Let the Games Begin

Poked and Prodded

Taehyung lead us down a brightly lit, white hallway and turned down a couple of corridors. After walking for around a minute, we eventually reached a door and stopped. He took out what looked like a piece of plastic and swiped it against a panel on the door. It let out a soft beep and opened the door slightly. Once Taehyung had opened the door all the way, lights came on overhead and brightened up the small room.

A purple couch sat in the middle of the room and faced the TV that was mounted on the wall. Besides a mini refrigerator that was hidden under a table, there wasn't much else in the room.

We walked into the room and stood there in the middle of it while Taehyung looked us over. "We'll start with Seokmin." He pointed to me and smiled. "Ki-Bum, you can just watch the recaps of the reaping and chill on the couch until it is your turn."

While Taehyung and I made our way to a door on the opposite side of the room that I didn't notice, Ki-Bum searched for the power button on the TV and sat down on the couch after finding it. 

Once the door was shut behind us, three more helpers came out and one had a robe in their hands. All of them had extremely vibrant hair colors and paint covered their faces in an exotic way. Which only succeeded in making Taehyung look more normal.

The one with the robe in his hands and the bright orange hair instructed me to take off my clothes and put on the robe. I really don't want to do this, but I guess I have no choice. I followed the man's instructions and tried not the say anything as they cleaned me with what might as well been a power hose and stripped parts of me from hair.

After I was clean and a pink color replaced my skin to where I looked like one of the people from the capitol, Taehyung re-entered the room. I must've been so preoccupied in my own pain that I never noticed that he left the room.

His box smile crept onto his face as he walked around me and inspected their work. "Now this is something that I can work with. Let's get you dressed." He gestured for me to follow him into yet another room.

The door automatically shut and I was attacked by articles of clothing that Taehyung was throwing at me. Once I had caught them all he instructed me to put them on.

"Here?" Sure, I may have just been stripped in front of him, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with all of this.

He looked at me questioningly like what I just said didn't register in his vocabulary. "Yeah, right there. I'm not sure what else you would do."

Well, I tried. I internally shrugged and put down what had been thrown at me. I decided to start with some pants and dug through the pile in front of me to find them. It definitely was not helping that everything was the same texture and color; black.

It took me a couple of minutes, but I eventually got everything on.

"Um, I finished." I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck as Taehyung turned around from whatever he was looking at.

He instantly smiled and started to adjust a few things before stepping back a bit. "Perfect. Do you want to see what you look like?"

I shook my head. "I think I'm fine."

Taehyung looked a bit upset, but then led me to a chair on the opposite side of the room and told me to sit. "I'll get Mingyu in here to do your hair and then you'll be done." He left the room and went back into the other room to get this Mingyu person. 

I didn't take long for Taehyung to come back with the orange haired guy who handed me the robe. Mingyu immediately stepped up to me and started to spray my hair with a squirt bottle.

"Do you mind if I cut your hair a bit? It's a little long."

I just shrugged. "Go ahead."

...

After a while my hair was done being cut and styled and it was my turn to watch the recaps of the reaping. I walked back through the other room after once again denying to look in a mirror at what they had done. I don't need to see how I have let the capitol change me. If I did, I might vomit my guts out all over the place.

I plopped down next to Key on the couch and directed my attention to the TV while ignoring his shocked face.

He poked me in the arm and I continued to ignore him. "Um, Seokmin. Have you seen yourself?"

"No, I haven't and I don't want to know." After a couple of minutes of just watching the screen I remembered something else. "It's your turn." Key stood up and left me alone on the couch that just got much larger.

There wasn't really anything interesting about the reaping, besides this one volunteer from District 9. This one kid named Kim Seungmin was chosen and what appeared to be his older brother volunteered in his place. Other than that it was just kids either bawling their eyes out or staying stone faced.

I was almost done with the second rerun when Ki-Bum came and sat down next to me. I was about to say something to him when an odd color caught in the corner of my eye. I turned to look and choked on air. In my struggle to breathe again I ended up falling off of the couch.

"Are you okay Seokmin?" Key asked in between laughs.

Once I could breathe again I nodded and sat back down on the couch. "Did you let them do that?"

He looked at me confused. "Do what?"

My eyes widened. "You're telling me that you have no idea what they did to your hair?"

"Oh my hair? Yeah I told him to do that."

"Why? Why did you choose this bright blonde?"

He thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure. I guess I just wanted to try something different since I won't ever get the chance to again."

My heart just broke as I put my arm around his shoulder. "I will make sure you get the chance to try all of the crazy capitol things that you want. I am going to make sure you win this, okay?"

He sighed and turned to look at me. "But what about you?" I dropped my gaze and arm as we both went silent.

At that moment Taehyung came in all smiley. "You guys look great! Let's go get the girls and then we'll head over to the main square for the parade."

I shrugged, got off the couch and followed Taehyung out the door.

Please don't be nude. Please-