As soon as they arrived at the game center, Changhyun and Jonghyun ran to the dancing machine, Chanhee to the lucky strike machine, Byunghun silently hop on the motorcycle race game, Yuri played the whack-a-mole game, while Minsoo and Yoomi flocked around the punching game machine. Everyone enjoyed their time, forgetting about Sina. She was always at loss whenever she went to the game center. There was nothing she could do except randomly played arcade machines—which she wasn’t too good either. She usually went around watching at her friends playing.

Minsoo and Yoomi were playing around the punching machine. Yoomi might not look like it, but she’s pretty strong too. She used to play volleyball, and it gave strength to her arms. Sina laughed hard when she saw Yoomi could hit higher point than Minsoo. Minsoo scolded her, saying that he intentionally did it for his girlfriend. Sina scoffed at him and waltzed away from the stupid couple.

Yuri almost hit Sina with her hammer if only she didn’t scream. Yuri was upset about something—most probably because Byunghun kept ignoring her—and hitting the ‘mole’ as hard as she could. Sina thought, if Yuri broke the arcade machine, they would have to pay for it, as she walked away.

Changhyun and Jonghyun of course danced crazily in the dancing machine. Jonghyun especially loved dancing and he hit almost all the perfect point while moving here and there. Changhyun focused more on his moves, ignoring the game and only scored ‘good’. As Sina walked closer, both of them trying to force her to join them, but Sina resisted. One thing she could not do: dance. And she would never ever dance in front of public. She ran away as fast as she could, not giving them a chance to tie her in the dancing machine. Both of them could be as forceful as they would, especially to Sina.

Sina walked to the racing arcade game and stood next to Byunghun—who was riding a virtual motorcycle for the game. She simply stood there, watching without any words. Byunghun noticed and scoffed. He turned his head to her.

“What are you doing in there? Join me.”

“I’m waiting for you to say that,” Sina replied as she giggled.

Although they were classmates and Byunghun was kind, she always felt he built some kind of a wall around himself—but he welcomed Teen Top members. This made Sina hesitated whenever she tried to approach him. Just like today, as long as he welcomed her, Sina gladly joined his stead.

She joined one round of his game and lost, so she got off the motorcycle to look for another game to play. She left Byunghun played racing game with Changhyun who just arrived—sweating and panting after dancing.

“Why do you always play this game, Chanhee ya?” Sina asked as she walked to Chanhee.

Whenever they came to the game center, Lucky Strike was one of the games Chanhee would play. And he could spend a whole day playing this game, winning lots of tokens to be redeemed. Today he did the same. And the tokens he collected today piling up next to him. It wasn’t even thirty minutes, and he already got more than 20 tokens out of the game.

“I’m trying to get Lucky Strike and put my photo in that bulletin board over there,” Chanhee responded, not moving his eyes off of the game.

Sina stood next to him, watching closely at the ball and the numbers. This game was pure luck.  No skills or strength needed. Oh, maybe you need one skill, guessing which number.

“I think 7 is a good number,” Sina said quietly.

“Really?”

Sina nodded, but Chanhee didn’t choose that number and only got 10 tokens. Chanhee kept choosing other numbers but seven. Watching Chanhee played this game was pretty boring, so Sina looked around. As she looked for another game to play, her eyes laid on Niel who was playing basketball all alone.

It was an arcade game with basketballs and a ring—high enough (too high) for Sina. She wondered if she could walk there and attempted to talk. Sina walked closer, but maintained some distance from him, thinking that her presence alone might disturb him. She still remembered how Niel would be awkward around her, and avoided her. So she tried her best not to upset him more, although she wasn’t sure of why.

When Niel scored five shoot without any misses, Sina automatically clapped her hand happily, made him turned in surprise. His face reddened seeing Sina and he could feel anxiety up to him. His heart beat faster and faster, making he thought that he might die of heart attack. Recently his panic attack when seeing Sina worsened, sending him flying whenever he saw Sina.

There was no other choice but speaking, so Sina said, “wow, you’re good with that.”

Niel rubbed his hair awkwardly. “Not really…. It’s just that… this game is available.”

“The only thing I can play is this game,” Sina walked to a basketball game machine which was for elementary students. She swiped her card and the timer started walking. “Oh, you play your game too!”

Niel just realized what happen and quickly threw the basketball in the ring. The same game repeated for him, but he lost his focus and concentration. He kept glancing at Sina who was playing her own game seriously. She frowned and tried her best on making score. He found Sina interesting when she’s like this. Whenever she focused on doing something, she would put a lot of concentration on it. And it made her look cute and attractive.

He’s been watching over her for more than a week now and thought that he knew her better. Jonghyun said the best way to be close with her was by speaking to her, interacting, taking her to a date. But he didn’t have the courage to do so. Whenever he made up his mind to take her to a movie or to walk her home, only a glimpse of her made him surrender. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even look her in the eyes. How was he supposed to have a ‘date’ with her?

“Niel?” suddenly Sina spoke up.

“Yes, noona?”

Sina turned at him, looking straight at him. She was a meter away from Niel, she didn’t even need to look up. “Can I ask you something?”

He admitted that they weren’t close, but Sina never spoke in this kind of tone and manner to him. “Of course. What is it?”

“Umm… do you… hate me?”

The question stunned Niel. He didn’t expect to have this kind of question. How would he respond? What should he reply? Of course he didn’t hate the girl standing in front of him. Simply speaking, he liked this girl. And his feeling increased day by day. Was this the right time to say it? Would he be able to say it?

“Noona, I…”

“WOAHH!!! LUCKY STRIKE!!” Chanhee screamed very loudly, jumping happily in front of the arcade machine.

This literally ruined everything, also Niel’s chance to convey his feeling. Sina walked fast to Chanhee, forgetting what happened between her and Niel. The other members also flocked around Chanhee, trying to see the tokens he won. They started talking in unison, especially Changhyun and Jonghyun who were extremely loud and excited. The other customers who heard Chanhee’s loud scream turned their head as they passed.

Seven flashed brightly in the screen. Sina tugged Chanhee’s shirt as she asked, “you chose that number? Finally?”

Chanhee gave her his big smile. “I just thought it might be lucky.”

“Seven is a good number,” Niel said.

Chanhee and Sina looked at Niel. That sentence was the exact copy of what Sina said just earlier. As she turned to ask Chanhee how many tokens he won, she saw weird grin in Chanhee’s lips. Was it just her or recently her friends were wearing those weird grin whenever they talked about Niel?

“What will you take as your prize, Chanhee?!” Yoomi asked excitedly.

Minsoo glanced at the counter, looking for things he liked. “That pillow neck seems comfortable.”

Chanhee raised one eyebrow. “That is the thing you want, not what I want. Do you…”

“SNACKS!! Lots of snack!” Ricky suggested, being excited by himself.

“Ya! You should stop eating! Look at this tummy!” protested Jonghyun, smacking Changhyun’s tummy.

“This is cuteness, Jonghyun-ah!”

“Yeah right. Call that cuteness,” Jonghyun sulked. Although he was the maknae of the group, they couldn’t actually call him cute. And Changhyun definitely was cuter than him.

“Keychain? Cellphone strap? Doll?” Yuri mentioned the things available in the counter.

“Do they have beef in there?” asked Byunghun.

“Stop talking about food!” Chanhee finally protested. How could there be beef set in game center? These boys sometimes could be so clueless. He should be the one who could think straight. Chanhee turned to Sina—who was waiting. “Sina, what do you think? You are the one who choose the number.”

Everyone looked at Sina, each have something in their mind. And each of them tried to convey their thoughts to Sina. “Maybe… something we can share? Something that each of us will have?”

Chanhee nodded. “Okay. I’ll go redeem these tokens. You guys look for a place to eat,” he said while walking away.

The group became noisy again of deciding where to have dinner. Jonghyun wanted to eat something healthy. Changhyun wanted beef with low price (as if). When Byunghun suggested fast food, Jonghyun started lecturing them with the healthy food intake he should have if he wanted to build muscle. Minsoo agreed with him, saying that he would need protein intake. Yuri interrupted by saying that the girls had to take their carb intake, only Yoomi disagreed. She was hungry and could eat a horse if they allowed her to (no idiom intended). Niel tried to say something but no one listened, as dongsaeng line fought with the hyung line. Sina stepped back a little, this would take a while, then they would go to the diner they always stopped by afterschool.

“Noona…” called someone in her ear.

Sina turned her head in surprise and found Niel stuck close to her. He bent down a little, aligning his head to her ear. She didn’t realize that he was already behind her. Her heart skipped a beat. Being close with him, she just realized how pretty he was, with his hair fell on his face. 

Niel had to pluck his courage doing this. His actions had been misinterpreted by ‘hatred’ and he didn’t want that. The last thing he wanted was Sina thinking that he hated her. And although he could hear his heart beating like crazy and he trembled as he bent, he still had to do this.

“I don’t hate you,” he whispered, softer and gentler. He thought of confessing right at that moment, but Sina’s expression made him waver.

She smiled as she raised her hand and hold Niel’s arm for a second then let go.