‘If you’re wondering why we’re dressed like this today-‘

‘It’s not permanent don’t worry we’re not gonna be dressed like this the whole episode-‘

‘YES YOU WILL!’

‘SHUT UP SEHUN-‘

*

Minseok is shaking a little with suppressed laughter as he watches Baekhyun attempt to bite Sehun just a little off camera. Jongdae is standing there, in a silky lilac button-down, nylon purple adidas rip-offs, maroon cap, a fake tacky gold watch, green sneakers, topped with orange tinted sunglasses.

He would have made fun of their outfits, because Baekhyun is wearing a bright orange shirt under a random basketball shirt over nylon blue adidas rip-offs and dark sunglasses he can’t see out of; but the problem is that Minseok is also just as chaotically dressed.

Unfortunately due to their location, a nice and wide dance studio, covered in floor to ceiling mirrors, every single camera angle exposes his glossy nylon red pants, thin white shirt over a jacket, and the hair clips shoved into his hair (the hair clips were Baekhyun’s idea).

Sehun, their friend and freshman at their university (though in none of their faculties because Sehun was, to many people’s surprise, an Engineering student) had invited Baekhyun and Jongdae to investigate the dance studio he was a part of.

As it would turn out, he was a massive fan of the show, though his comments would sometimes make you think otherwise. But his dance studio friends were absolute addicts.

Minseok never really paused to consider that Jongdae and Baekhyun were in many ways, internet famous and had a steady amount of people who really enjoyed what they did, who they were, and their friendship. And while for today’s episode, Sehun would be the only person in this 2 floored studio space to show them around after hours, the whole dance crew from the studio were present for now, and were absolutely thrilled.

Minseok thinks it must be an age difference thing.

Either way, Sehun had asked them if he could style them appropriately for the first half of the episode. And Baekhyun and Jongdae, being the weak fools they were, agreed, not knowing the chaos they signed up for.

And Minseok likes this shoot for today because!

No ghosts.

Minseok is absolutely relieved to feel absolutely no sense of ghosts, or anything spooky in this brand-spanking-new building.

An added bonus however, was the presence of Vivi, Sehun’s adorable dog. Minseok has never met a more stand-offish dog his entire life and was absolutely delighted at the deadpan stare it gave Baekhyun when the latter gave his hand out to shake.

So yes, Minseok knows he’s about to just spend a fun day filming his two friends running around a dance studio.

‘Hello everyone!’ Baekhyun begins, ‘And as you can see, we are very appropriately dressed for today’s occasion.’

‘It’s not a circus,’ Jongdae adds with an amused smile, ‘Maybe for another episode.’

‘I hate clowns,’ Baekhyun shudders.

‘And clowns everywhere are offended.’

‘I will not apologize!’

‘You’re both clowns.’

Minseok will have to blur Jongdae and Baekhyun flipping Sehun off-camera during editing.

‘We’re at the EXODUS Dance Studio who are big fans-‘

‘-erikyoong!!’

‘-soondongie!!’

Baekhyun and Jongdae blush visibly on camera, their words coming out mumbled and an absolute mess.

‘-who are uh, big fans of the show,’ Baekhyun manages to complete though he laughs in an embarrassed but pleased way.

‘They sent us an email about their dance studio which they believe is haunted.’ Jongdae explains, ‘But I guess we’ll be the judges of that?’

‘Or the instigators of that- what if we uh, end up triggering the ghosts?’ Baekhyun asks the small crew to the side.

Minseok pans to them and apparently they did not think that part through judging from their panic.

‘And so let’s start with a little history of the place, and some of the dance crew’s personal stories!’ Baekhyun announces cheerily.

As planned, they bring out some stools and set-up a small space for an interview. Minseok helps the dance-crew attach the mics onto their clothes. There were about 25 of them, but for today, not counting Sehun, there would be 4 others. Apparently they were the ones who had supernatural or strange things happen to them while they were here at the studio.

It’s funny watching a bunch of darkly and comfortably dressed young people sitting opposite Jongdae and Baekhyun who literally represented a nylon rainbow.

‘This is why most people won’t take us seriously,’ Baekhyun wails comically, perfectly breaking the ice and allowing the young dancers to relax a little.

‘You agreed though,’ Sehun says cheekily, holding up Vivi in his arms.

‘Can everyone say their names into the mics for sound check please?’ Minseok calls.

Everyone obediently carefully speaks their names into the mics and Minseok gives them a silent thumb’s up as a go-to sign.

Raising his hands Jongdae acts as the time clapper and they begin their interview.

‘So tell us about your experiences here at EXODUS,’ Jongdae begins.

They all giggle a little nervously before one of the 2 girls, Seulgi, begins.

‘So this happened to me fairly recently,’ she explains, hands twisting inside her long hoodie sleeves. ‘We’re in the middle of a rather intense routine and I wasn’t satisfied with some parts so I stayed back to practice a little more.’

Baekhyun and Jongdae nod.

‘I’ll admit I was very tired, but that’s not exactly something out of the norm, we’re pretty much always tired,’ Seulgi laughs while the others laugh and nod as well.

Fatigue was comedic apparently.

‘So I was concentrating really hard and I was super focused on perfecting my moves,’ Seulgi continues, ‘And over the music I thought someone was knocking on the entrance door. So I stopped and went to check. But no one was there. I thought I was just hearing things so I went back to practice, but I also decided maybe I should lower the volume?’ she chuckles and Baekhyun and Jongdae both grin at that, ‘So I continued. And I heard the knocking again, but this time it came from the next door studio space,’ she points towards one of the wide half-glass, half-metal door. ‘So I think someone’s trying to prank me and I yell-…well, I yell.’

The others laugh and so do Baekhyun and Jongdae.

‘I ignore it and I continue to practice but I guess I was very tired and after being interrupted twice I thought I would just end for the night,’ Seulgi explains. ‘And I was gonna walk over to the computer table there and I saw this movement from the corner of my eye through the doorway.’

Baekhyun turns in his seat to look at the doorway and where the sound system was set up.

‘And I thought this lot were being and I went to yell at them,’ Seulgi explains, ‘So I went to open the door and yell I guess- but the doors were locked. And I remembered that our instructor had locked the studio up before she left.’

‘Is there another entrance?’ Jongdae asks.

‘Yes- but that’s the thing?’ Seulgi looks a little uncomfortable as she explains, ‘To get to that studio, you need to either go through this doorway here, or from the hallway that way. And the lights are automated in the hallway especially after closing hours, so if anyone was going in there, you would have to walk past that doorway that I would have been able to see in the mirrors and I think I would have noticed the lights.’

Baekhyun leans in, nodding as he listens.

‘So at first I thought, did someone break in? Or I don’t know, a bird got in through the window-‘ she laughs a little, ‘-or something. So I immediately went to get the security guard- he’s near the stairs so I called for him. He came up and checked the hallways and the locked studio but it was empty.’

‘And you were standing at the hallway near the stairs right? So there’s no other exit point?’

‘None.’ Seulgi nods.

‘That’s a fire hazard,’ Jongdae comments, making everyone stare at him. Then he adds defensively, ‘It is!’

‘Okay- thank you Seulgi,’ Baekhyun nods.

‘I think ours could classify as uhh, legendary?’ one of the boys says, indicating himself and another boy next to him. Ten and Taeyong. ‘We were practicing our set- again, this was pretty late at night.’

‘Yeah and we were monitoring ourselves so I set up my phone there,’ Taeyong points to the mirror over at the end of the studio space. ‘And after we finished, I went to get my phone so we could go through it.’

‘And while we were watching it, we noticed this,’ Ten says as Taeyong gets his phone out, practically vibrating with glee. ‘And we didn’t even notice at first! When we shared it with our chat, Yeri here actually asked us who was walking around outside the windows at night and if it was some dumb idea of a joke.’

The other girl, Yeri, nods and adds, ‘I thought they sent that just to play some prank and I was calling them out.’

‘Yeah!’ Taeyong manages to give the phone to Jongdae who takes it. ‘You’ll see it after the 2^nd minute mark!’

Minseok waits to capture Baekhyun’s and Jongdae’s expressions.

Baekhyun’s eyes visibly widen, gawking at the phone Jongdae is holding. Jongdae is squinting a little as he looks at the phone.

‘I thought it was just one of their reflections caught on the glass,’ Seulgi chimes in, ‘I hadn’t thought anything about it until Yeri pointed it out.’

‘Oh my -‘ Baekhyun curses, body twisting away but eyes glued to the screen while Jongdae scrubs through the footage again. Minseok knows they’ll get the footage from Taeyong’s phone again later but he wants to look at it too. Picking up the freehand camera, Minseok walks over to stand behind the two. Jongdae replays that specific part.

‘So clearly we’re on the second floor. And there’s no landing outside the windows right?’ Baekhyun asks eagerly.

And Minseok can see why they would think it was a ghost walking past the windows.

Because it was.

Now that was odd.

There was absolutely no ghosts or supernatural creeps around the building. None of these kids had a spirit hanging off of them.

Minseok captures the footage and goes back to his position.

They’re talking about their experiences, all of which Minseok is more than sure related to exhaustion, fatigue, adrenaline, and the major fact that mirrors were tricky pieces of , he looks out of the window at the neighbouring buildings.

The one right next to this side of the building seemed fine, though Minseok can’t always tell by looking at a building/house. One side is open to the street, and the other faces another building as well.

The rest of the crew minus Sehun leave, all delighted grin and smiles at the prospect of having their dance studio investigated for ghosts.

Kids these days.

Sehun begins to show them around the place.

The lights have now all been switched off for ambience, something Sehun was very persistent about.

‘Sehun will be giving us a tour of the place and pointing out places where these supernatural events have taken place,’ Jongdae starts, smiling at the camera. ‘We will then place some motion sensor cameras, and of course, we will be spending some time alone around the studio too- oh hyung, are you cold? Here.’

Out of nowhere, Jongdae hands Minseok a small hand-warmer from inside his jacket, ‘You should wear gloves.’

Minseok just grins his thanks, taking the small warm object and keeping it inside his pocket for the time being.

‘Stop flirting with hyung let’s start,’ Sehun drawls, unimpressed as he shakes his hair back before pulling on a beanie.

‘Minseok-hyung is easy to flirt with,’ Baekhyun adds unhelpfully winking at Minseok.

‘Can we not make editing more difficult than it needs to be,’ Minseok sighs.

The three of them cackle in amusement.

Minseok has to adjust the camera over his shoulder to include Sehun into the shot. Not that he went out of frame, but Minseok is used to filming Baekhyun and Jongdae and the three of them were all vertically challenged. But Sehun is a tall stringy boy and Minseok begrudgingly guesses that he will continue to grow a little more.

‘Okay guys we’re gonna start with our tour, and Sehun, you wanna introduce yourself?’ Baekhyun asks.

‘Didn’t you already do that?’ Sehun looks blankly at the camera and mouths ‘age is not Baekhyun hyung’s friend’.

‘Hey you long -‘

‘Please let’s not get flagged,’ Minseok sighs.

‘This is Sehun who is our tall and wonderful friend,’ Baekhyun says through gritted teeth.

‘Hi guys,’ Sehun grins, making a rather dumb pose but somehow still managing to look cool. ‘And this-‘ he bends down to pick up his dog, ‘-this is Vivi.’

The dog looks blankly at the camera.

‘Who’s a good boy?’ Baekhyun coos.

‘Vivi does not conform to society's expectations of gender. Vivi is a good Vivi.’

Baekhyun has a stiff grin, eyes a little wide before he recovers and says, ‘Who’s a good Vivi? You’re a good Vivi!’

Sehun smiles with approval.

‘Shall we?’ Jongdae looks like he’s trying not to laugh.

Minseok follows the trio through the dark hallway.

‘So how long have you been dancing here?’ Baekhyun asks.

‘It’s been a little over a year,’ Sehun replies, patting Vivi. ‘We started noticing weird stuff about 6-7 months ago.’

‘Have you personally felt or seen anything unusual?’ Jongdae asks.

‘Not personally,’ Sehun replies as they stop in front of a doorway. ‘They used to talk about it but I thought it was just something for fun. But that practice video was interesting. So I thought, my hyungs are investigating ghosts, why not see if this is actually ghosts?’

‘I guess,’ Jongdae chuckles. ‘But like we said before, what if we trigger something?’

‘Then it’s triggered,’ Sehun shrugs, ‘Maybe the ghost is a baby-boomer.’

‘Should we yell ‘okay boomer’ really loud?’ Baekhyun asks gleefully.

‘We should do that after I leave,’ Sehun cuts in before sniffing loudly and saying, ‘Don’t want any going down while I’m here.’

‘Can we not swear too much,’ Jongdae grins apologetically at the camera Minseok was holding up. ‘Let’s save Minseok-hyung the trouble of too much sound editing.’

‘Only for Minseok-hyung,’ Sehun shoots Minseok an incredibly deadpan finger-heart.

‘Wow, I felt that,’ Baekhyun remarks dryly.

‘Okay let’s get back to the topic!’ Jongdae says loudly, both eyebrows raised high.

‘Yeah yeah,’ Sehun waves blithely as he opens the sliding doors into one of the studios.

‘This is the infamous studio where Ten and Taeyong recorded the “legendary” video yes?’ Jongdae asks as they step in. Minseok quickly adjusts the camera aperture and ISO to fit the moody dim light in the studio. It’s thankfully not frigid even though the heating and air-conditioning were all shut down to accommodate Jongdae and Baekhyun’s request so as to make sound editing a little easier. Also Baekhyun believed that electrical signals messed up with any supernatural communication- a strange theory considering he used the “spirit-box”, which relied on electricity to an extent.

‘We did a lot of research into the area and the land,’ Baekhyun says as he turns around to face the camera, ‘But we found nothing conclusive in both newspaper reports, library archives, police reports, or even general gossip. If there is a haunting, then it must be recent.’

Sehun gives them a tour of the whole floor, including a very detailed account of how Vivi only liked to pee on a specific area in the locker-room and refused to pee on the mats Sehun brought with him. Minseok catches Jongdae’s eyes glazing over just a little somewhere after the 7th minute of the 15 minute rant. They set up static cameras, and with Minseok’s suggestion, one facing the windows looking outwards. It seemed to confuse Jongdae a bit but he didn’t question it.

Minseok really enjoys being older and regarded as “experienced”. It meant he could get away with some things and he was damn sure going to take advantage of it.

‘Can we please change now,’ Baekhyun begs.

‘I don’t know, it’s kinda grown on me,’ Jongdae laughs, looking down at this bright clothes.

‘You’re more than welcome to stay in that for the rest of the shoot,’ Baekhyun offers as they change in the locker-room. Sehun does nothing to look away and instead looks at Minseok expectantly.

‘If I didn’t think of you as a younger brother I would have punched you,’ Baekhyun says as he throws his nylon shirt at Sehun who grins in a delighted manner.

‘Damn, didn’t know hyung was ripped,’ Sehun gives him a thumbs up as he changes his shirt.

‘You should see Junmyeon,’ Jongdae laughs as he pulls on his sweater, hair delightfully messed up in the process.

‘The rich nerd from the previous episode?’ Sehun inquires.

‘Listen, I’d try to defend Junmyeon but that’s a pretty on-spot description of Junmyeon at first glance,’ Jongdae concedes.

‘So rich nerd is ripped?’

‘Super ripped- he could rip you in half,’ Baekhyun adds, nearly tripping as he pulls on his pants.

‘Sweet- will he be my sugar-daddy.’

‘SEHUN!’ Baekhyun yelps, tripping in his pants and nearly faceplanting on the lockers.

Once Sehun leaves, Vivi giving them one last unimpressed look, they’re left alone in the two-story dance studio.

‘Okay, with our tour done- should we dive straight into it?’ Baekhyun asks, rubbing his hands together with excitement.

‘Let’s get on with it,’ Jongdae nods.

Minseok always wants to laugh when Baekhyun brings along the flashlights. Because it’s incredibly fake and shows no indication of supernatural activity whatsoever. But Baekhyun places it on the studio floor where Seulgi had said she saw something strange.

‘We’ve heard about the strange sounds and possible apparitions experienced and witnessed in this area of the studio,’ Baekhyun starts to look a little nervous while Jongdae is suppressing an amused grin. ‘If you are a spirit, ghost-’

‘-or baby-boomer demon-’

‘-please make yourself known by switching on this flashlight on the fl-OOR OH GOD!’ Baekhyun collides into Jongdae as the flashlight flickers on.

‘Okay okay okay, this is- this is great,’ Baekhyun exhales breathlessly. ‘Could you switch it off for me ag-AIN!’

Minseok pans from the flashlight to Baekhyun, knowing that the GoPro on Baekhyun would perfectly capture the flashlight anyway. Minseok kinda just wants to document Baekhyun’s reactions in an environment with absolutely no supernatural activity.

And he gets some top quality footage, as Jongdae puts it.

Baekhyun catches his own reflection unaware and he screams so loud Minseok is worried that the neighbouring buildings and businesses will think something sinister was happening.

But to both his relief and some worry, no one comes in on them to check if something bad was happening.

‘All right, so to end tonight’s video, Jongdae and I will of course, be doing our own singular tour of the place. And as the studio isn’t too big, we’ve decided to go up and down the place by ourselves, without a specified time-limit. Just need to go around the place.’ Baekhyun tells the camera, sweat on his face.

As per usual, Jongdae goes in first.

Minseok and Baekhyun stand outside of the building, their breaths forming white mist. Baekhyun challenges Minseok into who can extend their breath the furthest.

It’s a weird challenge that Baekhyun wins, boasting superior lung capacity while nervously glancing at the dark glassy windows of the dance studio.

At one point, you hear Jongdae yelling (another person with great lung capacity) ‘COME GET ME YOU BABY-BOOMER DEMON!!!!’. Baekhyun giggles hysterically.

Jongdae comes out looking completely amused and saying, ‘Minseok-hyung, have fun with my footage later.’

‘That sounds incredibly dirty,’ Minseok sighs out while Jongdae cackles.

Baekhyun nods, more to himself than anything, before he too enters the dance studio.

‘This is a really nice establishment,’ Jongdae says conversationally, ‘It’s very conveniently located near a train station, several cafes and what I hear is a very good family-run restaurant with excellent cuts of meat. And no, I have not been paid to sponsor this place. I’m just commenting and I also think it would be an amusing montage to have me say this while we cut to Baekhyun’s mental breakdown inside the studio.’

Jongdae giggles gleefully to himself, pausing only to marvel at the sight of how his breath forms a white mist in the air.

He then challenges Minseok to the same competition Baekhyun did not 10 minutes ago.

Jongdae wins.

‘It does get a bit trippy inside,’ Jongdae admits. ‘A lot of reflections. Wonder how Baekhyun is faring with the whole “fourth reflection is not your face” thing.’

‘Uh- what?’

‘Hyung! You’ve never heard of that?’ Jongdae asks as though surprised. ‘There’s a belief that when you stand between two mirrors facing each other, the fourth reflection is not yours.’

Minseok guesses his expression must have been very dubious because Jongdae laughs.

‘Yeah, me too, but Baekhyun was really frightened by that- we can’t even go into elevators.’ Jongdae cackles before adding, ‘I bet you he’s doing that inside the studio right now.’

‘If the reflection is not yours, then whose is it?’ Minseok inquires. This was an interesting lore.

‘I dunno- you’ll have to ask Baek, he did “research”,’ Jongdae grins.

Baekhyun reappears, face a little pale, eyes a bit wide.

‘You okay there?’ Jongdae asks amiably, throwing out an arm to hug Baekhyun.

‘I hate mirrors,’ is all Baekhyun says.

*

Minseok goes over the footage a couple of days after their shoot. Baekhyun and Jongdae were sitting on either side of him, scrolling through their own footage. They normally stuck to a rough storyboard of how they will combine all of their footage and the two placed markers on parts of the clip they wanted included in the final cut as well making sure to write out notes for timing.

Minseok takes on his own footage from the camera he used, as well as the static cameras or motion cameras they place around the location they shoot in.

When Baekhyun decides to take a short nap, pillowing Minseok’s lap while Jongdae offers to go get them some food from the convenience store, Minseok takes the time to carefully scrub through the footage from the camera facing the windows.

For the longest time, nothing comes of it.

And it’s not too surprising because it wasn’t common to have genuine supernatural occurrences take place on film. Or at least take place and have it seen by everyone else.

So it’s definitely surprising when towards the end of the footage, a few minutes before Jongdae goes to retrieve the camera, Minseok makes clear note of a figure walking past the windows.

And it’s clearer this time.

It’s definitely from the building next door, where an extended balcony stretched out, nearly reaching the dance studio.

Minseok doesn’t know and can’t tell if it’s something sinister or just a “normal” spirit.

‘Pity there’s nothing to be found on the footage,’ Baekhyun says suddenly, voice groggy, startling Minseok a little.

‘Yeah,’ Minseok agrees, moving away from the mouse to pat Baekhyun’s head.

‘Just really wanna capture a cool footage. Show Jongdae up,’ he complains sleepily.

Minseok laughs, carding through Baekhyun’s hair with his fingers. Baekhyun turns around, his face pushing into Minseok’s abdomen, making sounds akin to purring.

‘Puppy,’ Minseok laughs.

‘What do you really think hyung?’ Baekhyun asks, looking up with one open eye.

‘About? The studio?’

‘No- spirits and stuff.’

‘I think…-I think they’re real. But maybe not in the way we think they do,’ Minseok tells him honestly.

‘Does it freak you out?’

‘Not really,’ Minseok chuckles, ‘I think reality is more frightening any spirit or ghost or demon.’

Jongdae returns as Baekhyun grins before he groans, ‘- just realized I have a paper to submit tonight.’

‘Then stop hogging hyung’s lap and get on with it,’ Jongdae remarks, placing paper bowls of oden on the table. ‘Besides, it’s my turn.’

‘Puppy out, kitten in,’ Baekhyun says, sitting up and stretching.

‘Hyung!’ Jongdae calls out joyfully before collapsing on the long couch and pillowing his head on Minseok’s lap. ‘Pet me too!’

‘By the way,’ Baekhyun says over a mouthful of oden, wide grin forming on his face as he points to his laptop screen, ‘Should we add Sehun’s comment of Junmyeon being his sugar daddy in the video?’

(Author's Notes)

so i was super busy for the past 3 weeks due tO IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS GOD I HATE IMMIGRATION PROCESSES
but it's cleared up and that's all that matters
ALSO I AM EMPLOYED (TM) PLEASE CONGRATULATE ME YOU ARE LOOKING AT AN OFFICIAL 3D MODELER WORKING A MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10-7 JOB EARNING A MONTHLY SALARY Y'ALL I AM EMOTIONAL AND IN DISBELIEF