Chapter I

The summer-sun burnt down onto the world mercilessly, even though evening was near. Jisung felt his shirt sticking to his body, soaked from sweat, when he lifted up another, rather heave pile of fresh chopped pieces of wood. It had been a horribly long day, which never seemed to end anymore, working in the mid-summer heat was almost unbearable. He threw the pieces of wood onto the back of an old, somehow rusty, light blue coloured van that belonged to his grandfather, who died two years ago mysteriously. Now, he wouldn’t drive into the fields and the woods with him anymore, but with his friend, who wasn’t even fully aged to drive a car, but still did. The dark grey cloud, which had covered the cruelly bright sun for a second wandered by and the penetrating light shone onto him again. He looked up, pressing his eyes shut as the light crawled under the protecting shadows of his straw-hat, which threw a shade over his almond shaped slit-eyes. It was so hot… he wandered into a cornfield because he was bored and the field was able to give him at least a bit of a shelter to hide from the sun. He heard crickets around him, a crow chirping roughly from anywhere behind him, probably from the near edge of the woods. He stepped through the long sticks of the still growing corn, feeling his shoulders burning. He asked himself where his friend had gone, he hadn’t seen him for quite a long time and actually he felt a bit mucked. Why would he just disappear and leave all the work to Jisung? Wasn’t that unfair? He jerked slightly, jumping almost in surprise as suddenly a shadow flew over him, a crow, screaming loudly as it shot through the sky. The sun blended him again and he decided it was better to go back and look for his friend, who still was missing, if you can call it like that. He hopped back, feeling a slight wind coming up and he was glad about it as it cooled him down a little.

He took his hat from his head and used it as a fan, even though a pretty bad one, but he still couldn’t see his friend anywhere. The breeze tousled his golden hair a little and he stood up from the old, fallen tree trunk he sat on and sat down into the dried grass beside a tree instead, where he found once again a spot where the sun couldn’t reach him. “Jisungie!” he lifted his face, his eyes searching for the owner of the familiar voice. He didn’t smile as his friend let himself fall down beside him, laying down into the grass and crossing his arms behind his head. He looked like one of those cow-boy kids in western movies with the single stalk between his lips and his half opened white shirt that was about as wet as Jisung’s. “Where were you?” Jisung asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. The brown haired turned to his side, facing the younger with a smile. “I was just checking the area…” he said, the smile never leaving his face and Jisung wanted to punch him, feeling the anger rising up inside his chest. “You know, that’s child labour! You go to prison for that!” he huffed, making the other laugh. “Sorry for leaving you alone.” He said when his laughter died down and Jisung threw a quick look at him before looking away again, looking at the field in front of him. “Hey, I’ve found something you’ll like a lot!” he said, jumping on his feet and Jisung looked up. He’d rather go home and take a shower, maybe read some comics and listen to music, but he didn’t refuse when his friend grabbed him by the cloth of his upper arm and mentioned for him to get up. He had always been a fan of adventure, but now he just wished he was home, somewhere in the rich part of the city with his family and his normal friends, but no, now he was stuck here somewhere in the middle of nowhere in some fields. It was just like his parents sent him here because they wanted some space for themselves and him to work.

“Jaemin! Wait!” he shouted loud when he noticed his friend had stormed almost into the forest, leaving him behind once again and he dashed after him, jumping over the trunk that laid in front of him and into the forest. Since Jaemin, his friend with the red-brown hair, was able to walk again without a wheelchair, he seemed so much more energetic and somehow wilder than he was before. Now he could run again, and Jisung remembered that last year he had sat with him inside the cooled house almost every day, watching TV and sometimes helping his grandmother bake a cake or something else. That was actually the only thing he loved so much about being here: the self-made, freshly cooked food of his granny, even though he actually found it pretty amusing to hang out with Jaemin and sometimes his friends, that rarely came over. Most of them were older than Jisung, like everybody was older and he didn’t really know them. The only one he could remember was Mark, the eldest of Jaemin’s friends, because he was the only normal one of them all. And he remembered a Chinese boy, about one head taller than he was and super loud, annoying in a way and he couldn’t even speak proper Korean. Jisung forgot his name though. Yukhy or Hucky or something like this, he didn’t know it anymore. He stopped somewhere in a small glade, panting and resting his hands on his exhausted knees. He felt how tired and how hot he was, for a second, he felt how his world turned black, but back to normal just after and he asked himself how Jaemin could bring up the power to jump and run around like this in that unbearable heat of the sun. “I’m here!” he heard him clearly, but he couldn’t see him anywhere. “Where?” he yelled back with like the last bit of energy that was left in his body. Jaemin didn’t answer. Jisung held his breath. It was completely silent, deafening silent almost. He shuddered a bit. “Jaemin?” he breathed out, his voice shaky, would the elder leave him just like that? He hated being alone, especially when he was in a forest he didn’t know in an area where no civilisation and no people were somehow near.

He jumped when he felt an impact on his back, pushing him forward, but catching him before his feet could even leave the ground. Two slender arms wrapped around his slim waist and he was pressed against the chest another person, a moment later he heard the familiar annoying laughter of his friend. “I scared you, didn’t I?” he smiled widely and Jisung didn’t understand why he found everything funny… He sighed, pushed Jaemin away from his by his shoulders and stepping back a little. He didn’t like skin ship either… “I thought you wanted to show me something?” pouting slightly, he realized that Jaemin had no idea how mad and how tired he was. Nevertheless, Jaemin nodded, waving for Jisung to follow him as he stumbled over the dried dead branches, that had fallen from the trees. He didn’t want to, he actually wanted to turn around the other way and go home again, but his legs didn’t obey him as he just walked after the elder, not really caring what ‘amazing thing’ Jaemin had found. He almost walked into him when he was daydreaming again, bumping just slightly to his shoulder. Jaemin still smiled, looking ahead and Jisung did so too. He almost jumped in a scare, his heart skipped a beat when he saw that he stood about half a meter away from an abyss, a cliff that was so steep he felt his chest twist. Oh… what would have happened if he accidently walked into Jaemin and he fell down? Jaemin seemed to have noticed that Jisung wasn’t that happy to see what he had found. He put an arm around the younger’s shoulder in an attempt to pull him to his side, but it failed anyway. “Look down!” he said, his cherish voice somehow promising and Jisung did what he wanted, also because he was actually curious what was down there. It was beautiful, it was actually stunning! A lake, it’s deep, turquoise blue water shimmering in the low standing sun, the green trees growing high around the water and the small beach of gravel and stone. “Wow…” Jisung breathed, his jaw dropping. “Nice, isn’t it?” Jae grinned widely again. “What about a nice swim?” The elder pushed Jisung, who was completely perplex and unprepared, by his shoulders, making him yelp when he tripped over the sudden edge of the precipice, falling, flying for not even a second, he felt weightless, the adrenaline made his stomach turn in a rather unpleasant way he had felt before when he had gone on a rollercoaster. Adrenaline he didn’t like as well…

He didn’t know water could be that hard when he hit the cool surface harshly and sank down immediately, his body was swallowed by the somehow icy feeling liquid, but it felt refreshing in a way. He let himself sink down a little, the murky blue water seemed so welcoming in a way, nevertheless, when he felt his lungs aching and demanding for fresh oxygen he opened his eyes again, which he had pressed shut when his friend had pushed him down, and he swung his arms out and catapulted himself back onto the surface. He felt his shirt flying around his torso, loosely and lightly, and he paddled with his feet since he couldn’t reach the ground anymore. How deep might it be? How deep would he sink if he would drown? “Jisungie, I’m coming!” Jisung couldn’t even look up properly as Jaemin landed next to him in the water, splashing it far away and a second later, he dived up again, facing him. “And?” He smirked. “Well… I thought you’d kill me, but since it’s okay now I can forgive you.” Jisung muttered. Actually, he wasn’t even mad anymore.

He laid his now fully soaked shirt on a stone next to him behind the near shore of the lake into the still shining sun, which had coloured the sky crimson red and glowing orange by now. The day was over and dawn was near as Jisung saw the golden like sky slowly turning darker and darker. He sat down onto the soft forest floor, that was covered with dead leaves that seemed like a golden carpet on the dark green grass. His trousers were dripping with water, still, but he didn’t care too much, the ground seemed wet anyway so he had nothing to lose. He waited. Jaemin had left him once again and he was upset again. Being lonely was boring… He took a stick, that laid loose on the ground and started drawing little sketches into the earthy soil beside him. He drew the face of a kitty, it looked like a fish though somehow, so he gave it just one, big mouth and no eyes. It looked scary, he thought, if it were real it sure would be a nice monster for a horror movie. The somehow tearing noise of the stick breaking echoed through the forest, which was once again quiet. He didn’t even notice how much pressure he had put on it, nevertheless, as a branch somewhere opposite from the bushes broke, his attention was dragged back from dreamland. He thought it was his friend, of course, who else would it be? But Jaemin didn’t come out. Jisung thought it may be another joke, which he wouldn’t find funny again, or maybe he’d jump out of the bush and scare him, which would drag his mood down even more, so he mentally prepared himself from some lame jump-scare or something like that.

“C’mon, stop this already!” He shouted, leaning his back uncomfortably to the stone behind him. Nothing happened. “I know you’re there, so come out already!” His voice was loud, actually, it sounded like a siren in the silence, but somehow, the forest around him seemed dead, completely quiet as if no animal was here, no human either. Slowly, Jisung felt a creep crawling down his now arched back. ‘What in the…’ he thought, noticing how suddenly the orange light from the sun had turned blue again, getting darker and darker with every second. It was almost like the evening was rolling over the hills, over the fields and the forest, devouring everything within it. “Jae…?” He smiled, more to encourage himself, and he stood up again, now tiptoeing to somehow check the opposite area. He wasn’t sure about it, but he thought he saw some almost white hair shining through the leaves and a pair of eyes, almost raven-black irises sparkling at him from the shadows, that seemed to make whoever stood there, if somebody stood there, invisible.

“What are you doing?” the sudden voice made him jump in a scare and he was actually pretty sure his heart skipped a beat. He turned towards Jaemin, who stood now a few meters away from him, smiling like always. “What’s up? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost…” the elder commented, eyeing the younger with a piercing stare and Jisung just shook his head, actually, he was embarrassed to tell him the truth. “Where were you now?” he asked the elder, just how he had asked him a while ago, changing the subject. Jaemin jerked his shoulders. “I took a piss.” He replied, but Jisung knew it was a lie. “There was something… over there.” He pointed onto the bushes, unsure, he felt like a little child again and this made him feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Jaemin didn’t seem to be bothered by that, he stepped towards the leafy bushes and stuck his arms through them, pushing them apart and revealing whatever was behind them. Nothing. Just a few leaves, that had fallen down from the tree above them, but nothing else. Jisung could almost hear Jaemin breathing out, he guessed in relaxion, but he felt himself tensing even more. Where did it go? Where did he go? The longer he thought about the whole situation, the more suspicious it got. He was sure… there had been somebody, watching