Yuri

*crunch*

On the ground beneath me, the sound of bristles snapping were oddly soothing as I jumped off the bus with both feet.

This looks like the spot, I mean there isn’t much guesswork involved to be honest. You don’t usually stumble across a giant amusement park. I can see a huge roller coaster, a Merry-go-round and a gigantic Ferris wheel in the distance.

At the front gate, I see a few people, they must work here...but they are all dressed up in weird costumes...it’s kinda freaky..

“It’s getting kinda dark, isn’t it?” Yena says looking up at the stars that were just barely becoming visible.

“Why? Are ducks afraid of the dark?” I ask with a mean smile.

“Huh? What are you saying, of course I’m not scared” She says crossing her arms with her cheeks puffed.

I can’t help but smile, she’s cute when she’s upset. I’ve been looking forward to today as well! It’s going to be so much fun!

As I continue admiring the giant park I hear some commotion behind me.

“Is that a clown?? I hate clowns! They’re so scary” Hitomi whines backing up towards the bus.

“Hey! Don’t be mean, that’s just Yujin!” Hyewon shouts sarcastically.

In return she receives a push from her dog companion. It doesn’t seem to bother her any though as she just continues smiling happily until the manager walks by.

“Even if the park is empty, they will have the food stands still going right? I mean of course, right?” Hyewon says, now following our manager as soon as he gets off the bus.

This scene is pretty much what it’s like every day, the only difference today is the setting. The park looms over us, just a few hundred feet away and the eerie feeling of dusk out in the middle of nowhere is starting to set in.  

When we heard “amusement park” we all thought it was going to be some bright and sunny place filled with people with cotton candy and rides and little kids running around. But now that were here it seems like that isn’t going to be the case.

“Did they really rent out an entire amusement park for this?” I think to myself as I start to notice Yena was right...it is getting kinda dark...it’s a bit scary.

No one else seems to have noticed though as they are all lined up in two rows in front of the bus, as if welcoming royalty. I also notice the unsuspecting victim still in the bus window looking through her bags, then making her way down the steps.

“Everyone keep a strict formation, we can’t allow any intruder to get close to the president!” Yujin yells in a serious tone.

Minju looks around confused and disheveled.

“Ahh...guys stop teasing me!” Minju whines as she stomps the ground with one foot.

Ah that’s right, Yujin said in the group chat earlier that Minju was running with Jiheon for student council, that really came as a shock.

I had to read it twice to be sure, but the other’s surely didn’t, I swear it was less than an hour before they were all competing to get selfies next to Minju and saying they had met Korea’s next president.

Looking back through my phone, the last thing in the group chat is a photo of Hyewon giving a peace sign next to a sleeping Minju titled “I met a celebrity today”

It’s gonna be a tough few weeks for Minju...

“Guys, everyone come here, we have to start filming and get your assignments” I hear our manager yell over to us and we all quickly walk over to the front gate.

Now that I’m closer I notice my past suspicions were right...these people are dressed up oddly...I don’t notice anyone in costume like earlier but even as the rules are being explained I can only half listen as I keep staring at the workers and into the abandoned park. It really is creepy...

“So that’s how it’s going to work, we’re going to be meeting back here at 1am, so everyone come up and pick your cards to find out what your assignments are” One of the managers said looking down at his watch.

“Huh? What assignments?” I ask, completely oblivious.

“The assignments for our mission! We have to complete them all before the other pairs do to win! You weren’t even listening, gosh that’s so like you Yuri~~ “ Yena says scoffing at me playfully.

“Ehh, me?? You’re the one who always distracts everyone and makes us late!” I shot back.

“What? Do not! You just – “

“Yena! Yuri! Stop arguing and go pick yours, they’ve been calling you over and over” Eunbi says pushing us both from behind up to the bucket holding the cards.

“Ah, haha, sorry sorry” I say embarrassed as I get up to the front and reach In to pick our cards, it looks like everyone else has three so that’s what I’m going to assume I need.

Once we have them we go over to the side to make sure no one else see’s what we got.

“Find a golden ticket, take a couple’s selfie overlooking the park, figure out one of the other pairs missions” The three pieces of paper each list respectively.

“Okay well those last two shouldn’t be so hard, but what the hells a golden ticket?” I say now looking over at Yena who seems equally confused.

“Maybe it’s like a ticket you win from a game or something” She says looking at the paper holding her chin with her “duck in thought” expression.

But before we can figure it out we hear a shriek behind us as the front gate creeks open

“I saw it! It was right there! I told you there was a clown, unnie. It was in there!!” Hitomi says crouching down and whining next to Eunbi.

“Ah-“ Eunbi lets out a sound as if she’s unsure what to do.

“Guys, why does there have to be clowns, I told you Hii-chan is scared of them, this isn’t funny!” She says over to the staff as she kneels down to console Hitomi.

“Are you sure there was one? I don’t see anything in there” Nako asks peering into the park.  

“Yeah! There was definitely one, I swear!” Hitomi says looking up at her partner.

“Also one last thing before you guys go in, you’re not allowed to have your phones, so everyone come and put them in the basket” One of the managers says as they point to the table beside them.

This is greeted with a collective “Ehhh??” by the rest of the members, well frankly I’m not to keen on that either, but I guess we don’t have much of a choice.

First Mission: 

Walking in I can’t help but notice how big the place Is, when they’re filled with people it kind of masks it, but completely empty like this you can’t help but feel so small looking at all the open space.

“Where do we start?” I ask, still peering around.

“We should start with my idea and play the games!” She says looking enthused.

“Yeah we could do that... but, wait how are we going to take a picture without our phones?? what the heck” I wonder out loud and turn back towards the entrance.

 It seems like everyone else has already wandered in further though as there’s no one behind us.

“Well this has to be a mistake, we should go back and ask” I suggest as we start retracing our steps.

But when we reach the front entrance we are shocked to realize the metal gate has now gone back to being completely closed.

We both look at each other in disbelief.

“What...” I say to myself and probably out loud as well.

“Oh my god...” I hear from Yena next to me, with the most serious expression I’ve ever seen across her face.

“This...so this means...this must mean...they’re locking us in here to die and become idol ghosts who are forced to be stuck here performing for all of eternity in an attempt to make their creepy park theme more popular and authentic! We’ve been conned!” She says with complete confidence.

“Huh...what...no, no that’s definitely not what is happening here” I say in a daze from her ridiculous interpretation of the situation before us.  

As we continue looking helplessly at the gate something shiny appears out of the corner of my eye, when I look over I can no longer see it, but it was definitely there, when I head over to where I thought it was there’s a bench sitting there and on top of it is a weird tin looking toy coin. It must be some currency they give to kids here to play the games or something like that, not really helpful though. What we need is a camera.

It seems we’ll have no choice but to find something in the park, I am sure there’s something to use, like a booth or a camera station or something. They obviously will provide us with some way to complete the mission, we just have to find it.

I relay those thoughts to Yena who takes a bit to persuade but eventually agrees.

“it also said it needs to be overlooking the park though, does that mean we have to be in a certain spot?” She stops to ask me while we were walking back.

“You’re right...I’m not sure..” I say, realizing I hadn’t thought of that part before.  

“Or could it mean... that?” She says, pointing to the giant Ferris wheel that’s visible even from the opposite side of the park.

Oh, that would make a lot of sense actually...

“That’s a good idea, we’ll have to see if it’s actually open though when we get over there” I tell her before she has quickly lost interest and runs over to one of the game booths.

“Hey, come look at this it’s so cool, it’s one of those guns that shoots water, I want to play this one!!” She says as excited as ever.

But there’s no one here...it’s just her and I, and we certainly have no idea how to make everything work, who even knows if this place is managed at all, half the park looks completely abandoned.

“We can probably find one we can play though” I say ushering her over to the other booths as we walk through we see all the typical games and booths that are usually filled with parents, teenagers and children alike on a sunny day.

We eventually encounter one that looks playable, it’s a game with balloons against a wall all numbered and you’re supposed to toss darts at them to decide what prize you get. Oddly enough the balloons are inflated and look like they are fairly new.

Now all that’s left is to find the darts, we hopped over onto the inside of the booth and started looking. Most of it was completely empty, some tape, tassels and other random things, but sadly no darts.

“Wow! Look the prizes are still up there though!!” Yena shouted pointing up above us, and she was right, there were lots of giant plushies, toys and most importantly what looked like an old-style camera on the upper most portion of the stand, way higher than we could hope to reach. But that didn’t stop Yena, she took the step stool that had been on the ground and set it on top of the front of the booth and tried to climb up and reach.

“Hey, be careful! We’re definitely not supposed to be messing with this stuff, were dead if Eunbi Unnie finds out” I quietly say looking around and trying to urge her down.

“Hey!” A snarly voice snaps at us from the back entrance of the booth, immediately sending Yena tumbling down the step stool on top of me.

“What?? W-who’s there?” We say tangled together trying to get back to our feet in a panic.

“Have you come to play?” The voice says, coming closer into vision revealing itself to be a small clown, hunched over with cracked face paint.

“Pick one, Pick one, Pick one, Pick one, Pick one, Pick one” The clown keeps repeating with a repulsive smile across it’s face.

We instinctively kept scooting backwards more and more until we hit our heads off the front of the booth, were trapped.

“Pick one what??” Yena ends up yelling back but unable to make eye contact.

“Pick a number of course, hit the number and you get the prize, Pick one! Pick one!” The clown again repeats.

“But that is if the girl has a coin”

Could he mean that thing I picked up earlier?

“I have one...” I say pushing it forward on the ground in front of me.

“Huh? Where’d you get that?” Yena asks looking to me with a confused expression.

“It doesn’t matter...but that’s what you wanted right?” I say back at the clown, still flustered.

He bends over and picks it up off the ground and inspects it thoroughly

“Ah yes yes, girl has coin” He says clapping his hands together, then reaching into his front pockets and taking out a handful of darts, placing them on the booth.

“Ehh? Really I get to play?” Yena says standing up, seeming to forget the fear she had shared with me just a moment ago.

She looks down at me and sticks her hand out “We gotta go for 24, that’s the camera one” as she pulls me up.

I guess we have no choice, plus what am I scared of? I’m sure there’s cameras all around here too filming us in secret, they must think this is hilarious. ha-Ha, so funny guys.

So we might as well try and get the camera and hopefully get a head start on the other pairs. Let’s give it our best!

.

. .

. . .

God were so bad at this haha.

We each tried our five darts and could barely hit a thing and when we did it wasn’t enough to pop them.

Luckily with our last couple we were able to get a few, but none of the numbers were the stuff we wanted.

It was actually pretty fun though.

“Ah I would have honestly just preferred to get one of the balloons intact haha” She says picking up one of the destroyed balloons we hit off of the ground.

“This one feels weird though, actually there’s like something inside it” She says ripping it further open to reveal a folded plastic card, colored gold with a weird clown’s face on the center.

“Is this...the golden ticket? I guess?” I say to her as we both stare at it.  

“Hey! Is this the ticket we need?” Yena yells over to where the shadowy figure had been, but we know realize he had completely disappeared.

“What? Where’d he go??” I say, frantically.

That’s really damn creepy, I never even realized he was gone.

Before I could finish my thought Yena had already jumped back up onto the booth and was back to where she had started before he arrived.

“What are you doing? We can’t just take that” I tell her.

“It just says to get the picture, it doesn’t say how, and we can return it after” She says stretching her arm out trying to nudge the camera closer to the edge.

I guess she’s right, it doesn’t say how we have to do it, it just says to get the picture, and if we return it after it shouldn’t be a big deal.

“Ah, got it!” She says then looking down at me “Catch!”

I’m barely able to reach out and grab it before it falls to the ground.

“What did I tell you?? Be careful!!” I say helping her down off the booth.

Wiping the dust off her clothes she starts looking around “So, what’s next?”

            

 

Second Mission:

About an hour had passed according to the clock we saw atop one of the food stalls. We had been walking around aimlessly trying to figure out a plan of attack, or better yet simply find another group at all.

But as we started walking through the booths with all the food, we spotted two figures in the distance. We jumped into a nearby set of bushes, probably going a bit too far for a silly million, as I scraped my legs all over.

“Who was it out there, could you tell?” Yena asks peering out the bushes.

“I don’t know, but they looked too big to be Nako and Hitomi. It has to be someone else or maybe some members of the film crew”

We crept down the line of bushes trying not to make much noise until we got close enough to see two girls sitting at one of the booths, one smiling ear to ear.

“It’s Hyewon and Yujin” I whisper to her, making sure to go unseen.

“That kind of seems predictable, don’t you think?” She sighs.

“That doesn’t matter, we just have to figure out a way to find out one of their missions” I chime back.

“AHHHH, we’ve been doing this one for over an hour, unnie! We’ve probably completed it like five times by now, let’s move on to the next one!” We hear Yujin’s loud whines, standing next to Hyewon as she eats.

Hyewon with a mouth full of food just waves her off and says “Jush a bit moore”

Yujin lets out a loud sigh before heading off in a different direction.

“Fine, well I’m gonna find a bathroom then, I’ll be back in a second”

Yena and I inch closer and closer trying to see any openings.

“She said This One, right? Like they are doing a mission right now?” Yena whispers to me.

She’s right, it’s gotta be something to do with the food court.

We don’t get much time to think it over though as Kwangbae gets up and walks over to another booth a few stalls over, breaking our line of sight.

“What is it that she left sitting there?” Yena asks.

“I don’t know, it’s probably just a napkin” I say back.

She then starts to stand up a bit in the bushes to get a better look, while I’m pestering her to sit back down or she’ll give us away.

“No no, it’s totally the cards, she left them on the stall!” She tells me, excitement in her voice.

“What? There’s no way we’d get that lucky, come on” I question her in disbelief.

“It totally is! Come on let’s go look” She says dragging me along.

. . .

. .

.

She’s right...she literally just left them right here...

Alright well lets just hurry up and look at one before she comes back.

“What does it say?” I ask peering over her shoulder as she reads.

“It says...try something from every booth in the food court....” She reads out loud with a confused inflection.

“How the hell would she get that one? There’s no way! What a joke!” I say taking the piece of paper out of her hands and scoffing at it.

“SHESCOMINGBACK” Yena says in some sort of half scream half whisper and again pulls me back to the bushes.

We huddled back together and started talking it over.

“Do you think anyone else is finished yet?” I ask her in a hushed tone.  

“Well we can rule them out” Yena says pointing to Hyewon who is somehow still making food disappear into an endless void.

“Plus there’s no way Hitomi and Nako could do it, you saw how scared she was!”

“Ah...I hope she didn’t run into any clowns like we did...” I say concerned, even if it’s supposed to be scary, that’s going too far, she’s really afraid!

“Well I think we got a good shot, so we just gotta head to the center of the park now and get on the Ferris wheel...actually why are we still hiding? We already found their mission, we shouldn’t have to hide anymore” She says sitting up and begins walking out in front of the booth.

“Wait! No! Yena stop – “ I desperately whisper to her and try to grab her arm to no avail.

“Yoooo! Kwangbae how long have you been eating here?” Yena shouts out, brushing bristles off herself as she walks up.

Hyewon seems confused for a moment but doesn’t jump at all from the sudden appearance and just looks over with moderate interest.

“Ugh...I don’t know...since the start...haha...but why exactly are you walking out from the bushes behind here? What were you doing back there?” She says walking back behind the stall and peering into the bushes.

“Oh...OH....well you see that’s...um...” Yena mumbles looking back at me now realizing why I was trying to pull her back.

A full on “Duck in headlights” look.

“Well I mean it definitely wasn’t because I was spying on you or anything...I was well because...you see...um...well me and Yuri, yeah me and Yuri were.... were making out back there! YEAH! Me and Yuri were back there totally making out!” She says running back to me.

“WHAT?!” Screams the bush out of complete shock, oh wait, that’s wasn’t the bush, that was me.

She yanks me out and says “See?” looking over at Hyewon.

“Never spied for even a second, in fact I couldn’t even have thought about it, this girl is crazy she was ALL over me hahahah” She continues her idiocy along with her nervous laugh.

What the hell is she saying, does she think that is someone making this situation better for either of us?

“Okay....well um, have you guys seen Yujin? She was here just a minute ago and I think she mentioned something but now she’s disappeared” She asks, losing interest in our impromptu comedy routine.

“Ehhh what do you mean?! She literally just told you she was going to the bath-“ I interrupt Yena’s needless comment with an elbow to the ribs and a death glare.

“Ah, I mean...I’m sure she’s like, around here somewhere, she probably went to the bathroom or something like that hahaha” Yena tells her, trying to recover.

“Alright well I probably have to go find her, so I should probably go” She waves goodbye and takes a few steps before turning around and shoving the cards in her pocket and grabbing some of the left-over food.

“Whew, that a close call, you almost blew it for us, Yuri!” She says giving me a look of disappointment.

“Huh?! Me? You idiot, you’re the one who caused all of that!” I say in disbelief.

“Ah, well there’s no time for assigning blame now, we gotta get to that Ferris Wheel!” She exclaims and starts running towards the center of the park, and I follow right behind her.

                         

Third Mission:

As we make our way there we hear a few screams which sound like Chaewon, I’m sure they had lots of tricks planned for every team specifically, hopefully ours are over with.

When we reach the Ferris wheel we notice a large gloomy figure standing at the bottom near the little gate area to walk in, he’s dressed in red and white pin stripes.

We make our way up to the gate slowly. Hesitantly, I call out to the figure.

“C-can we ride the Ferris wheel?” I ask meekly.

They look up and stare at us for a moment before responding.

“Does the girl have the ticket?”

Is this what the golden ticket thing is for?

I reach around checking all my pockets trying to find it, where did I put it? How could you lose that Yuri??

In the midst of my panic Yena speaks up.

“It’s right here” She says reaching out and handing it to him, to which he takes it and starts looking it over.

Thank god Yena had it, geez.

“Okay...looks good” He says in a low tone as he hands it back to her.

“Make sure you stay seated” He says as he escorts us to our cart.  

It doesn’t really hit me until were sitting down in the thing, but this thing really does look old, like not just for the show or some joke they are playing on us, but this thing really feels rickety!

“Hey, is this thing safe?” I ask nervously looking over my shoulder to realize I am talking to the air as the man has now completely vanished.

Before I can even process it, the ride starts to shake a tiny bit as it starts, and then we were on our way up. No escaping now.

Heading up and being presented with the full view of the park for the first time, I got a sense of appreciation for the sheer size of it. Being completely surrounded by woods, It’s sort of creepy, but from up here, all the lights and rides makes it seem a lot less so. In fact the cold night along with the wind slowly pushing past my hair gave me a unique and eerie feeling that I sort of liked.

When I look back over at Yena, she’s gripping the sleeves to her sweatshirt and looking down at her sneakers.

I wonder if she’s scared? Maybe she doesn’t like heights?

I try and think of a joke to with, but before I can, I hear a voice.

“You know I was really happy when they announced your name” I hear her say.

 “Huh? What? Haha, what are you saying all of a sudden” I say letting out an awkward laugh.

“I mean it, I was relieved when I got called, but as soon as I sat up there all I could think about was you” She tells me, now looking into my eyes.

“When I heard Stone Music, I swear my heart skipped a beat” She says smiling.

So she means...that.

Why is she saying all this...and now of all times, while were stuck up here alone...it’s making my heart race.

“But.. but you always just mess around with the other members, you’re always playing with them and leaving me on the side” I complain, breaking eye contact with her.

“Of course, they are my friends too...but they aren’t you, you’re special to me” She says earnestly and shifts her body towards me.

Special? What a joke!

I scoff and look up at the stars “Special huh? No, I am just the one who you know will always be here waiting for you no matter what so you think you can string me along and laugh about it later, little Yuri won’t catch on” I say, unable to hang on to the resentment inside me any longer.

The next few moments are filled with silence.

Part of me immediately regrets saying what I just had, letting out such pitiful words, but the frustrations that lay buried within them were real.

The only sound I hear is her ragged breathing beside me. If it weren’t for the cold winter night making each breath fog up the night sky we would have looked like a still image.

I think I messed up.

I let my emotions get the best of me and I said something I shouldn’t have.

I need to apologize, I need to te-

Suddenly I feel her grab my hand and I barely make out the sound of a faint “I’m sorry” from the other seat.

I look down seeing our hands joined and bite my lip.

My face feels like it’s on fire.

I can’t tell what’s going on, is she messing with me or what’s happening?

“Yuri” I hear her call out.

“W-what?” I ask turning my head and look up completely bewildered.

When I do I feel her hand grab my chin and the sensation of her soft lips.

What the hell is happening, my mind starts racing a million miles per hour.

She kissed me...We’re kissing....!

I feel her fingers squeeze mine tight and I instinctively do the same back to her.

Is this real life?

*click*

I hear an odd sound, but as I pull away from her she doesn’t break eye contact with me. I can see tears in her eyes.

“You’re the one whose most special to me, Yuri” She says with a weak smile.

I don’t know what I feel right now, my mind is somehow racing and completely blank all at the same time.

Before I can even reconcile my thoughts I feel the sudden shake of the cabin stopping.

We’re back at the bottom.

I don’t know what to say, yet somehow I hear “I’m sorry too” escape my lips and I squeeze her hand before exiting the ride. She sat there for a moment, grabbing our stuff and handing me a few things.

I’m really not sure how to feel about all this, but I’m somehow feeling a bit happy...or a lot..

The man who was here originally is still nowhere to be seen and we end up venturing into the park trying to find another pair.

.
. .
. . .

“I guess we failed our mission though haha” I say swinging the camera by it’s harness as we walk through the amusement park alone. I don’t really understand what just happened between us, being up there was like a whole different world. I’m sure it will be a nice memory one day...but just that...a memory.

It’s nearly 12:30am and we’re out of time, we have to get back to the front gate.

“Well...not exactly” She says looking down and fidgeting with something inside her pocket.

“Huh? What do you mean?” I ask tilting my head.

Facing away from me she quickly turns on her heels doing a complete 180 and yells “Ta-Da!”

When she does, I can see a blurry polaroid, it’s hard to make out in the darkness and I have to get closer to see it clearly.

It’s the Ferris wheel cart...it’s us on the Ferris wheel...it’s us ....IT’S US KISSING ON THE FERRIS WHEEL!

“YENA WHAT THE HELL, WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT?” I scream waking up anyone in a 15-mile radius of the park.

I reach out to swipe it from her, but she quickly pulls it away.

“What do you mean? It’s good I took it! It means we got our mission done!” She says pouting her lips in her typical fashion.

“Are you kidding?! You can’t show that to anyone!! Give it to me and I’ll get rid of it!” I order her.

“Huh? No way, we went through a lot for this!” She tells me, stashing it away in her coat pocket.

“You can’t show that to anyone! That’s so embarrassing...”

I crouch down with my head in my hands.

When we reach the rest of the group at the front gate it seems everyone is already making their case to the manager, showing what items they were able to complete and debating the ones they couldn’t.

We spent the whole walk back arguing over the picture and she kept insisting we have to win. I don’t care about winning!! It’s just a silly game.

Eventually it’s our turn and they call us up, the first two are easy, we just show them the ticket and tell them what Yujin and Hyewons first mission was which provokes a response from behind us.

“WHAT?! You just told them our mission just like that?” Yujin yells to Hyewon.

“Uh...no, I never told them that at all, How do you guys even know that?” She says looking over at us.

“Well...haha...um...well you know I kind of lied before, believe it or not we weren’t making out in those bushes!! We were actually spying on you!!” She says pointing at the girls Ace Attorney style with a dramatic tone as if she’d just blown open a thirty-year-old cold case.

. . .

This night is unreal...

As if she thought we were really making out you dunce! But then again what the hell did she think we were really doing though if she’s so surprised by this...and given what happened just a moment ago...this whole story has really become twisted with irony...

“Alright well, what about the last mission?” The manager asks Yena, who gives back a mischievous smile.

“Ta-da” She says just like before as she pulls out the polaroid.

This is it, this is when my life is officially over, it was a good run. Goodbye world.

“Aww, that’s so cute” I hear Eunbi Unnie say and the peanut gallery seems to agree making more “aww” sounds.

Huh? Aww? What?

I look up and see the photo Yena’s holding, it’s of us, it’s of us on the Ferris wheel...looking at each other...just staring...huh, no kiss? When did she even take that?

“Aww haha, you guys went on a date up there? You guys are so cute hahaha” Yujin bellows, while giving us a look of “you kids and your young love” that she has no right to be giving, she was born like four summers ago, I swear.

“Well you guys were the only ones to complete all three of your missions, so Yuri and Yena are the winners!” Eunbi says and starts clapping.

Huh really? We won?

She runs up to me and hugs me, then pushes our faces together for the camera while making her duck face as I feel my hand clenching into a fist.  

. . .

This...this girl...