Seulgi jolts awake when a fist hits her neck. She raises herself up by her forearms and gets confused when she recognizes an unfamiliar sight.

Oh, right. They’re camping.

She looks back at her friends and almost gets hit by an uppercut coming from Sooyoung. She’s forgotten how much the taller girl moves in her sleep even though they frequently sleep beside each other. The near-death experience takes away the drowsiness from her eyes, and Seulgi cautiously looks around only to see Seungwan’s sleeping bag empty.

Oh no.

Her alarm goes off—it’s exactly 5 am.

Wait.

“Turn the devil’s lullaby off!” Yerim covers her head with her pillow.

Joohyun, bless her, rouses herself up and is already folding her sleeping bag neatly. She stops, scanning the sleeping bag beside her. “Where’s Seungwan?”

The black-haired girl turns around, almost comically, and stares at Seulgi. She asks again, “Where’s Seungwan?”

Seulgi feels like she’s trapped with the way the other girl is looking at her. “I just woke up…”

“She’s missing?” Sooyoung suddenly says, and Seulgi and Joohyun flinch in surprise.

“AH—you surprised me.”

“You’re always surprised, Hyun,” Seulgi points out, and Sooyoung nods fervently.

Yerim stirs from her bed, fake crying. “I just want some decent sleep.”

Sooyoung flicks her ear.

“Seungwan is still MIA,” Seulgi repeats the problem.

“Maybe she went outside?”

“This early?”

“It was her plan in the first place.”

All of them go outside (Yerim is hauled to stand) and look around. The open space looks prettier, and Seulgi finds herself feeling grateful for the trip since the friend group rarely goes outside of the city, excluding their hometowns.

“Seungwan!” They all call out at the same time.

There is no response, even after 15 or so minutes of shouting, and the disappearance of the other brunette is making them anxious. Seungwan usually leaves a note for them to find unless she was planning on making a quick trip.

“I wonder where she is…” Joohyun trails, looking at each of them worriedly.

Yerim lazily points at something on the ground, “Aren’t these footprints?” She’s by a cave entrance they hadn’t noticed.

“How did you see these?” Sooyoung looks at her with admiration, clearly impressed with her attentiveness despite being the sleepiest one at the moment.

“Innate talent to save everyone’s asses,” she sighs heavily.

Seulgi blinks at the others, raising her brows. “Do you think she…?”

Joohyun pinches the bridge of her nose. Seulgi wonders if the girl is starting to get a migraine because of the missing brunette. “It’s most likely her. We’re the only ones here, and she did express her desire to explore.

“Everyone, pack up your stuff. We’re finding the idiot,” Joohyun orders, her voice efficient and once again commanding, as she begins to walk back to the tent. The others immediately go to do what they were told.

~o~

“I call dibs on bringing the food,” announces Seulgi, running to get the chips and cookies put inside a Tupperware and diligently stacking them in her bag.

Yerim shakes her head, handing the redhead some batteries and markers. “I don’t understand how you lot can have this much energy at,” she glances at her phone in disdain, “5.48am? It’s blasphemous, almost.”

“Quit your monologuing,” Sooyoung tuts her, “Besides, Seungwan is missing, in case you forgot.”

The blonde makes a face. “She’ll be fine. Seungwan’s a big girl… despite being the smallest in this friend group.” She pauses, seemingly understanding her words. “She’s probably the most capable here, right?”

“You mock us, Kim Yerim,” Joohyun comments lightly, a small smirk on her lips.

Seulgi ponders if Joohyun finds it a challenge, the blonde’s words. With her competitive nature, the brunette is sure it clicked some buttons from the girl’s habit of proving them wrong.

Yerim laments, “Can’t I just sleep?”

“If you help us get ready, maybe we’ll think about it,” Sooyoung proposes with a sly grin.

It was the fastest Seulgi has ever seen the blonde move in a while.

~o~

“Yerim, you can stay here and man the camp just in case Seungwan comes back before we do.” Sooyoung hands the grinning blonde a walkie-talkie before staring at her. “You know how to use this, right?”

The blonde throws up her hands in exasperation. “Yes, Sooyoung. I know how to use a damn walkie-talkie.”

“Language,” Joohyun frowns at them as she shoves a bundle of rope into her rucksack before zipping it close.

They ignore her.

“I’ve watched enough movies and documentaries to know how to use them.”

Seulgi doesn’t feel assured. “Are you sure?”

Yerim glares at her. She could see the blonde contemplate on giving her the middle finger. “Yes. Now please go to your adventure while I rest and pick up the zzz’s I’ve missed because the ‘roll call’ was during an ungodly hour.”

The redhead rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue despite being the most vocal in the earliness of Seungwan’s plans. Seulgi puts her hands on Sooyoung’s shoulders and steers her towards the cave before the she and Yerim begin another one of their banters. The dark-haired girl is already by the entrance of the cave, looking worried and upset.

“Are you okay, Hyun?” Seulgi holds the girl’s wrist with her gloved hand.

Joohyun nods, “Let’s go.”

This time, Seulgi holds her girlfriend’s hand, and together the three of them enter the cave.

There is this strange sensation she couldn’t explain well. Like a ripple in the air, a misty sheet of moistness that settles to her skin—it gave her goosebumps. Seulgi shakes her head at the unnecessary anxiety she’s giving herself.

Just morning dew, you oaf, she imagines Sooyoung saying, which brings a smile to her lips.

Turning to the things the redhead says in order to ease her anxiety is a technique Seulgi takes pride in. So far, it has never failed her.

~o~

Seulgi finds herself forgetting all about the concept of time the entire time they’ve been walking. She’s been holding the other two tightly, looking around to find something—anything—that would tell them where Seungwan is.

It feels like they’ve been walking for only 10 minutes or so, but the fatigue in her legs and the panting of her breath suggests otherwise. She doesn’t think that the air in the cave is thinner, not when she knows they’ve been walking on an almost flat path.

“It’s too quiet here,” Sooyoung comments abruptly.

Joohyun almost jumps out of her skin, nearly dropping the flashlight from her shaky gloved hands. She closes her eyes and calls out breathily, “Sooyoung.”

Seulgi isn’t immune to it, jerking her arms to the side in surprise. She frowns at the tall girl.

Tall girl merely shrugs, “It’s true, though.”

Seulgi silently agrees, now that she thinks about it. The cave is too empty for being situated in the middle of a healthy forest. Most commonly, bears would be inhabiting a large cave like this. Foxes, wolves, raccoons, even frogs and bats—there’s not one of those inside. Troglobites like snails or salamanders, maybe, with the way how their sounds aren’t easily heard without professional equipment. (Mostly for the snails. If a salamander was loud enough, they’d hear it.)

The silence is almost deafening with the way it’s ringing into Seulgi’s ears.

She can see Joohyun pursing her lips in thought. “I’m going to regret this, but can one of you throw a rock to the other side?”

Sooyoung gapes at her, Seulgi following suit. “What? That’s—”

“Malpractice, I know, but this place has been bugging me too much. Lack of sound, and the fact that the ground is dry and dusty despite feeling that abundance of morning dew around us.”

They pause.

“Oh man,” Sooyoung grimaces before picking up a decently sized rock and lobbing it to the other side of the cave.

As soon as the rock hit the wall, the three instinctively huddled together and ducked, hiding themselves.

Seconds pass, and soon minutes, but there’s nothing to respond to their provocation.

“That’s too abnormal,” Seulgi echoes everyone’s thoughts.

“We should have scouted first. This is all against protocol.” Sooyoung huffs in annoyance.

But both Seulgi and Joohyun know that it isn’t entirely annoyance. The redhead always liked to fake her emotions, masking worry and panic with bursts of anger and sarcasm.

Tough love, they say. She’s obviously worried about Seungwan.

“The earlier we find Seungwan, the faster we can get out of here,” is all Joohyun replies.

They’re all troubled with the short girl’s disappearance paired with the uncharacteristic sneaking out and leaving nothing for the other girls to find.

They all stand up, with Joohyun turning on her flashlight again and shining it to the path in front of them. They look at each other, knitted brows and tight lips, before walking again.

~o~

Seulgi finds it stupid how the first relevant thing they see after walking for such a long time is a looming edge.

Sooyoung stares in disbelief, snorting, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The brunette pulls Joohyun away, knowing very well that the girl is afraid of heights. And from the looks of it, as Seulgi peers down into the darkness, this is deep. She can’t even see the bottom as the rocks begin to fade away into the darkness no matter how much light she shines.

“What now?” Sooyoung groans, running her fingers through her soft (Seulgi would know, of course) hair.

It’s one of those times when Joohyun is at a loss for words, looking at Seulgi with a wave of emotion flooding her eyes.

Seulgi feels responsible now, shifting her gaze between the other two girls. She decides, “We’ll call Yerim first, ask her if Seungwan’s back. There might be other exits. If Seungwan’s still not there, then we’re going to have to go deeper into the cave.”

They nod at her.

Sooyoung clicks on the PTT button and says loudly, “Yerim? You there?”

Bzzzzzt.

“Why’s she not replying?” Joohyun whispers, moving closer to Sooyoung.

Seulgi muses, “Is she waiting for the ‘over’ part?”

“Ugh. Yerim, are you there? Over,” the redhead tries again.

Bzzzzzzt.

“…..”

“She might be sleeping,” Seulgi suggests, remembering that that’s what the blonde was planning beforehand. She looks back at the edge and swallows. “I’ll go down first. We all have equipment with us, right?”

They nod again.

Seulgi bobs her head and takes out the rope from her bag, seeing the others do the same from her peripheral vision. She puts on the harness and begins to look for a big and stable rock to use.

She shines her flashlight on a promising one, then proceeds to notice another rope tied to it.

“Guys,” she calls out as she inspects. “There’s another rope here. Do you think it’s Seungwan’s?”

Joohyun shakes her head, “That looks too old to be hers. Besides, her bag is back at the tent. As far as we know, she didn’t bring anything with her except for her phone, coat, and flashlight.”

“We’ve been calling her since we were packing up,” Sooyoung continues, “and the calls aren’t connecting. It’s like she’s too deep in the cave for reception.”

Seulgi bites her lip.

No time to hesitate. They need to find Seungwan before something happens to her.

Or them.

~o~

“A-are you sure about this?”

Seulgi raises a brow at Joohyun’s stutter. The dark-haired girl rarely does that, but she guesses that with the situation at hand with a missing girlfriend and a deep hole just 2 steps from Seulgi, it’s acceptable.

“She’ll be fine,” Sooyoung interjects, looking calm, as if her girlfriend isn’t about to travel down to who knows where.

Maybe, Seulgi thinks, the redhead is confident with her climbing skills.

She’ll leave it at that.

Seulgi smiles at them and repeats, “I’ll be fine.” She tugs on the rope one last time and begins her descent.

~o~

Seulgi couldn’t see anything below her nor above her.

It’s disastrous.

After a couple of minutes since she started, she shouts, “Looking good so far!”

“Vision?” Sooyoung answers.

“Noth—oof!” Seulgi suddenly falls on her back, blinking. “I’m at the bottom…?”

She scrambles upright, waving her flashlight around frantically. That’s weird. She’s sure she couldn’t see anything no matter how much she looked, and though her eyesight isn’t the greatest, she could still see properly.

If the bottom was as close as it had been, Seulgi should’ve seen it a couple of feet earlier.

Maybe her eyesight wasn’t that well.

She pats the dust off of the back of her thighs. “It’s safe, guys! Come on down!”

“See you in a bit!”

~o~

Sooyoung stomps her feet, “How big is this stupid freaking cave?!”

Seulgi wants to do the same, especially as they find themselves staring at another massive open space that’s also too chilly for comfort.

Joohyun wordlessly begins to walk with a purpose they don’t know, holding her flashlight like a mighty sword.

(Maybe she’ll hit Seungwan with it because of the worry the ombre-haired girl gave them.)

“Joohyun, where are you going?” With her long legs, Sooyoung is beside the other girl immediately.

“I’m finding Seungwan.”

“We should go toge—”

A shriek from far away sends them stopping. It sounded shrill, too unnatural for a human but unlike any other animal they know.

“What was that?” Joohyun creeps to grab Sooyoung’s arm.

“Is there someone else here? Other than us and Seungwan?” The taller girl pulls her back to where Seulgi is, her eyes darting left and right as they walk backwards.

Seulgi’s heart begins to hammer in her chest, cold sweat on her neck. The source of the sound seemed far away, so if they began tying their harnesses to the ropes, they’ll have enough time to climb up before whatever it is reaches them.

But that would mean Seungwan will be trapped with whatever the heck it is that’s down there.

Or maybe she’s….

“Yerim, do you copy?” She buzzes through the radio, hoping.

Bzzzzzt.

Bzzzzzt.

Bzzzzt.

“Oh god she’s still not answering,” Seulgi puffs, shoving the radio back by her belt. She can see her breath forming in front of her.

Sooyoung and Joohyun are almost by her side, but the latter abruptly stops, almost making them fall. They trip over their feet.

“What’s going on?” Sooyoung whirls around in panic.

Seulgi rushes to them and holds Joohyun’s arm. “Hyun?”

Joohyun’s eyes are glassy, staring at the wall next to them. Her breath hitches, and Seulgi thought it was because it’s cold, but when she followed the dark-haired girl’s line of sight, she realizes that it’s due to other reasons.

Because on the wall, they could see, plain as day, a bloody handprint smeared to the side as if the owner had to drag their hand to keep them steady.

Seulgi feels like her stomach is dropping several feet to the ground as she gawks at the handprint. It’s like it’s the only thing she can see—the rest of the wall just another jumble of blacks and browns.

A footstep startles her, and she looks at Sooyoung taking a few steps towards the wall, to the red spot that will surely feed Seulgi’s nightmares for a long time.

“Whose blood is this…” The redhead breathes, her voice so terribly soft but so loud at the same time as it echoes into the chamber. It’s the only thing she can hear.

She hadn’t noticed that she and Joohyun are holding their breaths, a silent wish on their lips that the name threatening to spill through isn’t the owner.

Seulgi hopes it isn’t from Seungwan.

phew this is going,,, well??

hhhhhhhhhhh