"This guy is Wonwoo," Jeonghan said while placing a hand on Wonwoo's shoulder before he got the chance to speak for himself.  "He seems pretty shy." 

 

"Oh really?  You're a shy one huh," Mingyu questioned while walking closer to Wonwoo.  He stood in front of him and bent down slightly so that he could look Wonwoo in the eye; their faces were just inches apart.  "You don't look like the type of person to be shy.  Maybe you're just trying to trick us."  

 

"Wh-wh-why w-would," Wonwoo was not used to anybody being this close to him, especially a stranger who had a group of boys with him and hung out in the woods.  

 

"You either need to speak louder or stop that stuttering of yours, cause I can't understand anything you're saying."  

 

"M-maybe if you backed away I c-could speak more comfortably..." 

 

"OH! I'm sorry! I didn't realize that bothered you.  Oh goodness are you claustrophobic?  BOYS, GIVE HIM SOME ROOM HE'S CLAUSTROPHOBIC!" 

 

All 7 boys took multiple steps back, even if they were no where near Wonwoo, at Mingyu's order.  

 

"I apologize, I hope you can speak clearly now," Mingyu said in a very proper fashion, the thing that suprised Wonwoo the most was how sincere Mingyu sounded.  

 

"I'm not claustrophobic, I just don't want a stranger that close to my face," Wonwoo explained while looking at the ground. 

 

"Oh, well I guess that's understandable, but what were you trying to say before?" 

 

"I was asking you why you thought I was pretending to be shy.  What good would that do?"  

 

"It would've been a good trick, or even a fun game.  You could pretend to be shy and we'd see how long it took for us to make you break character.  But it seems that you're truly shy, so I guess no game." 

 

"No game?  That's not fun at all," Chan pouted.  "Let's play a game!  This Wonwoo guy just had a pretty bad beating; he could use some cheering up!"  

 

All the other boys cheered in agreement.  "Okay okay, we'll play a game," Mingyu said, "but which one?"  

 

"Buckets," Seungkwan called out.  

 

"No, we are reserving our buckets for when it rains and the roof leaks," Mingyu responded with his arms crossed.

 

"Let's play 2 stack," Jeonghan said with an excited voice.

 

"Last time we played 2 stack somebody got hurt remember," Mingyu said while shaking his head.  Minghao rubbed his wrist while muttering what sounded like "it still hurts...." 

 

"What's 2 stack," Wonwoo quietly asked Junhui who was closest to him.   

 

"In 2 stack there are 2 teams;  one person climbs on top of another and hits the other team with a stick.  Bottom person against bottom; top against top.  Whoever falls over first, loses," Junhui kindly explained. 

 

"That sounds dangerous." 

 

"That's the fun of it." 

 

They were all thinking very hard about what game they should play and there was silence for a couple minutes.  

 

"BULLETS," Seokmin exclaimed while jumping up and down.  A massive grin broke out on Mingyu's face when he heard the suggestion; this grin made Wonwoo extremely nervous.  

 

"Alright we'll play bullets," Mingyu said while clapping his hands together, "Junhui, Seokmin, and Jeonghan, you're on my team.  Chan, Wonwoo, and Seungkwan, you're on Minhao's team."

 

Wonwoo slowly raised his hand, which earned a confused look from the rest of the boys, and said in a small voice, "I don't know how to play this game.....can you explain?" 

 

"No I cannot," Mingyu said with a stern voice, "I will not explain the game until you speak loudly and with confidence.  It's quite frustrating trying to hear you speak; I don't help people who frustrate me."  

 

Wonwoo looked over to Minghao, hoping that he would explain the game instead, but he just earned a shrug in response.  He took a deep breath and said with as much power as he could, without yelling, "teach me how to play this game.  Please." 

 

Mingyu grinned once again, obviously please with Wonwoo.  "Seungkwan go get the acorns," Mingyu ordered.  "Well my dear friend- actually no, you're not my friend yet; what should I call you?" 

 

"Ummmm, Wonwoo?  That is my name."  

 

"No, you need a nickname." 

 

"May I ask why I need one?  Does everyone here have a nickname?" 

 

"No, and there's no reason; you just need one."

 

Mingyu walked towards Wonwoo and became for too close, once again.  He then ran his hand through Wonwoo's hair while looking him straight in the eye.  Wonwoo shivered at the others touch and avoided eye contact; the entire situation made him painfully uncomfortable.  He didn't enjoy being touched, especially by stranger.  Wonwoo eventually forced himself to make eye contact with Mingyu; he had soft eyes that appeared even bigger than they actually were because of his long eyelashes.  

 

"Cat", Mingyu said so quietly it was practically a whisper.  Wonwoo could feel Mingyu's breath against his face due to their close proximity; he could also feel the other boys eyes on them.

 

"Why cat", Wonwoo questioned, still looking into the others eyes.

 

"Your eyes, they remind me of cats' eyes.  Also," Mingyu took his hand and ruffled hair while taking a step and giggled, "you're soft like a cat."  

 

Wonwoo smiled for the first time since meeting the boys.  "So are you going to explain the game to me or not," he asked trying to hide his smile.

 

"Right!  Well Cat, there are two teams of four, each person gets three acorns to throw at the other person.  If you get hit twice, you're out.  The team with most people left, wins.  Simple right?"  

 

"Yes, but, what's the prize for the winning team?  Or penalty for the losing?" 

 

"You're right! We have to have a penalty or something," Junhui said while looking at Mingyu expecting him to come up with it.  

 

"Losing team has to put on a play," Jeonghan said.  "That should be our penalty.  A play or concert; anything of that sort."

 

"That's a great idea," Mingyu said with a wide smile, "what do you think about that Cat?" 

 

"Sounds fun," Wonwoo responded, actually excited to play the game for the first time since it was mentioned.  

 

"Great!  I'm going to go see where Seungkwan is, it shouldn't take this long to get acorns, he probably got himself lost.  Seokmin, come with me."

 

Seokmin immediately went with Mingyu and they walked further into the woods in order to find Seungkwan; Junhui and Minhao had both gone inside the cabin due to the chilling weather.  Wonwoo sat on the porch steps of the cabin, next to Chan and Jeonghan.  

 

"Mingyu is acting strange," Chan pointed out quite bluntly.  

 

"What," Wonwoo was completely caught of guard by Chan's statement, "he seemed normal to me."

 

"He was acting normal for any other person", Jeonghan explained to Wonwoo, "but he was not acting normal for Mingyu."  

 

"What do you mean?" 

 

"He gave you a nickname, he doesn't do that.  He took time to explain the game to you; he's never done that.  He would usually make one of us do it.  He also went to go find Seungkwan, granted he made Seokmin go with him, but he would usually send one of us to find him.  Maybe he got hit in the head during the fight."  

 

Wonwoo didn't think much about Mingyu doing things himself, he assumed he was just trying to give a good first impression, but he wasn't sure why he would give him a nickname.  Wonwoo had always thought that nicknames were given between good friends (he really didn't know as he had never had friends), so why would a stranger like Mingyu give him a nickname?  His thoughts were discontinued by the sound of foot steps that were nearing him and the boys.  Mingyu and Seokmin were approaching the cabin, along with Seungkwan who's head was hung low.  

 

"Seungkwan are you okay," Chan questioned with a raised eyebrow.  

 

"He's just upset that he got lost.....again," Seokmin explained while sitting on the porch.  

 

"It's okay Seungkwan," Jeonghan said while rubbing the latters back, "we all get lost every once in a while." 

 

"I've never gotten lost," Mingyu pointed out with a confident smile. 

 

"That's not helping Mingyu."  

 

"Well I was correcting your statement."

 

"You should have left my statement alone." 

 

"Then you would have been lying; lying isn't good Jeonghan." 

 

"You're so frustrating." 

 

"That hurts my feelings.  Now you're a liar and a feeler hurter." 

 

"Feeler and hurter are not words, Mingyu." 

 

"Wow.  You hurt my feelings, lied, and corrected my grammar all in one conversation.  You've done all the things I can't stand.  You're lucky I consider you a friend or else I would have kicked you out of these woods by now." 

 

"Oh, how grateful I am that you didn't", Jeonghan said in a sarcastic tone while walking inside the cabin, pulling Seungkwan in with him.  

 

"They act like that all the time," Chan told Wonwoo who had a worried expression on his face, "they never actually get their feelings hurt or seriously fight.  It's nothing to worry about." 

 

"Are you trying to tell me that neither one of them is upset?," Wonwoo questioned. 

 

"They may have been upset in the moment, but they have probably forgotten about it by now.  People forgive quickly around here."  

 

"Boys come out," Mingyu yelled into the window of the cabin, "let's start the game." 

 

The boys came out and they split into their teams.  Minghao, Chan, Wonwoo, and Seungkwan on one team; Mingyu, Seokmin, Junhui, and Jeonghan on the other.  They handed out the acorns so each person has three and they shoved them into their pockets.  

 

"We seperate at first, Minghao lead Wonwoo to your base, I'm sure my team knows the way to ours by now.  Whoever gets to their base first needs to alert the other team, the other team will tell them if they are at their base as well.  If they're not, wait, if they are," Mingyu stopped explaining and let a smirk creep up to his face, "let the games began." 

 

The two teams immediately turned seperate directions and began to walk towards the bases.  

 

"What are the bases," Wonwoo asked Minghao who was leading the other boys as well. 

 

"They're just trees thar have pieces of clothes tied to the branches," Minghao explained with his eyes fixed forward, focusing hard on his target.  

 

"Do you guys play these games a lot?" 

 

"Almost every day.  Games are all the boys favorite thing." 

 

"Where do you guys come from anyways?  Why are there a bunch of teenagers living in the woods together?  What about your parents?" 

 

"We don't have parents.  We all come from an orphanage.  When we were in the orphanage we would sneak out a lot, the workers never paid attention, and eventually we found a cabin in the woods.  It was broken down and about to fall apart, but we all decided to fix it; we spent months sneaking out and fixing it up.  We would take food, pillows, blankets, and things like that from the orphanage and put it in the cabin.  One by one, we each turned 18, and we moved into the cabin together.  No parents, no crappy orphanage workers, just us boys." 

 

"Wow....so do you guys just do whatever you want?" 

 

"Pretty much.  We spend most of our time playing games though.  Occasionally we'll have somebody go out to town and beg for food, or we'll go and wonder around the woods together, but that's really the only time we leave here.  It's nice." 

 

"Is that how you guys saw those guys beating me up?  You were just wondering around?" 

 

"Yep."

 

"Why do you guys let Mingyu tell you what to do?  He kind of seems like the leader or something."

 

"You could say that.  Mingyu was the first in the orphanage and the first out.  We all just kind of followed what he said without question."

 

Wonwoo knew that their conversation was over when they approached a tree with a piece of fabric tied to it.  Minghao grew the same, frightening, grin that Mingyu had before.  

 

"What do I do after the game starts," Wonwoo questioned; he was beggining to get nervous. 

 

"Run, don't get hit, throw your acorn if you think that you can hit another person," Chan responded; he too was now focused on the game and not communication.

 

"Are you ready," Minghao asked while turning towards the other three boys; he got simple nods in response.

 

"Team one set," Minghao yelled with his hands cupping his mouth.  There were a few moments of silence before hearing, what sounded like, Mingyu respond with "team two set".

 

Minghao grinned even wider than before; with extreme volume he yelled, "GO".

 

The boys took off so fast, and in different directions, it took Wonwoo a couple moments to process the situation.  Once he did he started running himself; he didn't know his way around the woods like the other boys so he had no clue where he was going.  He ran for a few minutes and eventually he saw Junhui running in front of him; Junhui wasn't running towards Wonwoo though, he didn't see him, he was running towards Chan who was a little behind Wonwoo.  They were running straight for each other with devilish grins on their faces.  

 

This sight frightened Wonwoo; he didn't like the woods, he didn't really know these boys, and those grins on their faces made them seem like completely different people.  He was questioning why he was still with these boys and not back home, with his grandmother; no matter how hard he thought, he only come up with one answer.  The only reason he thought of was that, this was different.  That's all he ever wanted; something different.

 

Junhui and Chan were running straight towards each other, with their arms stretched out towards one another.  Wonwoo was sure they were going to tackle each other, but instead Chan grabbed Junhui by the shoulders and jumped straight over him.  It startled Junhui a great deal, and it took him a second to slow his speed enough to turn around; Chan had already thrown an acorn and hit Junhui before he was able to face then him.  Once he turned around, he saw Chan standing a couple yards in front of him with another acorn in hand; Junhui quickly pulled out an acorn as well.  Wonwoo was standing behind a tree, out of sight, watching the whole thing. 

 

"Dammit Chan," Junhui snarled, "how do you always manage to do that?  You always get me first!" 

 

"That doesn't matter," Chan said.  His eyes were focused on Junhui and his expression serious.  "The important thing is that if I hit you again you're out, and there's now way you'll hit me like this without me getting you back.  So, let's make a deal huh?" 

 

"What sort of deal?" 

 

"There's no way I'm letting you go; you know that right?" 

 

"I'm aware." 

 

"And you want to get me out as much as I want to get you out; correct?" 

 

"Yes."

 

"So I'll give you a ten second lead; you run as fast as you can and after ten seconds I'll come after you.  That gives us both a fair chance of getting the other one out.  Okay?" 

 

"I don't get it, even if I hit you when you hit me, you won't be out." 

 

"Actually Jeonghan already got me, so do we have a deal or not?"

 

".......deal."

 

Junhui took off before he could even finish the word.  Chan sat there, counting out loud for Junhui to hear, with a straight face.  

 

"5, 6, 7, 8, 9," Chan changed his straight face into a grin, "10."  He ran even faster than he did before towards Junhui.  

 

Wonwoo hated that grin that the boys had, it was frightening.  Every time he saw it the only thing he could think was "these guys take their games far too seriously."  Not too long after the two boys were out of sight he heard a yell that said "Junhui out."

 

Wonwoo heard rustling behind him and didn't look back before running in the opposite direction of the noise.  He ran for a couple minutes, hearing yells that said Seungkwan and Chan were both out, but the noise continued to followed him; he pulled out an acorn from his pocket, turned around and threw it aimlessly at whoever was following him.  He didn't aim, he didn't think, he just threw, yet it hit his target.  

 

"SEOKMIN OUT," Seokmin yelled, "you got me."

 

"Are you serious," Wonwoo questioned, completely shocked by the previous event. 

 

"Minghao got me.  Now you.  I'm out."

 

"Who is all left?" 

 

"You, Jeonghan, Minghao, and Mingyu." 

 

"Jeonghan out," a voice yelled from the distance.  

 

"Scratch that," Seokmin said, "you, Minghao, and Mingyu.  I'll get heading back to the cabin; good luck."

 

Wonwoo was extremely surprised that he got Seokmin out, but he actually felt proud of himself; it was the only thing he had accomplished in a long time.  He continued walking at a slower pace and heard no noise for about 5 minutes; then he spotted Mingyu and Minghao, standing face to face, with acorns in hand.  Wonwoo was walking away slowly, but didn't want to lose sight of them, they were the only two people left after all.  He decided to climb a tree, to stay out of sight of the two boys, and to keep them in his sight.  It seemed that the boys were in the same situation Chan and Junhui had been in earlier; both had been hit once and would get hit if they threw at the other.  

 

"How do you want to get out of this," Minghao questioned while looking at Mingyu with fierce eyes.  

 

"I'm not sure," Mingyu responded honestly.  "It seems like we're both in danger."

 

"You could let me go."

 

"Hell no." 

 

"I thought you'd say that.  Well we need to get out of this somehow."

 

"I agree."

 

Still, neither of them moved; they stood there, facing each other, prepared to attack at any time.  

 

Wonwoo was far too high in the tree for his liking; he climbed without thinking and ended up being too far up.  He began to shift uncomfortably, due to his fear of heights (just another one of his countless fears), and was growing more and more uneasy by the second.  He tried to get into a more comfortable position, thinking it would help his nerves, but it only created a large rustle in the tree.  A rustle that both of the boys heard.  

 

Minghao immediately turned towards the sound, but Mingyu knew better.  As soon as Minghao wasn't looking at him, he launched an acorn that hit his opponent right in the chest.  

 

"MINGHAO OUT," the now loser of the battle yelled threw gritted teeth.  "You did it Mingyu, again.  You're the winner." 

 

"Actually I'm not," Mingyu said while relaxing a bit, "Cat is still out there."

 

"Cat?  You mean Wonwoo?"

 

"Yes."

 

"How is he still here?  He's never even played this game before."

 

"He's sneaky; I guess I picked his nickname well." 

 

"It's a weird nickname," Minghao muttered while walking towards the tree that Wonwoo was in; Mingyu followed. 

 

 "I'm heading back to the base; the sooner you win, the sooner I can get this penalty over with," Minghao told Mingyu.  Wonwoo was getting nervous that they were heading near him; they were practically under the tree.  He panicked and clumsily got an acorn out of his pocket.  He didn't throw it, but dropped it, right on top of Mingyu's head.  

 

Mingyu looked up, in shock, and saw Wonwoo sitting in the tree above him. 

 

"Well would you look at that," Minghao said with a smile. 

 

"Cat, you won!"