This was never supposed to be serious.

In all seriousness, this was just supposed to be a dumb thing Baekhyun and Jongdae enjoyed doing.

Seriously.

But right now Minseok is seriously considering all of his life choices.

He’s staring straight into the very angry, very dark, and very very evil eyes that belong to a very violent spirit hovering above Jongdae as the latter exclaims out all forms of goading remarks and Baekhyun, in a high pitched voice, tries to shut him up.

Minseok holds its glare through the camera lens, sweating inside his jacket, wondering how he was going to have to distract this evil entity away from his idiotic best-friends.

Minseok has always been able to see ghosts and things that are not as benign as ghosts. He used to be able to very directly communicate with them as a child. But when he started getting older, it lessened, and somehow Minseok preferred that. He still saw ghosts, still felt their presence, still knew when a house or location was haunted/possessed. But it wasn’t as frequent, and Minseok likes to believe it’s because he’s too busy living a stressed student life to really notice anymore. But he couldn’t live in peace for too long because Jongdae and Baekhyun, the whirlwinds that they were, blew up a massive storm in Minseok’s life by declaring him their best hyung when they were both but freshman.

And who is Minseok to deny them this.

Sure maybe it’s because he has incredibly soft spots for the both of them, and they can all collectively bond over the pains of being vertically challenged. But it’s also mainly because of Baekhyun’s obsession with the supernatural.

Baekhyun experienced something supernatural, or he believes he did (Minseok has seen the footage that supposedly captures a “spirit” moving a crumpled piece of plastic off of the edge of the sink) and since then has been obsessed with the supernatural. Watching supposed ghost sighting videos and getting freaked out, reading ghostly encounters and getting freaked out, going through jump-scare filled reddit posts and freaking out. Minseok wonders if Baekhyun might be slightly masochistic.

And Jongdae, Baekhyun’s best friend for many many (too many, according to Jongdae) years, finds the whole concept of supernatural things hilarious and dumb. With the exception of aliens. Which, Minseok thinks is both hilarious and slightly concerning because Jongdae has mentioned, more times than strictly necessary, how he wishes aliens would just come and end humanity. So Minseok is not sure if it’s really belief, or just desperation.

This all started because Baekhyun and Jongdae, both YouTubers with a decent number of subscribers, had expanded out of their usual content (they both produced and made short films, made random vlogs, mainly on supernatural content, debunking myths, discussing lore and myths, or arguing at each other for 15 minutes. Apparently this is quality content), and with funds provided for by viewers, started a series of vlog-like episodes of them going to haunted locations to film and document themselves trying to reach out and speak to ghosts/spirits. At first it had been small, local locations. But they gained quite a lot of views and interest and were able to acquire major sponsors and both Jongdae and Baekhyun found themselves internet-famous, with a steadily growing fanbase/viewers, and a check-mark on their channel.

And Minseok, their senior and best-hyung, was very pleased and proud of them. He was always there to help them when it came to advice on editing, pacing, or fixing footage. They were very keen on having him participate in their vlogs once they expanded out into something more legit than just filming themselves on their phone cameras. But Minseok always declined or just said that he would be there to help when needed. And sometimes, they did actually go to haunted places. Minseok can sometimes catch their soft shadows or shapes in their footage. But it wasn’t anything harmful or dangerous.

Ghosts were shy. Mostly afraid.

So the ones that appeared in their videos were either curiously natured spirits, or just confused spirits.

But this all changed when he was asked to help them out with a “ed up footage hyung can you please help me” situation. Minseok showed up to their apartment after a morning class, ready to watch the b-rolls and pre-finalized video of their latest excursion when the hair on the back of his neck stands on end.

Baekhyun opens the door, big grin on his face, hair freshly washed and dry and very bouncy. He looks pleased, a little tired, and he smells overwhelmingly like coffee. And while that was all normal, what wasn’t normal were the hands on his shoulders, leading up to a disembodied torso floating above Baekhyun’s head.

‘Hyung! Come in come in!’ Baekhyun says brightly, completely unaware of this very malevolent spirit clutching on to him.

Minseok is very quick to school his features, ignoring the gnarled hands, and he steps inside the shared apartment, bracing himself.

Jongdae is similarly situated. Gnarled hands on his shoulders, and this time, a head leaning over Jongdae’s head, pointy chin resting atop of still damp locks.

‘Hyung!’ Jongdae waves brightly at him.

Well this was a complete mess.

Minseok wants to scream at the two of them. Because it’s not the two spirits on their shoulders.

There were at least 4 others hanging around, walking and drifting past in blurred colours and forms past Minseok’s direct peripheral vision.

‘Hey- what’s up?’ Minseok smiles, hoping he doesn’t look tense.

‘It’s this,’ Jongdae whines, pointing at his screen.

Minseok is a little distracted, trying to scope out this utter mess Baekhyun and Jongdae have gotten themselves into.

Minseok sits next to Jongdae while the latter groans and leans back on the couch. Minseok is only paying half of his attention as Jongdae scrubs along the project timeline, talking to Minseok about some transition effect plug-in that wasn’t working even though he paid 15 dollars for it.

‘Where did you guys go?’ Minseok asks.

‘We told you,’ Baekhyun complains from the kitchen where 2 of the spirits have gathered around him. ‘It’s about 4 hours drive from here. An abandoned asylum. Was a to get the permission from the city council, but we managed. Even though it was only 6 hours, we paid- how much did we pay?’

‘A lot,’ Jongdae sighs, ‘We paid a lot for Baekhyun to scream each time we turned a corner.’

‘I hate asylums. Especially old ones,’ Baekhyun says defiantly, ‘This is our second one and it got worse.’

‘Well, it did stink.’ Jongdae remarks, sniffing violently, ‘Surprisingly not a lot of graffiti.’

‘Yeah- it’s probably too creepy to vandalize.’ Baekhyun nods in agreement. ‘Not too creepy for rats.’

They continue talking and Minseok half listens, half attempts to fix their footage, and is aggressively scanning their apartment for something- anything.

There was no way of being subtle about it. And there was no way of asking Baekhyun without alerting him to something. So Minseok’s best option is to ask Jongdae. Quickly.

‘So-‘ Minseok begins and Jongdae leans in at once, keeping attention clearly thinking that Minseok figured out what was wrong with their clips. ‘-did you guys grab any souvenirs from the asylum?’

‘Nah,’ Jongdae laughs, ‘Baek’s too scared to do something like that. Something about spirits being attached. I mean, gotta be respectful,’ he adds with a serious tone, ‘-it was a terrible place, haunted or not, what a terrible place.’

Jongdae was a skeptic yes, but he wasn’t an about it even though he pretended to be for the sake of the occasional comedy-bits. That, combined with Baekhyun’s fright and wondrous respect for anything supernatural, was something that Minseok firmly believes has saved them from actual terrible situations. But clearly today was not that day.

‘I wanna go back,’ Baekhyun says from the kitchen, frying up a late brunch. ‘There was a lot we didn’t cover. We didn’t even get to go to the attic.’

‘Wood rot,’ Jongdae says at once, ‘I don’t want to rescue your because you fell through the attic floors.’

‘We could place our new static cameras! Leave cameras overnight!’ Baekhyun exclaims excitedly.

‘I’ll have to end up going through 6 hours of blank footage,’ Jongdae sighs to Minseok. ‘Baek can’t stand to watch these.’

Minseok is genuinely sweating.

Places being haunted was fine. But people being haunted was worrying because that strayed into the realm of something darker, something potentially demonic, for lack of a better word. And Minseok is scrambling to think of what his aunt used to tell him.

His aunt was like him- perhaps much more powerful in her sight, senses, and abilities. Normally if someone was being haunted, it meant that they had something on them that was being used as a point of harness, a supernatural anchor, so to speak.

But if Baekhyun and Jongdae didn’t take anything from the asylum with them, why were these spirits on them?

Because that left the other option which was remarkably much more frightening and worrying.

These were not normal ghosts/spirits, but were entities of hate and anger, best left undisturbed. By entering the asylum, Jongdae and Baekhyun disturbed the spirits there, causing them to latch on to the two vloggers in retaliation.

But Minseok now has to figure out how to get them off of the two idiots he truly cares about.

Malevolent spirits like these slowly weigh and tether their hosts down, bringing anger, fear, and animosity to taint their existence.  

‘-ave to pay them again,’ Baekhyun is saying as he brings a bunch of stacked plates with freshly cooked eggs, microwaved sausages, and rice on the table. ‘Hyung! I made some for you too!’

‘Thanks Baekhyun-ah,’ Minseok shakes himself out of his revere.

‘Don’t be too hard on yourself hyung- it’s okay if you can’t fix the issue. Especially if we’re gonna go back. Might as well get new clips and throw them all in together as a massive episode,’ Jongdae says thoughtfully through a mouthful of sausage and rice. ‘We could use this as our Halloween episode?’

Baekhyun nods vigourously as he swallows hard, ‘Yes! I was thinking that too!’

‘I’ll go with you,’ Minseok finds himself saying.

Both Baekhyun and Jongdae stare at him like he’s the one with gnarled supernatural hands clamped down on his shoulders.

‘Oh my god hyung-‘ Baekhyun exclaims, ‘You’re a believer too!’

‘He’s coming so that I don’t have to rescue your fallen because you don’t believe in wood rot,’ Jongdae scoffs before he’s grinning at Minseok too, ‘Hyung! This will be great, what changed your mind?’

The hands on Jongdae’s shoulders shift, moving closer to his neck.

‘I thought maybe I should take you guys up your offer after all.’

And a week later, here he was, in a dark and smelly abandoned asylum that is spectacularly haunted, staring straight into very truly terrifying eyes.

Sure some places looked haunted- age, wear, and weathering normally did that with any establishment. But this place was 100%, without a doubt, creepy. Even Jongdae, the skeptic, can appreciate how uninviting and terrible it looked.

When Minseok was younger and he approached particularly haunted areas, he would feel physically sick. One time he even developed a fever, and has since been careful in approaching places he knows are haunted.

It’s terrible inside. Minseok doesn’t even need to squint or look around to observe movement here and there. Or of glowing orb like eyes, hands moving about, feet disappearing from the edge of his vision.

But it’s not these regular spirits that was causing Minseok to heavily sweat inside his jacket.

After placing the static cameras in the attic and catching sight of some very lanky flesh-coloured figures in the far dark corners of the attic, and coming down to the 2^nd floor hallway, Minseok realizes that the spirits that had attached themselves to Jongdae and Baekhyun weren’t doing it out of spite or hatred, but were merely trying to escape the truly very demonic force trapping these spirits in the asylum.

It’s a very large, shadowy hulking thing, inky and almost sticky looking, but at the same time rather transparent and somehow not all there. Not too powerful. But it’s incredibly angry, and incredibly hateful.

Luckily, to an extent, Minseok is prepared.

His pocket feels heavy with the cleansing charm his aunt painstakingly taught him to create over terribly shaky and blurry video-calls. He had already placed protective charms over Jongdae and Baekhyun a few days ago, without their knowledge of course.

Minseok had taken the small illustration, duplicated it over on Illustrator, made it into a vector just to be safe, and mass printed the little pattern onto transparent sticker paper.

He had then stuck them onto Jongdae’s jacket inner-lining, Baekhyun’s shirt tag, and nearly all of their equipment. Even if it fell off, they were protected and cleansed for the time being. Minseok makes it a habit to carry these stickers everywhere.

His aunt wanted to make a strong charm, just to be safe. And it seemed that his aunt’s precaution was definitely a good step to take because Minseok’s not sure if any other method (at least one this discreet) would help.

The little protective sticker was working well, but it wouldn’t last too long in a place steeped with so much negativity and memories of pain, cruelty, and sorrow.

Minseok is internally grateful at Baekhyun’s genuine cheerful and happy temperament, and Jongdae’s steadfastness and rationale.

‘If there’s anything in here that would like to speak to us, I’m going to switch on a little device that will, uh, help you speak to us,’ Baekhyun says, holding up the “spirit-box”.

It’s obviously a hoax. Not that Baekhyun knows that.

But things like the spirit-box, flashlights, and other random devices weren’t really definitive indicators of supernatural activity. In fact, the spirit-box is pretty good at putting most spirits off.

Also, as their now sound-editor and sound-fixer, Minseok suffers the effects of the spirit-box even more.

Baekhyun switches on the device and almost immediately, the looming presence hisses, gaping maw of a mouth widening briefly before fleeing the space.

‘-it just said we’re here!’ Baekhyun gasps at Jongdae who is grimacing at the loud sound.

It most certainly did not say we’re here for the context Baekhyun thinks it’s in.

‘My name is Baekhyun, this is Jongdae,’ Baekhyun says over the static, eyes shifting nervously around as he looks up and down the hallway.

Minseok spies forms darting about the end of the hallway.

‘Please say our names back to us if you want to communicate to us!’

‘If you want us to get out of here, you can say that too!’ Jongdae chimes in, ‘In fact you could literally kick us out, right now! Kick Baek’s !’

Baekhyun laughs nervously, fidgeting where he stood as he nervously eyes the hallways.

It’s only when they’ve finally finished most of the shoot that Minseok finds the opportunity to leave the charm.

Baekhyun and Jongdae are taking down the cameras they set up in the hallway downstairs and Minseok volunteers to get the static camera in the attic.

‘Be careful hyung,’ Jongdae says, ‘The floors were really creaky.’

‘I will be,’ Minseok promises, handing Baekhyun his equipment to pack up.

‘Oh! Take this!’ Baekhyun s his Go-Pro at Minseok. ‘Maybe you’ll catch something?’

Minseok laughs, subtly placing another sticker on Baekhyun’s jacket as he pats him on the back.

He carefully makes his way up, mindful of old wooden floors and stairs.

There’s a lot of them here.

It’s a little nerve-wracking, in all honesty, and Minseok would very much prefer leaving as quick as possible. But he doesn’t like that these spirits were lingering here, trapped and latching onto innocent idiots like Baekhyun and Jongdae as a means of escape.

Minseok gets to the attic, which like Baekhyun had suspected, was stuffed with “activity”. He switches off the camera and turns to address the shifting darkness.

‘Listen,’ Minseok says quietly, ‘You guys shouldn’t be doing this. I’m leaving soon, and I’ll make it so you can too. Be free, got it?’

He’s not good with words like this, but Minseok’s aunt had said that purposeful speech, intention, and command was important in situations like this. He retrieves the charm from his pocket; an ingenious invention by his aunt who thought it best to create the delicate pattern onto a stamping pad and simply stamp away when needed. Minseok pries open the ink-pad and after making sure the ink was evenly distributed along the rubber of his stamp, firmly slaps it against the dirty wall.

The noise quiets at once- one that Minseok hadn’t even noticed before, but now in its absence, was clearer than ever.

He grabs the static camera and hefts the tripod over his shoulder, turning around only to come face-to-face with the terribly shadowy entity.

‘No!’ Minseok says firmly, standing his ground. ‘Move, I’m leaving.’

The entity shrinks in on itself, hissing at him.

‘You should move on too.’ Minseok says as he walks off towards the stairs. ‘Don’t even think of coming at me or the others.’

He stamps the little charm all the way downstairs, not looking back because he knows he’ll see it behind him again. And Minseok is not about that lifestyle.

Jongdae and Baekhyun are waiting for him by the entryway, the sky still dark.

‘It’s almost 3,’ Baekhyun says nervously, glancing around, ‘Uh-‘

‘Isn’t that the witching hour?’ Jongdae asks with a yawn.

There was no such thing as a “witching hour”.

‘Okay, lets go,’ Minseok says as soon as he’s close enough.

‘Oh- wow, hyung, was it really dusty?’ Baekhyun asks in alarm, reaching out to brush a shocking amount of white-dust off of Minseok.

‘Or dandruff,’ Jongdae grins though he helps Baekhyun brush off the “dust” as well.

‘Or it could be ghostly skin-cells,’ Minseok teases.

They both laugh, the sound ringing through the hallway, free and joyous.

Minseok hears it echoed back to them.

He places the stamp once more on the door as he closes it shut behind him, taking the lock and closing it back up.

A few hands reach out through the doorway.

‘It’s okay, you can leave,’ Minseok says in a quiet voice, shaking the lock to make sure its secure. ‘You’re free.’

He doesn’t turn around to watch, or say anything more. Instead he ducks away from Baekhyun and Jongdae’s ending vlog commentary with a small smile.

‘And! That’s Minseok-hyung, you guys know him!’ Jongdae grins.

‘Did you enjoy your first ghost-operation hyung?’ Baekhyun turns the camera at him.

Minseok grins, looking down at his equipment awkwardly, attempting to look busy.

‘Sure. It was great.’

‘Do you believe in ghosts? I think our subscribers would like to know where you stand,’ Jongdae adds as they make their way to their car. In the morning, the city council will send a few people to check over the property and make sure they didn’t mess anything up, and it was all locked up properly. They’ll also unconsciously realize that the abandoned asylum no longer felt oppressively heavy or dark.

‘I guess you could say I’m a bit of both,’ Minseok says with a small smile, ‘I’m open-minded, and while a lot can be explained by logic, some things are definitely out of this world.’

*

Any_for_us: this is their best episode yet. Perfect timing for spoopy month. Also Baekhyun is looking fluffier and fluffier how is that possible #soondongie

Mareete: I am both Jongdae and Baekhyun in this episode. Does that make me Minseok

Unclsfd_pie: I think there was a shadow at the end of the hallway?!?!? Am I seeing things?? @Unsolved_Vlogs, can you please check! #erikyoong

Spotlight_mon: , I think ^^^ was on to soething, I totally saw a shadow at the end there too????? #amibecominganerikyoong

GrimArtandStuff: ive heard about this place before! Thank you unsolvedvlogs for covering the background story!!

50shadesofSpiritBox: Baekhyun definitely was not wrong- I heard it too. The voice said ‘we’re here’- I’m sure of it. And your new cameraman! He’s so cute! Ths makes me feel btr????? Knowing its not just the 2 (two) of them in this? Three is a good number, holy number. Love the episode!!

Sehun_omayaaaaaa: hyungs getting smaller and smaller. cute.

Alexander 1987: Oh my god! I just got the best news of my life!!! If you want to receive good news today for your job application, sign up for this new online resume builder for free! Link below!!

Kmsrems: I had chills throughout ths ep. This was sooooo good. I love how Jongdae just stood in that room yawning. Wish I was that chill. #erikyoong

*

(Author’s Note)

So

Its no secret that I

Love

CBX

And ive always wanted to write a cbx fanfic

And this one has no set chapters, or plotline, or storyline really. it’s just Minseok saving baekchen a lot, or going over spoopy stuff, etc. it’ll be mainly comedy

But also horror

Because

I like that combination

Im not sure how much of ships I will put in here, I’ll see how it goes

But for now this is mainly for fun and laughs

It’ll also be based on my own personal experiences with ghosts and supernatural stuff

Ive mentioned this before in my other fics but

Ive always been able to see and sense ghosts/supernatural stuff and so I’ll be using my experience and stories and other stuff with this fic eheheheheheehe

I hope you enjoy the sporadic updates