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009. HONEY BUN ( chapter nine! ) ⁱ'ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵉᵐ ᵇᵘᵗ ⁱ ᶜᵃⁿ ᵖʳᵉᵗᵉⁿᵈ -dumb, nirvana
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LIKE CLOCKWORK, THE following morning rolled around quicker than expected, and Asuka couldn't help but glare up at the thin metal poles holding up the mattress above her as the lights gradually switched on one by one, like a crude replacement for sunshine. The bright sting of the lights against her heavy, exhausted eyes was followed dreadfully by the telltale classical number spilling into the room, dragging her full lips downwards into a twisted frown, as what once was beautiful music, now served as a grim reminder for what was in store for them. All around her, the sound of the weary participants being forced out of their restless slumber, caused the girl to stretch her arms above her head, and relish in the satisfying sounds of multiple pops going off along her stiff, aching spine as she tried to gather enough energy to get out of bed.
The mere act of pulling the blankets off of her felt like a feat she couldn't accomplish. She felt like she was already dead laying in a casket. The utter fatigue had left her feeling drunk, and begging to any higher being that would listen to her woes to please let her brain disconnect from her body for a while so she could finally get some decent sleep. She was almost tempted to ask the guards if they could use that special gas to knock her out again, because it seemed at this rate that was the only source of drowsiness she could get after the excitement of last night, or ever.
With her and those strange women almost being caught by the triangle guard with their secretive scheming which could have easily ended up with them all being shot dead, she had been put on edge for the remainder of the night, successfully keeping her awake, with her mind abuzz with thought.
There's a certain heaviness to her limbs as though she had been dunked in wet cement and left out to dry, as she remained in place, like something was sitting on her chest and pinning her to the bed. Only receiving an hour or two of rest wasn't smart of her, but it wasn't like she could control the whirlwind of insanity spiralling itself into a hurricane in her frazzled, out of mind state. The fog of exhaustion was simply going to have to follow her around for the rest of the day until she could finally collapse and pass out, again. Rinse and repeat.
Only vaguely could she register the sound of a woman's voice speaking over the P.A system — something of which Asuka was beginning to believe was just an automatic recording of a woman's voice being programmed to speak at certain times, rather than an actual person. She's yet to see a woman who worked in this place. Though, of course she shouldn't completely rule out any existence of women working in this facility, for all she knew there could be a girl beneath all that tracksuit getup.
"It's now breakfast time." The voice cheerily announced into the dismal room, "All players, please line up at the center."
Asuka's stomach grumbled at the announcement of food, and yet she felt no desire to eat. She's been operating on practically one meal a day — with the ramen Sang-woo had bought her, and yesterday's meal, but she's been like that for a while now, just barely scraping by with only the amount of food she needed to give her enough energy to survive another day. This wasn't new.
