Jihyo was the first one to hear the screams. She grabbed a hold of Momo, who was within arm’s reach and was too immersed in her filming to notice. “Did you hear that?” Jihyo asked the older girl, who put down her camera to listen with wide eyes.

“Mina?” Jihyo called to the younger girl, who was outside in the corridor, as she had refused to step foot in the bedroom. “Did you hear that?”

“There was screaming, but then Jeongyeon said something,” Mina called, still out of sight. “I’m not sure what. You should come out here.” Jihyo and Momo did as instructed, appearing in the doorway, shining their flashlights on a startled looking Mina who was hugging herself and rubbing her arms. “There’s...I saw something.” She shined her flashlight towards the stairs.

Suddenly Mina felt a wave of nausea pass over her. There was something black flying at her down the corridor, a blur, without shape. It was getting closer and closer. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run towards Jihyo and Momo, still standing in the doorway of the bedroom. She wanted to crouch down into a ball, at least. But it was as if her body would no longer listen to her brain. Her feet were rooted to the ground and all she could do was stare in shock and horror as the thing came flying towards her. She heard footsteps pounding up the stairs, and then screams she thought belonged to Jihyo and Momo. The black thing was close now, close enough for her to make out a sort of terrifying face—

Mina was thrown back onto the ground and her eyes closed as she hit the floor with a violent thud. The black shape, ghost, or whatever it was, had disappeared. Jihyo scrambled forward towards the younger girl, getting down onto her knees and quickly lifting up the girl’s limp body onto her lap. The harsh light from Jihyo’s flashlight covered Mina’s face in stark shadows. “M-m-mina?” Jihyo’s voice was unusually high, and her hands shook as she cupped Mina’s face in her hands.

“What was that?” Momo shouted as Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung came into view, panting. She wrapped both arms around herself as she stared in horror at Mina, who was not responding to Jihyo’s touch or voice.

“A ghost, a spirit, or something” Chaeyoung sputtered as she joined Jihyo on the ground beside Mina’s body.

“Where did it go? And is Mina...is she okay” Jeongyeon asked, crouching down beside Mina next to Jihyo and Chaeyoung with a look of concern on her face. Her heart was pounding.  

“It...just disappeared, and I think she’s okay. She’s still breathing. I think she fainted from the shock. But she might have hit her head hard during the fall,” Jihyo stated, making eye contact with Jeongyeon. “Let’s get her downstairs.”  

Jeongyeon felt a stabbing pain in her gut. She couldn’t help but feel like this was all her fault. And poor Mina, who didn’t want to be here in the first place, was the victim. Chaeyoung, Jihyo and Jeongyeon were about to carry her down the stairs when she began to stir.

“Mina?” Chaeyoung cried, as the girl’s eyelids began to flutter open. The girls paused in their efforts to lift her. Mina’s eyes opened at last and Chaeyoung could make out her light brown irises.

“Thank God,” Jeongyeon whispered. She looked as though she were about to cry. “Mina, are you okay?”

Mina didn’t say anything for a moment, she simply looked around at all of the faces hovering over her and pursed her lips. Then she looked down at herself, her legs and feet, rather curiously. “I’m…” she paused and made a face, as if the sound of her own voice startled her. “I’m okay.” 

“You fainted,” Jihyo said, cupping the younger girl’s face in her hands again and letting out a sigh of relief. “How does your head feel? You hit it pretty hard.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Mina replied flatly, looking around again with wide eyes. Then she smiled, a large gummy smile and reached out her hand and poked Jihyo's nose. "You're so pretty," she whispered to Jihyo who looked from Chaeyoung to Jeongyeon with surprise.

"Uh, thanks?" Jihyo replied, a bit baffled. Mina began laughing then, almost hysterically, closing her eyes. Her entire body was shaking with each giggle. Jihyo looked at Jeongyeon and mouthed: "what the --?". Jeongyeon just scratched her head and shrugged, then stared back down at Mina curiously. 

“Can you stand?” Chaeyoung asked Mina after her laughter had subsided, putting a hand on the older girl’s arm.

“Yeah!” Mina replied enthusastically, smiling at Chaeyoung. "At least I think so." 

Chaeyoung and Jihyo helped Mina to her feet, and she wobbled a bit like a baby giraffe as her legs fully supported her weight again but she firmly grabbed Chaeyoung’s arm and steadied herself. Chaeyoung noticed that Mina was looking at her quite strangely; an expression that the young girl was not used to seeing on her friend’s face. It was a mix between amusement and surprise, perhaps, but it quickly faded. Mina’s hands lingered on Chaeyoung’s arm though, as the girls all moved slowly towards the stairs.

Momo kept a good distance back, still hugging herself, staring at Mina with her brows drawn together in worry.

Mina made it down the stairs alright, still clinging onto Chaeyoung, but successfully nonetheless. Sana, who was huddled next to Dahyun on their sleeping bags which they had laid out in a circle, immediately perked up at the sight of Mina. “What happened?” she asked with large, round eyes.

“Mina passed out,” Jihyo replied. “It was the ghost, it…”

“It disappeared into her,” Momo finished pointedly as she moved to sit back down on her sleeping bag next to Jeongyeon’s.

“Into her?” Jeongyeon questioned, eyebrows furrowing as she glanced from Mina to Momo.

Chaeyoung helped Mina sit down on her sleeping bag. All eyes were on her. Her lips parted as she noticed the attention. “A ghost? What are you talking about?” Mina asked, blinking a few times. "I don't remember anything..."

“We saw it, it went right through you! Right, Jihyo?” Momo remarked, turning to face Jihyo, who was quickly unfurling her own sleeping bag and setting it beside Mina.

“Well, I think so? It all happened so fast…”

“So we all saw a ghost, right? An actual ghost. Please tell me someone got it on camera,” Dahyun asked, squirming slightly under Sana’s suffocating hug.

“I did,” Chaeyoung stated, but suddenly the feat didn’t seem so important, with Mina fainting and now acting so strange. Even though she said she was fine, Chaeyoung could tell that something was off.

“We should leave,” Nayeon suggested. “I mean, we saw a ghost and Mina got hurt…the jokbal doesn’t matter anymore.”

“No!” Mina’s unusually loud shout startled everyone else in the group. “I’m fine, really. You’re all going to let a little ghost scare you? I thought you wanted to be ghost hunters?” There was an almost mocking tone to her voice. 

“You don’t want to go? But you were scared to be here in the first place. How hard did you hit your head?” Tzuyu noted, cocking her head slightly while staring at Mina.

“I don’t want you all to not get the jokbal because of me,” Mina explained, she reached over and grabbed Chaeyoung's hand. Tzuyu raised her eyebrows at the sight but said nothing. 

“The jokbal doesn’t matter,” Jeongyeon assured, standing with her arms crossed, looking down at Mina. “All that matters is that you’re okay.”

“And we just saw a ghost. An actual GHOST. Doesn’t that freak anyone else out?” Nayeon asked.

Sana raised her hand.

“Yes, it’s terrifying,” Jihyo admitted. “But we haven’t exactly had time to process that with Mina fainting and all.”

“Well, now can we all officially agree to be terrified?” Nayeon asked. “Ghosts are real. I mean, we proved it, right?”

“We’re lucky no one got seriously hurt. This was all such a stupid idea, I never should’ve accepted this dare. I’m so sorry,” Jeongyeon bit her lip and looked at Mina.

“It’s not your fault!” Mina assured her. “I’m not hurt, okay? I feel great, actually. So alive.” She was smiling again, very widely. The smile looked almost plastered on her face. 

“Well…it kind of was Jeongyeon's fault, actually. It was her idea to try to summon a ghost and--” Jihyo quickly jabbed Nayeon in the side, silencing her.

“Yes, it was a stupid idea,” Jihyo admitted. “But we all agreed to come here. And despite this being a ‘haunted house’, did we all really believe we’d actually see a ghost?”

“Ghosts are biblical,” Dahyun added, “so I’m not surprised. Terrified, yes, shocked? No.”

“We really should go,” Momo urged, tugging at Jeongyeon’s leg.

“No, please,” Mina said, she reached for Momo’s hand and held it. “How can you all leave now, when you’re so close to documenting everything? This is like, a scientific discovery, if you all say you saw an actual ghost. We might as well finish the night. It’s too late to leave now, isn’t it?”

“It’s after midnight,” Chaeyoung replied, looking down at her phone screen. Mina’s request would’ve sounded logical if the girl hadn’t been shaking when they first approached the house. How could her opinion switch so drastically after facing off with a ghost head-on?

“Let’s keep looking around, no one actually explored their entire floor, right?” Mina questioned.

No one said anything for a moment, looking around from face to face. “I’m not going back down there, or up there, or anywhere,” Nayeon said finally. “You all are crazy if you start calling ghosts again. What if a mean spirit comes the next time and does some actual damage?”

“I’m scared,” Sana whined, agreeing with Nayeon. She nuzzled herself into Dahyun’s side.

“How about those who are scared can stay here, but the rest of us can keep looking?” Mina suggested. She was really bent on staying here, it seemed.

Momo frowned at Mina now, something was definitely not right with her.

“Okay,” Jeongyeon agreed, raking a hand through her short blonde hair. “So who still wants to look around?”

Tzuyu, Jihyo, Mina and Chaeyoung raised their hands. “Chaeng and I will finish looking upstairs,” Mina suggested, linking her arm through Chaeyoung’s and standing up abruptly, nearly ripping Chaeyoung's shoulder out of her socket. 

“Fine,” Jihyo replied. “We’ll check out the rest of the ground floor, you didn’t finish checking it all out, right Tzuyu?”

Tzuyu shook her head.

“Okay, the rest of you stay here. Just relax. Maybe try to get some sleep.” Jihyo suggested.

Nayeon crossed her arms, pouting. “I can’t believe you all. Especially you, Mina. Just try not to die, okay,” she said, looking at Jeongyeon seriously.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jeongyeon waved her off. “We’ll be okay. I mean, Mina went face to face with a ghost and managed to escape without a scratch, right? Maybe there’s only peaceful spirits haunting this place. Be back soon.” The two groups dispersed, with Mina leading Chaeyoung up the stairs, hand in hand with the shortest girl.

Mina led Chaeyoung to a door at the end of the corridor, shining her flashlight at the dark wood door. Chaeyoung quickly her Go Pro and held her camera ahead of her. Mina slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door inward. It creaked as it opened, revealing what appeared to be a master bedroom.

“This is where the mother, daughter and father all died,” Mina whispered. Chaeyoung looked up at her with wide eyes.

“How would you know?”

“It’s a master bedroom, the biggest one in the house. It’d belong to the parents, I’m assuming,” Mina murmured. She stepped inside and moved the beam of her flashlight around the room, revealing a large, queen sized mattress and an intricate wooden bed frame. There was two large dressers, a vanity mirror, and a large window in which the manor’s back yard was visible from the glass.  

“If we were to see another ghost then, this would be the place,” Chaeyoung guessed. “Are you sure you’re alright though, honestly? You don’t have to pretend with me. I won’t think you’re a coward if you say that you’re scared. Hell, I’d probably have passed out too, and I’d be out the door as soon as I woke up. Seeing the ghost from a distance was scary enough.”

Mina turned to face Chaeyoung, she walked up and grabbed the shorter girl’s free hand. “I know I don’t have to pretend with you, Chaeng, and that’s why I wanted to be with you, here. I didn’t want to go just yet, not when we can still have so much fun.” She giggled again, such an unusual sound from the older girl's mouth. Her face looked slightly ominous with the dark shadows from her flashlight under her eyes.

“Fun? I mean yeah I think the filming aspect of this is fun but now that we know that ghosts are real it kind of changes—”

Chaeyoung was abruptly cut off when Mina moved her face closer to hers, only inches separated their lips and Chaeyoung was all too aware of this fact. She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks almost instantaneously, and it was like all the air was out of her lungs. She could see her own shocked expression reflected in Mina’s brown irises.

“Do you want to kiss me?” Mina asked, in an almost whisper.