“Stay away from me you jerk!”

                I’ve been saying that for 30 minutes, and guess what? I’m still running because of this freak of nature named Lee Hyukjae. him.

                “Get back here! Annie wants to play with you!” the bastard shouts and I know he has that stupid grin on his face.

                You’re all probably wondering why I’m running away from this jerk, huh? Oh, and I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Kim Jongwoon and I have a pediophobia.

                Pediophobia is the fear of dolls. That’s why I’m running away from that monkey-faced guy right now—because I’m terrified of them. He’s holding that Barbie doll like it’s something innocent, but I know better.  Dolls kill. I mean, have you ever watched that movie, Child’s Play? The one where a doll named Chucky kills off people just ‘cause he’s evil? Yep, that’s the one. Because of that movie, a stormy night, and my brother’s wonderful collection of dolls, I’m now suffering from pediophobia.

                I’m scared of anything that looks like a doll or anything doll related. Just seeing one already makes me tremble and the sight of one at close proximity makes me faint. Heck, I’m even scared of little children, because to me they look like dolls.

                Back in Cheonan, my brother owns a huge doll collection. He has all kinds of dolls from different countries. Don’t ask me why he collects dolls instead of cars. The ones that terrify me the most are the ones he got from Japan. Those Geisha dolls are scary and freaky. Aside from the Geisha dolls, those porcelain dolls are scary, too. Their blue eyes, wavy hair and Victorian dresses look as if they’re about to kill me with their teddy bears. They’re freaky and I will not associate with any kind of dolls or dummies. I’d rather die.

                Speaking of which, I died once because of my fear. My parents didn’t know that the cause of my fear was my brother’s doll collection. They searched on the internet and found out that in order to overcome your fear, you have to face it. So they forced me into my brother’s room and locked me there for five minutes. Just five measly minutes of blood curdling screaming and trembling, then everything went black. The next thing I know, I’m at the hospital with my brother telling me that I died. Great.

                “Stop running Jongwoon! I just want you to meet Annie!” Hyukjae yells from behind me.

                To be honest, I wasn’t much of a runner. But thanks to this scumbag of a monkey, my stamina has increased overtime because I have to run away from him on a daily basis. Ever since I got here freshman year, he’s never failed to bully me. I don’t know why though.

                I’m getting tired. I need to find somewhere to hide and fast before this monkey brain catches me. Upon rounding the corner, there is a door slightly ajar. I head for that door and silently pray for my life to be spared from this idiot.

                The room is one I’ve never been in before. It’s all dusty and disgusting, and dark as well. The only light source this room has is the one from the window--which isn’t too much. Just like a spec of light for me to see enough so that I won’t trip and make a lot of noise. Even though I want to do something about the lighting, I can’t. The window is too high for me. Not that I’m short, no. I’m tall. Taller than Hyukjae and Donghae but will forever be shorter than our Values Education teacher, Choi Siwon. Up until now, I’m still wondering why he decided to become a teacher instead of a model. He’s way too handsome not to be scouted. Plus, he’s hot. And handsome. And has a body to die for. Okay! I’m getting off topic. Have I mentioned that I’m secretly gay? No? Now you know.

                I will never admit that I’m gay. If I tell everyone that I’m gay, that will create chaos. The only openly gay person here in this school is Kevin and “her” divas. People don’t mind that they’re gay, but they’re so open about it, it irks me . Plus, I have a lot of male admirers. One of them is my closest friend, Lee Donghae. He doesn’t like me for my body or my face. He likes me because of my voice. Yep, you guessed that right. I’m a narrator. Kidding. I’m a singer. Wanna-be, that is. I want to be a singer but knowing that singers don’t make it big, I decided to just hide my voice.

                The sound of footsteps outside snaps me out of my reverie. It took that monkey long enough to reach this area. Maybe he spotted a box full of bananas and decided to munch on them first before continuing his hunt.

                I tiptoe my way towards the window where the light doesn’t reach that much. I snicker a bit when Hyukjae curses out loud outside. This never gets old. First he runs after me, then I hide from him, and not a moment too soon, he’ll give up. I think he’s pathetic. But not the things he uses to scare me of course.

                I slide down on the wall as I heave out a sigh of relief. I thank the heavens and the higher being up there for saving my bum again from the clutches of the evil monkey. If I were to give Hyukjae a nickname, it’d be MojoJojo. You know, the evil monkey from the Powerpuff Girls? Don’t ask how I know that cartoon. I just do.

                I stretch my limbs because they feel really stiff, but I accidentally punch something on my right. I don’t remember seeing anything near me. Oh, silly me. It’s too dark to see the details. I move closer to see what damage I’ve caused. It’s hard to see in the dark so I pull out my phone. Finally, some light to spare me. I look over to the direction of the thing I hit earlier.  Oh! Another human!

                “Hello there!” I whisper. “Sorry for punching you earlier. I was just stretching you see.”

                Weird that this guy doesn’t speak. Is he mute? I don’t know anybody who’s mute here. Maybe he’s new. I’m having goose bumps right now. I don’t think it’s right to speak to him. Out of nowhere, a part of the wood covering the window falls beside me and I could clearly see his face and that’s when I freeze up. The guy isn’t a guy. It’s a human-sized doll!

                My breath hitches as I take in his appearance. Porcelain skin, glassy eyes unmoving features. Oh. My. GOD! I’m hyperventilating now but I couldn’t move nor look away.

                I think my heart skips a beat when the doll’s head turns ever so slowly towards my direction. I was hyperventilating even more and I’m already feeling light headed. His hand moves towards me, as if trying to touch me.

                I scream. I scream so loud that people might think I just got murdered. His hand is moving. Closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. I don’t know if his/it or whatever that is, hand ever reached me because darkness envelopes my senses.

.: | :.

                When I open my eyes, I see white. Am I in heaven?

                “No, you’re not you idiot. You’re in the infirmary.” That sounds like Mojo. Hmmm…

                Oh. What am I doing here?

                “Hyukjae brought you here. He said he heard you scream bloody murder or something.”

                Mojo brought me here? You’re lying!

                “Yah! Call me Mojo again, I’ll shove Annie in your face!”

                “Hyukjae!”

                “He started it!”

                “I don’t care who started it.”

                Stop fighting! You’re making my head worse.

                “Sorry, Woonie. How are you feeling?”

                Better. Speaking of which, how come you can hear my thoughts?

                “What are you talking about? You’re mumbling!” Mojo yells, earning a slap on the shoulder from Nemo, I mean Donghae. “Jongwoon, please stop staring at the ceiling. There aren’t spiders there.”

                “Yeah dumb . Unless you’re trying to imagine Joon’s body That, I can’t help you with. Though I suggest you stay away from him because he has the hots for you. You might get for all I know.” you Hyukjae. you. “And you should probably come clean and tell everybody about your uality.”

                That hits a nerve. I take the liberty to glare at Mojo’s face as I get up from the bed. “Yeah, because you’re a closet gay as well.”

                “Everybody knows he’s gay. He just doesn’t associate with Kevin and his “girls”. The whole student body likes him for that,” Donghae mutters behind me as we leave the infirmary. Seriously, that place is white heaven. No wonder Jungsu loves to pretend he’s sick. If this continues, people will think he has Munchausen’s syndrome. I know better though. He just has a sick obsession with white. It’s almost scary to be within a 25 meter radius of him. No one knows what he’ll do to you if he spots an all-white something on you.

                “And they think he’s pursuing you but you keep rejecting his gifts,” Donghae continues to blabber which immediately stops me and Mojo from walking. Donghae bumps into my back and yelps in pain. “Hey! Why did you suddenly stop?”

                “What did you just say?” I, or rather, we turn to face the offending person who backs away in fear. Nobody dares put me and this monkey in one sentence with any words closely related to pursuing and love. It’s disgusting.

                “Me? Pursuing him? You have got to be kidding me, Donghae. He’s not even my type you know. He’s ugly,” Hyukjae grimaces.

                “Yeah, says the one who doesn’t look like a monkey. Why don’t you just go and eat bananas or climb a tree?” Clearly, Mojo should look offended, but that smug look on his face tells me otherwise.

                “I don’t mind eating yours. You have a pretty big one and I bet it tastes de-”

                “Oh my God! I am not hearing this! Shame on you, you !” Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! This guy really is a ert! Why do I associate myself with the likes of him? “Stop laughing you ! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

                Seriously, I know I’m a closet gay and I should’ve  gone with what he just said but eeew. Disgusting, really. I turn to look at him because he suddenly stops to get something from his pocket and… is that?

                “AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! YOU LEE HYUKJAE! GO DIE IN HELL!”

                God damn it! Why, of all the people, does it have to be him who’ll accidentally know of my fear? Goodness! I really want to burn that rag doll of his. Where does he even get those from?! And now I’m running away from this of a monkey again just to save my poor, poor life.

.: | :.

                “Oh great! You guys are here!”

                Don’t have that look on your face Sanghyun. I’m still running for my life. “Out of the way! This monkey’s gone nuts! Give him bananas please! ANYONE! SAVE ME!”

                “Jongwoon! Annie wants to meet you! Her friends are also waiting for you!”

                “ you Hyukjae! Will somebody stop that mother ing monkey before he kills me?!” I keep running and running till Sanghyun and Mir decide to interrupt our little escapade and instruct me to go up to my room and meet my new roommate. At least I’m safe… for now.

                I fix my shirt and wipe my forehead, because I want to at least look decent to my new roommate. I hope he’s not a fan of dolls like Hyukjae because surely it’ll be the end of my high school life.

                Slowly, I turn the door handle and stealthily creep inside my room. Force of habit, sorry new roomie. Why is the room so dark anyways? Is Sanghyun sure that my new roommate is inside?

                Okay, this is officially creeping me out now. And I’m supposed to be the creeper not the creep-ee. Damn. Where is that roommate of mine? The bathroom’s vacant so he must be around this not-so-much of a room somewhere.

                A silhouette walks past me sending goose bumps to invade my arms. I don’t have a good feeling about this. I’ll just go back to Donghae and then later come back armed with a baseball bat and a monkey as a shield. Awesome. However, I never seem to walk out of the door because when I turn around, I see the most terrifying sight ever known to mankind. The life sized moving doll that I saw earlier is here in my room and it makes me scream bloody murder once more and then everything is just… blurry.

                Oh, great. I ing fainted again.

Aww... what a lovely first chapter. Obviously, I was in a really good mood when I wrote this. Nah~ not really. I was ready to kill a person back then but oh well. Anyways, sorry about the cursings. This is the only place where I can curse and curse. *evil laugh*

See you all next week! :) Peace out!

--nytslyer03