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Soyeon closed the car door behind her as she stared at the building towering over them—unwavering, impressive, and intimidating. Malls in Korea from the inside were interesting, but a little.. disconcerting from the outside. It was 9 in the evening nearing its closing time, and Soyeon could really be getting ready for bed right now, but Yuqi decided to drag her out here… in the middle of a nearly deserted parking lot.
“Why did you bring me here again?” she asked and turned her head to look at Yuqi on the other side of the car.
“I was thinking,” Yuqi started and walked around the vehicle to approach Soyeon in a way that’s a bit too menacing for her liking. Yuqi had this aura every time she had a terrible idea up her sleeve, and from how Soyeon could sense that same aura, it was no good—she was up to no good. “We could stay in here overnight. Might be a fun challenge, you only live once after all.”
Right. What was she expecting?
Soyeon coughed, “Overnight? Won’t we get reprimanded for that?”
“Psh, only if you get caught that is,” Yuqi snorted and swung her car keys around her finger.
The guards tend to slack during midweek. “You’re such a pussy, unnie. Have a little fun, won’t ya?” Ugh, cut it on the foul language, Jagi, Soyeon thought.
“I am all for having fun, but not when it’s related to committing a literal crime! Yuqi, you’ve been watching too many of those ‘3 AM challenge’ videos on YouTube—which, I must specify—that are completely staged or untrue. You really need to get some time off that screen,” Soyeon rambled, but to her dismay, Yuqi didn’t seem to give a shit. Curse this oh-so-pretty gal and her adventurous, too adventurous, personality. Sometimes, Yuqi could really be a (gullible) pain in the ass. Or maybe too many times, to be precise.
“You’re no fun, grandma,” Yuqi blew a raspberry and lightly nudged the back of Soyeon’s head. “Short people, really..”
“Short? There’s no need to drag my height into this, Song Yuqi,” the Korean grumbled and fixed her ruffled-up hair.
“Well, short people tend to have a temper,” Yuqi shrugged and giggled at the sight of Soyeon’s cute, pouty face. “Relax, it’ll be fun!”
Soyeon didn’t seem too amused, and Yuqi was nearly afraid she’d leave her for dead in such an unsettling parking lot with nothing on her hands but her phone and her wallet. Besides, she would really love to accomplish such a challenge with the older girl—and so, she decided she would put her persuasion (and perhaps, gaslighting) skills to use.
It was a little ambitious, Yuqi can admit that. But like she said: you only live once! Staying in a mall after operation hours has always been a part of her bucket list ever since she was 3 years old.
“Tell you what, if this doesn’t go right.. I’ll treat you. For a whole month or so, depending on your request. But— before you get too excited, I’ll specify. 3 months maximum, because I don’t actually have that much money on me to treat you for a year.”
3 months, you say? Soyeon thought. To be fair, the offer was already promising considering Yuqi’s impulsive decisions on spending a whole load of money for things she didn’t need, and to also consider the fact she had a budget to treat Soyeon out for 3 months straight was certainly amazing; an offer she could not and would not dare miss out on.
“You got me,” Soyeon huffed. “Okay. Deal.” Because she’s almost certain whatever plan Yuqi had in mind wouldn’t go right at all (nothing ever goes right when it’s Yuqi), the promised treat should be instantaneous.
She was never the type to go out and spend her energy on a lot of things: really? Overnight in a shopping mall? It seemed a little overwhelming for Soyeon, but the 3-month pact Yuqi had established was all too bewitching for her… besides, just think about of all the cool stuff you could do with only you and a friend alone in a shopping mall. Soyeon could really use checking out those really soft beds at the housing store, and sleep in one of them while she’s at it. Maybe ride one of those electric cars meant for children all around the mall spaces. The only issue would be is the lights; it would be too dark to even see, yet Soyeon assumed the moonlight could pass through the mall’s glass roof at the center. Everything didn’t seem too bad at the surface.
“It’s about to close,” Yuqi commented as she looked at the ground where most staff fixed up the displays and asked the remaining people to leave the premises from the uppermost floor. Surprisingly, no one was on the 4th floor at all (or at least they thought), but the lights were still on around them. “In about 5 minutes, we’ll have this place all to ourselves! I’m so excited!”
There were a lot of places to explore and mess around with. Soyeon grinned and turned to Yuqi for a high-five; she was starting to get in on the fun. Perhaps Yuqi’s idea wasn’t so bad after all—she needed a way to release some stress.
“The coast is clear,” Yuqi said once the staff had closed up majority of the stores, mainly pawnshops, and some of the entrances aside from one before they left. The lights were still on, though. “Come on, let’s go down!”
Before Soyeon could even respond, Yuqi had already began to skip down the floor on her way to the staircase. “Yuqi, wait—“ she sighed and ran after her instead. With extra precaution, though, because the floors happened to be extra slippery this time. She spotted Yuqi by an elevator and stopped next to her.
“Where do you wanna go first?” Yuqi asked as she stepped inside the machine, but Soyeon could barely respond whilst trying to catch her breath.
“It’s up,” she breathed. “Up to you. This was your plan after all— wait, actually, we should go to kids’ toy stores. Not the ones for babies, of course, but for full-grown kids aged 4-7. The ones where they have electric cars.”
“Didn’t know you had such a childish persona in you, unnie,” Yuqi snickered before she stumbled on her feet from the impact of the elevator reaching the bottommost floor, successfully shutting her up.
“Shut up. This was your idea, so I’m trying to make the most out of it. It’s not like I get to do this every single day of the week,” The doors opened to bright glamour of white lights and cream color accents of the mall. “And there’s a lot of stores I want to visit, so can we please just hurry and get the hell out of this elevator because I don’t want to waste any time?—“ Soyeon babbled before nearly dashing at the speed of light towards the department store like a little kid.
Yuqi laughed and ran after the girl. “Yah! Wait for me! You can’t just leave me and get to the good stuff first!”
When the blonde stepped into the department store, she had already lost track of Soyeon by then. Her stomach lightly churned, but she knew the raven wouldn’t go too far from Yuqi—ah, yes! Didn’t she say something about the Kids’ Toys section? Yuqi jogged on her way to the latter, and, to her luck, found Soyeon there picking up dual play katanas.
“Gigi, look what I found!” Soyeon cheered as she posed similar to the character Zoro with the katanas. Yuqi, with a false rifle in her arms, chortled.
“Don’t come close to me or you’ll d— Ow! Hey!” Soyeon frowned and massaged her shoulder where Yuqi’s rubber bullet had hit her. She stood there, palm on her shoulder, for she saw the glint of mischief in the younger’s eyes—she cornered herself for a beating. It was now up to fight or flight because, what did two blades have against a rifle? What’s she gonna do, slice them in half as they fly towards her like in a drama?
“Your blades are no match for my rifle, Yeon-ah,” she murmured and aimed the gun at the latter.
“Hey, what’s that?”
“What’s what? Oh— hey, come back here! I can’t let you get away with that!” Yuqi bit her lip and picked up a scooter to go after the fleeing girl; now, Soyeon deserved a punishment ‘cause there’s no way she just fell for the oldest trick in the book! Well, guess the raven chose flight, after all.
Soyeon suddenly stopped in her tracks, a hand help up as she seemed to be navigating something in the distance by the store’s exits. But Yuqi being Yuqi, she held the toy rifle up against Soyeon’s temple saying, “I got you now—“ That was until she got cut off by the Korean harsh’s grip on Yuqi’s bicep whilst she dragged both of them behind a cabinet of men’s shoes displays.
“What was that for?” Yuqi pouted and found that Soyeon’s hand had left a red mark on her; she was about to say something else, however, the older had beaten her to it by telling her to shut up when they saw a security guard passing by. A droplet of sweat slid down Yuqi’s porcelain-like skin as a hand cupped her mouth, restricting her from any ability to speak whatsoever. To make any sound meant to be forcibly kicked out of the mall, to be reprimanded, and, potentially, to be sent to jail.
“We need to get out of here. I told you this wasn’t the best idea, but you never listened,” Soyeon heaved out a breath she never knew she held and fixed her skirt. She looked down at her feet, and her eyes quickly found Yuqi whose expression was drastically different from the gleeful one plastered just a few minutes ago. She looked weary and pale like every milliliter of blood had been drained out of her body.
Soyeon crouched down and held Yuqi’s soft face, who put a hand on the older’s wrist. She lightly massaged the younger’s cheek with a thumb to give her at least some reassurance, “Don’t worry. I’ll get us out of here, but we do have to worry about security and the cameras on us, so I’ll be needing your help.”
Yuqi nodded sullenly. “I promise to not let you down. This will be the last time—I’m sorry I had to drag you into this.”
“We’ll talk about this later, okay?” Soyeon said and held both of them up. “Let’s focus on getting out first. You remind me of incoming guards and look out for cameras, while I lead us to the nearest exit. I know there’s still one open. But before that..”
She peered over the kids’ section and noticed some masks in display. “If we’re gonna try to be discreet about it, we might as well just protect our identity in the process,” she whispered.
“What do you mean by that?”
To her dissatisfaction, Yuqi was sent to take the bullet—by that, getting a bunch of masks from the shelf a few meters away—all with the attempt to return unscathed. Nonetheless, she didn’t seem to be flawless enough when she hurried back to their hiding spot, dropped a few in the process, after she heard footsteps from 10 miles away.
“Is this really a great idea?” Yuqi mumbled as she tried to adjust her mask around her face. It wasn’t even enough for cover—it was one used for masquerades that barely covered her eyes and a little over her nose.
“You got us in this situation, so we’re both paying for it. Come this way,” Soyeon whispered, but Yuqi got preoccupied with shiny jewelry and wristwatches. “Hurry! I can’t afford to get trapped in here!”
For the next 15 minutes, both girls went on turning each corner and space they could see whilst crouching and crawling—they surely looked dumb in a standing person’s perspective, but hey, their lives and future depended on it anyway. It was either prison or freedom.
They weren’t too far from the exit, fortunately, so getting out shouldn’t be too much of a hassle anymore. That was what Soyeon thought until Yuqi knocked over a stack of shoeboxes by accident; a few guards were prompted to go check on the noise. A noise that two trespassers had made.
“Shit, shit,” Yuqi panicked. “You know what? Fuck it, let’s make a run for it!”
Oh, well, a challenge to spend a whole night in a shopping mall ended up with its two contestants chickening out.
“Yuqi!”
Before she even knew it, Yuqi had already taken off both of their masks as she sped past the exits, set an alarm off, and pulled both of them towards her red car. All of this was going way too fast for Soyeon— what the hell was going on? She wasn’t even prepared for outright running away from the guards! She looked from behind her, and the view of staff walking towards the exits made adrenaline surge through her body.
Yuqi had pushed her into the passenger seat, buckled her seatbelt, and entered the driver’s seat. Within a matter of seconds, they had already left the premises on the way to god-knows-where, probably just on the way to speed through empty highways until one of them decide to aim for a destination.
The blonde was already driving away, right hand going on the gearstick every now and then switching from 4th to 6th, but the raven was still taking her time processing everything. Her brain lagged like an old, dusty 1965 computer sitting inside a library while a student waited for it to load rather impatiently. Her hands were shaking and her heart was still palpitating—how did Yuqi pull that off so well?
The drive was silent. None of them dared to speak. However, just a few moments later, Yuqi pulled over by the front of a convenience store, tires screeching and probably leaving dark skid marks on the cement road.
“How was that?” Yuqi spoke, all smug.
Soyeon didn’t speak for at least 3 minutes, and Yuqi started to worry. Her hands got clammy and her back dampened with sweat.
“How was that? Is that all you have to say? Really? After we were nearly caught and arrested and embarrassed? Haven’t you realized how risky that was?!” Soyeon scowled at the poor girl, who scratched her nape sheepishly. “Well, I—“
“Well, you what? You,” Soyeon started to grin. What was wrong with her? “You, you’re the worst, really.”
“Why are you laughing?” Yuqi mumbled, both in embarrassment and confusion.
“Nothing, ah, I really don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Soyeon laid back in her seat. “I’m not mad. Sorry for that, but the way you drove was really impressive.”
Yuqi sighed in relief. She knew how Soyeon acted whenever her temper got to her—which would mean, in a rather dramatic way to put it, a hellish experience for those around her.
“Well, I am a bit pissed off, I must say,” Soyeon continued, and Yuqi raised her eyebrows in attentiveness. “Running really caught me off guard, but then again, it’s better than spending 8 more hours in there trying to evade every bit of security inside that mall, and not managing to get a wink of sleep at all. I just wish we got to stay longer.”
“You’re right,” Yuqi replied. “But, I also have to apologize. It’s entirely my fault—I owe you a lot more for guiding me at least for a little while, and overall, I need to repay you a good lot as an apology for forcing you into this mess.” She held their hands together, Yuqi’s warmth radiating and spreading to Soyeon’s cool. It was strangely soothing; the older momentarily forgot about what they were talking about.
She shook her head.
“It’s okay. I’m sure I couldn’t have made it out without you,” Soyeon replied. “I’m probably gonna be extra anxious about sirens for the next few days, but I’m a bit sure they won’t come that far to go after us. We didn’t necessarily… break anything in the mall, no?”
“No, absolutely not,” Yuqi shrugged. “They should let it pass.”
Soyeon sighed.
“I’m never doing this again. You’re the worst.”
“Hey, admit it, you had fun anyway!” Yuqi scoffed.
Soyeon rolled her eyes and stepped out of the car. “I need a drink.”
“A drink? It’s almost 11 pm, you need to get home, right?”
“Right,” Soyeon dejectedly said and stepped back inside the car. “Drive me there?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, by the way,” Soyeon started, and Yuqi turned to her once again in wonder.
“You told me you’d treat me out for the next 3 months if it didn’t go well, sooo…” she wandered off and twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, “It starts tomorrow, thanks!”
“Hey! I didn’t—“
“You promised.” Soyeon sternly cut her off, and Yuqi simply pursed her lips, nodded, and did a zip-up motion across her mouth. “I got you,” Yuq spoke in a hush.
“Chief, what are you gonna do about them? They just broke a law,” an officer spoke as the group watched Yuqi’s red mustang speed off into the horizon.
“Ah,” the man stretched his arms. “I’ll let them go. They’re just kids trying to have some fun, and it’s not like we don’t face a predicament like this every now and then.”
His co-worker shrugged.
“But chief, it’s our obligation to—“
“They learned their lesson. We do have to fix up around here, though…”
“I don’t mind.”
“Me neither,” another man spoke. “Part of the job.”
“Besides, there’s no use in scaring those children to death trying to arrest them. As long as the head doesn’t know about this, everything will be fine. God, I’m too tired to even deal with anything at this point.” the chief yawned.