no running

in which nayoung really hates working at the laser tag arena and jieqiong likes to break the rules.

a/n - i dunno. LOL.

Nayoung’s face is void of any emotion as she enters the vesting room, the black lights making her white shirt glow and her eyes bright. She lets out a silent sigh as she sees the next group she has to instruct into the laser tag arena. They were mostly children but Nayoung could see a group of about six girls who seemed to be teenagers. They were all rowdy and jumpy. She breathes deeply and waits for the group to get on their assigned teams before she talks.

“There is absolutely no running.” She speaks boredly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes when she hears a few complaints about the rule. “No physical contact, no climbing, and no swinging of your laser gun.” She scans her eyes over the group, seeing the children whose parents weren’t in to keep their eyes on them getting help from the older girls. “Lastly, have fun.” Nayoung murmurs before walking around and helping people with their vests.

She goes to one of the teenage girls and the girl smiles brightly at her. Nayoung blinks back in response because - one, how the hell is her smile that bright? And. two, how the hell is she so pretty?

“You have it on backwards.” Nayoung grumbles, unclipping the straps and lifting the vest from the girl’s body. The girl laughs and her friends also laugh. She doesn’t seem the least bit embarrassed and yet Nayoung feels like the embarrassed one.

After fixing the girl’s vests and checking up on everyone else’s, she heads up to the viewing platform and speaks into the microphone.

“When the door opens, you are to go to your assigned color’s base and stay there until the countdown finishes.” Nayoung instructs and she hears a high-pitched “Okay!” respond back to her and looks down to see the pretty girl from earlier grinning up at her. Nayoung clears and looks away, unlocking the door and waiting for everyone to get to their spots. Once everyone is settled, she starts the countdown.

It’s not even five minutes into the game when she spots one of the teenage girls running. She pauses the music and speaks into the microphone as everyone stops moving.

“No running.”

The music resumes and Nayoung doesn’t say anything for a few moments until she sees a shadow climb over a small wall.

“No climbing.”

She hears someone shout a “Boring!” back to her and rolls her eyes so far back into her head that it sort of hurts. She lets the music play again but it doesn’t play for more than two minutes until she has to keep pausing and telling another rule. It gets to a point where Nayoung just doesn’t care anymore. The teenagers are climbing the walls and jumping over the railings and - hell - if they want to get hurt so much then she’d let them. As long as they didn’t hurt the younger ones.

The game ends soon enough and Nayoung walks back down to the vesting room, waiting for the people to come out and check their scores on the leaderboard. She helps the kids out of the vests and hangs it back up on the racks for them because she knows for sure that those kids won’t know how to do it properly.

Nayoung’s ears are filled with excited squeals and loud laughter as the leaderboards scroll down. She looks over to the large screen and sees the name ‘Jieqiong’ at the very bottom before looking over at the group of girls and seeing them all laugh at one girl. It is the shameless girl from earlier, still shameless as ever as she smiles widely and laughs along with her friends. Nayoung feels a headache coming on.

“Return your vests, please.” Nayoung says to the group who is too busy laughing at Jieqiong to realize that the next group is waiting just outside the door. She sees that the girls are all a little bit sweaty and she scowls. They do as she says and Nayoung holds the door open for all of them to exit, allowing them into the rest of the large arcade building filled with various games.

She checks off a mini tally in her head about the amount of games she had gone through during her shift. That had been her sixth one so far.

-

It’s late when Nayoung ends her shift, nearing one in the morning, but the arcade is still up and running. The building is now filled with older people, mostly teenagers who want to spend their Friday nights around and about rather than at home. Nayoung was not one of those teenagers in her days.

She goes to clock out of her shift when she runs into the group of teenagers she had seen earlier. She quite literally runs into them, surprised when she feels a cold sensation spreading on her upper chest. Nayoung looks down to see her white shirt stained with soda.

“Zhou Jieqiong! Watch where you’re going!” A voice scolds and the familiar name makes Nayoung’s mind race - mostly because that Zhou Jieqiong girl broke every rule in the freaking laser tag arena and made Nayoung’s day feel even longer than necessary - more than ever now that she had sticky soda all over her clothes.

“Sorry.” A voice whines. Jieqiong hands the now-empty soda cup to one of her friends and Nayoung feels a hand on her wrist, pulling her in the direction of the restroom. They enter the empty bathroom and Nayoung stares at the very large spill on her shirt through the mirror as Jieqiong wets a large wad of paper towel. The girl keeps muttering apologies about her clumsiness and somewhere deep deep inside Nayoung’s brain, she thinks it’s cute.

“It’s fine, I’m going home, anyways.” She’s tired and just wants to lay down in her bed - even if it is just a rock hard mattress because her college is too cheap to buy the dorms good mattresses. Jieqiong doesn’t seem to take no for an answer, though. She takes a step closer and dabs at the stain, causing Nayoung to hold her breath at the girl’s proximity.

“It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?” Jieqiong asks worriedly, eyes looking up at Nayoung’s with her eyebrows furrowed. Where did the shameless girl from earlier go?

Admittedly, the spill is really uncomfortable - her shirt is stuck to her chest and the soda is causing an icky feeling on her skin - but Nayoung doesn’t admit it. “It’s okay. I don’t live far from here.”

The girl is still dabbing her shirt as she picks up a conversation easily. Nayoung can tell she’s someone one would call a ‘social butterfly’. “Oh? Where do you live?”

“In the college just a few streets down.” Nayoung replies before taking a step back, stopping the girl’s attempt to get the stain off. “It’s fine, really.”

“I still feel bad.” Jieqiong pouts before lighting up a few seconds later. She then begins to her plaid shirt which leaves her in just a white tank top. She hands the article of clothing out to Nayoung. “Here.”

“And what about you?” Nayoung questions, taking the shirt from her hesitantly as her other hand goes to her stained white shirt. She sees Jieqiong avert her eyes and swears she sees a tint of pink on the girl’s cheeks.

“I can borrow my friend’s sweater.” She answers. “Hey, now you got something to remember me by.”

Nayoung scoffs and slips the plaid shirt on, the warmth of it oddly comforting to her. “You broke every rule in the arena. I’ll remember you either way.”

Jieqiong looks up after Nayoung has her shirt on and smiles brightly. “You aren’t too mad about that, are you?”

“Rules are put in place for a reason. Someone could’ve gotten hurt.” Nayoung grumbles under her breath but she sees Jieqiong smiling and she really can’t help but smile back. (It’s only because she’s tired - she swears). “Your shirt is really comfortable, though - so I’ll forgive you. Only if you promise not to do it again.”

“Okay.” Jieqiong grins.

-

“Jieqiong, please exit the arena.” Nayoung says into the microphone. She lets out a deep breath and descends the stairs, greeting a pouting Jieqiong by the door. “I told you not to run.” She says to the girl who she had seen last week.

“But you didn’t kick me out before.” Jieqiong complains.

“The boss put in stricter rules.” Nayoung unclips the girl’s vest and lifts it over her shoulder. “Sorry.”

Jieqiong crosses her arms. “Fine. But I get to go up there and watch them play with you.”

“Whatever.” Nayoung hangs the vest up and walks up the staircase with Jieqiong next to her. They stand in silence and watch the game go on before Jieqiong speaks up.

“How’s college like?” She asks this as she stares into the arena, the EDM music playing faintly. “I’m attending the same one you are next year.”

“Don’t dorm.” Nayoung says simply.

Jieqiong lets out a laugh. “Why?”

“The beds .”

And Jieqiong laughs a little harder this time - and Nayoung surprises herself when she laughs along with her.

-

The next time Nayoung eliminates Jieqiong from the game, the girl comes out with a full-blown smile and that’s when Nayoung knows the girl sprinted across the arena on purpose. Jieqiong talks animatedly which is so different from the way Nayoung talks but something between the two just clicks.

The game ends and Nayoung hears Jieqiong let out a small complaint.

“There are other ways to talk to me, you know?” Nayoung says this quietly as they walk down the stairs. Jieqiong’s eyes light up.

“Can I have your number?”