seven. / the boyz

2.8 | it's katana time

sohn
eric.

I bit my lip. Shut the doors? He's coming? What? This all seemed so hard for me to understand. I looked over at the screen, my eyes widening when I saw the glitch under Kevin's last text.

" What the...? " I stammered, looking around my room.

Something was definitely going to happen. The thought crept over me for a while, scaring me to bits, until I heard a few echoes from outside of the chained door. I swear I thought I was hallucinating at first. It was a voice I hadn't heard in a while.

" Eric! Eric! Where are you! " I heard Kevin's voice from outside, booming through the hallways.

" Where is he? " I heard Kei's voice this time. I blinked back a few times. So i'm not hallucinating? No, not good enough. I don't believe it. I bit on my tongue really hard and yelped in pain.

" Was that him? " I heard the girl's voice again, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. It was like she was so sure it was me.

I heard a few knocks coming from my door. " Eric? ".

My eyes widened upon hearing the voice right outside of my door. I got frantic. What if that wasn't them? Kevin did say that I shouldn't open the door. What if it's all just a trap?

" Eric, are you in here? ". His voice.

" Just open the door." Her voice.

" Geez, you're so impat-,".

I opened the door to see the tall figure in front of me, alongside Hyunjae's younger sister. They stopped bickering and turned to look at me, the light from Kevin's flashlight blinding my eyes. I cringed at it before he drops it to the ground, engulfing me into a hug.

" You idiot! Why didn't you open the door sooner? " he whines, still hugging me. He faked a cry and my face falls. I began to tear up at his touch, burying my face into his hoodie.

" Hyung...," I sobbed.

Kevin smiled, patting my head. " You rat. You never call me that."

" I'm just so glad you found me," I confess shakily, still sobbing.

I looked up at Kei, who was smiling at us. I mouthed a 'thank you' and she shakes her head. " But we're not done. We have to find Sunwoo."

I nodded, before tilting my head. " Is there something wrong by the way? The text? ".

Keirin cleared her throat, brushing the dirt off her hoodie. She looked away. I frowned at her odd behaviour before my eyes trailed to Kevin, who seemed just as suspicious. " Guys..? ".

Kevin sighed. " Hyunshik, I think he's going to capture you guys soon... Of course, I have to find the others as well— Changmin, Younghoon, Haknyeon, Jacob, Chanhee... Hyunjae." He looked at Kei, who was still looking far into the distance, avoiding eye contact with us.

" Earlier, we found Chunhei's body somewhere. You know Chunhei? She was the MC of the previous game with the others," Kevin began to explain. " I worked with her because she was being threatened by Hyunshik as well. I was with her when we decided to find Hyunjae with the others but...,".

Kevin stopped, biting his cheek. I bit my lip. " Then what, Kev? ".

" I don't remember. That's the thing. I woke up and suddenly I'm a part of this killing game too. I don't have the slightest memory of what happened to the others... I feel so bad, Eric. I agreed to this because I wanted to save you guys... my best friends,".

" Remember what I told you guys the other day in the group chat? That my dad had to pay off his old debts so he joined this illegal gang in order to receive profit, but died before completing his tasks? They kidnapped you guys for me to torture and forced me to do it in order to repay for my dad's unfinished business... I guess now all they want is for me to participate in this killing game too."

" I just feel so bad... And I have this gut feeling that Hyunjae isn't okay."

I heard Kei sigh under her breath. " So can we hurry up and find Juyeon and Sunwoo? ".

Kevin gasped. " Fuck, yeah. I'm sorry."

Keirin shook her head, smiling. " It's okay, but we're for real running out of time."

She looked at me, her eyes trailing up and down as she scanned my figure. " Hold up."

She took her backpack off and fished for something, before handing me what seemed like a patch. " Put it on anywhere. I managed to grab this before leaving to meet up with Kev, but it makes your body immune to certain pains and can heal you pretty fast."

I nodded, slapping the patch over my left bicep.  I gave them an approving smile before the thought came over me, " Oh, which reminds me. If we're going to find Sunwoo and Juyeon, does that mean that you guys have already found Hyunjoon? ".

Kevin gritted his teeth before groaning. He gave me this sudden glare before walking off, Kei following suit, and I caught up immediately.

" Don't talk about him for a while."

I was taken aback. Why was he suddenly acting like this? Did Hyunjoon do something?

Kei noticed my pained expression. She patted me before giving me this sad, awkward smile. She leaned into my ear to whisper.

" I don't know you guys very well but while I was coming here with Kev, he explained that Hyunjoon was bound to betray us. Or, you guys. I don't know, i'm just the second MC, am I even- okay, but anyway-,".

" What do you mean? ".

Kei bit her lip as she sighed.

" It meant that Hyunshik planned for him to be the next Sangyeon. He was bound to betray us soon. Now, I don't exactly know who the fuck he was though."

My eyes widened. I felt sick all over again.

I bumped into Kevin, who was standing in front of me, rooted to the spot.

Kei looked at him and frowned. " Why aren't you moving? ".

We noticed the shocked expression plastered on his face as he began to look more pale by the second. A single blood droplet fell onto my face as I jump in surprise. I looked up to see where the blood was coming from.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Heo Hyunjoon, my best friend and the one I remember spending the most time with in High School, was pierced right through his stomach with a katana on the ceiling. My eyes caught a glimpse of the small signature on the metal part of the katana.

Hyunshik.