Yoongi blinked, and he was there. At the entrance of a grand shopping mall, standing between Namjoon and Jimin, watching as Taehyung came racing towards them, and knowing that two more would be arriving soon. Six people in total. Six, including himself. And none of the five others were his relatives. Yoongi could feel his stomach churning.

"Jiminie!" Upon reaching the group, Taehyung threw his arms open wide and hugged Jimin tightly, not letting go until he heard muffled complaints about not being able to breathe. Taehyung beamed happily at his friend. Then, with a slow and dramatic turn of his head, he looked at Yoongi and Namjoon. "Oh," he deadpanned, voice deep, "you guys are here."

"Tae, I told you they'd be." Jimin lightly tapped his friend on the head. "Also, don't be so mean."

"I was only kidding," Taehyung insisted, and he opened his arms again and stepped towards Yoongi, who immediately got into a defensive pose. Namjoon snorted.

"Tough luck trying to get a hug out of him," the blond said, jabbing a thumb in Yoongi's direction. "I'm his best friend, and he hardly even lets me hug him."

"Sad life you must live," Taehyung said with a pitiful shake of his head. "Jimin and I hug all the time. It's my life source."

"Tae, oh my gosh, you're so dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic, Jiminie, it's true."

"Yoongi!!!"

Who should interrupt the boys' engrossing conversation but Jung Hoseok, who, upon spotting Yoongi from afar, bounded towards the group, his vibrant rainbow sweater making him stand out even more than his unparalleled personality already did. He scarcely managed to stop himself before running into anyone. Namjoon threw up his brows, eyeing the boy from head to toe, as if inspecting him. Then he leaned over to Yoongi.

"What's with you and finding hot friends? You're on a lucky streak."

Yoongi elbowed him in the side.

"Okay, ow. "

"So are we ready to go now then or what?" Taehyung placed his hands on his hips and looked around, counting the heads of the group. "...five."

"We're still waiting on Jungkook," Jimin reminded him. "I told you six." He held up six fingers. "How bad is your memory?"

Taehyung rested a hand on his chest, pouting. "Hurtful..."

"I'm here!!"

As if overhearing the mention of his name, Jungkook called out to the group from afar, waving his hands at Jimin, who then began gesturing him over as soon as the two made eye contact. He walked briskly over to them, unintentionally showing off how good his long, slim legs looked in black skinny jeans. He spotted Namjoon and Yoongi and was pleasantly surprised. Then his gaze moved over to Hoseok. And finally to Taehyung, who drew the biggest smile from him without even knowing.

Hoseok, being the incredibly friendly, fun-loving guy that he was, struck up a conversation with Jungkook straightaway, despite the two not knowing each other very well. Yoongi's name was brought up not ten seconds later. He tried to disappear behind Namjoon, but the mint-haired boy's friend wasn't about to let him do that, instead casually walking in a semi-circle over to Taehyung to "compliment" him on his sunglasses. Yoongi glared daggers.

"So, Yoongi, what do you want to do first?"

"Huh?" He looked suddenly to the two boys in front of him, puzzled to find them both staring at him attentively now. Soon, Taehyung, Jimin, and Namjoon were looking at him too. Yoongi tensed up. "W-wait, am I deciding? Who decided that?"

Namjoon retraced his steps until he was back at Yoongi's side. Throwing his arm around his friend's shoulders, he patted the boy's head and smiled reassuringly. Yoongi lifted his eyes. Jimin was smiling at him the same way. It was as if they were both saying silently, take it easy, there's no pressure. Yoongi still felt on edge with five pairs of eyes on him, but a little less so now. He intertwined his fingers and looked down at them.

"It doesn't matter to me," he said in a quiet voice. "This was Jimin's idea...he can choose."

"Really?" For some reason Jimin seemed happy at Yoongi's words. He dipped his head, trying to make eye contact with the mint-haired boy. "If that's the case, I wanna go to the arcade."

Jungkook made an instinctive ooh upon hearing that six letter word. Hoseok's face brightened up, too, and Taehyung seemed to be trying to act cool and unimpressed with the idea, even though he was probably the most excited out of anyone. Namjoon was all for it. Yoongi was indifferent.

"Shall we go?"

With the decision having been made, Hoseok rushed to door to hold it open for everyone. He was ecstatic, bubbling with energy, and Yoongi wondered if he ever exhausted himself being like this all the time--well, not all the time. He had seen Hoseok cry, so the boy was obviously capable of expressing sadness. Maybe he just had more reasons to be happy.

The mall wasn't overly crowded that day. If they had chosen to go on a Friday or Saturday night, things might have been different, so Yoongi was actually relieved that Jimin made plans for a Sunday afternoon, when things were mild. Especially the arcade. It was open, but not too many people were hanging out there, just a small handful of kids who had nothing better to do with their time on an off-school day. Stepping into the arcade, the group of boys were greeted by the repetitive gunshot noises of zombie apocalypse simulators, but that was pretty much it. All the other machines were unoccupied, meaning the boys were left to as they pleased without having to wait their turn.

Hoseok was beside himself with joy. His eager eyes hunted down the Dance Dance Revolution game. The rest of the group followed--Yoongi, reluctantly so. He didn't want to be dragged into dancing. Namjoon didn't really want to, either. Maybe if there were a Rap Rap Revolution, he would be more interested. Nonetheless, he joined the others and encouraged his unenthusiastic friend to do so as well.

"We should make this into a competition," Taehyung suggested. Hosoek, who was already in the process of inserting quarters into the machine's slot, craned his neck to look over his shoulder.

"A competition," he repeated.

Taehyung smirked, then glanced at Yoongi. "We'll take turns. The person with the lowest overall score has to do anything the winner says."

The mint-haired boy rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure why he let anything this guy said bother him, but Yoongi couldn't deny that subtle glance ticked him off a little. Almost enough to motivate him. But he crossed his arms and pretended to tune out everyone's voices.

"I like the idea," Jimin said. Jungkook also nodded in agreement.

Namjoon heaved a defeated breath. "I might as well toss my money in now," he whispered. Yoongi nudged him.

"If I have to do this then so do you."

"I never said I wasn't going to do it. I'm just accepting my fate."

"It's only Dance Dance Revolution. Much easier than Just Dance in my opinion."

Namjoon raised an eyebrow. "You've played Just Dance?"

"I was forced to by my cousins. It's their fault I've memorized the choreography of, like, three different Jin songs."

"Mhm, I'm sure." Namjoon bobbed his head. "I bet you studied the choreo yourself, you closet fan you."

Yoongi scoffed.

"Okay, okay, who wants to go first?"

Namjoon and Yoongi turned their attention to Hoseok, with his hands resting on his hips, impatient smile on his lips. Everyone stared back at him, somewhat blankly.

"We all know you want to go first, Hoseok," Jimin spoke up. The redhead chuckled.

"If you insist."

And so he did, enthusiastically choosing the highest difficulty for the hardest, most upbeat song. He could hardly contain himself, feet unable to stay in place before the song even started playing. Jimin and Taehyung shouted encouraging cheers for their friend as the music began. Meanwhile Jungkook, Namjoon, and Yoongi all stood back, watching closely and carefully.

Swift, skillful movements, hard taps of the foot with perfect timing, never missing a beat, never missing a single step. He was unstoppable. It was as though he had played this same song over and over again to the point of mastering it, but somehow, everyone watching him knew better. Hoseok was just that good. Jimin grinned from ear to ear, making a loud noise every time Hoseok successfully made it through a particularly challenging bit. Taehyung wasn't sure whether or not to look at the screen or Hoseok's fast-moving feet. Jungkook's eyes flitted back and forth between the dancing machine and Taehyung's awestruck expression. Namjoon silently counted the money in his wallet and thought of what Hoseok might ask him to do or buy for him. And as for Yoongi...

Holy crap. That's not even right.

Eventually the song finished, and it was on to the next one. And then the final one.

An overall perfect score.

"I kind of dislike you now," Taehyung mumbled jokingly, taking the redhead's place.

"You can do it, Tae!" Jimin yelled. Tae spun around for a moment to show off a big thumbs-up.

"I'd say I can do better than him but not even I'm that stupid."

In the end, he did surprisingly well, but since he hadn't chosen as high a difficulty as Hoseok, his score wasn't nearly as high, on top of the fact he made a couple mistakes. Nonetheless, Jimin seemed happy with his's friend's results, and even more excited to take his turn.

Yoongi paid a little more attention this time.

Apparently Jimin was light on his feet, too. He challenged himself by going for the hardest songs, and ending up a giggling mess each time he would make a wrong move. Only several times that happened. His overall score was higher than Taehyung's. Stepping off the board of colored arrows, Jimin stopped to catch his breath, afterwords turning to Yoongi to see his reaction. But the mint-haired boy didn't notice at first. He was in a sort of daze, ears echoing Jimin's adorable laughter again and again and again...

"You wanna go next?"

"Huh?"

"Ah, never mind. Looks like Jungkook's going."

Yoongi looked up. Surely enough, the boy in question was already in the midst of selecting his character for the game, and soon the first song. As it turned out, Jungkook was on the same level of Jimin in terms of nimbleness, though he seemed a bit more concentrated and tried his best to hold back laughter so that he could remain focused. Taehyung attempted to distract him by yelling out at random times; at this point, Tae was in last place, and he wanted to ensure he could at least beat someone. Then again, he had doubts that Yoongi would do well at all, and so he didn't feel as disappointed when Jungkook squeezed into second place.

"I might as well get this over with..."

Namjoon drew in a deep breath and stepped up to the machine. Inserting money into the slot, he glanced over his shoulder at Yoongi and mouthed 'wish me luck.'

He ended up doing worse than everyone so far, which relieved Taehyung. And it seemed as though his turn had been over a bit too soon for Yoongi's comfort. Now he was the only one left.

"The floor's all yours, Yoongs."

But I don't want the floor.

But he had to. With shaky feet he stepped up to the machine, and with shaky hands he put in his money. He felt Namjoon touch his shoulder.

"It's just a game. You can relax."

Right. Just a game.

He pretended no one but Namjoon was watching to ease his nerves. That worked for a little while, but Jimin's and Hoseok's cheers got through to him, causing him to become distracted and miss quite a few steps. In spite of all that, however, he still did better than Namjoon.

"See, I freaking told you."

The final standings were as follows: Hoseok in first by a landslide, Jungkook scarcely taking second, Jimin close behind in third, Taehyung falling into fourth, Yoongi claiming fifth, and Namjoon standing proudly as the loser. Sighing, he turned to Hoseok and asked, "So what'll it be then? You want me to buy you lunch or something?"

Hoseok moved his hand up slowly to rest on his chin. Then he hummed, scanning the arcade as well as the other stores in the mall which were visible from where he stood. "Aha!" He soon exclaimed. His hand directed Namjoon's eyes to a claw machine on the other side of the arcade. "Win me something from there!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"But there's only stuffed anim-...oh, whatever. I'll do it."

Namjoon made his way over to the claw machine, the rest of the group following closely behind. He readied his hand on the joystick. The sign on the machine said win every time. And thank goodness for that, he thought. Otherwise he'd most likely spend all his money failing at the game.

It took quite a while. Jungkook, bored as all get-out, slipped away from the group to go play Guitar Hero. Taehyung wanted to go off and do something else too, but since Jimin stayed, so did he. And Yoongi was too busy laughing at Namjoon under his breath to have any interest in going elsewhere.

"Finally."

With a press of a button, the claw was made to release a stuffed animal into a box where it was to be retrieved. Namjoon picked it up and handed it to Hoseok.

"You know, if I had won, I would've asked the loser to buy me something edible."

"But you lost," Taehyung said, despite not having been part of the conversation. Namjoon offered a tight-lipped smile.

Yoongi had been looking at his best friend the whole time, so it didn't register at first that someone was tapping his shoulder. It was Hoseok. And he was holding out the stuffed animal Namjoon had literally just given to him. Yoongi blinked. Hoseok hadn't moved.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving it to you," the boy replied, smiling like the sun he was. "It's a token of gratitude to my hero."

Yoongi's cheeks flushed, both at the sincerity in Hoseok's voice and the whispering and stares exchanged between Taehyung and Jimin. Namjoon tilted his head, also taken back by the odd yet undeniably sweet gesture. His eyes became fixed relentlessly on Yoongi. As did Jimin's and Tae's.

"Hero, huh? What happened between you two?"

"Oh, not much," Hoseok answered, much to Yoongi's surprise. He pressed the stuffed animal against the other boy's chest which urged him to take it into his own hands. "Yoongi punched a guy in the face for me, that's all. I wanted to make it up to him."

"Yoongi did what now?!"

Oh, great. Here we go again.

After Yoongi explained himself as calmly as he could while making it seem as though what had happened was no big deal at all, the group noticed (or remembered) that Jungkook was missing, and so they searched the arcade until they found him, tearing it up on Guitar Hero. It was pretty much the equivalent to Hoseok with Dance Dance Revolution. Although at first Jungkook was unaware he was being watched, so he was a bit startled when Taehyung suddenly came up and took the second guitar.

"We're doing versus. Loser gives the winner a piggyback ride to the food court."

Jimin chuckled from behind them. "What kind of reward is that?"

"First thing that came to mind."

"Well, Jungkook just got a perfect score. I hope you're ready to have a 61 kilogram weight on your shoulders."

"Jimin, how do you know how much I weigh?"

"Wait, I was right?"

"Ahh, it doesn't matter." Taehyung waved his hand, signifying he was bored with the conversation. He popped some money into the coin slot. "C'mon, Kookie, I'm gonna leave you in the dust this time."

Less than ten minutes later, Jungkook was being carried to the food court on a very upset Taehyung. Yoongi was quite amused by the scene. He even sped up his walking pace just so he could get a look at Tae's pouty, defeated face.

All the while Jungkook was on cloud nine.

And Yoongi didn't regret tagging along.