The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

11

"So, is this all you do all day?" Jisung questioned, following closely behind Mia as they scouted the jungle.

A chuckle slipped past her lips.

"What did you expect?" she asked, glancing back at him.

"I don't know... Just something a bit more interesting, I guess. Walking around aimlessly isn't exactly my idea of fun."

"We aren't walking around aimlessly, Jisung," Minho mentioned. "We are looking for clues."

"Clues? You mean to get out of here? How will looking around help us? If  we have to get out, wouldn't the clues come to us?" Jisung questioned.

"The clues didn't come to us in the Pen, we had to look for it," Jeongin stated. "If we want to get out of this jungle, we have to look for a way out."

Judging by the position of the ardent sun, noon was quickly approaching and, still, no progress had been made. Of course, no one expected any of the clues to be obvious but they were beginning to seem impossible to find. The jungle vast, even when standing on a piece of raised land, all that could be seen were kilometres upon kilometres of trees. If they ever wished to leave this part, they'd have to walk for days.

But that wasn't an option they had, not yet at least. Lethal creatures still roamed the land, hiding in trees and bushes as they waited for someone, anyone, to cross their paths. They had to be careful in everything they did.

"The Pen," Melody repeated, only loud enough for Seungmin, who was walking directly in front of her, to hear. "You guys called it that too?"

He nodded, "at least that's what everyone else was calling it when I arrived."

She scoffed at that statement, shaking her head in disbelief and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Of course," Mel muttered.

"Something wrong?" With an eyebrow raised, he glanced back, taking in her seemingly annoyed expression before adding, mainly to himself, "of course, there's something wrong..."

"It's not a big deal, at least, I hope it's not. I just... I was told Brea came up with the name. They must have planted it in her head and made her believe she came up with it."

Seungmin shrugged, "they probably do that all the time. I wouldn't expect it to be that serious."

"If they can plant ideas in our heads, I can only imagine they have full control of our brains."

"And if they do? What can we do about it?"

"Well, nothing but that doesn't change the fact that half the things I think may not even be my own thoughts. What if I'm just a product of everything they have made me think and not even my own person? How much of myself is actually me and how much is them?"

He sighed, stopping in place and finally turning to her fully.

"Everything you think you know, everything you understand is because of them. Look around, just take in everything, all of it. Nothing here, not even the ground beneath your feet is real. It's all an illusion. You know that, I know that. But why? Why do we know that all of this is fake even though we can see it all, feel it all? The only reason we can see past all this is because of them. We know nothing about our past selves and we know nothing about our families and upbringings. That's not a coincidence. We are a product of everything they have made us think. Sure, there may still be a percentage of ourselves left in us but that's nothing compared to the people they've made us believe we are."

And just like that, the world stopped. Literally. Everyone, everything but them just stopped moving.

From the way her eyes widened and lips parted, it was obvious she was taken aback. Of course, she was. But the expression quickly shifted. Her eyes remained wide and lips parted but it wasn't in shock, it was in fear, terror. And he mirrored the expression.

"How..." she whispered breathlessly. "How do you know that?"

Seungmin shook his head softly, feeling his heart sink at the thought of the words that had just left his mouth. Saying he felt nauseous would be an understatement, Seungmin felt like he was suffocating. The tightening of his throat and numbing of his legs were pale in comparison to the burning of his lungs as they screamed for oxygen. His vision was blurring. Everything around him was fading, disappearing before his very eyes. Everything but Mel.

"I don't know," he stammered but the eerie feeling sinking to the bottom of his stomach confirmed what he was thinking: he just accessed a part of his brain he wasn't meant to.

"Is something wrong?"

Immediately upon hearing Mia's voice, everything returned to normal. The wind resumed, blowing the leaves ever so gently and so did the faint sound of running water.

Mia was beside them now instead of further up ahead. In fact, everyone was beside them, faces contorted in confusion.

Seungmin blinked, pulling himself together by clearing his throat. He glanced around to confirm he was actually was there and took a deep breath before turning back to Mel.

"No," the Ace of Heart shook her head, realising a heavy breath. "Nothing's wrong."

Minho scoffed, "as if we are going to believe that. You two just simultaneously spaced out for two minutes. You were just... gone. Completely."

Running a hand through his brown locks, Seungmin shrugged, "Don't know what you're talking about. Like she said, nothing's wrong."

"But-"

"Nothing," he raised his voice, glaring at Minho. "And I mean nothing is wrong. Can we just continue walking or something? Those clues aren't going to find themselves."

And without waiting for a response, he walked on, following the ready-made trail with Mel close behind. .

Something was wrong, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Which is why while Brea, Mia, Jeongin, Minho and Jisung stared at the pair in confusion, somewhere else, a lady in white was sprinting through her office building, leaping up stairs and dodging her co-workers all while muttering, "they're waking up."