Jaejoong looked at his face in the bathroom mirror and studied his hair.

He was supposed to meet the guys in twenty minutes. 

They were too old for trick-or-treating, but the perfect age for parties. 

Jaejoong loved Halloween and he was excited to be going out with his friends. However, no matter how good he felt, how happy, how  excited, he couldn’t avoid the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. That little feeling he had for some weeks now.

This wasn’t a new feeling. In fact, he had been feeling like this since three weeks ago. He supposed he had been feeling paranoid. He felt like someone, or something was watching him. 

It all started one afternoon when he stayed after school for a tutoring session. He actually enjoyed these sessions, and it wasn’t because he was studious or even focused on his education. He was an average student at best. However, why he liked to stay after school for tutoring was because of the fun he usually ended up having with his friends; they did more joking than studying. 

They would just talk and talk. They talked about everything, and had a great laugh. It was awesome. 

That evening, his friends had gone straight home right after school was over. He had been left all by himself. Typically, he took his bike to school, but lately he hadn't been doing that during tutoring evenings and club meeting evenings, if and when they decided to host a meeting at school, which was not often because jaejoong’s garage was their HQ. The reason for the no bike was because Junsu’s bike had gotten wrecked and he hadn’t replaced it yet, and to be kind to their friend, they all have decided to simply walk on days they all would be together. And so, after clubb, he had found himself all alone and he had to walk back home all by his lone-self and the music blaring from his headphones.

Walking home, singing along to his favorite songs, he felt it. The it was a pair of cold eyes gliding along his spine, making his hair stand up, goosebumps rose all over his body, all his nerves felt on edge. His throat was dry as the Saharra desert, and his stomach tightened up into a painful knot. He felt terrified to look behind him.

Why was he reacting like that, he had wondered?

He forced his legs to work. He kept on walking. He tried to stealthily take one ear-bud out and listen. He felt a quiver in his hands. He wanted to hear for following footsteps. Nothing.  

After a few seconds of not hearing anything, but still feeling those eerie eyes on him, while he was still walking, he turned around and looked behind him. There was nothing. There was no one. 

He practically jogged the rest of the way home, but the feeling never disappeared. And there remained no one following him. That only made him feel like he was going crazy. However, as if to vindicate his feelings, three days later he felt it again. This time the feeling lasted longer and it felt more menacing and scarier. Jaejoong was positively terrified. 

And it kept on getting worse.

Jaejoong didn’t know if he was simply being paranoid, but he could swear a week after that first feeling of being watched, he started seeing traces of footsteps. It was brief. As he would be walking, he felt as if he was being followed, so he’d quickly turn around to try to catch a glimpse of whoever was behind him only to see no one but a few seconds of what looked like shadowy footsteps.

Weird, right? Only it wasn't. 

Now, Jaejoong doesn't believe in ghosts. He was sixteen! But he knew what he was feeling and he was certain of what he was seeing.

He started being vigilant. Now whenever he was walking, he would look down to see if there were footsteps. Only there weren’t. 

He knew it couldn’t be one of his friend’s pranks. How would they do it? He was seeing things or Footstep was after him.

Jaejoong couldn’t ask his friends for reassurance. What would they think? He was insane for sure, right? One, he wasn’t hearing things or seeing things, he felt eyes watching him. Plus, how did they make the footsteps appear? They couldn’t do any of those things. 

It couldn’t be them doing that, so that only left him with the conclusion he was going crazy.

Two days ago, he started hearing footsteps. No worries, right? Except for the fact that all of this was tell-tale signs of Footstep.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself out of his worthless pondering. A ghost couldn’t be after him; they weren’t real. They were mere make believe specters.

His phone rang at that exact minute.

Answering it without looking to make sure who he was going to be speaking with, he answered using his infamous line: “I don’t have a lot of free time.”

“I know you don’t. You were supposed to be here three minutes ago.”

“What!” He exclaimed. He looked down at the black watch on his wrist to confirm that what Yunho said was the truth.

“I’ll be there in five minutes, okay? Bye now.” He quickly ended the call and slid his phone into his back pocket.

Their meet-up place was Marion haunted house. He was apprehensive, considering how he had been feeling lately. However, it was not like he was going there alone and it would be embarrassing to tell his friends about his feelings. 

The Marion house has become known as the Marion haunted house because of its back story. 

The story was that the owners had have slaves. The master of the house had taken one of them for his lover. Against her will, they said, and every night in the dungeon he would her. When it became too much for the poor girl, because she was no older than sixteen, she went to the wife and thought that by telling her, she could talk to her husband and save her from her terror.

Well that only served to get her hung for telling a lie on a married man, and her master when she was only a slave. The wife clearly knew she had been telling the truth. They said she went to her death angry. Since then, they said she hunted the house, waiting for the time she could get her revenge.

Running down the stairs, Jaejoong almost bumped into his six year old sister. She looked at him and smiled. She asked in her sweet innocent voice, “You’re going out early?”

“Yeah, mom is going trick or treating with you this Halloween.” He picked her up, she wrapped her small little arms around his neck, and he gave her a small quick kiss on her plump cheek. She kissed him back.

“I am going to miss you.”

He put her down. “I know. But we have next year.”

“Promise?”

He nodded and locked pinky with her. “Promised.”

“Bye Jaejoong, I’ll save some candy for you!” She offered. The reason he loved her to death. He pinched her cheek again.

 “Thanks, pumpkin. See you later. I am late.”

She followed him to the door.

Running out of the house, he saw how the streets were lit up with Halloween decorations. The whole street had little kids, most with parents as they went down the street Trick-or-treating. Jaejoong felt high and he couldn’t help but smile as he jumped on his bike. If he wanted to not be even more late, he would have to take his bike.

He didn’t paddle slowly to admire the Halloween spirit. He had to be on his way if he didn’t want to be later then he was already.

Pulling his phone out, using one hand, he texted to the group chat that he was on his way. The house was only a twenty minute walk, on bike it should cut it down to almost half or less, depending on his speed and stamina.

                                                                                           ------------------------------------ 

“Where the heck is he?” Junsu mumbled, annoyed.

“He just texted that he would be here in about nine minutes,” YoungSaeng supplied in an effort to placate.

“Just so you guys know, I'm so not in this with you eight.” Changmin’s gut was telling him this would have a bad ending, and he was one of those people that their guts never lie to them.

“Changminnie, you can always go home, no one is holding you here.” Junsu was really getting annoyed by the younger teen’s persistent comment about what they were doing. He still didn’t get it that this was just for fun.

“I can’t just leave and go. I would be leaving Jaejoong in your evil clutches. I could never do that to him.”

“Oh gosh! Drama queen, drop it!”

Chagnmin hissed at Junsu.

“If you’re not leaving, just shut up.”

Yunho separated them. “Stop it, guys. Changmin, it’s just for fun.”

“Stay, but shut up before I do it for you."