“Jongdae.”

The eleven-year-old took his gaze away from the gridded paper that was covered in math equations and doodles. Setting his pencil down on Sir Yesung’s desk, he swiveled the chair around so he was facing him, his arms were resting on the arms of the chair and his legs were swinging around in the air, as they weren’t long enough to reach the floor yet. “Yes, Sir Yesung?”

“Just Yesung, Jongdae, I thought we were past the formalities.” Sir Yesung smiled. “I have another game I want you to play with me,” he said before walking out of the room.

Elated, Jongdae sprang out of the chair and dashed after him with a grin. “What kind o’ game? Oh, what ‘bout Sudoku? Shogi? Yeah, we playin’ Shogi, aren’t we? No wait, we gonna play chess again? I really like chess; it’s my favorite game in the whole world!”

Letting out a chuckle, Sir Yesung placed his arm on the railing as he gracefully went down the stairs. “You don’t know this one,” he told him. “This is a new game.”

Jongdae ran down after him, skipping every couple of steps. Once they were both at the bottom, Sir Yesung walked into the living room and sat on the large, beige couch, reaching into the inside of his black suit jacket and taking out a small notepad and a pen. Jongdae followed suit.

As he leaned forward, he placed the notepad on the coffee table that was in front of them, flipping to a blank page. “Today we’re going to be playing a different kind of game.” He clicked the pen, placing it on the table. “No boards or cards, just paper, pen and lots of thinking.”

Jongdae jutted his bottom lip out. “But I was wanting to play chess,” he muttered. He sat up and leaned forward. “Alright, what’re we doin’, Sir Yesu- I mean, Yesung? I’m ready to acclompish this game!”

“Accomplish, Jongdae.”

“Accomplish,” he corrected himself, making a mental note to write it down in his journal when he got home.

“Okay. Now, this is going to be similar to some of the other games we’ve already played, however, unlike a game like chess, which has soldiers and knights trying to protect the king, this is going to be a game where you’re the one who needs to be protected. You are playing as the king. And instead of having your own personal knights or soldiers to defend you, you have to protect yourself. Alone.”

Jongdae’s eyebrows rose. “And how do I do that?” he quizzed, confused. “I don’t understand.”

Sir Yesung looked up at the ceiling, letting out a soft hum as he began to think. “Imagine this,” he began, ”you go to the market to buy some meat. As you are waiting for the butcher to cut the meat, you walk away and go to look at the bread. You are the only one around, and the person in charge of the stand looks at you before bending down to get something from under the stand. When you go back to the meat, you are suddenly being accused of stealing the bread.”

“But I didn’t steal any of it,” Jongdae whined. “Why do I get accused when I didn’t do anythin’?”

“Because you were the only one capable of doing so,” Sir Yesung explained. “You were the only one around the bread at the time it was stolen.”

Jongdae scoffed. “This . I didn’t do anythin’,” he grumbled, resulting in a chuckle from the older male.

Sir Yesung continued, “Once the police have come and you realize that nobody will listen to you, you run off and hide in an abandoned warehouse.”

Jongdae pursed his lips. “Abandoned warehouse? What kind o’ story is this?”

“They follow you inside and the place becomes crawling with officers. And now, the only way you can escape is by sneaking out.”

“How do I do tha-? Wait!” Jongdae exclaimed. “I read this in a book once. I-it was called, uh, steak – no wait, stare-“

“Stealth."

“Yeah, stealth! The protagonist in the book had to stealth his way outta the bad guy’s place.”  

Sir Yesung nodded. “Good. You have a basic understanding of what we’re doing then.” He grabbed the pen and started putting circles, squares and rectangles on the page. Then at the bottom of the page behind one of the rectangles, he drew a stick figure. Once he was done, he placed it on the table. “Now. This is you," he  said, pointing to the poorly drawn stick figure then at the other shapes. "The circles are the officers, the rectangles are boxes to hide behind and the squares are smaller boxes that are just big enough to hide you if you're hunched over."

“Really? I couldn’t tell. Last time I remembered, I wasn’t bald,” Jongdae spoke sarcastically. Sir Yesung grabbed the pen again and drew three triangles on the figure’s head. Jongdae pouted. “Looks nothin’ like me.”

“You have to get through the warehouse, while avoiding every soldier that’s inside. Keep in mind that you need to stay silent, because if you don’t, you’ll be executed.” Sir Yesung pushed the notebook and pen towards Jongdae. “Take it.” He did so, eyes scanning the page as he grabbed the pen. “Now escape the warehouse.”

“Okay,” Jongdae uttered, his lip as he tried to picture himself in the situation. He grabbed the pen; drawing a dark line from the box he was hiding behind to another.

“One of the soldiers creeps up behind you,” Sir Yesung narrated, “ and because you weren’t cautious and quiet enough, you were immediately killed on the spot.” Jongdae stared at him with wide eyes. “Try again.”

And he did. He tried different techniques: drawing lightly and turning to the left behind one of the square boxes, but failing as he accidentally kicked it and alerted the soldiers. He tried to jump over the box he was hiding behind but was caught. Everything he did, no matter how much effort and thought he put into it just didn’t work.

Throwing the pen and notepad on the table, Jongdae gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. “No matter what I do those stupid soldiers keep on getting me!”

Sir Yesung smiled and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulder. “It’s alright Jongdae. It’s difficult, of course, but you have to remember that anything is possible, which is why you have to be extra cautious in these types of situations.” He took his arm off him and stood up, walking towards the back door, which was right behind the couch. “Come on.”

Feeling drained from the game, Jongdae groaned as he followed after him. Once he was out, he stared in awe. There were tall, wooden sticks that had black dots resembling eyes that were grounded into the dirt, large cardboard boxes placed randomly around the yard and a large piece of paper that was pinned on a tree at the edge of the fairly large backyard, saying “Exit” which lead to the entrance of the woods. Sir Yesung stood in the middle of the land with a smirk.

“W-what is…?” Jongdae trailed off as he recognized the familiar setup. Slowly, one side of his lip curled up into a smirk that resembled the older male's. He clapped his hands. “Well, this is gonna be real fun.”

Sir Yesung nodded. “I’m going to go in the woods for sixty seconds. That’s enough time for you to find a spot to hide.” He pointed to the long sticks that were sticking out of the ground. “Those are the other officers. Make sure to keep out of sight from them or it’s game over.”

With that, he stalked into the woods and once he was far enough to where Jongdae could no longer see his silhouette, he heard the beginning of the countdown. “Sixty… Fifty-nine… Make sure to hide from the officers!”

Jongdae jumped, turning his head around and diving behind one of the cardboard boxes when he noticed an officer was looking straight at him. “A good hiding spot…” He shoved his body against the back of the box, counting to three before peeking out to make sure no one was there. Once he found that the sticks weren’t looking his direction, he began to sprint to a tree that was a few steps away from him.

A sudden gush of wind caused Jongdae to blink rapidly, as dirt got in his eyes, and he rubbed his eyes with his hands before opening them to see one of the sticks turning around. Startled, Jongdae yelped and tripped over his foot. He hissed from the pain but managed to crawl behind the stump. “It moved! B-but how?” he mumbled.

“Thirty-five… Thirty-four…”

Jongdae had to make a plan. Quick. Sir Yesung was intelligent and very, very observant, which meant even if one thing was out of place or he made one sound, he would lose the game.

And Jongdae hated losing.

His hands grabbed at his shorts as he peeked out again before sitting back into place when one of the sticks turned to him. It was creepy – really creepy.

He checked again and grinned when he noticed one of the boxes was close to a very tall tree which was covered in leaves. Jongdae silently cheered. He had hit the jackpot.

“Twenty-four… Twenty-three…”

Stumbling, he hurriedly dashed over to the box. Jongdae managed to make it over without being caught, placing both of his hands on the cardboard box and climbing on top of it. He tried to climb the stump, but as he wrapped his arms around it and began to climb, he lost his grip and fell. He looked around for another way up and found a branch that was relatively close and looked sturdy enough to hold him. Jongdae jumped but failed to grab it as he felt his hands swiping at the air and his feet missing the box completely, causing him to fall and collapse on the floor with a groan.

“Eighteen… Seventeen…

Jongdae shook his head and stood up, losing his balance and taking a moment to steady himself before looking back up at the tree. There was another tree positioned to the right of it, but the branches were high up so he couldn’t even try to climb it. Angry, he kicked the box and it flipped over, making a noise from inside as the contents got thrown around.

A light bulb flickered on over Jongdae’s head, and he looked at the officers, grabbing a stone from the floor and throwing it over his head. It hit a tree and thankfully took the focus away from his area. Positioning himself behind the surprisingly heavy box, he pushed it so it was in the center of the two trees. Once he was done, he climbed onto it.

“Nine… Eight…”

He took a deep breath before leaping as high as he could, kicking out his right leg so it hit the stump of the right tree and using the sudden momentum to turn his body to the left tree, grabbing the branch with one hand. His legs flailed around for a moment as he struggled to keep a firm grip on the branch, but he managed to grab it with his other hand, shakily pulling his body up with a grunt.

“Five… Four…”

Sweat covered his body and the beaming sun drained him of his energy, but the adrenaline that coursed through his veins gave him a thrill he had never experienced before. Jongdae was terrified, but at the same time, he was having so much fun.

His arms shook as he finally got on the branch, placing a hand on the tree to keep his self balanced. Looking up, he noticed another branch and leaped for it, managing to settle on it in a crouch as he waited with chattering teeth.

“One.”

Leaves crunched as Sir Yesung walked back, eyebrows raised as he was met with silence. Jongdae watched and forced his lips into a firm line, gritting his teeth to keep them from making noise.

The elder male observed the area with a great amount of scrutiny – so much that it made Jongdae worry that his beating heart would give away his position – and strolled across the grass, casually glancing around every once in a while. Jongdae was sure he was mocking him.

Jongdae was beginning to think it was going to be impossible to win, but to his luck, Sir Yesung ended up heading in the opposite direction where he had thrown the stone. He impatiently sat, hands clenched as he waited for the perfect opportunity.

Everything had happened so quickly, Jongdae wasn’t even sure he could comprehend what went down. He had dove to the ground, ignoring the ache in his ankle from the fall and ran as fast as he could to the exit. However, just as he was so close to victory, a hand grabbed the back of his shirt, flinging him back until he slammed into a box.

Groaning, Jongdae looked around, blinking a few times and shaking his head to get rid of the blacks dots invading his vision. He sat up and rubbed his pounding head. “Ow,” he groaned.

Sir Yesung chuckled, kneeling in front of him with a teasing grin. He playfully ruffled Jongdae’s hair. “Did you really think you could beat me so easily?” He tutted. “You know me better than that, Jongdae.”

Jongdae’s eyebrows furrowed. “It ain’t my fault,” he snapped. “I didn’t know it was goin’ to be that hard.”

Sir Yesung’s face hardened, a stern expression on display, and Jongdae knew he was going to be lectured for his reckless attitude. “Now Jongdae, if that were a real situation and you did something as careless as that, you would have been killed instantly. The point of stealth is to stay quiet and out of sight – you are sneaking past the enemy to avoid combat. You making such a ruckus totally defeats the purpose of this game.” He pointed to the sticks – or the officers. “Those sticks right there move according to the way the wind blows. They each make noises as they move, and if