trouble - evnne

22

Onepact went through one door after escaping a strange, foreign room only to stumble into yet another strange, foreign room. This one was a little bigger, blindingly bright with glaring fluorescents and bare white walls. "My head hurts," Seoungmin complained, colourful spots dancing in his vision as he groggily tried to keep his eyes open.

"I'm seeing two Jays," Jongwoo remarked, hands stretched before him as his gait turned unsteady.

"Yeah?" Taegyun slurred, before there was a thump and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Oh man," Was all that Yedam could manage as the rest followed suit.

-

"Onepact! We're wrapping up now, so get ready to leave!" They all reacted to the familiar name, jerking up abruptly, disoriented, before Jay blinked and said, "Where are we?"

Yedam swept his gaze across the area, where they were stuffed on a large black couch. "Hey! Taegyun has pink hair! Shit, I wish I had a camera or something."

They spent a good few minutes marvelling at Taegyun's adorable bubblegum pink hair, while he attempted to pluck as much as he could out. "Seriously, though, where are we?" Jongwoo wrinkled his nose as he plucked at the gaudy clothes he was wearing. "You can see my entire leg through these ripped jeans," Yedam guffawed, picking at his impressive pants.

The room they were in was large but cluttered, coats and clothes strewn about, an insane amount of luggages and storage boxes stacked on top of each other or tightly packed. Pressed to the wall was a long, thin table equipped with one too many mirrors and piled with all sorts of cosmetics.

"Onepact! Did you hear me?" A stranger suddenly poked his head behind a folding privacy screen, looking concerned, "Let's pack up. We have to go for the next recording now."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Jongwoo stammered, standing and grabbing whatever loose things he could in an attempt to look busy, and the man slipped off. At once, he dropped the lime green jacket in his hands. "What in the world."

"This must be...another reality," Seoungmin snapped his fingers, "As was the last one."

"So just now, we were university students?" Jay cocked his head, "And now...what are we?"

"This could explain it," Jongwoo suddenly piped up. As he was clearing the miscellaneous things scattered about the low table before the sofa, he had picked out a small, squarish thing. "Hey, that's us," Jay remarked, intrigued, as he took a look over Jongwoo's shoulder. "That's an album. A music album," Taegyun pointed out, "Us? Making music? Yedam is the most tone-deaf person I've-" Taegyun was silenced by a hard, offended smack.

"Wait, so in another life, we're still together? As musicians?" Jay asked, his eyes shining.

"How are we still using the name Onepact? Wait, who came up with that again?" Seoungmin asked as he rubbed Taegyun's pitiful sore shoulder.

Everyone's heads whipped to Jongwoo, who sheepishly said, "I mean...it came to me in a dream."

"That's so lame," Taegun chortled, but still looked at Jongwoo fondly.

As the team was giddy with cosiness, Seoungmin stood to sieve through the mountains of mess around them, urging, "If we want to get out of here, maybe we've gotta find a paper, like the one we saw on the table."

The others started to help too, except for Jay who stayed seated, blankly staring at them while they rustled thick winter jackets and gathered empty snack wrappers. "What if we stayed here?" Jay suddenly asked, his gaze immediately dropping to his lap when all four pairs of eyes turned over to him.

"What? Did you not hear me, Yedam can't sing for-" Taegyun was shoved off the sofa rudely.

"Jay, can I remind you that if we don't find a way out now, we'll be heading to a recording for who knows what?" Seoungmin gently pushed.

Jongwoo stayed silent, studying Jay's expression. Jay always had the skills and bravery to be a hunter, but it was ingrained in everyone's memory that Jay has a soft spot for anything music-related after he talked every single one of their ears off about said topic.

Yedam wore a sympathetic expression as he stood by the sofa, hands busy with miscellaneous items on the table, while Seoungmin busied himself searching the room for a paper similar to the one from the previous dungeon.

"You have to consider what will happen if we stay," Taegyun suddenly said, careful not to use "you". "A whole new-"

"Yeah, whatever," Jay interrupted Taegyun, getting up so abruptly the sofa inched backwards, "Forget what I said."

They watched as he made his way across the room in quick strides, running his hands across the posters on the walls, perhaps for clues, perhaps in longing.

"There's nothing here," Yedam managed after a good five minutes of searching, "No papers of use."

"Maybe..." Jongwoo suddenly trailed off, deep in thought, "Let's do what we're supposed to do. Pack up and leave, right? Those were the instructions. So, let's get ready to go."

Everyone stared at Jongwoo like he was insane but did as he suggested, mainly because an entire hoard of people swarmed the room, some dressed to the nines in glittery outfits, others in plain black clothes. Taking the lead, Jongwoo grabbed a couple things he liked and darted off behind the screen the man had poked his head from previously.

"We sure have a lot to do when we get back, huh," Seoungmin chuckled softly to Jongwoo as he stayed close to their leader, darting a quick look to the other three trailing behind. Jongwoo looked confused, so Seoungmin clarified, "We gotta get a cat, mostly for Yedam and me. Then...we probably need to give Jay some space to...do his own things."

Jongwoo looked a little crestfallen, but that expression slipped off in a second, "Yeah, sure. Of course."

"Everything will work out, you know?" Seoungmin gently encouraged.

"I know."

an: hm. im thinking of Jay being on build up and what it means for onepact