escape | jaemin

14

The two stayed in Chaeyoung's room for the next few hours, seated on her bed. One worked on the files while the other read the notes to see whether they could make sense out of it.

The cool air blew from the air conditioner as they worked in silence. Only the sound of typing and occasional yawns were heard.

" Why must they have so many levels of security if they are just going to give us this laptop," Chaeyoung commented as she yawned, stretching her arm out, " One file has like 10 levels and i'm still on the first file."

" I still can't see anything in these notes too," Jaemin said, " you wanna take a break and look at the notes with me?

" Sure I guess," she shrugged before crawling over to the boy's side, inching closer to him in order to see the notes that he had taken a picture of.

" It looks like we can read it but it still looks confusing like we can't," the girl said, scratching her head while Jaemin nodded in agreement.

The two squinted their eyes as they stared at the note intently until an idea formed in Chaeyoung's mind.

" Wait what did the hint say again?"
" It said ' look into a mirror ' which is useless, why?" Jaemin responded, raising an eyebrow as the girl stood up from the bed, snatching his phone from his hands before walking over to her closet's mirror.

" I don't think it wo-" the boy said before getting cut off by Chaeyoung as a loud gasp escaped from her lips, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

On the mirror, it showed the note, perfectly written like it normally should be. Everything started piecing in Jaemin's mind realising how the picture was laterally inverted and the mirror would have made it look like the original form.

The girl giggled, hopping slightly in excitement as she felt happy that she managed to solve something, and was useful unlike what everyone always said about her.

" Yes I get it, you're happy now stop hopping so that I can see the note properly," Jaemin tonelessly voiced out, " don't need to be so proud, it's not a big deal."

Chaeyoung sighed, knowing nothing would make him satisfied anyways. She rolled her eyes before standing still and letting the boy copy the note down onto a paper.

A few minutes later, they finished copying every note down. The two went back onto the bed, reading through the notes that just gave them more riddles to solve.

It was like a never-ending escape room, those rooms where you get locked up and have to solve riddles and puzzles jn order to escape, it seemed like it was the exact same thing at that moment.

The endless puzzles after puzzles, riddles after riddles, it was a never-ending cycle.

It was going to take a long time for them to be able to solve everything and end it once and for all. There was still a long road ahead as the two sat there solving the next set of puzzles and riddles after solving the first.

A never-ending escape room. That was what everything was.

" Okay so they made us solve this shit just to give us more riddles," the girl stated as she laid back on the bed with the boy sitting quietly beside him. " Great," she said hopelessly.

" I think that this might be a clue to where the locked door is," Jaemin assumed, his fingers massaging his temples in concentration.

" Honestly, did you even show me everything in the box, cause i'm sure there was more," Chaeyoung said, glancing at the boy who stared at the riddles in concentration.

" You're right, there's more," he confirmed, " but it's not important for you to know."

" Fine," she scoffed, eyes scanning the riddle, " so this should be related to the location."

She took the picture of the locked door that laid crumpled on the bed, like it was another riddle they couldn't solve.

She squinted her eyes, closely looking at the details in the picture. It felt like the answer was at the tip of her fingers, yet it just wouldn't come out.

" Please tell me what the last clue is," Chaeyoung begged the boy as he looked at her blankly before shaking his head, " it might help me remember where this is."

She gave him her puppy dog eyes, lips forming a pout with her hands clasped together while the boy looked at her in disgust.

After much hesitation, the boy gave in, she wasn't giving up and it annoyed him till the brim.

" Fine," he sighed, shaking his head as he spoke, " it's useless but the person gave some money."

" How much?" the girl asked, having a feeling that she knew exactly where everything was leading to.

" A thousand I think," Jaemin responded while the girl chewed on the bottom of her lip in deep thought.

" Along the streets, the busy roads filled with cars, polluting the air with toxic. A cozy place stayed, peaceful and quiet," Chaeyoung recited the riddle, thinking hard about it, " streets, cozy, the money, door."

A place popped up in her mind, she looked at the picture of the locked door one last time before concluding,

" It's at Llukss Coffee, where I worked at."

I totally didn't just apply what i learned in science here 🥰🤡