Chapter Two

Jongdae stared indifferently at the girl in front of him while trying to make out the dumbfounded expression on her face. Was it the feeling of disgust? Did she think that he was repulsive? He had no idea, but he was almost sure that he was doomed. For all these years of making out in the elevator, this was the very first time he got caught. Gone was the thrill he had always been talking about. Right now, he felt no thrill, but panic instead. He didn’t need to be reported for the public display of affection. For an explicit one, apparently.  

“Hello,” he managed to mutter. Joonmyeon, who was standing beside him, feigned a cough before he left. Jongdae wanted to shout the word traitor, but he needed to deal with this first. “I’m so sorry for... that.”

“Yes,” Youngji replied. “That.” She stepped into the elevator. “Do you know that there’s a hidden camera in the elevator?”

Jongdae tapped his feet on the floor while humming. “This one’s broken.”

Youngji froze. “Perfect.” She looked at Jongdae, and then she remembered the fact that Jongdae had just d a guy. With Jongdae’s ual orientation being crystal clear, her fear was quickly ceased. She thought that the guy won’t probably be attracted to a women's chest. Moreover, she was wearing one of her best outfits, which was covering most of her skin. iness didn’t equal to sophistication, she had always insisted. "I apologize for my foul words, though."

Jongdae stiffled a chuckle. “Are you new?” he asked.

“Kind of.”

“I never saw you before.”

“You’ve always been here?” Youngji raised a brow.

“Kind of.”

“Okay.”

Jongdae didn’t know how to reply to that, so he kept his mouth shut. Though, he had his eyes observing the girl in front of him. Long hair being tied into ponytail, check. Light make-up – did she even wear make up? – check. A palazzo and a loose top, check. He got a feeling that she was probably one of those crazy conservative girls. If it was indeed true, then he was concerned that he might have inflicted a mental trauma on her. He might be mentally advanced - as he liked to entertain himself - but he was not gonna put anyone's life in a dark pit just because of him.

“Did you...” he paused. “Did you see it?”

Youngji narrowed her eyes. “See what?”

“My thing.”

“Oh,” she muttered in surprise. “No I didn’t see the whole thing. Maybe just the tip of it. Nothing more.” 

“Are you traumatized?”

She raised her brows exaggeratedly. “What?” 

Jongdae stared at her for a few seconds, and then he shrugged. “Never mind. You look fine, actually.” 

Youngji made a subtle distance – it ended up being not-so-subtle since Jongdae was sure that she moved about six steps from him. “I hope that I’m not scaring you.”

“You’re not.”

Jongdae grinned. “Do you know what people usually do during the first meeting?”

“Giving names – oh wait no, I’m not giving you my name.”

He giggled while looking at the number of level they were currently at which was shown on the screen. “Why not? It's not gonna do any harm.”

Youngji furrowed her brows and then she unwarily wrapped her arms around her body. “Fine.” She sighed. “Kang Youngji.”

“Kim Jongdae.” He offered his hand, and Youngji took it with doubts. “I don’t know that somebody just moved into this building.”

“Not moving,” she replied. “I’m just staying here for a while.” She immediately paused. “I think that I revealed too much.” 

Jongdae chuckled lightly while poking softly at Youngji’s shoulder. She gave a weird stare at the guy, but she just let it be. After all, there couldn’t be any bad consequence from this. She could act cool with this, because this was really nothing to be worried about. Maybe she was dumb for not exiting the evaluator even after she was told that the camera in the elevator wasn’t working, yes, but she knew very well that Jongdae didn’t have the hitting-on-me syndrome. She would let it pass.

“Oh, it’s the ground floor. I got to go,” she said abruptly while holding her sigh of relief. She still needed to respect Jongdae, after all. “It’s nice meeting you,” she added. In order to behave well, she needed to lie as well.

“See you soon.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered to herself once she made a necessary distance from Jongdae while responding to Jongdae’s frantic waving by giving a small wave at him.

He stared in amusement until Youngji’s figure disappeared into the sea of nothingness, but her subtle hostility. In all honesty, he was still afraid if he had broken Youngji by making her watching the brief play between Joonmyeon and him. It wasn't really his fault, really. Usually, there were no people using it after the fifth floor - and that certain elevator, which he always used, had gained quite a bad reputation. Once, a group of people was stuck in the elevator due to the technical malfunction. He could imagine the horror - except he didn't plan for it to get into him that much.

The building was filled with expensive apartments, and that explained why very few people in the small city chose to stay there. Jongdae had his many experiences there before, so he knew that very well.

But it wasn’t Youngji’s sudden presence in front of the door that piqued his interest – okay, maybe it was the reason because Youngji came from Chanyeol’s floor, so there might be something going on. Furthermore, as far as he knew, the Parks were the only ones who were living at that floor. Youngji said that she didn’t move there, and she was only staying there for a while so could it be... Jongdae gulped nervously. 

He looked back at where Youngji was walking a few minutes ago, and as he expected, she was already gone. He wanted to ask more, but he felt like something restrained him from doing that. Could it be the fact that he felt a bit guilty? Or maybe it was because he felt as if Youngji was probably already far away and he was too lazy to chase after her? He weighed the two reasons, and he concluded that it was more of the latter.

With all doubts and heavy feelings, he stepped into the elevator, pressing the button to Chanyeol’s floor. Maybe he could ask Chanyeol... subtly.

He reached the floor of Chanyeol's house, and the door slid open.

“Chanyeol,” he muttered in surprise when he saw a figure of a lanky guy standing in front of the elevator. There were suddenly too many surprises today. He managed to give a brief stare at Chanyeol to catch all of the details – dull eyes, curled up lips, and the hair which was grudgingly tucked inside the cap. “What happened?”

Well, for Chanyeol to be standing in front of the 'haunted' elevator and wanting to step in, he must be in a desperate situation. Moreover, Chanyeol was in the group of people who got stuck before - not to mention that Chanyeol had been traumatized. He still was.

“Nothing,” Chanyeol replied while rubbing his nape. His eyes were empty and filled with miseries, showing how troubled he was. He glared at the 'haunted' elevator while cursing the other elevators which apparently reached the maximum weight. “Did you come from the ground floor?”

“Of course,” Jongdae replied. He felt weird.

“Did you perhaps see a girl – her hair was tied into ponytail and she wore a loose shirt. Her hair was black – or was it dark brown. Okay I have no idea, but the thing is, did you see that girl?”

Jongdae flashed a fake smile. “Kang Youngji?”

“Oh, yes,” Chanyeol muttered abruptly. “But... how did you know her name?”

“I met her. She went somewhere after that.”

“Oh my God, mom’s so gonna kill me,” Chanyeol said in panic. “Did she tell you anything?”

“She told me that she is living in this building for a while.”

Jongdae waited for the answer.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol replied. “She’s living with us for a while. Mom said that she’s doing her thesis here,” he explained. “Has she gone for long?”

“I think,” Jongdae replied while trying to control his tone. “Maybe you should try calling her.”

“I don’t have her number.”

“Oh.” Jongdae felt a bit relieved. He was too embarrassed to admit it though, because he felt like a cheesy giddy teenage girl in front of her crush. It was partly true, to his horror. “That’s very unfortunate.”

“You don’t know about us, do you?”

He started to panic again.

Over the months of mingling with teenage boys and their girlfriends, he had learned that girls could spread news faster than the internet. News and gossips could travel faster with the incredible supersonic speed of their mouth - and their texting speed too, apparently. So when he logged into his messaging application account to see that he was loaded with many messages from the group which was named The Us, he knew that something interesting must have happened.

He saw that Chanyeol was removed from the group – he laughed for a brief moment while leaning his back against the couch, but then he slowly caught up as he read the messages from Jooyeon.

One of the pains of being secretly attracted to the gender of his kind was he would never be able to talk openly about his relationship. He did not even know if any guy in his close friends circle was rolling towards the same way as him. He never thought that he was filthy for his ual orientation, but that didn't stop him from feeling like he was different. A queer one.

Most of his friends didn't know, and he would like to keep it that way. At least until he managed to figure out that one person's thoughts about the possibility of having him as a boyfriend.

But Jooyeon - he stared at the blinking name on the screen - was making him feel intimidated.

Jooyeon

She came back. His ex came back and I feel like hell. What should I do?

Sehun

His ex? Whose?

Jongin

Chanyeol’s you dumb er

Luhan

Always the turtle-st one

Jongdae paused for a while as he checked the time when the messages were posted. It was about three hours ago. Was it a coincidence or that was when he met Youngji? He felt uneasy, but he continued reading the messages, skipping the pointless bickering between Jongin, Luhan and Sehun. His chest tightened when he saw the name Youngji on his screen.

Sehun

Youngji’s quite of a scaredy-cat. Maybe we could pull a prank on her and chase her out of the house?

Yifan

You’re going to kill her

Sehun

Can you please be more productive then?

Jooyeon

Are you serious

Sehun

Yeah. I know her very well guys. Trust me. Even the slightest creepy thing would freak her out.

Jooyeon

If you say so

Sora

Oh so she’s the infamous Youngji?

Hana

Chanyeol’s ex hmm

Sumin

Poor you, Yeon. So who’s on for the night? I don’t think that the girls could be in Chanyeol’s house since his parents would have been indifferent towards us. I don’t really wanna come up with undeveloped excuses.

Sehun

What the hell? You guys are doing it tonight?

Jooyeon

You suggested it

Sehun

I suggested the plan, but not the ridiculous timeline – I’m not prepared

Jooyeon

The faster she goes, the better it would be. Come on guys, I’m hurting.

Jongdae blinked his eyes. They were actually doing this absurd childish thing? What? Were they expecting a grown up woman who was in the midst of completing her thesis to be scared of kid stuffs? Did that Oh Sehun brat really come up with the sloppy plan? Were they even serious?

He was a free-spirited kind of person, and he obviously saw no harm - perhaps, he saw a bit - on doing this kind of harmless prank. But until he was really assured that the outcome won't be fatal - or dramatic - he won't have a fixed opinion on this.

A message popped out.

Sehun

Roll-call! Jongin, Yifan, Jongdae, Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun! (Luhan can't join because he has an assignment to be completed)

Kyungsoo left the group

Baekhyun left the group

Sehun

What the ? I know that this’ll happen somehow

Jongin

Hm

Yifan

I refuse to join

Sehun

Leave the group then

Yifan left the group

Sehun

Fine

So it’s me, Jongin and Jongdae then?

Jongin

I guess. Jongdae’s not replying

Jongdae hesitated for a while. Did he really need to follow this plan? He wasn’t going to hurt the girl, right? Youngji seemed to be a bold woman, and she seemed to have a very calm vibe surrounding her as well, so he doubted that this childish game would freak her out. Yifan must be joking when he said that Sehun was gonna kill her if he was to proceed with the plan.

Jongdae

Does Chanyeol know?

Sehun

Nope. I told him that we’re coming to party in his house and he said that it’s a good time because his parents were gone for err I don’t think that that part is necessary

Jongdae

What time

Sehun

Thirty minutes from now. The plan is to scare her. Just do that ghostly sound and whatever and it’ll do

There was nothing screaming party when he stepped into Chanyeol’s house. The only thing that caught his attention was a pair of stilettos which was placed neatly on top of the shoe rack. He tried to remain calm and composed although beside him, Jongin and Sehun were already whispering and giggling about something. Their conversation seemed to be entertaining enough, so Jongdae tried to listen to the topic. His interest deteriorated though, when he heard the name Youngji being frequently mentioned. The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if this was ridiculous. He was up for fun, not for an obviously-a-failure kind of plan.

And maybe – just maybe – he knew that Youngji won’t do something as low as stealing somebody’s boyfriend. Youngji was, after all - from the way she behaved before - was a prim and proper woman. She wasn't like him who was hiding his true intention behind the friendship he secretly loathed. He wanted more than that, and maybe he could advance forward if it wasn't for Jooyeon and his fear of making mistakes. Jongdae understood that Youngji and Chanyeol had history, and for an odd reason, Chanyeol’s friends seemed to be a part of that history as well. Jongin and Sehun especially were acting as if they were the ones who had broken up with Youngji. Their excited expression and the way they passionately discussed about the pranks were obvious enough.

“We can throw things at her and she’ll think that there is a ghost dreading her existence,” Sehun suggested, making sure that he was speaking as low as he could. He and Jongin were already making themselves comfortable by sitting on the couch. He took the television remote and pressed the button to turn the television on. He randomly pressed the number of channel before he averted his attention back at the conversation. “What do you think?”

“Boring,” Jongin replied. He wandered his eyes around the house, trying to detect Chanyeol’s presence. The last time he heard from Chanyeol – a few minutes ago - the guy said that he was still showering. That explained the sound of water hitting harshly on the floor. “Do you even know where her room is?”

“Based from the word welcome plastered on that door, I think that it’s that one.” Sehun pointed at the door which was beside Chanyeol’s. “Mistress Park did really well this time.”

“So who should do the prank?”

“Me?”

“Sehun, you’re hopeless at doing pranks. Maybe you should just distract Chanyeol.”

“So it’s gonna be you?”

Jongin frowned. “Me? No way! As much as I love to be the very first person to witness her expression, I would like to stay away from risks.” He glanced at Jongdae. “You’ve been really quite. You’re usually the liveliest among us.”

Jongdae saw the red light.

He chuckled. “Tired.”

“You know what people say? Laughing can chase the tiredness away. Maybe you should do the prank,” Sehun suggested. “After all, Youngji doesn’t recognize you, and that’ll be more efficient.”

Jongdae bit his lips. “Are you sure that she’s not gonna be in pain?”

“She’ll only hurt , at most.”

That verbal confirmation eased Jongdae a lot.

“Okay then.”

Chanyeol was out from his room a few minutes after that, towels dropped on his wet hair. Jongdae thought that he really looked really sensual that way. Before Chanyeol approached them, Sehun urged Jongdae to stand up and go with the plan. Jongdae mouthed that he didn’t know what to do and if he should follow the initial throwing-things plan, but Sehun ignored him and began sputtering nonsense to Chanyeol instead. In the end, Jongdae told Chanyeol that he wanted to use the restroom and headed towards Youngji’s room. He made sure to step lightly to avoid being caught, of course.

When he’s in front of the girl’s door, he turned his body and looked at Sehun to receive orders. As if the said guy was dense enough, Jongdae only received a pointless wink. He sighed in defeat before he turned his body back to face the door. First, he tested rolling the door knob first to check if it was locked, and to his ambivalence, it was unlocked. He pressed his thumb on the side of the knob before he pushed the door open. He started slowly, and carefully.

His first view was dark. The light was turned off, and Jongdae only had two things on his mind: Youngji was asleep, or he was probably in the wrong room. Nonetheless, he proceeded on stepping forward while his eyes were making out the outline of a king-sized bed. He flicked his hands in order to search for objects to be thrown at the bed, but he found nothing. He was clueless on how to continue the plan, but he continued walking forward.

His knees bumped on something, and he d the thing to find that he had hit the front side of the bed. If he moved further he would have tripped and fallen on the mattress. The mattress which was supposedly occupied by a girl named Youngji. A girl who supposedly feared ghosts.

Bothered by his lack of creativity and improvisation on the plan, Jongdae decided to do the easiest thing. If he was to have fun, then he might as well go all out.

He crawled up to the mattress, body positioned like a cat. He could feel the bulging body underneath him as he crawled further, and that was when he knew that he was indeed in the right room. He thought that the body beneath him must be Youngji’s.

He could feel how the girl was stirring on the mattress, breathing heavy and uncontrolled. She was awake.

He dropped his body lower, and he felt the girl curling her body in defence. There was something flogged in , Jongdae knew. He brought his lips closer to what he thought was Youngji's ear.

“Just so you know, I’m biual," he whispered. “Kang Youngji.”

Youngji’s breath was cut. “Oh my God...” she whispered weakly. “Wait –“

“Boo.”