Sunghoon is woken up bright and early by Eunbi the next morning. His escapades from the previous night being only hours prior meant his joints were still clicking in soreness, but he tries to push the feeling aside.

The woman has stress written all over her face as she gestures for him to put on his training uniform and to get ready for breakfast. Sunghoon can see Minjeong waiting outside, her back turned to them as she stands lifelessly in front of the elevator.

"And Sunghoon, dearest. We must be extremely careful and on our best behavior. There's been whispers that something happened last night and everyone seems to be on their last nerve." Eunbi comments as she fixes his messy hair.

Sunghoon simply nods in response, swallowing hard at the implication. You mean someone was murdered?

When they leave for the dining hall, Minjeong follows them in utter silence, refusing to make eye contact with Sunghoon in the time it takes them to reach the first floor.

The walk there is silent, much like the rest of the hall. Despite being later in the morning, no one is talking over their meal. Districts are sitting on their own in isolation, pointedly avoiding anyone's prying eyes.

Sunghoon scans the room to see if any of his mentors are lingering around, but he only spots Jungwon sitting with his tributes from District Four. Even then, he doesn't miss the glare that is already sent his way before the boy continues to pick at his plate.

"Is it... always this tense?" Sunghoon asks Eunbi in a whisper, as the news should not have spread this quickly.

Three avoxes silently serve them heaping plates of food and a glass of juice before retreating back to where they came.

"Tributes tend to keep to themselves on scoring day. However, I assume everyone else has gotten the news from their mentors too, seeing as everyone looks much more tense than usual." Eunbi suggests, equally as quiet.

"What happened, anyway?" Sunghoon inquires despite knowing full well the real story. Perhaps there was a cover up to what really happened.

"Well, last night all the power went out. According to the gamemakers they told us something was compromised downstairs in the boiler room and wanted to check that everyone was in bed. Of course I told them that both of you were sleeping soundly in bed." Eunbi rattles off her story, "But whatever happened reflects poorly on all of us."

She quiets down once a lone tribute passes their table. Karina struts by, a solemn, yet hard look of confidence plastered upon her usually expressionless face. She sits alone near the back corner of the room, and quickly begins eating as if nothing is out of sorts.

"Where's K and Heeseung? " He ponders to himself, almost choking on his eggs when someone smacks him on the back.

"Why the long face, Hoonie? It's a big day." Jaeyun beams from behind him, and Sunghoon pulls out a napkin to cough into.

Yep, that has to be an assigned personality. That, or he cannot, or refuses to read the room.

Seeing that neither of his tributes are with him, Sunghoon grabs his plate and excuses himself from the otherwise silent table to move to another corner of the room.

"Are you crazy? Did you not hear about what happened last night?" Sunghoon hisses, quieting down momentarily as an avox brings over a plate for the older, as well as a cup of coffee.

"Of course I did. How do you think Heeseung got away with it?" Jaeyun shrugs, shoving a piece of bacon in his mouth gleefully.

"Considering the Capitol prides themselves on their smarts, they can be pretty stupid." He snorts, "They think I have to do this stupid hand motion thing to odds, but little do they know I only did that because I sucked at mental math."

He follows it up with a sip of his coffee, "Still do, just a little bit less."

Sunghoon gawks at him incredulously, "Sorry, what?"

"Yeah, man. I'm manipulating the odds whenever I want and they don't know about it. It's a little less effective now that I'm conscientiously tweaking an odd permanently, but I still got it in me."

Jaeyun spins his fork, "If you want a twelve for your score later I could probably pull it off for you. Might take a bit of extra manifesting, though."

Sunghoon shudders at the thought, "No thanks. I don't want K to kill me before I've even left the bloodbath."

"Fair enough." Jaeyun hums, finishing off the rest of his plate before Sunghoon has even finished half.

"Are you ready for evaluations today?"

"Maybe. I'm confident in my skill itself but I don't quite know how my display will bode with the judges." Sunghoon concludes.

"Ohh, so Heeseung has got you doing something controversial? I like it." He winks, handing his empty plate to a passing avox.

"I mean it's a little risky, but I doubt the judges pay any sort of attention after District Three anyways." Sunghoon shrugs, to which Jaeyun wholeheartedly agrees.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to know where everyone else is, would you?"

Jaeyun turns around in his seat to scan the room. The only other mentor present in the room was Jungwon, who seemed to be actively avoiding them.

"Honest, no. I thought you might have a clue of where they were." He admits, casting a wistful stare towards the elevator, "Must be something important, though. They didn't even have enough peacekeepers to put me on guard today."

"Again, that's probably because we murdered someone." Sunghoon coughs to cover up his statement, taking a big swig of his juice.

"Nah, it must happen a lot. They probably just needed to brief them or something." Jaeyun shrugs.

"Heeseung dropped me off at my room last night and didn't say that anything was out of the ordinary. Maybe they really just wanted their opinion on the crime?"

"Who knows. Oh wait, there's Sunoo. He probably knows something."

Jaeyun proceeds to stand up and wave like an absolute madman to get his attention, which merely causes the District One victor to facepalm and walk towards their table.

"Maybe tone down the energy, big guy. Everyone here looks like they're ready for a funeral and you're ready for a marathon." Sunoo jokes, sitting down beside Sunghoon.

"Were you talking about last night?" Jaeyun asks in a whisper, eyes darting around.

"Yes, the four of us were questioned and briefed but obviously nothing came out of it, thanks Jaeyun."

Sunoo turns to Sunghoon, "Don't let this bother you. As you know, he knew too much. It had to be done."

He knew too much.

What did he know too much that Sunghoon didn't? Heeseung had said the same thing to him last night as well. What did he know too much of ?

Sighing, Sunghoon pushes the rest of his plate to the side and stares between the two mentors.

"What do you guys mean he knew too much?"

Without missing a beat Sunoo smiles, "All will be revealed in time. It's nothing important to you at this very moment."

This worries Sunghoon. He doesn't have much time, how much longer can he wait for this large secret hanging over his head about himself ?

He opens his mouth to protest when Riki comes sulking over, practically slamming into Jaeyun on the other side of the booth.

"Man, I never want to talk to Capitol people ever again. I almost overheated."

Sunoo rolls his eyes, "Not like you don't do that anyway."

Jongseong comes shortly after with an unusually neutral expression, "You ready for today, Sunghoon?"

"Of course." He replies automatically, not wanting to accidentally piss him off.

Small talk is passed throughout the table as if they were ignoring the elephant in the room, until an announcement is made that all trainees should proceed to the training center within the next ten minutes.

As if the revelation caused him to appear out of thin air, Heeseung is waiting behind him when he stands up.

"You know the plan?" He asks affirmingly.

"Yes. I think so." Sunghoon confirms.

Without another word Heeseung wraps him in a hug, immediately causing Sunghoon's face to flush red despite being pressed against the mentor's shirt. The smell of vanilla instantly washes over him, and the familiarity that the arms provide him is almost embarrassing.

Sunghoon is about to ask why the occasion deserved a hug when he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. Heeseung releases him shortly after.

"Ouch." Sunghoon complains softly, bringing a hand up to his head. It comes back bloody.

"Hurry up, Hoon. You don't want to be late." Heeseung says slyly, gesturing for him to go on his way.

Taking a quick glance at his hands, none of his nails are bloody, meaning that can't have been the cause of his cut. There also isn't a weapon hidden up his tight sleeves. The ring on his finger is clean as well.

Before he can overthink it, Sunoo ushers him toward the training center. Sunghoon wipes the blood off onto the back of his pants while he waits behind the District Nine tributes in line.

When he is called forward, he notices it isn't a peacekeeper that pricks his finger like at the reaping, but instead someone wearing a white lab coat. Instead of immediately telling him to continue on, the woman watches the blood continue to trickle for what feels like hours before she gestures for him to continue into the room.

Sitting in one of the unoccupied chairs in front of a sign labeled 7 , he stares blankly at the empty space around him.

Shoot the clock . He reiterates to himself, closing his eyes to envision the precise spot where he needs to shoot.

His muscles are pulling back the bowstring for the shot when a presence disrupts him from his visualization.

"Ready?" Seon asks, jittering into the seat beside him.

"As I'll ever be." Sunghoon nods, not really in the mood for small talk at a time like this.

As more tributes begin piling into the room, Sunghoon begins to feel a bit more nervous. He's shot a bow many times in his life before, but he's never picked it up outside of his private session. What if he picks one that carries just differently enough to miss his shots?

His overthinking is squashed once he realizes K is still not present within the room, everyone else being accounted for.

"Apparently he's been in the infirmary all night. He's going to go after everyone else is done." Seon whispers, noticing his confusion.

Sunghoon just nods absentmindedly, though the news is shocking to him. K was down there with us? How much does he know? Did he see or hear anything?

By the time tributes begin to be called into the room, everything turns to a blur. Each one gone for what seems like seconds, causing his own scoring to inch closer faster than he expected.

When Seon returns he looks disgruntled, "They're hardly paying attention. Good luck."

Minjeong goes in next and comes out within five minutes, which likely won't reflect well on her score later tonight.

"District Seven, male." A monotonous, robotic voice announces.

Sunghoon wipes the anxious sweat on his palms off on his pants as he gets up to enter the center.

Seon was right. The judges aren't paying attention. A gaggle of men sit around a magnificent looking table, gorging themselves with the food and drinks from the wondrous feast sprawling in front of them.

Sunghoon doesn't even bother to introduce himself. They won't hear or listen to him anyway.

He makes his way over to the rack of bows in the corner of the room, touching each and silently judging whether they are all the same weight or not.

After discovering one a tad bit lighter than the rest, he picks up a quiver and takes merely two arrows. He turns back toward the judges.

Still, none of them turn to face him, far more engrossed in their conversations and rich food. He wonders if the arrow will even get their attention at all.

Sighing, he notches one of his arrows and scans the room looking for anything else that might catch their attention. His entire body tenses up at the idea, but he notices a man sporting a large top hat that would be the perfect target in a scenario like this.

Pulling back the string, he narrows his eyes in focus and takes one deep breath before letting the arrow go.

The soft thud of metal hitting fabric, and then impaling in the wall behind them is heard. Instantly, the chatter stops. All heads immediately turn to the boy, their faces indiscernible with fear, rage, and intrigue.

With the minute hand nearing seven, Sunghoon notches another arrow and turns to aim directly at the caged clock in the corner of the room. It stands more than fifty feet away from his current position.

25... 26... 27... 28.... 29... 30... 31... twang .

He releases his arrow a second time, and just as he'd hoped, the cracking of glass sounds and the arrow implants itself directly on the 7/7 position. The only working pointer being the hour marker.

There is silence in the room as the judges turn to look at the clock, and then at him.

Sunghoon does a mocking bow, leaves his weapon on the rack and then walks out.

As soon as he steps back out into the waiting room, his feigned confidence instantly leeches out of him. What the fuck did I just do?