“Ready guys?” Chanyeol asked cheerfully. Did he really not notice our depressed expression or just pretend that he did not know or was he really stupid? Geez! Kyungsoo and I however, nodded. He grinned widely, showing his giant teeth before led us out and locked the door. It was nearly seven in the evening when we went out and headed to the forest. Not that I was afraid or not manly, but who would want to go to the forest in the dark except Chanyeol? This was the craziest idea I had ever heard! As we walked, some people that we passed by gave us weird looks even though they didn’t ask a thing. Yeah, who would not be confused if he saw three young men carrying 3 giant backpacks and tends were heading to the forest in seven in the evening? I would too be confused.

My mind was interrupted when I felt a nudge from my left side. I turned and found Kyungsoo was giving me a look. “What?”

He didn’t say a thing but gave me a signal to look forward. I confusedly looked to the direction and found Chanyeol was already far walking from us.

“Oh God! Why is he so impatient?”

Kyungsoo muttered something under his breath, probably threw curse towards Chanyeol before he and I started to jog.

Chanyeol was walking way too fast. Did he even realize that he was going with us? Geez! Kyungsoo and I had to speed up or else we would definitely not chase Chanyeol.

“Look guys! The forest is already near!” I heard him excitedly yell. “Guys?” He repeated then turned to left and right before turning his head to us who were still around 50 meters behind him.

“Oh My God! Can’t you walk faster? You guys aren’t tortoise, are you?” I could guess that he was a bit irritated. But hello, shouldn’t it be Kyungsoo and I that felt that way?

“Shut up!” I said as I was really annoyed. We finally reached him and he apologized. Oh yes, he really should. We then walked together to the forest. Have I mentioned that I prayed along the way? No? Well now, I’ve told you. Really, it was still a crazy idea even though I have rethought it for thousand times!

In just 10 minutes, we had officially entered the forest and our flashlights. The forest was making strange noises, bird sounds, and I thought I heard a roar. Woah, woah! I hoped I misheard it! The silent aura did not help at all. The coldness completed the picture, scary picture! It was really dark! I threw my gaze to the sky and believe me, I could not even see the sky, or the moon! There were just trees everywhere and of course, grass, wild flowers, and some birds that I didn’t know what species they belong to. I started to feel goosebumps. I noticed that Kyungsoo tightened his grab and shivered a little. Chanyeol looked not so excited anymore and I noticed that he started to dislike the aura.

We went even further inside. I thought we just went straight to the forest, no turning to left or right. “Chan, I think it’s far enough.” Kyungsoo said in low voice.

“I… guess so.” He replied hesitantly. We stopped and searched for flat latitude to build our tent. Yeah, we brought one big tent that actually was for 7 people coz that was the only tent that we found in the villa. I found the perfect place to build our tent and we immediately built it there. It was harder than we thought because it needed 4 people to build the big tent. But we eventually managed to build it well. We clapped our hands as we saw our “masterpiece” satisfyingly.

“I’m so tired, I want to hit the sack now.” I said to two of my best friends.

“Eh, you do not want to do stargazing or simply admire the nature?” Chanyeol asked. I shook my head and lifted up his head, “look dummy, we can’t even see stars from here! Not even the moon!”

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and flashed me an apologetic smile. “Sorry guys, seems like today we have to be satisfied living in the dark.”

“And in the middle of nowhere.” Kyungsoo added and we burst into laughers. It was not the content that we laughed for, but it was Kyungsoo’s intonation and expression that looked so odd and annoyed!

“Oh shut up! You guys are calling the spirits living here!” Kyungsoo hissed.

Chanyeol and I immediately stopped laughing and stared at him. “You mean ghost?” Chanyeol stuttered a bit when he asked. Kyungsoo looked to our surroundings as if there would be other people than us which I found it was quite unnecessary and ridiculous before he replied in low voice, “The villagers think this forest is anchor since there were some people died here and a lot of accidents often occurred here.”

Chanyeol and my eyes widened in both surprise and horror. Kyungsoo didn’t tell us beforehand! Maybe if he did, Chanyeol would not insist to come here! Great! Just great! We invited ourselves to the ghost game! Who knew that maybe the ghosts were hungry and they waited for meals and we just offered ourselves! Okay, I just needed to calm down. I knew I was talking nonsense, but that just suddenly popped to my head. I found it a bit odd coz I usually thought logically. Well, logically, there was no connection between those accidents and the ghosts as in the science, there was no such thing as ghost in the first place.

I noticed Chanyeol turning pale and so as kyungsoo. “Guys, that is just a story, it might not be true.” I tried to break the ice. It was getting tenser and the situation was turning uncomfortable, not because we were angry to Kyungsoo for not telling us earlier, but because the uneasiness that we felt after we had heard the story.

“What if it is true?” Chanyeol’s voice was shaking, really shaking. He used to be bubbly and cheerful and seeing him like this certainly made me feel scared as well.

“Think logically, it would help.” I said calmly, swallowing the fear that started to rise.

“Ghost is something that can’t be thought logically!” Kyungsoo said in a ‘duh’ manner.

“Right, but worrying over something that might not be true is ridiculous, isn’t it?” I tried to knock some sense on their head.

“Ah, this is really scary and not my cup of tea! I think we all better to hit the sack before we start to imagine something wild.” Chanyeol said. I saw he had been used to the situation. It amazed me that he could adapt so fast! Kyungsoo and I nodded before we put our things aside and lied down to sleep.

After some times, “Ugh, the land is hard.” Kyungsoo complained. Well, it was really true. I bet we would get a backache when we woke up in the morning.

“At least there is no rock.” Chanyeol stated half-asleep. Ugh, this guy! I turned my position several times and still couldn’t find a comfortable position. Chanyeol had officially drifted to sleep whereas Kyungsoo grumbled and still tried to sleep. I then suddenly felt exhausted and in no time, I had fallen asleep.

I was in the middle of my dream when I felt someone shook me impatiently. Ugh! I kicked the thing that I thought was a blanket and found myself kicked something hard and heard someone scolded me afterwards, “Yah Kris! Why the you kicked me?” I opened my eyes and found Kyungsoo was looking at me with annoyed expression on his face. Oops! Sorry, my bad! I forgot that I was in the middle of nowhere and that I didn’t sleep on a comfortable bed furnished with my pillows and blanket!

“What?” I gave him a weird look. I was sure that it hadn’t even reached dawn.

“Listen.” He said shortly. I was confused but I obeyed him anyway. I listened for a moment and heard nothing. But then, I eventually heard something! What a strange noise in the middle of a forest!

“It sounds like a car engine…” Kyungsoo uttered. I listened again and shook my head, “I’m sure it is more like a truck.” I saw Kyungsoo was fidgeting and then I heard him ask hesitantly, “Do you think we should check what’s going on?”

I was more than shocked to hear him ask that. I never knew he could be brave sometimes. “Ngg… I don’t know. I think we should wake Chanyeol up.” I said. The noise was becoming clearer. I assumed the supposed-to-be-truck was heading to our direction or at least, getting closer to the forest.

Kyungsoo and I shook Chanyeol impatiently and he grumbled when he finally woke up. “The guys! It’s still time to sleep!”

“Listen, Chan!” I ordered him. He gave me an are-you-kidding-me look but I stared at him sternly, leaving him no choice but to do what I asked. At first, he didn’t give any response, but then, his eyes were totally opened in shocked.

“It’s coming nearer!” He almost exclaimed if Kyungsoo didn’t cover his mouth.

“SHOOT! What to do! What to do?” He panicked. Geez! Did he ever use his dummy head?

“We should check it!” Chanyeol said and pulled us out. “My God! Can’t you please be quiet and patient! We haven’t known what that thing is and whether it is safe or dangerous to us.” I stated logically. Oh yes, it was time to use logic! It was not logic for us to go camping here as we knew absolutely nothing about this forest. I figured that it was the perfect time to use logic, not just pure bravery.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. I’m just a bit impatient.” He said. We decided to bring only two of our flashlight since we would not go for a long time, maybe just a few minutes. The three of us started to walk to the noise’s source. Just then, we saw a large vehicle was heading towards our direction. In a swift moment, the three of us jumped to the bushes near us and peeped from there.

“The ?” Chanyeol cursed. Kyungsoo then nudged him hard and hissed, “Be quiet!” The vehicle soon disappeared from our sight.

“Well, that’s bizarre!” I stated something that was indeed very true. Why would a large vehicle which according to my vision was a kind of big truck get into this forest in the middle of the night? It made me very curious though.

“We should follow the truck!” Chanyeol stated excitedly. Yes, excitedly. I didn’t know what was going on in his mind but that was seriously not a good idea.

“Well, I think we should go back to our tent.” Kyungsoo uttered. I knew he was afraid of something that he hadn’t known. However, his idea was more logical than Chanyeol’s. Unfortunately, curiosity was eating me up. I was in a dilemma.

“But it would be our new experience! C’mon, don’t be such a !” Chanyeol said. He could be really stubborn.

“We should not meddle with other business, but this time I agree with Chanyeol. Aren’t you curious, Soo?” I spoke up.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath and sighed, “I am. But I guess I am a bit afraid. We don’t know who they are. I bet they are not nice people. Think twice, please guys. What kind of nice people would go to a forest in the middle of the night? Isn’t it usually what bad guys do? They might be smugglers, drug dealers, murderers, kidnappers, who knows?”

Deep down inside, I knew he was right. But like I’ve said, curiosity took over me. “We will just see what they are doing and then we will go.” I said. Chanyeol had been silent the whole time. He let me speak for this time.

Kyungsoo fiddled with his fingers before he nodded his head hesitantly. “Just checking up, kay?” He asked to make sure. Chanyeol and I couldn’t help but to grin and nodded our heads vigorously.

Then, the three of us tried to follow the truck who had been far away from our place. You might ask how we could know where it was going. Well, from its wheel’s traces that we found on the soil. Thank God, the soil was a bit wet, so we could see the traces. We followed the traces and after walking for which I speculated around 20 minutes, Kyungsoo’s sharp eyes caught something.

“Stop, guys. There’s the truck.” He pointed ahead. At first, I could not see it, but after squinting my eyes to the max, I finally could see it. It was hidden behind a giant tree and I did see a kind of hut nearby.

“Hmm… Interesting.” Chanyeol mumbled. We then slowly approached the truck. We didn’t dare to make a single noise. We even turned off one of our flashlights, afraid that someone might see us because of the bright light. As we getting near to it, I could feel my heart beat was getting faster. We stepped carefully and when we finally reached it, we carefully looked into the cargo. Surprisingly, nothing was found there. I furrowed my brows in confusion.

Chanyeol nudged me hard and he pointed the hut nearby. His eyes were telling me that we should check it. Kyungsoo held us back and his eyes signaled that it would be a bad idea. As we didn’t dare to speak, we spoke through gestures. We did have some troubles understanding each other’s gestures, but we managed to in the end. Basically, Chanyeol thought that we should at least know what was going on since we would camp at here whereas Kyungsoo preferred to not know anything. He gestured that knowing thing too much could bring us problem. Both were right, I guessed.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol hardly had same opinions and I would always be the middle person. I knew they were looking at me and waiting for my response. I then gestured that we would just see, without getting inside the hut like what Chanyeol had suggested. Chanyeol was a bit unsatisfied but he still accepted my suggestion fortunately. Kyungsoo sighed a bit but still nodded anyway. So, the three of us stepped slowly and carefully to the hut. Kyungsoo signaled that we should turn off the flashlight and we did so. Ugh, this was really frustrating. In one side, I was so curious, but on the other hand, I was a bit scared as well.

As we getting closer, some noises could be heard. The noises made us stopped directly on the spot. The ! There were a lot of grunting voices, even screaming. What the hell was actually going on? I could swear, their voices were like being held back by plastered or plastic or something like that coz the voices did not sound clear. Kyungsoo gave me a worried look while Chanyeol gave an encouraging stares for us. I could feel Kyungsoo’s grip on me was getting tightened, probably the adrenaline’s work. We managed to reach one of the windows and peeped through it. The three of us almost scream as we saw the view. There were nine men inside. If I had to bet, they were like same ages as us. Their mouths were covered by duct tape. Their hands were bound as well as their legs. I thought, they were hostages.

I could not stand to see any longer, especially, after one of the hostages met eyes with me. His eyes were filled with sorrow and fear and they were like asking me to help.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol fell to the ground and I too, ducked to the ground as I felt myself pity them. “What should we do?” I asked in a very soft and low voice.

“Get back to the camp.”

“No, we should help them.”

“We would be caught.”

“Oh yes, you are.” Suddenly a hoarse voice was heard. The three of us froze on the spot. I felt a hard grip on my shoulder and then sarcastic laughs were heard. I didn’t dare to turn and see who they were, but I guessed there were at least 2 strong men. I looked at Chanyeol and he gave me sign with his fingers that there were 4 men standing behind me. Yes, I was back-facing them. . We were in a trouble!

“Seems like you have to join them.” And with that, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, and I were dragged into the hut. They seemed to run out of rope and duct tape, so we were just thrown to the same room as the nine men and 2 of the men guarded in the room. Great! Now there would be zero chance for us to escape! Just great!

“I’m so sorry.” I heard Chanyeol said with regret tone.

“It’s not entirely your fault.” I faked a smile.

“We are really being kidnapped now. Karma is a .” Kyungsoo said and we laughed as the sarcasm hit us. Really, this was really ridiculous when I rethought about it. We planned to be kidnapped, but we thought we pretended. It turned out that we were really being kidnapped. 

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~exopromise~