A loud knock brought Mrs.Kim to the front door, on the other side stood five boys with large bags slung over their shoulders. She smiled at them and let them into the house. The boys took off their shoes by the door before running up the stairs to Himchan’s room. The five boys barged into the room, scaring the life out of Himchan. “Why don’t any of you ever knock?” He pouted at the other kids as they dropped their bags onto the floor, Daehyun laughed at his friend before flopping onto the bed. They had about an hour before the babysitter showed up. All of them couldn’t wait for trick or treating, It was their first year going together and Jongup’s first time ever. The other boys promised him to make it the best Halloween ever. Youngjae grabbed a small digital camera out of his bag and snapped a few photos of everyone goofing around.

 

“I’m heading out now, don’t get into trouble!” Mrs.Kim yelled from the bottom step. They heard the front door close then the sound of someone coming upstairs. The babysitter opened the bedroom door, glaring at the six boys. “You boys better stay quiet, you hear me?” they all nodded their heads. With a grunt the babysitter slammed the door shut. The boys waited a few minutes before slowly creeping down the stairs. Youngjae went into the bathroom while Himchan went up to the babysitter, who was sitting in front of the t.v. “Do you need anything?” Himchan gave her the best innocent puppy look. “Go get me a beer, kid.” Himchan quickly rushed to the kitchen. Everyone was there waiting, he smiled at them before opening the fridge to pull out a beer can. He carefully poured it into a glass then gestured to Youngjae, who dropped a single sleeping pill into the drink.

 

“You sure this won’t kill her?” Junhong asked nervously.

“She’ll be fine. My mom does this all the time.” Youngjae whispered, gently rubbing the younger’s back.

“It is illegal though.” Yongguk stated, watching Himchan take the drink to the babysitter. The two youngest members gulp loudly, Youngjae rolls his eyes at the older.

“What she doesn’t know won’t kill her.” Daehyun said confidently, patting the younger two on the shoulders. They manage a small smile but freeze when Himchan comes back.

“How long will this take?” Himchan peeked his head around the corner to watch the babysitter drink the alcohol.

“Seeing as she’s drinking it all in one go, I say 10 minutes tops.” Youngjae’s mother could never stay up past 15 minutes whenever she did this so he doubted the babysitter would be any different.

 

The six boys headed back to Himchan’s room to watch some cartoons before they checked on the babysitter to see if their plan worked. They watch the first 20 minutes of an old Halloween film when Himchan goes back down and is met with a snoring babysitter. He pokes her a few times, with a large smile he races back up to tell everyone to get ready for trick or treating. Wanting to surprise everyone, all the boys go into separate rooms to change. Since this year his mother told him he couldn’t trick or treat, Himchan had to use the same costume as last year, which was a pirate. This year he ditched the scratchy fake beard and eye patch but kept the fake sword. Yongguk entered the bedroom in the same Tigger costume he dressed up as every year. Himchan rolled his eyes. “Why did you leave to change if you were going to be the same thing?” Yongguk gave the other boy a gummy smile, rubbing his neck sheepishly. Jongup and Junhong entered the room together. Jongup was dressed in a dalmation puppy onesie, while Junhong was dressed in a skeleton costume with the mask placed on the side of his head instead of covering his face. Both Himchan and Yongguk cooed at the younger boys.

Daehyun came into the room dressed like the Halloween store threw up on him. He had fox ears, a unicorn horn, purple glittering fairy wings on his upper back, black bat wings on his lower back, a purple cat tail with a red ribbon tied onto the end, a blue dog collar, an orange jack-o-lantern shirt, black pants, and an orange and black tutu.

 

“Youngjae is going to throw a fit when he sees you.” Junhong knew Daehyun probably did this on purpose. Junhong was right when he saw the older boy smirk as he casually shrugged his shoulders, letting out an “oops.” Out of everyone Youngjae was the one who took dressing up seriously. While everyone else wore simple store bought costumes or in Daehyun’s case random things he found, Youngjae went all out, finding the best clothes to match his concept and his hard work always paid off. At the end of the night Youngjae would proudly show off his bag of loot, it being obviously heavier than everyone else's. Daehyun always complains and Youngjae always offers to make him a costume next year but Daehyun refuses so Youngjae just ends up giving the older boy the candy he didn’t want. Junhong was also given a fair bit more then Daehyun because he was “just so adorable” so he would also give Daehyun the candies he didn’t want in exchange for other candies.

 

Everyone was too busy poking fun at Daehyun’s “lack of” costume to notice a figure enter the room. The five boys let out a terrified screech when they see the beak masked, black figure. Youngjae giggles and pulls the beak mask down. “Do you like it?” He twirled a few times to show off all sides of the costume. “It’s loosely based off a plague doctor. I would have gone with a full mask but I didn’t want my vision to be blocked so I went with just the beak part.” Youngjae was wearing a black hooded short cloak, an off black long sleeve button up, a black skirt with red lining that reached his knees, black jeans, and a beak mask that went over his nose. The others also noticed the digital camera dangling around his neck but didn’t say anything.

 

“It’s not your best, but I like it.” Daehyun gave the other boy a thumbs up. Youngjae huffed but ignored the boy, only paying attention to the approval of everyone else. With everyone assembled the group grabbed their pillow cases and headed out the front door after Himchan checked to make sure the babysitter was still asleep. The sun had yet to set but there were already trick or treaters going door to door.  The group had mapped out the area, they would be able to raid two smaller neighborhoods before they hit the one known for giving out the king size candy bars, all before nine pm. Youngjae took a few photos as they walked, a nice lady happily took a few group pictures for them, handing Youngjae his camera so he could make sure they looked good before walking off with her children. They had made it through half the second neighborhood when a problem arose. The sun had set and now the try hard haunted houses looked spooky to the young children. Everyone felt scared but were too proud to say anything. Well with the exception of Youngjae, who didn’t care about looking manly and gripped someone’s hand each time they went up to a spooky house. Who ever he attached himself to instantly felt better and silently cheered for the support. For once Daehyun didn’t tease the younger, he just let Youngjae grip his hand. “Give me candy or give me death, am I right?” Daehyun wiggled his eyebrows at the younger when it was his turn to hold Youngjae’s hand again. The younger giggled and nodded his head, happy for the distraction. This house had the statues that would jump at people if they stepped on the sensor pad. Youngjae told everyone to look at the ground to avoid the traps and thanks to it everyone made it to the door without a single scare. Too bad going back Yongguk stepped on one and they all ran from the house like a bunch of scaredy cats.

 

After taking a break to catch their breath the boys continued on their journey to the large neighborhood with the best candy. Himchan made sure to look both ways before crossing. This made Yongguk laugh. “ You do know there is a light right?” The walk sign began counting down from 20. Himchan rolled his eyes at the older boy. “You can never be too careful. What if someone doesn’t stop?” Yongguk shrugged it off, not wanting to emit the other was right. Jongup looked around at everything, houses, people, his friends, and occasionally peeking into his bag. At the first few houses he wasn’t so sure about how much candy they would get but now his pillow case was half way full. Jongup was also surprised at all the things in his bag that wasn’t candy. There were bags of different snack foods, cheap toys, plastic spiders, stickers, and a toothbrush. “Are you having fun so far?”  Himchan interrupted the boy’s thoughts. “Yeah! I’m glad I get to experience this with all of you.” Jongup sent Himchan the brightest smile possible, the older boy honestly thought the sun had risen. The flash of a camera caught both of their attention, Himchan wrapped his arm around Jongup’s shoulders and smiled, another flash followed close behind.

 

They continued going door to door, skipping the dark houses and grabbing handfuls of candy out of bowls sitting under signs that read “Take One!” Junhong even showed off to his Hyung’s when he dumped the rest of the bowl into his bag. “What a bad boy!” Daehyun yelled, grabbing onto Yongguk’s arm who simply nodded in agreement. “I’m bad to the bone!” Junhong yelled into the night sky. Everyone laughed for a while, congratulating the youngest on his evil deed.

 

“Looks like that was the last house. We should hurry home before Himchan’s mom comes home or the Babysitter wakes up.” Yongguk said as he lead everyone back to Himchan’s house. They all agreed to take a shortcut through a darkly lit pathway which would take them to the first neighborhood they started at. Everyone paired up and held hands as they walked, one because it was spooky and two it was dark, what if someone fell? They might as well take someone down with them. Yongguk held Youngjae’s hand, Himchan held Junhong’s, and Daehyun held Jongup’s. Everything was fine until a shadowy figure approached them.

 

“Hey kid, give me your candy.” Yongguk narrowed his eyes at the stranger, it was probably an or a high schooler. The figure kept walking towards them, Youngjae hid behind Yongguk and Himchan let go of Junhong’s hand to stand next to the oldest, it was their job to protect the youngers. Junhong grabbed Youngjae and pulled him back to where Daehyun was holding Jongup’s hand. Daehyun was torn between joining the hyung line or staying back to make sure nothing happens to the maknae line. He didn’t need to think anymore because there was a buzzing sound followed by the stranger making a weird noise then he was on the ground unmoving. Yongguk gestured for the youngers to continue following him. They all walked over the body on the floor and exited the pathway onto the lit up street. “What did you do to him?” Daehyun asked the oldest with wide eyes. Yongguk gave everyone a gummy smile, Himchan snorted a laugh as Yongguk held out a black remote looking thingy, he pushed a button and near the top of the remote was a gap that had sharp metal pieces sticking out, the buzzing sound came back as blue lightning passed between the two metal pieces.

 

“Where did you get a taser from?” Jongup asked in amazement.

“My mom let me take it because I told her I was trick or treating.” Yongguk dropped the taser back into his pillowcase and grabbed Jongup’s hand.

“Mrs.Bang is the coolest.” Daehyun said as he grabbed Junhong’s hand. Everyone nodded in agreement. Youngjae happily grabbed Himchan’s hand as they all walked down the street back to his house.

 

Himchan opened the door quietly, peeking through the crack. The t.v. was still running and the babysitter was still snoring away. Himchan let out the breath he was holding before opening the door all the way. Everyone climbed up the stairs like a herd of elephants. Once the bedroom door was closed everyone put down their pillowcases to change into their PJs. Daehyun was the first to finish and quickly dumped out his stash, followed by everyone else joining him. Youngjae had a slightly bigger pile than everyone else but unlike the years before, Youngjae didn’t bother with listening to Daehyun whine and started to throw the candy he didn’t want into Daehyun’s pile, sometimes throwing a candy to Junhong or the others if he knew they liked it. The Great Candy Trade began and ended with everyone satisfied with what they had in their bags. Everyone made sure to hide their pillowcases inside their bags before jumping onto Himchan’s bed, finding a comfortable spot to pass out. “Best Halloween Ever” was the last thing anyone heard.

 

Youngjae was laughing as he stared at his smart phone then back to his friends in front of him. Yongguk was dressed up as Tigger, Himchan a pirate, Junhong wore a jack skellington suit, Daehyun somehow recreated his old “costume” exactly, Jongup ditched the dog onesie in favor of a loose purple v-neck, black leather pants, a dog collar, with dog ears and tail. Youngjae made sure to take a few pictures with the brand new camera Yongguk gave him. Jongup snatched the camera so he could get photos of Youngjae with everyone as well. Youngjae had also recreated his old costume but changed the black jeans to black leggings just to win a bet so Daehyun would pay him $50. A lady was nice enough to take a few group pictures for them before being pulled away by her children. Instead of going to one of the many college Halloween parties being thrown, the six men decided to dress up and go trick or treating one last time. “Free candy is free candy.” Daehyun said as he grabbed Yongguk’s hand, pulling the oldest towards their first house. Everyone laughed and happily followed the pair, they would switch hand holding buddies after every few houses. Throughout the night kisses were shared between the grown up children and they weren’t the Hershey kind.