The light of the flashlight barely illuminated anything in front of him and suddenly Aiden really wished that he had listened to Jisung when he said to buy the strong flashlight. But in his defense, how was he supposed to know the high school was going be so ing dark?! Unlike his other friends, this was his first time playing Phasmophobia. As the fresh meat that he was, Jisung and Felix had a great time terrorizing the out of him on the first two runs  - granted Aiden fed right into their antics despite Changbin telling him not to.  He had to give them credit though, for the first two introductory rounds, they let Aiden be server room leader and pick two amateur runs to go through - the Grafton Farmhouse and Tanglewood Street house, and luckily for them, the two ghosts they encountered were the Shade and the Poltergeist. Not as dangerous as the other ghosts in the game, but certainly just as scary to hunt. Still, they had countless times tried to get him killed by telling him to do things that he shouldn't do - like call out the ghost's name repeatedly, or when the ghost was hunting, to run straight at it with a crucifix because that was definitely going to get it to go away. Definitely. So at the mention of a strong flashlight that would give off better lighting, he wasn't ready to believe them at all.

He regretted it now.

"I hate this."

"I told you to buy a strong flashlight." Jisung's smug remark wasn't needed and it only served to make Aiden slightly more grouchy than he was currently.  "If you would have just listened-"

"In his defense, you guys have been complete to him since the start," Changbin spoke, so close to Aiden that he jerked his character forward as he jumped in his chair at the sudden noise.

"Holy ! Binnie, you scared the out of me!" he whined, closing his eyes as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. They had only just begun the round and he was already on edge. He was sure it had everything to do with the fact that once he entered the house, the noises changed from a calm, quiet night with crickets chirping to an almost dead silence filled with white noise. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry babe." Changbin chuckled and Aiden was pretty sure the other wasn't sorry at all. Humming,  Aiden gathered what little courage he had continued on. He could vaguely hear Jisung shouting down the hall on the right side and Felix was absolutely silent which Aiden could only assume meant that he was farther away than Jisung. With the school being so big, they had agreed to split up into groups so they could cover as much ground in the five-minute grace period that they had on the amateur level. Felix and Jisung went right and he and Changbin were going left.

"Found the stairs. I'm going up."   The crackle of the walkie-talkie was so jarring that Aiden jumped in his chair once more, letting out a shout of fear. He quickly looked behind him, eyes locked on his bedroom door. When it didn't open, he figured he hadn't disturbed his parents, thankfully, and turned back to his computer screen.

"I really hate this game ," he whined out.

"Oh stop, it's not even that scary ." Aiden had to remind himself that Jisung was one of his closest friends and that he really did love him. " We're just wandering in a big, dark, abandoned high school, hunting for some spooks ."

" Okay, and how is that not scary?"

"Because we have that five minute-" The walkie-talkie started crackling as Aiden's flashlight began flashing.

"Oh no, no no no no." Aiden was in near tears as he spun in a circle a few times, bumping into walls before finally finding a closed classroom door.  As he was going to open the door, he could hear the heavy thud of footsteps coming his way, spiking the fear coursing through him. Aiden struggled, fingers fumbling over the keys to try and get the stupid door open and of course, it had to be a pull and not a push.

"Open you stupid ing door!" Aiden whispered shouted, mostly so his parents couldn't hear him screaming in terror like a little girl, but that was all for naught as his character's heartbeat picked up its pace. With a hard yank of his mouse, Aiden managed to get the door open just as what he could only describe as "the grudge" groan filled his ears and decaying hands appeared across his screen. He screamed, tumbling out of his chair and yanking his headphones right off his head.

"Aiden?" his father shouted from downstairs and embarrassment washed over him.

"I'm fine, dad!" Groaning, Aiden climbed back to his feet and sat down in his chair. He grabbed his headphones and placed them back on, only to be greeted with the sounds of hysterical laughter.

"He ing died, dude! I can't believe it! That's ghosts 3, Aiden 0!" Jisung sounded way too happy about his death, and Aiden huffed in annoyance. It's not his fault he kept dying all the time. He wasn't a pro player like the other three. This was only his third round and he was still learning how to play and what all the little noises and events mean. Besides, it was extremely hard to hide when fear was crippling his fingers and making him unable to open a simple door.

"Calm down Jisung and cut him some slack. He's never played this game before." Changbin spoke, his character appearing on the screen, looming over Aiden's body. "Aw Felix, our baby. Died at the hands of Barbra." Aiden couldn't help by frown at that. It sounded like Changbin was mocking him in a way, and he didn't like that. Changbin had been his only ally against his other boyfriend and Jisung.  And if Aiden didn't think that Changbin wasn't mocking him before, he certainly did when others started crouching over his body and basically T-bagging him. "At least we know what the room is now."  Changbin moved away from his body and made his way back to the room the ghost had crawled out of, Aiden following behind him within the ghost realm.

"We got freezing temps and EMF 5."

Taking out his journal, Aiden added the two pieces of evidence and scrolled through the selection of ghosts they could possibly have.

"Phantom or Banshee." Felix's voice came over the radio and Aiden could only nod in agreement. He really hated the fact that he could no longer communicate with the other three now that he was dead. It really did surprise him that it was only a phantom or banshee. With how quickly he died, he was sure it was a demon or maybe a yurei. In hindsight, it was pretty stupid to die early, but he had been stupid when trying to hide.

"Who has the camera?" Changbin asked as he walked in a circle a few times in the classroom before walking back out.

"I do. What room is it?" Jisung asked.

"First floor, left side, last room by the exit."

"Oh, he found the exit ghost. And still couldn't escape." Jisung teased as Aiden frowned. He grabbed his phone and unlocked it to bring up his messages with Jisung and sent him emoji of the face with steam coming out of its nose. It was only a few seconds later when Jisung's laughter rang out through the walkie-talkie. "He sent me the fuming emoji! I love you too Aiden! Stop at the game."

"Can we just get in and get out so we can get Aiden back please?" Changbin huffed. There were giggles of agreement, but Aiden really didn't care. He was happy that Changbin was standing up for him, in a sense. He could hug and kiss him if the other was there.

Sadly, he was not. The rest of the round went by pretty quickly, and Aiden zoned out for most of it unless the ghost was hunting. Then he was walking up and down the halls, following it as it chased the others into hiding. The last evidence they obtained was ghost orbs and it turned out he was killed by a phantom. Stupid phantom Barbra. Loading back in the lobby, Aiden was quick to press 'V' so he could go on his tirade.

"You know, I don't very much appreciate you laughing at me, Sungie," he growled out.

"Aw, I'm sorry chicken nugget, but it was funny. You died so quickly." Jisung snickered as he walked over and crouched up and down a few times in front of him.

"I hate you. We're over." Aiden huffed and turned away, tilting his character to look up.

"No!!! Aiden, don't leave me. I thought what we had was special!"

Aiden couldn't help but giggle at that, shaking his head both in the game and in real life. Jisung really was a silly person and probably one of his favorite friends.

"So Felix, since when has our boyfriend been dating Jisung?" Changbin asked and Aiden could hear the half pout-half smirk in his voice. He was pretty sure Changbin was amused by their little bit, but at the same time either confused or upset? He wasn't sure which it was.

"Boyfriend? What boyfriend. I'm only dating you."

Aiden was quick to turn his character, gasping out into his microphone. "What?! No Lixie! Don't be like that, you know I love you!" It was disgustingly cute with how high Aiden made his voice during that statement, followed up by kissing noises. "I'm sorry."

"That's so gross. I'm gonna puke." Jisung muttered as he walked away from the group. If Aiden could, he probably would have flicked the other off in-game, but as it was, he couldn't. He would make a note to flick Jisung off the next time he saw him though, as an IOU.

"I think I just uwued all over the place." Felix laughed, his character moving closer to Aiden's and loud kissing noises nearly blew out Aiden's ears.

"Oh my god, Felix! My ears!" It was a simultaneous shout from the three other people, and all they received in return was Felix's airy laughter that warmed Aiden's heart. "Alright, let's ready up for the next mission. We're going to the asylum baby!" Aiden could only groan in annoyance, because of course that's where they would be going. Despite loving Felix, sometimes he really hated him.