When Jaehyo awoke, Kyung was gone again, much to his displeasure. Minhyuk was still asleep beside him so his light snores filled the otherwise eerily quiet room. He watched him sleep for a while; his hair was fluffy and sticking out to the sides, or just sticking straight up defying gravity like it was a joke. In all honestly, it seemed fitting in a place like this, nothing seemed to follow any preset rule. At least from what Jaehyo had seen so far. The people just existed and did as they pleased. Why hadn’t they just left? There were at least 4 of them. Jaehyo hadn’t seen anything here that compelled him; everything just seemed rundown and dingy. They were probably under some mind control or something. Just like Kyung would be if they didn’t get out soon. It irritated him that Kyung wasn’t there with them. Jiho had probably taken him somewhere, he was probably performing some ritual on him that makes him forget about his old life. That man made Jaehyo’s skin crawl. He saw that way that he had glared at Jaehyo for even just speaking to Kyung. Kyung, who he had known half his life, not 2 days.

“Hey. You’re going to break that if you’re not careful.” Minhyuk startled him so he dropped the ornament that he had been holding. It smashed as soon as it hit the floor, the pieces scattering across the floor. “Nevermind” he sighed, bringing his hand up to rub his eyes. That was one of the worst sleeps he’d ever had it was as if he’d been drugged; he felt so lethargic and heavy. It was hard to concentrate on one thing so he just tried to focus on Jaehyo as he scurried around trying to pick up the glass.

The room they were in was mostly decorated in red. It was small and heavily furnished, giving off a cozy, cottage-like feel. Minhyuk stood up cautiously and padded over to the sofa in the centre of it.

“Where’s Kyung?” he asked, still sleepily. He looked around the room, and even under the furniture, but Kyung wasn’t there.

“I don’t know. He wasn’t there when I woke up” Jaehyo replied quietly whilst picking up the miniscule flecks of glass.

“So you didn’t think to go and look for him” He snapped. Jaehyo shook his head, almost shamefully “I swear, Jaehyo, sometimes..!” Minhyuk spoke through his teeth as he walked towards the door and tried to yank it open. It’s wouldn’t open. He pulled and pushed again, but nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Jaehyo stood behind him.

“It’s locked.”

“What?” Jaehyo tried to open the door. “Why is it locked? Minhyuk, why is it locked?”

“Well, I don’t know Jaehyo.” he answered sarcastically. “Maybe they thought it would be funny.”

Jaehyo stared at the door for a moment. He tried again and then kicked it in frustration. “Kyung would have gotten out before they locked it.”

Minhyuk hummed in agreement before flopping onto the sofa. “Yeah, someone else must have been with him.” He sighed. Jaehyo came and sat down next to him. They were both so exhausted and sluggish, for reasons unknown.

They sat for a while, neither of them moving even an inch. The room was heavy with silence weighing down on them.

“Minhyuk?” Jaehyo spoke softly. The other hummed in return, waiting for him to continue. “Can I ask you a personal question?” He shifted in his seat nervously as he didn’t want to make Minhyuk uncomfortable.

“I guess so” he replied. “We’re going to be stuck here for who knows how long”. He didn’t turn around or look at Jaehyo, only giving him a brief nod.

“What were your ‘personal reasons? For coming here, I mean” Jaehyo looked at Minhyuk sincerely. He tried to stop fidgeting but he couldn’t stop gripping his hands together and twirling his fingers in his lap.

Minhyuk scratched the back of his head, trying to come up with the right words to say. He’d thought about telling Jaehyo or Kyung before but could never actually bring himself to do so. “Um well,” he hesitated “It’s about my mother, to put it in short.”

Jaehyo didn’t know a lot about Minhyuk’s mother except for the fact that she just wasn’t there anymore. He looked up at Minhyuk again and slowly nodded his head.

“When I was a kid, maybe 9 years old, she left one day. She told us she was going to buy some flowers, from the market, to decorate the apartment with. You know, like mothers do.  Except then, she just never came back.” He stopped.

Jaehyo was still confused. “But how does this link to being here?” He didn’t want to pressure Minhyuk into talking about it but he just didn’t really understand anything.

“Well, uh, that ‘suspicion’, I guess, came later. My little sister started seeing things, hearing things. Obviously since she’s a kid I thought that it was just a kid thing, you know? All ‘there’s a monster under my bed’. But then, I started noticing it too, especially when I was with her. Weird things would just… just happen. I don’t know!” He was getting himself a little worked up as he told Jaehyo. He’d never told anyone before as he didn’t want people to think that he’d lost his mind.

Jaehyo carefully placed his hand on Minhyuk’s shoulder. “Calm down. It’s alright, Minhyuk.” he spoke softly. Minhyuk nodded his head. “What kind of things happened?”

“Like, sometimes my sister would be talking to someone and they would just act out all of a sudden. People we had known for years would just start shouting and screaming at us, for no reason. Things like witch tales. We would be returning from the shops and stray cats would follow us. It was really unreal.” Minhyuk stopped for a moment to catch his breath. “And then, one day, I was reading a fairytale, when I was babysitting, and something just clicked. It sounds ridiculous, right?” He almost laughed.

Jaehyo nodded his head. “I wouldn’t have believed you two days ago, but now, you have my complete trust.” This time Minhyuk did laugh.

“One thing just led to another, I suppose. I found out more about the fairytale, and then about circuses and carnivals. Eventually I found out about this place, and researched that. Honestly, I didn’t really know what I was looking for.. I still don’t, but Jaehyo, if someone knows something about my mother, that someone is here.” He ended with a huff of breath, then looked up at Jaehyo, who was processing the information.

After a moment, Jaehyo looked up. “Well, I guess we came for more than I expected… and this is a lot more complex than originally planned.”