“I’ve always wanted to go to a haunted house,” Sungjin said brightly.

Jae rolled his eyes. “Congrats, Bob. You got your wish.”

The members were at an amusement park. Large roller coaster rides towered above them, crowds of friends and family were bustling all around, and the smell of candy and all sorts of food filled the air, along with the noises of laughter, screams, and chatter. The sun was still high in the air, with just a couple wisps of cloud.

Sungjin thought it was a good idea to let out any stress before heading back to Korea after their performances abroad. It would be fun, he said.

Fun as in riding super scary roller coaster rides that the maknae chose himself. Jae felt like his legs would turn to jelly if he were to ride another one of Dowoon’s picks.

And then Sungjin had suggested they go to a ride that didn’t require much energy, and thus they were currently in front of the haunted house attraction.

"House" maybe was an understatement. The thing was huge. It looked more like a mansion than it was a house. It was out of what appeared to be cracking cement, two stories high, with a roof that looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. It even had a creepy front yard as the queue line, with grave stones scattered about. The line wasn't too busy either.  

“It looks fun,” Brian said. He stood next to Jae and gave him a smirk.

“Oh come on.” Jae glared at Brian and Sungjin. “You two conspired to ditch me in a haunted house. You guys said it during our radio show.”

Brian laughed. “We were just joking.”

“I’m not convinced. Besides.” Jae looked at all of s one by one. “I’m not afraid of haunted houses.”

“Then go in one by yourself,” Wonpil said innocently.

Jae gave him an ‘I’ll kill you when we get back’ look before pointing at Brian. “I bet he’s the one that’s actually scared.”

Brian pretended to look offended. “Really now, Jae?”

Jae didn’t back down. “I bet you ten bucks that you’re actually scared.”

“Whoa, you are serious.” Brian nodded. “All right, deal. We’ll each go in one by one and we’ll see what happens.”

“NO!” Jae said a little too quickly. “Uh, I mean... No... fair. Who knows what tricks can be pulled if we go alone? Let’s go together.”

“What, you mean like the two of us?”

“Uh-huh.”

The other members watched them talk, silently eager.

“All right,” Brian finally decided. “Let’s do this.”

Sungjin chuckled to himself. Jae gave him a glare.

“We’ll be getting some snacks,” the leader said, ignoring Jae. “Dowoon looks like he’s hungry.”

“I want cotton candy, hyung!” Dowoon exclaimed.

Wonpil grabbed the maknae’s hand and began walking towards a random direction. He looked over his shoulder and smiled brightly at the older members. “Have fun, Brian-hyung and Jaehyung-hyung!”

“You be careful,” Jae replied. Wonpil just laughed.

Sungjin patted Jae’s thin shoulder. “Good luck.” And then he ran off before Jae could reply. He caught up with Dowoon and Wonpil, ruffling the maknae’s hair.

“Look at them,” Brian said. “They look like parents with their baby.”

“That is one big baby,” Jae said.

Brian laughed. “Yeah, well. I guess we’re all family after all.” He and Jae had switched to using English like they always did whenever it was just the two of them (or with other English speakers). He turned to look at the haunted house. It was big and menacing—so out of place with the sunny afternoon and the smiles on happy faces around them. “Let’s go.”

Jae nodded. “Again, I must warn you.” He looked at the haunted house, determined. “I’m not scared at all.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________

“I’M ING SCARED, MAN, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE.”

They were only one minute inside the haunted house and Jae was already losing his mind.

He seemed brave for the first couple of steps. Then the scary sounds started to register in his brain. He started hesitating. His hands started to shake. His glasses kept getting crooked on his face, and he had to adjust it over and over again. 

He tried. Oh, how he tried to be and look brave. But it didn’t work.

The second they encountered the first ghost, Jae clung onto Brian’s arm and wouldn’t let go.

“I’M SO SCARED. NO, WAIT I’M NOT SCARED AT ALL,” Jae bellowed.

“Stop contradicting yourself,” Brian said. He tried to tug his arm away but Jae had him in a deadly grip.

“Is it gone?” Jae wheezed. He had his eyes shut. “The ghost—Is it gone?” He heard Brian sigh.

“It’s still right in front of you.”

“AW HELL NO.”

“But it’s okay. I got ya. Just keep your eyes closed and walk slowly.”

And so they somehow made halfway through, with Brian leading the way and Jae refusing to open his eyes. He heard the screams of the “ghosts” trying to scare him—and damnit they were succeeding. The air was cold. Scary music was playing loudly and ringing in his ears.

Then things suddenly became quiet. Jae braved himself to take a peek.

They were in a dark room with artificial trees surrounding them and artificial grass underneath their feet. Jae spun around, trying to make out anything in the darkness.

“What is this, a graveyard?” he asked.

Brian whistled. “This is one huge haunted house.”

Jae looked down and realized that he was still clinging onto Brian’s arm. He let go and took a step back. Jae coughed, trying to sound casual. “I’m okay.”

“Dude, it felt like I lost blood circulation to my arm.”

“And I’m sorry for that.” Keep cool, Jae.

“Guess I won the bet, huh?” Brian grinned.

Okay, not so cool now. Jae sighed. “I guess.”

They stayed in silence for a couple seconds, just looking at their surroundings and wondering where to go next. There were two pathways in front of them, each leading to a door. They had to choose one.

“Left or right,” Brian wondered.

Jae spotted something shining behind them. “Wait, I think I see something.” He grabbed Brian by the sleeve and pulled him along. They pushed away tree branches that blocked them.

Finally, they found a large statue of a heart, almost at Jae’s height. Engraved on the heart were bright words that read:

“A KISS SHALL LEAD YOU OUT OF THE DARKNESS”

Below it was a small white piece of paper. Jae bent down and picked it up.

“Look at this,” he said, showing it to Brian. They read it together.

“For couples, just kiss each other and an exit will open here. A shortcut out of the haunted house. Cheers.”

Jae blinked. “Well. Looks like somebody left a cheat sheet.”

“So much for solving a riddle,” Brian muttered.

Jae laughed. “That’s a silly way to pair people up in a haunted house. But oh well.”

“Yeah.”

Just then, a high pitch shriek cut through the air. Jae screamed.

“WHAT WAS THAT.”

“Another ghost, I guess,” Brian said. “The scream's from the hallway we came from. I guess they’re coming.”

“OH GOD WHY.”

The shrieks grew louder.

“Let’s get going.” Brian started walking back to the two pathways and the doors. “We gotta hurry up and choose a door.”

Suddenly a loud clanking noise filled the room, as if chains were being rattled against each other.

“I’M SCARED.”

“We’ll get out of here soon,” Brian said reassuringly.

“BRIAN, WAIT.”

Brian stopped in his tracks. He turned around to find that Jae hasn’t moved an inch from where he stood in front of the heart-shaped statue. In Jae’s hand was the piece of paper, and Jae was staring intensely at it.

Suddenly Jae turned to Brian, his eyes serious. Or seriously scared.

“Brian, kiss me.”

Brian blinked. A couple seconds passed, his mind processing Jae’s words. Finally he said, “What?”

“Just. KISS ME. Now. Please.” Jae’s voice was pleading.

“Are you crazy?”

“No, I’m dead serious.” Jae walked over to his friend. He grabbed Brian by the shoulders and shook them hard. “Dude, we can get out of here right here right now if we kiss.”

“The paper says that it’ll only work for couples.”

Jae laughed a hysterical laugh. “Dude, we’re a couple! Jaehyungparkian, right?” His hands were shaking madly as they slid off Brian’s shoulders.

Brian rolled his eyes. “Not a real couple.”

“We’ll be a real couple now. Brian, I love you.” 

“Dude, what the hell?”

“I love you, Brian Kang.”

“Jae, stop—“

“I love you, Kang Younghyun.”

“You can call me by any of my names and I’ll still say no—“

“I love you, YoungK.”

“Jae, stop.”

There was a shrill scream near them. Jae screamed along. The noise of chains rattling grew closer and closer. Jae’s mind was ready to explode.

“BRIAN, PLEASE.”

“All right all right!” Brian threw his hands up in exasperation. He looked at his friend dead in the eyes. “You’re the one who asked for this. Don’t regret anything.” Then he took a step towards Jae. Brian lifted a hand to his friend’s face and leaned in.

At their close proximity, Jae suddenly flinched. “Wait no, I change my mind—“

“JAE.”

“I changed my mind,” Jae said quickly, taking a couple steps back. His heart started pounding faster—due to fear or something else. “Sorry, it’s a stupid idea.”

Brian’s hand dropped to his side. His face was unreadable. “Okay, fine.”

Another horrible scream echoed throughout the room. The noise of chains became louder and closer that Jae was sure that it was right next to him.

Needless to say, Jae screamed even louder. It felt like years have been drained out of his life. “I CHANGED MY MIND AGAIN DUDE PLEASE KISS ME PLEASE.”

“Jae, make up your mind.”

“I’M SERIOUS THIS TIME.”

Brian sighed. He took a step towards his friend.

“No wait, don’t!” Jae yelled. “Actually yes, kiss me. No wait—“ Another screech came from down the hallway. “No no no, don’t— No wait, kiss me—“ He stared hard at the ground. “Yes? No? Yes—No...Yes—"

“Oh for goodness' sake," Brian muttered under his breath.

And with one swift movement, Brian put his hands on each side of Jae’s head.

Without a word, he pulled his tall friend down towards him until their lips roughly collided in a kiss.

What happened next was unexpected.

A million thoughts exploded in Jae’s mind.

He remembered the first time they met.

“Hi, I’m Jae.”

“Hi, Jae. That’s quite an accent you’ve got there. American?”

“Yeah, actually. Long Beach. Your English is pretty good.”

“I lived in Canada for four years. I’m Kang Younghyun. You can call me Brian, though.”

“Nice to meet you, Brian. I’ve been to Canada myself for a bit.”

Brian smiled. “Really now?”

Jae wondered if it was a sincere or fake smile. Brian looked really chic and cold.

“Yeah, when I was little,” Jae replied, smiling back. He couldn’t help but feel relieved. “Thank goodness I’ve got someone to be my English-Korean translator.”

Brian laughed. “And who would that be?”

“You, of course.”

He remembered when they hated each other. He remembered Brian talking about it one day at a radio show, with Jae sitting right next to him.

“Jaehyung-hyung who's next to my right, right now. At first, I was with Sungjin-hyung, Wonpil, and the team. Hyung came last and took my guitar away. And with many other reasons, it seemed like we hated each other more than others in the team. But now we even have a better relationship than others in the team. We share the same room. We chat. I like you more. Let’s work together comfortably and happily. Fighting, hyung. I love you.”

It always felt weird to hear Brian calling him “hyung”. Jae was so used to people calling him by just his name. It would always throw him off guard when Brian spoke to him or about him in Korean, having to use honorifics. He was so used to the sound of Brian’s voice when he said simply: “Jae”.

He also remembered when they were assigned as roommates.

“Well, looks like we’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

“You’re gonna have to get used to my weird sleeping habit,” Jae said.

“...Sleeping habit?”

“I kind of talk in my sleep...”

“Oh, that’s not that bad—“

“...fluently in different languages...”

“Wait what?”

“...that I may not be able to speak when awake.”

“What the heck?”

Other memories rushed in.

Jae waking up Brian at 5 A.M. in the morning due to his sleep talking/yelling.

Jae and Brian looking at each other right before a performance.

Waking up in the morning on Tuesdays. Brian getting ready for college while Jae left to host another After School Club episode.

Hosting an episode together.

Eating pizza together.

Playing games together.

Debuting together.

Shooting music videos together.

Writing a song together.

Jae picking their ship name, never expecting that something would actually happen. Brian telling him how much he hates that name, and afterwards sarcastically saying he loves it.

Talking in their room late at night, Brian on the bottom bunk while Jae was sprawled on a separate bed next to him. Dowoon snoring loudly on the top bunk.

All these memories and more flashed through Jae’s mind in what felt like a long long time, when in reality only 10 seconds passed since Brian pressed his lips against Jae’s.

Jae’s eyes were wide open as he stared at his friend’s face. Brian’s eyes—on the other hand—were closed in concentration. The bassist was so close that Jae though he could practically count Brian’s eyelashes.

It felt like one of those Korean drama kisses, where people put their lips together and then simply stayed still. A kiss that doesn’t actually happen in real life.

He remembered watching Reply 1997 and chuckling when the female lead was kissed by her childhood friend near a fountain. Brian was sitting with him on the couch while he watched in the dorm, and Jae told him, “Do people even kiss like that here?” Brian only shrugged.

But it was happening to Jae. For at least 10 seconds.

And then Brian slightly tilted his head, deepening the kiss. His hand made it to the back of Jae’s head, pulling him closer. Jae couldn’t be sure of anything in his jumbled up mind, but it felt like Brian was slightly opening his mouth.

Jae’s train of thought was going crazy.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

Whatishappening.

.

Mayday mayday MAYDAY.

But oddly enough, Jae found himself relaxing. The eerie sounds of the haunted house seemed to fade away. The darkness around them didn’t seem so scary anymore. Somehow he felt...safe.

He found his eyes starting to close. He felt his body leaning towards his friend.

And then a blinding light filled the room, and both Brian and Jae instinctively pulled away from each other. Shielding their eyes, they turned towards the source of the light.

In front of them, a hidden door had opened, revealing a bright hallway.

The exit.

They turned away from the light and looked at each other. Jae felt like his face was burning. He hoped it wasn’t as red as he thought it was.

There was a silence until Brian cleared his throat. “Well. There’s the doorway.”

“Uh—yeah,” Jae replied a little late. He didn’t know how to feel. “Shall we go?”

Brian nodded. “Come on.”

And then he took off down the hallway.

Jae ran after him.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The amusement park was as loud and colorful as ever.

The long hallway brought them to the exit of the haunted house. Right at the exit, there was a small screen showing changing images. Next to the screen was a sign that read: “Haunted house couple photos: $5”.

When Jae saw the picture on the screen, his heart banged hard against his chest. “Seriously?”

Brian raised an eyebrow. “Hm.”

It was a picture of them kissing—or Jae being kissed by Brian, to be exact. It seemed that hidden cameras were available inside the haunted house to capture the moment.

Jae saw his own face on the screen. Then Brian’s face. He wanted to run and hide.

“Not a word to the members, okay?” Jae muttered. He turned to look at Brian.

Without looking at him, Brian nodded. “Yeah.”

Another silence.

“You had your eyes open the whole time?” Brian asked casually, his voice curious.

Jae was taken aback by the question. If he was drinking water, he would have spit it out in surprise. Or choked on it. “I didn’t think you’d actually kiss me!”

“You asked me to.”

“Yeah, but...”

Brian smirked. “You confessed your love to me.”

Jae felt like jumping off a cliff. “Bro, I was just scared—”

Brian laughed. “Yeah, man. Yeah.”

“You know I wasn’t being serious.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

They stared at each other for a bit, their eyes dead serious.

 Then they both burst out laughing.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The members were waiting for them at the entrance of the haunted house.

Sungjin was checking his watch. Dowoon was holding a huge wad of cotton candy and looking like the happiest kid in the universe. Wonpil smiled widely when he spotted Brian and Jae, and raised his arm to wave at them.

“How was it?” Sungjin asked.

“It was okay,” Jae lied.

“Your face is all red,” Wonpil said.

Jae felt like strangling him. “We ran out here. That’s why it’s red.”

Brian coughed and smiled knowingly. Jae glared at him.

Dowoon took a big bite out of the cotton candy and stared at both of them with his big eyes.

Sungjin laughed. “Well, it looks like Dowoon’s ready for more rides. Let’s go.”

And they started to leave to line up for another ride that Dowoon picked. Suddenly Jae stopped in his tracks.

Brian looked over his shoulder. “You okay, Jae?”

“I-I—“ Jae was stammering badly. “I gotta go to the restroom. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

“All right, then.”

Jae nodded and watched Brian and the members walk away. He made sure that they were out of sight before turning around and dashing off to the haunted house again.

He paid $5 for the photo of him and Brian. He stuffed it in his pocket, just for himself.

Then he joined the others at a Viking ride, where he and Brian screamed their hearts out while clinging onto each other. It was as if nothing happened at the haunted house. As if nothing took place that could have changed the way they felt towards one another.

When it was time to head back to the hotel, Brian told the others that he needed to buy some snacks first.

Little did Jae know, Brian ran back to the haunted house to buy the same photo that Jae currently had stuffed in his pocket.

They had completely forgotten about the bet.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's note: Thanks to Just DAY6 on Youtube for the English translation of SuperJunior Kiss the Radio with DAY6, where I quoted the "At first, I was with Sungjin-hyung, Wonpil, and the team......."  part :)

I hope you all enjoyed the story! ^_^ Tell me what you think in the comments! :) Have a nice day and long live jaehyungparkian!