𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚜// 𝚂𝚀𝚄𝙸𝙳 𝙶𝙰𝙼𝙴 𝚏𝚏

Game 4: loud counting (Part 1)

POV Y/n

The light burned behind my closed eyelids. Come on, it couldn't be the next day yet.

"Wake up y/n!"

Sae Byeok shook me by the shoulder, and not very gently.

"Five more minutes," I murmured, pulling the blanket over my head. But she suddenly tore it away from me.

"Hey!", I opened my eyes tiredly but indignantly to see her grinning and crumpling the blanket into a ball.

"Come on, the guards will be here soon with breakfast," she threw the ball of blanket in my face and I kicked it away.

"Great now I'm awake"

"That was my plan, too. If it hadn't worked out, I would have tried something else".

"Uh-huh and what?"

She did not answer and stretched out her hand.

"Come put your jacket back on, it's dry, then I can put mine on".

"What would you have done?"

"Come on give me the jacket"

"No tell me what you would have done first!"

"The jacket y/n"

"Can't I keep them?"

"Overnight maybe but not at the games".

I pulled her jacket off my shoulders but still held on to it.

"Tell me!"

As soon as I said that she pulled me close to her by the hips. I felt her entire body pressed against mine. She came with her face so close to mine that the tips of our noses brushed like feathers. She looked at me with serious but cheeky flashing eyes. Her hands were on my hips in a certain way. I had no idea where to put mine and continued to hold the jacket with trembling fingers. My breathing became shallower with excitement and my stomach tightened. I think I would die right away.

"Y/n," she breathed softly and I could have groaned. Since when did I have such thoughts, please?! HELP!

My thoughts completely stopped as she stroked her hand up my right side to my shoulder and then down my arm. I became soft as butter and dropped her jacket. Her fingers reached my hand and stroked it tenderly. Her index finger tapped each of my fingertips and then... she just lifted her jacket from the ground. The exciting warm feeling was blown away. But everywhere she had touched me, it burned like fire. I still felt everything, her skin, her breath, her gaze.

I stopped and tried to process what had just happened. Sae Byeok put her jacket back on and nodded at me from the stairs, smiling.

"Come, the guards are here and I am hungry"

Oh I AM hungry, but I don't mean the food- C'MON STOP IT ALREADY Y/N!

With knees as soft as butter, I started to move.

Holy shit.

I will survive the games.

But I will definitely not survive the games Kang Sae Byeok is playing with me.

—————————————————————————————————

Right after lunch, we all headed to the second game. I walked behind Sae Byeok and was still thinking about earlier. Did it mean anything that she had hit on me like that, or did she just really want the jacket?

In every stupid love story, the main character would say:  the jacket. But was I really the main character?

Last night, too, she had pulled me close to her and certainly not breathed into my neck without intention.

Even now when I thought back on it, I got goose bumps and shook my head. I really had to concentrate on the game now. But how?! How could I do that when SHE was walking right in front of me! Because of the big jacket I couldn't see much, but she was damn strong and I had felt that several times.

"Are you done staring?" she woke me from my thoughts and stopped. I ran against her and looked around. We had arrived at the white room. Again.

"Dear players, please split into two groups of equal size".

Alarmed, I looked at Sae Byeok and she had tightened her jaw, apparently thinking the same thing.

"I have-"

"I know," I interrupted her, thinking hard, "I know you saw something else. But at least we don't play in teams of two and I doubt they'll leave only 2 people alive after the fourth game"

"So you think we should go to the same team?"

"Yes. Who knows, in an emergency we can help each other."

"And how exactly do you imagine that," she was clearly irritabled. I did not know now whether from me or the situation.

"Now get your claws back in kitty, if you think we want to be on different teams, then..."

"Forget it," she took me by the hand and pulled me towards a group of people.

"We are with you," she said in a tone that made no one object.
I looked over at the other group. 013 was with them and stroked his finger across his throat as a sign of death. I angrily showed him my middle finger, licked over the tip and pretended to stick it in the back hole. His facial expression quickly changed from a victorious grin to anger. I grinned broadly and turned back to my group. It was completeley mixed, men and women, teenagers and old people.

"Hey," Kang Sae Byeok gently squeezed my hand. I had completely forgotten that she was still holding it. Only when I looked up at her, she smiled.

"We will also manage the fourth game"

I also nodded with a smile and the guards already came in. Two of them each carried a small box with black blindfolds and handed them out.

"Dear players, the fourth game is loud counting. Line up in a circle blindfolded. One by one, you will count the players in your team, not one after the other, but mixed-up. Note that you can only say one number at a time. The game is not over until the number of players has been said correctly and without interruption. If two players say a number at the same time or you say a second number in one round, you are out. I will repeat the game again...."