11 JACKPOT

"...we need to get rid of the Minuet girl before it's too late."

Taehyung's warm breath on my neck stops as he inhales sharply. My mind races, 'What does Rudale mean?' 'Why?' 'What does he want?'

"A nuisance," Mengxi's clear voice rings out in agreement. "Yes, she's a bad influence to strong potential around her."

"We need to make an example out of her," Vicky growls. My stomach drops low and my throat clenches painfully.

I've known Mengxi and Vicky my whole life, but these past few weeks they've completely changed and now they act like they don't know me. I hold back hot tears threatening to spill.

Taehyung, maybe sensing my discomfort, rubs my back gently. I smile at him with gratitude, and he gives me back a small, sad smile.

"We must change the system here starting tomorrow. I can't wait any longer," Rudale says in an annoyed tone. "It makes me sick watching these spoiled brats wasting their youth away."

I hear a shuffle, one of the adults must've shifted their position. "Where should we start?"

"Safety and Defense," Rudale's gruff voice says. "They need to start with that first, they're so behind in the arts of strength and stealth."

"Gladly," Vicky hisses. Goosebumps raise on my bare arms.

Taehyung and I barely have time to lean back into the depth of the shadows when the door opens and they saunter out, their faces blank but their eyes glinting and cutting. Mengxi pauses, the last one to leave, and sniffs once and walks closer to Taehyung and I. I press my back as much as I can against the wall, my lungs burning with the need of oxygen, my brain growing light and dizzy. I see her delicate silhouette stilling right in front of us, and stays there for a moment. I should've taken in more oxygen before they walked out of the room. My head begins to hurt, my limbs tingling, I need to

b r e a t h e .

Finally, when Mengxi decides nothing is wrong, she leaves and is out of sight. I silently gasp for air, my chest heaving and relief flooding my head in waves. Taehyung gasps for air as well beside me. After a minute we recover, and quietly trickle back into the main hall unnoticed.

We have a strong desire to tell the rest of the boys, but then social hour is over and midnight is close anyway. In the A-2 girls' dormitory, the lights flicker off, and I wait an hour before slipping out of bed, feeling Liesl's eyes follow me in the dark, and finding my way to the old storage closet.

Everyone else is already there. I open my mouth immediately to tell the others but Taehyung lifts up a hand to stop me. "Soon," he says, grinning. "First, we're gonna change locations."

"Wait..." I frown. "What?"

"We want a bigger room to meet," Jimin explains quickly. "Somewhere forgotten like this closet, but bigger so we can all comfortably fit. Also, this is in the North Wing, and it's dangerous to keep meeting here, since Rudale and the other Andromeda adults sleep here."

My mouth forms a small 'o'. I didn't think about that. "Then where should we go?" I ask, crouching down to enter the circle.

Jin grins mischievously. "We're thinking... on the top floor."

I gasp. "But--that's so far away, it'd be hard to get there every time--" Realization hits me. "That floor is banned, are you guys insane!?"

"Shh, hush," Yoongi says softly, raising a finger to his lips. "We know that. Don't worry, we'll have a secret way to get there."

I cross my arms and look at Kookie. "Kookie and I know all the secret passages in this ship. There are no reasonable ways to get to the top floor every midnight, right, Kookie?"

Kookie shrugs. "Well... it turns we didn't know 'all' of them. At least, we were too innocent back then to consider this, hah." He grins wildly, his eyes glinting with excitement. "The transport lift... just outside of it."

I roll my eyes and snort. "Yeah, right-- oh!" My eyes widen, and I let out a laugh. "Like how the old guy mentioned?"

The past few weeks, the computer has been ignored a bit, but before we've read some of the diaries from the computer, and this guy used to hide and go places by hanging onto the outside of the transport lift.

"Tonight we'll try if it works," Namjoon says, rubbing his hands in anticipation. I grin along with all the other boys.

We sneak out of the closet one at a time, and all meet at a lift stop. Jimin tentatively pushes the 'up' button, scared of making too much noise, and the boys snigger at him until we hear a faint rustle. Then everyone shuts the heck up, but it turns out to be just the heaters' whirring.

The lift doors slide open and we all shuffle in. Jimin stands beside me in the lift, and I flashback to when he told me how he thought I was strong. I blush furiously just at the thought of it, and Hoseok notices at looks at Jimin and I curiously, Jimin grinning like an idiot.

"Ok," Namjoon says, not bothering to whisper here, "we have to look for a loose spot..." We all look up at the steel tiles on top of us, our spirits drooping at the sight of it.

"Maybe technology was different back then..." Taehyung trails off quietly.

"Whoo!" I let out a harsh loud exhale, and everyone looks in surprise at me. I jump up and down, shaking out my nerves, and inhale through my nostrils. My blood courses with adrenaline. "Alright, chickens," I say, winking at Kookie. Only he knows what chickens are. "Somebody hoist me up."

Jimin starts to lift me up when Kookie laughs. "Hold up," Kookie says, grinning. "You think you're gonna do it, shortie?"

Jimin glowers at Kookie. "Hey, I'm two years older than you, fetus." I've never really thought about how much everyone calls Kookie 'fetus'.

Kookie stands close to Jimin, and strangely, Kookie is the slightest bit taller. My mouth falls open. "How did that happen?" I think aloud, and the boys burst out laughing.

Kookie pouts at me. "I've been eating veggies, like you've been telling me to, Emma."

Jimin sighs, smiling. "Alright, you can do it."

"Nah," Kookie sighs. "Namjoon, you're way taller. You can do it."

So I end up sitting on Namjoon's shoulders, and he walks around so I can push on the steel tiles of the ceiling of the lift. The lift slows to a stop, and the boys curse. "Hurry," Yoongi mumbles, and Jin and Yoongi fumble over the buttons on the wall. "Go to the first floor, we need to buy time."

"Aha!" I cry, my fingers pressing on the corner tile. The steel tiles aren't as sturdy as they look. There's a flap in the corner, maybe for emergencies. I prop it open and twirl my arm around above the ceiling, and grab ahold on a handle. I pull myself up through the small square flap, although I'm small enough to fit, I'm not sure how Jin's broad shoulders will fit through.

It's dark and cold up here. I turn around and shriek when a metal bar comes zooming up, and I throw myself back just in time. There's several bars and ropes here, but there's plenty of space. You just need to be alert to avoid any collisions. As the lift zooms up incredibly fast, this wind picks up and tosses my braid around and ruffles my clothes.

"You okay?" I hear Jimin's voice call out below worriedly.

"Yeah!" I respond. "Just... up here you need to watch out for any bars or ropes coming up or down, since the lift is moving... everything around here is moving too. It's amazing."

I peek through the open flap and see Jimin looking at the rest of the boys smugly. "I guess since I'm the SMALLEST, I'll go next."

"Right, ladies first~," Kookie sings. I watch Jimin smack Kookie's shoulder playfully and I grin.

Jimin pulls himself up and joins me on the roof of the zooming lift. He narrowly misses a swinging bar coming up, and looks around in amazement. Up here, it's like a vertical tunnel, an endless ceiling and low groans of metal grinding against metal. Yoongi comes up next, and he's just coming past the flap when the lift jerks to a stop.

My stomach lurches with fear. What's happening?

I hear nearing footsteps set at a brisk pace. Yoongi, Jimin, and I frantically gesture for the rest of the boys to come up quickly.

"We know you're in there, kiddos," a low slithery voice calls out past the lift doors. "With the lifts moving up and down at the middle of the night, there's only one reason, huh?"

Hoseok scrambles up, followed by Taehyung, Namjoon, and Jin, who twists his body so he can squeeze through. There's a pounding on the lift doors, and Taehyung shuts the flap closed. We look around in panic, and decide to climb the bars and ropes on the sides that act like rungs of a ladder. When we've all started climbing, the lift doors open, and we hear Rudale enter the lift, swearing colorfully to find the lift deserted.

My fingers burn as I climb as fast as I can. Does Rudale know about the emergency flap that leads outside the lift?

We climb up quickly for about a half hour, and we reach what seems to be the end of the vertical tunnel, which must be as high the lift can go. I climb carefully over to the doors on the wall, but I stop in front of it. I hear everyone behind me halting.

"What's up, Emma?" Namjoon's husky voice calls out behind me.

I frown. "Uhm, the lift isn't supposed to reach the top floor. So this must be the floor before the actual top floor. We need to go a bit higher..."

"Right!" Kookie exclaims. We all look around for some entrance to the top floor, and I spot an air vent. I start climbing towards it. We're not giving up when we've made it this far; we're going to get to the top floor even if it takes all night.

I wrap my legs and left arm right around a rope and with my right arm, I unhook the air vent cover and slide it up. The vent is big enough for everyone to pass through. I start to climb through, and one of the boys snorts behind me like, 'she's crazy'.

I crawl through until the passage splits into two, and I choose the one going up. The boys behind me follow close behind. Not even two minutes later, we reach an end, and an opening. I slide the cover aside and slip through the opening legs first, swinging down and then rolling to a land on the floor. I stand up and stretch, glad for some space. One by one the seven boys fall down and land in either a crouch or a roll. I look around, and I'm surprised at how deserted this room looks. It's definitely spacious, and dusty. Boxes are piled up in the center, and sheets drape across the walls and a few chairs. The air is musty and stale, despite the air vent just right above me. I slow smile starts to form on my face, and soon my heart is fluttering with excitement.

"Guys! We hit a jackpot!" I exclaim, running around the room in glee. I come across the door at the end, signal the boys to be quiet, and peek outside.

There's a narrow, empty hall, and not even automatic lights flicker on. It looks completely deserted. My grin widens even more and I shut the door, and there's even a lock.

"Where's the light?" Hoseok says, and the boys search the walls for some sort of button. I clap my hands but no light comes on. Maybe the automatic lights weren't replaced. I come across one of the walls with huge white sheets covering them. I tug on them, and the slightest pull makes them fall heavily, swirling dust everywhere.

Just then, Kookie lets out a triumphant cry, and the lights flicker on.

And I stand there, staring at my surprised reflection.