One step.

Two steps.

Three steps… 

Stop!

He crouches down and looks at his right and left.  His senses seem to have heightened. Every small little sound is obvious to him – the drip drop of the escaping water from the showerhead, the soft rattle of the window by the wind and the pit pat beating of his heart.

He can’t lose… Not now.   

“Thirty four! Thirty fiiive! Thiirty SIX!!!!”

All he has to do is crawl across the plane where Junjin is counting, and hide at his favourite spot before the latter reaches fifty.

“Forty eight! Foorty NINE! FIFTY! READY OR NOT! HERE I COME!”

Junjin starts running to their bedroom, way opposite of where he is hiding.  He knows. Oh, he knows his brother so well. It’s going to get some time before he will be found, so he sits, curls himself at the corner of the room hidden by the ugly, wooden, rotten and scary wardrobe their mother loves so.  And he will stay; he will stay hidden until he’s certain that he wins, even if his brother starts to watch television without him.

You sit comfortably on your bed, hugging the bear so tight that if it could breathe, it will probably be choking. The reason is because right across your room, you could see Junjin standing by the wall, closing his eyes tight and you assume he was counting, while playing hide and seek. They’ve invited you once before, and it was the best game you have ever played because he had held your hand through the game. Not Junjin, but his brother.  Covering you from sight and pulling you to run away when Junjin happens to be so near to catching you.

When Junjin runs excitedly to the opposite corner of where he was hiding, you giggle. It seems as if you are part of the game and you have to help him, help him stay hidden until he w