Please enjoy. If I forgot any tags or warnings, please tell me.

Just for clarification: Jin graduated from SNU (Seoul National University). Hoseok, Namjoon and Yongi still go to SNU.
Taehyung, Jungkook and Jimin go to A DIFFERENT university. They simply do some dancing with Hoseok at the SNU campus.

In my opinion this isn't too scary but if you're easily scared, you might not want to read this at night.

I put so much effort in this honestly and I'm really proud of myself for getting it done, cause I haven't written something this long in about 10 years, so please give it some love.
It would make me so happy!

###

Namjoon is used to working late and therefore he’s also used to walking home late at night, when the dark around him settles, plunging the houses around him into a gloomy twilight.
It’s not pitch dark per se but it can be a little eerie at times when there is nobody around and the street lamps fail to do their work again.
It’s not that he lives in a bad neighborhood or anything but it isn’t exactly Gangnam either and while the crime rate in Seoul tends to be low compared to other bigger cities in the world, he is only human and humans tend to be more cautious if their senses aren’t at their peak due to their surroundings.
It is not a long walk however because the corner store he helps out at is only a few streets away from the little apartment he shares with his best friend. So when the streetlights stand tall and useless in the dark, not giving him any light, he isn’t overly concerned. There still is enough light from the insides of houses and the moon for him to see where he steps and he could walk the way home in his sleep by now anyway.
He’s only three streets away from home, when he hears it. Steps, directly behind him, too close for him to not turn around.
The shadow standing on the sidewalk a few meters away from him must’ve stepped out of the alley he just passed and Namjoon feels a shiver run down his back when he feels eyes on him, the shadow unmoving just as Namjoon is.
Fear shoots through him from the bottom of his spine and when he takes a step back, the shadow follows immediately, keeping their distance the same it was from the moment Namjoon turned around.
Now, Namjoon isn’t small and delicate but he has never had to physically fight someone before and he IS kind of a little noodley.
Another step back almost makes him stumble but he stays upright to see the shadow take a step forward again.
“Uhm…” Namjoon says. “Hi?” His voice isn’t shaking but it’s close.
“Can I help you?” There is no answer, just the wind brushing his fingers through the remaining leaves on the tree next to him and the autumn chill making his body shiver ever so slightly. Nobody moves and Namjoon can still not see the shadow clearly.
Heart pounding Namjoon does the only logical thing he can think of: He turns around and runs down the empty street, steps thundering behind him on the black asphalt of the street.
If Namjoon is honest with himself, he probably expected to not hear any steps following him again. When he does, it scares him all the more. They sound just as close as they did the first time, only now they’re fast, running just like him.
Namjoon feels his heart almost pound out of his chest, hears the blood rush in his ears and he is certainly running faster than he has ever done in his life before.
He doesn’t know when the steps disappear exactly, doesn’t care either because the only thing important to him right now is that there is nobody behind him anymore when he reaches their apartment complex, the street in front of it extending calmly into the night.

He comes home to the smell of ramen but barely notices when he slams the entrance door shut and toes off his shoes.
There’s the sound of a knife on a cutting board and steam wafts over from their tiny kitchen but Namjoon is still caught up in his thoughts, in the way that person had just… stood there, following his every step.
Yoongi comes out of the kitchen then and Namjoon looks at him only to find his friend already looking back, frowning before he raises an eyebrow.
“…are you okay?” Namjoon heaves a sigh, rubbing his hands over his face and realizing that Yoongi had probably talked to him for several minutes before coming to the front door to see why Namjoon hadn’t answered.
“Honestly, I don’t think I am,” Namjoon replies taking a few steps into their kitchen and sitting down on one of the two chairs on their sad excuse of a dining table.
Yoongi goes back to cutting green onions and Namjoon sighs again. “What happened?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Yoongi gives him a flat look and Namjoon elaborates, annoyed by his own lack of eloquence. “I was walking home like usual and the street lamps didn’t work again, so it was kind of dark and then…” Namjoon trails off. Yoongi looks up. “…yes?” “Then this person appeared.”
Putting the knife down, Yoongi is squinting at him now. “Did someone… hurt you or something?”
Shaking his head, Namjoon continues, the memories coming back to him clearly and he can feel that shiver working its way up his spine again. “No, it was… there was someone following me, I guess. It was weird. I tried talking to them but they didn’t answer and I couldn’t even see them clearly because it was too dark. They were just this… shadow and I don’t know, it was scary, honestly.”
Yoongi starts cutting onions again, looking more calmly again. “Probably just some drunk, confused person. There are all sorts of weird people…”
Namjoon hums an affirmative but he had felt the shadow’s eyes on him and he had never heard a drunk person run this fast.
They eat ramen and Kimchi that night, going to bed straight afterwards cause both of them are dead on their feet and for a while Namjoon forgets about the shadow.

The next morning Namjoon is on the way to his first class of the day at SNU when the events from the night before catch up with him.
Now, in broad daylight, the street in front of his apartment complex looks much friendlier, a few people crossing his line of sight and the sun even coming out from behind the clouds from time to time.
Namjoon clearly remembers the feeling of fear rushing through him but maybe Yoongi was right. Maybe he did overreact, seeing things that weren’t there. Perhaps the person hadn’t followed him after all, hadn’t been hostile but simply a reveler making fun of him.
The more Namjoon thinks about it, the more convinced he is that his horror had been bigger than the situation had warranted. When he sits down in English Linguistics, he has already decided to react more level-headed in the face of irrational fear in the future.

Namjoon decidedly doesn’t mention his nightly encounter when he sits down for lunch with Hoseok who’s sitting in their usual place in the university’s cafeteria, slurping on some guksu jangguk.
Even if Yoongi, who’s at their university as well, doesn’t show up for their lunch dates most times, Hoseok is reliable always if meals are involved.
“What’s up”, Hoseok quips, making noises of delight at the food in front of him.
Namjoon sits down opposite him, his own dish of guksu jangguk waiting for him, the anticipation already clouding his senses from how hungry he is. Phonetics could do that to someone.
“Are you feeling better yet?” Hoseok asks him, glancing up at him from where he’s bent over his plate.
Namjoon gives a questioning hum, devouring his lunch like he hadn’t eaten in three days.
“You were a little weird earlier. It creeped me.” He says it with a grin and a small chuckle but the look he gives Namjoon is more concerned than Namjoon would’ve liked.
Namjoon is confused, looking at his friend with raised eyebrows. “What do you mean ‘earlier’?”
“You know… when we met at the dance studios?”
Namjoon stops chewing, staring at his friend. “Why would I be at the dance studios?”
Hoseok’s eyebrows have disappeared under his hair by now, raised to the limit. ”I asked you the same thing”, he says slowly.
Both of them have stopped eating by now.
“Hobi, I’ve literally only been on campus for two hours, I only had one class before lunch. I haven’t been to the dance studios…. Not today and not in a long time, I think.”
Hoseok puts down his cutlery. “No”, he slowly says. “You were there today. Around 9am.”
Namjoon eyes him suspiciously. “Are you making fun of me?”
By now Hoseok looks properly freaked out. “No! Is this a prank or something?”
“Why would I prank you? You started this!” Namjoon shouts, an apprehensive laugh coming from his mouth.
“Dude… I swear, I saw you in front of the dance studio this morning!”
Namjoon takes up his task of eating again. “I was home till 9am, Hobi. You must confuse me with someone.”
Hoseok shakes his head. “You have silver hair! I’d recognize you from the other end of the campus!”
“Another guy with a good taste in hair colors apparently. Unexpected but not that unusual”, Namjoon says.
Hoseok looks more and more frantic by the second, Namjoon doesn’t get it. Hoseok mistook someone else for him, so what?
“Namjoon. Listen to me.” Hoseok says and he looks very serious now, his shoulders tense and his mouth a straight line. “I saw you in front of the dance studios today. It was you.”
“Hoseok, I told you-“
“No!” Hoseok’s voice is getting louder and Namjoon shushes him, looking at the students around them before turning back to Hoseok. “Namjoon, I didn’t just see you from afar! I met you, I talked to you, I stood directly IN FRONT OF YOU.”
Hoseok’s whisper is distraught, his eyes are wide and he looks just as weirded out as Namjoon feels.
“That is impossible.” Namjoon says, staring back at his friend. Hoseok continues his intense gazing and Namjoon rubs a hand over his face exhausted. “Fine, what did I do then? What did I say?”
“That’s just the thing”, Hoseok replies very slowly. “You didn’t say anything. Just stood there rooted to the spot, kind of… staring at me. It was weird, really weird. That’s why I asked you, if you were better now. Cause you didn’t SEEM okay back then. But I had class and couldn’t hang around for longer…”
Hoseok trails off, his face looking more guilty by the second. “I should’ve stayed, I should’ve talked to you more, make sure, you were okay.”
Namjoon shakes his head. “I was never there, Hobi.”
After arguing back and forth a little more, they eat in silence. It’s not as fun as usual.
Several classes later Namjoon is on his way to his other side job. As stressful as university is, he needs the money and he has always liked teaching. Giving private English lessons is the perfect way for him to connect both and although his time is limited, he always manages to squeeze in some time for his two students. One of them is Ajun, a girl in eighth grade, that lives near the university campus. He helps her out for a few hours today because she has an important test the next day and after that the light outside is slowly disappearing again.
Namjoon tries not to think about what happened the last time, when he goes back to his apartment complex from the tube station, taking almost the same way he did the night before.
He’s well aware that his anxiety is probably not justified because whoever pranked him the night before, surely doesn’t hang around anymore.
While the tube station is busy with people at all times, the alleys and small streets of his neighborhood are quiet fairly early.
An older man walks his dog and two teenage girls walk past him on their way to the tube station but apart from that, everything is quiet again.
Namjoon is cold, his hoodie not enough to shield him from the approaching chilliness of autumn.
It happens when he’s only a block away from home. His hackles raise and a shiver runs down his spine.
The feeling is so sudden that Namjoon comes to an abrupt stop. Looking around at the empty streets around him, Namjoon turns around again and keeps walking. It takes about ten seconds before he hears it. Steps. Behind him. And they are close. His heart speeds up, his palms get sweaty and he doesn’t dare stopping or turning around. After a few more steps, he starts walking faster. The steps follow suit. Too close for it to be a random person, too in rhythm with his own steps for it to be accidental.
Namjoon is running now and so is the person behind him. He looks over his shoulder to get a better look at his pursuer but the street they’re in is too dark for him to see much. The person is as tall as him. A male, he is sure of that. No broad build either, he might have a chance if the other doesn’t carry a weapon. A protruding stone on the ground from one of the houses makes Namjoon stumble and suddenly he’s falling. ‘This is such a cliché in a situation like this’, he thinks before rolling around on the ground and jumping back up, facing his persecutor.
The other is only a few meters away. He has stopped running. Namjoon’s hands, childishly raised in front of him in some sort of self-defense imitation, fall to his sides limply.
His body is frozen, his head empty. No sound makes it out of his mouth.
There, a few meters away from him, stands another Namjoon.
He’s looking at himself.

 

There is no movement from either of them.
Namjoon stares at the person, the THING, before him.
It looks like him. Completely. The same clothes, the same accessory, the same hair color and haircut. ‘This is not right’, Namjoon thinks.
“What are you?” he croaks, his whole mind is in overdrive, he can TASTE the fear. There is no reply, only silence.
The other Namjoon doesn’t move, nor blink. It is creepy. Like a mirror. Now, Namjoon knows, theoretically, that this isn’t a mirror but when he raises his hand a huge part of his mind hopes that the other Namjoon is going to do the same. Because that would mean that this is simply a reflection, a shadow, of some sort, even if said reflection followed him down the street. But the other Namjoon stays still, his hands don’t move and that freaks Namjoon out more than everything that has happened so far because if PROVES that this- this THING has a mind of its own.
It doesn’t come closer, it doesn’t blink, Namjoon’s hand falls to his side again. Then there is a slight movement in the other Namjoon’s face. A slight lift of the corners of his mouth.
Namjoon recognizes it as a grin soon enough but it is not an expression, he has seen on his own face ever before. It is darker, sinister, twisted.
Namjoon runs.

Slamming the door into the lock, Namjoon checks the lock twice, jiggling the door handle to make sure it’s closed. He doesn’t take of his shoes, rushing through the tiny apartment, checking every window and drawing the curtains closed.
Suga is sitting at his desk, headphones on and bobbing his head to some music when Namjoon rushes into his room without knocking, whamming the window closed before closing the blinds on Yoongi’s window, plunging the room into darkness with only the screen of Yoongi’s laptop illuminating the few pieces of furniture around them.
Jumping up Yoongi rips the headphones from his head, facing Namjoon with wide eyes. “What the ?” he spats. “Are you ing cra-“
Namjoon shushes him. Listening to the silence around him. “It might’ve followed me home; I don’t want it to hear us if it’s in front of the door of the apartment. It might’ve come into the apartment complex after me somehow, I don’t know. I didn’t- I-“ Namjoon is frantic, words tripping over each other. Yoongi tries to get a word in, but Namjoon is out of the room again, turning off the kitchen light and letting the darkness surround them. When he opens the drawers taking out a knife, Yoongi is next to him, halting him. His pale hand is wrapped around Namjoon’s wrist and he looks positively shaken.
Yoongi isn’t one for freaking out but Namjoon can see the fear in his eyes. “Namjoon, you are scaring me,” he calmly says and that’s all it needs for Namjoon to draw in a deep breath. The knife is shaking in his hand and he puts it on the counter top next to the stove, whimpering.
They do not have a peephole in their door but after several minutes of silence and both of them not moving a limp, Yoongi whispers: “I don’t think anyone is in front of our door, Joon.”
Namjoon swallows. “It is very quiet.”
Yoongi draws in a breath. “IT?”

After Namjoon tells Yoongi everything that happened, they sit in silence for a while. “And you’re SURE it wasn’t just a, I don’t know, trick of the light or anything?”
“I’m sure”, Namjoon says for the hundredth time. “Honestly, I wouldn’t believe myself if I was you. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes…”
Yoongi looks at the table top under his hands contemplating.
“I don’t know, Namjoon. You’re my best friend, you know that. I trust you with my life but this… it’s just… it’s just not possible.”
Namjoon nods. “I know, hyung.”
They don’t turn the lights in their apartment back on that night and Namjoon drags his mattress into Yoongi’s room, refusing to sleep alone. “Guess there’s a first for everything,” Yoongi only grumbles, throwing his friend a pitying look.

The next day is a Saturday which means no classes. Namjoon knows he can’t hide forever but he still calls in sick on his job at the corner shop for the day.
Yoongi is in the kitchen already when Namjoon appears to make himself a cup of coffee in the early afternoon. “I called Hoseok”, Yoongi says. “He’s coming over in half an hour.”
Namjoon nods slowly. “Did you tell him?” he asks and Yoongi throws him a flat look. “On the phone? Nah. Just told him you kinda lost your marbles and that I can’t handle you freaking out like that by myself.”
Namjoon glowers at his friend. “Great, so basically, you called him cause you think I’ve lost it.” Yoongi grins. “That’s what I just said, right?”
Namjoon shakes his head, anger welling up inside him. “Hyung, you know me. I’m not easy to freak out. You saw me last night! I was ing terrified!! And you’re not taking me seriously!” The more he speaks, the louder his voice gets. Yoongi slumps in the seat opposite him then. “Joon-ah”; he says. “I believe you, really I do. I believe that you saw… something. But I talked to Hoseok and he told me about the encounter in front of the gym yesterday morning as well, you know, and I think you might be really stressed or something right now but-”
Namjoon freezes. He had completely forgotten about that. “Oh my god,”
he says. “Oh my god.”
Yoongi stops talking, the moment Namjoon jumps up from his chair. “Oh my god”, he repeats. “Hoseok has met it. It followed Hoseok as well. He- oh god, tell him to not come over!” Namjoon grabs Yoongi’s phone from the table in front of him, almost throwing it in Yoongi’s face. “The thing might still be around the apartment complex, it could attack Hoseok, tell him to not come over!”
But Yoongi fixes him with a hard look and refuses to call Hoseok, so Namjoon tries calling him from his own phone. Hoseok doesn’t pick up and his messages stay unread.

Forty minutes later the doorbell rings. Namjoon is on his feet first, rushing to the door with Yoongi following closely behind. “Who’s there?” Namjoon asks loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear. Yoongi rolls his eyes behind him and for a few seconds there is no reply but then they hear Jin’s confused voice making its way through their front door.
Namjoon opens the door, ushering his hyung in and locking the door behind him again. Yoongi shakes his head, exchanging looks with Jin.
“Uhm…” Jin says, looking at Namjoon rattling the handle again to make sure the door is locked. Yoongi heaves a sigh before motioning for Jin to follow him. “It’s complicated” he says when they observe Namjoon dashing to their living room window, spying out of the window into the street down below while trying to not move the closed curtains while doing so.
“Why are you here?” Yoongi asks, turning back without further greeting, making Jin give him a disapproving look. “Well,” Jin very slowly says, “Namjoon offered to proofread an essay for me but I guess that’s out the window for now.” Yoongi nods, pursing his lips. “He has kinda lost his marbles yesterday, so maybe try another day would be better.”
Jin wanders over to Namjoon, who is still crouched near the window, squinting outside. “Joon?” “Hm?”
“Yoongi should’ve done this way earlier,” Jin says and pulls Namjoon into a hug.

They sit in the living room with Yoongi nursing a beer and Jin watching Namjoon who’s pacing up and down in front of him while retelling his story. “I know, it sounds crazy but I swear, it’s true! I know what I saw! It was me! It was definitely me! And now Hoseok isn’t answering the phone and-“
Just in that moment the doorbell rings again. Namjoon stops in his story, stumbling to the door and pulling it open as soon as the voice on the other side answers his question of who’s there. “What took you so long?” Namjoon almost hollers, pulling Hoseok into their apartment, who looks at Namjoon as if he had seen a ghost. Holding up a plastic bag, he waves at Jin and Yoongi with his other hand, cautiously looking back at Namjoon. “I…brought food?”

His friends are adamant that what Namjoon needs most right now is distraction and fun and so their spontaneous movie evening is born. “Let’s invite the others”, Hoseok says around 8pm, already dialling Jimin’s number.
While Hoseok, Jin, Yoongi and Namjoon visited the same university, they had been introduced to Jimin, Jungkook and Taehyung by Hoseok. They all danced together at the gym on university campus and by now they were a pretty steady group of friends, hanging out together whenever possible.
Jimin picks up on the second ring and Hoseok puts him on speaker.
“Hoseok-hyuuung!” They can tell from Jungkook giggling in the background that the sober-train left maknae-station some while ago.
“Aah, Jimini, I should’ve called sooner”, Hoseok bemoans upon hearing the music in the background. “What did you say??” Jimin yells back, apparently not able to hear anything Hoseok says. “Are you partying? At 8pm?” Hoseok screams. Yoongi snorts. “Yeah, a house party of a friend of ours!” Jimin still speaks way too loudly but the background music is a little quieter now, Jimin must’ve stepped out of the room. “Aww”, Hoseok says, “I was about to invite you to a movie evening with your beloved hyungs!” Jimin giggles and they hear glasses clinking in the background. “Sorry hyung, not today.” “Are Tae and Jungkookie with you?” Hoseok asks but again, that question is pretty redundant since everyone can hear Taehyung screeching something in the background now, accompanied by Jungkook’s cackling. “Yeah,” Jimin still answers, going all out on the obedient maknae-front before there’s a loud crash on his side of the phone. “Gotta go, hyung, sorry!” And then the line falls dead. “Someone is having fun,” Jin dryly remarks, his face only slightly judging.

They end up watching a Korean comedy first, something about animals and a zoo and Namjoon really tries hard to focus on the movie instead of thinking about the things he was not supposed to think about. After that Jin insists on a romantic comedy that has Yoongi dozing off in between.
Namjoon and Jin share the couch and Jin’s head is on Namjoon’s shoulder the moment the second movie starts. Trying to suppress his smile, Namjoon looks down only to see Jin already looking at him.
“Hi,” Seokjin grins, his eyes not leaving Namjoon’s. “Hi,” Namjoon grins back, a tingling feeling in his stomach driving off the leftover anxiety in his body and for the first time in hours he allows himself to settle down into the couch properly, his whole body relaxing. He throws his left arm around Jin’s shoulder, looking straight ahead and smiling again when he feels Jin leaning against him heavily. On the floor Hoseok is pretending to gag.

It’s a rendition of Gloss, a popular rapper these days, that makes them all jump, Jin’s hand finding Namjoon’s out of habit.
They stare at Yoongi’s phone that vibrates of the coffee table in front of them and hits the floor with a muffled thud thanks to the carpet that has honestly seen better days, but Namjoon is clumsy and him and Yoongi are both poor students, so really, what can you do.
Yoongi is awake by now, blinking down at his phone instead of getting up to get it. “Yoongi-yah!” Seokjin barks, already enraptured by the movie again and clearly trying to ignore the loud rap sounding from the device on the floor.
Yoongi tries to grab the phone from his place in the only armchair they own without having to get up but he loses his balance and falls face first on the floor. Namjoon rolls his eyes this time and Jin is busy shushing Yoongi from the side when he curses the hair brush he landed on.
It takes a few more seconds of fumbling for Yoongi to pick up the phone.
“Yeah?” he drawls, closing his eyes again, staying on the floor instead of trying to get back up.
“Yoongi-hyung! Are you here as well?” Taehyung yells into the phone and Yoongi holds the phone away from his ear grimacing for a second. “What do you mean ‘here’? I’m at home.” There’s a short silence, then: “Awww.” Silence again and Yoongi is getting impatient now. “So… did you want something?” Yoongi asks, finally making an effort to get up before giving up again and sinking back down onto the carpet. It’s comfier here anyway. “Yeah…” Taehyung says and he sounds drunk enough that Yoongi is sure Taehyung forgot what he had been calling for in the first place. “Look, I- ““Oh, right!” Taehyung interrupts. “Hyung, could you come and get Namjoon-hyung? I didn’t know he’d come to the party as well; he should’ve told us! But anyway- ““What?” Yoongi says and he sounds baffled even to his own ears. From the couch Namjoon looks over to him, Jin still cuddling his shoulder as if it was the only thing he wanted to do for the rest of his pretty life.
“Namjoon-hyung!” Taehyung repeats, louder and more clearly, “I don’t think he’s alright. He’s acting kinda weird and- “
“Where are you?” Yoongi interrupts Taehyung, getting up, his wide eyes finding Namjoon’s. There’s an annoyed groan on the other side of the phone. “Hyung, I told you, I’m at this guy’s house party! Are you drunk as well? I don’t- ““Taehyung,” Yoongi says then, more frantic. “Taehyung, run.” Jin and Hoseok look at Yoongi too, now. The look on their faces just as confused as Namjoon’s. “Hyung? I don’t think- “Taehyung starts but Yoongi cuts him off again. “Taehyung, listen to me very carefully now. I need you to trust me.” Jin and Namjoon have muted the tv, motioning for him to put Taehyung on speaker but Yoongi is busy, dammit. “Hyung- “Taehyung sounds cautious now. “Taehyung, are you with Jimin and Jungkook?” Yoongi asks, forcing his voice to stay composed. “I’m with Namjoon-hyung only. I needed fresh air and went out the door and he was just standing in the street-“
“Get inside! Go and find Jungkook and Jimin, then get away from there and come directly to my place. But first, get away from Namjoon, Tae! Now!” “I don’t understand,” Taehyung stutters. “Tae, Namjoon is sitting next to me. Whatever is standing next to you isn’t Namjoon.” He hears Taehyung drawing in a shaky breath and Yoongi hopes he believes him. There’s the sound of steps on the other sides, fast steps. Taehyung must be running, then he shouts something Yoongi doesn’t understand and after that the line disconnects.

“That was Taehyung,” Yoongi informs the others before they can open their mouths. “It’s at the party,” Yoongi tells Namjoon, looking at him with wide eyes. Namjoon starts pacing the room again, biting his lip while Hoseok gives a nervous chuckle. “So what,” he says, “now you believe in the whole doppelganger-thing, too?”
Yoongi nods, eyes not leaving Namjoon. “Tell us everything.”
And so Yoongi does, ending with “the line disconnected and I couldn’t understand what Tae said in the end but I told them to come here.”
Jin is already trying to call Taehyung again but he doesn’t pick up, neither do Jimin and Jungkook.

The atmosphere in the living room is tense and when Yoongi’s phone rings again torturous ten minutes later Jin has pulled Namjoon back onto the couch to stop him from pacing a hole into the floor and Hoseok looks at his phone anxiously, toying with Yoongi’s abandoned beer bottle.
Yoongi has the phone on speaker faster than he can open a beer bottle and for a moment Namjoon is impressed before he focuses on the voice sounding from the speaker of his friend’s phone. “We took a cab,” they hear Jungkook drawl. “Taehyung’s phone broke but he insisted we call you and yeah, we’re on our way over.” Everyone in the living room lets out a relieved breath hearing that. “Alright,” Yoongi says, his shoulders relaxing. “Great,” Jungkook utters before cutting the line without any further ado.

 

“I hope you have a good explanation for scaring him half to dead!” is the first thing Jimin says when Namjoon opens the door, pointing at Taehyung who looks just as pale as Namjoon feels.
“Why were you even outside by yourself?” Jin scolds Taehyung, ignoring the way Jimin looks at him. “Jimin was with some other friends and Jungkook was busy flirting with that girl that-“ “I was trying to turn her down nicely!” Jungkook cuts in but Taehyung only gives a short ugly laugh. “Sure. I could see you undressing her with your eyes! A few centimeters closer and you would’ve gotten her pregnant on the dance floor!” Jungkook opens his mouth to reply but Jin interrupts the quarrel. “Tae, you shouldn’t just wander off by yourself thoug.” “Excuse me? I needed fresh air after watching THAT,” he hisses, pointing at Jungkook, clearly referring to what had happened at the party “and besides, I didn’t wander off. I just went out the door like everyone does from time to time. It was a house party nearby, not a gang meeting in an underground bunker.” Jin humphs but stays quiet.
“I can’t believe you’re here though,” Taehyung says then, looking at Namjoon. “You really were standing in the street at that party. I SWEAR it was you!” “I believe you,” Namjoon says, sinking back into the couch.
“So, what the heck is even going on?” Jimin asks and so Namjoon starts telling his story again, Jungkook, Jimin and Taehyung listening with rapt attention.
“What exactly did the Namjoon you saw at the party do, Tae?”
Namjoon asks finally.
“It wasn’t a big deal, really. I mean, I left the house and saw Namjoo- IT standing there… and he was staring at me, so I waved but he didn’t wave back.” Jimin swallows nervously upon hearing the more detailed version of the encounter. “When we left, we didn’t see any Namjoon’s around by the way,” Jungkook adds. Taehyung nods, continuing. “So, I stepped onto the street and went towards Namjoon but he was just staring ahead at the house…” “, this is scary,” Hoseok whispers. “Yeah, I mean, looking back it was really eerie I guess but I really thought it was our Namjoon and so I got closer, asking him what he was doing here. He didn’t reply again and-““Did you… touch him?” Jin asks all of a sudden and Taehyung frowns, thinking hard. “I, uhm, I don’t think so, no. I was waving into his face and when he didn’t blink or anything, I started calling Yoongi-hyung…”
“I would’ve freaked out,” Jimin mumbles.
“Well, I was standing next to Namjoon looking at him when Yoongi was on the phone with me and when hyung told me to run… I guess I got kind of scared and it showed,” Taehyung continues, shuddering. “I started stepping away from Namjoon and I looked at him more closely and that was when- “Taehyung’s voice comes to a halt and they see his hands shaking. “…it hadn’t moved the whole time, that thing. It was unnatural. I couldn’t even see it breathing, now that I think about it. And then, when I looked at it and started backing away, it turned its head and looked directly at me and- “
“And?” Namjoon prompts, his heart pounding in his . “And then my phone broke.”
Nobody speaks while Taehyung takes out his phone, showing it to the others. The screen is black and completely splintered. “It’s not turning back on,” Taehyung says sadly.
“It didn’t… fell on the ground or something?” Jin asks. “He… it… that thing did that to your phone?” He sounds disbelieving.
“Yeah,” Taehyung nods, “I really didn’t let if fall on the ground. It cracked when that thing looked at me.” To prove what he just said, he showed them his right cheek where a few light scratches could be seen.
“This is messed up,” Jungkook announces, trying to take a closer look at Taehyung’s cheek but the other pushes his hand away, not looking at the maknae. “Dramatic idiots,” Jimin mouths under his breath.

They decide to stay at Namjoon and Yoongi’s place for the night, despite the lack of space. Nobody feels like going out into the night at the moment in any case.
With Hoseok claiming the couch, Jin settles for Namjoon’s bed.
“That leaves us,” Jimin says, motioning at himself, Yoongi, Jungkook and Taehyung. “ no, that leaves YOU guys,” Yoongi huffs, already turning around. “I have my own bed.”
And with that he leaves, Jimin rushing after him.
Namjoon scratches his neck before shrugging. “Guess you’ll have to take the carpet… I have some extra blankets at least?”
Taehyung looks as if he had just bitten into a lemon but in the end him and Jungkook build themselves something akin to a little nest of blankets that they settle into. Since the armchair and couches are squeezed onto the carpet as well as the coffee table and Yoongi’s music equipment there isn’t much space for them to lie on. “You sure you’re comfortable with me being this close?” Taehyung snaps at Jungkook when they lay down in shirts and their underwear. Jungkook gives him an unimpressed look but no answer. “I have no nice to touch in your sleep after all,” Taehyung continues venomously.
“Hyung, you’re being ridiculous;” Jungkook replies but Taehyung only raises an eyebrow. Hoseok, who’s on the couch next to them, groans tiredly, trying to suffocate himself with a cushion.

His phone shows that it’s 8:30 am and the sun has long risen, although it’s hiding behind a thick blanket of grey clouds in various shadings. Hoseok rubs a hand over his face, trying to keep his eyes open and thinking back to the things that had taken place the day before. Truth to be told, he is very weirded out by the whole situation but also hesitant to believe Namjoon because, come on, a supernatural thing chasing him down the street, looking exactly like him? Hoseok knows what he had seen in front of the gym – or rather who – but in private he wonders if the others even consider the possibility that Namjoon had, well, that he had lost it. But there was also Taehyung’s encounter with Namjoon when Namjoon had clearly been in the living room with the rest of them yesterday and-nope. ‘It’s too early for this,’ he decides before stretching and sitting up properly. Jungkook and Taehyung are on the floor, still deeply asleep. Taehyung is drooling on Jungkook’s shirt, head on his chest and arms slung around him like an especially clingy kraken. Their legs are more intertwined than Hoseok’s headphones when he takes them out of his pocket and Jungkook is smiling in his sleep. It’s so domestic, Hoseok can’t help but huff at them. “You two are RIDICULOUS,” he tells them in a whisper, as not to wake them. It’s quiet in the apartment, only the breathing of Taehyung und Jungkook can be heard above the occasional car driving by on the small street outside.
Usually, Jin is the first of them to be awake but with him sleeping in Namjoon’s bed, Hoseok bets Seokjin won’t move a finger and pretend to be asleep until Namjoon wakes up – which could be a while.
Yoongi is usually up shortly after Jin or just as early whenever they have a movie night followed by some sort of sleepover but maybe he’s still knocked out cause him and Jimin kept talking until the early hours of morning. They certainly were still talking when Hoseok fell asleep on the couch the night before.
Getting up, Hoseok makes his way to the kitchen on light feet, looking forward to a good coffee because while Yoongi and Namjoon are not exactly well off, being poor students and all, they are the owners of a fancy fully automatic coffee machine that’s able to produce all kinds of drinks – be it cappuccino, americano, espresso, latte macchiato, caffe latte or even simple hot milk for a cacao. So yes, that machine is a wet dream come true in the early hours of morning and both Namjoon and Yoongi adore it very much. In fact, it is probably the most expensive item they own, including all of Yoongi’s music equipment. It had been a present from Namjoon’s parents when he had gotten his undergraduate degree and Hoseok wishes his own parents had gotten him more than a new pack of underwear. Strolling into the kitchen, Hoseok is surprised to see Namjoon sitting at the small kitchen table with his back towards the kitchen entrance and apparently not in the mood to move yet. “It smells weird in here,” Hoseok says when he walks over towards the fancy coffee machine, smelling the air in an exaggerated manner that he knew he was well known for. “Really, what IS that smell?” Hoseok isn’t sure if he had ever smelt something like it before but it rings a bell somehow. He can’t really pinpoint what it is though… and the kitchen window is closed, so where does that stench come from? With how awful it smells, Hoseok is surprised he hadn’t already noticed it back in the living room!
Namjoon is still sitting at the table, doing nothing and Hoseok wanders over while the coffee machine executes its job dutifully.
Reaching out to touch Namjoon’s shoulder in a comforting manner, Hoseok is just about to ask if Namjoon is still as worried as yesterday, when two things happen at the same time. The person in front of him honest to God CHANGES-hair color, clothes and everything- and turns around at the same time. With horror Hoseok looks down into his own face, staring back at him impassively.
Needless to say, that Hoseok screams like a banshee on ecstasy, stumbling back and crashing into the door frame with his back. The other Hoseok jumps up, chair crashing onto the kitchen tiles, and runs out the kitchen through the other door leading into the hall and to the front door. There is no sound of the front door opening or closing but when Hoseok stumbles into the middle of the kitchen to look into the hall, there is no one there either. Hoseok screams again, just for good measure.

“I wish I was able to faint on the spot if I desire to do so,” Hoseok tells the others. “For dramatic effect but also because I would like to emphasize again that this encounter traumatized me and I’ll never be the same.” Taehyung and Jimin are sitting next to him, rubbing his back and arms and throwing him worried looks. “I told you all it’s scary to look at yourself!” Namjoon intercepts, apparently somewhat happy someone else had a similar experience as him. Jimin throws him a disapproving look. “Well, I did look at myself in the bathroom today and it was great!” Jin quips in a sad effort to lighten the mood but he’s met with flat looks and shaking heads. “Too early?” “It’s always too early for words like that, hyung,” Yoongi groans from where he has his head on his arms and his eyes closed again, looking asleep. “But I don’t understand this,” Namjoon says. “Why did it change into Hoseok?”
“I honestly don’t care, I’m still busy trying to comprehend that were apparently followed by some kind of supernatural spirit that’s probably going to murder each of us,” Jungkook mumbles, his fingers drumming on the table.
“I don’t think it’s a spirit,” says Taehyung, “aren’t spirits supposed to be good?”
His question is met with shrugging. “Well, it didn’t DO anything to us, right?” Yoongi remarks, “maybe we’re seeing it all wrong and that thing just wants to be our friend or something.”
While Jimin looks thoughtful, Taehyung and Namjoon shake their heads. “It’s definitely evil!” Namjoon claims. “You should’ve seen the way it looked at me, the way it… smiled. It was really sinister. It was hateful. There is no way that this thing wants to be friends with us.” “And remember what it did to Tae-hyung’s phone,” Jungkook says.
“Yeah, it was as if it destroyed my phone as soon as it knew I was going to run…” Taehyung shudders.
“Okay, so… we’re all just going to hop onto this supernatural-train? Just like that?” Jimin asks, looking at his friends. “Even you, hyung?” he addresses Yoongi. There is a moment of silence. “I mean, I’m not saying I don’t believe you guys. I’ve never seen Hoseok-hyung this shaken but… really?”
“I agree,” Jin says, stepping away from Namjoon who gives him a look that screams betrayal. “I mean… next thing I know we decide to wear garlic necklaces to ward off any lost vampires who might hang around Seoul.”
“I don’t judge you; I’d be wary and confused as well if I were you,” Namjoon admits, the same time Hoseok says: “Honestly, you guys. What matters the most right now though is that this thing was INSIDE the apartment! Can we talk about that again?” “None of us heard the door…,” Jungkook trails off. “If it really is… a ghost or something I’m sure it doesn’t need to ring the doorbell”; Yoongi utters.
“It means, we’re not safe anywhere!”, Hoseok cries and Taehyung adds: “It will murder us in our sleep.”
There is another silence before Jin gets up from his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Well, this has been great and not depressing at all but I need a shower.”

It occurs to him when he’s in the kitchen cutting peppers, with Yoongi falling asleep on the countertop again and Seokjin bustling around the kitchen trying to make breakfast for seven starving men.
The knife lifted into the air, eyes focused into the distance, he whispers what’s on his mind: “Rotten… rotten!”
Seokjin steps to his side, glancing at the peppers he’s cutting, saying: “Rotten? Did you see mold somewhere?”, the same time Yoongi looks up, saying: “Rotten tomatoes doesn’t tell you .”
Hoseok ignores them both, waving his knife in the air. “No, the thing I smelled when I walked into the kitchen! That stench I told you guys about! It disappeared the moment the thing left the kitchen but I remember what that smell was now. It smelt… rotten. Like… rotten flesh.” They all grimace.
“Great, keep fueling my appetite,” Jin replies flatly, going back to cooking.

“Wow, just wow,” Yoongi says when they sit in the living room eating breakfast, “just what my life was missing. We’re finally the protagonists in our very own B-horror movie and the plot couldn’t just be an axe murderer on his personal mission for revenge, no, it had to be a supernatural entity smelling of decay that is able to impersonate all of us down to Namjoon’s questionable fashion choices and very likely is out to murder us coldly in our sleep or-alternatively- scare us to death if our prior descend into madness isn’t to its liking.”

“Can’t help but love the positive attitude around here,” Jin intones.
“If we just knew what it WANTS,” Namjoon wonders for the hundredth time. “I honestly don’t care, I just want it gone,” Hoseok says miserably while they munch on their food. “I think… I might know what this is about, though,” Taehyung says all of a sudden and all eyes are trained on him in a heartbeat.
“Taehyung, no,” Jungkook moans but his request goes ignored.
“Do you remember that thing we did when we were drunk out of our minds after that movie night last week? The one we had here with everybody?” Taehyung asks Jimin, Jungkook putting his head in his hands. “…maybe? Honestly, it’s all kind of fuzzy,” Jimin admits, thinking hard about what they had done that night.
“What do you mean, ‘that thing’?” Jin asks sharply and Taehyung wrings his hands nervously.
“Well… I mean…” “It’s stupid,” Jungkook clarifies. Taehyung is on him immediately. “Excuse me, could you try to not call everything I say ‘stupid’ at least for now? I’d really appreciate that.”
“I said ‘it’ is stupid, the thing we did was stupid, stop twisting my words!”
“I’m not twisting anything! Perhaps you should try thinking before you talk for once!” Taehyung retorts angrily.
“Guys-“ Namjoon tries but Jungkook is jabbing his pointer finger into Taehyung’s face now. “You’re being ridiculous again!” “Oooh, here comes Mr. Condescending. I almost missed him.” “Maybe if you weren’t acting like a little in heat, I wouldn’t NEED to act condescending!” Jungkook roars.
For a few seconds nobody is saying anything, then Jungkook gets up and walks into Yoongi’s bedroom, slamming the door closed behind him.
“Uhm… anybody want more rice?” Jin finally asks.

“Basically, we tried to summon a demon”, Taehyung tells them, rolling his eyes and apparently intending to ignore the argument that had just taken place. “But that was just a really stupid thing from the internet. That can’t possibly have anything to do with this!” Jimin says, apparently remembering.
Taehyung bites his lip. “But that thing looks like Namjoon most times and we did kinda use something from him!”
“What?” Namjoon intercepts. “You did WHAT?”
“Well, we needed something personal from one of us and this IS your place after all!” Taehyung pleads. “We just grabbed the first thing we could find. We were totally smashed!”
“We were SO smashed,” Jimin agrees easily.
“Yeah”, Hoseok agrees, “I literally can’t remember a single thing from that night.”
Namjoon sputters, hands flailing. “Where was I when you did some impromptu devil summoning on my living room floor?”
Jimin seems to think about that, Taehyung just shrugs. “You and Jin-hyung were passed out on the couch by then and Yoongi-hyung went to bed early that night ‘cause he wasn’t feeling well.”
“I swear,” Yoongi grumbles, “that ONE time I’m not there to supervise and you invite evil incarnated to live in our apartment.”
“We didn’t INVITE it,” Jimin interjects. “We were merely trying to talk to it!”, Taehyung adds. “And look how that worked out,” Jin bites, glaring at Jimin and Taehyung. “If all of this really is your fault, I’m going to be very, very disappointed in you. And angry. Very angry,” he says.

„Someone get Jungkook, so we can talk about what to do after today,” Namjoon says. Jimin comes back with Jungkook shortly after. “Okay, so, what do we do?” “Nothing,” Hoseok mumbles miserably and, throwing his hands in the air, he laments: “We’re dead anyway.” Namjoon looks at the others. “Nice, any other suggestions?”
“Well,” Jungkook says, very resolutely not looking at Taehyung, “we should probably not go anywhere alone.” Hoseok nods vigorously at that.
“Tae, Jungkook and me are together most of the day anyway,” Jimin shrugs, “we have the same classes at the same university and the only other thing we do is study in the library or join Hobi-hyung at the gym for dancing at SNU.”
“But I have work!” Jin throws in. Everyone in the room raises their eyebrows at him. “What?” Jin says, folding his arms. “I do.”
“You don’t have a job, hyung,” Hoseok replies, taking a sip of water. “Yes, I do! Going to castings is my job!” Jin protests, jutting out his chin in a truly childish manner. Ever since he had gotten his acting degree and finished university a few months ago, Jin was running from one casting to another, auditioning for everything he could get his hands on. Although his parents support him financially (and by extension Jungkook as well, because Jungkook is making good use of his maknae status), Jin does some ACTUAL work as a model from time to time. But model jobs are highly competitive and it doesn’t happen often that he scores one that requires him to sacrifice more than a few hours.
“We only need to stay together until we figure out what this thing wants,” Namjoon explains. “Let’s give ourselves a week. We can’t stay in small groups throughout the day without putting parts of our lives on hold and we can’t do that for long either. I mean, I have my private lessons and my job at the shop on top of university… I might be able to get out of both for a week tops but that’s it. So, let’s fight this thing and make it disappear within a week.”
“Ambitious,” Yoongi remarks but they all nod. “Not really much else we can do,” Hoseok agrees. “Are we going to sleep over at this place then? Since we should stay together…”
Jin looks at Namjoon, Namjoon throws him a shy smile, Jimin pouts at Yoongi who shrugs and Taehyung and Jungkook still refuse to look at each other. “It makes sense,” Jin says. “Nobody else has an own apartment apart from me and mine is way too small to house seven people.” “Agreed,” Jimin confirms. “And it’s pretty obvious that we can’t stay at our tiny rooms on campus,” Taehyung adds, motioning to Jimin, Jungkook and himself. “I live on campus too, so that goes for me as well,” Hoseok agrees.
“It’s settled then,” Jimin says, getting up. “We’re going to get our stuff from our rooms and meet you guys back here. If we’re going to stay here for a week, I at least need a tooth brush and some clothes. Hoseok-hyung, you can come with us since your campus is on our way anyway.” “Do you really have to stay here of all places?” Yoongi looks pained. “You guys are SO loud.” “Aww, come on, hyung,” Jimin smiles, ruffling Yoongi’s way on his way to the front door. “It’s gonna be fun.”
Jungkook snickers his way out the door and when Hoseok, Jimin, Jungkook and Taehyung have left, Jin rounds on Namjoon. “So, what am I supposed to do all day if I can’t go to castings?” he sulks.
“Well, you should really stay with one of us. The maknaes are going to stay together as much as possible and I’ll call in sick on my job at the shop and spend my time at university with Hoseok and Yoongi. You could join us…” “So, what you’re telling me,” Jin says very slowly, “is that I put all my blood, sweat and tears into graduating as one of the best of my class, only to go back to university not half a year later to sit in on classes I don’t even care about?”
Namjoon swears he can almost feel the tears Jin would be shedding if this was one of his castings. “I’m sorry?”
“Damn right you are,” Jin huffs. “What classes do you even take?”
Namjoon purses his lips. “Well, I study English Linguistics and Literature, so-““So everything is in English?” “Basically, yeah…” Jin sinks down on the couch behind him. “Kill me now,” he moans.

“We’re out of beer,” Yoongi announces the second he steps back into the living room. “Of course we are,” Jin sighs.
“Well, do you want me to get more?”
“You want to go outside and risk your life for some beer?”
“The soju is gone, too,” Yoongi tells them, as if that would explain everything. “Fair enough,” Jin nods, “I’ll come downstairs with you. I need to get back to my apartment to get some clothes if we’re really going to stay here for a week.” Namjoon stops him when Jin is just about to get up. “Hyung, you shouldn’t go all by yourself.”
Jin gives him a crooked smile, stepping closer so that they’re almost nose to nose. “Come with me then,” he murmurs and Namjoon can’t help but stare at his lips, swallowing the dryness in his throat upon noticing the air around them is charged with an electricity that both of them seem to feel down to their fingertips.
Namjoon almost leans in but the look in Jin’s eyes keeps him from doing so. For a few seconds it’s quiet around them, only a lonely car passing by outside can be heard. Jin breathes out carefully, Namjoon can feel it on his own face…
“Oh, for s sake!” Yoongi grates loud enough for Jin to startle and step back. “I’m not watching this.” And with that Yoongi is out the door while Namjoon rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and Jin turns away, his ears coloured a deep crimson red.
“So, uhm, we-we should…” Namjoon makes a vague motion towards the front door, clearing his throat and fulfilling all the cliché actions of an embarrassed school girl talking to her crush for the first time.
“Yeah,” Jin agrees, taking his coat from the back of the couch and throwing it on, “We-let’s go. Maybe we can pick Hoseok back up at his room on campus. It’s near my apartment anyway.”

“You know,” Jin says when they’re out the door and on their way to the subway station. “Maybe we shouldn’t have let Yoongi leave all by himself.”
A few streets away Yoongi is entering a corner store that’s well known for its big choice of alcoholic beverages. Huffing under his breath, he browses the shelves, mumbling to himself. “I swear it’s like a freaking soap with these two. I dare them to make out on my couch, I ing dare them…!”
He doesn’t notice the smell of death nearby.

Jimin is sitting between Jungkook and V, watching the people around them and trying to ignore the tense air in his immediate vicinity to no avail.
“You did honestly agree to go on a date with that asshat?” Jungkook growls again, looking around Jimin at Taehyung who’s staring ahead at the door of the train they’re in. “Well, he kept asking,” Taehyung says, shrugging, still not looking at Jungkook. “And you just HAD to say yes,” Jungkook icily replies. Jimin rolls his eyes towards the ceiling - staring at the advertisement for Gloss’ upcoming concert he can see there - and prays for his soul. “Going on dates is right up your alley, so what are you being so weird about if someone else is going on one?” Taehyung quips, now sounding weirdly self-satisfied and Jimin feels Jungkook bristle with anger next to him.
“Maybe SOMEONE ELSE should think very carefully about if they really want to go through with this!” Jungkook hisses. Taehyung looks at Jungkook then, closing in on him by leaning over Jimin, completely ignoring said friend’s pained face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t get the feeling that SOMEONE might have a problem with me going on dates!” he spits right back.
“Oh, of course, SOMEONE should just tell you what not to do, so you can complain about that again,” Jungkook says, eyes ablaze.
Jimin feels like he’s missing something import around here.
“Guys, did you-“, he ventures but Taehyung interrupts him, eyes trained on Jungkook who has also leaned across Jimin’s lap by now.
“I really think, SOMEONE doesn’t get the point here!”, Taehyung quietly says. “Yeah, that someone is me!” Jimin points out but the others ignore him. Taehyung and Jungkook are face to face, leaning across Jimin from both sides and staring into each other’s eyes, none of them willing to break eye contact first. Their staring contest goes on for so long, that Jimin, who is leaning back in his seat and looks at the sides of both their faces, can feel the tenseness around him almost suffocating him.
“If SOMEONE doesn’t get the point, maybe you should help them,” Jungkook says very quietly to Taehyung, still not looking away, his mouth a taut line. “Maybe I’ll have to,” Taehyung replies just as quietly.
Then the tube comes to a sudden standstill at the stop that’s near Namjoon and Yoongi’s apartment complex and it’s time for them to get out. Jimin breathes a sigh of relief, forced to wipe actual sweat from his forehead upon finally getting away from whatever-that-had-been.

Yoongi is seriously contemplating buying the expensive Bourbon as well. It’s way out of his price range but he can’t help gazing at it longingly. With how things are going, with the risk he takes upon himself to buy something that doesn’t taste like one-week-old-water (Yoongi suspects there’s something wrong with the place they’re getting their tap water from honestly), a bottle of nice, expensive Bourbon should very well be acceptable.
Deciding not to think about the price any longer, Yoongi grabs the bottle from the shelf and wanders over to the soju section. Getting a bottle of that as well, he has a little trouble grabbing the sixpack of beers, so he settles for more soju and no beer in the end. They are seven people anyway, what good would a sixpack do them?
The cashier behind the counter is barely awake.
“That all?” he drawls when Yoongi heaves his bottles onto the checkout counter. “Yes,” Yoongi very shortly replies, looking behind him at the empty street outside. Something doesn’t sit right with him. It’s just a feeling but how cliché would it be if he’s attacked the one time he’s out by himself while they are battling an ill-natured creature straight out of a horror movie? Yeah, right. Things like that don’t happen when you expect them to happen. They happen the moment you’re unguarded and defenseless. Or at least that’s what Yoongi tells himself.
Yoongi leaves the shop very much on alert. The creepy feeling is still there, giving him goose bumps and he can’t help but look around more often than is probably necessary. In fact, he’s sure everyone passing him on the streets is thinking of him as highly paranoid. Huh, maybe he is.
In the end he arrives back at Namjoon and his apartment complex with anything unusual to happen. Unlocking the main entrance door, he enters the short hall leading towards the elevator. There is nobody around and he’s almost home. Breathing out more forcefully than necessary, Yoongi carries the bottles into the elevator with him, his arms protesting. The others SO owe him. When the elevator doors close, Yoongi is looking at his own face in the mirror. With the light above him enveloping his body in mustard yellow light, his pale face looks even more ashen and sickly than usual. And then there’s a short flicker, barely noticeable and Yoongi is looking into his own face. Behind him. Another Yoongi is standing right behind him, so close that Yoongi can feel cold seep into his back. The smell of decay is overpowering and Yoongi is shocked into motionlessness before his heart starts racing and beating out of his chest. Cold sweat breaks out all over his body and he feels like throwing up – from fear or the awful stench, it’s hard to tell. He’s still looking at the Yoongi plastered to his back when the thing raises his arm above both of them, grabs his hair in a painful grip and smashes his head into the mirror of the elevator.
The next thing Yoongi knows, he’s lying on the floor, his head throbbing with pain and blackness receding from the edges of his vision. He’s alone, he can tell, and the smell is gone. The elevator had apparently gone back to the ground level, its doors open with Yoongi’s left leg blocking the elevator entrance, preventing the doors from closing and the light above him from going out.
Head throbbing, Yoongi lies there for a while. He feels something sticky on his forehead and when he touches it, his hand comes away bloody, just as he had assumed.
The elevator floor is dirty and dust engulfs Yoongi like a pitiful imitation of a comforting blanket.
His head pulses with pain and there’s no way he’s getting up anytime soon. The more he comes back to the present, the more Yoongi feels and to tell the truth, he prefers his earlier state of confused and barely conscious. Now he can sense liquid seeping into his clothes, his jeans clinging to his legs and his and it’s starting to itch. It’s also cold and Yoongi is shivering. One or several of the bottles must have broken when he fell. Yoongi tries to turn his head on the elevator floor to get a better look around but the pain racing through every part of his brain keeps him staring up at the ceiling.
Luckily the choice of what to do next is taken from him when the entrance door a few meters away from the elevator is pulled open and Jimin rushes in, followed by Jungkook and Taehyung.
For the fracture of a second, Jimin stops in his steps before he cries out “oh my god, hyung!” and scrambles towards him, almost falling to his knees next to Yoongi when he manages to squeeze himself into the tiny elevator. “What happened?” Jungkook asks trying to help Jimin getting Yoongi into a sitting position. “It got me,” Yoongi croaks, vision swimming and then he’s doubling over puking onto the floor of the elevator, head exploding into pain.

“How could you!” Taehyung later says as accusatory as humanly possible. “You let him leave by himself!” he continues before listening to Namjoon on the other end of the line and then hanging up the phone.
“They feel bad,” he announces satisfied and watches Jimin baby Yoongi. There was no hope for the elevator but they had managed to get Yoongi home and towards the bathroom. The wound on Yoongi’s head had stopped bleeding by then and it seemed to look worse than it actually was but they were still contemplating taking Yoongi to the hospital. “The mirror was CRACKED, hyung,” Jimin had said, going on a rant about how splinters of glass could still be in the wound and he didn’t want Yoongi to suffer from permanent brain damage. Yoongi is pretty sure he does have a concussion at least but he has stopped puking everywhere and he can open his eyes at least partly if the room he’s in is dimmed. Besides he doesn’t feel like going out there again to possibly meet the thing again and losing his life for good this time.
“What did you even do in the bathroom that long?” Taehyung asks Jimin when they’re all back in the living room and Jimin had helped Yoongi clean up.
“I had to get him out of his clothes!” Jimin argues. Jungkook wiggles his eyebrows at him. “And they were all wet and with that headache of his he wasn’t of any help.” Yoongi grunts. “And then I had to shower him cause he was REEKING of alcohol and-“ “Jimin!” Yoongi groans, face reddening. “You had to… shower him,” Taehyung intones, “of course.”
Jimin doesn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. “I can still smell that Bourbon on him, you should be THANKFUL that-“
Yoongi is more awake all of a sudden “The bourbon?” And he can almost feel the tears running down his cheeks then. “It was the bourbon that broke? Not the bourbon…” And then he’s honest to God crying, the headache getting worse again. Looking back, it was probably the shock drawing it out of him. Jungkook and Taehyung goggle at him, shocked and Jimin hugs him tight enough to bruise his ribs. “Why the bourbon?” Yoongi whimpers. “I really liked the bourbon.”

„Hyung,“ Namjoon says, trying not to show his impatience while tapping his foot on the wooden floor in Jin’s apartment, “Hoseok called half an hour ago asking when we’d be over to pick him up from his place and the others have been back at my apartment for an hour now. What else could you possibly need?”
“Relax Joonie, I’m almost done. I only need my face wash… I think I misplaced it again…” Jin’s voice sounds from the other side of the bathroom door.
Namjoon groans, head hitting the wall behind him. “Just hurry up, please.” There’s no reply and Namjoon takes his phone out, looking up ways of getting rid of their malicious stalker again.
The minutes tick by and Namjoon starts wandering back into the hall, putting on his shoes when the bathroom door opens. “Found it!” Jin announces, holding up a little jar. That’s not what concerns Namjoon at the moment though. “Why are you , hyung?” Jin looks down his torso and at the towel clung around his waist. “I’m not.” Namjoon rubs a hand over his face, already missing the view. “You know what I mean!”, he groans and Jin winks at him. “I’m going to take a really quick shower.” Namjoon gives him a flat look. “Are you serious, hyung?” he intones, trying to not let his eyes wander down too obviously.
“I want to smell good, is all,” Jin replies cheekily, giving Namjoon a flying kiss. ‘Fine’, Namjoon thinks, ‘two can play this game.’ “Alright, good point, hyung,” he agrees, watching Jin’s expression turn into a mix of
confused and indignant. “Yah! What do you mean-“ “I could use a shower as well and I mean, we’re already late anyway…,” Namjoon ponders, pretending to think. “Think I could join you to smell just as good as you? And we’d even safe water, too!” Namjoon can’t help the smirk that stretches across his face, when he sees Jin’s face reddening, his ears already a bright pink while he himself looks somewhat dazed. “That-I-Wh-You!” Jin splutters looking at Namjoon before walking backwards into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind him. Namjoon can’t help but grin.

It’s late in the afternoon when they’re all back in Yoongi and Namjoon’s apartment doing various things. Taehyung and Hoseok are writing essays for universities, Yoongi is huddled on the couch, head in Jimin’s lap who’s massaging his head while scrolling through his phone and Namjoon attempts to help Jin and Jungkook in the kitchen, preparing an early dinner. (Really, at this point it feels like all they do is cook and eat if there’s no plot related scene – even the writer thinks so.).
“It says here that you’re not supposed to be scared”, Jimin tells them. “It’s like in Harry Potter, you know? Fear is only the fear of fear itself or something.”
Yoongi snorts. “Good idea, that totally sounds like it’ll work.”
“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Jimin ponders but Yoongi shakes his head now, sitting up.
“You try not being scared if you see yourself standing behind you only to ram your head into a mirror shortly afterwards in an attempt to kill you.”
Jimin mumbles something but he knows Yoongi is right.
“I looked the website up again that we found the ritual on and there it says that you need to destroy what binds the thing to this plane of existence to destroy it,” Taehyung throws in.
“That…. Does actually make sense,” Jin says.
“Why didn’t you tell us before?’ Namjoon asks Taehyung but the other shrugs. “I just remembered.”
“But what is the thing linking it to this world or whatever?” Hoseok voices what they’re all thinking about. They fall into silence, only the sound of the frying pan can be heard. “It must be something you used in your weird ritual…”, Jin ponders. Namjoon snaps his fingers. “That thing you used from me! What was it?”
“That’s the thing…” Taehyung says, “we really don’t remember. We tried but we don’t.” Jungkook and Jimin nod along, faces looking appropriately apologetic. Namjoon hits the coffee table with his hand out of anger before getting up to get himself some tee. Jin looks after him, Jungkook rubs his hand together nervously and Jimin hangs his head. “You ed up,” Yoongi helpfully adds looking at the three youngest before following after Namjoon.

They end the evening with the soju that survived the attack on Yoongi, all of them thinking about the same thing. “But what ELSE could it be?” Jin asks for the fourth time. “A book of his maybe? He has lots of books laying around…” “It definitely was something that we found in the living room… probably near us,” Jimin affirms again. “We didn’t get up to take something from his room.”
“We didn’t even mean to take something from Namjoon-hyung,” Jungkooks says meekly, “we just grabbed something random on the floor. It could’ve been very well Yoongi-hyung’s.”
“But you are SURE it was mine?” Namjoon inquires. Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook nod. “We definitely checked because we had to include your name in the incantation and everything.”
Taehyung elbows him to shut him up but it’s too late already.
“What the , guys. Honestly what the !” Namjoon is rightfully angry again. “Why didn’t you just take something from one of you?” he asks, pointing at the three youngest.
Nobody answers him before Yoongi says: “You didn’t want anything to happen to one of you in case this stuff was really going to work, am I right?”
The three don’t answer but their faces say it all.
“Namjoonie-hyung is very clumsy and lives dangerously anyway, so we thought he’d be best equipped to handle anything weird happening…” Taehyung defends, eyes pleading. Namjoon and Jin have matching disapproving expressions on their face. “I hate you,” Namjoon earnestly tells them before knocking back more soju.

His phone shows 7am and the sun is already up, the day outside grey and rainy. Jin turns around in Namjoon’s bed that they’re sharing while they’re all penned up in one small apartment. Namjoon is awake already which is a little surprising. There goes Jin’s opportunity to secretly snuggle into the other without him knowing.
Jin smiles at Namjoon, their faces only centimeters away from each other. Namjoon looks back, face bland. “Morning,” Jin whispers and Namjoon lifts his cold hand to caress his cheek in a gentle manner that makes the tips of Jin’s ears redden again.
Jin is sure that Namjoon is about to go in for a kiss – or maybe it’s wishful thinking – when the door opens and they break eye contact.
In the door, staring at them, is Namjoon.

Jin’s eyes flit back to the Namjoon besides him and suddenly he notices the smell that is getting stronger, the coldness enveloping him. Trying to scramble out of bed backwards, Jin tries to get away but the thing is on him in a second. Icy hands are enclosing his throat and then they tighten like a vice, breaking off his yelp. Jin can hear Namjoon shouting and apparently try to get the thing away from him but the only thing Jin sees is the Namjoon above him, smirking down at him in a way that is grotesque and sinister, eyes fully black now. Although Jin scratches and hits the hands holding him down and tries to reach for the thing’s face, it doesn’t seem to have any effect at all. There’s more commotion in the room now but Jin can feel his consciousness fading, the edges starting to go black, his lungs screaming for air and his body seizing.
It’s in that moment that the pressure around his throat vanishes and so does the Namjoon above him. Jin rolls to the side, falling off the bed in the process, coughing and wheezing.
“I’ve got you, you’re okay,” the real Namjoon says, pulling him into his arms.
‘My knight in shining armor,’ Jin thinks, gazing at Namjoon fondly, although he’s still too shocked to voice his thoughts.

A few minutes later they’re in the living room with everyone else again. Jin is sipping from a bottle of water Yoongi had left in the fridge the night before and Namjoon helps him holding ice packs to his throat to help with the swelling. “It was in your bed!” Hoseok shrieks again, covering his face. “It doesn’t seem to have a hard time getting in here,” Yoongi intones. “We need to do something NOW! It tried to kill Jin just now.”
“Yah, it tried killing me too!” Yoongi pouts but Jimin waves him off. “We weren’t sure if it really wanted to kill you but this time it’s pretty obvious.”
“What did you do to get it off?” Jungkook asks and Namjoon heaves a sigh. “Well, I tried prying it off first but it wouldn’t budge no matter what I did. It’s strong. Like… really strong. Inhumanely so.” Hoseok whimpers. Taehyung is sliding over a little closer to Jungkook. “I tried hitting it, kicking it but it wasn’t of any use and then I remembered, what Tae said yesterday night!”
“Huh?” Taehyung says lifting his head from Jungkook’s shoulder. “Yeah, you said that the incantation you did was in another language… and then you showed it to me on the internet,” Namjoon continues. His friends give him blank stares. “Well, from what I saw, it looked like Latin, so I did some research yesterday night and I found out that the language you used to call that thing was indeed Latin. It was Archaic Latin, basically the precursor of the Classical Latin we know these days. Old Latin was used in the time before 75 BC which leads me to believe that this thing is really old…” “But how did you get it off Jin-hyung?” Jimin asks confused. “Oh, well, I ordered it to,” Namjoon tells them, looking proud. “I told it ‘leave’ in Old Latin and it… disappeared.”
Namjoon can tell that his friends are stunned. Jin basically has stars in his eyes looking up at Namjoon.
“But… how?” Jungkook says, in total awe of his hyung.
“I thought it might understand Old Latin because of the incantation and decided to learn a few words… you know, just in case,” Namjoon shrugs.
“Damn,” Yoongi mumbles appreciatively.
Namjoon grins, giving a shy shrug. “Well, it was pretty obvious…”
And then Jin is kissing him. Properly. In front of all their friends. The ice packs land on the floor with a thud.

“I remember!” Taehyung says all of a sudden, interrupting the kiss and jumping up from the couch. “I remember what we used for the incantation!”
Everyone including Jin and Namjoon turns to him with wide eyes.
“What- what was it?” Namjoon asks, still looking slightly dazed.
“Your briefs!” Taehyung declares proudly, sharing a high five with Jimin and Jungkook.
“My-… what??”

They’re standing in Namjoon’s room, underwear scattered across the floor and Namjoon looking at them with a pained expression on his face. “…So?”, he asks, “which one did you use?”
“I… don’t know,” Jimin replies, nibbling on his lower lip.
“It was a black one!” Taehyung announces self-confidently. Everyone looks down at the garments on the floor. “All of my briefs are black, Tae,” Namjoon deadpans and with that they’re back to square one.
“What do you even want to do with it?” Jin inquires, looking at his younger friends. “Well, we’ll need to burn it obviously!” Hoseok says and everybody except Namjoon nods along solemnly.
“You want to BURN my underwear?” Namjoon yells, throwing his hands in the air. “Yes, and I don’t think we’re ever going to find out which one they used,” Yoongi says.
Which is how they end up small patch of green behind Namjoon and Yoongi’s apartment complex, each of them carrying a small pile of Namjoon’s briefs. “I can’t believe you want to burn all my underwear!” Namjoon whines again but the others are bustling about already.
Yoongi carried a can of denatured alcohol downstairs with him (“Hyung, why do you have denatured alcohol?” “Some things you don’t want to know. Now stop asking.”) and soon enough they’ve set up a nice little fire, having it started off with some old rugs Namjoon and Yoongi had lying around.
“Ready?” Taehyung asks them, holding up the first pair of briefs. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Jimin very determined says and Taehyung throws the piece of clothing into the fire.
Nothing happens, so Hoseok throws the second piece and soon they’re all flinging Namjoon’s underwear into the fire.
The flames devour the black pieces of fabric like it’s all they want to do in life, which – to be honest – they probably do.
It’s after a few minutes that there’s a loud screeching sound that makes all of them cover their ears. The thing is floating in the middle of the fire, a few feet above the ground, writhing and warping its body in sheer pain, bending this way and that, all the while shrieking in anguish. Its body is a gleaming mass fed on by the flames, flickering between looking like Namjoon, Yoongi, Jin, Yoongi again, back to Namjoon… They stare in horror, huddled together with Namjoon pulling Jin closer and Taehyung hiding behind Jungkook. Hoseok, Jimin and Yoongi are in each other’s arms, having joined in on the screaming. The thing keeps flickering, faster now, its body bending in ways that should be impossible and black smoke is streaming out of its mouth. It feels like a not ending nightmare but is over in seconds and when it’s gone, the screams disappearing with it, a blow of wind rushes past them, rustling their clothes and blowing out the fire in one mysterious swirl. Black, dirty ashes is all that’s left behind, a few of Namjoon’s half burned underpants covering the spot where not long ago a fire had been burning.
“It’s gone, isn’t it?” Jimin asks and everyone nods. “I’m pretty sure it is,” Jin says and they all let out a massive sigh they had been holding.

„Well, I can with the utmost certainty say that this was the most exciting weekend I’ve had in a long time,” Hoseok says.
“That was ALL my underwear,” Namjoon laments.
“Are you still hung up on that?” Yoongi snaps but Jin grins at him and says: “I’ll buy you new ones if you invite me for dinner tonight.”
“You mean, like a date?” Namjoon asks grinning and Jin nods, pulling Namjoon with him to the apartment entrance.
“Guess we should stop doing weird incantations from the internet,” Taehyung says, still staring at the ashes forlornly. “You think?” Jimin scoffs, rolling his eyes and making his way back to the apartment as well, Yoongi and Hoseok in tow.
“Do you think it will come back?” Jungkook asks, looking at the ashes still, frowning. “No,” Taehyung gently but certain answers, shaking his head. “It’s gone.” For a while they’re only looking at each other, not saying anything, then: “I cancelled the date with Bogum,” Taehyung says, eyes downcast. “Because we both know that I like someone else.”
“Do we?” Jungkook quietly replies, still looking at Taehyung and when Taehyung keeps staring down, he lifts his chin with his finger so they’re looking into each other’s eyes again.
“Yeah…” Taehyung whispers, barely audible and then they’re kissing, wrapped around each other and not ready to let go anytime soon.

“Honestly, that was long overdue,” Yoongi scoffs from afar, having turned around to look at Jungkook and Taehyung. “If only you knew,” Jimin mumbles.