Part Three

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Five days ago

While Junhee chased her curiousity and ventured into the dark part of the forest, her friends were resting and chilling by the waterfall and didn't noticed anything happening around them. It was around 10 minutes after, Jongdae was looking around after losing a game with Doyoung that he finally noticed that Junhee was gone. 

He frowned, searching with his eyes everywhere around the waterfall to catch any sight of Junhee but he didn't see her anywhere. She was no way around the area. 

"Hey guys, have you seen Junhee?" he let it out to the rest of his friends, alerting them. "She's not here" 

Joon, who heard him after he came back from his short making out with Minjeong behind the trees, glanced around the place. His face started to frown when one of his friends was missing and that was Junhee. "Where'd she go"

Jongdae shook his head. The others now had sense the problem were all standing up and looked around for the girl. 

"Maybe she's strolling for a bit" Soyeon said, seeing it in a light way. "She will come back" 

"She shouldn't even stroll around here alone, this forest is not safe" Yunjin added herself, eyes looking around and squinting behind the trees to maybe spot Junhee walking between them. 

Everyone after they heard Yunjin's words started to think about it and it was Rina who suggested the search for Junhee. "How about we search for her, maybe she's lost" 

"What about that baby pegasus? We can't waste time either, we came for the baby and it'll be a few hours before the forest gets dark" Minjeong chimes in, reminding them of their mission. 

"Not to mention we need Junhee when it gets dark, you know" Joon adds afterwards jokingly but some didn't like his joke. Haechan scoffed with a shake of the head while Jongdae frowned, eyes still searching between the trees. 

"Dude stop thinking about using her light. This is serious. We can't go on without her" Rina retort, eyeing Joon. "We have to search for her" 

Joon sighed, "Sorry sorry I was just joking" before he stayed silent in thinking, "How about we split up. Some of us go find Junhee and the rest will find the baby? That way we can cover up both things and get out of the forest quicker" Joon suggested and that was how it started. The students divided themselves into two groups.

Group 1 that consisted of Joon, Minjeong, Soyeon, Doyoung and Yunjin went on the search for the baby while Group 2 included Jongdae, Rina and Haechan went on finding Junhee. 

Both groups went on with their own search and to say it went smoothly; it didn't. Both groups experienced something weird and bizarre. All of them got surrounded and attacked by the black wisps. No one knew where it came from but it was last second when they realized about the sudden wisps. 

Group 1 could avoid it if not for their decided path they took. Minjeong, as curious as Junhee, started to see it and went on to investigate, followed by the rest the group but when their skin and head got wrapped by the wisps, it started to get downhill. 

They all went blind, screaming and fell unconscious afterward.

Group 2 experienced the same but without the unconsciousness. The wisps playing with their heads and it was a while after that they had met with Junhee again -- she saved them but then chaos happened again. They lost Junhee again. 

When Jongdae woke up, he couldn't remember what happened. The last thing he remembered was when all four of them were going to get out from that area. He sat up, eyes looking at the body Haechan's and Rina's laid on the ground next to him, both of them waking up while groans. But what shocked him more was that the three of them were with group 1. The rest of his friends were closed to them, all waking up from their sleep on the forest ground.

But one thing he realized (again) that Junhee was not there with them. Junhee was gone, again. His eyes widened and panickly trying to spot her but failed. 

Another weird part he realized that they were out from the area with those black wisps smoke and somehow they laid at an area close to the way out of the forest. He recognized the path and he for sure knew they were close to getting out. 

Jongdae held it in. He didn't know what happened. Everything didn't made sense. What happened? 

"What happened?" Doyoung sluggishly said, standing up from the ground. 

"What the hell is happening man, this was not what we came here for?!" 

"Where's Junhee? Didn't you guys find her?" 

"This bloody forest is weird, we should just get out of here" 

"My head still hurts" 

"God...what the hell happened..."

"Let's get the hell out of here"

Words were coming out from them, all of them didn't know what happened to them. Everything was confusing and most of them felt shaken. A lot of them groaning, complaining their heads hurting, their bodies bruising, their mind confused. All of them started to retell what happened to each other. Group 1 was more shaken than group 2. 

"We still need to find Junhee" Jongdae lets out quickly as group 1 started to walk away, headed to the way out. It was morning, the sun was up and they all should came back to the academy yesterday evening. Rina nodded after his words but the rest somehow ignoring him. Haechan kept quiet at the side while watching Jongdae. 

"I think this is what my father told me about" 

"What are you talking about" Jongdae couldn't believe how his friends tried to ignore the fact that one of their friends are missing. 

"He told me that this forest has some weird going on. There's something in this forest. Some ghost or some murderer or whatever and it's haunting us!" Minjeong said, almost hysterically. Joon closed his arms around her, trying to calm her down but Minjeong kept glancing panickly, scared to what's to come. She's mumbled to herself about not believing her family about the disturbing rumours about the forest. "There's something out there that's coming for us!" 

"What are you talking about--So what? Are we just going to let Junhee--"

"She's gone!!"

Jongdae stopped when Minjeong loudly yelled back, cutting his words.

"Don't you see?! You said you guys met her when the weird things happened and she's gone again. Don't you see she's gone! She's probably dead somewhere. She must had ed up something and if we don't get the hell out of this forest we might be dead too!!" 

"She's not dead!!" Jongdae hollered back as Joon tried to calm down the girl. 

"Min calm down..." Joon rubbed her arms, pulling her close to him as he frowned at the situation. He looked at the rest, seeing some of his friends were scared, glancing around at the silent trees. He glanced at Jongdae then, watching how the man clenched his fist and frowning at Minjeong. A second later, both of them had eye contact and it was Joon who opened his mouth first, keeping his stare hard.

"Minjeong's right. We have to go, we need to leave the forest" 

Jongdae continued to frown at his words.

"We can't stay here, it's dangerous" Joon continued, held the eye contact with Jongdae and feeling his own anger under his skin. "You saw what happened, heck, you know what happened to all of us! Something blinded us, messing up our heads!-"

"Junhee is not dead. She must be somewhere out there, lost. Are we just going to leave Junhee alone in whatever the hell is happening in this fore--"

"It's her fault Jongdae! She's not supposed to wander off and what happened to her now is her own mistake-"

"SHE'S OUR FRIEND!" 

"WE DON'T WANT TO DIE EITHER!!" Joon's nose flared as he looked at his friend. Desperation and panic written in his face along with the need to be angry at the situation. "Look, we are going back to the academy" He runs his hand through his hair. "We'll tell the others about Junhee and maybe the people will do a rescue mission for her" he paused, glancing around at the rest. 

The rest quietly watching Joon and Jongdae

"But don't get your hopes up. We all bloody know that everytime a person gone missing they're never found" Joon continued, "If they want to find her then they will but if they don't then..." he didn't finished the words but instead, "Not everyone wants to risk their lives"

"For now let's just go home. We worried a lot of people by now because we didn't came back last night. We're hungry, we're tired, we have bruises and we all have headaches from whatever the it was out there" Joon sighed before he shook his head and proceed to walk while holding Minjeong's hand. The girl quietly followed. 

The rest glanced around each other before one by one followed Joon and Minjeong. Rina and Haechan looked at each other, worry spread all over their faces before they looked over at Jongdae who was still frowning, glaring at the ground. 

Haechan walked closer to Jongdae, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Let's just go home for now, Dae" He said softly, trying not to add more anger to his friend. Jongdae slowly looked at him. "If there's no one wants to search for Junhee then it's ok, we can go back here again to look for her. We'll bring more people next time" 

After a few seconds of silence, Jongdae slowly sighed as he took in Haechan's words. He looked around the forest, scanning the trees and also watching how his other friends were getting farther and farther away from them. He met Rina's eyes and she gave him a sad smile. A second more then he reluctantly nodded before the three of them followed the rest. 

Once they were back at the academy, the first person Jongdae ran into was none other than Kyungsoo. Glaring yet worriedly approached him, asking about Junhee when he didn't see her with the group. When Jongdae along with Haechan and Rina told him about what happened, the big eyed man went into full blown panic and worry and demanded to go to the forest. 

It was an hour later, after eaten and freshened up, Jongdae went back to the forest. He was tired, his body and head hurt but he couldn't bring himself to stay still and do nothing. He felt guilty for not protecting her enough. Kyungsoo didn't make it better for him either; the man were giving him silent treatment after lashing out to him. 

"I told you to watch her Jongdae. You had one ing job!" Kyungsoo yelled at him after him, Rina and Haechan explained to the man about Junhee's disappearance. "You're my friend, I trusted you to look after her!" 

Jongdae kept his mouth closed, having no bravery to retort back to Kyungsoo's words. He knew it was his fault. He had promised Kyungsoo to keep an eye on Junhee and he failed. 

Jongdae were back to the forest, together with Kyungsoo and bringing along their friends; Chanyeol, Sehun, Jongin and Minseok. They won't wait for the town's people. Kyungsoo doubt the people would want to search the forest for one lost girl. This was not the first time something like this happened and from past events, people were too lazy and afraid to go out searching and risking themselves in rescue missions. Not when people believed there is something in the forest.

Adults believed that the forest lived something or someone dangerous and if they crossed path, they would die. That was what had happened to all the missing people in the past. People who crossed the boundaries to check out the forest were gone missing and the town's people just quickly claimed that they're dead.

Kyungsoo was young when the first man went missing. The rumours started around that time and he didn't understand or believed it either. When he grew older, he somewhat understood but not believing it like the adults.

Sure, forests are dangerous. They inhabits wild animals and all sorts of mysteries. If there is something wicked and evil coming after him then he will just want to kill it first before that thing could kill him. People are cowards, he said. Too scared to face the unknown. Whatever it is, Kyungsoo won't stop finding Junhee and make sure she's safe but most importantly alive. 

The five boys took around 5 hours searching through the forest, went to the places Jongdae and the group went but by the end of their search it was fruitless. Nothing happened while they were in the forest. No smoke wisps or any weird things. Jongdae frowned. It's like the entity or whatever it was he encountered yesterday was gone. He couldn't find any traces or see any of that black smoke anywhere when he walked through the trees. 

Sehun even doubted about what Jongdae and the rest of the group members were saying about the forest. The forest looked calm and serene. He didn't sensed any danger lingering around. Jongdae explained again that it happened. It was real and all of them were not making up stories. Sehun kept quiet and only nodded, not wanting to add more to his anxious friend. 

They continued on with their search. The second day they went to the forest again, Haechan came along but even with an additional pair of eyes, Junhee was still no where to be found. 

It's like Junhee vanished with no clues behind 

After the fourth and fifth day of searching, Kyungsoo getting more worried but he won't give up.

Jongin and Sehun glanced at each other, wiping their sweat with the hem of their shirts. Even in autumn, it didn't take away the heat or tiredness. They both looked at the big eyed man, who's eyes constantly squinting and glaring at their surrounding with a blade equipped in his hand.

"Kyungsoo, we've been searching for days and we most probably had covered all the grounds by now" Jongin slowly let it out. He was tired, dragging his boots on the dirt ground as he looked around the silent trees. "Junhee's not here" 

Kyungsoo didn't answered

Jongdae looked at him but didn't say anything. Kyungsoo was still giving him silent treatment even when they were working together.

His guilt was still there creeping inside him. If he had put more effort in taking care of her then all of this wouldn't happened but unfortunately it did. Haechan pursed his lips, it was fourth time joining in the search and he was as much as guilty about it as well. He watched Jongdae, walking beside him before he gave the man the usual pat on the shoulder to let the man know that it wasn't his or anyone's fault. 

"We'll find her" After a while, Kyungsoo finally spoke. The man still glaring at whatever his eyes landed on. "We'll find her...she's not dead. I know she isn't" 

He couldn't fathom the idea that his best friend is gone or dead. Junhee must be here, she's still alive and she will come back, hopefully safely.

The rest; Jongin, Chanyeol, Sehun, Minseok, Haechan and Jongdae all stared at him. 

Chanyeol wiped his sweaty forehead as he opened his mouth to Kyungsoo. "How do you know she's not?" He let it out, wanting to be careful with his words but he and everyone knew that this whole situation is filled with uncertainty but Kyungsoo was stubborn and confident with his guts.

"We've been searching for days, Soo-ah. We've covered almost all parts of the forest and we couldn't spot anything that could trailed back to her. For all we know she," Chanyeol paused for a second, pursing his lips for what he is going to say to his friend. He glanced at his friends before he continued his words, "She could be dead by now" 

Kyungsoo didn't say anything for about a minute until he scoffed. The rest not even sure who was he scoffed to; either to Chanyeol or them or the situation or even himself.

"She's not dead" he said, repeated what he said earlier. His chin still held high and eyes scanned around. The rest looked at him when he added, 

"She's too annoying to die that easily" 

🍁🍁🍁

Present

"Can you please ing go away and mind your business" The hooded man gritted his teeth, pushing the urge to not manhandle the annoying girl next to him. Another night had passed and he had left the girl to find (or rather stole) a book in the restricted section in the academy's library during the night while she was sleeping. 

Five days had passed and he still doesn't know how to kill the girl. It's not like he didn't try, he did. He had tried to kill her again on the day when they were heading back to the house after his translucent skin being discovered by the girl. The girl's reaction on him was like her discovering some rare specimen that she absolutely couldn't take her nose out of.  

She was a menace, he thought. 

So annoying, he added

And he couldn't wait to kill her successfully. 

He never met anyone as annoying as her, curious and stubborn and is trying to get into his business. She's not scared of him, that's what he get from her after keeping her in his house for these few days. 

He didn't see her that much; he went out of the house when she's sleeping then locked himself in his room when she's awake. 

It was rare when he actually had to see her face to face and this is exactly one of them. 

"What are you reading? You've been reading that book for hours now" She plops herself beside him on the couch, getting so close to him that he feels like pulling his hair off because he doesn't know what to do with a creature as nosy as her.

Her head leans closer, almost touching his shoulder and if he could, he wants to shove her away and maybe lock her inside her room but for whatever reason, he stayed still and let the girl slide into his personal space. 

He keeps his anger and frustration in while the girl curiously blinking at the words in the book. "It's in Latin" she gasps lightly after realizing the words in the book are in Latin. She turns her head to look at him, scanning his shadowed side profile while she at it. "You can read Latin?" 

"What do you think" he flatly answers, eyes on the book as he continued to read the long paragrah of the thick ancient book. He wants to ignore her but apparently 'ignoring her' doesn't work. She will ke