The funhouse of murder • Stray Kids X reader

81 ☠️

"Good morning cutie," Dae whispered in my ear as he got to me, pretending to roughly pull on my hands to tie a rope around my wrists, while he could not have been more gentle. "Couldn't you have done so faster? If you left boss grumpy because he's waiting for so long, I'm not taking the blame," he switched up quickly, now loudly announcing it for all to hear. I tried my hardest not to crack a smile. This was perfect. This way not even Minho or Changbin would know. Convincing them of the plan I thought out wasn't going to work anyways, that had been clear, but with this it might just work. It felt bad to keep it from them, but I couldn't let go of the feeling that I just had to try.

"Good morning to you too, Dae," I whispered back, giving him a quick wink, only for his eyes to see. "Don't worry too much," Dae continued, "I told boss about the kidnapping, and how you yourself came back. He looked pleased, so I don't think it can be that bad." Oh thank goodness I went back after all. I couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the guys were though. Especially Chan. It wasn't hard to see he was trying his best to help me out, but his way of doing so was what bothered me, and quite frankly everyone else too, so it seemed. He was losing face, and if he wasn't able to regain it, the group might fall apart. No matter how much I disliked it, we needed a leader.

Though Changbin already seemed to protest at the slightest touch, Minho had yet again grown completely quiet, not resisting anything. He seemed completely blank. We got to walking, on the way to what I remembered to be the place their boss was yesterday. Getting Dae on my side was one thing, but if I could get their boss on my side, it would incredibly raise my chances of succeeding. That was exactly the reason why I was so pleased to hear he was happy about my return. Convincing him I actually wanted to stay might help my case. How I was going to do so was another story though.

"Ah, my three favorite people have arrived," the boss chimed in happily, already awaiting us in front of his tent. "Come in, come in. Let's have a little chat, shall we?" As we were pushed inside again, Dae gave me a small, comforting glance before closing the door again, staying on the outside together with Chul to keep guard. It wasn't like they were needed here anyway, in every corner stood at least one of them, as well as two besides the boss himself. We weren't getting out of here, they made that clear.

The three of us finally remained silent, Changbin too now quieting down at the sight of the man in front of him. Getting a better look at him, it was clear why they made him the boss. He had this certain aura around him that I couldn't describe, but no matter how jolly he seemed, it was clear he was not to be messed with, like a darkness behind that smile. Aside from that, this guy was huge. He looked like the type of guy you'd see in prison, big, burly, and filled with tattoos. My eyes scanned the room, checking out the entire group. Speaking of tattoos, they all had one in common, I noticed. Five dots marked in their hand, in the form of a cube, with one dot right in the middle.

Changbin seemed to have noticed it too, his eyes wide, glued to the dots on the bosses hand. "Now, I have heard a thing or two from my lovely friends," he started, pulling our attention back to his face. "They told me you tried to escape?" he turned to me, his eyes piercing right through mine. "No," he disregarded his previous statement, "that you were being taken away, rather. Yet chose to stay." His voice was calm, yet there was a certain excitement behind it. "Why?"

This was my chance. "I didn't want to leave Minho and Changbin behind. They mean the world to me, they both do," I said, looking at each one of them just a little longer, catching both their eyes before staring right back at their boss. He liked drama, and I was about to give it to him. "Frankly, spending time alone with only them made me realise just how much more I wanted to be with them for longer... alone. Without the others watching us. I was hoping this way, I could spend more time with them... alone."

Seconds felt like hours, filled with nothing but my shallow breathing, feeling everyone's eyes still on me. Please, just say something. Anything, at this point. Even a no was better than this silence. Finally a hum escaped his lips, catching everyone's attention once again. "I did say I'd give you a night to win her over..." he pondered out loud. "I have to say, I never thought you'd be the type to enjoy the both of them, but this is giving me some ideas," he seemed to finally smirk.

"I need you to choose," he said. "Right here, right now. Which one do you like best?" My breath stocked. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. "I can't. They're both too important to me," I countered, desperately hoping to change whatever his mind was thinking of. "But still, I can't let you go this easily after almost running away..." He let out a deep sigh, taking some more time to come up with something. "Then how about this. I'm letting you spend one more day with the both of them. You can do anything, go outside, as long as there are people nearby, stay in, do whatever you need to do to decide, and we can't interfere. The one you like best will stay here with you, the loser..."

"The loser will be killed tomorrow at noon, by your own hands. If you still can't choose then, they're both gone. Tomorrow, you're ours."