“Kyu, don’t…”

“Relax, Min. I’ll just get in and get out.” Kyuhyun smiled reassuringly. “No worries.”

“Tsch, it’s not that easy brat, you need to snap a picture with the hunted shrine in the background!” Kangin reminded.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea to disturb the spirits in there.” Sungmin voiced out his concern.

“Awww is our Minnie afraid of ghosts?” cooed or rather teased Eunhyuk.

Kyuhyun shot a glare at Eunhyuk before draping a hand on Sungmin’s shoulder, “Relax Min. They are just rumors. Besides, a little adventure won’t hurt anyone.” He winked. With a cheeky smile plastered on his face, he turned to the five boys, “Get ready to empty your pockets guys”,

Kyuhyun then turned towards the bamboo forest. It wasn’t a big forest yet people in his village seldom chose to walk through it. Why? Because they believed it was haunted. What a load of bull he had spat out and before he knew, he had accepted the bet – to bring a back a picture of him with the shrine. So now here he was standing in front of the so-called haunted forest. It would be easy he had thought; besides he had nothing better to do anyway. “Oye! Get going already. We don’t have all day!” a very impatient Kangin lashed out bringing him back from his thoughts. He rolled his eyes and started to walk forward.

His friends stood there still watching as his figure slowly disappeared amongst the tall bamboos. “Ready guys”, Shindong called out all of a sudden as he and the rest of the boys started taking out black clothes from their backpacks.

“What are you guys doing?” A very puzzled Sungmin asked. “Just trying to have some fun!” one of them replied as they also headed towards the forest. Sungmin decided not to take part in their silly shenanigans; hence the guys had left him alone. He had told them he would rather just wait for them at the entrance…that was before he discovered he wasn’t a big fan of waiting. He was growing agitated. So he took a deep breath and headed towards the forest…muttering, “I’m going to kill all of you!”

---

Small rays of sun were sipping through the leaves as Kyuhyun made his way to the middle of the forest where the shrine was located. Only the sound of his own footsteps crushing the dried leaves could be heard. It was only 10 minutes since he had left the other guys. But it already felt like an hour to him. All he wanted now was to take the damn picture and return because honestly it was getting creepy. He hadn’t even seen a single insect! It was like every creature had abandoned the forest. And just when he had arrived at that conclusion he heard some leaves rustling from a distance.  He stopped and looked around. Yet, only the eerie silence welcomed him. Maybe his mind was playing tricks he thought to himself. He pulled his jacket tight for the air had become colder - another reason for him to quickly get over with the task. So, he began taking longer strides. After walking for a while he came across an old path. The bamboos alongside the path had orange papers hanging on them with strange writings. ‘Some kind of talismans’ he mused, ‘I must be getting closer to the shrine then.’

He was right. A minute or so of walking on the path and a few feet away from him were the shrine. Feeling victorious, he started running towards it. The shrine wasn’t very big. It was about the same height as his room and a little wider than the length of his study table. It was surrounded by a rope tied with talismans he had seen earlier. The rope was old and worn out. It had at some parts threads hanging out. If not careful, he could easily break it. Hence, he slowly raised it and ducked to get inside. A sense of relief flooded him. He could finally head back soon. Feeling overwhelmed, he quickly fumbled to get his cell phone out of the pocket. Suddenly, he halted all his moves. There was some rustling of the leaves and he swore he heard a cackle? He slowly turned his head left and right. Again there was no sign of anything. He kept still. Minutes passed but nothing happened. Kyuhyun huffed yet again blaming his mind for playing tricks with him. He shook his head and stood with his back facing the shrine reaching his arms out ready to take the picture. SNAP He took the photo, looked at it and feeling satisfied returned his phone back to his pocket.  

“BOO!!!” black figures jumped from behind the shrine. Startled Kyuhyun shriekded and ran forward.

THWAP the rope broke and Kyuhyun fell flat on the ground. He slowly turned his head and glared at the boys now laughing and rolling on the ground.

---

“KYU, KYUHYUN! Where are you guys?” Soon after entering the forest, Sungmin had also discovered that he was not a fan of creepy deserted places either. He hated being alone in a supposedly haunted forest plus he was getting damn scared! Despite that, he kept moving forward and stopped when he saw a figure running towards him. When he realized who it was he waved with thrill, “KYUUUU!”

But something seemed off. Kyuhyun was running towards him and shouting him to run. Though his mind was telling him to run, his stupid legs wouldn’t budge! He stood still.  When Kyuhyun reached him, he took his hand and dragged Sungmin with him. Only after they were out of the forest, did they start to speak. “Kyu…what…happened?” Sungmin asked between breaths.

“Nothing…just a crazy dog came out of nowhere and started chasing us!” Kyuhyun smiled sheepishly. Sungmin looked at him quizzically. He could not believe what the other said. He blinked his doe eyes.  Staring at the still smiling Kyuhyun, a feeling of relief surfaced and then he began to hit Kyuhyun on his head. “Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were running from a GHOST!” He said still hitting Kyuhyun.

“Ow! Ow! I’m sorry. Stop hitting me!” Kyuhyun cried out while blocking Sungmin’s punches. “Serves you right”, Sungmin huffed and folded his arms trying to kill him with his stare. “RUUNNNNNN!” Both of them snapped their heads towards the sound and were welcomed with the sight of a very athletic Eunhyuk being chased by THE crazy dog. They turned towards each other before running off again!

THE END

A/N: Thank you for reading! If you want the actual HORROR, please read chapter 2. To save you the headache from reading the whole goddamn thing again, just read the red parts alone. You’ll get the idea. Tell me if you got scared!