“Ever so slowly the girl approached the basement door,” Sehun intoned, lowering his voice to a chilling octave. The fire’s flames made shadows dance across his face as he crept around the circle of stones where the girls sat. “All she could hear was the incessant sound. Tap… tap… tap…”

Irene huddled against Tzuyu’s side, her eyes wide with fear as she gripped her friend’s sweatshirt sleeve meanwhile Jisoo clung to Tzuyu’s other side. Tzuyu, of course, was totally calm. She followed Sehun’s progress with a smirk.

“Her hand shook as she reached for the brass handle. Tap…tap…tap…tap…” He crossed behind them so that it felt as if the rumble of his voice was tingling down Irene’s neck. “She held her breath, her tongue dry. Tap…tap…tap…tap… And just as her fingertips grazed the cold, rusted knob… the beast came flying out of the cabinet and sunk its teeth into her neck!”

Sehun flung his arms around them from behind. Irene’s heart jumped, she and Jisoo screamed, the dissonant sound echoing across the placid waters of Geomeun (black) Pond and through the mountains.

“Oh my God!” Jisoo shouted, covering her pretty face with her hands. “You are so evil!”

Sehun laughed, standing up straight. Jisoo gave his bare calf a whack as he strode by. “Hey! Aw! Nice claws.”

Jisoo glanced at her fingernails, which were tagged and bitten to the quick, then curled her hands into fists like she was trying to hide them. In Irene’s opinion, Jisoo’s nails were about the only imperfect part of her. By the flickering of the firelight, the girl looked like a delicate doll. Her black hair was woven into a side braid that looked like something out of Teen Vogue and made Irene almost green with envy. Irene always praise Jisoo for her pretty face but she acted as if she didn’t know about it. On the other hand, aside from Jisoo, Tzuyu also was gifted with pretty face and y figure which made her a girl crush type because every girls would be jealous and wanted to have that kind of body! 

Jisoo was the dainty to Tzuyu’s coarseness, the saccharine to Tzuyu’s snark, the meek to Tzuyu's powerful. Every guy wanted to date her and every girl wanted to be her only when they weren’t busy wanting to date or be like Chou Tzuyu. It really just depended which type one preferred—the alpha girl, or the sweet sophisticate.

“We never should have let you come on this trip,” Jisoo said to Sehun, shaking her head. The tiny diamond studs she always wore sparkled against her earlobes. She bent her skinny legs and hugged them to her, the dozens of colourful handwoven bracelets on her right wrist bunching up around the cuff of her sweatshirt sleeve.

Irene’s heart skipped a nervous beat as she remembered what Tzuyu had said on the phone. Did Jisoo feel the same? But then Jisoo smiled at her across the fire and she knew that Jisoo was just messing with him. Jisoo and Sehun had known each other for years—their families were old friends who belonged to the same country and sometimes vacationed together—so she knew that Jisoo thought of Sehun as a pseudo brother.

“Way to go, dude,” Tzuyu said to Sehun, reaching for the bag of marshmallows. “You scared them to death.”

“You weren’t scared?” Irene gasped.

“No. Please. That’s a classic. I’ve heard it, like, a dozen times.”Tzuyu pierced a marshmallow with a stick. “But I give Science Boy points for entertainment value, the look on your face right now is hilarious.”

Irene gave Tzuyu a tiny shove, which made Tzuyu laugh. She lifted her thick black hair over her shoulder as she leaned in to hold the marshmallow to the flames, looking completely comfortable. Her tanned skin shone in the firelight, her muscular calves tapering into thick, marled socks and perfectly broken-in hiking boots. Girl could have been starring in her own ad for granola bars. Or vitamin drinks. Or maybe recycling. As long as it involved anything healthy.

Tzuyu’s marshmallow caught and she retracted the skewer, blowing out the flame in one burst of air. Every movement Tzuyu made was confident and sure. No fidgeting, no blushing, no second-guessing. This, the outdoors, was Tzuyu’s world. Everyone else was just visiting.

Tzuyu handed the skewer to Irene, then made another one for herself.

“Thanks,” Irene said, rejoining Sehun on the blanket they’d been sharing before he’d gotten up to terrify them. Her pulse was just now beginning to slow to a normal rate. Sehun had pulled on a gray track sweatshirt, so well-worn there were holes frayed into the seams along the collar and cuffs. He reached out to pull her to him, his adorable grin practically glowing by the light of the fire.

“Okay, never do that again,” Irene said, leaning into his side.

“Do what?” He asked, kissing her temple.

“Scare me to half to death,” Irene said. “Promise?”

He smiled and put his arm around her. “I promise.” 

Jisoo sighed and ran her slim hands over braid.

“Your hair looks so nice like that, Soo,” Irene said, sincerely. “You should braid it more often.”

Jisoo’s look at Irene with shrug. “But Tzuyu says it makes me look like a 6 years old girl”

“What?” Irene snorted in disbelief. “No way. You look like a ballerina or a model.”

“You think?”Jisoo eyes darted to Tzuyu, who titled her head, considering.

“Yeah, it’s actually not bad,” She told Jisoo. “Maybe your body have grown little bit.”

Sehun laughed and Jisoo rolled her eyes but smiled. “Okay, maybe I will wear it back more often.”

Irene nibbled on her marshmallow, trying not to feel slighted. When she’d told Jisoo she looked nice, Jisoo had shot her down, but as soon as Tzuyu had chimed in, Jisoo agreed. As always, Tzuyu’s word was gold.

“So listen.” Tzuyu casually blew out another marshmallow fire. “We should probably tell Irene about the Skinner.”

“Tell what now?” Irene asked.

Jisoo and Sehun exchanged an uncomfortable look and Sehun squirmed.

“I don’t think that’s strictly necessary,” He said.

“What? What’s the Skinner?” Irene asked, glue-like melted marshmallow from her thumb.

“You mean who’s the Skinner,” Jisoo corrected with a shudder. She zipped her sweatshirt all the way to her angular chin. Suddenly her thin frame looked even smaller, like she could easily fold up inside her hoodie and disappear.

“Okay, who’s the Skinner?” Irene asked, trying to sound nonchalant even though her chest felt tight.

“Back in the early eighties, there were these three kids who came up here for a day hike.” Tzuyu began, leaning forward. “They were supposed to be back at the parking lot before nightfall, but they never showed up. Their parents were there waiting to meet them, but the sun went down and nothing. Then an hour passed, another hour, another hour. Finally, the parents decided to call the rangers.”

Irene swallowed hard. Her palms were starting to grow slick. “And?”

“The rangers searched all the trails. Every last one. They found what they thought were the kid’s footprints and followed them up the mountainside, toward where we are now. Black Pond,” Tzuyu said.

Irene’s shoulders instinctively coiled toward her ears. She glanced around at the other three fire pits dotting the dirt nearby, none of them occupied. They somehow looked ominous in the dark, the charred rocks like broken fangs jutting up from the ground.

“And?”

“And they just disappeared,” Tzuyu said.

“The kids?” Irene asked.

“Their footprints,” Sehun chimed in. He pulled his fingers inside his sweatshirt sleeves. “Their trail just stopped. There was no sign they’d tried to make a camp, no trail leading off in another direction. Nothing.”

“Not even a sign of a struggle,” Jisoo said quietly staring into the fire. Her index finger was hooked through her bracelets.

“They were just gone?” Were they ever found?” Irene asked, breathless with fear.

Tzuyu’s gaze flicked to Sehun’s face. She looked at Jisoo, too, but Jisoo was studying the dancing flames.

“Three days later, one of the kids came stumbling into the backyard of one of the rangers,” Tzuyu said. “He was .”

Irene gripped her knees with her damp palms. “What?”

“And covered in blood,” Sehun added. “Like smeared across his face and chest.”

“Why was he ? Whose blood was it?” Irene demanded, her pulse thrumming loudly in her ears.

“No one knew. Not for a whole year,” Sehun said, poking a twig into the crackling fire. “The kid went mute. He wouldn’t talk to anyone. Not his parents, not the cops, not his therapist. He didn’t say anything for months.”

“So what happened when he finally talked?” Irene asked. “What did he say? Where were his friends?”

“His friends were skinned alive,” Jisoo said tonelessly.

Irene grabbed Sehun’s leg, her fingernails digging into his shorts. “What?”

“This psycho, they called him ‘ the Skinner,’ used this huge hunting knife to skin the other kids right in front of the guy,” Tzuyu said with a glint in her eye, almost as if she was enjoying the story. “When the surviving hiker finally told the cops he had these details… I don’t even want to say it… but he watched his friends die some pretty gruesome deaths, and the whole tie the Skinner kept telling him he was next.”

A wave of nausea crashed over Irene and suddenly the smoke from the fire seemed to thicken. She went light-headed and pressed the heel of one hand against her forehead. The sugar from the marshmallows formed a hard rock in the middle of her gut.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Sehun reached over and wrapped both arms around her, drawing her closer to him. She relished the clean scent of his clothes and his warmth.

“It’s okay,” He said. “It was a long time ago.”

“How did he get away?”

“He managed to get hold of another knife when the guy’s back was turned and stabbed him right in the spine,” Tzuyu said, jabbing the air with her fist. “He said the guy was still alive and screaming when he ran off.”

“Sometimes when we’re out here, people swear you can still hear the Skinner howling,” Jisoo said, glancing across the stagnant pond. Another breeze rustled the leaves. Branches creaked. Irene looked from Tzuyu to Jisoo and to Sehun. A smile twitched the corners of Tzuyu’s lips, but otherwise no one moved. Suddenly, Irene’s chest inflated with relief.

“Very funny, you guys. You had me until the howling part.” Irene laughed. “How long did you rehearse that one?”

“What?” Sehun asked. His eyes wide and innocent.

“The Skinner? Really? Did you really think I was going to fall for that?” Irene casually reached past Tzuyu for the bag of marshmallows, but Tzuyu caught her wrist tight in her grip. Irene’s heart slammed inside her chest.

“It’s not a joke. It was a real thing,” Tzuyu said looking her directly in the eye. She released Irene’s hand and sat back. “They never found the guy. I just thought you should know.”

Irene felt a flash of anger and vaulted to her feet.

“What is the matter with you people?” She shouted, backing away from the fire. She should have known this earlier. This is their plan to scare her. Besides, why would they had plan to go camping where they were far away from people sight when there were lots of camping site in Seoul they could go and of course the Skinner. They should tell her earlier about the Skinner.

“Irene, it’s okay,” Jisoo said.

“Okay? Are you kidding me? Why did you bring me up here? You couldn’t have told me this story before we hiked a whole day away from town? I don’t want to be out here with some psycho murderer!”

“God, Irene, chill,” Tzuyu said piercing another marshmallow with her stick. “Even if the Skinner could survive a knife wound like that, it’s not like he’s still out here somewhere. He’d be like, our grandparent’s age.”

Irene hugged herself. Somehow that assertion didn’t make her feel any better. She glanced around. Suddenly the landscape seemed to close in on her, every shadow concealing an awful threat.

Someone could be out there right now, watching them. She felt as if she could hear them breathing. At any moment the person, the thing, or whatever it was, could pounce. And just like that, they’d all be gone. Vanished.

 

 

 . . . . . . . . .

 

 

Irene couldn’t sleep.

It was no surprise, really, considering the Skinner story. Plus, by the time Irene had gotten around to lay out her sleeping bag earlier that evening, Tzuyu and Jisoo had already claimed their spots against opposite walls of the tent, which left Irene in the middle. At first, she had thought this might be a good thing—that she’d feel safer when warmly ensconced between her two friends. But three sleepless hours into the night, she understood why the more experienced campers had chosen the ends.

Jisoo was a restless sleeper. Every five seconds she took a new position, which meant that every five seconds were a new part of Irene’s body was jabbed. A foot to the ankle a knee to the side, an elbow to the neck. Meanwhile, Tzuyu had passed out on her side facing Irene, and whenever Irene rolled over to try to get comfortable, she was greeted with Tzuyu’s wide-open mouth. It was so wide open, in fact, that for the last ten minutes Irene had been counting her friend’s teeth by the dim light of the night lamp she’d after the others had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, Tzuyu snorted and rolled onto her back. With a sigh, Irene did the same, readjusting the balled-up sweatshirt she was using as a pillow. Unfortunately, she found herself half lying atop Jisoo’s crooked knee. Irene shimmied around on her back until she found a semi-comfortable position, and closed her eyes.

“You can sleep,” She whispered to herself. “People do this all the time. Just…sleep.”

A twig cracked outside the tent. Irene sat up straight, gasping for breath. She looked at Jisoo, then Tzuyu, but both lay still. How was that possible? How could they be sleeping so deeply in the middle of the wilderness? It wasn’t natural. For a few long seconds Irene sat and listened, but there were no other strange noises. Her heart was still pounding so hard she couldn’t imagine ever relaxing, let alone dozing off.

She thought for a moment about digging out her journal, but the last thing she wanted was for Tzuyu or Jisoo to wake up and catch her writing. They’d probably think it was dorky—or worse, demand to see what she’d written. That would be a nightmare, especially considering all she had was the first two pages of ten different stories.

Irene had been trying forever to put down on paper one of the many tales that always seemed to crowd her head, but after a few hundred words she always, always got stuck. When school had ended last year she had made a vow to herself that she would complete at least one-fifteen to thirty pages story. Just one. And she’d tried. She really had. But now she had gotten into SNU  and she hadn’t even managed to get halfway through any of them.

Epic creative fail.

So instead of reaching for her journal, Irene pulled from her backpack the book she was reading. It was a heavy, hardcover copy of The Black Inferno #3: Jensen’s Revenge, which she’d bought at the bookstore downtown earlier that week. Irene knew she’d get mocked if she was caught doing this, too, but at least the journal would remain secret.

Tingling with anticipation, Irene opened to her marked spot, the first page of chapter two, and started to read….

The world was dark as pitch. Jensen took a breath, then another, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Waiting for an outline to appear. A shadow. Anything that could indicate where he was, what sort of peril he was in. But waiting didn’t help. There was nothing. Nothing but a low, distant rumbling that seemed to grow more insistent with each, broken, breath…

Yeah, this wasn’t going to make her feel any less freaked.

A rapid scratching at the vinyl tent made Irene flinch. Someone… something was scraping away at the door. Was it animal trying to claw its way in with its tiny sharp nails? Or was it just a branch being worried by the breeze? Or was it…could it be…. a knife?

The Skinner.

Irene craned her neck, afraid to move any other muscle, and stared, half expecting to see the outline of some Gollum-like psycho on the other side of the flimsy wall. Then, suddenly, the scratching simply stopped.

Total silence aside from the croaking of the frogs around the pond and the strange, constant ticking of the cicadas in the trees. Irene shoved the book back into her pack.

It’s okay. Everything’s okay. This time on Sunday you’ll be safe in your bed at home. On Monday morning, appa will make chocolate-chip pancakes and we’ll go to pick up omma.

Irene imagined herself and her dad at the airport, and her mom coming down the escalator, running toward her, throwing her arms around her. She saw them gabbing into the night, sharing the stories of their trips, laughing over the Skinner and the forgotten water bottle. She imagined the shops they would visit in COEX Mall, the food they would eat, the hotel room they’d stay in. Maybe they’d even spot some idols at Gangnam because Gangnam is home to some of the largest Korean entertainment companies such as SM, CUBE and JYP. The location of these places is known to the public, so visitors can actually go and visit, in the hope of seeing their favourite Korean idol walking or driving to and from the building.

Irene and her mom would also walk past the perfume counter just as supermodel was spritzed with a tester of the latest fragrance…

“Hey, Madam Bae,” Irene would say that to her mom. “That scent is totally you.”

It was working. it was actually working. Irene felt herself begin to melt off into the imaginary world she’d concocted. Slowly, her eyelids began to close….

A thud sent her eyes open wide. Irene sat up again, gasping for breath. Right outside the tent, a shadow rose up from the ground. A distorted hump that curled and straightened and stretched before her eyes, until she was looking at the perfect outline of a man. A man with something long and ominous clutched in one hand.

“Irene?” The man whispered.

Her breath caught in . “Sehun?”

The headlamp slipped down over her face, landing with a thump against her collarbone.

“Aw!”

She was so relieved she couldn’t move.

“Sorry. Did I wake you up?”

No, but you scared me half to death, Irene thought. “What’re you doing?” She whispered.

“Come out,” Sehun said. “Let’s go for a walk under the stars.”

Still trembling from the scare, Irene carefully got on all fours and quietly ped just enough of the door so that she could peek out. There Sehun stood in shorts, boots and his track team sweatshirt, his flashlight trained at the ground. His plaid blanket was folded over his arm and an excited, daring sort of smile lit his handsome face. Dirt covered his knees and Irene realized he must have tripped outside her tent. That was the thud, and the reason for his shadow seeming to grow out of the ground. She felt so silly now. Clearly it was a flashlight in his hand and not a knife. Why did her friends have to tell her that stupid story?

“Hey,” He said. “Are you in?”

Irene hesitated. It was the middle of the night in the woods. There were living, breathing animals out there, just waiting for a couple of idiot kids to wander into their clutches.

And the Skinner. There was also the Skinner.

“I don’t know…Sehun..”

“Come on. We’ll stay out in the open by the lake, away from the woods,” He suggested, interpreting her hesitation perfectly. “You have to see these stars, Irene. It’s amazing.”

He offered his hand. She blew out a sigh, told herself to stop being such a wuss, and took it. Once outside she shoved her feet into her flip-flops, which she’d left on the ground, and immediately began to shiver. It was cold—welcome to the mountains in August—and there was no denying that she was scared. Sehun put his arm around her.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw something move—a huge mass swinging from a nearby tree—and she flinched. But it was just the nylon bag full of their food, which Nana had tied up to keep the bears from getting at it.

Bears. Yay. So not what she wanted to think about right now.

“You okay?” Sehun asked.

Irene exhaled. If she didn’t have a heart attack before this trip was over, it would be a miracle.

“I’m fine,” She muttered at a whisper. “Should we tell them we’re going?”

“Nah. Don’t wake them up. We won’t even be out of sight of the tents.”

Irene zipped up the tent door and felt along the length of the braid she’d worked into her hair before bed. It felt like it was mostly intact. Then she quickly smoothed her sweatshirt down, wiped under her eyes for excess mascara, pressed her lips together to bring some colour into them, all before turning around again.

“Ready,” She said with a smile. She pulled her headlamp off over her head and flicked it on, holding it like a flashlight.

“Look up.”

Sehun touched beneath her chin with one finger and nudged her gaze skyward. The view took Irene’s breath away. Stars. There seemed to be more stars than sky.

“Okay. This was a good idea.”

“Sweet. Go me,” Sehun said, rising up on his toes adorably.

Their footsteps crunched on pebbles and twigs as they strolled toward the lake. Irene leaned her cheek into the side of his arm. In the trees around them where the cicadas’ hum was punctuated by the chirp of crickets. Off in the distance, comforting somehow. Maybe they were only surrounded by peaceful, happy little animals, like the cast of some old Disney cartoon.

A girl could dream.

“Let’s lay the blanket out over there,” Irene said, pointing to a large, flat outcropping of rock near the water’s edge.

Sehun whipped the blanket out and let it flutter to the ground, then held out a hand.

“After you,”

“Why, thank you, sir,” Irene joked.

She sat down, laying her headlamp aside, the coldness of the rock seeped through the blanket and her clothes. It was amazing how swiftly and completely the temperature dropped after the sun went down. Sehun sat right next to her, and she instantlyfelt warmer. They smiled shyly, sharing a little thrill over being alone together in the dark. When Sehun leaned in to kiss her, her heart did the happy dance it executed every time their lips touched. Then Sehun pulled back and gazed at her.

“How great is this?” He said quietly, his breath warm on her lips.

“Pretty darn great,” She replied.

Then they both lay down flat on the rock, side by side.

“Whoa,” Irene said.

“I second that whoa,” Sehun replied.

Every inch of Irene’s vision was filled with stars. A million tiny pinpricks of light, everywhere. It was like they were lying under a dome sprinkled with glowing sand.

Irene turned her head and found Sehun staring at her. She was so surprised that her pulse skipped.

“Why are you looking at me? You should be looking at that!” She said, gesturing at the sky.

“Nah. You’re way more interesting.”

Irene blushed deeply. “You’re gonna give me an ego.”

Sehun pushed himself up on his elbow. “You deserve to have an ego. You’re pretty, you’re cute, you’re smart, you’re creative, you’re kind, you’re loyal…”

“Loyal?” She laughed. “Like a dog?”

“No. I just mean it was cool of you to come on this trip with your friends. I know it’s not easy for you.”

Irene looked down at her hands, which were folded across her chest. The pink polish on her nails was chipping and black dirt made crescent moons under a few of them. She curled up her hands so Sehun couldn’t see.

“Just because I got a little lost on my pee break...“

“No. I just mean you’re out of your comfort zone for five whole days. Not everyone would do that for their friends,” He said with a shrug. He reached for her arm, tugged her hand out, and traced a circle in her palm with his fingertip. It tickled in the best possible way and she forgot about how hideous her fingers were. “I know you’re hoping to bond with them or whatever, and I just wanted you to know that I think it’s going well but if it doesn’t, I’ve got your back.”

Irene chest expanded. “Thanks, Sehun.”

He smiled. “Anytime.”

She lifted herself up onto one elbow as well, the better to face him. His long bangs had fallen sideways, making his face seem more open. She could see herself in the eyes of her sweetheart, sparkling. Sehun had spent most of his summer volunteering at the half-day summer camp run by their town, playing hot potato with a bunch of first graders and patiently helping them learn to dog-paddle at the town pool. She’d visited him once on one of the pool days and he was having so much fun he looked like a big kid himself.

There was something uninhibited about him. She admired that. And she loved how much he cared about people—his family, his friends, those kids in his camp group. He unapologetically cared, when most guys her age pretended not to care about anything.

He cared about her.

What had she done her life to have such a perfect guy like Sehun as her boyfriend? 

“Can I ask you something?” She ventured.

“Shoot,” He said.

“Why did you kiss me that day in the library?” She asked.

Sehun laughed “Um, our first kiss?”

Irene laughed, too. Yes, it was their first kiss.

It had happened back in February, when she was in the SNU library, reading a book alone between the standing shelves when suddenly Sehun came out of nowhere and stood beside her. She knew Sehun because he is her classmate but the reason why they could talk comfortably to each other was because of Jisoo—She always asked Sehun to join them to eat together whenever they meet in cafeteria. (Back to the library scene) They were standing and looking at each other, talking about the assignments and lectures. Irene hadn’t given it too much thought when he open his mouth, talked and laughed even though she had always found him cute when Sehun had suddenly pulled her and kissed her. At first, she was really shock at that time but her mind managed to process the whole situation that happened. Without hesitation, she kissed him back. Luckily, there's no one there because it would been super awkward if someone saw them. And after the kiss, Irene and Sehun had been together ever since.

“You couldn’t resist me?” She joked when Sehun had'nt answered her question.

Sehun looked down at the slab of rock that peeked out from beneath the blanket. The rock was striated from years of weather erosion, shot through with all shades of gray and blue and black. Beautiful.

“Actually, I wanted to kiss you the first time I saw you.”

“Really?” Her breath caught. “When was that?”

“Your first day at SNU." He smiled. "You were alone, sitting by yourself under the tree. You were hugging your legs and playing with the grass. And then a cat approach you and you happily play with it. I saw your smile, the sincere on your face—and that was it. It just took me a month and an adrenaline rush to get up the guts.”

“Wow,” Irene said, tingling from head to toe. “I had no idea.”

Sehun finally looked her in the eye. “Why did you kiss me back?”

“Honestly? I’d never met a handsome mathlete science genius who also popular among the girls. I think my need to find a successful, testosterone-y mate kicked in.”

“Haha…you’re hilarious, you know that?” Sehun said, pushing her shoulder. Irene inched closer to him and smiled sweetly.

“I just liked you, Sehun. That’s why I kissed you back. And…” She added, feeling brave. “I like you more every day.” Her eyes were glittered and sparkled.

She leaned toward him, but just when their lips were about to touch, Sehun pulled back and averted his eyes. “Irene, there’s something I have to tell you…”

Irene’s heart thunked with foreboding. She was on the verge of asking what was wrong when, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something move. A shadow the height of a tall man but stooped, like someone trying to make himself smaller. There was the tiniest flash—some kind of reflector catching the light off her headlamp. Irene gasped and scrambled back on her hands and knees.

“What?” Sehun sat up, alarmed. “What is it?”

“I saw someone. In the trees,” She said, trying to catch her breath and failing miserably. Her skull felt weightless like she’d just been dropped from an airplane at ten thousand feet. “ There’s someone out there.”

Sehun stood up and trained his flashlight on the tree line. “I don’t see anything.”

Irene sat up and brushed silt off her hands. “There was something there, I swear.”

The flashlight beam moved back and forth across the trees as Sehun searched. Irene stared hard at the spot where she’d seen the shadow, but the more she stared, the more her vision blurred. She’d see something move, but in the next second realize it was a trick of the eye. But still, she was certain they were not alone.

“Well. Whatever it was, it’s gone now,” Sehun said. He had this tone in his voice like he was laughing her. “So as I was saying…”

As he started to sit down again, Irene reached for her headlamp and got up.

“I’m going back to the tent.”

Maybe she was new to this, and maybe because of that she was a little more skittish than her friends, but that didn’t mean she was seeing things. Or that she was making stuff up. Or that she was crazy.

Which, exactly, did Sehun think it was?

“Okay,” He said, reaching for her. “Let’s go.”

She let him put his arm around her, and they made their way back to the camp. It was slow going however, because Irene kept looking over her shoulder scanning the trees.

There was someone out there. She knew what she had seen.

 

A/N:

I'm rushing for this chapter because I'm so excited to meet you guys again <3 <3 <3

I hope this chapter is long enough for you guys ^^

Btw, I am in love with all songs in Taeyeon unnie 1st full album- My Voice. Queen Taeyeon <3

Please leave a comment down here and let me know your thoughts. 

xoxo

-28 Feb 2017-

 

see ya! ^^