“Taeyeon, wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered slightly. A soft groan came afterwards, feeling her body unconsciously being pulled up by someone. Blinking a few times, her blurry vision soon dispersed and was met with the eyes of another girl. A smile was visible on the girl’s face, seeing that the girl has woken up from her slumber.

“Hey,” The girl smiled warmly, which turned out to be Jessica. “How’s your sleep?”

I smiled. “Good. How was yours?”

“I didn’t get much sleep. Had a lot of things in my mind I couldn’t get out,” The brunette sighed, and turned around to check on the other members who were outside of the car. “We’re here.”

Taeyeon looked around the vehicle, only to find the other members not in it. She nodded. “Okay. Come on, let’s go.” And so the two went out, not forgetting to close the door afterwards.

A cool, gentle breeze whistled through the air, the sounds of shoes walking against pavement and distant chatters filled the area. The weather was gloomy; grayish clouds hovering above them, not a single sight of the bright sun was seen. Looking around, it was quite of an eerie sight. There were and will be strange days in life, but arriving at an unknown location away from the rowdiness of the city was enough to fill the heads of the nine girls with confusion. The short leader continued to scan every possible detail in the area, a feeling of uncertainty rushed in the back of her consciousness as she noticed the sounds of non-existence.

There weren’t any people.

A large building with stained white walls, hard-to-see-through windows and a single exit door in which was standing a few feet away from the group, was the only structure seen from here if they excluded the main road that leads back to downtown Seoul and the dark trees standing tall outside the fences. Quiet chirps of birds continued to play in the distance, a sign that there are still some living things around the almost deserted area.

But no human was encountered since their arrival.

A clap startled most of the girls once they gathered around one another, finding the culprit to be Tiffany.

“Well, we’re here. So, now what?”

“I guess going home isn’t an option,” Jessica muttered, her voice clear in the other American’s ears but she chose to ignore it.

“Not trying to creep any of you, but I have the strangest feeling to leave this place the moment I stepped out of the car,” Sooyoung stated. “Then again, that already sounded creepy enough.”

“You think?” Sunny rolled her eyes, before turning serious. “We should go in. It’s getting cold out here, and maybe the crew is still inside, prepping up the equipment.” The short girl walked towards the exit door, hands inside the pockets of her jeans. Noticing that no one hasn’t move a single bit, she sighed in a way someone would do when they couldn’t insert a thin thread through the small hole of a needle.

“Guys, come on! We don’t have all day!” With a command from the aegyo queen herself, the remaining girls quickly followed behind fearing another shout from the latter.

Taeyeon walked a bit faster, catching up on Sunny as they were in front of the red-colored door that seemed to age due to its fading nature, and the rusty steel door knob. Realizing that they don’t have the key, the short leader immediately spoke up. “Oh, wait. The door could be locked. We should call our manager to ask for one-“

Her sentence was cut off once the door that assumed to be locked was opened. It creaked loudly as it revealed an almost dark empty room that irked the curiosity and fear of the nine girls. It wasn’t a fascinating coincidence since neither of them brought a flashlight.

Sunny went in through the open door, while her hand scanned the walls trying to find a light switch of some sort. To her disappointment, she didn’t find any. Looking back at her friends, she knew that they didn’t want to go in, including her. An illogical person would straight walking off into the dark abyss alone without nothing to fear, oblivious to the fact that there might be something which could harm them. But since this was work and they knew how much work and their career means to them, they had no choice but to go in.

Pushing aside the fear and paranoia, she slowly took a deep breath before saying, “Come on. I have my phone, and I’m sure all of you bring them as well.” Taking out her phone and turning on the small built-in flashlight, she went in. Slowly, but cautiously.

The others followed suit, appearing to be a lot less brave and a lot more frightened on what’s in front of them; darkness. Each of them cling to one another, holding each other’s arm for comfort and moral support, though the stuffy air and claustrophobic space made them feel like they were playing a twisted game.

It was revealed to be a storage room. Boxes scattered messily around, a few old worn-out chairs left piled up in the corner covered in cobwebs. Their nostrils itched from the dust-filled airs, causing them to rub their nose every once in a while. They kept staying close to one another, the sudden thought of something jumping at them made their paranoid thoughts worst. They knew how ridiculous it sounds, but sometimes, their minds get the better of them and let the hidden fear be revealed.

Taeyeon knew nothing more but feeling relieved when her eyes caught upon another door from the light coming through Sunny’s flashlight. Her feet scurried over the getaway towards freedom, her hand quickly reaching over the doorknob and turned it. Only to find it wouldn’t budge. She repeated the action again and again, but it led her to no success. Until she saw the hand of her short friend turning the knob, and pushing the door instead of pulling it, she looked at the girl beside her whom looked at Taeyeon with a grin.

“Next time, let me do all the work,” Sunny grinned wider when she noticed the other girl rolled her eyes. And revert back towards the opened door in front of her.

Which led to a seemingly empty corridor.

Taeyeon sighed in relief, walking out of the dark room as she never felt comfortable in dark places since God knows how long. “Okay,” She looked at the others, who all eight of them have exited the previous room. “Is everyone good?” Receiving a nod from all the girls, she felt glad that none of them suffered a mental breakdown from being in ‘that’ room for too long.

“Alright,” Taeyeon looked down the corridor, noticing a couple of doors that which had labels on them. “We should keep looking for the studio, but first, who wants to go to the bathroom?”

“Seriously?” Jessica voice spoke out among others. “Who would want to go do a potty break right after we got out of that dark rat hole?”

There was silence between the group, until someone cleared their throat.

“I want to go,” Yoona said, raising her hand up. “But I need someone to company me, because I’m not going to the toilet alone. Not after what happened earlier.”

“I’ll accompany Yoona unnie,” Seohyun offered.

A nod from the leader meant that they were allowed to do so. “Alright, you two can go but be quick. We’ll call you out when we have found the studio, okay?” The two girls nodded, and they started going down the corridor, turning right to search for the bathroom.

Taeyeon looked at the remaining seven, taking a deep breath in case the inevitable will happen before speaking up. “Let’s go. The sooner, the better.”

-

The foot tapping didn’t help pass the time. The young girl sighed rather impatiently, glancing back at the door of the ladies bathroom in which they found a couple of doors down two corridors. Seohyun wondered what was taking the girl who was two years older than her to be taking this long.

Her hand fished out her phone, trying to distract herself in order to kill time. Her eyes eyebrows furrowed as she saw that there weren’t any signal for the phone to pick up. Weird, she thought to herself. She could’ve sworn that there were three bars of signal before when she was outside of the building.

“I really need to change my sim card.”

Suddenly, her ears perked up.

She heard the sound of running footsteps.

She quickly glanced at her left, only to find something not a single live soul to be walking around. Paranoia once again crept up in her mind like a spider, the hair in the back of her neck stood up. A cold gust wind flew past her, creating another eerie atmosphere around the girl.

Seohyun couldn’t handle the situation she was in, and she quickly turned towards the bathroom door in order to call Yoona once again, only to be cut short when she saw the latter getting out in a frantic matter. The color on her face drained out, leaving a pale-faced Yoona staring back at Seohyun with widened eyes.

“Unnie, what’s wrong…” She was about to wonder what was going on with the other girl, but the latter beat her to it.

“Do not go in there.” It was Yoona’s expression that made the younger girl more frightened than before.

Seohyun looked at the girl, clearly confused on by what she meant. “What do you…”

Yoona’s hands started to grab a hold of Seohyun’s arms, startling the young girl badly. In a quiet voice, she whispered, “Do not… ing… go in there…”

It was from that point that Seohyun made a mental note on never going inside the bathroom in which the older girl warned her not to. Yoona never swore. But when she does, it meant something serious. In this case, it would be too ridiculous to be called a prank. So she nodded, her growing curiosity over what could possibly be in the restroom continued to rest in her mind when they heard Taeyeon calling them to come quick, for she and the others have finally found the studio.

Seohyun glanced back at the restroom door, before catching up with Yoona.

-

“Geez, what took you guys so long?”

The two of the girls have reached their destination, in which they felt relieved after Seohyun told the other girl that she heard footsteps along the corridor. Hearing that, Yoona sprinted her way towards the studio room while the young one continued to shout out the girl to slow down her pace.

The studio wasn’t big, nor was it small. A couple of cameras were set in position, currently shown to be ‘on air’ mode for unknown reasons. The lights on the ceiling were on from the beginning, shining down at a small stage that could fit a small crowd but either way, the whole group would be able to perform without worrying about falling off stage. Nine identical chairs were neatly set out in the center of the stage, a small fishbowl consisting of small pieces of rolled up paper was on top of a small table in front of the chairs.

Unsurprisingly, the studio was also empty.

“Oh, God, what happened? You looked you’d seen a ghost,” Sooyoung joked, while in reality, she was horrified by Yoona’s pale face and perplexed expression.

The girl stayed silent for awhile before speaking up.

“I found a dead body.”

Sooyoung looked back at the girl, looking at her as if she misheard the words. Thinking it was just another prank, the tall girl rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Now it’s not the time to be joking around, Yoona.”

“Does it look like I’m ing around right now, Choi Sooyoung? I just saw a dead body of a staff right before my eyes, all bloodied and cut open with his ing intestines sticking out! Do I look like the type of person who would be lying over someone’s goddamn murder?!” Yoona snapped, veins bulging out of the side of her forehead while she walked towards the taller girl and started pushing her out of anger. Sooyoung was left speechless, unable to form any words as she stared at the angry girl in front of her in shock.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s going on here?” Taeyeon intervened, trying to stop the heated situation from getting worse.

“Oh, it’s great. Everything’s great around here! I just so happened to find a stinking dead body of a staff member accidentally in one of the toilet stalls, trying to hold on to my vomit when I noticed that his insides were ing sticking out and, oh look, my shoes are covered in his blood,” Yoona growled, pointing at her now crimson-stained sneakers. “It’s going great around here, Taeyeon! You have no idea how happy I am right no-“

A loud slap echoed throughout the room, earning a couple of surprised stares as they caught their leader slapping her own member. The young girl was silent, realizing her outburst and immediately felt guilty after what she said.

“Are you finished?” Taeyeon’s voice turned cold and deep, her eyes narrowed at the girl in front of her. “Because I’m sure as hell have plenty more where that came from if you haven’t.”

Tiffany checked her phone, staring at the screen in disbelief as she encountered a problem of her own. “Guys, I don’t have a signal.”

“What?” Yuri said, fishing out her own phone to check it for herself, only to have the same empty bars. “, me neither.”

The whole room was in a frenzy, everyone wondering what was going on as they couldn’t figured what could’ve caused the missing signal they tried to pick up. Confusion escalated into fear, the nightmares they had in their sleep was nothing compared to this one. They couldn’t control the overdriven panic spreading across the room.

Jessica walked towards the entrance door of the studio, turning the doorknob in order to get out, but was met with a twisted shock that left her standing for a couple of seconds.

“Hey, guys.”

The room was silenced. The brunette turned around, her expression unreadable through the eyes of others.

“I don’t remember locking the door from the outside, do you?”