Games of Love (Norenmin)

Part 5

Jaemin's POV

My instructor must've noticed something was wrong. "What're you worried about? You're one of the most skilled people here, there's no way you'll lose."

"Oh, uh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about the other kid's fighting styles is all."

Jaemin's instructor was an idiot. He believed him.

Jaemin spent his entire dinner trying to figure out how to keep Jeno and the boy from 9 alive. I don't even know 9's name and I'm head over heels for him

It's honestly quite pathetic.

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I was running with the other 'Careers' as some districts call us. At first I didn't really realize why, and then I saw him. The boy from 9 was in front of us, and glanced back at us terrified.

Suddenly everyone turned to me. The boy from 4 and Ji, the girl from my district, suddenly pinned down Jeno, and held a knife to his neck. "Kill him," they all said in unison, pointing to the boy from 9. "Or we kill your friend."

The way they emphasized it made it clear that they knew we were more than that.

I glanced over at 9, and was surprised to see that he had stopped and was staring at the scene in stunned horror.

I glanced between the two, torn with indecision. "10,9,8..." the others started counting down.

A tear slid down my face as I made my choice. I knew Jeno. I knew his name, I knew what sort of things he liked, and I knew that he would die for me.

I began truly crying now, but readied and threw my knife. 9 didn't even try to move. He must've heard. I realized, and decided he'd rather die than have Jeno die because of him. That realization made me want to kill myself. I fell to the ground, unable to stand and bear my greif any longer.

"Ok, I killed him. Let Jeno go."

Everyone but Jeno started laughing at me. "Do you really think we would do that? Just give up an easy chance to kill him?"

"No... nonononono you can't."

"Who's stopping us." They all looked at me, insane grins on their faces. Then Ji slit his throat.

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I woke up as a crying mess. (Yes I did add the cheesy it-was-just-a-dream trick. I'm amazing, I know.)

It took me a minute or two to realize it was just a dream. And when I did, I knew I had to get cleaned up quickly or I was screwed. I didn't want anyone to know that I had been crying.

After I washed my face, I headed out to the dining room area to eat breakfast. I tried to banish the dream from my mind, but the memory of 9 falling to the ground lifeless and Jeno's throat getting slit kept creeping into my mind.

I would have to talk to Jeno about it later.

Today was our last day of training, and then tomorrow we had our private sessions with the Gamemakers.

To distract myself, I tried to guess what 9 was planning on doing for his private session, and what score he would get.

He had done mostly survival stuff yesterday, but he had also practiced with throwing knives. I guessed he would go with throwing knives, and would probably get around a 6 or a 7.

Good. He wouldn't seem too strong, but he also wouldn't be so weak that he would be one of the first hunted down.

Training started again, and if I'm being honest, it was mostly just me and Jeno admiring 9. He reviewed most of the survival stuff, and then decided to try out spear-throwing, which I thought would be cute.

I was right. He kept on making this adorable little angry face whenever he missed. Me and Jeno couldn't help but grin at each other every time he did so. We did notice though, that Ji was starting to stare at us. "I hope she doesn't suspect anything," I murmured.

"Yeah. I don't want her using you guys against me," Jeno replied.

That's when I remembered my dream.

I told Jeno about it, trying to keep my face as emotionless as possible so Ji's searching eyes wouldn't know how upset I was. Jeno told me that he had had a similar dream, where he was forced to watch 9 and me die in front of him.

"We really should figure out what his name is," I murmured.

"Yeah, I bet it's something as cute as he is."

My thoughts turned dark again. "Jeno, what will we do? In the arena? I mean, only one of us can win, so do we just see how it plays out or what?"

"I honestly don't know Jaemin. We could focus on protecting 9, but I would rather die than have to deal with either one of you dying."

"I feel the same, but at the same time I want to get to know him. I don't want to die not knowing who he really is. What's his name, what's his favorite color, what are his friends like, and most importantly... does he love us?"

"I would like to know that too..."

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Only one day left until we're stuck in the arena, and I feel like I might have a nervous breakdown. Jeno and I are bound to make it through the first night or so, but 9? 9 might not even survive the first hour.