Seungwan loved Halloween. She’s always loved dressing up and trick or treating when she was little. In her teens, she still dressed up but instead of trick or treating it was staying home with her parents to watch classic horror films. 

As a college student that no longer lived at home, there was still wearing costumes but instead of films with the parentals, it was parties. Big ones. With more booze than candy. And lots of pretty girls with their pretty costumes.

But this year there was a bit of change. No trick or treating. No Halloween movies. No big parties with alcohol. None of that would be done for this year’s Halloween. Because Yeri, the youngest of her closest friends, demanded that Seungwan ditched whatever plans she had to come along with her, Sooyoung, Seulgi, and Joohyun to a haunted house.

And Seungwan had nothing against haunted houses. She gave props to the actors for their tremendous talent in not breaking character and tolerating all the screaming. So she never went to one because she didn’t want to spend money to just get scared when her college debt already did that.

Yet, here she was, a pair of fangs, an outfit (a leather jacket, ripped jeans, and combat boots) she hoped conveyed the classic “rebel vamp”. She’d been binge-watching a show about vampires which had a great influence on her unoriginal costume.

She spotted the four girls at the entrance and hurried to them. “Sorry I was late, these fangs were a pain to put on.”

“Doesn’t matter, you’re here now. Let’s get in line before more people come.”

They followed Yeri, who she just noticed was wearing a rainbow flag as a cape and a unicorn headband. She looked at the other’s costumes; Sooyoung was Cher from Clueless, Seulgi was wearing Pikachu ears and tail, and Joohyun adorned a simple bunny headband.

The line moved slowly, they took little shuffles forward at least every 30 seconds. She figured it could’ve been worse if they had arrived just a bit later because suddenly the line was so far back she couldn’t see the end anymore.

“Are you excited?” asked Seulgi, clearly directed at her with the way they all looked at her.

“Uh...sort of?”

“Not a fan of these things?”

“Can’t say for sure, it’s my first time.”

Sooyoung whistled lowly. “I remember my first time, I almost punched one of the actors.”

“I scared one of the actors,” they all turned to Yeri with questioning looks. “I popped a blood capsule in my mouth and pretended to “cough” it up. They were doing a terrible job of scaring me so I thought I’d spice things up.”

“When was this?”

She thought for a few seconds. “Hm...I think I was like 8.”

“As expected.”

They finally reached the front of the line and bought their tickets. Their next stop was the restroom because it was a must to empty the bladder before anything else. A full bladder and haunted house didn’t mix well.

Yeri made them pause in their steps and took position in front of them. “We must coordinate the buddy system and our spots before we get in line.” There’s a glint in her eyes that had Seungwan more scared than the actual haunted house. “Who volunteers to be first?” Nobody raised their hand. Seungwan avoided Yeri’s eyes but it was a pointless effort. “Seungwan, it’s an absolute must for first-timers to be in front.”

Well, there goes her soul. “Sure,” she croaked, then cleared . “I don’t mind.”

“Great! Sooyoung and Seulgi, you’ll be buddies and Joohyun, you’ll be Seungwan’s. I’ll take the back solo.”

Ah, that was her plan. Then it started to click even more. When Yeri mentioned Joohyun’s name as part of the ones who’d be going, Seungwan had choked on nothing but air. Of course, Yeri was an expert in putting the pieces together. 

So maybe she had revealed her epic crush on Joohyun which had been burning intensely since Yeri had introduced them last year.

And now she was being paired up with Joohyun to conquer a haunted house which often resulted in hand-holding, arm hugging, and face hiding in necks. Great. Superb.

Nobody seemed to object thus putting their buddy system into rule. Freaking marvelous. As leader, Seungwan got in line first with the rest of them following behind. 

While she eyed one of the actors, who looked like a knock off Jason, drag a body bag, Joohyun leaned in close behind her, whispering, “I can go first, if you want.”

And Seungwan jumped, managing to contain a scream. She turned to Joohyun who was just as shocked. “Sorry about that and it’s totally fine.”

“Are you sure?”

No, she wasn’t. She wanted to be in the safety of the middle. She didn’t want to face the horror first. However, as much as she’d be willing to beg on her knees to not be in front, she wasn’t going to because she had pride and dignity which she was not willing to damage just because she was a bit too scared of actors who are great at their job.

“I’m one hundred and ten percent sure.”

Joohyun eyed her with suspicion but accepted her answer. “Okay but if it becomes too much, we can hold hands.”

“Uh...okay.” Holy .

The entire wait in line, Seungwan’s mind wasn’t even on the horror awaiting in the haunted house because she kept replaying Joohyun’s words. But when they were shuffled inside, Seungwan didn’t think twice in reaching back and gripping tight onto the soft hand that made its way into her own when the first character of the night, a prisoner chained on the wall, decided to run up to them while screaming.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter