I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it...

The words were repeated like a mantra, reverberated from the dirty, slightly wet walls of the tiny room. Similar to the sounds of a broken cassette player, the same sentence felt more like a long-forgotten pray, a silent scream of a shattered soul. There was only one young man in the middle of the room, sitting on the cold, hard ground, rocking his own body back and forth. His lips were dry and chapped, his eyes were dark and hollow, and his nails were brittle probably due to biting his own nails. His clothes were too big and too worn out for someone his age, he should have been out in the sunlight laughing with his friends, not worrying about the darkness in the world. He was once like that, an ordinary, carefree soul, a jokester within his circle of friends and a wholeheartedly adventurous young boy.

Now the darkness was within him, and he hadn't seen daylight for nearly two years. He hadn't left his room for weeks, and he hadn't looked at anyone for days. He merely sat on the ground in the middle of the room, repeating the same words, let it be night or day, winter or summer. No matter how silent the room was, it was always loud in his head, the voice never stopped. He swear he could hear the mocking sound of the ghost of the boy he once knew, he swear he could still see him every now and then, pointing at him with an accusing finger, laughing at his suffering.

Lee Dawon knew that the ghost was real, he knew that he was still there. It was unbelievable because no one else could see him. The ghost came back only for him; to haunt him, to get his revenge on him.

No matter what, the only answer anyone could get when it came to Lee Dawon and his obsessive words was always the same.

I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it…

Everything started with that trip to the nearby small town.

Lee Dawon, Kim Inseong, Baek Juho, Kim Rowoon and Park Jimin became close friends ever since they worked on a group project during their first semester. They hadn't known each other before, yet they've been best friends ever since. It was no surprise that all of them (except Jimin) decided to sign up for the Bonfire Weekend. The only one missing was Park Jimin, yet he had other things to care about and he stayed in the city for the weekend. 

That so-called Bonfire Weekend was nothing more than three days spent in tiny tree houses, evenings around the bonfire and students away from their university duties. They didn't want anything else but to relax after their midterms, drinking and laughing away their possible failures.

The small town where the camp took place was so small that only two other establishments were close by; one was a grocery store where all bread was sold out after 9am, and the other one was an abandoned asylum. Rumour had it that the ghosts of all the people who had stayed there were already haunting the careless passerby even though the building closed its gates only three years prior. Juho even joked that they should take a trip to see for themselves if the core of the rumour was true, but he was immediately shushed by his friends.

They arrived at the camp on Friday the 13th in the afternoon, thus they had plenty of time to kill until the late-night activities ‒ such as the collective Avengers movie night, the karaoke and the board game hour ‒ would begin.

While waiting for the activities, the group of friends decided to play an innocent Truth or Dare, most questions answered rather than the dares completed.

"Come on! Someone do a dare! It's so boring if everyone chooses to answer questions," Inseong whined childishly, pouting at his mates. It's not like he had been brave enough to act rather than speak. He was no different.

"Then, you do it yourself," Juho suggested as a wide grin spread across his face. He gently pushed Inseong's shoulder who merely stuck his tongue out at him. They were undeniably childish even if they were on the verge on finishing their BAs.

"I'll do it the!" Dawon announced with a clap of his hands, smiling from ear to ear. "You cowards," he added jokingly, his trademark smile not faltering.

"Oh Lee Dawon!" Rowoon hollered and patted the said boy's head. "I knew you would do it!"

"Come on! Give me an interesting dare!" Dawon eyed everyone and tilted his head from one side to another as if he had been warming up for a fight. He never took anything seriously, and he was the real jokester in their group. He always tried to cover up his slight cowardice with wittiness.

It was Rowoon's turn to give him the choices, thus he was the only one who was deeply in thought. Everyone else was watching him with piercing eyes.

"If you are that brave, you aren't afraid of the abandoned asylum nearby, right?" The handsome boy elevated his eyebrow, orbs searching for the fear in Dawon's eyes.

The atmosphere that followed his question was definitely different from the one before, the air was suddenly filled with uneasy tension instead of cosy friendliness. Dawon's lips quivered, indicating that he didn't see such a turn coming.

However, a second later, he merely laughed it off and shook his head.

"Of course not!" he declared loudly, his newfound confidence suspicious to anyone but him. "I'll even take a picture as an evidence!" He added overly bravely, his suggestion drawing attention from a few other people nearby.

"Really?" Inseong inquired rather carefully, examining the boy's withering smile.

Dawon nodded like he feared nothing.

"Really."

"Okay."

"Okay," Dawon glanced back at Inseong who seemed the most worried about the jokester. He exchanged a look with Juho who merely shrugged his shoulders. If Dawon wanted to prove his point, they had no right to question his intentions.

Let's be honest, everyone knew Lee Dawon was the biggest scaredy-cat in the world, thus they doubted if he would even step a foot in the abandoned asylum, let alone take a picture in the actual building.

However, when the said guy rose from his seat and clapped his hands, announcing that he would be back as soon as possible, their uneasiness started to dissolve. What's the worst that could happen? Dawon would scream at the top of his lungs before he would even get inside, so that everyone in the camp would hear him? That was the worst yet most likely scenario anyway. It's not like they would punish him severely if he didn't complete his mission.

"Send us the picture when you get there!" Rowoon insisted and his friend gave him a thumbs-up in return.

"I will," he promised and left the camp site, left his friends and his sanity.

When Dawon arrived at the abandoned asylum, he immediately had a wrong feeling about the place. It radiated a certain eerie atmosphere, something that he particularly despised. The painting was coming off the walls in huge batches, the windows were inhabited by spider webs and the whole building lost its once shiny orange shade and turned into a colour similar to dirty grey. It was scary how devastating something could look if no one cared about its maintenance.

"It's not like ghosts exist anyway," Dawon mumbled to himself, his voice trembling a bit at the end of the sentence. 

Even if he wanted to convince himself, he didn't do a good job. He was scared. He was scared to death.

"It's okay, it's just an abandoned asylum," he tried to reassure himself while he stood still like a stone, right in front of the main entrance of the building. 

The thought that maybe he wouldn't even be able to let himself in crossed his mind too many times on his way to the asylum. He wished it would be locked or a sign would indicate that it was dangerous territory, yet no one seemed to care about the building. Not anymore.

"Okay, let's do this!" He decided, clearing his throat. His words resonated against the walls, being mingled in with the tales of the starless night.