Hitomi checked her surroundings carefully before running up the nearest ramp and crouching down underneath the castle's window to avoid anyone's line of sight. Letting out a heavy sigh of relief, she made a desperate attempt to adjust the vest tightly strapped over her chest. It was starting to get more uncomfortable. Trying to run was nearly impossible, the vest smacking heavily against her shoulders whenever she tried to run at full speed. Not to mention it would also get in the way when she tried to hide somewhere seemingly normal in the arena, the large laser target points banging against the wall preventing her from squeezing through. Now, she was never the type to complain, but it was annoying. Who came up with the idea of laser tag for their free day in the first place?

All she could remember was Chaeyeon barging into their shared room a few hours ago, happily explaining how Eunbi called her to inform how the company allowed them to go on a group outing for their free day. She reluctantly crawled out of her warm bed, changed out of her pajamas and followed the other members of their dorm to the van waiting for them outside. That was when someone finally decided to let them know of the already made plans.

Apparently they were heading to a recently opened up laser tag arena in Daejeon, causing the younger members to squeal out in glee. Yujin and Wonyoung started a small conversation amongst themselves about how they always wanted to go play laser tag with the other Starship trainees while the other members spent the car ride bickering about how the teams were going to be formed and who would be in which team. Hearing this, Yujin took the opportunity to comment on how there was a strong possibility of Nako getting lost in the arena due to her short height or how the vest would be too big on her, joking about how the staff may need to order special gear. Nako retaliated by throwing a pack of crackers at the puppy-like girl's head, mumbling something along the lines of 'Ahn Yujin will be sorry.'

It was then Yena's turn to choose a teasing victim. She chose Hitomi who sat innocently next to her, joking about how their squishy cheek member would let the opposite team win due to her noncompetitive nature. Hyewon cut into the conversation by calling her an 'actual cinnamon bun,' though it only made the others to cause a ruckus, asking why she would always compare the other kids to different food. Hitomi rolled her eyes at both comments, not forgetting to elbow Yena in the side. She may not be as competitive as Hyewon, Yena or even Sakura who would do almost anything to win at games, yet she could be competitive when she wanted to be. She was going to prove it to them.

Once they arrived at the arena and Eunbi paid for them to play a few rounds, they ran off to grab their gear for the first starting game. While they were in a heated discussion on what team to join, the staff began to explain the rules; Each game were twenty minutes and there were four teams to choose from, throwing in a suggestion of three people to each team to balance everything out. It didn't take long before they settled into their separate teams, choosing to form a team with the members from their respective dorms.

While Chaeyeon was translating the rules into Japanese for Hitomi with Yuri cutting in once in a while, Chaewon took it upon herself to help her put on the red colored vest, strapping it in tightly to make sure it wouldn't fall off during the game (or worse – smack her in the face.) With a gentle pat to the younger girl's head and avoiding any eye contact with the other two members of the red team, she gave her a small smile, swiftly walking off to be with her team members on the other side of the room. Yuri glanced over at Chaeyeon, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. Chaeyeon mirrored her actions, leaving Hitomi standing there confused.

Sakura, Nako and Wonyoung formed the blue team. Wonyoung spent half of the preparation time translating the rules into Japanese the best she could for her two team members, answering whatever questions they had about the game. Sakura went down memory lane with Nako, remembering the time when they went to the laser tag arena in Tokyo with some of the other HKT girls during one of their breaks. The other half of the preparation time was getting the vest tight enough to fit Nako. It was a struggle especially with the way the vest stopped directly at the top of her knees, Yujin making a joke from the side about how it seemed like a safety hazard.

Eunbi, Yena and Minjoo formed the purple team. Yena was elected as the official captain after she bragged about the one time she went to an old arena when she was younger with her older brother, Sungmin. She didn't forget to comment on how they beat the other teams with still time left to spare for the game. It wasn't long before Minjoo started asking questions starting with what the rules were again, how to shoot another player, what she aimed at and right down to how many points they got per person they shot. Their preparation time was spent going over the rules again for her.

Hyewon, Chaewon and Yujin formed the green team. Hyewon was elected as the official captain and began giving them instructions on where to go to avoid being seen, not failing to mention where the best hiding spots were until Yujin cut in to complain about how it was unfair she had to shoot her own girlfriend. The other two ignored her completely, Hyewon continuing to coach them right up to when the music began playing, signaling the start of the first game. Soon the area was covered in bright neon lights with four different teams running to find their hiding spots. Hyewon ran off through the giant tunnel with Chaewon right behind her, Yujin sliding through the bottom gate of the wooden lodge at the last second, nearly losing her shoe in the process.

That is how Hitomi found herself currently crouched underneath one of the castle's windows trying to avoid being seen. Shouts and sounds of loud laughter echoed throughout the place. Shots through electronic sound of laser guns firing in every possible direction. It was an actual war zone and she felt like she was going to be stuck in the crossfire.

“Yah, Hitomi! Why do you still have zero kills?!” Yuri shouted from below as she ran after Yujin who was diving behind random objects. She looked down at the laser gun in her hand, taking notice of how many points along with kills her team had. Chaeyeon and Yuri both had four kills, eight hundred individual points each and got their team up to eight team points in total. Hitomi... Well, she had none.

“Should I just start shooting every person who has a different colored vest then?!” Hitomi shouted back, poking her head through the window to catch a glimpse of what was happening below her. It was a mess to say the least. Yujin was rolling around on the floor acting like a secret agent, Sakura was chasing Yena through the weird neon green obstacle course, Nako was hopping after Minjoo down the mini ramp connected to the wooden lodge, Chaewon was entering the tunnel with Eunbi close behind her, Yuri ran after Wonyoung, suddenly fed up with Yujin's silly antics. However, Hyewon was nowhere to be seen. She was on the green team along with the others, yet she hasn't seen her since the game started. Strange.

Suddenly, someone with long brown hair ran past her hiding spot, their feet hitting hard against the set. The person slowly made their way down the ramp and made a right turn, disappearing into the darkness and hopefully away from the girl frozen to the wall inside of the castle. She crawled across the floor, peeking around the corner to make sure there were no others following behind the person before looking out the window, the others still having a battle below. Assuming it was safe to move hiding spots, she held her vest and began crawling over to the left exit, crashing into someone who had come up from the ladder. Following her line of sight, she realized who it was. Hyewon.

“Why are you crawling around in the castle, kiddo?” Hyewon asked, clearly amused.

Hitomi stood up and dusted her pants off. If she was going to get shot inside of a castle of all places, she wanted to have at least some dignity left. “I was hiding, fairly well might I add, but then