Closed. Please come back later.
I read the sign, frowning slightly. We were standing in front of a restaurant. The shutters were pulled shut so we couldn't see the inside. There was a paper stuck to the door with tape. It looked hastily written. I pointed at it. "It's closed. What are we doing here?"
"It's not closed." Dino stood besides me. "It's reserved." He pushed open the door. "For us." He looked at my expression and laughed. "You have to get used to this, Yenling." He held the door open for me. "Ladies first."
I took a small step inside. It was a Japanese sushi restaurant. A woman stood behind the counter and smiled at us. "Seventeen, isn't it?" She was rather old, with wrinkles spreading across her face.
"Granny!" Dino said cheerfully. They clearly have met before. "We come here quite often." He informed me. "Her sushis are delicious."
"Hey granny!" The other boys poured in, all nodding in greeting. They sat themselves around a large rectangular table. I found myself seated between Dino and Woozi.
The old lady placed plates of sushi on the table, and they all dug in. I have to say, it was pretty good. Another plate of food was set onto the table. Holy Jisoos. It's sashimi. I love sashimi. I reached out with my chopsticks, but it was too far for me to reach. Woozi, on my right, picked one up with his chopsticks and dropped it in my plate. "There. Eat it while it's still fresh."
"Thanks, Jihoon. You're the best."
He lowered his head and scratched the back of his neck. "No problem."
"Hyung," Dino pointed his chopsticks at the sashimi. "Woozi Hyung, can you get one for me too?"
Woozi sighed. "No, get it yourself." But he reached out and picked one with the freshest color. He leaned over me and placed it on Dino's plate.
"Thanks." He proceeded to dip it in wasabi. No, dip wasn't an accurate description. He scooped up the wasabi with the raw fish.
I stared at him. "Dino? Maybe a little too much?"
"No, I can handle." He said with an air of confidence. He stuffed the entire thing in his mouth. He chewed for a moment. And stopped. His face went red. He swallowed quickly, and gasped.
Woozi calmly handed him a cup of water.
Dino gulped it down. Breathing heavily, he slammed the paper cup on to the table.
I coughed, trying to hide my laughter.
Woozi shrugged. "He always acts confident. I got used to it."
Dino smiled sheepishly at me. I poked his forehead, laughing out loud now. "Want some more?"
"No." He cringed, and added quickly, "Not because it's too spicy, of course. It was something wrong with the sashimi."
"But I picked out the best one." Woozi pointed out.
"So much for the tough act, Lee." I snickered,
"Let's see you try to eat it then, Wang." He challenged, dipping another sushi into the wasabi and placing it on my plate.
"Ew no." I pushed it away. "I hate wasabi."
"Amateur." Dino smirked.
"And so are you." I retorted.
===============================================
We finished dinner with me and Dino bickering like old friends. The manager rounded up the boys outside the restaurant.
"Okay boys. I have a surprise. View it as a reward of your hard work during the last few weeks." He ushered us into the two vans, we scrambled in, not being able to choose our seats. I ended up in the front row between Vernon and Hoshi.
I fidgeted a little. I never had an actual conversation with Vernon and Hoshi, not counting the time he bumped into me on his way to the bathroom. I turned around, trying to catch Dino's eye, who was sitting in the back. He wriggled his eyebrows and made a face. I rolled my eyes.
I looked at Vernon in the corner of my eye. He seemed fidgety as well. I read somewhere that he was the shyest member. I guess that was true.
Soonyoung, on the other hand, was lively and a little too loud. He started singing, probably from too much sushi. He made me sing along. "Come on. Don't be nervous."
Easy for him to say. I have the worst vocal skills in this whole van, except for the driver. No, wait. Even the driver was probably better than me. I sang softly at first, but Soonyoung made me sing louder. "I can't hear your pretty voice!" He yelled, pulling at his ears.
I sang louder. They were probably going to stop me soon anyway.
But they didn't. Hoshi and I sang, as Vernon and Dino joined in on the rap. Jeonghan clapped along, leaning lazily back in his seat. Woozi hummed, his soft voice carrying the tune.
The driver pulled to a stop. I also ceased my singing and took a deep breath. Vernon gave me a grin. "Hey. That was pretty good."
It was?
"Yeah." Hoshi slapped me on the back. "Way to go, Yenling. You've got a pretty good voice."
Dino stood and leaned forward, rapping me playfully on the side of the head. "I thought you said you were horrible at everything."
"But..." I said, "To me, my voice sounds weird."
Jeonghan stretched, and stepped off the van. "Princess, if you compare your voice to ours, of course you'd think you're lacking in something. But your voice is good. Have a little more confidence." He turned slowly in a circle. "By the way, where are we?"
Woozi jumped off, and helped the rest get out. The other van was a few feet ahead of us, the boys spilling out and onto the sidewalk. Dino surveyed the building ahead of us. "Oh." His eyes lit up. "Yenling, we're going paint balling."
Hoshi leapt into the air and let out a whoop. "Hell yeah! I'm so good at this."
Seungkwan sauntered over, smirking. "Soonyoung, I challenge you to a duel."
"Bring it on!"
The manager cleared his throat and stepped in front of the boys. "As you can see, we are going to play paintball. Have fun, boys. And be careful. Don't get hurt."
The boys said thank you in unison, and they rushed into the building. Under the instructions of the instructor, we put on the safety helmets. I could barely see anyone's face.
Then we were put in two teams. The Reds and yellows. I was in the red team, and someone was appointed captain. I squinted at his face. It was Minghao. He looked excited.
"Okay, team, take off your helmets first. So I can get a good look at you." He said.
I took of mine and looked around. Dino was besides me. He threw his arm across my shoulder. "Hey, Wang. Looks like we're in the same team."
"Too bad I can't kick your ass." I said, smirking.
He scoffed. "You can't do that, even if we're on different teams."
S.coups and Hoshi was standing with Minghao, discussing something. Battle plans, I believe. DK was happily filling his gun with paintballs. Woozi was helping him. That's seven people. Which meant Jun, Joshua, Jeonghan, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Vernon, and Seungkwan was on the Yellow team.
"Right." The instructor called out. "Is everyone ready?"
Minghao ordered us to put on our helmets and filed into the makeshift field. He positioned his men is certain strategic spots. I was squatting on a high platform, with Dino below me. Minghao said he was a distraction, so I can snipe off the enemies. Why give me such an impact decision? Last time when I was paint balling with my friends, I was that person who randomly shot paintballs at everything that moved. I was counting on my accuracy.
The instructor sounded the whistle.
Instantly, shots were fired. Dino scrambled around, ducking and shooting towards the other team. Yellow paintballs splattered below the platform. Apparently, they didn't notice me.
I took a deep breath. Right. You can do this. I spotted a head peeking around a rectangular obstacle on the ground. I couldn't see who he was, but his helmet was yellow. I fired. A splash of red hit the yellow helmet. Whoever was in it shrieked. The instructor lead him off the field.
He took off his helmet. It was Vernon. He pointed to the top of the tower, where I was, yelling something to his teammates.
Uh oh.
"Yenling! Get off! Run to the back!" Minghao's voice yelled over the noise of firing paintballs. "Dino, cover me!"
I jumped off the platform and ran towards the end of the field, throwing myself down and behind a pillar. I lay there, catching my breath.
Minghao did a tremendous backflip with Dino by his side, both charging towards the enemy. Red and yellow paint rained upon the floor. Minghao was apparently aiming for their leader. He yelled something, and Dino stood in front of him, firing paintballs rapidly. Minghao crouched behind him, and aimed a precise shot at another figure running in zigzags towards them. The person was screaming and charging. Judging from the voice, it was suicidal Seungkwan. Minghao pelted him with paintballs, but not before Seungkwan managed to take out Dino.
Both of them walked off the field, taking off their helmets. Minghao leapt the side, this time with Woozi flanking him. DK was up front, crouching behind another obstacle. Hoshi hid behind another one besides DK. I didn't see S.Coups, but there was no one at the back except for me.
A two Yellows ran towards the obstacles. One swooped the the right, taking out Dokyeom when he tried to cover Hoshi. Hoshi shot at the Yellow. He let out a yell. But then laughed. I crept towards for a better view. The other yellow had crept behind Hoshi.
Soonyoung spun around, but a splash of yellow was already on his red vest. He let out a dying sound. Dokyeom was weeping, or pretending to be, over Hoshi's body. The instructor motioned for them to get off the field.
I hid behind a platform. Hoshi and DK took off their helmets, both pretending to cry into each other's arms. The yellow who got shot took off his helmet, laughing. It was Jeonghan.
In the mean time, Minghao and Woozi, the power pair, had already taken out another enemy. He slumped to the floor, and dragged himself off the field. Wonwoo.
And what was I doing? Waiting for orders. But then again, Minghao was too preoccupied in not getting hit to give out orders. Slowly, I crept to the outskirts of the enemy base.
A yellow rushed by, and I dived behind an obstacle. He didn't notice me. He was aiming at Seungcheol, who was standing in the middle of the enemy base. Paintballs flew, and one spattered against the obstacle I was hiding behind. I winced.
There was a yell, and I looked up to see S.coups firing at the back of a yellow, who was charging Minghao and Woozi. The yellow hit the floor, face first.
"I guess I'm dead." Joshua's voice. He stood up.
S.coups chuckled. "I guess you are."
"And so are you." Joshua gave the thumbs up.
The one who rushed by me suddenly sprang up behind Coups, firing bullets rapidly. S.coups staggered, and fell to the floor. The person laughed. "Your skills are rusty, leader."
It was Mingyu. Shit. He ran towards Minghao. "I'm the leader of the Yellows! Come and get me!"
As Joshua and S.coups left the field together, I crawled deeper into enemy base.
"Looking for someone?" A voice drawled.
I whirled around. Shit, shit, shit. A yellow stood before me, aiming his gun at my head. I squinted at his helmet. Shit. It was Jun.
Quickly, I dived out of the way as Jun pressed the trigger. I was not going to get killed by him again. He chased me, firing here and there, missing only by centimeters. I ran towards Woozi. He was hiding behind a pillar, taking shots at Mingyu, who was weaving around, trying to hit Minghao.
Just when I reached Woozi, I ducked out of sight. Jun ran around the pillar, firing. Before Woozi could turn his target towards Jun instead of Mingyu, Jun fired at me. Woozi pushed me out of the way, and got shot in the head. He staggered under the impact.
Oops. Was that my fault, probably.
Jun was leaning close to the helmet, squinting to see under the yellow paint. He must assumed it was me. Woozi took off his helmet, groaning. "You just had to shoot at such a close distance, Jun."
Jun's eyes widened. His eyes swept the clearing. I was already at the top of the platform I originally stood on. The outside was painted yellow,meaning this was an easy target. No one would assume I would be stupid enough to hide here.
Jun ran around, looking for me. I crouched, occasionally moving my body so he couldn't see me.
A yell sounded behind me. I turned. Mingyu stood, triumphant, over Minghao. There was the sound of cheering from the yellow team. The red team was groaning.
Mingyu ran towards Jun. "Jun! It's over! We won!"
I aimed at Mingyu's back.
Jun was shaking his head frantically. He looked up, and caught my eye. "Mingyu! There's one more left!"
Too late. I fired. It hit Mingyu square on the back. He toppled over under the impact, crashing into Jun. Jun aimed at me with his free arm and I jumped off the platform.
"Hell yes!" Hoshi's scream filled my eardrums when I raced pass them.
The red team started to chant my name. The yellow team was screaming Jun's.
This is getting stressful. I looked at my gun. Crap. I was almost out of paintballs. And this gun is hella heavy. My hands were shaking from carrying them so long. Suddenly, I tripped. Great move there, Yenling.
I cooked backwards, my eyes focused on Jun. He wasn't firing. I guess he was almost out of paintballs as well. I raised my gun, aimed, and shot. I missed. Blame my shaky hand. I held up the gun with both of my hands this time, and fired. He leapt to the side.
He was moving so slowing towards me. It was frustrating. I bet he's smirking under that mask.
I'm going to wipe that smile off his face, I swear.
I glanced at my gun. One more left. I let go of the gun, letting it clatter to the floor.
Jun laughed. "No more paintballs, Shorty?" He was still closing in on me slowly, the gun aimed at my helmet. "This is familiar, isn't it?"
Wait, he wasn't close enough. Wait a bit more. "I won't go down without a fight!" I yelled, making my voice sound shrill and scared. "Go away!"
Jun laughed again. "I like it when you're at my mercy." He crouched down so he was eye level with me. "We should do it again sometime."
Now. I grabbed my gun and hurled it upwards, smashing it into his gun. It flew across the field. Jun fell backwards, shouting in surprise. I stood, and aimed my gun carefully at his helmet.
"Checkmate." I smirked, and fired.
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=+=Author's Note=+=
"I like it when you're at my mercy"
Wait the fuck up Wen Junhui
Why you gotta be so rude
Leave a vote or comment if you want Jun to kick you and throw you under a bus
(Votes myself
(*whispers Please kill me Jun