RIPPLE | P.JM

18

SEVEN

I lean into him, my eyes still fixed onto the target board. We'd moved onto the second one after I'd finally gotten the bullseye of the first one, which had taken three hours to do and which I was also pretty sure it was by pure chance.

And now Park Jimin was looking extremely frustrated with how I was progressing.

He fixes a glare at me the moment my back presses slightly into the front of his chest.

"What?" I say as innocently as I can, my hands hurting from holding up this stupid bow for too long. But I still watch him in amusement when his cheeks start to blush in anger and frustration.

"You know." He hisses, the words coming from deep his throat. "I really tried to be patient, but this is absolutely ridiculous. Are you playing with me?"

"Does it look like I'm playing?" I exclaim, showing him my bandaged palms.

"I can't do this anymore." He says, dragging a hand across his face. "It's been hours. I need a break from putting up with you."

"Well— well, me too!" I sputter after him when he leaves, the door clicking close behind him.

When I'm left alone, I fix a hateful stare at the target— the spots around it littered with all my failed arrows.

Why can't you just do this?

This should be easy.

Growling, I hurl the bow to the ground and watch the weapon clatter against the smooth black floor. It shouldn't be like this. Why was this one thing setting me back so much?

I sigh, burying my face in my hands and sinking down to my knees.

I was going to have to apologize to Jimin.

Grumbling, I pick up the bow I'd thrown and slide it back into the spot where I'd found it. And I'm about to turn around, start heading towards the door Jimin has gone through when the lights suddenly go off.

The entire room descends to complete darkness, leaving me stunned.

Okay.

What?!

Keep calm, I tell myself first as I instantly find the wall with my hand. Maybe it just turned off because it didn't sense that much motion in here. Motion sensor. Yeah.

I easily visualize the structure of the room in my mind, and start walking towards where the door should be when something suddenly brushes across the bare skin of my forearm.

And my mind explodes in panic.

Bug?

I spin around, shaking my arms as fast as I can. Now I've completely lost my sense of direction, but I don't freaking care.

There's a bug in here.

All my attention is now in the darkness around me, and I feel so completely helpless as I keep moving my arms. That's the only thing I can think of, before I hurriedly try finding the wall again.

"J-Jimin!"

But of course he can't hear me.