Prompt: “Dare you to walk through this haunted cemetery with me”

Pairing: Sehun/Tao

Words: ~1600

It’s not every day class is cancelled that very morning as the professor has accidentally forgotten to tell the board that he’s taking his young family across to Europe for a holiday. It’s also not every day that Sehun has several hours of his life free of pretty much everything else; there aren’t any assignments due because it’s the end of the semester and whilst he could be studying, it’s not like he wants to. When he's not studying, Sehun can usually be found working at the closest department store to the university’s student accommodation; but today, with such short notice, he won’t be able to scrape up a couple more hours of pay.

No, today is one of the few days that he can relax and enjoy some time away from work and people, which is exactly why he’s spending it with the Chinese exchange student Huang Zitao, who had been nagging him to visit some of the most famous Korean cultural landmarks for weeks.

Sehun rolls his eyes as his idiot of a classmate rambles on and on, pointing to random things across the street with interested delight. He has a camera coiled around his neck and he frequently lifts it up and takes pictures of everyday sites that Sehun doesn’t think are particularly interesting or important. A shrine here a temple there; it’s not like Sehun hasn’t seen any of this before. When he was in primary school he came here with a school trip, so to him it’s all pretty boring and monotonous now. But, to a delighted Zitao, anything and everything is something to stare at with wide, excited eyes.

Admittedly, Zitao had piqued Sehun’s interest when he first arrived at the back of the lecture hall for their semester’s first lesson of biology. He was panting, throwing scared glances down at the lecturer below by the lectern, and it was obvious to everyone in the room he had run all the way from his dormitory just to be fifteen minutes late. He was sweating, breathing heavily, and almost collapsed into the chair next to Sehun at the back of the room (it was actually kind of cute).

There was never a dull moment when Huang Zitao was around.

“What's that?”

Zitao has stopped a couple of steps behind, and Sehun turns to face him. He’s leaning over an old wooden fence and pointing into a plot of land that is littered with long, giant columns. Sehun reads some of the inscriptions and smirks a little, grabbing Zitao’s arm and dragging him a little ways beyond the gate.

“Dare you to walk through this haunted cemetery with me,” he says.

“Haunted?” Zitao squeaks.

Sehun has never seen Zitao’s eyes so wide, which is saying something. His usual interested and excited flash is gone, with fear taking it’s place, his skin paling at the thought of ghosts. Sehun stifles a laugh and claims Zitao’s hand in a death grip, knowing just how much Zitao believes in the supernatural (he always complains to Sehun about showering alone or hearing noises in the night) and decides that this would make amusing payback for Zitao stealing Sehun’s precious free time.

“Of course it’s haunted you dunce, sometimes the spirits can’t move on and they usually hang around here. You know, I bet there’s a cheonyeo gwishin hovering just over your shoulder.”

Confusion at Sehun’s words is apparent on Zitao’s face, so Sehun puts on his best fake-scared face and elaborates.

“ ghosts, I mean. Back in the ancient times, if a woman died before she was married and had children she wouldn’t be fulfilling her true life’s purpose. It’s pretty ist now, but way back then… Not being able to serve a husband meant your life was meaningless, so your spirit would disconnect itself from the world. If you died like that, you were destined to haunt your living relatives until they found you a suitable match.”

Sehun smirks as Zitao shivers, whirling around repeatedly to check they weren’t being followed (which they weren’t, obviously). Sehun watches him with amusement as he sticks to a small, concrete path between the headstones, standing with his hands out before him in a fighting pose.

“What do they look like?” Zitao asks, making no effort to hide the tremor in his voice.

“Well, because they weren’t married they aren’t allowed to put their hair up, so it’s long and hides their faces. Besides that, they always wear white. You know, the basic hanbok, nothing too fancy. Did you ever see the chick from ‘The Ring’? It’s kind of like that.”

Zitao turns back to face him, eyes bulging out of their sockets. He turns back, swipes an arm in the air like he’s hitting back against invisible figures in the air. Sehun shakes his head incredulously at his luck, deciding to grab his phone out of his pocket to film Zitao’s ridiculous fear-fueled antics.

“I’ve never seen one myself, personally,” he says, trying to sound casual. “But they go after unmarried or unclaimed men. Got a girlfriend, Zitao?”

Zitao shakes his head, eyes darting over the gravestones.

“No,” he breathes.

This admission confuses Sehun a little. Zitao was a pretty attractive guy, and Sehun did have a soft spot for the dark rings under his eyes and he was kind of jealous of (and, admittedly, completely attracted to) Zitao’s physique. Zitao worked out, and his arms, legs, and abs often bulged under the shirts he wore. Next to the tall and lanky noodle that was Sehun, they both attracted a lot of attention from the female students in class (which Sehun couldn’t really care less about most of the time), so he was surprised Zitao was still single. Zitao’s scared voice once again fills the silence of the graveyard.

“Do you think these creepy ghosts go for gay guys?” he asks.

“What?” Sehun splutters. “You’re gay?”

“Well isn’t it obvious?” Zitao asks, with a potentially flamboyant flap of his arms (well, it would have been, Sehun thinks, if he wasn’t shaking and terrified). Sehun raises an eyebrow at him and thinks, all the times he’s made passing comments about Sehun’s chosen attire for the day (mostly positive), all the designer handbags he’s stowed in his suitcase to return home to China with… well, Sehun thinks, Zitao is perhaps a little gay.

“I thought you were gay too!” Zitao continues, voice raising half an octave and cracking halfway through. Sehun stares at him, slowly nodding.

“I kind of bat for both teams,” he confesses sheepishly. “Guys, girls… you know, biual.”

It seems odd for the words to finally leave his lips. He’s kept it to himself all this time and it feels strange that Zitao is the first person he’s divulged this to. He watches Zitao carefully, his phone is still trained on Zitao who stands and swats at nothing a couple of steps ahead. He waits for a look of revulsion that never comes; Zitao barely shrugs at him, mind occupied instead on his own supernatural imaginings. Sehun hears Zitao’s whimper and feels immediately guilty for setting this up.

“I don’t think it will go for gay guys,” Sehun finally concedes, and he watches Zitao’s shoulders relax with evident relief. Zitao turns back to Sehun and runs into him, forcing him into an uncomfortably tight hug.

“But it could still go for you, couldn’t it?” Zitao asks, letting go of him whirling back around. “If you like girls and guys, maybe it will try and marry you! You don’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend at the moment, do you?”

Zitao circles him slowly, hands still raised and whirling through the air. He sidesteps and slinks over the cracked pavement, and Sehun’s eyes widen in realisation. The idiot was actually trying to protect him? Even if ghosts and spirits were real (which they weren’t) – physical kicks and punches wouldn’t make a difference in Sehun’s mind. He watches Zitao, lost in his own thoughts. Why did he have to be so attracted to this dunderhead?

“I have an idea,” Zitao says, turning around Sehun once more. He has a flaming look in his eyes, and he gives Sehun a chivalrous smile.

“If I kiss you, and we start going out together, we’ll never have to worry about weird ghosts again!” He pauses, eyebrows furrowed at Sehun’s lack of immediate response.

“Well, only if you want to…”

Sehun snorts. He lets out the loudest guffaw before losing his balance and falling to his knees. Zitao looks down at him in alarm (perhaps thinking he’s been possessed) and Sehun simply laughs harder, grabbing Zitao’s leg and pulling him down besides him, so that their faces are inches apart.

“You know I wanted to ask you out for the longest time, but I always thought you were straight?” he manages between hoots of laughter. “And then you go and ask me out because you think a ghost wants to claim my ?” Zitao shrugs in response, and Sehun laughs harder.

“You’re such a moron, Zitao,” Sehun says, wrapping one arm tightly around Zitao’s neck.

Sehun pulls him down on top of him for a heated kiss, and Zitao groans and shuts his eyes as Sehun gently tugs his lips between his teeth. Sehun slowly draws away, but not before Zitao presses a chaste kiss to his cheek for good measure. They pull each other up, dust each other off, and stroll hand-in-hand out through the cemetery gates, ghosts and ghouls quite forgotten.

It wasn’t exactly how Sehun was expecting to spend his limited free time, but he definitely wasn’t complaining anymore.