Kang Seo Joon and Kim Hana sat in the car in silence for a while, both unsure of what to say.

“Why did you hit him?” Kang Seo Joon broke the silence.

“Why did you?” Kim Hana asked.

“Stress, frustration, willing target,” Kang Seo Joon answered, “You?”

“Stress, frustration, ready target,” Kim Hana answered and Kang Seo Joon nodded and started the car engine.

“Should I take you home?” he asked and she nodded as they pulled out of the station driveway. The drive was silent, neither willing to break the silence but the air was heavy with questions none of them had the answers to. He parked the car by her building and she led him to her apartment in silence. The night was far gone by now, but neither of them was sleepy. Locking the door behind them, she took a seat on the small sofa while he took a seat on a stool by the small kitchen.

“So, we were not dreaming, then,” she broke the silence.

“It was too vivid to be a dream,” he nodded in reply.

“If never saw you again, I would have thought it was a dream,” she said and he ran his hand through his dark hair.

“It was already hard to believe such beings were possible. How long did you think we were gone, did you check?” he asked.

“Before I could get my bearings, that pervert grabbed my shoulder. But it seemed time had passed. I am not too sure,” she said.

“If we are losing time, then it is not some lucid dream we are experiencing at the same time. It means we are sent somewhere,” he muttered.

“Why do you say it that way? Do you suspect we will get pulled back in again?” she asked and he nodded.

“It asked if we wanted to be separated and called what happened to us a simulation. It also said an adaptation will begin in two days. It is possible we are going back,” he pointed out and she got up abruptly and walked around the small living space, her hand clasping her face, and hair, rubbing across her jeans nervously.

“Calm down,” he watched her with a slight frown.

“I can’t go back in there. That thing, that shadow,” she started muttering.

“You need to breathe. It seems we were being tested. But for what? Do you remember anything else about the shadow?” he asked.

“It was so close, it was so close,” she sank to the floor. He could no longer sit still and went over to crouch beside her.

“It did not want to catch you. It seemed to want to scare you. It was so close…” he started to say.

“Breathing on my neck,” she whispered.

“Breathing?” he paused and sat on the fake wood floor.

“It could not catch you. It did not want to catch you,” he said, “Besides, you were faster,” Only then did she look up at him and start nodding.

“I was faster,” she muttered. He sat for a while in silence, giving her a moment to catch her breath. Kim Hana felt her calm slowly return to her. She looked up at Kang Seo Joon in front of her who seemed deep in thought.

“It’s figure fazed in the plane. Like looking at an old TV with a bad signal,” she said, bringing him from his thoughts.

“We are pulled into an endless space to try and find our way out while pursued by a shadow-like figure. It called us applicants, we even had numbers, which means there must have been others apart from us. What if it is really as it said, a simulation, a game or something?” he asked and she nodded.

“Or an escape room, with a real location,” she said.

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“It may be hard for us to find out where the supermarket was, but the plane,” he pulled out his phone.

“But a lot of planes experience turbulence, it will never come upon the news unless the plane crashes,” she said.

“But two passengers slammed around and acting odd could end up on someone’s phone. It would not be wise to underestimate the impulsive nature of pulling out one’s phone to film,” he said, “Search for strangers on a plane, odd people appear on a plane. If we just came and went, it could come off as supernatural,” he said and she pulled her phone and joined him to comb the net.

“Unless they could not see us,” she said.

“Or we were never there,” he completed. They descended into silence as minutes turned to an hour. Soon, both were sprawled on the floor on their phones as the night rolled away and the first light peeked through the curtains.

“Is this us?” Kim Hana finally broke the silence and he sat up, ignoring the pain that gripped his waist because of his sudden motion. She turned up the volume. The video was chaotic, but Kang Seo Joon’s voice was clear as he screamed her name. The video only caught a glimpse of him shouting the word no repeatedly and vanishing. If they were not there, they would not have known that they were the ones.

“We were there. A real place,” he muttered.

“Kang Seo Joon-ssi, this video was posted a week ago,” she said and his eyes paused at the date.

“How? We…” words caught in his throat.

“Kang Seo Joon, the comments say there is another video. What if they have my face?” she asked.

“Calm down. Many think it is an edited video, and even if there is a way to prove it was not edited, we were never there. We can’t be in two places at once,” He grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to hold his gaze. His words seemed to make sense, so she nodded and returned to searching for the other. She followed a link attached to the video to a video of her crawling away from something the camera could not catch while repeatedly screaming no before vanishing. There were other videos but none of them could catch their faces and the comments all dismissed it as editing.

“Hana-ssi,” she looked up at the stern voice calling her from her thoughts.

“If we ever get called back into one of these, you must always wear a mask or something, okay?” he asked, but her mind was still dulled from the video.

“Do you understand?” he asked her and she nodded.

“We could end up in some serious trouble if we get caught on camera. You need to always have a mask in your pocket. Cover up any tattoos or anything that can be traced to you,” he said and she continued to nod.

“Where do you think they can take us next?” she asked as tears filled her eyes, “In two days…”

“We chose to not be separated, right?” he asked and she kept nodding. That shadow said we have to enter together again to prevent a funeral…” he said and saw tears roll down her cheeks and swallowed.

“Our funeral? Is it possible we could die?” she asked.

“We won’t, okay? We enter together, we come out together, no matter what,” he said. At this point, he was afraid that her head would fall off from too much nodding.

“What about work? I just got a new job,” she said and he paused.

“We will see how it goes first. Where do you work?” he asked.

“KM group headquarters, Marketing department,” she said and he paused.

“You work for me?” he asked and she froze.

“Huh?” she could not quite understand his words.

“Is there any other KM group? That makes things easier, I will know where you are,” he said.

“You are my boss? Which boss?” she asked.

“Kang Seo Joon,” he said.

“Kang Seo Joon,” she nodded for a bit, holding his gaze much longer.

“Mn, Kang Seo Joon,” he repeated, At this point she froze a bit before slowly sliding back from him and giving a deep bow while still kneeling.

“Chairman Kang,” she greeted.

“I don’t think you need to bow, we are not at work. Besides, our life and death are on the line to worry about if I am your boss, right?” he asked.

“Yes, Our Life and Death,” she repeated, her voice cracking and he felt he might have taken the joke too far.

“Nothing will happen, we don’t have time for this. It’s already daytime. Let us use today and settle a bit,” he said and even though she was no longer bowing she was still nodding, he subconsciously placed a hand under her chin to stop her nodding.

“You need to prepare your mind, Hana-ssi. I know you are scared, but we have to get out of this. Prepare your heart, we are not sure what we will need to fight,” he said and got up from the hard floor. His entire body hurt causing him to groan.

“It’s better if you take the day off work. We both need it,” he said.

“It’s my first day,” she responded and he paused.

“Are you sure you can?” he asked and she nodded.

“Even if we are getting torn through space, as long as I am still living here, I need to pay bills. I am going to work,” she said and he zeroed in on her bruised face.

“Okay,” he made for the door only to pause and return and stretch his phone to her.

“Your number,” he said and she hurriedly took his phone and imputed her number. He called it immediately and she saved his. He watched as she typed for too long, sometimes pausing to think.

“You are thinking about this too much,” he said and she looked up to meet his piercing gaze and knew she had been caught and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

“So, as long as we are in this situation, you can’t say I am disrespectful by calling you by your name, Seo Joon-ssi,” She emphasized his name.

“It’s not as though I can do anything to you,” the corner of his lips curled up slightly.

“Fine,” she saved his name as Seo Joon-ssi.

“I will call you later, Hana-ssi,” he said and left, shutting the door behind him.