‘Nothing will hurt you.’

Minseok can’t turn, can’t look up. He’s hurt, his heart heavy, breaking, missing-

A hand on his head, it’s strangely cold and not at all familiar. But Minseok allows it to take him to his bedroom. He climbs into his bed, now cold, and clumsy hands pull at the blankets, adjusting them around him.

‘What happened?’ Minseok asks.

‘Nothing,’ the voice replies, ‘Just sleep, I’ll be here.’

‘I-…I don’t know who you are,’ Minseok says shakily, ‘I don’t want you!’

He’s pushed down against the bed, and he’s too scared to even scream. He feels It’s breath fanning against his head, fingers gently carding through his hear, the edge of his ear and he’s shaking hard, breathless with fear.

‘You were calling, and I heard you.’

And finally, Minseok allows himself to hear It. Here what It has to say to him.

It leans in and-

‘What do you wish for?’

Minseok stops shaking. The fear in him subsides as he thinks of what he could wish for- what he wanted.

What did he want?

Slowly turning, the answer ready on his tongue, he faces It and replies shakily, ‘I want my grandpa back.’

‘I am here.’

‘You’re- you’re not my grandpa.’

There’s pressure on him and it makes him cry out.

‘Oh I love you so much, grandpa loves you so much-‘

Minseok’s father steps into the room, switching on the low light, looking at his son worriedly.

‘Baby?’

Minseok starts crying, his whole body shaking.

His dad quickly makes his way to the side of the bed where that dark force had sat down, pushing down on him, wearing the shape of his grandfather, speaking in his voice.

His father’s hug is comforting.

‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ he says quietly before adding, ‘I think he had a nightmare.’

It’s his mum.

Minseok steps aside from the doorway, only just realizing that Lu Han is there too. He looks terrible, blood dripping down his nose, skin blotched as he forcibly secures this deep and forgotten memory far down in Minseok’s mind.

‘I got it,’ he grits out, ‘I got it, keep concentrating- remember-!’

‘It’s been getting bad,’ she whispers, walking over and kneeling besides the bed, hand gently pushing back Minseok’s sweaty damp hair.

‘He misses him,’ his father looks upset.

‘You both do,’ his mum squeezes his dad’s knee gently.

Minseok’s dad sighs out, it’s shaky, holding Minseok tighter.

‘I just- I wish I could have done more,’ his dad sounds like he’s crying. Minseok can’t quite see his face. ‘I should have done more, this wouldn’t have happened if- if I had paid more attention if-‘

‘Don’t say that,’ his mum’s voice is gentle, ‘You don’t know that-‘

‘-but I do,’ his dad holds him tighter. ‘I should have been there for him he just-…he was lost and alone. I should have done more-‘

His mum kneels up, wrapping her arms around them both. Her face is turned towards them, towards the door. Her eyes are shiny with tears as she hugs her husband and child. Then, a frown appears between her brows as she stares at the doorway, where Lu Han was standing, holding this memory down, exerting all of his strength.

‘I don’t-…I don’t think we should move just yet,’ his dad says after a while. The memory starts becoming hazy- Minseok guesses he’s falling asleep.

‘Moving might help him,’ his mum replies, still eyeing the door with a troubled look, ‘It might help him move on…a distraction?’

His dad looks around to the doorway, following his wife’s line of sight.

‘I think he was in the kitchen again…’

‘Oh,’ his mum looks sad. ‘He’s really just waiting for him now, isn’t he?’

‘Didn’t Sohee say she caught him going to the kitchen several times?’

His mum nods.

‘I think he’s just-…trying to recreate what it was like, what they used to do.’

Lu Han groans, the veins on his neck and side of his head popping, his skin incredibly pale and sweaty.

‘We will just need to wait I think- this requires time, both of you-‘

There’s a might crash of thunder and lighting overly brighter shoots down before him and with a scream, Minseok lands backwards on the floor of Lu Han’s living room floor.

‘ - ouch-!’

Minseok feels weak but he pushes himself to the side to look at Lu Han.

He looks worse for wear, blood splattered around his nose and mouth, hair wet with sweat, the shirt he’s wearing is damp. Ku, Ma, and Mon are all keeping a wary distance from them, watching them both.

The sun is out, bright and strong.

‘,’ Lu Han says again, panting where he lay, unable to move. ‘ buns, this is not going to be easy.’

*

Showered and nursing a cup of tea that’s more sugar than anything else, Minseok sits on Lu Han’s comfy couch as the latter expertly administers an IV drip into his arm.

‘…is that-‘

‘I’ve been trained,’ Lu Han waves him off, looking absolutely terrible.

Minseok feels very bad.

‘I’d rather not go to the hospital and explain this to the nurses if I’m being honest- besides, hospitals, you know?’

Minseok nods though he’s not sure in what context Lu Han was referring to the hospitals.

‘So,’ Lu Han adjusts the strap carefully in a way Minseok knows he’s done this MANY times now. ‘Let’s discuss.’

Minseok drinks the mostly sugar tea and nods.

Lu Han gestures to him with his free hand.

‘Look,’ Minseok sighs, ‘This is new information to me too. I didn’t know I had a deep or emotional connection to my grandfather.’

‘Well it seems like you did and his death wasn’t easy on you,’ Lu Han sighs out, leaning back from across Minseok. ‘We look crazy.’

And they really did.

3 cats, a shaky grown man drinking tea from an overly dainty porcelain cup wrapped in a blanket, no socks, hair all over the place, and another shaky grown man with a drip hooked into his arm.

‘I think I’ll need to call Sohee about this,’ Minseok tells Lu Han. ‘I don’t remember a thing about this. Maybe after that, call my parents.’

‘That’s gonna be a great conversation,’ Lu Han gives him a thumb’s up, ‘Have fun.’

Minseok can barely roll his eyes.

‘What I want to know,’ Lu Han says slowly, staring out of his now open window. ‘Is how this happened.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Clearly you were attached to your grandfather, that much we can state for sure. After his death…I think it’s possible that his spirit lingered, or at least, you saw him after his death.’

Minseok nods.

‘But the thing is…that new memory,’ Lu Han says slowly, ‘Where the figures are inside, not outside, and then…that takes on your grandfather’s form. What was that about?’

Minseok shrugs.

‘How did that get there?’ Lu Han seems to be talking more to himself than anything else. ‘It took the shape of your grandfather…almost trying to…mimic him…-well. I honestly can’t think at the moment. We need to rest and gain our strength back.’

Minseok nods to that.

‘You should stay here buns-‘

‘-I have things to do.’

‘-yeah but neither of us are going out of here for at least today,’ Lu Han levels him with a stern look, ‘We’re both exhausted- at every level- I can’t allow you to leave the safety of my house, I’m keeping the security of this place secure, you don’t think It is waiting to crash in here at any given moment?’

Minseok sighs.

‘Just sleep buns,’ Lu Han carefully sits up. ‘First call Sohee though, then we pass the out.’

‘All right-‘

‘-you want some edibles?’

‘How do you-!?’ Minseok huffs out before grimacing at the other man and saying, ‘Thanks but no.’

Lu Han just grins cheekily at him and honestly Minseok has no idea if he’s joking or not. He takes Lu Han’s proffered phone, Sohee’s number already out. Minseok is filled with a strange sense of apprehension as he dials Sohee’s number.

‘Minseok?’

‘How did you know it was me?’

‘I’ve called your phone several times now- I…I saw you in my dream last night.’

‘What did you see?’ Minseok puts her on speaker, placing the phone down on the table.

‘I saw you as a child,’ she tells him quietly, ‘And…you were crying. A lot. We were at the kitchen of the house where you were born, I found you in the kitchen, crying. I asked you why you were crying and you said you couldn’t him. I asked you who you were talking about but you wouldn’t stop crying.’

‘Would’ve loved this dream like, yesterday,’ Lu Han sighs out, making himself comfortable next to Minseok, handing him a large bowl of ramyeon with 2 eggs, 2 sausages, and a leaf of spinach to feel healthy.

‘What happened?’ Sohee asks sharply.

Minseok recounts what happened. Everything from the night before, how his face blurred, how he ran to Lu Han’s place, how he looked into Minseok’s memories and what they discovered.

‘Of course I remember,’ Sohee replies when asked if she remembered about Minseok’s grandfather. She sounds disturbed. ‘Minseok…I guess your dad didn’t tell you. I think-…I think I understand why.’

‘What is it?’

‘Your grandfather, at least this is what your mother told me some time ago, he…after his wife, your grandmother died, he started to develop dementia.’

Lu Han looks up sharply at that.

‘It wasn’t very bad at first. But it progressively got worse and suddenly, he was forgetting everyone even his children. Your dad and his siblings had terrible fights about it. Your dad wanted your grandfather to move in with your family, but his older siblings wanted him to stay in the family home. Your father wanted to get him checked and even get a live-in nurse to watch over him, but his siblings wanted him to remain in the family home. They said they would tend to him.’

Lu Han is putting his bowl away and grabbing his laptop, furrow between his brows.

‘I know he was incredibly fond of you- you were the baby, the youngest born in the family, and that too after his wife died.’

Minseok has tears in his eyes.

‘He went missing for a few days after a terrible spell and your dad left to search for him. They found him, but he was already dead.’

Minseok barely registers Lu Han handing him a tissue.

‘I didn’t…is this something to do with what’s happening?’ Sohee asks carefully.

‘Hey quick question,’ Lu Han chimes in, ‘But did Minseok’s dad’s siblings try to cure their mentally ailing dad by introducing ritualistic or shamanistic practices?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sohee sounds unsure, ‘Minseok’s dad never mentioned it. Maybe So-young knows, should I ask her?’

‘Yes, please,’ Lu Han replies for Minseok. ‘I think that…I think mistakes were made. And I think it’s attached to Minseok now.’

‘What can we do?’ Sohee asks immediately.

Minseok looks over at Lu Han, an overwhelming sense of loss and grief washing over him- anew, as though finally understanding what haunted him when he was so young.

Lu Han gives him a gentle smile, reaching over to pat at his cheeks.

‘We’re gonna call reinforcement.’

*

All proceeds of the ad revenue from this episode will be directly donated to the The Bail Project

‘Hey what’s up guys and welcome to a new chapter of Once Upon an Unsolved Vlog!’

‘Today we will be delving into a story chosen very specifically by Lu-hyung!’

‘That’s honestly a good reason to be terrified!’

‘I think Lu will be pleased to hear that.’

‘Hyung, you’ve read it, how did you like it.’

‘It’s good.’

‘…’

‘…’

‘That did nothing to placate me.’

‘Well! Vagueness aside, shall we greet our guest for today!’

‘Absolutely! I think you will all be very happy to see who our guest is-‘

‘Hey guys, it’s Eric Nam! Nice to meet you all, so happy to be here!’

‘Woo! Guys it’s Eric!’

‘Ah, it feels very international today.’

‘It does?’

‘Should it?’

‘Say hi in every language you know!’

‘Please don’t put me on the spot-!’

(Hit you with that ad-u, ad-u, ad-u, du!)

‘So I think we should also shout out our good friend and guest from when we could actually, you know, shake hands with people, Yongsun noona!’

‘Yongsun noona hi!’

‘Yes, Yongsun and I are good friends! I started watching your channel after your collaboration and honestly, I love it so much, I love Unsolved so much!’

‘And we love K-Pop Daebak so much too!’

‘With no shame can I ask if we can use your connections to get some celebrities on our vlog.’

‘Ignore him-‘

‘-I WANNA TALK TO TIFFANY YOUNG OKAY-?!’

‘So! Have you had any experiences with anything supernatural?’

‘Well, nothing to the scale of what you guys have been covering. But I think it’s safe to say we’ve all felt like, there’s something under our beds, or something’s watching us. Paranoia and stuff we see in movies I guess?’

‘Basically just projection?’

‘Yes! I will never forget the day I watched Exorcism of Emily Rose and how I couldn’t sleep in my room for almost a week, I shared with my older brother until he kicked me out.’

‘I’ve watched that movie and I can absolutely understand why you didn’t want to sleep alone!

Because I think I can safely say I have not slept alone since I watched that movie.’

‘What?’

‘What?’

‘What?!’

‘Yeah!

I watched it when I was in high school, sharing a room with my brother, and when I moved out to go to uni in the city, I started sharing with a roommate and then with Jongdae! I’ve never slept alone since!’

‘…you seem proud of that.’

‘It’s called careful self preservation. I recommend it!’

‘What would you say is your favourite episode so far? Not to like, put you in the limelight or anything but-‘

‘It’s okay! I have an answer to this!

I really enjoyed the mansion episode, your sugar daddy material classmates childhood home? That one just really got me I don’t know why. It was very good, such a good story!’

‘Ah, I think we need to shout-out Sehun for a vast majority of people calling Junmyeon-hyung their glucose guardian.’

‘Glucose- glucose guardian?’

‘Yeah, a more polite version of sugar daddy I guess.’

‘…I don’t hate that actually.’

‘I kinda like it, what about C6H12O6 contributor?’

‘Carbohydrate caretaker.’

‘Sucrose supporter.’

‘Confectionary compadre.’

‘See, I knew you’d bring a much needed international flavour to our show.’

‘Hyung, anything to add?’

‘…sweet…parent?’

‘…’

‘…’

‘…’

‘So! Moving on with today’s chapter! Special guest Eric Nam are you ready!’

‘I am so ready! I actually have popcorn with me!’

‘As expected of an international-‘

‘PLEASE STOP!’

The house I used to live in as a child wasn’t the best.

My family had fallen into a terrible financial loss, added to that my dad got really sick, and my siblings and I were pulled out of school. The memories I have of this house aren’t the best. There are of course, some happy moments, because as kids, somehow you’re not always fully aware of how bad things really are.

But in my own way, having lived there from the age of 6 to 11, I remember a lot that is frankly unexplainable. In my culture it’s not weird to see ghosts or spirits or be in tune with the supernatural. It’s almost a fact that nearly everyone in the family, with the exception of my dad and younger brother, have had supernatural experiences and most of it started and centered around this house.

Especially after we discovered the secret room.

‘Honestly I don’t blame anyone for experiencing weird after coming across a secret room.’

‘I think, all magic and wonder and like, Narnia kinda vibes out of the way, I think it would be quite unsettling.’

I think there’s a lot to say about how depression and trauma really changes the way you perceive things, or at least when you grow up in an environment like that, how many things translate differently.

One of the reasons why I’m sending in this story is because of Season 2’s episode on the children’s hostel. I think that really opened my eyes to what I went through as a child, and how I remembered things. I’d like to take a moment to thank you for covering that story, it’s helped me process my memories a little differently!

‘Oh my god?’

‘Wow…this is-

We’re happy that the episode helped you.’

‘Most of the time we’ve been told this specific episode has given people trauma.’

But that aside, I want to share the stories I remember, as well as my sister’s and mother’s recollection on what happened during the 5 years we lived in that house.

I think there needs to be a slight backstory first.

We used to live in a nice big house before- my parents were financially stable and doing really well in their business. My sisters went to one of the best international schools and I was getting ready to follow after them. But then due to regrettable issues, my father’s business failed and from what I remember (because my parents don’t really want to talk about it) it was really bad and threw us into debt for a long time.

We had to move from our house, and move into a smaller cheaper place.

It was a sort of housing flat, each floor was occupied by a small family. The building was super dark, you rarely received any amount of sunlight throughout the day, the only place you could get some sunlight was the rooftop area. Which you could only access by walking up 4 flights of stairs, through the landlord’s living room and kitchen, and then up a very nightmare-inducing rusted iron staircase that stretched over a 5 story drop.

‘This is not a good place to live.’

‘For sure.’

Inside, the walls were always somehow damp. Winters were terrible, and I remember the kitchen used to have a leaking wall that my mum tried her best to keep dry but ultimately the only thing we could do in the end was to nail some plywood over it. It wasn’t a great house, by any means, but it was a house and we were lucky to get it for so cheap.

‘I think I know what it would be cheap.’

I think one of the first things I remember personally witnessing was sitting in the kitchen eating a snack and talking to my mum who was at the sink and a man walked past the kitchen door from the bathroom and into the living room. I didn’t know if maybe we had a guest, and I asked my mum if we had a guest. She asked me why and I said I saw a man come out of the bathroom.

‘…this is that point in a movie where you just start yelling LEAVE!’

I remember her staring at me for a while before she told me to stay where I was and she went to check the whole house. That was one of the first things.

‘Well…it’s a strong start for sure.’

‘Hey, if this happened to you, how would you tell your parents and would they believe you?’

‘I think…they would probably believe me. I wasn’t the kind of kid who used to lie, and I think they’d take it seriously.’

‘I think, supernatural or not, I think my parents would consider it quite carefully for sure. This could definitely be a cultural thing for sure. Maybe even religious. But I think this would cause some reason for alarm.’

I would overhear my mum telling my eldest sister about how she thought she saw someone standing at the foot of the bed at night. She had thought it was our dad, but he had been next to her. She got up to check and wake my dad but the person was gone.

My older sister and I used to share a room. Our room is furthest from the bathroom and at night when you’re that young and small, it’s annoying and honestly creepy to go the toilet by yourself, so we used to buddy up and go together. I think this was mostly for my benefit as my sister rarely woke me up to go to the bathroom. But one night she climbed into my bed out of the blue, waking me up. It was only some years later she told me that as she was coming back from the bathroom, she saw a group of people sitting in the living room, watching her walk past.

The house was weird in general.

‘I have a feeling this is going to be an absolute understatement.’

My eldest sister’s bedroom had windows that looked out into the living room. All our doors were double doors. The bathroom had two windows, one that looked out to the back compound where the underground water tank was located, and the other looked out into a brick wall through which we had spiders, house lizards, and other pests come through. We heard bats a few times as well.

‘I think it’s fair to say-‘

‘-burn the house down?’

‘Yeah.’

We also had a horrible issue with strange smells. It normally acted up in the middle of the night and lingered into the morning, concentrating in the kitchen.

In general, this was not a good house. Supernaturally inclined or not, it just wasn’t a good house. My eldest sister was constantly sick when we lived here, and I firmly believe because of this house she still has lingering health issues with her lungs. Of course this was especially terrible because my dad got really sick with a very intense case of bronchitis that nearly killed him and he still has terrible coughing fits till now.

In general, this house just really .

‘Wow, this is- I think this is just really sad.’

‘I agree.’

Wow this story is turning out to be me just talking about how much I hated this house.

‘That’s totally understandable to be honest.’

But to the main point of this story.

We all understood and knew, but didn’t really acknowledge, that something was up. Whenever we heard strange sounds, saw things from the corner of our eyes, heard voices that didn’t belong to anyone in the family, saw figures moving around at night in our bedrooms, we just ignored it and moved on with our lives.

However, this would change greatly one incredibly random day.

I remember this so vividly- it’s almost like a short movie tucked away in my mind.

I was playing in my room and my two older sisters were in the living room studying. My mum was making lunch and dad had gone out. I heard my mum calling my sisters to come to the kitchen to watch her pots because she had to do something in the small storeroom attached to our kitchen. I was around 8 at the time, and I hadn’t gone to school in over 2 years; I was admittedly lonely and always took the opportunity to hang out with my older sisters when they weren’t studying. So I knew they’d be in the kitchen so I went there to join in on the activity of well, just hanging out in the kitchen I suppose.

‘That’s so cute but wretched at the same time.’

‘I know right? Hurts my heart.’

Something to be noted about the kitchen was that it was quite long. At the end was the counters on which the stove, sink, and other cooking items were stored. Next to the sink is the door to the storeroom, and then the dining table is pushed up to one side of the wall and then the door to the kitchen opens up. There were 3 windows in the kitchen, one at the end, and one to the side that opened to the courtyard out front. Then there was another one, similar to the one in the bathroom, that was bricked up. This window was quite high up on the wall and my mum had once placed a pretty and unused cooking pot there as decoration.

I remember walking in and my sisters were at the stove, but their attention was to the door of the storeroom, listening to mum who was sighing about how she would have to move the rack that had been pushed up against one side of the wall.

The storeroom could only fit one adult in it at a time. The light was a really bad yellow-ish low quality bulb that frequently gave out or literally exploded regularly. From what I understood, something from the top of the shelf fell down the back and my mum was trying to push the rack away to retrieve it.

‘I hate this so much.’

I was not eager for what I thought would be a rush of spiders or house lizards that would undoubtedly burst out because I have personally seen spiders the size of my hands in that storeroom.

‘Supernatural or not, I hate this already.’

‘Agreed. I’m not scared of spiders like- it’s not a phobia, but when I see one, it’s surprising and just-

Really gets to me, like my skin feels prickly.’

‘Yeah! Me too!’

I sit at the table, watching my mum push the shelves away and the sound of wood scraping on hard cement floor screeches through the kitchen. I’m about to ask my mum if I should bring the broom when I see a literal door.

It’s partially open.

‘It’s- it’s open?!’

I remember the absolute fear gripping me.

My mum hadn’t seen it yet, she was still struggling with the shelves, and my sisters were still at the stove, watching the cooking pots.

But I could see it. And in that darkness I thought – I genuinely felt, something was looking at me.

I think I let out a belated scream, not very loud, just a startled scream, and that was when my mum saw it too. So she let out a startled gasp too. Both my sisters hurry to the storeroom and they gasp too.

We had no idea there was a whole door, let alone behind the shelves. The shelves had always been there, and we never thought of moving it because if you didn’t keep it there, you couldn’t close the door to the storeroom.

I’m kinda stuck on my seat, watching this whole thing play out. I can’t look away because I just can’t take my eyes away from the sliver of darkness of whatever was behind this door.

‘…’

‘…’

‘…’

‘…’

My mum pulls the shelf away a bit more and my sisters are helping her by removing some of the heavier things from the shelf. Once they get the shelf away enough for my mum to reach through to feel for a light switch, I can finally sort of move.

There’s no light switch, and the light from the storeroom is too weak to cast a light into this space that widens up as my mum pushes the door further into the room. We didn’t have any batteries for the flashlight, so we got a candle and lit it up. I didn’t want to get closer, but I was also curious. So I stood by the doorway and watched as my mum carefully entered this secret room.

It smelt cold. I remember it so vividly. It smelt cold and empty, if that could even be a description.

It was a room, no doors leading into it other than the one in the storeroom, and no windows save for the bricked up window that it shared with the kitchen.

My older sister had bravely stepped in after my mum and pointed to a small narrow door. It could be opened and inside was a small narrow room. Further inside at the end was a small toilet with a window that connected to our bathroom.

‘This is-‘

‘-the worst.’

‘That must be…it must be so unsettling. To have lived in a house like that, and just to- just to discover something like that.’

‘Yeah…that’s just…yeah.’

This room and toilet are lower down with steps leading down for reasons I still don’t understand now. But they’re filled with water. According to my mum who was loudly exclaiming, that this was probably where and why we kept getting wet floors and walls. There was a steady drip of water down the side of the wall in here too, pooling up in these specific places.

My mum told my eldest sister to go up to call the landlord down. I remember her wondering out loud how and why they never told them about this.

This was before mobile phones were a thing, and we couldn’t call our dad to ask him to come home. My eldest sister came down and told us that the landlord was out and so was his wife. However their cleaning lady, a very elderly woman we were all low-key afraid of, said she would come down.

My dad gets home before the cleaning lady comes down and he’s absolutely shell-shocked. By this time we’ve lit more candles and I’ve summoned the courage to poke my head into the room but that’s it. My dad gets a stick from the courtyard and pokes at the dark water in the room to check the depth. It’s about a solid foot of questionable water.

‘The health hazard this place is just-!!’

The cleaning lady comes down.

Some back story about this cleaning lady: she took care of the landlord when he was younger, basically she’s been with him since he was born and is more of a housekeeper/nanny than anything else. She also takes care of the demon-like Shih Tzu dog called Lucy that has nearly bitten off my fingers on multiple occasions.

Besides the fact that she was generally creepy and frightening, I never, as a child, felt comfortable or safe around her. My sisters felt the same too. There was something strange about her that I never liked.

‘Just wanted to say that if a child says they’re not comfortable with another adult, please listen to them.’

‘Agreed! This is very important!’

She came into our home and it felt wrong to allow her to do so. I wanted to hide away and not let her see me in my own home.

She took one look at the door in the storeroom and started laughing. She told us that it was closed off because it was unsafe due to all the leaking. It was intended to be something like a servants quarters when the building, previously just this one ground level, was first built. She said it had been her room, but after the secondary and then third and then fourth floors were built on top, with some ty piping and other buildings going up, that side of the building had sunk down. They tried fixing it but it didn’t work. So they closed this part of the floor up.

My parents seemed okay with this explanation.

I was not.

I was freaked out.

‘EXCUSE ME BUT I WOULD BE TOO!’

The elderly lady leaves and my dad closes the door, this time making sure it was locked, and pushes the shelf back and it’s basically ignored after that.

After that day, I refused to go into the kitchen by myself, no matter what time of day or night.

‘Same?’

‘Same.’

‘Same.’

‘Same.’

And then I started having nightmares. I would have vivid nightmares of the doorway in the storeroom, of the hidden room, of the water filled rooms.

It got progressively worse and I was afraid to sleep most nights. I also have hydrophobia, and the idea of the room with the water just feet from where we sat to eat terrified me. The fact that parts of the land had sunk in terrified me. My older sister who had seen the rooms reassured me it was not bad. That the water was only a foot deep, and the building would not sink into a pocket of underground water like I feared.

I also started seeing more things.

‘Oh here we go-‘

More figures. This time not just from the corner of my eye or flitting shadows. But this time there were shadows pressed up against the curtains, forming human shapes as though people stood hiding behind the curtains. There were weights sitting on my bed as I slept, the pressure of a hand on my pillow as though someone was leaning up against my bed to stare down at me as I slept. There were blurred figures just out of visibility in the darkness of the rooms as daylight faded, right before we switched on the lights.

I thought I was overreacting.

‘I’m no expert but I don’t think you were overreacting at all!’

But I remember while I was reading a book, overhearing a conversation between my mum and dad. They were talking about my eldest sister who had apparently taken to extensively sleep talking.

They could hear her having lengthy conversations at night, but when my dad would go check on her, she’d be sound asleep.

‘Okay…this is…very uncomfortable to me.’

‘Me too.’

Another weird detail here is that in our home, the bedroom I shared with my older sister was also connected to my eldest sister’s room through a door. But we normally kept it closed and didn’t use it. My bed was opposite this door.

‘This is such a weird house what the actual -?’

‘I’m trying to visualize it and it’s? Bizarre?’

Somehow I had this hare-brained idea that I would try and listen to what my eldest sister was sleep talking about.

‘I would personally sleep as hard as I could.’

‘I had a roommate who used to sleep talk. It’s honestly not the most…comfortable thing to wake up to.’

It took me a while to sit up and listen but one night I manage. I’m too afraid to look out of my blanket but I listen hard. I don’t hear anything for a while, and I’m about to fall asleep when I hear my sister laugh.

Just then, my older sister climbs into my bed and I nearly scream. I ask her what’s wrong, and if something was wrong with our eldest sister or if she was talking to our parents. My older sister said she woke up to go to the bathroom and when she was coming back, heard our eldest sister talking. She’s just tall enough to look through the windows that are dumbly opened into her room and she said she saw a group of people standing around our eldest sister’s bed.

‘Once again-!’

‘-this is such a weird house!’

We huddled together, freaked out. After a while, we both hear our parents door opening and my sister stops speaking. The next day, my parents decide to keep the connecting door between our rooms open.

This seems to work, because my eldest sister stopped sleep talking. But then, I start sleepwalking.

‘Wow this is a real out of the frying pan and into the fire scenario.’

‘I don’t know which I’d prefer at this point.’

‘How about neither?’

‘Sounds good to me!’

I don’t know I’m doing this until I wake up mid-sleepwalk.

This specific night is what gave me nightmares and a lot of trauma related to sleep for a long time. When I watched Baekhyun sleepwalking during the DK Hostel episode, I felt like I understood, in a way I can’t explain, what happened to me.

‘Oh!’

I woke up in the kitchen, in the storeroom.

‘WHAT?’

I panicked and I cried and screamed. My parents rushed out, having heard me, and get me back to my room. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time I was sleepwalking. I was caught or spotted or heard several times for some weeks. Mostly by my older sister with whom I shared the room. But my parents frequently heard me too, opening the kitchen door and the storeroom.

I’m 4 years younger than my older sister, and so she’s taller than me. I can’t reach the locks on the door to our rooms, so my parents decide it was probably better if my sister locked the doors, including my eldest sister’s door, to keep me from sleepwalking.

This seems to work because I once woke up in the morning at the foot of our door.

However, one night, I wake up inside the secret room.

‘I WAS AFRAID OF THIS OH GOD-!’

I immediately want to scream. I don’t know how I got in, it was impossible for me to unlock the doors of my bedroom, let alone undo the locks in the kitchen, storeroom, and push the heavy wooden shelf as well.

I want to scream but I can’t.

Instead, my jaw locked, my body unable to move, I’m standing in front of the dreaded room with the water.

I can tell it’s deep. Because inside the water, floating underneath the surface, I can see people. They’re perfectly vertical under the water, standing up right. Their heads are all turned to me. Past this room, in the toilet, I see a figure. It’s crouched and covered in a thick wiry hairy cloak.

I can finally scream.

When I do, it’s like the room snaps, and it’s all dark again, the water is no longer clear, and the figures inside the water were now standing in a huddle in the center of the room around what looked like a small bonfire.

I hear my parents slamming doors open and rushing into the room and grabbing me.

Most of this part is a blur. I remember that I was taken out of there and into my parents bedroom. I remember my dad rushing around to gather my sisters and bring them in while he went to check around the house and check the secret room.

They knew I couldn’t open that door. They knew I couldn’t reach the locks, that I couldn’t possibly push that shelf.

I was in a state of shock and I’m personally surprised I remember as much as I do. We all spend the night in my parents room. My dad goes to the landlord first thing in the morning and demands that he has the room sealed up.

I remember my parents being distraught that they couldn’t afford to move. I remember the hushed conversations of money, hopelessness, this strange supernatural phenomena happening.

‘…’

‘…’

‘…’

‘…’

‘Lu-hyung, I love you and you choose great stories but honestly what the ?’

I didn’t know about it, but apparently just some nights before this, my dad had seen a man exiting the kitchen, lunging at him and pushing him to the ground. I only knew my dad had a fall, and we had been incredibly worried about him because it hadn’t been long since he recovered from his bronchitis. He was still on strong meds.

‘Oh god-.’

The landlord brought bricks and blocked up the doorway, sealing it away. My parents didn’t know what to say- they just said there were massive issues with stench and rats and so it was sealed away.

We were able to finally leave that place about a year later. I’ll be honest, that last year spent in that house is a blur to me. The years before that I remembered clearly. But that final year is a blur.

‘I think I’d purposefully just try to forget it all.’

‘Trauma and grief does that to you I suppose.’

Some years later, after we were able to settle into our very own home, I had a dream about the secret room. Up to that point, I had somewhat forgotten about it. It was as though that dream triggered all of my memories of that place. I was 16 then, and we finally properly discussed what we had all seen and felt and experienced.

In the end, my mum told us that some months after we had left, she had met with our neighbour. My mum decided that she would tell her about what happened now that we had left. We didn’t tell anyone prior to that out of fear that people would think we were literally crazy. But our neighbour, who had been in that neighborhood for quite a while, told us that we were the only people to live there for as long as we did.

Of course my mum didn’t tell her the reason we didn’t leave straight away was because we literally couldn’t afford to do so.

But my mum asked some more questions and it turns out that the landlord’s family were deeply connected to black magic. I don’t know how much of this is something you might believe in, but in my country, there are people from specific regions who believe firmly in black magic and who practice it too. The cleaning lady/nanny/dog sitter used to be a “priestess” of sorts when she was younger. I know it’s difficult to translate over what the association of black magic might be in a cultural context but hearing that made so much sense to us.

It’s been some years that I finally stopped having nightmares about that house, but occasionally, I’ll smell that cold empty smell when I’m out. Or I’ll see a body of water and I end up having a nervous breakdown.

It’s gotten much better now.

I’ve followed Unsolved Vlogs since Season 1 and after the DK Children’s Hostel episode I think I was somehow able to understand what I went through, or at least, have some form of final closure. Thank you for that episode! I know this story isn’t that scary or well, doesn’t really have much of a story to it, but I just wanted to write in and tell you that this channel has really helped me! Thank you for your hard work!

‘Well…’

‘Wow this is…’

‘First of all, I’m glad that we were able to help you.

We’ll be honest, we didn’t think this…we didn’t think what we did would be able to help at this level.’

‘Yeah, we’ve always wanted to well, in a sense, have a good time, and hopefully others will also have a good time watching what we do and now especially with how the world is, be entertained even if it’s for a short period of time.’

‘We’re happy, honoured really, that we could help!’

‘Thank you so much for reaching out with your story!’

‘Okay but can we just-‘

‘Yes

-please I am bursting-‘

‘-first of all I am not familiar with black magic or at least, maybe not in this specific culture, here I guess there’s some level of shamanism that many would definitely describe as being black magic.’

‘I think the general understanding of black magic is just- anything ritualistic that is meant to be negative or used for negative results?’

‘Yeah, so we definitely have that here. And I guess, maybe throwing back to our previous episode, for sure, as Asians I think we-‘

‘-have an understanding where we kinda just accept supernatural things?’

‘Is this something you’re familiar with international special guest Eric Nam?’

‘I-…’

(much needed ad break!)

‘For sure, in America I think there’s a definite lack of any element of supernatural beliefs tied deeply with our culture. There are definitely things like urban myths, folklore and spooky stories, but it’s not-…like if something happened to me in a house I lived in, and I was told people who built it practiced black magic, to me, or at least most Americans, we’re not going to immediately just go ‘oh that makes sense, I see why we were experiencing that’- at least, not to this level, you know?’

‘Do you sometimes think-‘

‘-most of us do this on a daily basis-‘

‘-I will cut you-‘

(Ad again!)

‘Do you sometimes wonder about this situation? What if people frequently experience supernatural things but it just doesn’t register to them that what they’re experiencing is supernatural?’

‘This is with the assumption that it is supernatural.

I think it’s also safe to mention that a lot of Asian cultures use the supernatural as a way of explaining mental health issues or PTSD or trauma.’

‘Oh that’s an excellent point! I do think that that is definitely something that most cultures experience.’

‘We do mention it a lot in our shows, but stress, anxiety, depression-‘

‘-grief. I think people often don’t realize how grief, and not just grief in terms of losing someone, but grief over the loss of normalcy, grief over the loss of innocence- it’s not things you just cry about and feel better. Especially if you’re young and you don’t know how to process it.’

‘I think you guys should start a segment where you discuss topics like these! It would be very interesting I think!’

‘Ah, we’re honoured-‘

‘-oh, I don’t think we’re all that smart or knowledgeable enough to do that-‘

‘-ehehehe-‘

‘-thank you-‘

‘They do really get awkward when they’re complimented.’

‘They absolutely do.’

‘So I’m guessing it’s safe to say you liked this story?’

‘I absolutely did! Your subscribers have-…have some very interesting stories!’

‘That’s a very polite way of saying it!’

‘We’ve really enjoyed reading them actually, and we wish we could do a full segment on the channel here where we read every story that we come across but-‘

‘-sike! Guys, we do read some of the stories that are sent to us over on Twitch!’

‘So please come say hi there to listen to some of these stories live!’

‘Consider me a listener!’

‘Thank you!’

‘I just realized something.’

‘What is it?’

‘I forgot to eat my popcorn.’

*

Comments have been disabled for this video.

*

Author’s note

I intended to have a comment section mirror exactly what was happening online last year but I- decided not to. I don’t think we should relive that toxicity and also I know a lot of people disabled commenting in many of their videos because of trolls and people trying to pick fights left and right
I think the internet is a place tbh
I’ve been wondering about how to follow up how things were based on the whole timeline of how things went last year, as I included the pandemic, of course I would write a chapter that took place during that time
And now, almost exactly around the same time as BLM, we are seeing anti-asian hate crimes rising all around the world
And honestly this is
So exhausting to witness
To LIVE
I was so genuinely SO tired, god it just really hurts my heart and guys, what else is there to say right? 
sigh
Okay tht’s out of my system
NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT BAEKHYUN ENLISTING JESUS ING CHRIST
Well, I was expecting it for sure. But also, at the same time i-…=(
I know he’s gonna do well. My good boi, 92 line are now all going in 
Also made me think about-
You know I think it should be a rule
The maknaes should never enlist
It feels wrong
Thinking about sehun enlisting
Or taemin
Or Jungkook
Or Yugyeum
Like…that just…it’s wrong to me, somehow, you know what I mean????
ALSO PLEASE CONGRATULATE ME I AM AN EMPLOYED PERSON YAAAAAAAAY
IT’S PROBABLY GONNA AND WORK DAYS ARE 6 DAYS A WEEK BECAUSE THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS IN MY COUNTRY AND THE PAY IS BUT HEY, IT’S SOMETHING RIGHT??? 
also stream Lilac by IU and LMLY by Jackson iconic slapping songs thank you for these songs
also fun note this story is based almost exactly on the house i used to live in as a kid, secret room and all included! but we knew there was an adjacent sort of studio room unit thing behind our flat we just didn't know there was a ING DOOR that connected us. i used to have a lot of nightmares about it. no sleepwalking though! but my eldest sister DID sleeptalk a lot lmao