“Key!” There was a violent shake against his shoulder, sputtering him awake from the murky brown surface he’d have the pleasure of calling his desk.

His head spun up, eyes groggy and red in the corners, hair ruffled in every which way. And as his neck bent upwards to meet with the person who’d pulled him from slumber, he could feel the weight of the black strap against the back of his neck that held his camera, pull down at his skin, most likely creating another red mark that his aunt would not be happy about.

“Wha-Wha!” He sputtered, waving his hands around the person in front of him.

When his vision finally crept out of the blurry zone, he could see it was no one but a classmate trying to get his attention. His chest heaved in and out as he took a long breath and swiped his hand over his face.

“How…can I help you?” He prolonged the words in an uninterested tone.

“You’re missing Luna’s story!” He shouted and immediately ran back over to the circle that had formed around Luna and her sister V.

“Story?” He questioned, eyebrow raising from sudden to lack of interest.

There was always some sort of stories running amuck through this school. Always something supernatural or out-of-this-world. So much, that Key would bleakly get uninterested in it. His mind had no time for things that didn’t exist. That’s what was wrong with the rest of his classmates, always filling their heads with these stories about their damn hometown or ‘The Forest’ as everyone loved to pronoun it.

“Yeah,” Came Onew’s voice from the side of him.

He turned to his right side and saw Onew sitting at his desk as well, away from the circle of madness happening across the way. Notebook out, probably writing some sort of notes or reminders to himself like usual.

“Apparently over the weekend, Luna heard a scream coming from The Forest while she was walking from the store late at night.” He continued.

Key rolled his eyes in disdain.

“There are three things wrong with that story.” Key remarked, stretching his arms outwards and bending his back until he felt relief. “Night, walking, and Luna.”

Onew chuckled, then looked back down on his paper to jot something down. Key adjusted himself in his seat.

“One, who walks from the store at night and doesn’t expect something creepy happen to themselves and two,” Key placed two fingers into the air with his right hand, “this is Luna we’re talking about. She always has some crazy story ready to eat up the attention of the simple minded folks we love to call our classmates.” He joked.

Onew couldn’t help but let out another chuckle as well.

“Oh really!” Luna shouted from the back.

Key arched his eyebrow and took interest enough to turn around and see the mass amount of students open up the circle so that Luna and V were visible in his line of eyesight.

“Yes, really Luna.” He replied. “When haven’t you had some crazy theory about the damn woods.”

“But this time,” she placed a finger into the air, creating that dorky smile she’d always pull off when she held some sort of evidence, “I was on the phone with V when it happened. She heard the scream, didn’t ya V?”

Her head anchored towards her sister who stood right next to her building off the same confidence.

“She’s right.” But her sister’s tone was more settled than hers, always meeting common ground, an aspect that differed the two, for V wasn’t a complete non-believer of the supernatural like everyone knew Key to be, but she had her moments where she’d simply listen to her sister’s crazy antics about The Forest and let it go.

“I was on the phone with her, and she’d nearly gave me a heart attack when she didn’t answer.” The second part of that sentence was deeper and pulled more authority as she looked upon Lunar with the utmost anger.

“Hey, I said sorry. What more ya want.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Key pursed his lips.

“Okay, so the two of you heard a scream in the woods. Report it to the police.”

“We did.” They answered in unison.

“And?”

“At first, they weren’t going to do anything because I’m the one who brought it up,” Luna replied.

“But then I added in that I had heard it as well,” V finished, “so they sent three guys to go investigate.”

“Did they find anything?” A classmate asked from the far back.

Both sisters hung their heads low and began to shake them.

“No.” They answered.

Suddenly the atmosphere changed and disappointment staggered through the room like a murky fog. Key smirked in simple satisfaction, in the accomplishment he acquired from being right.

“Debunking Key, at it again.” Onew whispered from the side with a slight of a smile.

“Someone has to keep everyone level headed.” He laughed.

****

Before Key got the chance to open his locker that sat side by side with Onew’s, he watched as Onew swung his locker open, digging into books and papers. Key eyed the side of the door curiously. Yellow and pink sticky notes clung onto the sides, words written in tiny letters, a writing that Key told Onew a long time ago, no one could read. His eyebrows furrowed at this, however. There was more than usual, and if he knew his friend well, Onew only wrote on sticky notes when he’d know he’d forget something.

“Onew.” Key spoke.

Immediately his friend anchored his head away from the inside of his locker and panned his eyes toward him.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Key lifted his finger and pointed to the numerous amount of sticky notes suffocating the side door of his locker.

“Can’t sleep or something. What’s with all the sticky notes?”

Onew’s eyes turned them but the way his eyes gleamed at them, it was almost as if he’d forgotten they were even there. There was some sort of chuckle or sigh, and immediately he snatched them off, stuffing them inside the back of his locker like he did with most unwanted things.

“Seemed impor-“

“Nah.” Onew interrupted. “It was just stuff from last week. It’s old.” He assured.

Key nodded his head and turned around to open his, only to be shocked and nearly have his heart burst from his body at the sight of Luna standing there. He grasped his chest in exasperation and heaved out a heavy sigh.

“Goddamnit Luna! You scared the outta me!” He yelled.

She pursed her lips and tapped her foot against the floor, cocking one hip out to the side while folding her arms.

“I know you’re against anything supernatural Key, but don’t you think it’s weird that they’re not here.” She leaned her body towards his when whispering the last part. The scent of flowery perfume beading off her body while some of her hair strands that lingered over her shoulder defied the rest that were safely pinned to the back.

Habitually, he rolled his eyes and began to unlock his lock and open up his locker, arching his eyebrow in annoyance.

“And exactly who the hell are you talking about now Luna?” he sighed, not really wanting to know or care.

“Taemin and Minho.” She spread her arms wide, only slightly, as a gesture to their bodies being found nowhere in the area.

“Maybe they skipped. Ever thought about that instead of coming up with one of your crazy ideas.”

“Yeah right. Have you seen their fathers? No way those two would skip. And it just so happens that they skipped on the first day back to school from the weekend. The weekend in which me and V heard a scream come from the woods. I’ve been telling you guys something’s off about them. And what kind of luck would have it that they just so happened to skip on the same day? They’re definitely not hanging out together, they hate each other.”

“Or…” Key responded, closing his locker after putting some of his belongings out and placing some in. “Maybe they just act like they hate each other so people like you won’t go asking questions or snooping around.”

made a “pfft” sound as she cocked her head back and smirked in opposition.

“Now who’s the crazy one. No way those two secretly like each other in any sort of manner. I bet you they had something to do with that scream I heard in the woods.”

“Right,” Key cut off. “the same scream that V heard too right? Or perhaps the scream you wanted her to hear.”

“What?”

“Oh come on Luna, it’s not the first time you’ve tried to scare your sister just so you can have her believe in whatever concoction you’ve thought up.”

“I don’t know why I try to explain myself to you-“

“I don’t know why either.” Key cut back. “And now you’ve got the whole student body believing your crazy shenanigans even though the police didn’t find anything.”

“Just because they didn’t find anything, doesn’t mean something didn’t happen.” She spat back.

“At this, I would have to agree.” Onew cut in, always with his half smiles full of warmth. A friendly invitation to anyone who talked with him. Immediately, Luna’s cocky demeanor vanished. She even stood up a little more, correcting her posture and smiled back at Onew, throwing those loose strands back.

“Onew’s just being friendly. Something we all know him to do. You know, playing devil’s advocate.” Key replied.

“Not really,” Onew responded. “I mean Key; Luna does have a point. If she really did hear something out there then just because the police didn’t find anything, doesn’t mean that something didn’t happen.”

“Thank you, Onew.”

“Luna!” V called. She turned around to find her sister standing in the middle of the hall with her book bag laced around her back and waving her sister towards her. “I’m ready to go home, let’s go!”

Luna rolled her eyes but adjusted the strap clinging to her shoulder that harbored her backpack. With one last look of disapproval towards Key, she turned around and made her way towards her sister, sauntering in heavy steps.  

“You really shouldn’t get her hopes up like that.” Key said while turning around to face his friend. Onew smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“I like to stay optimistic.”

“So you’re telling me you believe that something happened in those damn woods?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged his shoulders again, “but it is a little weird that both Taemin and Minho aren’t at school today. It is a Monday after all.”

Key couldn’t help but smirk, lifting his lip to the side and shaking his head. He even chuckled a bit, slapping his arm around his best friend.

“You’re the reason the rest of the class doesn’t listen to me when I try to clear their minds of all this crazy supernatural stuff.” He laughed.

They began to walk together, following the last of the students down the hall who too, were leaving school. He looked towards the huge windows for a moment and saw the watermelon sky that gave off a warm light, signaling the end of another school day. Their steps began to synchronize.

“You coming over my house today?” Onew finally spoke, breaking the silence between the two of them as they both stepped out into the outdoors.

“Not today.” Key responded disappointedly.

He lifted up his camera that swayed against his chest from the straps around his neck.

“I gotta upload these to my laptop at home so that I can make some more room on my memory card.”

“Speaking of which, you fill out those applications to that university you wanted to go to yet? This is our last year.”

Key switched his head slightly from side to side, pursing his lips in indifference.

“Not yet. I don’t know. Not sure if they’ll pick me.”

“Well, never know if you don’t apply.” His friend slapped him on the back. “Plus, I think you’ve got a pretty good chance. Might be a prestigious school or whatever, but no one takes good photos like you.”

“Thanks.” Key muttered.

Now it was Onew’s turn to roll his eyes.

“I’m serious. Walk you halfway to your house?” He asked.

“Sure.”

With steps still synchronizing, the two of them walked down the sidewalk but Key couldn’t help but look at the sky. It was a perfect shade of pink and yellow. A perfect picture. But as his fingers clasped over his camera he remembered there wasn’t any room, disappointment settled in. And somehow, his eyes wandered onto The Forest that surrounded them. Closer to the school than any other part of their town but the trees were still mesmerizing to look at. Something he’d started to take notice in when he thought about applying for the university. Those would be a great picture. As far as he knew, though, no one ever went into those woods. Probably because the massive amount of supernatural stories that wandered around it. Perhaps…

Something flashed by through the trees.

Key stopped moving, almost jerking back.

“Key?” Came Onew’s voice. “Are you alright?”

He blinked immensely, studying his eyes towards the woods.

“Um…yeah, sorry. Just got lost in my thoughts is all.”

“Oh, Okay.”

Perhaps…for once, Luna’s story wasn’t complete bull. Or perhaps, her story was starting to get to his head, something he’d never allow.