Taemin’s POV

Omo! This is really fun!

The wind whipped by, the world was rushing by me and both Jae and I were waving our arms around madly. I smiled goofily, and then five seconds later, we were rumbling to a stop. The end. Since I was on the exit-side, I got up first, and then helped Jae. Then we jogged down the steps together. At least Jae was much more cheerful then before.

“Teacups?” I heard her suggest.

“Teacups…?” Why teacups?

“Trust me, I can teacup you to death.” She replied. Could she?

“Ok.” The teacups were close by anyway. She half dragged me because she was running, over to the teacups, and plopped down in a green teacup.

“Let me demonstrate. Don’t touch the handles.” Jae instructed. “I’ll go first.” She grasped the round bar, and started pulling slowly. Can she really teacup to the death? She was gaining speed. Our rotations were becoming faster, but not that fast. “Now for the real doom.” Jae laughed.

“Doom…?”

“Oh yeah. LET’S DO THIS!” Jae suddenly pulled at the bar with such force the teacup trembled, and then we were spinning so fast my stomach was swirling. Oh my god. “THIS IS SO MUCH FUUUUNNN!” Jae yelled. I have… never seen her like this. O.O Except for when she was congratulating Minho on his birthday.

How can she make this cup spin so fast? My head was spinning as well. OH MY GOOOOODDDDD!

“REVERSE!” OH GOD NO… wait a second I’m going to puke… NO I MUST BE MANLIER THAN HER. We immediately switched direction, and this time I pulled at the bar as well.

…

How does she do this??

Nevertheless, I helped the speed just slightly. Wow, this really was fun. I glanced at Jae. She was grinning from ear to ear, laughing.

Good.

Happy birthday, Jae.

***

“Laser tag! LASER TAG!” Jae jumped up and down, then composed herself probably out of embarrassment, but she was still happy. Laser tag… I haven’t played that since I was a tiny little kid.

“Ok.” I agreed. I kind of missed playing that, though I don’t remember much. Armed with laser guns and protective vests, two teams are released into a maze-like place where we attack each other, I think.

***

“It’s kind of funny, us playing Laser Tag at this age.” Jae mentioned.

It was kind of weird, but both the green and blue team had their groups of teenagers. I was on the green. Jae on the blue. There was a place for the older people, and the other maze for the younger ones. The blue and green had to separate into different rooms for different starting places. The maze was indoors, one giant dark room. There were ramps on the walls that went up to a good shooting place.

“Keep two hands on the gun at all times. Try to shoot at the blinking lights on the vests.” The instructor told us. IT was ten on ten, and I was so glad Jae and I weren’t the only people. I was 17, though.

“Ok, see this window on the back of the gun? It’s a screen. This number tells you your level. The lower the number the better. This other number tells you how many times you ‘died.’ This number is the amount of ‘kills,’ you made. When your vest vibrates for a long amount of time and turns red, it means you’ve been damaged and will have to wait until you can shoot again. If it vibrates, turns yellow for a second, it just warns you that you got hit.” He went on, fixing the vest on me. “Green people into this room!” He motioned for us to follow him. I glanced at Jae, caught her eye, waved and left. She smiled, hefting her blue-blinking gun.

I could glance into the arena. Lots of the walls were lined with glowing but dim lights. Some walls were chain fences, and other walls were painted to look like large grey brick walls.

I looked up. The ceiling was covered in many tiny dots of light.

“When I count down from five, you can go into the arena!”

(Since I don’t want to put up ____’s POV so many times in this scene, just remember Jae is in bold, only for this scene)

“Five!” I shook back some hair.

“Four!” I got ready to burst into the arena.

“Three!” I hefted my gun twice. Luckily it was light.

“Two!” I grinned, adjusting my hold on the gun.

“One!” I wasted no time, running in immediately, in front of the team. I gestured to three others to follow me up the ramp to the best shooting place. The rest of the team scattered into the maze. My eyes had already adjusted to the dim light. The three that followed me were named Mihi, Nara and Hyori. These ramps met up at a large round platform, with some walls on it, the tiniest maze, but it still provided the best place to shoot from. The guys had all gone into the maze.

“Pick and shoot carefully!”  I told them and they nodded, also smiling.

“We’ll guard!” Hyori pulled Nara to guard both entrances to this shooting place. There was one ramp on the green side and one on our side. Luckily, us four were fast and the first ones there. I looked for flickering red lights. There were plenty.  I aimed, shot and saw his vest blink yellow. That means I hit him! WOOT WOOT!

“Greens coming! Three greens!” Hyori hissed. Nara quickly dashed down the ramp to attack them from below.

I rushed up the ramp with Jung and Sujin. I’d seen four sets of flickering blue lights up here. We crashed into the platform, armed and ready. One blue was flying down the ramp. The other three were most likely just hiding on different sides of the set of walls right in front of us. Sujin darted to the opposite of the platform soundlessly, when I heard vibrating and her vest turned red.

Caught.

Jung and I sprung into attack while Sujin had to wait until her vest stopped vibrating.

I couldn’t see faces easily in this light, but the blinking blue lights were easy to identify. I shot at one, but she dodged and shot me back. My vest vibrated for only a second. Jung took out whoever shot me, and she stood still, waiting for her vest to become blue again. I dashed past Jung and found another blue. I pulled the trigger twice, just barely missing.

I recognized the face.

I laughed silently. It was Taemin! With deadly accuracy I shot at him with blue lasers, and I hit him.

“Sorry, Taeminnie-oppa!” I told him. He made a pout and I giggled as I ran past him and his vibrating vest. I raced down the ramp with Hyori and Mihi, and together we hunted through the maze. I saw a green laser hit the floor at my feet from somewhere above us. “Crouch and stay against the wall for five seconds, then turn right!” I hissed. When we crouched, they couldn’t see us and therefore couldn’t hit us.

Five seconds passed. In a flash we were turning right altogether. Hyori laughed, breathless and Mihi high-fived me.

“I’m going to find Mihi and hunt with her!” Nara told us. I nodded. Two in two would be less conspicuous then three. Nara headed left and Hyori and I continued right. I glanced up to the platform. I think Taemin was still up there, and then I saw the blinking green. I brought my gun up, shooting five times and the vest turned red, and then I heard yelling after the person turned around several times.

“HOW DID I GET HIT. WOW. I’m such a fail…” The person shouted, and I swear the entire arena laughed. Hyori clapped a hand on my shoulder, and we hurried down to the end, turned left and encountered a chain fence. On the other side was a female green, her back facing us. Hyori fired. The girl’s vest vibrated once, and then Hyori and I shot until it turned red. The girl didn’t turn in time.

Hyori beat a hasty retreat and I followed her into shadowy darkness.

Jung got hit and randomly yelled about him being a fail. I laughed. Luckily no one knew I was the Lee Taemin, because it was so dark, plus sunglasses and my hair color didn’t stand out in this darkness. Jung and I just randomly teamed up and we fired at any blue we encountered. I leaned over the platform railing for better accuracy and took down two. Jung and I ducked behind a wall to avoid any counterattacks, and then we jogged down into the maze to follow a group of four blues traveling together. Oh yeah, how to be inconspicuous.

I crept up to the other side of a wall, then leaned over the side and shot thrice, hitting one person each, but only two vests vibrated temporarily. Jung jumped out of nowhere, and the blues started. Jung fired until all four were red and vibrating. I gestured to Jung, and we escaped to the other side of the arena. We faced the front and stepped backward, turning about to hit any unsuspecting blues. I dashed into a new path, Jung following. This game is much more fun with more than one person. We snickered as we took out another blue, and then when I turned the corner my vest immediately vibrated several times, and then turned red. I looked down the path. Two blues, armed and shooting furiously, hitting even Jung.

It’s Jae again. I waited impatiently until my vest stopped vibrating, signaled to Jung and we chased after the two loud blues. Their feet slapped the ground, running and ours did too.

“WE’RE GONNA GETCHA, YOU BLUES!” Jung hollered, and another green joined us. I pointed to the dashing blues and he followed us as we thudded down the paths.

Before this game started, Hyori, Mihi, Nara and I had made signs clear to each other. Pinkie up means to scatter and hide, ring finger and pinkie up means to scatter and kill, pinkie to middle finger up means to come here, pinkie to pointer finger means to be quiet and don’t move. All fingers up meant an enemy is here, and thumbs up meant all was good. Pinkie up.

Hyori didn’t even nod in response, and at the next intersection we split. I turned several times, crouching down and trying to breathe quietly. When I recovered, I turned a corner and crashed into a green blinking vest.

Oh crap. I immediately turned and fled, glancing over my shoulder and shooting at times. Eventually his vest turned red and I swiftly turned a corner. I looked for any fellow blues. I found a male blue. His name was Jihoo, he told me. We watched each other’s backs, taking out blues and decided to go back up to the shooting platforms. It was filled with greens, but if we took out a lot our scores would go up by a huge amount.

Crouching so they couldn’t see us ascending on the ramp, we pretty much crawled up the ramp. Three more blues came in behind us, backing us up. Five blues and six greens, LET’S DO THIS BAYBEH.

 We burst into movement, and three greens ‘died’ before thirty seconds passed. I grinned with Jihoo and soon all greens ‘died’ and two blues were ‘decimated.’

I went with Jihoo and a girl named Hyorin back down the ramp. Hidden in a corner no turned into, we glanced up at the shooting platform.

“Wait till it’s empty of greens.” I whispered. Hyorin nodded and Jihoo hefted his gun. Some blues hit the greens above from the ground, and those greens went charging down for revenge. I swallowed my laughter and followed Jihoo up the ramp again. One by one, the blues joined us and all ten of use were shooting at greens from above, the greens ducking around and ‘dying’ down in the maze.

“GREEN INVASION!” Jihoo yelled, his voice echoing. Five of us turned to battle off any greens coming up onto the ramp to invade. Four greens, none Taemin.

We greens just had to keep hiding in the maze. Every five seconds I’d pop out from my hiding space with Jung and try to take out some of the blues up there. I couldn’t tell which one was Jae. They were too far away.

I stealthily moved around the maze, collecting four other greens in the maze. The four battling up there, the four we got and Jung and me. We ran up on both sides, and then it was a mass of green and blue battle up on the platform and ramps. We were blobs of… turquoise lights.

We were actually winning. Seven blues were red, five greens were red.

“Everyone who ‘dies’ now cannot revive anymore! You must stay where you are until the game ends! Your vests will NOT turn back green or blue, they will stay red and your gun is deactivated!”

Three blues left… two… ONE. Three greens, Jung, Sujin and me, surrounding… Jae. I wasted no time to get shooting, but by the time my gun was up and ready, Jae had crashed through Sujin and Jung and pounded down halfway the ramp. From there, she shot and killed Sujin, hitting Jung twice. I crouched down. Jung and I left, against Jae.

She was scarily good. A rising cheer from fallen blues went up. “JAE! JAE! JAE!” One minute left in the game. She jumped up and shot at Jung three more times, leaving Jung with one more shot until death, and then she disappeared into the maze. I told Jung to stay up here to get her from above and I rushed down into the maze after Jae.

“JUNG! TAEMIN! JUNG! TAEMIN!” The greens yelled.

Fifty seconds. They still didn’t know I was THE Taemin… I was just A Taemin.

Good.

Anyway, I almost crashed into three walls, when I heard vibrating. Jung died. Where did Jae shoot from.

“JAE!”

“TAEMIN!”

The cheering teens battled in their yelling.

“TAEMIN YOU BETTER WIN THIS ONE!” Jung bellowed, louder than everyone.

Forty seconds. I hurriedly turned to the right and left, following the light step-sounds of Jae. I hit a dead-end, and I sighed, wheeling around on my feet and trying to find Jae.

Thirty seconds. I heard a thump and assumed Jae must have crashed. I followed that thump, and found another dead end.

Twenty seconds. Where was Jae? I did one big jump and looked for any blinking blue lights. The teams were screaming like crazy, and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. IT seemed as if the blue was yelling as loud as possible, just to block out whatever the green was saying.

Ten seconds. AUGH!

“DUDE! SHE’S BEHIND YOU!” Jung’s booming voice broke past everyone’s yell, and my vest vibrated quickly twice. I whirled around and saw a blinking light disappear behind a wall. I sprinted.
Five seconds.

Vibrating. I shot as much as I could, but it was no match for Jae’s accuracy.

Red.

A loud buzzer went off.

“Victory goes to Blue Team!”