"A trip to a haunted house for fun?" A girl grumbled to herself, eyeing the abandoned mental asylum that once housed a lot of its own real life horror stories-- and continued to do so long after it had closed its doors for good. "Why am I friends with you guys again?"

Jongdae grinned at the girl. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

She grimaced at him and continued observing the place that looked like it was being swallowed by fog.

"How about we go in pairs?" someone in the group suggested. It almost sounded like a plead.

A girl nodded her head so vigorously that someone could have mistaken her for a bobble head.

"That's not fun!" another voice chimed in.

"That's why we pick straws." The oldest in the group already had wooden stir sticks bundled up in his fist. "Find the person with the same colour as you and you'll be partners."

"The person without a strip of colour at the end of their straw," he paused with a smile, "goes on their own."

A few of them began reaching out to grab a stick for themselves, praying they wouldn't pick the unlucky straw.

"Aren't you going to draw a stick?"

The girl jumped away from the boy that popped out of nowhere.

"Minseok!" she gritted, clutching her heart. "Please don't do that."

He merely chuckled and nudged her forward. Their fingers brushed when they both reached for their straws at the same time.

Her thumb covered the coloured part of her stick, and with a deep breath, she slowly retracted her thumb to reveal her fate.

"And... reveal!"

All colour was lost from her face the moment she saw nothing but the same texture of the wooden stick all throughout its length.

"I got black!" Jongdae raised his stick for verification.

He turned to the girl behind him, "What did you get?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "J-Jongdae..."

"Hm? You look like you've just seen a ghost," he chuckled at his joke, but immediately stopped when he caught sight of her stick.

Minseok frowned at her predicament, unsure of what to do to rescue her. But then an idea came to mind and Jongdae seemed to think of the same thing because they both exchanged glances.

"What?! Lucky!! I wanted to get that one!" Jongdae began whining. "We're trading!"

Without even letting her respond, Jongdae quickly snatched the stick from her immobile hand and replaced it with his own stick, the one with the black end.

Minseok knocked his stick against hers, finally causing the girl to blink up at him. "Looks like we're a couple."

"A couple?" she repeated.

"H-Huh?" Minseok stuttered. "I just meant... That we're-- us... you... me--"

"I'm not going in alone!" The stick-trading seemed to finally process in her mind and she beamed at Minseok. "We're going as a couple!"

His usual awkwardly cute smile appeared on his face again, relieved that his connotation wasn't read correctly. He nodded at her.

The rest of the couples entered in 15-minute intervals, and soon, Jongdae followed with a carefree smile on his face, then finally...

"Ready?" asked Minseok.

"Absolutely," she replied, "not."

"Don't worry. I'm here, okay?"

She let out a deep breath and gathered her nerves. "Let's get this over with."

Not even five minutes into the doors, she had managed to snake her hands around the boy's left arm. "Can we just say we went through it, but not actually go through it?"

Minseok laughed. "I feel like that's not a good idea and they will probably make you go on your own if you try something like that."

"You're rig-- AHHHH!!!" She screeched as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Please! No! I'm sorry!!"

That was only the beginning of her series of screams and sobs. As they continued throughout the course, the circulation on Minseok's left arm had long been disconnected, his hand felt like it was being constricted by a boa.

Halfway through, she was having a bit of a panic attack and Minseok began to feel sorry.

He whispered her name in the dim light of their flashlight, "Calm down. None of this is real. Just remember, we are in an amusement park. This is just really well made by the makers of the park, okay? You're okay and I'm here."

That was right. The building that they were in was just a very realistic replica of one of the famous abandoned mental asylums and she needed to remember that.

It took a few puffs of breaths to calm her down, but she managed to steady her heartrate again.

"Can I still hold your hand, Minseok?"

Minseok replied by squeezing her hand and then, he lead the way.

He proved his manliness and his overflowing courage by getting the brute of the surprise attacks, which she was beyond grateful for. But, of course, as they neared the end, the final scare would be the most frightening of them all.

Just as the girl had finally (sort of) gotten a bit used to the dark and cold place a person dressed as a zombie, with blood smeared all over its mouth scampered after her, all the while screaming and making awful noises, which did not help the condition of her poor overworked heart.

She turned back to see what was happening. Once she realized that she was being chased, she let out a scream that rivalled the zombie's high-pitched screeches and ran straight forward, but not without accidentally hitting the side of her face on Minseok's cheekbone.

The boy didn't have time to react, except wince, as he was dragged along with their hands intertwined.

He called her name once and then twice but there was only thing running through the girl's mind, and that was to escape this place of pointless terror.

"Who decided haunted houses were a good idea?!" she half-screamed, half-cried. "I would like to sit them down and have a talk because this is the worst idea in the history of human ideas!"

He could barely hear her over the screams.

"Slow down!" he breathed, "You're going to--"

The girl tripped on a rug out of place and landed clumsily on the ground. Minseok had a hard time not following suit, but he used a lot of his arm strength to keep his feet planted on the ground.

"--hurt yourself..." He frowned.

Minseok crouched down to check if she was hurt. "Are you okay?"

She let go of his hand, the corners of Minseok's mouth slightly faltered, and tried to stand on her own.

"I think so," she replied, still trying to get up.

But the weight on her right ankle caused her body to tilt to the side and Minseok offered his side for support.

"Well, I don't think so." Again, a frown formed on his face. "Can you walk?"

A few careful steps later, a small sigh escaped Minseok's lips. The girl bit her lip. She felt apologetic to him because he got stuck with her and her troubles.

"I'm so sorry..." she mumbled, guilt-ridden. "If you hadn't picked the same stick as me, you wouldn't have had to deal with this scaredy cat-- If I wasn't such a baby when it came to scary things you would have had Jongdae and you two would have had a lot more fun! I'm sorry!"

Her apology earned a smile on Minseok's face.

"No, I don't think I would have had more fun with Jongdae," he said, "He's not afraid of anything so it wouldn't have been as loud and entertaining as it was with you."

She laughed and lightly nudged him with what little strength she had left.

"Kim Minseok, are you making fun of me?"

"I wasn't the one who got so scared of a fake zombie, bolted it, and might have possibly sprained her ankle, am I?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

opened to retort but she grew sheepish at his words. Minseok could only smile.

After a few minutes of getting virtually nowhere, Minseok stooped down in front of her. "We're not getting anywhere with your shuffling. I'll carry you."

She blinked and began to feel flustered. "W-What? No... T-That's okay! You can just leave me here. We're almost close to the exit anyway, I think I can handle myself now."

To which he let out a short laugh of disbelief. "Just get on, please," he said while holding out his hands behind him, "before you hurt yourself and others, meaning me, any more than you already have."

"Minseok!" she whined, but got on his back when the boy made it clear that he wasn't going to let her walk or leave her there.

They got to the end of the course much faster that way and their friends all looked very concerned once they saw the couple emerge from the doors.

Jongdae called out her name, "Are you okay?! What happened?"

She hid behind Minseok's head in embarrassment.

"The zombie scared her too much so when she ran away, she tripped and hurt her ankle." Minseok answered for her.

They all couldn't stop laughing, at her expense, as Minseok recounted the events that happened in the twenty minutes they were both in the haunted house.

"Hey! It was the longest twenty minutes of my life!" She cried, taking another spoonful of rice into . They were now eating at a restaurant near the amusement park. "If it wasn't for Minseok, I would have died in there."

"Don't be so dramatic. It wasn't even scary." Jongdae snorted and turned his attention back to his food.

She took this opportunity to whisper her gratitude to her saviour, who sat beside her. "Thank you, Minseok."

His cheeks slightly reddened and he simply smiled at her. "I'll walk you home. Or should I say carry you, instead?"

"I owe you."

"You can make it up to me with a date," he whispered for only her to hear.