I Think I Love You Too (2) - Chishiya x Niragi

Chapter 5

Niragi's POV

I trailed behind Chishiya and Ren. After talking for a long time they'd gone silent. Now it was just the 3 of us on our way to the game, silently walking, side-eyeing the dead bodies left on the sidewalks, and the cars parked in the middle of the street. I caught up and proceeded to awkwardly walk next to Chishiya. I looked at him. He looked back and I turned my head away. Shit, shit, shit! One of us is going to die for sure. What the hell I do I do? I thought to myself, panicking. We approached the game venue. It was a very tall building. All the windows were dark except for the ones on the first floor. A cold light blinded me as we walked into the building. It was us three plus seven other people. The three of us picked up earpieces from a table at the door, and put them in. "Registration is now closed. One of you will be selected as the King of Hearts as of now. The real King of Hearts will be instructing the chosen King of Hearts from a private location. Everyone: hold out your hands. King of Hearts: you will soon feel an object placed in your hand and you will hear instructions from your earpiece." The announcer said. We all stood in place waiting for something to happen. After 1 minute or so the lights turned off and someone let out a small gasp and a gunshot following it. Everyone jumped. The lights turned back on and someone was laying the floor, breathless. They had been shot in the head. The room grew tense rapidly. "Who did this?!" Someone yelled. Everyone but us began to panic. "How did they hide the gun so quickly?!"

Chishiya's POV

A player across from us looked tense, but didn't seem to want out of the game. "It's a tactic" I muttered to Ren and Niragi. They both responded with small nods. The lights went off again, and half the players screamed before a few small screens lit up around the room. "The game is Hide and Seek. Goal: leave the building without getting caught." The announcer said. "One of you has been randomly selected as the King of Hearts placeholder. The real King of Hearts will be instructing the chosen King. They are the seeker. You will all have 5 minutes to hide on the top floor. Anyone who hides lower than the top floor will be eliminated the moment the times up." I thought for a second. "Ren, we need to go hide now." I whispered to Ren who was standing on my left. "But we don't know all the rules yet." She whispered back. "We can listen as we walk, but the top floor will already take us a few minutes to get to. We need to get a head start." Niragi and Ren followed me to the stairs and we ran up as we continued to listen. "You have half an hour in total to leave the building of 7 storeys. Each floor has a lit up checkpoint that you must find and touch before moving on to the next floor. If you have not touched every checkpoint in the building by the time you reach the bottom floor, you will be eliminated. If you don't make it out before the timer goes off, you will be eliminated." All the lights were off. The only light source was the screens up on the walls, the moon, and the streetlight surrounding the game venue. "You may use any strategy to figure out who the seeker is, except for death. Any player who kills another player will be eliminated. If it's the King who gets killed, a new player will be assigned the role of the King of Hearts, and the person who killed the King of Hearts will not be killed as a reward for finding the King. King of Hearts: You will be instructed throughout the game. Your goal is to find and kill all players before they've made it outside the building. Look for each checkpoint in the building with the real King's indirect guidance. If you've killed every other player, but have not found all checkpoints, you will be eliminated. Blend in so you do not get caught. Any attempt to kill yourself will result in an electric shock." I sighed as we made it to the very top. "I think we need to split up." I said. "What?! Why?!" Niragi asked. "The King of Hearts was randomly selected. We can use any way to figure out who the King is, but it'll waste our time if we're walking around with each other, unsure if it's one of us. They gave us 30 minutes for a reason. Getting back down won't be easy, and we can't have anything dragging us behind." We all stared at each other and silently agreed. I went to look for the first checkpoint, and so did Niragi and Ren. I stood in the middle of a lobby. I looked in front of me and saw a camera hanging from the ceiling. I looked to my right where Niragi and Ren both went into separate rooms down the hallway. "King of Hearts: listen carefully for your instruction to the first checkpoint. The game will begin in 3...2...1..." The screens showed a timer that read 29:59 I heard everyone from the bottom floor scream and start running up the stairs. I went into a storage closet and quietly closed the door. I started to breathe heavily as panic arose inside my chest. Then I heard a voice from my earpiece. "King of Hearts: are you ready for your first instruction?" My heart pounded at my chest, and a tear rolled down my cheek, then another. "....I'm ready." I said quivering.