Once they were all gathered into the vans, they smoothly went about their way toward the haunted house. Liz’s nose was pressed to the glass as she watched the streets fly by, the snow glittering prettily against the buildings. Chanyeol’s arm was warm around her waist from the seat beside her; his head drooped back as he slept and quite snores coming from his mouth. In fact, almost everyone was asleep on the long ride, minus Tao who sat stone faced with Nana tucked up under his arm.

“Tao-ssi… Are you okay?” Liz murmured, looking over at the Chinese idol, seeing how stiffly he was sitting. “You look like death.”

At her words he whipped around, and stared at her wide eyed, his lips pulled into tight lines. He didn’t look like he wanted to say at first, but eventually he leaned forward across the aisle, crooking his finger at her to lean closer to him as well. Once she leaned in over Chanyeol, he murmured shakily, “I’m afraid of ghosts, Liz…”

A soft smile slid onto Liz’s face, and she reached out to grasp his hand lightly. “It’s going to be okay, Tao. Everything will be fine. I doubt anyone here will let you get hurt.”

Despite her kind words Tao’s mouth quirked into a wry smile as he shook his head. “Getting hurt isn’t what I’m afraid of.”

As he leaned back into his seat, gently gathering Nana closer to him, Liz found herself thinking about what he could mean. As she leaned into Chanyeol’s embrace, realization came to her; he was worried about being mocked. With a heavy sigh she closed her eyes, knowing that there was nothing she could do to prevent that.

She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew she was being shaken awake by Chanyeol, who looked at her bleary eyed. “C’mon baby… We’re here now.”

Nodding as she yawned, she took his hand and clambered out of the van, shivering as the cold air blasted through her. A quick glance at the other two girls immediately agreed with her mental thought; they were underdressed. The guys however, seemed quite content in their large winter coats, and were smirking as the girls shivered in the wind.

“Come here, Liz.” Chanyeol murmured as he opened his coat, gathering her up inside it and wrapping herself close to him. As he did that the other two guys looked at their girls and jumped, immediately doing the same.

Cat leaned gratefully against Sehun’s chest, relishing in the feeling of the tall man’s arms wrapping around her, the feel of his heartbeat against her back. Her hands peeked through the split in the jacket and linked her fingers through his, shivering as he chuckled, the deep sound tickling her.

Nana too nuzzled into Tao, but she was facing him, her face pressed against his chest as she shivered, arms wrapped around his waist tightly. His chin was resting lightly on the top of her head as he warily surveyed the haunted house.

It was an intimidating structure. Large, darkly painted, and aged to look like an old decrepit house, definitely not something one would normally be drawn to. Curtains flapped in front of two different exits, and a faint groaning could be heard from inside.

Liz grinned. It’s perfect! Looking up at Chanyeol, she laughed to see her grin mirrored perfectly on his face as he surveyed the building too. Wiggling against his chest to get his attention, she winked at him playfully, but her face flooded with heat as she saw a different intention in his eyes, a dark, hot gaze at her. What was he planning?

“Okay! Who is going first?!” Baekhyun cried out in glee, his hands rubbing together as he looked at the group. When they remained silent, he put his hands on his hips and pouted, causing Liz to chuckle.

“Calm down, Baek. Why don’t we just choose partners and go from there?” She asked, raising her eyebrow.

“But that’s not fair!” Lay protested, pushing his way through the group and pointing at the three couples. “You guys will obviously pair up, and that’ll make the group uneven!”

“He’s right.” Cat murmured, looking up at Sehun. "Why don’t the girl’s just sit out on this one?”

Sehun’s face immediately fell and he shook his head violently. “No! I want to go in with you!”

“Why don’t some of us just go as a group?” Tao murmured, barely loud enough for people to hear him. When everyone turned and looked at him, he shrugged cryptically, looking over at Liz with pleading eyes. “Nana, Cat, Sehun and I could go as one group. I know it wouldn’t make the odd number go away, but I don’t want the girls to not go in.”

Liz smiled wanly, covering with the folds of Chanyeol’s jacket. She knew his real reason for wanting to go with Sehun was because he knew the girls wouldn’t make fun of him, and that Cat could control Sehun; that couldn’t be said of everyone else.

“Sure, that sounds like a good idea. I don’t mind going alone, either.” Baekhyun murmured, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet as he shrugged.

“That solves it, then! Baekhyun will go alone, Sehun, Tao, Cat and I will go as a group, and everyone else can pair up and go from there.” Nana chirped happily, wriggling free of Tao’s jacket and shivering as the cold air hit her. “Everyone else, pair up!”

As the group scrambled to find their partners, Tao slunk over to Sehun and clung to his arm. As the maknae looked to his hyung in confusion, Liz took the moment to mouth to Cat ‘He’s afraid.’

Realization came to her sister’s eyes, and Liz was relieved when she nodded in understanding and grinned up at Tao. “You and Sehun should go first, Tao-ssi. Nana and I don’t want to slow you down… we’re a bit chicken.”

“Chicken!?” Kai cried from the far side of the bench, perking up immediately and causing the girls to laugh.

“Calm down Kai. We’ll get you chicken later.” Liz chuckled, waving him off. When his face fell in disappointment she couldn’t resist another poke. “Awhhh.. Poor wittle Kai. First denied going into the haunted house with his jacket-buddy Sehun, but now denied chicken? Poor baby.”

“That’s right. Pity me. Feed me!” He crowed, his face pink at the jab.

During the confusion Cat took the time to hurriedly explain to Nana what was going on, and by the time their guys paid attention to them again it was settled. The girl’s would feign fear and let the guy’s go first, pretending to hesitate by the doorway and let them go first.

“I’ll go first!” Baekhyun cried, throwing his hands up in excitement and wiggling. Without waiting for permission, he ran up to the curtain and darted inside.

Everyone else was slowly milling around, finding seats on the large bench that was waiting outside, the girl’s shivering despite everyone’s attempts to keep them warm. Luhan wrapped a large scarf around Cat’s neck, and Xiumin handed Liz an extra pair of gloves. Nana was still so firmly wrapped in Tao’s jacket that no one bothered, plus the look on Tao’s face warned them to leave them both alone.

Within moments screams erupted from the haunted house and Baekhyun’s voice came through the intercoms that were set up. His voice was breathy with terror and he was talking nonsense, intermingled with yelps and screams for help as he was ‘attacked’ by the actors inside.

For a second the group was silent, and then everyone burst into laughter, tears of mirth streaming down their face at their poor friend. Sehun was probably the loudest of them all, his entire body shaking with his laughter. With a yelp he fell backwards off the bench, causing Cat to burst into a fit of giggles so strong she had to lean against Xiumin beside her to keep from falling off as well.

Liz couldn’t help herself; hearing Baekhyun’s tearful cries intermingling with the uproarious laughter of her friends was her undoing. Snorting, she lapsed into a fit of silent giggles, doubling over on the bench as she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

Soon enough Baekhyun emerged, a weak attempt at a cocky smile plastered on his face, looking oddly out of place against his pale face. “Why’s everyone laughing…?” He asked, confused as he watched his friends wiping tears from their face.

Immediately Liz went into damage control, sitting up and wiping her face. “Oh it was a joke Chanyeol said.” She grinned, elbowing Channie until he slid down the bench a little, and she pat the space beside her as she followed her man. “Come sit, Baekkie. Who’s next?”

Everyone looked at each other, sizing themselves up. Now that everyone except Baekhyun knew about the speakers, it seemed that they were all hesitant to jump at the chance to go inside and let everyone hear them. In fact, Tao seemed even paler if that were possible. He was now staring vacantly at the snow in front of him, one arm wrapped around Nana inside his jacket and the other linked through Sehun’s arm.

Looking up, Nana frowned as she saw how scared he was. Clambering up onto his lap to sit facing him, she wrapped her legs around her waist and flung her arms around his neck. “Tao-bear. You look cold.” She chuckled, clapping her hands onto his cheeks and squishing his lips into a pout, kissing them softly.

Liz smiled faintly, watching Nana distract Tao from his fears long enough to get him to smile at her. After a moment she looked over at the rest of the members who were now silent as they waited for someone to give. “Oh come on. No one is brave enough to go? Fine! I’ll just pick someone.”

Slowly she allowed her gaze to wander over the group, noticing how pale they got under her stare. With a vicious grin she pointed at Kris and Xiumin. “You two! You’re up!”

“What?!” Kris protested as Xiumin linked his arm through his and started walking toward the entrance.

“Oh hush up Kris. It’s our turn. Let’s go!” Xiumin laughed, jerking him along until the taller idol had no choice but to go along with him.

A hush fell over the group as the two entered, and immediately they began hearing Kris’ yells. Baekhyun’s jaw dropped open and he looked over at everyone, wildly demanding if they could hear him when he was in there too, but soon started laughing with everyone else. It was clear that Xiumin had totally abandoned Kris to his own devices, as Kris had began muttering to himself in between screams of terror.

Occasionally Xiumin could be heard actually greeting the ‘ghosts’ and ‘spooks,’ which caused everyone to laugh even harder, because his voice held no trace of fear. However Kris’ voice was almost ear shattering as he screamed, his voice ragged and you’d have to be deaf to not hear him trying to run through the maze.

When Xiumin emerged from the haunted house, his face was blank despite a small smile, and when he heard Kris yelp particularly loudly over the intercom he snorted and walked back over, sitting down next to Cat and Sehun again, snickering.

Cat leaned over to him and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as she gasped for air between giggles. “XiuXiu, you’re so cute! Did I actually hear you greeting them!?”

He grinned, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Of course I did! It’s only polite!!” Jumping as Kris screamed again, he hung his head, rubbing the back of his neck as he grinned. “I feel bad for bailing on him.”

“Don’t!” Suho chuckled, his eyes clenched shut as he laughed. “He deserved it.”

Eventually Kris stumbled out of the house, his face as white as the snow and his mouth hung open in shock. With a shaking hand he held his hand out at Xiumin, pointing at him as he gasped. “You! You abandoned me!”

Yelping, Xiumin darted behind Cat and Sehun, causing the couple to grin. “Calm down, Kris.” Kai snickered, shaking his head. “It’s not his fault he was just able to get through a lot faster than you.”

“He left me alone!”

“It’s not like you died!” Chen called from across the group, his voice muffled as he hid in his thick jacket. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

“Barely.” Kris pouted as he sat down on the far edge of the bench, folding his arms over his chest as he grumped.

The rest of the group went through smoothly, with varying levels of humor mixed with fear. Chen was the highlight of the rest of the members, as he gave away his hand warmers to the ghosts, causing everyone to burst into giggles. Soon, all that was left was the girls and their guys, causing Tao to shake nervously as he realized he’d have to go in first.

“We’ll go next.” Cat declared, standing up and grabbing Sehun’s hand, pulling him to his feet. She decided it was time to get this over with, for Tao, and wanted to have a moment to talk with Nana before they went in.

Sehun smiled and nodded as he stood, walking over with Cat to the door. Looking up at him as she walked, she chewed on her lip. “Sehunnie, I need to tell you something. Tao is terrified. Please don’t leave him behind. I’m going to have Nana and I scream as much as we can to hopefully mask his voice, but I need you to get him through as fast as you can, okay?”

his lips as he thought, Sehun eventually nodded and leaned down, kissing her softly. “You got it.” Looking up, he grinned at Tao and Nana, trying to give Tao some excitement. When the girls stood together, Sehun linked his arm with Tao’s as he heard the girls whispering to each other frantically, so he nudged the tall boy. “Hey hyung. The girls are scared so they’re going to go behind us. Let’s show Kris how it’s done, okay?”

Weakly Tao nodded, clinging to Sehun tightly as he pushed back the curtain and stepped inside. The girls hesitated a moment, the quickly scurried inside. For a few moments the group outside heard nothing, but the calm was quickly shattered by what sounded like the two girls screaming as loud as they could, and Liz grinned, hiding it behind her gloved hands; clearly Nana and Cat were trying to mask Tao’s fear with their own.

All that could be heard from Sehun was his muffled giggles between lapses of the girl’s screaming, and occasionally they heard him calling for Tao. Liz found herself gripping her hands tightly as she waited for them emerged, and eventually let out a sigh of relief as Tao stumbled out, his eyes wild but face composed. Sehun followed, laughing weakly as he wiped his face, both guys lingering by the door for their girls.

Nana and Cat soon came out too, both girls coughing and rubbing their throats as they winced, but smiling at their guys, sliding willingly into their arms. When they walked back over, they accepted bottles of water from Suho and grinned, winking at Liz conspiratorially. “You’re next, Lizzy.” Cat chirped hoarsely, sipping at the water.

Standing up, Liz grabbed Chanyeol’s hand and lead him toward the door, grinning. “We’re the only ones left!” She chuckled as he looked down at her, an impish grin on his face. “What are you planning?” She murmured quietly, arching her eyebrow.

“Nothing, babe. Don’t worry about it.” He smirked, sliding his arm around her shoulders as he pulled back the curtain. Oddly enough, his words did nothing to calm her thoughts…. What was he up to?