The taxi ride was silent, and slightly awkward. I stared out the window instead of trying to make what feeble conversation I could think up at the time. And it didn't help that, every time I looked over at him, a slight blush would color my cheeks. So I just kept to my window with my hands in my lap. Halfway through, Woohyun received a call and told the driver to go to the practice room instead of their dorm. I wanted to ask why, but I was afraid to ask at the same time. So I just stayed quiet. Curse my social awkwardness... We finally arrived at the building their practice room was in and got out of the taxi. Woohyun gave me a concerned look and I smiled in response. I reached back and took his hand, leading him in.

“Come on, silly. We don't want to keep them all waiting, do we?” I said brightly. He shook his head and smiled.

“You're right. Let's go,” he said, taking the lead from me (which, with his longer legs, was easy). I still walked on my toes, because even without any weight on it, my injured heel stung. We walked together to the practice room, and I pulled my hand softly away from his. He opened the door and walked in, and I followed, bowing at the boys with a warm smile in greeting.

“Alright, what did you do this time, Minyoung-ah?” L asked, spotting my bandaged hand. I tried to hide it behind me (much too late) and laughed nervously.

“Being the klutz I am, I dropped a glass on the floor and it shattered,” I said, brushing my bangs forward with my good hand. Everyone's expressions turned to concern. “B-but lucky for me, Woohyun was there and helped me out a lot.”

“So Woohyun was good for something after all?” Sungjong asked, lightly hitting Woohyun in the chest. I nodded and looked down to try to hide the blush that was rising.

“I'm really grateful that he was there,” I said, glancing up at the older boy before quickly looking back at the floor.

“S-Sunggyu, why did you have us come here instead?” Woohyun stammered. Ah, so he didn't know either. I didn't feel so alone anymore.

“Hyung suggested that we do a type of 'lock-in' here with Minnie,” Sunggyu said. I didn't know at the time, but there was a reason for that. We'll get to that later.

“Ah, so like we stay in here the whole night and play games and talk and stuff?” I asked, tilting my head. Sunggyu nodded and I smiled brightly. “That sounds like fun!”

“Good, I was hoping you'd feel that way,” Manager Kim said from behind us. I jumped a little and spun to face him, bowing quickly. He chuckled lightly at my reaction while I went to hide behind Dongwoo again. Manager Kim nodded at Sunggyu in greeting with a smile. “I'm going to leave her in your hands, okay kids?” he said, looking around at all of them. They nodded and smiled at him. He gave them all one more look and then left.

“Well, what should we do first?” I asked, still halfway behind Dongwoo, who looked at me and laughed.

“You were hiding behind me again, weren't you?” he asked. I smiled and nodded sheepishly.

“You're my go-to man when I need someone to hide behind,” I admitted with a shrug. He smirked and ruffled my bangs a little, which I promptly smoothed back down, giving him a playful pout. He smiled at me mischievously and put a hand on my shoulder.

“I know the perfect game we can play. In honor of Minyoung, we can play the 'catch the mouse' game,” Dongwoo said. At first, I considered getting mad at him, but then I thought about it and...it wasn't a terrible idea.

“You're right, we could! But what would the punishment be? Somehow, I don't think you guys have toy hammers just lying around here,” I said with a light giggle. We all kind of looked at each other for a moment.

“Ttak bam*?” L suggested. Everyone shrugged and nodded in agreement.

“That works,” I said, smiling at the evil child. I know, we are born in the same year, and to be honest, he's a few months older than me, so I shouldn't really call him a child, but the description just fits him so well, I can't bring myself to stop calling him that.

“Am I allowed to go home and change clothes? Playing games in a dress is awkward and I don't really like dresses to begin with,” I said, tugging at the skirt of the dress a little.

“Then why did you wear it?” Hoya asked.

“Because my mom likes it, and Eun Ae got it for me,” I said with a shrug.

“I have a pair of sweat pants I was going to wear for practice, but we ended up not practicing, so they are clean if you want to wear them,” Sungjong said, going over to the little storage shelves and pulling a pair of dark grey sweats.

“I have a tee shirt I was going to wear for practice, but like Sungjongie said, we ended up not practicing. So if you want to wear it, that's fine with me,” Sunggyu said, handing me a white tee shirt with a bright colored design on it. I accepted both Sunggyu's shirt and Sungjong's sweats and bowed deeply.

“Thank you, you guys are too sweet,” I said as I straightened up. “I'm going to go change in the girl's restroom.” And with that, I skipped out. Sungjongie and I have a pretty similar waist size, so the sweats fit fine there. I just had to roll the top a little because for some reason, guy's sweats have a really high waist, and then I also had to roll the legs up to my knees because if I didn't I was stepping on the bottom. Sungjongie has longer legs than I do. Sunggyu always has tee shirts that are baggy on him, so the shirt was a little bit more baggy on me. It wasn't drastic though, so it was fine. I folded my dress and the little jacket carefully and, with a light skip, went back to the practice room. I skipped in and poked Sungyeol in the stomach before hiding behind Dongwoo once more. Sungyeol gave me a look.

“Just wait, Minyoung. Just you wait...” he muttered.

“L-let's play the game!” I said quickly to escape his wrath.

“Alright then,” L said with a smile.

We all lined up and sat on the floor. I ended up between Dongwoo and L, mostly because I had been standing closest to them to begin with. The order was Sunggyu, Woohyun, Hoya, Dongwoo, me, L, Sungyeol, and finally Sungjongie. And so the game started. We sang the nursery rhyme in the beginning, because we didn't have a pre-recorded version of the song handy like they do in the variety shows. We didn't make if far past that the first time, though.

“Hold on, wait, I can't help but notice that, not only is her voice cute, but she was making cute faces and hand gestures,” L said, pointing at me. I gave them all my best poker face. “Do it by yourself, Minnie.” I looked at him and groaned.

“Aw, why?” I whined.

“Because it was cute and I said so,” he said, poking me in the side and making me squeak and jump. I began to wonder why I stayed next to this boy...

“Aish, fine...” I muttered, going into the rhyme softly, alone. Once I got through it once, I buried my face in my hands as I felt the heat rising. They were laughing at me, and I felt a few of them patting my back.

“That was adorable, Minnie. Are you sure you're as old as you say?” Dongwoo said, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

“Says the one that wants to call me 'noona'...and yes, I'm the same age as L, I promise,” I said, lightly smacking Dongwoo in the arm.

“That was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen in person,” Hoya said, covering his laughter with his hand.

“Can we just play the game, please?” I asked loudly to cut off further comments about how 'cute' I was. I don't agree, there are tons of cuter girls out there.

“Ah, fine,” L said, ruffling my hair, which I smoothed down immediately. The first round, I lost. I forgot how many Sunggyu called and said 'catch' instead of 'hurray' when it got to me. I sighed and looked at Dongwoo and L, who would be the administers of the ttak bam punishment.

“Don't go easy on me because I'm a girl,” I said, pushing my bangs away from my forehead and giving them another poker face. Dongwoo scooted in front of me and held his hand out, his middle finger pulled back by his thumb, his ring and index fingers resting on my forehead. He bit his lip and looked like he was about to go through with it, but he laughed and dropped his hand.

“I can't do it. Ah, really...What do I do?” he said, his voice slightly cracking. I rolled my eyes and poked his knee with my free hand.

“Man up and do it,” I said, mostly just wanting to get it over with. He put his hand to my head again, dropped it as he broke out into another fit of laughter, and then put it back.

“I'm sorry, Minnie,” he said as he let his finger smack into my forehead with a loud thwack sound. I covered my forehead and leaned forward in pain, laughing all the same. Dongwoo rolled on the floor, laughing, and L scooted into position in front of me. I took a deep breath to stop the giggles and pushed my bangs back again. L smirked evilly at me.

“I'm not sorry, Minnie,” he said, letting me have it. Another loud thwack was heard as I pressed my palm to my forehead, silent laughter shaking my shoulders. I mean, yeah it hurt, but it was all in the name of fun.

“Somehow, I knew you were going to say something like that,” I said, shooting a playful glare at L. He gave me a mock innocent face and went back to his spot. I poked Dongwoo in the side because he was still rolling on the floor like a fool. “Yah, stop laughing, we have a game to play,” I said, trying not to burst into giggles of my own. He managed to sit up, still chuckling lightly as he pushed his hair out of his eyes. I smiled at him.

We played another round, starting with me, and Sungjong messed up. Sunggyu did a light ttak bam, but Sungyeol's ttak bam could be heard in the next town. Sungjong pressed his forehead against Sungyeol's shoulder and laughed through the pain. We started with Sungjong, and that time, it was Dongwoo who screwed up. I gave him my best innocent smile, even though I had revenge in mind. Hoya went first, doing a pretty good ttak bam. Once Dongwoo recovered from Hoya's attack, I scooted in front of him, still smiling innocently.

“Well, well. We meet again, sir. I'm sorry,” I said, administering the punishment with much force. He looked at me in shock.

“...I did not expect you to hit that hard!” he said, finally finding his voice.

“That was loud, Minnie. I never knew you had that in you,” Sungyeollie said. I smiled in pride and went back to my spot, glancing over at L with a look that clearly said 'that is going to be you soon' and for a moment, he looked genuinely concerned. Mission partially accomplished. It will be fully accomplished when I get my revenge on that boy.

The new round started with Dongwoo and ended up at Hoya, who seemed to forget we were playing and just kind of sat there in silence before realizing that it was his turn and then laughing at his mistake. Dongwoo hit him harder than he hit me, which made me make a face at him, and Woohyun did a pretty hard hit as well. I bet Hoya had a headache after that. Another round began with Hoya and ended with Sungjongie again on the second time around (there were a lot of passes). Sunggyu hit him harder than before and Yeollie hit just as hard as the first time. Sungjongie probably had a headache starting as well. We decided that the next round was the last round, and to my delight, L messed up. Sungyeol hit first, the sound echoing slightly in the big room. Once he recovered from Sungyeol's hit, I smiled at him innocently and he started backing up. Sungyeol held him still from one side while Dongwoo held him from the other side.

“Ah, no wait! I'm sorry Minnie, please be nice, Sungyeollie's already hurt a lot!” he protested, struggling to get away from the two boys holding him in place. I held back with Dongwoo because Dongwoo was nice to me. But L...Oh L... I leaned in close to his face, my hand held at ready on his forehead.

“I'm not sorry, L,” I muttered with a cheerful smile and I let him have it. The sound of the ttak bam was louder than the one I did to Dongwoo, and even louder than Sungyeollie's. Everyone else made sounds of sympathy and flinched away. L put a hand to his forehead and curled up on the floor in fetal position, making small groaning noises. Dongwoo looked at me with wide eyes.

“You held back on me, didn't you?” he asked. I nodded with a smile and he looked back at L. “I do not envy him, then.” I laughed as Yeollie ruffled my hair.

“Where did you learn to hit like that?” Woohyun asked, rubbing his forehead as if he could feel L's pain from where he was sitting. I shrugged lightly.

“Middle school through high school, that was the preferred method of punishment, so I learned how to hit hard in order to get revenge on the boys that hit hard no matter what. That's mostly why I said not to hold back with me, because I'm used to it,” I said, putting a hand softly on the back of L's head and leaning down to look at his face. “I'm sorry, I meant to pull back a little more than I did,” I said. He sat up quickly and stared at me in shock.

“That was pulled back!?” he yelled. I nodded simply. “Please don't ever go full force on anyone, you might fracture something,” he muttered. I kissed my finger and put it to his forehead.

“Better?” I asked sweetly. He looked away with a light blush and nodded slightly. I looked around with a smile at everyone else.

“So what game now?”

*I honestly have no idea what this is in English, so I left it as the romanized version. You all know what I'm talking about, right?

-gives cookies to Maddie- Indeed it is ^^ And thanks~~

Connecting...ideas...so...difficult...WHYYYY?! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to have the next one up...eventually XD *shot*