Having the dorm to himself is a rare treat, and Taemin intends to enjoy it to its fullest. He pops Korn’s concert DVD into the player in the hall and turns the volume up loud enough that the music can be heard in every corner of the flat. He ‘borrows’ one of Key’s overly baggy t-shirts and wears only that, and ties his hair in the apple hairstyle that he normally avoids because it causes the rest of the members to lose their sanity and coo over him like he’s a baby sparrow that fell out of its nest.

The next order of business is fixing himself a meal; now that the managers are not here, he can indulge in something carb-heavy, or sugar loaded. There is a tub of Haagen-Dazs hidden in a bag of frozen mixed vegetables in the freezer, and he can take it secure in the knowledge that its owner would not be able to complain of its loss without giving away his own contravention of the dorm rules.

Just as he’s about to stick a spoon into the strawberry cheesecake flavoured ice-cream – it’s probably Minho’s, since he likes cheesecake – there is a loud crash from the hall.

Taemin dithers for a moment, wondering whether to hide the ice-cream before investigating, and places the tub in the sink. The hallway is empty, but one of the speakers is lying on the floor. Now that his mind is not on ice-cream, Taemin realises that the music is a bit too loud, and concludes that the force of the vibrations must have caused the speaker to topple. 

Grabbing the remote, he hits the volume down button.

Nothing happens. Shut Up blasts from both speakers undimmed.

Irritably, Taemin smacks the remote a few times. They’ve had this particular home entertainment set for two years now, and the various remotes have gotten a bit rusty. He tries again.

Still nothing.

Giving up on the remote, he crouches before the player and tries to locate the machine that controls the speakers. Minho has taught him many times before how to play around with the different speakers they have, as well as the name of the black box, but he cannot seem to remember it.

He turns the volume dial down low.

The music blares so loud that Taemin falls on his arse in shock, and he scrambles to turn the dial the other way around.

It doesn’t work.

He hits the power button on the DVD player. The flashing blue light blinks off, but the music still plays. The fallen speaker is bounces lightly where it lies on the floor, as if the music has given it life.

It is this final thought that causes Taemin to back away from the electronics. Spirits are known to use electronic devices to communicate, and it would explain why the entertainment system is suddenly malfunctioning. A part of him scoffs at the idea, because they’ve lived here for three years and no one has had any strange experiences and because it’s just like him to panic over an electrical short while being at home alone, but another part of him wonders whether the rosary beads around his wrist can protect him from angry spirits.

A loud thumping noise makes him jump.

It takes a little while before Taemin realises that someone is banging on the door, and the security camera reveals a middle-aged man and woman wearing displeased expressions. They looks vaguely familiar, so he guesses that it’s safe to speak to them.

When he opens the door, the woman yells at him. He doesn’t really blame her, because she has to yell to be heard over the din coming out of their flat.

“Can you turn that thing down?” she asks. “My children have to study, and we can barely hear ourselves in our own house.”

She must be their neighbour. He sort of remembers seeing a couple of school-aged children on their floor before.

“I’m sorry, ahjumma, but I don’t know how,” he says. “The remote isn’t working.”

“Shall I take a look at it?” the husband asks.

“Yes, please, and thank you,” he replies, bowing slightly and stepping aside. He’s grateful for the help, and truth be told, rather relieved that he’s not alone anymore.

The man steps in, shaking his head at the fallen speaker, and picks the remote from the couch and gives it a hard smack with the flat of his palm. When he presses the power button, the player obeys.

The silence that falls in the flat is almost as oppressive as the noise, and Taemin finds that his ears are ringing slightly. He lets out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

“I tried that too, but it didn’t work.”

The man snorts. “Are you a girl or a boy? You need to eat some more to get strength.”

The remark stings, of course, but he’s still grateful. He closes the door behind them, shaking his head at his own gullibility. All it took was one malfunctioning remote for him to lose all ability to reason and to start fearing the supernatural. No wonder the managers were so afraid of leaving him alone.  

All the same, he decides to watch the latest episode of Medical Top Team on his laptop instead of the television.