The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

17

*The conversation in italics is a flashback*

Two kilometres from the cave, Mel found herself in a deeper, denser area of the jungle. The air was much more humid here. Her sweat-soaked hair stuck to her forehead and her jumpsuit was growing increasingly uncomfortable with each passing moment. The crescent moon sat high in the navy sky, watching them as they battled their way through the jungle.

Where they were going was still unknown, all Mel knew was she had to get as far away from the cave as possible. She wanted to be mad with Mia, wanted to throw a tantrum and prove to all of them that she was meant to be an ace. But she didn’t know how and, in that sense, Mia was right. Heck, in every sense, Mia was right. And Mel detested her for that.

Sometimes even the Joker doesn't know it's them.

Jisung’s words sent shivers down her spine. Despite how hard she tried to forget it, it just continued to circulate in her mind, making it impossible to think of anything else. And with it, the memory of a long forgotten conversation returned. A conversation that haunted her for months on end:

“You need to be careful, Mel,” she recalled Aira telling her a month after her arrival. “Jokers and aces are alike, you see. The only difference is that jokers have direct connections with the creators, aces have an indirect connection.”

“What does that mean? Indirect connection?” Melody responded with a little tilt of her head.

“Those weird dreams you have, Mel. You only see things and have to patch two and two together from those ‘hints’. Jokers get to converse with the creators, ask them questions and get responses. They get to make requests and… and understand.”

“Understand what?”

“Understand who they are and where they come from… and why they are here.”

“But… but you told me when I first came here that the Ace is the most important title. Why didn’t you tell me about the Joker before?”

“Because we don’t have one so you have nothing to worry about. I didn’t intend on telling you this at all — I didn’t want to scare you — but I decided that, if you are going to be the best Ace any of us could ever have, you should be aware of the obstacles ahead of you.”

“Obstacles? What do you mean? Are Jokers… the bad guys?”

Aira chuckled softly, “‘the bad guys’ is such an innocent way of putting it. Let’s just say, they have a different goal from everyone else. The ace is meant to lead everyone to the escape so that everyone can be saved. The Joker’s goal is to deceive everyone so that they will be only one saved.”

“Oh… Good thing I’m the Ace, right?”

Mel recalled seeing Aira’s soft smile falter momentarily.

“Mel,” she regained her smile and placed a hand on the Ace’s knee. “I have to be honest with you. I may have slightly lied to you before.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, “lied to me?”

Aira cleared her throat and licked her lips. All of a sudden she seemed tense and Mel could tell from the way she began to fidget that whatever she was to say next was going to be uncomfortable for them both.

“I didn’t tell you all of this only because I felt you should know. There’s more to it than that…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I just… I was just wondering if… Have you ever,” and at that moment, Aira’s gaze met Mel’s again. “Have you ever communicated with the creators?”

“What?” She mumbled breathlessly. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Aira, the girl who earned Mel’s trust first, the one who Mel knew she could always count on was now suspicious of her. “I’m not the Joker. You know I’m the Ace… why… why would you even consider that I’d secretly be the Joker?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you or anything, Mel. Trust me, I do but… it’s just that… sometimes the Joker doesn’t know that they are the Joker,” Aira stated with a shrug before muttering quietly under her breath, “it’s very easy for a Joker to think they are the Ace.”

With a loud sigh, Mel stopped walking abruptly and turned around to met four pairs of eyes staring back at her in surprise.

“Why did you guys follow me out here?” She asked, face contorted in confusion.

“What?” Seungmin asked in response with a raised eyebrow. “Were we not meant to follow you?”

“I don’t mean that. I mean, you have no reason to trust me. How are you so sure I’m the Ace of Hearts?”

Brea shrugged, “who else are we supposed to trust?”

“What if I’m the Joker though?”

“What if you aren’t?” Brea argued, clearly agitated by both the question and the humidity causing her jumpsuit to irritate her skin. “I’m fourteen years old, Mel. I shouldn’t be here. I should be outside. I should be going to school and crushing on boys and getting myself caught in unnecessary drama or doing whatever the heck other fourteen-year-olds do. I’ll trust whoever I have to if there’s a chance that will lead me out of this stupid place. And if I die because of trusting the wrong person, well, I haven’t had much of a life to live anyway. So following you might be the worst decision I’ve ever made, or maybe it will be the best. Whichever it is, I don’t really care, I don’t have anything to lose.”