Second asked, "Are you okay?"
First turned his eyes at her. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not going to mess around anymore." She sighed. "Why are you acting strange this afternoon?" She finally found the courage to open up to him.
"Huh?" he was in disbelief. Maybe he wasn't expecting that question from her.
"Y-You were kind of different."
He paused for a while. "You're right. Ask me about what's bothering you." He looked at her, waiting for her to ask another question.
"Before the game started, you didn't talk to me. You were too serious and stuck. You didn't talk to others as well or even to your teammates. You seem you haven't had physical pain during the two-minute game. You shot the ball even if we were about to lose the game, but it caused someone to be in pain. You're not too puzzled by the weird things that happened in the game. And… Sixth cried. She looked at—"
"She's mad at me." He finished her sentence as if he already knew what was going on in her head. She nodded.
He averted his gaze from her and shifted it into the distance.
"I was also a victim during the two-minute game, with a stiff neck. I just pretended not to be hurt and stayed focused. When I was playing, I talked rarely. I was using my head to think of the circumstances and the next player who would be in pain. I quietly listened to my teammates' strategy, which is why, even though I'm not good at playing basketball, I managed to play. I'm not surprised by the unforeseen events because I already predicted some of them. It was a solemn game, so I must take it seriously. As for why I shot the ball for the last fifteen seconds?" First stared at her. "I did it to win the game."
***
Aeith, Twentieth, Forzen, Sixzen, and she were assigned to cook.
"Is Sixth okay?" Forzen asked Twentieth worriedly while frying. Sixth was also a close friend of Twentieth.
"She's been sleeping for a while. I made her stay and told her to come down later for dinner." Twentieth answered.
"Aren't we girls going to play tomorrow?" Aeith asked while washing the vegetables.
"Yeah, I wonder what it will be," Sixzen replied with curiosity in her mind.
Aeith added, "Oh sh*t! I might die this time when our game starts."
A moment of silence filled the kitchen. Sixzen glared at Aeith.
"Yikes, my bad," Aeith uttered as a form of a joke, but there was no room for jokes right now.
"What about me, who knows no sports because I prefer reading books?" Forzen changed the topic a bit. She was helping Aeith with the vegetables.
"Me too," Twentieth agreed.
She was glad because she got to know them better. She also got a chance to talk to Aeizen and Sectwen—the only two girls who felt distant from her. Aeizen was quiet and didn't socialize a lot, but she was a good person. Sectwen could be straightforward in saying her feelings, whether good or bad, but she could sense that Sectwen was a sweet person.
They ate dinner afterward. The joy of feeling that even though she couldn't remember who her family was, she had a bigger family here.
"Let's eat!" Ninezen declared excitedly.
After they prayed, everyone ate. Everyone was tired, not only physically but also emotionally.
Second watched Sixth leave the dining table early. She hoped Sixth would be okay. They were getting done eating, and some had already left the dining area. Their chairs in the dining area had an engraved number corresponding to the assigned chairs according to their number names. They wondered why they had to sit in a proper position by ordinal number, but they just did it. On the right side of the table were the boys; on the left were the girls. She was facing First as they ate. First was just seriously eating his food and silently left after eating. She still ponders what he told her earlier in the music room.
First took the last shot even though they would still lose. How did he make sure they would win by what he did? Why was he so confident that they would win? Author would reveal the result tomorrow, probably at the same time as which team will win the next game.
***
After eating, she took a shower and put on sleepwear. Second saw First playing chess with Third. Of all the boys here, he was closest to Third, probably because they thought the same way. She was glad to see that he interacted with others. They routinely did what they did here in the castle since they were trapped. There was nothing new except for Author's gimmicks.
When else could they get out of here? She would rather live a normal life than live in this grand castle confined. She couldn't imagine herself being quarantined for the rest of her life because a lot of strange things happened in this world.
"Hey, let's play. Join us!" She saw Ninezen waving at her, so she went close to him.
Ninezen, Seventh, and Tenth were playing board games. They were missing one player, so she joined as well. It was fun because the board games here were out of this world.
The Scrabble automatically shuffled and there was no need to flip letters because they were blank. The board had magnets so even if you touched or flipped the letters, they would not be easily removed from their place. There was a small digital scoreboard in each corner of the board.
In chess, you didn't need a hand to move chess pieces. You just needed to speak where you wanted to place a chess piece by coordinate. The colors of chess pieces per player varied. They could be transparent, translucent, neon, and more.
Snakes and Ladders stairs and snakes were in 3D and looked like real-life snakes. The circle used as a marker was not just a simple circle but a cartoon-style face of the player. There were sound effects and digital scoring.
Monopoly was a 3D-like image with a touchboard and sound effects. Unlike the ordinary Monopoly board game, which was top view, here you could see on the board the infrastructure, business, and more, from different angles and perspectives.
Cards had characters that were also 3D with real-life-looking people. They moved in a repetitive motion; if you moved the card you were holding.
In Shogi, similar to chess, you just had to speak to make each piece move. The written Japanese/Chinese characters glowed in the dark, so you could play even in a dim area.
The Tower of Hanoi was made of steel but lightweight, probably a titanium-like material.
There were also dominoes, mahjong, word hunt, checkers, sci-checkers, and many more.
They were just like that all the time. Eat, bathe, sleep, have fun. Some complained because there were no internet or any gadgets here. But her favorite thing about this castle of all was the art room and library. If you went to the library, it just seemed ordinary, but the books were magical. If you wanted to read something and if you knew the title and if you were too lazy to look for it on the shelves, you could just mention the title in the air, and the book you were looking for would fall to the floor.
Although not hardbound and without a plastic cover, the cover had no creases. It was also dustproof and waterproof.
"Ah, I won!" Tenth, the girl with double hair buns won this match.
"Another," challenged Seventh because he couldn't accept defeat.
She was second in the ranking. Not that bad. She became drowsy after playing a couple of matches. She stood up and stretched. There were only a few of them here in the living area. Others were already asleep because she thought it was midnight.
"Where are you going?" Ninezen asked Second.
"Room. I'm sleepy."
"Good night," Seventh waved.
"Sweet dreams!" Tenth added.
"Don't forget to sleep," she reminded them, because these two might deprive themselves of sleeping.
She turned around and said bye. She went up. She lay down and hugged her soft, white pillow.
Playing these games might be a good distraction for a moment. Unlike the board games they played for fun, the game they would play tomorrow was not a fun one, but a gamble in which their lives were at stake.