Hide and Seek.

“Chae Lin.”

“Go away, Sangchu.”

“Yah, I’m not Sangchu right now. I’m Choi Dong-Wook, here to comfort Lee Chae Lin.” Se7en said, slowly walking over to a crying CL, nestled in a corner in Daesung’s room.

She said not another word, sniffling quietly as she wiped her tear-stained eyes for the millionth time. She buried her head in her arms, biting her lower lip to prevent from sobbing out loud again. “I can never do anything right.” She said quietly, her voice muffled.

“Oh, shh. Sweetie, no.” Se7en said softly, gently nuzzling on her cheek. “Don’t ever think that. You know that’s not true.”

She choked out a sob and cried harder, her body trembling with disappointment and frustration. She looked up at Se7en with tearful eyes. “I-I… just w-wanted to help. I-I just wanted D-Daesung to c-come home sooner. I-I’m so s-selfish.” She whispered, her breath staggered.

Se7en scooted closer, allowing her to hug him. “You’re not selfish. Shhh.” He said, trying to comfort her. “By the looks of it, I think you’ve helped many people… a lot.”

She slowly stopped sobbing, her eyes widened at the dog. “W-What?”

“Well…” he said, slightly chuckling. “If it weren’t for Seunghyun becoming a beast, he wouldn’t have ever met Jiyong. He wouldn’t have ever changed his bratty ways, either. Sure, you’ve ran into some hiccups here and there, but it’ll all be so worth it in the end. Am I right?” he said, smiling.

CL sniffled. “I thought dogs couldn’t smile.”

“Well, this one does.”

She laughed lightly, wiping the last stray tears from her eyes. She paused for a second and pouted lightly, deep in thought. “Do you think it’ll be alright in the end?”

“I mean, those two are already madly in love. My senses can detect it. All we need is to give a couple of pushes. Don’t you think that’d be exciting for all of us? Well… us, at least. I’m sure I’ll have fun. I already have some stuff up my sleeve.”

“Y-You’ll help Daesung and I?” she said, her eyes brightening.

“Of course, since I’m already here.”

“You’re the best, appa.” She said, wrapping her arms around the dog once more.

“Appa? Yah, I’m only a couple of years older than you, how am I your appa?” Se7en laughed, shaking his head.

“You’re always watching out for me. Of course you’re my appa.”

“That’s true; I always have to pull my delinquent daughter out of trouble.” He sighed, chuckling at her silliness.

“Says my criminal father.” She said, eyeing him playfully.

“Yah, you said that it wasn’t entirely my fault that I almost killed a kid!” Se7en protested, trying to pout. It was hard pouting as a dog.

“Alright, alright. We can be criminal father and daughter together. Arasso?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A timid knocking broke the two from having their moment. “C-Come in!” CL said, shushing Se7en. She sniffled for the last time and wiped her eyes, silently asking Se7en if her eyes were still puffy and red from crying. He nodded in approval.

Daesung slowly popped his head in, gently opening the door. “C-Chae Lin.”

She weakly smiled and patted the empty space next to her, inviting him to come sit down. He gratefully obliged, stammering a bunch of words that seemed to fail to formulate in his mouth. “I-I… Chae Lin. I-I’m so.. I’m so s-sorry. It’s j-just that… I-I was too upset a-and I’m not upset at you o-or anything. E-Everything is my fau-”

And his words were cut off by the sudden embrace of CL, followed by a deep sigh from her lips. “Shh, it’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. I’m sorry I got so upset as well. Se7en talked to me about it. It’s okay. All we have to do is accept the new challenges we are given and run with it.”

Se7en nodded proudly, lying on the ground in front of the two.

Daesung merely nodded, unable to find the correct words. After a couple of moments holding CL, he finally uttered some words. “U-Um, so… how are we going to ‘run with it’…?”

Se7en and CL just smiled mischievously at Daesung, creeping the hell out of him.

“… Why are you guys smiling…?”

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?” Daesung scolded Seunghyun, whacking him on the head with a newspaper. It was noon, and everyone had finished helping Taeyang move in.

“B-BUT HE SUGGESTED IT.” Seunghyun whined, rubbing his forehead.

“DO YOU REALLY THINK PLAYING HIDE-AND-GO-SEEK WITH A BLIND PERSON SOUNDS LIKE A LOGICAL THING TO DO!?” Daesung whacked Seunghyun again, but with much more power. “Idiot.”

“He’s already found me like, 4 times! I swear he has magical powers or something…”

Daesung frowned. He knows for sure that Taeyang wasn’t magical in any sense, he did a power check on the blind man already. Magic-less. Power-less. Of course, he didn’t tell Seunghyun that he did a power check; Seunghyun still doesn’t know of his identity. I’ll tell him when his spell wears off. He promised himself, nodding.

“Still, it’s wrong.” Daesung mumbled, rolling the newspaper tightly. “Maybe you hid under the table and accidentally made a noise or something, just to go easy on him.”

“Oho, no. No no. NO.” Seunghyun waved his hands in the air, shaking his head furiously. Then, he brought his voice down low to a mere whisper. “I ing ran outside to the garden and he still found me.”

“You bastard.” Daesung hissed, whacking Seunghyun for the third time. This time, a red mark was visible on the beast’s forehead. “Why would you do that to the poor man?”

“Ugh, okay. So I decided to play it easy at first, hiding under tables, hiding behind curtains, hiding in the closet… but he kept finding me! But then I thought to myself, okay, even a kid could’ve found me. So I decided to up the level and run outside to the garden… BUT HE STILL FOUND ME.”

Daesung looked at the beast, his mouth agape. “You’re kidding me.”

“I you not.”

“READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!” Taeyang cackled, waving his cane in the air.

“HOLY , I CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS GUY.” Seunghyun cried, running up the stairs with the lightest feet, trying his hardest to not make a solitary sound.

Okay, if Seunghyun is playing… I’m pretty sure Jiyong is playing as well, right? Daesung thought to himself, nodding at his logical assertion.

Ooh, Daesung. I’m curious! I wanna see where Jiyong is. CL chimed in, beginning to use telepathy.

Me too! Se7en joined in, panting happily.

Let’s go. Daesung said, beginning to run up the stairs as they looked over their shoulders to see where Taeyang is. He was lingering around outside first, tapping his cane and listening very carefully.

Well, that’s perfect for the rest of the group. They snuck around on the second floor, peering in rooms and checking closets to see if Jiyong was around. They still saw Seunghyun run around like a maniac, trying to find a sufficient space.

Oh . I forgot that I was a dog. Se7en said, mentally kicking himself. I can just sniff out the boy.

Oh yeah, that’s right! CL said, patting Se7en on the head. C’mon! Let’s go follow Sangchu!

It’s Se7en, dammit. He said dryly, huffing in annoyance.

The two followed him down a hallway, finally ending up at a guest bathroom. The lights were all turned off, the bathroom silent. Are you sure he’s there? Daesung asked, frowning. It’s dead quiet.

Let’s go check. Se7en said, trotting in first. Turn on the lights. It’s so dark.

CL the lights, earning a squeak of surprise coming from the bathtub. The whole group gasped in surprise, making their way towards the bathtub.

“Jiyong?” Daesung laughed, opening the shower curtains. It WAS him, all curled up in a ball, trying his hardest not to make a noise.

“Dawh, you guys are playing too?” the boy huffed, beginning to stand up. “I guess I’m it…” he said, patting Sangchu’s head.

“Oh, no! We were just curious to see where you were hiding!” CL laughed, crouching down next to him. “Stay here and continue hiding! We wanna see if Taeyang can find you.”

“He HAS found me… countless times…” Jiyong huffed again, pouting out of disapproval.

“Well, if you stay this quiet, I highly doubt he can find you.” Daesung said, crossing his arms. “Well, we’ll leave you now! Bye Ji! Good luck!”

The group left and turned off the lights, leaving the boy alone in the dark restroom again. They continued to tiptoe around the 2nd floor for no apparent reason, finding this clandestine mission to be exciting, bringing back the good old days.

Suddenly, they saw Seunghyun whizz by, running in panic on tiptoes. “I NEED A HIDING SPOT!” he hissed loudly, flailing his arms around in the air.

“OH, THE BATHROOM!” Daesung whispered loudly, pointing to the guest bathroom that they had just left. “THERE’S NO ONE IN THERE!”

He could feel the stifled snickering of CL and Sangchu in the background and prayed that the beast did not sense anything fishy. To his relief, Seunghyun took the bait and went down, hook, line, and sinker.

“THANKS, HYUNG!” he whispered loudly again, running to the bathroom and quietly closing the door behind him.

Daesung and the others swiftly ran up to the bathroom and whispered a spell, locking those two in the bathroom. Se7en was so near bursting out into laughter, his stomach literally aching from laughing too hard. Chae Lin’s as well. She had tears coming out of her eyes as she ran into another room to laugh hysterically. Daesung was about to burst too, so he and Se7en followed CL, slightly closing the door behind them.

“Gosh, we’re so evil.” Se7en breathed, lying on his back to catch his breath.

“But isn’t it just perfect?” CL laughed, lying on the ground next to Se7en.

“It is. I’m proud of us.” Daesung said, smirking to himself.

“Wait, I hear something.” Se7en said, his ears perking up. He quickly made his way towards the door, pressing his ear on it. “I-It’s Seunghyun and Jiyong!” he cried, motioning them to come over.

The other two flew towards the door, also pressing their ears against the door. There was muffled panicking in the bathroom, followed by a frantic jiggle of the doorknob.

“Oh, we are evil. So evil.”

Seunghyun ran into the bathroom, smiling smugly to himself as he found a good hiding spot, all thanks to Daesung. Yep, that’s mah man. Always looking out for me. Yeah, hyung. You da man.

But he cursed himself for turning off the lights and closing the door before he had a chance to hide, but that wouldn’t make any sense if he was already situated in the bathtub. Shrugging, he slowly d his way through the darkness, running his hands along the walls until he met the tile of the bathtub wall.

“Assa.” He said to himself, climbing in.

His eyes widened as he realized that it wasn’t the bathtub that he stepped on…

It was someone else.

Silence.

And then an awkward sniffle coming from the boy.

“AUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WHO IS IT? IS IT YOU, JIYONG?” Seunghyun panicked.

The panic laced in Seunghyun’s voice was contagious, causing Jiyong to also panic. “AHHHHHHH WAIT WHAT? YES IT’S ME AUGH YOU SCARED ME AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“WAIT, LEMME LOOK FOR THE LIGHTS.” Seunghyun shouted, frantically feeling around in the dark. In the process, he accidentally tripped on the toilet, flushing it. Well, damn. That didn’t help his panicked state at all. Instead, Seunghyun ran for the doorknob, trying to escape from the scary, dark room.

To his demise, it was locked. He tried to unlock it but the doorknob remained jammed. He jiggled it, trying to remain calm. When he realized that he was locked from the inside, he began to panic again, feeling around for the lights. He slapped his hand on the light switch, unfortunately activating ALL of the lights in the bathroom: the mirror lights and the bathroom lights itself.

“AUGH, IT BURNS!!!” Seunghyun cried, feeling the blinding light hit his eyes with such malice.

All this time the boy sat in frozen fear, watching the beast make a fool out of himself. He didn’t say a single word, just merely watched him in the bathtub.

“S-Seunghyun…” he finally said, his voice small. “Shhh.”

“W-What?”

“Shhh.” The boy said, holding a finger up to his lips.

“W-Why?”

“Taeyang’s still looking for us. At least wait until then. Maybe he’ll find a way to open the door. He HAS managed to find us regardless of boundaries…”

The prince stood there, deep in thought. Then, he nodded slowly, finding much reason in the boy’s words. “T-True.” He said, turning off the lights and slowly climbing into the bathtub, sitting next to the boy.

“Don’t make a sound, okay Seunghyun? Everything’s been quiet until you came in, so don’t ruin it for me.” Jiyong said quietly but sternly.

“Arasso.”

Silence.

“I hear your stomach grumbling, Seunghyun.”

“Argh, I didn’t eat lunch yet.” He whined, pouting in the darkness.

“It’s okay. When we’re done with this, you can eat my delicious steak that I’ll grill.”

“You’re not making my stomach feel any better. See? It’s growling out of pure agony.” Seunghyun whined, holding his stomach.

“Shh.”

An hour passed and Taeyang had long given up, sprawled out on the couch as Sangchu laid by his side. “Aish, I wonder where those kids are.” He said as he heard Daesung and CL come near him.

Oops. Daesung thought, looking over at CL. Should we go check up on them…?

Yeah, the spell would usually wear off after like, 20 minutes.

“They probably hid upstairs.” Daesung hummed, feeling CL nudge his ribs with her elbow.

“I was too lazy to go upstairs.” Taeyang chuckled, running his hand over his Mohawk. “It’s okay. If they’re bored, they’ll come out.”

“We’ll go check up on them.” CL said, making her way towards the stairs. “Wanna come, Sangchu?”

The dog happily barked, jumping off the couch to follow them.

They made their way towards the guest bathroom and slowly opened the door, peeking their heads in. It was dark, so Daesung used his phone as light to shine in the dark bathroom.

The three gasped as they saw the sight before them: Seunghyun pressing his lips onto Jiyong’s, as Jiyong held onto his arms. Both were slowly kissing in the bathtub, not caring if someone walked in on them.

What the…

Well, that’s what Daesung wish could’ve happened. Then, the whole story would be over. But that won’t happen for a while.

Instead, the three saw Jiyong’s head rested on Seunghyun’s shoulder. What… an adorable sight. Both were sleeping soundly, but the strange part about it was that Seunghyun had intertwined his hand with Jiyong’s.

Seunghyun… what are you pulling off?