Of Haunted Houses and White Sheets

Whoooosh!

“I-i-is anybody h-here?” asked Donghae in a low, shaky voice. He was going to kill Kyuhyun for making him enter this old, unoccupied house of a questionable stability. And on Halloween’s night at that! Everything inside smelt of mould, dust and danger.

Donghae wanted to cry.

The narrator of this story wishes she had been able to hug and comfort him, but unfortunately all of this is already in the past. And let’s not mention the fact that said narrator was on the opposite side of the Earth why the events were occurring. In fact, she still is. She is just very well informed.

Donghae was a cry-baby by nature, so it was quite an achievement in itself that he lasted more than five minutes in the dark, old building without shedding a single tear.

Thud.

Oh no no no no, this is not going to end well, Donghae thought. As far as he knew, this place could be haunted and Donghae didn’t deal with ghosts well. He had seen a couple of those before and from time to time he woke up from a terrifying nightmare in which he was chased by a hoard of bodiless creatures floating a few inches above the ground.

Of course, the narrator must interrupt here as well, because she doesn’t believe in ghosts or spectres or any abandoned souls wandering on Earth, but she needs to remain impartial and relate the whole story as it was. Believing in ghosts or not, Donghae was just cute.

Donghae believed in ghosts, spectres and abandoned souls wandering on Earth, which was the reason why he had agreed to celebrate Halloween with his friends in the first place. However, he hadn’t thought about one (quite important, the narrator would say) thing. Believing in ghosts wasn’t everything you needed to have fun on Halloween. It was also much more enjoyable when you weren’t scared to death by them. Poor, silly Donghae.

Donghae closed his eyes and squatted when he heard a door opening with a creak somewhere on the left. He knew he had to stand up to leave the horrible place, but he couldn’t find enough strength in is legs. He also might have already started weeping silently by then, but shush! -the narrator is here to protect his reputation. Because he’s cute.

Bang!

“Omo!” Donghae let out a ~~girly~~ [censored; the narrator will not let anyone think Donghae was girly.] squeak and stood up in shock, plucking enough courage to lift one eyelid and try to see through the darkness. Suddenly, he heard a noise. He was almost sure the noise he heard was a sound of a person’s shoes against the floor. Donghae furrowed his brow, analysing the premise. He could hear a sound of someone walking. And if you can hear a sound which something is making, then it means that the thing is certainly, surely, definitely not a-

“Waaah! A ghooost!” He wailed upon seeing a figure clothed in white standing right next to him, “Mum, I don’t want to be here, pleeease,” he cried, forgetting about being a proud, manly man, who wasn’t afraid of anything, which was also cute, the narrator would like to mention. He just wanted this nightmare to end. “Please, I’m so scared, what am I sup- mhmmmmMMMMM!”

Poor, scared Donghae couldn’t finish the stream of his bitter complaints, as a white hand reached from behind him, covered his mouth and prevented any words from escaping the boy’s mouth. At first Donghae screamed even louder. The scream was muffled by the hand blocking the sound, but it was high-pitched and really loud nonetheless.

Donghae started to struggle. But as soon as a flick of conscience returned to his terrified brain, he realised that the thing he was struggling against was solid. He could feel the warmth of a person’s hand on his face. So it really, really couldn’t be a ghost! Donghae gave up on screaming and let his limbs fall loosely along his body.

“Are you done?” a voice asked from behind. Donghae nodded meekly. “Good. Holy zombies, people would think this really is a haunted house. You were practically screeching,” the person chuckled.

Donghae turned around. His eyes met a smiling face of a boy, painted all white, with dark shades under the eyes and bloody red mouth. Donghae noted to himself that under the layers of make-up the boy was certainly good-looking. Donghae returned a shy smile and muttered, “Sorry. I thought you were a-“

“A ghost,” the boy interrupted, “I figured. Fortunately, I’m a living person. Does it mean I can be proud of my awesome costume, then?”

“Yeah,” replied Donghae, taking in the long, loose gown made from a couple of sheets stitched together. “It’s pretty cool, actually.”

“Thanks! But what are you doing here? It’s obvious that you’re scared of places like this,” the boy said, eyeing Donghae from head to toe. You were crouching by the wall when I came in, sobbing-“

“I wasn’t sobbing,” Donghae protested, pouting.

“Sure, sure, you weren’t,” the other laughed. “It must have been the wind whistling in the pipes.”

Donghae’s expression brightened. “Exactly!” he confirmed. He realised he didn’t want to look like a coward in the boy’s eyes. “And the answer to your question is that my friend told me to get inside this-” he paused, “this… house, to check if there are any ghosts in here.”

“And?” the boy pushed.

“And I was curious, okay? It’s been a while since I saw a ghost. I wondered if-”

“Wait, wait,” the other interrupted. “What? Are you trying to say that you actually believe in ghosts? And that you actually saw one?”

Donghae blinked twice, confused. “Well, they exist, don’t they?”

“No way,” the boy laughed again, showing his pink gums.

“What’s so funny about it?” Donghae whined and pouted once again, which earned him a pinch on the cheek.

“You’re cute, did you know that? So tell me, have you met any ghosts here?”

Donghae shuffled his feet, feeling uncomfortable after being called cute by a stranger. “Well… no. I mean- only you. But you’re not a ghost, are you?”

“I think we’ve already settled for me being alive, tanglible and material,” said the boy in the costume, “It’s a pity though, I hoped you could introduce me to a nice ghost.”

“Are you making fun of me now?” Donghae asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not at all!” the boy in disguise answered, smiling, “Now come on, let’s get out of here. Our friends must be terribly bored outside, waiting for us for so long.”

“So you’ve come with a friend, too?” asked Donghae, turning red when his companion grabbed his hand without warning to help him climb over a knocked-down chest of drawers.

The one dressed up as a ghost nodded. “Yeah. I lost in our contest for a better Halloween costume. This was supposed to be my punishment, entering this bloody ruin, but it turned out to be quite entertaining and not at all scary.”

As soon as they exited the building they noticed their friends chatting jauntily.

“Kyuhyun!”

“Sungmin!” they shouted in unison.

Kyuhyun smirked. “Oh, so you did find each other. Sungmin here,” he pointed at the boy wearing a tight-fitting costume of a Catwoman, “said it was likely Hyukjae would act like a superhero and bring you back in one piece. I guess you were right, Sungmin.”

Donghae, who was gaping at Sungmin’s leather-clad curvy body, blinked and returned to reality after processing what he heard.

“Your name is Hyukjae?” he asked his rescuer.

“Yep,” Hyukjae replied, nodding. “What is yours, by the way?”

“Oh, it’s Donghae. Lee Donghae.”

“I’m a Lee, too!” Hyukjae grinned, “Nice to meet you, Donghae!”

Kyuhyun exchanged sceptical glances with Sungmin. “Just like kids,” Sungmin murmured, shaking his head in resignation. Kyuhyun sighed and took out his cell phone to exchange numbers with Sungmin.

“Anyway, Hyukjae, erm… thanks, for everything, I guess,” said Donghae timidly. “Especially for being err… human, you know.”

Hyukjae patted Donghae’s head gently. “It’s nothing.”

Donghae took a step back, embarrassed. “Can I do anything for you in return?”

Hyukjae hesitated. “Just meet up with me some time, okay?”

Donghae beamed. “Sure! I’d love to!”

Hyukjae’s happy face made Donghae’s heart tingle with a pleasant warmth.

(The narrator, who has forced herself to stay hidden for quite some time now, finally has the opportunity to speak up. It is obvious that Hyukjae’s costume was not cool at all – honestly, to dress up as a ghost on Halloween? Cliché, cliché. Nevertheless, Hyukjae (no matter how little creative he was) got himself a pat on the head from the narrator when he said he thought Donghae was cute. Good job, Hyukjae.

The narrator would also like to assure you that Donghae did meet up with Hyukjae again, not once and not twice. They were pretty awkward around each other in the beginning and thus gave both Kyuhyun and Sungmin, who became good friends, many opportunities to tease and jeer at the two boys. It changed with time when Hyukjae and Donghae became inseparable, things got serious and even Kyuhyun refrained himself from sneaking mocking remarks into their conversations. Donghae and Hyukjae confessed their feelings to each other a few months later at a skating rink, on a cold day in February. Was it Valentine’s day? The narrator doesn’t remember this. She just knows they became official boyfriends then and…

…oh, but that’s another story.)

Fin.