It had been a long day for Sungjae and the other boys of Btob. From the time they woke up, they had been running around the crowded streets of Seoul, getting all of their errands completed. Interviews, photo shoots and guest appearances flooded their schedules, leaving them no time to themselves. 

Being the maknae, the growing boy of the group, he needed his rest, so when Sungjae finally returned to the messy dorm room at 2:30am, he made a beeline straight for his bed. He quickly dashed into the messy bedroom that he shared with Ilhoon, Peniel and Hyunsik and climbed up to the top bunk. His stuffed Rilakkuma greeted him warmly and became his cuddle buddy as Sungjae slipped his lanky frame under the sheets. 

After his hyungs had all retreated to their beds and turned the lights off, it was a matter of minutes before the younger boy was sleeping like a baby, wrapped up in his sheets like a little Sungjae burrito. While some of his hyungs were busy playing on their iPads or composing lyrics, Sungjae was soon off to dream land…

………….....

“Sungjae…what do you mean we’re lost?” the older boy shakily questioned Sungjae as they both stood in the middle of the forest at night, only the light of their phones to light the way. Their car had broken down on the way home from the after-party of a huge concert event in Japan. “I have no idea where we are Jongin… The GPS ran out of battery and I don’t have a map of the area.” Sungjae looked at the now pale Jongin and they both had a look of fear in their eyes. The sound of owl cooing and leaves rustling filled the awkward silence of the air as they boys’ thoughts raced at a million miles an hour, playing out every worst case scenario that could possibly happen.

Jongin turned his phone’s brightness up all the way and pointed it towards the ominous forest in their sight, noticing a small gravel path trailing behind a bush. He tapped Sungjae’s shoulder and pointed directly at it. “Look Sungjae-ah!! See that path? If we follow it, I’m sure it will lead somewhere. Maybe it leads to a person’s house!!” A tiny, nervous smile tugged at the corner of Sungjae’s lips as he nodded a time or two. “Ne, you’re right. I mean, there wouldn’t be a path there if there weren’t people to follow it…right?” He gulped deep in his throat, secretly horrified of the thought.

After trudging their way through the overgrowth of grass, weeds and bushes, the two boys were soon on the gravel path. The crunching of their shoes on the pebbles and the soft whoosh of the night time breeze filled the silence as Jongin, being the older of the two, lead the way with his phone as a flashlight to illuminate the darkness. Sungjae, being naturally frightened by the smallest of things, held tightly on the back of his hyung’s jacket, not wanting to get lost alone in the shady Japanese forest.

Soon enough, after following the path for a good 15 minutes, Jongin’s light source hit a small cabin, nestled cozily in the woods. It had moss covering most of the siding and one of the windows had appeared broken, but other than that, it was the biggest blossom of hope that the boys had encountered all night. “Here, take this,” Jongin mumbled as he handed his phone to Sungjae. “Hold this up against the door and I’ll go see if anyone is home, okay?”

“Is he out of his mind?” Sungjae thought as he looked at him like he had two heads. The dancer then nimbly crept up the rickety stairs to the front door of the cabin. Jongin took a deep breath and gave a nod of confidence to Sungjae before pounding his fist onto the wooden door in a sweet rhythm. After a stern moment of silence, Jongin looked back at the younger boy and shrugged, speaking loudly. “No one’s home. But it’s okay, we can keep try——” 

Just as he was about to finish his sentence, the supple wood porch under his feet gave in, causing the scrawny boy to fall into the shards of wood. Sungjae jumped at the sound and quickly dashed up to rescue his friend. “Yah, Jongin, are you okay? Here. Let me help you.” The tall, dark-haired boy reached a hand out to his vulnerable friend and as he did so, the door to the cabin flung open, slamming against the wall inside. Still stuck in the sunken patio wood, Jongin slowly began to sink into the Earth below him as if by some paranormal phenomenon. 

“OH MY GOD!! JONGIN!! WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Sungjae was now scared and confused, partially by the fact that his friend was descending into the Earth and partially because there was now a shadowy, dark figure, even taller than him, standing in the door frame. He could not make out a face but saw long, frail fingers poking out from a cloak. Jongin screamed back, fearing for his life. “HELP ME YOU IDIOT!! DON’T JUST STAND THERE!!!”

The petrified boy grabbed both of his friend’s hands and gave him a hard tug, using all the strength in his 17 year old body to help save his hyung. When Jongin began to sink further, the cloaked figure stepped out from the shadows to reveal that it had a red, clouded face with piercing, fiery eyes. This was no human…this was something not from this world. This was a yokai, the worst kind of Japanese demons living in this abandoned house. It fed from the souls of the lost victims that came to these woods. 

Before Sungjae’s eyes, the demon had released a dark cloud of smoke over Jongin’s head and was starting to slowly suffocate him, pulling him further into the ground so that only his head was visible. “SUNGJAE!!! SAVE YOURSELF!! YOU’RE NEXT!!” That was all Jongin could get out before the Earth swallowed him whole. 

Sungjae trusted his gut instinct and began running as far as his scrawny legs would allow, dashing back where the pair had come from. The yokai demon had followed close behind him, determined to capture another soul for its feast. The boy leaped over bushes, rocks and anything that stood in his way. His fight-or-flight sense kicked into high gear as he felt his back becoming hot with the fire of the yokai. He could now see the car off in the distance, the one that him and Jongin had driven on their way home from the party and a glimpse of hope sparked inside of him.

Every last ounce of hope was shattered as Sungjae was now mere feet from the vehicle before he tripped over a stump, landing face-first into the soil under him. A burning sensation overcame his body as he felt his himself slowly sinking in to the Earth as if a random patch of quicksand had found its way into the ominous Japanese forest. It wasn’t long before he was sinking quicker and quicker, his body unable to move by itself anymore. The yokai had him….he now had the same fate as his friend and there was absolutely nothing that poor Sungjae could do about it.

Just before Sungjae’s head was swallowed into the ground, he got a good look at the demon’s face that was ready to devour his soul and with a beckoning whisper, the yokai spoke in a deep raspy tone. “Sungjae… Wake up…. Wake up!!”

…………......

“Yah!! Wake up you idiot!! Yook Sung Jae!!” After a few good pillow hits to the face, Sungjae had snapped out of his nightmare and discovered that he was sweating profusely and his thin, lanky body was shaking. Over him stood Ilhoon with a look of deep concern on his face. “Hey, Sungjae-ah, are you okay? You started shouting and I hadn’t fallen asleep yet so I heard you.” 

Dazed and confused, Sungjae looked around the messy dorm room for a moment, seeing clothes strewn about the hardwood floors and Hyunsik fast asleep in the bunk next to his. The startled boy looked over at Ilhoon and nodded a few times. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just had a really weird nightmare is all. I think I just need to eat something.” As expected, Ilhoon was more than thrilled to hear that he now had a midnight snack buddy and quickly helped Sungjae down from the bunk he was resting in.

The two boys crept into the kitchen to devour any source of food they could find. Even though he was awake now, the dream still crept around in Sungjae’s mind like the bad aftertaste of an onion.

That house….Jongin’s face…..the yokai…..it all seemed so real. 

Thankfully, after a long snack break with Ilhoon, the younger boy was able to return to his bunk, nuzzling himself once again in the sheets and returning to a more peaceful slumber, hopefully waking up in a better condition, ready to take on a new day full of fun and adventure with the other Btob boys.