1 If you can’t beat them, join them
"Hey, pass me the water," Jeongguk said, extending an arm towards his friend, Jimin, who was crouched on the floor chugging down a bottle of water. Sweat dripped down the side of his face, tired and panting after performing an exhausting dance routine.
Jimin blindly reached for the extra bottle beside him and placed it in Jeongguk's hand. The younger of the two uncapped the bottle, eager to quench his parched throat.
The members of the dance club were all laying down on the floor, taking a moment to breathe, a moment of rest before they continued onto the next dance.
Jeongguk was peacefully drinking his water, when suddenly, the door burst open, slamming loudly against the wall.
"Jeongguk! Jimin!"
The two of them looked up at the sound of their name and stared at the intruder, a young man with golden skin and brown hair staring straight back at them. There was a smile on his lips, forming the shape of a box and he seemed excited, eyes sparkling.
"Taehyung? What's up?" Jimin questioned as he arched a brow at him.
"Get your phones, and let's go."
"What?" Jeongguk questioned as he lowered the water bottle down from his lips, confused.
"A Tyranitar just hatched."
No more was needed to be said as the two automatically dropped everything they were about to do, swiped their phones from their bags and quickly dashed out the door, following right behind Taehyung.
"Hey! You two—!" The dance captain, Hoseok, called out but he was too late. They were already running down the hall, gleaming with excitement.
Hoseok sighed heavily and shook his head. "Seriously?" He questioned out loud to no one but himself.
There wasn't much else he could do. He wasn't going to chase after them because he would be a fool to do so, plus he had to continue to lead the rest of their dance team anyways. So, he set aside his thoughts for the three, and turned to look at the rest of the group who were all gazing at him anxiously.
"Alright. Let's continue—" Hoseok paused midsentence, eyes shifting to the ground as something caught his attention. "The idiot forgot to cap his water," he grumbled and stared at the spilt water on the ground, bottle abandoned.
Never mind. He was going to punish them, make them work twice as hard tomorrow and maybe—maybe he'll just ban Taehyung from coming to dance club. That way, there would be no more interruptions.
Or he could just delete the game from their phones. But that might cause him to hide for the rest of his life so he'd rather not.
/
"Oh my god," Jimin grumbled, exasperated. "He won't stay in the ball!"
"Are you getting great throws?" Jeongguk questioned as he swiped across his phone screen, the poke ball curving as it flew towards the green dinosaur.
"Yes! He's just being a—a meanie," Jimin pouted.
Taehyung chuckled. "Meanie, okay," he teased, eyes glued to his screen as he watched the poke ball bounce once, twice and "Caught it!" He cheered and did a little dance, excited that Tyranitar decided to stay in the ball.
"Nice, is yours good?" Jeongguk questioned and tossed yet another ball. "I have 6 balls left."
"I'm at 3! Literally won't even stay in after one shake."
While the two were bickering on the side, Taehyung quickly checked the statistics on the newly caught Pokémon, appraising it.
"Mine's alright. Since your CP stats was lower Jimin, he's probably not good then."
"I still get candy though," Jimin murmured and then sighed heavily as the stupid dinosaur broke out of the ball once more.
"Got mine!" Jeongguk cheered and then slipped his phone into his jacket pocket. "Here, let me try."
"It's just one more ball, but okay," Jimin agreed and gave Jeongguk his phone, hoping the younger could catch it for him with his magic hands. Seriously, he always had all the luck when it came to catching all the Pokémon from raids.
"Here it goes. Don't blame me if it misses," Jeongguk said as he tapped the screen, holding the ball and moving his finger in a circular motion before he released it at the right time, the red and white ball landing center on the dinosaur.
Jimin just rolled his eyes. "Like I would."
The two leaned in as they stared intensely at Jimin's screen, watched as the ball shook—once, twice and then click, the ball stopped shaking and the stupid dinosaur stayed in.
"Got it."
Jimin cheered and thanked the younger, giving him a hard pat on the back. "Bless you Jeongguk and your golden hands."
"You're welcome hyung," Jeongguk smiled, and then pulled his phone back out of his pocket, opening the app once more. "By the way, should we head back to practice?"
Jimin gave it a thought, but it only lasted two seconds before he shook his head. "Nah, let's go hunt some more. I think some of the eggs we kept our eyes on has hatched."
"Oh snap, let's go," Jeongguk cheered and then turned to look at Taehyung. "You don't have any more class right?"
"Nope," he said, popping the p. "Done for the day. So I'm free to play."
"Sweet. Let's go!" Jeongguk cheered and the three checked out the map on their phones, trying to find the next closest Pokémon gym they could walk to.
/
"Have any of you seen the young ones?" Hoseok, tired after a long day at practice, collapsed onto the couch in the living room after dumping all his bags and Jimin and Jeongguk's at the door. He stretched his body, taking up the entirety of the couch.
Seokjin, who was in the kitchen whipping up their dinner that smelled oh so delicious replied with a loud "Nope!"
Hoseok groaned. "They're probably out Pokémon hunting or whatever."
"What?!" Seokjin exclaimed and Hoseok could hear him stomping his way into the living room, not that it was that far. He and his friends, the seven of them, had rented out a large house to share that was located on the outskirts of their university campus for those who went to school. Well, most of them were in undergrad or graduate school, only the eldest, Seokjin and Yoongi had jobs.
Hoseok glanced up at Seokjin who was hovering above him, a spatula held in his hand. It looked like there was a bit of noodles stuck between the holes of said spatula, threatening to drip down right onto his face.
"Uh, hyung? The spatula—"
"Where are they?" Seokjin questioned, seemingly a little alarmed, or actually, kind of mad.
"Out?"
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Oh my god," Seokjin exclaimed. "I can't believe they went to play without me."
Hoseok looked at his eldest friend like he was crazy. "And what's wrong with that?"
"Are they raiding?" And he was ignored. Of course.
"I don't know. I don't even know what that is."
"Hoseok," Seokjin said, tone firm. "Get with the program and download the game."
"No! I refuse. You guys are all obsessed. I'm not becoming one of you," Hoseok scrunched his nose in disgust.
Seokjin just rolled his eyes. "Your loss. I'm calling them."
"What? What about dinner?"
"Dinner can wait. Pokémon is more important," and with that, Seokjin scurried his way back into the kitchen and he could hear a lot of sounds coming from there, pots clanking together, the sound of dishes filling the sink.
And within minutes, he could hear the man speaking to someone else, asking them where they are, what they're doing, how many they've done? And that he's going to meet them right now.
"It's 6 already!" Hoseok called.
"Don't care. It's summer!" Seokjin yelled, voice muffled, sounding like he was probably no longer in the kitchen. And Hoseok was right. Because within minutes, the man reemerged into the living room, having come from down the hallway where their bedrooms were and found him dressed in jeans and a light blue sweater.
"I'm meeting the betrayers. I'll be back."
Before Hoseok even had a chance to ask a question or even as much say goodbye and ask him when he would be back, he was already out the door, much like what had happened to him earlier in the day.
It wasn't like this was anything new. His friends tended to disappear and drop everything when it came to this game. Hoseok didn't play so he didn't quite understand where the addiction was coming from. And he didn't want to know anyways.
It's whatever. At least he has the house to himself and he could pretty much do what he wants since he was all alone. If he wanted, he could walk around in his underwear without a care in the world—oh. Wait. That's already been accomplished.
Hoseok sighed loudly.
There was no way in hell he was downloading Pokémon Go.
/
"Okay. Okay. Okay."
"Just say it once."
"Nah."
"Taehyung," Yoongi warned, though there was no real seriousness in his tone of voice.
"Look, Yoongi-hyung," Taehyung said and slid his phone across the table towards the elder. They were both inside a café, getting a quick bite to eat as they waited for their friends to show up.
Yoongi took a bite out of his sandwich and squinted down at the screen below him. "What is it?"
"Pikachu!"
"I know that. Why does he have a—is that a flower crown?"
"It's a spring event so you can catch both Pikachu and Eeve with flower crowns," Taehyung squealed, excited.
"Oh. Okay. That's—that's kind of cute," Yoongi was a little smitten at how cute the yellow rat looked with his purple flowered crown.
"Yes! So—" he paused to stuff a few fries in his mouth and chewed loudly with his pouty lips. "You should totally download the game."
Yoongi had been a little reluctant to join in with the others playing Pokémon Go, considering it required him to leave the house and his studio and venture into the outside world. Forcing him to actually use his energy to search for Pokémon at various places when he could better his time by working on his music production or sleeping.
Yeah. Sleep was good.
But—so was the thought of owning some cute childhood cartoons on his phone.
After giving it a brief thought, he decided and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I can."
"Yes!" Taehyung cheered and tapped down loudly on the table, causing their drinks to shake. "Do it now."
"What about later?"
"No, now!"
Yoongi heaved a sigh. Taehyung wasn't going to leave him alone if he didn't do it right at this moment. So he obliged, pulled out his phone from his pocket and unlocked the screen. With a few swipes and clicks, he was officially downloading the game.
"Here," Yoongi said and flashed his phone in front of Taehyung, showing him the progress of the download as the bar slowly inched to the right.
"Yes, now let me screenshot it."
"What—" Before he could even retaliate, Taehyung snatched the phone from his hands and leaned back in his chair. "What are you doing? Give it back."
"Just a second," Taehyung mumbled, focused on doing whatever he was on Yoongi's phone. It didn't take long and within a few minutes, he handed it back to the song-writer.
Yoongi stared at the screen, finding that their chat group was open. The last message to be sent was from him, approximately 2 minutes ago and it was a screenshot of the download progress of the game. And then, within seconds, messages were coming in from multiple people—
A lot of emojis, stickers, and gifs.
And then—
Jeongguk
I'm so proud *tear emoji* - your favorite, Jeonggukkie
Followed by a—
Jimin
I knew Tae could do it. I just knew it!!!!!
And then a bubble was popping up with three tiny dots, and right below it, Jin's name appeared.
"Nope." Yoongi drooped his phone onto the table and pushed it to the side. "I'm just going to not look at any of the messages."
And Taehyung just snickered, amused.
/
"Can you go a little bit slower?" Namjoon kindly asked. "I can't catch anything."
"I'm going as slow as I can without causing any traffic," Jeongguk said. "Plus also trying to catch."
"You—" Jin said and pointed at his driver from the passenger's seat. "Eyes on the road."
"But hyung—" He whined.
"No. I'll catch for you," Jin answered and removed Jeongguk's phone from the stand. "Just drive."
"Yeah, drive," Jimin said, snickering in the back.
"At least I can drive," Jeongguk countered.
"Touché," Taehyung, who was sitting right beside Jimin, added and earned an elbow to the side.
The five of them, Namjoon, Jin, Jeongguk, Taehyung and Jimin, had all piled into their shared car and decided to go Pokémon hunting in the car since the weather was not adept for walking considering it was pouring rain.
It's not like they had to go out. Just that they wanted to go out. But they didn't want to get wet, so this was their best option. And honestly, it was going pretty well.
Except it kind of sucked to have three grown men all squashed in the back. Though Jimin was feeling the brunt of it since he was stuck in the middle between Taehyung and Namjoon, who were both wider and taller than him.
"Slow enough now?" Jeongguk asked and glanced back at the rearview mirror, could see that all his friends had their heads down, eyes glued to their phone as they were tap tapping away.
"Yep," Taehyung said. "I can spin stops now! I need to stock on some more poke balls. Community day is coming up right?"
"Oh right, Which Pokémon is it again?"
"Don't you read chat?" Jimin asked.
"No."
"We linked it like five times already," Namjoon added.
"Yeah—but can't you just tell me?"
"You should really learn to read chat sometimes," Jin said. "So to punish you, we'll have you guess."
"Oh come on!"
"Or you can look it up on your phone," Jimin said.
"He's driving."
"Right, duh."
Then there was a moment of silence as Jeongguk was searching his brain to see if he could remember if he ever read their texts regarding community day. "Uh. Torchic?"
"That's next month."
"Okay, so then—"
"It's Bagon," Taehyung replied, cutting them all off. And then there was a loud, collaborative groan as the other three whined at Taehyung for spoiling the youngest and always giving him the answer to everything. They were trying to punish him for always ignoring their group chat.
"What?" Taehyung answered and shrug his shoulders. "He'll find out eventually."
"Yeah but we wanted him to suffer," Jimin mumbled and playfully pinched his best friend on the thigh, only to have his hand swatted away.
"He's already driving us."
"Yeah so?"
"Doing us a favor by driving."
"Okay but—"
"Oh my god! Who cares? Is there anything worth catching on the radar right now?" Jeongguk shouted, tired of them complaining about him. "I can't tell because no phone."
"Well let's see—" Namjoon was scrolling through the raid list, checking to see what's in the area. "Oh shit. Dragonite in a raid. I need it."
"Say no more. We going. Direct me!"
"15 minutes on the timer. 2 minute drive away."
And without further ado, they raced, or more like, carefully made their way to the location of the gym.
/
Hoseok was laying down on the couch, flipping through the channels for something interesting to watch on TV. There was a ton of dramas airing right now, but he wasn't feeling any of them.
"Maybe I'll just make some food to eat," he mumbled to himself and dropped the remote to the ground, just picking whatever channel he happened to end up on. As he moved to get up from his spot, he heard a lot of noise coming from down the hallway.
"Should we walk?" That was Jeongguk's voice.
"It would probably be better," Namjoon said.
"Let's plan a route then. See how many we can hit up all at once." This time it was Jin. "We got to maximize our time," he added.
Their house wasn't that big so it was a matter of time before they joined up in the living room. All of them were dressed to go out, jeans and jackets, backpacks and bags.
"Where are you going?" Hoseok asked, unaware that they had any plans to go out. Well, all of them actually.
"Raiding," Taehyung simply answered without looking up from his phone. Seriously, the brunette was always glued to his phone these days.
He's heard this term many times before but ultimately doesn't know what it means. "What's raiding?" Hoseok asked.
"Oh. Right," Jimin was the one to make eye contact with him. "Hobi-hyung doesn't play."
"Ah. That game."
"Yeah! You should play with us," Jimin said with his bright smile and bounced on over towards Hoseok, enveloping him in a hug. "It's so fun!"
"What's so fun about it? You guys just walk around with your phones."
"But it's fun! You get a ton of cute Pokémon!"
Hoseok just rolled his yes. "I'd rather not become mindless addicted zombies like you guys."
"Aw," Jimin pouted, his cheeks puffing out which was making it hard on Hoseok because who could deny his adorable friend? "You'd love it though! We have tons of fun together."
"First of all, I don't know how to play. Second of all, what the heck is raiding?"
"Well raiding is—" Namjoon started and he heard someone, probably Yoongi, whispering in the background about how they should stop him before he gets started.
Too late though as Namjoon had made his way over towards Hoseok. "Raiding is, in a sense—"
"Simple please. Keep it short Joon," Jin said.
Namjoon sighed, a bit disappointed but nodded in agreement anyways. "So, there are gyms. Inside these gyms, you can leave your Pokémon there depending on what team you are on. There are three. And sometimes, or like every day, these gyms will spawn an egg. Do you know what spawn means?"
"Uh…appear?"
"Yes appear. Basically, the gyms will have an egg that will hatch at a certain time. Without diving into too much details, for example, one gym will have an egg that will hatch at 6:05PM. When that egg hatches, a Pokémon appears and it becomes a raid. Basically, the gym now has a boss. So then you and your friends can enter the raid as a team, battle the Pokémon. Once it weakens, you have the chance to capture them."
"Oh." That kind of blew over his head given that he didn't play but Hoseok, from the little bit of video games he did play when he was younger, got the gist of it.
"I don't think he got it," Jeongguk mumbled and was already at the door, along with Taehyung, lacing up their shoes.
"That's okay. We'll get him to play one day," Namjoon said with positivity.
"Just steal his phone and download it for him," Yoongi muttered as he passed by, heading towards the door to join the two who were raring to go.
"You know, that's a great—"
"Nope," Hoseok quickly cut them off. "No way. You guys can go. Have fun raiding or whatever it is. I'll be here. At home. By myself."
"Bye!" The rest all cheered in unison, not even feeling a bit bad for leaving their friend behind.
"We'll be back in like 5 hours," Jimin said, releasing his hold of Hoseok and went to grab his shoes to put on.
"What? Why 5?" He asked, confused.
"Special raid starting soon for 3 hours. So, we'll play for 3 and eat for 2."
"What? What about me?"
"Well—" Jin thought about it for a moment, seemingly wanting to say more, but the rest were already heading out the door.
"Come on Jin hyung!" Someone called for him.
Jin sighed and looked over at Hoseok. "We'll call you to join up with us for food."
And then they were gone, leaving Hoseok to stare at the closed door, a frown painting his face.
Maybe he should download it.
/
Okay.
So he caved. And downloaded the game. This—Pokémon Go game that all his friends have been playing. Even Yoongi, the least likely to play video games. Though he did like Pokémon quite a bit.
And honestly, it wasn't that bad.
It was surprisingly kind of fun.
Like. Really fun. Maybe he should have downloaded it sooner and shouldn't have been so reluctant. Why was he even so reluctant in the first place?
Hoseok himself did not know. But well, now he has the game and just as addicted as his friends. He'd been playing for a week every chance he got and had easily leveled up to 10. It was fairly easy to catch the Pokémon that appeared, though Hoseok really didn't know too much about the game besides catching what appeared on his app.
Since he needed more information, who better to ask than his friends?
"Hey."
Yoongi looked up from where he'd been lazing on the couch, with his laptop sitting on his lap.
"Yeah?"
Hoseok pulled up his character profile, showed it to Yoongi and slowly watched as his lips curled up into a gummy smile.
"You got it?"
Hoseok nodded, a little shy and embarrassed to admit that he caved in. "Yep."
Yoongi chuckled. "I knew you'd eventually fall into this trap."
"Rightly so."
"So?"
"So—care to teach me a few pointers?"
And with that, Yoongi shut his laptop, called for Jeongguk and Taehyung, by shouting at the top of his lungs as the two were occupied with video games in their rooms. "We got to go catch some Pokémon for Hoseok!"
And within an instant, he could hear loud footsteps coming his way, two young men, dressed in scrubs, appearing before him with excitement in their eyes.
"Finally!" They both cheered and huddled around Hoseok, asking to see his account and add him as their friend and a bunch of other things he was still learning about.
What had he gotten himself into?
/
"Alright gang."
"We're not a gang," Yoongi said.
Taehyung sighed, lips thinning as he narrowed his eyes at Yoongi. "Okay. Groupie. Poke Squad."
"Much better." Yoongi smiled in satisfaction at the younger's correction.
"Why are we dressed like Pokémon trainers?" Jimin asked his best friend and stared down at his own attire. They were all amazingly matching, in terms of colors and style, albeit, wearing different clothing. A variation of joggers and jeans, baggy pants. Paired with oversized t-shirts, sweatshirts and track jackets. And then, to complete the look, caps covering their freshly washed hair.
Though that wasn't what stood out the most. It was the vibrant colors, ranging from a popping red, to sunshine yellow and a deep blue.
"We're representing our teams!" Taehyung said.
"Right, we are," Hoseok commented and then took a quick look around the room. He was honestly surprised there was a good mix of teams within their group. 3 of them being red, 2 yellow and 2 blue. Not all of them were on the same team which honestly surprised him at first.
"And we're dressed for the occasion too," Jeongguk added and tugged at his sleeves.
"We're just watching a movie."
"It's not just any movie," Jin said, almost offended at Hoseok's comment. "It's Detective Pikachu."
"Which looks kind of alright."
"Alright? Alright?" Okay, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut. "It's not just alright. It's going to be amazing. Haven't you seen the reviews? It's blowing everyone away."
He should maybe just agree before Jin goes on another rant. "Okay! Got it! It'll be great!"
"Damn right," Jin smiled, triumphant at Hoseok's agreement.
"Let's just go already! We'll be late and I want to watch the previews. They'll probably have the new Spiderman trailer," Jeongguk said and ushered them all out the house.
"You would want to see that," Namjoon commented and nudged the younger on the arm.
"I think we all do," Jimin said and they all nodded in agreement, being the huge Marvel fans that they are.
They were making their way towards the movie theater, deciding to walk there to capitalize on their play time since it wasn't that far away. Everyone was on their phone, catching and chatting to one another, not a single soul bothering to look up and make eye contact with the other.
"Seriously," Hoseok added. "We're playing Pokémon, dressed in Pokémon gear as Pokémon trainers to go watch a Pokémon movie. Is this what you guys all did without me?
"Yeah." Jimin answered.
"Oh my god. What have our lives become?"
"Pokemon-ing."
"And?" Yoongi questioned. "What about it?"
"Well—" Hoseok said, taking a long pause as he dragged out the word.
"Well what?" This time it was Namjoon prompting him to answer.
It was tough to admit, but Hoseok kind of fell into their trap. Though at the end of the day, he was glad that he gave in.
"I love it."
"Glad we were able to open your eyes to the magical world of Pokémon."
"Thanks guys. I appreciate it. I appreciate adding another addiction to my list."
"You're welcome dude."
And so—the story of the Poke squad continued as they made their journey towards the movie theater, happily catching the cute little pocket monsters on their phone.
"Oh look mom! They look like Pokémon trainers!" A little boy exclaimed, pointing excitedly at them as he passed by with his mother.
"You know what? Never mind," Hoseok said. "I take that back. I'm quitting."
"Hobi—"
"Kidding. Kidding. I'm with the squad for life."
"Yeah, you better. Or I'm murdering you in your sleep," Jin threatened and he may or may not be telling the truth so Hoseok decided that he'll just stick with it.
He's here until they all stop playing, and he wasn't expecting them to stop anytime soon.
Not that he planned to anyways.
