Halloween was approaching, and preparations for the event were running wild around the school. Since it was Hani who took upon the role to prepare a nighthouse as well as the characters hidden within it, she was in and out of the classrooms, going to see teachers, seeking arrangements, preparing the decorations and begging the art teacher to compromise in helping to make it look realistic. Therefore, this resulted in Soa being left neglected and so she spent the time with BTS and Kimchi, not minding that her one and only friend was pushing her aside for all these preparations. To her, it didn’t look that important and if it was only up to her she wouldn’t have gone at all to that stupid night fair, but since Hani was participating, she had begged Soa to act like the grudge, saying that the only thing to do was to sit on a chair and just scare people away, and that she would get paid for it.

The money perked up Soa’s interest.

After her awkward situation with J-Hope- with them holding hands and stuff- the girl hadn’t been able to look at him in the eye after that, always looking down at the floor and admiring the hole in her shoe that she swore was growing bigger day by day. No word was spoken between them, and everything was kept a secret. When asked about their adventures, Hoseok had shrugged and said something along the lines of “We got lost, so in the end I brought her home’

A big fat lie.

Fortunately, she was distracted by Jungkook and was kept busy, not sparing the other a glance.

“Are you really participating for Halloween night?” Jungkook had asked during lunch, his mouth full of kimchi. Soa’s only response was to frown and throw a napkin at him. “You’re disgusting”

Jungkook gulped down his food and scowled “You’re mean”

“Tell me something I don’t know”

“Yah kids, break it up” Suga sweeped in with an arm slung around the maknae’s shoulder, grinning at Soa lopsidedly. “So, I heard that you’re the grudge of Halloween?”

Feeling her neck burn up in embarrassment, Soa mirrored Jungkook’s scowl “Shut up!”

“You don’t even have to disguise yourself. You’re scary enough as it is” Hoseok cut in with a playful smirk on his lips.

Soa tried not letting him and his more than over-the-top attitude get to her, but her left eye twitched in betrayal “What’s it to you, J-Hoe?”

He leaned in with a growl “What did you call me?”

“I’m not wasting any saliva for you” Her teeth gritted together.

“You little b-“ Jin slapped the back of his head just when the latter was about to curse, and the younger boy only whined while looking at his hyung when an aggravated look written over his features. “Yah!”

“No cursing, oh little one” Jin teased.

The table burst into laughter while the said boy’s face slowly turned red in embarrassment and half-anger, his temper rising slowly as the blood seeped into the top of his ears. If Soa hadn’t been in the situation where she was the victim, she would’ve found it cute.

But then again, J-Hope was far from cute.

Oops, she meant J-Hoe.

“Are you coming to the Halloween fair?” She asked Jungkook as they settled next to each other in Greek and English Literature Class.

His eyes widened dramatically and he heaved a gasp “Wait, you’re asking me?!”

Soa threw him a glare “Just answer”

“Sure I am” He flashed her a boyish grin then, one that many fangirls would’ve swooned if seen “Especially since you’re going to be there”

“You won’t even recognize me,” She said flatly.

“Oh I will, don’t worry. I’ll ask Hani your exact position” wriggling his eyebrows in a teasing manner, Jungkook’s grin widened when he noticed her flustered expression. With her multiple hair falling from the sides of her ponytail and her cheeks flushed with color – surely because of her embarrassment and annoyance- Kang Soa could’ve been mistake for a small middle school girl that was as cute and squishy as a bunny. His hands ached to reach out and pinch those cheeks, but then restrained himself because he knew that she would probably slap him. 

She shoved him by the shoulder “You’re annoying” she mumbled.

“You’re cute” He shot back as another smile graced his lips.

No sound left Soa’s mouth, her voice box died away as a contrast to her blood pulsing through her veins and shooting up to explode through her cheeks. Mumbling something incoherent, the girl looked away and played with her school stuff in order to distract herself from Jungkook. He only watched in contented glee, the grin on his face so prominent that the only thing one perceived if they caught sight of his fac was his flash of white teeth.

“Stop it!” Soa cringed. He smiled even wider on purpose, bunny teeth exposed.

The D-Day had arrived, and Soa was even more nervous.

She couldn’t concentrate during classes. How was she to act? There would be so many people. Would they recognize her? She hoped not. She feared that the mask and the reputation she had built for herself would crumble away once people saw her and laughed at her. Slowly, more sides of Kang Soa would be exposed to the population, and that was something she didn’t want happening. Anything but. If Soa was to protect her identity and her heart, she had to make sure that she had very small contact with human beings. Albeit she couldn’t really talk much since most of her days were now revolved around sitting and hanging around with Bangtan Boys after feeding Kimchi, laughing and smiling at their funny jokes and their perception of life. That wasn’t all she had discovered. She found out J-Hope’s bipolar personality. With BTS, he was funny and cute and always had laughter pouring out of his voice box. Yet, with her he turned cold, sarcastic, mean.

Why?

She wondered if it was because of the slap. Surely he wasn’t that susceptible to keep grudges.

Hani sat her down in the girl’s changing rooms after school, and everything was a blur of colors and faces and different costumes before she was ushered to the Night House, sat down onto another chair in a scary room filled with glow-in-the-dark slime crawling about the floor as well as full-length mirrors hanging from the other wall. If Soa looked up at her reflection, she herself would get scared of it all. The décor and her deep makeup was enough to send chills of fear and excitement down her spine. Nobody would be able to recognize her with this, she was certain of it.

Night fell, and the Night House was active as soon as seven o’clock struck the clock.

“HOLY !” one student glued himself to the mirrors while the group that followed rolled on the floor with laughter. Soa only stared at him, the smirk on her lips trembling while she bit down on her bottom lip in order not to laugh. His expression was priceless.

“EEEEEEK!’ Another female student screeched and ran away towards the next room, leaving her friend alone in the room with Soa. She was about to walk towards her and scare her away when the student only watched, smiled and said “Annyeong” before rushing into the other room.

Soa blinked. Okay, she thought to herself while settling back onto the chair.

The next participant walked slowly through the room, not realizing that she was sitting there with her knees tucked under her chin and gazing at him with amusement, eyes twinkling. Soa was actually enjoying her job as being the monster. She didn’t mind because nobody recognized her and she was sure for it to stay that way until the end.

But the boy- she identified- was inspecting every piece of the room slowly, his eyes dragging along each wall and unconsciously walking towards her. before she could speak out in protest, he bumped into her chair and his head snapped around, staring.

“AAAHH!” The boy half-screamed like a girl would and fell to the ground, backing away from her then thinking better of it to instead stand up with a terrified look in his eyes.

Soa smirked, and got up to scare him off some more before his voice stopped her in her movements.

“Soa?”

Her eyes widened like saucers. She knew that voice, she knew who it belonged to.

Oh no, she thought to herself, chanting inside her brain, oh no, oh no…

“Soa?” He took a step closer while she slowly backed away in the shadows. His face was unseen, the dark enveloping his features but the slime alighting his silhouette against the black area as he continued coming closer.

But when he reached over roughly and grasped her chin, Soa caught a good look at his face, before the said boy sighed in relief and suddenly did something, which fluttered her heartbeats like a hummingbird.

“Oh my god, oh my god, my heart…” J-Hope kept repeating to himself while hugging her to his chest, slightly relieved that it was only Soa and too scared to care that he was letting down his pride and throwing away his ego. BTS had done rock paper scissors and unfortunately he was the one to lose. Knowing that J-Hope was the scared cat, they ushered him in with huge grins on their faces as the boy found him surrounded by darkness without anyone to help him around. Not to say that he slightly feared the dark.

The girl, on the other hand, was about to push him away when she heard his rapid heartbeats beating as loud as hers but for a completely different reason. She realized that J-Hope was drowning in fear. Not scared and half-amused at the special effects but really really scared. He must be somewhat claustrophobic or something, she thought while relaxing in his grip. Nothing she could do now anyway, not until he calmed down.

His hug was warm, his arms around her strong and firm. His nose buried in her hair and inhaling the comforting scent she wore. Soa would be lying if she said that she didn’t like the comfort he embraced her with. Hoseok on the other hand was breathing in and out through his nose, trying to calm down his heartbeats and let his breathing soothe him. it was only Soa, Soa was in his arms and no one else. When he had first entered the room, the sole reason he was trying poke around was to find her and yet when he came face to face with that monster, his heart lurched to the side. Not because of his fear no- Hoseok was deathly afraid of scary and horror movies, wasn’t a fan at all- but his fear was mostly wrapped around Soa’s well-being and his brain started inventing weird ideas like this monster had eaten her up and claimed her soul for instance.

Very far-fetched, he told himself, but he couldn’t help it.

Looking down at the girl, his fingers didn’t hesitate to reach out and start scrubbing the makeup off her face in order to erase that horrible memory in his mind. Soa could only gape, eyes threatening to pop out of her sockets when his soft touch smoothed over her flesh like satin would caress her. Taking the edge of his jacket, he wiped off the rest of her eye makeup and didn’t even flinch when his sleeve was filled with the dark, gory material.

“Y-Yah” She protested when she suddenly gained back her self-control and pushed him away, horrified that half of her makeup was gone “M-My job isn’t done-“
 

“Shut up” He coolly replied before wrapping his fingers around her own and pulling her with him, not caring that she had a job to attend to and letting his instincts guide him instead of his brain, his mind. They exited the Night house together while the girl mouthed a ‘sorry’ to the guide standing next to the door, only to stagger behind the boy when he tugged harshly onto her hand. He wasn’t interested in her chitchat with her co-worker, and didn’t stop walking until they reached a private side of the school.

“Yah!” Using most of the force she contained, Soa wrenched her arm away from his grasp. “You can’t do this!”

“Do what?” He asked her, his eyebrow rose.

The cool and aloof one, the one that made fun of her, replaced the scared J-hope.

“Y-You can’t just take me away!” It was the first time she ever exploded in his face. “I was doing my job! What-No- Who do you think you are?!”

He was at loss as to why his thoughts drifted into that direction, but the fact that she was angry and was cursing at him passed right by his ears, going from one to the other. On the contrary, he found her. …Slightly hot.

“So you were enjoying yourself back there?” He shot back sarcastically.

She shivered from the deep and alto tone “No, but Hani entrusted me to do it! Who’s going to replace me?! Do you know how much time she used to put on all this !?” She pointed at her face half- from the disguise.

“Why are you so annoyed?”

Soa’s will faltered, but her eyes were still burning with that will of fire “B-Because! You’re no one for me! You’re nothing but a bully! Why do you bother me so much?!”

“Cause it’s fun” he took a slow step towards her.

He was certain that this was enough to push all her buttons. Watching her nose flare in amusement, he bit his lip to hide his grin when the girl exploded “YAH! AISH YOU FREAKING BASTARD-Mmph!” This was the second time she would be surprised by J-Hope when his arms pulled her to his chest and his head dipped down for his mouth to crash onto hers into a deep kiss.

J-Hope kissed her.

ARE YOU GUYS SURPRISED BY THE ENDING?! BECAUSE I AM HAHAHAHA  *facepalm*. It wasn't supposed to happen, I swear it's not supposed to, but this isn't the ending or whatever. This is far from their happily ever after. The question is: HOW IS SOA GOING TO REACT TO HIS KISS?! :D DO YOU THINK SHE'LL KISS BACK OR DO SOMETHING ELSE? AND WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK WILL HAPPEN AFTER THAT? UHUH UHUH comment down below on your thoughts! 

PS: Is it too rushed? :x But it's part of the plot though TT.TT

thanks to all my subbies and comments! I love you all! <3 ~
CHU!~