𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟒𝟐

"so some of you have gotten a few offers to join alliances." taeyong said. 

everyone was gathered in the living room of jihyun's apartment after dinner. during training, they all split up to try different stations and interacted with a few tributes. there were only a few there because some hadn't even turned up for training, suppose they were sick of this already.

"just reject them all." yuta said.

"wait. doyoung, did you get any?" jihyun asked her cousin who had his arms wrapped around his girlfriend.

"yeah. i got a lot actually."

"so you're going to reject them, right? you're going to be with us." she said, gesturing to her friends.

"no, i'm not going to be with you in the arena."

"what?! why?" she exclaimed and he let go of hana, leaning forwards to rest his arms on his knees.

"you need to understand this, all of you," he began. "the people want you together. you eight are the beloved victors to the capitol and you're a symbol of hope for the other districts. you need to be together in that arena. having me there will disrupt this balance you have. the capitol people won't like it. president snow won't."

"then what are you going to do?" mark asked.

"i'll be on my own." he said and at the sight of jihyun frowning, he placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. "it'll be fine. i did it once before, i can do it again. i'll be on the sidelines trying to take out the tributes and i'll be in hiding. i'll be safe."

"i believe you." she told him.

"good. now everyone get to bed." taeyong said, heading for the elevator.

"we're sleeping here by the way." haechan called after his mentor who turned around to object.

"i already agreed they could. we have spare rooms." hana interjected before he could say anything and then winked at the eight who smiled in response.

"alright. fine. good night." he muttered, disappearing into the elevator with the other mentors.

"good night, everyone." hana hummed, pulling doyoung along with her in the direction of their bedroom.

"keep the noise down, okay?!" jihyun called after them.

"jihyun!" doyoung yelled in embarrassment, making her laugh.

"you really like to annoy your cousin." jeno said.

"i like to annoy everyone." she shrugged, shuffling to lay her back on the sofa and rest her head on jaemin's knees. his hands immediately moved to play with her hair.

a slightly awkward silence filled the room as no one knew what to say. there was only the soft crackle from the fireplace that could be heard.

"i can't believe we're back here." mark said and jisung let out a sigh of relief.

"oh thank god someone spoke. the silence was killing me."

"same." chenle said, sinking into the sofa. "i was going to say i'm tired and disappear to sleep if i had to deal with it for a minute longer."

"we're really just a bunch of awkward kids when we're alone." jihyun laughed then her laughter died down as she thought for longer. "we'd usually only talk about serious topics because of these games. we didn't get a chance to be ordinary teenagers. that's why we're like this."