Seungkwan's maniacal laughter before the start of round 2 was the last thing Jihoon heard from the Vocal Team before he found himself running up the ramp. The speakers punched erratic notes in the air that could have passed off as music in another planet, and would have given anyone a headache with the psychedelic lights dancing over them.

Vocal Team was going to make sure to pulverize the other two units this round, especially the damned Performance Team who dared challenge the full power of the 5-member unit with their arrogance. It was in the light of sportsmanship that Vocal Team had Jeonghan sit out the first round. When Performance Team won, they claimed that even with all members of the Vocal Team, they will still win?

Jihoon wanted to punch the smug grin off their leader's face.

Hiphop Team trailed behind the two teams in scores, but Jihoon was sure they wouldn't be easy this round. This round he wanted to make sure to crush both units, the Performance Team especially, under the foot of his own. He will show them the Vocal Team's competitive prowess and Soonyoung will be sorry he ever crossed them at all.

Jihoon laughed at his thoughts. He wasn't competitive originally, not as competitive as the rest of the members of his unit, but he guessed it might have been infectious.

After all, it was the first time Soonyoung looked down on him with an unspoken challenge, genuinely believing that he was better than Jihoon in laser tag.

We'll see about that, Jihoon thought and only smiled at him, then had the Vocal Team regroup before the start of round 2.

Jihoon had the shooting techniques of the whole team analyzed during round one and grouped them into three unique units (which would be fun to work with during production, but that was a story for another day).

The unhittables: Jihoon, Chan, Minghao, Vernon

The trigger-happy: Soonyoung, Seungkwan, Seokmin, Mingyu, Jun, (Jeonghan)

The ambush attackers: Joshua, Seungcheol, Wonwoo

Soonyoung was the top performer (as expected) during round one with the most number of shots. (Jihoon can admit that Soonyoung's challenge was not baseless considering their results, but was still arrogant considering everything else.) He, and the rest of the trigger-happy members had their forefingers jammed in the trigger the whole game, putting the unlimited ammo of the laser guns to good use.

The unhittables were the spies. The stealth group. Jihoon had the most accurate shots on round one, shooting 89.6% of his targets, and had the least hits on him. This group kept to the shadows, and only shot when then were sure they would make a hit.

The ambush attackers were the unpredictable team. Their techniques were the mix of the other two groups. They secretly follow specific members for some free sure shots, but they wouldn't hesitate to launch an unlimited volley of shots at the same time.

Jihoon laid this down on the Vocal Team, and then discussed all their possible plans of attack.

This was met by, of course, a wave of admiration.

"As expected of our Vobo!"

"Jihoon is so amazing."

"Daebak."

"Nothing can really beat Jihoon like this."

Jihoon swore the Vocal Team can be his biggest fans sometimes. Second to someone, at least.

Jihoon placed his trigger-happy members at the center of the warzone, where they can have control over the whole area. They will make a circle to guard each other's backs, and shoot everything and anything that moved within their vicinity.

The two other members, he and Joshua, will take to the second floor of the room to sweep through anything that would take down the three from the air. They will be the snipers and the spies. They will make sure the three main shooters will have impenetrable attacks, and they will take down anything that will be out of their range.

"Watch out for Soonyoung, Minghao, SSeungcheol and Vernon. Soonyoung especially."

The Vocal Team nodded.

"And remember," Jihoon said when the alarm rang, marking the start of round two. "Show no mercy."

Vocal Team ran into position in the dark maze, sure of their victory.

Everything went downhill from there.

The Hiphop Team took control of the center of the room, forcing the main shooters from Vocal Team into defensive. The Performance Team ran wild in the second floor, not allowing the Vocal Team to get comfortable.

Jihoon did not anticipate this: the other two leaders to team up against him. He can only roll his eyes. This only proved that he's probably better than the two of them in this game, if they had to cooperate to push Vocal Team back.

"YAH SEUNGCHEOL WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Jihoon heard Jeonghan's voice piercing even through the haze of the music in the room.

Seungcheol must have replied something stupid because Jeonghan laughed in response.

"You think Vocal Team will be that easy? You think you can trust the Performance Team?"

Jihoon grinned. Trust Jeonghan to use his wit to worm his way out of even the stickiest situations (and distract Seungcheol). The best part of the Vocal Team in these kinds of situations was their versatility. With and without plans, they work best as a team.

For some reason, Joshua was doing well holding off Performance Team's attacks alone, unbothered that it was a battle of 4 against 1. It took 10 seconds for the lit vest to reload, and Joshua was using that down time to switch places and confuse the Performance Team.

Jihoon got into position as sniper. When Jeonghan gave a signal, Jihoon aimed for Seungcheol and Vernon, the two more dangerous members of the Hiphop Team first, who also were taking the lead in attack.

Seungkwan didn't miss a beat, and immediately took control of the middle of the maze, making way for Seokmin to follow.  Jeonghan switched from a trigger-happy technique to an ambush attack, hiding behind the walls of the maze, and still firing a million of shots per second.

Jihoon noticed the Performance Team shouting plans at each other over the music (Smart move, Jihoon almost laughed.) Joshua had stopped firing at them, and they were assuming that the Vocal Team went down to overwhelm the Hiphop team. Jihoon saw Joshua behind a pillar, laughing soundlessly. Now that was a smart move.

Jihoon also hid himself, then saw flashes of green, the color of Performance Team's vests, run past him to go down to the first floor. He counted two.

Joshua was beside him in a second.

"That was Chan and Minghao," he said.

, Jihoon thought. The main shooters downstairs can probably stand their own, but it will only be a matter of time before they get ran over.

"I'll take sniper," Joshua said. "Maybe for 2 minutes, then I'll back them up."

As soon as he said that, Joshua's red vest died into its lightless form, surprising the two of them.

Jihoon looked for the possible direction where the shot came from, but all he could see were walls, and confusing lights.

Joshua looked at Jihoon for confirmation.

"Continue with your plan. It was probably a blind shot, but I'll cover for you."

Joshua nodded, and Jihoon took off.

Jihoon personally didn't want to risk his stats as most accurate shooter, so he kept his gun to himself. He felt his vest hum against his chest when he was hit from an unknown direction, but it was better to be a bait, than them taking interest in Joshua.

Jihoon heard someone curse loudly while he was running (that was Soonyoung probably) and had to laugh. The Vocal Team was still in control.

He stayed close to the edge so he can still monitor the ground team. He shot Mingyu and Wonwoo on separate occasions when Seokmin got hit and was unable to support Seungkwan. Joshua was doing his job well, holding back Minghao and Chan from above, but the Hiphop Team was gaining ground, so he would need to get down soon.

Jihoon took a sharp right, and by luck, he saw Jun fumbling with his gun. He shot him once, the green light dying instantly, then ran ahead. He timed himself so when he turned back, as he expected, Jun was still there  with his vest already lit. Jihoon shot him twice, missing once.

Jun took pursuit.

Jihoon met Joshua on his way down, and they had an understanding. Jihoon hid, and Jun ran after Joshua instead, both of them going down the ramp to the first floor.

It was getting chaotic down there. The Hiphop Team was already shooting both the Vocal Team and the Performance Team (How long did they really think they could work with each other in a war like this?), with probably the only intention to win.

With Jun following Joshua down, it meant there was only one other Performance Team member left in the floor where Jihoon was. The clock said 4 minutes left, so Jihoon thought it was enough time to battle out who was really better between the two of them.

He took a leisure walk around the area, without getting hit even once, so that spoke a lot about Soonyoung's aim.

He went back to the edge and found a good space between a wall and a pillar and jumped when he found Soonyoung crouched and hiding there.

He shot him on impulse, the green lights of Soonyoung's vest immediately died, and it made a gurgling sound that meant it was reloading. Unlike his expectations, there was no resistance or retaliation.

Soonyoung only glared at him, and it was at this point that Jihoon noticed that Soonyoung was stuck.

Jihoon grinned. "You were trying to get a hit on me, weren't you?"

"I had been trying to hit on you ever since, but thank you for noticing just now."

Jihoon raised an eyebrow at his comment, but Soonyoung didn't elaborate.

"Can you at least help me?"

Jihoon stooped at eye-level and found that it was Soonyoung's shooting arm and shoulder that got stuck in the thin space between the wall and the column that made an angle, so it was supposed to be a good hiding spot for snipers. Jihoon shot him when his green vest lit up.

"HELP!" Soonyoung cried out.

Against the loud music and nauseating lights, no one answered. Jihoon looked behind him and saw that the place had a bird's eye view of the whole ground. More than teaming up, the members were all having fun, running all over the place, shooting each other. For some reason, Jeonghan and Seungcheol were tangled together in a headlock, and Joshua was shooting Seungcheol' vest every time it lit up. The other members we're not as insane, but was as messy if not worse. Jihoon laughed.  He loved it when the members were having the time of their lives.

He shot some non-Vocal Team members when he had clear shots then turned around to shoot Soonyoung again.

"I'm unarmed, and disabled. I'm at your mercy. I can't believe you'd go this low," Soonyoung hissed.

"I can't believe you'd follow me around. You were the one who shot me a while ago."

"And I got stuck because of it!"

"It's like the world is telling you that you will never beat me in this game," Jihoon shook his head in mock sympathy. "Why spy over us? I thought you were trigger-happy."

"I was trying different shooting techniques..."

"And you teamed up with the Hiphop Team."

"Those traitors."

Jihoon chuckled. "That's probably Jeonghan-hyung's fault."

"I can't believe I can't get a clean hit on you," Soonyoung said with a grudge. "Why do you have to be good at ev- STOP THAT!"

Jihoon was enjoying the dying noises Soonyoung's vest kept making when he shoots it. And it was very much like Soonyoung to compliment Jihoon even at these kinds of situations. As expected of Jihoon's number 1 fan.

"At this rate, I might get 92% accuracy."

Soonyoung started wiggling his shoulder against the wall, and Jihoon only watched him struggle in amusement.

"Don't you have anything better to do? Other teams to hit?" Soonyoung asked.

"And I'm doing it exceptionally we-"

He underestimated Soonyoung's speed.

Get this: Before he can pull the trigger, Jihoon's  back hit the wall that used to be in front of him which meant, Soonyoung had the speed and strength to twirl him around, and Jihoon's gun crashed carelessly beside his feet.

"I think I dislocated my shoulder," Soonyoung said, successfully pinning Jihoon in under 3 seconds.

His vest was lit again, but Jihoon was in no condition to shoot it dead.

"Your shoulder? I think you dislocated mine," he said, instead.

He was aware of their distance, or the lack thereof. The wall provided for a good place to pin someone into, Jihoon thought unnecessarily, with cover on in front of them, so they were perfectly hidden from anyone who's not looking.

Their difference in strength was apparent that even though Soonyoung was using his non-dominant hand to lock Jihoon's shooting hand beside him, Jihoon still can't move an inch. That, and Hoshi’s tiger gaze was paralyzing.

"Your fault for not helping me the first time," Soonyoung said, his voice a dangerous whisper. He was drenched in sweat, Jihoon noticed just now, with Soonyoung this close to his face. His bangs were glued to his forehead in places and it made him look messy and reckless. The shadows and lights gave Soonyoung a hooded aura of mystery, Jihoon was surprised to have even found the voice to speak.

"Your fault for squeezing yourself in spaces like a wild hamster."

"Your fault for being too perfect."

Jihoon rolled his eyes despite himself. "Were you just waiting to flatter me like this?"

Soonyoung's eyes ran through Jihoon's face, he might as well used a flamethrower to burn him with his gaze.

"How can I not?" Soonyoung leaned down to whisper directly on Jihoon's neck. "You know how crazy I am about you."

Jihoon was melting under Soonyoung, but he only stared at him when Soonyoung winked.

"I know you're crazy about me, too. That stoic face gives you away."

Jihoon gritted his teeth, his walls giving way. "I hate you," he said, and grabbed Soonyoung's collar to pull him towards him.

Soonyoung smelled of sweat and the rush of adventure, but he tasted like strawberries, and fire. His kiss was explosive, like unplanned fireworks that were still mesmerizing despite the chaos, or a mad waterfall, wanting to crush the world under its force. Jihoon reveled in his performance, as expected of Soonyoung, his kiss was also a spectacle. Something you'd want experience over and over… and over.

Jihoon was the one pulling him closer. It was Jihoon who was holding onto Soonyoung's vest with his unpinned hand. It was Jihoon who didn't let go even when Soonyoung took a second to breathe.

Jihoon caught the gurgling sound of his vest the sixth time it died… when Soonyoung was smiling into his lips.

"You were easier to distract than I expected," Soonyoung said when the lights stabilized into a dull white, the throbbing music faded into static, and he was breathing into Jihoon, their foreheads barely touching.

Jihoon was confused. Then he was angry. He should have known everything about how Soonyoung acted was fishy. How he was waiting for Jihoon in the right place, knowing Jihoon would take sniper. How he let Jihoon get comfortable thinking that he was stuck for good. How Jihoon let his guard down too easily. How Soonyoung wasn't even holding him even when he had always been the touchy one (Actually, this was a good thing. Jihoon wanted his clothes intact when the game ended.) And how Soonyoung knew just what exactly turned him on. Jihoon hated himself.

Soonyoung laughed.

"You distract me, too," he said, and winked, then pushed himself away from Jihoon.

Vocal Team won round 2 followed by the Hiphop Team. Seungkwan took Soonyoung's spot with the most shots. But it was Soonyoung with the most accurate shots this time with 92%.

Soonyoung-1. Jihoon-0.