First clank.

Second clank.

“Hey guys, I have a story!”

The girl with long black hair said.

Third clank.

Fourth clank.

“What? Another story about ghosts again?”

The boy with sharp looks and straight lips muttered in his breath as the brown haired girl nodded.

Oh Sehun had never been so interested in horror stories, even when those folktales and legends came from his own friend’s lips. Every South Korea urban legends or even their school’s rumors, no, he rather closed his ears from them. He lifted his eyebrows at the girl, slightly questioning the story.

“Oh, come on!” Byun Baekhyun, the boy who leaned his back on the speaker put at the dusty, hidden small room behind the hall –which was their hideout, slowly groaned. “No more horror stories, please?”

The black haired girl, Song Jooyeon by the name, just laughed when Baekhyun the so-called scaredy cat said so. It had always been a common for Baekhyun to prevent the horror vibe at first, but soon enough he would be the one with the highest curiosity to hear the story (and the one with the biggest impact because of his little heart.)

 Jooyeon wrapped her hand around Baekhyun’s firm shoulder and said, “Yah, it’s just about our school. I just found this from a senior’s website yesterday.”

Sehun placed his head on his palm as he stared straight at Jooyeon. A part of him hesitated a little, but another part was really hungry for it. He took a glance at Baekhyun who was just carelessly leaned his back to the abandoned speaker again, readily looking at Jooyeon for the story.

“So,” Jooyeon began her tale by inhaling deeply.

‘What has been spelled
shall not be taken back.
 

T’was a window and a clock;
five clanks, and we’re eliminated--
jump down, and you’re out;
and the beautiful white school you loved goes black.
 

T’was an old legend no one convinced
said there was nothing can avoid;
stay a little too long and we’re eliminated--
and the beautiful white world you loved goes black.’

A moment of tensed silence between them and it was cracked by Jooyeon’s sudden yell. “Yah, how come I just finished telling my newfound legend and you all are as quiet as stones?!”

Still, no one dared to spit out an opinion. Baekhyun was the first to speak uneasily; he immediately wrapped his arm around Jihye’s shoulder and shook her intensely. “Yah, Jihye-ya! There’s no way we can get scared by this fake story, right?”

Yoon Jihye, you. The rather static figure, sitting beside Baekhyun without saying anything all over the story. The stoic and somehow friendless, awkward girl who often hung out with the three and ‘joined’ the situation by her presence (and her sudden funny words, we have to count them.)

“Baekhyun, release your hug,” Jihye murmured with a small curl on her lips, and Baekhyun who felt rejected dramatically pulled away his arm which caused all of them to laugh –and it melted the tense a little.

“Is it done?” Sehun murmured in all of sudden, caused the three to look at him. “I need to get home.”

“Yah, Sehun-ah!” Jooyeon yelled, casually pulled the taller man closer. “At least appreciate a little by hearing the final concluded part,” she puckered her lips.

Sehun chuckled and scouted closer towards the girl. “Alright, alright. Tell me the final part. Bet it won’t be scary at all,” he said which caused him to get a hit on his head by Jooyeon.

When Sehun was still busy rubbing his damaged head, Jooyeon just continued on the story. “The poem was really something, duh. But I’ve known the conclusion, the simplified legend after all.”

Baekhyun put his head on his palms as he was getting more immersed into the tale.

“A… curse. Yes, sort of a curse. Or rather a warning. It said that if we stayed in the school until five –until that clock clanked five times, we could not get out.”

Sehun looked at Jooyeon in disbelief.

“You guys definitely know that all doors and entrances are closed at six, so whoever gets stuck… No jumping from the windows as well. But I have no idea why it forbids us to stay until five instead of six.”

five clanks, and we’re eliminated--
jump down, and you’re out;

“And oh, I really appreciate how the first paragraph got ended,” Jooyeon chuckled. “How a school could turn into something dangerous, something you could never imagine –something beyond our imagination.”

--and the beautiful white school you loved goes black.

“It’s inescapable. How hard you try to get out of the curse, once you’re into it, there’s no turning back and the fact is that once you’re immersed, you won’t even be able to turn back because something worse is waiting behind your back.”

said there was nothing can avoid;
stay a little too long and we’re eliminated--

“And voila, the second paragraph got ended even scarier. It brought people inside the ‘game’ to death or something worse,” Jooyeon ended with her heart beating in tense.

--and the beautiful white world you loved goes black.

A long, long moment of silence where heartbeats were the only things you can hear, along with the windy voice with no intense whispers as usual.

“Nice story,” Sehun broke the silence with his echoing clapped hands. “Perfectly made, though.”

“Yah, Sehun! How come you’re clapping like a crazy there?! It’s a scary crap! What if it’s real?” Baekhyun yelled and brought his palm to his heart, it was still pumping so hard because of the scary tale from Jooyeon.

Jooyeon laughed and patted Baekhyun’s back. “You’re scared, man? You’re scared?” she chuckled even more. “Jihye is not. Hye-yah! Look at me, does that even scare you?”

Jihye slowly lifted her face with an uneasy expression and weirdly smiled once her sight reached Jooyeon.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun muttered as well between his chuckles. “You look like a shocked grandpa.”

“Yah, grandpa your !” Baekhyun immediately took his empty water bottle and threw it towards Sehun. “You ain’t scared?!”

Sehun just tapped his lips, shut his eyes and shook his head normally.

It was all lie, it was all built-up images. Sehun was scared. Sehun was never brave; Sehun was never the ‘reliable-strong man’. His heart was beating like crazy; even his throat was like being covered by something when he was breathing all along the story. He was scared, and no matter how hard he tried to block that feeling away, a glint of scariness would still peek…

“But friends,” Jooyeon’s voice broke the small silence again. “Don’t really get into the legend, though. Like what Sehun said, for me it’s also just a story. Someone in the site also said that there might be someone surviving until the end, though.”

“But we won’t be able to look at the school the same anymore,” Baekhyun lifted his lips as a small sarcastic smirk.

Hearing those spontaneous words slowly brought chill towards Sehun’s spine. He immediately his lip and spoke loudly, “Speaking about school, do you want to skip it at Thursday? Let’s watch Interstellar nearby—”

“Oh, I would like to!” Baekhyun immediately yelled in joy from Sehun’s words. “Jihye must be joining too, right? It would be her first hangout outside the school with us!”

Jihye grinned in cheer a little when Baekhyun patted her back. Like that, the conversation about varied things went along the time. How you’re so deep immersed in a moment until you’re completely forgetting that seconds and minutes are still walking by, passing you as you spit another speech, how time is really a running figure while there you are, letting time flapping its wings and fly away…

And you were surprised by the five heart-throbbing clanks from the big grandpa clock in the school.

CLANK!

“Oh, it!” Baekhyun cursed loudly when he was startled by the large, echoing voice. “Aren’t we supposed to get home by now?! Yah!!”

CLANK!

Jihye’s face turned pale, it had never been this pale and nervous. She gulped –it’s hard to do so when your throat is like being blocked by something that disallows you to breathe as well. Second clank –counting down for the fifth clank and they’re out.

(---correction: no way to get out of the place; but yes, you’re out of life.)

CLANK!

“What the heck!” Baekhyun yelled when the two other guys, Jooyeon and Sehun, didn’t even move at all. “Tha-that story! I don’t want to be trapped here!!”

CLANK!

Sehun clenched his jaw to calm his over-beating heart before finally murmuring, “Yah, you scared? It’s just a story… why believing it?”

CLANK!                      –fifth clank.

‘five clanks, and we’re eliminated—‘

“Nice, nice!” Baekhyun yelled in annoyance yet in anger once the clock finished clanked. He immediately slammed his bags down because when he told all his friends to leave immediately, they stayed quiet like idiots instead. Baekhyun groaned and lightly punched the floor.

“Yah, your mom won’t even ask where you are if you’re going home a bit too late,” Sehun said. What used to be funny wasn’t funny anymore in a tensing, shocking yet scaring situation like what they were facing now. Being in the small, dark and dusty hideout behind the hall, they just finished hearing an urban legend and it had been five –the situation is perfect.

“Let’s go home since it’s been five,” Jooyeon smiled a little in excitement because her friend just got scared like that. “It’s just a story… duh. Why do you guys even believe that?”

“Let’s… go home,” Jihye’s trembling and small voice made all of them looked at her.

“Jihye-ya… Why are you being this scared…?” Baekhyun looked at her in slight nervousness and horror. Jihye didn’t say anything else; she immediately clutched her bag and put it on her back, soon enough her action was followed by the others.

When I said their hideout was a hidden place, I was serious. The way to enter it and the way to get out of it are both hidden, untouched among almost all teachers and all other students. The school cleaners were supposedly the only ones who knew this place, this dusty and abandoned little spot.

The door to get out was made of wood, a little bit rough around its doorknob which might hurt your hand. Once Sehun opened it, it immediately directed the four of them to the larger rooftop; a forbid place for all students. Beside the rooftop there was a stair, which all of them were aiming. After the three other guys got out, Sehun was the last to finally close the wooden door.

Five at the evening and it was so dark, nice. They all immediately sprinted down without even bothering to see the scenery beside them; which was practically showed by the small space between the iron bars as the wall. The sky nearly became completely red, and chicken’s echoing cook-a-doodle-doo was quite terrifying at this type of moment –a chicken.

This was the moment when all you do was just trying to run faster than your heartbeat, but your fear got accumulated nearly all the time because those weird imaginations and speculations kept on coming –someone is behind you. Someone is chasing you. You are chased.

They ran so fast that they didn’t realize how they reached the first floor so fast; the bloodcurdling emotion was still there that they ran fast towards the main door as well. Jooyeon was being the one to lead the three (and after all she was the one with less scariness.)

The main door was a step from them…

The four immediately slammed themselves on the wall, resting their pounding and tired heart for a while. Baekhyun groaned loudly and spoke between his pant, “I thought I might die!”

“Quick, open the door,” Sehun spoke really fast in his nervous mode.

Jooyeon approached the doorknob and turned it.

Only a clacking voice, not even opened.

She immediately tried turning it to the other direction –uh oh, still the same.

Sehun immediately stared at Jooyeon in horror.

...

hello, this is the writer speaking!

thank you for the subscribes and upvotes even when i haven't updated yet, ily all guys < 3

(btw can you feel the horror in this chap?)