Shout out to everyone spending their Halloween at home, this one is for you!

A round of applause to my friend Eve for correcting my fatal grammar mistakes:') ily💞

 

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I walked down the school hall thinking about how stupid I was how in hell I even got myself into this mess. I'm not saying that I'm a scaredy cat, but nobody with a full functioning mind agrees to enter a haunted house at midnight. 

 

A quick flashback to what actually happened. 

 

I was sitting in my usual place as my friends and I made a circle, killing time by playing truth or dare, and skipping the  ty questions and dares (my friends are the worst ever to play truth or dare with). Soon, it was my turn.

 

“Yo, truth or dare?” Hanbin asked.

 

“Truth.” I stated blankly, wanting to it get over with already because I knew how stupid my friends’ dares could be. 

 

“Oh c’mon Maisie, don't be boring!” Jiwon said. 

 

“No I will because I know you guys too well. You'll be like, ‘go tell Junhoe you blah blah blah,’ and I’d rather have my bitten by a ghost than deal with that,” I deadpanned. I was annoyed; they were all giving me the look and making it more awkward than it already was and I just hated it. 

 

“Well, obviously! You're dumb. Haven’t you noticed Junhoe waiting for you to talk to him?” Lin raised a judging eye at me. 

 

“For the millionth time, we're just friends. That's all we are and all we'll ever be.” I wanted to bury the subject ten feet underground. 

 

Okay, it was true. I had been in love with him for a long time but I preferred our friendship over a relationship, I'm too hard to be with. I could never put him in that position. 

 

“Okay Maisie, choose dare and I swear I won't say anything about Junhoe.” Hanbin said playfully. 

 

“Nope.” I closed my eyes and opened them again. 

 

Hanbin whispered something into Jiwon’s ears and his eyes lit and I was scared. 

 

“If you don't choose dare I'll dare Hanbin to tell Junhoe everything.” Jiwon said a smug grin on his face. 

 

“I'll gladly accept it by the way.” Hanbin fake-whispered while the rest of them laughed. 

 

It was a hard decision. Hanbin and Jiwon weren't the type to say something just to “tease” you, these boys had no way of negotiating - once they set their mind into something, there was no going back. I always wondered who the heck decided to replace their brains with asses. The other thing was, I didn’t trust them. I knew I could just tell them to forget it, it was just a game after all. But they took it so seriously, it had me worried. I sometimes did stupid things afraid they'll come back at me with something more stupid like what they are saying now. 

 

“Promise it won't have anything to do with Junhoe,” I warned. 

 

“We promise,” They said almost immediately in a chorus. 

 

“Fine. Dare.” I forced a smile. 

 

“I dare you to go to the haunted house up the hill. Tomorrow. Midnight!” Hanbin said, a playful glint in his eyes. 

 

I winded my eyes. There was no way I was going to that spooky house alone– at midnight! 

 

I shook my head, too shocked to say anything. God knows what is in there! 

 

“You can bring a friend with you.” Jiwon winked. 

 

“What a shame, we’re all attending that Halloween party at Lin’s that you said you wouldn’t attend because you had better stuff to do at home,” Hanbin fake-pouted. 

 

“Happy Halloween!” Jiwon said excitedly. He was so cheerful, he made it sound like I was going to freaking Disneyland and not a damn haunted house. 

 

Suddenly, the bell rang and the teacher barged in signaling there to be no more talking. 

 

I took a deep breath, trying to find a way to get myself out of this mess. 

 

I did try convincing Hanbin and Jiwon out of but to no avail. I had failed.

 

I hurried after Hanbin and Jiwon panting, calling their names. They turned around to wait for me to speak.

 

“This is stupid. I'm not doing it.” I took a moment to catch my breath before continuing. 

 

“I don't care if you're gonna tell Junhoe or even spread a rumor about me, I'm not doing this .” I deadpanned. 

 

They looked at each other. Then, Jiwon titled his head to the side. I heard him call Junhoe, and I closed my eyes trying to maintain myself and my thoughts. 

 

“Are you guys leaving?” Junhoe said as he walked up beside me. Why the hell did he have to pass by us at this very moment?

 

“Oh we are, but we had something to tell you.” Hanbin eyed me and started to talk but I cut him off. 

 

“Didn't you have something to do?” I asked smiling while gritting through my teeth. 

 

They both smiled because they knew I had “accepted” their childish idea. 

 

“Yeah, see ya!” Hanbin said as he waved at me, Jiwon copying him. 

 

Junhoe twisted his body towards me, furrowing his eyebrows questionably. 

 

“Is it just me or do these guys get weirder by day?” he asked, glancing at the two boys skipping into the distance. 

 

“You mean by second.” I corrected, narrowing my eyes in the same direction.

 

I took a deep breath and let it out, fighting the urge to facepalm myself. I shook my body a little like I was about to wrestle someone. 

 

Finally, I turned to face Junhoe.“Okay, I have a favor to ask you.”

 

“Shoot it,” He said, smiling. He was always this kind, he was definitely one of my best friends. I didn’t know why anyone would want me to ruin this friendship, I really appreciated it I wanted to keep it this way. 

 

“Will you please come with me to the haunted house tomorrow at midnight? They dared me and you know I couldn't say no and just– please please say yes? I have no one else to ask, they all ditched me,” I pleaded with squinted eyes, my hands brought to my chest desperately, talking as fast as I could in hopes of sounding less stupid than I really was. 

 

Junhoe kept looking at me, letting everything sink in. Then, a smile crept through his face, but it wasn't the usual sweet one that said “yes”. I knew him too well to know that something was up.

 

“Under one condition,” He said. Of course.

 

“Please enlighten me,” I said dramatically. 

 

“You pay at Nathan's.”

 

****

 

I opened the door to reveal Junhoe wearing black skinny jeans and a grey hoodie. He asked once I opened the door, “You ready?”

 

“Yeah.” I said. Grabbing my sweatshirt and putting it on, I closed the door behind me. We had agreed that we would meet up at my house and walk to the hill. It would take one hour and, well, there wasn’t any other option of transportation there. 

 

“Are you scared?” Junhoe asked, titling his head a little to get a better view of me. 

 

“Nah, not really. At least I'm not going alone.” I wasn't actually the type of get all scared and stick to the guy beside me for “protection”. I didn't really believe in these things, but still, I thought it was plain stupidity to go to a haunted house at midnight on Halloween! 

 

While we passed a couple of kids wearing their outfits trying to act all scary, we reminisced some of our own Halloween stories.

 

“Remember when we went to that Halloween party two years ago dressed in our normal clothes saying that normal people scare us more?” Junhoe laughed at the memory. 

 

“Yeah I do.” I laughed a little too. 

 

“We could have done better though,” I said, remembering how lame I used to be. 

 

“I asked you twice to attend a party together and surprise them with our creativity but you rejected me. Twice.” Junhoe said, tilting his head to the side. 

 

“What's the point anyway? We're too old for this .” I scoffed.

 

“God, Maisie! Stop with the “too old” excuse!” He exclaimed, closing his eyes exasperatedly and then opening them again. 

 

“It's not an excuse!” I retorted. 

 

“You're too old to go to parties, you're too old to skip a class, you're too old to hang out with your friends, you're too old to date and wow! Now you're too old for Halloween too! Yeah,definitely not an excuse.” He shook his head, not so convinced. 

 

“Whatever,” I mumbled. I just wanted to drop the subject. 

 

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and faced me. “Why do you make things so hard for everyone?” He demanded. “Why do you make things so hard for yourself?”

 

“I'm not making anything harder for anybody, okay?” I shot my hands up in surrender. 

 

“When will you stop lying?” He asked again, looking thoroughly into my eyes. 

 

“When will you stop asking dump questions?” I mimicked. 

 

“When you start giving me answers?” He arched his eyebrow. It was another question, not an answer. 

 

“Let's be honest for 15 minutes!” He suddenly snapped.

 

He took out his phone and set a timer. 

 

“Everything we both say in those 15 minutes will be truly honest and we will never talk about it again unless we both decide to,” He said, locking his phone and looking back expectantly at me.

 

But I wasn't ready yet. I wasn't ready to spell everything out – I can't. It wasn’t that easy.

 

“I know that there are a lot of things you're not telling me even though I'm your best friend who you can tell everything to. And… I'm not telling you to spell everything now or even tomorrow. You can take your time. Just... know that I’m here for you. I'm not dumb.”

 

“There's nothing-” I started, but he cut me off before I could say anything more. 

 

“This is our honest 15 minutes, so please don't waste them.” He shut his eyes tightly. 

 

“I- ugh- it's just I- There's nothing- !” I was frustrated. I didn't know what was I supposed to say. I just gave up and asked, “What do you want to know?”

 

“You know exactly what I want to know.” He said, eyeing me carefully. 

 

I did know what he meant, but I had told him before. I had tried my best to make it as clear as the night sky. 

 

“I have told you a thousand times that it has nothing to do with you!” 

 

“I do know that it's not something with me, but I don't know if it's something about me.”

 

“It's complicated, Junhoe. I can't explain. ” I sighed. 

 

“Why? Why can't you explain? Why can't you just say, ‘I'm afraid you will..’ and let me reply telling if I can or cannot help with whatever it is going inside your head!” He burst, failing to maintain himself anymore. 

 

I kept quiet, I didn't know how to answer him. 

 

“If you don't admit it, I'll just spell it out for you! You always prefer to be alone than to be