***

Tao sighed and placed the controller down, rubbing his eyes and letting everything sink in.

“You’re kidding me!”

“AH!” he shrieked, jumping up and nearly throwing the game controller at Chen’s face, who had just popped out from the couch behind him. “Chen-hyung, don’t do that to me, I told you never to startle a kung fu master!” he complained.

“Oh yeah, why was that again, because you’ll scream like a girl if I do, right?” Chen laughed before shaking his head again.

“Why did you play the Tao-route? I told you that the Chen-route is way more exciting and way more scary! I programmed the Tao level especially for the fainthearted. There’s hardly any fun in it!” he whined. “Play it again, but do the Chen-route now, go on.”

“No way, hyung. You said that this game was going to be a game like Streetfighter, but guess what? You lied! I’m not playing anymore,” he whined right back. “Besides, why is my character so whimpy? I do not whimper every other second and I’m not so cowardice in real life! You should have made Tao more cool, that at least would have been more believable.”

“Oh, yeah? Is that the reason why you’re sweating and your heart is palpitating from your chest?” Chen laughed as Tao pouted at him.

The door opened then and Jae walked in with a smile. “Oh, here you are. We were wondering where you guys had gone off to. School’s over, so why are you still hanging in the AV-room?” she asked, curiously staring at the game Tao had been playing.

“Oh, I’m working on a project for school and Tao was helping me out. What brings you here, noona, you wanna hang out with us?” Chen asked with a bright smile.

“Yeah, everyone is waiting for you so I told them I’d get you,” she explained briefly, staring at Tao a moment. “Taozi, are you okay? You’re sweating! You’re not having a fever, are you?” she placed her hand on his forehead as Tao started blushing, trying to ignore the teasing grin on Chen’s face.

“No, I’m okay, noona. It’s just a little warm here when you game,” he lied, sticking out his tongue when she didn’t see at Chen, who only laughed.

“Okay, you better not get sick though, I want to go to the carnival that rolled into town with everyone,” Jae said excitedly. “Lily told me that they have a really cool haunted house attraction and I want to check it out. You guys know how much I love horror.”

Tao’s eyes widened then and he fervently shook his head, voicing his protest loudly towards a baffled Jae with Chen laughing in the background.

“Nope! No! Ani! Bu! Nope, not gonna happen, noona, no way!” he said as he took her arm to lead her away from the AV-room, Chen nearly doubling over from laughter.

“No? Why not, Taozi? Don’t you like carnivals?” she asked, genuinely confused.

“I love carnivals, noona, but I hate haunted houses, you know this!” he whined.

“Oh, Taozi, they’re not real haunted houses, it could be fun,” she tried, but Tao continued shaking his head, practically suffering from flashbacks thanks to Chen’s game.

“Noona,” he solemnly grabbed Jae by the shoulders to show her how sincere he was about this, “I love you, but I am not going to save you from a creepy house from hell. We are going to eat candied apples, go on fun rides and go trick or treating like any other normal person on this island, and you’re going to enjoy it! Now, let’s go shopping for a costume!” Tao pulled a helplessly confused Jae along after his tirade.

“Um, o-okay, Taozi, it’s just… uh…”

“Just what, noona?”

Jae started laughing. “It’s March.”

Tao halted in his tracks, just realizing how much of a fool he had made himself in front of Jae for having been in too deeply by Chen’s Halloween Horror game. He swallowed and wouldn’t let his pride be damaged.

“Then we’ll go as Easter Bunnies. Let’s go, noona!”