Chapter Text
“Think about it bro.”
“I am thinking bro, and my answer is no.”
“Come on Yugyeom, just for old times sake. Pretty pretty please?”
“That’s gross, do not use that voice ever again.” Yugyeom sighed and faced his best friend. “Jungkook, are you sure you want to do this? It will take loads of effort, money, equipment and we still need to find some people to go with us.”
“Yes bro, we can do this. About the rest of the crew, don’t sweat it. I’ve already got it all figured out, trust me bro.” Jungkook assured, placing a hand on his chest in a heartfelt gesture. Yugyeom gave a reluctant nod, still unsure of the journey they were about to embark on but still feeling a tinge of excitement from it.
“Okay. I’ll talk to Namjoon-hyung about borrowing his good cameras and sound equipment and then I’ll ask Jin-hyung for a small monetary contribution.” Jungkook clapped his hands with finality, knowing that the famous producer Kim Namjoon would have spare equipment lying around and the Ceo of JinHit Entertainment, Kim Seokjin, would have money lying around for him to leech off. They wouldn’t be able to say no to his charms anyway.
“Bet. I’ll ask Jinyoung hyung for some money too, he’s getting casted into many new movies and dramas recently.” Yugyeom grinned and showed his lockscreen of the renowned actor Park Jinyoung in the poster of his new drama.
The two boys shook on it and decided to pester their older friends as soon as possible to get the ball rolling. It was not that they had no funds at all, they were singers and dancers too but food always tastes better when someone else buys it for you and they happened to have older friends, some in the same industry too, that doted on them way too much.
*****
“And that’s why I need the cash!” Jungkook grinned at the couple sitting in front of him. Namjoon had a somewhat hesitant look on his face while Seokjin sipped his tea with a small smile gracing his features.
“Alright Kookie, I’ll pass you the money but let’s make a deal. I’ll get my money back with interest when your channel kicks off. Take it as a kind of investment.” Seokjin finally said as he placed his tea cup on a table, far away from Namjoon’s less-than-graceful limbs.
Namjoon looked up incredulously, “You’re gonna let the baby go out and do dangerous things? What if he gets hurt?” Jungkook whined about how he was not a baby anymore which earned him two eye rolls from both men. Seokjin just muttered something about birds leaving the nest and that it was time for his son to see the real world.
After some time spent cajoling Namjoon, he agreed to give Jungkook his cameras and sound equipment that he no longer used. The cameras he was giving were normal cameras though, so Jungkook made a mental note to purchase some infrared light cameras and perhaps a thermocam to make the evidence even more reliable.
The couple then sent Jungkook on his merry way and he sent a quick message to Yugyeom to tell him the good news and brought the phone to his ear as the call went through, “Jaehyun-ah, are you free to talk?”
*****
“I swear it’ll be safe! I’ll be safe! I have the power of Jeon Jungkook by my side, that man is not afraid of death. In fact, I’m pretty sure that death would cower in his presence.” Yugyeom gestured his arms vigorously, earning him a couple of looks from the other customers in the cafe. Admittedly, it was not the best place to meet up with a famous celebrity but it was not like he particularly gave a damn about all the technicalities.
Jinyoung looked Yugyeom up and down, from the beaming smile on his face to his feet nervously tapping on the ground at a rhythm that sounded exactly like a Jackson Wang song. The Jackson Wang was seated beside him, nodding his head along as though he was agreeing with the fact that Jungkook was practically immortal. The least that he could do, Jinyoung thought to himself, was to support the little man that he had been taking care of since he was a little trainee kid.
With a restrained sigh, Jinyoung nodded his head in silent agreement and Yugyeom gave a whoop of excitement. It was all coming together, his dream was coming together. He was going to be able to do the things he liked during his free time and even get paid for it (although apparently Youtube did not pay much but he was sure they would find some ways to fund their project). He even had the support of his older friends. Jinyoung would be able to convince Jaebum to let him go and Jackson would hype him up and cause Youngjae and Mark to support him too. Plus, he always knew that Bambam would have his back, even if they did not hang out as much anymore since he joined a dance club with his Thai friends Lisa and Ten and spent every waking moment practicing insanely hard choreographies with them (Yugyeom constantly tries to tell himself he’s not jealous, he just misses quality time with his bestie).
Everything was going according to plan and he managed to cinch his part of the deal with Jungkook. All he had to do now was get a car, some light stands and certain equipment he was going to search for on Amazon and get some help. It was the recruiting that made him wince a little. How was he going to convince the rest of his friends to join him?
Yugyeom stepped out of the cafe after saying goodbye to his older friends and fumbled with his phone for a bit as he walked to the nearest bus stop. His thumb hovered over a certain contact number for a while before it got tired and accidentally pressed it. Taking it as a sign, Yugyeom brought the phone up to his ear as the person on the receiving end promptly answered the call.
“Hey Mingyu? Are you free right now? I just wanted to talk. Okay, bring your cousin too.”
*****
“What’s up?” Mingyu asked as he slid into the booth, sitting opposite Jungkook. His cousin, Dongmin, slid in after him. The both of them were wearing matching dark jackets, their hands in the jacket pockets. Both of them stared a little worriedly at Yugyeom who had yet to say anything.
“It’s not much. Jungkook and I wanted to start a Youtube channel and we just wanted to know if you guys were interested in joining us. Obviously we know that you guys have work too being models and actors and all but we just wanted to shoot our shot.” Yugyeom tried to sound chill about it but his eager expression was really setting the tone for Dongmin and Mingyu.
The two cousins looked at each other in surprise for a bit. It was clear that they had thought that Yugyeom was in some kind of trouble that required him to meet them at such short notice. The tension in Dongmin’s shoulders left his body and his familiar smile came back as he asked what sort of content the two were planning on making.
Yugyeom leaned in and whispered, “Paranormal investigations.” which made Mingyu’s face pale considerably, Yugyeom leaned back with a pleased smile while Mingyu started turning paler with every second. Dongmin on the other hand had schooled his expression into a neutral face which made it seem like he was thinking about it.
Mingyu was the first to speak up, “Yugyeom… why on earth would you want to find ghosts? We should be running in the other direction!” He grabbed onto Dongmin’s jacket sleeve and tugged it slightly, “Hyung, say something! Convince him not to do this!”
Dongmin had a slightly frozen look on his face, being caught in the middle of two pleading faces. “Alright that’s enough. Yugyeom, what you’re doing is potentially dangerous but I assume you’ve already spoken to your hyungs about this. Mingyu, think about it, him and Jungkook are going to go through with this no matter what. Wouldn’t it be safer if we went along to make sure they don’t get themselves in hot water?”
Mingyu whined a bit about how they could get into trouble too and that ghosts were scary but Dongmin reminded him that Jungkook and Yugyeom more or less shared the same brain cell and it really was not wise to leave them along to do such potentially dangerous activities.
Yugyeom nodded in agreement and shared a small storytime about how Jungkook injured his leg when they decided to climb a tree and how they definitely needed adult supervision and how Dongmin and Mingyu were perfect for that. After all, Dongmin was the oldest among them and loved to do research to understand his surroundings better and even studied the cast members or the other celebrities that he was going to meet on variety shows and programs. He was the epitome of responsible and dependable. Mingyu was also reliable and organised to a fault. Living in the same dorm as 12 other performing artists, Mingyu had long taken the role of housewife, which was very shocking to many as he was tall and manly and did not fit the description of housewife(his friends would back him up and list all his good attributes when others pointed this out).
The two cousins would be a valuable addition to the little group and Yugyeom was really hoping that they would accept his offer. He was also running out of friends to ask soon and he scolded himself for not making more friends earlier, just in case he was going to get rejected by the two. Yugyeom knew that it was a wild guess to whether they would agree to his request as Mingyu was probably the most scared of ghosts among his other friends and Dongmin always had some kind of schedule going on. Not to mention Dongmin was also quite weak hearted. It was something the Kim-Lee cousins had in common.
“Okay I’ll do it.” Mingyu announced with finality, his head held high although some sweat was forming at his brow. Although he was terrified of ghosts, he wanted to be there for Jungkook and Yugyeom. It was no secret how the two 97 liners used to do videos on ghosts and paranormal things when they were young and they frequently talked about how they missed those simpler times. Since they managed to make the decision to stop with their music-making for a bit and start this side project, the least Mingyu could do as a friend was to support them. Additionally, Mingyu happened to be a prominent model himself and could surely bring a couple of views to the channel as well. With this reasoning, Mingyu managed to convince himself to embark on this journey with two of his best friends.
Dongmin stared wide eyed at Mingyu with a tinge of pride in his gaze. Who would have known that his scaredy-cat cousin would agree so readily without Yugyeom even getting on his knees to beg yet. Dongmin flashed an incandescently bright smile at both men, “Then I’ll join too. I can do the research on the places that we go too. I know how to work a camera too, I vlog sometimes...kinda.”
Yugyeom asked Dongmin about his current job as a model and actor and Dongmin just shrugged saying he was not too busy right now and things would only pick up faster towards the end of the year where he was scheduled to shoot a web drama about a girl who had mad makeup skills. Seeing that he managed to successfully convince the two men, Yugyeom clapped his hands excitedly and promised that he would finalise the details with Jungkook as soon as possible and that he would relay the information to them dutifully.
The 3 celebrities made it out of the cafe with only a couple of young girls noticing and pointing out the famous Cha Eunwoo and giggling. Dongmin was popular with the girls, the ladies and even the men. Yugyeom thought to himself that even if their videos flopped, with Dongmin and Mingyu in it, they would be able to get views anyway. Cute friends really were a blessing.
“Kook, I did it. I got Dongmin and Mingyu on board with the idea, we’re really going ghost hunting now.”
“Bro I’m so proud of you. I’m meeting Jaehyun soon, I’ll let you know what happens.”
*****
“Sup Kook?” Jaehyun grinned lazily as he sat next to Jungkook on the park bench.
Jungkook grinned back and gave him a little bro hug, “Just wanted to talk dude. Look, I’ll get to the point. I’m doing a Youtube channel with Yugyeom, Dongmin and Mingyu. We’re going to make some paranormal ghost hunting videos. Everything is set up already, we’ll settle the equipment and all transport arrangements. You just have to bring your handsome ass and some clothes and snacks maybe. What do you think?”
Jaehyun's jaw dropped when Jungkook finished his little speech. It was a real shocker and totally not what Jaehyun had in mind when he agreed to meet up. “Well… Well I- I don’t know man. I need to think about it. You know me, I don’t believe in that kind of thing.” Jaehyun explained and waved his hands around as he mentioned ‘that kind of thing’ while Jungkook nodded his head solemnly.
“I get it man. Just think it through. I know you’re busy and all with youtube too. By the way what is up with the NCT concept again?? All of you are Youtubers of different parts of Youtube but yall are under the same brand?” Jungkook’s face screwed up in confusion.
Jaehyun chuckled a little. “Yes bro, NCT is our brand but we can branch out into our own interests on our own channels. We can also collaborate with other NCT members and other non-NCT channels. Like me, I do covers and tour vids on my channel but I’ve been collaborating with Jaemin’s boyfriend Jeno for his JSMR videos. Johnny-hyung does random stuff like IKEA furniture building. Taeyong-hyung does baking and gaming videos and we’re just super diverse.”
“I think, Jaehyun bro, you need a little change of scenery. You mull over my offer a little more okay? When you make a decision, give me or Yug a call.” Jungkook pat Jaehyun’s back as he got up from the bench and waved goodbye.
Jaehyun was left alone on his bench, deep in his thoughts as he thought back to all the times his little brother Sungchan would flirt unabashedly with Shotaro in the dance videos right beside him. His eye would twitch non-stop in those videos and he was not very fond of featuring in Donghyuck’s videos as something would always go wrong somehow. There was that one time Yuta was complimenting the guys in the kitchen for their cooking skills and Donghyuck promptly set a napkin on fire which Kun had to extinguish. Thank the heavens for Kun, the second most reliable member in the group (the first would be mom Taeyong).
Jaehyun had much to think about. On one hand going on this experience with his friends would be so fun and new for him but on the other hand, he still had some commitments to the NCT channel and what if his friends needed him for a video? Furthermore, is it even safe going to some dubious place to film a video? What if a rotten ceiling collapses on them, or even worse, there were rats in the building? Jaehyun needed to make a decision soon but he was firmly stuck on the fence, not sure what to do.
*****
As Jaehyun walked back to the NCT apartment complex (they decided to stay in close vicinity with each other to make the collaborations easier too) he mulled over the idea of joining the 97 channel. It would be fun and hanging out with his friends who he didn’t often get the opportunity to hang out with would be awesome to say the least.
It was only when Jaehyun stepped into the apartment he shared with a few others on the 10th floor and saw Jungwoo and Taeil spread on the couch, each with a wine glass full of chocolate milk, Yuta and Mark trying to film themselves following a Lee Taeyong baking video to “test it out” but getting cocoa powder everywhere did Jaehyun finally make up his mind for real.
He whipped out his phone and snapped a pic of the mess in the apartment and sent it to Taeyong and Doyoung who responded with an angry emoji and a “LOL Taeyong’s pissed” respectively. The two responsible members were probably already getting their brooms and mops, ready to force the 10th floor members to clean up their pig pen of a house.
That’s it, Jaehyun was going to announce the news over dinner.
Notes:
If you made it to the end!! Thank you!!! Do leave me some feedback if you think I should improve on something! If there are any scenes you'd like to request, I'll consider those too!
Chapter Text
“Jaehyun bro, you’re back early.” Johnny remarked as he sauntered out of the kitchen, a wine glass with actual wine in his left hand and a pack of goldfish biscuits in his other hand. It was a feat for Johnny to look so at home when the 10th floor apartment really was not his actual house as he belonged to the 5th floor apartment. Jaehyun nodded and gently fistbumped Johnny’s goldfish-carrying hand. If anyone in the house was to support his upcoming future endeavours it would be his bro Johnny.
Johnny was always there for Jaehyun and assisted him in the many things that he tried to explore, they were even radio DJs together at some point in time. Johnny would probably also be the most liberal with him and accept Jaehyun’s decision to take a break from NCT.
Steeling his heart and resolve, Jaehyun nodded at Johnny and decided to order takeaway for dinner, hoping that the food offering would soften the blow that he was about to give to the other members.
*****
“So…” Jaehyun started as he pushed around a piece of broccoli on his plate, his other hand fidgeting around while he kept his eyes downcast to avoid the other members of the house. He looked very suspicious and the other occupants noticed that right away.
“What’s up Jaehyun? If there’s something you need to tell us go ahead, we won’t judge.” Yuta piped up, guessing that Jaehyun had something to confess to them. Taeil and Mark shared a look as if they were fearing the worst- Jaehyun had gotten some girl pregnant and now they had to help him pick up the pieces of his shattered life (which they knew deep down was unfounded because although Jaehyun acted like a frat boy he was anything but that).
“Well you see, I met up with Jungkook just now. He gave me a preposition that I find hard to turn down.” Jaehyun spilled out. He could not bottle it up anymore and said all of that in a rush. The rest of the people at the dinner table heaved a sigh of relief after realising it wasn’t anything too serious.
Johnny whispered to Taeil and Mark upon seeing their relieved faces, “I knew he wouldn’t… Jaehyun’s not a het.” This caused Jaehyun to look up in confusion as he just heard his name and ‘het’ in the same sentence. It just did not make sense.
Jungwoo motioned for Jaehyun to continue his explanation and the man himself took a quick gulp of wine from Johnny’s glass before spilling the next part of his announcement, “It’s not that I’m quitting NCT but I was thinking of shifting away from my regular content and collaborating with some other friends. I won’t be around to collab with NCT but I will do my part and keep uploading videos onto my channel as part of my agreement with the NCT channel.”
This huge announcement caused the few NCT members with him to stop and gape. It was not unheard of to collaborate with other youtube channels but it was rather new for one of the Neos to focus more on collaborations with other channels rather than an NCT channel. This shift would also likely cause Jaehyun to be unavailable for collaborations in the meantime and it could cause a slight shift in schedules and plans.
Nevertheless Johnny, who was the first to come to his senses, stood up and gave Jaehyun a big bro hug completed with a hard clap on his back. As he pulled back from the hug, he remarked about how Jaehyun finally found something that he was excited to do, instead of just tagging along with the other channels and continuously searching for content to present his subscribers with. Yuta also stood up to give Jaehyun a hug and said that everything would be okay as long as Jaehyun would be happy with his decision. Mark just fake cried a little and said that he would miss his second ‘oppa’, which earned him a headlock from Jaehyun.
It was not much but it did warm Jaehyun’s heart enough for him to know that he made the right decision… so far. Clearly, his members had no idea exactly how dangerous(?) this whole business could be and Jaehyun was dreading the day that they would find out.
*****
It was past his usual bed time when Jaehyun sent a thumbs up emoji to Jungkook and was promptly added into a group chat named ‘97 In’. He had a nagging feeling that Yugyeom was the one who named it with his poor naming sense and lack of creativity in anything not related to music or dance. It was like he had special brain cells for the things he was passionate about and spent the rest of his days with these not-so-special brain cells.
After roasting Yugyeom enough in his head, Jaehyun typed a quick message into the group chat.
Jaehyun: Thanks for having me guys! I’d love to join y’all with this ghost hunting stuff :>
Jungkook: That’s awesome bro. We’re going to get some gear and necessities tomorrow, wanna come?
Yugyeom: We also need you guys to film a video saying we DIDN’T FORCE YOU TO DO THIS!! IN CASE YOU DIE!!!
Eunwoo: Bro what-
Mingyu: .-.
Mingyu: *image*
Mingyu: *image*
Mingyu: *image*
Jungkook: Look what you’ve done. You made him panic.
Yugyeom: Woozi memes?? Why???
Eunwoo: Okay but should I bring my vlog camera or?
Jaehyun: Bro.
*****
“Kookie!”
“Gyeomie!”
“I’ve missed you!”
“I missed you more!”
The two grown men collapsed into a tight hug, Yugyeom burying his face in the coarse fabric of Jungkook’s denim jacket. The two clasped each other tightly, unwilling to let go and drawing strange looks from other people in the mall.
Jaehyun, Mingyu and Eunwoo just stood to the side, each silently contemplating their decision to say yes to filming together with these two best friends(or something more?) that were obviously doing this just to give second-hand embarrassment to the rest of their friends. Jaehyun grabbed Mingyu’s and Eunwoo’s wrists in each hand and dragged them to the nearest camping apparel and supplies shop, leaving the other two to their shenanigans.
With the group split up as such, Jaehyun, Mingyu and Eunwoo who have all been to the Law of the Jungle were searching for useful supplies like small knives, a tent and some gear for their upcoming journey. Jungkook and Yugyeom were to purchase a few SD cards and fixtures as well as a tripod and a few other filming necessities.
“Heavy duty torchlight...Hopefully these will last and like not go out when we are in the darkness…” Jaehyun murmured to himself as he held up what Mingyu had placed into their cart, causing the taller male to pale significantly. Eunwoo gently hit the back of Jaehyun’s hand and shot him a warning look. The trio then added an extra extra pack of batteries just in case they were needed.
*****
“Eunwoo scoot a little closer, you’re barely in the frame. Everyone good? Okay! Hello everyone! Today I’m back with my bff who you guys always ask for me to do collabs with, Jungkook! In addition to him, we have Jaehyun from NCT, Mingyu from Seventeen and the Astronomical Cha Eunwoo! Now you might find them familiar. Jaehyun is from the NCT youtubers channel, Mingyu is from the performing group Seventeen and Eunwoo is the guy you will probably see on all sorts of advertisements in Korea. Well, we’re all friends and we decided to come together and film some youtube videos.
We know how much you guys liked our YugKook haunted house exploration videos in the past and we are proud to say that we will be continuing that but on a bigger scale, with better equipment and more opportunities! Hopefully we can finally answer the question: ‘Are ghosts real?’” As Yugyeom finished his little monologue, Jungkook reached out of frame for a second and heaved a big box onto the table they were sitting behind.
Jungkook took over saying, “See this? This box contains all the new equipment we’ve purchased especially for the channel. We have an EMF reader, a spirit box, a laser beam grid, a more sophisticated spirit box with a screen, a radio looking thing that spirits can touch and some other cool stuff. We also upgraded our cameras with night vision and ultra violet cams and all that good stuff that I really don’t know about but we have our editor Bang Chan who has so kindly agreed to help us for the time being, he knows what he’s doing.”
“Alright boys,” Yugyeom faced the 3 other members of the team, “tell the fans what we’ve practiced.”
“We,” The 3 men started, and named themselves, “Agree to go on this ghost-hunting expedition with Yugyeom and Jungkook as the 97 Investigations team. We are not forced or coerced into joining them and are doing this on our own free will.” All five of them sweatdropped at this as they knew fully that to the audience this would seem highly ironic.
“Binnie-ah, I will be okay and you don’t need to beat Jungkook or Yugyeom up. Myungjun-hyung, behave. Rocky, you’re in charge, don’t listen to Jinwoo-hyung he’s weak for MJ-hyung. ” Eunwoo smiled at the camera with his ‘I’m in pain but I’ll be okay’ eyes.
“Jeonghan-hyung,” Mingyu pouted a little with his puppy eyes making an appearance, “I’ll be okay. Don’t make trouble for Yugyeom and Jungkook.” Despite the nature of his words, Mingyu’s eyes held a clearer message: ‘Hyung, if something happens to me, you must save me…’
“Shotaro, please watch over my loser brother that endlessly pines for you while I’m gone. Johnny-hyung, check up on Mark sometimes. Like once a week. Yuta-hyung, put the toothpaste in the right place okay?”
“Okay! Moving on~” Jungkook piped up before Jaehyun could pull a Taeyong and start nagging. “We’ll be starting on a road trip soon and travelling to the most haunted places in Korea for the 1st season. The second season? Who knows where we will go? So, if you’re excited for us to start this investigation as to whether ghosts are real, drop a like and or a comment and subscribe for the upcoming videos!”
*****
It had been 3 days since the team had filmed their very first video together and today was the day that they were going to head out and start their paranormal investigation. They were going to take Jungkook’s car and Yugyeom would be the one driving (they did not exactly trust Jungkook’s driving skill, he was a bit of a speed devil). Everyone had their allocated seats. The driver’s seat was Yugyeom’s with Jungkook in the passenger seat beside him to occasionally direct him, Eunwoo sat directly behind Yugyeom as he was the backup driver in case Yugyeom got tired on long journeys, Jaehyun sat beside Eunwoo in the second row but left the middle seat empty and Mingyu sat in the back row where there was more leg room for him. He was also tasked with looking after the suitcases with the filming devices and personal belongings.
Yugyeom and Jungkook were picking up the rest of the members at their apartment complexes and they were making sure that they had packed everything that they needed and were ready. Jaehyun was the last one to be picked up and hence after he made a quick check of the things he was supposed to bring they would be ready to go.
After looking around in the trunk for a bit, Jaehyun returned to the rest of the guys, “Bros, I know this sounds a little funny but did we forget to pack some food and water supplies?” The members apart from YugKook had no idea where they were headed for their first investigation and so it made sense that they would want to be prepared for any situation.
“Jungkook…” Yugyeom sighed, rubbing the space between his eyebrows aggressively.
Jungkook gave a sheepish smile and lifted a tattooed hand to scratch the back of his neck slowly, “Oops?”
Jaehyun assured them that he would have that settled as he whipped out his phone and speed dialled someone. Less than 10 minutes later, a pink haired Lee Taeyong with a pink apron saying ‘Best Mom’ ran out of the apartment complex with a large bag of food supplies and drinks in his arms, the bag almost dwarfing his smaller frame.
“Jaehyun-ah! You didn’t pack properly? What would’ve happened if I weren’t at home! Oh hello, you guys are the 97 line right? Thank you for being friends with our Woojae, he’s so clumsy sometimes, do take care of him. Oh Cha Eunwoo? I’m so in love with the kimchi brand you’re advertising, my Jisungie loves the kimchi fried rice I make with it. Speaking of that, look Jaehyun, I came down in such a hurry I left my kitchen while I was filming a baking video. Okay okay, I’ll go now. Bye Jaehyunnie, I love you. Stay safe!” Just like that, the pink-haired whirlwind in the pink frilly apron named Lee Taeyong came and left.
The 97 team all had different emotions on their faces. Jaehyun looked like a kid who got surprised by an overly-sweet and loving mother in front of his friends, Eunwoo looked pleased as if he was told that he was favoured by his friend’s mother, Mingyu was eyeing the giant bag of food in Jaehyun’s arms that looked suspiciously like baked treats and Jungkook and Yugyeom were just laughing their asses off, much to Jaehyun’s chagrin.
After Jaehyun sent a few emojis to Taeyong and answered to a whining Johnny about why the dorm was suddenly cleared of the ‘good stuff’, the group went back to the car and started driving again, this time en route to their haunted destination.
It was at this time that Eunwoo decided that all of them had to call their respective friends and colleagues just to give them a brief idea about the nature of the work that they were going to be doing and exactly what videos they were going to film.
Eunwoo started first and dialled Moon Bin, “Binnie-ah, can you put me on speaker and get the rest to gather for a bit, I need to tell you guys something.” The ever-efficient Moon Bin managed to settle everyone down for the call. “Okay guys, you know that I’m filming with my 97 friends but I don’t think you guys know what kind of videos I’ll be filming. We’re actually going to do some paranormal investigations, how cool is that?”
The sound of a chair scraping the floor could be heard together with Myungjun crying out in distress, “Bin-ah, where are you going?”
A distant reply came with some ruffling noises as Moon Bin started to pull on a coat, “Taking him back.”
Eunwoo tried to calm Bin down as Bin got ready to get up and go after the team, evidently to get Eunwoo back and away from harm. It took nearly 10 minutes of coaxing before Eunwoo could sigh in relief (although he had to promise that he would call them every 6 hours and message them in the group chat every 2 hours when they were at the site). It was evident that the Astro dorm members cared a lot about each other.
The next member on the phone was Mingyu and he decided to call the chillest member to avoid Eunwoo’s fatal mistake.
“Vernon, my brother, could you help me relay something to Seungcheol-hyung?” Mingyu started out. He could not have known that Vernon was currently with THE Boo Seungkwan at that very moment and that Vernon had been threatened to not give away Seungkwan’s presence.
“So anyways, remember that Youtube thing I’m doing with my friends? Well you see, we aren’t exactly doing the food review thing that I said we would be doing… it’s more like… paranormal investigations?” Mingyu’s voice got smaller and higher with each sentence and as he finished speaking it was as if the whole car was waiting with bated breath.
“You WHAT?” came the reply from the other end. It did not sound like Vernon at all. Mingyu knew this immediately and he silently asked the heavens why of all days were Vernon and Seungkwan on a date (they literally did this like everyday, Mingyu was just living under a rock).
“Kim Mingyu, you come here RIGHT NOW or I will set Jihoon-hyung on your trail! How DARE you- you- Do you not value your life anymore?? HUH??” Attack came after attack and it seemed that Boo Seungkwan was trained as a rapper instead of a vocalist for the speed in which he scolded Mingyu could make even Min Yoongi shed a tear.
It seemed that Vernon was trying to calm Seungkwan down on the other end but all of Seungkwan’s shouting had aroused the attention and piqued the interest of the rest of the Seventeen members in the dorm. This led Mingyu to speak with Seungcheol and Jeonghan who really were not pleased by the situation if their voices could divulge any of their thoughts about this whole matter.
“Mingyu-ah,” Jeonghan started in a honey sweet voice, “If you don’t come back alive and well, I’ll bring you back to life and kill you again.” Jeonghan’s tone got darker towards the end, no doubt fully intending on carrying out any punishment he deemed worthy if Mingyu was not safe and sound.
Mingyu finally managed to get out of that bone-chilling call, swearing to himself that he would never trust Vernon again despite himself being at fault for not assuming that Vernon and the megaphone-mouthed Seungkwan were already joined at the hip.
Jaehyun had decided on a smarter plan to get himself out of the trouble he knew he would be getting into. He deliberated for a while before pressing on Jisung’s contact number. Jeno and Jaemin were already upset that he would not join their videos during this time, Chenle was probably at basketball practice, Renjun would definitely not bother to help him, Mark is unreliable when he is very nervous, Shotaro and Sungchan were probably on a platonic not-so-platonic date now and Donghyuck just wanted to see the world burn. Jisung was the only choice left. He was also Taeyong’s favourite son.
“Jisungie, do me a favour and I’ll give you my switch. And my animal crossing account.”
“I like your words, magic man. Speak. What can I do for you?”
And that was how Jisung was bribed into gathering NCT and saying what Jaehyun told him to say. Although he was slightly older now, everyone still treated him as their little baby. Jisung and Sungchan managed to say a few nice words for Jaehyun and although he still did receive a very angry looking emoji from Taeyong, he was safe for now. He really did owe Jisung a lot and Jaehyun promised himself that he would stay alive until he could come back and personally pass the switch to Jisung.
Jungkook and Yugyeom were exempt from this little confession time and the boys were already passing around a few of the biscuits that Taeyong had packed into a ziplock bag with ‘For Jaehyunie (and friends)’ written on it in a pink sharpie.
Everything was fine until Jungkook decided to share some of the details of their first destination with the members. They were all listening intently and making mental notes, especially Cha Eunwoo whose fingers were itching for a pen and notebook to make some notes in.
However, as Yugyeom went along a wide stretch with no other cars in sight, a loud, tight rapping came from the trunk- A Knock.
Notes:
Any comments are appreciated (pls don't be mean though T-T) and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know my writing needs work and I am trying to work on it! I'm writing the next few chapters and I think you'll like them if you're a Stay hehe.
Chapter 3: Run
Notes:
Thank you for reading my fic once again! I've been stuck in a period of writer's block but I'm trying my best! I try to schedule my updates for Sunday/Monday but the updates might get a bit irregular(haha regular-irregular) in the future and I'm sorry about that! Anyways let's get spooky~
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Did you guys hear that?” Mingyu whispered into the silent car (he would later realise that this would be his future catchphrase). Dongmin turned his head to face the back row where his cousin was huddling with a pile of equipment and baggage with his hand still in a jar of cookies and sugar granules stuck on his lips.
Dongmin slowly nodded his head as he watched Mingyu tense up even more and look around warily. There was no denying the loud knock sound that came from the back of the car. The only question was- did it come from the inside or the outside?
Yugyeom pulled over by the road as Jungkook wanted to check the car and make sure there were no dents or faulty machine parts as it took him some effort to even get the car in the first place.
As Jungkook rounded over to the back of the car with Dongmin in tow, they found themselves staring at a clear handprint right smack in the middle of the trunk which was only visible as the surface was caked in dust except for the part where the handprint was.
"Dude," Dongmin began while putting his acting skills to use and trying to keep cool, "Do you not wash your car? Why is it so nasty?" The silence stretched on as Jungkook tried to process whatever was happening. It wasn't normal to have a handprint show up randomly right?
"Whatever man, don't complain so much about the outside, what matters is the inside." Jungkook finally muttered and took one last look at the back of the trunk to make sure there weren't any more weird things before he pushed Dongmin back into the car. The two seemed to have agreed on not saying a word to the other people in the car and Jungkook just told Yugyeom to keep driving.
Jaehyun started to fiddle with the cameras after he got bored using his phone and he decided to document parts of their journey and said that the video should at least be 'aesthetic' as he puts it. This got Mingyu to come out of his fear-induced silence and they talked randomly and had mini skits while Dongmin just looked on with a signature eye smile.
'Yes, it's all coming together… With these gorgeous men surely we will get a decent amount of views.' Yugyeom thought to himself and a sinister-looking grin appeared on his face as Jungkook looked at him with a judging raise of his eyebrow, he knew exactly what Yugyeom was currently thinking about.
"Kook, where are we going today?" Jaehyun asks as he points the camcorder to the passenger seat where Jungkook was intensely checking out a map.
Jungkook looked up from his map and waved at the camera and smiled cutely while saying, "Just a regular old haunted hospital. I heard it burned down and many patients could not get out in time so we might meet their lingering souls there." Mingyu and Dongmin felt a shiver down their spine at this and looked quite distraught.
"Oookay… Good to know…" Jaehyun voiced out and continued his little travel vlog while Yugyeom reminded him not to use up too much of the battery just in case they needed the camcorder later.
*****
It wasn't long before they neared the abandoned hospital and Dongmin could practically feel the air getting heavier as they exited the car with their gear. The stars twinkled in the dark sky and on a usual night, he would have thought that they looked beautiful but tonight, the stars seemed to be sending him a warning.
Yugyeom was holding onto the big video camera that they used for filming while Jungkook, Dongmin, Jaehyun and Mingyu were given gopros that they could hold on a stick or attach to their own bodies. Mingyu and Jungkook chose to attach the gopros to themselves with a harness (Mingyu wanted to be able to run away freely and Jungkook was planning on using both hands to explore) while Jaehyun and Dongmin opted for the selfie stick.
They were all carrying torches with a packet of spare batteries in their matching bags and small ziplock bags of Taeyong's treats. Of course, Jungkook was also holding onto the ghostly devices like the spirit box and the different sensors.
"Dude, this is so cool." Mingyu breathed as he turned the thermal camera to face the abandoned building they were standing outside of. The blue seen on the screen would signify an inanimate or 'cold' object while red would appear on the screen when the camera was directed to a human or a generally living being. Mingyu did not notice the flash of red that disappeared around the corner of the very blue building.
The gang walked around the perimeter of the building to see if there was any place they could enter the building as the front entrance was locked up with a rusty looking bolt. It was Jaehyun who noticed the window pane that was left propped up to the building, showing a way that other thrill-seeking explorers had used to enter the building.
Jungkook was the first to climb into the building, promptly yelling that it smelled like dank wet socks in there and Yugyeom got a closeup of Jungkook’s disgusted face as he held a hand out to Mingyu who climbed in next. Yugyeom was the last to enter the building as he filmed his friends entering the building first and he could not help but try to shake off the cold feeling he had as he waited outside the building.
Each of them had a torchlight with them while Yugyeom looked through the camera which had a night vision function which made it easy for him to navigate if all the torchlights failed halfway. Jungkook was pushed to the front by Mingyu who mumbled something about him being practically immortal. Jaehyun chuckled and grabbed the spacing out Dongmin closer to himself lest he get left behind. Yugyeom walked behind the group and tried to get them all into one frame.
“Stop. Jungkook stop, I think there’s-” Mingyu let out a shrill scream and held his arms up as if to protect himself as something black came flying at him.
It was a bat. An angry little bat that had its space intruded. Jaehyun had to rub Mingyu’s back as he tried hard not to tear up while Jungkook chased the bat away. It wasn’t the best start to their ghost hunting career.
After a while, Mingyu managed to collect himself and they continued on and climbed up to the third floor which was the children’s floor in the hospital. Yugyeom panned the camera around the empty hallway as the rest of the team decided on a ward to enter.
“Hello? Anybody at home?” Jaehyun called as he knocked on the door of the ward and went inside. Deciding that the floor of the room was relatively clean, they sat down in a little circle on the floor and placed the spirit box in the middle of the circle together with a single sweet (courtesy of Dongmin) as a peace offering.
The spirit box crackled to life as Yugyeom reached to turn it on and they watched the machine with bated breath as it sped through the radio stations.
“H...Hello,” The team could make out the greeting and Mingyu paled even more as he heard the following words, “Visit...me?” Why on earth was he here again?
“Hi, yep we are here to visit you. What’s your name?” Jungkook said loudly to the air around them. The machine gave a few more unintelligible sputters and none of them could make out what they were.
“Hey what’s your name?” Jaehyun tried again after a while and this time the machine was able to spit out one single word, “Lia.” Jaehyun froze at this, not really sure what to do now that it seemed that something had answered him. Could it be just a coincidence?
“It seems like they like you, Jaehyunnie.” Yugyeom remarked softly from behind the huge camera that he had pointed towards the group. Jaehyun nodded his head stiffly, his lips pursed together as he fell deep into thought.
“I’ll try next. Lia, is this the hospital ward that you’re staying in?” Dongmin tried as he looked into the centre of the circle that they had formed. The answer from the spirit box was as clear as day and left the members shooked.
Mingyu exhaled heavily and rubbed at his face, “It said yes. Can you believe it guys?”
Not more than two seconds later the spirit box spat out more words, “Not it. I’m a girl.” The reproachful tone was lost somewhere along the way but nonetheless it made Mingyu jump in fright and he nearly jumped all the way onto Jaehyun who he was sitting next to.
So it seemed that the being that they were talking to was a little girl called Lia who lived in this ward a long time ago and did not like Jungkook since she never once responded to any of his questions, much to his frustration. The group continued to ask Lia questions and she revealed that she was eight years old.
“Well, Lia, it’s past your bedtime. We’re sorry that we kept you up all this time. Now we’re gonna head down to explore some more okay?” Dongmin spoke up as they all stood up and collected their gear they had left on the ground. Jungkook reached out for the spirit box but it crackled once more.
“Don’t go. Scary.”
And that was all it said because the spirit box seemed to have lost power and the crackling died down as the battery was depleted.
“Did you hear that? She said it was scary and told us not to go!” Mingyu cried out, his eyes as wide as saucers at this point and he fumbled around with the spirit box trying to turn it on again.
“We still have to go though. That’s what we came here for, a solid piece of evidence and I believe we’ll get it downstairs at the place where the fire originated- the kitchen.” Jungkook spoke to the group which had varying emotions written on their faces. Jaehyun was stoic, Dongmin was unsure, Mingyu was terrified and Yugyeom, as usual, was down for anything.
*****
“Hey Binnie, yes I’m okay. No, I’ll be back tomorrow. You don’t even know where I am right now! Okay put those muscles to use and clean the apartment while I’m gone- no don’t disturb Sanha he has exams to study for.” Dongmin was calling his friends as he had promised them he’d do so while he was investigating with the team. The rest of the team were talking to the camera as they explained what they had experienced on the third floor.
“Now, we’re going to explore the first level where the fire that burned down the entire building had first occurred. I’ll give you guys a run down of what happened. November 1968, the heaters in the hospital weren’t working properly and the hospital was so cold. One day, the kitchen was left unattended while one of the stoves was still on. That sparked a fire which grew bigger really quickly due to the safety hazards in the kitchen, the boxes of cardboard and trash that hadn’t been cleared away. The patients could not escape in time and many perished due to the smoke inhalation. While the fire was big, it didn’t really spread to the upper levels which is why the walls weren’t that charred up there compared to down here.” Jungkook ended as he briefed the team and the viewers of what was to come.
Mingyu held the door as the team strode into the burnt kitchen. For a place that had been on fire a long time ago, it was surprising that it didn’t look that bad. Jaehyun wondered at the back of his mind if the building would collapse on them at any moment and he honestly did not know.
Yugyeom was taking close up videos of the burnt pieces of wood left behind and Dongmin was using the thermal camera to sweep across the room in case they found something. Mingyu was sticking close to Jaehyun who was setting up the spirit box and a laser beam grid in the doorway and Jungkook was putting up some candles- wait what.
“Dude, you can’t set up candles in a place that burned down!” Yugyeom groaned when he finally noticed what Jungkook had been doing for the past five minutes. He was almost done now, the candles were arranged in a heart formation and Yugyeom seriously did not know why.
Jungkook looked up from his candle arrangement and smiled brightly at the rest of them, “What are they gonna do about it?” Mingyu nearly passed out from sheer nervousness alone.
Finally the group settled down within the kitchen and set in a circle around the candles, except for Yugyeom who was filming from the side, while Jungkook fished in a backpack for some tools. He pulled out a pair of shiny rods and passed them over to Dongmin who looked at them questioningly.
“Dowsing rods, you hold them in your hands parallel to each other while tucking your thumb to the side,” Jungkook positioned the rods in Dongmin’s hands, “These are tools that the spirits can use to communicate with us.” Jungkook finished and Dongmin blanched a little as he realised the implication of his current actions.
“If there are any spirits with us right now, can you please make the rods cross?” Jungkook spoke into the darkness and they watched the poorly lit rods with bated breaths. Nothing happened.
Mingyu tried again, “If there is someone here with us, can you please make the rods cross?” Mingyu nearly passed out again when the rods slowly moved inwards. He pointed an accusing finger at Dongmin, “You crossed it didn’t you!” To which Dongmin scoffed nervously and said that his thumbs were tucked over his other fingers and could not rotate the rods. He looked around the room with shaky pupils and sweat was steadily beading up on his forehead, making the rest trust him solely due to how scared he looked.
“Okay… can you point the rods to where you are in the room?” Jaehyun piped up from opposite Dongmin. Dongmin’s eyebrows shot up as the rods in his hands started wildly spinning around in circles and suddenly came to a stop, pointing directly at Mingyu.
Mingyu paled even more and his tanned skin seemed to look more like Dongmin’s snow white skin. He kept his eyes looking forward as he desperately tried to keep himself from breaking out into shivers. The rest of the group focused on the darkness behind him. Yugyeom turned the camera to focus on Mingyu and the darkness looming behind him.
Mingyu was sitting with his back facing the direction of the kitchen counter and there were remnants of a burnt shelf near the counter, directly under a vent. Yugyeom shone his camera light at the corner and Dongmin stared deep into the darkness of the vent that they had just realised, his gut was turning and flipping over and he just wanted this all to end.
Sensing this, Jaehyun took the rods from Dongmin and continued on, “If you died here during the fire, can you cross the rods?” They watched as the rods slowly crossed inwards and then rotated back to their original parallel positions.
“D-did you just see that? Yo… am I dreaming right now?” Mingyu rubbed at his eyes as he stared with a slack jaw at the rods. He extended his hand to Jaehyun and asked if he could try it too and Jaehyun passed them over.
Mingyu gingerly held onto the two rods parallel to each other and spoke softly, “If you want us to-” Mingyu was cut off half way by a loud boom above them. They all looked at each other as if they were searching each other for answers with their eyes.
It took another crash and another loud boom for Yugyeom to pick himself up from the ground and angle it at the guys as they fled from the kitchen, Mingyu leading the way. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone with them in the building as the only way to get upstairs was visible to them and they hadn’t seen anyone enter the building after them.
The group ran out of the building after blowing out the candles and picking them up, getting hot candle wax on the floor and their hands. Mingyu wiped the wax on his pants as he hoisted himself up and out of the window, falling to the ground below with a loud thud. The rest of them hurried after him and made their way to the car and threw themselves inside.
Yugyeom, who had passed his camera to Jungkook, dove into the driver’s seat and started up the car, pulling out of the parking lot as soon as the engine got back up. Jungkook on the other hand had directed the camera to the hospital building and they saw a row of lights flicker on and off.
It was only when they were well on the road were they able to relax slightly. Jungkook panned the camera to the second row where Mingyu, Jaehyun and Dongmin were crammed together. Dongmin and Mingyu still had their faces frozen with shock while Jaehyun was just slightly wide eyed.
“That was fu- screwed up.” Mingyu corrected himself just as he was about to let out a curse. Yugyeom nodded absentmindedly from the front as he gripped the steering wheel even harder.
“I don’t know about you guys but my heart is pounding right now,” Dongmin said as he held one hand to his heart which was still pounding rapidly, “What the heck was that back there? Did you see the lights flicker? Shouldn’t the building be out of power already? And was it a person who was walking up there?”
Jaehyun scoffed and rolled his eyes, “Obviously someone snuck in after us and stomped around. We were touring around the building and even stayed in the children’s ward. There was plenty of time for someone to sneak in without us knowing and scaring the life out of us.”
Jaehyun made sense, he really did. There were so many opportunities for someone with suspicious intentions to follow them and it was not hard to guess why someone would. Pranking a group of people who were practically asking to get scared.
“Okay, what about the dowsing rods and the spirit box then? How do we explain that?” Mingyu questioned. They fell into a silence as they contemplated his words.
“We’ll save that for discussion when we find a hotel room, buddy.” Yugyeom spoke up after a while, his eyes still trained on the road. Jungkook had turned off the camera by now and was looking up the nearest hotel that they could go to since it was already past midnight.
They lumbered up the stairs leading to the hotel and made their way to the front desk, the hotel employee looked at them weirdly and what a weird sight it must have been, five men wearing almost all black with matching bags and a huge camera.
“Can I help you?” Yerim, the hotel front desk employee, asked with the most polite smile she could muster. Jaehyun took the lead for this one as he asked if there were any rooms available for them to stay the night. “I’m sorry, most of the rooms are booked already.” Yerim apologised profusely while the group of guys in front of her visibly deflated.
“Surely there must be a room that is available right now? We just need to stay the night, we’re too tired to drive back to Seoul.” Jungkook pleaded as he activated the ‘maknae’ eyes which usually worked on his older friends.
“Well, there is a room,” Yerim began but not without a mysterious twinkle in her eyes, “but you see, it’s a little complicated. Some guests refuse to use the room, they say it’s creepy. I’ve been working here for a year but I don’t know much, I only help them change the rooms for those guests but the manager told us to stop putting that room up for bookings…” Yerim trailed off as she tried to gauge the reactions of the men before her.
The tall, tanner guy groaned softly and hid his face in his palm while the tall one with the pale skin just looked a little dazed, the man that she had first spoken to just had an unreadable look on his face, the man holding the large camera then looked expectantly at the last guy and they shared a look of understanding.
“You’re telling us the room is haunted?” The man with the camera asked. When Yerim nodded hesitatingly, the other man spoke up immediately, “Perfect! We’ll take it!” while slapping a credit card onto the counter with a grin on his face. The two tall giants in the back groaned slightly at this.
*****
“You’re gonna end up killing us Jungkook!” Mingyu shrieked as he plopped down onto one of the two beds in the room. They were only able to book this one room with two beds which meant that they all had to share a bed with someone else. Jaehyun had opted to sleep on a pull out bed that the hotel had provided for them while Mingyu and Dongmin shared a bed and Jungkook and Yugyeom shared one.
“Come on, we’ll just stay here for a couple hours and get some rest before heading back. No biggie.” Yugyeom grinned as he shrugged and grabbed a towel as he headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.
“How much do you wanna bet that he’s not afraid and he’s just trying to mess with us.” Mingyu asked as he turned to his cousin who rolled his eyes and said that it was obvious that he was trying to mess with them.
Jaehyun quietly settled onto his mattress and scrolled through his phone while Jungkook started to set up a small camera in the room.
“So I’ve heard that there is some activity in this room,” Jungkook began and spread out his arms as he walked around the room, “so I set up some cameras, just in case you wanted to show us what you can do!”
Dongmin face palmed and he did it so hard he thought his handprint was going to be imprinted on his face. Mingyu rolled his eyes and just decided to burrow under the covers and pretend he was back home which was nice, safe, and-
Yugyeom shouted.
The water in the bathroom turned off abruptly and there was a loud thud sound of something hitting the floor.
Notes:
As always, please leave a kudo or a comment (pls comment something, anything is fine T-T) I enjoy writing and I still have a long way to go in terms of my writing! I hope everyone stays safe during this period of time and if you're able to, do give our friends in need a helping hand! They could be near us or in a country far away from some of us but every little action contributes to the bigger picture!
Chapter 4: Hit
Notes:
Welcome back! (and welcome if you're new!) I'm still in a writing dry spell and recently I've been a little spooked about writing ghost stuff so I'm just suffering but I'm trying to write better and faster. Please enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Yugyeom!” Jungkook shouted as he booked it for the bathroom where Yugyeom was. Where a loud thud noise was heard together with his shout.
Jungkook continued to throw himself at the door, trying to force it open and he was about to make a running start to slam himself into the door when it swung open.
Yugyeom lay on the floor with nothing but a soaked bath towel to cover himself up. His back shook with every ragged breath that he took it and there was something black laying in the palm of his hand. Dongmin and Jaehyun rushed past Jungkook into the small bathroom to help their friend back onto his feet and they brought him out to the room where Mingyu had prepared another towel for him and a space to sit on the bed.
Yugyeom kept silent, his fist curled tightly into a ball as he started to dry himself off and pull on some clothes that Jungkook had retrieved from the bathroom. “What the hell was that?” Jaehyun asked as soon as Yugyeom finished dressing himself. Yugyeom kept his silence as his gaze slowly moved towards the bathroom.
With shaky hands, Yugyeom uncurled his fist and showed what he had been keeping in his palm since he left the bathroom. It was a bundle of hair, hair that was longer than anyone’s in the room. The hair was midnight black and shone in the light of the room, slightly damp too.
“I puked this out.” Yugyeom said simply. He was met with blank stares projected at him. Yugyeom knew that this sounded horribly fake, how on earth was he supposed to prove what had happened to him?
As the others continued to look at him questioningly and Mingyu gestured for him to continue, he took a deep breath and began, “As you all know, I went in for a quick shower. Hold on, Minnie can you shut the bathroom door? I feel a little uncomfortable with it in view. Thank you. Okay, so I was showering and I had already gotten into the shower when I felt something itching at my throat. I was trying to cough it up but it wasn’t working and so I stuck my fingers into my mouth and felt something at the back of my throat. I pulled it out and saw this. I freaked out and tried to get out of the shower but I slipped and fell and heard Jungkook freaking out so I unlocked the door and that’s how you guys found me. Don’t ever tell BamBam you saw me naked, he’ll never live it down.”
Yugyeom tried to joke at the end but his friends were still looking at him a little weirdly. “So you’re saying,” Jungkook began with uncertainty written all over his face, “You coughed a hairball up? What are you, a cat?” It wasn’t that Jungkook didn’t believe in his friend, it was just that the situation was so unbelievable and made no sense at all that he was baffled by it.
“Could it be the room acting up? After all this room… and the fact that Jungkook was instigating the spirits to act up just as Yugyeom fell in the shower…” Mingyu trailed off, his thoughts were clear to everyone in the room. Something was acting out against them in this small room and they (most of them) wanted to find out what it was.
Yugyeom spoke up in a small voice. “You guys trust me right? I know it’s crazy but I really had no time or energy to pull this off as a joke or a prank. If it was a prank I would have set up the cameras somewhere first…”
It was at this moment where Dongmin noticed something under the collar of Yugyeom’s t-shirt. “Hold still.” He said simply as he reached for Yugyeom’s shirt and pulled the collar down. On the back of Yugyeom’s neck was a line that was covered by the shirt. Dongmin yanked at the shirt and Yugyeom automatically raised his arms to take it off. He had no idea what was going on but Dongmin was always right about something so he just decided to follow.
When Dongmin managed to get Yugyeom’s shirt off, Mingyu and Jaehyun gasped as they were in full view of his back. A long line ran from the base of Yugyeom’s neck and down his back, with a couple more scratches littering the broadness of his back.
“What in the world…” Jungkook breathed as he traced a finger down Yugyeom’s spine where the longest scratch mark lay. “Did you not feel any pain?” Jungkook asked as Yugyeom tried to turn his head to see his own back. Jaehyun took a picture of Mingyu’s back and showed the photograph to him.
Yugyeom gasped and his hand flew to his mouth as he stared at the photo in shock. He had not experienced any pain and it was surreal to see his back with so many scratches as if a cat decided that he had become its new scratch post.
Jaehyun dug through his bag for some ointment and gingerly applied it to Yugyeom’s back and Yugyeom flinched a little as he could the sting of the scratches. Jungkook had a grim look on his face as he thought about what happened in the hotel room. He had never wanted any of his friends to get hurt on their supernatural journey and the recent events had him questioning his entire motive and will to move on with this.
Yugyeom knew that look in Jungkook’s eye. It was one that he saw in the mirror too back before they were able to debut and start their careers. Sensing Jungkook’s rising panic, he nudged at Mingyu to carry over the big camera so that they could film Yugyeom’s back and his personal testimony. The show had to go on.
“Hey guys! As you guys probably know by now, I am the usual camera guy for this channel and we are currently in a random hotel we found on the way after leaving the abandoned hospital. Well everything was going fine until I took a shower and got spooked and fell down in the bathroom. As you can see here, I got some scratches on my back that we can’t think up an explanation for. I fell on my hands and knees and they’re still a little red. In fact, I didn’t even know my back was scratched until Dongmin saw it. And that’s it for tonight. Hopefully, we’ll get some sleep and get back on the road so we can organise our footage and have the video up on Youtube ASAP.” Yugyeom ended his little monologue to the camera as he sat on the bed and the others were seated behind him, nodding along as they backed up Yugyeom’s statements.
Finally, they kept the big camera and turned on the smaller cameras and go pros as they prepared to retire to their beds. Yugyeom had been afraid of going into the bathroom alone and had dragged Jungkook in with him so they could brush their teeth and clear their bladders.
Mingyu and Dongmin were already curled up in bed and fast asleep by the time the duo came back and Jaehyun was in his bed, talking softly on the phone to one of the Neos. If Jungkook had to guess, it would either be Taeyong or Sungchan.
Jungkook and Yugyeom climbed into their bed and did one last check for any messages from friends or family that needed them to immediately respond. They tucked themselves in and slowly drifted off into sleep and the light from Jaehyun’s phone was the last thing they saw as they fell into a deep sleep.
Now, Jaehyun was the only one awake as he stayed up a little longer to talk to his little brother Sungchan who was complaining about something to do with the fact that the Neo 2000 liners kept stealing quality Shotaro time away from him. Jaehyun chuckled as he watched his brother pout and sulk at the other end. After spending a bit more time with his brother, he determined it was about time for Sungchan to sleep too and had ended the call.
Enveloped in darkness, except from the soft glow of a small light he had turned on as a nightlight, Jaehyun rested his head on his arms as he faced the ceiling. So much had happened in one day and yet he felt like there could have been explanations for everything that happened. Well, except for Yugyeom’s hairball fest.
Jaehyun was a skeptic and he knew that too. He had so readily agreed to join them based on the fact that he didn’t really believe in ghosts. All the horror movies that he watched with Jaemin and Jeno had never fazed him. He wasn’t even sure he believed in the afterlife, let alone a couple of ghosts that wanted to wreak havoc and revenge.
Still, he played along when they were doing the investigations. He spoke to the spirit box, asked questions using the dowsing rods and he never downplayed or ignored his friends’ (Mingyu’s mainly) fear of the unseen and the unknown.
For some reason, he was drawn to the bathroom where Yugyeom had encountered something that night. The door had been left shut the moment the YugKook duo had left the bathroom and he grasped the knob lightly in his hand and turned it slightly.
Darkness. All Jaehyun saw was darkness.
*****
“-hyun. Jaehyun-ah! Wake up!” Dongmin’s voice resounded around the empty dark room that Jaehyun was in. Jaehyun looked around but all he could see was darkness that enveloped him so much so that he couldn’t even see his hand that he stuck out in front of him.
Back in the room, Dongmin had woken up after feeling a great sense of unease and his fears were not unfounded when he found Jaehyun lying on the floor outside the bathroom with the door slightly ajar. He had no idea how long Jaehyun had been laying there and it was already five in the morning according to his watch. Panic flooded his entire being as he shook Jungkook awake and ripped the blanket off of Mingyu.
Dongmin collapsed to the floor next to Jaehyun and tried to shake him awake but Jaehyun remained unconscious. The only thing that reassured Dongmin that Jaehyun was alive was his heartbeat and regular breaths. This wasn’t an emergency, though the way Jaehyun wouldn’t wake was concerning.
Jungkook manhandled Jaehyun onto his own bed which Yugyeom had hopped out of after he heard the commotion and Mingyu snuck back to the open bathroom door to close it firmly again. Yugyeom grabbed a water pistol that he noticed in Mingyu’s bag and sprayed a little at the unconscious man.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Jaehyun took a deep gasp as he recoiled in the bed and the areas where the water hit his face slowly reddened. At least Jaehyun was awake now as he rubbed numbly at his skin while looking around with frantic eyes.
“Hey buddy, you’re okay now. You fainted on the ground just now, you good?” Jungkook tried to soften his voice and lowered it so that Jaehyun would feel more comfortable. Jaehyun nodded along but his eyes betrayed the intense amount of confusion that he felt.
Jaehyun rubbed at a spot at the back of his head as he tried to collect himself. It was weird, he still felt so loopy and for the longest period of time he had been unable to open his eyes despite being able to hear his friends around him panicking as they tried to rouse him from sleep.
“Mingyu, what did you put into the water gun? Jaehyun’s face is turning red now.” Yugyeom’s voice was tinged with concern as he gently ran a finger over the red spots on Jaehyun’s face where the water gun had shot at him.
Mingyu paled slightly as he realised what Yugyeom was talking about. There was no way the contents of the water gun were able to make one’s skin red though…
“H-holy water. It’s holy water. I was afraid and went to church with Joshua and the priest blessed the water and gave it to me.” Mingyu stuttered a little as he made eye contact with Jaehyun who looked thoroughly confused now.
“Holy water shouldn’t irritate the skin though?” Dongmin wondered out loud. “It is normal water that has been blessed after all. There shouldn’t be any…” He trailed off with an unreadable look on his face. Dongmin crossed the room to rummage in his backpack and once he grabbed onto what he was looking for, he straightened up and walked right in front of Jaehyun who was seated at the foot of a bed.
Carefully, Dongmin took the mysterious object from his hand and placed it over Jaehyun’s head until it rested in the middle of his collarones. The silver glittered in the dim light as it laid flat against Jaehyun’s skin where the tank top he was wearing could not cover.
Dongmin breathed a sigh of relief as Jaehyun did not show any adverse reaction to the shiny metal at the base of his throat. “A crucifix?” Jaehyun asked as he furrowed his eyebrows slightly. He really did not have much idea on what was going on.
“Unholy things get burned by holy water.” Mingyu’s eyes lit up with the realisation and he pointed straight at Jaehyun. “You probably fainted because something was messing with you! And then it was inside of you so you got burnt by the holy water!” Mingyu felt like he could see the entirety of the universe at this very moment.
“Minnie, where did you get the crucifix from?” Jungkook enquired as he looked at Dongmin. He had never mentioned anything about religion before.
“Ah, it was a gift from Sanha- my maknae- he’s religious and I actually let it slip to him that we were investigating this kind of stuff so he passed me one of his crucifixes just in case. I actually didn’t really want to take it since it belonged to him but I’m glad we are able to use it now.” Dongmin said as he eyed Jaehyun who was still sitting on the bed although he was relaxing a little more compared to his stiff form earlier.
Jungkook on the other hand started to dash around the room, pulling the cameras out from where they were supposed to be filming and carefully turning them off, all the while yelling at the guys. “We should go. It’s not good to stay here with all this energy, let’s head back. Pack up guys and don’t use the bathroom here, we can go to the one near the reception.”
The rest of the guys didn’t object and they all managed to get out of the room in 10 minutes and headed down to the lobby to freshen up in the public toilet downstairs. As Jungkook and Yugyeom returned the room key and checked out, the receptionist looked at them with curious eyes.
Yugyeom saw that her name was Dahyun from her name tag. “Ms Dahyun, we think it is wise for the hotel to keep that room off limits except for people who would really like a ghostly encounter.” Yugyeom offered a few words as they parted and they made their way to the car.
Dongmin slid into the front seat with Mingyu in the passenger seat as they deemed that Yugyeom still looked too tired to drive all the way back to Seoul. Jungkook sat in the backseat as Jaehyun and Yugyeom, the two most affected by their hotel stay, huddled together in the middle row and leaned on each other as they tried to find a comfortable position for napping.
“I think we should talk a bit about what happened last night and 30 minutes ago.” Jungkook spoke up from the backseat while Dongmin started the engine. Mingyu nodded and turned to face the others behind.
“Ghosts are real and last night was proof that we should be afraid.” Mingyu whined.
“‘Last night was proof that we should be afraid’. Good news everyone, we’ve found the name of Mingyu’s sex tape.” Yugyeom snickered from the second row and yelped when Mingyu swung a fist backwards to hit him in the arm.
Dongmin shook his head despite the corners of his lips rising and he tried to set the topic back on track. “Well, Jaehyun seems to be quite okay while wearing that cross so I just suggest that he wear it. I can explain to Sanha about it later. Also Jaehyun, please make sure a member watches over you at home. It would be bad if something else happened.” Dongmin frowned slightly at the last part, worry was clouding over his features.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure Jung Sungchan gives his brother a little affection instead of being whipped and following his Japanese crush around 24/7.” Jaehyun rolled his eyes at the mention of his little brother but it was clear as day to the rest of the group in the car that his voice got softer as he talked about his brother.
Mingyu had the last remaining ziplock bag from Taeyong and periodically fed cookies to Dongmin who had his eyes firmly trained on the road. They returned to Seoul after a couple of hours of driving and Dongmin dropped them off at their dorms. Jaehyun was the first to be dropped off, followed by Mingyu and then Yugyeom. Since the car belonged to Jungkook, he left the car with him and decided to call up one of his friends to pick him up instead.
Jungkook had other plans and decided to invite Dongmin to his apartment for a bit, saying that Dongmin should rest a little at his place before making his way back home. Dongmin nodded along as he was feeling a bit tired from driving the way back home and Jungkook always talked about his awesome coffee machine back at home, courtesy of a certain Min Yoongi who had bought it for him. As they walked towards the lift in silence, with Jungkook leading the way and activating the lift with his keycard in a cute cardholder with a pink rabbit printed on it, there was a war waging on in Dongmin’s head.
Should he tell Jungkook about what he saw in the rearview mirror?
Notes:
Thank you for making it this far! Today's chapter was a little short (Chan will appear soon I promise!!) and does anyone know what's up with Jaehyun 0.0 ? I realised that I've started it off a little too strongly with the ghostly stuff but at this point I'm just building more on top of it smh.
Chapter 5: Make A Wish
Notes:
Anotha one! I'm trying my best but updates might get more spaced out in the future! I have so many ideas and other fics that I want to write but I want to finish with this one first! I'm estimating that I'll write slightly more than 20 chapters! As always, please enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Make yourself comfortable, Minnie!” Jungkook cheered as he dumped his bags onto the dining table and a couple of chairs and gestured to the large sofa that sat before the large curved television.
Dongmin slowly sat on the sofa, afraid that it would somehow break. Dongmin shared the apartment with his two older friends, the vocalist Kim Taehyung and the vocalist-dancer Park Jimin, and Dongmin did not want to accidentally break something.
As he leaned back into the comfortable grey sofa that he thought would swallow him alive in a plushy cloud, Jungkook was tottering around in the kitchen and making a din as he started up the coffee machine and prepared a cup for his guest.
It seemed that the other occupants of the flat were not at home and this made Dongmin relax a little more. Truth be told, he had never met Jungkook’s older friends and he was nervous to meet them, despite Jungkook telling him that they would love him.
Dongmin fiddled with his fingers as he contemplated divulging the secret to Jungkook. It was unmistakable what Dongmin had seen in the rearview mirror and it seemed that no one else in the car had noticed the same thing that he had seen. So why Dongmin? Why was he the only who saw the mysterious figure clinging onto the back of the car?
Dark hair hanging over a deathly pale face, red eyes covered by the curtain of hair, a frame so small and skinny dressed in a tattered white dress with fingertips a bloody red from where the nails had fallen off… Dongmin thought she looked exactly like how the ghosts in horror movies looked like. He couldn’t tear his gaze from her whenever he looked into the rearview mirror and had to force himself to keep his eyes firmly on the road.
Surprisingly, no one else in the car had mentioned anything about the figure clad in white hanging onto the back of the car and now Dongmin was with the guy who was sitting just a couple of inches away from the back of the car where Dongmin had seen the figure. Said man was humming while stirring milk into the coffees, a serene look on his face.
Dongmin did wonder, was Jungkook afraid of ghosts? He did act like nothing in the world would faze him but Dongmin knew, as an actor, many things could be faked. Was Jungkook also trying to put on a brave front all the time for the sake of his friends?
“Dongmin, here you go!” Jungkook placed the two steaming mugs on the coffee table and brought out a plate of cookies and biscuits for them to share. Dongmin thanked his host and they sat together, slowly sipping from their respective cups.
“Dude, are you okay? You don’t look so good- I mean you always look good but you’re looking a little off- I didn’t mean that in a bad way-”
Dongmin cut Jungkook off before he could panic, “I’m fine, don’t worry about it! Just thinking about our trip and stuff.” After hearing the reassurance in Dongmin’s tone, Jungkook finally calmed down a bit and nodded along.
“Kook-ah, are you scared of ghosts?” Dongmin asked quietly when the conversation had come to a lull. Jungkook looked up from his mug at this and looked shocked that Dongmin had asked him this question.
“I thought it was obvious that I wasn’t!” Jungkook laughed merrily and gently shoved at Dongmin’s shoulder.
“Well, sometimes what we portray on the outside doesn’t match what we feel on the inside.” Dongmin replied simply as he took another sip of his drink. “Everyone sees you as a tough guy and I’m sure you are but it’s okay for the strong people to get scared too.”
Jungkook sobered up at his words and murmured, “Well, I guess I don’t really believe in ghosts. I mean, I’m open to believing in them, as long as they are able to give me clear signs and irrefutable evidence. Then I’ll be able to believe in the afterlife. I don’t know what happened yesterday but I still have many doubts about what happened, you know? I’d like to explore more and gain more opportunities to confirm the existence of ghosts and all. I’m just afraid that we’d have more freak accidents like what happened last night.”
Dongmin thanked Jungkook for being so honest with him and promised that he would do his best to help answer Jungkook’s question as to whether ghosts truly existed. He understood that at the moment, it was better for him to keep what he saw in the car to himself. Perhaps it would do more harm than good and confuse Jungkook even further.
Proof. That’s what they needed. They needed to capture it on camera and show the world that yes, the afterlife existed. Dongmin made a vow to himself then and there that he would do his best to help Yugyeom and Jungkook achieve their dreams.
In the meantime, he could use his popularity to hype up the youtube channel and garner funds for them to keep exploring.
Dongmin stayed over for about 2 hours before he asked the group chat with his friends if anyone was available to pick him up and he was not surprised when it was Bin that showed up to give him a ride home. The two waved goodbye to Jungkook who had decided to send Dongmin off, standing outside in his pink fluffy rabbit slippers.
*****
“Hey Chris!” Yugyeom called out as he walked into the working quarters of the hermit Bang Chan. It had been two days since their first investigation and Jungkook and Yugyeom were meeting with their editor Chan.
The said man was snoozing in front of his computer table littered with empty coffee cups. It seemed that Chan was as busy as ever, producing and making music for all sorts of artists.
Despite his busy schedule, he had readily agreed to Yugyeom’s request to edit the videos and said that he liked doing this sort of thing. Chan also had the relevant equipment needed to hear the audios perfectly in order to caption what they heard appropriately for the viewers.
Jungkook placed another iced americano before the man who was slowly rousing from his sleep. Chan grinned at the two youtubers as he shook off the dredges of sleep and rubbed away the sleepiness from his eyes.
“Hey guys, take a seat. I’ll get the computer up and running.” Chan gestured over to the grey sofa against the wall behind him. Yugyeom and Jungkook did exactly as Chan said and Jungkook was toying with the thumb drive that held the videos that they shot.
“Okay...Here we go.” Chan clicked the first video that he found in the folder and it was the video from the main camera that they had. Yugyeom had jotted down points in time which he felt should be in the video and they rewatched the footage, keeping their eyes peeled for anything fishy going on.
Chan hit the pause button as they stared up at the large computer screen and the trio sat in silence. The screen was frozen at a scene of the kitchen where the night vision camera had panned to the vent in the ceiling. What looked like a pair of dim eyes stared back at them and it made their skin crawl.
Chan turned around to face the other two and shrugged as he said, “it could be an animal. What human or ghost could fit into a vent?” Chan had a point, the vent was small and it would be difficult for anyone to fit into the vent. It could have been a small animal that was in the vent and they had just interrupted it’s peace.
“What about a child?” Yugyeom glared at Jungkook and hit him lightly on the shoulder.
“Don’t say that! That’s so creepy!” Yugyeom hissed as he clutched at his heart and Jungkook just laughed saying that they were there to collect evidence about the afterlife anyway and that they couldn’t exclude any possibilities.
Chan shook his head lightly as he laughed and continued to watch the video footage. After 31 of Mingyu’s “Did you guys hear that?” and hours of footage later, the trio were done for the day. It was already late at night and Chan had received notes about which parts were to be kept in the video and which parts were to be excluded. He would actually edit the videos the next day and after promising the two that he would finish it as soon as possible, Chan sent the two people off.
After Jungkook and Yugyeom left, Chan pulled up a video and skipped to the part where the team was in the hotel room and Dongmin had just noticed the scratches on Yugyeom’s back. Chan zoomed in on the scratches and felt a chill go down his spine.
There was something wrong, those scratches were not natural to him. Something sinister was happening and Chan was starting to worry about his friend of many years.
“Hyung! It’s late, go home!” A voice called and dragged Chan out of his thoughts. He looked up to see the youngest in the idol group Kids, Jeongin. The younger boy was beaming at him with his bag slung across his shoulder. It seemed like he had just finished recording something and was ready to go home.
Chan smiled as he forgot all about the weird feelings he had when rewatching the footage, “Need a ride, Innie?” Chan pulled out the thumb drive with the cute pink rabbit keychain, turned off his devices and followed Jeongin out of the door.
******
Chan heavily sank back into his seat and sighed as he pressed his hands into his eyes to relieve some of the ache. He had just finished editing the videos and putting them together to form a 1 hour 14 minute video for Jungkook to upload on the channel.
He sent a message about his progress to Jungkook after resting his eyes for a bit. There was something that he needed to talk to Jungkook and Yugyeom about. It was strange how creeped out he was watching the video and he wondered if the viewers would feel the same too.
For some reason, he didn’t want to let Yugyeom, his old friend, continue making these videos that could pose a danger to him and the rest. It was clear that the places they were going to go to might be more dilapidated and run down as abandoned places. It would be disastrous if one of them had gotten injured during the investigations.
But Bang Chan knew that Yugyeom was not going to listen to him, there was no other way to help other than to join the team.
It was exactly for this reason that he asked Jungkook to come over to take the thumb drive with his completed video in it. He would talk to Jungkook about it then.
******
“Thanks man, I’ll check it again when I get back.” Jungkook side-hugged Chan as he entered the producer’s room. Chan grabbed onto Jungkook’s arm as the other turned to leave and Jungkook turned around with a questioning look while Chan remained silent.
Jungkook caught onto what Chan was trying to do and closed the room door and led him to the couch in the room where they both sat down. It was quiet for a few minutes while Chan collected his thoughts and tried to build up some courage for his next few words.
“Jungkook, I know it isn’t my place to say this but I don’t think that you guys should really continue with this…” Chan trailed off.
He knew that he would not be able to change Jungkook’s mind in putting a stop to his channel but he had to try either way. Jungkook was silent and he only gestured for Chan to go on.
“There’s something weird, the energy is all off. I’m just worried for you guys.” Chan fiddled with his rings and kept his head down. Jungkook knew that this was not like Chan at all and he was slightly worried for the other.
“I know that you won’t really listen to me… so, is it okay if I went along with you guys too?” Chan looked up as he finished his sentence and met with Jungkook’s eyes.
Jungkook’s pupils were blown wide as he listened to Chan. What on earth had Chan seen in his video? And what could be so bad that Chan volunteered to go with them on their investigations?
It wasn’t that Jungkook was not pleased with his friend’s plea to join them. He had wanted to invite Chan on their journey but he thought that Chan wanted to focus more on producing and Jungkook was glad that he even agreed to edit for them.
Jungkook and Chan weren’t as close as Chan and Yugyeom were. Chan and Yugyeom had met long ago in an entertainment company and they remained friends this whole time. Chan also knew Yugyeom’s older friends and they all got along really well.
Despite that, Jungkook wanted to be close with Chan too and he was excited for Chan to join them on their Youtube channel, even if it was only as an editor.
Stunned into silence, Jungkook just remained quiet until Chan looked towards him with a worried gaze as if he thought he had overstepped his boundaries. Jungkook snapped out of it and patted Chan’s back assuringly.
“Of course you can join us, are you sure you want to though? I know the Kids are promoting now and stuff, I thought you might be busy with work.” Jungkook explained and Chan visibly sighed in relief as he did not get rejected.
Chan nodded his head firmly and confirmed that he was able to accompany them on their investigations and that the idol group that he produced tracks for already had complete album tracks that he had made in advance.
Jungkook was surprised at this, who knew that the Bang Chan would be able to think so far into the future and prepare the next few comebacks for his group.
Jungkook smiled at the other man, “Don’t worry so much, now that you’re part of my team, I will do my best to protect you too.” He rubbed Chan’s arm comfortingly and the two exchanged soft smiles as Jungkook started to plan out in his head how to involve Chan in their next video.
******
Dongmin was the one to click play on the video. The team had gathered at Jungkook’s house and they were going to watch the video that he had uploaded onto Youtube a week ago.
They were crammed onto the sofa that they sat on in the first video, just that there was an added presence there, Chan their editor.
The video kicked off with the introductions of the team and the short video where they talked about what they were going to do on the channel and the disclaimers that they were doing this of their own free will.
Everything ran smoothly, up until the part where everything started to get sinister and the screen showed the two orbs in the vent where Chan had edited the picture by using filters to make the two orbs in the dark clearer.
Mingyu was gripping onto Yugyeom’s arm and they all watched with bated breath as the stomping from the floors above were caught on video.
Chan had set up another camera to tape the reaction of the crew as they watched his handiwork and he, too, had goosebumps when he saw the scratches on Yugyeom’s back for the nth time.
There was nothing that could erase those images from his mind and he knew that those scratches were strange as they didn’t even look like the scratches he received from his idol friend Minho’s cats.
By the end of the video, Dongmin was glancing worriedly at Jaehyun who had to assure him once again that he felt fine and that everything had been going well for him.
Yugyeom and Jaehyun then talked a little to the camera about how their week had been and that they had been fine and nothing strange had happened to them recently. Dongmin was strangely quiet this whole time and Chan noticed that as his gaze never left the model.
"Well, so we have one last announcement to make!" Jungkook clapped his hands together as he stood and dragged Chan to the center of the screen and sat him down in the middle of the sofa, squashed between Dongmin and Yugyeom while Jaehyun, Jungkook and Mingyu were to be squeezed to the ends of the sofa.
"This is Bang Chan and he was the one who edited the video for us!" Yugyeom piped up from the left of Chan and he could only look bashfully at the camera and scratch at his neck.
"Channie here is going to join us on our investigations and he'll be taking the role of cameraman! We already purchased some dope gear and rigging so that you guys can watch us in 4K as we run away from ghosts!" Yugyeom continued with a grin as he poked fun at the group for running away.
Bang Chan gave a short introduction of himself and even spoke a little in English for the overseas viewers. This made the rest of the group look at him a little starry eyed as he rambled on in his Aussie accent.
"Why do I even bother listening to Mark when I could've been hearing you talk this whole time?" Jaehyun asked in wonder as his eyes were opened to the world of Aussie accents.
There was only so much that Johnny and Mark could provide to the group and subconsciously, Jaehyun had written a mental note to look for Australian boys to add to NCT. Maybe Bang Chan would be interested?
"Okay! Thank you for the 9000 subscribers already, I'll have to thank Dongmin and Jaehyun's popularity for that! We'll be back with a new video soon so keep a lookout for that! As always, click here to subscribe and do leave a like or comment, it would mean the world to us!" Jungkook cheered as he ended the video.
They were done with filming for the day and the boys relaxed as they settled down into various positions in Jungkook's living room as the man himself ordered them some pizza, his treat.
It was at this moment when a very confused Park Jimin stepped into the apartment and promptly stopped in his tracks, causing an oblivious Kim Taehyung to crash into him.
"It seems like the baby brought some friends over to play today!" Jimin said excitedly as he cooed over the youngest in his group who could only hang his head in shame, as if his mother embarrassed him in front of his friends.
"So, 'baby' huh?" Jaehyun smirked when Jimin and Taehyung had left. Dongmin and Chan laughed while Yugyeom just kept silent, knowing that he was also in the same boat as Jungkook. In fact, his older friends would jump at the opportunity to clown baby him in front of his friends.
Jungkook just groaned, his head in his hands as his friends exploded in laughter again.
Notes:
Stay safe and healthy! See you next week! If there's an idol from one of the groups tagged that you would like to see as a special guest, do comment and I'll take a look!
Chapter 6: Save Me
Notes:
Welcome back to another chapter! Please enjoy the products of my brain farts~~ P.S did anyone realise that I use song titles as my chapter titles? I try to make them more relevant to the stories but eh it's getting harder to look for titles.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Chan, you got the cameras?” Yugyeom called.
“Yep. I brought some brownies too, Felix told me to share!” Chan beamed as he squeezed the gear into a corner of the backseat. The bags were starting to invade Mingyu’s personal space. He had claimed the backseat as his own as it had the most leg room but he had not factored in the large amount of bags they were going to bring.
Chan slid into the second row, behind the passenger seat while Dongmin sat directly behind the driver’s seat to the left and Jaehyun was sandwiched between the two. It was like a muscles fiesta in the second row as the three guys all wore sleeveless shirts.
Yugyeom was in the driver’s seat and he had been picking the team members from their respective homes. It was going to be another long journey as they drove to Jeonju from Seoul. It was a 2.5 hour drive and Yugyeom made sure to sleep early the night before.
Chan’s brownies were stored in the large backpack where they kept their food supplies in. Jaehyun brought some cookies from Taeyong, Dongmin bought water and a few Monster cans, Yugyeom and Jungkook had gummy bears and Mingyu had a whole kitchen inside the bag. It was safe to assume that he would be the one to carry it.
As this was Chan’s first investigation and the others’ (except YugKook) second investigation, they were going someplace sort of tame and safe. No crumbling infrastructure, no fire hazards, just a normal old school. Yes, they were going to a school that closed down not too many years ago.
Chan started up a video camera as Yugyeom told Jungkook to give a briefing of the place that they were visiting.
“It says here that the school closed down due to a bullying scandal. A young girl had taken her life due to bullying and shortly after, a series of accidents happened to the pupils not in her class but the neighbouring class, her bullies. Due to superstition and paranoid parents, the school was subsequently defunded and closed down.” Jungkook read from his google doc that he shared with Yugyeom.
“Great, we have a young girl who likes to kill bullies and guess what guys? Jungkook made us dress in this uniform before coming and I bet my white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies that this uniform looks just like the school’s uniform.” Mingyu groaned from the backseat where he was currently laying his head on Chan’s large camera bag.
“You have white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies?” Dongmin and Jaehyun chorused as they eyed the large food supply bag.
“Out of the entire sentence that I said, that’s the only part you guys managed to pick out?” Mingyu cried indignantly.
Jungkook looked impossibly gleeful as he looked at the camera in the lens and proclaimed that it was only right that they wore the right uniform to school.
Chan internally patted himself on the back as he realised that it was a good decision that he came along to watch over the group but at what cost? Anyways, the leader in him couldn’t help but want to deal with the evil maknaes of the group, why were they always asking for trouble?
“Okay, so a haunted school. What else is there to note?” Dongmin spoke up as he looked over to Jungkook.
“Good that you asked, Minnie. The deceased girl’s name is Kang Misun. She died in 2015 and the school closed down in 2016.” Came Jungkook’s reply as he fiddled around with his phone and tried going on Google to see more information about the school.
They continued on their merry way under the hot afternoon sun and Jungkook was pointing out directions to Yugyeom as their GPS had lost power. The trio in the middle seat were either looking at their phones or taking a short nap. Mingyu in the back had gone on full nap mode and was slumping against the mountain of bags beside him.
It was at this moment, under the heat of the sun and the glinting of metal and window panes, Yugyeom saw something that he shouldn’t have. It took all his self control to not floor the brakes and skid to a stop as he watched the rearview mirror in horror. Jungkook was unaware of his current predicament, his nose still buried in one of the maps they found in the car.
Yugyeom could not unsee it, the image burned into his head and behind his eyelids so that he was forced to see it even when he closed his eyes for a brief second at a red light.
A hand. A bloody hand on Mingyu’s left shoulder.
******
“Ahh,” Jaehyun groaned in pure bliss as he stretched after they got out of the car, “How is it 6 pm already?” He questioned after he was done stretching. They had driven to the hotel that they booked in advance and were preparing to check in. Their extra clothes and toiletries would be left in the hotel while they brought their gear and snacks for the investigation.
The hotel staff gave weird looks as 6 men walked into the hotel while wearing high school uniforms. Jungkook, Dongmin and Jaehyun had to whip out their IDs before the hotel staff could even attend to them.
The arrangements were simple, Jungkook and Yugyeom were rooming together, as were Mingyu and Jaehyun while Dongmin and Chan shared a room. They did agree that they could all sleep together in the event something really scary happened. Jungkook, Yugyeom, Mingyu and Jaehyun were given the option of having adjoining rooms, which they chose.
It was around 7pm when they were all done with checking in and settling down. It was now time for them to get back on the road and drive around half an hour to the old school. Although it had been closed down, Jungkook had gotten permission from the owner of the land to film in there. It was a rather popular place for local youtubers to visit too and hearing this did comfort Mingyu because it couldn’t be that bad right? No one had any crazy videos from the place too and he felt rather safe.
The group was enveloped in silence as Yugyeom drove them to the school. The tension was rising as they came closer to the school but there was also a tinge of excitement in the air.
The tension was cut and disappeared the moment a loud crunch came from the backseat.
Mingyu was caught in the act, one hand inside a bag of chips. The car roared with laughter as they clowned the poor guy. Maybe this investigation wouldn’t be too bad.
******
Jungkook made a grand show of him opening the door with the keys that he had collected from the owner a few days prior. Finally, they were able to walk in through the front door instead of climbing in through a window.
Chan was still busy setting up the rigging for the camera. He wore a small backpack which was attached to a light metal beam that hung over his head. A wire ran through the set up and was connected to something that looked like a steering wheel where he could attach the large camera to.
This was so that the camera would be more stable and the video quality would be better when he has to run after the rest of the group. Chan did expect the team to be sent running if the first video was anything to go by. That’s why he brought some of the filming equipment that he had used before.
The crew walked in as the door swung heavily on its hinges, Chan walking at the very front as they all shone their flashlights through the dusty air. The lit camera screen read 8pm.
“So, the power isn’t working anymore, you’ll need to use your flashlights to go anywhere. There are extra batteries inside your backpacks and there is an extra mini torch. It’s not as powerful as the ones we’re currently using.” Yugyeom gave a short briefing. This was the first time that he would be hands-on during the investigation instead of being behind the camera and he was really excited.
“Okay first off, we will head to the classroom where it all began, level 4 room 19. We’ll try to come into contact with the student Kang Misun.” Jungkook led the team to the stairwell. Since the power was out, they knew better than to try using the lift.
They made it to the 4th floor with Yugyeom in the front. He peeked around the corner of the stairwell and looked into the hallway. It just looked dusty and somewhat musty and he shook off the invisible spider webs as he entered the hallway, Jungkook close behind him. Jaehyun and Dongmin followed behind Jungkook and Mingyu stuck close to Chan who was way at the back.
Chan was enjoying himself so far, the couple of flights up the stairs didn’t daunt him at all due to his fitness plan. Standing at the back did make him feel slightly uncomfortable, it felt as if invisible hands could reach out from the darkness and grab him.
It helped that there was a terrified Mingyu walking in front of him and he could distract himself by trying to comfort Mingyu instead. As they traipsed up the stairs, he could feel the atmosphere getting colder and colder, or was that just his imagination?
Jaehyun, on the other hand, was truly enjoying himself. He and Dongmin had just entered the hallway and followed in Yugyeom and Jungkook’s dust tracks. As they passed by the classrooms, he could not help but to look into the dusty window panes.
Some of the windows on the other side of the classroom that faced the car park below were broken and Dongmin made a mental note that there could be a draft interrupting with their filming. It was important to take their findings with a pinch of salt as there were too many coincidences that could taint their evidence.
“Right, room 19, here it is!” Jungkook spoke to the camera as he pointed his thumb towards the classroom door he had his back facing. The group held their breaths as Jungkook opened the door.
Nothing. There were no ghosts that came rushing at them or the blood-red eyes of the student that had reportedly been the last thing students saw before they fainted on the premises.
The group settled down and placed a nice picnic mat on the floor to protect them from the dust and insects. Mingyu set up the spirit box in the middle of the circle that they were forming, Chan settled himself down towards the corner opposite the entrance of the room so that he could film the room in its entirety.
Dongmin and Jaehyun were walking around the room, go-pros strapped to their bodies and a temperature reader and EMF reader respectively. Yugyeom was setting up a Rem pod that would light up and beep whenever someone or something touched its antenna, at the doorway. Jungkook placed cat balls all around the room which would light up when touched.
“Let’s calm ourselves down now,” Yugyeom gave a pointed look to Mingyu who sat across him in their mini circle, “We are now in the room where a young girl, Kang Mina, committed suicide. If you are Kang Misun and you are here with us, please make your presence known.”
Jungkook continued on, “You can touch the antenna at the door to tell us you’re coming in or talk to us through the spirit box that we’ll turn on in a second. There are also cat balls you can touch that will alert us of your presence.” He pointed out all the equipment as he gave a brief run-through on how to use them.
Silence.
It was at this moment when Mingyu let out a yelp as he pointed to the EMF reader in Jaehyun’s hand. The EMF reader could detect electromagnetic frequencies (as its name suggests) and the LED light typically remained at the lowest level, light green, until it sensed something else wherein it might even spike to red.
The EMF reader generally has 5 levels with increasing frequencies; light green, green, yellow, orange and red. Currently, the EMF reader was blinking a yellow light. It was the highest that any of the boys had ever seen.
During their first investigation, the EMF reader hadn’t really been helpful in identifying anything and they had switched it off after a while. Now, it was starting to go off and they had no idea what to do.
To prove to the viewers that the EMF was being legit, Chan placed some electronic gadgets like his phone and camera near the reader and there was no change observed. Jaehyun passed the EMF reader over to Jungkook and the LED light dimmed to a light green.
Well that was interesting. Jungkook got up from where he sat on the floor with the EMF reader in hand as he walked about the room, pointing the EMF reader at various objects but nothing changed.
That was until he walked over to where Dongmin was sitting and the EMF picked up to a yellow level again. Dongmin was seated next to Jaehyun and Jungkook came closer with the EMF in hand. They all held their breaths as he stuck the EMF in front of Dongmin.
Orange. The EMF had gone up another level to the highest that they had ever experienced.
Mingyu stared at his cousin with his mouth wide open. Does it mean that the ghost was currently standing right in front of Dongmin?
Satisfied with his little experiment, Jungkook sat back down and dug through his backpack while Dongmin looked straight ahead with a disconcerted expression plastered onto his face.
With a soft ‘Aha’, Jungkook pulled out a pair of dowsing rods and handed them to Yugyeom who simply stared at them before passing them to Mingyu.
Mingyu was silently begging at Yugyeom with his eyes to take the dowsing rods away but Yugyeom pointedly evaded his eyes. Sighing, Mingyu held up the two dowsing rods and made sure they were straightened and parallel to each other.
“If Kang Misun is here in the room right now, please make the rods cross.” Very slowly, the rods inched closer and closer to one another and came together in a cross. The look of pure, unadulterated fear on Mingyu’s face was convincing enough for everyone to know the results weren’t fabricated.
“Okay, Ms Kang Misun, can you point to where you are standing in this room?” Mingyu willed his voice to stop shaking and held his breath as the rods uncrossed themselves slowly and slowly moved to a certain direction.
Dongmin. The rods pointed straight at Dongmin and Mingyu nearly passed out there and then. Dongmin wasn’t faring much better as he started to pale, the idea of a ghost girl standing right before him was certainly doing a number on him.
Chan wasn’t faring much better from where he stood in the room as the camera pointed straight at Dongmin and he swore he saw something shift in the corner of his eye. His hands became clammy as he held on tighter to the camera.
Jungkook and Yugyeom, on the other hand, were having the time of their lives and they cut the dowsing rods session short by turning on the spirit box in the middle of the circle.
The box crackled to life and immediately spit out some random gibberish which did nothing to calm Mingyu’s fears. The man was already sort of clinging onto the poor soul sitting beside him, Jaehyun.
Jaehyun had his game face on as he listened intently at the noisy radio box. The spirit box is a device that jumped between numerous radio channels to form a series of short phrases or words that could be interpreted as a message from a spirit nearby. It is said that these spirits could use the radio frequencies to talk to paranormal investigators. While Jaehyun couldn’t really believe all that, it was interesting to see how things worked and Jaehyun was a man of science and technology.
The audio crackled for a bit more in the dark room that was only lit by flashlights until a word popped out.
“Actor.”
All eyes turned to Dongmin and he felt himself shrink under the 5 (maybe 6?) gazes in the room. Well that was eerie.
“Ahh, Dongminnie? Or maybe you know him as Cha Eunwoo. Come to think of it, you could have seen him on TV before, right?” Jungkook spoke to the open air. Dongmin just sat there with an awkward smile, facing the air before him.
The spirit box said a couple of words one after another, “I’m”, “Fan”, “Handsome”.
Dongmin did not know whether he should laugh or cry. He came here for a paranormal investigation but got a fan meeting instead. It was a unique one though, he couldn’t see said fan.
“Ah, Ms Kang, would you like a selca with Eunwoo then? Maybe a pc even?” Jaehyun spoke up as he took a Cha Eunwoo photocard out of his wallet, much to the astonishment of everyone else.
“Jaehyun, why do you have my pc in your wallet?” Dongmin held up the photocard that Jaehyun had pulled out, it was from his latest makeup sponsorship. Jaehyun refused to make any comments on the matter.
“This is going to look so unbelievable but I swear to our dear audience that Ms Kang Misun is a Cha Eunwoo stan.” Yugyeom directed this to the camera and Chan had to stifle his laugh behind the camera. This situation was truly unbelievable.
They turned back to the spirit box which crackled again, “Want...pc...table…”
“I think she wants you to put the photo card on her table.” Mingyu said excitedly and they took up their flashlights to try and see which table was Mina’s.
Dongmin had the bright idea to use the EMF reader and Jaehyun held it up and walked around one side of the room, going down the rows of tables with the EMF reader. Dongmin started on the opposite side but with his temperature reader instead.
The screen was blue until he walked by the 3rd table in the column closest to the windows facing the car park where a flash of red darted across the screen. Dongmin stopped in his tracks and stared down at the table.
Yep, it was the right one.
It was evident by scrawled handwriting all over the table. Yugyeom produced a wet wipe out of thin air and swiped at the table, the caked layer of dust was instantly cleared and the writing was visible.
Derogatory names were written all over the desk together with lewd drawings and cartoon pigs. Jungkook swallowed thickly as he looked at the desk in disgust, he had always been anti-bullying and this brought back many memories for him too.
It made reality sink in and the boys remembered that the reason they were even here was because of a vengeful ghost that had committed suicide due to bullying. It certainly brought many things into perspective.
They were snapped out of their thoughts by the sound of Mingyu ruffling through his backpack and watched as he triumphantly dug out a flat metal ice cream scrape (Don’t ask him why he has that in his bag as he’ll get all defensive). He immediately got to work, scraping away at the surface of the old desk.
The desk itself was old and the wood fell away easily as Mingyu chiselled away the surface layer of the desk to reveal the blank slate underneath.
“Ta-da! Good as new and we’ll keep the Eunwoo pc right here.” Mingyu adjusted the pc in the little cubby hole of the desk. If Dongmin felt weird about leaving his photo card with a ghost, he did not mention it at all.
Time had flown by as they met with the ghost girl and without them realising it was already 11pm. The team packed up their things in the room as they had to move on to explore the other parts of the school and their ‘talk’ with Kang Misun had slowed down considerably.
“Ms Kang Misun, we’re going to go to the other parts of the school now. If you want to, you can come with us too.” Dongmin offered as they said their goodbyes to the room. Dongmin did take a selca in the room alone (with Chan’s phone as Chan said he needed to put it in the video) and they made their way out.
They took a mini breather in the hallway as Dongmin called and assured his friends once again that he wasn’t dead and in fact, he just had a fan meeting which made his friends very confused. Mingyu and Jaehyun were popping candy into their mouths like no tomorrow and Chan had to remind them that their stomachs would hurt if they ate too much.
The maknaes (of their respective friend groups), Yugyeom and Jungkook, were just walking around the vicinity, planning the route where they were going to follow.
None of them noticed the eyes glinting in the darkness.
Notes:
The funny thing about me writing scary stuff is I can't really do it at night but my creative juices only activate after 10pm and that sucks. On another note, I've been so pumped up because I got some really lovely comments and just seeing that the number of hits are increasing makes my day!! I'm also so excited to plan out my other stories but I'll keep those on hold for now and try to finish up this story first~ As always stay safe and healthy <3
Chapter 7: Hellevator
Notes:
Hello hello! Welcome back to another chapter~ I've been watching the Kingdom performances and I stan almost all of them but man I really am starting to love Stray Kids... Anyways, please enjoy the chapter!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Alright guys, if you’re done snacking,” Jungkook looked towards Mingyu and Jaehyun and their chocolate covered mouths, “And calling your best friend that acts more like a boyfriend, let’s get going.” Jungkook looked over at Dongmin who just blushed slightly and threw his phone into his bag.
The team continued walking to the 3rd floor and explored the hallway. It was said that there was a student who dropped dead in the music room, this student was one of Kang Misun’s bullies.
“Have you guys thought about why Ms Kang was so nice to us when she supposedly caused others to die?” Mingyu thought aloud as they travelled down the hall. The EMF reader in Jaehyun’s hand lit up to an orange level for a second, as if the ghost herself was protesting against this, and it didn’t go unnoticed.
Jaehyun, however, kept what he saw to himself and the cameraman Chan behind him just said softly, “Perhaps we just misunderstood her.” No one said anything after that as they sank deeper into their thoughts.
Yugyeom pushed open the door to the music room and they all filed in one after another. A grand piano sat in the middle of the room, untouched for years shown by the layers of dust coating it.
Jaehyun passed the EMF reader to Jungkook who walked around the room with it in hand. The EMF reader was back to normal and displayed its light green colour. It was as if all the activity they had previously had slowed to a stop.
Dongmin scanned through the room using the thermometer reader, the screen remained blue throughout. There wasn’t anything strange in the room and Jaehyun set up the spirit box on the floor next to the piano.
Mingyu held the dowsing rods in his hands but they all decided to start with the spirit box. As they crouched down into a circle around the spirit box, Chan decided to circle around them to show the audience how they prepared to speak with the spirits.
The spirit box crackled once, twice and then fell silent.
“Did the batteries run out?” Dongmin asked and Yugyeom picked it up and opened it up, checking on the batteries.
“Well, it’s not supposed to. We changed the batteries with new ones from the store before coming and then we only turned it on for a short while, it’s supposed to be able to last longer.” Yugyeom explained as he searched his bag for any extra batteries.
After popping the new batteries in, they turned the spirit box on again.
“Did you guys hear that?” Mingyu whispered as the spirit box spat out a string of noises and indiscernible words. The rest of the guys in the room, except Chan, looked at him with confused looks.
It was clear that they did not hear what he had heard. Except Bang Chan, who was starting to pale as he glanced around the room, all the while keeping the camera trained on the boys.
Mingyu remained silent after that while the boys wondered out loud which gadget they should try using next. They settled on using the dowsing rods that Mingyu had in a tight grip that was beginning to turn his knuckles white.
Dongmin gingerly pried the rods out of Mingyu’s hands and held them in his own as he began to speak out loud, “If there is anyone else in the room with us right now, can you make these rods cross?”
They waited a moment while watching the rods intensely. Suddenly, Dongmin gasped and dropped the rods that clanged loudly as they fell to the ground.
“I felt something tug on the rods.” Dongmin explained when rapid-fire questions were being shot his way. Yugyeom picked up the rods and held them experimentally in his hands.
Everyone had bated breaths as they looked on at Yugyeom who tried to continue. Before he could start, there was a soft tap that came from down the hallway. Due to the silence they were shrouded in, the tap was much louder than it should have been.
“Did you guys hear that ?” Mingyu whispered, the words sticking to his tongue as if he himself were also afraid to really say out those words. Jungkook nodded gently and held a hand up to his lips as he motioned for the rest to get up.
Bang Chan and Jungkook were at the front as they inched closer to the doorway and peeked out of the room. The hallway was dark and silent and even through the night vision camera that painted everything a light green, Chan couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
The boys had haphazardly dumped their tools into their bags and inched out into the hallway and moved towards where they had heard the sound from.
A soft tap rang out again and Chan looked deeply into the camera scope to see what exactly was causing the noise but they were still too far away.
Despite the fear thrumming through their veins, they pushed on. Jungkook was leading them while Yugyeom was rounding them up at the back of the group. As they walked closer to the source of the sound, they came across a hook on the wall with a ceramic doll hung upon it.
The doll swung gently in the draft that was let in through a broken window, making the tap sound that had led them there. Mingyu held back a shiver as he unconsciously grabbed onto Jaehyun’s arm, there was something really wrong here and he could feel it.
Mingyu noticed that just a few paces to the right of the doll, there were two metal doors. It seemed to be a lift and Mingyu elbowed Dongmin slightly and pointed to it to which Dongmin only nodded absently. The location of the lift wouldn’t have mattered anyway since there was no power in the building.
The team stared at the ceramic doll until Jungkook spoke up, “This is insane, could this be a sign?”
As soon as he said this, a clear note broke through the thick silence they were wrapped in. A note that was obviously from the grand piano in the music room that they had just left.
Chan panned the camera from the ceramic doll to Jungkook’s face. On the green camera screen, Jungkook noticeably frowns as he starts walking quickly towards the music room and the rest scrambled to follow him.
“Jungkook, wait!” Yugyeom called out and tried grabbing at Jungkook. There could be something in that room and they should proceed with caution. Hearing the concern in his tone, Jungkook slowed down and glanced behind at his team members.
Jungkook calmed down but they continued to walk towards the music room which had been emitting disjointed piano notes that were played randomly. There was no way that someone could have sneaked in without them knowing while they were still there.
Chan zoomed into the room and froze.
Jungkook and Yugyeom looked expectantly at him but Chan only remained silent as his lips quivered slightly.
Jungkook had enough at this point and he felt like someone or something was playing around with them. He grabbed the flashlight that hung from his belt and shone it into the middle of the room.
The previously shut piano now had its lid opened but that was it, there was nothing there. The team members walked into the room and they formed a semicircle a distance away from the piano.
“What the heck was that?” Jaehyun said for the first time in a while. He had been silent this whole time, choosing to observe their surroundings instead of contributing to any noise. He looked straight at the piano but he was unable to see anything strange. The piano had also become silent by this point.
Yugyeom approached the piano with an outstretched hand, as if he was going to press a key of the piano but before he could reach it, it slammed shut. Yugyeom retracted his hand immediately and held it close to his chest. He could have broken a few fingers if he had come just a bit closer to the piano.
Suddenly, Jungkook’s flashlight died and they were all enveloped in darkness. Mingyu and Dongmin let out shrieks as Jaehyun fumbled around for his own flashlight.
A yell cut through the chaos in the room. Chan had ordered them all to exit the room immediately and he grabbed onto the nearest person, Dongmin, and dragged him out of the room. He could only hope that the rest were going to follow his lead.
Yugyeom was the last one out of the room and although he couldn’t see what was behind him and could only make out the faint light of Jaehyun’s flashlight in front of him, he felt tremors going down his spine and he could have sworn that he felt something grab at his leg.
The team thundered down the hallway with no destination in mind, they just wanted to leave the music room behind. One thing was clear to all of them, Chan had seen something on the night vision camera and he had deemed that it was too dangerous for them to stay there.
They weren’t sure where they were running to but the next thing that they knew, doors were shut behind them.
Mingyu was the one closest to the door and what he saw just before the doors closed was burned into the back of his eyelids. What in the world was that?
Jaehyun looked around and noted that they were stuck in a small room.
“Where the heck are we?” Yugyeom groaned as he tried to shine his flashlight on the walls around them. There were scribbles and graffiti all over the 3 walls around them. The last wall were the two metal doors.
A loud creaking sound accompanied the moving of the entire room and Yugyeom stumbled but quickly grabbed onto Jungkook who steadied him.
A lift. They were in a lift… that was moving. It should be impossible since the power was out.
The lift slowly descended but they had no idea how far down they were going.
“What did you see back there, Channie?” Yugyeom asked hesitantly as he looked towards the blonde guy who kept his head down, eyes trained on the camera screen.
“Let’s talk about that later. We need to get out of this place now.” Chan said seriously and Jungkook nodded along. When Chan said it was time to stop, they had to pack up and go, no questions asked.
Jungkook was about to add something to the conversation when the heavy metal doors opened again and they were met with darkness.
Jaehyun and Yugyeom shone their flashlights outside while those who hadn’t turned on their flashlights yet did so. They were now in uncharted territory again and they had no idea what could jump out at them from the darkness.
Dongmin whipped out the thermometer reader and relied on the small screen to see if there were potentially any dangers in the dark. Chan and Jungkook were in the front again and Mingyu and Dongmin were walking in the middle while Jaehyun and Yugyeom were in the back.
As they walked around the area, it was obvious that they were in the basement area of the school and there was a gym storeroom a few paces away. As far as they could shine their flashlights to, they were unable to find an escape. The lift itself had lost power the moment it brought them down.
Chan used his camera to get a glimpse of the area inside the storeroom. The floor was covered in dusty gym equipment and mats. In the back of the room, there was a row of five metal cabinets that presumably stored gym equipment too.
All the doors to the cabinets were wide open, except for the cabinet second to the right. Chan thought that it was eerie about how all the metal cabinets were open except for that one but he brushed it off.
After Jungkook got the ‘clear’ signal from Chan, he walked stealthily to the corner of the room where a row of baseball bats sat and he picked up as many as he could and handed them to his team members. Better safe than sorry.
They stood in the storeroom, whispering under their breaths where they should go next and how they should get out. Chan kept quiet as he used the camera to check out the room they were in. He had seen something earlier and he was determined to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with that room.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Mingyu froze and his eyes darted over to the metal cabinet. He swallowed back the words he was about to say and watched as Jaehyun started walking closer to the cabinet.
Jaehyun saw that the cabinet was locked shut and as he walked closer, something started to bang against the door of the cabinet. Jaehyun stumbled back into Yugyeom who was standing behind him and their eyes widened as they looked at the cabinet.
It was visibly shaking now, there were dents formed from the banging against the metal doors of the cabinet. Yugyeom swallowed thickly as he stared on at the shaking cabinet.
They couldn’t do anything but stare at the door as the pounding on the door got louder and louder to the point where it looked like the lock was going to break.
In a sudden act of bravery, Jungkook ran to the side of the room and started dragging a heavy table towards the cabinet. Mingyu dashed to help him while Dongmin and Yugyeom headed for another metal cabinet to drag over.
Jungkook placed the table upright on the short side of the table and pushed it flat against the metal cabinet. Dongmin and Yugyeom wrestled the other cabinet in between the legs of the table and placed it flat against the table.
The banging sounds increased in volume and frequency, every hit against the rattling metal doors made Mingyu’s gut twist even more. He looked on skeptically at the pile that they had made before the cabinet. Would it be enough to hold in whatever was trying to come out?
Whatever was inside of the cabinet continued to struggle and try to fight its way out of the metal prison but the door would not budge and the pile of heavy items they had placed to secure it made the chances of the door opening even lower.
It took a while but the bangs against the door started to slow down until there was barely anything they could hear. The team kept silent still, communicating using their facial expressions and vague gestures.
Jungkook nodded his head towards the door as if saying that they should leave now. Mingyu, however, held up one hand and lifted a finger to his lips in a ‘shush’ gesture.
Silence. And then a piano note.
Behind the camera, Chan gritted his teeth the moment he heard the piano note. He had never hated a piano more in his life. He held on tightly to the camera and tried to focus on what the others were trying to do next.
Jaehyun had a bat in his hand that was ready to fly around at any moment and Dongmin and Mingyu were staring in the direction of the doorway while Yugyeom and Jungkook discussed through body language what they should do next. Chan was staring straight at the metal cabinet, as if daring it to make any more noise.
“We don’t have much time, let’s go.” As Jungkook voiced this out, Yugyeom spun around to look at him in confusion. Just a few seconds ago, Jungkook had been refusing Yugyeom’s idea to leave immediately. He shrugged it off and they made their way out of the room.
Jungkook led them with the torch that he had in hand, the rest of them had no idea where they were even going.
Down the hallway, a turn to the left, left again. They found themselves facing a flight of stairs that they had not seen before. Tucked away into the corner of the basement, the stairs spiralled upwards and the boys tried their best not to thunder up the steps.
With Jungkook at the front and Chan in the back, they made their way up from the basement to the ground floor. The moment that Chan’s foot fell flat on the top step of the staircase, he stilled.
This time, there wasn’t a singular piano note.
A whole melody drifted through the halls of the school despite the piano being located on the third floor, two floors above the one that they were currently in.
“There’s no way I’m hearing that right now.” Mingyu spoke breathily as he raised his finger to point at the ceiling. How was it possible that they could hear a piano that was being played by a person who should not be there?
Jungkook still had a solemn look on his face as he looked around the darkness that they were enclosed in. There was no time, they should leave that place as soon as possible. There was an undeniable feeling of dread in his gut and it felt like he had no control of his legs that were actively finding an escape.
“There!” Chan pointed out the main door which they had come in through. Somehow, through all their wandering, they had walked into the school lobby and were close to the main exit.
Mingyu murmured some thanks to his lucky stars while Jaehyun strode forward and gripped the door handle with Dongmin hot on his trail. Yugyeom breathed a sigh of relief, they were going to make it out now.
As Jaehyun managed to wrestle the heavy door open and the rest stepped out into the cold night air, Chan had one foot over the threshold when he heard the unmistakable sharp screech of a piano bench forced backwards.
Chan had never left a building so fast in his life and he had no remorse as he slammed the door shut behind him. As he walked further from the building, there was a thought that nagged at him and he reluctantly turned around to see the building one last time.
There in the corner of his eye, he saw it. No, he saw her . A pale teenage girl waving from the window of a 4th floor classroom, student Kang Misun.
******
The team loaded into the car where they sat there for 5 minutes just breathing heavily. Yugyeom had his hands balanced on the steering wheel and his head in his hands while Mingyu looked close to passing out. This time Dongmin was thrown to the backseat while Chan, Jaehyun and Mingyu sat in the middle row.
“That was insane. I still don’t know what happened back there but it was insane.” Mingyu had an arm thrown over his eyes as he murmured what everyone else was thinking.
“Is there a chance that someone came in with us and decided to fuck us over by playing a sick prank like that?” Jaehyun spoke up but his words were slightly muffled from where he had buried his head into Mingyu’s shoulder.
“Well I hope the piano guy finds the cabinet pranker, if not they’d be stuck there forever.” Dongmin spoke up next.
Mingyu and Jaehyun gave a tired laugh each while Chan had his eyes fixed on Jungkook. Jungkook hadn’t said a word since they entered the car and it was weird, it wasn’t how Jungkook normally was. He would have to check up on the other man later.
As Yugyeom revved up the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, Dongmin looked back at the school that was rapidly becoming smaller. Initially, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The school was bleak and dark and without the light from the torchlights, he couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.
Then a shape moved and Dongmin nearly gasped. Through the darkness, what he saw was undeniable and he thought that he had finally cracked and lost it. He slapped a hand to his mouth to prevent any noise from coming out and stared wide eyed at the school until they were too far away to even make it out.
There was no way that was real, right?
Notes:
To combat my writing dry spells, I've been writing while watching those horror game play throughs on Youtube and now I can't sleep well at night TT. I've received many nice comments and please yall are so sweet <3 Please be safe and healthy and get your shots if you can! (I have to wait to register because I'm in an age group that's not as high priority sigh) Peace out, I'll try my best to write scarier chapters!
Chapter 8: Fear
Notes:
Hello! I'm posting a chapter earlier to celebrate Stray Kid's win on Kingdom!! I'm honestly a melody but also a baby stay, baby atiny and infant deobi... I'm so happy for SKZ and I hope the rest have a good time being free from mn3+. I'm trying to learn more about Skz and I can't wait to meet Hyunjin when he comes back! Also Chan took off his shirt and I need to recuperate from that :/
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Chan scoot there a little bit, won’t you? I’m squashed here.” Jungkook whined as he was pressed against the wall of the lift.
The boys had looked hesitatingly at the hotel lift that opened before them, getting them weird looks from the hotel lobby staff. It was 2 a.m in the morning and anyone would be surprised to see a couple of men dressed in high school uniforms in a hotel and then staring hauntingly into the lift instead of entering it.
Finally, they made it to the floor that they had booked. They each went to their respective rooms where they showered and changed into fresh clothes before meeting up in Yugyeom and Jungkook’s room.
“Hey guys, we’ve just filmed our investigation at the School of Fine Arts Highschool in Jeonju and we’re gonna wrap it up here,” Dongmin was on closing ment duty today and he spoke up for the group as they sat on the sofa behind him, “This episode was crazy and I think you guys will love it. Even now, we’re not sure exactly what happened back there but I really believe that something insane occurred back there. Also Jaehyun left a little present for the notorious ghost that lives there so keep an eye out for that!” Dongmin grinned and the rest waved at the camera while they said their goodbyes.
“I still don’t know what happened in there.” Mingyu said from his spot in Jungkook’s bed where he was adorably curled up. Mingyu was a big guy but the soft pastel hoodie he was wearing dwarfed his giant frame and Chan had to fight the urge to coo at him.
Jungkook nodded and his face fell serious as he was lost deep in his thoughts again. Yugyeom, Chan and Dongmin had similar serious looks on their faces as they contemplated something that was bothering them.
Dongmin was debating on sharing with the rest what he had seen on the previous journey and what he had seen just an hour ago when he looked back at the building. Something insidious was at play and he wasn’t sure if he could share his thoughts yet when he had no proof at all.
Unfortunately, these very same thoughts were also stopping the others from speaking their minds and sharing what they had seen throughout their investigations so far.
“Mingyu’s crashing, I better get him back into his bed.” Jaehyun whispered as he eyed the sleepy giant nodding off in the corner. Jungkook and Yugyeom nodded and whispered their goodnights as Jaehyun tugged at a sleepy Mingyu and dragged him to bed.
“Leave your side of the door unlocked Jae, we’ll come over to wake you guys up tomorrow.” Yugyeom called after Jaehyun who only held up a thumbs up.
The rest talked for a bit more before Chan and Dongmin decided to retire back to their rooms too. Jungkook told them that they should wake up before 9 so that they could attend the complimentary breakfast buffet the hotel had.
It was only when Dongmin and Chan were in their respective beds when Dongmin quietly asked, “Chan, in that music room… What did you see that made you run out like that?”
Chan winced as he realised that it did sound like a dick move on his part, for demanding everyone to get out and he himself ran out of the room first.
“Well, I had the night vision infra-red camera right?” Chan began as he tried to gather his thoughts and decide if he was going to come clean to Dongmin right now. He shifted on his bed so he could face Dongmin who was already facing him from his own bed.
“So, I could technically see in the dark without a flashlight... and in that complete darkness I saw something so scary I almost couldn’t breathe. It was a boy around Jeongin’s age, he was slumped over the piano and his legs were melted into the piano pedals. His arms- Oh gosh his arms… They were so long and thin and they were originally on the piano but they started waving around and so I grabbed you and told the rest to get out of there before he could grab any one of us.” Chan pressed the flesh of his palms deep into his eyes as he tried to forget the horrible image in his mind’s eye.
Dongmin sucked in a gasp as soon as Chan finished his story. “Dude, I saw him too. I swear, don’t look at me like that. I saw him too as we left the parking lot but this time he was at the window. His arms were so mutilated and I-” Dongmin blanched as he curled up tighter under his blanket.
Chan looked guiltily at his roommate for the night. Dongmin looked downright terrified as he shook slightly under the blanket and Chan remembered that Dongmin was sensitive and afraid of all these paranormal things.
“Aww come here,” Chan whispered as he spread his arms wide and lifted the edge of his comforter. Albeit somewhat embarrassed, Dongmin still went over to Chan’s bed and sidled up next to him, in his warm embrace.
“It’s okay to be afraid, we’re all human after all. I know everything seems impossible right now and you feel like you can’t even believe your eyes but we’ll get through it.” Chan murmured soothingly as he rubbed at Dongmin’s back. Despite being the taller one, Dongmin had snuggled into Chan’s arms just like how Chan’s friend Hyunjin did when he was scared.
“Now, you tell me if for whatever reason, you feel uncomfortable during a shoot okay? I’ll be there for you.” Chan said with finality. It was the words of a true leader and it warmed Dongmin’s heart to no end.
There in the confines of a 2 pax hotel room, a friendship connection was born.
******
“Wakey wakey Mingyu baby~” Mingyu woke up to Jungkook’s call, highly unamused. He thought that he was back at the dorms and his older friend Jeonghan was waking him up but nooo he was back in this hellhole.
Jaehyun sat up in his bed and groggily wiped at his eyes as Yugyeom entered the room too and dived into Jaehyun’s bed. The two that didn’t belong in the room notified them that they were going to go down for the complimentary breakfast buffet and told the two sleepy occupants of the room that they should wash up and go down too.
Mingyu waved the two off and dragged himself over to the bathroom where he started his morning routine going. Jaehyun was checking up on the cameras that they had charged the previous night and was pleased to see that they were all full.
He turned a camera on and started showing the room that they were in and the silhouette of Mingyu brushing his teeth through the not-so-opaque glass doors of the bathroom. “As you can see here, I just woke up and Mingyu and I are going to get ready for breakfast. I hope that their eggs are better than Mark’s.” Jaehyun muttered the last part to himself but it was still caught on camera (later on Mark would watch the video and send him an angry emoji filled text but Jaehyun didn’t know that yet).
The two were ready to go 15 minutes later and as they passed by the room that Dongmin and Chan were in, they knocked on the door, just in case the two were still sleeping in and were going to miss breakfast. After determining that there was nobody in there, the duo made their way to the lifts.
“Good morning Mingyu-ah.” Dongmin greeted from the table where he sat, a glass of orange juice in hand. Opposite him sat Chan who was downing a cup of coffee in one shot. Jungkook and Yugyeom were at a table nearby and were having a competition on who could spread jam on their toast faster.
“Morning guys! I slept well, how about you guys?” Mingyu returned the greeting as he sat at an empty table near Dongmin and Chan. Chan said something about his body aching and the bed being too small while Dongmin blushed slightly. Jaehyun decided that he did not want to know what happened in their room the previous night and stood up to get some eggs for himself.
“Okay, Yugyeom and I are heading back up. You guys can chill for a bit after breakfast, we are going to explore the market for a bit. Do whatever you want, just pack up and be at our room by 12 p.m.” Jungkook briefed the others and then he and Yugyeom left the food hall, hands interlocked as they fought playfully.
“You know, I will never understand their dynamic.” Chan said wistfully as he watched the two who were bickering about some hotel decoration at the lift and then made up in 0.2 seconds.
Mingyu shook his head and sighed, “Welcome to the club, buddy.”
******
“All done!” Chan dusted off his hands as he finished loading up everything into the last row of the car. The group had rested enough and were going to head to their next site. This episode was a little more special as they were visiting two places in one sitting.
They were on the road now with Jungkook and Yugyeom in their usual positions. “Oh great and wise Jungkook, can we have a hint of where we’re going this time?” Mingyu drawled from the middle row. This time, he had switched positions with Chan and was sandwiched between Jaehyun and Dongmin.
Jungkook looked back cheekily at the rest of the group and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, “You’ll see when we get there.” With that mysterious sentence said, Jungkook whipped around to the front again, leaving the 4 others to fret over what he just said.
Dongmin shrugged and dug a kitkat out of Mingyu’s snack backpack and received a light slap on his hand as Mingyu chided him for taking one of his favourite snacks that he had limited numbers of. This prompted Jaehyun to reach for the bag too and resulted in a full-blown war in the middle row.
Chan sat in the back row, looking fondly at the 3 idiots fighting in front of him and had to bite back a cheesy smile. He was watching Mingyu attempt a brave recovery of his kitkat bars which were held tightly in Jaehyun’s grip when he felt something brush against his shoulder.
He didn’t dare to move an inch. In fact, he was so afraid he almost forgot to breathe and held his breath slightly as the feeling of something that had a hair-like texture ceased to brush against his body.
There was seriously something wrong with this car.
******
“You’re taking us to a church ? Do you think spirits can even enter a church?” Mingyu had an adorable expression on his face as he scrunched his nose in confusion.
Jungkook simply shrugged and everyone noticed the scheming glint in his eye. Yugyeom stepped up this time and pointed towards the church, “It’s one of the oldest churches in this area and is open to the public for overnight stays, actually. Many people have reported strange activity… around this church.”
Dongmin gulped as he looked around at the gravestones that surrounded the church. The church’s cemetery had become so big over the years that there was less space and more gravestones were erected closer and closer to the church itself.
“Okay then, I’ll be staying inside the church the whole time and be safe from any shit that you guys get yourselves into this time.” Mingyu’s voice was firm and he crossed his arms as if it would add to his determination.
“Sure, but we’ll all be outside exploring while you stay in the church by yourself, in the dark.” Jungkook was smirking now and it did nothing for Mingyu’s previous confidence.
“Hey!” Mingyu chased after Jungkook, trying to smack at him. All this was filmed by Chan who could only giggle silently while hoping that the camera footage remained steady in his shaky grasp.
After watching the two grown men fool around for a while, Yugyeom called them back and started distributing their flashlights and go-pros. They were to team up tonight and under no circumstances was anyone allowed to be alone.
Chan would be with Dongmin, Jungkook with Yugyeom and Mingyu with Jaehyun. Each pair had a go-pro on a selfie stick to film their own selves and a go-pro that one of them had to attach to their bodies with a harness to film what they were seeing. All go-pros had the night-vision function.
Since Chan was supposed to carry the main infra-red night vision video camera, Dongmin got to wear the harness and carry around the go-pros for the both of them. He secretly thought that pairing him up with Chan was Yugyeom’s plan to give him more screen time and he was thoroughly embarrassed.
As everyone finished wearing their gear, Jungkook headed up to the large main door of the church where the old fashioned door knockers were and knocked loudly. Yugyeom was behind him with the selfie stick in hand and shook his head slightly as he handed him the keys, “Did you think a ghost was going to open the door for you?”
Jungkook could only shrug and say that it was worth a try and that he had to expect the unexpected sometimes.
They headed into the entrance and walked down a short hallway to find themselves already at the pews of the church. There were approximately 20 pews and at the very front of the church stood the altar table.
Jungkook immediately headed towards the back of the church where there was a small area where they could lay out their sleeping bags. Since the church received many campers a year, they had provided frames big enough to fit one sleeping bag.
Jaehyun joked that he felt like he was in boy scouts again as they started to set up the frames and unroll their sleeping bags onto it. Once they were done, Dongmin excitedly took out a set of colourful tags from his bag and distributed them to the rest of the group. Each person had a tag with their name on it that they could attach to their sleeping bag so that they wouldn’t get mixed up.
“It really feels like we’re on a school trip now.” Chan mused as he admired Dongmin’s hand sewn tags.
Yugyeom and Jungkook then moved on to setting up cameras around their resting place for the night, saying that it was just in case something happened to them they would be able to check it in the morning.
Jaehyun was near the altar as he set up a camera according to Chan’s instructions. Dongmin and Mingyu were walking around the middle of the church where there were paintings and mosaics on the walls.
“Ah I know this, this is called the Visitation where an angel came down to tell Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus.” Dongmin pointed his go-pro to the painting on the wall as he babbled on to the viewers.
Mingyu was on the opposite side of the church from Dongmin and there were a few windows where he was at. It was around 5 p.m now and the sun was starting to set, casting eerie shadows on the ground with the help of the gravestones. Mingyu shivered, he couldn’t help but feel like something was watching his every move.
“Mingyu-ah, come here bro.” Chan called out as he waved the boy over to where the rest of the group had gathered in front of the altar. Mingyu thought it was strange how this church did not have the large cross that usually hung in Catholic churches.
When the group was reunited at the altar, Yugyeom gave them a briefing of how this night would go if their plans did not end up getting derailed like they were the previous night. Dongmin shivered slightly as last night’s memories were dredged up and Chan shot him a worried look that went unnoticed by the rest.
“We’ve set up all the cameras, let’s do a quick sweep of the interior of the church with our tools.” Jungkook said as he held up the familiar black plastic remote control looking EMF reader and passed it over to Jaehyun. Dongmin got the thermometer reader and Mingyu got the dowsing rods. Yugyeom fished out the spirit box from the bag of equipment and lay it flat on the dusty altar.
As Yugyeom set up the spirit box, Jaehyun went around the altar and pointed at the various statues and paintings around them. Only the light green LED light was on and the results were disappointing.
That was until he moved towards the side, away from the altar where a big statue was standing in front of the window. The EMF LEDs shot up to red in an instant. As fast as it had come, it was gone again, leaving Jaehyun speechless as he faced Chan who was recording him.
Jaehyun was still a little shell-shocked but he gathered his voice and spoke quietly, “Guys… did you see that? The EMF just went to red.”
Mingyu’s head shot up at this and he looked disturbed as he noticed where Jaehyun was standing there was a large glass window. Could it be a coincidence?
Dongmin immediately went over and tried to use the thermometer reader to see if there were any red figures on the blue screen which would indicate a presence was there. There was none at all and he just shrugged it off saying that it could have left or something.
Jaehyun obstinately continued to test around that area with Chan filming his progress but to no avail, there weren’t any other spirits for him to catch.
“Well, it makes sense that spirits wouldn’t be inside the church. Now the outside on the other hand…” Jungkook had a slightly mischievous look on his face and Mingyu groaned loudly, they knew what was coming.
The team migrated to the outside and the sun had set, covering the graveyard in the 7 p.m blanket of darkness.
They found a spot of grass to sit on and Yugyeom tossed his bag onto the ground while Jungkook set up his night vision camera to face the group at an angle opposite of Chan’s. They were running out of cameras at this point and had to stretch their resources out a bit.
Mingyu’s and Chan’s torchlights were used to provide light for the group and they settled down together on the grass, facing the gravestones a couple of feet away. Everyone except Chan sat down on the small patch of untouched grass and prepared themselves both physically and mentally.
Jungkook clapped his hands together, “Let us begin.”
Notes:
Thanks for reading!! I'll post again on Monday according to schedule haha I think I can afford one early post. If you're a stay or a fan of any of the kingdom groups, comment your bias or something HAHA. I like all the SKZ members I can't pick one for sure but Chan is my support idol, him and Yuta TT.
Chapter 9: Not Today
Notes:
Welcome back! Enjoy the story! Read it when it's bright outside okay!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Dongmin has many grievances throughout his life but this one might just take the cake. He didn’t quite understand how he had gotten himself into this situation but as he pushed himself flat against the tree, he regretted not stopping Jungkook and Yugyeom.
Hiding in the darkness of the huge oak tree, he stilled his breath as he ruffling noises near him. He would be found soon enough, there was no denying it. Still, he didn’t dare to open his eyes and clung on tighter to the tree.
A warm hand clamped onto his shoulder and Dongmin nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Got you! Two down, all that’s left is Jaehyun and Mingyu.” Jungkook grinned as he was one step closer to winning the game.
Yes, they were playing hide and seek. And yes, they were doing this in a graveyard at 7 p.m at night. It made sense to Yugyeom and Jungkook to try and use their ghost hunting equipment to look for their friends hiding in the dark. Perhaps they would also chance upon someone who wasn’t from their group.
Dongmin sighed as he checked up on the time limit that Chan was keeping track of. Jungkook had three more minutes to find Jaehyun and Mingyu to win the game. The thing is, if Jungkook won the game, he would earn the rights to boss them around the entire night. This included making them do things that they didn’t particularly want to do. Dongmin could only hope that Jungkook was thinking about back massages and foot rubs and not some plans that included spirits.
Chan was filming the entire process and had turned off his camera light so as to immerse them all in the darkness.
Jungkook stalked around the area that they agreed to play in. Yugyeom and Dongmin who have already been found were watching in silence as Jungkook hunted for the last two of their group.
Jaehyun was found in a particularly large bush with leaves and twigs in his hair that Yugyeom and Dongmin had to remove. Now, Mingyu was the only one left and Chan announced that Jungkook had one more minute to find him.
Dongmin could only hope that his cousin would be able to hang on for just one more minute. He was let down instantaneously as a loud crash broke through the silence and Mingyu came running at them.
“Something grabbed at me!” He squealed as he barrelled into the group and pointed towards the area that he had been hiding in. There was barely anything there except for a wheelbarrow that had toppled and caused the loud disturbance.
Yugyeom asked him to explain what happened and Mingyu obliged and launched into a story about how Chan had just told the time out loud and something had grabbed Mingyu roughly, causing him to get so spooked.
Mingyu even turned around to show them the part of his hoodie that was pulled and to Dongmin’s horror, there was some sort of stain there, as if a dirty hand had rubbed against it. Jaehyun merely shrugged and said that Mingyu could have accidentally brushed up against something and it left some residue there.
Yugyeom offered Mingyu a change of hoodies since he had an extra and Mingyu simply nodded, still trapped in a daze as he followed Yugyeom back to the inside of the church.
The rest of the group were back at the patch of grass they had decided to film in and were setting up their equipment again. This time, Dongmin got the EMF reader, Jaehyun was in charge of the spirit box and Jungkook held onto the thermo reader.
Chan had found a nice spot for himself, despite the fact that his back faced the graveyard and he felt slightly vulnerable. But not to worry, he had prepared himself for this trip anyway.
When Yugyeom and Mingyu finally came back, they sat in a semi circle facing the gravestones with the spirit box in the center. Jaehyun was in the middle of the semi circle with Mingyu and Yugyeom to his left and Dongmin and Jungkook to his right. Chan was in the far right, filming them from a distance.
“I’m surprised Jungkook didn’t prepare priest garments for us to cosplay this time.” Jaehyun remarked as he realised how plainly they were dressing this time. It seemed that the official colour for this team was Edgy Black.
“Don’t give him ideas,” Dongmin said the same time Jungkook said, “I would have gotten us nun clothes then, didn’t we just watch that movie the other day?”
Mingyu shivered in fear while Yugyeom seemed to be taking some mental notes about this.
Jaehyun passed the dowsing rods over to Mingyu who took them with a slightly hesitant look on his face while Yugyeom got the Rem pod which he placed at a distance away from the group. If someone touched the antenna of the Rem pod, it would beep and light up.
When Yugyeom sat back down, Jaehyun had already switched on the spirit box and they were waiting and listening for anything out of the ordinary static of the switching of radio stations.
“Grass.” The spirit box blurted out after a while.
Mingyu had a horrified look on his face, “Guys we’re sitting on grass .” Mingyu gestured to the ground they were currently sitting on but no one seemed to really pay him any heed.
It took a while before the spirit box managed to say something clear enough for them to recognise, “Wall.”
There wasn’t anything special that the spirit box said after that and they hadn’t drawn any connections with what it had already said and so they turned it off and resorted to their other gear.
“Okay, if there is a spirit with us right now, can you make these rods cross.” Mingyu spoke as he held up the two metal rods. Mingyu could only try to keep his hands still and watch in fear as the rods spun outwards slowly and only stopped when they came together in a cross facing Mingyu.
Well, this spirit was slightly different from the previous one they met then, their ways in swinging the rods inwards or outwards were different. Mingyu nodded and tried to think of another question.
Dongmin cleared his voice and asked, “Can you point the rods to where you are now?”
After 2 seconds, the rods began to slowly spin, the left rod spun in an anti-clockwise style while the right rod spun in a clockwise style. Both rods were turning at their own pace, going round and round in circles.
Mingyu’s face was paler and he looked ready to pass out as he had no control of the rods in his hands. Gingerly, Yugyeom removed the pair of spinning rods from Mingyu and held them in his own hands.
“Could it be that there are spirits all around us right now? Since the rods were spinning in circles.” Jaehyun said out loud what everyone was starting to think. He shot a pointed look at Yugyeom who was holding the dowsing rods.
Yugyeom looked at the still, parallel rods in his hands glinting ever so softly in the light of the camera, “Is your body buried here? Cross the rods inwards for yes, do not cross for no.”
The rods slowly came together and met with a little ‘cling’ sound. Yugyeom looked slightly amazed at the rods and was still finding it hard to believe that they had moved on their own accord.
“Hey guys,” Jungkook interrupted Yugyeom before he could ask another question, “I was just keeping watch of the thermo cam and there was a red figure that appeared back there.” Jungkook pointed to the darkness where there were rows or gravestones.
Jaehyun dusted off his pants as he got up, “I guess we have to go there then.” It was simple, they were supposed to go wherever they thought they would be able to get evidence but there was an uneasiness in Mingyu’s heart but he shoved that down and got up too.
Jungkook led the way to the area where he saw the red areas on the thermo camera and Dongmin started to do a sweep of the area with the EMF reader.
It was subtle but he didn’t miss the split second where the light green light went to yellow and he turned back to make sure that Chan was behind him to capture what he just saw on camera.
“Chan, you got that on camera?” Mingyu asked frantically and Chan simply angled the camera up and down to show that it was ‘nodding’. Mingyu nodded too and breathed a sigh of relief before perking up and looking at the gravestone they had just identified.
It looked just like the other hundred of gravestones in the yard. A thick layer of dust and grime covered the gravestone making the words on it slightly unreadable.
“Kim… Dae...Hwan…1935-1956.” Yugyeom had to squint to read the name of the person that this gravestone belonged to. The man had died at a young age and it was a sad thing to think about since he was 21 when he passed away and Dongmin and Chan have friends that were currently that age.
They were solemn for a while, pondering about what to do next when Yugyeom suddenly held up the dowsing rods and put them in the proper positions before saying, “Mr Kim Daehwan, if you were the one that brought us here, please cross the rods inwards.”
The rods slowly moved into position, it was a loud ‘yes’.
Yugyeom breathed out loudly and continued, “Mr Kim, if you’d like us to accompany you here and talk to you some more with our spirit box, can you please cross the rods again?”
The rods remained in the uncrossed position and Yugyeom had given the spirit some time to gather energy to move the rods but nothing had happened.
“Mr Kim, do you want us to go away?” Dongmin asked as he watched the rods carefully.
The rods swung quickly into the crossed position.
“Okay then, Mr Kim. We will leave you now, thank you for interacting with us.” Jungkook said as he reached into his pocket and dug out a pack of wet wipes which he used to give the dusty gravestone a wipe, despite the fact that the grime stuck to the stone too well and he was barely able to clean it.
The group returned to the small area they were in before they went to visit the gravestone and they settled down again.
For some reason, time seemed to fly by whenever they were investigating and it was already 10pm. There weren't many light sources in the area and they only had the light of Chan’s camera light to guide them in the darkness.
“Let’s switch it up a bit, we’ll split into two groups. Chan you will go with Dongmin and Jaehyun while Mingyu will come with me and Jungkook.” Yugyeom said as Jungkook left to find another available camera that he could use to film, in addition to the go-pros that Yugyeom and Mingyu had.
Mingyu quickly realised that he was teaming up with Jungkook and Yugyeom, the evil maknaes and regretted his life decisions instantaneously. His hands reached out for Dongmin and Jaehyun as he was dragged away by the two best friends, everything was captured by Chan’s trusty camera.
Dongmin held his hand out to Jaehyun who took it comfortably and they started to walk in the darkness. Jaehyun was wearing the go-pro harness while Dongmin had the harness and the selfie stick. Chan was just silently filming them from the front, ignoring the cold feeling he had at his back.
The colder the back of Chan’s neck felt, the warmer the ring he had on his left hand got and that comforted him. He really should thank Jeongin for that ring some time.
“The EMF just spiked.” Jaehyun said as he lifted up the EMF reader he was given. As he raised it a little higher towards the church building, it flickered from light green to orange and then back to light green.
Dongmin didn’t know it then but he had clasped onto Jaehyun’s hand even tighter as they walked nearer to the church building.
“It’s the window. It was heightened inside when you got nearer to the window too.” Dongmin realised as he pointed at the stained glass window. Jaehyun was silent as he studied the window and tried to see if there was anything off about it.
Chan asked why the window would have some significant energy attached to it and Dongmin brought out the dowsing rods that he had procured from Yugyeom earlier.
“If there is any spirit here, can you use these rods to point to the direction that you are in right now?” Dongmin asked.
The rod in his left hand rotated slightly to the direction of where the window was above and Jaehyun made a soft ‘hmm” sound.
“Are you a spirit that is trapped in the window?” The rods did not budge.
Dongmin had an idea, “Are you a spirit trapped inside the building?” The rods slowly came together in a cross and Jaehyun and Dongmin locked gazes with incredulous looks on their faces.
“Perhaps the spirit is trapped inside the church and wants to go out, that’s why it’s always lingering at the window.” Dongmin theorised and Jaehyun merely shrugged his shoulders and said that what better way to test their hypothesis than to go into the church and investigate for themselves.
Meanwhile, the YugKookGyu team were walking further away from the church property and were going closer to the undergrowth nearby.
“Okay guys, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Why are we walking so far away from the church if we came here specifically to investigate the church?” Mingyu had to be the voice of reason when there were two over-enthusiastic explorers in the mix.
Yugyeom tried to explain, “Well, there’s a little yard down there next to a small house that belonged to the previous caretaker of the church. When he passed away, nobody else took care of the graveyards and so many people say that there are spirits in that little shack.”
Mingyu just sighed and trudged on, there was no way he would be able to convince the two not to go there. He might as well just go with the flow and not lag behind the other two, a demon in the dark might snap at his ankles and he liked how his ankles were nicely fitted on his body.
“We’re here!” Jungkook proudly showed off the abandoned little hut to Yugyeom who was holding onto the camera. Mingyu just stood beside Jungkook with his hands in his hoodie pockets, slowly shaking his head at the enthusiasm Jungkook was radiating.
Jungkook jangled the doorknob and it gave way easily, allowing them access into the dusty shack. Random items were thrown around the room and it seemed that it had been used as a refuge by a homeless person as there were empty packs of food products and miscellaneous rubbish.
Yugyeom cleared a spot on the floor for them and pulled out the spirit box, setting it in the middle of the space. Jungkook had arranged the go-pros around them in as many angles as possible and they were completely in the dark.
Mingyu had placed the Rem pod near the door frame and they settled down and got themselves ready for what was about to come.
“Hi, if the spirit of the old caretaker is here, let us introduce ourselves. I am Jungkook, this is Yugyeom and Mingyu and we are here to investigate. If possible, please communicate with us through this spirit box. It will read your electromagnetic signals and hopefully give us some words we can understand. Over there is the Rem pod, please touch the antenna on it to let us know you’re here with us. Lastly, this thermo cam will help us see if you are near us.” Jungkook explained as he pointed at each of his friends and the equipment he had brought along.
They started without a hitch, the spirit box occasionally said something that was relevant to their current surroundings like “dust”, “dark”, “grass” and for some reason, “duck”. Mingyu argued that there could have been ducks in the area and the old caretaker would know that.
“I think there’s not much here- What the-” Mingyu jumped up from where he was sitting cross legged on the floor to point at the beeping Rem pod with the LED lights practically going crazy. After a while, the REM pod stopped beating and they all stared at the doorway where it was situated.
“Is it safe to assume that whatever triggered the REM pod is currently in the room with us?” Jungkook asked as politely as he could and there was a beep from the REM pod as if it was agreeing with him.
“Can we assume that it is the spirit of the caretaker who used to live in this shack?” Yugyeom continued to question the spirit that they were in the presence with.
There was silence until Mingyu yelped, “Something touched me! I swear guys, I felt something pull at my hoodie again. Oh my god, I’m standing right in front of the go-pro. I swear if we don’t get that on camera-”
Mingyu maneuvered his way to Jungkook who was standing a distance away, trying his best not to topple the precarious miscellaneous items stacked around the shack.
Jungkook turned on the spirit box once again and forced Mingyu to sit down beside him. As unwilling to remain in the shack as he was, Mingyu was more afraid of the darkness outside the shack and obediently sat with Jungkook.
As before, the spirit box activity seemed to not be very useful and Jungkook and Yugyeom decided that it was time for them to head back to the main church. It would be a few minutes past 12 midnight when they made it back to the church.
On the other hand, Jaehyun, Dongmin and Chan had no solid proof regarding their spirit-trapped-in-church theory and decided to take a break instead. They settled down near their sleeping bags and Dongmin and Chan were already changed into their sleep wear.
Jaehyun was looking out the church door, trying to see where the other half of the group were. Once he gave up doing that, he and Dongmin sat down next to each other as they called their respective family and close friends.
“We’re back!” Jungkook sing-songed as he marched into the church hall and caused Dongmin to be startled to the point that he hit Jaehyun in the chest. Chan could only laugh silently as Jaehyun rubbed the sore spot and Dongmin apologised profusely.
Chan looked towards Yugyeom and asked, “Got anything?”
Yugyeom could only shake his head and sigh lowly, “Just some Rem pod activity. But it counts for something, right?”
Chan nodded and said that there wasn’t much out of the ordinary with their side too and that perhaps they should call it a day.
Jungkook perked up at this, “But dude, the witching hour is at 3 a.m…”
Jaehyun looked him dead in the eyes, “What will the witching hour affect in a literal church?”
Jungkook had to admit that the other guy had a point and he respected Jaehyun’s crusade for more rest. If anything, the redness in Jaehyun’s eyes were signs that the poor boy wasn’t getting enough sleep, be it before or after he joined the channel.
Yugyeom nodded along and told them to prepare for bed in which Dongmin and Chan grinned while pointing to their fuzzy pajama pants saying that they were already ready.
This concluded their night of explorations and all of them headed to bed. Yugyeom and Jungkook did a small skit of tucking the other team members into their little sleeping bags and kissing them goodnight.
After doing one last check to make sure that the cameras were rolling properly, the two team leaders also snuggled deep into their sleeping bags and promptly fell asleep, the exhaustion of running around during the day had gotten to them.
It was exactly 3:03 a.m, according to the go-pros, when there was a stirring in a sleeping bag.
Mingyu jerked awake in the middle of a deep slumber and swivelled his head side to side as he tried to gain order of his senses. Something had shoved him awake, he was sure of it. He toyed with the idea that it could be the others pranking him as they knew he was the most scaredy-cat out of all of them but they seemed to be sleeping peacefully.
Looking over the serene faces of his friends, Mingyu felt a chill go down his spine. If not them, then who?
As Mingyu looked up again to check if there was anyone else, something dashed out of his line of sight and he froze.
He had no idea what he was doing but he could vaguely make out the fact that his bare feet were moving across the cold floor, each step sent icy tingles shooting up his legs. Still, he couldn’t stop himself and he moved closer and closer to the main door.
Flinging the door open, he looked around outside.
Nothing. All that he saw were rows and rows of gravestones facing him as if they were a line of soldiers in a death formation, slowly marching towards him and bringing him to his doom.
Fear gripped Mingyu’s heart in it’s cold, icy hands but he gritted his teeth and forced a foot out of the door. There was someone there, he was sure of it.
It looked like a man, he was of average build and looked fairly young. Mingyu bet it was him that woke him up and he needed to catch this weirdo before he could do something even weirder to them. What if he stole something while they were sleeping or even took their photos? It was not impossible for a stalker fan to stalk them, they were all famous in their own ways after all.
For the sake of his friends, Mingyu could run barefoot in the grass.
Wait, the grass. The grass of the graveyard? It was very dark. Mingyu could barely even make out the hand he was waving in front of his face. Where the hell was he again?
Oh wait, the grass. Yes, he could feel that under the soles of his feet and between his toes. He started wiggling his toes. This felt wrong. Why was it so dark?
“Mingyu! Why the fuck are you just standing there?”
Mingyu thought he heard Chan but he couldn’t see Chan. Where was Chan? Why was it so dark?
And then light.
Light flooded Mingyu’s vision, driving away the cloudiness that had infiltrated his mind.
The next thing Mingyu knew was that he was sitting on his sleeping bag that had already gone cold and Dongmin was draping his own jacket across his shoulders. Jaehyun was kneeling on the floor and cursing as he tried to warm up Mingyu’s feet.
Yugyeom looked slightly dazed but Jungkook had fire burning in his eyes, “What the hell was that? We have rules that you can’t go around walking on your own!”
Mingyu just drooped his head silently while Jungkook continued berating him.
“Enough, Jungkook. I suspect that Mingyu didn’t even know what was happening. What happened, Mingyu?” Chan tried to placate Jungkook and comfort Mingyu at the same time.
“I… I don’t know. I suddenly woke up and I thought I saw someone. After that, I just followed the figure outside. I barely even knew what I was doing.” Mingyu rested his head in his hands. Thinking about it now, what he had done was utterly stupid and Jungkook had every right to be mad. Deep down Mingyu knew that he was only angry because he was deathly worried for Mingyu and it made Mingyu feel even more apologetic.
“No more of that, okay? Next time, whatever happens no matter how big or small, you get someone to go with you okay?” Jungkook firmly grasped Mingyu’s broad shoulders and bent down to his eye level, looking him strictly in the eyes.
Mingyu nodded and whispered his apologies to the rest of the group.
“I think we should pack up and leave this place ASAP, we don’t want a repeat of that happening tonight. Thank goodness Chan has some father instincts and sensed one of us was missing.” Jaehyun tilted his head in Chan’s direction and Chan blushed.
“It’s a skill that comes naturally when there are 7 irresponsible children that you need to take care of. I swear Felix is the only one holding me together, I love my son. Also, I think Jaehyun made some good points there.” Chan replied.
Jungkook nodded and started taking down the nearest mounted go-pro, “Alright, let’s pack up now. Maybe we can find a 24 hours coffee joint for us to rest at for the time being.”
The team got to work with Chan, Yugyeom and Jungkook packing the cameras, Jaehyun packing the equipment and Dongmin and Mingyu packing up the group’s sleeping bags and supplies.
If anyone had noticed the pale face looking at them through the window, they didn’t show it at all and continued on with their duties.
Notes:
Ayo why do I keep doing Mingyu dirty like this? Idk but I love him man. I realised my writing is so jumpy from one member's perspective to the next it feels weird? Also I'm getting hella ideas recently and I have Nct, Astro and Stray Kids fic ideas floating around my head and laptop and I don't know which one to pick first... Would anyone read a Nct fic I've been planning since 2019?? I also have a 2000 liner ghosty fanfic idea that popped into my head last night but I kinda want a break from scary stuff, I get scared easily :')
Chapter 10: Trauma
Notes:
I am ~tired~ and lately I couldn't find the energy to write and continue this fic so updates might get less frequent but I'm TRYING okay TT. Anyways, here's chapter 10, happy reading!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“So,” Jungkook said as he took a sip of his hot chocolate with puffy tiny marshmallows floating on the top, “Explain to us what happened.”
Mingyu sipped at his bottle of orange juice, contemplating how he should talk about what he had seen. The team had managed to find a 24 hours coffee place and camped there, waiting for the sun to rise.
“He had short, cropped, dark hair,” Mingyu took a bite of Chan’s cheesecake before continuing, “I think he was kinda average height and he’s kinda pale but I didn’t notice it then. When I saw him, he had just moved out of my field of vision and I thought he was a stalker or a pranker so I wanted to follow him. Somewhere along the line, I couldn’t control my own body and walked out. I could barely even realise I was on the grass already. My mind was like full of cotton, I couldn’t think clearly but I remembered what the spirit box said earlier, ‘dark’ and ‘grass’.”
Chan was filming Mingyu and the rest were enraptured as they listened to Mingyu’s story.
“If he were a ghost, why would he want to wake you up in the middle of the night?”
Mingyu frowned and thought over Jungkook’s question. Jungkook was right, why would a spirit wake him up and make him go outside like that?
The buzzing of Jungkook’s handphone brought everyone back to reality and they stared at the vibrating phone showing the caller ID ‘Mr Yoon’.
Jungkook set the phone on speaker mode after glancing around to make sure that there weren’t any patrons or workers in their near vicinity.
“Hello Mr Yoon-” Jungkook began but was rapidly cut off.
“What the hell are you guys doing in the church! How dare you break the window! Don’t think I wouldn’t know just because I’m in another city, I’ve got the security system notification!” The other man thundered on, preventing Jungkook from butting in and asking what exactly happened.
Yugyeom came bent down slightly to speak into the speaker, “Mr Yoon? We have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s 4.43 a.m now and we’re in a coffee shop far away from the church. If you check the security cameras, you’d see that we left before 3.30 a.m. Whatever happened in there wasn’t our doing.”
The firmness to Yugyeom’s tone only seemed to piss the owner of the church even more and he slammed the phone down on his end, effectively cutting off the call.
It took the team some time to recover in the coffee shop.
“What did he mean by broken window?” Dongmin wondered aloud. If they had broken a window in the church, surely one of them would have noticed it?
Chan nodded absentmindedly as a theory started to form in his head. He could definitely see where this was going, he just needed some time to sort the facts out before presenting his theory to the rest.
It didn’t take long for the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Mr Yoon had called Jungkook back 20 minutes later and offered an apology for getting mad at him. Apparently, a stained glass window had been shattered, setting off the security alarm and Mr Yoon had assumed they were still camping in the church. It was only when he checked the security cameras and saw with his own two eyes that their car had driven away and didn’t come back that he realised he had wronged them.
Jungkook had assured the old man that it was understandable that he was upset and managed to find out more about the broken window. It was located near the statue that Jaehyun had investigated before and was the same window that had the EMF reader spiking.
Now that the pieces had come together, Chan was ready to offer his theory up. Sensing that he wanted to speak, Yugyeom took the camera out of Chan’s hands and started filming for him.
“Guys hear me out. What if the spirit that had woken Mingyu up was trying to make him leave? After all, Mingyu is arguably one of the more superstitious people here. The spirit could have planned to make us all leave the place because it knew that there was going to be an accident in the church?”
There were various degrees of reactions while Chan explained his theory. Jungkook felt that it was unlikely that a spirit had interfered to warn them of a possible danger, Jaehyun felt that having the window smashed was hardly threatening to them even if they were still there as they slept far away from the window, Dongmin felt that it was possible all this could happen and Mingyu had an epiphany.
“It's him. Kim Daehwan, it has to be him. He was 21 when he died, the spirit I saw looked relatively young like that. Remember in the graveyard at his gravestone he told us to leave? He didn’t just mean that we should leave him alone, he meant that we should leave the whole place all together.” The light reappeared in Mingyu’s eyes as he connected the dots and Yugyeom looked at him impressed.
Jungkook contemplated his words, “That could be a theory. Well, we’ll compile the footage and film our reactions to it. You can add in your theory then and we’ll see what the comment section thinks about it too.” Jungkook ruffled Mingyu’s hair and they started play-fighting, the rest of them looking fondly over the two of them.
Dongmin looked out the windows of the coffee shop, the faint glow of the morning sun was starting to show over the horizon and it would be time for them to hit the road again and make their way back home soon. He would be the one driving them back again this time and that made Dongmin gulp down the rest of his iced coffee.
******
“We’ll see you soon!” Yugyeom called as he waved at Mingyu who was the second one to be dropped off after Chan. Chan had asked them to drop him off at his studio, much to the protest of Dongmin and Mingyu but ultimately they were unable to stop the workaholic who wanted to get started on editing. This even made Jungkook sigh as he reminded Chan that he only needed the video in two weeks time and Chan should have plenty of time to start later.
All of that fell on deaf ears and now they were on the way to drop off Yugyeom at his dorm. After that, only Jungkook and Dongmin were left and this time, Jungkook hailed a cab for Dongmin and sent him home.
Now, all of them were back in their comfort spaces and sent texts into their group chat to say that they were back safe and sound.
The dorms were empty when Mingyu got back home which was strange because Wonwoo or Joshua were usually at home and Jeonghan liked to come over and laze on Seungcheol’s bed for whatever reason.
Shrugging it off as his friends having their own schedules, Mingyu hopped into the shower and let the pounding water from Seungcheol’s new showerhead beat the exhaustion out of his body. His friends were aware of the fact that he was going on paranormal investigations and it didn’t seem like they were wholeheartedly encouraging him but they also weren’t stopping him from going on the investigations.
Mingyu was aware of the risks that he was taking but continued on anyway. He was glad that he had such a great support system around him. It was exactly in these kinds of moments when he was truly all alone when he would think fondly about his friends and miss them.
He swiped and unlocked his phone, heading straight to the group chat.
SVT Dorm Alpha
Tallgyu
Come home for dinner guys
Im cooking tonite
Scoops
Sounds good
Jisoos
How great it is to have our lovely househusband back with us <3
Þe8
Don’t boost his ego
Tallgyu
:C
Haohao do you hate me
Þe8
:/
woNo
I’ll buy groceries
Mingyu threw himself onto the sofa and scrolled through instagram for a bit. It was only 10 a.m, there was still plenty of time before dinner and Wonwoo was going to get the materials he needed for cooking anyways. All Mingyu had to do for now was relax.
Mingyu couldn’t relax at all.
He shifted his position on the sofa and thought that it would help if he placed Seungcheol’s giant dog plushie under his head. It didn’t help and only aggravated the neckache that he already had.
Mingyu got up from the sofa and made his way to Minghao’s massage chair in the living room. Perhaps a nice back rub could help him relax and relieve all the stress and tension he accumulated the past two nights.
As he sank deeper into the vibrating massage chair, Mingyu’s eyes fluttered closed and the exhaustion that had seeped deep into his bones was starting to dissipate. Finally, some nice peace and quiet- not.
Mingyu’s eyes flew open as he scanned the room hurriedly. He swore he felt the air before his face move. It was that kind of air flow that gently caressed your face when you waved a hand before your own face.
Despite the panic fighting within him for control, Mingyu steeled his face into a blank slate and stared ahead. Fishing his phone out from his pocket, he tried to turn it on but there was only a big sign that popped up on the black screen.
“Shit, my phone died.”
As the words left Mingyu’s mouth, he thought he heard a giggle near his left ear.
Nope, he was not going to do this today.
Heaving himself out of the massage chair, Mingyu made his way to his room and plugged his phone in, grabbing a set of clothes as he headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Water cascaded off the dampened mop of black hair and streamed down the tanned skin in rivulets. Mingyu sighed softly as the warm water enveloped him in an embrace, lifting the residual tension from his body.
This was fine. He could control what he wanted and didn’t want to see. He didn’t have to feel things he did not want to feel. In this tiny bathroom with the fogged up mirrors, he could be vulnerable.
Of course, that was what he thought until he reached into his hair with his hands lathered in shampoo. He rubbed the shampoo deep into his scalp in circular motions, closing his eyes and craning his head backwards in the process.
It was all going so well but when Mingyu felt the third hand buried within his own dark locks, rubbing circles into his scalp, his blood ran cold and his breath caught in his throat.
There was a hand in his hair that did not belong to him. In a room where he had locked himself into, alone.
Mingyu forced himself to swallow his screams as he slowly turned behind him. Empty air greeted him and he sighed in relief as he raised a hand up to his head to feel if the hand was still there. Surely he had not just imagined the entire thing right?
Summoning all his courage, Mingyu unclenched his jaw to whisper something to the air around him, “You know, it’s really not polite to join someone in the shower without asking for permission first.”
Sure, it might have looked funny that he was talking to no one but Mingyu knew deep down that he really did feel a third hand. In fact, he could even picture the hand in his mind’s eye, a pale ivory hand with the fingertips stained a crimson red.
Shuddering, Mingyu realised that he had stepped out of the warm spray of water and was starting to get cold. Shaking away the negative energy, Mingyu returned to the water and finished up his shower, scrubbing extra hard at his scalp.
He needed to talk to someone about this.
******
“Mingyu-ah help me with the groceries!” Wonwoo called into the house as he heaved one of the many bags he was holding across the threshold. It was 4 in the afternoon and according to his calculations, Mingyu would either be taking a nap or watching Netflix.
What Wonwoo did not expect was Mingyu literally hurling himself down the hallway and running over to him. There was a slightly crazed look in Mingyu’s eyes that immediately rang alarm bells in Wonwoo’s head.
He placed the groceries on the counter and led Mingyu to a seat at the dining table.
“What’s wrong Gyu?” He asked softly while gently patting Mingyu’s back.
Mingyu stayed quiet for a bit and was about to open his mouth to say something when his eyes caught Wonwoo’s and he fell silent.
“It’s nothing… I just saw a gigantic spider just now and got scared but now I’m feeling so embarrassed that I made such a big deal about it.” Mingyu murmured softly as he offered a small smile to Wonwoo who just sighed and returned a gentle smile.
Wonwoo messed with Mingyu’s ink black hair and said wistfully, “Now that you’ve mentioned spiders, I really do wonder how your friend Chan survived seeing them around in Australia.” Mingyu tried to laugh it off and said something about how Chan was the bravest of them all.
After reassuring Wonwoo that he was fine, Mingyu fetched the pink frilly apron that read ‘Kiss the Chef’ that his friends had gifted to him as a joke and wore it. Wonwoo offered to help out in the kitchen but Mingyu chased him out, telling him to sit on the sofa and watch something instead.
Mingyu got to work, chopping up the onions and carrots. Physically he was there but mentally he was deep, deep into his thoughts and he was unable to think about anything other than the fact that he was positive he was being haunted right now.
Oh well, they were supposed to meet whenever Chan had the videos ready and knowing Chan, he would have them ready any time soon. Mingyu just had to wait till then to talk about the things that have been happening to him. He could last until then right?
******
Jungkook ushered everyone into his house and told them to make themselves comfortable in the set up that he had just finished putting together. He had informed his flatmates that he would be having his team over to film reaction videos to their evidence and had asked for permission to use the guest room as his filming location.
After making sure that his flatmates would be out for the entire day so a repeat of the last time would not happen again, Jungkook started to decorate and move furniture around to create a nicer filming set. He put some fake skulls in the background and placed black candles on the bookshelf to provide a slightly eerie vibe.
“Boi you doing too much, sit down.” Yugyeom said as he inspected the over-decorated finished product of the room. Jungkook looked slightly sheepish but Dongmin’s compliments managed to re-inflate his ego.
Mingyu and Chan were carrying the pizzas and sodas that they bought and started to arrange them on the dining table outside.
“Mingyu? Are you feeling okay?” Chan asked as nonchalantly as he could as he side-eyed the taller boy who was re-arranging the sodas for the third time. Mingyu jumped slightly when he heard what Chan said.
Mingyu was about to say something when Jungkook headed towards them and got paper plates and cups for all of them. Seeing that everybody was back, Mingyu simply smiled tightly, shook his head and turned away, leaving Chan standing there with a worried expression written all over his face.
“Gather around boys, we’ll watch and review the videos now. I uploaded it two days ago and there are tons of comments already!” Jungkook said excitedly as he forced the 5 other boys into the frame and hit the play button.
They were watching their own video on Jungkook’s large screen tv which made it even scarier for some (Mingyu and Dongmin). As they walked into the classroom where the ghost of the school girl was said to reside, their breaths caught in their throats.
There were some things they heard in the audio of the video that they had not heard in real life. Some of them were soft girlish giggles and a ‘hi’ when they realised that the spirit was likely standing right in front of Dongmin.
But the thing was, they were unable to see anything suspicious. In the previous video, they had the glowing eyes in the vent which could have been an animal but the current video wasn’t giving them any visual proof.
Jaehyun voiced out this thought to the other members and Chan just gave him a slightly unimpressed look, saying that he had definitely not watched the full video yet. Yugyeom made a joke about how Jaehyun probably skipped to the parts where he was in the frame only.
“Okay, you guys got me there,” Jaehyun laughed as he raised his hands in surrender, “I don’t watch our videos because I’ve already experienced everything in real life. Why would I do that to myself again?”
Mingyu agreed to this saying that when he was watching their video, he had to drag Minghao into the room to watch it with him and ended up getting laughed at.
Jungkook reminded them that they still had a video to finish watching and he skipped to a different timestamp that the comments had been talking about excitedly.
“I remember this,” Dongmin said as he pointed at the screen, “The doll was so creepy and it just kept making sounds, right? And then the piano played itself? How on earth could it have done that, we were the only ones in that place.” Jungkook simply nodded and pressed play on the video once more and they watched intently.
Mingyu started to get pale again and Dongmin had a grim expression on his face. Chan was scrolling through the comment section, he had watched this part way too many times already while he was editing and the image was stuck in his head.
“You know, the comments keep asking why we cut the footage and ran out of the room like that.” Chan said absentmindedly as Jungkook paused the video.
Jungkook scoffed lightly, “We wonder why that happened too!”
Chan looked a little helpless as he rubbed his hands together, “Well, what happened was- and I feel like many viewers wouldn’t believe me but- I saw something truly terrifying through the night vision camera and I really thought we caught it in 4K but the camera malfunctioned and we lost that footage.”
Chan continued explaining to the camera after he looked at Jungkook for reassurance to keep going, “So what happened was I saw something in the camera, got spooked, ordered the rest to get out and we were running down the hallway and I thought I saw a doorway so I went in and it was a lift. The lift was working and the doors closed just in time and that should explain why there was a cut from the room to the lift.”
Jaehyun looked towards Chan and asked, “What did you see in the camera?”
At this question, Chan gulped a little and shook his head slightly, “I’m not really sure what I saw but I think I have an idea that we got part of the ghost story wrong.”
Yugyeom perked up at this and asked Chan what he meant by that. Jungkook and Dongmin were also intrigued while Mingyu simply tried to remove himself from the very end of the couch and closer to his friends.
“So you see, we came to the school where a student, Kang Misun, had taken her own life because she was being bullied. According to the rumours, her spirit became a vengeful ghost that went after her bullies and caused them to drop dead, right?”
They all nodded at this, this was exactly the rumours that went around that caused the school to close down a few years ago.
“Well, think about it. When we went there, Ms Kang interacted with us nicely and never once showed us any violence. And then we left her room and went to the music room, right? I think I saw a ghost there, he looked absolutely terrifying with long spindly arms and he was fused onto the piano seat.”
“Ayo what?” Jaehyun cut Chan off and stared at him with wide eyes. “Dude, I googled the place up when we got to the hotel that day and there was a boy that died in the music room. He was apparently participating in the piano recital and he died of a heart attack while practicing in the music room.”
Chan just stared at Jaehyun with his mouth in an ‘O’ shape at a loss for words. Everything was starting to come together.
“And the gym equipment room!” Mingyu shouted out, waving his arms around maniacally. “There was a rumour going around that Kang Misun was frequently bullied by a girl from another class and that girl once locked her up in the metal cabinet!”
“That could be what we encountered in the basement!” Jungkook said excitedly as he forwarded the video to when they heard banging on the metal cabinet. They had managed to include that part of the footage in the video where there was banging on the metal cabinet and they started piling furniture against it.
“Honestly, I don’t really know what happened there. I was on autopilot and started moving the furniture and I thought that something was going to come out if we didn’t block the entrance.” Jungkook confessed.
“I sure hope what was in there was a spirit and not a real human pranking us.” Dongmin voiced his thoughts aloud and looked rather sheepish when he realised he actually said that out loud.
“Think about it. Kang Mina got her peace after her bullies died but now she’s stuck at her table until who knows when. The other two spirits are the bullies, probably the main masterminds, that tortured her while she was alive. Now they’re paying the price for their actions, even in the afterlife.” Yugyeom summarised everything and the members agreed.
“That only makes it dangerous for the people who go there. Guys, please don’t go to the school to explore, it’s dangerous.” Dongmin said the last part to the camera and Chan chuckled lightly as he ruffled Dongmin’s hair.
“Now that we’ve already posted the video I don’t think anyone is going to heed our advice.”
“Chan’s right, I should probably talk to the property owner about this.” Jungkook said.
“It’s not like he’ll believe you. Anyways, people will pay money to get in and he probably would accept that money.” Yugyeom added to the conversation.
They realised that they had gone off-topic yet again and Jungkook struggled to reel them all back into the main purpose of the video.
“Alright guys, this will be it for this video, we’ll upload the next video of this trip in a while! We hope you enjoyed the videos so far and we’re excited to give you more content! Comment down below if you see anything that we’ve missed or if you have any questions, we’ll see you next time.” Yugyeom tied up the loose ends and ended the video with all 6 guys running towards the camera, truly the scariest part of the whole video.
They ended the filming with laughter but Chan couldn’t take his eyes off of Mingyu who he knew for sure was hiding something from the rest of them.
Notes:
You know... I can feel myself becoming a bigger Stay each and every day and I feel like this translates into my writing and I think I'm obsessed with Chan lmao?? I tried to watch last night's Chan's room but 5 seconds... LMAO. I have so many things I want to write but I can't plan for shit and I'll get busy in September so oof I need to hurry up but I'm so brain empty :/
Chapter 11: Epiphany
Notes:
Welcome back! You know the saying "your bias is your bias but Cha Eunwoo is Cha Eunwoo"? Yeah maybe that also applies to the afterlife. Stan Astro and all the groups mentioned!!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The video started off with the scene of a church amidst a darkening blue sky background. All 5 of them were in the frame, standing in a row as they looked towards the large building.
“You’re taking us to a church? Do you think spirits can even enter a church?”
The audio plays and Mingyu cringes as he hears his whiny tone of voice. He was alone today, huddled on his bed as he fought through a cold. Minghao, his ghost video buddy, had abandoned him for work at the dance studio and now he was alone and scared, instead of just being scared.
Mingyu quickly paused the video and dug around his comforter for his phone, sending a quick text message to his cousin.
Broski
ayo
come over no one’s home
You’re hella sus
I’m getting snacks first
okay
hurrrrrrryyyyyy
<3
*cute dog meme*
This is my 13th reason.
******
Mingyu snuggled deep into his blanket as he left the video on pause. He was not going to watch it right now by himself, not when there was someone coming over to watch it with him.
Thinking that he was safe for now, Mingyu got up to the kitchen and made himself some tea while digging through the fridge trying to find something that he could snack on in the meantime.
Mingyu heard his phone ringing from his room and waddled over as he was swamped in his blanket that he decided to wrap around him and leave the room.
The moment he pushed open the door of his room, the ringing stopped and Mingyu found his eyes lingering on the laptop he had on his bed.
He came closer to the bed and slowly sat down as he looked at his laptop. He clearly remembered pausing the video about a minute into it but it was currently at the 32 minute mark which was the scene of him outing himself while playing hide and seek. Mingyu thought that it was the stupidest game to play in such a location but pushed that thought into a deep corner of his mind.
What was happening here? He thought he managed to escape whatever was playing around with him when he followed Joshua to an actual church this time for service. He even received a little blessed cross from the priest!
Oh wait… where did the charm go? Mingyu started to dig through the pockets of his clothes in the wardrobe and looked through his drawers. Nope, the shiny piece of metal was nowhere to be found.
A knock at the door made him halt in his activities and Mingyu wondered how his cousin had come so quickly as he rushed to the door and flung it open.
The truth was, Dongmin didn’t have some magical powers to speed up traffic and spend less than 10 minutes in a grocery store. Dongmin wasn’t there at all.
All that greeted Mingyu was an empty doorway and he sighed as he slammed the door behind him.
“I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where you come from but I’m asking you to leave me alone.” Mingyu said sternly as he wagged his finger, looking straight at the air before him.
He was clearly going insane.
******
Chan sat at his desk in the little room he regarded as his working space. He really did like working here compared to his own apartment that he shared with his friend Sana and her many, many girlfriends that would visit.
Here in his studio room, despite being a little cramped at times, he was able to work deep into the night and it was convenient for him with all the convenient stores nearby.
Now Chan finds himself rewatching one of his latest videos. He had just edited it the day before and had to make sure there were no mistakes. The video began like this...
“Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it’s home from work we go~” Jungkook sang as the camera turned on.
Yugyeom tsked in the driver’s seat, “We’re going to work now everyone, don’t let him fool you.”
Mingyu innocently asked where they were heading to today.
“Well we were thinking-” Jungkook began.
“That’s not good!” Jaehyun frowned and couldn’t contain his smile as the car burst into laughter.
“Hey! Anyway, we thought that it was time to bring you guys to a haunted house!” Jungkook continued undaunted.
“Like a real one or a fake one?” Dongmin asked from behind Jungkook. Jungkook swung his head backwards and put a finger to his lips that were twisted into a devious smirk.
Mingyu sighed as he rested his head in his palms for like the nth time since the channel kickstarted. Jaehyun just shook his head with a tired smile and tried to catch up on his rest as they headed to their next venue.
When Chan got out of the car and adjusted his camera to look up at the large, dark building before him, Mingyu decided it was a great time to sneak an attack on him and caused the cameraman to spin around to face him after a buttcheek had been felt up.
The team burst into laughter until Jungkook started to brief them on the haunted house.
“Okay so we’re the last customers for today, we’ll walk in and get the full experience and later on we'll be exploring the place with our equipment. It’ll be more fun if I let you guys experience it first and then give more details about the place.”
Chan stepped into the haunted house and had his back facing the darkness as he filmed the reactions of his team that would get scared by the scare actors that popped out whenever the camera was at a safe distance away.
By the end, Mingyu was a sweaty mess that clung onto Yugyeom and Jaehyun’s smile didn’t look so easy going anymore. The man looked like he wanted to fight someone and Chan did not want to be on the receiving end of that.
Chan sped up the video a little to the part where Jungkook was in depth explaining the history of the place he had brought them to this time.
Jungkook gathered everyone around him with Chan filming his face as he started to tell them the history of the haunted house, “This place was bought in 1955 by the family that currently owns it today and it was said that it had already been a house of horror even before that. Not much is known about this place but apparently it was built upon a graveyard. Either that or they used real human skeletons as decoration and props. That’s what I found online.”
Yugyeom added to Jungkook’s briefing, “We managed to get permission to film inside here and we can use any prop to investigate as long as we don’t break anything. The owner even showed me which skeletons are alleged to be real bones.”
“Wait wait wait. What do you mean real bones? Surely they can’t be used as props right?” Mingyu was horrified and the look on his face sent Yugyeom cackling.
“Well,” Jaehyun patted Mingyu’s back, “They did say alleged. There’s a 50-50 chance that these are real bones.”
Mingyu rolled his eyes, “Great, that does not make me feel any better.”
“Come on, we have an investigation to investigate.” Jungkook said as he fixed a go-pro into the harness he was wearing with one hand and grabbed a flashlight from his bag with the other.
Dongmin, who was in charge of the food bag this time, offered Mingyu a piece of chocolate to calm his nerves.
They headed back to the front of the haunted house attraction with their go-pros and selfie sticks, with Chan filming them from behind. When Yugyeom reached the front door, he pulled at the curtain to reveal the dark entrance inside only illuminated by the strange glow of several props.
Dongmin gulped and moved closer to Jaehyun, it was better to stick together in these kinds of small spaces, he reasoned with himself. Chan caught all this in 4K and silently laughed to himself as he saw Dongmin and Mingyu both start sticking to Jaehyun.
The investigation started off without a hitch, they went around the rooms and saw all kinds of horrors- a dentist office with bloody teeth hanging from the ceiling by strands of floss, a delivery room where a demonic nurse was ripping a baby out of a woman and eating it and a doctor’s office where the body parts of the victims(SS) patients were stored in glass jars behind the doctor’s seat.
Jaehyun noticed that up on a shelf behind the doctor’s seat was a glass case with bones stacked up and a skull placed neatly atop the pile of bones.
“Is that it?” Jaehyun asked as he pointed over at the glass box. Yugyeom turned around and looked at him with a slightly mischievous look.
Mingyu pressed himself even closer to Jaehyun and it looked funny because of their height difference and the fact that Mingyu, a 180 plus cm man, was acting like a small lost puppy.
Chan zoomed in on the box and sucked in a breath, for some reason the skull’s deep eyeholes seemed to be staring straight at him and the crooked teeth of the skull seemed to be smiling straight at him.
Yugyeom started setting up the spirit box on the doctor’s table and Jungkook dug through his bag for the REM pod, EMF reader, thermo cam and dowsing rods.
The spirit box crackled as Yugyeom switched it on, “Hello, is there anyone here with us?”
The spirit box just gurgled out white noise for a while before Jungkook turned it off again. The REM pod that Jungkook placed on the side table started beeping and lighting up.
“It seems like somebody is not happy with the fact that you’ve cut them off before they could even speak.” Jaehyun remarked as they just stared at the beeping REM pod.
“Okay, okay, I’ll turn it on.” Jungkook had his hands up in surrender and switched the flip on the spirit box again. “Alright ghostie, tell us what you wanted to say earlier. Come on, I turned the spirit box on for you again.” Jungkook spoke to the spirit.
Dongmin facepalmed while Mingyu just leapt over to Chan who was standing a small distance away to film them all in the shot.
The spirit box just crackled on the same as before, full on white noise. Mingyu gathered up some courage and spoke directly to the box, “If there’s a spirit here, you can try to use this spirit box to communicate with us. Channel your energy or just use the battery of the spirit box to talk to us, if you want to.”
More crackling and then, “The doctor did it.”
Mingyu stared at the spirit box with his customer service smile on, “The what now?”
Dongmin continued on, “What did the doctor do?”
“Kill.” Came the reply and Dongmin felt the hair on the back of his neck rise and stand up straight.
“Did a doctor kill you?” Yugyeom asked quietly.
The spirit box then proceeded to switch itself off and Jungkook meddled with it for a while but was unable to determine the root of the problem.
“Let’s try this then,” Mingyu said as he raised up the pair of dowsing rods. Chan zoomed in on him as Mingyu started to ask his questions.
“If the spirit that talked to us is still here now, can you make these rods cross inwards?” Mingyu asked timidly and for good reason because the rods swung in immediately.
“Okay! Uhm, to the spirit we were talking to just now, did a doctor kill you? Swing inwards for yes and remain still for no.” Mingu continued on.
The rods swung inwards a tad bit slower than before as if the spirit was hesitating.
This time Jungkook asked a question, “If you are the owner of that pile of bones in that glass casing, can you make the rods cross inwards?”
Very slowly, the rods started moving but just as there was going to be a definite answer, Mingyu dropped the rods and they clanged loudly as they fell to the floor.
“What happened?” Jungkook asked worriedly as he rushed towards Mingyu.
Mingyu was standing facing the skull and bones and he felt like it was looking directly at him. Those eyeless eye sockets were glaring at him and he had no reason why. He also had no idea why a shiver went down his spine causing him to loosen his grip on the dowsing rods.
Mingyu shook off Jungkook’s hand and nodded quickly to show that he was okay, for now. Jungkook nodded back and turned his attention to the fallen dowsing rods. It could have just been the way that they fell but the two rods were crossed. Shrugging it off, Jungkook picked up the rods and returned to the doctor’s desk where all the equipment was laid out.
Dongmin eyed the EMF reader on the table and picked it up, walking over to the glass case. He waved the EMF reader around and over the bones and turned back in surprise.
“You caught that on camera right?” Dongmin said barely above a whisper as he looked towards Chan who simply moved the camera up and down.
The EMF reader had gone from light green to orange not one but two times. Dongmin was in shock, his mouth frozen in an ‘O’ shape. Mingyu was equally scared and scooted close to Jaehyun. In times like these, Jaehyun’s calm countenance always helped him feel safe, as if he was an unshakeable rock.
After that, Yugyeom tried using the spirit box one last time before he gave up using it. That was about it and the investigation for that day was largely inconclusive. They did pick up some activity regarding the bones and skull but there was not anything they could really prove with it.
They summed out their night neatly, standing in a row outside of the haunted house at 2 a.m. in the morning.
This, Chan thought to himself, wasn’t the best video that they had filmed but at least the footage was intact. Compared to the other videos, there was way less activity but at least it proved to Mingyu that there were still good times.
He searched up the Youtube channel and clicked on the newest video. It had been filmed a while back but Chan still saw it vividly in his head. He skipped forward to the parts that had the most activity.
They were seated around a table, candles in their hands as they gazed at the middle of the table where the spirit box lay.
“Smile.”
“Now that’s kinda random.” Yugyeom remarked with a raised eyebrow.
“A spirit asking us to smile? Perhaps the spirit is talking about the Glasglow smile, the Joker one, you know?” Jaehyun said with raised eyebrows.
Mingyu shook his head stubbornly, “Let’s not think about that Jaehyun-ah.”
As he was saying this, the spirit box spoke again, “In purple.”
Jungkook eyed Dongmin who was wearing a soft purple cardigan, “The person wearing purple? Are you talking about him? You want him to smile?” With every sentence Jungkook said, Dongmin would shake his head.
“Handsome.”
“Are you kidding me, another fan?” Yugyeom burst into laughter as Dongmin sat red-faced in silence.
“You need to smile for the spirit, Minnie.” Jungkook added fuel to the fire and got some serious side eye from Dongmin who was most likely scared out of his wits.
“It’s okay spirit friend, I have his pictures here. Take a look.” Jaehyun unlocked his phone and flipped through one of his photo albums labelled ‘Cha Eunwoo’.
“You know what, I’m not even going to question it anymore.” Dongmin facepalmed as he saw Jaehyun earnestly swipe through his gallery.
As Jaehyun was showing his phone screen to the middle of the table where the spirit box lay, a flurry of movement caught everyone’s gaze, apart from Jaehyun who couldn’t see his phone screen.
It just so happened that Chan was standing in the direction where he was able to see Jaehyun’s phone screen as they all gasped loudly.
The photos were being quickly swiped left as though the spirit was flipping through the pictures in the gallery as though it was like the pages of a book. It stopped at a particularly cute photo of Dongmin with a huge smile on his face.
“Welcome to Simp Nation…” Mingyu trailed off as he looked over at his cousin’s picture with a slightly disturbed look. Why was it that humans AND ghosts were always so into his cousin?
“Thanks for the compliment-” Dongmin began.
“No problem.” The spirit box cut him off.
Dongmin nodded slowly with a slightly forced smile on his face. It was like ghosts were drawn to him and liked him for his good looks and he was flattered but also embarrassed at the same time.
“Come on, the rest of us aren’t ugly either. Why do all these ghosts like Minnie so much?” Jungkook whined a little but they all knew he was joking.
“Tall.” The spirit box said, as if explaining it’s choice of bias.
“Hey, I’m tall too.” Mingyu whined this time.
The spirit box just gave a long crackle that ended up sounding like laughter. This was not what Chan had in mind when Jungkook said they were going to an abandoned apartment that was said to be haunted. They had gotten permission from the landlord to film after bribing him with a monetary gift of ‘goodwill’.
Chan should have known that another ghostly girl would have fallen for Dongmin’s charms, they were in an apartment where a young girl had passed away after all.
It was a pretty good experience for them though, interacting with a ghost without feeling crippling fear was something Chan was appreciative for.
“Mingyu, please pick up the dowsing rods.” Yugyeom gestured towards Mingyu who did so after a moment of hesitation.
“If you’re the spirit of the young girl who passed away in this apartment, can you make the rods cross inwards?” Mingyu asked politely.
The rods spun inwards quickly. This ghost was quite receptive and open to the devices that they had. The REM pod that Jaehyun had turned on and put near the doorway was going off with its beeps and lights.
“You’re in the room with us now? We see that you’re standing at the door.” Jungkook remarked.
The rods crossed inwards again and Jungkook grinned at Yugyeom. Yugyeom merely nodded his head as if saying “Yes, I saw that.”
“How did you die here?” Dongmin looked around as he asked the question. The room was completely bare with only a table with 5 chairs, perfect for their investigation.
The spirit box was still turned on and was serving as background noise when it blurted out “Murder.”
Mingyu had that ‘What in the world is going on’ smile, the tight smiles he was giving was starting to make his cheeks hurt.
“We heard from the landlord that you passed away here a long time ago, but he didn’t mention that it was murder.” Jaehyun explained.
“Who did this to you?” Jungkook asked this time.
The spirit box just rambled on in white noise until there was a soft whisper that went almost unnoticed.
“‘My ex’ it said, I swear I just heard ‘my ex’. Tell me one of you guys heard that too.” Mingyu was freaking out now. His friends just looked at him confusedly, it was evident that they did not hear the same thing that he did.
“Alright, your ex did this huh? I’m sorry that must have sucked.” Jungkook tried to give his condolences but he had no idea what to say. How should you give your condolences to a spirit?
The spirit box gurgled something but they couldn’t seem to decipher what it had said. Mingyu was starting to get a headache from all the noise and so they turned it off, returning to their other tools instead.
They tried using the thermo cam and EMF readers and got some sort of evidence at the corner of the room where a bed would have probably been. Other than that, they had no concrete evidence that they could catch on tape and they ended the investigation soon after.
Chan noticed that there had been some sort of lull in their latest investigations. The energy was just less threatening than before and he felt significantly less fear but it seemed that something was amiss.
It was as if everything was building into a catastrophic climax and Chan was worried the worst would happen and like a small boat in a storm, they would be tossed and beaten up by the waves. He worried for his newfound tight knit friend group.
As a previous outsider, he was still getting used to their friendship dynamics but he had quickly grown protective over this new group of friends. There was nothing more that he wanted to do than protect his friends on their investigations.
Chan shook himself out of his deep thoughts. He needed to prepare a new SD card for their upcoming investigation in two days time and find some time to talk to Mingyu- the boy wasn’t doing so well and Chan knew that he was trying to repress it but Mingyu was going to crack. It was clear in the ways that he would look behind his shoulder constantly and mention noises that no one else had heard.
Something was amiss and Chan had no intention of backing off, he needed to get to the bottom of this.
Notes:
My brain has been 98% sucked dry from this fanfic and lately I can't write but I'm gonna finish it, I have to TT this is my first multi chaptered fic and I can't let myself down... Anyways once I get done with the current pain in the bum chapter I'm writing (think haunted dolls) I'll be free to write more of the things that I've been having creative visions about. It's actually harder to write about the actual investigation than about the scary visions. But good news for me, we are steadily making it to the end and I have every chapter planned out already, I just need to write them out!
Chapter 12: All Night
Notes:
Welcome! Enjoy your stay! Leave a comment or something?
Tw// drug use, death and graphic scenes
Just wanted to put that out there^ the following chapters will become more and more explicit in terms of ghost appearances too.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Mingyu fidgeted as he stood with his large overnight bag in front of his apartment complex. Any minute now Yugyeom would pull up and they’d be heading for their next investigation.
Mingyu cautiously looked around him. All clear. Whatever the thing that had followed him back to his apartment was, it had stopped harassing him for a few days now and Mingyu was anxious to find out why. Surely nothing worse was going to happen to him right?
All these thoughts were tossed out of his head the moment Yugyeom’s car appeared, blaring one of Chan’s own pieces. Mingyu wondered to himself how in the world Chan was able to keep his work life balance in check. Did he even have a life outside work?
“Ayo Mingyu, what are you waiting for?” Jungkook teased as he lowered his window. Mingyu scrambled to pick up his overnight bag that he had rested on the ground and scurried over to the car, hopping into it and sitting next to Jaehyun in the middle row.
“Where are we going today?” Dongmin asked curiously as he saw the turns that Yugyeom was making. They were leaving Seoul once again and Dongmin was starting to think that the overpopulation and noise pollution in Seoul might have driven the spirits out.
“You know I won’t tell you that.” Jungkook smirked at the rest of them while Yugyeom simply agreed with his own cheeky smile. “You’ll find that it is a very relaxing place, though. I’ve also prepared costumes for us.” Jungkook added on after seeing Dongmin’s doubting stares.
This seemed to be enough to placate Dongmin and Mingyu for the time being. The two fell back into their seats on either side of Jaehyun and started passing around snacks that they prepared for the pre-investigation car ride.
Chan was sitting in the back row and suddenly got flashbacks to the time he felt a strange presence in the car. Feeling some chills, Chan wrapped his sweater tighter around himself and tried to distract himself with his phone.
He started scrolling through his Instagram and saw his friends’ posts, Jeongin was at the beach, Hyunjin was in his dorm making ramen, Minho was trying an air-fryer recipe and… Felix was in a pool of blood.
Chan reeled back in shock from what he had seen on the screen, dropping his phone to the carpeted floor and crashing heavily into the suitcase carrying the important cameras beside him.
Several heads whipped right around to look at him with the same wide-eyed, open-mouthed looks.
“Channie, are you okay?” Mingyu asked as his face scrunched up in worry after seeing Chan’s pale face.
Chan gulped in just murmured something about a jumpscare on his phone. He dropped a hand to the floor and tried to feel around for his phone. There he got it- Wait, why was it so warm? Chan pulled his hand up to see that his fingertips were stained with blood but he wasn’t hurt anywhere so the blood wasn’t his?
With his face rapidly taking on a deathly pallor, Chan shook his head vigorously as if it could throw the unwanted thoughts out of his mind. Chan wiped the blood off on a tissue he had used to clean his mouth earlier and forced his hand down one more time and finally grabbed onto his phone.
The screen had blacked out by this time but the picture was stuck in Chan’s head, Felix was beaten and bloody as if he was hit by a car. Chan quickly swiped through the lock screen and checked Instagram to see if he was seeing things or not.
“Hey guys I’ll be making a quick call.” Chan said hurriedly as he didn’t spot anything suspicious on his feed and immediately pulled up Felix’s contact on his phone. The rest quietened down so that he could make his call.
“Felix? You there? Are you okay, are you hurt anywhere?” Chan spoke urgently into the receiver and was only met with confused sounds from Felix who was genuinely lost as to why his older friend sounded so worried over the phone.
Felix confirmed that he was okay and tried to pry Chan for answers but Chan was firm and adamant in not worrying the younger boy. As the call ended, Chan sank back into the seat and heaved a sigh of relief.
There was something wrong with this car and he could feel it deep in his bones. Chan scolded himself mentally for allowing himself to fall for the spirit’s trick. Felix was fine but how had the spirit known that he would be Chan’s weakest link?
Gritting his teeth, Chan sat still in the back row, refusing to doze off like some the others had done. Despite being in the same car, there was a different aura surrounding the back row and Chan mentally praised himself for not letting anyone else take the backseat recently. Surely that would have added to their mental stress. This was fine, Chan was grounded and aware of what he was walking into from day one. He would be okay.
******
“Anddddd we’re here!” Jungkook called out joyously as Yugyeom finished parking and they started to unload all of their belongings. Chan had his camera out and ready to go, the rest of the boys had go-pros on selfie sticks and harnesses.
“It’s a hotel?” Jaehyun asked, unsure if this was a mere pitstop for the night or the actual place they were investigating. He held up his selfie stick in a different maneuver to film the exterior of the building.
As usual, they did their customary introduction at the front of the hotel and there was hardly a soul in sight. It was already night time by the time that they had arrived and it was most likely that everyone was having dinner now, the streets outside the hotel were bare and the street lamps glowed menacingly against the inky dark sky.
“What is up everybody! Today we’re here at Busan’s most haunted hotel, the very famous Marigold hotel! It is said that there was a couple who stayed in this very hotel during a beach vacation and only one person left their hotel room alive. We’ve managed to get that very same hotel room and we’ll be checking in right now.” Yugyeom led the small introduction and they filed into the hotel lobby.
For a hotel with such a damning scandal, there were still a handful of people walking around. Most of them didn’t seem like locals and were probably just there due to the convenient distance to the beaches and the lower prices.
Jungkook sidled up to the counter and showed his reservations and their IDs to prove that they were of age to rent a hotel room. As per protocol, Jungkook had to rent at least another room to house all the 6 members of the team.
The hotel receptionist cast them slightly suspicious looks, why would six men want to squeeze into a single room for the night? With a king-sized bed no less, it was a slight cause for concern.
Sensing the receptionist was slightly judging them, Jungkook nudged at Dongmin and he came closer to the counter to flash his charming smile and engage the receptionist in a conversation.
“So, Ms Yoojung,” Dongmin read the receptionist’s name tag, “We’ve heard that there are stories about this hotel and about the room we booked in particular. Do you know anything about that?” Dongmin asked in his most polite voice and watched as Yoojung blushed a little.
“Well…” Yoojung said lowly under her breath before looking around to see if her supervisor was around. She beckoned the two at the counter to lean in as she moved closer to them and whispered some things under her breath.
While Dongmin and Jungkook were settling the hotel rooms, the rest were already exploring the lobby and Chan was currently filming Mingyu and Jaehyun sitting on the armchairs and doing a skit about drinking tea. Yugyeom stood at the side with an eerie-somewhat evil grin plastered on his face and Chan was slightly worried thinking that it had something to do with their cosplay for the night.
******
“Finally! We’re in!” Jungkook yelled as he slammed the door open. If anyone had been in that room, they would probably have been scared to death and added to the list of ghosts haunting the room. Yes, there was a list. At least that was what Yoojung had said.
According to Yoojung, after the wife that went on that beach vacation was killed by her husband who was arrested and subsequently took his life in prison, there were more instances of people passing away in that very room. The room was said to be cursed and Jungkook proudly announced that to his friends while they were going up in the lift.
“I still can’t believe you actually chose such a cursed room.” Jaehyun remarked as he looked around the room. Not too bad for an allegedly cursed and haunted room. The king-sized bed they were promised was pristine white and not a single speck of dust was to be found on the tables and furniture.
Mingyu on the other hand, whirled around and hissed at Jaehyun, “Don’t use the C word!” Dongmin had to crack a not very funny joke to take the tension off of Mingyu’s shoulders.
Jungkook and Yugyeom started to set up and unpack some of their stuff. Chan suspected that the plastic bags that Yugyeom was fishing out of his suitcase were their outfits for the night.
“Since we’re not allowed to film outside of the room and we’ll be staying in the whole night, Yugs and I figured that having you guys wear these should be okay.” Jungkook grinned that evil maknae grin of his and held up the outfits, earning groans and protests from the rest.
Shiny, sparkly and lacy. Those were the kinds of outfits that Jungkook and Yugyeom had prepared.
Mingyu picked through the pile that Jungkook had dumped onto the bed, “A sparkly dress, shiny suspenders, a swimming costume, a maid’s dress, a bellhop’s uniform and Mickey Mouse inspired clothes?”
Jaehyun suggested they play rock-paper-scissors to determine a winner who got to pick his own outfit and the outfits of the rest. Mingyu had won the game and chose the Mickey Mouse outfit set for himself, the swimming costume for Jungkook, the bellhop’s uniform for Chan, the maid’s dress for Dongmin, the suspenders for Jaehyun and the sparkly dress for Yugyeom.
“Our plan backfired but ‘tis the rules of the game.” Yugyeom remarked as he looked down at the outfit he had just changed into. Jungkook was in the swimming costume that exposed his arms and his sleeve tattoo that Mingyu was currently ogling and poking at.
When they were all dressed up, they pushed the two armchairs in the room closer to the bed where they tried to sit in a circle. Being a pricier hotel room, the room was naturally bigger than a normal room and there was ample space for Chan to find a good area to film them in.
Dongmin switched on the spirit box and placed it in front of him, in the middle of the lopsided circle that they formed.
“If there is anybody else in this room with us, can you say something? You can use the radio frequencies in this box to talk to us because we can’t hear or see you right now.” Dongmin spoke to the darkness. They had turned the lights off to set the vibes and encourage the spirits to interact.
The spirit box crackled but didn’t say anything that they could interpret. Chalking it off to the spirit being unfamiliar with the spirit box and not knowing how to use it, Mingyu dug out the dowsing rods from the gear bag.
“Okay, let’s try this then. If there is someone besides the 6 of us in the room right now, can you make the rods cross inwards?” Mingyu asked and even Jungkook was a little surprised with how comfortable Mingyu had become through all the investigations.
The rods slowly swung inwards and clinked softly. The soft glow of the fake battery-operated candle that Jungkook had set up illuminated the rods and Mingyu’s face which showed no emotion.
“If you’re female, cross the rods inwards. If you’re male, cross the rods outwards.” Mingyu continued but the rods didn’t move at all.
“Maybe they don’t identify as either?” Jaehyun theorised but Dongmin had a slightly dubious look on his face. It felt different. Normally he would be scared out of his wits if there was a spirit speaking to them but in this instant, despite the presence of a spirit, he felt fine and even slightly relaxed.
“Hmm, if you’re a boy, swing the rods towards Mingyu who is holding the rods. If you’re a girl, swing the rods towards me.” Now Dongmin was sitting directly across from Mingyu and they watched in thinly-veiled surprise as the rods crossed facing Mingyu.
Dongmin had a thoughtful look on his face and said quietly, “So the spirit is so young that he doesn’t understand the words ‘male’ and ‘female’.” This made sense, some young children didn’t fully understand the concept of age and with limited vocabulary, it could have been hard trying to communicate with them.
“I guess we can try our new toy out.” Yugyeom said casually as he pulled out a new device. It was a small black box with a screen and 3 LED light bulbs. It looked similar to the EMF reader but had a screen which made it look more like the thermo cam.
“This,” Jungkook picked up the device, “Is an ovilus. It reads the electromagnetic wavelengths present and translates them into words. Essentially, it is similar to a spirit box just that it doesn’t include all the radio noises.”
Jaehyun turned over the device in his hands, checking it thoroughly. He switched it on and tried to test it by bringing his phone and apple watch close to it but there was no reaction. Nodding his head in approval, the man laid the device flat on the bed.
Hesitantly, Dongmin asked, “How many spirits are there with us now?”
There was a movement on the ovilus screen and Chan zoomed in to see it. It was clear as day, the ovilus read ‘three’. Once he saw the number, Dongmin started feeling apprehensive. So there were more?
At any given point, the ovilus is able to display three words and when the words keep coming, it would automatically scroll to show the newest three words. At that moment, another word appeared on the screen.
“Murder…” Mingyu blinked a few times, well it got dark pretty quickly.
Yugyeom sat forward in his seat, peering over the ovilus as he said, “Were you murdered here?”
The next few words appeared so quickly it seemed that there were multiple people speaking to them through the device.
Husband. Overdose. Left.
“Your husband left and you overdosed?” Jungkook tried but he knew that the story was different somehow. It was true that the man had left his wife in the hotel room but she had been stabbed to death and did not overdose.
“No, I don’t think that’s it…” Jaehyun trailed off, it felt wrong. The three words felt like they corresponded to the three spirits that said that they were in the room with them.
The devices all fell silent and Dongmin picked up the spirit box again to turn it back on and fill the empty silence with some noise.
“I like Mickey.”
“D-did you guys hear that?” Mingyu asked as he looked around at the members in alarm. Was he hearing things again or was it for real this time? He was wearing Mickey Mouse themed clothes too, was the ghost talking to him?
“Yeah, well Mingyu likes Mickey Mouse too. That’s why he chose to wear those.” Yugyeom casually replied to the spirit box while shooting a small grin at Mingyu. It was after all Mingyu’s first choice and he brought this attention upon himself.
“How old are you?” Mingyu asked after Jungkook started to nudge at him with his foot.
“Four.” Came the short reply and Mingyu’s eyes widened considerably.
“I swear you better catch that on camera Chan, we’re getting so many replies now!”
They kept silent once more, focusing on the spirit box making noise once again and they were not disappointed.
“I want pizza.”
“For a moment there, you really sounded like Mingyu.” Dongmin laughed and Jaehyun just said that he would crave pizza in the afterlife too.
The atmosphere was quickly changed the moment grunts came through the spirit box and what sounded like a scream resounded around the room.
Jaehyun pounced onto the spirit box, shutting it off immediately before sparing a glance at Mingyu and Dongmin who were just staring open-mouthed at the spirit box.
“That was a scream.” Yugyeom stated the obvious and it was clear that he was in some kind of shock too. Jungkook perked up and suggested that it could have been the spirit of the lady that had been murdered by her husband.
Mingyu and Dongmin were a little jittery but they still got up as Jungkook started to put up the REM pod near the doorway and they busied themselves by turning to the EMF reader and thermo cam. Jaehyun had picked up the ovilus and was still studying it as Yugyeom set up a few cameras around the room just in case they caught some activity.
Chan was having a hard time focusing on one person and finally decided to film the two cousins that were checking out the bathroom and the closet space.
They were in the bathroom when Mingyu called out, “Yugs, Kook, can you guys come over here…”
Jungkook and Yugyeom booked it for the bathroom, the fear in Mingyu’s voice was palpable. As they approached the bathroom, they saw Chan pressed into a corner trying to film and Dongmin and Mingyu were standing in front of the mirror.
Dongmin had the EMF reader in his hand, raised against the mirror above the sink and was trembling slightly as the EMF remained at red, the highest level of activity. But that was not all, Mingyu’s hand trembled as he pointed to a handprint on the mirror.
With Mingyu’s hand beside it for comparison, it was obvious that the handprint belonged to either a woman or a very petite man. Yugyeom sucked in a breath when he saw what was going on. Jaehyun had also appeared in the already crowded bathroom at this point and pointed at the ovilus.
‘Help. Save. Stab.’
There was no mistaking it, the spirit of the lady who was killed by her husband was definitely in the bathroom with them.
“She was stabbed by her husband in the bathroom, in front of the mirror and he placed her body in the tub.” Dongmin recalled what the receptionist Yoojung had said earlier and shuddered.
“How can a person be so evil…” Mingyu was emotional now, the pity for the deceased overriding his fear of the supernatural.
It was at this moment where Chan, pressed against a corner of the bathroom and filming the boys from the mirror’s perspective, saw a shadow come up behind Jaehyun who was the closest to the exit. Chan’s heart leapt in his chest, wasn’t this how the deceased had passed away?
Chan turned on the bright flash of the camera and told everyone to leave the bathroom quickly and they all did as he said despite giving him weird looks.
“Sorry I… I was getting claustrophobic in there.” Chan thought of a shoddy excuse at the last minute, he did not know if the shadow figure was still there and he had no intention of alerting it yet.
The rest nodded and accepted his explanation, Dongmin even apologising for keeping him pressed to the wall like that, but Mingyu had a different look in his eyes and Chan wondered if he could have seen the same thing he did.
Jungkook decided that they needed to take a break and jumped onto the king-sized bed, using his hands as a pillow as he laid on his back and closed his eyes briefly. Yugyeom also collapsed onto the other side of the bed as Mingyu, Jaehyun, Dongmin and Chan tried to share the armchairs.
It was when Mingyu was digging into his third snack and Jaehyun was biting down on a handmade-with-love cookie from Taeyong when Jungkook said in annoyance, “I don’t know which one of you guys have been grabbing at my hair but stop it.”
Jungkook still had his eyes closed and if he had opened them, he would have realised that none of the rest were even close enough to him to playfully tug at his hair.
“Jungkook, you’ve been alone in that corner of the bed the whole time. We’ve been sitting over here.” Dongmin said slowly and Chan reached for the camera that he had left running on the table. There was no way that was caught on camera, right?
As Chan started to shift through the last 10 minutes of footage, Jungkook shot up in the bed and looked at the distance between him and the rest. There was even ample space between him and Yugyeom on the large bed. So what on earth was pulling at his hair just now?
He grabbed the spirit box and turned it on, “Who did that? Who pulled at my hair just now? It hurts okay, you were too rough.” Jungkook said somewhat angrily to the spirit box.
“Sorry… Playing...Owwie…” The spirit box gurgled and Jungkook relaxed slightly even though Mingyu thought that he should have tensed up instead. A spirit had just confessed to pulling his hair, after all.
“Sounds like the child spirit. Don’t get mad at him.” Yugyeom said sleepily from his side of the bed as he shifted to glance up at Jungkook.
Jungkook simply replied, “No more of that, okay? It hurts and I didn’t like that.” With that, he switched off the spirit box and they tried to conduct another session but in the bathroom this time, against Chan’s advice.
It was pretty uneventful and the spirit of the lady hadn’t come back. With slight disappointment in their hearts, the team decided to end the investigation and sleep. It was already 2 in the morning and Mingyu was starting to slur his speech already.
They played another round of rock-paper-scissors and decided that Dongmin, Jaehyun and Chan were to stay in the haunted hotel room. Dongmin said it was unfair that Yugkook could escape the cursed room that they specially booked and Yugyeom just replied with ‘Sucks to suck, buddy.’
Mingyu, on the other hand, was glad to be rooming with the biggest skeptic in their team and felt extra safe with the buffed up ‘golden maknae’ as he had been nicknamed.
Yugyeom had dared them all to sleep in their outfits and Jaehyun looked unimpressed but followed through nevertheless. Chan was setting up the camera to face them as they slept in case there was any activity and Dongmin was setting up the REM pod that would wake them up if there was something moving around.
“You know, this is gonna look like a scene from a really bad adult film.” Jaehyun hinted as he gestured at the way they were laying in bed right now with Dongmin in the maid outfit squashed between two men.
“Jung Jaehyun! What are you thinking, there are children here!” Dongmin hissed at Jaehyun but there was no bite in his bark. Chan was just trying to keep himself together as he laughed silently.
“By the way Dongmin,” Chan said once he was able to calm himself down, “I’m a hugger when I sleep so just be prepared. One time Felix said that he thought he was gonna die when I was just giving him a big ole hug.”
Dongmin just shot a deadpan look at the camera and shook his head slightly and sighed. Jaehyun was busy posting something on his instagram story and paid them no attention.
At long last, Chan managed to get the two others to sleep and they snuggled into the blanket, occasionally pulling at the blanket, much to the others’ chagrin.
******
Chan didn’t mean to wake up. He really did not want to wake up and be enveloped with the darkness of a haunted room but his full bladder was starting to kill him and the least he wanted was to piss the bed. Grumbling softly to himself, Chan pushed himself up and headed to the bathroom.
Jaehyun was also starting to wake up. There was an itch deep inside his skin and it was tearing him out of his dreams. The itch was unbearable, no matter how Jaehyun clawed at his skin, he felt the prickling sensation under his skin.
He gasped as he sat up in the bed, clawing mindlessly at his arms. Both sides were itchy now, even his legs were starting to itch. Jaehyun felt his head starting to spin and his wild movements were waking up Dongmin who stared at him in confusion.
Meanwhile, Chan was washing his hands in the bathroom when he saw the shadow he had seen earlier dart behind him and raise something high above his head. Spinning around, Chan tried to see the figure that was standing behind him just a second ago.
There was no one in sight and Chan suspected his imagination was messing with him, perhaps he needed more sleep at night. No more late nights for him then.
As Chan adjusted the ring on his finger, he spoke coldly to the air around him just in case the shadow was lingering around, “Only cowards stab others in the back.”
When Chan left the bathroom, he was caught by surprise at the sight he saw before him. Jaehyun was clawing at his skin, muttering something about being itchy. Dongmin was trying to stop Jaehyun but for some reason he was crying profusely.
Chan grabbed on Jaehyun’s flailing arms and pinned them to the bed, using his whole body to stop Jaehyun from clawing at his skin again.
“What’s the matter with you?” Chan scolded as he looked Jaehyun in the eyes. He saw the clarity seep into Jaehyun’s eyes and let go of his arms, sitting back into a position where he was straddling the older.
“There was just an incredible itch and I was so annoyed but it’s gone now.” Jaehyun said as he raised his arms towards the light of the bathroom and observed the deep pink lines he had drawn into his own skin. Luckily, the scratches weren’t bleeding, except for some areas but they weren’t deep at all.
Seeing Jaehyun was fine, he turned to the second oldest. “Dongmin, what’s wrong? Why are you crying, are you hurt?”
Dongmin remained quiet and kept his head down. Chan had a sinking feeling in his gut and he suspected he knew what was going on.
“Dongminnie, did Jaehyun scare you? Do you want a hug?” Chan asked as he spread his arms wide and Dongmin came barreling into his chest. It was a weird sight as Dongmin was taller than Chan but seemed so small in his arms. Jaehyun was slightly confused but mostly offended at the fact that Chan had called him scary.
Chan was unsure what was happening but continued to soothe Dongmin until he fell asleep again. Now that Dongmin was asleep, Chan faced Jaehyun and said firmly, “We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Get some rest.”
It was a long night but Chan finally managed to soothe his rapid heart and lean back in bed after he took a quick glance at the time.
Figures, it was 3:33 a.m. and that was all Chan thought about as he fell asleep.
Notes:
I watched Chan's room live before sleeping and dreamt of Stray Kids so that was nice... Please leave a comment some time if you want, just having someone talk to me here makes me feel so warm.
Chapter 13: Danger
Notes:
I have a fear that one day Chan/Eunwoo/Jaehyun might stumble onto something that I write but then again I don't think my work is good enough for them to take notice... heh
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
When Chan woke up, the sunlight was already streaming into the room and the hotel phone was ringing incessantly.
Jaehyun groaned and flipped over, reaching for the phone at his side of the bed. “Hello?” Jaehyun sleepily answered the call and it seemed like it was a call from Jungkook as he just slammed the phone down.
“Jungkook says get ready to leave in an hour. He’s treating us to breakfast.” Jaehyun relayed the message before pulling the blanket up again and snuggling into Dongmin’s shoulder.
Chan looked at them fondly for a moment before going over to the cameras and making sure to save the footage and then heading over to the bathroom to freshen up. When he finished up his morning routine and sauntered back into the hotel room in all his 5’6” glory, he found the other two still sound asleep.
With his soft spot for Dongmin, Chan turned to Jaehyun’s side of the bed and tried to nudge him as gently as he could. Jaehyun groaned for a bit more and then got up to tame that wild bird’s nest he was sporting on top of his head.
Chan eyed the sleeping Dongmin, still in his maid costume, and last night’s memories came flooding back into his head. Right, they needed to talk about something and it was very serious.
As Chan was checking on the footage of one of the cameras, Dongmin started to stir in the bed and sat up slowly, his bed hair was stuck up in all directions and Chan couldn’t prevent the grin that was starting to form on his face.
“Channie? What time is it already?” Dongmin asked as he dragged a hand down his face, his eyes still blinking blearily from sleep.
“It’s 8:27, Jungkook told us to get ready by 9:00 and then he’ll treat us to breakfast.” Chan replied cheerily and Dongmin just nodded and replied with his thanks as he checked his phone for notifications.
When Jaehyun was done in the toilet and Dongmin started freshening up, Chan turned to Jaehyun, “Do you remember what happened last night?” Jaehyun looked a little confused at first but then quickly understood what he had meant.
Right, there was something weird that happened the previous night. Jaehyun remembered it clearly now, he was just minding his own business being asleep and then suddenly felt like he had the most intense itch that he just couldn’t get rid of. Looking down on his arms, Jaehyun noticed the long pink lines and the spots of dried scabs where his nails had managed to pierce through.
“What’s wrong?” Dongmin asked as he stepped out of the bathroom while casually towelling his hair dry. There was a drop in the energy of the room and he had no idea why.
Chan patted the space on the bed that he and Jaehyun had left for Dongmin while he was in the bathroom. With a questioning look, Dongmin sat down in the middle and Chan pulled up one of the cameras used to film them last night.
The footage was replayed once again and the three of them watched in focused silence as Jaehyun started to scratch at his skin and toss around in bed until he started full-blown clawing at his own arms and legs.
Dongmin watched in muted horror as Jaehyun was scratching himself to the point where he jostled Dongmin and the Dongmin in the video rubbed at his eyes, much like a child would. Dongmin then proceeded to try and stop Jaehyun from scratching at himself but only got more frustrated and angry tears slipped from his eyes onto the duvet below.
And then Chan came out from the toilet and took control of what was happening and helped Jaehyun regain his senses while putting Dongmin to sleep.
“What on earth was that all about? I don’t even remember all that happening?” Dongmin frowned as he tried to go back into his memory but he truly didn’t remember waking up in the middle of the night and crying.
“That’s what I feared.” Chan replied solemnly and told the other two to pack their things up as they had to meet Jungkook and the rest already. Dongmin tried to ask Chan to explain what he said but Chan just promised him that ‘they’ll talk about it later with the rest’ and although Dongmin wasn’t satisfied with that answer, he did as he said and packed up all his belongings.
******
“So what is the important thing that you wanted to share?” Jungkook said as he took sips of his chocolate frappuccino with extra whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. They were at a diner for western breakfast and they had stacks of pancakes, bacon and eggs and toast piled up on their tables.
Chan had announced that he needed to talk to them about something but Jungkook brushed him off saying that they needed to get their breakfast first before anything else. Now that they were ready, Chan was hesitant and kept eyeing Dongmin and Jaehyun who were giving him a confused look and an indifferent look respectively.
“Well… uh… something happened last night…” Chan began and the trio from the other room stared at him with wide eyes and slack jaws.
‘D-Don’t tell me that you guys…” Mingyu trailed off as he pointed to the trio who stayed in the haunted room and immediately clapped a hand to his mouth before he could blurt out something horribly inappropriate.
“Nothing like that happened!” Jaehyun exclaimed and was shot a death glare by Yugyeom who hissed that he had attracted the attention of all the tables around them. “Whatever, so what happened was… Chan woke up in the middle of the night to pee and he went to the toilet. I was sleeping but there was a horrible itch that I had and I was scratching myself to the point where it looked really bad.” Jaehyun pulled up the sleeve of the hoodie he was wearing and was greeted with soft gasps.
He swore he heard Jungkook whisper under his breath that Jaehyun probably didn’t take a shower and that was the cause and gave him a well deserved smack on the arm. Groaning in faux pain, Jungkook tried to get attention from Yugyeom who sat beside him but Yugyeom was focused on the story.
“And then?”
“I was scratching and woke Dongmin up and he tried to stop me but he just started crying and breaking down.” Jaehyun explained further and questioning looks were sent Dongmin’s way and he just sank deeper into his chair to avoid their gazes. “Chan finally came out of the toilet and then he saw me and climbed on top of me to restrain and wake me up.” He finished and the other trio were trying hard to process everything, if the scrunched up looks on their faces signified anything.
“Dongmin doesn’t cry that easily though? He’s not the toughest cookie out there but he’s also not like me.” Mingyu thought out loud and Yugyeom had to stifle a snicker as Jungkook said something along the lines of ‘good thing you’re self aware!’
“I think I know what happened in there.” Chan said slowly and the rest of the group gave him their undivided attention. “Remember when I told you guys to get out of the toilet when we were investigating? Yeah, I happened to see a shadow figure creep up on you guys and remember, that was how the lady died in the bathroom. So when I was washing my hands last night, I thought I saw a shadow lift something like a knife behind me and I turned around. It was kinda scary and when I left the bathroom, I saw Jaehyun scratching and Dongmin crying. Again, remember how three people died in the room?” When Chan was finished speaking, he looked towards the rest of the team and he knew the look in their eyes. Their heads were completely empty, not a single thought behind those eyes.
Sighing, Chan knew he had to explain a bit more, “So I think the spirit of the lady influenced me to use the toilet and I saw exactly how she had died. Then I think the drug addict who had overdosed influenced Jaehyun in his sleep because some drug addicts feel an intense itch under their skin as a withdrawal symptom. And then Dongmin, I think he was influenced by the spirit of the child who was likely abandoned in the room? Yeah, Dongmin was crying so hard even as he was trying to help and he hugged me like a little child and fell asleep so easily.”
After laying out everything, Chan finally saw the light return to his friends’ eyes. Jaehyun and Dongmin looked deep in thought as the trio from the other room were still trying to comprehend everything.
“This isn’t a prank right?” Mingyu asked timidly and Chan sighed saying that he wished it was. Dongmin added that they did have video proof of Jaehyun and himself acting weirdly and Jungkook said that they should probably watch it together when they got back.
“Do you think that you’re completely okay now?” Yugyeom asked Dongmin and Jaehyun with worry in his voice and they caught onto his meaning fairly quickly.
“I feel fine honestly. I can remember myself being frustrated at that irritating itch but Dongmin said he couldn’t remember anything that happened after he went to bed the first time.” Jaehyun said.
“I feel like that’s because he was more affected than you,” Chan added to the conversation, “Although I also don’t know why it happened like that. Maybe the child just had stronger intentions?”
Dongmin shuddered a little at the thought and Mingyu immediately held his hand reassuringly and said, “Well, I don’t think they’ll follow you guys but monitor yourselves and let’s go home quickly so we can all rest properly.”
The team agreed on that and quickly finished their food so that they could head on home. This time, Yugyeom told Dongmin to sit in the back and that it was better for him to rest instead of driving the arduous, long journey back to Seoul.
******
It had been a week since the last filming and Jaehyun was feeling fine and dandy. No really, Jungkook had given them an extended break till the next filming and he was using it well by filming other videos with his labelmates.
Working out with the Bros- Johnny’s Communication Centre Ep. 299, helping paint Yuta’s wardrobe, writing song lyrics to go with Mark’s raps, cameoing in Taeyong’s videos because Taeyong said he needed handsome men to increase his views and Jaehyun argued right back that Taeyong was the hottest man alive (all on camera) and more.
Jaehyun was truly exhausted by the point he collapsed on the sofa after making endless videos with his gigantic group. From the corner of his eye, he swore he saw something move but there was no way, he was the only one home at that time.
Shifting into a sitting position, Jaehyun eyed his surroundings carefully to see if anything was out of place. It must have been his imagination and lack of sleep, he supposed and tried to ignore it.
After staring at his phone for a while on the plush couch, Jaehyun’s eyes slowly fluttered close, the sheer exhaustion that he had been fighting was gaining control and he was soon out like a light. The phone in his outstretched hand fell to the floor where it lay out of his grasp and soft snores filled the living room.
******
Jaehyun’s eyes snapped open and he looked around in confusion. Oh, he fell asleep in the bath. Jaehyun raised a hand to eye level and observed the wrinkles in his skin. How pruny, he must have been in there for a long time.
Shaking his head slightly in disappointment at himself, Jaehyun lifted himself out of the bath and rubbed at his wet skin slightly to make sure that he felt clean. Nodding to himself, Jaehyun reached for a soft fluffy towel hanging over the toilet.
Jaehyun sighed as he rubbed the cotton against his face, it was so warm that Jaehyun wanted to dig his face deeper into the towel and fall asleep but he was stark naked and wet all over, it was not a good idea.
Hang on, there was something off about everything right now but Jaehyun could barely think straight, he felt like his head was stuffed with cotton and his eyes were heavy with sleep. But there was something wrong here, he just couldn’t remember what.
Right, he took a bath and now he was very naked, very wet and in a dire need for clothes. There was a problem though, and Jaehyun was starting to remember what it was, their dorm didn’t have bathtubs.
Highly confused, Jaehyun turned towards the bathtub that he had been sleeping in a while ago and fear struck his beating heart and threatened to still it. There in the pristine white bathtub was a deadly shade of crimson water- no not water, blood.
There was blood in the water and Jaehyun panicked as his hands roamed all over his body, trying to see if he was injured anywhere and bled into the water. Could he even be alive after losing so much water?
Jaehyun felt his stomach churn and acid burned his throat as he hunched over the bathtub and heaved deeply.
“What the hell?” Jaehyun gasped as he wiped away some spit from the corner of his mouth. His head was starting to pound but he also felt lightheaded, the contrasting afflictions tearing his mind apart. Stumbling over to the toilet bowl, Jaehyun fell to the floor and leaned against the support, closing his eyes and counting to ten.
He knew exactly what was going on. This was how the lady in the hotel room had passed away and he was dreaming right now. All of this wasn’t real and he knew that deep in his bones, everything he was seeing was part of his dream and all he needed to do was wake up.
And so he did.
Jaehyun’s eyes were wide open but his body remained frozen in place except for the rise and fall of his chest. He was still lying on the couch, facing the ceiling but it looked different from what he remembered.
There was a dark spot that wasn’t there before. Jaehyun watched in muted horror as the black bob unfurled its limbs and crawled out of the dark corner of the living room. It had long dark hair that hung over its face, pale limbs stretched across the wall where it was clinging to like a spider and Jaehyun tried to shut his eyes but his body would not obey him.
The shadow continued to climb the wall towards him and Jaehyun said a silent prayer in his head like he heard Mark do all the time. He could see her clearly now, the whites of her eyes were webbed with red lines and her skin was devoid of all colour. She loomed over Jaehyun and he managed to avert his eyes to avoid looking her straight in the eyes.
“Jaehyun-ah, you home?” The front door slammed open as Yuta and Johnny hauled a couple of grocery bags into the house. Yuta noticed the other man who was lying on the couch and for a second there, he thought he couldn’t see the rise and fall of Jaehyun’s chest and dashed over, shaking him.
“I-I’m fine, just a bad dream.” Jaehyun stuttered as he clutched at his chest and Yuta helped him to sit up on the couch. Yuta and Johnny fussed over the younger as they brought him water and other things but Jaehyun caught Yuta’s wrist and pulled him onto the couch. “Just… stay with me, please.”
Yuta shot a concerned look at Johnny who just rushed to the kitchen to get something to calm Jaehyun’s nerves. Jaehyun was sweating profusely and still gripping tightly to Yuta who was ignoring the slight pain in his wrist in favour of worrying over Jaehyun.
“Wanna talk about it?” Johnny asked as he handed a drink over to Jaehyun who accepted it gratefully and took a sip before choking when the water went down the wrong pipe. “Jeez! Okay! No need to get so worked up, we don’t need to know.” Johnny held up his hands in surrender but Jaehyun shook his head and swiped at his mouth.
“No, it’s okay. I just had a dream which I think is related to the way a person in the hotel we last went to passed away. Then I realised I was lucid dreaming and I was frozen in place and saw...something.” Jaehyun answered as briefly as he could. He didn’t want to go into detail and freak his friends out.
“I heard it’s pretty common for people to see strange things when they are in that state.” Yuta said seriously and Johnny nodded from where he was seated behind Yuta.
“Do you think this place is haunted, Jae? Because if you think it is, we could always move away. Remember that time Taeil got possessed?” Johnny said and Yuta winced slightly when he mentioned the Taeil incident. He felt that it wasn’t a very appropriate time to bring up that incident in particular.
Jaehyun shook his head and said, “Come on guys, you know I don’t believe in… all that.” Yuta sobered up at this and looked unsuredly at Jaehyun as he fidgeted with his hands.
“Are you sure? I’ve watched your videos, there’s a lot of things that should probably have changed your mind already.” Yuta asked and Jaehyun sent him a skeptical look which read ‘Come on man, ghosts aren’t real’ and the Japanese man could only sigh and whisper that Jaehyun was serving ‘white man in a horror movie vibes’ right now.
Pretending that he hadn’t heard anything, Jaehyun decided that he had to get up and stretch. He went into the kitchen and decided to fix himself a sandwich and offered to make some for the other two that politely declined his offer.
That night, Jaehyun was dragged into Yuta’s bed who told him that ‘he needed a change of scenery’ and practically cuddled him to death. It was a rare act for the older man who was more affectionate with Mark but Jaehyun appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
It was a good thing that Jaehyun’s reliable flat mate did that as if he had retired into his own bed, he would have been plagued by a pale face and red-tipped fingers the entire night.
******
“Minnie, I’ve missed you so much!” Yugyeom dived into a hug with the taller boy who caught him just in time. They were finally meeting up after their extended break. Chan was finished with editing all the footage that he had on hand and his eyebags disappeared with the rest that he had accumulated.
“How have you been, Mingyu?” Chan clapped Mingyu’s back in a bro hug and the other spluttered a little as the clap had been a little heavy-handed. Perhaps Chan had enough time to work on his arms, it just meant that he would be able to carry the cameras even better.
They were back at Jungkook’s place and they were going to film their reactions to the videos that they had already posted online and had enough comments from their viewers for them to react to.
Everything went smoothly and even Mingyu had lightened up over the break, smiling and cracking jokes even when watching the footage that had some suspicious activity. On the other hand, Jaehyun was more silent than usual and Dongmin wondered if he was tired of filming with them.
After all, Jaehyun had his own channel and videos to make which he had to put in extra effort into to film. Jaehyun mostly did collaborations on his own channel but he had resorted to making some solo content these past few weeks, Dongmin noted.
“Is everything okay?” Dongmin whispered to Jaehyun in between them filming their reactions to the past footage. Jaehyun shot him a tired smile and just said that he wasn’t sleeping very well since Donghyuck bought a karaoke machine and brought it to his dorm.
Dongmin had his doubts but he knew that it would be hard to squeeze the truth out of Jaehyun, he was one of the most stubborn men ever and Dongmin would never stand a chance against this rock of a man. Shrugging it off, Dongmin just accepted Jaehyun’s explanation but mentally noted that he had to keep a lookout for the other.
Notes:
Thank you for reading everyone! Every kudo/comment/bookmark means so much to me!! I'm trying to watch and read more thriller/crime content so I can write better too! School will start soon and I dread it because I probably won't be able to write as much anymore.
Chapter 14: If You Do
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been a month since the last investigation and 2 weeks since the team had last met up. Jungkook doesn’t remember there being tension among the members but as they sat quietly in a quaint fast food joint with their heads bowed he internally whispered a “What the fuck” to himself.
“Alright, since we’ve all gathered, let's go over what we’re doing today.” For the first time, Jungkook willingly tells them where they are headed and what to be prepared for. Honestly, he just wanted some kind of reaction from them.
This seemed to get Dongmin and Chan’s attention and they looked up inquisitively at the black-haired man who gestured grandly at a brochure he had dug out from his bag. “A… haunted doll museum?” Dongmin read out what was on the brochure and Jungkook was kinda glad that the colour seeped out of Mingyu’s face like he was finally reacting to something now, right?
“Just please don’t make us dress up like little Victorian girls,” Chan groaned while dragging a hand across his face and even Jaehyun, who was stoic before, cracked open a smile at the other’s vivid imagination.
“Nah, it’ll be easier to run when we’re not trapped in hoop skirts. Besides, we have no budget for fancy costumes.” Yugyeom sniffed and turned his nose up on Jungkook who had purchased new equipment to add to his arsenal and replace the older ones that were slightly worn down.
They ate in silence for a while before Dongmin tried to crack a joke which was pretty bad but somehow managed to get a chuckle or two from the team and the tense mood was lifted, even if it was only for a moment.
“We’re pretty much done here,” Mingyu pointed at the empty plates of cakes and the empty cups of drinks, “Let’s just make a move then.” Jungkook had to admit that he was quite taken back by the somewhat carefree attitude that Mingyu had adopted.
Jaehyun just nodded and threw on his jacket while Jungkook went to pay for their food with Yugyeom endlessly taunting him with “Jungkookie is our sugar daddy huh~” much to the disdain of the other members and the other customers.
Chan could only take so much before he started to push the other three members out of the shop and into the carpark outside where Jungkook’s beat up hunk of metal of a car waited for them. When Jungkook and Yugyeom were finally done terrorizing the staff and customers, they all hopped the car and sped off.
******
When Yugyeom finally pulled up in the parking lot next to the towering building it was already sun down. The gold-plated words ‘Haunted Doll Museum’ stared down at them as they filed out of the car and gathered their belongings.
Chan was setting up go-pros as usual and passing them to the others to put on and attach to their selfie sticks. Jungkook was starting to brief the audience of where they were at and what they were going to do while Chan stood opposite them, filming the boys with their backs facing the museum.
Chan swore he saw movement from the corner of his eyes and looked to the main door that the stairs led to. He almost shouted a curse word as he watched an old man peek out from around the door and wave at them and hurriedly close it once he saw that they were recording something.
Patting his galloping heart, Chan breathed a sigh of relief as he realised he mistook the poor old (very alive) man as a ghost. Yugyeom snapped him out of his zone out session by signalling they were heading into the building now. Jungkook was saying something about how the museum guide had agreed to stay past their usual hours so that the team could go on the last museum tour of the night.
When they stepped into the building, Mingyu shuddered slightly and got a look from his cousin. “I’m okay, it's just a little chilly in here.” Mingyu brushed his concern away like he was swatting away a fly and Dongmin furrowed his brows in concern but backed off. Jungkook looked around for the museum guide who was supposed to meet with them but there was no one around and Chan wondered if he should point out the staff member he saw previously.
“Hello? Anyone there?” Yugyeom asked as he rang the little bell on the counter and craned his neck to see if there were any employees in the back and didn’t hear them come in. As if he were summoned, the old man Chan saw earlier burst in through the restricted area door and Chan sighed softly in relief. Yep, he didn’t go crazy, this man was very much alive.
The old man fumbled around with the papers lying on the front desk while trying to comb his hair back as neatly as possible. Jaehyun thought that he looked exactly what a museum employee would look like, a little nerdy but wrapped in an aura of knowledge. The old man had a pair of glasses perched on his nose and was wearing the standard blue uniform of the museum, a flashlight hanging off his heavy belt. He looked to be in his late 60s but carried the air of a dignified elder and commanded the attention of the whole team.
“You must be Mr Park, I believe? I’ve corresponded with you via email, I’m Jeon Jungkook and my team and I are here to investigate the museum.” Jungkook held out a hand for the old man to shake which he did heartily.
“Yes yes, of course. Pleasure to meet you, I’ll be your museum guide for tonight. I’ll lead you around for the tour first and then leave you guys to do your thing. I will be here until morning and till then, you can find me in the office.” Mr Park pointed at the office that sat in the West wing of the building.
The members nodded and started to follow the guide, with the exception of Chan who was filming them from the front as they walked down the brightly lit hallways. This was a stark contrast to the normal dark locations they had to deal with but Mingyu didn’t let himself get too comfortable as he knew Jungkook would sure as hell try to turn the lights off at some point.
Mr Park started off with the history of the place, “This old building was built in the 80s, back then it was used for other stuff but when the founder of the museum decided to put a haunted doll on display, everything went downhill.” Mr Park had a grim look on his face but he continued, “Many people tried to tell him to get rid of the doll but he was a stubborn old bloke,” Mr Park barked out a laugh at this, “He insisted that he could do everyone a favour and take in the creepy dolls people didn’t want. He turned the place into what it is today. The man tried so hard to keep the dolls in check but back then, his efforts alone just weren’t enough. He died in a freak accident inside the museum, the only death to occur here and it is said that he still haunts the halls, putting the dolls in check.”
Mr Park had a small smile at the end, “You guys probably think I’m just a crazy old man huh?” to which Mingyu and Dongmin rushed out some ‘Oh no sir, we totally believe in all that stuff’. Mr Park chuckled some more and just gestured to the first room they had come across, “Well, welcome to our most tame room, the Baby Dolls.”
Jungkook made some comment under his breath that it sounded like a really suspicious pet name but the old man just laughed it off and said, “All the dolls in here belonged to children who had passed away while they were infants. Contrary to popular belief, the museum not only accepts dolls but we also accept rattle toys and other children toys that have activity. This rattle, for example, belonged to a sweet little baby girl who was unfortunately smothered by one of her parents. It is said that she still rattles it from time to time, it was her favourite toy after all.”
Chan panned the camera around the room and took in all the different toys in the glass display cases, they ranged from stuffed elephant plushies to baby dolls to baby-friendly lego bricks. He stared at the lego bricks in surprise, wondering how they determined those to be haunted. The old man saw this and smiled, “Those belonged to an older boy, sometimes when you walk into the room, they would be arranged differently from before.”
Mr Park looked fondly over the glass casings and stroked one with a baby doll gently as if he were stroking the cheek of the child who haunted it. Dongmin had to shake himself to focus and keep those thoughts out of his head. It was no use being alarmed by the only person who knew what he was doing in here.
The tour carried on and the next room they came across was a room dedicated to the toys of the victims of horrific crimes. Mingyu bent down to examine a porcelain doll in a beautiful sky blue dress with spots on it. With belated horror, Mingyu realised that those spots weren’t polka dots or some kind of pattern, they were blood splatters. He grabbed the nearest person, Jaehyun, and forced him to look at the doll too. In Jaehyun’s slightly befuddled state at seeing Mingyu’s reaction, he thought he saw the doll’s eyes turn towards him for a split second and gulped. Yep, he had too much coffee and now it’s getting to him.
On the other side of the room, Yugyeom, Dongmin, Jungkook and Mr Park were standing in front of a large glass casing in which a doll stood supported by plastic clamps. Chan was filming them in the corner while trying to keep an eye on the other two lost sheep gawking over a glass casing.
“This is Sally, allegedly the nicest doll in the room. I’m saying allegedly because I know Tina over there can hear me. Sally is known to be a little fortune teller, she always liked that kind of stuff when she was alive. If you ask her a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question and write them on pieces of paper, she’ll pick an answer for you. I’ve heard that she’s helped people win the lottery before.” Mr Park wiggled his eyebrows as he looked towards the team and took a pen and paper out of his pocket. “Wanna give it a go?”
Seeing that there’s nothing to lose, Jungkook shrugged and scribbled ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on two pieces of paper and scrunched them into a ball like what Mr Park had told him to do. “Sally, do you think I’m handsome?” Yugyeom tried to hold back his laughter but failed while Dongmin’s shoulders shook uncontrollably. Jungkook held the two paper pieces in his hand and dropped them on the little table installed at the foot of the glass casing. Only one piece of paper remained and Jungkook opened it excitedly, “She said yes!” He grinned at the camera and proudly held up the paper to show it off.
At this point, Mingyu and Jaehyun had rejoined them and were laughing too as they joked about how it was the first time someone called Jungkook handsome, to which he said defensively, “Jin-hyung calls me handsome!”
Mr Park gave them a once-over about the rest of the dolls and affirmed Mingyu that the doll he had spotted, Alice, had in fact been witness to a very bloody murder of her owner and the blood on the doll was the owner’s. Mingyu felt a chill down his spine but if the others sensed a small shift in the temperature around them, they kept quiet.
The group continued on and arrived at a room which Mr Park paused at, shooting hesitating glances back at the team. “You’re absolutely sure about this right? This is our worst room yet.” The man shrugged helplessly when the glint in Jungkook’s eye developed into a sparkle of pure joy and excitement. “Okay then, just be careful and don’t touch anything. Don’t even knock on the glass cases.” The old man warned and held up a threatening finger and the team nodded rapidly.
Mingyu was the last to enter the room. If he listened hard enough, he thought that he could almost hear the giggles of a young girl and the whispers of a couple dozen more. He tried to take a deep breath to calm his heart down, he was being irrational. Dolls couldn’t talk and much less giggle and if they could someone else would have spoken up about it already.
The sight that greeted him sent fear charging through his body like a horse that had abandoned its carriage, knocking down the walls that he had built around his heart and mind to protect the soft matter underneath. Dolls of every kind lined the walls and glinted in their little glass coffins, pinned in place with nails and zip ties.
One doll in particular, Jiyeon, as Mingyu had read from the plaque that hung over her case, had luscious dark curls that were pinned back with cute heart shaped gem hairpins. She was adorned in a floaty pink checkered dress and had a matching parasol in her left hand. Or was it her right? Mingyu was almost certain that the parasol had been in her right hand when he first glimpsed at her.
Jiyeon radiated a different kind of terror, her glassy eyes stared into Mingyu’s own and he almost pressed himself against the case to see her better if not for Yugyeom’s outstretched hand that stopped him. “Watch it,” The other boy said softly and held onto Mingyu to gently drag him to where Mr Park was standing.
Mr Park had noticed the entire thing, much to Mingyu’s embarrassment, but he merely shook his head and said, “Jiyeon has that kind of effect on people. One could say she’s the most tortured soul here, trapped in blessed wires and held in a talisman infused cage that she can’t escape from.” Mr Park shook his head sadly but there was a look in his eyes that betrayed his actual feelings towards the doll, “Make no mistake, she’s in that box for a reason. Either she has to be tortured liked this or she will torture us all.”
Jungkook looked up at this with a doubtful look in his eyes. As much as he respected the old guide, he was an avid believer of seeing things for himself and was a skeptic through and through. Jungkook turned to gauge Jaehyun’s reaction. He recognised a kindred spirit and knew that the other Youtuber was a big skeptic too but Jaehyun had molded a mask of indifference and his thoughts and emotions were sealed away.
If Jungkook had looked harder, he would have noticed the slight trembling in Jaehyun’s hands that he gripped together tightly. It wasn’t that Jaehyun believed everything, he just had some recent experiences that weighed heavily in his mind and made him see things he couldn’t tell were real or not.
Just like how that Jiyeon doll looked like she was smiling sweetly at him, her pinkish heart shaped lips curling up at the sides as if she was trying to invite him to come closer and closer and closer…
Jaehyun recognised a troublemaker when he saw one and stepped back so quickly that he bumped into Chan who thankfully managed to catch both of them. Sending a thankful look to their cameraman, Jaehyun scrambled to follow Mr Park who had moved onto another doll in the room.
“This is Jaesi,” Mr Park looked to his right where a ragged doll sat quietly watching them through her overgrown bangs, “As you can see, she’s not that fond of grooming and in the past, the museum would cut her hair and style it but it always grew back in a day. We gave up and she has been like that since.”
A doll that could grow hair… Dongmin gulped as he tried to not make eye contact with the hidden beady black eyes of the doll. This place was way too creepy and he was not feeling it. It was surprising to him that the others were taking it so well, did they forget that this was a museum filled to the brim with haunted dolls?
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Dongmin trudged after the rest, clearly uncomfortable staying in there but wise enough to know that he must not be separated from them for even a fraction of a second.
******
“And that’s about it. Level 4 and 5 are off limits because it’s been a while since we’ve cleaned up the boxes lying around up there. I’ll be in my office if you need me, good luck.” Mr Park gave the group a cordial smile and the lines near his eyes crinkled up.
“Thank you so much for your time.” Yugyeom thanked and shook the old man’s hand firmly. The guide could only smile as they individually thanked him one after another.
Suddenly, Mr Park’s expression shifted and a knowing look dawned upon his face, “Have you guys ever noticed a strange energy surrounding your group?” Mingyu had his pupils blown wide at hearing this which the guide nodded to as if he were weighing something in his head. “Yes, you might want to get that checked out.” The guide sent a knowing look at Jaehyun and Mingyu that went undetected by the others. Mr Park gave them a short wave and went back down the hallway they came from and with the turn of a corner, he was gone.
“Great, now we’re all alone in a building full of haunted dolls!” Jungkook spoke rapidly in his gleeful excitement and Dongmin just facepalmed with a soft sigh. Trust Jungkook to see the silver lining in every situation.
Yugyeom tapped his chin as he pondered, “Which room shall we go to first?” There were a few select choices that the team had wanted to visit and they had the museum map to guide them. All they needed to decide on was where to start and which route they should take to get there.
“Let’s start with the violent crimes room.” Jaehyun suggested. It was one of the rare times throughout today’s investigation that the male had spoken up and so Jungkook agreed with him immediately.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Jungkook grinned and led the way to the room clutching the map tightly in his hands.
Notes:
A short one for now! I've been slacking off for the longest time BUT I've been watching Chan's room and Going Seventeen!! I heard that Astro and Nct127 are coming back soon so I am mentally preparing my wallet for the blow. I started listening to Day6 so imma listen to their tracks as I write the next few chapters... Stream Day6 (even of day) 'right through me'!!!
Chapter 15: Touch
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Great,” Dongmin said with a tense faux smile at the camera, “The violent crimes room.” They arrived outside the room and just hovered at the door with the plaque of the name of the room hanging on it.
“Yes… The violent crimes room…” Mingyu trailed off with a look of apprehension on his face and unconsciously scooted closer to Jaehyun. Jungkook was already turning the door handle and they were greeted with the sight of rows of dolls in their glass coffins, standing at attention and facing them.
Yugyeom went up to the doll in a large glass casing, “So this is Sally, I think we’ll have more luck trying to communicate with her.” The doll that Yugyeom stopped in front of was the fortune telling doll who liked humans a reasonable amount and that made Mingyu relax a bit.
Jungkook dug through his bag for the dowsing rods while Jaehyun pulled out an Ovilus from his bag. “Okay, Sally, you see these two metal rods? If you don’t mind, can you use some power to make these two rods cross?” Jungkook said as he passed the rods over to Mingyu, it had the most activity when it was being used by their resident ghost magnet.
Very slowly, the rods began to cross inwards which kind of startled Mingyu. He knew the dolls were haunted but was still a little skeptical about everything. How could such cute, frilly little dolls be a vessel for something else?
But Mingyu wasn’t given a chance to react when Jaehyun followed up with another question, “Sally, do you want to continue talking to us? Cross the rods for yes, leave them for no.” Once again, the rods swung together to form a cross and Mingyu visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Yugyeom gestured to Jaehyun and he turned on the Ovilus that he had in his hand. Dongmin, on the other hand, had acquired the EMF reader and was currently running it over the glass casing. He thought he saw a flicker of LED movement near the crown of the doll’s head but it had happened so quickly that he couldn’t be sure.
The Ovilus had already been picking up activity and a string of words had started to form on the screen. Jaehyun held it up closer and recited, “Seoul. Actor. Answer.” Jaehyun raised an eyebrow at the one and only actor in their investigation team who merely shrunk down deeper into his turtleneck.
“Dongminnie? Well, I don’t know if Sally is inviting you to ask her questions or asking if she could ask you questions. Which one is it, Sally? Cross the rods inwards for the first option and cross them outwards for the second option.” Yugyeom spoke to Dongmin while glancing over to the doll.
The rods crossed inwards and Dongmin relaxed a bit. Loads of other people have asked her about their fortune right? And Mr Park didn’t mention about anybody dying or getting hurt after so he should be okay?
Taking in a deep breath, Dongmin turned to the doll, “Are you a fan of mine? A Dongminion?”
Jungkook nearly burst out laughing at the other’s fandom name but managed to barely keep it together. The elbow that Yugyeom shoved into his ribs did seem to help a bit. Dongmin, on the other hand, was looking straight at Sally and this time he really didn’t know if he was seeing things or did the corner of the doll’s lips really quirk up a bit at his question.
The rods in Mingyu’s hands crossed and they took it as a ‘yes’. Dongmin continued asking, “Are you a nice spirit?” The rods crossed again. “Will I get less offers in the later half of the year since I’ve been spending all my time with these people?” The rods didn’t cross and Dongmin simply thanked the spirit and said that Sally was the second fan he had run into on his investigations.
After that, Sally continued replying to questions but her speed became slower and slower and the EMF reader that Yugyeom was now holding onto flared up when he accidentally got closer to another doll in the room, Alice.
“Alice, she’s covered in the bloodstains of her owner.” Mingyu recalled as they stood in front of the glass box. It felt weird being in a room where numerous pairs of glassy eyes are looking straight at you and there was nothing that you could do about it.
Jaehyun bent down a little to be at eye level with the doll, yep there was something menacing in her gaze but at the same time, he didn’t really feel the stab of fear that he had in his gut whenever he encountered something that he thought could be a supernatural encounter.
Jungkook was already angling the Ovilus at the doll. They had agreed not to use the spirit box since there were allegedly so many spirits within one room and the chaos that could come from it was undesired.
“Hi Alice, we’d love to chat with you. If you’re willing to, can you make the rods here cross?” Yugyeom asked as he pointed to where Mingyu was standing with the dowsing rods in his hands. Chan zoomed in on Mingyu’s hands and saw in the viewfinder that they were trembling slightly.
Chan continued to watch, his mouth in a grim line as the rods crossed inwards. Jaehyun held up the EMF reader this time and did a once over with the doll too. When he placed it over the doll’s face, it suddenly spiked to red, making the brown haired boy widen his eyes in shock and look around for the camera with a searching gaze.
Yugyeom came closer and said quietly to the spooked boy with an affirming hand on his shoulder, “I saw that.” Jaehyun composed himself enough to nod and swallowed thickly. He wondered why he was so jumpy and paranoid all of a sudden.
The Ovilus in Jungkook’s hand started showing more words on the screen, and he scrambled to read them out to the rest.
“Murder.” Jungkook read out with his mouth set into a grim line as he gazed at the screen. Behind him, Mingyu shook his head slightly and looked like he wanted to hit his head against the wall to take himself out of his misery.
Dongmin only raised an eyebrow and waited for Jungkook to continue. “Sleep. Knife. Bye. Bye. Junhee. Pain.” Jungkook was frowning and his grip on the Ovilus was tighter now with his knuckles turning white.
Yugyeom thought over the words for a moment, “Let me try to work this out. Alice’s owner was asleep when they were stabbed to death by a knife. The repeated ‘Bye’ sounds like a child saying ‘bye bye’ and I’m assuming Junhee was the person who killed them? It was a painful death too.”
The energy around them dimmed down and the group had varying looks of shock and sadness written on their faces. In Mingyu’s hands, the rods crossed again, as if agreeing with Yugyeom’s hypothesis. This time when it happened, Mingyu managed to keep a straight face.
“We’re sorry that it happened to your owner, Alice. I also hope that the man responsible was caught.” Jungkook said solemnly and the rest of the group nodded or voiced their agreement. Chan who was standing towards the side filming both the doll and the group was sure that he saw a movement in the glass case but it could have very well been the reflection of the light from his camera.
It took Chan a while to remember that there was barely any light in the room and that he was on night vision camera mode, there was no way that light was coming from his own camera. When he did realise what he saw wasn’t a trick of the light, Chan paled but nobody caught it in the darkened room they were standing in.
“This is Tina…” Mingyu trailed off as his eyes fell upon the doll that was grinning so eerily, dressed up like a little elf with the bells on her feet and hat. “Yeah no, let’s not.” Mingyu wanted to turn away but Jungkook caught onto his wrist and pulled him right back as they tried to engage with the doll but to no avail.
“Now we’re standing outside the ‘Top Haunts’ room,” Dongmin jerked his thumb at the plaque on the door as he faced the camera, “The worst room according to Mr Park. That we’re about to go into. Like idiots.” Jungkook gave a thumbs up as he swung the door open with grandeur.
They filed into the room in an orderly manner and were planning on which doll to start with when Mingyu’s skin took on a deathly pallor and he pointed at Jiyeon with a shaky finger. “Dude, her parasol was in her left hand and now it's in her right hand…”
Yugyeom was disbelieving as he said, “Mingyu, are you sure you didn’t see wrongly? That doll is under lock and key in a glass box and we’re the only ones up here right now.”
Jaehyun frowned at this and murmured, “No, he’s right. It was in her left hand.” He’d noticed that Mingyu had been staring at the doll earlier and paid extra attention to the doll. He even noticed how it was her left hand with the sapphire ring that was gripping onto the handle of the parasol.
“We’ll just check the footage later on. Chan took a close up shot of the doll earlier so we can use that as reference.” Jungkook dismissed their words with a wave of his hand. He knew Mingyu was a bit more paranoid than the rest of them but Jaehyun was joining in on that now? It was starting to get a little unbelievable and he entertained the thought that they were just pulling his leg.
Deciding that Jiyeon was the best doll to start with, Jungkook started to pull out their equipment there and lay it out on the floor. One Rem pod was placed near the door to detect movement coming into the room and the new Rem pod they got was placed in front of Jiyeon.
Starting with the EMF reader, Dongmin did a sweep over the doll, all the while trying his hardest not to look at her face and the strangely cruel smile that was fixed onto it. Why anyone would want such a maliciously smiling doll would never make sense to him and he swore silently in his heart as he tried to finish things as soon as possible.
Up next was Jaehyun with the Ovilus as he held it up near but not touching the glass box. Mr Park had warned them not to touch the glass or knock on the glass and despite being the skeptic that he is, Jaehyun wasn’t planning on getting into any trouble.
This time, the Ovilus fell silent and no words appeared on the screen. Now that was hardly normal, especially in the room which was critically acclaimed as the ‘most haunted doll room in South Korea’. Yugyeom wondered if this was the dolls keeping their silence or if there really was no activity in the room.
“Okay, let’s just try the dowsing rods.” Jungkook raised his hand towards Mingyu who held them up in the right position. “Hi Jiyeon, I’m Jungkook and these are my friends, we’re here to ask you a few questions. If you can cross the rods inwards for ‘yes’ and outwards for ‘no’, that would be really great. Now, would you like to continue talking to us?”
As soon as Jungkook had finished his sentence, the rods started to swing inwards and Jungkook raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. He was anticipating more resistance but this was making it so much better.
“Aight, bet. Just to be sure, we’re talking to Jiyeon right now, right?” The rods crossed inwards again.
Yugyeom stood forward and asked, “Ms Jiyeon, was Mr Park telling the truth earlier when he said you’ve caused some trouble before?” The rods swung inwards again.
“Hey, at least she’s telling the truth.” Mingyu said softly as he tried to lift the mood. It didn’t work and his shoulders just slumped in even more as Jungkook continued to ask questions and the rods in Mingyu’s hands danced back and forth.
After a while, Jiyeon refused to continue using the rods and Jungkook could only sigh as he dug out the spirit box from his bag. “We have no choice, maybe this will get some sort of response.” He explained but the rest were just silent as they watched him set up on the floor.
The spirit box crackled a little and a hoarse ‘hello’ sounded out and echoed around the room. For a moment, they were speechless and then Dongmin scrambled over to be closer to the spirit box.
“Hello? Is this Jiyeon talking to us?” Dongmin asked as he crouched lower to the ground so that he could hear the spirit box better. The crackling rose in volume, something he didn’t know was possible, and it seemed like there were multiple voices trying to override each other.
“Ball- Standing- You need to go- Blue- Lips-” The spirit box spat out short words in what sounded like different male and female voices but one phrase stood out to all of them, ‘You need to go’ wasn’t particularly friendly sounding.
Mingyu twisted his hands nervously as he watched Dongmin continue to struggle talking to the spirit box. He was sure of it now, there were way too many spirits using the device now, that explained the different voices each time. They were told that Jiyeon was a dangerous doll who was put under special blessed restraints so could that mean that someone was trying to warn them of her?
“We’ll go in a bit. We would like to investigate for a little longer, if you’re willing to cooperate with us.” Jungkook said with his hands up placatively as he slowly spun around the room to face all the dolls. Chan thought in the back of his mind that it would be a dope shot with the go-pro that Jungkook had hanging on his harness.
The spirit box crackled for a few more seconds, a string of incomprehensible words and Jungkook lunged forward to shut it off as the noise was starting to get overwhelming. Mingyu stood ram-rod straight, “Guys... did you hear that?”
Jaehyun shook his head and so did Dongmin. Jungkook just looked at Mingyu with a raised eyebrow and waited for him to explain what he had just heard but the other boy just bit harder into his lip.
All of a sudden, there was a sound of glass shattering that had Yugyeom bolting out of the room and the rest scrambled to follow him but the long-legged boy had already turned a corner and thrown a door open.
Yugyeom stared wide-eyed at what remained of a glass case with a doll still inside. The broken glass formed a devastatingly beautiful arc around the doll who still had her pristine rosy red makeup on, just that there was blood dripping from the wound on her head where the glass had shattered in.
Yugyeom stood at the doorway and swivelled his head around to see his friends thunder down the hallway after him with all their cameras pointed and angled towards him. Shock was written all over their faces and he barely registered that he had dropped his own go-pro somewhere along the way. “T-the doll…” He trailed off and turned back to the broken glass but he saw something completely different.
Dongmin was bent over on his knees catching his breath while Jungkook shot Yugyeom a worried look as he scanned the pristine room. There was absolutely nothing inside the room that resembled a doll, it was merely a cleaning supplies cupboard with rows of floor cleaner bottles stacked on a shelf and rolls of toilet paper.
Jungkook reached out a hand to pat Yugyeom’s back but the other boy flinched hard and Jungkook stepped back with his hands up in surrender.
“What did you see?” Dongmin asked once he managed to control his breathing again. Yugyeom just shook his head and dragged a hand through his already ruffled hair, refusing to say another word. Chan just led the way back to the room that they were in and paused when he reached the doorframe with the door ajar.
“Chan?” Jaehyun called out but the cameraman only held up his hand to stop the rest of the team from coming over.
“There’s something on the floor.” Chan said softly as his raised hand quickly found the light switch and drowned the room with fluorescent light. Dongmin couldn’t even hide his horror as he stared at the floor.
Jungkook pushed his way to the front of the group, beside Chan, and he stepped confidently into the room as he did a quick look around to make sure that there wasn’t anyone else in the room that could have done this.
Chan zoomed in to the work of art on the floor as he actively tried to walk closer to the powder on the floor. “It’s not that obvious but if you look hard you’ll see it.” Chan whispered under his breath and it was true. It was a little subtle but the foundation powder that covered a small area of the floor before the Jiyeon glass case looked like a small finger had drawn words into the powder.
It wasn’t hard to make out the words ‘Hdie and Seek’ in squiggly letters. Mingyu gulped when he realised the spelling error and the unmistakable threat that the words were written with. He stumbled back a little and bumped into a glass case and freaked out even more.
Chan stretched a hand to catch onto Mingyu before he could cause even more damage and pulled him closer to himself. Mingyu would later swear that he saw the doll in the glass case he bumped into glare menacingly at him. Jungkook would only say that the guide had warned them not to touch any of the cases anyway.
“Why is there even powder here?” Jungkook frowned as he dabbed a finger into the powder despite the others telling him not to. Dongmin looked sheepish at this question and said softly that he had a schedule the previous day and he had forgotten to remove all the makeup from his bag before he came for the investigation.
Yugyeom nodded and said that it was understandable and that it wasn’t a big deal anyway if the ghost really wanted to communicate, they would have found another medium to work with anyway. Jungkook added that he’ll get back at the ghosts for ruining Dongmin’s makeup to which the other boy frantically tried to stop him.
Rolling his eyes, Yugyeom told the rest that they needed to clean this up and that he knew just the right place to get some cleaning supplies. When Yugyeom and Jaehyun returned from retrieving a few rolls of toilet paper and magical wet wipes they found in the cleaning closet, they hurriedly tried to clean up the makeup. Mingyu and Chan were still huddled together with the taller boy clinging onto the cameraman who had patience as deep and wide as the ocean.
The mess was quickly cleaned up by expert dorm cleaner Yugyeom and Jungkook (most of the time they had to clean their own messes up) and they were debating if they should stay to investigate more or leave as the spirit box had warned them to.
“Fine, we can go somewhere else to continue, let’s get going guys.” Jungkook said with finality and they started to head out of the room. Dongmin turned around one last time to make sure they got all the powder off from the floor and made eye contact with Jiyeon. Yep, that doll was definitely haunted, how did it even manage to move to face him?
With no time to spare, the team headed one level down and decided to explore a different room with dolls collected from other countries. The lights were dimmer on this level and Mr Park did mention that they were due for a changing of the light bulbs.
Mingyu lagged at the back of the group while still huddling close with Chan who was focusedly filming the team as they walked closer to the door. Just then, Mingyu heard the sound that he had heard on the spirit box earlier that spooked him out.
It was exactly the same sound, down to all the tones and inflections, a child-like laughter and then “Found you.”
Mingyu whipped his head back so fast he got whiplash but he saw what he was dreading the whole time. Down the darkening hallway with the flickering lights stood a doll dressed in a blue dress. Mingyu gulped and couldn’t find the strength in him to keep walking.
Chan, sensing the rising panic in the other and seeing the way he cringed and held his neck after whipping around, turned around too to film the dark empty hallway. There was absolutely nothing there but the look of raw fear splashed across Mingyu’s features like paint on a wooden doll led him to believe that the boy had seen or in the very least envisioned something down the hallway.
Letting go of the camera handles and letting it hang from the rigging, Chan used one hand to grab onto Mingyu and used his other hand to grab Jaehyun who was right in front of him, forcing the NCT Youtuber to take care of the now trembling member. Jaehyun looked confused but one stern look from Chan made him swallow down any questions and merely put his arm around Mingyu’s waist and bring him closer to the rest of the group. Chan sighed and glanced once more behind him for good measure but saw nothing at all. Was it all in Mingyu’s head?
They didn’t have much luck in the foreign dolls room and the late dinner and snacks they had brought were taking a toll on Mingyu and Dongmin’s bladders. A toilet break was called and the two trudged to the toilets together with their bags as the others waited for them outside.
“How’s the footage?” Jungkook asked Chan who grinned and said that he got some creepy shots here and there but there was the one go-pro footage from when Jungkook spun around the room that he thought would be a real sick cut.
They were talking about angles and storage when there was a yelp from the toilet that had them all thundering in to find Mingyu and Dongmin standing horrified in front of the mirror.
“Is this some sick prank?” Mingyu yelled as he looked over his cousin and the team who had just made it into the toilet. Mingyu had just exited the toilet stall(the urinals were cordoned off) and saw two massive words written on the mirror, ‘Found You’.
Dongmin held up his hands and denied that it was him although he suspected that the thing used to write the words was the lipstick that he had in his bag that he left on the counter. Mingyu then whirled around to face Jungkook and pointed an accusing finger at him, “Then it must be you then! You love scaring us don’t you?”
Jungkook had a look of shock on his face and indignantly retorted that he and Chan were discussing the footage right outside and Chan even had proof that no one had entered the toilet since he was still filming outside.
Mingyu’s legs grew weak as he realised what exactly was the situation here and Jungkook had to grab onto him before he could sink to the dirty public toilet floor. Jaehyun and Yugyeom had wet some tissue paper to rub at the lipstick stains and Dongmin winced as the words became more demented looking and much creepier.
“I can’t do this. It’s too much. Let’s just go, we have enough footage. Please, Jungkook.” Mingyu whined as he gripped onto Jungkook’s hands which were supporting him and hunched over to be at eye level with the other boy.
Jungkook sighed and nodded his head. They were pretty much done with everything anyway, none of the spirits were really responding to them on this level and fatigue had settled deep into their bones.
“Timecheck, it is currently 4 a.m and we are done and dusted. We’ll do our outro outside.” Jungkook said and clapped his hands to signal that they should go. They decided to say one last goodbye to Mr Park who said that they could find him in the office before morning.
As they took the lift down and made their way to the office, they maintained a silence which Mingyu was thankful for. He was extremely overwhelmed and had to give it his all not to book it out of there and leave his friends behind.
“Mr Park?” Jungkook knocked on the large oak door but to no avail. “Mr Park? It’s Jungkook here, we’ll be heading off, we just wanted to thank you for everything tonight.” Jungkook continued but there was no sound from inside the office. Shrugging it off as the elderly guide falling asleep or going to the toilet, the team left the building. They didn’t want to barge into the office in case there was sensitive information in there so they just called out their goodbyes and left quickly.
“Anddddd that was the Haunted Doll Museum! Thank you guys for watching and journeying with us, we’re all tired as heck and I think Mingyu’s gonna crash soon. We’ll see you all in the next video, bye!” Jaehyun had drawn the short end of the stick and was the Chosen one to do the outro. From then on, it was a whirlwind of movement as they made their way to the car and loaded all their things in. Chan had left the camera in the backseat as Mingyu was clinging on to him and demanded him to sit in the middle row with Dongmin and Jaehyun. It was definitely not safe and very squeezy but they overlooked it as Yugyeom stepped on the gas pedal and they hurtled to the nearby hotel they booked.
******
It was the morning of the next day when Jungkook was woken up by his phone ringing incessantly. Yugyeom turned over in their shared king sized bed (they had no other options okay!) and hurled a pillow at him in sleepy anger.
Jungkook took one look at the caller ID and sat up, quickly accepting the call and bringing it up to his ear.
“Hello Mr Park? If this is about something being broken in the museum I swear it wasn’t us. In fact, the powder on the floor and the lipstick on the toilet mirror wasn’t really our doing too but those did happen because of us but I swear it wasn’t intention-”
“Mr Jeon? Is everything okay?”
Jungkook forced himself to calm down and tried in his most polite voice, “Yes, everythings great here. Is everything okay on your side?”
A sigh was heard on the other end and Mr Park said apologetically, “Yes but I had an accident before I could head over to the museum last night after my dinner break. I’m in the hospital now but I wasn’t conscious enough to be able to give you a call and cancel our meeting. It seems that you’ve entered the building just fine though?”
Jungkook sucked in the air through his teeth harshly as he contemplated what the man on the line had just said. In fact, his voice was different from the more gravely, older voice that guided them the previous night.
“Weren’t you there though? You even gave us a tour?” Jungkook tried despite the answer that was rising in his heart. The man on the other line sputtered a bit and assured him that the cast he had on his left leg now was proof that he couldn’t even take a step.
“Then who was it that was with us all night?” Jungkook said just above a whisper.
“We’ll need to talk.”
Notes:
You know... writing this story scares me too since I write my own fears and paranoia into the story. In other news, NCT, Astro and Stray Kids are coming back soon, my wallet is hurting after Skzoo preorders and I recently got very v e r y into Day6 yay. I'm also gonna say that I only have a couple more written chapters and that I might fall behind schedule soon but I predict the total number of chapters to be around 23~
Chapter 16: Side Effects
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chan tossed around in his bed as the rays of the morning sun streamed into the room through the blinds and poked at his eyelids. It had been a long night for all of them and Chan could feel the aching in his neck and arms from carrying the camera and its rigging everywhere.
He was roomed up with Mingyu this time, the taller boy was adamant in keeping the shorter man with the dominating personality close and Jungkook had acquiesced to his request. Jaehyun wasa rooming with Dongmin and they had thrown Jungkook and Yugyeom to the only room that had a single bed.
Chan could tell by the soft snores coming from the other side of the room that Mingyu was still deep in slumberland which was good considering he had it hardest in their most recent investigation. Cracking open one swollen eyelid, Chan squinted as he looked across the room where Mingyu was forming a burrito blanket.
A fraction of a second went by when Chan swore he saw something black dart under the covers of Mingyu’s blanket. Something that looked like hair, long hair like that belonging to a woman or an emo era Hyunjin. Chan jumped out of his bed and raced over to where Mingyu was sleeping and ripped the blanket off him, forcing the other boy to awaken.
Panic rose in Mingyu’s eyes as he was lost in the current situation and Chan tried to calm him down saying that there was a trail of ants on the blanket and that they were going to climb onto Mingyu. The boy in question believed the white lie and laid back down, claiming that he would only wake up when Jungkook demanded him to.
Still feeling a sense of unease despite blaming what he saw on the blurriness of sleep in his eyes, Chan told Mingyu to climb into his bed, using the excuse that the ants were probably scattered around Mingyu’s bed.
As Mingyu settled down on a new sleeping spot, Chan whipped his phone out and sent a message to Jungkook before slamming his phone down and going to cuddle with a sleepy Mingyu until Jungkook decided to bang on their door and get them to wake up.
******
It was 11 a.m when Jungkook decided it was time for them to stop sleeping and went around the different rooms, knocking on their doors and demanding that they get up and check out in an hour.
“Come on, Sleeping Beauty, we’ve got to go soon.” Dongmin shook Jaehyun awake and Jaehyun merely groaned at the nickname chosen for him.
“Okay okay, Snow White, I’m awake.” Jaehyun rubbed at his eyes tiredly as the taller guy sighed and asked why he had to be Snow White. “Because,” Jaehyun injected as much sass as he could, “Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony.” Jaehyun reached up to pull lightly on Dongmin’s hair and was rewarded with an eye roll and a scoff.
“Hurry up! Jungkook will break the door down if we’re late!” Dongmin called out just before the bathroom door slammed shut.
Now that was one way to start the morning. As Dongmin started his morning skincare routine of moisturisers and toners, he stared at the reflection in the large bronze mirror that hung above the dressing table.
Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony… yes that could very well describe the man pronounced as the ‘new face of Korea’. Unfortunately, what was reflected in the mirror did not look very much like Dongmin.
Dongmin fell back as a gasp was caught in his throat. He stared fearfully at the reflection that remained standing still in the mirror, that wasn’t him. It looked like him but the long hair that was growing and growing and growing all around him made it clear that they were two very separate people.
Shutting his eyes as tight as he can and crawling to the safety of the starch white blankets laid out on the bed, Dongmin dove under the covers where he proceeded to even out his breathing. He was seeing things now, it was probably due to the very interrupted sleep he had gotten in the early hours of the morning. His sleep schedule was messed up. Everything was messed up and now he had to suffer looking at another creepy mirror.
He didn’t know how long he went down that spiral but he was only snapped out of it when the toilet door slammed open and Jaehyun stood there in all his steamy bathroom wet dream look with just one single towel hanging from his waist.
“Sorry dude, I forgot my- Dude, are you okay?” Jaehyun rushed over to where the taller of the two had completely wrapped himself up in a blanket and was rocking back and forth.
“Y-Yeah, I just got a little cold,” Dongmin tried to brush it off with a wave of his hand but he had unknowingly gotten that tangled up in the blanket too.
“Okay sure… just let me put on my clothes and we can go bother Jungkook or wait in the lobby?” Now Jaehyun was no expert on human behaviour but he could guess that Dongmin had experienced something unpleasant and most likely wanted to get out of the room. True to his deductions, the taller boy nodded eagerly and started throwing the clothes and personal items he had lying around into his suitcase with Jaehyun quickly following suit.
******
“Okay my wonderful friends, please take your baggage up to my dorm. You know the way.” Jungkook grinned and twirled the car key around his index finger. They were doing things a little different today, Jungkook wanted them to convene at his apartment a few days after their latest investigation.
“Do you mean like just the literal baggage,” Mingyu asked as he heaved his bag out of the car, “Or the metaphorical, emotional baggage too?” Jungkook chuckled at this and gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder. He clearly was unaware of his own strength as Mingyu stumbled under the weight of Jungkook’s arm.
Chan, for the first time, had his hands free from any equipment and was instead holding his third americano for the day which brought a frown to Dongmin’s face whenever he saw it. Jaehyun, on the other hand, just mumbled something about how that was nothing compared to what Jaemin drinks in a day.
Yugyeom was already in Jungkook’s shared apartment to ‘set things up’ and that left Jungkook with carpool duty as he collected all the members from their individual homes.
“So what are we doing today?” Jaehyun asked cooly as they gathered into the lift. Jungkook had his signature cheeky smile on and just said a very mysterious ‘you’ll see’ which raised a few eyebrows.
The apartment was decorated to look spookier than usual if the large dark blue drapes were anything to go by. Yugyeom even decorated the dining table with a black tablecloth and some dollar store plastic skulls that were definitely not in season.
“And you did all this… for what?” Jaehyun asked as he surveyed the surroundings that Yugyeom was so proudly presenting to him. Yugyeom lovingly stroked the handle of a large black pot that probably belonged to a witch and refused to reply, gesturing to Jungkook instead.
“Gather around boys, we’ll have lunch first. Can’t get to business on an empty stomach!” Jungkook rushed off to the kitchen and got back spooky themed paper cups and plates that depicted a scene in a graveyard. Dongmin grimaced at the halloween theme they had going on in the middle of June.
When Jungkook came out with dishes (catered food that he had ordered in advance), they dug into their food. Whenever Jungkook wanted to pay for a meal, it probably meant that bad things (work) was coming up next and the rest of the members knew to at least eat as much as they can and take advantage of the team leader being nice.
“Now that we’re done eating, it’s time for me to introduce you guys to our guest today!” Jungkook clapped his hands in exaggerated excitement as Chan and Yugyeom set up the cameras to face the dining table. Now, Mingyu started counting the number of chairs set up around the table and of course, there was one extra chair.
Jungkook had everyone sit down at the table, leaving the one chair at the head of the table empty. He looked around at the rest of the group and began, “So you guys remember the doll museum, our latest video?” Everyone nodded their heads and attentively watched him. “So, the morning after, I received a call from Mr Park saying that he was sorry he couldn’t meet us there. He was in the hospital the whole night and I have documents to prove that. And that means that the man we saw in the museum… wasn’t Mr Park.”
The rest of the table was silent and trying to process whatever their team leader had said. “You mean to say, the man we met was an imposter? How did he get into the building and show us around, then?” Chan piped up as he tried to put the pieces together. Jungkook and Yugyeom shared a look and Yugyeom got up to fetch his laptop from Jungkook’s room.
“This,” Yugyeom showed the picture on his laptop to the group, “Is the man we all saw, agreed?” Everyone nodded their heads, the picture he had shown was a portrait of the Mr Park they had seen in his uniform and all. “And this is Kim Seojun, the founder of the museum who passed away in a tragic accident in the museum.” The rest of the group, except Jungkook, waited for Yugyeom to show them the next picture but his thumb remained still over the button. It then dawned onto the members that the two people he mentioned were actually the same person.
“No fucking way, you’re telling us we saw a ghost?”
Chan frowned slightly as he tried to recall any instances with the guide that felt weird and could only think about seeing the man in the very beginning and praying that it wasn’t a ghost he had seen. The irony was palpable as he explained that to the group.
“Is he in any of the footage?” Dongmin directed his question to Chan but the latter had merely shrugged and turned his own questioning gaze to Jungkook. After Jungkook had received the call from the real Mr Park, he had told Chan that he would handle that episode’s footage and the usual editor had no idea what was inside the footage.
Jungkook sighed, “No, his face could never be seen in any of the frames and we can’t get a clear look at him. It’s like he tried to avoid the camera the entire time, we only got his voice on tape.”
“So was he protecting us or…?” Mingyu thought aloud. It was true that they were well taken care of the entire duration they had spent with the guide and he was friendly and gave the whole group a sense of security.
Yuygeom shrugged at that question but spoke up again, “Now, do you guys remember what he had said to us before he left?” The team shook their heads in unison and Yugyeom had to hold himself back from banging his head on the table.
“Have you guys ever noticed a strange energy surrounding your group?”
“Yes, you might want to get that checked out.”
Yugyeom paused the audio clips before they could continue any further and Dongmin held back a shiver as he realised that he had just listened to the voice of an alleged ghost.
“And that is why we are getting ourselves ‘checked out’ today!” Jungkook said excitedly and at that very moment, the doorbell rang and sent Mingyu jolting out of his seat as a reflex.
The lady that walked through the door next was dressed in a frilly white dress and held onto a whole basket of objects that Mingyu had no idea how to name or identify.
Chan sat up straight in his seat as his eyes landed on their guest, “Jihyo?” He asked incredulously with his pupils blown wide.
“Chan!” Jihyo grinned as she laid her basket down on the table at the head of the table where her seat was.
“What are you doing here?”
“Same reason as you are, spooky stuff!”
“Don’t worry guys, she’s a 97 liner too, we’re all besties here.” Yugyeom added from the side.
Jihyo nodded and smiled brightly at the rest, “I’m sure Jungkook didn’t really explain why I’m here today so I’ll just give a brief rundown. Basically, he called me in to do a reading for you guys, I’m here to check out your vibes individually and as a group and I’ll try to give a report of how things have been going for you guys and what you can do in the future investigations!”
“Wow, I didn’t know you dabbled in this… stuff?” Chan gestured to the decks of cards, candles and stones that Jihyo had laid out on the table.
“I may be a stylist but my team and I are very intuitive and talented in many different ways.” Jihyo smirked a little as she said this. “Okay, are we ready for a reading? Let’s start with you, Channie.”
Jihyo first stated her intentions for the reading out loud and started to shuffle through her tarot deck (Dongmin noticed that it was a pretty rose colour and had pretty pictures on it). As she shuffled, a couple of cards flew out of the deck and onto the dark wood below and Jihyo took it in her stride, flipping them over and placing them neatly in view.
“Chan, you’ve had a few encounters recently haven’t you? Something’s changing in your life and you’re afraid of it.” Jihyo looked up concernedly at the blonde who was fidgeting under her gaze.
The readings went smoothly and unhitched which led Jihyo to propose a large sharing session where they talked about the reason why Jungkook had decided to invite her over. “Definitely, there’s a strange energy surrounding you guys, I couldn’t identify it exactly when I saw Channie at work but it’s so much stronger here.” Jihyo began and carefully eyed the reactions of those around her.
“It’s a dark sort of energy and it can be suffocating. I’m actually quite worried for you guys, you know this is a safe space to share your worries right? If there’s anything you want to tell me or ask me about, please do.”
Mingyu bit at his lips for a moment before saying, “Everyone calls me a scaredy cat but I really think that there’s something strange following me around. I’m not sure what else to say.”
Jihyo nodded and affirmed that there was definitely residual energy of something sinister and told Mingyu that he was most likely more sensitive towards the other realm which basically made him a walking target for ghostly encounters. Mingyu shivered at this and Jihyo reassured him saying that it was necessarily a bad thing.
“Do you know my friend Tzuyu? She can feel other beings just like you and she’s living her life pretty well if I do say so myself.” Jihyo smiled comfortingly at the taller boy and patted his hand encouragingly.
Jihyo turned her focus back to the rest of the group, “All I can say is there is a buildup of energy that I can feel here and it’ll come crashing down at the most opportune time. Until then, you need to prepare yourselves and take the necessary precautions. To put it crudely, shit is going to hit the fan.”
After their short QnA session, Yugyeom offered to send Jihyo back home and she agreed. The rest of the members were to remain at Jungkook’s place to discuss their next moves regarding the ominous reading that they were given.
It was unknown to them at that time but the meeting that they had with Jihyo would ultimately become the catalyst that would speed up everything that they were working for and they would learn that the hard way.
******
Yugyeom couldn’t sleep. He suspected that he had messed up his sleep cycle while working on the Youtube channel and now he couldn’t sleep at normal timings like everyone else. Wiggling around in his bed and trying to find a comfortable spot to fall asleep in, Yugyeom wondered if he should take a melatonin gummy bear.
Deciding that he had no luck simply lying in his bed and wishing that he would fall asleep, Yugyeom climbed out of bed and took a few heavy steps to the kitchen. Everyone was asleep by now and the youngest was all alone. Under the bright fluorescent lights in the kitchen, Yugyeom decided to grab a cup of water as well and downed it together with the melatonin, the cool respite of the water gushing down his parched throat.
Yugyeom checked the clock on the wall, it was nearing 3 a.m and he deemed it necessary that he take a quick toilet break. As he washed his hands in the speckled porcelain sink that Jinyoung had insisted on, he looked up into the mirror hanging above the sink for a split second.
Something wasn’t right and Yugyeom quickly looked up again, staring into the mirror. The fear stabbing into his heart forced his mouth close and he couldn’t even manage a squeak as he saw someone that wasn’t him standing where he should be in the reflection. She had long black hair covering most of her face but the bloodshot eyes still pierced through Yugyeom’s defences.
Stumbling back, Yugyeom barely noticed that the faucet was still on but when he did notice, he realised that there was something wrong with it as well. Instead of the crystal clear water that normally flowed out of the tap, blood gushed from the tap like an open wound and splashed around the rim of the sink. Yugyeom hurriedly turned the faucet off and without sparing another glance at the stranger in his mirror, he booked it out of the toilet and dashed all the way back to his room where he tried to catch his breath.
That did not just happen.
But it did and Yugyeom was terrified. His body craved sleep and the melatonin was starting to take effect but he felt trapped in the moment and his heart rate wouldn’t go down. After mere seconds of deliberation, Yugyeom silently opened the door to Bambam’s room and closed it gently behind him. He would just stay with Bambam for the night, the other boy slept like the dead anyway. Yugyeom shivered and scolded himself for even thinking about such a comparison as he laid himself down and gave in to his body.
It was around the same time when a different boy in a different home started to stir from his sleep. Dongmin was a good sleeper with a pretty regular bedtime despite his packed schedules. So it did surprise him as he registered his consciousness and the soft yellow glow of the nightlight that he had Moonbin install for him.
Dongmin had his own room in the shared apartment and he kept it fairly neat and simple, being the regulated man that he is. A simple desk, a large enough closet, a small bookshelf and a large bed was all that he needed to get by. He also had a habit where he would sleep facing the wall that his bed lay against, leaving his back ‘exposed’ to the rest of the room.
It was times like these when he woke up in the middle of the night in this very position that made him feel uncomfortable. It was especially so this very night as Dongmin clutched his blanket tighter and squeezed his eyes shut, trying his best to fall asleep again.
But sleep would not come and the cold draft against the sliver of skin on his back that wasn’t covered by his shirt or the blanket left goosebumps on his skin. Cracking open his eyes for a bit, Dongmin was faced with the baby blue wall that was dyed a light golden colour. Dongmin blinked wearily and was about to shut his eyes and count sheep when a small movement on the wall alerted him that there was actually a shadow on his wall.
Dongmin kept quiet and watched the wall intently, trying to figure out what he was seeing right now when it dawned upon him. There was a figure standing behind him, illuminated by the nightlight and casting shadows upon his wall. The figure stood still as if watching him and Dongmin prayed that it didn’t realise that he was awake and alerted of its presence.
A stirring of the shadow on the wall caused Dongmin to watch in terror as a hand-like appendage seemed to reach out towards him. Okay that was it, Dongmin was going to force a Windows shut down on himself and pretend that he was still in a dream. He could almost feel a cold feeling on his shoulder when the door to his room opened and cast the room in the bright white light of the hallway.
“Hyung?” It was Moonbin. Dongmin breathed a quick sigh of relief as he turned over to look at the other boy with his bed hair sticking around in every direction. A questioning look from Dongmin was all he needed to get Moonbin to start talking, “Sanha has a stomach ache and he wants to go to the hospital, can you drive him there?”
Without hesitation, Dongmin jumped out of bed and grabbed a set of clothes to change into as Moonbin passed him the car keys that the apartment shared but was only ever used by the older members of the apartment. Myungjun and Jinwoo were out of town and so the responsibility of driving the younger boys around rested heavily on Dongmin’s shoulders but he didn’t mind at all. He was secretly glad that Moonbin had opened the door at the right moment and silently said a prayer of thanks that he could live a moment longer.
As Dongmin pulled out of the apartment building’s carpark, he made a mental note to go to church with Sanha on Sunday, just in case.
Dongmin sent a text message to Chan, saying something vague about how he needed to share something but the other boy didn’t reply and Dongmin was glad that at least Chan was asleep instead of pulling another all-nighter.
Chan was in fact not asleep but Dongmin didn’t need to know that. Chan was still in his studio room, listening to a track through the new headset that Felix had gifted him as thanks for the newest comeback song he had written for them. The younger had called it an ‘absolute banger’ and that made Chan’s chest expand with happiness as his heart grew fuller every time Felix smiled.
He had to rush out a few more tracks for the next Stray Kids album and he wasn’t going to risk anything, his songs needed to be perfect. Chan clicked onto a song he affectionately titled as ‘Ddu-ddu-ddu’ for the third time that night(or morning, he lost track of time). His phone battery was flat and the wire he had in the studio had broken, oh well, he didn’t really need it for working anyway.
It was past 3 a.m. and the sleep loss accumulated across the week had gotten to the producer and he felt his eyes water slightly as he looked up at the screen. His hand fumbled around the table, looking for the Razer mouse that was also gifted to him by Felix and heard a dull thud as something fell to the floor.
Suppressing a groan, Chan pushed his chair back and reached down to feel for the item that he had dropped. As he did so, he turned his head towards the door that was made of a combination of glass, frosted glass and dark wood. Through the small portion of the clear glass at the bottom of the door, Chan noticed something peculiar.
There was a blob of something pale and Chan squinted to see it better. He thought to himself that it was probably the glare of the computer screen that was worsening his eyesight and tiring his eyes. As he focused on the pale object a distance away from the door, Chan realised that it wasn’t just a blob of something, what he was seeing was actually a pair of feet.
No shoes, no socks, just a pair of bare feet. Chan scrunched up his face as he wondered who on earth would be standing outside his studio room barefoot. Chan’s eyes travelled up the pair of feet as much as the small section of clear glass allowed him to but he couldn’t identify whoever was standing out there.
Sitting up again, with the fallen USB drive he had retrieved in his hand, Chan continued to stare at the pair of feet outside his door. By right, the frosted glass portion of the door should be able to show the silhouette of a person standing outside his door but Chan saw nothing at all.
Mulling it over in his head, in his slightly befuddled state of mind, the genius producer managed to put two and two together. There was something horrifyingly wrong about this situation. A pair of feet outside his door without a person or the rest of the body in sight made alarm bells go off in Chan’s head.
He contemplated throwing the door open to see it for himself but at the same time, an innate fear had slithered around his heart like a snake and was squeezing it painfully. There was no way he would be able to muster the courage to fling the door open and even if he did, he had no idea how to react to whatever he saw beyond the door.
Chan blindly groped around the table for his phone and almost groaned when he remembered that his phone was dead and he had no one to call for help. At least he had made it a thing to always lock his door when he was working on music, ever since that time Jisung and Minho had charged into his studio and tried to take his laptop and all the music he had ever produced in it.
Chan took deep breaths as he thought about his next move. It didn’t feel right to continue with work when there was such a glaring presence outside the door. He had no choice as he ultimately decided to curl up on the couch after saving his progress (he was thankful for the blanket that Jisung had left in the room and for once didn’t feel parental disappointment at the younger). This was fine, he could just spend the night in his quaint little studio and wait until people entered the building and the sun rose high into the sky. He was sure that the feet would be gone by then.
With this in mind, the producer slowly dozed off to sleep on his couch, a pair of pale feet waiting right outside his door but never coming in.
******
“Chan hyung?!” Changbin yelped as he walked into the studio room and saw the man sleeping on the couch. The sun had already risen high in the sky and Chan hadn’t replied in their group chat and wasn’t on a schedule which led the rapper to believe he was overworking himself in the studio.
Chan groggily rubbed at his eyes before going completely still, his hand still poised over his eye. Changbin looked at him with concern and walked closer to the older boy who stared at the door to the room in what looked like apprehension.
“Sorry Changbinnie, I need to make a call but my phone is dead, do you have a cable?”
When Mingyu received the call, he was already cooking up a storm at home. His night had been plagued with nightmares to the point where he decided to get up earlier than usual to bake salted caramel macarons and prepare 3 different cuisines for lunch.
With the pots and pans banging around and the absent-minded replies that Mingyu was giving, Chan realised that there was no getting through to the other and offered to call back later, to which the tall chef just hummed in acknowledgement.
It felt like Mingyu only had peace when he was cooking something or scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain in the toilet with his pink rubber gloves on. Only in those moments was he truly able to let go of the barbed wires of fear that squeezed painfully at his heart.
And in no time at all, Mingyu was done with his dishes and his flatmates had enthusiastically tucked into his gourmet meals. Sure, they were kind of worried for Mingyu who only got into these kinds of moods when he was stressed but they were thinking of confronting him after dinner when their bellies were full.
That was how Mingyu found himself taking out the trash after the dishes were washed by Wonwoo and the table was cleaned up by Seungcheol. Mingyu slipped into a pair of outdoor slippers laying near the door and tied the plastic bag of food scraps and other trash, taking his time to walk to the rubbish chute on their level. They had especially chosen an apartment with a communal rubbish chute as compared to one stored in the house as there had been cases of roaches climbing up the chutes and infesting the apartments.
As Mingyu stepped on the lever that opened the rubbish chute, he felt a sudden drop in temperature around him but tried to shrug it off as a passing breeze. The chute opened and Mingyu felt bile rise in his throat as he stared at the object within the chute.
No, not an object. It was clear it was a human head. A head full of long black hair that spilled out the sides of the chute. The pale face that had no beginning and no end had its eyes closed but as Mingyu lifted up his foot in shock and the chute started to close again, the eyes of the severed head snapped open and glared at Mingyu.
Not a sound escaped his quivering lips as blood red eyes looked into his own brown ones. The chute fell shut with a clang and Mingyu could hear the sound of the head thumping around down the chute. Holding a hand up to his mouth, Mingyu tried to fight down the waves of nausea that roiled within his stomach.
A head… A whole head was in his rubbish chute. Should he call the police for a murder investigation or for a psychotic breakdown?
But Mingyu knew deep down that this head belonged to the hands that had visited him in the shower. He knew that he was either being haunted or he was really just going insane and should be checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.
Leaning against the wall, Mingyu took in deep lungfuls of air as he contemplated what to do, the bag of trash still dangling in his hand.
He needed to talk to someone fast and he happened to know exactly who to call.
******
“Jaehyun-ah! You don’t look so good, did you sleep late again?” Taeyong nagged as he pinched at Jaehyun’s doughy cheek. The younger youtuber grimaced and shoved a hand through his hair but it was enough of a sign for the pink-haired leader.
“What’s wrong?” Taeyong asked as he led Jaehyun to a nearby couch. They were currently at their company’s building and waiting for a promotional photoshoot for their channel as well as a merchandise photoshoot. Taeyong could already tell that the makeup artists were going to have to spend some time on Jaehyun’s prominent eye bags.
Jaehyun just shook his head and signalled that it was no big deal but a certain other member did not think the same. “I’ll tell you Bubu, you deserve to know why Jaehyun brought his Gucci and Chanel eyebags to work today.” Yuta plopped down next to Jaehyun, causing him to be sandwiched between the two 95 liners.
“Jaehyun-nie here,” Yuta ruffled Jaehyun’s hair and earned a yell from a nearby hair stylist, “Couldn’t sleep last night and woke up multiple times in the middle of the night. I saw him sitting out on the couch like a weirdo when I went to get water so I took him back to my room to sleep instead.” Yuta had said it all jokingly but the eye signals that he sent to Taeyong were not unnoticed by Jaehyun.
Jaehyun sighed, “I just had some bad dreams. It’s normal, okay? Everyone gets nightmares.” Taeyong and Yuta shared another concerned look and Taeyong was about to say something again when a makeup artist called Jaehyun over and shoved him into a chair.
“Did he sleep talk when he was with you?” Taeyong asked the Japanese man.
Yuta sighed heavily, “It sure was one hell of a nightmare.”
Jaehyun knew that his friends were worried about him but he really didn’t want to revisit the mental images of whatever had happened in his dream. It was enough that he could seem to get the image of long spindly arms and long black hair out of his head. It also didn’t help how the makeup artist today had long black hair just like what he saw in his dreams and… that time.
“Please keep your eyes open, Jaehyun.” The makeup artist requested and Jaehyun obliged, allowing her to continue with his eye makeup.
As he stared into a spot on the wall above the mirror of the makeup table, Jaehyun thought he saw a flash of something in the mirror and on instinct, his eyes darted over to it. He wished he didn’t when he was greeted with the sight of an entirely bloody figure in the mirror.
Jaehyun had no control of his body as it reacted viscerally and he jolted in his seat, the makeup artist yelped as his sudden movements caused her to draw a line down his face. “Jaehyun! Are you okay?” Taeyong hurried over to him and clutched his face in his hands, trying to spot if he was hurt anywhere.
“N-no, I’m fine. I thought a bug crawled up my leg. Sorry about that.” The last part was directed towards the makeup artist who was shaking her head and grabbing a pack of makeup wipes to fix the mess on Jaehyun’s face.
‘We’ll talk about this later.’ Jaehyun mouthed to the leader who just huffed gruffly and had to be led back to the couch by Yuta. But Jaehyun had no intention of dragging his friends into this mess, he had to find a way to get out of it on his own. He still didn’t know if he was merely hallucinating or if Jihyo’s warnings were being proved true and honestly, he was afraid to know.
Before the makeup artist returned with the brushes that she had to fetch from somewhere else, Jaehyun sent a quick text message.
I need help.
Notes:
Whew that was a longgg one. Stay safe everyone! Also I love Jihyo so much I can't believe I wasn't a Once before alcohol free came out like I knew them and listened to their title tracks but GOSH JIHYO-
Chapter 17: Punch
Chapter Text
Several pairs of eyes watched in silent worry as Yugyeom paced around the room and tore at his thumbnail with his teeth. Jaehyun glanced at Dongmin who only responded with a shrug and turned his attention back onto the man who was starting to wear down the carpet on the ground.
They were in a hotel room in the outskirts of Seoul, waiting as Jungkook got ready his ‘big surprise’ that he had apparently brought with them to the investigation. “He’s never done this before… He tells me everything and since he didn’t tell me about this, it’s probably something I wouldn’t approve of…” Yugyeom trailed off and stared into space, neglecting the bloody thumb that he was now sporting.
“Calm down dude, you’re bleeding!” Jaehyun yelped as Mingyu fumbled around with the first aid kit before it was promptly removed from his hands by Chan before he could drop it and break anything. As Jaehyun rinsed the finger and patted it dry with a towel, Yugyeom continued to be lost in his thoughts, an act that was very out of character for him.
Chan shared a look with Mingyu and Dongmin and jerked his head in the direction of Yugyeom who was starting to look quite glassy-eyed. “Uh, Yugyeom?” Dongmin said eloquently while tapping lightly on the other boy’s shoulder. That seemed to snap Yugyeom out of his headspace and he looked around the room again. What would Jungkook bring to them?
Yugyeom sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, “We were supposed to go to a haunted house, the landed property kind since we’re in the outskirts. I don’t know what Kook is going to bring, how long did he say he was gonna be again?” Jaehyun informed him that it was about 10 minutes to the appointed time that Jungkook said he would be back.
True to his word, the last member of the team showed up at the hotel door with only a black bag in his hand. “Come on, let’s get going! It’s 4 in the afternoon, we’ll set off for the house. Chan I’ll leave the equipment to you and Yugs.” Jungkook announced and promptly left the room, the bag swinging in his hands.
Mingyu raised an eyebrow at this but there was nothing that the rest could say and they just packed up their personal belongings that they were to take with them.
“So you guys must be thinking about my surprise, right? Well, don’t think so much about it, I’ll only tell you once we’ve set up in there.” Jungkook teased as he sat in the last row, the bag that contained his surprise was kept securely in his hands the whole time. Dongmin was the one driving with directions from Mingyu since Yugyeom didn’t look so good and was told to rest in the back.
As they made their way on the darkening roads, Dongmin couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation he had with Chan and Mingyu prior to their meeting.
“Minnie! You’ll never guess what Channie just told me!” Mingyu gasped as Chan tried to make himself seem even smaller by shrinking down. Dongmin perked up at this, his previous dark mood being overtaken by curiosity.
“Chan. Saw. A. Ghost.” Mingyu hissed-whispered to the other tall man and Chan was now sporting a look of discomfort. They were in a cafe, what if someone heard their conversation? Dongmin’s eyes widened in recognition as he looked towards Chan.
“Is this about what you told me that day? When I texted you?” Dongmin asked Chan who nodded furiously.
Mingyu watched in surprise as the other two had a mental conversation through their eyes. “What did you guys talk about?” He asked and tilted his head cutely. If Chan wasn’t so short, he would have reached up to pinch the other boy’s cheek.
“Chan told you about what happened in his studio right?” Mingyu nodded. “That night, I messaged Chan about something scary that happened. It all started like this…”
If Dongmin were to be completely honest, it sounded phony that the three of them received some crazily scary situations in the same period of time. Additionally, what Jaehyun had told him the other day fell into the same category. There was something fishy going on and Dongmin was half-hearted about uncovering it.
All that he could do in the meantime was to see what Jungkook had in store for the rest of them and pray that it wouldn’t be something that would scar them for life, again.
As Dongmin pulled into the driveway, he took a peek at the digital clock on the dashboard. It was 5 in the evening now, they had ample time to get ready and prepare for the long night. He glanced out of the window as the rest of the members started to unload their gear and get ready to knock on the door.
Yugyeom absentmindedly added that the owner of the house was going to give them a tour around the house for an hour or so before they left for the night, he said that the owner refused to stay in the house at night and that caught the attention of Mingyu and Jaehyun.
Jaehyun was in charge of the food bag this time and he clutched it close to his chest before reaching a hand into his shirt and pulling out the silver cross that had hung from his throat ever since the incident in the hotel room a few months ago. Jaehyun was not really one who believed in a higher power but from all the events that he had witnessed along this journey, he just couldn’t put down that cross.
Chan looked up from where he was organizing the camera bags and noticed Jaehyun clutching the cross in his hand, frowning a little. He should have a talk with Jaehyun soon about saying no to filming if he was truly so uncomfortable to join the investigation.
Jungkook, on the other hand, was practically skipping as he made his way to the door after everyone had collected their bags and gear, the bag he had been holding on to the entire time was swinging from his hands.
Knock. Knock knock.
It didn’t take a long time for the owner of the house to open the door and the door swung open, nearly hitting Yugyeom in the face.
“My apologies! I’m just a little antsy since it’ll be dark soon. Do come in…” A soft voice called out and a young girl popped into view.
Yugyeom hurriedly spoke up, “No, it’s okay. You’re Ms Chaeryeong, right? I’m Yugyeom and we’re the investigations team, nice to meet you.” With a polite smile from Chaeryeong, the whole lot of them filed into the house and settled down at the dining table with Chaeryeong’s invitations.
“So,” Dongmin asked once they were all settled with their gear and Chan was rigged up with the camera, “Please tell us the history of the house. And start from the very beginning, if you will.”
Chaeryeong nodded her head absently and the moment her lips parted, the team was enthralled by her story and the clear and practiced way that she was able to relay all the information and history of the house.
“Wah…” Mingyu sighed out as Chaeryeong wrapped up her story. “So, you and your sister lived in this house until you were teenagers? Even with all the activity in it?” Mingyu was amazed with his jaw hanging loosely as he looked back at the only girl in the room.
As though she was shy to be the centre of attention, Chaeryeong ducked her head and nodded. “You see… We were living fine with the occasional bumps and misplaced items from time to time. We suspected that there was a poltergeist with us but everything when I turned 18…” Chaeryeong shrunk down even more into herself and Dongmin could feel his heart ache for her.
They talked for a little more at the dining table until Chaeryeong suggested that she start the tour soon since she had to leave before nightfall. “When it gets dark, that’s when the activity occurs. Chaeyeon and I live somewhere else now but our parents refused to sell the house so it’s mostly empty unless we have a group of people here for well, this…” Chaeryeong gestured to the lot of them and made her ascend up the stairs.
Mingyu gave a warning look to Jungkook to not try anything while they went up but Jungkook only shrugged and smiled innocently. Chan rounded up the back of the group as they climbed up the stairs and he wondered to himself why on earth he decided to go for this job when he felt something cool brush against the back of his leg.
He had a feeling that the ‘poltergeist’ living here knew they were here and it wasn’t happy. But what can he do? Absolutely nothing, he just had to wait and see.
“And that wraps up my room and the house tour!” Chaeryeong smiled sadly as she laid a hand on the wooden desk that used to be her study table. “It wasn’t always that bad living here. It’s just hard to forget what happened in the past but it’s been two years since I’ve moved out, I should be over it.”
Yugyeom laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, “We all deal with our fears and traumas differently. Maybe you can’t get over your past now but I’m positive that you will be able to overcome it in the future.” Chaeryeong flashed him the most genuine smile she had and offered to take them back to the kitchen area where they left some of their gear.
“Shit.” Jaehyun cursed the moment his eyes landed on the bag of gear that they had left on the dining table. Yugyeom rushed forward to see the ripped up bag on the table and shook it empty, picking up the broken Rem pod. The antenna of the Rem pod was broken and the LED lights were flickering, if it wasn’t clear enough, Yugyeom prodding the device and having no reaction at all confirmed the fact that it was broken.
“The EMF reader too,” Dongmin picked up the little remote control-shaped device and showed where the LED light bulbs had all been broken in. “Who could have done this?” He frowned and raised the device closer to his face to examine it.
“I’m sure you meant what could have done this.” Jungkook gestured to the device with a pointed look at Dongmin. Dongmin could only furrow his eyebrows at the implication and he didn’t say another word.
“It’s getting late. Chaeryeong should head off soon.” Chan spoke up quietly and showed the rest his watch where the digit 7 was bright and bold. Chaeryeong nodded with an appreciative look at Chan as Jaehyun escorted her to her car in the driveway which she quickly sped off in.
“Now,” Jungkook said and clapped his hands together, “Let’s get down to business.”
******
Mingyu wished he was kidding when he said he was currently being chased by his worst nightmare. A year ago, this exact phrase would refer to a scene where Jeonghan would be chasing him around with a broom for breaking yet another item in the house but the scene right now was totally different.
“What the hell is that?” He hissed as he slammed the door shut behind him, whirling around to face an equally stunned Jaehyun. The other male was panting as he leaned against a bookshelf. They were in Chaeryeong’s childhood bedroom.
“It is exactly what you said it to be.” The other boy winced as he reached for the shoulder that he had rammed into the door to bust it open. They had split up with the rest as a forfeit of a bet and somewhere along the line, while they were exploring the house, they heard a yelp from the other team (no doubt it was Mingyu) and were sent running when they saw something coming at them.
Mingyu turned on his flashlight at the lowest level and kept his back firmly lodged against the door to prevent it from busting open. There was something wrong here and he was hoping that the go-pros they were all equipped with would capture the evidence, just in case they were unable to make it out alive. Would Chaeryeong be the one to discover their bodies? Mingyu felt the guilty twinge in his gut as he thought about the sweet, innocent girl who would no doubt be horrified to find them dead.
“Mingyu, I don’t know what you’re thinking right now but you’re thinking too much.” Jaehyun murmured softly as he clasped onto Mingyu’s broad shoulders and shook him slightly so that the taller would focus on him.
Mingyu nodded and tried to clear his thoughts as much as he could. He drew a hand to the waistband of his jeans and lifted his shirt slightly to show Jaehyun what he had underneath. “Good choice,” Jaehyun whispered softly and eyed the pair of water guns that hung at Mingyu’s waist. “When did you…?”
“When Jungkook started acting funny I decided to put them on. I’ve always had them in my bag, today just felt a little different.” Mingyu admitted, the guilt of doubting his friend flashing through his eyes. But Jaehyun nodded encouragingly and patted him on the back, silencing any thoughts of self-doubt and shame.
******
Chan regrets everything. He only had himself to blame for volunteering to be Jungkook’s cameraman but he really regrets everything. Dongmin heaved from where he collapsed beside him, the two trying their best to stay still and quiet as they waited in the darkness.
At the back of his mind, Chan wondered if whatever it was that was chasing after them right now was able to sense them in the dark, especially since it was probably a creature born of darkness too. Chan never really was a religious or superstitious man but he somehow knew that he was more in tune with the energy around him.
Which brought him to his next point. “Did you see what Jungkook had in his bag?” Chan huffed lowly as he looked over at Dongmin. The other boy was clutching his stomach in pain from where he had run into the edge of a table when they were running away.
Dongmin whispered, “A doll.” They fell into a silence as they mulled over the meaning of what Dongmin had just revealed. “Where did he get that doll?” Dongmin wailed into his hands and Chan clapped a hand over his mouth, putting a finger to his lips.
“We need to get out of here. You saw that? The figure appeared and disappeared in a blink of an eye, you know very well what that is.” Chan whispered quickly and took a quick look at the monitor screen of the camera. He hadn’t had the time to stop the recording earlier on when they were running away and now he wanted to make sure that there was proof of what happened that night just in case he wasn’t able to make it out alive.
Chan didn’t dare to tell Dongmin what he was thinking in fear that he would freak out even more. Stealthily, Chan turned on the night vision function of the camera and took a sweep around the room that they had barricaded themselves into.
He whispered to Dongmin that they were currently in the master bedroom and together they tried to remember the pathways around the house just in case they needed to run out of the house. Dongmin, however, didn’t want to leave his friends and his cousin behind in the house. Where were their friends anyway?
******
“What the fuck did you do?” Yugyeom tried to control his voice below a certain volume. He gripped onto Jungkook’s shoulder even more tightly and the other boy gave a slight whimper in pain.
Jungkook was still clutching onto the doll into his hand which Yugyeom was trying to actively avoid looking at. “I asked Chaeryeong if I could bring an item that was labelled ‘haunted’ to the house. How would I know this would happen?” Jungkook whined a little at Yugyeom’s furious gaze.
“That is the stupidest idea you could ever come up with.” Yugyeom said as he pinched his nose bridge, his face scrunched up in pain over the headache that Jungkook was giving him. “No, don’t even try anything,” Yugyeom held up a hand as Jungkook tried to take a step forward. “You know what you saw just now. The figure. It’s coming after us and I bet you instigated it with that doll.”
Jungkook only frowned as he looked down at the doll laying in his hands. He didn’t even believe that the doll was truly haunted due to the murky history that belonged to the doll. He couldn’t even confirm any case of hauntings related to the doll and that’s why he thought that it wouldn’t make much difference if he brought it with him to their investigation. It would freak out the members but it could also attract more ‘ghostly energy’ to them and he saw that as a win.
“We need to get the guys and get out of here. Shit, Jaehyun and Mingyu are still doing their forfeit, what if they encounter that...thing?” Yugyeom was full blown panicking now as he rested his head in his hands and groaned under his breath.
Jungkook knew that this was his mess to fix but he had never felt so much fear in his life. It felt as though his feet were frozen to the ground and his heart hammered in it’s rib cage prison. Ice coursed through his veins and electrified his nerves, setting goosebumps rising all over his skin. What was he to do now?
Yugyeom grasped onto Jungkook’s chin, forcing him to focus on him. “Look, this is what we’ll do.” Yugyeom whispered as he scratched lines onto the floor. Jungkook blinked and nodded shakily as he crouched down low to see the plan better.
Jungkook closed his eyes and gulped as he turned the doorknob. This was fine, he’s going to get through this through his sheer willpower. Gritting his teeth, he flung the door open as silently as he could and dashed down the hallway. He had to find Jaehyun and Mingyu fast .
“Jaehyun? Mingyu?” Jungkook hissed as quietly as he could as he knocked on the door. He breathed a sigh of relief when the door cracked open and he saw Mingyu’s worried face reflecting his own. Jungkook threw a look behind him just to make sure that there wasn’t a flash of white that his eyes were so hell bent on finding. Jungkook wrapped an arm around Mingyu tightly and waved Jaehyun over.
Jungkook raked a hand through his hair, “Okay, we need to go now. Yugyeom is going to get Chan and Dongmin and we need to get out of here now .” Jaehyun gulped as he looked at Jungkook questioningly. Jungkook noticed the other’s gaze, “No, I don’t know what that was. I brought a haunted doll with us but I didn’t expect this to…” Jungkook held up the doll that flopped around weakly in his hand.
Mingyu gasped and pulled back, trying to put as much distance as he could between the doll and himself. Seeing this, Jungkook hurriedly stuffed the doll back into his bag and zipped it shut. “Come on, we have to go.” Jungkook dragged the two of them along and out of the room.
The trio crouched behind a pillar as they surveyed their surroundings. All clear, they should make a break for it. Jungkook signalled the other two to stand up and inched closer towards the flight of stairs. Did Yugyeom manage to find the other two guys? Could they have made it out already?
Jungkook’s questions were answered when he heard Yugyeom screaming “GO GO GO!” and 4 pairs of thundering footsteps raced towards them, the wooden planks of the floor doing the absolute most to amplify the thudding sounds of their footfalls. Wait… 4 pairs?
Jungkook launched himself down the stairs and cleared the path for the two behind him to advance too. Whipping his head from side to side, Jungkook was suddenly taken aback by the memories of the dream that he had a while back. Scowling, Jungkook raised his tattoo-ed arm up and felt around the mantelpiece that they were now standing in front of for an object, anything really, for him to use as a weapon.
As though he knew what Jungkook was trying to find, Mingyu reached for his waistband and pulled out one of his prized water guns and handed it over to Jungkook. The other water gun was already lodged firmly in his hand. Mingyu didn’t know exactly what they were encountering but he was prepared for the worst, as always.
Jungkook looked up with surprise as the water gun was pushed into his hand but he didn’t have much time to contemplate his choice of weapon as Yugyeom all but ran down the stairs with Dongmin and Chan hot on his heels. From where he stood, Jungkook could see the flash of white that appeared right behind Chan’s head and he knew he had to make haste.
One step, two steps. He was close to the door now, all he needed to do was fling it open so they could all escape. But Jungkook knew how this would play out, he saw it recurring again and again in his dreams, causing him to wake up with a quickened pulse and a sweaty brow.
The figure should appear before him right about...now.
And Jungkook was not let down. Just as he had predicted, the bloodless face appeared before him, the scarlet bloodshot eyes staring into his own. Jungkook felt the hot breath fan across his face before pain bloomed across his cheek as the being swung a claw at him.
No, it was different now. Jungkook wasn’t alone this time and he wasn’t that powerless human that he always was in his nightmares. Swinging his arm up, Jungkook aimed and a jet of holy water squirted from the gun, hitting the ghastly being right in the face.
The whole team watched in horror as the holy water burned a hole into the side of the being’s face and the pale wrinkled skin melted away to show exposed flesh and blood the colour of tar. Mingyu looked away at the sight of the melted down flesh and exposed molars and gulped as he watched Jungkook continuously spray at the being.
Not good, Jungkook was going to run out of holy water in the small gun soon. Breathing harshly, Mingyu steeled up his nerves and relaxed his death grip on his remaining water gun. With a practiced ease of stealing food from your 12 other friends, Mingyu snatched away Jungkook’s gun and replaced it with his own one. Jungkook gave an appreciative grunt and continued to aim at the being that was starting to dodge his attacks.
Jungkook was starting to worry with every jet he released from the water gun. It would run out soon with the way that the ghost was evading his attacks. If only he could get closer and use something he was more comfortable and familiar with…
In the instance where the ghost darted off towards the side, Jungkook’s eyes followed it and landed on the shiny piece of silver hanging from Jaehyun’s porcelain neck. With all the ‘trust me’ sentiments he had in his body pouring into his expressive eyes, Jungkook looked right into Jaehyun’s eyes as he ripped the crucifix from his neck and grasped the necklace tightly in his palm.
He had a plan now.
Dousing his fist in whatever remaining holy water he had left in his palm, Jungkook surged forward towards the whitish figure and swung his arm forward. His fist collided heavily against the forehead of the being, the area where the holy water and silver crucifix touched were starting to burn off.
Ignoring the burning heat against his knuckles, Jungkook pressed down even harder onto it’s skull and tuned his ears out to the screeches and the whimpers of the ghost. Before he could break down the skull even more, the being used it’s remaining strength to toss him aside and pain bloomed along his back where it met the wooden leg of the dining table.
The creature broke free and ran into the darkness and all was still.
“Jungkook!” Dongmin yelped as he crouched down to where the other was lying still and breathing raggedly in the silent room.
“Let’s get out of here.” Jungkook waved away anyone’s attempts to help him as he hobbled his way towards the door and out into the driveway. “I just wanna go home.” He murmured as he shoved himself into the back seat and immediately passed out.
Notes:
I almost forgot to upload today's chapter because I was busy watching the Olympic games TT And there's the volleyball match tmr that I'm highly anticipating, can't wait to see Japan's no.11 fly again, his jumps are sheeeeesh. I only have 3 more chapters on hand rn so I gotta haul ass if I want to post them all on time TT
Chapter 18: Sweet Chaos
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“-ok... -kook… Jungkook?” The voice pressed against the dark smoke clouding and billowing around in Jungkook’s head. It was a familiar voice, one that he had known for years but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember who it belonged to. Everything was so blurry, he couldn’t even think straight. He was certain that his eyes were closed because he couldn’t see and his limbs felt like they were held down with lead.
“Shit, what’s he doing?” Jungkook heard another voice, clearer and more melodious as it rang near his ear. What was he doing? Was he even doing anything? Well, he didn’t want to do anything. Just lying here felt nice, it felt way too nice.
******
“Should we bring him to the hospital?” Chan asked as he nibbled at his thumb, the old habit he had long discarded coming back to haunt him in this great moment of stress.
Yugyeom shook his head, “And what do we tell them? Hi, we think our friend has been possessed by a ghost that he just socked in the face? Or maybe, it’s the ghost from the doll that he brought along with him and has yet to discard?”
“Well, he can’t just leave the doll in Chaeryeong’s house. That would be impolite.” Dongmin quipped up from a chair a distance away from the bed where the other two stood over the sleeping Jungkook. The unconscious man had been jerking and flailing around with his eyes wide open but it seemed that he could neither see nor hear them, leading them to believe he got possessed too.
“We should have. Maybe we could see the two ghosts fight it out.” Jaehyun added to the conversation as he eyed the shifty looking black bag far away in the other corner of the room which held one of the ghosts they were currently suspecting.
Yugyeom, getting tired of their shit, decided to take matters into his own hands as he reached for the crucifix, that he had pried from Jungkook’s hand, on the nightstand. He brisk-walked to the other side of the room and dug through the bag for the doll.
“Guys… She’s not in here…” Yugyeom trailed off as he felt around in the bag. Jaehyun and Mingyu could have sworn that the doll was in the black bag that Jungkook had on his body but she was nowhere to be seen now.
“Does that mean he’s not possessed?” Dongmin asked aloud but none of them could answer him.
******
Jungkook was so hungry. He was absolutely ravenous. It didn’t help that he could practically feel someone shoving a burger at his face. No doubt it was Yugyeom who sighed, “It’s not working guys, he’s still not waking up. And I bought his favourite burger and chicken nuggets too…”
Jungkook’s eyes snapped open as he felt his soul get summoned back into his body. “T-the BTS meal?” The previously unconscious man gasped as he made eye contact with the purple paper bag that Jaehyun was holding.
“Shit, I’m so hungry it’s like I haven’t eaten for days.” Jungkook grunted in between bites of food as Yugyeom and Dongmin tried to get him to slow down while Jaehyun merely pulled up his phone to record the scene in front of him.
“Slow down, tiger. You haven’t eaten in hours, take it slow or your stomach will hurt.” Mingyu frowned as he offered a bottle of water to the leader who was currently scarfing down his breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Once Jungkook had shovelled enough food in his mouth to realise that there were still bags of food on the table and he had been assured that he’ll get as much food as he needed, he slowed down on the chomping and raised his eyes questioningly.
Jungkook fiddled with the wrapper of the remaining burger he had tightly in his hand. “So… what happened after…?” He murmured and was unable to look up at any of the team members.
“After you passed out we headed back to the hotel. You were acting really weird, I’m starting to think it was a seizure but you’re still alive so, hey. And lastly, Jaehyun and Chan went to look for the doll, she went missing, but it’s all good and we sent her to the doll museum.” Mingyu listed with his fingers. “Oh yeah, you’ve been sleeping for a little more than 12 hours, it’s 8.18 p.m. now.” Mingyu raised his wrist to his chest as he double checked the time.
“I’m sorry.” Jungkook whispered and lifted his head from where he had been staring down at the duvet. The dim light of the room did nothing to hide the glassiness of his eyes, the tears welling up and beading around the corners where his eyes crinkled.
Yugyeom gingerly sat down on the empty space towards Jungkook’s right, his hand raising to brush back the few strands of unruly hair that were falling onto Jungkook’s face, “We’re okay now.”
With that, the dam broke as Jungkook couldn’t find the strength to hold back the tears that slipped from his eyes and rolled down the curve of the sad smile plastered on his face. “Group hug!” Mingyu yelled and piled himself onto the duo, the rest of the team rushing forward to join in the cuddle pile.
“And don’t worry Jungkook,” Chan piped up from the awkward corner that he had positioned himself in, “We caught it all in 4K.” Jungkook could practically hear the triumphant smirk in the man’s Aussie accent.
******
“I know you’re there.” Mingyu whispered and the curtains billowed as the wind picked up, as though it were confirming the presence that yes, there was someone else there. Mingyu sighed, “Nevermind, I’m just imagining things again.”
Mingyu sagged down onto his bed and pulled his knees up to his chest, contorting himself into an awkward position for someone of his height and stature. It had been 4 days since he returned to the apartment after the most recent investigation. Chan had been sending excited messages to the group chat saying that this was going to be their biggest breakthrough as of yet with all the drama and spookiness.
At least someone was having a good time with their situation. Mingyu wondered how the other guys were faring as he rubbed the loose bed sheets between his fingers as a coping mechanism. They had decided to take another break just to spend time with their friends or family or to simply relax from all the stress they had been putting themselves under.
“Yeah no, I need to do something…” With that being said, Mingyu grabbed the plastic bag of materials he had dumped on his table and dug out the sparkly pink yarn and the crochet hook with one hand while he pulled up ‘Crocheting for Absolute Dummies 101’ on Youtube.
Hey, Yugyeom suggested that he get a calming hobby to keep all his anxiety at bay and that was how Mingyu’s flatmate Minghao found him in the evening, crocheting a flamboyant pink scarf that he said ‘would look absolutely darling on Hansol’. Minghao (for the first time ever) didn’t have the heart to tell him that Hansol had already owned 9 of those scarves from when Seungkwan had a crocheting phase. Minghao did agree that they would match Hansol’s red glasses though.
******
“So remind me again, why the hell am I here?” Jaehyun groaned as he snapped another picture for Sungchan and Shotaro. Somehow, he had become the official videographer and photographer for their dates and this week they were at a botanical garden.
Sungchan rolled his eyes before raising his fingers into a ‘V’ shape for the camera, the other arm was wrapped tightly around Shotaro’s waist. “Be-cause, you were only moping around at home anyways being nasty and all that.” Sungchan inserted some sass into his tone which got him a sharp glare from his older brother and a slap on the bicep from the love of his life.
“It’s good that you’re out here with us though, hyung. Some fresh air would be good for you after cooping yourself at home for so long.” Shotaro smiled warmly at Jaehyun and Jaehyun had flashbacks of Taeyong ranting about how cute the newest addition to their continuously-growing brand was.
Jaehyun just nodded in defeat, he was a weak, weak man to Shotaro’s eye smiles.
Jaehyun’s phone vibrated in his pocket and the unmistakable sound of Mark’s laughter rang as the ringtone, cutting through the silence that had lapsed. Jaehyun shot an apologetic look at the two as he walked away to answer the call from Johnny.
“Sup, man?”
Silence.
“Are you serious right now?”
Another Silence.
“Shit, I’ll be there. I’m bringing Sungchan and Shotaro too.” Jaehyun spoke hurriedly and ended the call. When he looked up at the couple, his eyes were blown wide with panic and his mouth crumpled, “Taeyong, Chenle and Jisung are in the hospital.”
Immediately, the three of them threw themselves into the car with Sungchan in the driver’s seat since nobody trusted Jaehyun to drive in this panic and Shotaro was still taking the tests for his license.
The trio sped off to the hospital, sirens blaring in their heads as they had no idea what the situation would be like in the hospital and how serious their friends’ injuries were.
When Jaehyun reached the hospital, he nearly fell flat on his face trying to exit the car and Shotaro was the one saving grace that managed to prevent him from coming into extremely close contact with the floor.
“How are they?” Jaehyun gasped as he collapsed into Johnny’s arms after sprinting across the hospital. The blood rushing through his ears wasn’t doing anything to calm him down and Yuta and Johnny had to wrestle him into a plastic chair in order to calm the tightly wound-up boy down.
Taeil was the one to break the news to him, his voice steady as he relayed the information they had on hand, “They were walking past a construction place and a building was to be torn down, it fell badly in a freak accident and crushed several people. Jisung and Chenle got hit by the debris, Chenle broke his wrist and Jisung got scratched up by the metal rods in the walls. It’s Taeyong we’re worried about… he was trapped under a big piece of wall.”
Jaehyun’s lip trembled as tears surged forwards like a wave and fear crushed every other emotion he had in his body. The tsunami of tears broke free as Doyoung reached forward and pulled him into a hug, stroking his back comfortingly while tears welled up in his own eyes.
So that’s how the rest of NCT, the subunits known as WayV and Dream, found the members of their group tightly wrapped around Jaehyun in a hug. And Jaehyun, who was once a maknae in his own right, sobbed openly into the arms of his hyungs.
Jaehyun cried and then he sobbed and then he cried some more, the mounting stress from the past few weeks bubbled in the bottom of his heart till the point where it bubbled over and spilled everywhere, a mess that not even Taeyong and Jungwoo who were the clean freaks of the group could fix.
“He’ll be okay, Jaehyun-ah”
******
Chan had fallen asleep at his desk again. He, himself, noticed this the moment he opened his eyes and had to blink a couple of times to recognise the room he had holed himself up in. He told himself that he’d go home on time now ever since that night he was forced to spend in the studio but apparently, he never listened to himself anyway.
With a quick check to the computer screen, Chan determined that it was still daylight hours and he had about 2 more hours before his alarm clock that reminded him to leave at 6 p.m. would ring. He just had to squeeze everything he had on his to-do list into the 2 hour time frame.
“Chris? You in there?” A familiar voice rang out as the door slowly pushed open, a blonde boy with a constellation of freckles on his face stood at the other side with a large grin and a brown paper bag in his hands. “I made some cookies, your favourite.”
“Felix, mate, you’re a sight for sore eyes!” Chan grinned back at the younger boy, his Aussie accent seeping through as they spoke in English. Felix dumped the paper bag into Chan’s waiting hands and threw himself onto the black couch that he was so familiar with.
“Ya working on something new?” Felix asked as he watched Chan try to multitask, opening the paper bag and clicking on a few changes he wanted to make to the track he was working on.
“Wanna listen?” Chan said around a mouth of chocolate chip cookies in a rare moment of generosity. Felix nodded enthusiastically, his blond hair flopping into his eyes and reminding him that he should really get a haircut soon.
As Felix played with the growing mullet at the back of his head, Chan clicked on his mouse a couple more times and pulled up a new track that he had just finished making. “I call this one Wolfgang.” Chan clicked the ‘play’ button and the starting melody floated from the speakers, Chan’s own voice mixed in with the synths as he recorded the demo version.
“Chan.”
Chan paused the music, turning to look behind at Felix who was looking back at him bewildered. “Did you say something? I couldn’t hear you over the music.” The producer spoke and Felix shook his head to indicate that he hadn’t said anything.
“Alright then,” Chan hit the spacebar and the song continued to play on.
“Chan, help me!”
Chan stilled in his seat as the voice came from the speakers this time. Through the reflection of the spare monitor that he had on his desk, he could see that Felix still looked the same, as if he hadn’t heard someone calling Chan for help.
Felix started bopping his head to the music but the sounds, no, the screams continued to flow from the speakers and Chan knew that he didn’t record this so what the hell was going on now? Was he really that sleep deprived? Was he going insane or was he actually being haunted by a ghost that couldn’t read the ‘Chan’s room Keep Out!!!’ sign that he hung outside his studio door.
Sighing, Chan rested his head in his hands and Felix took this the wrong way. “Chris, that was really good! I know you’re a perfectionist and all but this track is awesome!” Felix laid a comforting hand on Chan’s shoulder but with Chan being so tense and strung up, he nearly jumped 8 metres into the air and shocked both Felix and himself.
“You don’t look so good…” Felix trailed off as he watched how Chan’s face was suddenly getting paler. “Is it the cookies? Are they making you sick? I fed them to Jisung, they should be fine.” Felix was sporting a guilty face now and Chan was quick to explain, saying that he had been working hard these past few days and was feeling a little under the weather but he would be much better after some rest.
Felix crossed his arms and tried to narrow his eyes at the producer he was standing over, “Then you’d better start heading home now, I’ll call you a cab.” Touched by Felix forcing him to take a break earlier than usual, Chan acquiesced to his demands and saved all his work before shutting down the computers and slinging his bag on.
“Come on, let’s go.” Felix rolled his eyes as Chan threw lingering looks towards the speakers on the desk. He didn’t mention to the blonde boy that he saw a crimson liquid leaking from the speakers and he silently prayed that no one would step into the room and see that mess.
******
“Doesn’t he just look so handsome?” Dongmin’s eyes sparkled with joy as he tenderly stroked the picture on the cover of the piano recital pamphlet.
Moonbin’s face didn’t convey the same expression of love that Dongmin had but there was pride in his eyes… somewhere. “Don’t baby him, he’ll only become more bratty.” Moonbin groaned as he flipped through the pamphlet booklet they were given.
“He’s my baby! Our bratty but lovely Sanha.” Dongmin sighed wistfully. “I can’t believe he’s having his own recital now. He always works so hard.”
A snicker erupted from beside Dongmin. Myungjun grinned, “You only say that because he only practices when you’re around. You’re practically his dad, Minnine. Not even Jinwoo can get that kid to practice his pieces.” Jinwoo nodded from beside Myungjun, actively agreeing with the statement that Sanha was uncontrollable.
“That’s because he likes Dongmin hyung.” Minhyuk said off-handedly and received a little stroke on the head from Dongmin. Moonbin wondered to himself if Minhyuk was jealous of Sanha or Dongmin, it was plausible that it was a mixture of both too.
“Okay guys, quiet down, it’s starting.” Jinwoo hushed and they all faced the front as the lights dimmed down and the curtains rose to show the glossy finish of the grand piano. Somewhere in the back of Dongmin’s head, there was a seed of panic as he remembered what happened the last time he had come into close contact with a piano and the gruesome spirit attached to it.
Shaking his head lightly, Dongmin tried to expel the images of that night from his mind and concentrate on the white figure that entered from the stage right. Sanha was clad in a pristine white suit, his normally unruly hair was slicked back and his feet were nimble as he walked to the middle of the stage.
Sanha bowed deeply to the audience and sat primly on the piano bench, his hands gently hovering above the keys before he started playing the first piece.
Moonlight Sonata, it was one of Sanha’s new favourites. He said something about the challenge in playing the last movement always putting a smile on his face and Dongmin did note the creepy smile that was starting to show on Sanha’s face. Yep, Sanha said he was afraid of Moonbin but Dongmin had a feeling that Sanha was the demon child of their family. An insanely talented demon child.
Without him noticing, two pieces had already been played through. As Sanha slammed the finishing notes into the piece he was currently playing, a spark lit up from the corner of Dongmin’s vision and he watched in horror as one of the stage lights exploded and rained down glass onto the ground below.
To add to the chaos of everything, the sparks had caught onto the curtains that were being lit aflame and smoke filled the hall as the crowd scrambled up from their seats and pushed towards the green exit signs. Dongmin looked back in worry as Moonbin pulled him along to the exit, his wide eyes trailing Sanha who was hurriedly being escorted off the stage and away from the rising inferno.
Sanha had to be okay, he just had to.
Dongmin craned his neck and used his height advantage to look for their youngest friend but he was nowhere to be found. Instead, what Dongmin did see was a pair of eyes staring at him from where the fire was licking everything in its path. What the hell was that?
******
“Yugyeom? You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Jinyoung asked softly as he gently closed the door behind him with one hand, the other hand was used to balance the tray of soup and bread he had prepared for the youngest member of their friend group.
Yugyeom groaned in acknowledgement and turned over to face the older man who set down the food on the bedside table. “You’re still having a fever so you’ll have to make do with some soup and bread, okay? I have a shoot later so I asked Youngjae to come and watch over you. He said he’ll need an hour or so though, there were some problems in the recording studio.”
The youngest could only whine a little and nod his head at all the information. His head felt terribly stuffy and the constant trickling of snot from his nose had annoyed him so much he simply stuffed rolled up tissue into his nose.
After putting down a new dosage of medicine and rearranging the blankets around Yugyeom, Jinyoung took his leave and made sure to remind Yugyeom again that Youngjae would be here soon and that he should take a quick nap to help time pass by faster. Yugyeom just nodded absently the whole time, his eyes welling up with tears after sneezing four times in a row.
Sighing through his mouth, Yugyeom flopped around in the bed and tried to find a comfortable spot to sleep in. He didn’t notice it at the time but a hand threaded through his hair in an almost rhythmic pattern and a soft humming accompanied the buzzing of his ears as his eyelids grew heavy with sleep and he fell into the whirlpool of unconsciousness.
When Yugyeom awoke, he was sure he heard the clanging of pots and pans as if someone was busy making something in the kitchen. Feeling marginally better than before, Yugyeom shrugged off the blanket that he had cocooned around himself in his sleep and rose.
He walked out of his room and headed straight for the kitchen. The bread and soup that Jinyoung had prepared had barely made a difference to his famished state and he could make do with whatever Youngjae was making in the kitchen. After all, Jinyoung had told him that Youngjae would be coming over and Yugyeom didn’t know how much time had passed but at least Youngjae was here now.
The sight that greeted Yugyeom in the kitchen made his steps falter and his previously raised hand ready to greet his friend fell to his side as he watched. She had her back to him but he recognised the long hair and the pale skin. There was no way that there would be a female in the apartment anyway, unless it was the nice old granny that prepared meals for them when they had busy schedules.
Long, black hair shifted across the starch white dress the figure was wearing and Yugyeom threw out a “Don’t turn around!” as he suspected the figure was about to do. Contrary to his belief, she did as he said and didn’t turn around, instead she faced forward and continued chopping something on the chopping board.
Taking it as an opportunity to leave, Yugyeom rushed towards the door and ignored the pile of shoes at the door. He flung himself outside and scrambled towards the lift and jammed the button multiple times, casting looks behind him just in case the ghost was coming after him.
The lift came after a while and Yugyeom dashed into it, pressing the level one button and jamming the button to make the doors close. It was okay, he was going to be safe now. As the doors closed, he saw through the sliver of a gap the tell-tale black hair that he had seen in his kitchen.
With a yell, Yugyeom sat up in his bed, forced out of his nightmare. Youngjae dashed into the room with a cooking spatula in his hand and looked concernedly at the sweat-drenched, messy-haired Yugyeom.
Yugyeom held up a hand towards Youngjae who was coming closer to him, “Just a nightmare.” Youngjae nodded in understanding and ruffled the younger’s hair and told him to wash up a bit and that lunch would be ready in five minutes.
The water that Yugyeom splashed onto his face was no doubt refreshing but it did end up getting water everywhere and Yugyeom cursed in his head thinking about the last time he did this and got scolded by Jaebum for getting water everywhere.
As he softly padded to the kitchen, Yugyeom could hear Youngjae humming a song as he stirred the pot of macaroni soup that he had prepared for the sick boy. Yugyeom raised a hand towards his forehead, feeling for his temperature and he decided that he was barely sick anymore. He mused in his head that the ghost had probably scared the sickness out of him.
Yugyeom had dug into the food that Youngjae had placed in front of him and was taking big bites of macaroni when he felt something caught in his throat. Youngjae was none the wiser, taking small spoonfuls of his own lunch while scrolling through his phone.
Discreetly, Yugyeom raised his index finger and thumb to his lips and felt around in his mouth for the offending item that entered it. With a look of disgust, Yugyeom pulled out a single long string of black hair and nearly gagged but he held it in for Youngjae who was still ignorant to what was happening beside him.
Thoughts swirled around in Yugyeom’s head as he held the long strand of hair in his hand and promptly threw it into the trash. So was it really a dream? Was this also a dream? No, there could be some other explanation for a long strand of hair ending up in his food and there was no way he was going to make a big fuss about it.
Gingerly, Yugyeom raised another spoonful to his mouth and swallowed. He just had to be more careful.
******
Jungkook was driving, he was alone today with no one to demand that they drive instead since he was a somewhat speed devil on the roads. He vaguely recalled his friend Jimin throwing up one time after getting carsick in Jungkook’s car but Jimin was usually never carsick which led the others to believe that Jungkook did not have an affinity for driving. Jungkook, however, felt that was an unfair judgement and now that he was driving in his own car, he felt a sense of peace.
He glided on the roads with relative ease and went along with the motion of the other cars. He had to pick up something at his mother’s house today and she wanted to pass him some of the kimchi she had just made (she really just wanted him to pass the kimchi to Seokjin but he’d like to pretend she wanted to give some to her own son too).
Jungkook checked his rearview mirror and a movement in his backseat caught his eye. A black shadow flitted in the back seat and Jungkook’s mouth fell agape as he made out the shadow in the back.
She was pale with long black hair in a white gown, similar to those used in funerals. Her eyes looked pleadingly at Jungkook and he could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
“H-hello?” Jungkook called out, trying to focus his eyes on the road again but his gaze kept going back to the now weeping figure in the back.
“Help me.” A voice in the back gurgled.
“I’ll try my best but you need to tell me how.” Jungkook replied immediately, eyes trained on the figure in the back but all of a sudden, she had disappeared.
Jungkook felt chills down his spine as he looked back onto the road and saw the woman standing there. Now that he could see her full body, he noticed that she had no feet, she was merely an apparition.
‘And apparently apparitions had a physical body’, Jungkook thought as the brakes failed him and he crashed into the ghostly figure and she rolled over the hood of the car and was left in the dust. Jungkook lost all control of the car and he careened to the side of the road, crashing heavily into the guard rail.
Steam and smoke billowed from the hood of the car and Jungkook slumped forward into the air bag. White noise and a sharp ringing sound rang in his ears and he felt his eyelids get heavier. Jungkook tried to fight the tiredness that was enveloping his body. He felt something trickle down his temple and he had a good feeling in his gut that he knew exactly what it was.
He could hear yells from outside the car but that was a good sign, it meant that there were people here now and they were going to rescue him. With that in mind, Jungkook let go of the last strings of his consciousness that he was clutching to and allowed himself to fall into the black hole where he wouldn’t feel any pain or have the perverse smell of smoke invading his senses.
Notes:
As we come closer to the end of this story, my brain is getting dry and I'm losing it lmao I'll try to make the ending as satisfactory as possible. Anyway I've been watching and reading too much murder mystery and crime stuff so my next fic might just be about that.
Chapter 19: Life Goes On
Notes:
Early chapter posted since I've finished writing the whole story!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Mr Jeon sustained injuries to the head and inhaled some smoke but his condition is stable now. There’s a hairline fracture in his wrist and he’ll need to wear the cast for that but his injuries are quite minor for a car accident of this magnitude.” The doctor announced to the 6 men gathered outside of the emergency room. “Is Mr Kim Namjoon, the guardian of Mr Jeon, here?” The doctor asked again after referring to his clipboard.
Namjoon immediately shot up from his seat, “That would be me.” He said curtly and waited for the doctor to continue.
“Okay, would you like to see Mr Jeon first? We can only admit one of you each time.” The doctor spoke gently to the frenzied man and Namjoon nodded vigorously and cast a look towards the others to tell them to stay around and wait for him to come back. Seokjin nodded back in understanding and that was all it took for Namjoon to dash into the ward where Jungkook lay.
The remaining 5 friends were seated outside the room until Hoseok noticed another man down the hallway. “Taeil? Is that you?” Hoseok called out and the man with the honey-brown hair spun around, almost spilling the cups of coffee he held in his hands.
“Hoseok? What are you doing here, no, what are all of you doing here?” Taeil asked tiredly. Everyone could see the bags that accumulated under his eyes as his eyes roamed over the 5 remaining members.
Jimin sighed and shook his head tiredly, “It’s Jungkook. He got into a car accident.”
Taeil was aghast and covered his mouth in shock, “Is he okay?” Taeil’s brows furrowed as concern rose on his face. Taehyung nodded and told him that he was clear for now and Namjoon was with him in the ward. Taeil nodded and murmured to himself, “I should let Jaehyun know, he’d want to be there for Jungkook too.”
“Jaehyun? He’s here too?” Seokjin asked this time in surprise.
Taeil nodded sadly, “Yeah, Taeyong, Jisung and Chenle are in the hospital. Taeyong though… his condition is pretty bad.”
It was Jimin’s turn to raise his hand to his mouth in shock as Taeil started to explain what had happened to the other boys. Jaehyun came over soon after Taeil sent a message to him and sat with the rest of Jungkook’s older friends.
In the back of Jaehyun’s mind, a seed of doubt was planted. There was something weird about the way his members and Jungkook were injured on the same day but Jaehyun couldn’t draw a connection between the two and the thought was tucked away in the back of his mind.
A message from the 97 group chat tore Jaehyun’s eyes from the white tiles on the floor that he was previously staring so intensely at.
97 Hotties
Dongminnie
Sorry guys, I know we were supposed
to eat dinner together but my friend is
in the hospital
Will make it up to you guys next time.
Right, they were supposed to meet for dinner today but it had completely slipped from Jaehyun’s mind ever since he received the call that his friends were in the hospital too.
97 Hotties
Jae
Is fine
Is ur friend ok?
I’m at the hospital now
JK had a car accident
Mingyeww
Omg what happened
R u ok
Whys everyone in the hospital
Dongminnie
Is this a coincidence?
Sanha’s recital burned down
He got burned on the leg
Chan
Which hospital are you guys at
Jae
I’m at Seoul National University Hospital
Dongminnie
SNU Hospital
Oh same
Chan
I’m otw
Mingyeww
Me too
Yugioh
I’ll pick Mingyu up otw
Jaehyun shoved his phone back into his pocket and rested his head in his hands as he thought through the coincidence that was quickly becoming one of Jaehyun’s worst nightmares. What was happening here and how could he stop it? The weight on his shoulders was only increasing by the minute as he weighed around in his head the probability of Taeyong, Jisung and Chenle getting hurt was somehow due to him.
First his members got hurt, then Jungkook had a car accident and Dongmin’s friend had an accident at his piano recital that Dongmin was so excited for. These events happened one after another and they were none the wiser. Jaehyun wondered if it was purely coincidental or if they had truly screwed up one of their investigations. For now he could only wait until his friends came to the hospital and maybe they could bounce some theories off each other.
******
“Get in.” Yugyeom pulled up at the sidewalk where Mingyu was standing next to and the taller man scrambled into the car the moment he recognised Yugyeom in the driver’s seat.
Mingyu slid the seatbelt across his chest, “Thanks for picking me up. Anyway, what is going on? Should I be worried about what’s going on?” Mingyu looked cautiously at Yugyeom who just chose to keep his eyes fixed on the road as he stepped on the gas pedal, putting extra care into his driving since he heard that Jungkook was involved in a car accident.
“Mingyu, has anything strange happened to you recently?” Yugyeom asked after a period of silence, finally finding enough stability in the way the car thrummed gently under his fingers that he tapped anxiously on the steering wheel.
“Yes, but perhaps we should talk about this with the other guys. If I had to guess, I think you’ve experienced something too, right? What are the odds that the rest experienced something too?” What Mingyu said made sense and Yugyeom was reminded about the fact that Dongmin and Mingyu were cousins and shared the same blood and similarly, brain cells.
Mingyu’s phone rang and broke the awkward silence that had formed between the two again. Seeing the caller ID, Mingyu put the call on speaker and Chan’s voice rang out, “Guys, are you reaching soon? I’ll head over to Dongmin and you two can go over to Jaehyun and Jungkook when you reach. Jaehyun will need more support, it’s better if the two of you accompany him. When we’ve settled Sanha down, we’ll come find you.”
“Alright Chan, please take care of Dongmin for me.” Mingyu answered and Chan gave a grunt of acknowledgement before ending the call.
******
“The other two are on the way, I’ll stay with you for now.” Chan announced as he sat down in the empty seat next to Dongmin. The other 97 liner was staring into space all the while having Jinwoo rubbing his back comfortingly. The rest of the friend group was nowhere to be seen and Chan guessed that they had taken shifts to look after their youngest who had to be hospitalised and monitored overnight for his burns.
Dongmin had been silent the whole time but he finally opened his mouth, “The doctor said that Sanha had a partial thickness burn and his condition is stable for now. But why do I still feel so worried and so, so guilty ?” Dongmin raised his head to look Chan in the eyes and Chan could feel the fear that spilled out of the other’s eyes.
“It wasn’t your fault. The fire was an accident and even if it wasn’t, it had nothing to do with you.” Jinwoo said firmly and patted Dongmin’s back extra hard as if it could reinforce his point. Dongmin could only shake his head and sigh.
“Hyung, you don’t understand. What if it was something that I’ve done during all those investigations? Jaehyun and Jungkoook are in the hospital too, despite having different reasons but still, what if?” Dongmin turned his sorrowful gaze onto the platinum blonde father figure of the group.
“If it was because of something like that, we’ll fix it together. You’re not alone.” Jinwoo extended his comforting gaze to Chan and the latter realised just how good and caring this self-proclaimed leader of the group was and how much he cared for his friends and by extension, his friends’ friends.
“No,” Dongmin’s tone was steely with resolve, “I will fix this mess. You have to take care of Sanha and the kids. I’m sorry for pushing this onto you but I won’t have all of you intruding on this matter anymore.”
Chan could understand where the other was coming from and apparently Jinwoo had already anticipated this stubborn response as he only sighed and made no efforts to stop Dongmin as he stood up and walked off to the other wing of the hospital where he knew Jaehyun was still waiting for the boys in surgery.
When Dongmin had walked a good distance away, Jinwoo spoke quietly, “Take care of him will you? He’s always so hard on himself.”
Chan only gave him a determined nod and followed after Dongmin as they made their way to Jaehyun. By the time they had reached the 97 liner, Mingyu and Yugyeom were already there with him and they were whispering in hushed voices a few seats away from the Neo clan that had established a camp in the hallway.
Yuta looked up the moment Chan and Dongmin appeared and shared a look with Jaehyun before nodding and saying, “You should go with them Jaehyunnie, we can handle things here and we’ll call you if we have any news.” Jaehyun tried to give a thankful smile but Yuta only pinched his cheek and said “Don’t force it kid, you look ugly.”
After the explicit permission given, the 5 97 liners stood up and headed towards the lifts and found themselves in the hospital cafeteria. It was late in the evening and the dinner crowd had thinned out to just a few strands of people queuing up in front of the stalls.
Jaehyun sat heavily in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs and jostled around in it as he tried to find a comfortable spot after having to sit in different plastic chairs the entire time he was in the hospital. In the back of his mind, he scolded himself for even daring to complain about the discomfort he was experiencing when Taeyong and Jungkook were in the operating theatres fighting for their lives.
“So, what’s happening here? This is no coincidence.” Mingyu shattered the silence between them and the tension bled out as Jaehyun rested his head in his hands.
“I had nightmares a while back, I had sleep paralysis and saw...something I didn’t want to see. Fast forward to today, I got a call from my hyungs saying that my friends were in the hospital.” Jaehyun spoke up in a tired voice and tugged on the heartstrings of his friends.
Mingyu looked up with an alarmed expression, “Long black hair, pale skin, that kind of thing right?” The devastated look from Jaehyun only seemed to prove his point. “I was showering,” Mingyu began as he fiddled with his fingers, “I swear I felt another hand in my hair and I freaked out but I was afraid none of you would believe me. And then I constantly feel that someone is watching me. Yesterday, today, I tried to distract myself from all these by occupying myself with something else.” Mingyu murmured softly and if you weren’t observant enough, you’d miss the slight tremors in his fingers. Suddenly, Mingyu’s head shot up as if he just remembered something, “The head! Her head was in the rubbish chute! I was so worried after, thinking it was a homicide but Coups lectured me on how the chute works and called me stupid.”
The others were silent as they pondered over the horrifying things that Mingyu had seen and yet chose to keep hidden away from his friends. Was it because of the nature of their collaboration project or because he simply couldn’t trust them with his fears? It was much to think about and they were deeply embroiled in the silence before Chan spoke up.
“There was a figure outside my studio room door one night. Just a pair of feet and it stayed there until I fell asleep. Today there were weird sounds coming from my speakers but Felix didn’t seem to hear them and as I left, I swore there was blood running down my speakers.” Chan shared next. It was quiet before he spoke again, “Speaking about Felix, we were in the car and I was in the backseat and some...weird things happened. I think I felt long hair brushing against my shoulder too.” Chan shuddered at the memory and Yugyeom flinched visibly.
“I saw a long haired woman in the backseat when I was driving. I thought my imagination had gone wild and I was stressed and sleep-deprived. I saw her in the mirror at night and ran to Bam’s room. I had a fever this morning and I dreamt she was in my kitchen cooking and I… found a strand of long hair in my food.” Yugyeom rambled as he recalled the memories that still swirled around incessantly in his mind.
“The woman in the backseat… yes, the backseat always felt so weird.” Dongmin whispered to himself, lost in his thoughts.
“Explain?” It was an invitation but with the gaze of the others upon him, it felt more like a demand. Dongmin, however, was quick to acquiesce.
Dongmin cleared his throat, “The first trip we went on, there was a knock from the back. Jungkook and I saw a handprint on the car and it wasn’t a big cause for concern so we let it go. And then, there was that time when I woke up in the middle of the night and the night light I had in my room casted a shadow on my wall. I think there was someone standing behind me and watching me sleep. It reached out for me and I was so scared but Moonbin woke me up because Sanha had a stomach ache… Oh my poor Sanha…” Dongmin trailed off, the pain in voice reminded them of the situation that they were in.
“Just so that we’re on the same page here,” Mingyu voiced out, “We all agree that we’re being haunted right?” Mingyu, who always had trouble differentiating his indoor and outdoor voices, drew some curious looks from the sparsely populated tables around them and Yugyeom smacked him lightly on the back of his head.
Jaehyun’s face blanched, “So, what happened to my friends was probably my fault right? Why didn’t the ghost come for me instead? Why Taeyong-” He broke off abruptly and tried to steady himself as his face crumbled and his vision went watery.
Chan stroked his back gently and said, “It wasn’t your fault but if you want to prevent it, we have to find a way to stop the spirit from following us.”
Yugyeom nodded at this, “If what Dongmin said about the first time we went on an investigation is related to our current situation, it could mean that we were already haunted from the very beginning.” He threw out the theory like a fish net, hoping that anyone would be able to put the pieces together.
“But if that were the case,” Dongmin said this time, “Why didn’t we get haunted earlier? Like the big haunts and the dreams and everything?”
“Not sure, but at least we have a starting reference point. We still don’t know what happened to Jungkook and he was driving the car we use for our investigations. The car got totaled so we lost that but maybe he knows something?” Yugyeom suggested and the rest were appeased with this statement. It would be wise to ask Jungkook what happened since he was the last person to use the car, perhaps he could confirm the theory that they were starting to build up.
As though it was all part of a plan, Jaehyun’s cell phone rang and he immediately snatched it up and held it to his ear.
“It’s Jungkook, he’s in the wards now.” Jaehyun said breathlessly and the other boys’ eyes grew wide at the news.
******
“No, you guys will go home and rest well. If I catch any one of you loitering around here, I’ll call your hyungs. And Chan you’re the oldest but I’ll call your Brian-hyung if you don’t go home.” Namjoon wagged his finger at the group of 97 liners gathered outside of Jungkook’s room.
Yugyeom tried to whine and demand that one of them stayed with Jungkook but Jimin simply said, “Wait in line, kiddo, we’re still here.” He gestured to the rest of Jungkook’s friends and Yugyeom sighed in resignation.
In the end, they decided to head over to Chan’s apartment for the night. He was the only one who had his own apartment and they were going to pile pillows and blankets on the living room and sleep together for the night. Sharing about their worst nightmares caused them to need some company, no bothering to even try sleeping by themselves.
They settled in pretty quickly, automatically feeling like they were at home and at ease. Chan just shook his head with a fond smile as he rummaged through his cupboards for the soft blankets that Changbin bought for him a while back. Yugyeom was cooking some ramen for them all while Jaehyun and Mingyu cleared the area and made sure it was clean enough for them to sleep on. Dongmin was getting a change of clothes from Chan which were ill-fitted on him considering the fact that he had quite the height difference with Chan. It did help the rest to laugh and their current troubles were out of sight and mind for now as they huddled together with hot cocoa and ramen.
Before he fell asleep, Mingyu marvelled at the fact that he hadn’t been so at peace for a long time and all he remembered seeing was the soft cast glow of the moonlight stretching across the floor as his eyes fell shut and he drifted to sleep.
“Wake up boys! It’s 8 already, Jungkook’s visitation hours start at 9!” Yugyeom yelled as he started shaking the guys closest to him. Mingyu was on the other end of the unfortunate wake up call and nearly hit his head jolting up from where he had been laying.
Peace was never an option within the 97 team.
******
"Jungkook? You alive, bestie?" Yugyeom gently prodded the pale arm resting upon the starch white sheets of the hospital bed.
Jungkook frowned lightly at the pet name that Yugyeom had given him and weakly whispered, "I'm thirsty." He immediately got 3 pairs of hands reaching for the water jug. Ultimately, it was Jaehyun who managed to pour out a cup of water for the parched patient.
"Okay, getting down to business, we think that some shit happened somewhere along the line and we're very haunted." Mingyu said in a rush and added a "And they all agreed with me on this." while jerking a thumb towards the rest of the team who were milled around the bed.
Jungkook stared at him for a moment in silence before nodding and going, "Yeah, that seems about right. That's what the ghost lady was trying to tell me too, I think."
Now it was the rest of the group's turn to stare gobsmacked at the boy wrapped in bandages. "Hello? I think we're missing episodes 5 to 10 here." Dongmin said finally.
Jungkook then recounted his experience in the car and said that he most likely had the worst accident amongst them since he was the biggest skeptic of the group and he had built up loads of bad karma by showing attitude to the spirits.
"Now that you say it like that, it really makes sense." Mingyu nodded sagely and pointed to Jaehyun, "He's the next biggest skeptic too but his friends got hurt really bad too."
Jaehyun sighed, "I still feel like it's my fault but thank goodness Taeyong and the kids are alright now." Hearing that his friend was out of surgery and all three of their conditions had stabilised managed to relieve the stress on Jaehyun's shoulders but the rest still noticed that he was walking around like a man who lost his wife and two cats.
"Dongmin's baby got hurt too but he's all good now and ready to go home anytime soon. It seems that he's sponging off his older friends' attention though?" Chan pointed out and Jungkook let it all soak in.
Jungkook pulled the plastic bed table closer to himself and laid his elbows diplomatically on the table and said lowly, "You all know that we have to deal with this, right?"
"Ugh, there he goes again, talking like he's our mob boss. The gig is getting old, geezer. Find some other roleplay to do." Yugyeom rolled his eyes and got a light slap on the arm from the said patient.
"Maybe we should talk to Jihyo again?" Chan asked out and it was an open question but they all automatically looked over at Jungkook.
"Oh yes, we have a lot to discuss." Jungkook held out a thumbs up and Chan whipped out his phone.
Notes:
I hope you guys will enjoy the ending! Tbh I check the stats for this story way too often since it's my very first multi chaptered work, I just hope ppl will enjoy my work!
Chapter 20: Breakthrough
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"Hello? Jihyo?" Chan answered the call and placed it on speaker mode.
"Channie, why don't you call me noona anymore?" Jihyo teased and giggled as Chan sputtered out some incomprehensible words.
The look on the other 97 liners' faces was undeniably hilarious that even Chan had to stifle his own laughter.
"Okay, noona, are you reaching soon? We're just waiting for you so let us know when you're here and we'll buzz you in."
They were just waiting in Jungkook's dorm and Mingyu had decided to cook a feast for Jungkook's return home. The said man was hobbling around on his crutches with his left leg bandaged up. Despite that, Jungkook would lightly hit the shins of the other guys when they tried to over-mollycoddle him.
While Jaehyun and Jungkook lounged on the couch, Yugyeom began to set the table, Mingyu and Dongmin cooked up a storm in the kitchen and Chan set up the other room that they were using for the meeting.
The buzzing of the intercom system announced the arrival of the very person that they all wanted to see, Jihyo. The brunette's eyes widened in delight as she stepped into the apartment and the tantalising aroma of roasted chicken invaded her senses.
"Mingyu cooked all this?" Jihyo asked in a bewildered voice as they sat her down at the table. It was indeed a spread that the man had prepared, together with his sous chef Dongmin. "No way, can I take you home? Nayeon doesn't really cook often." Jihyo joked and Mingyu's cheeks reddened.
"Dongmin helped too!" Mingyu flushed and Dongmin stopped gnawing on his chicken wing to look up in surprise at the metaphorical hot potato that just fell into his hands.
"Okay, okay, don't tease them anymore and eat up." Chan grinned and piled more food onto Jihyo's plate. What none of them noticed was the mildly petrified look on Jihyo's face whenever she wasn't joking or laughing with the others. Perhaps it wasn’t noticeable to the rest but she kept finding herself glancing in Jungkook’s direction, unable to really believe her eyes.
******
"Channie, a word please?" Jihyo gestured to the kitchen while making eye contact with Chan. The rest of the team were either cleaning up the dishes or setting up the room they were going to use for the consultation with Jihyo.
After checking that the coast was clear, Jihyo leaned closer to Chan and whispered into his ear. Chan blushed a little but quickly turned pale after hearing the words that Jihyo had whispered to him.
“Are you sure?” Chan whispered back, afraid that someone might overhear him despite the innocent words he had said. Jihyo nodded solemnly and crossed her arms as she looked away from the boys wiping down the table and instead focused on the dirty dishes lying in the sink.
It seemed like she was going to add on more to the secret she had just divulged to Chan when Jaehyun barged in, grumbling something about how he was on dish-washer duty since he had been lazing around with Jungkook instead of cooking. Jungkook, of course, was exempted from doing the dishes since he said he could ‘hardly stand up straight’ with his injuries still fresh.
While Jaehyun sped through washing the dishes, Jihyo prepped herself and the tools that she was going to use and Yugyeom dimmed the lights down in the room, choosing to use wax candles as a source of light instead.
“Okay gather round,” Jihyo called out and they began the session. “I know that a lot of things have happened to you guys in the last few weeks after we had our first meeting,” Jihyo continued as she shuffled a deck of cards in her hands. Her eyes lingered over Jungkook who was seated two seats to her right.
Jihyo placed a single card on the table in front of her, “The Tower, it can mean disaster. I know that there were plenty of unfortunate incidents that happened but do not lose hope because The Star is here to give you hope.” Jihyo continued to lay down the cards as she spoke, “Now the Death card here isn’t literal although the nature of your work might lead you to think that it is. Death can mean change and the end of a cycle. And our last card Justice can mean clarity and truth.”
Jihyo let her words sink in as she watched a myriad of emotions play through her 97 line buddies’ faces. Confusion, shock and fear were common ones that she identified and she felt the need to elaborate even more.
“What I believe the cards are telling us is that you guys have experienced pain and misfortune but there is the light at the tunnel and you’re getting closer and closer to it. The cycle will be broken and everything will change. There is a truth that needs to be told and you have to search for it and knowing you guys, I’m sure that you all will be able to get through it.” Jihyo smiled encouragingly at the group.
“So what you’re saying is that we’re gonna be okay?” Mingyu asked incredulously, the prospect of not being haunted was really enticing to him right now.
Jihyo grinned, “I can’t say for sure but there’s a good chance that things will go the way you want it to go as long as you follow the path that you’re meant to.” It was a little cryptic but the group was happy nonetheless with the uplifting news she had just shared with them.
“Noona, there’s something that you’ve been meaning to tell us, though?” Chan prompted and Jihyo’s smile fell as she caught his drift.
“Chan, I’m not sure if it’ll be good for me to say this…” Jihyo trailed off and furrowed her eyebrows while looking at the members. The team was also taken by surprise by the doubt and the hesitation in her tone, the Jihyo they knew was like the lighthouse in their storm and directed them where to go and what to do. Seeing her doubt herself made them internally panic too.
“Please go ahead, if it’ll be able to help us we need to know everything about it.” Jungkook said earnestly and he could swear grief entered Jihyo’s eyes as her gaze fell on him.
“Since you have asked me, I will tell you what has been bothering me but please remember that it was your decision to find out moree. This will be my warning.” Jihyo said in a stern voice and the members gulped as her face grew darker under the flickering light of the candles.
“The thing is,” Jihyo gulped audibly before continuing, “There’s something, no, someone stuck to Jungkook. From what Chan has told me about your shared experiences, I believe that this spirit is the same one that has been haunting all of you.”
As soon as Jihyo finished her sentence, the candles flickered and were extinguished by some unknown force. Mingyu let out a shrill scream while Yugyeom dived for the lights and hurriedly switched them on. When the fluorescent lights flooded the room, Jungkook was just staring into his hand with wide eyes while Jihyo looked on sadly.
“I don’t think that you can see her but perhaps you’ve been feeling very tired lately as if just doing nothing has zapped your energy completely? It’s normal since the spirit has attached itself to you.” Jihyo explained as she rubbed a comforting hand on Jungkook’s shoulder.
Jungkook was still wide eyed as he contemplated the truth that Jihyo had offered him. What should he do with this information? He had already resigned to the fact that there were ghosts in this world but to be haunted by one was another different thing. Moreover, this was allegedly the same ghost that had caused his car accident, it was only right for him to be completely terrified.
“Can you not do something about it?” Dongmin asked quietly as he glanced at Jungkook’s trembling hand. It was clear that their leader was trying to keep it together and not cower in fear but it certainly was okay for him to do so considering his circumstances. As such, Dongmin reached over and enveloped Jungkook’s shaky hand in his own warm ones and Jungkook tried to smile at him.
“I could but I have a feeling that there’s a reason why she’s sticking with Jungkook. I don’t know if you should get rid of her right now.” Jihyo said as she eyed the being clinging to Jungkook that only she could see. She knew that she probably looked completely bonkers staring down a ghostly apparition but the blood red eyes that stared back at her sent shivers down her spine while making her heart ache.
“Don’t.” Jungkook gritted out. “I think I know why she’s here. I saw her before the car crashed, she was trying to tell me something. Now she’s attached to me and she’ll let me go once we find out what she wants.” Jungkook reasoned with the rest of the group. Jihyo added that it didn’t seem like she could directly talk to the spirit who was barely acknowledging her presence but still kept steadfast in her decision to wrap her pale ghostly arms around Jungkook’s neck in a weird back hug.
“Maybe we can trace her history and see what kind of grievance she had.” Jaehyun contributed to the discussion, he too had his gaze firmly fixed on Jungkook’s back.
“Why would she attach to you anyway and not one of us? I am the scaredy cat of the group, if she haunted me I’d absolutely do her bidding. Not that I want you to haunt me Ms Ghost.” Mingyu added the last part after a pause, realising that he had basically just drawn a target with a ‘shoot me’ sign on his back.
“And why all of a sudden? She could have attached to one of us earlier but Jihyo said she’s never seen her before?” Yugyeom thought aloud and Jihyo nodded and confirmed once again that she had never seen this particular female ghost hanging around them before.
“If that’s the case, and we know that we’ve been haunted for a long time, perhaps it’s the car that was the missing link?” Dongmin theorized and it felt like a lightbulb was lit over all of their heads.
Mingyu clapped his hands excitedly, “That’s why she only clung to Jungkook after the car accident! The car was crushed and had to be sent to the junkyard. If she had been haunting the car this whole time, she would have had to switch over to Jungkook in order to finish what she wanted to do!” It made sense, it really did. A ghost with an agenda wouldn’t easily give up their goal.
Jungkook, however, was confused. “She was the one who caused the accident in the first place!” His tone raised as he got angrier thinking about what he had to go through.
“Perhaps it was because it was time for a change and she needed to set something in motion. Something needed to change.” Yugyeom picked up the ‘Death’ tarot card as he said this to illustrate his point.
Jihyo hadn’t told them about this but as the group had finished theorizing the reason of the car accident and the steps that they had to take next, the ghostly figure attached to Jungkook’s back smiled lightly as bloody tears seeped from her eyes and down her pale cheeks. Despite the jarring image of seeing a dead-but-technically-still-there person, Jihyo hadn’t felt the stab of fear in her heart. Perhaps the boys were truly on the right path this time and for their sake she hoped that they were with all of her heart.
“Okay! Now we know what to do!” Mingyu was fired up with the possibility that they could unhaunt themselves, Jaehyun just smacked him in the back of the head saying that they barely even had a lead.
“We start with the car.” Dongmin said as he whipped out the notebook that he always carried around with him. All eyes turned to Jungkook as they waited for him to spill more about the car, it was his personal car after all.
Jungkook rubbed his neck sheepishly, “You see, I saw it online and it was quite cheap and budget friendly. It was also big which is what I needed since I have many hyungs and they don’t trust me with driving but we take road trips together. I don't use it very often, though, I like to hitch rides with Jimin.”
“Do you still have the original listing for the car?” Jihyo asked and Jungkook pulled out his phone to check the app that he found the car deal on.
Jungkook shook his head as he said, “Nope, but I do have the username of the seller. I sent the screenshot of the deal to Jimin to ask for his opinion.”
Yugyeom looked more excited now that they had a lead and scrambled up from his seat to yank the phone out of Jungkook’s hands, “No worries, I’ll stalk him. I’m good at that.” And he promptly got to work as he dug out his computer and switched it on.
“Of course you are,” Mingyu drawled as they looked on at their team member who was typing at the speed of light and getting every possible social media account from the username that Jungkook provided.
“You know, I don’t think you guys need me here anymore.” Jihyo’s eyes curved into crescents as she smiled pleasantly at the group. She dug through her purse for an object before grabbing onto Jungkook’s wrist and placing the object in his open palm. “Usually, I’d charge someone for one of these but since it’s for you, I’ll just give it to you. If being attached to her proves to be too much for you, you can wear this and it’ll protect you.”
There, in the middle of Jungkook’s palm, lay a flat stone with a talisman carved into the back of it. Jihyo was smiling at Jungkook encouragingly and so he said his thanks and kept it wrapped up in a bunch of tissues that he had lying around. He would keep it safe of course, he might need it if things went awry.
After saying their goodbyes, Chan walked Jihyo out and offered to wait until her Uber came while the rest of the boys upstairs poured over their screens and tried to find out as much as they could about the car.
Dongmin frowned thoughtfully before saying, “Hey when did you buy the car again?” To which Jungkook replied saying that he had seen it three years ago on the listing website. “Why don’t we look for car accidents that happened about 3 to 5 years ago?” If she has such a strong grudge and she’s tied herself to the car for so long, what are the chances that she was in the car or at least hit by the car?” Dongmin pointed out and Yugyeom told him and Jaehyun to look into that while the rest went on a witch hunt for the car seller.
Chan placed his shoes neatly to the side of the shoe rack as he stepped back into the house, “Guys, the more I think of it, the more I’m sure that the car seller definitely has something to do with this. I just know he’s involved somehow.”
Mingyu agreed with him, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Think about it, she’s attached to the car. She either owned the car, owned the car and died in it or was hit by the car. The seller could have been someone related to her if she owned the car and wants to sell it off because she’s gone. If she was killed by the car, it makes even more sense.”
“The thing was,” Jungkook interjected, “The car was in a relatively good condition when I got it. If she was involved in a big car accident that took her life as the driver, wouldn’t it make sense that it would have been more dented?”
“You guys do know that we’re slowly moving into ‘hit-and-run’ territory here right?” Jaehyun spoke up and as soon as the words left his mouth, the fluorescent lights above their heads shattered and rained glass down upon the table.
“Well, you don’t see that everyday.”
“I think we found our answer.” Yugyeom and Mingyu said respectively at the time as they sat encased in the darkness of the room.
******
“Naur, I can’t do this anymore.” Chan groaned as he rubbed his eyes. If he blinked hard, he was sure that he would see white spots dancing in his vision. The team had settled down in Chan’s apartment again as they put their heads together to solve the situation at hand, after all, they had a female ghost following their leader around and they wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.
“No luck?” Jungkook asked from over his computer as he sat splayed out on the couch and his wrapped up foot balanced on the coffee table. Chan shook his head, the car seller had been offline for days, not bothering to check any of his socials that the group had messaged.
“He’s hiding something, he’s guilty.” Mingyu fake whispered conspiratorially and Dongmin slapped his arm lightly while rolling his eyes in the same dramatic fashion.
“Oh, you don’t know that. Maybe he went to the mountains to fish and got eaten by a wild boar.” Dongmin said, just for the sake of it, and the light from the lightbulb overhead flickered as if the female ghost had been listening to them and was entertained by the thought of the car seller suffering a horrendous end in the mountains. Which was absolutely the case and the team members were well aware of that.
“Why would he go to the mountains to fish ?” Yugyeom’s voice rang out from the kitchen where he had been ever since he decided that he needed a coffee break and was currently stealing some of the leftover brownies that Felix had brought over for Chan.
“Doesn’t matter,” Dongmin called out, “Our lady liked it anyway!” He said as he nudged his head at the ceiling light despite Yugyeom not being able to see him.
It had been 5 days since the team invited Jihyo to Jungkook’s house for a session and they were still trying to track down the man who had sold the cursed car to Jungkook. While they were waiting for a response, they decided that they couldn’t leave Jungkook alone with the female ghost and that it was better if they were separated from their own friends for the time being, for their own safety (Jaehyun and Dongmin had a stern chat with the female ghost about not harming their friends and using words and gestures when she wanted something).
They had gotten somewhat used to the presence of the female ghost, lights turned on by themselves when they wanted to visit the toilet at night, the gas stove would automatically switch off when there wasn’t anyone around (Mingyu had to explain multiple times that he just needed to step away for a moment and had tasked the ghost with the duty of watching the fire and alerting him if anything went wrong) and the tv would turn off by itself whenever the boys fell asleep watching netflix, which was basically every night.
All in all, they had developed a symbiotic relationship with the female ghost and accepted that this was their reality for now. In return, she hadn’t scared them or directly appeared before them which really did wonders for Mingyu and Dongmin’s anxiety. The team had also begun to affectionately call her their ‘lady’. They still didn’t know her full story but from the playing with the lights and the knocks and taps they hear when they discuss her case, they could more or less piece together parts of her story.
“So tell me, my Lady, it was this bastard that killed you, right?” Mingyu spoke out loudly as he triumphantly pulled up a photo on his phone of the man who sold Jungkook the car. The power was cut immediately and there it was, a very strong yes. They sat in silence in the dark before Chan sighed and got up, heading over to the circuit breaker to turn the power back on again.
“How did you find that picture?” Jaehyun grabbed at the phone to zoom in on the man’s face. He was in his mid-40s with sparse hair and a sullen look on his face as he stared deep into the camera. Honestly, he looked like an average office worker who was overworked and tired and still not paid enough. Nevertheless, they were looking at a guilty man, they just needed to find a way to prove it.
“He just accepted my friend request on facebook.” Mingyu said casually and pointed at his new facebook account of a large bosomed woman named Kim Minah. Jaehyun made a face and shoved the phone back at Mingyu saying that although his catfishing skill was commendable, it was also really gross.
“I got the job done, though. We can chat with him now.” Mingyu grinned down at his phone evilly and Yugyeom got chills, literal chills. He knew he picked the right team.
******
“And this is what you wrote to him?” Dongmin’s disgust seeped through into his tone as he cringed reading the string of messages that Mingyu had sent to the car seller who they identified as a ‘Mr Lee’.
“He DM-ed me first! I just played along!” Mingyu was indignant about the accusing nature of Dongmin’s words and tried hard to wash himself clean. Yugyeom just shook his head and index finger mockingly at the flustered boy.
Jungkook snatched the phone out of Mingyu’s vice-like grip and read in the most flirtatious tone he could muster, “Hello, handsome.” Jaehyun made a face in the back while Chan had a more visceral reaction and fake gagged loudly.
“Hey! I managed to develop a relationship with him, okay? I can ask him out anytime now and he’ll show up!” Mingyu said triumphantly as he flexed over the rest of the team.
“Wait, no, don’t do that yet. We should learn more about his daily habits and where he works and goes to on a daily basis and then surprise him.” Jungkook planned.
“Guys, that might be illegal, it’s stalking!” Chan tried to snuff out the flames burning in Jungkook’s eyes as he made his master plan but he was alone in this, a single man trapped in a boat at sea, none of the members were listening to him.
“We’re so gonna get arrested. Would Minho bail me out? Probably not, I’ll need to ask Jeongin, he’ll listen to me... ” The Australian muttered to himself in English tiredly.
Jaehyun, who spoke pretty good English too, sent him a thumbs up while saying, “I’d rather get arrested than be haunted for the rest of my life.” And then he quickly added, “No offense to our Lady, she’s being really nice right now.”
“Okay! First things first, we will find out where he works!” Jungkook ordered in a very team leader fashion and the team scrambled to work. Apparently, they were all becoming really good at stalking Mr Lee’s social media accounts.
“Found his LinkedIn!” Dongmin shouted.
“Got his workplace!” Mingyu added.
“I know what car he drives!” Jaehyun announced.
“He has an Uber profile!” Yugyeom called out.
“I’ve got his apartment?” Chan said at last, a little surprised at himself for being able to find out the man’s location.
“Let’s get to work!” Jungkook grinned gleefully while Yugyeom rubbed his hands together with an evil look on his face. The rest of the team were really glad that they weren’t on the duo’s bad side.
Notes:
Sigh I've been reading some really good Stray Kids fics lately and I really see the difference in our writing... I feel like I write like a 14 year old since that's around the time when I stopped writing narratives. If anyone would like to leave some writing tips or areas I could improve on in the comments, it would be greatly appreciated!! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and for those kind readers who leave me comments and kudos, you are greatly appreciated and I heart you <3
Chapter 21: Getting Closer
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Okay, let’s go through the plan again.” Jungkook said as the team huddled in together.
Mingyu went first, “I’m super sexy and I'm gonna seduce him like hell until he tells us what happened?"
"No!" Yugyeom groaned, "You're gonna infiltrate his company to change the water dispenser and because he's a loser who stays late at work, you'll confront him when everyone's gone."
"I think this is highly illegal, guys." Chan added but as usual, his words fell on deaf ears.
"Jungkook will wire you up with the spy cam and the mic so just get him to talk." Yugyeom said and Mingyu gave him a thumbs up and a goofy grin.
Dongmin sounded a little skeptical as he said, "Are you sure the police will believe us? How is Mingyu going to get him to talk anyway?"
"That's where our lovely lady should put in some work too," Jungkook grinned and pointed upwards at the flickering lightbulb, "If our lady can pay him a couple of visits, perhaps she'll shake him and his lips will be loose."
The overhead hanging bulb flickered twice again and they took it as a sign that she was in agreement.
"Hold on," Jaehyun held up a hand and his face was completely pale as he widened his eyes at the rest of the group, "Why haven't we tried this before? We literally talk to ghosts with our devices but we haven't had a proper conversation with our lady?"
The rest of the group were dumbstruck with the revelation. "You're right!" Mingyu said breathily and ran to the equipment that Jungkook had stored in the spare room of his apartment.
"Let's try then, maybe our lady can tell us more about herself." Mingyu spoke quickly as he rummaged through the bag and pulled out the EMF reader, the Ovilus and the spirit box.
"First off," Dongmin grabbed the EMF reader and ran it over Jungkook's body, especially around his shoulders where Jihyo said the ghost had attached to. There was a change in the colour of the LED light as the EMF reader turned orange. Yep, their lady was still attached to Jungkook.
Next up, Jaehyun had switched on the Ovilus and held it up as words started to appear on the screen, accompanied with the soft buzzing of the Ovilus as the electromagnetic wavelengths came through. “Hello. Cry. Ring.” Jaehyun read out softly with a bewildered look.
“‘Hello’, ‘Cry’ and ‘Ring’, what could that mean?” Dongmin furrowed his brows in thought as he scribbled the words into the little black book that he kept around him throughout their investigation.
“Clearly, she’s saying hi to us. Maybe she’s crying? A cry for help? And then there’s a ring.” Yugyeom pointed out helpfully. Jungkook seemed to agree with whatever he said so far, if the vigorous nodding of his head was anything to go by.
“A ring, ring around the rosie? A circle? Maybe things are going full circle right now?” Chan spoke up after a period of silence.
“That makes sense for some reason,” Jungkook muttered darkly as he tried to piece together the hints that the lady ghost had so graciously given them.
“No, this won’t do, our Lady. Can you tell us your name or something clearer and easier to put together. Normally, we’re a smart bunch but we’ve been cracking open our heads for you.” Yugyeom said exasperatedly and the EMF reader they laid out on the table flickered from light green to orange again.
The spirit box crackled to life and their heads snapped to where they had left it sitting on the table.
A feeble voice came through the box in a mess of garbles and static, “Car...Ring...Riinghr-” The spirit box was cut off before it could say more and the spirit box immediately switched off by itself. The group of boys sat with bewildered expressions as they wondered if whatever that had just happened, actually did happen.
“‘Car’, ‘Die’, ‘Ring’ and ‘Ring’ again, how does this help?” Mingyu scratched his head with an immensely puzzled look.
“All we know is, there’s something really wrong with the car that she was haunting and it’s really possible that she died because of it.” Dongmin jotted down within his book of secrets that he didn’t allow the others to even peek at.
“We’re going to have to get to the bottom of this,” Jungkook said and crossed his arms in firm resolution. This was all the team needed for the group to raise their morale again.
******
“You look sexy as hell,” Jungkook grinned goofily while he patted down Mingyu’s torso, making sure that the wires were all hidden underneath the black turtleneck that the man was wearing.
Chan grinned and draped a bright orange and yellow blazer on the taller boy’s frame saying, “You can’t just go in looking like a bank robber, this colourful jacket should make you less intimidating.” He earned himself a bright, goofy grin from Mingyu and a slap on the back from Jungkook for ‘openly flirting right in front of his salad’.
“He’s going to be okay, right?” Dongmin whispered worriedly to Jaehyun but Mingyu heard him still, despite the two hiding away in the corner. Jaehyun tried to give him affirmative and comforting pats on the back but Dongmin was still deathly worried for his cousin.
Rolling his eyes, Mingyu stomped over to where the two were and swamped Dongmin in a hug to soothe his nerves and whisper that he would be alright.
“Carrying weapons is illegal in South Korea anyway!” Yugyeom tried to add his own comforting message to the mix but his words completely flew over their heads.
When the rest of the team had wished Mingyu good luck and finished wire tapping the man with mics and making sure that their conversation was being recorded properly, they sent Mingyu on his merry way with the truck of water dispenser bottles that they had bribed off an underpaid and overworked part-timer.
Chan flipped open his laptop and connected to the wires on Mingyu’s body, tuning into whatever the man was doing over in the truck. He was apparently singing a poorly attempted rendition of ‘Spider’ that would no doubt make Kwon Soonyoung squirm in his seat.
“Wow, he’s not really good at singing, is he?” Yugyeom chortled, tears in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around his heaving stomach.
“He’s more of a rapper!” Dongmin argued but it was all in good fun as they ended in a fit of giggles, at Mingyu’s expense.
“Okay boys, it’s showtime.” Jungkook’s eyes narrowed as they watched through the spy cam as Mingyu pulled up into the underground parking lot where the company was situated.
*******
Mingyu took a quick glance at his wrist watch as he waited for the lift to reach the right level. The handle of the cart of water dispenser bottles felt sweaty as he gripped down harder and tried to reign in his emotions.
“It’s okay, Mingyu, you’re an actor too.” He whispered to himself in the privacy of the walls of the lift. He felt calmer after reassuring himself that he was a bad B but he had the nagging feeling that his friends had heard his miny peptalk and were currently laughing at it (and he was absolutely right).
The lift ‘dinged’ loudly and the doors ‘whooshed’ as they opened and cold air rushed towards and engulfed him as he strolled leisurely out of the lift with his cart.
Mingyu raised the company tag he had thrown around his neck towards the security guard stationed at the counter near the lift and received a simple nod in return. Whew, perhaps he could try his luck.
“Hey,” Mingyu summoned his most charming smile when the security guard looked up, “What time are you guys packing up tonight? I have a couple of bottles to change today and I hope I’ll be able to finish it before you guys close up.”
The security guard waved him aside, “Our shift ends in 30 but there’s a workaholic in the back that always leaves the latest so the keys to lock up are with him.” That was all the boy needed to hear and he smiled pleasantly to the guard who merely grunted in acknowledgement.
Mingyu whistled a happy little tune as he pushed his cart into the nearest break room and started to swap out the old water dispenser for the new one. (“He actually knows how to do that?” Yugyeom shrieked on the other end of the wire as the team sat poured over the screen that Mingyu was currently showing them.)
He kept at it, taking as much time as he needed to get himself and the Mr Lee alone on that floor. Mingyu knew exactly where he was, the only light in the room was the tell-tale sign that he was there.
Mingyu counted down the minutes as he turned the water bottle ever so slowly as he fitted it into the dispenser and taking a sip of water in a disposable water cup as good measure that it was fully functional. The boy straightened up as he checked out his reflection in the large glass window, yep he looked pretty respectable but super cute at the same time. Would he be able to crack their guy?
A flicker of the warm yellow light in the far away room made Mingyu’s mouth twitch. It seemed that their lady was currently paying the man a visit.
“Hello?” Mingyu knocked at the door of the little room the man had holed himself in. “Are you okay, Sir?” Mingyu asked with a polite smile as the spooked man turned his wide eyes towards him.
“N-no, I’m fine.” Mr Lee grunted as he swiped at his brow. Mingyu shrugged and was about to turn and leave when Mr Lee called out again. “Hey! Wait a second, stay here for a moment.” Mr Lee had a dark look on his face as his eyes wandered to the lights above that were starting to flicker again.
“Did you see that?” Mr Lee hissed and Mingyu did see the long black hair dangling from the ceiling but he sure as hell pretended not to.
“See what?” Mingyu asked back innocently and Mr Lee shuddered again as he glanced towards the ceiling. Stealthily, Mingyu angled the spy cam towards the ceiling light and the rest of the team sucked in a breath as they saw what hung from the ceiling too.
Mr Lee was hunched over in his seat on the verge of tears when Mingyu dashed to his side and tried to calm him down, “Sir, are you feeling alright?”
“You can’t see her can you?” Mr Lee asked dazedly and groaned while clutching his head and curling into a ball on his seat.
“See who?” Mingyu asked again with his best Bambi doe-like expression. It was getting increasingly hard to keep the small smile threatening the corner of his lips to take over.
“The woman… the woman… it’s the woman again…” Mr Lee rocked himself back and forth in his leather chair and Mingyu’s eyebrows rose into his hairline at the way the man was falling apart before him.
“Who is this woman?” Mingyu asked softly. The man shook his head violently but Mingyu pressed on, “What is her name?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. Kim, her surname was Kim.” Mr Lee mumbled as he dug his head deeper into the burrow within his arms and tried to block out the outside world.
Back at the apartment, Jungkook brought out his own laptop and passed it over to Yugyeom who immediately started to do a wide search of female car accident victims with the surname ‘Kim’.
“When was this? When did she appear?” Mingyu urged the panicking man again.
“T-three years ago. She appeared before me, I swear I didn’t know her! She just appeared one day-” Mr Lee broke out into whimpers again as he felt long hair tickle the base of his neck and he looked up to see bloodshot eyes.
Mingyu took this opportunity to drag the man out of his office and into the break room where he sat him down with a cup of water. “Hey, talk to me. What’s going on with you?” The worry in Mingyu’s tone was most likely genuine and apparently that was what Mr Lee thought too as he unravelled.
“It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t mean to do it!” Mr Lee cried into his hands. He shook his head wildly from side to side as he tried to see if the ghost had followed him. Fortunately for him, Mingyu had given the ghost lady a stern look before dragging Lee out of the room.
“Are you sure? There must be a reason she’s following you.” Mingyu stated firmly and Mr Lee raised his head slowly, a dark look in his eyes.
“I didn’t do anything!” The man seethed and swiped at the proffered cup of water, splashing it all over the table. Mingyu raised his hands in surrender and whispered a low ‘woah woah woah’.
Mingyu leaned back into his chair languidly, “You’re the one seeing a creepy lady, no?” Mr Lee stopped in his tracks from where he had stood up to leave before turning to Mingyu with a strange expression.
“You said you couldn’t see her!” Lee cried out and pointed an accusing finger at the boy in the bright blazer.
“I can’t,” Mingyu raised his hands, “But clearly you can.” And Mr Lee froze as he watched a figure in a bloodied white dress appear at the doorway.
“She’s here,” He gasped and raised a shaky finger at the doorway, to which Mingyu followed his line of sight.
“Say her name.” Mingyu said the same time the ghost opened her mouth and blood gushed out and down her chin.
“Say my name.” A garbled noise escaped her mouth and Mingyu could just barely piece the words together.
“I don’t know!” Lee cried out again but the ghost only got angrier as her face twisted once more into a horrid expression and she appeared right before Lee, to the point where the coppery smell of blood invaded his senses.
“Kim...Hyolyn.” Lee whimpered out as he wrapped his arms around his head as if it could protect himself from the wrath of the ghost.
“Kim Hyolyn,” Chan echoed and Yugyeom’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he scoured the internet for the news article.
Mingyu watched as the ghost pressed even closer to the man and he brought it upon himself to drag Lee over and away from the creepy ghost lady, Hyolyn.
“Tell me. What did you do to Kim Hyolyn?” Mingyu whispered urgently and Lee sighed defeatedly but said nothing. “At this point, you’re being haunted by a female ghost who has a grudge against you and you’re still unwilling to tell the truth?” Mingyu spoke quietly but his words were loud in the echoing silence of the room as Lee just stared in horror at the ghostly figure.
“It was raining heavily.” Lee stared off into the distance where the ghostly figure had retreated to. Mingyu sat him down again and gave him an encouraging look for him to continue.
Lee rubbed tiredly at his face and left red claw marks in its wake. “She just appeared out of nowhere, I didn’t see her! I swear I didn’t mean to kill her!”
Mingyu’s eyes widened at what he said. “What are you admitting to exactly?” Mingyu asked once more as he turned a stern gaze towards Lee.
“I killed her. Kim Hyolyn. The road was so slippery, the car hit her. I was so scared but she was already dead and if I brought her to the hospital they’d arrest me! I h-hid her in my trunk and dumped her in the river. That’s where they found her.” Lee’s lip quivered as he finished his sentence but Mingyu wasn’t going to let up.
“Why is she here, then?” Mingyu asked again and Lee groaned.
“I told you! I killed her! That’s why she’s here to kill me!” Lee shrieked. Mingyu still wasn’t amused and he crossed his arms and gazed right at the office worker.
Suddenly, it seemed as if a thought had struck the man, “It was the ring.” Mr Lee looked like the truth had dawned upon him and everything was crystal clear now.
“A ring, she had a ring.” Mingyu repeated as the truth dawned upon him. “You threw her ring into the river?” Mingyu asked again.
Lee didn’t say anything for a while and merely shook his head.
“No, I buried it.”
******
“Hello, Sir, I’d like to report a crime.” Lee Youngsuk whispered as he held his wrists out towards the officer at the station, Mingyu with a comforting hand splayed on his back, beside him.
When Mingyu was done at the station, the squad had picked him up in a new car that Chan had borrowed from his company.
“Good job, Handsome.” Jaehyun called out as Mingyu climbed into the car and he got hard pats from everyone in the team.
“So far what he said was true, Kim Hyolyn’s body was recovered in the river. She was dumped there after receiving blows to the head consistent with car accident injuries.” Yugyeom read out from his computer screen. “She had a fiancee and was supposed to get married the next week. I’m guessing that he got rid of her engagement ring and that’s the ‘ring’ that had been coming through to us.”
Dongmin added on, “We heard ‘ring’ twice that time but Ms Kim could have been meaning to say ‘river’.” The rest were on board with this theory and headed over to the scene of the crime from three years ago.
“Now, I’m pretty sure we’re really not supposed to be at the scene of the crime,” Mingyu started, “But I did convince a police officer to let us come see everything but from behind the police tapes. It was all thanks to my dashing looks and pleasant personality.” He ended with a proud tone seeping into his voice and the rest of them rolled their eyes.
It was all that Jungkook needed to send them speeding towards the river where the article said the body had been found.
One by one, they stepped out of the vehicle and surveyed the scene teeming with police officers shouting at each other as they parted the tall grasses on the riverbank.
It surely was no trick of the eye when Hyolyn appeared in the midst of the gloom, as if she had been materialised straight out of the darkness. The team watched with bated breath as she slowly glided over to a spot near to the river bank and stood there unwaveringly. Her eyes were downcast and pinned straight to the ground and Jungkook just knew that it was the spot.
Mingyu caught onto the sleeve of the female officer that he had charmed, “You’re really not going to believe me and that’s fine but can you let me go check on a particular patch over there?” Mingyu nodded over in the direction of where Hyolyn was standing.
The female officer was perplexed but she saw the group of boys milling around the one in the bright blazer that she had subconsciously given in to already. She sighed deeply, “Fine, but you have to dig the hole and I’ll be watching you.” She sounded stern but Mingyu knew that she was already doing much more than what she could be doing, considering the fact that she could have easily flat out ignored him from the very beginning.
Jungkook passed a shovel laying nearby to Mingyu with a sly grin and the female officer allowed him to enter the crime scene (after he dumped the obnoxious orange blazer in Chan’s arms) and lead the way to the spot.
Mingyu noticed the serene smile gracing Kim Hyolyn’s face as she watched him come closer to the spot she was standing over. Her hair was still black but it was neatly parted and combed, her previously ghastly white skin was still starch white but at least it matched the colour of her dress. The most reassuring thing was that her eyes were no longer leaking blood.
Looking up again to make sure that he was getting the right spot, Mingyu dug his shovel into the space right in front of the spirit’s feet. The ring was small and he had to be very careful in unearthing it. After tossing the very top of the soil, Mingyu crouched down and looked back up at the female officer who nodded for him to go on.
Mingyu reached into the dirt and slowly started to feel around in it, breaking the clumps of soil and hoping that he would feel the hard outline of the ring.
It wasn’t until he had gotten 1.5 feet into the earth when he felt the circular object at his fingertips. He lifted it from the dirt and placed it in his open palm and brushed the dirt off with his index finger.
“You really found it…” The police officer breathed out as Mingyu held up the ring, the shine of the diamond glinted under the floodlights the police had set up. Despite being buried for three years, it still remained bright and Mingyu felt himself choked up with emotions. Finally, it was over.
After the ring had been bagged up as evidence and the team’s statements were recorded, they were free to leave.
“It’s over, isn’t it?” Jaehyun sighed as they reconvened in the car. Chan was about to agree with his statement but the figure that appeared in the empty seat in the middle row of the car brought gasps to their lips.
“She’s still here,” Dongmin stated the very obvious fact in an incredulous tone of voice. “What are we supposed to do now?” Dongmin asked shyly as he waved over at the ghostly figure whose eyes wandered over to him.
“We drive.” Jungkook said pleasantly and sped off, getting a slap on the knee from Yugyeom who was in the passenger’s seat as he hissed something about being considerate of Hyolyn’s feelings, she did die from a horrible car accident after all (“Hey! Are you trying to make me crash the car?” Jungkook yelped and Yugyeom rolled his eyes and told him to keep his eyes on the road.)
Notes:
A short chapter this time! One more chapter to go! If you like the stories I write, perhaps you might wanna keep an eye out for my future works (Stray Kids, NCT fics but I have a problem where I write multiple cameos heh). My classes are starting soon and I'll have less time to write so I really wanted to finish 97.In before that and I succeeded!!! Hope you guys have enjoyed this fic as much as I did writing it~
Chapter 22: Don't Wanna Cry
Notes:
omg Thunderous came out today and I was at some school thing :')
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“You’re absolutely certain that you want us to do this?” Jungkook looked right at Hyolyn and she matched his eye contact perfectly, the most subtlest of nods was given.
Jungkook snuck a glance at Jaehyun and he held up the plastic bag in which the diamond ring bounced around in. They all shared a look and made their way to the door. Dongmin held the door open for all of them (even Hyolyn) and they marched to the car park.
Now Chan found himself sitting in the driver’s seat, looking up at the apartment building and asking himself why on earth were they doing this. Wasn’t this supposed to be left for the police to do? How exactly did Jaehyun manage to charm the police officers to let them do this?
The team hauled themselves out of the car and into the building where they glanced towards Hyolyn who just pointed to the 8th floor. Mingyu pressed on the button she pointed to and they waited in an awkward silence as the lift ascended.
“Hey, have you ever been in the lift with us before?” Yugyeom piped up, curiosity overpowering him and making him break the silence.
Hyolyn’s feminine voice resounded in the lift but she hadn’t opened her mouth, “I follow.” They all seemed appeased by the short answer, perhaps she had just been following them the entire time.
When the lift doors opened again, Hyolyn drifted out of the lift and led the way down the hallway, her ghostly muscles remembering the way. The group of guys padded quietly down the hallway as they followed the ghost from a distance.
Hyolyn stopped right outside a door, unit 13, and simply stared at the door. Chan took a quick glance at the address he had written down and confirmed that they had the right unit. He gave Jungkook a thumbs up and Jungkook came forward and knocked heavily on the door after Hyolyn shook her head when he reached for the doorbell.
The man who came to the door was morose looking with dark bags hiding in the shadows under his eyes. From the corner of his eye, Jungkook saw Hyolyn raise a hand to her mouth.
“Yes?” The man asked tiredly albeit looking a little disturbed by the presence of six men at his door.
“Mr Kang? Can we come in? We’d like to show you something but you might want to sit down for this.” Jungkook said as politely as he could, fully aware that anyone would be intimidated by 6 burly men appearing at their doorstep and asking for an invitation.
Mr Kang’s expression sobered up a bit and eyed the rest of them before stepping aside and allowing the rest of them to pass through. “Can I offer you guys anything?” Mr Kang asked purely out of politeness.
“No, it’s fine. We don’t want to impose on you.” Dongmin smiled back. Mr Kang took one look at Dongmin and then glanced back at the kitchen subconsciously, “You’re the guy on the tteokbokki package…” Mr Kang looked even more confused now. Why was a celebrity sitting in his living room?
“Okay Mr Kang, we’re here to talk about something really important, it’s about Ms Kim Hyolyn.” Jaehyun said softly as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the evidence bag.
When Jaehyun placed the bag neatly on the table and Mr Kang had examined the bag, his lip quivered and tears flooded his eyes as his hand raised to his mouth, the words he wanted to say caught in his throat with a wet sound.
“Hyolyn… This was Hyolyn’s” He choked out as the tears finally started to roll down his cheeks. Hyolyn was also crying at this point, although the tears streaking down her cheeks weren’t crimson but clear.
“We managed to find her ring buried near the river that her body was found. You might hear this from the cops but she was involved in a hit-and-run and the accused put her in his trunk and drove her to the river where he dumped her body and buried her ring.” Jungkook said slowly, trying to avoid giving the poor man an information overload.
“Jungkook, here, purchased the car that the man had sold and we were haunted for months. Recently Jungkook was involved in a car accident and the car was wrecked and the truth started to unravel.” Yugyeom continued in the same pace that Jungkook had started out with.
Mr Kang could barely say anything but he managed to whisper out, “How did you know? That she was killed by the previous owner of the car?”
Dongmin shifted uncomfortably before saying, “You see, we investigate haunted places and all things supernatural. The more we investigated, the more open we were to the supernatural and we met Ms Kim.” He tried to explain in the most basic and non-incriminating way that he could.
“You mean to say you saw her? You saw my Hyolyn?” Mr Kang’s eyes widened and a couple more tears fell from his eyes as he looked around the room. “Tell me, is she here now?” He asked feverishly.
From where she was sitting, Hyolyn shook her head as more tears spilled from her eyes. Chan shook his head, “She’s not with us anymore. She’s moved on and I think she wants you to move on too.” Dongmin pushed the diamond ring closer to the man and offered a sad smile that was reciprocated.
“I appreciate it, thank you all for bringing this back to me.” Mr Kang held the ring up to his chest and smiled a watery smile.
“She’ll always live with you, you know? She’ll be in your heart forever but she would also want you to find space in your heart for someone else, if you find the one.” Jungkook spoke earnestly, echoing whatever Hyolyn had just said.
Just as quickly as they had come, the boys left the grieving man alone after wishing him all the best. Mr Kang stood at the door, waving them away as Hyolyn wrapped her arms around his broad frame and whispered a ‘thank you’.
******
“It’s over,” Chan sighed as he sagged into the driver’s seat, “It’s really, really over.” The rest in the back were shouting out their hurrays and saying that it was a job well done.
“No more ghosts, no more nightmares and no more suspicious accidents!” Mingyu cheered from the backseat. They were going to fine now and they would be able to get back to their normal lives.
“Guys,” Dongmin said, “I was wondering, should we ever do this again? What’s going to happen to the channel?” All eyes turned to Jungkook and Yugyeom who looked at each other and shrugged.
“Kookie, do you want to continue?” Yugyeom asked.
“I’m not sure, Yugy, should we?” Jungkook echoed back immediately and the two turned back to the rest of the team.
“I’d like to continue filming with you guys.” Mingyu added shyly as he twisted his fingers around.
“Our Memegyu is so sweet.” Jaehyun remarked as he reached out to pinch Mingyu’s cheek.
“We could, but like on a monthly or a fortnightly basis.” Chan grinned from the front of the car and revved the engine as they made their way to his apartment for a mini celebration party for fulfilling the wish of their resident ghost.
From the back of the car, Mingyu yelled at Chan to invite Jihyo over if she wasn’t busy and Chan yelled back that he was currently very busy doing something called driving. Eventually, Jungkook was the one to call Jihyo and she asked if she should bring any food for them.
“It’s okay, Noona, just bring yourself!” Yugyeom’s grin could be heard over the phone and Jihyo couldn’t help but crack open a smile too.
“What should we get? Pizza or chicken? Or maybe we should get finger food!” Mingyu said excitedly as he poured over his phone screen and analysed the different brands the app had to offer.
“If you can’t decide on one, let’s get them all!” Jungkook raised an invisible wine glass into the air, his celebratory mood was through the roof now that he didn’t have a ghost attached to him, despite the fact that she turned out to be a very nice ghost that had only tried to kill him once and just nearly failed.
“You’d better start ordering soon, we’re reaching soon!” Chan yelled from the front, he needed to strain his voice a little with the other excited noises and squabbles over ‘which brand of pizza to get’ being made in the car.
******
“Hello everyone!” Jihyo greeted with a big smile and the two people standing behind her echoed after her. All three of them had bags of snacks and fast food in their hands. “We’ve brought some extra sides and snacks, just in case you guys wanted to munch on something!” Jihyo grinned and Nayeon and Tzuyu held up their bags of food.
“For those unfamiliar with the girls, this is Nayeon, my roommate and this is Tzuyu, she sees ghosts too so I thought I’d bring her over to meet you guys.” Jihyo placed her bags down at the dining table that had been fitted with two more foldable chairs and her two companions were warmly greeted by Yugyeom and Chan since they all knew each other.
“That’s so cool, so like do you see ghosts on a daily basis?” Mingyu fired away as he talked the ear of the shy looking girl but once she got into a comfortable zone, she answered his questions easily and even Dongmin joined the mix. Nayeon had chosen to gossip with Yugyeom about something that her music producer did the other day, Jaehyun heard ‘transparent pants’ somewhere in the conversation but he decided that it probably wasn’t something he wanted to know about and steered away from them.
Chan and Jihyo were in the kitchen plating the food that they had ordered, as well as searching for the paper cups and plates so no one had to be stuck with dish duty. Jaehyun found himself wandering over to help them, choosing to get the ice from the refrigerator for the drinks Nayeon had brought with her.
Jungkook appeared at the door frame of the kitchen, fiddling with something at his neck. When Jihyo finally took notice of the other boy, he smiled sheepishly and removed the stone from his neck, holding it out to her saying, “I think this belongs to you.” The gratefulness and earnestness shone through Jungkook’s eyes and Jihyo giggled softly.
“I meant it when I said I was giving it to you free of charge, it’s yours now. Hopefully it’ll be able to protect you wherever you go in the future.” Jihyo looked serene as she gazed up at Jungkook and patted his shoulder twice. As she turned around to go back to the food, her demeanour changed and she threw a cheeky grin back at Jungkook, “Now, are you going to stand there forever or help us?” And Jungkook responded with a ‘Come on I’m an injured little boy!’
The next few hours were filled with eating, drinking and a healthy amount of party games but they knew when to draw the line when Yugyeom lost his fifth round of Mario Kart, it was getting late and it was time for them to go home. The excitement had fizzled out and Jihyo had to single-handedly wrestle two sleepy girls to the Uber (she didn’t want to accept any help from the guys, she’s a single mom) and the rest were cleaning up the apartment before Jungkook’s flatmates could come back.
“It was a good party, thanks Kook.” Dongmin smiled softly and ruffled Jungkook’s hair, the other boy leaning slightly into his touch. They had dubbed this the ‘Cha Eunwoo’ effect and boy was it effective.
Jungkook gave into Dongmin’s smothering head pats for a while before waving them away, “Okay, team, rest well. Go home and do whatever you want to do. I’ll see you guys next month?”
“Sure thing, bossman!”
“Okay, King!”
“I’ll see you then, sexy!”
Jungkook saw them all out, except for one guy in particular who was lounging on his bed and cuddling his pink rabbit stuffed toy.
“Give that back, punk!” Jungkook yelled and slapped Yugyeom’s thigh as he dived into the bed. Yugyeom howled in pain as he massaged the reddening area on his thigh and glared at the other boy. He was just about to raise his hand in retaliation when Jungkook challenged him again, “Are you really going to hit a poor, wounded boy?” And Yugyeom gritted his teeth and left a resounding smack right on Jungkook’s ass, making him yowl in pain.
Once the two had settled down enough after fighting for the blanket for 10 minutes (Jungkook won, it was his bed and blanket after all), they laid down side by side in the bed and stared up at the ceiling like they used to do in Jungkook’s childhood bedroom with a ceiling plastered with glow-in-the-dark stars.
“Can you believe that all this,” Yugyeom gestured wildly with his hands, “Happened because we used to make ghost hunting videos when we were kids?” Yugyeom had a small smile on his face, barely visible under the blanket of darkness the night brought and the few rays of moonlight that peeked into the room. Jungkook saw the smile nonetheless and allowed his own lips to curl up into a smile.
“We made friends, we made enemies, we talked to dead people, we helped a dead person, we also helped a living person, didn't we? It was such a wild ride.” Jungkook reminisced as he traced patterns into his blanket.
Yugyeom hesitated for a while before asking, “Do you believe now?”
“Yug, I’ve been living with a ghost for a while, of course I believe.” Jungkook rolled his eyes and although Yuygeom couldn’t see it, he felt it. “I have believed for a long time,” Jungkook said softly and they both recognised the serious tone in his voice.
“Really? It seemed like you didn’t, right until the car accident.” Yugyeom hummed and Jungkook couldn’t even be mad because it really did seem that way.
“I had an inkling after our first few investigations, but I always kept it to myself and kept on shit talking the spirits whenever I could to antagonise them. I thought that would get us the activity we needed.” Jungkook confessed and in the darkness of the room, despite the warm body pressed up beside him, he felt like he wouldn’t be judged no matter what his answer was.
“You did say some really stupid things to the spirits,” Yugyeom agreed, “But I’m glad that it all worked out the way it did and you’re here, with us.” It was during rare moments like this when the two were able to be completely honest with one another, in the safety and comfort of their beds, just like the long talks they had in bed when they were children.
“I’m glad.” Jungkook said at last, “I’m glad that you’re here. I’m glad that we managed to do this together, we even expanded our little group.”
“We’re not so little anymore.” Yugyeom interjected. “Everyone gets lowkey intimidated when 6 men walk into the hotel room with too many cameras to count and a large black bag, like I wonder what they’re thinking when they see us.”
Jungkook laughed at this, his giggles were melodious as he tried to stifle them with his hand but Yugyeom had wrenched it away. “It’s good to hear your laughter again, I know you’ve been very stressed after the accident. I’m thankful for you, Kook, you’ve always been the glue that kept us all together.” Yugyeom said sincerely and Jungkook could really feel the heartfelt intentions behind his best friend’s words.
“And I’m thankful that you’ve stuck beside me this whole time.” Jungkook murmured as he wrapped his arms around the other boy, the two locked in a warm embrace on Jungkook’s bed until…
“Jungkook, we’re home! H-Ahh!” Jimin shrieked as he threw open the door and saw the two silhouettes on the bed, his hands automatically dropping whatever he was holding to cover his eyes. “Shit. Sorry. Taehyung, we gotta go, Jungkook’s busy tonight!” Jimin yelled and slammed the door shut, his ears tuned out the muffles of protests from the other side of the door saying ‘it’s not what it looks like’.
******
Mingyu sighed out loud into the cold night air, watching his breath come out in little puffs of white vapour. “What’s up?” Jaehyun asked from beside him, the two were strolling around a section of the Han river, feeling too full from their celebratory dinner and needing some exercise to help with their digestion.
“It’s not over, right? We’ll still continue to be together as 97 Investigations, right?” Mingyu turned his questioning gaze towards Jaehyun who grinned, showing off his dimples.
“Of course we will, you can’t get rid of us so easily!” Jaehyun reached up to pinch Mingyu’s cheek and the other boy shrieked in pain, attracting the stares of the couples who were hanging by the Han river too.
“That’s a relief.” Mingyu smiled softly, still massaging his cheek that Jaehyun had apparently ‘deformed’ with his pinching (“Wow, it’s like bread.” Jaehyun remarked as he pulled on it again).
Honestly, no one had predicted that the two of them would grow so much in their friendship but constantly being in mortal peril with the guy that you’ve been paired up with did that to people and that’s how Mingyu and Jaehyun found themselves meeting up outside their team schedules, simply to talk about life or discuss certain events that happened during filming.
“So what are you gonna do now?” Mingyu asked, turning to look at the shorter boy.
“I’ll make videos just like I’ve always done, you could cameo in some of my videos if you want? I haven’t really made a confirmed list yet but if you join me in a video, we could cook together?” Jaehyun suggested and Mingyu’s eyes lit up in barely concealed excitement.
“Of course, anything for you Jaehyunnie.” Mingyu tried to pretend he wasn’t absolutely pumped about the idea of filming a normal video with Jaehyun but they both knew that he was absolutely failing at it.
“It’s settled then, I’ll text you the details.” Jaehyun grinned again as they made their way to the subway station.
******
“You look pretty tired, why don’t I drive?” Dongmin offered before Chan could get into the driver’s seat. Between his official job and the man hunt that the 97 team were on to track down Lee, Chan had strung himself dry. He was highly caffeinated, severely overworked and in a great need for sleep.
Choosing not to go against the man who acted like a mom 24/7, Chan placed the car keys into Dongmin’s waiting palm and climbed into the passenger seat. “Thanks for driving, Dongmin. I don’t think I can, actually.” Chan yawned as he said this, further proving his point. Dongmin only smiled kindly and started the engine, smoothly pulling out of the parking lot.
Once Chan had closed his eyes and his head began to droop, Dongmin giggled softly and said, “You know, Chan, I’m really glad that you joined the team. Sometimes you’re like a rock, a very dependable rock and Mingyu and I feel safer when you’re around to guide us. You’re like a big brother even though you’re younger than me.” Not a peep was heard from the boy in the passenger’s seat and so Dongmin continued on.
“You’re like a dad sometimes, maybe it’s because you’re Stray Kids’ dad but I wish you wouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself sometimes. It’s okay for you to be weak too, you don’t always have to be strong.” Dongmin spoke, his eyes trained on the road and he knew that Chan was probably deep in his dreamland already. “We’re a team, you can lean on us and we’ll lean on you too. It breaks my heart to see you so overworked and tired.” Dongmin sighed. It felt pretty good to let it all out like this, despite the fact that the person he was talking to was knocked out like a light.
When Dongmin pulled into Chan’s apartment’s car park, he debated with himself for a quick second if he should wake Chan up. Fearing that the man would have a terrible neck ache if he continued to be in this position, Dongmin gently shook Chan awake and he opened his eyes groggily, “We’re here already?”
Dongmin helped Chan out of the car and pressed the lift for him. He was about to call a cab to take him home when Chan grabbed onto the sleeve of his sweater, still rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Dongmin, stay for the night. It’s late and the cab fares will be expensive. You can stay in the guest room.” Chan said seriously and Dongmin smiled his million dollar smile as he nodded and wrapped an arm around Chan’s shoulders as they made their way back to his apartment.
Later on they would realise that Chan’s sweatpants would look outrageous on Dongmin’s tall frame and they would have a good laugh at the expense of Dongmin’s exposed calves.
As all 6 of them lay in their beds that night, they looked out of the nearest window and observed the night sky. The very same sea of stars blanketed each and every one of them, they were all connected to the same sky. As was every other creature, living or dead, in South Korea. But the 6 of them knew that with this sky that connected them together and the bonds of friendship that welded their lives together in a tangled, beautiful mess, they had forged their own path together. A journey that they didn’t want to end, in this life and next, had only just begun.
Notes:
Hellooo! First of all, if you're reading this, it means you've made it to the end of the fic! I'm so glad that you've read through my not-that-good-but-also-not-horrible(?) writing and I thank you for sticking with this fic from the very bottom of my heart. I'd love to be able to write more and to grow more in terms of my writing capabilities and I welcome any feedback that you guys have to offer!
As such, I've created a twitter account @SunshineMyAreYu if any of you want to DM me or something! It could be a prompt/suggestion/idea/criticism etc etc. If you don't want to, that's perfectly fine too! It'll just be easier to reach me there as compared to ao3! As always, I hope that all of you are safe and healthy. Thank you for the kudos/comments/hits you've gifted my story!
If you are interested in seeing more of my stories, I am currently planning and writing the early few chapters of a Stray Kids Chan-centric police au fic! It'll most likely be titled 'I Am Who' or smth like that so... yea. Once again, thank you for making it this far!
Chapter 23: Bonus-1
Notes:
This is a special Halloween chapter that I had The Feels to write since I loved SM's Halloween stuff. I wish I dressed them up in Halloween costumes but I feel that it'll mess with the story a little and left that out. Nevertheless, please enjoy! Happy Halloween!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“I don’t like this.” Bambam swept the flashlight across the room, the dilapidated house had overgrown weeds on the exterior and every interior surface was caked in a thick layer of dust.
“You think I do?” Seokmin quipped back, his voice quivering and his hand was gripping tightly onto Bambam’s sleeve. Why were they there? Why did they agree to this? How did Jungkook talk them into this? It would be fun, he said. They would be totally fine, he said.
Bambam gulped and looked around nervously, nearly bumping into a trolley that had probably been used to push out tea and snacks from the kitchen. “Shit, that scared me!” Bambam whined and Seokmin jumped as he heard the alarmed noise that left Bambam’s lips.
“No, I can’t do this, let’s go find Chan.” Seokmin whined and tugged harshly on Bambam’s sleeve to lead him to the staircase. The group had split up once again, leaving the two special guests of the episode to fend for themselves in the dark with a single flashlight and two night vision go-pros. As usual, Jungkook and Yugyeom were paired up and exploring the master bedroom upstairs, Dongmin and Chan were looking through the kitchen and pantry, Jaehyun and Mingyu were upstairs and exploring the smaller bedrooms. Seokmin and Bambam were given the honour of going through the living room, which was ironically filled with the souls of the dead.
Now Bambam wasn’t exactly a psychic or a clairvoyant but he sure could sense things. He had always been more in touch with the spirit world around him and he could just barely make out the dark silhouettes moving at the corners of his eyes. Thus, he didn’t bother trying to convince Seokmin to stay and do their part of the investigation properly.
Luckily, neither Chan nor Dongmin were going to blame them for leaving the living room before their 15 minutes were up. “Chan!” Seokmin practically ran into Chan’s arms, the camera that Chan was holding to was knocked out of the way and quickly taken over by Dongmin before it could hit the ground. This was the good thing about Chan and Dongmin, they were oh so comforting and reliable, unlike Yugyeom who would just laugh at them or Mingyu who would get scared with them.
Chan chuckled softly and patted Seokmin’s back gently, “Did you guys see anything?” He asked and Seokmin shook his head while Bambam just didn’t react which didn’t go unnoticed by Dongmin.
It was as if Seokmin and Bambam had found their parents, especially in Chan, and they stuck particularly close to the more experienced paranormal investigators and earned themselves fond chuckles from the two men. “Come on, let’s go find the rest.” Dongmin took charge and led the group of four up the nearby stairs. Dongmin was at the front of the group with Bambam and Seokmin clinging to the back of his shirt and Chan rounding up at the back of the group.
“Did you guys hear that?” Seokmin whispered as soon as they got up the first flight of stairs and reached the stair landing where the two staircases were joined together. Dongmin stilled in his tracks and peered up the upper flight of stairs while Bambam looked down the stairs. Unknown to the rest of the group, Bambam had the tiniest of flinches when he looked down the stairs and the dark figure he had seen hid behind the nearest wall.
Bambam internally cursed Yugyeom before hurriedly saying, “Haha, Seokminnie you’re acting just like Mingyu does in the Investigation videos. Now come on, we can’t just stand here all night.” Bambam nudged the small groove at Dongmin’s back and Dongmin stumbled forward a little and cast a disapproving look at Bambam before climbing the rest of the flight of stairs.
The group of four creeped up the stairs and turned to the hallway with two smaller bedrooms on either side of the hallway and the master bedroom at the very end of the room. The soft sounds of murmuring came from the first door to the left and Dongmin assumed that his two friends - Jaehyun and Mingyu were conducting an investigation in the room and he pushed the door open.
Seokmin sweeped his flashlight across the room, every hair on his body standing on end. He too had heard the voices clearly and had assumed that Mingyu would have been inside the room. But there was nobody there. The room was dark and empty, with nobody in sight and Seokmin couldn’t contain the loud whimper that escaped from his throat. “Oh, I guess there’s nobody here.” Chan whispered and right at that moment, there was a ‘bang’ from the corner of the room.
“Haha, what was that?” Chan continued in a happy-go-lucky tone which only made Seokmin’s eyes widen again. Dongmin turned the flashlight to chase after the sound and there was only a photo frame that lay on the ground, rattling softly from where a draft had seeped in through a crack in the wall.
“You know, the structure here isn’t very good.” Dongmin commented nonchalantly and led the group out of the room again. “Oh well, since Jaehyun and Mingyu aren’t here, we should move on.” Before Dongmin could step out into the hallway, the door slowly swung on its hinges to a close.
“Now what?” Seokmin’s voice was wavering now and Chan knew not to turn the camera onto him since it was highly likely that there were tears streaming down his face now.
Dongmin shrugged and spread a little blanket that he pulled out of nowhere on the floor and patted it as he sat down. “Now, we sit down and investigate.” Since when did Dongmin get so brave when dealing with the supernatural? Nobody knew what happened but something in the original 6 members of the group shifted when they had solved the case of the woman with the ring. Dongmin couldn’t help but feel that their lady had been watching over them the entire time after, despite the fact that they had gone their own ways for a while.
Bambam rummaged through his bag for the gear that he hadn’t really had the chance to use yet. He pulled out an EMF reader, a REM pod and an Ovilus. Dongmin took the EMF reader and passed it to Seokmin. Seokmin looked at it for a good moment before asking what he should be doing with it. Dongmin smiled and nudged his head in the direction of the fallen photo frame lying in the corner. The terror that crossed Seokmin’s face in that moment was a sight to see and it had clearly been a move to tease the special guest but Seokmin actually moved closer to the photo frame, his hand stretched out as far as possible with the EMF reader slowly blinking a yellow-green.
The shift was sudden but Chan had a gut feeling about what was going to happen and had filmed Seokmin walking closer to the photo frame. And he wasn’t disappointed, Seokmin jerked back from the corner and nearly slammed into Bambam who was creeping up behind him as Seokmin let out a shrill shriek. It was truly impressive the way the man could easily hit such high notes, as expected of a musical actor. “Oh my god, did you see that?” Seokmin clutched onto Bambam’s arm and his hand that was still gripping on tightly to the flickering EMF reader was shaking. The EMF reader had flickered from the safe yellow-green to orange the moment Seokmin got closer to the photo frame and it was a clear sign in his head that there was something foul about the broken pieces of wood on the ground.
“Is there someone here with us?” Dongmin called out, unperturbed by the circumstances thus far. Right, this was only the tip of the iceberg, he’d allow himself to shit his pants if things got out of hand. Remind him why he was leading this team again?
Silence answered Dongmin’s question and seeing that the activity had dwindled down, Seokmin calmed down a little and sat down on the blanket that Dongmin had spread out for them. What was a greater way to bond with same-aged friends than sitting together in a dark and musty haunted house? But despite the calmer facade that Seokmin had draped upon himself, he couldn’t help shiftily looking towards the corner where the photo frame lay and he purposely chose the seat where he wouldn’t have to face his back to the corner. That particular honourable seat was left for Bambam who could only sigh.
“Alright, shall we begin properly?” Dongmin clapped his hands together although he didn’t look very excited himself and Bambam and Seokmin could only nod unwillingly. Dongmin placed the REM pod near the photo frame and said loud enough so his voice could echo around the room, “So this thing here is a REM pod and when you touch it,” Dongmin lightly tapped the tip of the antenna that stuck out from the device, “There will be a sound. Now, if there are any spirits still here with us, we’d love it if you could let us know by touching this antenna.” Dongmin finished off neatly and returned back to his seat.
Bambam had picked up the Ovilus and through Chan’s direction, he had managed to turn it on and was now looking through the flurry of words that had appeared on the screen. Seokmin, on the other hand, was still clutching onto the EMF reader for dear life and was holding it out in front of himself like it was a great, mighty sword. Chan was filming Bambam reading out the words that appeared on the Ovilus and Dongmin was doing his best to peer over at the Ovilus screen too.
None of them had noticed it but thanks to the go-pros that Jungkook had forced every single one of them (except Chan) to wear in a harness, the go-pro that Seokmin was wearing had captured something truly strange on it.
In the greenish night-vision footage of the go-pro, what looked like pale, disembodied fingers reached out from the broken photo frame on the floor and held onto the tip of the REM pod antenna.
“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.”
********
Jaehyun was going to sneeze. He had been trying to hold it in for a while, it certainly would spoil the intense mood that he and Mingyu were knee-deep in at this point but the dustiness of the place was really getting to him. Well aware of his loud dad-sneeze, Jaehyun didn’t want to startle Mingyu who was so focused on the swinging dowsing rods in his hands.
Yes, they were back to the non-technology basics this time. Mingyu had argued that the spirits they were likely going to meet were probably children and they may not know how to follow the more complex instructions like using their energy to make the EMF reader flick to a different colour or even make a torch light turn on or off. And that was how Jaehyun found himself looking a little unimpressed as he showed the viewers the scene of Mingyu holding out the two rods parallel to each other and asking the little ghost spirits to make them turn inwards or outwards.
“Achoo!” Oh well, Jaehyun couldn’t help it and he hadn’t had enough time to warn Mingyu which caused the taller man to sprawl out on the ground in shock, the dowsing rods in his hands flying under the bed.
“Jaehyun!” Mingyu chastised, the ‘You scared the shit out of me!’ was swallowed down his throat as he remembered the video was going to be posted on Youtube. “Now look what you made me do, the rods are under the bed that looks like it's about to break at any moment!” Mingyu continued and Jaehyun curiously gave the wooden bed frame a little pat and watched as it lurched towards the side and creaked loudly.
“Err… whoops?” Jaehyun flashed a charming, apologetic smile and Mingyu rolled his eyes. He could never stay mad if the other showed his dimples and bread-like smile. “I’ll pick it up for you.” Jaehyun got down on his knees and was prepared to stick a veiny arm under the bed but Mingyu nearly screeched at him.
“Absolutely not! Do you not watch any horror movies?” Mingyu said in a mix of horror and shock and Jaehyun had the audacity to just shrug. What options did they have? None, exactly, that’s why Jaehyun was ready to put his arm under a bed that could possibly collapse on top of him if he had a slight misstep.
“We need the dowsing rods, though.” Jaehyun said simply and Mingyu chided him, “Not if the monster under the bed eats your arm or something! Jungkook is filthy rich, we’ll just make him buy another pair!” As the two of them squabble a little over whether it was morally right to make their rich friend pay for something that they’d lost (which could have easily been covered by the two of them too), a shuffling noise stole their attention from each other.
Mingyu’s eyes were wide as he looked towards Jaehyun for confirmation. Jaehyun only lifted his index finger to his lips. Be quiet. Of course, Mingyu could do that. The two of them even held their breaths as the shuffling noise continued, no doubt coming from the underside of the bed that Jaehyun was just about to stick his arm into to retrieve two metal rods.
The very two metal rods that they had been fretting about made their appearance in the dimness of the room, glinting joyfully in the measly light of the small torch light Jaehyun had attached to the camera as it reunited with its owners. Mingyu sucked in a breath, no matter how many investigations he’d been on and how many spirits he encountered, he was always fascinated and a little scared whenever he met a new one.
Jaehyun was zooming in on the rods that had appeared on the floor, no doubt pushed out by a spirit or maybe a sentient rat that had heard the discourse going on up above and wanted to make the two men stop. “Thank...you…Spirit?” Mingyu said slowly as he bent down to reach for the rods before Jaehyun stopped him with a firm hand around his wrist. Mingyu looked up in surprise but Jaehyun shook his head and slowly stuck his leg out and dragged the rods closer to the two of them before reaching down to pick it up.
As he had brought his leg closer to the edge of the bed, Jaehyun could feel the chill that enveloped his toes and thought that it was a good call on his part to stop Mingyu from picking the rods up. There was no doubt in his mind that the taller man would have seen the pale figure of a being under the bed had he bent down and Jaehyun’s theory was confirmed when his shoelace that he double knotted all the time came loose as he pulled his foot away.
“Right, so there is a spirit here.” Mingyu breathed out the same moment a soft thump came from the underside of the bed.
********
The spirit box crackled loudly at maximum volume as Jungkook and Yugyeom stared intently at it. They too were sitting on the floor of the room, not trusting of the small loveseat that was caked in several layers of dust and probably carried a few diseases with it. The two were utterly fixated on what the spirit box had been saying thus far, for all it seemed, Jungkook could piece out that there were probably two spirits in the room that were having a back and forth argument.
It wasn’t a big surprise to them considering the fact that the house’s backstory was that it belonged to a family of five with 2 daughters and 1 son. The house had been left to rot ever since tragedy befell the family and they were found in their home after a family suicide. The cause of death was suspected to be cyanide poisoning, with the father of the family being the only person who had been able to get his hands on some cyanide recently. As the case was closed and the land was marked ‘undesirable’, a flurry of ghostly tales were born from the horrors of the house.
Suddenly, what sounded like a harsh door slam could be heard through the static of the spirit box and Yugyeom nearly jumped out of his skin. He was rewarded with a concerned look from Jungkook that he shrugged off easily. At the very back of his mind, Yugyeom worried about his other best friend, Bambam. Surely if the other man had been screaming his head off, Yugyeom would have heard him?
Another crackle of something being shoved heavily against a surface resounded and Jungkook frowned as he loomed over the spirit box. What was the spirit trying to tell them? Were they relieving the memories from when they had passed away? It all sounded very violent and Jungkook was getting a little worried that this could be a red flag and that they needed to leave immediately.
Silence. And then, a moan. Yugyeom’s eyebrows rose so high up his forehead that he was surprised that they didn’t just fly right off his face. “Are you hearing what I’m hearing right now?” Jungkook hissed. Yugyeom raised his hands in a placating manner and put a finger to his lips. A bump and a thud could be heard from the bed that the two men were a couple feet away from and Yugyeom watched the despair crossing into Jungkook’s eyes.
This was horrible, absolutely horrible. What kind of ghosts were these? “Yeah, I think we should let them have their privacy.” Yugyeom dusted off his jeans as he stood up and held out a hand to Jungkook who accepted it readily. There was just one tiny, miniscule problem though. “The door is locked.” Yugyeom groaned with barely any presence of mind to stop himself from slamming his head against the crusty wooden door that had locked them into the room.
“I hate to say this,” Jungkook whispered, “But even I can’t stand the level of fuckery here.” Jungkook gestured to the bed that was starting to jerk towards the wall in rhythmic motions. You know what? Jungkook didn’t even want to question it anymore, he just took it at face value that spirits got lonely too but there had to be some way for the two of them to escape this.
His roaming eyes fell onto the door that they had only opened for a short while to peer into earlier. “The bathroom.” Jungkook whispered and tugged on Yugyeom’s sweatshirt sleeve to get the other man’s attention. Yugyeom nodded quickly and the two strode across the bedroom and entered the bathroom, Jungkook promptly closed it to block out the rising noises being made in the other room. “This is uncomfortable.” Jungkook sighed and tugged at his collar- why did he choose today of all days to wear a polo tee?
“I agree.”
Jungkook had sighed at the agreement but all of a sudden, his blood ran cold. “I hope you’re fucking filming Yugs because…” Jungkook’s sentence trailed off but the two of them knew exactly what he was getting at. The voice that had just spoken up didn’t belong to Yugyeom and was coming from the bathtub behind the shower curtain.
“Is…” Yugyeom closed his eyes briefly, hoping to the gods above that he and Jungkook would make it out this time, “...Is someone there?” Yugyeom forced the words out of his mouth, they left a heavy, unpleasant taste on his tongue and half of him was waiting for a figure to leap out from the darkness and throttle him while the other half of him was wanting to square up. This time, he had come prepared with a squirt gun filled with holy water but even that would only be able to last him for so long.
“I’ve been here all this while.” The voice echoed back, a little floaty, and just as Jungkook shined his torch towards the bathtub, the shower curtain rails screeched as it was being pushed aside. Yugyeom had braced himself, his eyes squinted shut, but there was nothing there- absolutely no one.
“I… we can’t see you.” Jungkook frowned a little at the realisation. Just what was this situation?
“That’s fairly normal, I don’t want you to see me.” The voice of a little girl, Yugyeom noted, called out from the direction of the bathtub. Without a noise, Yugyeom reached into his duffel bag and drew out the thermal reader device and quietly switched it on. When he aimed it at the bathtub, he could see a figure sitting in there with a little head and arms.
“What’s your name?” Jungkook asked softly as he took in the image that Yugyeom had presented to him.
“Eunbi, I’m six.” The little girl said it like it wasn’t a big deal that she had been six for a couple decades now. “Who are you?” She continued with a little bit of wariness creeping into her voice, as if she just realised that there were strangers in her house and in her parents’ bedroom.
“I’m Jungkook, this is Yugyeom. We’re just here to investigate and we’ll be out of here real soon, we’re just waiting for your mum and dad to…” How was Jungkook going to explain the things that adults do to a small six-year-old (even though the kid was dead and had been dead for many years now)? Yugyeom winced at the hole that Jungkook had dug for himself.
“That’s fine, you can stay here until Mummy and Daddy finish wrestling.” The child said innocently and Yugyeom had a conflicted expression on his face. Why he had never encountered something like this, it was truly strange and he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d happened to put on some magical glasses that inhibited his ability to see red flags.
“Hmm yeah, sure…” Jungkook didn’t sound too convinced either and Yugyeom breathed a soft sigh of relief, at least his best friend was still capable of thinking clearly. “But kid,” Jungkook continued and Yugyeom snapped his neck to look at his friend, “Are you wearing any clothes? Is it okay for us to stay here?” Jungkook had an uncomfortable look on his face and the shower curtain slammed shut against the wall, blocking the empty space where they had ascertained the child to be from their view.
Yugyeom, for the first time in his life, was at a loss for words.
********
Bang Chan asked himself for the millionth time why he did these kinds of things to himself. Not only was a frightened Lee Seokmin clinging to him like a baby koala, he had also knocked the camera out of his hands. It was only by the grace of god above that Chan managed to catch the camera before it lay in a heap of broken pieces on the floor. Dismayed, Chan turned to face the quivering man attached to his side. Dongmin, catching the resigned look on Chan’s face, started to pry off the guest member and brought him closer to himself.
Bambam was up on his feet, walking closer to the REM pod that had gone off a few seconds prior. “I think it’s broken guys.” Bambam’s eyebrows knitted together as he held up the REM pod and showed the part where the antenna had been bent beyond recognition.
“What in the world…” Dongmin could barely breathe as he strode forward to grab the REM pod that Bambam had brought back to the group. “Damn it, Jungkook’s gonna make us pay for this thing.” Dongmin groaned and looked like he wanted to smash his head against the box.
“It’s not our fault that happened,” Chan reminded the rest of them before turning back to the corner where they had put the REM pod down.
“R-right, so who did it?” Seokmin was on the verge of tears now, his skin was clammy with sweat but he didn’t seem to care as he pressed himself even closer to Dongmin’s side as if the man would be able to protect him if anything had lunged out from the darkness.
“Yeah, who did it? It wasn’t very nice and we already taught you how to use it properly.” Dongmin chided and Seokmin was about to pass out. Since when did the man have the gall to scold the undead spirits?
Chan, on the other hand, raised a valid point. “Well, we did tell them to touch it but… we didn’t really tell them not to use too much force or anything. What if they couldn’t control their strength?” He theorised and Bambam nodded reluctantly at the possibility. Anyways, the fact of the matter was that they were down by one device and they just had to use the EMF reader or the Ovilus to continue their investigation.
“Okay, now listen carefully,” Dongmin sounded like a preschool teacher teaching a particularly hard class, “This device is called the Ovilus and it picks up on signals and translates them into words that we can understand. Now what you have to do is to basically speak really loudly into it so that your signals can be sent across and we’ll be able to understand what you say. Do you want to try?”
It was silent for a while before the screen of the Ovilus lit up with the input of a new word- Min. Strange, that wasn’t a word that would simply come up in the Ovilus reading. Seokmin gulped and turned to look at Dongmin. There were three Mins here- Dongmin, Seokmin and Mingyu- just what or who was this ghost referring to? And more importantly, what did it want with them?
Chan cleared his throat, and nudged his foot at Dongmin to say something. Dongmin had just been staring at the Ovilus screen with an unimpressed look etched on his face. For some reason, Chan felt like if that disappointed gaze had been directed at him, he would feel his heart shrivel up and die.
“Okay, and? I’m Dongmin, this is Seokmin and we have another friend in the house, Mingyu. What are you trying to say?” Dongmin asked the empty air around him but he got nothing in reply. Until the EMF reader in Bambam’s hand lit up all the way to red when he happened to lift it in Seokmin’s direction. “I guess you’re the lucky Min,” Dongmin winced apologetically and Seokmin could only blanch.
With a tiny squeak, Seokmin buried himself into Dongmin's side and held still and hoped that the ghost that had taken a sudden interest in him would stop. "You can't show them you're so afraid." Chan sighed and lowered the large camera. It was just at that moment that something large and furry flew at them and earned a dolphin screech from both Seokmin and Bambam.
Now Dongmin knew that Seokmin was a vocalist with godly vocals but he had no idea that the rapper Bambam was able to reach such a siren-like pitch. "Guys," Dongmin whispered as he bent down to pick up what had flown at them through the darkness, "It's a stuffed toy." Great, he was just pointing out the obvious now. Bang Chan zoomed in on the pink bear with its fur matted down with dust and grime. Bambam suppressed a shudder at the sight of the teddy bear with the beady little eyes, it just radiated bad vibes and he didn't want to vibe with that.
"Put it down," Bambam whined and tugged at Dongmin's sleeve. Chan was starting to think that Dongmin found Bambam and Seokmin cute, evident from the wide smile that he sported whenever one of them clung to him like a koala. But Chan could relate, he just didn't want to remain in the dark, dark room and a violent ghost that threw things around like a tempermental child.
"Wait…" Chan whispered as he realised something, "Isn't this a child's room?" Dongmin formed an 'O' expression with his mouth as he swivelled his torch around the room and lit up the furniture. Chan was right, the bedframe was smaller than usual and it was quite a reasonable evaluation seeing that it was a smaller bedroom where the children usually slept in. "Is there a child spirit here with us?" Chan asked out and Dongmin angled his go-pro at the cameraman to make sure that he would be part of the video too.
Silence ensued and four pairs of eyes wandered around as they watched for any movements in the dark corners that Dongmin’s torch couldn’t cover. It took a while before the Ovilus screen lit up again with the input of a new word and Dongmin raised it towards his face to read it better.
“Demon.” Dongmin read out. Damn it, there was always a fine line between talking to an actual child spirit and talking to a demonic entity pretending to be a child spirit. It just so happened that they were given the short end of the stick this time. Dongmin sighed and was prepared to make the unit pack up and move on to the next room (he wouldn’t interact with demons unless Jungkook forced him to, but that was a different time) but Bambam was frozen to the spot on which he was sitting, pointing a shaky finger at the left corner of the room.
Seokmin looked up sharply and when he saw the silhouette moving from wall to wall and circling around the group, he almost lost it. From somewhere to his right side, he could hear Chan curse softly in English, a curse that he heard frequently from Vernon, Joshua and (strangely) Jihoon. But that wasn’t a good sign. If the veteran ghost hunter here was worried about the circumstances, Seokmin knew that they were royally screwed.
Dongmin held up a hand to stop Seokmin and Bambam from panicking as he dug through his bag and pulled out a vial of clear water and a whole bag of white granules- salt, Bambam recognised after a few seconds. Chan motioned for Bambam to shove all their supplies into a bag and led Seokmin closer to the door as Dongmin popped open the vial and poured a bit of the water onto his hand, flinging the droplets in the general direction of the shadow. There was a screeching sound and the smell of something burning permeated the air. Without a second glance, Dongmin shoved them all out of the room and shut it tightly before ripping the plastic bag open and drawing a line of salt in front of the door and hopefully sealing whatever was in there to the confines of the room.
“It’s not gonna hold for too long, let’s get the rest.” Chan spoke up and Dongmin agreed with him.
********
Mingyu and Jaehyun made eye contact with each other for a brief moment but there was a whole conversation going on between them. At the end, Mingyu shook his head as he gnawed at his lip and Jaehyun just sighed. There was no point in forcing Mingyu to do something, Jaehyun was weak towards his puppy dog eyes.
“Fine, let’s just go to the next room then.” Jaehyun caved in and Mingyu brightened up immediately at the prospect of leaving the room. He had a really bad feeling about whatever was hiding under the bed. It could have been because of the horror movies that Minghao was forcing him to watch to ‘prepare for Halloween’ or the pure fact that Mingyu was sensitive to these kinds of things and the nagging feeling in his gut had never failed him before.
As Jaehyun crossed the room to get to the closed door with Mingyu hot on his heels, they both heard a soft click and Mingyu turned a shade paler. Oh no, this is not happening right now. But they were right and they knew it the moment Jaehyun’s fist caught onto the doorknob and the damned piece of metal didn’t budge. Mingyu’s hand automatically reached for the gun holster around his waist that he had stolen from Lee Chan’s cowboy cosplay. The water gun he had was filled to the brim and from his peripheral, he could see Jaehyun reaching up to grasp the cross hanging on his throat.
“I didn’t see this coming.” Jaehyun choked out and Mingyu agreed to his confession. Now they were stuck in a room, with something hiding under the bed- a true nightmare of kids of all ages, and Mingyu was regretting their decision to close the door. He’d make sure that they didn’t do that at future locations… that’s if they were able to make it out alive. It was as though Jaehyun had heard his thoughts as he clapped a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t stress out Gyu, the door is weak and old, we can break through it.”
And Mingyu felt hope for a moment before it was immediately crushed when Jaehyun slammed his shoulder against the door and… nothing. The door didn’t even rattle in the slightest and Jaehyun closed his eyes in pain, probably regretting all his life decisions at that moment. “Come on, macho man.” Mingyu led Jaehyun back to the center of the room where they had laid out their own blanket. But Mingyu didn’t want to sit on the floor and accidentally make eye contact with whatever was under the bed and so he lifted the blanket with the tip of his toes and laid it out on a somewhat stable-looking chair nearby.
Jaehyun gratefully took a seat, still cradling the sore arm in his other hand. Despite the way the door looked unstable as hell, it was apparently pretty solid and he was pretty sure that it had something to do with the proverbial monster-under-the-bed. The two just sat and stood there for a few minutes in silence, not too sure on what they should do next. Mingyu was just about to whip out his phone to call Dongmin for help when the doorknob turned and his eyes widened in surprise.
The door swung open on its hinges with a loud creak and there was a figure standing at the door, shining a bright torch into Mingyu and Jaehyun’s eyes. Mingyu had his arm outstretched and opened his mouth to warn the 4 others not to come in and close the door but before he could even make a sound, a strong gust of wind swept the four others into the room and off their feet. What really was the whole cherry on top was the resounding bang of the door being slammed back into place.
‘You caught that all on tape right?” Bambam asked, his resignation palpable in the room. Chan just nodded with a grim look on his face and a slightly askewed camera that had been tilted when the wind forced him into the room. Dongmin was up on his feet and had an arm outstretched to Seokmin who was still on the dusty floor, his mouth gaping open as he looked into the darkness underneath the bed.
“What in the world is that!” Seokmin screeched and wrapped his arms and legs around the tree that was Dongmin. Dongmin stepped back in alarm, his arms encircling around Seokmin to catch him and looked straight at Mingyu in alarm.
Mingyu scratched at his neck. “Well, we don’t know and we didn’t want to find out but the room door was locked and we couldn’t get out… until you guys opened the door.” Mingyu was a little embarrassed about the fact that he and Jaehyun were going to walk out on an investigation but was met with no judgement from the four newcomers.
“Wait, so we’re stuck in here?” Bambam was starting to freak out. “I swear I’ll end Yugyeom for making me come here. And if he’s dead already, I’ll resurrect him just to kill him again.” Bambam ranted as he headed straight to the door and yanked at it a couple of times but to no avail. He sent a pleading look at Chan who just handed off the camera to Dongmin and cracked his knuckles before giving a couple of hard pulls at the door. Seokmin could swear that he saw the wood of the door curve with Chan’s pulls but the door refused to budge and Chan was dejected. Perhaps if they’d brought Changbin or even Jeongin, the door wouldn’t stand a chance between the three of them.
Jaehyun told them how he had tried to break it down but instead suffered a crushing defeat and a sore shoulder. “Okay, okay. If we follow the normal movie logic, we’ll either be locked here until we die, or we have to solve a problem of sorts or a man with an axe will try to chop the door down and kill us all. Preferably someone named Johnny.” Mingyu shot a meaningful look at Jaehyun towards the end of his sentence and Jaehyun had the energy to give the guy a little chuckle in response.
“I’d be relieved if our Johnny came over to rescue us with an axe,” Jaehyun shook his head with a small smile. They fell back into a silence, it was becoming a recurring thing now, and Seokmin gave the bed a wide berth as he shifted over to where Mingyu and Jaehyun were. The duo had their EMF reader out and the dowsing rods sat next to Jaehyun untouched.
“So did you guys have any interactions with…” Bambam waved his arms around in the direction of the bed, his words unsaid but his meaning was perfectly interpreted by the rest of the group. Jaehyun tilted his head from side to side in a noncommittal shrug.
Mingyu made a face as he said, “You see, we were using the dowsing rods and they somehow fell under the bed. We didn’t want to reach in and get it but the rods started to get pushed out from under the bed. You can probably guess what happened next.” Seokmin looked really disturbed by the story and grabbed onto Mingyu’s arm. Bambam thought to himself that out of all the people in the room, Seokmin had chosen to cling to Mingyu who was the notorious scaredy cat of the original group of 6.
At this point, Chan was still empty handed with Dongmin holding onto the camera equipment. “No, no. I got this, you take over for now.” Dongmin reassured the dethroned cameraman. He knew that Chan was a natural leader and he had a feeling that the other 97-liner would be able to get them out of the current sticky situation. Chan was a little taken aback but he took it in his stride and grabbed at his team’s bag for the devices.
Chan handed the EMF reader to Bambam and held the Ovilus in his own. Mingyu looked at him a little confused but before he could ask, Chan spoke up, “The spirits broke the REM pod and these are all we really have left.” Mingyu had a disturbed expression on his face but he had no doubt that the REM pod had really been messed with by spirits after seeing the activity in the house.
“So, spirit under the bed, do you mind telling us your name or what you are? We can’t really see you right now.” Chan said as he switched on the Ovilus and Bambam carefully stepped towards the bed, making grand sweeping motions over it with the EMF reader. He already expected it but he still jumped out of his skin when the light green light had switched up to red real quick. Chan gave the Ovilus a moment to set up and a string of words started to roll out on the screen.
“Find. Me. Down. Under.” Chan read out loudly, his eyes trained on the screen just in case other words started to pop up. “You know, I doubt you’re down under.” Chan laughed awkwardly, his joke completely flying over the head of everyone except Bambam and Jaehyun. Even Dongmin hadn’t been able to catch onto Chan’s double meaning. “Right, so. You want us to find you under the bed? Knock on the bed twice for yes and once for no.” Chan instructed and the team held their breaths in silence as they listened out for anything.
One knock. Two knocks.
Chan bit back a groan as he realised what he’d got himself into. Now he had to look under the creepy bed and possibly get mauled in the face by a spirit. Did spirits like to bite other people’s faces off? Bambam clapped Chan’s upper back with sympathy etched deep into his face. Fine, someone had to take one for the team and unfortunately it was Chan’s turn this time. Oh well, better him than one of the others.
“Tell my boys I love them,” Chan said dramatically as he turned to face the camera, “Jisung please make sure Changbin doesn’t stay too long in the studio, he kinda goes crazy. Minho, don’t overfeed the kids, Felix, don’t give Hyunjin the brownies he gets a little hyperactive. Seungmin, you’re in charge, please remember to give Jeongin his meals three times a day.” Chan finished his little list of instructions, to the amusement of the other members of the team.
“Don’t worry, Taeyong can always take in more kids.” Jaehyun grinned.
“Seungcheol too.” Mingyu and Seokmin chorused at the same time.
Chan could only shake his head at the audacity before steeling his nerves and crouching down onto the dusty wooden floor, his eyes closed tightly together. “Alright, I’m here.” Chan’s eyes flew open and stared into the darkness of the shadows under the bed. It looked even scarier up close and he tried to adjust his eyes to the sudden darkness under the bed. And then he saw it. Or should he say her.
The girl was covered head to toe in dust and cobwebs, her eyes rimmed red with the pupils a complete, solid black. Her hair was short and coloured white with fallen plaster and her lips were dried and cracked. She didn’t say a word as she stared straight at him. Chan matched her stare evenly, despite her being a little kid, it wasn’t wise for him to let her know that he was afraid. Very slowly, her corners of her lips started to rise into a sinister looking smile, her teeth stained yellow and black.
“Ayo, what the-” Chan gasped before he was promptly pulled up by his armpit by Mingyu. Chan’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Mingyu, stunned by what he had seen under the bed. Shaking his head from side to side to disperse the image in his head, Chan turned to the door and said, “Since I’ve done what the spirit wanted, can we go yet?”
Bambam shrugged and strode towards the door and grasped onto the doorknob. His heart stopped into his chest when the doorknob clicked and he said a little prayer in his heart that the door wouldn’t open to show him a ghostly figure. The door swung open and Bambam heard ‘Run’ before multiple rapid footfalls came from behind him and he was shoved out of the room and into the hallway.
What was happening? Bambam had no idea either but all he could see was Chan shoving everyone out of the room with the Ovilus screen scrolling wildly with an influx of new words. When everyone had made it out, Mingyu slammed the door shut with his other hand holding onto his holy water gun. Dongmin reached into his pocket and ripped the salt packet out of it, flinging it wildly in the direction of the door and drawing another line to confine whatever they had encountered into the room.
“What was that?” Mingyu was on the verge of tears now. “All I wanted to be was a paranormal investigator, how did we end up becoming exorcists?” Mingyu’s voice was shaking as he said this and Chan wrapped an arm around his shoulder to comfort him. It was a pretty funny sight since Chan was much shorter than Mingyu and was practically tip-toeing and forcing Mingyu to bend to his height.
“I don’t know, Gyu, but let’s just get Yugyeom and Jungkook and get the heck out of here.” Dongmin bit his lip, he was starting to get antsy at this point. Chan affirmed his idea and held out his hands for the camera seeing Dongmin’s hand starting to shake either from fear or the strain of carrying the camera around. Dongmin immediately handed the camera to Chan with a grateful smile and the whole lot of them went straight for the master bedroom where they knew Jungkook and Yugyeom would be in.
The door swung open loudly and…nothing.
“What is this… Where are they?” Bambam was flabbergasted at this point. But Jaehyun’s eyes were sharper and he used his chin to point at the closed bathroom door attached to the room. Mingyu was standing guard with his back along the door to make sure that it wouldn’t slam shut and lock them inside the room. Dongmin stood by him, knowing that his tall friend wouldn’t be able to handle being alone near the dark hallway.
Bambam, Seokmin, Jaehyun and Chan came closer to the bathroom door and Seokmin shuddered visibly as the air started to get colder. They could hear the faint muffling of voices from the other side of the door and Seokmin prayed that the other two would be safe and sound. The reason why they were in the bathroom was lost on him but he didn’t judge. Jaehyun tried the doorknob but it didn’t budge.
“Yugyeom? Are you in there? If you are, open the door for us. If you aren’t Yugyeom and Jungkook, don’t bother opening the door.” Bambam called out and they heard a soft click as Yugyeom opened the door tentatively and poked his head out. Good, he wasn’t missing any limbs and there wasn’t any blood on him.
“Oh, you guys are done? How did you even get in, the door was locked.” Yugyeom sounded genuinely surprised like he hadn’t just spent a shit load of time inside the little bathroom and the master bedroom.
“We need to leave.” Chan voiced out in a no-nonsense attitude and Yugyeom was alerted by the worried tone in his voice. Yugyeom opened the door wider and Jungkook popped up from behind him, his eyes wide.
Yugyeom turned to give Jungkook a quick glance and Jungkook understood immediately, reaching down to pick up their devices and equipment to pack up. Yugyeom and Jungkook filed out of the bathroom, not before turning to the direction of the bathtub and saying their goodbyes.
The rest of the team looked a little alarmed at this but a warning look from Jungkook and a slight shake of Yugyeom’s head told them to save their questions for later. The team had been accustomed to each others’ quirks and they knew that the two would explain everything to them when they were in the right place and they would have to similarly explain their own experiences to them.
When Jaehyun pressed a firm and to both Yugyeom and Jungkook’s backs to make them leave the room quicker, they shared a confused look before following Dongmin out of the room. Once everyone had filed out of the room, Jungkook raised an eyebrow at the salt lines drawn around the two smaller bedrooms.
“Everyone get into the car.” Jungkook ordered and the team followed immediately. Dongmin was on driving duty with Jungkook sitting in the passenger’s seat. After the previous car had gotten trashed, Jungkook had used the funds they made from the channel to buy a new car. It was an 11-seater family car and Jungkook had definitely gotten some looks when he brought the guys to take a look at the car. They, however, had a rule that there always had to be someone seated in each row of the car to make sure that nothing funky fresh was going on. As such, Yugyeom and Bambam were in the first row, Mingyu and Seokmin were in the second row while Jaehyun and Chan sat in the back row with the camera equipment spread evenly between row 2 and 3.
Dongmin sped (within the legal speed limit) to the hotel that they’d booked for the night and they filed into the lift in total silence. It was a considerably strange sight to see 8 slightly dusty looking men going up together in complete silence at 2 am but the hotel staff kept that to themselves. When Jungkook finally flung the door of his and Yugyeom’s hotel room open, the group collapsed onto the carpeted floor, truly exhausted by their latest endeavours.
“So,” Jungkook asked sharply as he took a swig of water, “What the hell was that all about?”
********
“No way.”
“I can’t tell who got the shortest end of the stick here.”
“Do you think spirits can even have-” Bambam was silenced by Mingyu clapping a hand over his mouth and completely sealing the Thai man’s mouth with his enormous palm.
“Dude, this is going on Youtube. We’re a family-friendly channel.” Mingyu nagged.
“There’s no way you’re a family-friendly channel.” Seokmin deadpanned and got a slap on the back of his head from Yugyeom who told him not to insult his baby (the channel).
“Alright, let’s come back to the main topic.” Jungkook waved his arms around to capture the attention from the rest of the team members and their guest stars. “So, to summarise,” Jungkook poised his hands on the table, his palms together and forming a triangle shape with his elbows, “Bam and Seokmin got scared and went to find Chan and Dongmin. Then a weird child spirit came at them and they used salt and holy water on it, meaning that it was probably something a little nastier than what we were hoping for. While that was happening, Jae and Gyu lost their rods and a spirit returned it to them but locked them in. Team A then walked into Team B’s room and they got stuck together because a ghost under the bed was looking for validation. And lastly, Yugs and I were stuck in a room with two freaky ghosts and had a little girl in the bathtub with us. For all reasons and purposes, I think that the little girl we met was different from the other spirits since we couldn’t actually see her form.”
“Well, we can’t know for sure what we saw in there.” Jaehyun reasoned. At the end of the day, they weren’t experts on the paranormal and they just had to be prepared for the worst case scenario which has saved them time after time.
“Jae’s right. It really do be like that and we’re done with this creepy house. Lesson to learn for our viewers, bring salt and holy water guns everywhere with you when you go paranormal hunting.” Mingyu pointed a finger at the camera that Chan panned towards him as they filmed their closing statement.
“Many thanks to Bambam and Seokmin for joining us as our guest stars for this special episode. Stay safe, drink some pumpkin spice lattes this spooky season and this wraps up our Halloween special! Drop a like or comment down below if you liked this episode and you want to see more guest stars! Remember to subscribe to our channel!” Dongmin was given the task of ending the video which he pulled off flawlessly, a testament to the numerous commercials that he had to do during his career.
Just as he said it, the lights were cut and Seokmin’s shrill scream could be heard resounding on the whole level. As always, it was a good end to the investigation.
“Jungkook, I’m never coming back.” Bambam sighed into the darkness and the camera recording was promptly shut off.
Notes:
Depending on my free time, I'd like to write little extras for this work of mine! I'm not sure if I'll do a season 2 because I have other spooky stories I want to write (hint hint: 00 line interactions) but I'm still taking baby steps. I thank you all for the support you've shown this story and hopefully you wanna read my other works too? O///O (this is meant to be some kind of blushing emoji btw)
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