CHAPTER 16 – UNFORTUNATE ENCOUNTER WITH KING KAITO.

2026. PRESENT. SEOUL.

HELL MORGATHOR PRISON.

☠️ SORA ☠️

Everywhere somehow feels hot, or it’s just the angry stares from prisoners that’s burning me alive. I take off my jacket, standing at a distance, prison guards still surround everywhere, it is obvious to them that the chaos is far from over.

It’s obvious to me too. I can feel it. That once the prison guards are gone, they’d tear me to pieces.

“We need to go now,” Jane catches me by the arm.

I snatch it off, “Ouch! Go where?”

“Out of here! Somewhere safe.”

I look around, then back at Jane, where could be safer than a place surrounded by prison guards? “This is safe… the correctional officers are surrounding everywhere, it’s the safest place for me.”

“They’ll leave soon, and once they do… it won’t matter how loud you scream, they won’t come to save you,” Jane says in panic. “I have a feeling today is the day you actually die.”

“I know everyone wants to tear me apart. Eating got cancelled because of me, and tons of people are hungry and won’t be getting any food for the rest of today,” I say in awareness of my current predicament.

“You think it’s only that?” Jane asks, raising an eyebrow.

“What? What else did I do?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Obviously…” I snap, losing my patience. “I kept my head low the entire time as you suggested.”

“Did you?” Jane fires back, biting her nails nervously. “You know the king of prison I told you about, the one you should never cross?”

“King Kaito, right? What about him, Jane? I’m being careful… I just have to not cross him.”

“You already did.”

The words deliver a clean, surgical strike. I don’t sway, buckle, or drop to my knees. I remain entirely upright, transformed instantly into a pillar of absolute ice.

Taking a deep breath, I pull myself together and try to make sense of the situation.

“Okay, maybe he wasn’t pissed,” I blurt out, giving a dismissive shrug. “I didn’t say much. I just had a little chat with him about pushing me out of the line.”

“You call all those rumblings of insults a little chat? He asked you your name!”

“Yes, and I told him.”

“He already knew it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re everywhere. Everyone knows you. he didn’t ask you your name because he didn’t know; he asked you your name to let you know you’ve been marked by him.”

“Hold on… it’s wasn’t that serious, he only asked for my name.”

“Yeah? Well, that’s exactly what happens to every one of his victims a few hours before they are found drowned in the toilet bowl. Guess you’ll have to prepare yourself to eat shit, because there’s no surviving this prison now.”

We stop talking for a few seconds, staring into the void. Jane looks serious, like she is trying to come up with a solution, and I, well, my knees hurt, and I can’t think of anything else.

Suddenly, Jane gets snapped out of her thought, and she gawks at me.

“Hurry to your cell, you should be at least safe for the night.”

“Safe for the night?” I retort like I have something better in mind. “I don’t even know who my cellmate is yet. What if it's someone who wants me dead too?”

“Most definitely. With what you have done today, starving seventy percent of the prisoners, let’s hope your cellmate is a part of the thirty percent who ate before it got to your turn and eating got canceled, which is very unlikely. But, it’s better locked in a cell with one person who wants you dead than outside with hundreds who would happily kill you for free, and that, by the way… includes King Kaito. So if you know what’s good for you… Go to your cell and don’t come out.”

☠️

I rush towards my cell room in an instant. I can't lock the door because the lock and unlock is being controlled by prison guards, but I stay by a corner, hoping and praying that the door gets locked before Kaito and his toys find their way here.

That prayer gets answered. An hour later, I still don’t see a sign of prisoners gathering together and walking towards my cell to kill me, and that makes me relax a little.

Now, I’m left to worry about who my cellmate is.

Unable to move around as frequently as I like, I stand frozen, facing the cell door, gawking at it. Unlike last night, if my cellmate is coming to the cell today, he or she would be here any moment now, as the doors would be locked soon for lights out.

Soon, three prisoners walk towards me. The one in front is a small, petite lady who looks like she’s going to faint from carrying a football. The one in back is a slim, tall, tan-skinned guy with hair that falls all the way to his back. He’s a feminine guy who looks like he could use protection himself. The last one in back, I can’t see clearly, because he or she is covered by those in front.

But I heave a sigh of relief, if any of the two in front is my cellmate, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

The prisoners are closer to me now, and relief rushes through me. But, instead of walking into my cell, the two in front take a sharp turn to the left, walking straight into another cell. That’s when I see the third prisoner, the one at the back of the others, whom I couldn’t put a face to before, and it’s someone I’m well familiar with. Someone who, to me, is nothing but terrible news.

Jane was wrong.

Being in a cell room with one person who wants you dead is probably better than being out there with hundreds who would kill you for free. But not this one person.

A-Jun walks into my cell, and the bars beep as it locks us both in. Now, I have nowhere else to run.