(06.5) Something Lovely This Way Comes -Haunted Mansion extra-  - 1,794

In hindsight, Jongwoon muses, the term “Halloween Fair” should have told him to run away.

But he needed a sort of outlet. When Jungsoo called, it seemed like a good way to get his mind off of things. And he missed the members. Just because he left the dorm of his own accord, it doesn’t mean he didn’t want to see them! And no, he was absolutely not sulking. (Maybe a bit, but no one needed to know that.)

He just wasn’t thinking when Jungsoo shoved a ticket in his hand and walked away, saying that they’d meet at the Haunted Mansion in a while. Jongwoon wanted to smack himself for being so gullible and stupid. He didn’t need to go to the Haunted Mansion. He could have just waited outside the ing exit and waited for Jungsoo and Youngwoon.

Instead, he stood in line, waiting for them to arrive.

The line wasn’t particularly long. Maybe it was because it was a bit after lunch and everyone was looking for food and somewhere to sit. Jongwoon stood in line, waiting for Jungsoo and Youngwoon, rolling to his heels in boredom.

“Hyung,” Jongwoon froze when he heard Kyuhyun’s voice. He turns and he’s barely able to hide his twitch.

Kyuhyun was holding a ticket.

The line moved forward. “Uhm… hyung?” Kyuhyun nudged to the front. Jongwoon looks at the line and rigidly moves forward along with it. He bit his bottom lip and firmly kept his eyes to the front. He didn’t know what to say. (It wasn’t as if he could say, “Hi, I’m avoiding you right now, could you move to the back of the line?”)

The line moved slowly. Jongwoon stretches his neck to see how long the line still was, and observed that there was someone who would occasionally run over to the front booth with flashlights.

Approximately five minutes had passed before Jongwoon was standing in front of the line, the couple before him entering. Jongwoon instinctively looked back to search for Jungsoo and Youngwoon but he was met with Kyuhyun. He jumped back in surprise, completely forgetting that he was behind him.

“Next please!”

Jongwoon hands over his ticket and the attendant looks him up and down. “The haunted mansion is done by pairs. Would you mind being paired with the one behind you?” He stiffened.

Kyuhyun’s eyes went wide and opened his mouth to protest, surely knowing that Jongwoon felt awkward around him nowadays. But Jongwoon beat him to the punch. “It’s okay. I know him anyway.” Jongwoon smiled, but it was tight and a little forced. Kyuhyun furrowed his brows down the middle while he gave the ticket to the attendant anyway.

“Oh, great then! Well, here are your flashlights, please follow the instructions, don’t destroy anything as much as possible and have fun! Alright folks, we have five instructions left before we have to call a break. Just so we could re-arrange everything to give you the most horrifying experience!” The attendant calls out, but Jongwoon tunes her out as he enters the mansion.

He doesn’t look if Kyuhyun was following.

Jongwoon switches the flashlight on, standing in the middle. He blinks, not knowing what to do. He slaps his hand onto his forehead as he remembers that he didn’t get the first instruction from the attendant.

He quickly turns, bumping chest to chest into someone behind him.

“Hyung, are you okay?” Kyuhyun asks, crouching to him. Damn it, he has to remember that Kyuhyun’s freaking behind him.

Jongwoon rubs his nose. “I’m fine,” he whispers. He accepts Kyuhyun’s assist and he chooses to ignore Kyuhyun’s hand lingering in his.

“C’mon, they might actually close the mansion before we finish.” He sees Kyuhyun nod.

*

“Where the is that doll?” Jongwoon curses under his breath. They’d been looking around aimlessly for a while, since the instructions lead them to look for a porcelain doll (which Jongwoon hopes wasn’t really porcelain). Kyuhyun had been silently following him, occasionally giving a thought or two, but never really initiated looking for something.

The mansion would play some creepy piano music every three minutes and sometimes they would hear children laughing or crying and screaming at the other end of the building. Jongwoon’s got to hand it to them; they really outdid themselves this year.

“Hyung, your hand,” Kyuhyun said, squeezing Jongwoon’s hand because Jongwoon nearly fell into a trap door, in complete darkness when they were in the second floor. Kyuhyun suggested that they hold hands just so they’d be sure where the other was. They also found, ten feet away from the entrance, that Jongwoon’s flashlight was useless from there on out because it ran out of batteries.

So they resulted to having to use just Kyuhyun’s flashlight, which wasn’t as strong as it should be.

“God, please let there be no ghosts or monsters.” Jongwoon whispers, the beat of his heart speeding up. (Though he doesn’t know if it had anything to do with the mansion or… Kyuhyun.) They continued to walk in silence, looking through the shelves for the porcelain doll they were tasked to find.

“Hyung,” Kyuhyun squeezed his hand suddenly, causing him to jump and slip. He was held up only by his arm being raised above him and because Kyuhyun was tall and had long limbs, Jongwoon was saved from falling on his . Blushing, he stood upright and released Kyuhyun’s hand (for the moment).

“What is it,” he tries to act nonchalantly, that the close proximity and the dark didn’t bother him at all. He clears his throat because he wasn’t sure how caught in his throat his voice was.

Kyuhyun gazed at Jongwoon in the dark, his eyes faster to adjust from all the video games in a dark room, late at night. He turns away. “The doll’s probably inside the room.”

Jongwoon looks at him then nods. “Alright.” He says, smoothing his clothes. He took a deep breath and gripped the doorknob.

“You twist—”

“I know how to open a door!” Jongwoon snaps from the beginning of a snarky comment he was sure Kyuhyun was going to make. It made him smile because that meant Kyuhyun was just naturally snarky. (He swallows down the burst of warmth the exploded in his chest and he tells himself that it was just fear and excitement from being in a haunted mansion of this caliber.)

Jongwoon lets go of the doorknob and wipes his palms on his pants. “You can do this, Jongwoon.” He whispers to himself. “Really, there’s no such thing as ghosts. Get a hold of yourself.”

“Hyung, are you sure you got this?” Kyuhyun asks, a smile creeping up his lips. He doesn’t know how to explain how cute he found Jongwoon giving himself a pep talk. “Because I could always open the door for you.”

Jongwoon glares at him and for some reason; the atmosphere lightens in this dark room, with one barely working flashlight. Kyuhyun snorts, quickly covering his mouth and turning away from Jongwoon. His shoulders were shaking and he was trying to catch his breath.

“How are you finding this funny, Kyu?” Jongwoon asks, completely bewildered.

“I just—I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun begins. “Of all the things you could be scared of—I just—” he continues, wheezing in between as his laughter could pretty much ruin the haunted mansion for the other guests inside.

“I miss this,” Kyuhyun sobered and smiled softly at Jongwoon. On the other hand, Jongwoon turns back to the doorknob, praying hard that his blush wouldn’t be noticed even with one flickering flashlight. Kyuhyun reached out for Jongwoon until a loud thud was heard inside the room.

They stared at the door with wide eyes, remembering where they were. Another series of thuds were heard until they changed to footsteps that Jongwoon knew was going closer to the door. Through the small space on the bottom between the floor and the door, Jongwoon saw some flashes of light. He steps back. There was an echo of a sound with static in the distance and if they heard it correctly, they could hear the repeating words, “It’s time.”

The doorknob slowly turns with a creaking sound. Jongwoon feels Kyuhyun move behind him and he’s only vaguely aware at how close they were.

“Kyu,” Jongwoon starts as the doorknob twists and it felt like forever. “Whatever happens, I just wanted you to know…”

“Hyung, this—”

“I’m actually in love with you. I’m sorry for avoiding you.”

The door bursts open and Jongwoon twists his body in an attempt to protect Kyuhyun with his own body. “SPARE HIM, TAKE ME INSTEAD!” Jongwoon yells, eyes shut and clutching Kyuhyun hard to his chest.

“Jongwoon?”

“What the ?” The lights open and Jongwoon blinks. He looks down at Kyuhyun that was bent over when Jongwoon pulled him down to “protect” him. He turns around and sees Jungsoo and Youngwoon looking at them oddly, their flashlights still on.

Kyuhyun pushes Jongwoon’s arms that were clutching him over his head, making his hair messy. But he doesn’t mind that now. “I tried to tell you: this isn’t real.” He says, finishing his sentence from before. Jongwoon blinks, his arms in the air when he hadn’t grasped the situation yet.

Behind him, Youngwoon and Jungsoo turned their flashlights off and walked over to Kyuhyun. “That was quite a scene,” Youngwoon notes, eyebrows wiggling at Kyuhyun who refused to acknowledge him. Jungsoo shakes his head at Youngwoon before turning to Jongwoon who was still stuck in his position.

It was when Jungsoo placed a hand on Jongwoon’s shoulder did they see his grasp on the situation.

Jongwoon’s face flushed red so quickly that Kyuhyun thought he saw the blood rushing to his head like in anime cartoons. Jongwoon dips his head down, covering his face with his tiny hands (which was almost not at all), turning away from all three of them. “Oh god, oh god, oh god…” He says like a mantra.

And Kyuhyun found it all endearing.

He wraps his arms around Jongwoon from behind, letting his weight fall onto Jongwoon. Kyuhyun heard him whispering the most random things but he didn’t mind. “He could have told me sooner, why didn’t he even mention it before the door opened, why the did he move behind me if it wasn’t real, damn it, please kill me now. God, open the floor and let it swallow me up, oh god.”

He smiles. “I love you too, hyung.”

*

“Hyung,” Kyuhyun’s honey-like voice was almost menacing. “You don’t have to pout. You were really cute.” Kyuhyun turned Jongwoon’s head to face him and pushed lips against lips. Jungsoo pressed on the brakes and the speeding car went to an abrupt stop.

“KYUHYUN!!”

A/N: Okay, here's the extra!! Featuring whatever happened in the Haunted Mansion. If any of you want headcanons and/or epilogues in any of the 20 fics, I'll be very much glad to answer it. :D (else if you want to bother me with random questions and/or endless fangirling, my tumblr's free)