'm not going to run away."

"I don't believe you." He doubled down on his determination to confront me and I was already working on what lie I'd have to feed him.

"Okay, now. Tell me what happened." He breathed out in relief once he'd finally pulled me all the way to our room. I only spoke up once the door was completely closed and we sat beside each other on my bed.

"It's really not a big deal. I just have a stomach ache and I'm worried about running is all." I struggled with the virtue of honesty everyday, but the last thing I wanted was to muddy up Sunghoon with my mess.

"But you hardly ate anything?" He narrowed his eyes at me in concern as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I know. I don't get it either, but I'll be fine. Really." I reached out to put an assuring hand on his shoulder, but that could hardly assure myself. When had anything ever been fine here?

"Hopefully you'll get paired with me and won't have to run at all."

"Hopefully."

I've come to learn, in more ways than one, that sometimes hope does very little in this place. Today that lesson came in the form of not being paired with Sunghoon for training.

In fact, it was the ultimate slap in the face to be paired with Jay.

Mr. Doyle collected a group of 8 teams and made his way to the track with them before Jay approached me from the other side of the room.

"Holy shit, you're alive," I pointed at him on distress. "And that can only mean one thing. I'm dead."

"What are you talking about, Jin?" Jay was looking at me like I was crazy, but I was looking around the room for whoever was going to take me away.