it was finally down to the time of meeting up with gamer heads and it could easily be felt in the air. cj blasted her music from the other side of their house while getting ready, rinae faintly singing along to the song playing as she got ready herself.

somehow their schedules aligned and everyone would have been on their way to the bar, some already arrived and waiting.

"we're gonna be late!" rinae called out to her roommate, grabbing her least beat up shoes and shoving them on her feet before storming into cjs room.

the shorter girl was finishing up her hair, running her fingers through her hair to create loose curls she'd previously ironed into to hair. a quiet sigh left her lips when she was satisfied with her look, standing up and turning to rinae. "let's go, then!"

the pair were finally out the door and into sungchans car as he'd been waiting for them, pecking his girlfriend on the lips once they both got inside. their hello's were short before he turned the music up on the radio and drove off, knowing they were already a bit late.

the nerves rose as each second passed by and by the time they reached they reached the bar, rinae was wishing she'd came up with an excuse to stay home, although she knew cj wouldn't have let her do that. the social butterfly practically jumped out of the car while her boyfriend and best friend took their sweet time. rinae could immediately see winwin and jungwoo standing outside as if they'd also just arrived, talking and likely stalling to let the nerves calm down.

"rinae, it's winwin," cj pointed out as she grabbed onto her friends arm in awe, starstruck.

there was no time to process what they were seeing when the two of them turned their way to the trio, their faces lighting up excitedly and jungwoo waved a friendly hand. cj couldn't contain her excitement, hitting her friend on the arm multiple times, and she was sure they were wondering what the hell was wrong with them.

sungchan let out a light chuckle and a laugh and walked passed them in hopes they'd follow, and they did, clinging to each other for moral support as they approached the gamers.

"yes, we're stalling," was the first thing jungwoo said, as if he'd read rinaes mind, "but it's nice to finally meet you guys!"

"so, you guys haven't gone inside yet?" sungchan asked.

winwin shook his head. "nope, but i think we should now."

rinae was practically swooning at the sight of her idol and it must've been obvious, because cj nudged her arm to take her out of her trance. "oh, i'm cj! sungchans girlfriend, i'm not a gamer or anything, so you don't know me. it's really cool to meet you guys, i'm a big fan!"

"oh, you're cj! sungchan talks about you a lot, actually, i feel like i know everything about you." jungwoo informed, watching cjs cheeks blush a light pink.

"nice to meet you cj, rinae, sungchan, let's go in now before the rest start wondering where we are." winwin invited.

then they finally headed inside together, the first thing to be seen was a packed bar but luckily not packed to the point where they struggled to find the others. or maybe it was because there was so many of them that it was easy to point someone out, but it wasn't very long until they were approached.

rinae fought not to stop in her tracks and turn around as one by one all the heads turn to their direction—and they were all there. everyone had shown up and thought it would be funny to cheer for the five just walking in, now every single person in the bar was looking.

"oh jesus," rinae mumbled to herself through a smile, attempting to hide her face with her hair.

her gamer group had already been adopted by the rest, looking much happier than she expected but she was glad to see them having fun. she noticed five chairs and assumed they'd left them empty for them, so they took their seats and everyone was together.

to rinaes left was cj, and to her right was jeno, whom she felt rude not turning to say hello so she did. she bowed her head slightly as a polite gesture but he just laughed. "you don't have to do that."

it's not that she'd forgotten they were the same age, he just happened to be someone she always knew as borderline famous due to his following, as she did with most of the gamer heads, and felt the need to show her respect. which was ironic, considering she spent most of her time knowing of him, hating him.

"okay, hi, nice to meet you," she swallowed the awkwardness and tried to make it seem as if she was already comfortable, even if she wasn't quite yet.

with cj and sungchan already engaged in a conversation and the rest of her friends had already made themselves at home, there was nothing left for rinae to do but talk to the boy next to her. jaemin, who was on the other side of jeno, nudged the boy and nodded his head to the bar, signaling him to offer her a drink.

he managed to catch on, "uh, do you want something to drink? since, you know, clearly no one here wanted to wait for everyone to arrive."

"sure! i'll have whatever you're having," she accepted, referring to the pink, fruity looking drink in front of him.

she took the time he was ordering to wander her eyes else where in the bar, and it wasn't long until she spotted someone with their phone out pointing directly to them. of course, with a bunch of known streamers in one place, she knew it was bound to happen but for some reason it still irritated her. especially since they weren't even trying to be discreet about it.

"are you okay?" his voice took her out of her thoughts, and he noticed she seemed to have been zoning out.

"i'm good, sorry," she nodded, "i think someones recording us and it's really weird."

instantly jenos face twisted into annoyance, showing it clearly wasn't his first time dealing with being filmed. "ignore it, they'll get bored eventually."

nodding at his words, rinae thanked the bartender after receiving her drink and the conversation eventually became amongst the group. almost everyone had some sort of alcoholic beverage pumping through their systems and it made them all into little social butterflies.

"so, we really do need to decide on a game." jaemin announced.

"minecraft!" jisung exclaimed, his face flushed bright pink already.

"i'm still on friday the 13th," jeno joined, "some of you need to grow some balls and play the game."

jisung gasped dramatically, "rude."

"just imagine how much more entertaining playing a horror game would be," the other argued, passionate about his game choice. sadly jisung just wasn't having it. "alright, of rinae agrees, will you agree too?"

the sudden mention of her name had her heart falling through her stomach, and jeno was clearly not giving up. she and jisung were the only two to protest, so it was as if the decision was fully in her hands, and with jenos pleading eyes, it was impossible to say no. "um... i mean, how bad can it be?"

"betrayal," the youngest huffed, sitting back in his seat as mark next to him teasingly pinched his cheeks.

"we should play fortnite," yangyang suggested, his face blank so no one could tell if he was joking or not.

rinae snorted a laugh, "of course you would say fucking fortnite."

with a mocking laugh, yangyang flipped her off when no one was looking, and she returned the favor without hesitation. "fuck you."

everyone was more than looking forward to the two jumpiest people in the world play a horror game that they were completely against.

"hendery, i have a question," renjun asked suddenly, "do you actually have a tattoo of appa?"

henderys face lit up as if he'd been waiting for someone to ask, nodding excitedly before lifting his pant leg slightly to show off his beloved tattoo placed on his ankle. "i got it when i was like 16 from a friend who did stick and pokes, then got it touched up a couple years ago."

"holy shit, it's real," renjun replied, leaning in to get a closer look of the tattoo, "i want one."

"i want a tattoo." haechan huffed.

"let's get matching ones," sungchan nudged, "don't ask me of what, i haven't thought that far."

"let's all get the exact same tattoo as hendery." xiaojun joined, everyone going into laughter at the suggestion.

"if you wanna be me so bad just say that! i'm such a trendsetter. a leader, even. no ones doing it like me."

"me when i lie!"