Hyukjae´s teraphobia

HJ´s POV

“You´re just paranoid Hyukjae,” she snorted.

“He´s just a scaredy-cat, that´s it,” the other one rolled her eyes.

Girls in my class are all mean. I pouted and threw a loud humph at them before turning around in my seat. They giggled and poked my back with a pencil, but I pretended to be sulking while I was sulking for real. The girls whined but after a while I heard them chatting again. I was generally friends with everyone in the class, this kind of kid that people didn´t mind around. Well, except for Donghae. I mean, I had nothing against Donghae, but he never answered when you greeted him.

“Hey, Hyuk!” When the bell rang and the classes were over, a pencil was gently propped against my back again. This time I turned around.

“What?” I said with a pout, although I wasn´t angry anymore.

“We got an idea,” she grinned like the Cheshire cat. “You say you are scared of monsters, right?”

“You´re a normal guy, Hyuk, not a weirdo,” the other one grinned too, “so it´s probably just stress, we think.”

“Stress?” I rubbed the back of my head, “I´ve always been uneasy about ghosts and monsters, it feels like I´m being watched all the time.”

It´s not like I see ghosts or have ever encountered a monster or something. It´s just a bad feeling, I have always believed in monsters when I was a child. I would cry often, sleep with my lamp and never looked under the bed. When I grew a little older, I stopped crying about it, but the odd feeling remained.

“As I said, we have a good idea how to cure your fear of monsters,” she nodded knowingly. Hm, this sounds interesting.

“We think, you should talk to Donghae.”

“Donghae?” I hushed and looked around the classroom. Donghae has already left, his seat empty just like his eyes usually are.

“There´s a rumour that he sees ghosts, maybe he could check if you are possessed or something and cure you,” they both had this triumphant expression on their faces. Maybe I should try.

It was early summer, just before vacation, hot and humid. Whenever a droplet of sweat would slide down my back, I would have goose-bumps. The ubiquitous feeling of supernatural phenomena lurking around always intensifies in summer. My ears would always listen carefully, my eyes would dart around. But it´s always the same, there is nothing. I must be crazy after all.

The next day, I came to school quite early. My room was hot and I couldn´t sleep well. And I thought it would be another dreadful day but on my way to school, the first droplets of warm rain fell into my black hair. I thought I would be the first in the classroom, considering that I ran half the way to escape the summer shower, but I wasn´t. Another boy was already standing by the window and watching the falling rain, it was Donghae.

“Good morning!” I greeted, not expecting any reaction from him.

“Morning,” he replied to my surprise and even turned to me to give me a shallow nod. This is new, well, it´s now or never.

“Say, Donghae,” I began and shuffled to him in my slippers. When I was standing next to him, I noticed that his expression wasn´t as blank as I thought, I cleared my throat. “Do you believe in monsters?”

“Why?” Donghae asked carefully, his eyes slightly twinkling. Or it could have been my imagination.

“You see, I have a phobia,” I began, I wasn´t secretive about it, everyone knew I was a scaredy-cat, “it has even a name in the dictionary,” I laughed awkwardly. “Well, I´m scared of monsters, even though I know there is nothing behind me, I still feel scared there might be.”

At first Donghae didn´t answer anything, just looked again out the window. There was dull rustling around the school, other people filling the building, quiet sound of drumming on the roof. Donghae was shorter than me, his skin tanned, and his hair curled by the humidity. I was startled when he suddenly looked at me.

“I do.”

“You do believe in monsters?” I blinked twice and then nervously stepped away. “But it´s not like you actually see them, right?”

“I do.”

I had no words after that, Donghae´s dark deep eyes were looking through me and I felt more scared than by a monster. The sounds of rustling were getting louder, clearly distinguishable as chatter. A few people came in the class and I greeted them quietly. Then I turned back to Donghae who was now once again watching rain.

“Are you scared?” I asked him. “If you can see them, you must be frightened, right?”

“Not really,” he mumbled, “they are mostly harmless.”

“Can you help me?” I walked closer to Donghae because he felt uncomfortable speaking aloud.

Donghae shrugged but was shyly glancing at me standing close to him. I thought he was contemplating but he was rather choosing the right words. “I will show them to you, just make sure you stay with me.”

“Why?” I was so curious that I thoughtlessly leaned closer to Donghae, making his cheeks and ears red. “Is it dangerous?”

“Yes, but I know my way around,” he mumbled. I nodded my head, at that time I couldn´t even imagine what I was agreeing with. I had no idea that walking into Donghae´s world would change my life forever.

At school I didn´t have many chances to stay close to Donghae, our seats were far away from each other and I was mostly enveloped by my friends, while Donghae avoided all humanity as always. And so he maybe thought that our talk from this morning was forgotten because he looked perplexed when he saw me waiting for him by the shoe locker.

“Hey,” I waved at him. Donghae nervously shuffled to his locker and began changing shoes.

“Should I just walk you home or do you want to drop by somewhere and have a snack?” I asked him with a smile, I have never hung out with Donghae, after all. I wasn´t sure what he did in his free time.

“We can,” Donghae nodded and although his voice came out lazy, I was sure he liked it. Or maybe I was just pushing my mood on him to ease the terrible awkwardness.

It wasn´t raining in the afternoon but the sky was still ominously dark, which was somehow better than the scorching sun. Only my usual paranoid feeling was there. And after a while, it became even worse because the paranoia turn