4^th February 2017, 8.30PM

The young bachelor walked through the entrance of Seoul Amusement Park. He was wearing a pair of normal jeans, a checkered T-shirt and a pair of sneakers. It was different than his usual choice of clothing which consisted of only suits – he was a businessman, after all.

It was three days ago when he received the invitation to Seoul Amusement Park. A red envelope was placed on top of his table. At first, he thought that it was just a brochure but thinking twice, he doubted it as if it was a brochure, the envelope would have been in his mailbox.

When he realized that it was actually an exclusive invitation to the biggest and most expensive amusement park in South Korea, he thought that it was just a prank. But then, a ticket was placed inside the envelope which made him think that it was not a prank, after all.

Kris Wu snapped back to reality when his eyes landed on a familiar figure. The person was wearing a pair of jeans, a normal white T-shirt and a pair of flats. Her hair was let down unlike the usual days when she tied it into a ponytail. She usually wore a dress that reached her knees and a jacket. That was all. It was the first time Kris had ever seen she wore casual clothing.

“Sooyoung-sshi,” he called out and sat beside her. “You’re from Seoul Boarding School, too?”

The said woman looked up in surprise. “Ah, yes, I’m from that boarding school. I didn’t know you attended the school, too, Kris-sshi,” she responded. As Kris’s secretary, she should have known more about him but then, Kris was an introvert. He preferred to keep to himself.

The man chuckled. “I guess we’re just workers from the same company with no strings attached. That’s why we don’t know that we were schoolmates before,” he replied.

Sooyoung smiled slightly. “I guess so,” she replied, not knowing what to say anymore. Silence enveloped them as each of them thought of something to talk about. At last, the woman decided to ask a question. “What year were you born in?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.

“1990,” he replied. “What about you?”

“I see that we were in the same batch,” she remarked with an awkward smile plastered on her face.

Once again, silence wrapped itself around them. Not knowing what else to talk about, Kris looked around. He recognized some of them such as Luhan, Taeyeon and Taemin. Well, he recognized Luhan because Luhan used to be one of his best friends but they had drifted apart. He knew Taeyeon because Taeyeon had gotten famous after her younger brother, Suho, had passed away in such a brutal manner. He knew Taemin’s face because, well, who wouldn’t recognize Taemin? He was a popular singer and dancer in SM Entertainment, after all. Taemin was in SHINee – the group that was trending in the music world, right now.

Suddenly, a young woman entered the amusement park. She wore a smile that did not quite reach her eyes. She bowed slightly before introducing herself. “Hello, graduates of Seoul Boarding School! My name is Seo Joohyun but you may just call me Seohyun,” she introduced herself. “Now that I have told all of you my name, why don’t all of you introduce yourselves to everyone?”

“My name is Lee Taemin. Nice to meet all of you,” Taemin introduced himself with a sincere smile.

“Well, you don’t have to introduce yourself, Taemin-sshi. I’m sure all of us already know your name. You’re one of the SHINee members, after all,” an innocent-looking young lady spoke up. The others chuckled politely at her remark while Taemin just smiled.

“What is your name, then?” Taemin replied smoothly.

Kris saw that a slight smile was curved at the young lady’s lips. “My name is Choi Jinri,” she said, in response to Taemin’s question.

“But you’d prefer it if people call you Sulli,” another young lady chimed in. The young lady smiled slightly. “Don’t you remember me, Sulli-ah?”

Sulli examined the young lady carefully before widening her eyes slightly in recognition. “Oh, you’re Soojung, right?” she exclaimed excitedly. “I’ve missed you!”

The lady named Soojung grinned at the innocent-looking young lady. “I’ve missed you too,” she responded. “But I go by Krystal, now. Krystal Jung. That’s my name.”

Kris noticed that Seohyun still maintained the forced smile on her face. Honestly, Seohyun looked as though she did not want to be here. Maybe she’s just tired, he told himself. But there was a voice nagging at the back of his mind saying that it was more than that.

“Okay, who’s next?” Seohyun asked sounding almost dismissive.

“I’m Kim Jongin,” a young-looking guy said, sounding bored. “Just call me Kai.” Then, he leaned his back against his seat.

“Why do all of you have strange nicknames?” Kris heard Sooyoung say. “Why can’t we call you by your real name?” She shook her head in distaste. “I’m Choi Sooyoung, by the way.”

“I don’t have any weird nicknames,” another young-looking guy piped up. “My name is Byun Baekhyun. I hope we’ll get along well!” He smiled brightly.

“Nor do I,” a petite young woman said. “Kim Taeyeon is the name.”

“I can’t memorize everybody’s name,” Luhan, Kris’s former best friend, groaned. “There are too many of you here.”

Kris let out a snort at Luhan’s statement. “You’re as forgetful as always, Luhan-sshi,” he remarked. For the first time that night, Luhan noticed Kris.

Luhan’s lips curved into an amused smile. “Well, some things just do not change, Kris-sshi,” he replied calmly. His voice hinted at something that only Kris knew.

Kris just shrugged. “All of you have known our names. So who’s next?” he said dismissively.

“So it’s my turn now, huh?” a gorgeous young woman muttered to herself but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. “Well, my name is Im Yoona,” she said simply.

After Yoona’s statement, Seohyun quickly clapped her hands, gaining everyone’s attention. “Now that we have known one another’s name, let us have a question and answer session. Do you have anything to ask anyone?” she asked, doing her job well as a hostess.

“I have a question for you, Seohyun-sshi,” Kai said, being straightforward. “Why did you invite all of us here?”

At hearing the question, Seohyun burst into laughter of amusement. For the first time that night, Kris noticed that the smile that Seohyun wore on her face was genuine. “Well, it wasn’t me who had invited you here. I’m just the hostess,” she told them. “The one who invited you here is the Kwon family.”

“What?” Taeyeon exclaimed. “The Kwon family invited us here? Kwon Yuri’s family invited us here?”

Seohyun smiled and nodded. “Yes, that’s right,” she affirmed.

“Why would her family do that?” Taemin asked curiously. “Isn’t Kwon Yuri dead?”

Seohyun smiled softly. “Yeah, she’s dead. You see, her family just found out about how Kwon Yuri-sshi treated all of you when she was still alive. She bullied all of you. To atone for her deeds, her family held this gathering,” she explained.

“This isn’t necessary, though,” Yoona spoke up.

“Oh well,” Seohyun shrugged nonchalantly. “This is only the beginning, anyway. Well, do you have anymore questions to ask one another?”

None of them said anything.

“Okay, then! Let the fun begin!” the young woman said excitedly.

4^th February 2017, 8.55PM

Sulli was the last one to enter the haunted house. The haunted house was dark but some lanterns had been placed inside of it. She shuddered slightly. Her instincts told her to run away quickly but she stayed. She told herself that she was just being paranoid and stupid. Even though Victoria had warned her to be careful, a walk inside the haunted house was not harmful, right?

She did not know how wrong she was.

Forcing herself to continue walking, she followed the person in front of her, Kai, while Seohyun was leading the way at the front. She remembered the guy from Da Vinci Café. She had to admit that she did not recognize the guy at all when they met at the café. She had not expected to meet him again that night.

Lost in her own thoughts about Victoria’s warning, Sulli bumped into Kai’s back when the guy suddenly stopped walking. “Sorry,” she whispered. Suddenly, she felt a hand gripped itself around her ankle. A chill went down her spine.

“It’s okay,” Kai replied but was taken aback when the lady suddenly gripped his arm tightly. He looked back in annoyance. “Why are you holding my arm so tightly?” he asked with a tint of annoyance in his voice.

“Kai-sshi,” Sulli said with tremor in her voice. “There is a hand gripping my ankle so tightly.”

As soon as she said that, the hand on her ankle suddenly yanked her backwards. Kai was also pulled back as her hand was gripping his arm. Sulli let out a high-pitched scream, causing the others right in front of them to turn back.

Soon, there were too many hands everywhere that were trying to grab them both. The two of them fought with all their might, trying to resist. They were on the floor, struggling to get away from those hands.

The others quickly ran towards them. They tried to drag both of them away but with all the hands combined together to perform one task, the hands were stronger. Everyone was screaming and shouting and yelling.

“Step on the hands!” someone commanded them but none of them was able to tell who due to the chaos.

Everyone except for the two of them on the floor was stepping on the hands, stopping their movement. Soon, the screaming ceased. Only heavy breathing could be heard. Kai stood up and held out his hand to Sulli to help her up.

Sulli accepted his hand and stood up. She was perspiring so badly. Her hands were sweaty. Her forehead was drenched with perspiration. “Thank you,” she said between her ragged breath.

The eleven of them quickly fled the scene in order not to be dragged by the hands again.

“Well, this is only the beginning,” Seohyun remarked so casually that chills went down their spines.

“You mean, there are more horrors to come?” Kris asked.

“Of course!” the young woman replied. “This is a haunted house challenge after all. It’s fun.”

“You’re crazy if you think this is fun,” Sulli told her.

“Oh, come on! It’s just a game at an amusement park!” Seohyun laughed merrily with a twinkle in her eyes. She was definitely enjoying herself.

This woman is definitely sick, Sulli thought to herself grimly.

4^th February 2017, 9.15PM

All of them continued to walk. They just wanted to get out of the haunted house as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Seohyun was leading the way and she was walking quite slowly. She seemed to know the way around the haunted house very well.

It’s like this is her house, Kai thought cynically to himself. The thought amused him.

Up until now, no ghosts had appeared yet. There were only fake – at least he thought that they were fake – corpses and cobwebs everywhere. Fake – he hoped so – blood that looked very much like real blood was splattered around the house.

Then, Seohyun stopped, causing the others to follow suit. Crying of an unknown person could be heard. Then, a door right next to Kai creaked open slowly. Everybody held their breath.

“Please. Save me,” a child-like voice cried out.

Goosebumps rose on their arms. They looked around to see where the voice was coming from.

“Please! Help me!” the voice begged. Sobs could be heard coming from the room.

Nobody moved. They were frozen at their spots.

“I don’t want to die…”

“We should enter,” Kai said, breaking from his momentary trance. He stepped forward but was stopped by a voice.

“We shouldn’t,” Krystal argued. “This could be a trap.”

“Oh, come on,” Sooyoung scoffed. “This is just a challenge, right? They wouldn’t hurt us for real, would they? Don’t be a coward and start moving.”

“Right,” Baekhyun agreed. “Let’s just enter the damned room and get this over and done with already.”

“Please…”

Kai took in a deep breath and entered the room followed by Sooyoung and Baekhyun. The others seemed to hesitate. Then, Yoona entered the room cautiously. Kai observed the surroundings. The room was dirty. The bed was unmade and there were splotches of blood on top of it. On the floor, there were tons of skeletons. Once again, he hoped that they were fakes.

“Oh, come on. There’s nothing here!” Kai called out, annoyed. “Get the hell inside this room, you cowards!”

He turned around and glared at the others that had not entered the room. Seconds ticked by and no one dared to move. Kai sighed. “Shame on all of you,” he uttered arrogantly.

“Fine, I’ll enter,” Taemin said. “You don’t have to get all bossy, you know?” He said something incoherent under his breath as he entered. As soon as he entered the room, the door swung shut with a loud bang causing Yoona and Sooyoung to let out a shrill scream.

All of them rushed towards the door, trying to pull it open but to no avail.

“Damn it!” Sooyoung cursed out loud.

“We’re dead,” Baekhyun said.

“What the hell do you mean by that?!” Yoona snapped, alarmed.

“Look behind you,” Taemin answered for Baekhyun.

Kai turned around and his eyes widened in fear. The skeletons that were on the floor were suddenly standing up. The ones that had already stood up started to approach them slowly. Screams filled the room, deafening his hearing.

The ones that were not able to stand up were crawling towards them. They were utterly petrified. Baekhyun kept on banging the door in urgency. Yoona was screaming her lungs out. Sooyoung was shouting something but Kai could not hear what her words were. Taemin was just standing there, frozen.

Kai racked his brain for a solution. It was his idea to enter the room. He urged the others to enter it too so he had to find the solution. He must. All of it was his fault. He should not have suggested about it. He should not have entered it. He should not have forced them to enter it. Gritting his teeth in anger towards himself, he took in a deep breath.

“Why isn’t the damn door opening?” Sooyoung shrieked hysterically.

“Why is it locked in the first place is the question!” Baekhyun responded.

“Isn’t this a challenge?” Taemin spoke up. “We have to find the solution to this challenge.”

“What can we freaking do?” Yoona asked. “We have no weapons. There are too many skeletons for us to handle. We’re outnumbered.”

“We still have to try at least,” Baekhyun replied.

“We should make the skeletons stop moving,” Kai said. “We could break the arms or legs.”

“Are we strong enough to do that?” Sooyoung asked doubtfully.

“We’ll see about that,” Kai replied. “But isn’t it so convenient that Seohyun knows exactly the place to stop at?”

None of them said anything but Kai knew that they agreed with him.

Maybe she lives in this house after all, he thought to himself.

This time, though, the thought did not amuse him.

4^th February 2017, 9.23PM

Outside the locked room was just as chaotic as it was inside. Taeyeon observed her surroundings. Screams filled her hearing and she had to cover her ears to stop herself from getting deaf. Sulli and Kris were kicking at the door, trying to get it open. Luhan was rattling the doorknob repeatedly to try to get it open. Krystal was shouting something like ‘I told you not to enter the damned room but you didn’t listen!’ but that was not what bothered Taeyeon.

What bothered Taeyeon was Seohyun who was standing with her arms folded on her chest. Through the faint light, Taeyeon could see that the woman was smirking in amusement.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Taeyeon strode towards the lady but a pair of hands suddenly grabbed her waist, pulling her backwards. She screamed out loud but her scream went unnoticed due to the chaos.

The policewoman threw her weight against her captor and tried to struggle free of his grip. Unfortunately, he was too strong. Taeyeon could tell that he was too experienced, too. She assumed that this guy absolutely knew martial arts and had endured enough pain to endure her weight.

Being strong and experienced did not mean that Taeyeon could not defeat her captor, though. She was less strong than him but she was pretty sure that she was more agile and flexible as she was, after all, smaller than him.

“Let go of me,” she snarled as menacingly as possible.

Her instincts told her that the man was smirking and snickering at her attempt to be scary. How dare you underestimate me, she scowled. It was a good thing to be underestimated, though. It meant that the man was feeling overconfident and complacent which meant she could get him off guard.

The man was already off guard.

Kim Taeyeon gritted her teeth and elbowed the captor’s face with all her might. Howling in pain, the man still had not let go of her. Seeing this, she immediately stomped on his foot as hard as possible causing him to loosen his grip around her.

Smirking in victory, she immediately released herself from his used to be iron grip. Just to make sure that he would not be able to grab her again, she kicked his crotch, trying to inflict as much pain as possible.

The man immediately cried out loud but as usual, it went unnoticed.

Laughing gleefully, Taeyeon made sure to maintain her distance between the man and her. She had faced this situation countless of times when she was trying to capture criminals. “What do you want from me?” she asked, going straight to the point.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see that the door to the locked room was opening somehow. She noticed that the screams were gradually decreasing. She realized that Seohyun was acting as though she cared about the others.

“This is only the beginning, Kim Taeyeon,” the man hissed. With that, he turned and limped towards somewhere else.

Taeyeon blinked. She knew that she had heard the voice somewhere but she could not place a finger to it. She knew that she had heard that voice but she did not remember where. She knew that she knew who the owner of the voice was but she did not remember who.

She considered following the man but then, the others would be worried. Grunting, she staggered towards the others as exhaustion began to seep in.

“That’s enough excitement for one night, isn’t it?” Seohyun asked, smiling. “Let’s get out of here, shall we?”

None of them could agree more.

4^th February 2017, 9.45PM

“You told us that the Kwon family would like to atone for Yuri’s deeds to us when she was still alive,” Taemin said accusingly. “It seems like they are trying to get a revenge on us by making us going through the challenge at the haunted house.”

Seohyun looked at Taemin and a slight smile curved on her lips. “Please pardon them. They genuinely thought that you would enjoy it. I guess they are wrong, then,” she replied. Then, her expression turned serious, gaining the attention of the other ten graduates.

“Just a heads-up,” she told them. “You have to be careful. There’s someone who badly wants to destroy your lives. I can’t tell you who but you must be careful, all of you. Anyway, I have to go home now. You may play the other rides as long as you want but you must return home one hour before the amusement park opens. Good night.”

With that, the woman named Seo Joohyun walked away.

Nobody took her warning seriously.

Nobody took her warning seriously except for one.

Sulli watched as Sooyoung and Yoona draped their arms around each other and walked towards the rollercoaster. Kris and Luhan were scowling at each other but Taemin and Kai suddenly dragged them to the same rollercoaster ride as Yoona and Sooyoung. Baekhyun and Krystal were chatting with Taeyeon. Sulli had never felt so out of place before. She took in a deep breath and let it out softly. She would not care. Besides, she had to go after Seohyun to get the answers that she needed.

Taking out her cardigan from her bag, she wore it and wrapped it tightly around her body.

Just as she was about to take a step forward, Krystal’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

“Sulli-ah, where are you going? We should take this opportunity to play whatever we want in this amusement park! This only comes once in a lifetime, you know? Besides, we have a lot of catching up to do!” she called out.

Sulli turned around and flashed her friend a smile. “Nah, I have somewhere that I need to go to. I’m sorry I won’t be able to join you. We can catch up next time. Why don’t you give me your phone number and we’ll meet next time?”

Disappointment flickered at Krystal’s face but it went away as quickly as it had come. “Okay, then!” she agreed, smiling.

After exchanging phone numbers, the two long lost friends went on their separate ways. Krystal, with Baekhyun and Taeyeon, went to the twister ride while Sulli searched for Seohyun.

Sulli was a little bit annoyed at Krystal for hindering her search for a little while just now. But at least Krystal bothered to invite you, a voice argued inside her head. But what if Seohyun was already gone? Worse, she did not know where to find the young woman in Seoul.

After an hour of searching for the lady, Sulli finally gave up. She was exhausted after going through the horrors at the haunted house. Sighing to herself, she left the amusement park, not noticing that all the while she was searching for Seohyun, the woman had been observing her, feeling amused.