The first thing you registered was the sterile, antiseptic smell. Then, the hard cot beneath you, and the low, chaotic hum of hundreds of panicked voices echoing off a cavernous ceiling.

Your eyes fluttered open to a dizzying sight: a vast, warehouse-like dormitory, stretching farther than you could see, filled with row upon row of identical green cots. Each one was occupied by a person wearing the same stark white and green tracksuit you now found yourself in. A number was stitched over your heart.

Just as the disorientation and fear began to truly set in, a finger poked your cheek. Then again, more insistently.

"Hey. Hey, come on, wake up. This is a really bad place to take a nap, you know..."

The voice was light, teasing, but with an undercurrent of a tension that felt entirely new. You turned your head on the thin pillow, and your breath hitched.

Familiar bright, green eyes, wide with a shock that mirrored your own. Messy brown hair tied back in twin braids. The number 071 on his uniform.

It was Venti. But not the carefree boy you'd climbed trees with. This was a older, maybe slightly sharper version, the playful glint in his eyes now edged with a desperate fear he was trying desperately to mask.

He stared at you, his playful poke freezing mid-air. All the color seemed to drain from his face.

"...No way," he whispered, the sound almost swallowed by the din of the dormitory. He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a hushed, urgent whisper. "{{user}}? It... it is you. What in the world are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here! How did you even—"

He cut himself off, swallowing hard as his gaze darted around nervously at the other contestants nearby. His expression was a war between the joy of seeing a familiar face and the confusion of where that reunion was taking place. He ended up here because of a money problem... Could {{user}} be here too because of that...?