CHAPTER 5

SLIDE.

"And this is where most of the people hang out and party." Chishiya stopped at the last stop, waiting to hear your thoughts and or comments on the place.

You skimmed your environment. The place looked like it was a public pool with all the floaties, lounge chairs, tables, and big umbrellas. It was packed with people everywhere, and on top of that, most of them were staring at you. From what Chishiya told you, chances are, it's because you are a newbie and it's a common occurrence when someone new joins. Having all the eyes on you wasn't something that was new or something that you weren't used to. Having to experience it quite frequently while playing on tour, you treated the situation the same, you ignored the looks. However, while you were looking around, you were able to tell that some of the people had seemed to recognize you.

"Wait, so do I need to change into a swimsuit before I do anything?" You asked your light haired friend.

He turned to you with his hands in his pocket and an eyebrow raised, curious as to what you're going to say next. "What do you plan on doing Y/n?"

"What do you think, dumbass? I'm gonna jump into the pool, what else?"

Chishiya lightly chuckled in response, he was clearly amused by your response. "You haven't grown a bit since the last time I was around you."

"What do you rate this one?"

Despite the fact that he didn't want to partake in helping you choose a swimsuit, you dragged him along with you. So far, you've been through around 3 or 4. He hasn't yet given any of them a rating of above an 8, which was your goal.

Of course Chishiya knew that your goal was, so he just kept on giving poor ratings. He would never admit it, but he enjoyed looking at you while you were in all of the swimsuits. To be completely honest, he couldn't care less which one you decided on wearing, because what you decided on wearing wasn't going to change the fact that he's utterly obsessed with you.

This one swimsuit however managed to grab his attention obviously more than the others. It was a simple white top that had a black ink spill design onit. The shorts were just plain black, but it fit your body so nicely. Even though the design was incredibly simple, it somehow managed to greatly enhance the image of your toned body.

"Earth to Chishiya? Are you there buddy?" You asked him, snapping in front of his face to hopefully snap him out of whatever he was thinking or focusing so intently on.

He snapped out of his intense thinking and made

eye contact with you before answering. "9.3."

"Wait what?"

"You look good in it."

You made sure to check the mirror one last time before deciding on this exact swimsuit.

"Thanks by the way." You accepted his rare compliment, smiling.

Now that you finally got your swimsuit, you were able to move around the beach without getting weird or questioning stares from others. Your first destination was the pool. After what happened last night, a nice jump onto the pool might be able to help you get back down to Earth.

You got to the pool and there were more people than there were last time you were here. It's probably because last time you were here was the morning. Early in the morning too, everyone was most likely sleeping in.

You walked through the crowd of people that surrounded the pool. People were chatting, drinking, and just hanging out. The atmosphere was definitely lively. Oddly lively in a world without any laws where you could die any day and anytime. You definitely needed to keep your guard up; you could be betrayed anytime you trust someone too much.

Finally after several minutes of just circling the pool, you managed to find a spot on the edge where there weren't people in the pool in front of you. Taking a deep breath, you cannon balled into the water. The cool water felt relaxing against your skin.

You closed your eyes and let yourself tread in the water. While in the pool, you went over everything that happened so far.

'So if I slip up at all, I'll be fucked. This feels like an incredibly long tennis match with injury or even death if you lose or mess up. I just need to stay calm and stay rested.'

You dipped your head underwater again and broke through the water's surface again. The water made your hair stick together, and the extra weight of the water made your head feel heavier.

"What are you doing?" You heard Chishiya's voice from one of the sun loungers.

Once you found where he was, you walked up the pool steps and ran up to him, nearly slipping while doing so. "What do you think I was doing?"

"Going insane." He answered, handing you a white towel. "Why else would you just keep your eyes closed while drifting around in the water. For a second I thought you died."

You took the cotton towel and draped it around you. It felt soft and a bit warm against your bare skin as it began absorbing the water all over your body.

"I'm not that pathetic. There's no way I'm about to die in a pool." You snickered.

He shrugged. "It's possible."

Even though he said it was possible, he knew that he would never let that happen. There would be no way that he would forgive himself after. You were the only reason that he was even slightly interested about staying alive. If it weren't for you, he'd be only playing them as if they were normal games, and trying to outsmart the others for his own benefit. Now that you were here, he had to make sure that you would be safe and no one else was able to get a hold of you.

"Well let's move on to a more serious topic, we get divided when games start right?"

He nodded his head.

"And say that you were playing a hearts game, wouldn't there be several members of the beach that die?"

He nodded his head again. "Hatter doesn't really care about the lives of the members of the beach. He feeds off the power that the people give him, and it makes him feel idolized. He believes that once he leaves, he'll be seen as a hero."

"Well that's expected. When these instances occurred in history, it never ended well. I'm sure his downfall won't be far from now."

Chishiya's smirk came back. "It seems like we were thinking the same thing."

"Learned from the best."

He accepted the compliment and brought up a similar topic of conversation. "Your first game as part of the beach will be today."

"Who's this?"

A girl with black dreadlocked hair pulled back in a ponytail came up behind your friend. She had what seemed to be a fake cigarette in her mouth. Her blue beach style bikini made her look beautiful, if you weren't in the borderland, you would've easily mistaken her as a model.

"I'm Y/n, it's nice to meet you.."

"Kuina. My name's Kuina, it's nice to meet you. How do you know Chishiya?" She asked you,

The blonde male answered for you. "We're friends even before we were teleported into this world."

She took out her fake cigarette and just nodded her head up and down in understanding. "So then, I guess it's be helpful if I knew a bit more about you then?"

"Sure. What would you like to know though?"

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see the doctor just watching the two of you get to know each other. He wasn't doing anything, just observing as he usually does.

Kuina pulled over another chair and sat down onto the chair, leaving forwards towards you. "It'd be cool if you told me what you did back in the normal world."

"What do you think I did?"

Kuina looked you up and down with her brown eyes, trying to connect the dots. "You seem pretty athletic. So I'm guessing you were a professional athlete?"

You let out a small chuckle. "Yep, good job on guessing correctly. What did you do though?"

"I just sold wedding dresses." Kuina answered, not much energy behind her response.

"That seems fun. Rude or bitchy customers must be a bitch to deal with huh?"

"Yeah, they're so annoying."

The two of you laughed a lot. From that moment, you knew that you both would turn out to be great friends. The thought of it was definitely reassuring. To know that there was going to be at least two people that seemed to be trustworthy was a relief.

On the other hand, Chishiya wasn't a big fan of the idea.

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My writing skill has definitely downgraded 💀

HAPPY NEW YEARS BTWW