Hi guys, this is the 10th chapter of my story. It feels like a small anniversary yaaay! About today’s chapter, it’s a bit short. I decided to end it where I did, because I felt like it made more sense this way. In return the next chapter should be much longer. Or at least I plan to write a looots of things in that. Anyway, hope you enjoy this smaller chapter as well!

~*~

"He got over it fast" murmured Haha in her ear while blocking the mic out with his hand.

Ji Hyo glanced at their giant and sighed. Kwang Soo was such a troublemaker. He was currently talking with his partner for the day, a huge smile desplayed on his face. Of course he was being kind to the younger girl, because she was shy among her sunbaes and other celebrities. He just wanted to make her comfortable, but it didn’t erase the fact that since the filming started in the morning his mood lifted by at least 200%. His depressed state from a few days ago disappeared. His mood swings were quite fast. Falling in love easily, but getting over it, only to find love again soon. A crazy circle he seemingly couldn’t escape from.

"If he starts to whine, you go and drink with him this time" said the actress watching their maknae with a weary expression. On the inside she was still worried about Kwang Soo though. She was sure that his present behaviour was partly an act or a poorly choosed coping mechanism to get over his rejection and self consciousness.

 "That’s harsh" chuckled the man. "He annoyed you that much? "

"No" sighed Ji Hyo again, shooking her head. "It’s not that" She took her time coming up with her answer while one of the writers passed by their duo. After she was out of hearing range, the actress spoke up. "I wasn’t annoyed at all. I wanted to help. But it’s hard, oppa. I can’t even offer advices to him. You can’t say him anything to cheer him. " The man just nodded in agreement. He knew exactly what she meant by that. All they can do at times like these is just to sit with him, because they don’t want to let him all alone. Not that they were afraid he would be doing something stupid or damaging against himself, but it still felt safer to watch over him.

"You did good, Ji Hyo-yah" Dong Hoon added in a low tone, while patting her shoulder. Ji Hyo glanced at him with a bitter smile, thanking him for the support.

The staff seemed to finish setting up all the cameras around their next filming site, and found their positions. The members and guests were asked to walk in front of the field, so everyone followed Jae Suk’s lead. He stood in the center as always, a female actress next to him. Ji Hyo and Dong Hoon took their places at one end of their line. They formed the Running Man couple for today, so they gave up their attention and camera time for the sake of the guests. Dong Hoon was actually grateful for this turn of the events. Getting paired up with Ji Hyo meant at least some rest for the day if Ji Hyo wasn’t in competetive mood. If the games didn’t need wit, or luck, but physical strengh she lacked, she usually gave up easily. Not because she was a woman, she had power on her own, for a female it was quite goof, but she wasn’t delusional. Her male members were just stronger and faster. Simple as that. And today’s episode was physical to say the least!

Their first game was a team relay. And now it’s…

"Are you nuts? " Started off Jae Suk strongly as soon as the filming started. He pretended to be annoyed a lot, just as all of them. Althought, it wasn’t only an act. Ji Hyo looked behind her back worriedly. "Why is it this game again? "

"Right… it will be humiliating" stated Suk Jin shaking his head.

"I don’t mind it though" added Gary proudly, and his partner, a beautiful idol girl, clinged to his biceps excitedly. "I will ace it. "

"Sure, because you are good at vaulting" pouted Kwang Soo.

"I’m going crazy" murmured Haha.

It was a vaulting game again. Even though it’s a great time for unintentional body gags, it’s also the time for unintentional injuries and Ji Hyo glanced around her teammates nervously. It was a known fact that she isn’t the best when it comes to jumping, but the others, especially Jong Kook, Gary, and even Jae Suk, they all held the position of being physically fit and strong. The expectation of doing well was lingering in the air, pressing down on their shoulder, hard. She could see it. She could feel it. It was there. She whished they didn’t have to do this now. Glancing towards her partner, she saw that Dong Hoon was visibly nervous as well even though he was known as one of the weaker members. He had a bit of a backpain nowadays. Doing this stuff now won’t help him much.

"As you can all see" started the PD "we set up this vaulting horse for a jumping game again. Just as last time, you will ear points by jumping as far as you can. But also, the teammembers that can’t earn certain amounts of points will get a little bit of penalty individually. "

An uproar started among them right away. It took the PD several minutes before he could contain it. "An acupuncture mat is placed at the base of the horse, which is also the range of zero points. "

Last time, as Ji Hyo remembered the game, it was a baby pool full of cold water. Harsh, but not painful. This time, running full speed and jumping means they will arrive quite heavily to the ground. If it happens to be on the mat, well, god forbid those unfortunate people. The actress already felt in her veins that she will have to feel the loving touch of the mat multiple times of that day. She hated that game in advance. Honestly, she was never really good at vaulting even back in school.

"Who cares if it’s healthy?!" shouted Jae Suk at them trying to be playful. He was about to attack the PD as a joke, but Jong Kook and Gary held him back by the shoulders.

They soon decided who goes first and the other teams lined up next to their course. The aim, collecting 5 points per team seemed impossible for most.

"Winning is not our goal here, Ji Hyo-yah" whispered Dong Hoon in her left ear. She glanced at him questioningly, so he continued with a sly smile on his face. "Not landing on the mat is. Let’s not be too ambitious" She just chuckled at that. It’s true. "It’s no problem if we are placed last. "

She glanced cautiously at Jong Kook. He seemed carefree while chatting with his gorgeous teammate. Her eyes then fell on his legs, one of them patterened with colourful tapes he was wearing almost all the time.

It’s been a while since he ever complained about pains in his body. She hoped this day wouldn’t be the one his cries return.

~*~

"Are you alright?" he asked still chuckling. He couldn’t stop. Ji Hyo just glared at him with the angriest eyes she could master while massaging her rear. Boy, was that painful! "Sorry, sorry" Dong Hoon added clearing his throat and stopped his laughs.

"Of course" she said, grimace displayed on her face. "My dignity suffered more."

"I guess our team is just clumsy today like that."

There was nothing more to say, Ji Hyo nodded. Even though their roles on running man were the not physically strongest ones, they still did poorly even in their own eyes. Kudos for the body gags though, if they were to preform bad, at least make the most fun out of it to garantee some time on camera and some smiles on the faces of their fans. With no guests as their teammates, they had to fight for attention more. Haha only earned one point, barely avoiding the acupunture mat and fell flat on his face in the process. Intended, or so he claims. Ji Hyo decided not to argue with that. She on the other hand wanted to stay true to her Ace status, but couldn’t even fail harder even if she tried.

She started off with a strong start, running fast and steady, arriving to the vaulting horse with a big jump. Although her left hand slipped off of the surface and she lost her balance. She still tried to achieve at least something, a mere point would make her happy, she had no illusions whatsoever, and flung her feet towards the one point area, but her body didn’t follow the lead. She ended up falling onto her with a huge thud, right onto the mat. Stepping on it is painful. But felling on it with full force while also hitting her tailbone was beyond anything she would expect from this game. With a big scream she got off the mat and curled up on the ground in a fetal position, face buried deep against her thighs to mute her voice as much as possible. Her hands were attached to her cheeks, trying to ease the pain.

Big laughs erupted from everyone, but she soon felt hands on her, patting her back and shoulders. She stopped and tried to stand up and the hands helped her, carrying most of her weight with ease. Jong Kook and Kwang Soo held her on either side of her body as they saw she was struggling, trying not to smile too hard at the cute way she expressed her suffering. After a few steps she dismissed the two and walked on her own because their help felt even more shameful than the situation itself. Now, that was something she will be hearing about for a long time.

"Hey, at least we have two points" told her Dong Hoon with a big smile.

"I would rather have zero and not having to go through this. Ever again."

The man just laughed delighted again. The pain would go away, but the memory of that day wouldn’t. It was too much fun.

However another event occured that would make it impossible to forget that filming, but for the totally opposite reason.

Jong Kook’s team was next and her teammate was a little bit afraid, so the man decided to go first even going that far that he promised to earn as much as possible, so maybe the girl didn’t have to jump at all if she didn’t want to.

"You did well regardless" Dong Hoon continued with a smile, but Ji Hyo didn’t pay attention to him anymore. His words fell on deaf ears. "Or better than Kwang So to say the least. I still don’t why is he such a mess when it comes to jumping games. Maybe giraffes can’t jump by default…"

Jong Kook started of strong. Even bare footed – as the PDs required, well, socks for the ladies, hence her feet slipping on the ground and her felling the most hideous way ever – he ran with grace. Every muscle flexing and losening up, then flexing again. His eyes looked determined, fixated only on his task. She admired him for that, his concentration and full power over his own body was another thing for him to gain respect. He reached the springboard, jumping on it hard enough that his palms barely could touch the surface of the vaulting horse, as he almost flew over it. It seemed like this surprised him a bit too, he tried to sway his legs differently to soften his landing and control his moves more, but his efforts were in vain. He reached the ground with his left foot first, and the limb not being able to support his weight, collapsed, bringing down his whole body with it. A loud, sickening thump could be heard, then silence for the briefest of moment. His teammate and every other guest along with the members and filming staff roared up as one person in the next. Everybody was trying to get closer to him to see if he was okay, because oh god, he gave no signs on his own, laying on his side motionless.

Ji Hyo just stood there, completely frozen in the same position before his fall. Her face betrayed no emotions only the slightly wider eyes gave away her worry to some extent. But on the inside a turmoil took over her soul. She even forgot to breath.

Was he okay? Was he? No one said anything useful, but repeated the same thing again and again and again and again…

"Hyung! Are you alright? "

"Is it your leg? "

"Jong Kook-ah!"

"Are you hurt?"

"Hyung!"

Her lungs ached, burnt, stung. With trembling hands she reached up to while taking a few steps closer because from all the people flooding the field, she couldn’t see him. They blocked him out completely.

Movements caught her eyes. Broad shoulders trembling, head thumping against the ground helplessly. He was conscious. The force she inhaled with again almost hurt her windpipe along the process and a small moan escaped her lips.

He was panting. Even from that far in the sea of people she could spot small beads of sweat on his temples, sticking his hair to the wet skin. He was still lying on his side, clunching his aching leg not being able to answer any questions or open his mouth for the record.

It was happening. The worst she would ever imagine on a Running Man filming.

The other six members watched him getting injured all the time, but he normally just brushed it off, saying it’s no big deal. He would say he can take it. He would say not to worry about him. Even when the pain was displayed on his face, he tried to stay strong and never showed it to the others. Even though she hated to watch him during those times, at the least he was still able to hold it back, which to her meant that it was till within bearable.

This time he couldn’t even mask it.

All he could do was to clench his leg and squeeze his lips and eyelids shut tight.