Oh yes, Minseok 100% definitely hates this.

He’s not sure how two people manage to attract so many opportunities and circumstances that would lead them into places that were so deeply and darkly inhabited and steeped in such negative memories, weighed down by a darkness that was inexplicably palpable and discomfiting.

And how did two people manage to personally know so many other people who were so intertwined with something so absolutely dark and overwhelming?

First with Junmyeon and his childhood home, and now this-

‘Hyung!’

‘Tao-yah!’

Baekhyun is sprinting out of the taxi and straight into Huang Zitao’s arms who lifts him high up.

Minseok also wonders how two people know so many tall people.

Minseok doesn’t know Huang Zitao- but he’s heard a lot about him in the past few weeks.

Zitao had contacted Baekhyun and Jongdae about a month back, and they began excitedly talking again- sometimes having calls, long message series, video calls, etc.

From what Minseok understands, Zitao’s family had moved to the area when he was still a young child, and while his parents travelled a lot for their job, Zitao was kept in a hostel close to his school. He lived in the DK Hostel for Young Children until he was 14, when he was moved to an all boy’s school later in another city after his parents settled on a more stable job. But the 7 years he spent in this hostel was more than enough to get Zitao to contact Baekhyun and Jongdae.

That, and also the building was set to be demolished the following year, to be rebuilt into a college.

They had to take the train, which Minseok was more than happy to comply with, because he didn’t think he would be able to drive all the way here. And it was a nice city – not as crowded, less polluted, and with a slight old-town-y aesthetic still prevalent throughout the architecture and streets of the city. They were staying at a decent place- a hostel but the kind for tourists and local travelers like themselves. They had arrived near dinner time, and Zitao had planned a whole dinner for them at his favourite restaurant. So that was where they were now.

Zitao is a tall and thin young man- maybe Sehun’s height, with tan skin, ashy grey hair, sharp eyes lined with dark circles which, if Minseok isn’t mistaken, was natural and part of his aesthetic.

Currently, Zitao was studying fashion design, and was making a good name for himself on Instagram and Weibo as both designer and modeler and also a Tik-Tok model or something like that, Minseok can’t keep up with all of the new social media apps.

Or at least that’s what Baekhyun and Jongdae excitedly tell him.

He came to greet them in a long deep maroon asymmetrical sweater that revealed his back though he wore another shirt inside as it was still cold. His long flowy trousers cut off right above the ankle to reveal colourful socks and 3-inch platform tie-up customized shoes. He’s wearing a beanie that Minseok feels is more an added fashion statement over practicality as it barely stays on his well styled hair.

Minseok also has a feeling this is Zitao dressed down.

‘Hi!’ he beams brightly at him after he finishes hugging Baekhyun and Jongdae, ‘It’s nice to meet you!’

Minseok returns the greeting with his best big-brother smile even though he has to really look up to address the tall young man.

‘Baekhyun-hyung and Jongdae-hyung have told me so much about you!’ he exclaims. His voice is a lot softer than his face would have people believe.

‘Likewise,’ Minseok smiles, ‘It’s good to meet you in real life.’

‘Let’s eat and you can tell Minseok-hyung about everything!’

*

6 bunk beds in one room. Small desks fitted in between the spaces, two uncomfortable chairs pushed up against them. Small square trunks at the bottom of the bunks. Two slim and tall windows face the doorway.

At night it gets dark.

And because the school operated on low funds because the superintendent pocketed most of the money for his own lavish estate some 10 kilometers from the hostel, there was no power in the school after 10 pm sharp.

The power also almost always gave out with the rain, heavy snow, strong winds, and the damp.

And it was always damp.

The hostel building was always somehow damp.

If you touched the walls down the hallways leading to the mess hall, your fingers came away slightly sticky, slightly wet. But it was best if you didn’t touch the walls too much- dust, mites, fungi, wall lichen, mold- they grew in abundance despite the poor attempts at painting over them.

So the air always carried a damp stale smell that after a few weeks, permeated all of your clothes, your blankets, your sheets. Other kids from the school turned their noses away from the kids in the DK Hostel – claiming they stank. But being stinky was the least of the children’s worries.

Because when you were especially unlucky, after semester break, you were reassigned rooms. And sometimes, you were stuck in the north-block for 5 months, during which your room will never see sunlight, and the walls painted white turned grey with the damp.

Some parents were rich enough to pay for specific rooms for their kids. But most who entered DK were not always well off, their fates up to the matrons, some of whom had a penchant for targeting specific kids.

Then, it was always a nightmare to fight for the bunks.

Because most preferred the lower bunk- as you were protected from the occasional dripping ceiling. Especially when it rained- there was always dripping somewhere- making the mattresses damp.

But also because the Tall Thin Man couldn’t bend at the waist and couldn’t stare at you as you tried to sleep.

*

‘My school used to have a ghost story too,’ Jongdae offers, ‘They said that after 7 pm, in the gymnasium, you would catch the spirit of the old janitor who died there, wiping up the floors-‘

‘-it’s always the janitor,’ Baekhyun rolls his eyes before adding, ‘My school- the fifth floor, homeroom C-12, apparently it was super haunted, and weird messages would appear on the chalkboard-‘

‘-oh yeah, super weird I bet,’ Zitao mumbles over a mouthful of egg rolls.

Zitao inhaled food as though he was starving.

Minseok wonders where it all goes because he has an issue with carbs and it’s annoying because he loves carbs. But Zitao was probably the type who could eat a whole feast and not gain a single kilogram. He was also probably the type who wanted to gain some weight or something.

This world was truly unfair.

‘Oh I know all the cliché ghost stories from different schools,’ Zitao snorts, reaching for the soup-dumplings, ‘And honestly, maybe some are true, maybe some are like, really specific to the school, and the stories handed down but DK was- well, probably still is, extraordinarily weird.’

‘The hostel shut down some years ago?’

‘Yeah- there was a whole massive corruption thing,’ Zitao explains vaguely, chopsticks pointing towards where Minseok guesses, the hostel awaited them. ‘The superintendent and his family ran that place for like, 30 years? And they were finally outed by their own employees who had enough. The family had connections with people in the city municipal and some government official I’m sure- it’s why they were able to get away with the ty quality of their hostel for so long.’

‘Was it really very bad?’

Zitao’s eyes roll, whole body shuddering dramatically.

‘Listen- I don’t know how much of what I used to hear was true- and if the stories were just like, you know, you guys’s stories about janitors and what not-‘

‘-hey!’ Jongdae whines, mock offended, ‘Don’t mock my urban legend!’

‘-but it was definitely the most depressing time of my life, alongside every other kid who had the misfortune of staying there,’ Zitao looks serious as he adds, ‘-and when I heard about it being taken down soon- I thought, rather than have what happened there completely forgotten and erased from memory, I thought it would be good to showcase how like this happens in places where children are supposed to be safe.’

Both Baekhyun and Jongdae nod seriously.

One of the main reasons why they had come in to the city quite early despite only shooting for 3 days on-site, was to get clear and legal information from police reports regarding the corruption of the superintendent (for legal issues and so they don’t get sued), as well as meet up with old employees and ex-hostel students and go through the interview process if they were still okay with it.

‘Sure the horror and ghost- was there, but sometimes I wondered if it was some mass-coping mechanism all the kids had,’ Zitao says thoughtfully, ‘That in order to overcome homesickness, the terrible living conditions of the place, the bullying, and honestly jail-worthy abuse from some of the matrons – maybe coming up with scary stories made all of that easier to cope with.’

*

The doors had no locks on them, except for the hostel matrons rooms, the nursing rooms, the store rooms, and the superintendent’s rooms/offices. So that meant waking up in the middle of the night to hear all 20 doors in a single hallway open one-by-one, holding your breath and hoping that the Girl from the Wall would just move on, and not enter your room.

But sometimes she did.

The hostel used to be a hotel before. And it was only 2 floors. The south-wing still held many of the original architecture- including many of the original paintwork.

The entrance to the boy’s toilet had the painting of a smiling boy in a yellow shirt, blue pants – but years of graffiti reduced it to a cartoon-like caricature. And opposite it, was supposed to be the girl’s toilet, or a powder room for women. And the painting was opposite of the boys, but it had been cemented over when they added in additional floors, requiring builders to place and support the mainframe of the original building.

The painting, seen in an old framed photograph, shows a young girl in a blue dress and yellow stockings, her hair braided in two. But her face is blurred, the dark of her eye merging with the side of her face.

And so she flits about- moving around wherever the new support system expanded, looking in, unable to see so her hands moved over the damp walls. Sometimes you will see her yellow stockings, walking under the windows, towards your desk.

Sometimes, one end of her pigtail sticks out from behind the chalkboard mid-class.

Or a painted hand will be edging over the gap between the bookrack and the wall.

In the early morning, you could see her hand prints and follow them all the way to where she was encased, behind the cement and bricks.

*

‘And here you go,’ Jongdae grins as he hands them the permission letters he went to pick up with Zitao before the City Municipal Offices closed. ‘The secretary in there went to DK!’

‘She’s from a batch before mine,’ Zitao exclaims.

‘I asked her if we could interview her, but she said she doesn’t think it would be allowed- what with her job and all,’ Jongdae hurriedly adds, looking comically disappointed.

‘Ah damn,’ Baekhyun whines, ‘But we still have like, 4 people who agreed right? That’s really good!’

‘It would’ve been nice to have all of them come in to the hostel,’ Jongdae says wistfully as they walk out the street into the main road, cars zipping past in the urban intersection.

‘I don’t think anyone would want to relive their trauma,’ Minseok mumbles.

‘Unless you’re me because clearly I need therapy,’ Zitao says with a comic darkness.

‘Hey- closure and all of that right?’ Baekhyun grins, ‘Maybe this will help?’

‘Yeah maybe,’ Zitao smiles down at Baekhyun with a hopeful expression, ‘Honestly I did have a lot of troubling things happen to me- but I think I was mainly really homesick, and I really missed my parents. Didn’t make a lot of friends while I was there.’

‘But look at you now!’ Jongdae exclaims, gesturing to all of Zitao with a quick wave, ‘Being all-…relevant!’

‘Thanks,’ Zitao deadpans.

‘But yeah- tomorrow we’re meeting Mrs. Son Minhee?’ Baekhyun struggles to take out his phone from his pocket, checking on his notes.

‘Yeah, that’s her,’ Minseok confirms.

‘Great- we’re meeting at the local park right?’ Baekhyun looks sheepish, reaffirming everything he himself had planned out some weeks ago.

‘Yeap,’ Jongdae adds, ‘But that’s in the evening- we’re meeting Mr. Son- not related whatsoever to this Mrs. Son, in the afternoon at another park. Thank god Tao’s here- honestly, I love parks, but like, they’re all the same to me-‘

‘How have you lived this long?’ Zitao asks, offended.

‘Excuse me, I just said I love parks, but like, I don’t think you need to have a personal relationship with every individual park to be, I don’t know, learned-‘

‘-oh my god hyung-‘

Baekhyun wheezes as he walks alongside Minseok.

‘They have the dumbest arguments.’

‘Remind me again how you all know each other,’ Minseok asks with amused tiredness. His legs were sore and cramped but this walking around the city was actually helping somewhat.

‘Through Yixing-hyung!’ Baekhyun beams.

‘And don’t you know Yixing through Sehun?’

‘Yeap!’

Well. Okay then.

They grab a taxi to take them back to the hotel. Zitao was going to go over their whole schedule with them again, and even though Baekhyun was sometimes very scattered, he still had a firm grasp on planning things ahead effectively.

‘I’m ordering some food in,’ Jongdae calls from the bedside stand between the bunks of the cozy and well designed hostel room. ‘It’s surprisingly not expensive. Who wants what?’

‘Please, something sweet!’ Baekhyun immediately replies, not looking up from his phone as he and Zitao look over Baekhyun’s excessively colour-coded and organized excel sheet, comparing it with some other thing Zitao had open on his iPad.

‘Hyung?’

‘I think I want breakfast.’

Jongdae laughs, ‘I’ll see what they might have- you know what, I’ll just go down and ask instead.’

‘Ayeeee, use that charm of yours,’ Baekhyun crows while Zitao nods in agreement.

‘Oh hyung, you’ll enjoy this,’ Baekhyun elbows Zitao who, still a little shy around Minseok, hands him his iPad. ‘It’s the history of the place- that specific location more like.’

‘Yeah?’ Minseok smiles, mentally noting to never tell any of the people in this current team his “love” for history was simply to get a better understanding on what could be potentially causing a haunting.

And well .

According to the PDFs Zitao had obtained from the historians specializing in the area, the land over which the hostel was built one used to previously hold temporary barracks and hospices during the war. And Minseok wants to throw the iPad across the room.

There was actually a memorial site as well, not too far from the hostel.

Great. Just great.

Maybe all of this was true then- and not Jongdae’s high school janitor level story. Maybe there was definitely some level of activity – heightened by the despair of the children who slept and lived there, the already agitated spirits that lived there, leeching off of their sorrow, worry, and the blatant corruption practiced by the people who were meant to take care of the place.

Minseok makes a mental note to prepare little charms, for protection and some cleansing, when he gets to his bunk. Both Jongdae and Baekhyun slept like rocks, so Minseok would have the opportunity either later tonight or tomorrow, to quickly whip up some minor charm sigils to place on their being and belongings.

And definitely on Zitao as well – if all of this was true, and Zitao returning could potentially be bad as he was already susceptible to the hostel’s grasp. The entirety of the hostel would have a strange weight on Zitao for sure- and Minseok would rather be prepared than go into this completely unprotected.

Better safe than sorry, as Minseok likes to think of everything.

Jongdae returns, pleased with himself, as he announces that their food will be sent up within the hour, and that they would also be getting some freshly baked egg-tarts.

Jongdae’s ability to instantly charm people was very helpful.

However, it’s not even 15 minutes later that there’s a knock on their door.

‘Wow that was fast-‘ Jongdae comments. Zitao stands instead, closest to the door and goes to open it letting out a loud and shocked gasp.

‘What-‘

‘Kyungsoo?!’

Do Kyungsoo stands at the door, bundled up in a warm jacket and beanie, looking in with a faint smile and saying, ‘Heard you were hitting up our old hostel Tao-yah, thought I’d join if it’s not a problem.’

‘Oh my god!’ Zitao recovers from his shock and is quick to crouch down and gently hug Kyungsoo, bringing him inside. Minseok notes how Zitao doesn’t cling the same way he did with Baekhyun and Jongdae, aware of Kyungsoo’s need for personal space.

‘Kyungsoo wow-!’ Baekhyun’s eyes are sparkling.

‘How did you even know about this-‘ Jongdae looks incredibly confused.

‘Wait- you guys know each other?!’ Zitao looks at everyone in the room with wide eyes.

‘-how did we not know you knew each other-‘ Baekhyun splutters, fingers pointing around at everyone.

‘-I don’t understand how we’ve known each other, but not known you knew each other did you both know about this-‘ Zitao rambles.

‘Chanyeol was telling me- you guys don’t mind? After all, I can help with the cameras and-‘ Kyungsoo cuts across the overlapping voices and stunned exclamation with ease, his voice calm and mild.

‘Not at all!’ Baekhyun grins wide and happily before going to go and hug him.

‘Hyung?’ Kyungsoo looks over at Minseok who was honestly also wondering how they all knew each other.

‘Honestly, please, you’re a blessing sent to us,’ Minseok says heartily, reaching over to hug the younger man. ‘I didn’t think I’d survive this trip having to tail after all three-‘

‘Hey!’ Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Zitao protest loudly.

Kyungsoo laughs, pulling off his beanie revealing his still short hair. Jongdae is quick to rubs his hands all over his head, kissing the side of his head in delight.

‘You went to the same hostel?’ Baekhyun asks in disbelief as they all sit around.

‘Yeah,’ Kyungsoo nods, smiling at Zitao, ‘I was a class above Tao- but we sometimes had the same room together.’

Zitao nods to that, knees bouncing where he sat, ‘This was when hyung was taller than me.’

There’s bursts of laughter.

‘Oh my god Kyungsoo my bro-‘

‘-please never address me like that again-‘

‘-can we interview you that’ll be so good-‘

‘-yES PLEASE SAY YES!’

Kyungsoo nods, picking at the cuff of his jacket, and it really dawns on Minseok how strange all of this was.

‘Yeah, I have a lot of stories to tell as well.’

(Author’s Notes)

Listen- isn’t is perfect to have Kyungsoo here

Okay story time, other than the fic, when my sisters were younger, my parents sent them to a hostel/school in India and WOW the stories they came back with

It’s an actual school called Rock Vale, in Darjeeling, and I think it’s been torn down now, but every single student from there will probably be able to tell you some of the stories I’ve written out or will be writing soon

The hostel building itself was over some land that used to have barracks for wounded soldiers is what was relayed to me, again, I am not sure how much of this is true, but it was very close to a hospital, and in the past, people were buried/burnt in the area where the hostel was then built.

The stories are slightly exaggerated ofc, but damn the girl in the wall story still stuck to me because my sister once said she saw a painted braided pigtail on the wall behind a closet in the girls dorms and

Yeah

=/

So yeah, don’t read these next updates at night I guess? It’ll get worse from here! ^_^