Don’t tell me she literally went outside, Chanyeol mumbled inside his head. Without much more thought, Chanyeol was running outside, following the footprints which he believed yours. It was already dark and the lighting was dim. Chanyeol ran beside your footprints. He was being careful not to ruin your trace.

Chanyeol started to run out of breath, but he didn’t stop running. Because of his heavy breathing and cold weather, he made his own fog with every breath he released. He looked up and saw cottages that seem suspicious.

“Cha Miyeon!” Chanyeol called loudly. He got no answer, so he checked the first cottage. The dark surrounding gave him chills, but he didn’t care. He the flashlight application in his smartphone and started searching while calling your name inside the first cottage.

“Maybe she’s not here…” Chanyeol mumbled to himself after finding nothing. He walked out of the cottage and saw footprints outside the second cottage. Those footprints stopped right in front of its door.

“Cha Miyeon!” Chanyeol called your name again.

Inside the second cottage, you were curling your body into fetal position and trembling so hard. You heard someone called your name, but you couldn’t reply. Your body was freezing, made you couldn’t move. Your whole body started aching because of the cold. Even breathing was painful for you. Every single breath you took was the coldest as you could remember, and it made your throat hurt.

Suddenly the door was being opened hard and you could see silhouette in front of the door. You noticed that person was holding a flashlight or something like that. You blinked your eyes as he shifted his flashlight and illuminated your face.

“Miyeon-ah!” The person stepped inside the cottage in fast movement.

You wanted to warn him not to close the door, but your voice was so weak and your throat was dry. “Don’t let the door—”

BAAAAMM!!! The door shut with loud noise because of heavy wind outside.

“—closed…” you continued, still with weak voice.

The person rushed toward you. When he walked closer with his flashlight, you could see his face. A very familiar face. Park Chanyeol. His face looked worried and his nose was red. He placed his smartphone on the wooden floor and reached for your shoulders.

“What happened?” he asked. He looked worried about your condition—cold, couldn’t move, and weak.

“Don’t close the door,” you whispered. “You should not let the door closed…”

“Why?” Chanyeol asked in confusion.

“I’m trapped. The door couldn’t be opened from inside…” you explained. Speaking made your throat hurt with cold. You swallowed hard to minimize the pain.

Chanyeol looked surprised. “What the—” He left you with his smartphone that was still illuminating the cottage dimly and tried to open the door. You heard he tried to open it harder time by time. Chanyeol started to bump his body to the door. He wanted to open it forcefully, but Chanyeol was already tired and cold, so he didn’t have that much strength to open the door by himself.

Although the door didn’t budge, Chanyeol didn’t want to stop. He kept bumping his body to the door. When his body bumped the door, it made your heart hurt. It sounded like he was bumping his whole body to the door quite hard.

You couldn’t keep hearing those crashing sound Chanyeol made, so you begged him. “Chanyeol-ah… Stop. You’ll hurt yourself,” you begged, followed with dry cough.

Chanyeol bumped his body to the door for the last time in frustration. You could see fog he created with his short breaths. He seemed tired and helpless. Chanyeol was the type of person that wouldn’t give up easily, but you really thought his actions were pointless. You knew the door wouldn’t budge because you tried to open it before, countless of time until your body gave up.

You tried to stand up and calm him down, but at the moment you tried to stand up, you fell on the floor. Your legs were weak and frozen. Although you couldn’t see your toenails inside your boots, you could predict they were already turned blue. They were painful even when you were staying still.

Hearing the sound you made as you fell, Chanyeol rushed again to your side. “Don’t stand up, you are very fragile and in pain right now,” Chanyeol warned.

Suddenly, the cottage was filled with darkness as Chanyeol’s flashlight was turned off. The lighting inside the cottage was very dim—the only source of light was moonlight that went inside through a small window near the ceiling.

Chanyeol checked his phone abruptly. “Damn,” he mumbled furiously. “My phone’s battery is dead…”

You wanted to cry at this moment. After being trapped for a while in this dim cottage, you felt stuffy and helpless.