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Songmin took a second to observe her surroundings to distract herself from her nervousness. The room—which was of a length that made it almost more of a hallway than a room—was just as cold as the lobby but sported quite different decoration. Rather than painted black, the walls were overlaid with large sheets of silver metal, seemingly attached to actual walls with large screws. The ground was tiled with a material Songmin didn't recognize, its dark grey color and sheen giving it the appearance of metal.
The room was much better lit than the lobby. A single glowing purple stripe cut through the center of walls, wrapping around the room parallel to the ground. The big white lights were inlaid on the ceiling, illuminating the room as if it was lit by bright midday sunlight.
To Songmin's right, several black vests, each with a red or blue stripe running diagonally across it, hung limply on some large steel hooks attached to the wall. To her left, long racks held a variety of multi-colored guns no longer than forearm's length. Even though Songmin knew the guns were part of the game (as she'd read the previous night while searching up how laser tag worked) and couldn't fire real bullets, the sight of them was still unnerving and she, unknowingly to herself, took a small step away from them.
She almost bumped into Eunhye, who was standing only a few steps inward from the door. "Are those Chaeyoon and her friends?" the latter asked quietly, gesturing toward the other end of the room.
At Eunhye's question, Songmin reluctantly directed her attention from the details of the room to the small group of conversing people standing a distance from them. She instantly recognized not just Chaeyoon but also every single other person in the group and a rush of embarrassment overtook her former anxiety. Resisting the urge to groan, Songmin turned to face the door, her back to the group of people, and covered her face with her hands, trying not to die of humiliation.
How could I have been so stupidly nervous?! Lords, I feel so dumb right now.
She slapped herself lightly across the face before turning back around to answer Eunhye's question, speaking quietly so as to not alert the group. "Yes, they are."
Eunhye took Songmin's hand in case the younger was still nervous. "Then we should go say hi, we can't stand here forever."
Before the two could move any closer, one of the members of the group finally noticed them standing there and said something to Chaeyoon, pointing over at them.
Chaeyoon, who'd had her back to the entrance of the room, looked over her shoulder. A radiant grin spread over her features as she spotted Songmin and she abandoned her conversation, rushing over to greet the newcomers.
"Songmin! I'm glad you could make it. And you must be Eunhye! It's so nice to meet you, Songmin has told me so much about you," Chaeyoon exclaimed, giving Eunhye a vigorous handshake. The latter looked slightly surprised at energetic cordiality, but surprised in a pleasant way; she returned the handshake with a smile and spoke jokingly. "Nice to meet you too. I hope Songmin hasn't been insulting me without my knowledge."
