Baekhyun can't believe it, this is the second time he's having a meal with Raon. They're not talking to each other, it's different from their first meal where she'd asked him so many questions and he'd done the same. Now it feels like he knows all there is to know about her, even if he only asked about her birthday and how she got a job at Daebak Soft the last time. There's nothing else he wants to know, he doesn't want to get close, form an attachment, things Yunho told him and thousands of other people at the convention.

They're at a Japanese restaurant somewhere on the fourth floor of the mall. People around them are smiling away and talking to each other and Baekhyun's eyes are busy looking around the place. Waiters and waitresses are taking orders and delivering freshly cooked dishes.

After what feels like ages, their food is served.

"This looks so good!"

Baekhyun lifts his head from the food in time to see Raon grinning at the bowl of ramen.

She always looks so ecstatic when it comes to food.

"If you stare at it too long, you'll turn in to ramen."

"Huh? Did you say something?"

Nope, not gonna repeat that.

It's the only thing he says for the whole duration of lunch until they're at the counter and he tells Raon that he'll pay for the food.

"This game is super hard, there's no way you can beat it," Raon picks up the fake gun propped up in it's holder, "I've never beaten it before."

Baekhyun eyes the arcade machine, a game about being trapped in a base and having to shoot zombies. He used to play this game often with his friends in high school, but those have turned in to distant memories. Memories that are only popping out now at the sight of this machine. He can't recall if he was ever good at this game, but the inner hardcore gamer inside of him is starting to awaken from a long slumber.

"I'll probably be able to beat you." Baekhyun picks up the other gun on the left, testing out the trigger.

"When was the last time you played?" Raon inquires while inserting the tokens in the machine. 

"Five years ago."

"Pfft, you think you still have the skill? But I guess you do look like someone who would be good at games, maybe not as good as me."

"What makes you think I'll be worse than you?"

"I'm a graphic designer for a game company, I play my own share of games too, including these ones." Raon sticks her tongue out. "Isn't it a given that I'll be good at this?"

"Someone's too confident. You never know, I think I still have it in me, I might end up leading by a hundred thousand more points. Don't get mad at me if that happens." Baekhyun shrugs, getting in to a comfortable position for shooting.

After the countdown of ten seconds, the game starts. It's fairly easy in the beginning, with about six zombies limping towards him on the screen. Baekhyun shoots them down effortlessly without batting a single eyelash, receiving a total of sixty thousand points. He looks over at Raon's side and she also has the same amount of points as him. 

You can't lose to a girl, Byun Baekhyun! Baekhyun fingers tighten around the toy gun. 

The game gets increasingly harder the more they play, but neither of them have lost yet. Baekhyun spams the trigger with his index and middle finger when he sees the swarm of zombies on the screen as he mouths the word 'die' over and over again. He's never felt so passionate about winning something before.

"DIE YOU UGLY S!"

Baekhyun almost loses the hold he has on his gun because of the girl next to him. He gets distracted from the game, eyes on Raon who is screaming her lungs out. It isn't high pitched screaming, but more of full on cussing at the zombies in the game. People in their vicinity are shooting her strange glances, and Baekhyun has to contemplate if he should walk away and pretend that he doesn't know her or stay, because it's kind of entertaining seeing a girl act this way.

"! There's too many of them! DIE, DIE, DIE!!!" She yells before turning to look at Baekhyun's screen for a short peek. "Baekhyun, you're dying!"

"W-what?" Baekhyun blinks and tears his gaze away from Raon to his screen. Indeed, the zombies have gotten to him and his screen his flashing red. It's only a matter of seconds before the metallic 'GAME OVER' font pops up on his screen. Something must be wrong with him, he realises that he may have been staring at her for a bit too long, which may have caused him to lose. Did he unknowingly smile while watching this barbaric but funny girl violently shake her gun and taking this game to a whole new level?

"I won!" Raon cheers, pumping a fist in the air. "Ha, told you I was good."

Raon: 2530000 points. Baekhyun: 1910000 points.

"That wasn't fair."

"Why not?"

"How was I supposed to focus if you kept swearing at the machine? You almost gave me a heart attack, and plus you were attracting too much attention. It's not like we're at a baseball match." Baekhyun tells her in an annoyed voice. 

"Fine," Raon says, searching in the pockets of her leather jacket, "sorry. I won't swear or yell this time, I'll try to keep it in. Up for another round?"

"Fine. I'll win this time, for sure." Baekhyun looks at her, smirking. "Ready to play?"

"I'm more than ready." Raon is filled with confidence as she picks up the gun again. "There's no way I'm going to lose to you, Byun Baekhyun."

The game starts, and it continues for a considerable amount of time. Without any abrupt interruptions, Baekhyun can finally focus on the game. They get to the final stage, their health bars down to half. His palms are sweaty and it's starting to feel hot in this arcade, he wants to take off his coat but his hands are fully occupied. A slight mess up could cause Raon to make fun of him for the whole day.

When the results from the game are out, Baekhyun is smiling in triumph. Leading by one hundred thousand points is him, he's gained his lost pride back. Raon isn't a sore loser and she doesn't whine about him winning over her. People who work in game companies aren't super competitive and butthurt if they lose? Junmyeon hyung owns one, but he's really patient. Hm, maybe he's just stereotyping, but seriously he doesn't understand the reason for Raon congratulating him. In Baekhyun's eyes, it's making her appear likeable.

They are worn out after their gaming showdown. All Baekhyun wants to do now is relax somewhere with calm music around him. As if Raon has gone through his thoughts, she suddenly brings up Hongdae, and suggests that they make their way there. Baekhyun doesn't have anything to do today, no calls from Joohyuk or Taehyung about a new scheme, so he naturally nods his head when she asks him if he wants to go. 

Hongdae is flooded with performances today from magic tricks to dancing and people are crowding around different areas to watch them. Baekhyun walks alongside Raon, their bodies sticking close to each other. Baekhyun doesn't want to lose her, since it's definitely going to be a pain to find her. He also can't ditch her no matter how much he might want to, it's a douche move in general and he's a better person than that.

They are standing near a cafe. There is an empty alleyway behind them, lit up by LED and neon signs.

"Coming here on a weekday would've been better." Raon mutters, looking up at him with apologetically. "Sorry. Crowds aren't your thing, right?"

"Yeah, they aren't." Baekhyun scans around the place for anything interesting to watch.

"There's a quieter part around here, we just need to get past this alleyway." Raon drags him by the wrist.

Baekhyun stops, shaking her hand off of his wrist and taking a step back. "I'm not going in there. We can just stay around here."

Raon senses how uncomfortable Baekhyun is starting to feel, even if he's making an effort to hide his nervousness. "Oh, sure, there's lots to see here too. I hear guitars, we can go watch that band over there!" She points at the acoustic band playing a few feet away from them, but turns around again for a last look at the alleyway, where something she spots makes her eyes widen.

"Yah, what's wrong?" Baekhyun waves a hand in front of her face. He can see a few figures in the alleyway. Two people are on the ground and another two people are raising their fists at them. No one has the guts to interfere and they're pretending not to notice the predicament in the alleyway. 

"Those high school kids are getting beat up," and then in a second, as if overcome with a sense of justice, she's dashing inside.

"Yah, yah, yah! Are you crazy?" Baekhyun doesn't even have the chance to grab her.

I can't do alleyways! What do I do? She's a girl, going against two men, I can't let her... Baekhyun shakes his head and takes a deep breath. He has an improvised plan in his head with no certain success rate   I'll go and give them a few punches strong enough to knock them out, then get Jeon Raon and those high schoolers out of there and everything will be fine. 

The moment he steps in the alleway, his heart is thumping faster than a formula one race car. Dad! Dad! he can hear the voice of nine year old him ringing in his ears. He fastens his foosteps, until he eventually takes bigger strides instead of small ones. God knows how much he really doesn't want to be here now. He finds Raon about to confront them, and he pulls her away before tapping one of the guys on the shoulder, to which he turns around to look at him, and Baekhyun sharply punches him across the face, hitting him square in the cheek. As expected, his fighting hasn't gotten rusty at all.

"Who the hell are you?" The other man stares at him, his eyes begin to widen in horror at the re