-one-

"Are we there yet?! I'm freezing!" Youngjae whined as he wrapped his arms around himself, shivering.

"We'll get to the bus stop soon, quit being such a nuisance," Himchan scolded the younger.

Youngjae let out a huff as he adjusted the strap of his backpack, heavy with hiking gear.

"That's what you said four hours ago," the younger muttered bitterly. Daehyun sniggered while the two eldest ignored him and kept on marching forwards, their hiking boots crunching the once pristine piles of snow, navigating their way through the woods.

The boys have been in the woods since the early break of dawn for their hiking trip. Waking up at three in the morning, all of them managing to meet up at the bus station right before their bus left and spent an hour on the bus before they were dropped off at the popular hiking site. Not many people were hiking at this time of the year. Now that they were quickly losing daylight, not a single person was in sight.

Nobody uttered a word for another hour until the hidden sun was beginning to touch the horizon, casting long dark shadows across the snow. The shadows creeped along the snow, bending, slithering in an almost unsettling way.

"Yongguk. We won't make it in time, at least, not before night falls," Himchan said, stopping for a moment.

"Do you have any good ideas?" Yongguk asked, throwing up his hands.

"Well whose idea was it to go on this hiking trip on the first place?!" Himchan spat. It wasn't long before the two hyungs began to argue, their voices echoing in the empty forest, completely ignoring the little flurries of snow that had began to fall.

Daehyun shuffled next Yongjae as the two eldest fought.

He sighed.

He never should have agreed to this hiking trip. He didn't even like hiking.

"It'll be fun hyung!" Junhong had said to him.

"Then why don't you go in my place?" Daehyun retorted, though both of them knew that Junhong had exams to study for and therefore couldn't go.

He let out another sigh and lazily gazed his eyes around the woods until what seemed like a roof in the distance caught his attention.

"Hey guys..."he said quietly, eyes still focused on the roof, not sure if it really was real.

"Guys!"

The two hyungs quit talking, attention now on the younger.

"I-I think I see a roof!" He pointed at the figure with his gloved finger. It was getting hard to see as the snowfall was getting heavier. The boys all squinted, Youngjae taking off his snow goggles even though they weren't even on his eyes to begin with.

"Yeah...I see it too..Do you think it's empty?" Youngjae asked.

"I don't know, but it won't hurt to go check it out," Himchan began walking towards the house, followed by the remaining three boys.

The snow started to all in groups of snowflakes, soon making it almost impossible to see even three meters in front of them. By the time the boys have arrived at their destination, a snow storm was beginning to form. 

The dark structure loomed over them, the shadows accented by what little natural light was left. The wind was howling, whispering, as if it was beckoning the boys to enter the somewhat intimidating cabin.

A gust of wind blew against Himchan, causing him to shuffle closer to Yongguk.

"I...don't know," Youngjae said, uneasy," it's kind of......creepy, don't you think?"

Daehyun ignored the younger and pushed past his friends to knock on the door.

Knock knock knock.

Silence.

He turned to the boys and shrugged," I guess it's empty."

"W-what if it's haunted?" Youngjae asked, eyes widening in horror.

"Oh shut up Youngjae," Himchan scoffed, rolling his eyes," do you want to freeze out here in the snow?"

The elders marched ahead into the dark entry way while Daehyun stayed behind.

"C'mon," he said gently, wrapping an arm around his friend,"it's better than out there, and besides," he said with a laugh as the two walked into the cabin, the door closing behind them," there are no such things as ghosts anyways".

.....

The boys managed to find a large vacant room in the cabin, big enough for all of them to unpack and set up their sleeping bags. They worked diligently and silently, only setting up what was needed.

A lone lamp sat in the middle, surrounded by the group of friends as they huddled as close as possible without touching one another, Himchan lying down with his arm behind his head, staring at the ceiling, Yongguk lying down with his head on Himchan's stomach, Youngjae on his phone, and Daehyun sitting on his sleeping bag, bored out of his mind and a little hungry.

The cabin was old, based on the way it groaned and creaked every time a gust of wind blew. What little furniture that remained had cobwebs hanging off it and had signs of early decay. A broken lightbulb hung fom the ceiling and there were faint marks on the wall, probably caused by some animal that wandered in here.

Even if the house was old and beaten, Daehyun didn't know why anyone would abandon it. With a little fixing up, it would make a nice home.

What bothered him about the house wasn't that it was old or rickety; rather, it was because of the faint marks on the walls, and the closer he looked, the more they looked like scratches.

It was then he had an idea.

Sitting up straight, he called out to the others.

"Let's play a game!" he said excitedly. The others looked up at him from their (rather boring) activities.

"A game?" Himchan asked, scrunching up his nose.

"Daehyun, we're tired and we will have to get up early tomorrow if we want to make it to the bus station. If you want to play a game, then wait until tomorrow after we get home," Yongguk said, obviously irritated.

Daehyun shook his head.

"But guys,  it's the four corners game, remember? The one that we used to play all the time in elementary school? The one we used to love playing?"

Youngjae sat up, his eyes widening in recognition.

"Oh yeah! That game!" he crawled over to the hyungs and shook them," pleeaase play with us!" he begged.

Yongguk scowled,"fine," he said unhappily as he got up," but I'm not being in the middle".

Daehyun rolled his eyes," I'll be in the middle then," he said as he huddled the boys together.

"Okay, let's go over the rules of the game," he began before Youngjae interrupted him.

"We already know the rules," he whined.

Daehyun ignored the younger and continued speaking anyways," to start off the game, one person stands in the middle of the room while the others each claim a corner of the room, their faces towards the wall, the person in the middle with his eyes closed. When the person in the middle says 'go', everyone has to run to a different corner, and if you are touched by the person in the middle, you will have to be in the middle, and so on and so forth".

The boys nodded in agreement.

....

"Okay," Daehyun called," are you guys ready?"

Daehyun stood in the middle of the room, his eyesight blocked off by a blindfold. All four corners were occupied and everyone was ready to play.

The boys confirmed, and the game began.

Colliding into each other each time they ran, the boys laughed and fell, every one of them getting bruised in various places. It was too dark to see, but it added to the rush as they tripped over each other.

In the middle of the game however, Youngjae halted, seeming rather uneasy.

"What's the matter Youngjae?" Daehyun asked, somewhat concerned, but more annoyed that his friend had stopped playing.

"I-I," the younger stuttered," I don't want to play anymore. Let's all just go to sleep," he said before he scrambled into his sleeping bag.

The other boys looked at each other with confused expressions, but hesitantly agreed anyways, bidding each other a good night while Youngjae remained silent.

......

The next morning, the boys were in high spirits as to their joy, the snow had stopped falling.

They clamored among one another, except for Youngjae, who had stayed silent for the entire morning. The boys ate and readied their things before exiting the cabin and making their way to the bus station.

Going up to the still somber Youngjae, Daehyun shoved him playfully.

"Hey! Why are you so quiet all the sudden?" he asked.

Himchan and Yongguk stopped walking and turned around.

"Yeah," Yongguk agreed," What happened last night? I thought we were having fun."

His friends stared at him with expectant looks.

Youngjae gulped before speaking.

"How many of us are here?"

Himchan laughed loudly," four, of course!"

Youngjae paused before speaking again.

"In order to play Four Corners, how many people do we need to have?"

The friends each started counting, until the feeling of realization started to crash down on each of them, their eyes widening when they finally understood.

"F-five?" Himchan squeaked.

Youngjae nodded, his expression grave.

They stood in heavy silence until Daehyun spoke the unsettling question everyone had.

"Then who was the fifth player?" 

End

I know...I