Chapter 1.

"Okay, how are we going to decide the teams?" Jin asked, huddling in between the younger ones.

"How about--who reaches that pole first can decide the teams?" the witty Namjoon suggested and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Three...two...one...go!" everyone sprinted as fast as their legs could move. Of course the maknae reached the pole first, merely beating Jimin. Followed closely by the group's only girl, Choi Aeri. To her they were like her brothers and she was like their sister.

"Damn, noona, you're fast," Jungkook complimented, his face had a wide grin stitched to it, he was proud of this pathetic victory.

"Thanks, Jungkookie," Aeri returned the smile, "You better not pair me with Hobi-oppa or I'm going to kill you," her smile twitched into a thin line, her eyes narrowed and her finger poked into Jungkook's chest.

"Of course not, noona. I wouldn't want to get on your bad side," the maknae laughed nervously, knowing that Aeri was not like any other 12 year-old girl, she wasn't any less tough than a boy her age. Some might describe her as a tomboy, but her looks say otherwise.

"Good," she smirked darkly, turning around to face the rest of the boys.

"Damn you, muscle pig, choose the pairs," Yoongi rolled his eyes, panting softly.

"Yay," Jungkook clapped his hands together excitedly, the 10 year-old rubbed his fingers on his chin, indicating that he was thinking really hard.

After a good 2 minutes of Jungkook intensely deciding the teams for hide and seek while the rest of them were groaning in annoyance.

"Hurry up, pabo," Yoongi scolded the younger, earning an evil smirk from the maknae.

"I choose Yoongi-hyung to be with Hobi-hyung," Jungkook proudly announced, chest puffed high knowing that Yoongi will be very annoyed because of Hoseok's inability to stay quiet especially while playing in the dark.

"F*ck you, Jungcoque," Yoongi mumbled almost inaudibly but loud enough for Jin to hear. Jin momentarily smacked Yoongi's head, resulting in him rolling his eyes and massaging his scalp.

"Let's make this interesting," the younger began, "Taehyung-hyung with Jin-hyung,"

Jin nodded, gesturing for the younger to come stand beside him. Though, Taehyung wouldn't be his first choice since he liked to act weird and make weird noises, he knew being partnered with Taehyung was better than the lazy Yoongi or the loud Hoseok.

"Next, Jimin-hyung and…," Jungkook would always pair with Jimin, the iconic duo who almost always beats every other pair. But no, not today, little Jungkook wanted to propose an experiment to see what would happen if Jimin was paired with, "Aeri-noona,"

"Seriously? You want me to be with my little Anko?" Jimin questioned, confused why Jungkook would want him to be paired with his best friend, considering they were both the best at these games.

"Yes, hyung, I want you to be with noona," Jungkook replied.

"Well, ya'll get ready to lose cos you just paired up an awesome group. The Daifuku duo is back to whip all of your tiny asses," Jimin said loud and proud, along with getting slapped by Jin for saying the word "ass".

"I so hate that name," Aeri glared at Jimin for recalling their duo name. Daifuku is a small round mochi stuffed with anko, also known as red bean paste. Yes, Jimin is the mochi and Aeri is the Anko. This was what they called each other ever since they were 5 years old, they have been best friends ever since.

"Then it's settled, Yoongi-hyung with Hobi-hyung, Jin-hyung and Tae, Jungkookie with Namjoon-hyung, and Anko and I," Jimin recapped, "Who's gonna be "it"?"

"We'll be "it"," Yoongi volunteered, "We'll probably be the first one to get caught anyway." He looked at Hoseok, signifying that it was him who would get them caught.

"Okay, remember the rules: no phones, no lights, no flashlights and no whining. Got it?" Jin reminded them, "Count to a hundred," he told Yoongi and Hoseok.

"One...two...three…," both of the boys closed their eyes and started counting while everyone else ran up the abandoned school.

Jimin and Aeri knew their way around the secluded buildings like the back of their hands. They have been playing here since they were 5. Even though it was pitch black as they played at 11 o'clock in the night, they moved swiftly along the corridors, making sure to not make a single sound.

"Jimin-ah, in here," Aeri pointed to a room filled with headless mannequins scattered on the floor, with shards of broken glass and torn wood spread across the room.

"Okay, be careful," Jimin whispered, squinting his eyes so he could see where the glass was, dodging the debris with Aeri trailing behind him. They made it to the back of the room, standing beside the window.

The glass on the window was broken, so they had to climb into the window frame to get to the balcony on the other side. They placed a large block of wood on the floor and climbed over the broken window. Aeri went first but she accidently scratched her ankle on the broken glass. Completely ignoring the pain, she continued to tip-toe further down the balcony with Jimin behind.

The balcony was extremely long, connected to every room on that floor. But the only room that had a window was the room Aeri and Jimin came out of. The infrastructure design is weird, whoever designed this place seriously has to relearn architecture.

Aeri grabbed Jimin's arm, slightly limping, and ran as fast as she could to the ladder at the end of the balcony.

Though Jimin had no idea where he was going, he didn't question it, not yet. He trusted Aeri, one--because she was his best friend, and two--because she was exceptional at hide and seek.

They gripped onto the stinging cold metal, shifting their legs down one by one until they reached the ground. It was like some sort of secret court yard with no other entrance to it. The floor was scrapped with dried leaves and grass.

Aeri led Jimin to a wooden barn, she stepped into the barn and made her way around skillfully, switching on a small lamp.

The light luminated her face, to Jimin, she looked as if the moon goddess was sun-kissed. Two juxtaposing beauties intertwined into one.

They sat down on the hard earth stained floor, not making a single peep.

"Aren't they going to see the light?" Jimin asked, interrupting the comfortable silence.

"No, this barn is quite distant from the building and no one knows about this place," Aeri said.

"So how do you know about this place?"

"I found it the last time we played hide and seek. I lost Hobi-oppa because he suddenly ran away from me. You and Jungkook almost found me but I jumped over that window and ran until I found the ladders, climbed down and ran until I found this place,"

Jimin took the lamp out of Aeri's hand so she could rest her arm, he hovered the lamp over both of their bodies and saw droplets of garnet-colored liquid.

"Aeri, your bleeding," he pointed at Aeri's ankle. She brushed him off with her hand, "Gwenchana,"

"Aish you stubborn kid, here," Jimin took out his miniature supply kit from his pockets and pulled out a vile of translucent teal liquid. He poured it over the wound, causing Aeri to slightly wince, unsurprisingly she did not make a sound. Jimin knew Aeri was strong, both physically and mentally, nothing could ever hurt her and nothing ever has. A bruise? A broken limb? Stitches? Not one of them has ever made Aeri cry. Sometimes he questions if she is actually a girl.

"Shoot...I left my kit back home," Aeri face-palmed herself. The eight of them would carry around these small kits equipped with a flask of rubbing alcohol, plasters and cotton buds. Since the eight of them were always restless and played the dangerously rough games, their parents made them all carry these kits around as they also did when they were younger.

All of their parents were childhood friends, this was the next generation.

After treating Aeri's wound, Jimin suggested going back as the wound was quite wide and quite deep. Aeri shook her head vigorously refusing to leave because it meant that she would lose hide and seek and she never loses in hide and seek.

What seemed like hours of Jimin talking sense into Aeri about possible infections, she finally agreed. Jimin let out a hand for her but she stood up by herself, she only had a wound, she wasn't disabled.

Jimin wrapped an arm around my shoulder, holding me up but it didn't actually help as he held her like a fragile object, too vulnerable clutch but too precious release.

As we walked to the barn door, the light hit the wooden walls, revealing faint writing, seemingly in chalk.

"One will pick up after the other, until they realize two hands weren't enough"