Arachnophobia – Fear of spiders

Ahn Daniel | Teen Top

Note: Picture does not belong to me | Source

“You , you know that?” Jo Minkyung spoke up as she angrily dumped the mop into the bucket of water.

Her best friend, Ahn Daniel scowled and rolled his eyes, wiping his own mop across the floor at the other end of the room.

“It’s not my fault, you know? If you hadn’t gotten into a fight with Sungyeol, I wouldn’t have had to get involved,” Niel retorted.

“I got into a fight with that stupid choding because of you!”

“Me? What did I do?” Niel exclaimed, flabbergasted.

“If you and Teen Top hadn’t got into a fight with Infinite, Sungyeol wouldn’t have picked on your best friend,” Here, she jabbed a thumb into her chest to indicate herself, “I wouldn’t have had to fight with him either, you wouldn’t have gotten involved and the principal wouldn’t have caught us, so there!” Minkyung huffed, harshly wiping the classroom floor.

Niel blinked at Minkyung’s outburst then quietly went back to mopping the floor. In a way, he knew she was right and a tiny bit of guilt crept into his heart as he thought of all the problems his childhood best friend had had to face due to him being in a gang.

They cleaned the entire classroom in silence until the floors shone and the windows were spotless.

“Phew!” Minkyung wiped the sweat off her brow. All the cleaning had left her exhausted; she couldn’t even bring herself to glare at Niel when he accidently smacked the back of her head with the wooden handle of his mop.

“Let’s go place these mops and buckets in the janitor’s closet. I’ll treat you to ice cream right after, okay?” Niel offered.

Minkyung gave him a grin, “Call.”

The two walked through the empty hallways and towards the janitor’s closet. Except the two of them and a few other students who’d gotten detention, the school was completely empty.

Finally the two reached the janitor’s closet which was essentially a small room crammed with cleaning supplies. Minkyung tried to switch on the light but the bulb didn’t work and the room remained dark.

Niel rolled his eyes and walked into the room. Truth was, despite how brave and fierce Minkyung acted, she was quite afraid of the dark. It wasn’t as bad as a phobia but came close enough.

“Hand me the mops and I’ll put them in,” Niel spoke and grinned when Minkyung shot him a grateful smile.

When they were almost done and all that was left was a bucket, Niel tripped over a mop and landed on the dusty ground.

Startled, Minkyung rushed into the room, her mind not even processing the darkness in the room because of her worry towards Niel.

“Niel, are you okay?!” Minkyung called out and was replied with a grunt. Minkyung felt around in the dark and pulled the boy to his feet.

A sudden creak followed by a slam caused the two to turn around in alarm. Minkyung felt her way to the door and pulled its handle but it wouldn’t budge. Panic rose in Minkyung’s heart and her stomach twisted in fear.

“N-Niel, it won’t open!” she called.

Niel felt for the handle and pulled on it but again, the door remained shut. Now Minkyung was becoming hysteric.

“W-What do we do Niel? What if we stay stuck here for the whole day? What if no one finds us?!” Minkyung poured out her fears.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Niel pulled the girl into a hug and rocked her to calm her palpitating heart. “Don’t worry, someone is bound to find us. Teen Top knows we’re here so when we don’t show up at our hangout spot, they’ll come find us.”

Slowly, Minkyung calmed down and took deep breaths to stay relaxed. Niel released her from the hug and tried to find some source of light. After a little bit of searching, he found an old flashlight that slowly flickered to life. Niel’s eyes crossed over as he noticed something dangling right in front of him. To be more accurate, a spider right under his nose.

Niel let out a rather girly shriek and jumped back, bumping into Minkyung and causing the two to fall in a tangled heap.

“What the hell, Ahn?!” Minkyung snarled, using Daniel’s last name as she often did when extremely annoyed.

“S-Sp-” Niel stammered, his face pale and hands clammy.

“Spit it out!”

“Spider,” Niel whimpered and buried his face into Minkyung’s arm.

The flashlight, forgotten on the ground, flickered a few seconds before completely going out, leaving the two with their worst fears – darkness and spiders.

Ricky scowled as he walked through the empty hallways. Being one of the youngest . His hyungs always bullied him and bossed him around. He was on a pointless errand for them right that very minute. If it hadn’t been for Changjo who had not been able to make it due to a family commitment, Ricky wouldn’t have had to return back to school to search for Niel and Minkyung.

Right as he was about to pass the janitor’s closet, he heard whimpers and muffled sobs. Curiosity got the better of the boy and he pressed his ear against the door.

“N-Niel –” he heard someone whisper.

With wide eyes, Ricky immediately threw open the door only to find Niel and Minkyung cuddled up and looking more scared than he’d ever seen them.

“H-Hyung? Noona?” Ricky looked between the two.

Niel and Minkyung scrambled up, embarrassed that someone else had seen them in their vulnerable state.

“I need to get home,” Minkyung mumbled and made a hasty escape.

Ricky’s eyes narrowed onto Niel.

“What were you two doing in there?” Ricky’s brows raised in suspicion.

Niel squirmed uncomfortably under the younger’s gaze. “None of your business!” He finally huffed and walked away.

Ricky grumbled under his breath at having been left all alone. Being the youngest really .

Author's Note

Hey guys, I just finished my orienatation week at university and it was one of the best weeks of my life. Next week, my university is going to officially begin and if what the 2nd years said is anything to go by, I might not have time to update :/

I hope you guys liked this chapter; it might take a while to get another one out. I tried to make this chapter funny but if I failed, you can blame my exhausted brain for that XD

Also, a very big thanks to sandrajin4396 and Donghae_Yoona for the comments :)