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For the record, Heeseung started it.
The previous day, soon after the final bell rang, he shot Jay with a water gun.
He gave no warning either. Jay was just trying to peacefully get in his car and hightail it out of there when Heeseung popped out of nowhere, screeched “hOla, nIño~” and fucking super-soaked the guy.
At least, that’s how Jay narrates it the next day at lunch.
It’s the last day of school.
The seniors have graduation in a few days.
It’s bittersweet. Everyone’s more than ready to head out of there, but now, there’s the added sadness of having to say goodbye to some of the closest friends they’ve ever had.
The year was a wild one, that’s for sure. No one really knows what to say today, or how to thank their classmates for all the memories.
One thing’s for sure: they can’t end the year like this, with just another uneventful day. It’ll feel incomplete.
Today’s lunch period starts with Jay fucking seething at Heeseung, who appears unbothered.
“It’s just water,” He reasons, “Get over it.”
Steam comes out of Jay’s ears.
“Can we not have one peaceful day?” Sungcheol all but begs.
“Peace is overrated,” Jungwon interjects, “Kill all men. Eat the rich.”
“Seconded.” Yoonwon agrees.
“I’ll get revenge on you.” Jay smiles sweetly at Heeseung. “Watch your back.”
Sunoo looks tired. “I don’t doubt that.”
“Just watch,” Geonu says boredly, “Jay will shoot someone else by accident and then they’ll go after Jay, while Heeseung finds someone else to attack. Said attacked person will try to get Heeseung back and shoot someone new. So on, so on. It’ll never end.”
Youngbin sighs. “Oh god, I can see it now.”
“And suddenly I’m glad that Jay’s the oracle.” Sunoo deadpans.
“Jay’s the what ?” Taeyong raises an eyebrow.
“You didn’t hear anything.”
Niki turns to Geonu. “That’s assuming everyone around here is a terrible shot.”
“Are we… Not?”
“Shut up, Kyungmin.”
“Shut up, Jaebeom.”
“Shut u--”
“If anyone here can actually aim a water and-slash-or laser and-slash-or paintball gun, please raise your hand.” Jaeho says.
No hands go up.
Jaeho looks around hesitantly. “Normal… guns, maybe?”
No hands go up.
“I’m partial to knives.” Daniel remarks passively.
Euijoo smiles. “Stab me then, daddy.”
“You have no idea how glad I am that you’re graduating.”
“Why do I feel like we’ve collectively forgotten that Daniel is literally 14?” Sunghoon asks nervously.
“Daniel’s what ?” Hanbin’s eyes go wide.
“14. ‘06.”
Nicholas tilts his head. “Do ‘06 people even exist? How… How can you walk already? How can you read?!”
Daniel lets his head fall onto the table. “You have no idea how often I hear this shit, please spare me.”
“Me and Niki are ‘05…” Taki says slowly.
“You-- you’re older than him?”
“I hate it here. Goodbye.”
“Anyways.” Jake claps once. “Important takeaways from today’s lesson: no one here can aim a gun. Heeseung scary. Jay oracle. Daniel is a literal fetus. Taki and Niki are… newborn infants. Anything else?”
“Kill all men,” Jungwon repeats, “Eat the rich.”
“Yes, that too.”
“Oh!” Jimin snaps. “I just had an idea.”
“That’s never good.”
“Shut up, Jaebeom.”
“Shut up, Kyungmin.”
Sungcheol raises an eyebrow. “Twice in one day? Getting bold, I see.”
“We do have to compensate for the entire summer.”
“Shut up, Kyungmin--”
“Oh, for god’s sake.” Heeseung groans. “Will y’all just get married already?”
Kyungmin gives him a look.
“Paintball.” Jimin states, ignoring them. “That’s it. That’s the idea.”
Yoonwon doesn’t hesitate. “Oh, one of us is going to die for sure. And it’s most probably going to be me.”
Geonu tilts his head. “You hurt your leg, you’re at an unfair disadvantage.”
“Trufaxx. I’ll be the referee or whatever.”
“I’m down,” Hanbin grins, “I’ve never heard of it, but sure!”
“We’re all horrid shots,” Youngbin says boredly, “This should be fun.”
“It can’t be that hard, can it?”
“Oh, Daniel. Sweet, innocent Daniel.”
“I’ll literally murder you in your sleep.”
The girl at the paintball place looks at all of them with a concerningly skeptical expression.
The school day has ended, they didn’t just yeet out of there. They said their byes and goodbyes to pretty much every single shithead at school, and all.
That too was bittersweet, but it’s different with this particular group.
“How many of you are there?” She asks, blowing a bubble with her gum, facial expression not wavering.
“21.” Taeyong answers.
“Twenty- one ?” Her gaze wanders from the small, wide-eyed Taki at the front of the group to the semi-murderous looking Nicholas at the back.
“Oh, I’m not playing.” Yoonwon pipes up. “I’ll just chill on the sidelines.”
The girl looks at Yoonwon like he’s just made her job exponentially easier.
“There are a lot of us, sorry.” Jake offers a soft smile.
The girl literally fucking melts in her seat.
Hanbin choke-wheezes inconspicuously.
She sinks down. “Yeah, it’s no bother.” Her voice suddenly shoots up an octave, and her cheeks go an alarming shade of red.
Jay claps a frozen-still Jake on the back.
Sunghoon glares at Jay, and then at the poor girl.
“Here’s the team list.” Geonu slides a piece of paper onto her desk. She doesn’t look at him. “Sorry about them.” He exhales heavily.
They arrive at an open field that’s framed with trees (“We pick a spot and shoot the breeze, like buddies do~” Sunoo sings.
“Should have known you were a theater kid.” Euijoo sighs.).
There are strategically placed wooden wall segments all around, but it’s empty otherwise. Entirely wiping the other team out seems easy on paper, but everyone has a feeling that it won’t be.
“Ready?” Yoonwon calls after everyone takes their places.
“Ready!”
The first thing that happens once the game starts is Sunghoon shooting Jake square in the chest from barely 10 feet away.
Jake stops short in the midst of the chaos around him, staring down at the splatter of bright blue against his dark vest. “Sunghoon…” He starts, sounding only mildly betrayed, “We’re on the same team.”
Sunghoon shrugs, and Jake can see the glint in his eyes through the dark plastic of his safety mask. He still has his gun aimed at Jake. “Sucks.”
“Do you, like, not understand how this game works?”
“No,” Sunghoon says innocently, “Can you come over here and explain it to me?”
“I hate you.” Jake sighs and shoots Sunghoon while he’s still frozen in his place. An obnoxiously bright yellow blooms on his shoulder.
Sunghoon, dropping his gun to his side, sprints over and tackles Jake to the grass.
“Ow-- Fuck!”
Jake hears a, “Y’all know you can’t touch each other, right?” from Yoonwon in the distance.
“We’re both out already!” He calls back, grabbing Sunghoon’s shoulders and weakly attempting to push him off.
As they walk to join Yoonwon on the sidelines, Jake takes off his mask and shakes out his hair.
Sunghoon watches him out of the corner of his eye. “If you keep looking like that, I might have to kiss you.”
Jake blinks. “You know I can't control what I look like.”
“Then I’ll just kiss you.”
“Do it, I’m not stopping you.”
Yoonwon looks up at both of them with a badly hidden smile. “That’s kinda gay, not gonna lie.”
When the game starts, Taki just stares at his gun for a little bit.
He worries.
What if it… hurts someone?
He frowns, still staring at the gun as the people around him move to shoot each other and dodge flying spheres of paint.
“What’s wrong?” Niki asks, glancing over between frequent shots. “Oh, sh—“
He grabs Taki by the vest and pulls him behind one of the already paint-covered walls as yet another paintball collides with it.
Niki peeks out from behind the wall, leaning over to shoot a few times.
Taki just watches, still quiet.
Niki freezes abruptly.
He sets his jaw and steps back behind the wall. There’s a splash of neon orange right in the center of his visor.
Niki takes it off and glares at the paint on it. “I swear..”
Taki pouts. Niki looks at him and shrugs.
Screw it. Taki glances up over the wall, standing on his tiptoes.
Judging by the other team’s positions, it was most probably Jimin (or, someone who looks like Jimin, Taki can’t tell with the distance and the masks) who shot Niki.
Well, here goes. Taki furrows his little brow and shoots.
Niki starts laughing.
Jimin looks up with an expression of shock as his vest colors with a splash of blue.
Niki keeps laughing, but Taki feels a surge of confidence.
He keeps shooting in the general direction of the other team, cracking a small smile as everyone he shoots looks up and freezes.
Exhausted (and out of ammo), Taki collapses back into the grass behind the wall.
“I did good, didn’t I?”
“Yes.” Niki smiles down at him. “Yes, you did.”
“Who shot you?” Jaeho grins, as Jimin stands frozen.
“Taki, I think.” Jimin watches as Jaeho’s eyebrows shoot upwards.
“Really?”
“Can’t really tell, but Niki was with him.”
Jaeho claps him on the back. “Congrats. I’ll walk you to the bench.”
“That’s fine, I should have seen it coming.”
“Are you trying to get me to feel bad for you?”
Jimin shrugs. Some sympathy might be nice, but Jaeho is too stubborn.
“No, that’s alright. Your company is enough.” He smiles brightly.
Jaeho grabs him by the arm and pulls him to the side where Yoonwon, Sunghoon, and Jake are sitting.
“Please stop saying things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Because why?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes?”
Jaeho sighs, stopping short right near the edge of the field.
He’s still holding Jimin’s arm like a vice.
“It’s weird.”
“What’s weird about it?”
It might sound as though he’s just trying to be annoying, but Jimin really doesn’t know what’s going on.
(Yoonwon watches the whole exchange from the distance. Sunghoon and Jake follow his gaze, and quickly look just as engaged.)
Jimin smiles hesitantly. “Is my love for you weird?”
“Eugh.” Jaeho lets go of his arm, and pushes him away. He’s smiling too, Jimin can see through the visor.
“Just don’t think about it too hard.”
“Wow.” Jaeho grins as he backs away. “That one didn’t cross my mind. Thanks for solving all my problems!”
“Anytime!”
Geonu sighs loudly, but Jungwon has all but tuned him out at this point. “You’re not going about this strategically at all.”
“This isn’t a crossword, Geonu.” Jungwon looks around the side of the wall they’re seated in the grass behind.
Geonu leans back against the wood. “No one listens to me.”
“Cry about it.”
Jungwon feels a feeble slap across his shoulder and turns around.
“You do know you’re not allowed to touch me, right?”
Geonu hits him again.
Jungwon lifts his mask up so that Geonu can see his faked expression of pain. “Ouch.”
Another slap. Jungwon takes off the mask entirely.
“You do know you’re breaking a rule, right?”
“You act like I’ve never broken a rule before.”
Jungwon puts his gun down and punches Geonu in the arm. “You have? That’s a new one.”
“Technically, I’m not even touching you. There are still atoms and shit between us.”
Jungwon can almost see the satisfied smirk on Geonu’s face, but Jungwon’s imagination doesn’t really do it justice.
He pulls Geonu’s visor off with the excuse of messing up his hair. “You’re still breaking a rule.”
Geonu pushes his hand away. “What’s with you and my hair, I swear to god…” He elbows Jungwon out of his personal space.
“Yoonwon will—“
“Yoonwon doesn’t scare me.”
Jungwon raises an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Bro, please stop whacking me with your gun.”
“There’s still atoms and shit, right?”
“We’re gonna lose if we just stay here like this.”
“Taki just wiped out half the other team, we’ll live.”
(“Yeah, I’m not calling them out on this one.” Yoonwon says with a grin. “The sexual tension is real.”
“They’re literally gonna kill each other, are you serious?” Jaeho asks incredulously.
Jake sighs. “Please be quiet, Yoonwon. For my sake.”)
“Are you going to move, Youngbin? Youngbin?” Sungcheol snaps a few times in front of Youngbin’s face.
youngbin.exe stopped functioning
“You do know you’re more likely to get hit if you don’t move, right?”
youngbin.exe stopped functioning
Sungcheol sighs. Sometimes, his job is so much harder than it needs to be.
He grabs Youngbin by the arm and drags him behind one of the weird little walls.
“Did you go dead on me? Do you need your battery to be charged, or something?” He knocks on Youngbin’s helmet.
Wow, that sounded like an innuendo.
Sungcheol pushes the thought away.
“Are you awake in there?”
Slowly, Youngbin nods. “Sorry, I don’t do too well under pressure.”
Sungcheol tilts his head. “You’re not really under pressure, but I get what you mean. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”
He cringes at his wording.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Youngbin looks at him weird, Sungcheol can see it through the mask. “Yeah… Figured as much.”
“Just… Ugh, someone take away my voice box.”
“There’s one I haven’t heard before.” Youngbin finally betrays, like, half a smile, and Sungcheol considers it a success.
“You’re okay, right?”
“Yes.” A pause. “Yeah, I’m alright.”
Sungcheol does his best, but his aim is always slightly off.
No, it’s not that. He’s a horrid shot, but he still tries his best to protect Youngbin.
“Protect”. That sounds strange.
They both get out, sooner rather than later.
“Hey, at least I tried.” Sungcheol says feebly as they walk to the sideline.
“I’m glad you did.”
A short distance away, Kyungmin and Jaebeom are running.
Out of everyone of their friends, Kyungmin is by far the worst shot.
That’s what Jaebeom decides as Kyungmin fires for the, like, 10th time. And misses. For, like, the 10th time.
He collapses back into the grass. “Oh, we are going to get our asses kicked.”
Jaebeom takes a seat next to him, past caring if he gets hit.
Kyungmin has his limbs splayed out like a starfish, gun held limply in his right hand.
Jaebeom can’t help but smile.. “And so what if we do?”
Kyungmin lifts his mask. “Nothing, I guess. It’s just nice if we win.”
“Never thought you would be the competitive type.”
“I’m not competitive. I just don’t like losing.”
Jaebeom gives him a look.
“Alright, yeah. Fine.”
Flopping down on the grass beside him, Jaebeom turns to Kyungmin. “So what’s your current strategy? Playing dead?”
Kyungmin laughs shortly. “You have a point, we’re definitely going to get stepped on.”
They’re right at the border of the field, so, for the most part, people aren’t too close to them.
“We’re probably not gonna get stepped on.” Jaebeom says.
A pause.
“You notice how some of us are completely engaged, and others of us are just fucking around? What’s up with that?” Kyungmin pipes up, watching the field from his place on the ground.
Jaebeom follows his gaze. Sure enough, Taki’s firing nonstop with Niki lying fucking passed out by his side.
Geonu and Jungwon are beating each other up.
Sunghoon and Jake have long since got out, and have gone to join Yoonwon and Jimin. Jaeho seems pretty focused, but his gaze keeps going to the sidelines.
Sungcheol and Youngbin— yeah, they just got out.
Euijoo’s shooting at the other team as Daniel shoots at him. From the same team.
Sunoo and Taeyong… Yeah, Jaebeom doesn’t know where they are.
Hanbin is shooting while Nicholas runs around, carrying him piggy-back style. Jay and Heeseung are little more than blurs. They won’t stop running.
“And then there’s us,” Kyungmin pipes up with a smile, “In our own little corner. Peaceful.”
Jaebeom falls back down into the grass.
“Kyungmin?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
Jay and Heeseung are in this for real.
Neither is sure why the two of them formed an alliance in the first place, since Heeseung was technically the one who started the whole thing by attacking Jay.
Still, each is semi-glad for the company.
After all, it’s better than being enemies.
Jay just got Youngbin and Sungcheol.
Heeseung got Niki a while back, and considering how murderous Niki is, Heeseung has been reveling in his success for the past 10 minutes.
Even as they run to avoid the other team’s fire, he won’t shut up about it.
“Will you stop talking? I swear to god. I’m trying to focus here—“
“Okay, okay fine.”
Jay gets about five seconds of peace and true focus before Heeseung starts poking him in the side.
Repeatedly.
“Can you don’t?”
“No.” Heeseung grins, still following him around and poking him.
“Why?”
“It’s funny when you get annoyed.”
“Well,” Jay grumbles, wiping Jungwon and Geonu out in the same shot, “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”
Heeseung tries to take Jay’s visor off but pulls it weird, and Jay falls backwards.
He falls directly into Heeseung, who tumbles back like a domino.
“Are you satisfied yet?” Jay asks.
“Nope.” He pulls the visor off for real this time and messes up Jay’s hair.
“We are so gonna lose.”
“We’ve already lost, Taki just wiped half of us out.”
“Taki? For real?”
“Don’t doubt him because of his size, my man.”
Jay scrambles off of Heeseung and aims his gun at him while he’s still on the ground.
Heeseung doesn’t bother moving. “Really?”
“Yes, really. This is a vendetta.”
“Just shoot me then.”
Jay hesitates, and Heeseung starts scream-singing.
“JUST SHOOT ME, SHOOT ME-EE—“
Jay shoots him, but then helps him up off the ground. “Day6 is taste, but I still hate you.”
Heeseung looks down at the splatter of paint on his vest. “You think green is my color?”
“Yeah.” Jay scoffs. “Really brings out your eyes.”
Heeseung’s eyes are brown, but he still smiles and says, “Thank you.”
Euijoo gets on Daniel’s nerves. He always has.
Daniel makes it a point to convey that to him, but he always takes it as a joke. It’s partially perplexing, but it’s mostly annoying.
They’re friends. Of course they are. But that doesn’t make Daniel hate Euijoo any less.
It’s almost a reflex when the game starts for Daniel to shoot Euijoo.
They’re on the same team, but Daniel is far past going about this logically.
Euijoo, unbothered as ever, runs and shoots members of the other team.
Daniel keeps firing at him.
Euijoo is pointedly pretending not to notice, of course he is. Every now and then he turns around to direct a sincere smile in Daniel’s direction.
He hates it, he hates it so much.
Only after a good 10 minutes does Euijoo go “Ow!” and dive behind a wall.
“Fuck,” He says. Daniel is still standing above him with his gun pointed at him. “You hit me in the arm, why—“
Oh.
Daniel drops his gun, quickly (temporarily) forgetting how much he hates Euijoo.
(Honestly, that was all it took. What the hell.)
“Shit, sorry.” He drops to the ground. “Does it hurt a lot? I’m really sorry, I swear—“
Euijoo glares at him, and Daniel feels his heart sink.
“I’m sorry, man, I—“
Daniel stops short. Euijoo’s looking at him strangely.
“No,” He says slowly, “I’m alright.”
And boom, Daniel’s back to hating him again.
He sets his jaw and grimaces, for he hates that taunting smile and the still, deep eyes, and the—
Yes, he does. Of course he does.
“What?” Euijoo asks.
He grins fully now. Daniel hates it.
“Are you going soft?”
“No,” Daniel says, pulling Euijoo up off the ground. “Of course not.”
“Remind me why we’re together again?” Taeyong asks, turning back to look at Sunoo.
Sunoo does not answer, but shrieks as a paintball comes in his general direction.
Taeyong sighs, and pulls Sunoo behind a wall.
“I hate it here.” He states quietly.
“Sorry.” Sunoo replies, and Taeyong can see the little frown on his face. “I just get scared easily.”
Woah, Taeyong’s heart just exploded.
It was so abrupt, too, like it too was a paintball which just hit a wall.
Oh, similes.
Taeyong hates.
Why him?
Why?
“We can just stay here, if you’d like.” Taeyong finds himself saying. It’s so uncharacteristic that it almost causes Taeyong physical pain.
Sunoo only tilts his head like a puppy might. “I don’t want to hold you back, or anything.”
“It’s no—“
“Go on, seriously!” Sunoo smiles. Taeyong can’t move. “I’ll be fine over here.”
Taeyong, in an attempt to avoid looking at Sunoo for fear of going even softer, glances around the diameter of the field.
There’s really nothing around but trees and screaming idiots.
“That’s alright, I’m good here.” Taeyong replies.
He wonders if Sunoo knows how quickly people fall for him.
God, Taeyong doesn’t know what he would do if he looked like that.
Wait, what?
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I mean… No one can really see us.”
“O-okay!” Sunoo brightens up slowly. “I feel bad.”
“Don’t.”
Taeyong, really, really hates.
“Fuck!” Hanbin screeches.
Nicholas turns around, alarmed. “What?”
“My gun’s out of paintballs.” Hanbin glares at the thing as if that would help.
Nicholas, being a semi-peaceful creature himself, hasn’t fired a single time.
He probably should have.
“You can have mine instead.” He offers.
“And what are you going to do?”
“I’m sure we can find some way to work together.” Nicholas says.
Hanbin just stands there.
“Bro, move. You’re freaking me out.”
A flying paintball comes in Hanbin’s direction, and he dodges a mere second before it would have hit him.
Nicholas raises an eyebrow. “Your reflexes are wack.”
“Yeah, yeah. Give me your gun, please.” He stretches his hand out.
“Wait.” Nicholas hands the gun to him, but pauses. An idea has come to him, and he doesn’t like it.
Then again, this is probably the last time they’ll see each other. Hanbin will enjoy himself, at least.
“Get on my back.”
“What? Why?”
“You’re so slow, you’re going to die in, like, five seconds.”
Hanbin considers this. “You’re not wrong, but can you even carry me?”
“Don’t doubt me. I am stronk.”
“Fucking fine.”
Hanbin weighs literally nothing. Nicholas could probably throw him across the field if he wanted.
He’s too nice for that, though.
Nicholas runs, and Hanbin shoots.
Nicholas thinks he hears him laughing.
Good.
Around a town away, Seon and Kei sit in a parked car.
“It’s really over, huh?” Seon asks.
He’s avoiding eye contact, Kei notices. He smiles.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“Nah, it kinda does. We’re both graduating, after all. And you’re going back to Japan, and I—“
“Please stop talking.”
Seon narrows his eyes.
Kei would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about this day.
He’d just thought he’d be alone.
Still, Kei is running on a 22- year burst of confidence that doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. “You have my number, I trust you know what to do with it.”
Seon scoffs. “Like you’ll come back to Korea just to see me.”
“Hey, maybe I will.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll move on with your life, and I’ll—“
“Please don’t get emotional on me, I don’t know what to do when people get emotional.”
“Fine then, I won’t. Out of courtesy, if little else.”
“I appreciate it.”
Silence.
“As annoying as you are,” Seon tries again, “This was a good semester.”
Kei nods, wordlessly.
Alarms are going off in his brain. Change subject, change subject…
“I wonder what the kids are doing right now.”
“Oh.” Seon snorts. “They’re probably causing chaos somewhere. Having fun, which is more than I can say for us.”
“Hey, we can have fun too!”
“Please, enlighten me. What the hell do adults do to have fun?”
'I wish I knew.” Kei replies.
Seon’s getting that faraway look again. Kei sighs.
“Are you gonna cry?”
“No!” He glares, but it quickly loses its emotion. “I just don’t like saying goodbye.”
“It can just be a bye, instead. A see you next time? Would you like that?” Kei asks, borderline desperate.
“Sure, but when is next time? Realistically?”
Kei pauses. Thinks.
“Just call me. We’ll figure it out.”