The studio is too hot, the small space overheated by the dozens of spotlights trained onto the various sets. Jiho is so covered in makeup – and powder to keep the makeup from running in the intense heat – and his stage clothes are so tight and uncomfortable and sequined that he feels like he’s going to pass out at any second. The director is shouting at the assistants and the cameramen are running this way and that, leaving the members to crowd in the shadowy corner, as far away from the sizzling heat as possible.

Even with all the discomfort, though, Jiho can’t help but be excited. This is their first music video since they came out with their new label and it’s like a fresh start to present themselves to their fans. He’s really looking forward to the video; the director has assured him that it will be crazy enough to be worthy of the name Block B.

He’s going over his lines and the director’s instructions for the billionth time in his head when he glances up and sees Chanyong coming through the door. This in an of itself is nothing unusual; as the head of their new company, he is very involved in their promotions and activities. What is unusual, however, is that Emily is following behind him, sullenly kicking at cords and chairs that have the misfortune of being in her way.

Minhyuk looks up and sees the pair as they make their way across the studio toward the boys. “Looks like we’re going to be babysitting again today,” he says with a hint of amusement.

Jiho groans. “Not today,” he mutters. “We’re going to be so busy today! We don’t have time to keep an eye on that little brat!”

Thankfully Chanyong doesn’t seem to need them to babysit. “Hi, boys,” he greets them with a smile that seems mostly forced. “I wanted Emily to see what a music video shoot is like, so we’re going to be hanging around for a bit.”

Jiho is relieved at the we, which implies that Chanyong will stick around to keep an eye on his unruly niece. She looks even less thrilled to be here than she was at the recording studio a few days before, scowling at everything. Her black eye has faded into almost nothing, looking sort of like a faded shadow.

He is also relieved when the director and assistants start gathering everyone together, the filming imminent. It’s their third day of filming, so they’ve already got a lot of good footage and they’re just re-shooting certain scenes that Chanyong and the director aren’t confident about. Most of these scenes that they’re re-shooting don’t involve Jiho – he’d aced all of his solo shoots, of course, and he only needs to be in a few more group shots. It gives him the opportunity to sit back and watch the others go over the same lines over and over again.

Chanyong and Emily are sitting near him, along with the other boys who aren’t on screen at the moment, and from this close distance Jiho can see just how annoyed Emily is. Her eyes, lined with thick black eyeliner, are dark and moody; is pressed into a thin line. Her fingers tap against her bare thigh impatiently, as though she’d rather be texting on her expensive phone that is still being held hostage by her uncle.

Again, Jiho finds himself unfortunately curious about Emily. Obviously Chanyong cares a lot about her – enough to make others suffer for her sake, at any rate – and just as obviously Emily doesn’t give a . Jiho is under the impression that if she never saw her uncle again, she’d be quite content. Happy, even.

She looks up and catches him staring. She glares for a moment, and then her eyes cross comically and she lets the tip of her tongue slip out the side of ; Jiho can’t help but laugh.

Kyung gives him a weird look from his other side. “Having an amusing conversation with yourself?” he teases.

Jiho punches him playfully on the shoulder, making sure not to muss his elaborate costume. “ off,” he says playfully. When he glances back up, Emily’s scowl has faded and it’s almost – but not quite – like she might be trying to bite back a smile.

Interesting, Jiho thinks to himself. Maybe she’s human after all.

The director calls him not long afterwards and so he trots over to the set, so strange that it’s sort of like following the white rabbit down the hole. His shots with a few of the other members don’t take long, and then he’s retreating to the quiet, shadowy corner where it’s a little bit cooler, away from the blazing stage lights.

He finds Taeil and Kyung there, along with Emily. Chanyong is nowhere in sight. “Where is Mr. Kim?” he asks, frowning, trying to scratch an itch without messing up his makeup.

“He got an important phone call and bailed,” Kyung says in low voice, glancing over his shoulder at where Emily is sitting with her eyes closed; she almost looks like she’s asleep. “He asked us to keep an eye on the kid.”

Jiho resists the urge to roll his eyes. “Of course he did,” he grumbles.

Kyung shrugs. “At least she’s just sitting there. She’s not being much of a nuisance at this point.”

“I don’t know why he keeps bringing her to these things,” Taeil says curiously, pulling out his phone to check his messages. “She obviously hates it, and she doesn’t even pay enough attention to pick up what’s going on.”

“Hey!” Her sharp voice causes them all to jump, startled. When they turn to look, she is no longer slouched against the wall with her eyes closed. She’s standing right behind them, eyes bright and open. But she doesn’t look upset that she’s caught them talking about her; in fact, she ignores that completely. Instead, she’s staring at the phone in Taeil’s hand with undisguised interest. “Can I use your phone for a second?”

Taeil takes a step back, protectively shielding his phone from her view.

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to steal it,” she says, holding out her hand impatiently. “I just want to send a quick text. It’ll only take a second.” Still he hesitates. “Just stand beside me if you don’t trust me,” she adds.

Taeil looks uncertainly at Jiho and Kyung, but then he sighs and hands his phone over. He does stand inordinately close as if he’s definitely afraid she’s going to take it and run, but, true to her word, Emily only types out a quick text and, after receiving a reply almost immediately, she hands the phone back. “Thanks,” she chirps happily, and it’s the first time Jiho has really seen her smile.

He doesn’t think about how weird that it until the shoot ends and he looks around only to discover that Emily is nowhere in sight.

He claps his hand to his head, where a headache is already forming spectacularly. “Where did that little brat run off to this time?” he groans.

Yookwon looks around uncertainly. “I think I saw her slip off a little earlier,” he admits. “But I was filming so I couldn’t say anything. Sorry.”

“Chanyong is gonna be pissed when he finds out we lost her,” Jaehyo laments, resting his elbow on Taeil’s shoulder.

Jiho grimaces. “Well, then we better find her. And fast, if you don’t mind. It’s already late and I don’t want to spend what’s left of our night searching for this punk.”

“I think I might be able to help with that,” Taeil says, pulling his phone from his pocket. “She forgot to delete her text history when she borrowed my handphone earlier.” He hands the phone to Jiho.

He pulls up the message history and immediately finds the one that Emily had used. There’s only two messages in the chat, one from her and one from an unknown number. Her message reads: This is Em, I’m using somebody else’s phone. What’s the location for tonight’s rendezvous? The reply is short and to the point, just an address. But an address is exactly what they need in order to find her, so Jiho counts himself infinitely lucky.

Minhyuk peers over his shoulder at the messages. “That’s in Gangnam,” he points out, reading the address. “That’s not that far from here.”

Jiho sighs. “Alright, let’s go then.”

It takes them the better part of an hour to remove the pounds of makeup and intricate stage costumes they had to wear for the music video shoot, but eventually they end up in the van – with Jaehyo driving – headed towards Gangnam.

Jiho thinks it’s definitely a good thing that the van is equipped with GPS, because otherwise they would never have found the location of the address in Taeil’s phone. Even though it’s in Gangnam, which is a pretty lively and busy part of town, they end up in a run-down sort of area, where buildings are boarded up and the glamor of Gangnam is nowhere to be found.

“What the hell kind of place is this?” Jihoon demands, peering through the tinted windows as Jaehyo stops the van in front of what appears to be a boarded up warehouse.

Taeil clucks his tongue. “She’s definitely here to get drugs. What else happens in a place like this?”

“You guys watch too many movies,” Jiho mutters, pulling open the door and climbing out. “Let’s just get her back and get the hell out of here.”

The warehouse seems completely deserted as they walk around the outer edges, searching for a way to get inside. Eventually they come to a door that is open, though there are chains draped around the handles to make it look as though it, too, is locked. Jiho takes a deep breath and, not really knowing what to expect, pushes it open.

Whatever his imagination had been coming up with is nothing compared to what is actually on the other side of the door. He stops so abruptly that the others bump into him from behind.

“What the hell, bro?” Minhyuk demands, but then he sees what and he stops too. “Jesus, and I thought our music video was ed up. This takes the cake.”

They have stepped into what seems like some sort of massive, large-scale laser tag arena. It’s nearly pitch black save for the glowing neon on the walls and floor. It’s like a maze of ladders and stairs and hiding places, three different levels with rope bridges and firemen’s poles and windows to shoot at people through. Jiho has never seen anything quite like it before.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” a deep voice startles them, so much that a few of them actually jump. The guy who appears before them is huge for a Korean, all broad shoulders and rippling muscles. He could probably rip Jiho in half if he is so inclined.

But Jiho is more afraid of what Chanyong will say when he finds out that they lost Emily, so he stands his ground. “We’re looking for someone,” he says. “We think she came here. Her name is Emily.”

The man looks them up and down for a minute, then he smirks. “Yo, Em!” he shouts.

A few seconds later, Emily comes trotting around the corner. She’s still dressed the same as before – short denim shorts and a plain white t-shirt that’s a little too short so that every time she raises her arms a small sliver of her stomach can be seen – but now she’s also dressed in full on paintball gear, holding a paintball gun in her hands as if she’s a natural. “Yeah?” she says, but then she catches sight of the boys and she drops her gun to her side with a sigh.

The guy blocking their path seems amused. “These guys say they’re with you. You gonna claim them?”

She looks like she’s thinking about denying it, but then she sighs. “Yeah, they’re with me.”

“Alright, I’ll go add them to the list. Who are you going to take on your team?” the guy asks. “You can’t go solo if you’re bringing all of them in on the game.”

Emily thinks about it for a long moment, sizing each of them up in turn. “Him,” she finally says, pointing at Jiho. “He seems the least likely to up.”

The guy laughs and heads off.

“We’re not staying,” Jiho says, grabbing her arm before she can run off again. “We just came to get you before your uncle freaks out.”

“Well I’m not leaving until I win this game,” Emily answers brusquely, jerking her arm away. “So if you want me to leave with you, then you’ve just gotta wait.”

“What is this place?” Yookwon demands, still looking around at the arena in awe. “Laser tag?”

“Sort of,” Emily admits with a little smile. “This is a laser-paintball tournament.”

“What the hell is a laser-paintball tournament?” Jiho can’t help himself from asking.

She gestures for them to follow her towards the back, where they can get their equipment. “It’s just like laser tag except with paintballs. It makes it more exciting this way.”

“And more painful,” Jaehyo adds, but he’s grinning at the prospect of participating.

Emily stops suddenly and gives Jiho a hard look. “I plan on winning this tournament, so you better keep up.”

Jiho takes the gun one of the workers hands him. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” he says with a grin, getting into it even though he’s annoyed at having to chase Emily across the city.

Once everyone is paired off, each duo is stationed at different starting points around the arena, which end up being even bigger than Jiho had initially suspected. He and Emily end up in a treehouse like structure on the highest level of the arena, well hidden in the darkness.

“So is there an end goal?” Jiho whispers, peering through the little window onto the two floors below. “Just shoot everybody?”

“That’s the idea,” Emily answers distractedly. She looks a little silly with the goggles over her big eyes, but Jiho has to admit that it’s sort of hot that a girl is into paintball like this.

“So do we have a plan of action?” he asks, assuming that, since she’s taking this thing so seriously, she already has an idea of how she wants to do things. “Hide and shoot?”

“There’s a rule that you can’t stay in one spot for more than five minutes,” she replies, still scanning the floors below for any signs of movement. “You’re automatically eliminated if you break the time limit rule.”

“So we’ll be on the move then,” Jiho says, nodding. “Good plan.”

She flashes him a fierce grin. “Just keep up, kiddo.”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I’m older than you,” he grumbles, but his voice is drowned out by a loud buzzer resonating through the arena, signaling the official start of the game.

Jiho’s adrenaline is racing as he scans the floors below, but there is no sign of movement. After a minute or two, Emily jerks her head towards the ladder that will lead them down from their hiding place. “We need to move,” she says under her breath.

She goes first, jumping from several feet up to land cat-like on all fours. She quickly scans the area to see if she’s alerted anyone to their presence and, when it seems like the coast is clear, she gestures for Jiho to follow her.

Emily is alarmingly serious about the whole affair. Jiho is more than a little surprised, but she is sort of a rockstar at the game. She takes out two teams before they make it down one hallway, landing hits on four different people in under thirty seconds. To say Jiho is impressed is a huge understatement.

“What are you waiting for?” Emily hisses, and Jiho realizes that he’s just stopped out in the open to watch the carnage. “Get over here!”

He scurries to comply, and it isn’t until he’s couched in another hiding spot that he realizes how surreal this day has become. He’d only planned to find Emily and bring her back to Chanyong so he could get some peace and quiet; how did he get into this elaborate game?

Emily grabs him by the front of his shirt and yanks him down, shoving him onto the floor and practically straddling him as she peeks over the top of the half-wall they’re hiding behind. “Is this your first time playing this game or what?” she demands in annoyance, her eyes narrowed into nothingness, her gun at the ready. “There’s a team scoping out this area. Can’t you see anything?”

To be perfectly honest, Jiho isn’t thinking much about the game at the moment. This is the first time in quite a while that he’s had a girl perched in his lap like this – though the first time it’s ever happened under these circumstances – and his body is reacting in ways that he’s not exactly proud of. He squirms uncomfortably, noticing how tight his pants are suddenly becoming and desperately hoping that Emily doesn’t notice. “Can’t you get off me?” he demands instead, voice coming out sort of whiny and not at all like himself.

Emily clamps a hand down over his mouth, and she’s crouched down too at this point so his face is practically in her chest. “Shut up!” she hisses again.

They stay that way for what seems like an eternity, but it has to be less than five minutes because of the time rule. Eventually Emily removes her hand and says, “They’ve moved on, and we better too or we’re going to be disqualified. God, don’t be so useless.”

Jiho is feeling pretty useless at the moment, so he doesn’t argue with her, just follows her from their hiding spot and towards another.

It’s impossible to tell how long the game goes on, but whenever a team gets out it is announced over the intercom. Team after team is out, either by violating the five-minute rule or by being tagged by another team. And Emily is a vicious little warrior, attacking without mercy or discrimination. She manages to take out whole teams before Jiho can even fire a single shot.

“There can’t be that many more teams left,” Jiho says. They must have been at it for over an hour by now; he’s exhausted and drenched in sweat.

Emily is busy scanning the area they’ve just arrived in and doesn’t answer immediately. “There is one team left,” she says. “We started with fifty teams and forty-eight have gotten out. We have to be especially careful now.”

“Should we split up?” Jiho suggests, creeping around the corner after her.

Before she can answer, however, he is hit in the back by something that ends up being quite painful. Before he can even really process the fact that he’s been tagged by the other team, Emily lets loose a barrage of paint bullets.

“Team twenty-three is the winner!” the masculine voice over the intercom announces.

Jiho blinks stupidly. “Who is team twenty-three?”

Emily rolls her eyes and jabs the big 23 on the front of his shirt. “Us, you idiot.”

“Wait, we won?” he repeats.

“No thanks to you,” she retorts, but she’s smiling. She’s got little rings around her eyes from how tight her goggles were and her hair is plastered to her forehead and neck with perspiration, but Jiho takes a moment to admire – and appreciate – just how pretty she can be when she smiles.

“What time is it?” Yookwon asks when they all reconvene at the front of the arena, where they return their gear and Jiho and Emily receive medals for placing first in the tournament.

Taeil checks the time on his handphone. “It’s about half past two.”

“In the morning?” Jiho demands. He hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. “Damn. Chanyong is probably already asleep. We can’t deliver Emily to his place at a time like this.”

“She can crash at our place,” Jihoon says in an offhand sort of manner, stifling a yawn. Even without the impromptu laser-paintball tournament, they’ve had a long, exhausting day. “What?” he demands when Jiho gives him the look. “We’ve got a couch, you know.”

In the end, it’s the only real solution, since they can’t really show up at Chanyong’s place in the middle of the night. So they pile back into the van – most of them shedding their shirts since they’re covered in paint – and Jaehyo drives them back to their apartment. It’s not a long ride, and they’re parking the van in no time and heading upstairs.

“It’s a mess,” Taeil says apologetically as Minhyuk keys in the password at the front door. “Sorry.”

Emily just gives him a flat look as if messy apartments are the least of her worries.

“You can take a shower if you want,” Jiho offers distractedly, stifling a yawn. “And then crash on the couch.”

“You can borrow some of my clothes to sleep in,” Yookwon offers chivalrously, fetching some sweatpants and a t-shirt from the room he shares with Minhyuk.

Emily takes it all in without so much as a word of thanks before disappearing into the bathroom to shower. When she comes out, dressed in Yookwon’s clothes and bringing steam from her hot shower with her, she flops down onto the couch and promptly goes to sleep.

When Jiho gets up in the morning, she’s already gone, Yookwon’s clothes folded neatly on the sofa. 

Okay, can I just say that glow in the dark paintball is the best. I hate getting hit with the paintballs - it hurts and I bruise easily dammit - but this game is hella fun.