3. Doll

Hyunseung

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Hyunseung always had this great big bubble of curiosity. Everywhere he went, he was always questioning things, some might answer it, others would just be irritated and shoo him away to bother someone else. Needless to say, Hyunseung was an adventurer. So the moment they stepped in into this old motel, his muscles were itching to go inside and venture every single nook and cranny there is. So, as quiet as he is in the group, he always has the want to go to some places where he shouldn’t.

And today wasn’t an exception.

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“You coming?” he heard Junhyung ask. Hyunseung puffed his cheeks and rolled face-down on the bed. “Nope” he said, not bothering to lift his head to prevent his voice from muffling. “I’d rather take a nap.” He then heard Junhyung mumble something before closing the door. Hyunseung closed his eyes.

I’d rater take a nap. Well, this was partly true and false. He’d visited and talked to Gayoon-noona so much times that he had gotten bored with it, so now what’s the use of doing it again when you could just take a nice, refreshing nap? But today he was itching to go out on an adventure more than ever, and he actually didn’t feel like sleeping. He sat up, blinking and looking at his surroundings. He spotted the window far on the wall.

He sat up, groggily and headed for the window, looking out. As expected, the rain still stayed strong. Hyunseung narrowed his eyes, looking for something else interesting.

Then, through the misty fog of the glass, he spotted the silhouette of a rooftop. He smiled inwardly, his curiosity reaching its peak. He turned around swiftly, grabbing his jacket and heading out the door.

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He walked past Kikwang’s and Dongwoon’s room, so now he was facing the stairs. He puffed out of his cheeks, poking his head out to look up the stairs. The distance to the rooftop was not short but it isn’t that long either.

He shrugged his shoulders before beginning his ascent up the staircase, counting the steps as he goes by. He swiftly went past the few other floors until he reached a metal door on the top, which had gotten rusty on the sides over the years.

Hyunseung placed both of his palms on the door, feeling the chill of the rain outside. He pressed his ear against the door and heard the heavy raindrops splattering on the ground. Eagerly, he put on his jacket, and reached for the door handle –

It was locked.

Hyunseung’s face scrunched up into a scowl, trying again, but still hearing the same click sound of the locked door. His scowl deepened, raising his leg to kick the door. The metal clanged loudly, the sound echoing over the stairs. He made a irritated sound, kicking the door again – but not as loud – before grumpily going back down the stairs.

Soon he reached the second floor once more, head slouched slightly as he dragged his feet back to his room. He gripped the door knob, about to open it when he suddenly froze, as if he felt a chill breeze flow through him. He shivered, breathing out when something when something caught his eyes.

He snapped his head quickly to the right, sensing as if something was there, and there he was met with an eerie, dark hallway.

The spark of curiosity flew back to his eyes as he slowly let go of the doorknob, his eyes still glued to the dark hallway on his right. He turned to face the hallway, titlting his head and blinking.

How come he only saw this now?

There was something at the end of that hall, he just knew it. He went a few steps forward ineptly, clumsily, into the hallway, his vision slightly getting blurry. And it was clear – oh, so very clear – that ‘forbidding’ aura that was surrounding this eerie hall. He shivered, trying to make out something – anything – that was on the end of the hall, but still, the only thing he met was pure darkness.

He wondered if the end of that hall was nothing but pure darkness.

For the first time in his life, it wasn’t just plain curiosity that he felt. It wasn’t just that strong sense of curiosity and that alone - even during the time when he got lost during those field trips when he was young, he wasn’t at all bothered by this, instead he kept getting himself lost by exploring the places until his teachers found him and gave him a good, old, long sermon. It was all adventuring and exploring. That’s that.

It was all normal.

But for the first time in his life, it wasn’t just that. He actually felt scared…fear. And it was strange for him, to feel this, because he rarely felt it. So to be scared by just this, it made him want to see what made him act like this so much.

He breathed out, trying to steady his already fast-beating heart (though all he did was stand there and look). With an unsteady glance