Prologue

 

Was there a time when you wanted to break free? To just get rid of the old life you had and do a total three hundred and sixty degree turn? Perhaps you wanted to, but couldn't because you know you'd leave more precious memories than the bad ones. Half of you yearns for a change, while the remaining part tells you don't do it.

 

If you didn't throw your friend's gift away because it wasn't what you wished for, you should've not been sitting there at the corner, no friends at all. Maybe if you haven't ditched the boy who liked you so much before, you would've bragged it to everyone who's single. Unfortunately, here you are now, feeling bitter as the entire classroom is filled with couples.

 

All of these fantasies could've been possible. Not for four boys living in Seoul, because in a game where lies have to be exposed, nobody could escape unless they bury their secrets with themselves.

 

 

 

It was a starry Halloween night. Everyone was too busy stopping on each family's porch to scare them just for candies and  lollipops. Kyungsoo ran towards the Kim's doorstep. "So, what are we up to?"

 

"A nice buffet of horror movies fit for the season." Junmyeon raised a box full of old DVDs and CDs. Just seeing the covers made him want to puke.

 

"I hate to say this, but those kids are so annoying," Baekhyun called from his mom's Volvo. He was a kid hater, doing his best to make them mad for his pleasure. He pushed the car door, thrift shop pants hanging below his bloated waist.

 

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "What did you do this time?"

 

"Well, I gave them chili balls." Baekhyun threw a mirthful snicker, stretching his arms. He was an obese, thinking that feeding his hunger was the best way to escape reality. His stomach could squash a watermelon, and his legs were too strong that it could break a backbone.

 

The other two began to chuckle. Baekhyun was an , and that was what they loved about him. "You little bastard," was all Junmyeon could say. "By the way, have you seen Zitao and Sehun?"

 

Zitao and Sehun were the youngest among the group, but they act like grown-ups already. Zitao was a champion wushu player; he had twenty-five gold medals from the thirty-seven tournaments he joined. Meanwhile, Sehun was a dancer. He would audition for amateur dancing contests to save money for college.

 

As if on cue, they were making their way, dressed in pajamas. Baekhyun snorted. "Excuse me. We're not having a slumber party here. Shoo shoo."

 

"I thought there's going to be a sleepover?" Zitao hunched his back and pouted.

 

Sehun crossed his arms over his chest. "If not, then what're we going to do?"

 

"We'll watch a bunch of these," Junmyeon said, then picked three DVDs and shoved them into their faces, instantly earning baffled looks. "Trick or treating is, like, bags of stupidity, anyway."

 

Junmyeon, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Zitao bonded last year when their parents decided they should volunteer for the Seoul Charity Event last September—all, except for Kyungsoo who had volunteered himself. They perfectly knew who Junmyeon was. Everyone knew him, anyway. He was the perfect man. Girls loved to be with him, and boys wanted to be him. So when this certain boy helped Kyungsoo comfort a weeping kid, offered Baekhyun beef jerky, danced with Zitao and Sehun, they couldn't help but like him so much. When there was still no Junmyeon, they felt invisible—nobody noticed them, they weren't of any significance in the society, but then Junmyeon treated them like the most expensive Gucci suits anyone couldn't afford.

 

A year later, they realized they were not just Junmyeon's allies. They were the boys of Seoul! There were a lot of things to do to make it that way. They made sure that every adventure they took, they'd do something. (The exposed tape between their sixth grade Math teacher and a student from the ninth grade was the most popular.) Junmyeon also once told them that secrets were the ones tightening the bond of their friendship, even the darkest ones.

 

"Horror is for Halloween." Junmyeon wrapped his fair and flawless arms around the box and carried it up. "C'mon boys, we have to scare ourselves. You have to prepare, especially you Sehun."

 

Suddenly, they heard a hoarse voice coming from a distance. "Hey Junmyeon!"

 

Junmyeon kissed his teeth, turning to the sidewalk. "Nerds," he breathed.

 

"Nerds," the remaining four followed.

 

The Nerds was a group of unlikely, timid, unatttactive, and AB normal people, as they like to call it. This time, the batch included Kim Jongdae together with his two companions, Kim Minseok, and Park Chanyeol. Minseok was the boy who always stole the answer keys on their exams whenever necessary, Chanyeol was an insomniac—enough said. They were wearing cheap, corny wizard costumes, each of them acquiring a small pumpkin basket for sweets.

 

"Trick or treat! Would you care giving us  some candies?" Jongdae asked.

 

Junmyeon fished something from deep inside his pockets, his colleagues anticipating. "Here you go! One for you, and you, and you," he said as he put one candy into each container. His four friends gasped in disbelief.

 

"Thank you so much, Junmyeon!" Then they strolled happily to the house next to them.

 

"What did you give them?" Baekhyun frowned. "Don't tell me they're real candies."

 

Junmyeon smirked, tilting his head. "Baekhyun, those are moth balls."

 

"No, !" Sehun quickly covered his mouth.

 

"To my room!" Junmyeon chimed, wrenching the doorknob and slid past it as his peers followed his trail.

 

To everybody living in Seoul, they were very well aware that it wasn't so easy to enter the Kim's house. Only a few people could see the interior of the house, which included his best friends and their family. Being close to Junmyeon meant VIP passes to luxuries and wealth.

 

Once they reached Junmyeon's room—a huge bedroom with a complete set of Hugo Boos perfumes since the seventies, a closet full of suits from across the globe, and jewelries worth half of their existence—they set themselves on the mattress facing the thirty inch flat screen TV.

 

"Let's watch this," Junmyeon said before shaking the DVD to them. It was the fourth part of the Saw series. "You ready for guts and gore?"

 

Kyungsoo poked his thumbs up, Baekhyun shrugged, and Zitao and Sehun swallowed hard.

 

"Silence means yes." Junmyeon inserted the disk in the player and turned the volume to medium.

 

The movie started with a suspenseful scene where a man was tied up on a chair with a bear trap(!) attached around his head. The man woke up and tried to recognize his environment. But the face of Jigsaw suddenly appeared on the TV screen just above him, telling the victim that if he doesn't detach the mask within thirty seconds, the trigger will activate and kill him. Of course, he immediately complied, but unfortunately… well, it was inexplainable.

 

They all inched back, horrified at the scene. Kyungsoo hated imagining how it felt. Was it painful, or would you not feel anything?

 

They decided to finish the enitre movie, daring themselves not to cover their eyes or open the lights. Kyungsoo had no choice but to swallow hard and scream whenever a character got brutally killed.

 

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Sehun asked, but didn't mind an answer because he was already out.

 

"I need air." Zitao rose from the edge of the bed and stormed outside, Baekhyun tagging along with him.

 

Minutes after, silence lingered in the air. "I'll fetch the others," Kyungsoo offered. He stepped outside of the room, looking from side to side, but no one was at the hallway. When he checked downstairs, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Zitao were there at the couch.

 

Sehun looked sick; He was holding his stomach. "I should go home."

 

"Our moms are looking for us," Baekhyun said, pointing at Zitao.

 

Kyungsoo sighed. "Can we at least say bye to Junmyeon?"

 

In the end, they went upstairs and opened the light switch. Junmyeon was not there, but the windows were still closed. Still, it felt too eerie and strange.

 

"He probably went to his boyfriend. Let's just go," Baekhyun mumbled.

 

The four of them went to each other's houses without knowing where Junmyeon had gone to.

 

 

One by one, they received calls from Mrs. Kim, asking them if they have seen Junmyeon somewhere. They told her he's probably at some other friend's house. It was an  automatic rule among them: They'd lied about Baekhyun going to a group study, but instead they went to the mall; they told Sehun's mom that they were going to the library when in fact he had to dance at some competition; and so on and so forth. But once they hung up, their stomachs twisted. There was something amiss with the situation.

 

By the time Mrs. Kim called again, police cars almost occupied the street and media vans were already covering Seoul's local news channel's breaking news ever.

 

Baekhyun called his friends after watching the first Junmyeon news. "Did the police interview you?"

 

"Yeah. But, you never told them about the…" Sehun paused. "The Scandal, right?"

 

Zitao gasped. "Hell no! But, do you think—?"

 

"That's impossible. They couldn't know a single thing about it. Not unless someone tells them," Kyungsoo interjected.

 

The police interviewed the boys—the entire Seoul, actually, from the man who had a crush on Junmyeon to their Calculus proffesor who once sold drugs to his students. It was Halloween, and they felt that same terrible feeling they had last night, but much worse. They were mourning. Kyungsoo spent the whole day thinking if it was his fault for leaving Junmyeon alone. Baekhyun locked himself inside his bathroom and held a toothbrush tightly. Zitao wasn't paying attention to their instructor and ended up cleaning the training center. Sehun ditched all the dance competitions he joined to. As each day passed by, they began to talk to each other less frequently. Until they weren't calling each other.

 

Two years had went by. Still no sign of Junmyeon. The police continued their search—discreetly. A family murder in Mokpo grabbed their attentions and left the scene. The Kims moved to another place few days after their son's disappearance. As for Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Zitao and Sehun, something had changed, too. Whenever they would cross Junmyeon's old house and took a glance at his old room, they wouldn't go emotional at all. Something different replaced the uneasines.

 

Relief.

 

Sure, Junmyeon might be the most influential teenager in Seoul. He was the shoulder to cry on, the savior when bad times came, the fairygod mother if you wished to look as fabulous as him.  But he knew everyone else better than their own. He knew every inch of their being, and it was scary they wanted to just bury them deep under the ground. Now wwith Junmyeon out of the picture, all of their secrets would turn to dusts.

 

Or so they thought. Because no secret would never be revealed.