It was time for filming again. It was slightly around the new year period, so the staff arranged a surprise party for the members.

Gary, Jihyo and the twins arrived on set earlier than usual. Only Jae Suk, Ji-Ho, Min Yee, Suk jin and Hyun Woo had arrived. The two boys were playing with their ipad, and Min Yee was watching her brother play. They looked up briefly to greet Gary and Jihyo before turning back to the ipad.

“Wa, Song Ji Hyo,” Jae Suk called out. “Coming early just because there is food?” he laughed.

Jihyo shook her head, protesting. “Ani, oppa, it’s because they woke up early,” she said, gesturing to the two children.

Jiyoung was hyped up at the sight of a feast, and tried to wriggle out of Gary’s hands.

“No, no,” Gary told him, laughing a little. “Wait for the rest!”

“I’m hungry,” he whined, tugging his hand.

“No,” Gary said. “Let’s all eat together later, okay? Look the staffs hasn’t finished setting up!”

“But they’re already done there!” Jiyoung protested, pointing at another side of the table.

“No, Jiyoung. Look your hyungs are not eating yet,” Gary said, pointing to Ji-ho and Hyun Woo.

Jiyoung looked at them, conflicted.

“Let’s wait for Dreamie hyung and the rest, shall we?” Jihyo suggested. “I’m sure you could wait for a while more,” she encouraged.

Jiyoung finally nodded and the couple exchanged smiles.

Really a glutton like you, Gary thought jokingly. Jihyo laughed and hit his back lightly. The couple brought the twins over to the other three kids. They shifted to make space for them. Hyun Woo was playing some shooting game that was too complicated for Jiyoung. Ji-Ho was playing with Talking Tom. He said something and the cat repeated in a squeaky voice and the children giggled. He then repeatedly tapped on the cat’s face until it fainted. Min Yee giggled again and Ji-Ho let her try, but Jiyoung looked upset.

“Hajima... the cat will be hurt,” he said, using his own hand to cover the ipad. Min Yee whined, so Jiyoung hurriedly withdrew his hand. “Don’t…” he repeated, but the girl just giggled and continued playing. Frustrated, Jiyoung went over to Jihyo, who was talking to the other casts.

“Eomma, Min Yee is hitting a cat,” he whined.

“Huh?” Jihyo asked, confused. She turned around to look for the girl, but she was only playing with her ipad.

“Come…” he said, dragging Jihyo. She chuckled, but followed him nonetheless. Jae Suk followed along.

Jihyo laughed when she realised that she was just playing a game. “It’s not real, Young-ah,” she said as she ruffled his hair.

“But it still hurts,” he said, looking at his mom pleadingly.

Jihyo looked at the girl, then at Jiyoung, not knowing what to do.

Jae Suk then stepped in. “Let’s stop playing, Min Yee,” he told her.

“Oppa, it’s okay,” Jihyo said to Jae Suk. Jae Suk shook his head. “They have been playing for a while now,” he said.

Min Yee whined, but Jae Suk remained firm. “Give it to me,” he said, putting his hands out. Min Yee refused, shaking her head. Ji-Ho placed his hands over the ipad. “No,” he said to Jae Suk. Jae Suk sighed as he took it away from them, and in an instant they both started to cry.

“Min Yee tried to take it back, but Jae Suk put it behind his back. She cried even louder.

It’s not fair!” Ji-Ho cried. “Hyun Woo hyung is still playing.”

By this time, Gary and Suk Jin walked over.

“Hyun Woo, stop playing now,” Suk Jin told his son.

“Appa, after this game! I’m almost finishing!” he negotiated. Suk Jin agreed after a sigh. Jihyo managed to pacify Jae Suk’s children with candy, so peace returned to the set. By then, the rest of the cast have arrived. They were touching up on their make-up and Suk Jin sighed, ““Kids this days can’t live without the technology.”

“We were the ones who made them like this. We’d give let them play with those to stop them from running around, and we give in to them whenever they make a fuss,” Jae Suk reminded him.

Jong Kook shook his head. “Thankfully Jun Sukie is not at that stage yet. I would not give in to him,” he commented.

“You make it sound so easy! You just wait,” Jae Suk said.

Thankfully Jiyoung and Ji-ohnie are not like that, Gary thought to Jihyo, who smiled back at him in response. They have never indulged the twins with video games, mainly because Ji-ohn can’t see. They didn’t want her to feel left out whenever Jiyoung played, so they rarely let him play as well. It may sound unfair for Jiyoung, but it turned out better that it would have.

They started filming with the regular greeting as well as the surprise party.  It was buffet style, so they could choose what they wanted to eat.

“Do we just eat?” Jihyo asked. “You guys are treating us for real?”

Jae Suk laughed. “Ji Hyo-ah, this is not running man!”

She chuckled to herself at the reminder. “Yea… this is not running man anymore,” she repeated to herself. She soon got rid of her suspicions and helped herself to the food.

Then the PD invited the 6 adults to the vans for an interview, while the children remained outside having fun. Once they entered the vans, the doors locked. The members exchanged curious glances.

Then the PD in the van made the announcement, which could be heard from the outside as well.

“Children, we’ve captured your parents. Now, you’d have to pass through several missions to get clues to your parent’s location,” he announced.

“Yah! No way…” Haha muttered.

“What kind of mission is this!?” Gary cried. “They are just kids! Who’s going to look after them!?”

Jae Suk laughed worriedly, “Ya, be careful Jong Kookie doesn’t barge through the doors.”

The PD explained to them that they have been filming for almost a year now, and they want to see how much the children have grown, as an individual and as a group. Surely the parents would be interested to know too, he asked. Their protests slowed as they listened on. The PDs had arranged for people to look after the children, so they don’t have to worry about safety issues. Meanwhile, the parents would be able to watch them, so if they notice anything amiss they can point out immediately. Finally, if the children passes the missions, they get to call their parents to ask for clues.

“They would do fine,” Jihyo said. “They’re our kids after all.”

The other casts smiled. Indeed, they were running man juniors after all. They would be fine.

Outside, Hyun Woo seemed to be the only one to take it calmly. The other’s started to whine, even though they didn’t really understand the instructions fully. All they knew was that their parents have disappeared.

Their first mission was charades. They had to guess 4 correctly in two minutes, and they had three tries. The children were still whiny, but after much coaxing, they finally started the game. Hyun Woo decided that he should be the one acting out, because he was the only one who could read Hanggul well (Ji-Ho only just started learning), and the rest agreed. The first question was easy- elephant. The moment he put out his fake nose, Dream, Ji-Ho and Jiyoung shouted out the answer at the same time.

The second question was slightly harder- moon. He pointed to the sky, to which Ji-Ho immediately answered ‘sky’. He shook his head. Jiyoung answered ‘blue’. Hyun Woo shook his head again. He then drew a circle, signifying a full moon, but they guessed ‘sun’. He shook his head, getting increasingly frustrated as they got closer to the time limit, but eventually Dream managed to guess moon.

The next question was penguin. Hyun Woo acted like a penguin, but the kids couldn’t tell what it was. He then gestured beaks and flippers, as well as swimming, but it made them even more confused. Finally, he realised that he should hum the theme song of Pororo. He vaguely remembered it- he hasn’t watched it in a while, but heard it sometimes when the other children watched. It wasn’t really clear, but Ji-ohn recognised it eventually. “Pororo!” she squealed. Hyun Woo nodded excitedly, and gestured the penguin again, and finally, this time Ji-Ho got it right.

The last was rainbow. Hyun Woo thought for a while, before deciding to draw an arc in the air. The kids had no clue about it. Then he gestured 7, but to his frustration (and the adult’s amusement), Ji-Ho actually guessed running man. He shook his head again and pointed to the sky. The kids still looked confused. Then he decided to point out each individual colour. When he got to ‘blue’, the kids already figured out ‘rainbow’. Hyun Woo returned to the group and the kids cheered. They took 116 seconds, so they passed.

They were given a chance to call their parents. They could only ask questions with yes/no answers and they only had 1 minute. Hyun Woo suggested to discuss the questions first, but Ji-Ho already pressed dial.

Jae Suk was the one who picked up.

“Appa!” Ji-Ho squealed, bringing the phone close to him.

“Ji-Ho ya…” Jae Suk replied. But before he could say anything else, Jiyoung interrupted them.

“Eomma! Where are you,” he asked. Jihyo couldn’t answer, so she just called his name. “Young ah…”

“Eomma!” it was Ji-ohn’s turn to call for her.

Jihyo replied, “Eo, Ji-ohn ah…”

“Eomma, I miss you,” Ji-ohn said sadly, on the verge of tears.

Dream took the phone away, and called for HaHa, but the other children whined and cried.

“Yah! Stop it!! We need to find out their location,” Hyun Woo called out, frustrated. But of course the children ignored him.

The PD announced that there was 10 seconds left. In a panic, he snatched the phone away from Dream, and tried to ask a question- Are you near us?

But before he could hear their answer, the time was up.

“Yah!” he yelled at the kids. “See what happens when you guys fight! Now we got nothing!”

He was extremely annoyed, and it was understandable. They worked had to pass the mission, only to waste away their chance like this. He was the only one who was clear of what’s going on, and he had to lead everyone. It was not an easy feat for a nine-year-old.

Suk Jin sighed in the van. “Ah… I think this isn’t going to go well,” he said, knowing his son well. “He might lose his temper.”

Gary looked at Jihyo, who was lost in thoughts. He knew she was worried for the children.

“It’s okay, we fight when we do missions too,” HaHa said. “They’ll figure out a way.”

Dream refused to talk to Hyun Woo after that. Hyun Woo was annoyed at Ji-Ho, because he dialled without waiting for him. The other 4 younger ones are just in a loss. The PD gave the next mission nonetheless. It was the slide mission that running man used to play. They had to go up and down the slide for 100 times in total within 7 minutes, which roughly accounts for a minute per child. This time, Hyun Woo didn’t bother to lead anymore, so he just went straight into the slide. He managed 20 in a minute. After he stopped, the younger ones waited for instruction, but he was still angry. After a little discussion, Ji-Ho went next. He completed 14, then Dream did 14 as well. Jiyoung managed 12, but then their 7 minutes ended.

Just as the adults were starting to worry, Ji-Ho went up to Hyun Woo and sat beside him.

“Hyung… mianhae,” he said softly. Hyun Woo looked at him in surprise- he didn’t really expect him to apologise.

“I’ll listen to you next time,” he said again. Hyun Woo smiled, and they made up.

“Apologise,” Ji-Ho nudged Dream, but he refused.

“Hyung took away my phone first!” he protested.

“But you took it away from us first!” Ji-Ho pointed out. “Hyun Woo hyung had to ask about our parents.”

“But I want to talk to appa!”

“We all want to talk to them!” Ji-ohn spoke up. “But if we fight, we wouldn’t be able to find them,” she said, on the verge of tears again.

Hyun Woo bent down to her height. “Don’t worry,” he told her gently. “Oppa will help you find your appa and eomma, okay?”

She smiled. “Gomawo, oppa.”

Dream still refused to apologize, but at least he stopped arguing. They went again, but still failed.

In the van, they adults were saying that they should let Ji-ohn, Min Yee, and Jun Suk do one each, then the guys make up for the remaining, but Jae Suk laughed that it was good enough that they made up.

They were tired of just watching the kids play, so HaHa suggested to play a game, and the winner gets to be on the phone with the kids the next time. Jae Suk laughed at the childishness of his suggestion, but agreed anyway.

“We can play pepero game,” Gary laughed, knowing that he would win for sure. Jihyo hit him on the arm lightly and laughed, and the rest protested.

“We can play the truth game,” Jae Suk suggested. “If you cannot answer then you’re out.”

The rest were agreeable. They knew each other long enough to tell whenever someone is lying.

Jae Suk started by asking Jong Kook- Did he really like Eun Hye back in the X-man days. He calmly answered that he loves her now. Jae Suk argued that he didn’t answer the question, but Jong Kook laughed at said not like he can speak to Jun Suk anyway, so pass.

So Jae Suk asked HaHa- how did he confess to his first love. Haha groaned, but answered anyway.

HaHa asked Suk Jin- what was the most expensive present he gave his wife vs the most expensive present he gave his first love.

“Yah! That’s two questions!” Suk Jin protested, but he answered anyway.

Suk Jin asked Jihyo- when did she first fall in love with Gary. She blushed and motioned for Gary to ask Suk Jin to change a question, but Gary laughed and said, “I want to know too!”

“I… I can’t remember,” she lied, but Gary already read her thoughts before she stopped it. He couldn’t stop his grin and HaHa saw it.

“Eh… you are lying,” HaHa said. “Look at Gary smiling. He knows something!”

“I… don’t know,” Gary lied, but his lies were the easiest to tell of them all.

“Just tell us,” Jae Suk prompted.

Blushing and avoiding eye contact, she answered, “When we were filming running man…. The episode where I could chose who to board the water taxi…”

“That early on?!” Suk Jin asked. “And we never knew?!”

“Truly an actress,” HaHa laughed.

“What happened then?” Jae Suk asked.

“It’s two questions oppa,” Jihyo said, but Suk Jin countered that he answered two as well.

Finally Jihyo relented. There was nothing to be shy of, they were a family anyway.

“Because he wasn’t angry even when I pretended not to let him board,” she said. “Although he was really disappointed… and when I saw him that way, then I realised I don’t want to be the one to make him sad…”

Gomawo, Gary thought to her, for loving me.

No, thank you, she thought back.

And they smiled at each other.

Tada. The children’s mission will continue in another episode HAHA. Maybe in a months time…