The Arcade || Lee Felix (rewritten version)

[04] - How to die

Jisung's words had scared me. I was trying to figure out if I felt any different from before, but I didn't.

I still wanted to leave this place and I still hated everything about this place. I definitely wasn't brainwashed yet.

I didn't want to torture Jisung, so I stayed silent and watched him fiddle with his piece of paper.

I really hated this place. It gave me anxiety. I had no idea how long I'd been here, what time of the day it was, anything. I was just here. The silence was also making me go mad. We could have heard a needle dropping to the floor. The only sound I heard was the faint sound from Jisung's fingers as he fiddled with his piece of paper.

Time passed, or maybe it didn't. I couldn't really say that time seemed to be passing by slowly, because I really didn't know. Anyone would go mad from being so unconscious of the time.

I had nothing to wait for and nothing to long for. Nor did I have anything to entertain myself with to at least enjoy the present I was in. It was like time stood still, except it didn't, and that's what was the hardest to process.

No wonder Jisung was so mentally unstable. Anyone would go mad living under those conditions. He must have been so lonely.

How would I ever get out of here. I was starting to understand Felix feeling of hopelessness. I saw no escape from this place. Jisung had for sure been here for long, longer than I could probably imagine.

"So... do you have any hobbies?" I asked the boy and looked at him, already sick of the silence.

He looked up from his piece of paper and into my eyes. "I do" he said, looking a bit too serious. "I like to rap and produce music" then I saw how his face changed and he looked terrified, as if he'd said something wrong. "I mean, I used to like that, but not anymore because rap music is bad for the society and rapping is an unnecessary hobby" he corrected himself.

It hurt my heart to see him look so terrified. I wanted to tell him it's okay, nobody's listening, he can say what he want, I won't snitch, but I knew it was to no help. He wasn't afraid of someone hearing him talk about bad stuff, it was his brainwashed persona he was scared of.

"What's good for the society?" I asked calmly.

He didn't seem to have any answer. He'd been taught not to talk about anything that's bad, but nobody had ever told him what was good and okay to do. "To live a life without anything bad" he said after a few seconds of thinking.

I nodded understandingly. "I see"

The truth was they didn't want us to be anything special. They just wanted obeying citizens that were all the same. For this to work everyone needed to have the same hobbies and the same interests, same values in life, the same life.

Silence lingered again in the room, until the door opened up and three men came in. In the front was a man who looked like a high positioned leader judging by his outfit while as the other two looked like guards.

Jisung stood up at the sight of them and did a salute. "Reporting to sergeant Yoon" he said.

Sergeant Yoon. My guess was probably quite correct

One of the guards went towards me. I felt my heart started to beat faster but his actions surprised me. He started unlocking the chains that had been tying down my hands and feet to the stretcher so I could move freely. When he was done he went back to stand behind the sergeant.

Sergeant Yoon looked at me as he spoke. "Stand up" he said.

I won't stand up at your order, I thought, but somehow I felt my body standing up.