Taemin came bouncing into the room, leaving the front door ajar behind him. “Jonghyun!” he exclaimed. “I just heard the concept for our next music video.”

“Yeah?” Jonghyun said, looking up from his phone. “What is it?”

“It’s so great,” responded an over-excited Taemin as he nimbly skirted the coffee table to plunk down on the couch beside his bandmate. “You’re going to love it!”

Jonghyun stared at him, head cocked, waiting patiently.

“I think the fans are really going to get into it too,” Taemin teased, grinning widely.

More silence.

“Taemin, are you going to tell me or not?”

“Oh, sure, Jonghyun. It’s a … horror video.”

Jonghyun’s mouth fell open.

“Isn’t that exciting?” Taemin prattled on enthusiastically. “I wonder if there will be monsters. Maybe ghouls or—Oh! Mummies. Maybe they’ll use mummies. Or there might be a haunted house!”

Jonghyun’s eyes grew wide.

“Oh, that’s right,” Taemin said, pretending he had just remembered. “You don’t like stuff like that. Ah well, I’m sure it will be nothing to worry about,” he continued, patting Jonghyun’s hand before getting up. “It’s not like anything will be real.”  

********

Strands of filthy cloth dragged across his face as the monster lifted its arm above his head. With its other hand, it shoved him roughly against the brick wall, trapping him. The points of the bricks dug uncomfortably into his back as he tried vainly to back up, shrinking from the mummy looming before him. The monster leaned in closer. Where its eyes should have been were just gaping holes with wet, ragged edges, oozing puss-coloured goo onto its bindings. Jonghyun closed his eyes to block out the sight. The stench of its hot, fetid breath clogged Jonghyun’s nostrils, causing him to gag.

His eyes flew open. Breathing rapidly, he surveyed the bright room around him, trying to orient himself. Oh , I’m in my bed. Jonghyun sat up on an elbow. Oh my god, that was just a dream. But it felt so real. Jonghyun ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair. How am I ever going to film this video?!

“Hey Jonghyun,” greeted Taemin brightly as Jonghyun dragged his tired self into the kitchen. “Nice day, huh?” he asked, mischief in his voice.

Jonghyun collapsed into a chair beside Minho and rested his head on the table.

“You OK?” asked Minho, putting down his coffee.

Jonghyun nodded without raising his head. “Nightmare,” he mumbled.

“What about?” asked Taemin.

Jonghyun looked up at him. “You know you little . Mummies. Mummies are what it was about.”

“Jonghyun, how could I have known that?” Taemin replied innocently. Turning to the others, “Jonghyun’s a little nervous about the horror shoot,” he explained, winking at Onew when Jonghyun wasn’t looking.

“Hey,” said Onew, getting up to come over and pat Jonghyun on the back. “I don’t think you should get all wound up about it. It’ll be OK.” He smiled reassuringly.

Jonghyun gazed up at him, grateful for the comfort. “You think?”

“I’m sure,” Onew replied, grabbing an apple from a bowl in the table and sitting down beside him. “I mean, it might not even involve mummies at all. It could just be vampires or something.”

“V-vampires?”

“Yeah. And you know how phoney they are—what with those sharp fangs always tipped with blood dripping off them.”

Jonghyun got up and left the room without uttering a word, while Onew raised his hand to receive a no-look high five from Taemin.

“You guys are truly awful, you know that?” Minho laughed, shaking his head.

********

Jonghyun stared at his tablet, as his untouched composition started to dim. He tapped the screen to restore the brightness. There wasn’t much point though, really. He chewed furiously on a thumbnail. He just couldn’t get in the frame of mind to write. His mind kept wandering back to one thing—vampires. Demons with red eyes and paper-white skin. Sharp teeth waiting to pierce his tender skin. Jonghyun scratched at his neck absentmindedly as his thoughts changed to an old house, its door creaking open. The coffin’s in the basement, he thought, his pulse beginning to quicken. He imagined being drawn down, one stair at a time, unable to stop himself. The stairs sagged under his step, and he had to step over the space where one had split and fallen to the floor below. The sound of rusty hinges caught his attention, and he looked over just in time to see the relic stand up, leering at him before flying toward him in the blink of an eye.

Jonghyun startled and shook his head. He tossed his tablet on the bed in frustration. He would get no work done today.

********

“OK, I’m sorry, Jonghyun,” offered Taemin, putting an arm around Jonghyun. “I shouldn’t be messing with you.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” Jonghyun agreed, rubbing his sore eyes.

“Maybe there won’t even be monsters … or a haunted house. It might just be creepy situations.”

“Situations?” Jonghyun asked, turning to look at Taemin’s falsely angelic face. “Like what?” he inquired, foolishly betraying his resolve not to let Taemin get to him.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Taemin shrugged. “Could be anything. Maybe getting t-boned in a car. Maybe falling off a cliff. Maybe getting buried alive.”

Jonghyun exhaled. “Buried alive … ”

“Yeah, but like I said, it’s just pretend, Jonghyun,” he said cheerfully. “Besides, only two more days until the shoot—then we’ll know.”

“Just two days,” Jonghyun muttered to himself. It was going to be a long couple of days.

********

When Jonghyun awoke, the room was still dark. Phew, he thought, no nightmares. I’m actually getting a good night’s sleep. He began to roll over to his side, but was stopped by his shoulder banging painfully against a hard surface. What the—? Jonghyun raised his arm quickly, scraping his knuckles across the wood. Urgently, he used both hands to desperately interpret his surroundings. He was in a box, a rectangular box, just large enough to hold him. Trembling, he slid his arms across his chest and felt the space above his face. Two inches at best. Panic seized him as he realized he was trapped, his hot breath filling the stingy void around him. “HEY!” he yelled, as he began clawing at the wood. A sharp splinter embedded itself under a fingernail. “HEY!!! I’m in here! Somebody HELP!” he called out again, now completely out of control.

Suddenly he was in a bright space, with someone hanging directly over him. “Aaaaaaaaah!” he screamed, arms flailing as he attempted to sit up.

“Perfect,” said Key, backing away a pace or two and surveying his phone.

bumkeyk Our prince is having nightmares. I wonder what they’re about. ;)

********

When the day of the shoot finally arrived, Jonghyun was a ball of nerves.

“You know, you may have pushed him too far,” said Minho. “I mean, we do actually have to shoot this thing. He hasn’t slept properly in days.”

Taemin looked over at Jonghyun, who was sitting with his arms crossed, knee bouncing up and down.

Taemin chuckled. “He’ll be OK. You know whatever’s actually on the set is going to be nothing compared to Jonghyun’s imagination.”

“You better hope so,” Minho replied.

“Look, I’ll go check it out for him, settle him down.”

“Jonghyun!” Taemin called out, making the man jump. Minho glared at Taemin. “Woops, sorry. That one I actually didn’t mean.”

“Just go talk to him. He’s freaking out.”

Taemin wandered over and crouched down in front of Jonghyun, putting a hand on his knee. “I’m gonna go have a look,” he said.

“A look?”

“At the set,” explained Taemin, standing up.

“No, wait!” said Jonghyun nervously, grabbing for Taemin’s arm.

“It’s just a set, Jonghyun. It’ll be OK. I’m just going to go find out what we’re doing so that you can relax a bit.”

“What if I don’t want to know?” Jonghyun asked, nervously biting his lip.

“You have to know sometime, right?”

Jonghyun nodded. “Yeah … yeah, you’re right. OK.”

Taemin tousled his hair and turned to head to the set.

“But no making things up!” Jonghyun yelled after him.

“I won’t!” Taemin called back.

Moments later, Taemin reappeared, almost running. “Um, I don’t think we should do this,” he announced to anyone who might be listening. “Ah, it’s too scary,” he stammered. “I don’t think we should put poor Jonghyun through this.”

“Taemin, of course we have to do this,” objected Key, matter-of-factly. “Jonghyun will be OK,” he said, wandering over to his panicked friend and wondering if there was any truth to his own statement.

“N-no, it’s not fair. We can’t do that to him,” Taemin insisted.

Minho furrowed his brow. “C’mon,” he gestured to Onew. “Let’s go see it.”

“No!” Taemin protested unsuccessfully.

The two disappeared around the corner. Moments later, they reappeared smiling, and called Jonghyun. Key got up. “I’ll go with you,” he offered.  

Jonghyun stood up reluctantly, and they headed over to where Minho and Onew were standing. Minho took Jonghyun’s elbow. “Check this out,” he said, leading Jonghyun around the corner.

The four men stood surveying the elaborate set. Suddenly, Jonghyun burst out laughing, all the nervous tension dropping off him like a cape to the floor.

Around him was a haunted house, alright. Creaky wooden panels, masses of cobwebs covering old paintings of stern faces, mechanical spiders crawling on the crooked floors … and moths. Suspended from invisible strings. Swaying any time someone moved or spoke.

********

“Cut!” yelled the director for the umpteenth time.

Taemin was out of character again, swatting the air and getting himself increasingly tangled in the thin fibres from which the moths were hanging. “Aaaah, get them off!” he yelled, bending over and frantically ruffling his hair to rid it of the insects. Taemin felt something on his shoulder, and it might have been a hand, but he shrieked in panic and flung out an arm erratically, backhanding Minho in the nose.

The room started to spin, and a wave of nausea crept up on him as he sunk to his knees. “Need to … lie down,” he muttered between breaths. The corners of his vision began to get fuzzy and darken, and Taemin became faintly aware of the cool boards of the floor on his back. He jerked as a hand gently took his arm and raised it slightly, and lifted his head to see that Jonghyun was unravelling a nylon thread from his arm. But trying to sit up made the nausea resurge, and he flopped himself back to the floor, his vision darkening once more. And as the curtains of grey narrowed his view, Taemin was faintly aware of Jonghyun’s broad toothy grin hovering over him.

~

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! I’m totally hoping you’re already acquainted with Taemin’s feelings about moths; but if not, you can check this and this. And as a bonus, here’s Jonghyun in a haunted house.