Chapter Text
The stagnant noise of Kyungsoo’s suitcase rolling forward next to him is the only sound that accompanies his long strides in the corridor. His face has the same expression as he always has when he first appears on television: polite smile with his eyes shining in excitement.
The façade is simply for the cameras capturing his arrival to the Circle —his anticipation threatening to bubble over as he meets the end of the corridor and turns the handle leading into his new apartment.
“Hello Circle!” He sing songs to the apartment a beat after the door shuts behind him. There’s no turning back anymore. The only way out now is to lose the game.
His steps get shorter and quicker as he walks through the entrance, still dragging the massive suitcase alongside him. It’s not a though decision for Kyungsoo to leave it behind as he checks the apartment out.
He peaks into the room on the right which seems to be the living room and kitchen, leaving the rooms on the left to be the bathroom and his bedroom. He takes a quick look at the place he’ll be sleeping in for who knows how long. Brightness surrounds the apartment even when the interior is mostly black and wood —thanks to the studio lights lining the ceiling.
“This is actually happening”, his eyes widen in astonishment as a realization hits after he spots couple more cameras at the bathroom, following his movements and filming him.
He’s like a rat in a science experiment. Filmed, fed and locked up. But that’s what the Circle truly is —he knew it even before he signed up: a human experiment. The game will be though itself, but being isolated and under constant mindset of suspicion will be the worst kind of mind fuckery. He’s not scared of it though; it’s cool as heck to him.
“I have to check out the kitchen!” He yelps one shoe in hand as he’s changing into slippers now that he’s taken the first looks in his apartment.
He can’t believe he almost forgot the most important part. His reputation as a chef will take critical hits during the filming but at least the grannies watching his cooking show will get some new content out of this.
The shoes are left next to the suitcase to the hallway as he inspects the equipment he’s going to have to survive with. It’s better than he expected, most of the things new and almost of professional quality, just a little lacking with work surfaces —making it not quite parallel to his own kitchen at home but something he can work with.
“AHH FU… jitsu!” He let’s out a manly scream as he hits quite hard the dining table behind him with his ass. He’s been practicing on censoring his language just for this show and it more or less works.
Although he wears glasses, he isn’t blind enough to not see the table —he just forgot it was there for a moment. He’ll happily drink his morning coffee looking out to the peaceful English scenery, but before that he’ll have to move the big-ass plant out of the way that’s in front of the window.
“Hi Kyungsoo”, a loud voice resonates around him, “Your first reactions have been filmed now. Feel free to spread out and stuff.”
“I- Are you the producer I was told about?”
“Yes! I’m Baekhyun, your day-time producer. I’ll be here monitoring and helping you around during your time here”, his voice keeps its extremely loud level.
“Thanks. Can your voice be turned a little lower? You’re quite loud.”
“Oh, sorry. I was leaning too much into the mic”, his voice gets smaller, “Is this better?”
Kyungsoo shows the okay- sign with his fingers as he checks out the fridge, “You really brought everything I wrote down. I’m impressed.”
“What do you expect us to be? Half-assed?” Baekhyun’s chuckle fills the room. “But I gotta admit— all that chef stuff was not the easiest to find out of all the orders.”
Kyungsoo smiles knowingly. He may have written some special ingredients that aren’t absolutely necessary for him, wanting to test the limits. The Circle is a little like staying in a hotel as he can ask basically anything and have it delivered to him. He even has this Baekhyun guy so he won’t be getting too lonely. He feels pretty good for now.
The cameras follow him as he walks back to his luggage and begins to work his way to the bedroom. The real work though comes up as he tries to lift the suitcase to the bed. It’s not working —not because of him, but because of the bed that is too high and the suitcase that has clothes for thirty days in it.
“Wouldn’t you try to pull it up from the bed?” Baekhyun suggests and if Kyungsoo’s not wrong he’s laughing at him.
Does Kyungsoo listen? No.
He tries to lift it up sideways with the producer snickering on the background. As it doesn’t produce wanted results Baekhyun speaks up again:
“I really hope you’re never the sober one in your friend group —with what I just witnessed even I can guarantee they’re spending the night passed out on the floors, no hope of getting moved to bed.”
Kyungsoo casts his THE look to the nearest camera, although it’s not to it’s highest performance with his glasses halfway down his nose and sweat breaking out on his forehead.
“Kyungsoo, you’re not in ‘the office’ so please don’t look straight at the cameras”, Baekhyun sighs.
“Oh really now? And don’t worry, a few selected words to my friends from me and they’re all queuing to bed.”
He pushes his hands under the suitcase and squats, getting ready to push it up enough for it to fall onto the bed. Swiping the sweat off of his forehead and leaving another fingerprint onto his eyeglasses he dusts his clothes and starts to unpack the mass of clothes and other necessities. He doesn’t get far as the big screen facing the bed lights up to purplish blue with the circle’s logo.
“Hello? What’s happening?” The words don’t seem to do a thing. He’s about to ask Baekhyun as the screen changes.
Leaving the clothes, he sits on the bed right in front of it.
“Welcome to The Circle”, he reads, “This is a voice activated system. You now must set up your profile. It really starts now, doesn’t it?”
He straightens his back and furrows his brows. First impressions are one of the most important parts of the game if not the most. He has to stay true to his strategy of being honest, or he’ll fail from the start. The profile picture will be one of the pictures he has pre-selected into his private albums so he has at least a grasp what it’ll be.
“Okay. I want to do that.”
“Kyungsoo, you have to articulate your words and thoughts. Be clear with the things you say and start with ‘Circle, take me to…’ so I don’t have to do everything manually”, Baekhyun says as the screen changes. Kyungsoo’s name is bright against the blue background on the right top corner of the screen. Right under it are places for his age, relationship status and bio. He dreads the moment he has to write it.
“Circle, take me to my private albums”, he tries and seven albums pop up. There’s one of him while cooking and another of him and his puppies, a few of him with his friends and family and few of him in a different settings. Thanks to the long time he has had to consider he confidently chooses the album Casual Kyungsoo.
The circle shows him five pictures of him and he carefully looks at each of them. In two pictures he’s in sweatpants and although he looks like that very often, that’s not what he wants to show first. There’s one of him in a crewneck sweater and he looks in it straight into the camera, caught off-guard. People say he looks cute in it —that’s a very big no. He’s debating over two pictures but one caught his eye more.
“Show me the picture at the left lower corner. The one where I’m standing against a brick wall”, Kyungsoo stands up to take a closer look. It’s a good picture as it’s casual but still kind of serious which showcases his personality well, “The shadow that the tree casts is pretty and it almost looks like a professional photo from a photo shoot, but not quite. The warm lighting gives summer vibes and my face is seen well enough to not be suspicious. Circle, set this as my profile picture.”
“I’m going to play honestly so I’m setting my age to 27 and my relationship status as single”, he heaves a big sigh, “It’s time for my introduction.”
He doesn’t want to play the Circle any other way than the honest way, but the game’s idea is to be likable, what he always isn’t, “I want to make my opinion clear from the first words so I’m going to start with: Trying to make everyone satisfied is a waste of time. It’s my motto, but because it can be a little too straightforward if you don’t know me, I’m going hold back on more opinions and continue with: I’m a hashtag ballad singer at heart. That should be okay because now they know something about me.”
He takes a step back and watches as the words come up. He looks at what he wrote and spaces around the room.
“Is the hashtag too much? Without it though it’s just too, I don’t know, bland”, he stops again in front of the screen, “Hopefully someone else has a hashtag too because it’s staying.”
He sits back to the bed and reads his bio again a couple of times. It still needs something but otherwise it’s good. That something has to be something about himself that will help him in the game. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have many things he seriously likes that aren’t in the same category as singing. He could tell some trivial facts, but he wants something more meaningful, something that’ll affect the way people interact with him.
“Now I got it! Circle, continue my introduction with: and view loyalty as my best asset”, he reads the whole thing again, to make sure he doesn’t want to change anything, “Trying to make everyone satisfied is a waste of time. I am a #BalladSingerAtHeart and view loyalty as my best asset.”
He nods as he looks at his profile. The picture of him with casual clothes and warm feeling balances well his serious bio without feeling like two different people. There’s not much he can do anymore to make it better so he nods for a final time and goes back to his suitcase.
“What do I do now? How do I save it?” He asks and it seems like Baekhyun doesn’t understand the question was for him, “Baekhyun?”
“Yeah? I was just gaping because I think I get to have the most well-rounded player of this game with me, not to mention a savage,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. Baekhyun sure is dramatic, “Sorry, just say ‘Circle, save my profile’ and that’s it.”
Kyungsoo follows his lead and sure enough, the screen returns to the Circle logo.
O
“Are you or are you not saying that you prefer Burger King over McDonald’s?”
“What I’m trying to say is that both are trash, Baekhyun”, Kyungsoo huffs, “BUT, if I had to choose, it would be Burger King.”
“So you’re dissing me because I had my first date with Chanyeol at McDonald’s?”
Kyungsoo stops washing the dishes for a moment and looks up as if he’s thinking, “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
He shakes his head and starts to dry the dishes. It’s been about couple of hours since he arrived, but he can’t know for sure as he’s not allowed to know the time and date. With Baekhyun, they’ve tried to get to know each other more as they are each other’s sole source of entertainment during the day.
“It’s not like I couldn’t go to a fast food-date, like they have their own charm in the middle of the night or during a road trip —not everything needs to be fancy Michelin restaurant quality,” he explains, “but there’s just so many restaurants that have higher quality with the same price that need support too. Not to mention that was your first date.”
“I get where you’re coming from but I can’t believe you didn’t choose McDonald’s fries.”
“I- How could I?”
He finishes with the dishes and dries his hands, moving to the couch. He’s going to start one of the puzzles the Circle provided for him as he has nothing better to do.
“Are you just gonna not continue?”
“My professional opinion and your… your opinion won’t match,” Kyungsoo pauses as he measures if the coffee table is big enough for the puzzle, ”and I have a feeling this isn’t the first conversion therapy talk you’ve had about the issue. Why would I continue?”
“For the sake of continuing the conversation?” Baekhyun questions, “Do the bunny one.”
Kyungsoo was leaning towards the puzzle with baby bunnies in a basket anyway as the other is of New York’s skyline and it has a shit ton of almost identical windows. He puts the latter box away and opens the one he chose. The silence is welcomed as he sits there sorting the 500 pieces into whites, greens, browns and edges.
It doesn’t last long because soon enough he’s startled by an alert sound. He looks up, holding on his cups of sorted pieces for dear life.
“Alert”, he reads of the screen before him, “What’s this? I’m so excited!”
The text changes and his jaw drops, “You got to be kidding! Already?”
He sets his puzzle pieces down and runs to get his notebook. It’s time for the first ratings.
“I have to do this now, straight away?” It’s actual madness Kyungsoo is going through, “I have to rate them from my favorite to my least favorite with the 1st being the favorite?”
He returns to the couch and scribbles down the info. He has seen the previous seasons so he knows how this works, but it surely is different when you aren’t shown other players before.
“Once everyone has rated, the top two players will become The Circle Influencers and will hold great power”, Kyungsoo sighs and rubs his eyes under his glasses —he doesn’t want to be an influencer from the beginning as he can be too threatening to others that way.
Without any warning eight pictures with names pop up, himself included.
He rounds the coffee table to get to stand closer to the screen, feeling amazed. These seven people can be as real as he is or they can be something completely opposite.
“Circle, show me Chungha’s profile”, she’s the second person from the left after him as he’s the first, “Okay, she’s 24 and single.”
The woman in the picture could be 24, but she’s almost too pretty to be real.
““A beautiful face can be found everywhere, but a charismatic personality is rare.” She started with a quote as well, but I don’t know how I feel about it as it’s a little catfish-y. Like, I know I’m pretty but keep me in the game because I’m sweet”, Kyungsoo writes his points down so he’ll remember them, “But moving on: I’m a model located in both Seoul and LA 🛫 My love doesn’t discriminate so come to talk to me 💕”
Kyungsoo stares at the photo, conflicted. It’s of her smiling while holding her cheeks with her hands. She has some makeup on but not a lot —it’s clear she’s very beautiful naturally. She’s driving this sweet image of herself with the emojis and the pink tone of the picture that could be called cute without actually being purposefully cute. The photo itself is very good quality and taken by someone else, which isn’t surprising if she really is a model.
“Honestly, she’s too perfect. Young, single, model with a kind heart. She could be a catfish”, Kyungsoo underlines the catfish in his notes, “I’m going to be careful of her.”
Baekhyun kindly returns him back to all the profiles and he chooses the next one, “Circle, take me to Miyeon’s profile,” As the picture of a woman showing her tongue gets bigger, he smiles, “She’s cute. I think I’ll like her a lot.”
The picture has been taken somewhere crowded and although the quality is good, it’s very spontaneous and fun, like her expression.
“She’s 25? I could swear she is younger based on the picture”, he still puts it into his notebook, even if he doubts it has any meaning, ”She’s single, like all of us. Let’s see her bio: My mom told me to smile and everything would be alright. Even if you can’t see me, I’m smiling. Otherwise, I like playing video games and jamming to Single Ladies🎶”
He processes the words for a second before his smile widens, “She’s my favorite. The way she talks about her mom —I’m sold— and the last part? I feel like I know something about her which is something Chungha lacked”, he writes this down, “I hope you really are smiling Miyeon.”
As he’s moved back to the profiles he groans out loud. God please let him be nice, “Circle, take me to Woojin’s profile”, and the view that comes is a sight to see, “Woojin please put the shirt on. I know you’re ripped but-“ he purposefully leaves the sentence there.
“Are you feeling some type of way Kyungsoo? I sure am”, Baekhyun speaks up with exaggerated breathing.
“I can recognize a nice body if I see one but my type is more… less big? What would Chanyeol say of you thirsting over other men?”
“Oh, we thirst together for muscular dudes, he’ll understand. But didn’t you say earlier that you like them big?” Baekhyun pauses for a second and continues, “Oops, I meant tall, don’t get any ideas.”
“I won’t, trust me. Please let me continue with this now”, Kyungsoo turns back to the screen, “So 28 and single. Why am I not surprised?”
He doesn’t have much to write about the picture as it’s basically just a black and white picture of Woojin’s naked and muscular upper body and his around or above average face. The picture is most likely chosen to show some personality —going to the gym— or/and to get people flirt with him.
“A-yo! Busan raised personal trainer 🏋🏽 Age doesn’t matter because I am never old to party 😉😳 Okay, he wants to flirt. The whole part after the personal trainer screams ‘come flirt!’. Also, I’m not sure did he mean to write never old to party or did he mean never too old to party.”
He has the assets of being a catfish with the picture and excess flirting, but that grammar threw him off. One would think that a catfish would be pretty serious with his bio’s grammar.
“Alright, who’s next?” Kyungsoo has now passed the halfway point, “The Circle, show me Hye-Jin’s profile.”
This time he checks out the information before the picture, “Our Hye-Jin is 24, like Chungha, and taken. I’m impressed. I don’t think she’s a catfish just based on that. Who catfish would put taken? Don’t disappoint me Hye-Jin with your bio; If I don’t fit others’ standards, then I’ll set my own standards. Also, I like to cook.”
The picture is a selca of a woman who the word bold would describe the best. Her confidence almost oozes out of the screen, it’s just something in the way she’s looking over her sunglasses and in the way she carries the off-shoulder she’s wearing —she’s unapologetic. The picture paired with the bio is a perfect match. She can’t be catfishing as her personality would be too risky to catfish. Also, she likes to cook. That’s just another good point into his notebook. She’s nice and real.
“Next!”
He returns to sit on the couch as he’s getting tired of standing. This has felt like an eternity although probably not even a half an hour has passed. There’s three more to go and the actual ratings, this is just some warm up.
“Circle, take me to Sehyoon’s profile”, he commands and so the app follows, “Sehyoon, you are 26, single and I love your picture. You seem wonderfully normal among the other players. Like, that’s a selca anyone could take. The lighting is not too fancy, neither is the background nor the expression.”
Kyungsoo feels actually happy because of what he sees. It is unrealistic for everyone to have the best picture of themselves in social media and the fact that this Sehyoon guy came truly just as he is —big respect. He’s by far Kyungsoo’s favorite of anyone he’s seen.
“Although black and white are my favorite colors, they remind me of the time I was in jail, so my art is a lot more colorful. It was terrible: I’m never playing Monopoly again. And his bio? Original, unique and tells about him. There’s a ZERO chance he’s a catfish. Zero.”
“I don’t even want to go to Yuri’s profile after Sehyoon but that’s not an option. Circle, take me to Yuri’s profile”, Kyungsoo can see even from the small profile picture that she won’t be his favorite, “28 years young”, he makes a gagging noise, “Oh, let me throw up. She’s single? What a surprise.”
“You might wanna tame that sarcasm or she’ll tear you apart; look at her bio”, Baekhyun’s voice appears again, “I don’t know anything about the other contestants that you don’t, and I can’t really make decisions for you but just look at it and you’ll know.”
Kyungsoo can feel dread filling him as he reads forward:
“I may bark, but I promise I’ll bite as well 😈 Boys, get ready #GirlPower”
He’s speechless. In the end he just hums, “At least I’m not the only one with a hashtag.”
She’s clearly after the romance and going with the flirting tactic. She’s going to bring so much troubles, but she can’t be catfish for the same reason as Hye-Jin: too loud of a personality. In her picture, she’s in a bikini and shorts, on the beach showing off her chest. Not much more information for him.
“Baekhyun just take me to the last player”, and Baekhyun obeys, “So Jackson, our 26-year-old single man with a summery picture. You’re laughing which is nice but your clothes seem expensive and the way you wear them is just a little douchy —that’s just what comes to me. It’s very good quality and someone else has taken it. It’s almost like a photo shoot, which is little alarming if you aren’t a model like Chungha.”
He really stares this Jackson and his picture. If he tries to forget his first impression, the picture is perfect. Showcases his personality as fun and aloof, the vibe is summery and warm which almost always draws people in. He’ll have to decide his opinion with the bio.
“Wassup y’all! Messenger of peace and love🙏🏼 He has the same energy as Chungha in the way that they’re borderline perfect with their appearance and personality. Jackson seems like a friendly guy who’s everyone’s friend“, Kyungsoo is torn with his opinion, “I’m wild and sexy RAWR Take risks, work hard and have no regrets! 💪🏼 He’s apparently also a flirt, and the funny guy, and motivated as well as spontaneous.”
The perfect human. And the perfect catfish. Kyungsoo has made up his mind.
“Baekhyun take me to the ratings”, Kyungsoo buries his face into his hands, “I thought this would be easier but rating actual people no matter catfish or not —actually not knowing anything about them— is wild.”
The screen has changed and it’s showtime now. He looks through his notes once more and starts to list.
“First place for me is Sehyoon. He’s normal, real if you will. I’m still not sure but I’m putting Miyeon to the second place and Hye-Jin to the third. These two were really hard to place, because I like both of them a lot. Miyeon eventually won because I got very good gut feeling from the moment I saw her. Hye-Jin can also become really troublesome game-wise if her attitude is too defensive.
“The fourth place goes to Woojin as he’s still very believable as the gym rat who doesn’t know how to write. The fifth place was given because this person is with 75% chance real. It’s Yuri. The reason she doesn’t rank higher is her problematic attitude. The last two are Jackson and Chungha, because they’re simply too perfect to be real. They’re the perfect catfishes. Chungha gets the 6th place as I’m absolutely sure of Jackson —so he’ll obviously take the last place in my ratings.”
The rankings seem as right as they can be so he asks the Circle to send them. A huge text of ratings completed fills the screen and Kyungsoo groans. This took several years off of his lifespan.
He usually cooks to de-stress, but he just ate so it’s just him and his puzzle. And Baekhyun.
O
“20, 21, 22 and 23”, Kyungsoo frowns and counts the both sides again, “I’m missing two pieces from the bottom edge, sheesh.”
He turns to the green puzzle pieces to look for the missing ones and finds one of them easily, but the other isn’t showing itself.
“Look under the table”, Baekhyun instructs before Kyungsoo leans down and reaches for the missing piece, “It’s there.”
Kyungsoo puts it to its correct place and admires the square of puzzle pieces. He’s noticed with a low noise that something in The Circle has changed.
“The circle chat is now open”, he reads the notice and waits Baekhyun to move him into the chat.
It looks like a pretty normal chat room with all the participants on the right side and the middle being the place for messages.
“I wonder who’s going to start the conversation”, he speaks out loud, “I’m first going to see how the others are and then take more part if I feel like it.”
JACKSON: HEY👋 Great to finally be here with y’all !!
He was pretty sure it would be either Jackson or Chungha to start the conversation and he’s not wrong this time either as Chungha starts to write based on the three dots on her profile.
CHUNGHA: Hi! Very excited to get to know you all better
SEHYOON: Hello everyone, it’s nice to meet you 😀
“I wasn’t expecting Sehyoon to be the third to message but I guess I’ll join after Woojin has sent the message he’s writing”, Kyungsoo says pulling his notebook closer if he needs it.
WOOJIN: Hello to the beautiful ladies and handsome fellas! 🤪
KYUNGSOO: Hi guys!
MIYEON: Hello! Let’s get along well!
“Miyeon is such a sweet girl”, Kyungsoo points out, “I have a very good gut feeling of her.”
YURI: Hey babes!
HYE-JIN: Hi! How has the first day been for you… it’s a lot to take in isn’t it?
For a moment Kyungsoo was wondering where Hye-Jin was hiding, but it makes a lot of sense that she continues the conversation.
“Circle, write my reply: For me it’s as exciting as it is new”, Kyungsoo responds.
YURI: The apartment is really cool, only the big bed will make me feel lonely during the nights 😣
CHUNGHA: My hands were trembling earlier because of the ratings!
MIYEON: I was nervous at first and the ratings literally made me sweat 🙈 Happy to know I wasn’t the only one feeling so!
JACKSON: This experience has already been crazy! Little scared to know we have a criminal with us @SEHYOON… was it a one time thing or ? 😉
WOOJIN: @YURI was that invitation? 😏
“There’s happening so much I can’t keep up”, Kyungsoo mumbles, “Yuri and Woojin are already at it, Miyeon and Chungha are on the same wavelength and Jackson is being the jokester he pretends to be.”
SEHYOON: @JACKSON once was enough for me… nothing to be afraid of :)
YURI: @WOOJIN I just miss my bed at home… maybe you could help me with my homesickness
HYE-JIN: It was hard judging people based on so little…
JACKSON: Now I can sleep well @SEHYOON
JACKSON: @HYE-JIN All of you seem so cool it was an even competition for the 1st place
Kyungsoo sighs and leaves another finger print onto his glasses as he pushes them up, “There’s no way he didn’t like anyone less or more than others —I call lying.”
WOOJIN: @YURI I’ll do my best 😁
CHUNGHA: Jackson, you’re such a smooth talker 😂
HYE-JIN: @JACKSON you really didn’t have anyone you liked more than others?
“THANK YOU! Hye-Jin, I’m glad you called him out when I didn’t”, he cheers, “I’m going to support you, but subtly, so Circle, send my reply to Jackson: You’re like an angel if you don’t have any preference 🧐
JACKSON: Of course I had some favorites… I was swiped off my feet when I saw all the beauties we have here!
MIYEON: That’s very sweetly said Jackson!
WOOJIN: @JACKSON my man, I gotta agree with you! 🤩
“Miyeon is so innocent”, Kyungsoo groans, “Why are so many buying that?”
SEHYOON: To me the personalities were the priority 😊 Anyone can be Vincent Van Gogh behind their photo😳
KYUNGSOO: @SEHYOON same for me… that’s why I looked at the ages and was relieved after no one was from the 17th century
CHUNGHA: Boys... that’s a little too wild guess 😂 Don’t you know that ghosts can’t use the voice activated system?
“Okay, she’s got humor”, Kyungsoo admits, “I really want to get to know Sehyoon better —he seems like a cool guy.”
YURI: It was fun to talk to you, but I got to go to powder my nose… TTYL 💕
Kyungsoo sits back and watches the Circle chat close. That was very enlightening.