This might have been the first time in living history where Jongin noticed it, but he swore Kyungsoo was glowering. Sulking, glaring, pick whatever word you wanted for it. Kyungsoo looked unhappy. It probably had to do with the classmate sitting prettily on Jongin’s bed. In two days Seulgi and Jongin had a massive final exam. It seemed only logical at the time to accept her invite to study together. However, when it turned out that she wanted to go to his room and not hers, Jongin couldn't come up with an excuse. He stuttered and smiled, and in the back of his head he recognized that she was most intentionally flirting with him. He didn’t want to bring that home to Kyungsoo, but by then it was too late.

She talked too loud. Jongin supposed that had to be the reason Kyungsoo was glowering.

“Heeey, Kyungsoo,” Jongin had hastily introduced them. “This is Seulgi, she’s in my lecture class. Seulgi, Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo, Seulgi.”

They shook hands rather flimsily and Kyungsoo hadn’t emerged from behind his computer screen since. Only Jongin sat at an angle where he could see his roommate’s face.

“Maybe we should finish this later on, huh?” he tried to speak. He and Seulgi had only gone through the first 3 pages of their joint-study packet and after two hours of this, they were only a third of the way through.

“Oh. What time is it?” She swung her long-braided hair from one shoulder to the other and pressed her lips together. In another world, in another time, maybe Jongin would think she was cute. But then there was Kyungsoo, and Jongin definitely knew where his bias lay.

“It’s… about 4 o’clock?” Jongin quickly made up an errand he needed to run before dinnertime, which Seulgi accepted.

But then she said, “Shall we finish it tonight then? Want to grab something to eat before then so we can go all night?”

Something fell off the side of Kyungsoo’s desk, but Jongin was too panicked to look.

“Uhhh, uhh…”

“I mean, we have to eat. We can recap what we just went over, and then come back here… That is…” she leaned over to catch Kyungsoo’s eyes, “if that’s okay with your roommate?”

The response was immediate. “Fine. That’s fine.” Kyungsoo’s voice sounded a little pinched.

“Great! Well then, Jongin, I guess I’ll see you soon. 7 o’clock?”

“Sssure, where?”

“The sandwich place on the corner. That sound okay?”

Somehow Jongin managed to answer and see her to the door, and she waved before flouncing away down the hallway.

He closed the door, and then stared at it for a moment. It was awfully quiet inside the room. A few seconds later, Kyungsoo’s fingers picked up on the keyboard again. Jongin didn’t look at him when he walked over to his bed. The comforter looked crumpled from where he and Seulgi had been sitting, several of the pillows out of place. He threw them back at the head of the bed and straightened the sheets. Then he lay down, crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes. Perhaps if he just pretended Seulgi didn’t exist, he wouldn’t have to go out with her later on tonight.

“Weren’t you going somewhere?” Kyungsoo interrupted his silent pleas.

“Huh?”

“You said you had an errand to do. Aren’t you going then? You only have three hours before you’re supposed to meet… her again.”

Wow, Kyungsoo remembered details. A wave of mortification ran once again down Jongin’s forehead, imagining Kyungsoo secretly listening to everything they said. He assumed Kyungsoo had been buried deep within his fics, too busy to pay them any attention. Then again, he had answered Seulgi really quick.

“I’m… errand. Right,” Jongin mumbled, grumbling even more as he stood up. He had no choice now but to find something to do outside the room. He perused the room and thought fast.

“Groceries! Do you need any groceries?”

Kyungsoo paused, his fingers poised above the keyboard. Only his eyes turned to stare at Jongin, and his lips didn’t move. Usually, they went together to the store because it t made more sense that way. Kyungsoo liked to share the bill for all their cereals and snacks, and Jongin could never remember everything that Kyungsoo liked to eat.

“You’re… going alone. Okay. Uhm, ramen?”

“What kind?”

“Any kind. And water. Please, thank you.”

He sounded petulant. That was great, that was absolutely great. Now though it was too late to change his mind and ask Kyungsoo to go. “You want some chocolate too? I’m craving chocolate…”

“Sure. Whatever you find. Thanks.”

Jongin sighed. He grabbed his wallet and stuffed it into his pocket, then ran out the door, praying he’d remembered everything correctly. He was pretty sure, fairly sure, maybe 75% sure that Kyungsoo was a dark chocolate kind of man? He should have asked. Damnit, he should have asked.

Bonus Scene “Rampage”

SootheMan writes:

A/N sorry for the random gore and character death...

This part of the house was cold. The sun had set, a sheer gust of wind seemed to blow down the halls, and that kind of thing should have been impossible. Luhan swore loudly. He turned the doorknob at the end of the hall but it was just another locked door. Every door was a locked door. The entire house was trying to kill them, and Luhan had no idea why.

“It’s just a haunted house, come on, it’ll be cool!” That’s what Irene had said earlier. They were on winter vacation, him and his friends, hiking in the mountains, and the local tales all pointed at this deserted house as a place of spooky attraction.

Luhan wondered if they were the first, or if countless others had disappeared before them. Were the townspeople in on this too? Were they part of a yearly sacrifice or something? He’d been trying to rack his brain for the last two hours while they searched for an exit, but every door was barred shut, including all exits to the outside world. Mysterious footsteps had haunted them every step of the way, loud shrieks in the night, the sound of cats yowling, dogs snarling. A shotgun.

Irene was already gone, missing; he presumed she was dead. Suho as well had vanished into the shadows. One minute he stood behind Yixing and Luhan as they panted heavily, running through the halls trying to find some way to get out. He was there, and then he wasn’t. They heard a scream a few seconds later, but when they doubled back to find him, there was no trace.

‘Many will enter, only 1 will survive.’

Luhan only thought that creepy roadside sign had been a joke. Just another laugh for the sake of the tourists, hyping up the thrill of the house.

Now though, he wasn’t so sure.

His clothes soaked with sweat, his heart beating frantically. Yixing flew past him at the next door, and this one too was locked shut.

“This has to be an outside room. Come on, Lu, help me!”

They put their shoulders to it and slammed hard. The wood grains seemed to cave, splinters forming where they shoved. Luhan felt them slice through his shirt and lodge in his skin, but he didn’t feel the pain. At least this doorway had something to give. There had to be some way out of this house. From the outside they’d seen numerous windows, most of them boarded up. They just couldn’t seem to find them from the inside. But maybe this time… through this door, they’d be successful.

Something stalked them from the other end of the corridor.

“Hurry!” he urged Yixing. The door was almost busted. They looked at each other and hesitated, then together they threw the full force of their body weight. The door shattered as they crashed through. Luhan yelped as they tumbled to the ground, his arms catching on a pile of ropes that burned as they scraped his skin.

“Luhan, I was right! There’s a window!”

The thunderous steps echoed closer, louder.

He scrambled to his feet and pulled Yixing up. There it was, the window. It was glass of course with a few bars of wood nailed across the pane, but it looked fragile. They could tear it down, break through the glass and climb to safety. If they just had the time…

Luhan dove towards it.

Yixing, however, flailed and fell towards the ground. He started shrieking a moment later, and Luhan turned around to see why.

Luhan had missed them, the bodies on the floor, but Yixing had tripped right over them. His hands were bloodstained now, his body boneless from the shock, but he managed to right himself and back away from the two corpses of their dead friends. Luhan’s stomach churned. It had been hours since he ate, but he felt like he could still throw up.

Of all the rooms they’d barged into, it had to be the one with their friends’ dead bodies. Suho looked like he’d been xxxx--censored content, too graphic for this website--xxxx and Irene’s face was drained of blood.

“Luhan,” Yixing cried, his eyes never leaving the floor. “The window. We have to get out! You… have to get out!”

Without another moment’s hesitation, Luhan turned back to the window and began yanking the planks. They cut into his hands, and tears filled his eyes, but the first one was off. “Help me! Come on!”

And still the footsteps of whoever stalked them drew nearer in the distance.

Luhan tore at the second bar. “Yixing, help me! We can make it!!”

“No.”

“What?!”

The third plank was lodged in deep, its nails imbedded into the wall. He yanked again, and it shimmied a tiny bit.

“‘Many will enter, only 1 will survive,’” Yixing’s voice echoed through the room. “I’m going to stop it. Whatever it is. Save yourself, Luhan. I’ll buy you time.”

“Yixing, no!”

In his fear, he tore away the last wooden plank, leaving only the glass to shatter. But Yixing was already tumbling out of the room. He had a bat in his hands, and Luhan saw him jump through the ruined door, running full swing towards the killer with the gun, screaming wildly in his last ditch attempt to give Luhan time to flee.

Luhan choked out a sob. Yixing, his best friend, was going to sacrifice his life for him...

Tears streaked down his face, nearly blinding him, but Luhan pulled his elbow close to his body and prepared to elbow the window. Moonlight streamed in through the pane, illuminating the lifeless faces of the others in the room.

“I’m sorry,” he cried, and then threw himself through the glass.

-------------
 

Whoareyou-andwhere-isSoo:  OMG OMG. What is this fic even! Since when did you write *tears* horror and gore!!! ??? I mean it was cool but YOU KILLED ALMOST EVERYBODY S;DKEJ;KJSD!!!!

(1) reply to Whoareyou-andwhere-isSoo:  Sorry, I was just in a funk today? Idk I just felt like horror.

Snaillover93:  I came here for the Layhan and honestly didn’t expect to see them attacked!

(1) reply to Snaillover93:  Sorry, I’ll write fluffy Layhan another time. Look forward to it!! xD

SiriouslynotBaek:  Dude, did “J” do something to make you upset? Remind me never to make you mad!!

(4) replies to SiriouslynotBaek: If you don’t want to die gruesomely in a fic one day then it’s simple: don’t talk to me, and/or don’t make me kiss anybody. Ever. again.

-- Kissing? who said anything about kissing… *coughs*

-- That’s it. You’re dying next.

-- *eeep*

Mynameisnotsuho:  Uhmm, well that was scary…

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The time on his watch read something like 1am. Jongin rubbed his eyeball and stared at it again. It couldn’t… be so late already. His head was pounding and his brain hurt. He and Seulgi had been through so many notes so many times that if Jongin just survived the night, he was pretty sure he’d be the most prepared student for the exam.

Usually he wasn’t this good at studying, but when the alternative to shoving facts down his brain was letting Seulgi’s conversation drift towards anything remotely flirty, he’d take the facts any day.

He rifled through his notebook, yawned and turned a page of the textbook beside it. Kyungsoo had gone to sleep an hour ago. Jongin tried not to notice how instead of his usual sleep clothes, he’d left on his good pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. With Seulgi still in the room, Jongin felt bad for making Kyungsoo self conscious. That and he missed the usual split-second sight of Kyungsoo slipping his pants off before dashing under the covers to sleep boxers-only.

He sighed. It was sooo late. He needed to tell Seulgi they should quit for the evening, but when he spared her a glance, his heart stopped blank.

She’d been laying against the headboard of his bed, pillows propped up cozily while they studied and discussed their notes. Jongin sat on the end of the bed, his legs perfectly crossed so that they wouldn’t accidentally touch hers.

Somewhere though, in the last five or ten minutes when he thought they’d been studying silently, she had fallen asleep. Asleep, on his bed. Her hair slipped messily out of her braid, wisps covering his face, and there were dark circles under her eyes that still couldn’t entirely mask her prettiness. She looked exhausted, her breathing even. He… he needed to wake her up, tell her to go home. But he knew from having talked to her earlier that she didn’t live on campus. Her apartment was a thirty minute bus ride away, and at this time of the night… it probably wasn’t safe. He couldn’t do that to her… Jongin wouldn’t do that too her. But he really should have thought about all this hours ago.

He set his books down gently off the side of the bed and then eased off the mattress. Seulgi took up no more than a fraction of his bed, but Jongin wasn’t about to scoot in next to her. He weighed his options. Waking her up was a definite no. Sleeping on the floor didn’t appeal to him either, nor did he want to go out and find Sehun whose roommate rarely slept in. That would leave Kyungsoo alone in a room with a girl, and after watching Kyungsoo silently glare at her all evening, muttering under his breath and typing angrily whenever they got too rowdy, he knew Kyungsoo wouldn’t be happy in the morning if he woke up and Seulgi was still there, alone.

There was no other choice really.

Jongin slipped silently into the bathroom, grabbing a semi-clean pair of shorts off the floor. He brushed his teeth and slapped water on his face and then crept back out to survey his room. Seulgi was out cold, even snoring just a tiny little bit.

He padded over to Kyungsoo, and touched him gently on the arm. It was just to see if he was awake, Jongin swore, but it felt so… nice. He didn’t actually expect Kyungsoo to flinch and turn his head.

“Jongin??”

“Shhh, Seulgi’s asleep. Scoot over will you?”

“What are you…”

“Can I sleep here tonight, please? Just tonight, I promise.”