The skies were black, cold, and not a single sunlight dared to went through the clouds.

The woods of Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do was pretty famous of it's scary and thrilling atmosphere. At a single glance, they looked like how normal forests would look like, but everything changes when dawn comes. By only looking at the woods from far distance, the place was giving an uneasy feeling. There was also the rumors that is spread in the local community that the place was really haunted, proofed by the testimony of unusual sightings and disturbing sounds coming from the forest. Once, they saw a girl laughing like crazy running in the middle of the night.

But a haunted place is wouldn't be complete without a myth. There was a lot of stories crowding the forest, but the most known one was about a certain house. The story goes by the rumor of an orphanage in the middle of the forest, mysteriously burned down completely and said that the souls of the children there still resides. Hell, someone even said they're still alive and straying inside the forest.

“You sure you wanna camp out for the night, Kris? I mean, we could try to find another hotel...,”

“Nah,” the tall man—Kris, as his name was said, took out his backpack from the back seat of the car and opened the car door, “It's much interesting this way. Like they said, everything changes at night. I might miss something if I come back here in the morning,”

Luhan, the man driving with girlish feature on his face, shrugged, “Fine then. You're the man,”

Kris smiled at him as he went out the car, “See you later,”

As he closed the door, Luhan gave him a wave and the car went away.

The tall man waved back and sighed. The car was finally out of his sight and he turned his back, facing at the famous creepy woods.

“I am so gonna regret this,”

Kris, 24 years old, together with his friend Luhan, is a journalist working for a mystery horror-themed famous magazine. Truth, he wasn't really that interested in the thrill of finding horror stories nor horror places, but it's the only publishing company that accepts him and writing was the only thing that he can do. There wasn't really a choice for him and the income was pretty much more than enough to keep him alive. While Luhan—he just does anything he can do to get money.

The company just happened to heard about the woods and seeing that other magazines haven't covered it in detail, they sent out Kris, who happened to have a liking of getting everything in great detail and doesn't like missing a little in his writings, whether he liked the topic or not. Luhan was just happen to be free at the time and thus how the journey to Gyeonggi-do happens.

While zipping his jacket, the tall man walked through the forest, kicking everything in his sight while grumbling over his breath. Some words like 'stupid company' and 'why am I so stupid' was heard.

Searching for the right place to camp, Kris took a look at his surroundings. As if he was in a horror movie, the trees was brown and dry, the atmosphere eerily covering the air. Wilted leaves, dark and easily crushed, was all over the ground and sticks was lying everywhere, waiting to be stepped and snapped. The ground itself wasn't fertile anymore, and there were some black patches, like something burnt the soils.

The weather wasn't even helping. When he stepped into the eerie grounds, heavy winds frequently went over him and he regretted not wearing more clothes. He wished the winds would stop a little by the time he found a place to camp out and start a fire, or he'll be damned for the night.

Time wasn't being nice to him today. The skies grew darker and darker as he walks straight in the forest, and when he glances at his watch the sun was already gone with the chance of having a little of light at the dark woods, giving him a sign that he should took out his flashlight soon. Unfortunately, he didn't really bring any extra batteries, so the only power left was inside the flashlight and he knows it isn't going to last long.

He really needs to find a camp place soon.

“...help... please..,”

A weeping sound was heard, with a whisper of helps. Kris was startled, and maybe, a little freaked out. But with this kind of situation, who doesn't actually? You're in a woods that's famous for being horror-filled air and a disturbing weeping noise was going through your ears—it's pretty normal to freak out and run now.

Although it's the right time to escape the place and calling Luhan then agreeing to find a perfectly safe ghost-free hotel with him, Kris's journalist mind had chose to search for the sound's source. He knows that this will probably making him feel like his legs gonna give out, but this is a good catch if he actually found something and probably the company will give him some bonus from the details.

He slowly walked through to the source of the sound, carefully and cautioned to not to snap any twigs so anything that he's going to found will not run away and making him lose his chance of an additional income.

And there it is, in front of his eyes, two boys who looks like they're six or younger, crying their eyes out as one of the boys was holding his bleeding ankle and the other boy was desperately turning his head everywhere in search of help.

He was supposed to be scared, Kris thought. He was in the middle of the forest that supposed to have no one living in it but here he is seeing two boys with ragged clothes that looks like they never washed it, barefooted, untidy hair, skin dull with slight of black bruises and really skinny like more than the entertainers these days.

I should turn back and quit his job, Kris thought.

I should be a writer, Kris thought.

I should take any job that is not this job, Kris thought.

I shouldn't be walking towards them, Kris thought.

I am so stupid, Kris thought.

“Are you alright?!” Kris finally crouched beside them and took out a first-aid kit, glancing the place as his eyes found some vines with thorns that was tarnished with blood. He thought that's probably the cause of the boy's bleeding.

Neither of the boys was answering and they're looking at Kris as if they've seen a ghost, but they didn't attempt to run from him.

As Kris was taking out some roller bandage and some iodine, he scanned through the other boy. His hair was jet black with visible bags under his eyes, and he didn't dare to look at Kris. He doesn't seemed hurt, so Kris focuses on the bleeding boy, who had white hair and is definitely whiter than him. It wasn't a really bad wound, but he's kids so it would probably be hard for him.

When he finally finished bandaging the boy, the black-haired boy besides him quickly took the white-haired boy's hand, yanking him from the ground, quickly carried him on his back and ran as fast as he can, getting out of Kris's sight.

“Hey—, WAIT!”

It was useless. The black-haired boy made no attempt to look back at him keep running towards the forest, and disappeared like he was never there before. Kris was left alone, dumbfounded at what just happened. He wasn't sure how to feel right now, but he decided he's exhausted and need to camp in for the night.

---

After some more walking around with nothing new in sight, Kris decided to camp in a place that he thought should be safe. He quickly set him up a tent and a fireplace, and finally succeed in trying to make dinner for himself.

He was getting ready to sleep when his ears caught some noisy shuffling sound, like dry bushes ransacking and dry leaves being stepped. He thought it might be some animals, 'cause this is a forest, but a small part of his mind says it could be the boys he helped earlier. He was actually pretty curious about their being in the forest, like they're supposed to be in their house with their parents right now instead of wandering in a scary forest like this.

Trying to not to make any sounds, Kris his flashlight and went out of his tent, swishing the battery-powered light around him. He moves quietly from his campsite, a little far but still in the distance of his area. As he squinted his eyes through the night, he thought he saw something moving between the trees, crouching like an animal and running in a strange way.

There it was. The shuffling sound starts to resurface and making him uncomfortable. He tried to step back to his tent—,

CRASH!

—but suddenly something, or someone was launching itself to him while making a really loud screech. Kris was startled, and by the weight of his attacker he fell down to the ground head-first, making his head spinning and throbbing. The attacker didn't stop there, it started to scratch at Kris cheeks, while the taller ambushed man tried to push his attacker off him, but instead he feels another one punched his arm and making his attempt to escape fail. Kris tried to peek from eyes to see his attacker. They seem to be... a bunch of boys?

“HEY WHAT THE—STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

It was useless. Kris tried to elbow the attacker above him but it doesn't give any effect to him. One of them was starting to lock his hands with their hands, and Kris rolled his hand to get them off, but they were much stronger than him.

Kris could feel the scratch on his cheeks bleed and started to sting. He finally got the chance to kick the attacker off him, but another one just lunged to him and sent him back to the ground. The tall man could see some of them was ransacking around his tent.

“NO! STOP!”

A small boy's voice was heard, and his attackers stopped lunging at him, but still holding him on the ground. Kris tried to adjust his eyes to the darkness and his eyes widen at what he saw.

The white-haired boy with his bandaged ankle.

“Sehun! Go away!” the first attacker hissed at the boy, and a nod following from the other attacker.

“No! He save Sehun! Tao! Right? Right?”

The black-haired boy earlier showed up, panting as he was running and nodded to the boy's—who Kris assumed his name was Sehun—statement.

Seeing the other boy agreed to Sehun, the first attacker stood up and releases his grip on Kris. He growled, “What are you doing here?!”

Kris's mouth opened, like he was trying to say something but words seemed to be stuck at his throat, as nothing came out from his lips.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” the attacker shouted at him, only to be disturbed by another voice.

“Joonmyeon! Chanyeol!”

A boy with chubby cheeks arrived at the scene, making the other boy who was attacking whimpered while the other just gritted his teeth and turned his face away.

“What are you doing? You should not do that!” he said as he check up the boys.

“He could be dangerous! The last time something came up it hurt Jongin!” the scolded boy pointed at the other boy who was a little dark skinned and had messy brown locks. The said boy just shuffled his feet.

“That was a bear Joonmyeon! This is a human!” the chubby-cheeked boy put his hands behind Sehun's back, slowly caressing it, “And he save Sehun, right?”

The boy nodded frantically and the boy who was named Joonmyeon just scoffed at him.

“He has food!” shouted a boy inside Kris's tent.

“And he has food,” the chubby-cheeked boy said to Joonmyeon as the latter stood up from his ground and ran away.

 

Kris doesn't really understand what is happening, but when he turned he saw the chubby-cheeked boy held his hand out, trying to help him.

“I'm sorry for what happened,” he smiled at Kris, “You should come with us. It's not safe to camp here,”

---

Kris stared at the interior of the room as he sat on one of the dining chair there as the boys surrounding him was eating happily like they haven't eat in weeks. The house was incredibly fine even though it has some burnt splotches on some part of the floor. It was vintage looking, with pastel-colored wallpapers, a fireplace that lights up the room resides on the wall and simple furnishing. There was a second floor, but the boys said only some part of the floor was steady enough meanwhile the others could just collapse at any moment, so they resides in the living room.

Minseok, the chubby-cheeked boy before told Kris all of the boys name. There was the maknaes Sehun, Jongin, Tao who was eating peacefully in the corner of the room, Baekhyun who was trying to snatch some of Chanyeol's food, Jongdae who was eating beside him, Kyungsoo who was conversing with Yixing with something that he assumed sign language because Minseok told him that Yixing can't talk. And there was Joonmyeon who was eating quietly beside Kyungsoo.

He has found it, the source of the rumors about the forest; the burned orphanage. With the children still alive.

“Thank you for sharing your food, Kris,” Minseok said to him, “We couldn't be grateful enough,”

“It's okay, Minseok,” Kris smiled to the boy. “Can I ask you something though?”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

The older carefully chose his words, he thinks anything that happens to this house could bring back some hurtful memories to him, “What.. happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“The... house.”

Minseok looked deep in thought when he heard what Kris said. He eventually opened his mouth, but a loud screech disturbed their conversation.

The tall man looked at the source of the sound, and he could see some of the boys hissing against each other. Apparently it was Baekhyun and Chanyeol, with the maknaes huddling against each other.

The chubby-cheeked boy in front of him sighed and turned to him, “Joonmyeon will tell you, okay? Joonmyeon! Come here and speak!”

The said boy glared at Kris, “I don't want!”

“Joonmyeon!”

With a grunt, Joonmyeon finally stood up and took a place in front of Kris, while Minseok went over to the bickering boys. While the boy took his time to sit on the chair, Kris notices that he was wearing something on his neck, some necklace with a small pendant with it.

“What do you want to know?” the boy sound irritated. Kris tried to be careful.

“The house. You guys. What happened,”

The younger boy avoided eye-contact, “There was fire. The upper half burn down, only left this floor and some of the second. They think we are dead. Well, headmistress is dead. But we are not,”

Kris nodded, taking out his notes and wrote Joonmyeon's statement, “How many years how you guys been here?”

Joonmyeon stared at Kris like he was dumb, “I don't know? I can't count! No one here can count!”

“How old are you then?”

“Last time I remembered headmistress said Minseok-hyung was nine. I think I'm eight,”

“...There hasn't been anyone with you guys since the house burnt?”

“Nope. Just us. Are you done? I'm sleepy,”

Kris sighed. He didn't think he can get anymore information from the boy, “Is there anything more you can tell me?”

“Nope. I don't remember anything besides that the house burnt and the rest of us disappears,”

The tall man slowly nodded, “Can I ask you one more?”

“What?”

“Why... are you willing to tell me all of this? Isn't the memory of house burning traumatize you?”

Joonmyeon was silent for a while.

“....Minseok-hyung thinks you could save us,”

“Huh? What do you mean—,”

Without saying anything, Joonmyeon stepped down from the chair that he was sitting on and went to the corner of the room, wrapping himself in a blanket he took out of the living room's big cupboard and went to sleep.

The tall man opened his phone, and saw the miscalls he got from Luhan. Nine with a total of five messages.

“Kris, did you really camped there?”

“Kris you're in someone's house aren't you?”

“Kris are you really camping there??”

“Kris why aren't you answering my calls??”

“KRIS ARE YOU DEAD???”

The tall man sighed (again) and pushed the call button. He took the phone to his ears and waiting for the certain pretty man answered.

“Yo, Luhan, it's me. No, I'm not dead. I can't really explain what is happening now, but just... make sure you brought a lot of foods. Yes, a really lot of them. Oh, and you might want to take a visit to a clothing store. Make sure they are children sizes!”

---

The next morning started up with a ruckus.

 

“Wu. Yi. Fan. Explain this ??!!”

 

Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Jongdae was surrounding Luhan, as he just arrived at the house with a big backpack on his back, a bag full of food hanging on his right arm, and holding up his hands in the air. And the other boys was huddling behind Minseok who was spreading out his arms protectively.

 

Kris who fell asleep on the dining table woke up startled to Luhan's voice. For a second he was in a daze, but he finally got a grip of himself when he saw the boys was staring at his work partner like a mad-man.

 

“Whoa there, stop, stop stop! He's my friend! My friend! Luhan, tell them you have food! And for 's sake don't curse, there are kids here!”

 

“What the , Kris, you're cursing too—I mean, I have food, I have food! Really! I swear!”

 

In a second, their scared and cautious glare turned upside down into a shining bright and full-of-happiness eyes. Everyone dropped their guard down, and began to crowd to the pretty-faced friend of Kris.

 

“Food!” Sehun wrapped his arms at Luhan,

 

“Food!” followed by Jongin,

 

“Food!” and of course, Tao.

 

Luhan can't help him self but to smile when he looked at the boys, but he immediately sent a death-glare to the tall man sitting in the dining chair while smiling sheepishly.

 

“I shouldn't left you alone...,”

---

“It's amazing,” Luhan said as he stared at the house from afar while eating a bowl of ramyun, “The upper half is burnt but the rest of it... It looks like nothing has happened to it!”

 

“I know, right? What's more, that the boy's are still alive! I think the burning happened around... three years ago,” Kris replied as he took out some papers from his bag, “I found these from the remaining of the second floor. Apparently Minseok's supposed to be twelve this year,”

 

“Wow, there's a lot kids here. Sixteen? How come there's only ten left?” Luhan said as he reads the paper he took from Kris.

 

“It's actually seventeen. I'm wondering about that too, but I'm too afraid to bring it up to Minseok. Or Joonmyeon. That boy literally hates me.”

 

“How about the others? Like.. Kyungsoo? Chanyeol?”

 

“I kind of doubt Chanyeol remembers anything. Kyungsoo's too quiet, sometimes I wonder if he understand what I'm talking about. And the rest of the boys... I think because they're too young when it happens, they kinda have problems in their words you know?” Kris took a sip of his cola, “Like Sehun, or Tao, the way they talk is still really toddler-like. Even though they're six this year,”

 

“I got the point, I got the point,” Luhan stared at the boys who is currently playing in the river close to their house, splashing on their selves with water and laughing at each other just like normal kids do. They don't usually did this, but when they know Luhan really did bought them some clothes, they decided to splash in the water and forced the two grown-ups to come with them, “So the rumors happened because of them, right? Like the sightings rumor, it must happen because the boys was trying to search for food,”

 

“Yeah, I think so.”

 

“But there's one thing that seemed... odd,”

 

“What?”

 

“Remember when we searched the internet before coming here, they said they saw a girl?”

 

“Yeah, so?”

 

“Kris, none of the kids here is a girl,”

 

Kris grew silent.

 

Luhan's right.

 

“I need to dig deeper, aren't I?”

 

“I don't know,” Luhan worriedly look to the boys, “I'm kind of worried what are we gonna found if we search more, Kris. You know, like in the movies, if we find more something's bad gonna happen to us. We'll probably anger the ghosts!”

 

“...Really, Luhan?”

 

“I'm serious!! Kris, a house doesn't just burn itself!”

 

“That's why there must be something behind all of this!”

 

“Well,” Luhan threw his hands up, “Not coming with you,”

 

“I know. You didn't even camp with me. Sometimes I wonder that if I really should call you a friend or not,”

 

“HEY I BOUGHT YOU THINGS???”

 

Just then, Sehun went to Luhan and started to pull at his sleeves.

 

“Come play, come play!”

 

Luhan smiled at the young boy while shaking his head., “No, Sehunnie, I'm not gonna play in the water, my clothes are gonna get wet—,”

 

“Luhan come with us!” Then suddenly Baekhyun went out from the water and pulled the older boy to come with him.

 

“Yes, Luhan come!” Minseok shouted. The said man looked to Kris for help, but the latter just shrugged and sent him an 'not-helping-you' gesture. Luhan pleaded at him and Kris just continued eating peacefully, not caring about Luhan a bit.

 

Suddenly water was splashed to Kris's face and he was startled. Quickly wiping his face with his shirt, he saw Jongdae and Chanyeol grinning ear to ear and finally bursting into a laugh.

 

“What—you guys are so gonna get it!”

---

“Hey, I'm going,”

 

“Mhmm,” Luhan sleepily nodded, while Sehun was sleeping on his lap and Yixing had used Luhan's arm as a pillow, “Don't die,”

 

“Yeah, I won't,” Kris scoffed as he put on his shoes, “Tell Minseok I'm just taking a walk okay?”

 

Luhan nodded again, slowly slipping into sleep. Kris finally got out, and carefully closed the door behind him.

 

Unexpectedly, the skies was a bit bright, the clouds was allowing some of the sunlight to went through and shined the forest. It wasn't windy as he first got here, and it wasn't hot either. The weather was perfectly fine and the for the first time the forest doesn't look as creepy as before.

 

Kris walked through the woods carefully, scanning his surrounding intently, not wanting to miss anything. He knows, there has to be some back-story causing the house to burnt, and he got the feeling the clue's in the forest too. He makes sure he observed every point of the forest that he could see, examining some burnt part of the forest, inspecting every area he could go.

 

As he investigated the place, he heard some footsteps following him. He stopped for a while and tried to hear better.

 

No sounds were heard.

 

Thinking that it's just his imagination, he began to walk more. But as he stepped again on the ground, the footsteps began to be heard again and this time its noisier then before. Kris stopped again for sometimes, and every time he walked again the footsteps keep following him, to the point it wasn't scary anymore but annoying.

 

The tall man finally turned his back, opening his mouth and going to scold who ever followed him and think it's funny to make loud crashing footsteps like that. But when he turned, no one was in his sight, there was only the trees and wilting bushes, with twigs and fallen branches covering the ground.

 

The man turned back to continue his journey, but what he found in front of him was surprising.

 

“AAAAH—Oh my god, Joonmyeon, don't scare me like that!”

 

The said boy just rolled his eyes and continued to walk forward, not saying anything to the older man.

 

“Are you following me?”

 

“You don't know this forest,” Joonmyeon took a branch from the ground and pointed it to tall man, “You'll get lost,”

 

Kris send out the boy a 'what-the-' expression and he was going to scold him, but instead he just followed the younger boy in front of him.

---

“Kris.”

 

“What?”

 

They had been walking for a while, and Kris was getting impatient. There's literally nothing but trees and bushes as he walked with Joonmyeon in front of him. His legs are really tired, but the boy in front seemed to be fine. He's still swinging his branch while singing something Kris never heard before with lines of 'Careless' and 'Anonymous' in the lyrics.

 

Joonmyeon pointed somewhere in the forest with his branch and Kris's eyes followed them. It turns up that the younger boy was pointing on a small cottage far away deep in the forest that could be missed if he wasn't careful. Automatically, both of them went that way, not knowing the air began to get thicker as they walked deeper.

 

“I've never been here before,” Joonmyeon said as he stared at the cottage in front of him intently, “So we're lost now.”

 

Kris didn't mind what the boys was saying and he proceeded to open the cottage's door. The door moved with an eerie creaking sound, and the tall man carefully pushed it inside, walking in with the younger boy tailing him.

 

The cottage itself wasn't that bad. It's a little dusty, but nothing seemed odd. There was some pictures on the wall, most of them was flower paintings. It doesn't have many room, only a living room with a rusted TV, a small bathroom that was strangely clean, and—

 

Kris heard a gasp.

 

“What is it, Joonmyeon—,”

 

The older was inspecting a bookshelf as he turned back and saw the younger boy standing in front of a room, door opened, tense and strangely shivering.

 

“Joonmyeon?”

 

He moved closer to the boy, “Joonmyeon, you okay—Holy ,”

 

In the bedroom they're in front of, there was a woman corpse, sitting with slitted open and her eyeballs looking like they're going to pop out soon, and her hand was holding a kitchen knife that was stained with blood. There was a book on the table in front her a long with a pen. The bed beside her was perfectly clean, and there wasn't anything odd more than the blood stain pooling under her chair.

 

“Shh, okay, it's okay, close your eyes, and turn back,” Kris said as he slowly and carefully turned Joonmyeon back, “Go sit and wait for me in the living room,”

 

Joonmyeon hestitantly nodded and went to the living room, leaving Kris alone.

 

The tall man carefully stepped in the room and scanned in the room once again. The windows was perfectly fine, no stains, nothing weird. Kris carefully took the book in front of her, not wanting to accidentally ripped it off or something.

 

He turned to page one and even though he's scared, he reads it.

 

 

12 July 2001

 

It's wrong, it's wrong, I know that. But Today, he looks really handsome. I really can't hold myself back.

 

 

 

13 July 2001

 

Jonghyun and I had tea. We talked a lot. I'm really happy. '

 

 

 

14 July 2001

 

Why... It has to be this difficult?

 

 

 

25 July 2001

 

He's married. He's married.

 

 

 

30 August 2001

 

He said he likes me too. He said it'll work out. I hope so.

 

 

 

1 October 2002

 

He's marrying me...

 

 

 

Kris grew impatient as he flipped some of the pages. He fast-reads everything, until the pen's ink changed color. He stared at it confusedly and started reading again.

 

 

 

23 June 2003

 

The baby's finally born... I'm.. I'm... so happy! I'm a mom...

 

 

 

29 June 2003

 

My baby's really handsome, just like his father...

 

 

 

17 January 2010

 

My baby's having fun with the boys in the orphanage. I'm really happy he has friends!

 

 

 

20 April 2011

 

No... No... She's waking up... No way.. I thought she's going to be dead! Cancer can't be cured that easy...!

 

 

23 May 2011

 

She's really waking up... She's asking who am I...

 

 

 

24 May 2011

 

Why... Why didn't you consider me as your wife? What about our son?

 

 

 

30 June 2011

 

wHYYYyyyy????

 

 

 

1 August 2011

 

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE HER INSTEAD OF ME???

 

 

 

8 August 2011

 

NO MORE NO MORE NO MORE

 

 

 

9 August 2011

 

NO NO NO NO NO

 

 

 

10 August 2011

 

iM SooORrrYy My baBy j

 

 

Suddenly the wind blows heavily and a strange force made the book flew out of Kris's hands, as if someone yanked it from him. Startled, Kris tried to get the beck the book, but just then, a kitchen knife went through his side, making him more surprised. The grounds were suddenly shaking, the whole cottage looked like it's going to collapse soon. Things in the room were vibrating, like there was an earthquake.

 

Kris was freaking out, he really needs to get out of here. As he was getting up, he saw the woman's corpse and—,

 

“Kris! Kris, where are you?!”

 

—her eyes were staring intently at him.

 

“KRIS!!”

 

Joonmyeon's shout waked him up from the sudden froze. Not caring about anything anymore, he quickly got out from the room, went to the living room, and saw Joonmyeon hugging his knees close on the floor.

 

The tall man quickly yanked the younger boy up, holding his hand as tight as he can and ran, dragging both of them out of the cottage.

 

The eyes was following their movement.

---

“You look like ,”

 

“No , sherlock,” he said as he took another gulp down his coffee, “You know what? I think you're right. I shouldn't dig deeper,”

 

The boys was huddled close to the fireplace, fussing over the tablet that Luhan brought with him, turning on various videos on it and the sound of amazement filled over the room.

 

Luhan stared at him intently and softly put his hand on his shoulder, “You found something, didn't you?”

 

“Not only that,” Kris bit on his lower lip, “I think I know what actually happened now. Not to mention I kind of traumatize a kid...,”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Joonmyeon was with me,”

 

The pretty-faced man beside him looks startled, but urging him to go on.

 

“And we found a corpse. A ing corpse. I think someone had a grudge and decided to burn the house down—and then had suicide or something.”

 

“You...,” Luhan shook his head, “You're kidding. This ing forest was scary but dude, I don't expect a corpse!”

 

“I'm serious Luhan—,”

 

Just then, a heavy wind blew and turned off the fireplace, making the room pitch black. The sound of the boys scream out of shock spread over the room and shouting of the grown-up's names was heard.

 

“It's okay guys, it's okay, we're here! Kris is on the way to turn the fire back!”

 

As Luhan said, Kris finally lit up the fire again, and the room wasn't as dark as before. Everyone sighed in relieve of the light.

 

“We should lock the doors, the wind is heavy tonight,” Luhan stood up from his seat and went over to the front door. Kris nodded and went to the windows.

 

He hopes this isn't a warning.

---

Kris had hoped that it wasn't a warning.

 

In reality, it was.

 

And it's getting frequent.

 

The doors closed by itself, Baekhyun once screamed in the middle of the night because he saw someone behind the windows, Yixing whimpered as he tries to tell the grown-ups that something was pulling his leg when he sleeps, and Kyungsoo whined (for the first time) that he feels that someone is following him. Heavy winds was getting to be a normal thing, the fires doesn't even last that they had to switch to the small flashlights.

 

Luhan was urging him to get out of there now, but Kris was hestitating, he can't just leave the boys here.

 

“Kris, we can't stay here any longer! It's not only the haunting but our deadline is due on next week! We couldn't be here anymore!”

 

“...We can't just leave the boys...,”

 

“You... You're getting to attached. I-I shouldn't left you alone that time, and this wouldn't happen!”

 

“And the boys would be starving to death if this wouldn't happen! I can't just leave them like that, Luhan! The first time I saw them they were badly wounded!”

“Kris, I didn't sign up for babysitting a bunch of small boys while getting goosebumps every time the wind blows!”

 

“Then why did you agreed? If you can't handle things like this maybe you shouldn't sign up for the company! Hell, you can't even write!”

 

“Oh my god, Wu Yi Fan you son of—,”

 

And Luhan's couldn't tolerance anything anymore when the surprising sound booms in.

 

CRASH!!

 

Before Luhan could say anything anymore, Kris went out the room, and a horrid expression was on his face when he saw the second level's floor collapsed down.

 

“Is everyone okay?” he said, and the boys nodded. Luhan finally went out the room and saw the mess. He turned to the tall man.

 

“See? We can't be here anymore, Wu Yi Fan!”

 

“How could you be so selfish, Luhan?! If we're not here then whose going to take care of them?!

 

“They are not our business, Yi Fan!”

 

The boys whimperes slightly at the sight of the two grown-ups fighting. Minseok tried to reach out to Kris, but suddenly the windows were opened forcefully and heavy winds were blowing from every direction. Joonmyeon is grabbing tightly to the older boy's shirt, screaming all his might to get Kris's attention.

 

“Minseok-hyung, Minseok-hyung!”

 

The chubby-cheeked boy turned his back to see the trio maknaes as he put his hands in front of him, protecting himself from the wind, “What?”

 

“We saw a—,”

 

In a second, the fireplace was completely turned off, the smoke disperses with the wind around them. A shadow was running through the house, breaking and making every possible disturbing sound, the door was opening and closing noisyly, glasses are breaking, plates are falling, and the boys were screaming.

 

“KRIS, IN FRONT OF YOU!”

 

Joonmyeon's voice snapped Kris out of his argument, as he turned his head in front of him and saw a shadow lunging on him. He suddenly felt a pair of hands was grabbing his neck, choking him to death.

 

“No! S-stop!”

 

The shadow finally took form, and as Kris squinted his eyes while trying to get off the hands on his neck.

 

His eyes widened.

 

It was the woman corpse before, with bulging eyeballs staring at him.

 

“WHERE IS HE?! WHERE WHERE WHERE?!”

 

Luhan, who was stunned for a while at what's happening before his eyes finally snapped out of it. He grabbed a chair and lifted it over him. The pretty-faced man quickly ran to the woman who was choking Kris and threw the chair to her.

 

The chair crashed, but the woman didn't budge. Instead, she looked to Luhan creepily and screeched loudly.

 

“AAAAAH!” The woman screamed and went towards Luhan, grabbing his hair and pushed him to wall behind him, hitting his head in the process and banging the man's head to the wall.

 

“Stop!” Sehun wailed at the scene, “Mad woman you stop!”

Minseok put on a protective stance in front of his brothers. He couldn't really think about anything to defend his brothers, the more he looked to the woman the more he got scared. She's scarily familiar to him, like Minseok had seen her before. But he didn't think it was this woman. This woman is kill all of them.

 

A rock was thrown to the woman's head, and the latter turned her head, three sixty-degrees without even moving her back. She suddenly smiled, goes literally from ear to ear, and then in a second her expression changed and she screamed.

 

“WHEEEEREEEEE?!”

 

The woman threw Luhan on the ground and began to go after the boys. Minseok who was in front of them was getting ready for the impact that is going to happen to him, but strangely it never happened.

 

When the chubby-cheeked boy opened his eyes, he saw the woman in the opposite side of the room, her neck crooked to a odd angle and he could see Kris standing firmly while catching his breath.

 

“What... What do you want?”

 

The woman didn't answer Kris, she only screamed and screamed more, to the point their eardrums are going to explode.

 

Sehun went out of the huddled and went to Luhan, followed by Jongin and Tao who is as worried as the white-haired boy. Yixing was holding on tightly to Minseok and Kyungsoo, while Kyungsoo looks like he's going to cry. Jongdae and Chanyeol went behind Kris, and Baekhyun could be heard hissing loudly at the woman.

 

With all of her bones in an unnatural shape, the woman stood and ran to Kris, all limping and sliding her feet on the floor with blood pouring out her knees. She looks at Kris intently, hungrily. She smiled a crooked wide smile, creepily chanting some words.

 

“yOU knOw WherEEEE....,”

 

“I don't know, go away!”

 

“YoU KNOW WHERE!!!”

 

“I don't know!”

With her hair peeling off her scalps, she ran to Kris, hands sprawled out ready to choke him again. The targeted man put up a fighting stance, ready to kick her again until her bones break and she can't move again.

 

But Joonmyeon suddenly ran in front of Kris, spreading his arm protectively and glared at the woman. The tall man was confused and afraid, urging the younger boy to move, “Joonmyeon get out of there, you're gonna get hurt,”

“Joonmyeon get back here, please!” Minseok pleaded. But the boy shooks his head.

 

Joonmyeon refuses to budge from his place. Instead he glared more at the woman as she was running into him. Her smile was getting bigger and her tongue stretched out of , her saliva dropping on the floor and gave hissing sound when she got close to the boy.

 

Magically, the woman stopped in front of Joonmyeon, her smile fading and it turned into a crooked frown, tilting her head like it was going to roll of to the floor. She stared at Joonmyeon strangely and screeched at him. But the boy didn't stopped glaring, “Go away,” he whispered.

 

“NOOOOOO!!!!”

 

The woman screaming in front of Joonmyeon didn't make him go scared and small, instead he screamed back, “GO AWAY!”

 

His hands suddenly took off his necklace and threw it to the woman, “Go back where you're from!”

 

The woman picked up the necklace with her thumb and ring finger, staring at it intently while her neck goes crooked with snapping sound of bones was heard. She slowly opened the pendant of the necklace and her already bulging eyeballs went wider.

 

There was a sobbing sound coming out from the woman.

 

As she dropped down and sobbed, her skin began to peel off, her bones jointing back in place, her hair turned color to a silky soft brown, and all of her body began to falter back to a shadow.

 

“My... My baby...,”

 

The woman finally disperses into the air as the boys took a step back, and Luhan was finally waking up. The windows reverted back to place, the collapsed floor of the second level flew back upstairs, the blood stains on the floor seeped through the woods and disappear, the broken glasses went back into intact, the plates were on their places, and the chair that Luhan used to threw at the woman started to form it self back.

 

The fire was suddenly lit, and the room was back to normal as if nothing has happened before.

 

The bruises on Kris's neck and Luhan's head weren't disappearing though.

 

“So...,” Luhan stood up, while still leaning to the wall, “What now...?”

 

“We...,” Kris stared at the the boys who was still stunned and scared, then to Joonmyeon that has fallen to a sitting position, staring at the floor below him.

 

“We... should do what we have to do.”

---

5 years later

---

“Kris.”

'No.'

“Kris”

'I don't know where is he!'

“KRIS!”

'Stop!'

“WU YI FAN!!”

'Please, stop!'

“WU YI FAN THE APARTMENT IS ON FIRE!”

“NOO!” Kris woke up with a jolt, hurriedly jerking up from his bed and saw Minseok beside him, “WHERE'S THE FIRE?!”

“There's no fire.”

The man stared at the chubby-cheeked boy that is not-that-chubby anymore, “What do you mean there's no fire?”

“Well there's no fire. I just said that to wake you up. It's almost seven you know and none of us had breakfast,” Minseok said calmly while Kris is in shock.

“Why didn't you wake me up much faster?!” He threw his blanket and stood up from the bed, forcefully opened his closet to find a decent clothing to work, “Why aren't you guys having breakfast?!"

“Kyungsoo said the stove isn't working. You should look at it.”

“Why the stove isn't working?” Kris asked when he finally dressed up and went out of his room, with Minseok following him.

“That's why you should look at it,” Minseok said while walking surpassed the taller man, reaching over to a comb lying beside the TV and proceed to comb Jongin's bed hair while the latter is trying to keep himself awake.

“There you are,” Kyungsoo said to the older, “Look, it won't turn on,”

Kris sighed and pushed the stoves button, waiting for something to happen. But nothing came out. He pushed and pushed again, but still, nothing happens.

“.”

“Don't curse, Kris.”

“Yes, I'm sorry Minseok. You guys didn't heard that right?”

“I heard!” Chanyeol raised his hand while he tried to wear his blazer, “You said f—,”

“Chanyeol.”

“Yes, I'm sorry hyung.”

“AAAAAAAAAAH!”

“What is it again, Tao?”

“Baekhyun stole my favorite shirt!”

Baekhyun hissed at younger boy, “What the hell, Tao, I'm middle school can't you see I don't have any reason to stole you shirt?!”

“Baekhyun, words!”

“Yes, I'm sorry hyung.”

Suddenly Sehun came in the kitchen. He opened the fridge and took an ice cream.

“Sehun, what did I told you about sweets in the morning?” Kris felt like his head is going to pop out, “More over, it's an ice cream!”

“Hey that's my ice cream!” Chanyeol shouted.

“You promised that I can eat it today!”

“Not in the morning! By the way, why isn't Joonmyeon here? It's gonna be half past seven soon! JOONMYEON GET DOWN HURRY UP!”

“I'm here, I'm here! Sheesh, no need to shout...,” the said boy showed up with a pen and some papers in his hand.

“Well you know what?” Kris gave up and threw his hands in the air, “Just heat up last night's soup,”

Everybody in the room groaned. Even Yixing frowned. But it's too late, Kris already spread up the bowl of soup along with some rice.

“No way,” Sehun whined.

“And you get to eat anything at dinner.”

The boys immediately brighten up and screams of happiness filled in the room.

“Even chicken?” asked Jongin with bright, hopeful eyes.

“Even chicken.” Kris wiped his hands with some cloth and drank up some coffee, “Now hurry up, we don't have all day! Eight is gonna be here soon! Up-up you guys to the van!”

“I can't reach my shoes.” Kyungsoo silently said, but Jongin quickly helped him, “Here you go, hyung.”

And so, this is Kris's usual morning.

Since that day, Kris and Luhan finally decided to bring back the boys with them, with Luhan insisting they're not living with him. It all leaves up to Kris and he eventually bought a new apartment, a big one so the boys could fit all in one place. But no, Luhan wasn't that heartless. He helped Kris by funding their education (and sometimes goes to school as a guardian when one of them gets into trouble.)

(And sadly it happened frequently.)

Kris remembered how grateful the kids were when he took them back, Minseok even teared up a little while shaking Kris's hands over over and chanting 'thank you's probably more than a hundred. Kris is just happy that the boys is finally living normally like other kids, safe and comfy. He even got to understand what Yixing is trying to say and the boys words are not messed up as before. (Even though sometimes Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae still have the tendency to hiss at people they don't like.)

“Okay, babies, first stop, elementary!” Kris pushed the button to the van's door, “Sehun, don't make any troubles anymore! I heard from Luhan you pushed a student last week!”

“I didn't did it first!”

“Still, you shouldn't do that! Jongin, watch over Tao and Sehun, okay?”

“When are you buying me a dog?”

“Didn't I said middle school?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry,”

“Alright, hurry up you guys, your brothers can't be late! Tao, don't cry too much!”

“I don't cry that much!”

As the elementary boys all dropped down, Kris opened the window and looked to the boys, “Remember what I said, boys?”

“Don't talk to strangers, don't walk off alone, don't disturb others, don't go home with someone not you or any of our brothers,” the three of them chorused, earning a nod from Kris.

“Okay, then off you go!”

After some driving, they finally arrived at the middle school.

“Second stop! Middle school! Kyungsoo, take care of Yixing for me okay? And please watch your brothers so they don't hiss at people...,”

“I will.”

The middle school boy sprawled out from the car, leaving Jongdae behind, still sitting in the van when he suddenly move in front to Kris's side and hands out his right hand.

“You promised when I get a hundred on any of my test I get to buy TVXQ's Album,”

Kris groaned loudly and opened his wallet, “Don't tell your brothers,”

“I'm telling,” Joonmyeon said as he played with his phone.

“Joonmyeon, not now.”

Jongdae grinned as he received the money and went up to give Kris a kiss on his cheek, “I love you, dad!”

“Wha—,”

Too late, Jongdae had already jumped out of the car and closed the van's door. Joonmyeon was holding his laughter and Minseok just smiled to the now blushing furiosly man.

Since the boys moved in, they're really begging Kris to let them to call him dad. It all started with Jongdae when he said “So you're our dad now?” and all of the boys practically went crazy and forced him to let them call him that. With the pleading of “We never had a dad before” and “I want to know how does it feels to have a dad” he shyly agreed and the boys all went to hug him. (with the exception of Minseok who is still hesitant to call him dad, only calling him that on certain situations, and of course, Joonmyeon who never called Kris dad, even sometimes he calls him with his real name.)

“Okay, we got time to spend. It's a really good thing that your school is really close to my workplace,” Kris relaxed his shoulders, “So, how's school going?”

“It was fine,” Joonmyeon responded calmly.

Minseok moved up to the front, sitting at the back of Joonmyeon's seat, “Joonmyeon's got chosen as the student council president!”

“Really? Wow.” Kris looked besides him where the said boy was seated, “That's really great, Joonmyeon! I never got into the school council before you know!”

“It's not that great,” he said silently.

“It's that great,” The older man ruffled the boy's hair, “We should get you some celebratory party or something.”

“Hot pot! We should eat hot pot later!” Minseok said cheerfully, “Right, Joonmyeon?”

“Anything would be fine.”

“Well, hot pot it is,” the van finally stopped and Kris pushed the van's door button again, “Alright dudes, last stop, high school! Go kick some butts!”

Joonmyeon snickers at the statement while Minseok laughed. “Have a nice day at work, Kris,”

“I won't,” the older replied while smiling, “Oh, by the way, Minseok, if you got home earlier, could you buy some groceries? I don't think I would make it to dinner, so as I promised buy yourselves anything you want to eat okay? And if you could please pick up our maknaes from school, I don't want them go straying again,”

“Okay,” Minseok said as he took the credit card that was handed to him, “Bye, Kris!”

“Bye,” Kris waved at the oldest of the brothers and turned to the boy, “Alright, Mr. School President, break a leg!”

The younger boy chuckled, “I will,”

“Uh by the way, Joonmyeon?”

The said boy was just going to open the door when he heard his name, “Yeah?”

“You know... I know this is kind of sudden, but I'm kind curious these days... 5 years ago... What did you throw to her?”

Joonmyeon was silent. He proceed to open the door and wore his backpack, ready to get out of the car.

“Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to bring it back up—,”

Suddenly he hears a mumble by the boy.

Kris blinks. “What?”

The younger boy stepped out the car and just before he closed the door, he looked at Kris.

 

“It's my photo.”

 

---

A/N: Sorry guys forgot to remind you that there are language ;_; anyway, thankyou for reading!