"Yah! Slow down, brats. Why are you running so hard?" Yoongi panted as he chased behind the more energetic than usual makanes. "We're going to get recognized if your face masks fall off!" Jin yelled after them.

"Hyung~!" Jimin whined, slightly slowing down his pace to a stop. "There aren't that many people here right now. And most of them are ajummas!"

Jungkook skidded to a stop a moment later. "Come on, hyung!" He giggled. "It's our last day in Busan and we still haven't gone to the arcade by the coffe shop! They have a laser tag there too!" He smirked as he gave Jimin his do-you-want-to-play look.

"You're on!" Jimin said as he grabbed Taehyung's arm. "I'm with Tae Tae!" He declared as he and Taehyung linked arms and began running over to the arcade just in sight.

Upset that his would-be partner was now taken, Jungkook hooked his arm around J-Hope, looking up hopefully.

"No." the lead dancer said.

"But, hyung!" Jungkook whined, I need you to beat them!"

"No, Jungkook. As much as I love you, it's dark, it's scary, and it's loud. I'm not going in there."

"Hyung~~~~!" Jungkook pleaded, pouting and rounding his eyes, swaying slightly. "Please."

Two minutes later, Jimin and Taehyung (wearing green light vests) and Jungkook and Hoseok (wearing red) were situated on opposite sides of the arena. It wasn't really a big area, but it was tall. Several flights of intricate mazes and stairs that made great hideouts or cover expanded across the floors.

The goal was simple: shoot as many blinking white targets located anywhere in the game room as possible without getting shot as much as possible. The targets would turn green or red, depending on the person who shot it, and would remain that color until a person from the opposing team shot it the other color. If you tried guarding the target, you would most likely be shot, so the best way was to just find and shoot as many targets as possible without gettting shot at. +10 for every target hit. -10 for every time you get shot. +100 if the target was still you team"s color at the end of the game. A four way screen showed a white counter at 25, a green counter at 0, and a red counter also at 0. 

10, 9, 8...

"You ready hyung?" Jungkook asked Hoseok as the loudspeakers began their countdown for the start of the game. 

7, 6...

"I hate you, Jungkook."

5, 4, 3...

"I'm going to take that as a yes then." 

2, 1.

"How do you think they're doing?" Jin asked Namjoon, hitting the puck into the slot, tying their air hockey match. The remaining 3 members opted to not join in on the laser tag excitement and instead decided to explore the arcade: Jin being too tired, Rap Mon being more interested in the games, and Suga being too lazy to run around for more than 5 minutes.

"I'm sure they're fine, Hyung." Rap Mon said as he placed the puck on his side and started the next serve. 

"More than fine probably." Yoongi drawled, leaning against the air hockey machine. "Jungkook is probably just yelling at Hoseok because they're loosing."

"Hyung~! We're loosing!" Jungkook yelled as he and J-Hope weaved their way through the maze. "You weren't this bad when we did paintball!"

"It was brighter back then!" Hoseok exclaimed as he nervously looked from side to side, combing for targets.

The white counter was already down to 1. The red counter had 8 and the green had 16. And with only 10 more minutes on the clock, there wasn't much time left. 

Jungkook and Hoseok had been searching for the final target for some time now. Currently, they were scouring the second floor. At some point, Jimin and Taehyung had claimed the third floor as theirs while Jungkook and Hoseok had claimed the ground floor. The second floor was free territory.

"Its gotta be here somewhere." Jungkook muttered. "We would've found it by now if it was downstairs-found one!" He suddenly declared as he lifted his blaster and shot a green target. The lights blinked before switching its color to red. The green counter dropped to 15 while the red counter rose to 9. 

"Kookie, there's no way we can find the last target. Just let Jiminie win and-"

"WHAT?" Jungkook gasped, sounding nothing short of outraged. "He said loser has to pay for dinner! Do you even know how much Jin-hyung eats when he's hungry?!?!"

"And yet, the man doesn't gain a single pound." J-Hope said, slightly annoyed. 

"One of us should just go up." Jungkook simply stated.

"WHAT?!" Now it was J-Hope's turn to sound incredulous. "You want to die up there?!"

"Actually," Jungkook said, "I'm not the one going up there."

"Oh, good." Hoseok said in relief. It took him a few more moments to register the meaning behind that. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes, hyung."

"Oh, hell no, Jungkook. Coming here was bad enough, now you want to kill me too?!?"

"Come on, hyung. Please~~!"

"Jungkook, not amount of agyeo will make me willing to do this, no matter how cute you look." 

"Jimin and Taehyung were the ones who put the rubber snake in your bed last week."

....

"Oh, hell no."

Jimin and Taehyung were upstairs, crouching behind a wall, talking strategy.

"We could just wait it out." Jimin proposed. "I'm pretty sure that we still have at least another hundred or so points even if they find that last target."

"And stay here like sitting ducks?!" Taehyung asked. "Jungkookie is going to get desperate. You know how competitive he is. There's no way he's going down without a fight."

"I know, but there's only 5 more minutes on the clock. How can he possi-Get down." Jimin hissed as a light creek gave away the opposing team's position. From the sound of it, they were right behind their wall. Taehyung looked to Jimin for confirmation, and they both nodded. Together, they gave a final war cry and ran out into the awaiting fight. 

"Do you think Hoseok will be ok in there?" Jin asked, worried about their most easily frightened member.

"My God, Hyung." Suga said, exasperated. "They've been in there for over 15 minutes. And just now you're just worrying about him? If he was scared, he would've come running out of those doors the second he went in."

"Okaaay..." Jin said

"Don't worry about them so much, Hyung." Namjoon said as he took another sip of his tea. They three had gone to the cafe to get a drink after Rap Mon had somehow slammed the puck so hard into Jin's goal that the score board started glitching. Even as they talked, repairmen were trying to figure out what went wrong in the first place.

"I know. I know." Jin sighed as he took a deep breath. "It's just...you know how he is when he's in dark places! He gets so scared and he usually starts looking for the exit."

"We know, hyung." They youngers cut in before the eldest had a chance to go on a long rampage as to how much he worries about his dongsangs. 

"They'll be out in a few minutes, hyung. I'm sure that they're fine."

"WHEN DID HOSEOK HYUNG GET THIS SCARY???!!!" Taehyung screamed as he and Jimin jumped behind different walls to avoid the onslaught of the laser bullets. 

After J-Hope's...pep talk with the youngest, the main dancer had a burning sense of vengeance ignite within him. With good reason too, seeing as most of that time was spent disclosing the numerous amounts of pranks that the remaining two members of the maknae line had pulled on an unsuspecting Hoseok-including, but not limited to, putting a rubber snake in his bed in the middle of the night, sneaking wasabi into his sushi when they went to Osaka, tricking him into watching a horror movie, and hiding his phone. Jungkook himself had a hand in most of the pranks, but Hoseo-hyung didn't need to know that at the moment. 

"Was it something we did?!" Jimin yelled over the sounds of artificial blasters that were most likely recorded from a Star Wars movie. 

"I HATE SNAKU!!!" Hoseok screamed as he continued to rapidly fire the laser gun in the pair's general direction.

"That's what made him into a laser tag master???!" Taehyung  wailed, trying to get a shot on the rapper to no avail.

He was using his dancing skills and reflexes to expertly dodge the attacks. If Jimin wasn't so outraged at not hitting Hoseok even once, he'd be impressed.

 "We just need to hold out for another minute!" Jimin screamed over the blaster sounds. "We still have most of the-"

Targets was supposed to be Jimin's next word, except it was at this time that the dancer looked up to find the glowing green counter stand, not at 16-the last time he bothered to check the counter-but at 10. Red was now in the lead, with the white counter still holding the remaining target, and the timer already ticking down the last minute of the game (currently at 46 seconds).

"WHAT?!" Jimin and Taehyung screamed at the same time.

And then it hit them.

"Jungkook!" Jimin roared in anguish. The two had been so focused on fighting J-Hope, that they'd completely forgotten about their other opponent, who used their distraction to find and shoot the targets on the third floor and was now laughing hysterically as he ran to help his hyung, blasting away.

"Jimin~!" Taehyung whined. "Shoot faster!"

"I'm trying!" Jimin yelled back, attempting to get a better grip on the plastic gun that was obviously much too big for his size. 

Stupid, midget hand. How dare you stop growing. What kind of disrespect did I do to deserve this...

The final seconds ran out and a long buzzer sounded the end of the game. Jungkook and Hoseok jumped in the air shouting cheers of victory, whereas Jimin and Taehyung slunked back to return their borrowed gear. The four then raced to find their hyungs, who were still quietly chatting in the cafe, and slammed their hands on the table.

"I win!" Jimin said, smirking proudly at Jungkook "so you have to pay for dinner now."

"But you said whoever won the game had to pay, hyung." Jungkook fought back. "Besides, were going to your parents' restaurant. They'll probably give us a free dinner anyways. Come on, hyung. Take care of your dongsaeng."

"Fine." Jimin grumbled. "But only because I'm such a great hyung to you. Aigoo, the things I do for you."

Everyone spent the rest of the remaining afternoon playing games in the arcade. Jin had pulled Namjoon from touching any other expense looking machinery in fear that he would break another game ("I swear, hyung. I don't know how it broke!"). Yoongi and Taehyung were at the claw machines, the younger insisting that he absolutely needed the adorable plush inside ("Tae. You already have 5 of these...." "But this one's so squishy~~!"). Jimin and J-Hope were at the racing simulators, each trying to overtake the other. And Jungkook? He was taking a break from his latest ski ball game, sipping a carton of orange juice. Jin had slid in front of the maknae (who was attempting to get a small bottle of beer) and promptly gave him the juice box, waving him away from the cafe ("But hyung! I'm old enough! And Yoongi-hyung gets to have some!" "Yoongi-ah can hold his liquor. You, on the other hand, have the alcohol tolerance of a butterfly. Now go play some games."). 

Jungkook sighed, sitting against the ski ball machine. He'd used the majority of his tokens on this particular game and had amassed a considerable amount of tickets. He didn't bother taking them after each round; he decided to collect them all after he was done with the game. Right now, he was just taking a breather. 

"Yes!" Jungkook heard someone squeal. Turning his head, he saw a girl jumping up and down clapping excitedly. The rapidly blinking lights of the game in front of her signaled that she'd thrown a 500 point ball. She was fairly pretty. Long hair, long legs, small frame, and tall. She looked familiar, but Jungkook was certain that he'd never talked with her in his life. 

"Jeokdae-oppa!" The girl cried happily. "Did you see that? Did you see?!"

"Yup!" The boy said, giving the girl a pat on her head. "Great shot, Mi Yong-ah!"

He was tall, lean, and muscular. He also had dark hazel hair and the same hairstyle. If anything, he looked like a neat copy of Jungkook himself.

And then he realized. 

The girl.

From all those weeks ago. The scandal. The pictures. The horrible hashtag. 

This was the girl. Jungkook was almost certain. That's why he thought she was so familiar. This was her. 

Looking around from left to right, Jungkook pulled the long strand of tickets and approached the couple. 

"Hello." He said as he bowed while stuffing the tickets into his jacket pocket. 

"Hello." The couple replied politely, albeit confused.

"Ah! Sorry." Jungkook apologized as he removed his beanie and face mask. The reaction of immediate. The girl started to silently scream out of excitement and the boy looked in shock. 

"I'm Jungkook from-"

"We know!" Both the girl and the boy whisper shouted.

"I wanted to say thank you." Jungkook said, facing the girl. "For before."

"Eh?" The girl said. "You don't need to thank me. I was just telling the truth."

Jungkook smiled at the kind-hearted girl and looked to the boy. "Jeokdae, right?"

"Y-yes?" He stuttered.

"There are so many girls who would have used what happened to get attention. Be good to her. People like her are rare." Jungkook said. 

The boy-Jeokdae-looked, at first, shocked, but then turned to his girlfriend and smiled kindly. "I know."

Jungkook gave them one more smile before replacing his beanie and face mask back on.

"I just wanted to thank you and apologized for all the trouble I caused you. Thank you for being such great fans." He bowed once more. "Have a nice night." 

He started to make his way away from the ski ball machines.

"Oppa! Wait! Oppa!" He turned, and Mi Yong was half jogging to catch up to the idol.

"Can-can you please sign this? We're both big fans." She blushed, holding up two phones in matching couple phone cases and a sharpie.

Jungkook took the phones and the sharpie, and turned away from the girl to sign them.

a few moments later, Jungkook turned back around, presenting the girl with the cases and the sharpie. "Please don't let anyone know you saw me here, ok?" He asked the girl, who nodded feverently. 

"Thank you, Jungkook-Oppa!" The girl said as she took the phones and raced back to her boyfriend.

There was a buzzing in Jungkook's pocket followed by a soft ding. The maknae pulled out his phone to find a text from his hyungs. 

[From: Pink-hyung] Everyone, we're going to leave soon. Meet us at the entrance, ok?"

[From: Hope-hyung] Actually, can we meet in 5 more minutes? I need to beat Jimin on the racing game.

[From: Do Not Respond-hyung] I'm ok with that. It's not like you'll actually win anyways. 

[From: Alien-hyung] 😲😳😵😱

[From: Hope-hyung] Yah! Get back here, you brat!

[From: Do Not Respond-hyung] ok. But I'm going to be laughing in 5 minutes, hyung.

[From: Leader-hyung] Then is everyone ok with meeting in 5 minutes then? At the entrance?

[From: Pink-hyung] Namjoon-ah. It's getting pretty cold, actually. And there are more people outside than I thought. Maybe we should meet in the cafe instead.

[From: Cool-hyung] Ok. I'll be sleeping in there, then. Don't wake me up until we're leaving.

[From: Alien-hyung] 😳 Scary hyung.

[From: Pink-hyung] Everyone knows where we're meeting and when, right?

[From: Hope-hyung] Yes

[From: Leader-hyung] Yes

[From: Alien-hyung] yup!

[From: Do Not Respond-Hyung] Ok!

[From: Cool-hyung] Everyone knows, Jin. Now let me sleep.

[From: Alien-hyung] Hyung's being scary today. 🙄😨

[From: Cool-hyung] Kim Taehyung.

[From: Do Not Respond-hyung] ooooh. Full name.

[From: Alien-hyung] Sorry, hyung. 

...

[From: Pink-hyung] Jungkook-ah, everyone's here already. Where are you? Is everything ok?

Those texts were sent roughly 5 minutes ago save for the last one. Jungkook hurriedly texted out a brief reply before sprinting towards the cafe.

...

"There you are!" Jin exclaimed as Jungkook halted to a stop, panting and out of breath. "Where were you?"

"I bumped into some fans." Jungkook replied. "They asked for an autograph."

"." Yoongi said, "There are fans here? We should get out of here soon then."

"I'm pretty sure they won't tell. I asked them not to." Jungkook vouched for them, confident. "Trust me."

"Ok..." Jimin said, still skeptical. "We still need to leave soon. Mom just texted and asked if we were on our way yet."

"Then we should probably get going then." Namjoon said with authority. "Lets go."

"We haven't gotten our prizes yet~!" Jimin and Jungkook whined, each holding up a long strand of tickets from their wins. 

"Oh, for the love of-" Yoongi whispered under his breath. "You two go and get your prizes right now if you're not back by the time we're in the van, we're leaving you for the sasaengs."

"You wouldn't!" Jimin gasped, horrified at the elder's threat.

"You damn well know I would, Jimin. You better run." The raven haired rapper said.

"Fine. Jungkook, we better go quickl-" Jimin stopped to realize that Jungkook was already sprinting towards the prize counter, leaving his elder in the dust. "Yah! Kookie-ah! Wait for me!" He yelled after him as the other members howled in laughter.

...

Jungkook already claimed his prize-an iron man plushie-by the time Jimin reached the counter. He'd wanted an action figure, but he was still 100 tickets off.

"You couldn't even wait for your hyung, could you?" Jimin scolded as he finally made it to the prize station.

"Nope!" Jungkook replied happily hugging the plushie close to his chest.

"Kids these days." Jimin muttered as he selected his own toy-two medium sized plushies for his and Taehyung's already stuffed room. "We need to hurry up. Hyung is gonna leave us if we don't get there soon. We probably need to run."

He grabbed the stuffed toys from the counter and held one in each hand as the two members prepared to make a run for the van. 

"Let's go, hyung!" Jungkook said as he proceeded to smack Jimin's rear as he sprinted ahead of him. The maknae could hear Jimin yelling at him as he easily ran ahead.

As he ran, Jungkook thought of the girl for a fleeting moment. What would have happened if she didn't speak up and set things straight? Would everything still be ok? Or would ARMY have continued to express their outrage? Jungkook stopped himself before he could keep worrying about the 'what if's.  That was in the past now, he shouldn't worry about what could have, should have would have. The white van was in sight, and Jungkook picked up his pace, bursting out the door just as Yoongi made a move to close the van's sliding door.

"About time, brat." He said to Jungkook and Jimin, who had skidded to a stop just a few seconds after Jungkook. "You're luckily we didn't leave yet, or else you would have had to take a taxi.

The doors slid open again and the 2 members sat inside, basking in the warm air that greeted their cold faces. 

They all got comfortable for the hour long drive that separated them and their dinner. Jungkook stared out the window, still thinking about the girl. He'd ment what he said: there weren't many people like her. The idol life had exposed Jungkook to some of the more ugly sides of public stardom. Sasaengs, netizens, expectations, and more. But it had also shown him the beautiful side as well. It was refreshing to meet such and innocent and kind-hearted character. Jungkook couldn't be more grateful.

 The van rumbled to life with a sputter and a pur, and Jungkook cleared away his thoughts of the past. The street lights put on a show of reds, yellows, and greens, the occasional neon signs adding pinks and blues. The stars were just beginning to peak out of the early twilight sky, out in the distance on the horizon, suddenly reminding Jungkook of the glued on glow-in-the-dark stars in the youngest's childhood home.

And they welcomed him home, as if he'd never left.

"Mi-Yong-ah. Do you think you have a dollar?" Jeokdae asked his girlfriend apologetically, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm a couple short."

The pair had stopped by a late night food vender for a snack on the way home. It was much easier than going to a restaurant.

"Yeah, Oppa. Hold on." She said as she dug around her purse for her phone (she always kept some extra cash behind the case for emergency bus fares or things of the like). Pulling out the sleek phone, she couldn't help but linger her eyes on the new signature that adorned her and her boyfriend's cases. Mi-Yong still couldn't believe that only a few hours ago, they'd met the one and only Jeon Jungkook. Golden Maknae to their favorite band. And he was apologizing to her? It was so surreal. 

Popping the phone from its protective case, she handed her boyfriend 5,000 won. As she went to put her phone back, however, she noticed the small, hastily scratched writing on the inside of the case. 

Mi-Yong-ah. Thank you so much for being such a great fan. I hope you live a long and happy life. You deserve it. Please keep supporting BTS! I'll never forget you~!

Jungkook

That's it. Mi-Yong really thought that she was in heaven. It was such a small gesture, but to her, it was the world. Maybe she was exaggerating a bit....okay, maybe more than a bit. But if your favorite idol wrote you such a personal gift, away from the public, only for you, what else would you've thought?

"Mi-Yo?" A voiced called, breaking her thoughts. It was an affectionate nickname that her boyfriend called her. Initially, it was due to him mispronouncing her name when they first met, but now the name was more endearing than annoying.

"Hmmm?" She replied.

"Whatchyadoing?"

She held up her case.

"Ah." Jeokdae said in understanding as he too pulled out his matching one. "It's pretty amazing, huh? That one silly rumor get us to meet?" He handed her the hot beverage and put his phone away as he took her hand in his. 

"Yes." She said, closing her hand around his as the hot chocolate in her hands defrosted her frozen fingers.

"Yes it is."

And now I'm officially done! This is the final chapter (epilogue?) to this story. Thank you so much for being such wonderful, amazing, supporting readers. I can't believe so many of you subscribed and left comments! It really makes my day. I'm so grateful for all the support I get from you guys. You truly are the best!

I hope that you enjoyed this story, and I'll hopefully get to write some more soon! Please let me know your thoughts! Constructive criticism is always helpful.

Thanks again! Have a wonderful day/afternoon/night!!! 💜