Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

57 [dazzling]

"Yay!" Hwayoung's hands shoot up in the air as the display shows that she has won the car race again. Or rather, it's thanks to Yunho as she is sitting on her father's lap and watching the showdown between Byul and Yunho. It's been four rounds but so far, Yunho has been snatching up the first place and left Byul to eat dust. It's a game that required them to press down on the pedals, steer the wheel and shift gears at the same time, but Yunho has somehow managed to execute them perfectly even with Hwayoung partially blocking his view.

Defeated, Byul leans against the chair and throws up her hands. "I give up, how can you be so good at this? I swear my steering wheel is broken and the gears are acting funny."

"Sure," Yunho manages. "Do you want to switch places and see whether it's the equipment's problem?"

She stretches her body, thumping a fist against her lower back as she ignores Yunho's question. "Oh dear, my back is killing me. I think I need to stand because I've been sitting for too long." She hums as she escapes the car racing game and moves over to another game machine, choosing to pick up the mallet for whac-a-mole.

Hwayoung giggles seeing her and Yunho shakes his head while smiling as they join her, with her already slotting the coins in and picking up the mallet. Byul hikes up her sleeves, looking entirely serious as the first mole pops up. She bashes down the mallet non-stop, managing to hit every mole except for two.

Yunho flinches every time she pummels the moles, feeling sorry for the inanimate objects because he can feel the strength she puts in them. As the score is displayed she lets out a small whoop of triumph. She turns around to see Yunho staring at her with slight trembling pupils as if he's going to be the next target.

"I think it is the equipment's problem. There's no way I'm too good at the racing game," he says. "And uh, you're really good at whac-a-mole." He gives two thumbs-up with a nervous smile.

"Told you," she winks as a playful smile creeps up on her.

"Byul-ie, I want to play it too!" Hwayoung approaches the machine's version for children and picks up the smaller mallet, looking up to Byul as she slots in the coins one by one.

There is blaring music as the game starts; Hwayoung's brows knit and her lips are pursed in concentration as she holds the mallet with both hands. She hits the moles excitedly, bashing their tiny heads with a loud thud, managing to hit every single one without missing.

Sure, it's the kid's version and the moles take longer to plop back down but it still manages to make Yunho slack-jawed at the sight, as Byul high-fives Hwayoung to say that she did a good job. She must have definitely gotten it from Lee Eunbi.

"My goodness whose daughter is she?" Yunho mutters to himself as he puts a hand to his chest, the first time he has actually seen his daughter displaying her strength properly. "Maybe I can start putting her into martial arts classes if she wants to. That strength puts us to shame."

They spend the afternoon trying every single game machine, with Yunho and Hwayoung taking too much liking to the dancing game and hogging the equipment. Since it's a weekday, visitors to the arcade complex are scarce, so they can spend as much time as they want without having anyone else waiting in line.

Yunho's long legs cross everywhere as he keeps up with the beat, his skills unmatched as he steps on every platform with accuracy. Hwayoung results in jumping with both legs every time a direction comes up on screen, but when two directions come up at once she misses the beat. Still, she has fun nonetheless, with Byul laughing with joy looking at them from the side.

The father-daughter duo spends more than an hour at the dancing machine, looking as if they're on a mission to try every song available at every difficulty level. The machine has quite a range of songs that Byul decides to take a chair to sit down, believing that they won't stop until they could destroy every stage. She smiles while looking at them anyway, a dreamy look painting her face as she rests her chin on her palm.