CHAPTER 8

A Horror Story

 

“Just press your card key onto the scanner like this and…” Beep. A small green light flashed from the card scanner. After pulling down the metal lever effortlessly, Kang Seulgi—the vacation house manager—had opened the door.

“Here, take the card. The password to the front door is on the post-it note behind the card. Make yourself at home,” Seulgi said as she ushered her old friend into the private space provided for her.

“Wow, it’s really nice here,” Wendy remarked as she sat on the low single bed.

Just like the other three single rooms in this house, Wendy’s room was rather basic. It had all the essentials: a bed and a desk, a wardrobe built into the wall, and a small cabinet that hid a convenient mini-fridge—also built into the wall. At the very end of the room was a full-length window covered by blinds. Although the room was fairly small, it did not feel too cramped up. Seulgi had helped with creating the minimalist interior design of each room, making sure it looked cozy and Instagram-worthy for their future renters.

“I can’t believe this used to be your grandparents’ house.”

“Actually, where you’re standing right now is no longer a part of my grandparents’ old house.”

“Oh, really?” Wendy grew quiet as Seulgi awkwardly stared back at her. “So this area is already…?”

Seulgi avoided the topic and continued talking, “There’s a huge bathroom at the end of the hall near the stairs. There are two separate shower areas so you don’t have to fight Soo-Young over it since you’re the only two guests anyway.”

“Tch, like we’ll fight over that…,” Soo-Young scoffed. She had just arrived at the second floor after bringing up Wendy’s luggage. “We’re not children anymore.”

“Anyway,” Seulgi continued, “Soo-Young’s room is right beside yours, and my room is the master bedroom at the other end of the hall. The other two rooms are empty for now. Feel free to use the kitchen and the living room downstairs whenever you like.”

“Thanks for the info.” Wendy pulled in her luggage and threw her hand-carry bag on the single bed. “It’s really interesting that you’re running this lodge. I never thought you’d be the hotel management type of person.”

“Yeah, I thought she’d end up being a nerdy video game tester or something,” Soo-Young bantered.

Seulgi grimaced. “A video game tester? Why would I…?”

“She was so obsessed with games back then,” Soo-Young added. “And she loved junk food so much.”

Seulgi cringed. But if truth be told, she still played video games in her spare time and indulged in unhealthy snacks even as a 25-year-old adult. The only difference now was that nobody could stop her from doing or eating whatever she wanted… except maybe her own conscience.

 

After leaving Wendy to rest in her quarters, Seulgi headed downstairs to the kitchen dining table to do her freelancing jobs.

“What are you doing? Drawing?” Soo-Young hovered over Seulgi, watching her do her magic with her high-tech drawing tools.

“I’m illustrating for a client,” Seulgi answered without taking her eyes off the screen. 

Soo-Young walked to the refrigerator and opened the door, looking for something to eat. “That’s awesome. I remember you used to scribble back then, but I don’t remember you being this good.”

While Seulgi was working on her project, Soo-Young pulled out a carton of milk and also managed to find an unfinished pack of store-bought cookies. Seulgi saw her dump her snack on the table through her peripherals.

“These cookies…,” Soo-Young drifted off.

Seulgi’s eyes darted to her. Those cookies. Her lips twitched open, but Soo-Young ended up speaking first.

“You know what? I’m not even hungry. I just ate noodles earlier. What am I doing?” Soo-Young immediately picked up the stuff she had taken out and quickly shoved them back into the fridge.

Not knowing what else to say, Seulgi squirmed uncomfortably in her seat and just spit out whatever in the form of a stammer. “M-Maybe you should take a rest too. Maybe nap a bit? We did start off the day early and—”

Soo-Young sighed and just tried to brush it all off. “Yeah, you’re right. I am a bit tired from all the driving. What about you?”

“Huh? No, I need to do this,” Seulgi insisted, picking up her digital pen again.

“If you say so,” Soo-Young shrugged. “Maybe we can all set a game plan after Seungwan Unnie has rested for a bit. See you later.”

 

 

Thirteen Years Ago: October 2005

The cool breeze, the fallen leaves, and the calming rural atmosphere—three things that cannot be framed by a windowsill. Out there was a majestic world of yellow, orange, red, and golden wonder brought about by the changing season. Every year, the small country town’s foliage would change from a lively green to a vibrant variegated palette of warm colours. And mid-October to early November was their peak season. Too bad they were stuck indoors, studying for a set of black-and-white exams that were devoid of any beauty whatsoever.

“The weather is too perfect to be wasted reviewing Joseon history,” 12-year-old Seulgi groaned. They were in Soo-Young’s house again; this time Seulgi and Seungwan were studying while Soo-Young played with her Gameboy as usual.

“You have to review if you don’t want to fail,” Seungwan reminded her.

“But it’s the weekend!” Seulgi complained once more.

“That’s why your parents didn’t pick you up so you wouldn’t go around playing in Seoul, so you could study for your exams! Tell me, what date did Yi Sun-Shin battle the Japanese navy at Myeongnyang Strait?”

 “Tch, everyone knows that,” Soo-Young scoffed while repeatedly pressing buttons on her hand-held console.

“Soo-Young, shush! This question is for Seulgi.”

“Um…”

“I’ll give you a hint. The anniversary is coming soon.”

“Uh… October…?”

With an excited look on Seulgi's face, she tore open a bag of potato chips and dug into it with her free hand, totally forgetting the question she left unanswered. (Since her parents and grandparents only fed her healthy food to keep her strong and healthy, she often had her regular dose of junk at Soo-Young’s house.) Remembering that her friends still existed, Seulgi nudged Seungwan and held out the bag of chips to her. "Guys, want some?"

Seungwan groaned as she took a chip from Seulgi. As much as she liked her two friends, they were not the brightest kids in the block. “I don’t know which one is scarier, Halloween come up, or the fact that neither of you care about your grades one bit.” The midterms were coming up and they had done nothing but lounge around and play in Soo-Young's house all day.

“I’m not stupid; I can ace my exams without studying,” Soo-Young aloofly said without even batting an eyelash. Then she snapped her finger like an entitled madam and motioned for Seulgi to bring the bag of chips to her as well as if she was her butler.

Seungwan watched as Seulgi hopped onto Soo-Young’s bed to bring her chips, eventually scooching close to take a peek at Soo-Young’s Gameboy Advance. Yep, these two just don’t care. The ace student shook her head and heaved a sigh of annoyance at the sight of them. “Good for you.”

“Oooh you’re at Lavender Town already,” Seulgi commented while watching Soo-Young navigate her sprite through the game’s virtual town.

“This town gives me the spooks. There’s a haunted tower here and I can’t figure out how to fight the ghosts. It says I need an item so I can battle them properly…”

Seulgi just gave a breathy chuckle. Then she began a topic that was kind of related: “Speaking of ghosts, I think it’s about time the new horror movies that came out in the summer was released into DVD. I was thinking if the video store had them, we could rent one and watch a movie together. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Soo-Young side-eyed her while playing, definitely judging happy-go-lucky Seulgi’s definition of fun. “Hell no.”

Seungwan sat with them on Soo-Young’s bed and crept closer to them. “Horror? Really? Of all the movies out there?”

“I just want to try it out. I want to know if horror movies are actually scary or not. I’ve never actually seen one before. My parents wouldn’t let me when I was younger.”

“Seriously?” Being always left alone to do whatever, Soo-Young just found it hard to believe that someone could be so sheltered.

“My big brother says they’re pretty interesting and make you sleep well later at night because the fright exhausts you and saps you of your energy and...”

Seungwan slapped a palm to her forehead. “Seul, you’ve got to be kidding.”

“Your brother is fooling you, stupid,” Soo-Young said as she lay back on her pillows.

“I still want to try it.” Seulgi was too optimistic about this. “Come on, it’ll be fun! What do you say, guys?”

“Speaking of spooky stuff, there was this story that went wild in our class a few years back.” Soo-Young saved her game and turned off her Gameboy before continuing. She also sat up from her bed and eyed the two seriously to make sure they listen.

As expected, curiosity began racing through Seulgi’s blood. “What story?”

“If this is going to give me nightmares, I don’t want to hear it,” said Seungwan.

Disregarding Seungwan’s wishes, Soo-Young then began her story.

After taking a deep breath she started in a low, softer voice, “Maybe about two or three years ago, someone—I’m not sure I remember who, but yeah, someone—had gotten lost in the lakeside forest one day. I don’t know if either of you has been to the deeper part of the woods, but that place is huge and it is easier to get lost the deeper you go in. Everyone knew better than to wander around there.”

“What happened?” Seulgi asked, totally into the story. She had been to the woods, but she never wandered far away from the lakeside.

“So that person got lost in the woods, right? It was around sundown. Since he (or she) got lost during twilight, everything was getting darker. The tall, big trees and scary dangling vines and leaves made it even worse.”

“Don’t tell me there was some ghost in a white dress.” Seungwan rolled her eyes, pretending that she wasn’t scared of another cliché, predictable horror story.

“No, there was no ghost,” Soo-Young shook her head. “As this lost person kept wandering in the woods, calling out for help, he (or she) saw something else there.”

“What? What did he (or she) see?” Seulgi was staring at Soo-Young so intensely in anticipation.

“Deep in the woods, there was this small, old, wooden shack of some sort—like a small log cabin. It was dark, and there was no light coming from it. It seemed like it was abandoned ages ago. No, wait—!”

“What?” Seulgi’s eyes grew even bigger.

“Maybe there was light? I think there was a light… Maybe a tiny light? Oh man, why’d I forget? It’s not like me…”

“Pffft… you don’t even know the details of the story you’re telling,” Seungwan scoffed some more.

“Anyway, getting back to the story… When the person got closer to the house, the person called out, ‘Hello? Is anybody there?’ but you know what happened next?”

Seulgi shook her head and waited for the big reveal. By this time, even Seungwan was waiting for the punchline to what she thought was Soo-Young’s terrible horror joke.

“Now guys, I’m not just saying this to scare you both. This really happened,” Soo-Young said, stalling again. The other two were getting impatient.

“Just tell us already,” Seungwan groaned.

“Upon knocking on the door, he (or she) heard… the sound of a crying child. You know, like those horror movies with the laughter of ghost children or something like that. But it was just one child. It sounded like this… uwah… eunggwaahh…” (She went on imitating infant cries for a while.)

“Ugh! No, that’s creepy!” Seungwan grimaced and began hugging herself.

“What happened next?” Seulgi asked, wanting to know how this all ended.

Soo-Young quit her story-telling mode and just began to speak normally, like the bossy way she always did. “Honestly, that’s it. Now that I think about it, I have no idea what happened next.”

“Well, that’s lame,” Seulgi said with a chuckle.

“The cabin actually exists though.”

“Have you been there before?” Seungwan asked.

“No,” Soo-Young answered, making the other two question the credibility of her anti-climactic story even more. “But I don’t really want to find out, do you?”

Do you really want to find out?

Seulgi might not have said anything back, but the thought lingered in her head. There was just something so exciting about a secret house in the woods. Maybe too much TV and video games had cultivated a sense of reckless adventure and curiosity in this baby kitten...

 

 

October 2018

“You’re still working?”

Hours passed and it was already 6 p.m. Outside, the evening shadows had taken over as the light dissipated in the west. Soo-Young pulled the curtain over the glass door after looking out and walked toward Seulgi on the other side of the wide room. She had just gotten up from her long nap. Despite the slightly dishevelled long hair, she still looked like she was about to model in a saturnine photoshoot of sorts. How anyone could have such an appealing aesthetic after a nap always made Seulgi wonder.

Seulgi put down her digital pen and stretched her arms as she watched the swaying of Soo-Young’s languid figure. “Looks like you rested well.”

“I did…” She yawned as she sat on the chair near Seulgi at the dining table. “Where’s Seungwannie Unnie?”

“I don’t know. She’s probably still in her room.”

“Her jetlag must be that bad. Do you think we should wake her up for dinner?”

“Hm. Maybe we shouldn’t. She’s probably still sleeping.” Seulgi looked down on the table and fumbled with her pen. “And honestly, I’m not hungry.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Soo-Young muttered. “But you know what?”

“What?”

Soo-Young’s big round eyes stared back into Seulgi with so much intensity it made all the hair on her arms rise. “After thinking about it, I think I know where the time capsule might be. Specifically.”

“Okay…” Seulgi tried to avoid getting dragged into the blackhole of Soo-Young’s irises but Soo-Young leaned in closer and began a breathy, almost sensually arousing whisper (even though whispering was completely unnecessary because no one else was there). Then she suddenly grabbed Seulgi’s drawing arm and squeezed it tightly.

“Do you remember the cabin?”

Cabin? Seulgi tensed before her. The cabin. The lone cabin deep in the woods. Their childhood hideout. Suddenly, it seemed as though everything was flashing back before her. They spent a few years hanging out there. They played, they talked, they dreamed… they did all sort of things in that cabin… They made it as though it was their own little house. How could she forget?

“No way!” Seulgi shook her head, knowing exactly where Soo-Young was going with this. “You’ve seen the lakeside; there were a lot of developments and the remaining forest is barely accessible!”

Soo-Young let go of her hand and slightly raised her voice. “It was pretty deep in the forest! It could still be around there somewhere! Besides, weren’t you that stupid annoying kid who liked ghost hunting and going on dumb adventures back then?!”

“That was many years ago! I’m 25 already, for goodness sakes! Do I look like I’m still that kid to you?!”

“Yeah, you still do! You have the same eyes, nose, lips, even those big ears that stick out of your hair!”

Seulgi did not know how to respond to that.

Then Soo-Young calmed down a bit and continued, “Besides, it’s not really the cabin that we need to find. We didn’t keep it there. We buried it in the ground somewhere, and that’s the tricky part.”

“If it’s not the cabin then where? Even if we find the cabin untouched, are we supposed to go around digging holes all over the place until we find it?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. After seeing the cookies earlier, I remembered something very important.”

“What?”

“The cookie jar.”

 

 

Thirteen Years Ago: October 2005

"Okay, never mind about Soo-Young's terrible story-telling skills. Can we please concentrate on our studies again? Seulgi, you didn't answer my question about Yi Sun-shin earlier."

While the two 5th graders were yapping about the correct date for some age-old historical event, Soo-Young shut off her game and stood up to stretch her body for a bit. Walking around the room, she eventually stopped to take a peek through the open window.

As expected, the mild autumn sun shone down kindly on the quaint little street. And across the street, the flowering cosmos in front of Seulgi’s house waved their stalks—taunting her. Even those mute, immobile, brainless, good-for-nothing plants were out enjoying the autumn weather in all its glory, while what was she doing? The weather was too pretty—too pleasant to be hanging out with two losers having a question and answer time on hundred-year-old dates and places. Why in the world am I even staying here with them? Oh right, this is my house…

While Soo-Young was musing things in her head, the gate of the drab, lifeless house beside the flowerpot house slowly creaked open. Her drifting soul was suddenly back into her body. Joohyun came out of the gate. Soo-Young knew this well. She has never seen anyone else come out of that house except her anyway. Joohyun walked to the right side of the street and was then out of sight.

Minutes later, Joohyun came back into view. This time, however, she was carrying a box of what seemed to be store-bought cookies from down that end of the street. Soo-Young continued watching her as she approached, but instead of heading back into the creepy old house, Joohyun went straight down the street. She walked past her house; she walked past Seulgi and Soo-Young’s house, and soon she was at the other end of their street—to the small woody path that led to the lakeside.

The heck is she doing, buying cookies and taking it to the forest? Soo-Young wondered. After Joohyun had gone, Soo-Young sat back on her bed and tuned back into her little world with Seulgi and Seungwan.

“You know what would be fun?” Seulgi asked with her usual, adorably stupid, happy-go-lucky grin that often made Seungwan and Soo-Young cringe. “Going out to look for that cabin in Soo-Young’s story.”

Seungwan rolled her eyes. “You know what wouldn’t be fun? Repeating history class.”

“You want to go so bad? Then go. I dare you, Luigi,” Soo-Young said with a smirk that only irked Seungwan all the more. It did not help that she referred to Seulgi as the protagonist of that game she was so obsessed with.

“Don’t encourage her!” Seungwan barked like an angry guard dog.

“You’re both coming with me, right?” Seulgi smiled wider, getting all hyped up for an adventure that no one else wanted to embark on.

“No. No one is going ‘haunted-cabin-hunting’ in the woods, okay? You heard the story, Seul. It’s not safe,” Seungwan emphasized once more.

“Joohyun Unnie goes into the woods all the time, and she seems alright,” Seulgi argued.

“It doesn’t matter that Joohyun Unnie does it! Just because you see her lurking about in the woods doesn’t mean you should too!”

“Ugh, come on, Seungwan,” Seulgi groaned, still trying to make light of the situation. “You’re starting to sound like my mom.”

“Yeah, so? Just because your parents aren’t around you think you can just do whatever you want?”

Be good. Study hard. Eat healthily. Sleep well. No junk food. No video games. No horror movies. Right, like they’ll ever know…

Soo-Young got up from her bed again and shuffled through the built-in drawers in her desk. After some time of rummaging, she pulled out a boxy, bulky black camera.

“If you do manage to go find it, you better bring this.” After fumbling around with it, Soo-Young nonchalantly handed the clunky old device to the clueless bear.

“What’s this? An old camera?” (Young Seulgi was not a professional photographer yet at that time. Her parents barely let her touch their digital camera for fear of her potential to break it into pieces. They believed they could preserve things longer by never letting the clumsy child touch expensive gadgets.)

“It’s a polaroid camera,” Soo-Young explained. “You can take pictures as proof ‘cause I’m not going with you.”

“But wouldn’t it be more fun together?” Seulgi whined.

Seungwan dragged a palm from her forehead down to her face in frustration. “No one’s going, Seulgi.”

“Fine, then I’ll go on my own.” Seulgi accepted the camera and held it close to her stomach as they sat on the floor.

“Wait,” Seungwan’s brow twitched in nervousness, “You’re not seriously going, are you?”

“I’m going,” Seulgi said firmly.

Soo-Young just cackled like an evil witch and said, “Good luck with that.”

 

Strong-willed, courageous, and ready to face the great unknown—those were three things that defined a great adventurer. These great protagonists were everywhere in literature, film, and even video games that appealed especially to young dreamers and seekers of greatness. Young Kang Seulgi was no exception to those attracted by the thrill and the dazzling glory of these dramatized conquests. Though reality may vary greatly from its dramatized counterparts, adventures and conquests—big or small—have this thrill that appealed to humans’ instinct for development and growth. Let us face it: if the reckless, adventurous men and women in history never took chances, what would our world be today?

That very night after the triad’s study session, Seulgi the young adventurer packed her rucksack with all sorts of supplies—unnecessary junk food, a bottle of water, a flashlight, extra batteries, and an old compass that she stole (or borrowed without permission) from one of her grandfather’s drawers. After eating breakfast and watering the plants the next morning, she set off on her journey out into the wilderness of Yeonsan’s woody lakeside. She figured that if she wanted to find the cabin before sundown, she set off early. Though her other friends might have thought she was insane, she still kept her “recklessness” to a reasonable level. The thought of her grandparents panicking due to her disappearance made her feel guilty. They love her too much; they would cry if they lost her and she did not want to upset them. She just has to make sure that would not happen—for her grandparents’ and parents’ sake.

With her backpack dangling behind her, she hopped down to the bottom of the stack of rocks that led into the woods. Down further, Seulgi caught a glimpse of the placid lake waters, reflecting the brown and orange hues of autumn down on the glass-like surface. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. Today was a good day. So far, so good—

“Hey you!”

“Ah!” Seulgi jumped in shock from the sudden greeting that seemed to come from out of nowhere. Upon turning around, she saw a familiar figure coming out from the shadows of the trees. “Seungwan? What are you doing here?”

Son Seungwan, the very person who did not want her to go, was out in the woods wearing a baseball cap on her head and a backpack on her back. Seemed like she was onto something here…

“I’m not going to let you and your infuriatingly annoying curiosity kill yourself out here.”

“So, you’re coming with me?” A spark so adorable—so soft yet bright—lit up in Seulgi’s eyes. This was all she wanted—to go on an adventure with her best friends.

Seungwan on the other hand had other things in mind. “Look, we don’t have to go, Seul. But if you’re going to keep insisting on it, I can’t let you go alone.” In other words, she was here as a responsible chaperone, not as a buddy to be reckless and stupid with. She was here to make sure Seulgi did not do anything too crazy.

“Assa! We’re going to have so much fun! Let’s go!”

Seungwan pursed her lips tightly, trying not to get too irked by Seulgi’s blithely unconcerned disposition. Here was Son Seungwan—the logical and responsible one—willingly getting dragged into the world of the unknown where they could get lost and fall off the face of the earth. Without wasting any more time, Seulgi took her by the hand and together they walked through the rocky, hilly woods of the Keoul lakeside.

“You brought the camera, right?” From her bag, Seungwan had taken out a pouch that she had brought along. As she slowed and fumbled with it, Seulgi went on a few paces ahead of her, but she still kept up her pace to make sure they don’t lose sight of each other.

“Yup.”

“Good. Take it out.”

“Right now?” Seulgi stopped and turned to Seungwan. Oddly, Seungwan seemed to be taking out some of the stuff from her pouch and dropping them on the ground while walking. “What are you doing?”

“If we ever want to get out of this forest, don’t you think we need to be making some sort of map? If you see any auspicious landmark of some sort, take a picture, and make notes on them so we don’t get lost.”

“What are you dropping?”

When Seungwan had caught up to her, she took out a few round objects from her pouch and held out her palm for Seulgi to see. These thumb-size glass spheres came in assorted colours—obnoxious enough to be noticed on the dusty earth.

“Marbles?”

“We can follow the marble path if we ever get lost. They also shine in the light at night, so we’ll be able to see them if we shine on them with flashlights. I’m trying to drop them in places where fallen leaves wouldn’t cover them up so we can easily see them.”

“Whoa, you’re smart, Seungwan. I would have never thought of that.”

Seungwan lightly punched Seulgi’s arm with a smirk. “This is why you need me. I’m telling you; I can’t let you die out here.”

“Oh, I also have a compass,” Seulgi said, suddenly remembering. She zipped open her bag and rummaged through it so she could hand over the compass to Seungwan. Seungwan took the compass and kept it with her for the rest of the day.

The two explorers wandered in the forest for hours. Seulgi the amateur photographer took photos of things that piqued her interest—things that may help her remember where they had been to. After climbing up a rather steep slope, she took shots of the glistening lake—though it may not have looked as beautiful on the polaroid. The farther they strayed from the lakeshore the taller and bigger the trees grew. The land was also starting to level, making it easy for Seungwan to leave her colourful marbles in places where they would not roll off.

After they had gone quite a ways into the forest, the two of them decided to sit down and rest for snacks. Conveniently, they had spotted a huge rock that jutted out from the flat ground. Seulgi peeped through the finder of the polaroid camera and took a snap. Moments later, a photograph was printed out of the camera. The two girls then took their seats on the lower curved edge of the rock. Responsible Seungwan prepared their snacks while Seulgi the photographer flapped the printed photograph to make the image appear on the polaroid. While waving the polaroid photograph back and forth, Seulgi noticed something odd on the very ground below her.

“Uh, Seungwan, there seems to be a lot of these dots moving on the ground.”

“What dots?” Seungwan paused whatever she was doing to take a look for herself. She knew better than to trust Seulgi’s bad eyesight.

Seulgi pointed down on the ground. “Here, there are lots of these… are these insects?”

When Seungwan saw what Seulgi was referring to, she gasped. “Seulgi, these are ants! But you’re right there’s so many of them!” Knowing better than to eat here, Seungwan quickly took their lunchbox and snacks and packed them back into their bags.

"I heard that if you on ants' butts they taste sweet." By the way Seulgi had said it, it seemed like she truly believed it.

Seungwan glared at Seulgi as if she had just said the stupidest thing on earth. "Ugh, don't tell me your brother told you that too."

Seulgi looked closer down the ground and observed the movement of the critters on the forest floor. “It looks like they’re following some sort of path…,” she mumbled while Seungwan was packing. She slowly walked to follow the moving “dots,” inching at the sides of the rock until she eventually came to a stop on the other side. “Seungwan, look!”

“What?” Seungwan had just finished packing up and had carried both her and Seulgi’s bags.

“There’s a half-eaten cookie over here.”

Seulgi was right; there was a half-eaten red velvet cookie lying on the ground surrounded by hundreds of little ants feeding off of it. The hard-working insects diligently chipped off the cookie bit by bit and dragged them off elsewhere.

“What’s a cookie doing here?” Seungwan wondered out loud. Cookies don’t just grow out of the ground. Somebody must have recently dropped it there—if not minutes, then maybe a few hours ago. One thing was for sure—it wasn’t them who dropped this thing. Seungwan looked around and about 5 feet away from the huge cookie piece, she found more. “Hey, look, Seul, there are more crumbs over here. And there!”

"Looks like someone left a trail of cookies, but seems like they're not very smart, because the ants are starting to eat them...," Seulgi mumbled. "Is it because they eat sweet things that their butts taste sweet?"

 

 

##ㅋ쿠ㅜㅜㅜㅋㅋㅈ쟈

…

…#

“Seulgi, what in the world are you doing?! Don’t eat ThAaaTㅜ#c0oK!ㅌ off the ground!”

YㅌS yUmMmmY (she’s 12, young and stupid. what does she know…)

As the two girls wandered further like looking for traces of cookie crumbs, the two of them stopped in their tracks.

A few paces further and there it was. They could see it with their very own eyes. 

The cabin was there.

Gotta take photos.

ㅜㅜㅜㅠㅠㅜㅜㅠ

yUmM—

ㅆsㅌUㄴ기 sT0P EAtING—

Huh?

...

Kang Seulgi grumbled and tossed and twisted and turned. With one lousy movement, her entire body tipped off the edge… and fell with a loud thud on the floor. Although her body was cushioned by a soft wrapping of sorts, her head crashed against the glossy, woody surface pretty hard. Good thing she was rather hard-headed (pun intended).

“Owowow…” the poor thing shuffled in the dark. Soon, her groping hands managed to grab a hold of a familiar wall switch. With a quick press, the dark room was illuminated by bright fluorescent lights, revealing the oh-so-familiar master bedroom of the vacation house. After taking the pair of glasses resting on the side table, she looked to the alarm clock.

October 7, 2018. 4:12 a.m.

“What the hell… another dream… This is all because of Soo-Young and her agendas…”

Seulgi pulled up the sheets she had dragged down to the floor with her and tossed them back onto the bed. While lethargy, exhaustion, and insomnia waged war with each other in taking over her drained body, Seulgi sat still on her bed—half-awake, half-asleep. After a while, her barely-opened eyes opened wider. A low, beastly growl resounded from down in her stomach. Insomnia and hunger seemed to have won.

Out of the master bedroom and down the dim hall, the bare-footed insomniac silently trudged so as not to wake the other two girls in the house. She wandered down the dark hall depending on the light emanating from her room until she made it to the stairs. There she flicked the light switch on, only illuminating path of the stairs. Down in the kitchen, she opened the refrigerator. Her lazy hands reached for the milk carton and the opened pack of store-bought cookies. After eating a cookie and drinking milk from a wine glass, Seulgi went back up the stairs to the dark hall, switching off the lights thereafter.

As she walked down to the other end of the hall to the master bedroom, she noticed something she had not noticed earlier. Down on the slit below Wendy’s door was a dim light. Wendy’s lamplight was on. Is she awake? Seulgi stood before the door and pressed her ears against the cold, varnished surface. She could hear a soft buzzing of what seemed to be muffled sounds of someone singing along to a backing track.

As Seulgi continued trying to listen to a barely audible song, she almost fell off balance and ended up rattling the doorknob making a few noises.

“Huh? What was that?” Wendy looked up from her phone and stared at the door.

Just to make sure she was not hallucinating, Wendy went to the door and opened it. When the door opened, Seulgi’s eyes grew wide in shock, followed by Wendy as well. “Seulgi? What are you doing here?” she loudly whispered.

“I-I-I can explain!”

Wendy pressed a finger to her lips. “Shush!”

Seulgi quieted down and looked behind her to make sure Soo-Young was not getting disturbed by their ruckus.

“Come in.”

Seulgi then quickly went in and Wendy shut the door behind her. The two of them then sat on Wendy’s bed together.

“You almost scared me. Were you snooping around and creeping on my door?!”

“Well I… um kinda…,” Seulgi awkwardly answered. She still was not quite sure on how to act around this old friend of hers. Technically Seungwan, or Wendy Son, was closer to a stranger than a close friend at this point. “I just passed by! I’m not a creep I swear!”

Despite the blonde-dyed hair and westernized manner of speaking, Seulgi saw something in Wendy Son that was retained all these years. Just like young Seungwan, Wendy lit up to a sweet-sounding laugh—chuckling at the silly bear’s words like it was the funniest thing on earth.

“What’s so funny?” Seulgi asked in frustration.

“Oh… Seulgi,” Wendy said as she calmed down a bit. “You truly haven’t changed.”

“Really?” In her head, she seemed to have changed and matured quite a lot in the past ten years. It felt like a slight mockery to be told otherwise.

“Yes. Still very curious. Still moves and talks with that adorable child-likeness. Still very Seulgi.”

Right… whatever that means… What exactly does being “Seulgi” mean? Trying not to think about it too much, Seulgi changed the subject. “Why are you awake anyway? You didn’t leave your room to have dinner earlier either.”

“Right now, it’s 3 p.m. in Toronto,” Wendy said, showing her phone screen to Seulgi. She still had not adjusted the time zone. “Jetlag.”

“Right… I totally get that feel…,” Seulgi muttered. Now she had no idea how to continue this small talk.

“What about you? Why are you awake at this hour?” Wendy asked.

“I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep,” Seulgi said nonchalantly. She sounded so jaded by all the nightmares lately that it did not even surprise her anymore.

“Insomnia?”

“You could say that,” Seulgi sighed. “Honestly, I fall asleep just fine. I just don’t want to.”

“Why?” Wendy gave her this gentle look of concern. Even when they were kids, Son Seungwan always looked after her. She has not changed either.

“I get weird dreams. They’re just messed-up images that make no sense.” Then Seulgi softly chuckled. “You were in my dream actually.”

“Really?”

“We were kids, and you told me not to eat the cookie that we found lying around on the forest,” Seulgi continued chuckling.

“I think that actually happened,” Wendy chuckled as well.

Then Seulgi continued in a more serious tone, “The thing is these dreams always end up taking a dark turn. I don’t know if you can call them dreams. More like a nightmare, honestly. The other night, you were there in my dream too. It was like a resurfacing memory. We were at a hospital and you ran toward me, crying.”

Wendy recognized the imagery immediately. “That was when Joohyun Unnie—”

When Joohyun Unnie died. That was when Joohyun Unnie died. 

I n the hospital.

“Yeah, I figured,” Seulgi said, not even letting Wendy finish her sentence. “Who knows? Maybe this house is haunted ha-ha…” That dark self-deprecating humour partnered with a forced laugh sounded more painful than playful. Slowly, her face changed from a bubbly smile to a melancholic frown as she looked down on her palms. “But it seems I’m haunted anywhere I go.”

Wendy lightly patted Seulgi’s back, making her lift her head again to face Wendy. “I know what you mean.”

Seulgi did not expect that answer. “Y-you do?”

“I don’t get nightmares, but in a way, there are just a lot of things in my mind all the time. That’s my nightmare.” Then Wendy looked at the small Bluetooth speaker she had brought along. It was still playing a soft tune as they were conversing.

“Why are you really here? You could have gone on a vacation anywhere, but here of all places?”

“There are things I just want to make peace with. That’s the real reason why I’m here.”

“Make peace…?”

“Do you know what the last stage of grief is?”

Seulgi stared blankly at Wendy.

“There are five stages of grief,” Wendy went on. “First is denial. That’s when you can’t believe what had just happened. Second is anger. Third is bargaining—when you start thinking of the what-ifs—considering better outcomes like 'if only we did something different' or 'if only this happened or that happened'… and the fourth is depression.” Wendy paused for a while. She took her phone and paused the playing song.

“What’s the fifth?”

“Acceptance.”

Acceptance.

That word echoed back and forth like a dull gong inside Seulgi’s head.

“Accepting that things happened the way they did. Accepting that there is nothing we can do to change the past,” Wendy continued. Seulgi got the hint. “There are things that are difficult for me to accept, but I know I need to get to that part of grief somehow. I need to get to acceptance.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“I don’t know.”

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