Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. I listened to the even pace of Tao’s breathing as he slept next to me. After hearing that one of our classmates was put into the hospital Tao asked if I would stay with him. I didn’t mind staying with Tao, we’d been sleeping in the same bed together since we were little, but now that we weren’t little anymore I really preferred we’d sleep at my house since my bed was actually big enough to fit two grown teenagers. However, because I was already over here, we both squeezed into his small bed and despite being scared he went right to sleep.

            I on the other hand couldn’t seem to settle; maybe I was restless because of my nap from earlier. I turned from my back onto my side to make more room and Tao unconsciously wrapped his arm around me. Tao was fond of cuddling even when he was awake, always trying to greet me with a back hug or hold my hand to pull me along because I wasn’t going fast enough for him. When we were kids it was fine, but now I had to reflect his touches otherwise suspicious glares were shot at us. Now no one was watching us, so I grabbed his hand and pulled it closer around my body because I was cold and I wanted his warmth and before I knew it I was asleep too.

            Tao was already gone in the morning when the alarm on my cell woke me up. Although I usually liked to take my time getting out of bed I woke up quickly and changed out of the night clothes Tao let me borrow back into what I wore over so that I could head home, shower, and put a clean uniform on.

            When I reached the school it was odd, what was usually a noisy hallway was silent as I walked to class. The teacher was standing at his desk when I entered, having a discussion with the class before the bell rang. “Come in, take your seat” he acknowledged my presence since I’d already interrupted him. I was the last to sit in my seat, now all of the desks were filled except one at the front right next to the new girl.

            The teacher continued, not bothering to repeat all he’d said for just me. I could’ve just asked Tao what he was talking about, but I didn’t need to because it was pretty obvious. “We all know that he did have asthma. The doctors at the hospital said something must have triggered a severe reaction and because he was alone he couldn’t get help quick enough. I know it’s unfortunate but at least I hope it teaches you all a lesson about not getting into things you know you’re not supposed to” he sighed and rubbed his head, thinking if there was anything else he needed to add. “When the bell rings let’s have self-study” and he left it at that.

            Everyone kept quiet until the bell rang but after a few minutes, when he still didn’t come back, the voices slowly began to rise. I could see Hana out of the corner of my eye and I looked over because something was wrong. She had her face hidden in her hands and a few of the close friends she’d already made crowded around her, a girl gently rubbing her back for support. “She was texting him when he had the asthma attack” Tao informed me.

            “Why is that a big deal?” I turned my attention away and retrieved the work from my bag that I didn’t have a chance to finish last night. “Unless she was the one who told him to break into the school”.

            “I guess you’re right” Tao gave up on trying to gossip with me and pulled out his cell to play games even though I knew he didn’t finish his work last night either.

            A few days passed without much talk of a ghost or of our classmate being in the hospital. I actually thought it was pretty strange that having an asthma attack could put someone in the hospital for so long, but apparently after he was released when he got home he had another fit and scratched his neck while he was gasping for air so now he was in the hospital again having tests done.

            “Check this out” I somehow heard Hana say through a hush in the usual murmur of voices in the classroom during the lunch break. I decided to listen in because Tao had somehow managed to migrate over to where she was after he’d left to talk to someone else. “So the school I used to go to is supposedly haunted and while I was going through my mother’s things I found out that she was in the class with a girl who cursed everybody by writing in this notebook” She pulled out a paper notebook and set it on her desk for everyone to see.

            “No way! That’s so creepy!” I couple of girls squealed.

            “You don’t really believe in that do you?” one of the guys that was popular for being a star soccer player laughed and took the notebook off Hana’s desk.

            “I don’t know if you should really be doing that” Hana warned him but she didn’t sound serious because she was laughing. “Mother kept it put away all these years so she must have believed it”.

            “Well I don’t believe any of it, ghosts, curses, they don’t exist and I’ll prove it right now” He flipped the front page open with a flick of the paper cutting through the air and everyone flinched. Tao looked over at me hesitantly as the guy began to read whatever was scrawled on the page.

            Everyone watched in anticipation as he read and his smug smile slowly disappeared off his face, his eyebrows furrowing in its place, and then his fast moving pupils suddenly stopped and creeped up until he was staring into a corner “W-what is that?” he raised a shaking finger and when everyone turned around to see what it was he was seeing he dropped the notebook and stumbled back into a desk with a scream. Everyone jumped and a couple of girls even started crying, Tao came running right over to me, and he burst out laughing. “I can’t even read Japanese!”

            “Yah really?!” one of the girls hit him and took her friend who started crying out into the hallway and a teacher happened to be walking by to see.

            “What happened?” He peaked his head in and found two other girls whipping tears from their eyes.

            “Nothing sir, it was just a joke” one of the guys explained as Hana tried to quickly pick up the notebook and stuff it back in her bag.

            "I'll take that" The teacher, after years of experiencing petty high school bullying, noticed and took the booklet out of her hands. "Is this the joke?" he held it up to the boy and he sheepishly nodded his head hoping he wouldn't get in trouble because he didn't even do it. The teacher flipped it open causing a few panicked gasps from the girls that had been crying and he glanced wearily at them before looking over the page.

            I figured he'd just see that it was all written in Japanese and give it back to Hana with a quick 'don't play mean pranks' but he stared down at the page for an unnerving amount of time before the guy in front of him tried to stand on his toes and peer over onto the page too out of curiosity. Before he could the teacher slapped the notebook shut, "Well I'll be taking this" Hana tried to argue with him but he turned and hurried out the classroom.

            She turned to the guy who had played the mean joke and hit him on the shoulder, "Look what you did! If my father finds that notebook missing he'll freak out!"

            "You shouldn't have brought it to school" I mumbled under my breath so that only Tao who was sitting next to me again could hear and began ignoring them again.

            Our teacher returned not too long after and lectured us until the lunch break was over and then gave us a quiz. The classroom was quiet because this was the hardest quiz we'd been given so far; I worried about Tao because I know last night he was playing games instead of studying. Although I knew I could make a good grade I couldn't seem to concentrate, I kept reading the questions over and over again but it was like there was something in my ear distracting me, someone breathing heavy.

            I glanced around; no one else seemed to notice the disturbance so I was just about to play it off as my imagination before someone behind me started uncontrollably coughing and gasping for air. Everyone looked up from their tests, slightly annoyed, until they realized who it was that was freaking out, the guy who had played the prank with the notebook.

            “Stop it already we said you weren’t funny” his friend told him but he in response, to prove that he wasn’t playing around anymore, he fell out of his seat. His head it the floor first and he passed right out causing all the girls to start screaming.

            “Call the ambulance!” The teacher yelled at anyone who could manage to pull their phone out and dial the emergency number while he went to tend to his student that was lying on the floor unconscious, his hands were still lying across his neck.

            When my eyes followed a girl getting up and running out of the class I saw that the teacher from earlier was in the hallway just watching, he had the notebook pressed to his chest.

            “Two of your classmates are in the hospital now” Jongin whispered to me when Tao had left the room to go to the bathroom. “Don’t you think something is really wrong?”

            “No, I don’t. This is a really stressful year, some students can’t handle to pressure” I replied simply. Because of the incident we weren’t sent home with any work so Jongin and Tao came over and we were currently sitting in my living room playing a game.

            “But both of the students were sent to the hospital because they couldn’t breathe”

            “It was just a coincidence”

            “What’s this I hear about a cursed notebook?” Because Jongin and I were focused on not getting killed in the game we didn’t notice that Tao had come back.

            “Hana-ss… Hana, brought a notebook that belonged to her mother to class today. She said a girl that was in her class wrote a curse in it and after someone read it he freaked out and had to go to the hospital” Tao filled him in since he was the one who actually heard her story, he didn’t even know that I was eavesdropping.

            “He couldn’t even read it, it was written in Japanese” I added a major detail that Tao had left out and delivered the last blow, killing Jongin’s character for the dozenth time since we started playing this game.

            He didn’t even let out a groan of defeat this time which was que that he had lost his determination to get revenge on me so I switched the game off. “Well, I’d love to hear the rest of the story but I have to pick up Kyungsoo before dance practice” He stood up and stretched, I could see the muscles of his back  through his shirt that he’d probably used the measurements from our first year to order it because it was too tight on him.

            “I would say tell ‘Soo hi for me but I don’t think he cares” I joked as I walked him to the door. It was Jongin’s idea that we all call him ‘Soo because most of us were on a nickname basis so he didn’t want him to feel left out, but because we were told to call him that instead of it just becoming a thing it was still a little awkward.

            “He cares, he’s trying to interact with you guys more” he stopped by the door.

            “I know he’s shy” I nodded my head because I didn’t mean to make Jongin think he had to defend his boyfriend.

            “He’s not shy” Jongin corrected, a stupid grin spreading across his face as he thought about something “you just have to know how to talk to him”.

            “Alright, alright” I pushed him out the door but he stopped again.

            “Sehun, have you decided what you’re going to do about that since we talked last?” he nodded his head toward Tao who was still sitting on the couch in the living room.

            I stepped out and shut the door behind me, “I told you he’s my best friend”.

            “I know you’re ‘just best friends’, but I see the way you look at him. You say you’re just trying to take care of him but you need to take care of yourself too” I rolled my eyes at Jongin’s sudden love-guru speech.

            “But I’m not gay” I mumbled.

            “I’m not gay either” he replied a little offended.

            “You’re gay for ‘Soo”

            He paused for a minute and thought about what he’d just said, “Yes, I’m gay for ‘Soo, but there’s a difference”

            We both laughed breathlessly and I looked down at my feet, kicking at a piece of the sidewalk that had chipped off until Jongin realized he was going to be late and finally said goodbye.

            “What took you so long?” Tao asked when I came back inside.

            “Ah, nothing” I went into the kitchen to make myself something to drink and he followed. While I was waiting for my glass to fill with water he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and leaned his heavy body against my back. “Will you get off already!” I tossed my shoulders to shake him off of me.

            “Hey, let’s go out tonight, tomorrow is the weekend so we can right?” he begged.

            “You know I don’t like going to parties”

           “Not a party, let’s go to a Karaoke bar, I want to hear you rap!” I was surprised that he didn’t want to go to a party, but the Karaoke bar was usually where we went with everybody, we’d never gone as just the two of us.

            I could have come up with a reason not to go, but I knew the consequences of that would be Tao complaining all night that he was bored until I got irritated and told him to go home and he’d spend the rest of the weekend upset with me. “Fine”

            “Really?!” he sounded like he thought there was no way I’d agree so when I did he was excited.

            “Go home and change and I’ll pick you up after I call Mom” I instructed him and he went bouncing out of the house.

            I sighed because I really wasn’t in the mood for karaoke but I figured Tao wouldn’t stay too long before he got bored of it being just the two of us, little did I know what I was getting myself into.

*So another classmate has been sent to the hospital... besides that nothing too severe has happened because I'm just trying to lay out the background right now. If you haven't realized yet this is going to be a Taohun; its going to be really angsty because well they're teenagers and what's more angsty than teenagers? Yea I'm actually glad I decided to put the bro/romance in this because I've been wanting to write a taohun where they struggle with the boundries of 'friendship' because that's something I went through and maybe something you're going through/will go thorugh/have been through, yea I just like writing things my readers can connect with... so I hope you're enjoying this so far, this is only like my third time writing a horror story so please bear with me ʕ•͡દ•ʔ Comments make my day and I love all my suscribers!*