Priya shrugged.

"We needed as many girls as we could get. And don’t you like this game?"

Dani had to admit... she did like Truth or Dare. It was about figuring out people’s secrets, uncovering hidden things.

In the end, Dani sighed and closed the door behind her. "Fine, I’ll play. How are we doing this?"

Priya gestured to the coffee table. "I have a water bottle here. We spin it. Whoever the bottom faces asks questions, whoever the cap points at answers. Simple."

She pulled out a plastic water bottle and gave it a test spin and it rotated smoothly before stopping.

"Alright then," the girls agreed.

Each positioned herself at one side of the rectangular coffee table. Priya, Leah, Zoe, and Dani formed a square around it.

Leah took a deep breath, settling in. She was playing with a specific purpose... to get more information about Wren. Maybe learn about his childhood from Zoe perhaps find out if he’d done anything with these girls while she’d been away.

Leah swallowed as she looked around the circle then Priya broke the brief silence.

"So who’s going to spin first? Should I do it?"

"I’ll do it," Zoe volunteered immediately.

She leaned forward and grabbed the water bottle, positioning it carefully in the center of the table. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it spinning. The bottle rotated rapidly, making a soft scraping sound against the wood.

It began to slow... slower... slower... and finally stopped.

The bottom of the bottle pointed at Leah and the cap... the head pointed directly at Zoe.

Leah’s face lit up slightly while Zoe’s expression became guarded. Her hands moved instinctively to the hem of her shirt, fingers gripping the fabric.

"Truth or Dare, Zoe?" Leah asked with a small smile.

"D-dare..." Zoe said with an uncertain voice.

She fully expected Leah to tell her to take off her clothes or something equally embarrassing.

’Which is why I took a bath before coming here,’ Zoe thought, trying to steel herself. ’I don’t have the most curvaceous figure among them, but I’d definitely still attract Leah’s attention...’

"Good," Leah said. "I dare you to show me all of the pictures of Wren on your phone."

Zoe paused mid-thought, blinking. "So there’s no... pulling off clothes?"

Leah chuckled and shook her head. "No, unfortunately I don’t swing that way. But I do have some friends who do if that’s what you’re interested in."

’A few of Leah’s friends?’ Zoe thought, perking up slightly. ’I definitely wouldn’t mind that as long as they’re as hot as she is...’

Then she blinked and her defensive instincts kicked back in. "Wait, why would I have pictures of that fuck—"

She paused abruptly. She did have pictures. Quite a lot of them, actually. Her hand moved protectively over her phone in her pocket.

"N-no, I don’t have any," Zoe lied.

Leah raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning to go back on your dare? That’s allowed, but..."

Dani chimed in from across the table, grinning. "Shouldn’t there be a punishment for breaking a dare?"

Zoe glared at her. "Shut up, Dani."

Leah cleared her throat and continued smoothly.

"The punishment for breaking a dare is..." She paused for effect. "...you have to strip down to your underwear and stay that way for the rest of the game. In front of all of us and then walk like that over to your room."

She looked around at the others. "Do the rest of you agree to this punishment system?"

Priya nodded immediately. "Agreed."

Dani grinned wider. "Oh, definitely agreed."

Leah turned back to Zoe with an innocent expression. "So... do you really want to break your dare?"

Zoe’s eye twitched. She glanced down at her phone, then at the expectant faces around her, then back at her phone. After a long moment, she let out a defeated sigh.

"...No. I don’t want to break it."

She pulled out her phone reluctantly and unlocked it with her thumbprint. Her fingers moved across the screen, opening her photo gallery, then navigating to a specific folder. She hesitated one more time before sliding the phone across the table toward Leah.

Leah picked it up eagerly. The other girls leaned in from their positions, craning their necks to peek at the screen.

They were expecting photos of Wren’s face... Maybe candid shots...

Instead, all they saw were feet. Multiple high-quality photographs of male feet from various angles.

Everyone blinked.

"What the hell are you doing with Wren’s feet?" Leah asked slowly. Though the girls couldn’t deny... his feet did look pretty amazing. They were well-formed, clean, and perfectly proportioned too.

Leah shook her head.

’I don’t have a goddamn foot fetish.’

Zoe averted her eyes while blushing. "I... might have used his feet to open a Fansly account. For feet content. I’m making about ten thousand credits from it."

Leah gave her a long side-eye. "When did you make this account?"

Zoe gulped. "Day before yesterday."

There was a beat of silence.

"There are even some videos where his feet twitch," Zoe continued with her voice getting smaller. "I usually take the photos when he’s sleeping back at home. Originally it was for blackmail material in case I needed it in the future, but then I thought... why not make money from it?"

Dani leaned forward with interest. "Can I get the link to the account?"

Priya immediately reached over and smacked Dani on the head. "Stop grinning like a pervert."

"Ow!"

Leah handed the phone back to Zoe across the table with her expression carefully neutral.

"I don’t have anything to say about this. I’m not mad at it. It’s... entrepreneurial, I guess."

She gestured to the bottle. "Let’s spin again."

Zoe spun the bottle again, looking relieved to have the attention off her. The bottle whirled, slowed, and stopped pointing between Priya and Leah... with Priya positioned to ask and Leah to answer.

"Truth or Dare?" Priya asked, grateful it hadn’t landed on her as the answerer.

"Truth," Leah replied confidently.

Priya leaned forward with her expression becoming more serious. "Do you have a crush on Wren or something? You came all the way from Bostara City and somehow tracked all of us down, got us tickets on one of the most expensive luxury cruise ships in the country... You can’t seriously say it’s just because you’re all best friends, right?"

The room went quiet... This was the real question everyone had been wondering.

Leah chuckled softly and took a deep breath. "You’re correct. And no, I don’t have a crush on Wren."

She paused, then looked directly at Priya.

"I love him."

Zoe’s eyes widened. "Didn’t you say you had a boyfriend? Back in Bostara?"

"So?" Leah replied simply, as if that explained everything.

Dani leaned forward. "What do you mean ’so’? Are you trying to two-time? That’s messed up."

Leah looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "It’s... complicated."

At that moment, Priya felt something twitch in her chest. While she’d been feeling guilty about having feelings for Wren despite dating Derek, here was someone else who felt the same way... and apparently didn’t see anything wrong with it at all.

’What kind of woman is she?’ Priya thought, both fascinated and slightly disturbed. ’I really have to warn Wren about her...’

Leah looked up suddenly, her eyes meeting Priya’s directly and Priya flinched at the intensity of her gaze.

"Why don’t we continue the game?" Leah suggested, her tone light but with an underlying edge. "And I hope what I’ve said just now remains a secret in this room... Between us four with no one else."

All three girls nodded immediately, almost unconsciously.

"Of course," Priya said.

"Yeah, secret," Dani agreed.

"Not telling anyone," Zoe confirmed.

...

"Wooh..."

Wren muttered as he stood on the upper observation deck of the Celestine the next morning, stretching his arms high above his head and arching his back. The early morning sun was warm on his face.

"What a wonderful morning."

He’d tucked Diana into bed safely last night, making sure her ankle was elevated properly and that she had water and pain medication within reach then he’d returned to his own room and actually managed to get a decent night’s sleep.

Now he was meant to meet up with Isabella here on the deck so they could spend some time together. His mission required building their relationship, after all.

Nyx had also done some research on Isabella when he’d gotten back to his room yesterday and shared the information with him.

’I can’t believe she’s actually a legitimate superstar who’s won a Grand Prix before,’ Wren thought, still processing it. ’What the fuck?’

Not that he was being disrespectful or anything, but it genuinely wasn’t hard to imagine that Isabella who was so naturally talented and skilled at seemingly everything from swimming to hiking to bowling could win a major racing championship. She had that kind of capability written all over her.

’And she’s like four years older than me too...’

He’d noticed a pattern. Most of the women who were actually his mission targets were older than him. Diana was older. Isabella was older, hell even Cara was older. He didn’t hate it... in fact, he kind of preferred it.

’Wouldn’t hurt to give me someone my age though, right?’ Wren thought with mild amusement.

He looked around the observation deck. This area was pretty luxurious... it had polished wooden flooring, comfortable lounge chairs arranged in clusters and small tables.

In front of him stretched the vast ocean, endless blue water extending to the horizon where it met pale morning sky.

The railing here was interesting. It was a medium-height fence made of reinforced glass panels, probably about four feet tall. If something fell from up here and managed to get past that glass barrier, it would plummet straight down into the ocean below.

’I wonder why they didn’t make it reinforced thin glass like the balcony windows in the rooms,’ Wren mused idly. ’This seems less safe...’

The deck was mostly empty at this early hour. Tust a few joggers doing laps on the track one level down, and maybe some early risers getting coffee.

Immediately, Wren heard rapid footsteps behind him... It was running and getting closer fast.

He started to turn...

"FUCK YOU!" someone shouted.

In the blink of an eye, everything changed. One moment Wren was standing safely on the observation deck, admiring the view of the ocean and waiting for Isabella in the peaceful morning air.

The next moment, he felt a violent shove against his back with two hands hitting him hard between the shoulder blades with tremendous force and his feet left the deck entirely.

He was airborne... actually falling...

His body pitched forward over the glass railing in a sickening arc. The reinforced panels flashed past below him in a blur and suddenly there was nothing underneath him anymore... nothing but open air and the vast expanse of dark ocean rushing up to meet him from hundreds of feet below.

Wren’s heart seized in his chest. His stomach dropped as pure terror flooded through every nerve in his body as he reached desperately for anything... for air, for the railing that was already too far away and for anything solid to stop his fall... to save him...

’No no no no NO—’

He turned his body in midair instinctively, twisting to look back up at the ship as the wind screamed past his ears.

Fear unlike anything he’d felt before filled his eyes as he saw the observation deck getting further and further away above him with each passing second.

The white railings, the wooden floor, the place he’d been standing just moments ago... all receding rapidly into the distance.

He caught a brief glimpse of someone standing at the railing looking down at him. A man he didn’t recognize... he couldn’t recognize from this distance and speed looking hysterical and wild-eyed while screaming something Wren couldn’t hear over the wind rushing past his ears and the pounding of his own heartbeat.

Some random guy had just pushed him off the observation deck of a luxury cruise ship. Just... pushed him. For no reason Wren understood.

’I’m going to die...’ Wren thought, his mind going blank with terror and disbelief. ’I’m actually going to die right now. Right here. This is how it ends. I’m going to hit the water and die.’

The ocean was getting closer with horrifying speed, so much closer. The dark blue water looked solid from this height, like hitting concrete. He was falling fast... so fast. The wind tore at his clothes and hair and his eyes watered from the speed of descent.

’Nyx!’ Wren screamed mentally.

[Ding! Hidden Mission [X] has been completed!]

The system notification appeared cheerfully in his vision even as he plummeted toward certain death or serious injury, completely unbothered by his terror.

[Have the boyfriend of a woman in a committed relationship push you off the balcony of a Luxury Cruise Ship into the ocean!] 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

[Reward: 80,000 Credits]

[It would have been more credits if it was one of your actual target’s boyfriend who pushed you instead of some random jealous boyfriend... Tch! So disappointing!]

’Nyx, I’m going to fucking di—’

SPLASH!

Wren hit the surface of the ocean face-first at terminal velocity.

The impact was catastrophic. It felt like slamming into solid concrete at full speed. The force of it drove all the air from his lungs in one violent expulsion. His vision went white with pain and every bone in his body screamed.

The shock wave traveled through his entire frame, disorienting him completely while scrambling his thoughts into incoherent panic.

Water rushed into his nose and mouth immediately, choking him. Salt burned his sinuses and throat and everything was dark and cold as the ocean swallowed him whole.

His body tumbled through the water helplessly, momentum from the fall carrying him deep, deep below the surface.

He spun end over end, completely out of control. Bubbles erupted around him in chaotic streams. The light from above... from the sun was fading fast, getting dimmer and more distant with each second.

Wren’s lungs burned like fire. His chest screamed for air as panic clawed at his throat with razor-sharp talons.

He kicked desperately, trying to swim, trying to reach the surface, but which direction was the surface anymore? Everything was spinning.

The world was nothing but endless dark water and the overwhelming taste of salt and the crushing pressure building in his ears and the bone-deep cold seeping into his core and the absolute, consuming terror that he was drowning.

Actually drowning... He was dying.

He kicked again, harder, fighting against the water and his own disorientation. His arms flailed, searching for anything.

His eyes were open but he couldn’t see anything except murky darkness and occasional flashes of lighter water that might have been up or might have been reflections or might have been his oxygen-starved brain creating hallucinations.

’Up,’ he thought desperately, trying to force his body to cooperate through the panic. ’Have to go up. Follow the bubbles. Which way are the bubbles going?’

His vision started to darken around the edges with black creeping in from his peripheral vision. His chest felt like it was being crushed from the inside and his limbs were getting harder to move with each passing second.

’No... no no no... I can’t die here. Not like this. Not now.’

Wren fought harder, kicking with everything he had left.

The darkness at the edges of his vision was spreading, consuming more of his sight. His movements were slowing down despite his desperate mental commands to keep going.

’I’m not going to make it...’