Chapter Text
Hyunwoo placed the camera on the table, angling it to ensure everyone at the table would be in frame. He scratched his nose, waiting for his team to show up. He felt nervous, usually never in front of the camera. But his final project was a documentary, so he would be forced to be on camera more than he was used to. He wanted to prove to his professor he could do more than just shoot well, that he had real ideas. The documentary subject seemed to really intrigue his professor, but he told Hyunwoo to his face that it may be too bold for him. He didn’t need to have the best documentary in class, but he wanted to have the project with the most improvement, to show someone as mature as him could still learn and develop.
He heard his roommate Jooheon enter, their other project partner Changkyun behind him. Hyunwoo had known Jooheon since their first year together, and despite their age difference they quickly became good friends. Jooheon had also become friends with Changkyun recently, who was only a second year but welcomed into the fourth-year class due to his skill and intelligence. Hyunwoo admitted he was intimidated by his success, and was surprised when Changkyun chose to be in their group for the final project. Hyunwoo felt confident that his project would be well received given the company he had helping him.
He gestured for the two to sit down, making sure none of their laptops or backpacks blocked the camera. He leaned into his bag and pulled out the mics, passing them around. They all put them on unceremoniously, Jooheon fixing Changkyun’s when it wouldn’t clip to his shirt.
“Are you going to start recording now?” Jooheon asked, smoothing his hands through his hair to look presentable.
Hyunwoo nodded, tapping the mic lightly. “I want to make sure we don’t miss anything. This meeting may be important for the film,” He allowed Jooheon and Changkyun to set up properly, opening his own notebook with the information he had gathered on their subject, what little was known. He pressed the record button when no one was looking, preferring the atmosphere to be more natural than the stiff behaviour of someone who knows they’re on camera. He cleared his throat. “Has anyone found more information on the subject?”
Changkyun spoke up, adjusting his glasses as he read from his laptop screen. “Not too much more than we have so far,” He spoke up, clearly aware he was speaking for a camera. “Only that there appears to be evidence of a cult in the next town over. The cult may be the last remaining strain of a group reaching back to the 1970’s only known as ‘The Clan’.”
“And was anymore information found of the 70’s group?”
Jooheon spoke up this time. He had been the one in the group who did the most research, a few more pages of information in his notebook than the others. “Very few scattered newspaper articles remain in our school’s archive. In searching for local cults, there are few reported missing persons that are linked to ‘The Clan’. Whether they were killed or simply joined is never reported. No missing persons were ever found. ‘The Clan’ were eventually shut down in 1982 after an escapee revealed information of a possible terrorist plan and links to drugs. No information of the group under that name have been reported since.” Hyunwoo nodded, impressed with Jooheon’s explanation, clear and concise for their audience to understand while also keeping a mystery to the events. He adjusted his mic.
“All sources of information will be cited in credits and handed in to the professor,” He said quietly. He saw Changkyun smile, making him a little embarrassed. He had just wanted to make sure his sources were acknowledged and could be checked for accuracy. He swallowed, throat suddenly dry. “And what evidence has been found of the cult today?”
“Evidence of the logo being spray painted on walls and a few citizens of the town displaying odd and secretive traits.” Jooheon replied, lifting his notebook to a page with a hand drawn version of the logo. It was a circle with a thicker crude X in the middle. This time, Hyunwoo spoke up, having found information last night that the other two hadn’t known.
“And most recently, sightings of a flower related to the cult have been reported,” Changkyun and Jooheon looked impressed, wide eyed and lips parting as Hyunwoo pulled out the printed photograph from a recent newspaper page. It was a small patch of large blue flowers, looking almost alien to the wildflowers that surrounded them. He had found it by chance, flipping through the morning paper and catching it on a random page. The article was innocent, in no way mentioning the cult, only that the flower was a hybrid plant created by a local, now abandoned botanical farm. He explained all of this to the group before reaching his point. “But, that farm was linked to the cult in the 70’s, and was linked to the accusations by the escapee. This could be a clue to prove the possibility that the cult still exists today. And we intend to find out.”
He dropped the dramatic tone with a sheepish smile, making Jooheon laugh and Changkyun hide his face from the camera. “That is really good info, a more definite lead.” Jooheon told him, eyes wide with astonishment. Changkyun chewed on the tip of his thumb, nodding in agreement. Hyunwoo spoke up again. “We’ll be travelling to the site in question tomorrow, and intending to record any evidence of the cult for three days. We will remain passive, only interviewing citizens and recording what we see. We are simply solving whether the cult still exists, nothing more,” He sat back in his chair, having run out of things to say. He looked up at his team, lips parted as he paused. “Is that it?”
Changkyun laughed. “Yeah man, that’ll do,” He looked back down at his laptop. “I’ve got directions to the location. It’s pretty isolated. Everyone make sure to keep your devices charged.” He received two nods in response. Hyunwoo always made sure to take care of his cameras. Being reminded of the one currently in use as they spoke, he stopped recording and turned the camera off. He smiled to himself as he pulled out his laptop, turning it on and grabbing the cord to plug his camera into it. He had a habit of getting his footage to his laptop immediately so he didn’t risk losing it.
“Everyone bring enough supplies to survive this weekend?” Jooheon asked, and Changkyun and Hyunwoo nodded. He crossed his arms tight over his chest, almost hugging himself. He shook his head as he laughed. “Alright, down the rabbit hole we go.”
-
With Hyunwoo’s car all packed, the trio set off, driving an hour away to the next town over where they planned to film. Changkyun pulled his earbuds out about twenty minutes in and spoke up. “Are we going to hide our identities?” He asked. Jooheon turned to look at him from the passenger seat.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want any possible cult members knowing my name to try and find me.”
Hyunwoo laughed. “Do you think they’d try to catch you once we leave?”
Changkyun shrugged, gripping Jooheon’s headrest to lift himself and lean to talk. “I don’t know, I’d feel better not giving them my name.”
“Alright, we can all tell them different names. In dance academy, my stage name was Shownu. I’ll go by that.” Hyunwoo decided, seeing Jooheon crack an amused smile from the corner of his eye. His next turn was abrupt enough to throw Jooheon slightly off balance in revenge.
“I can go by Honey.” Jooheon grinned, and Hyunwoo smiled to himself.
“Cute,” He glanced in the rear-view mirror at Changkyun. “And you?”
“I.M.” He said simply. Jooheon peeked around his seat to look at Changkyun.
“That’s just your last name!” He huffed when Changkyun just shrugged, putting his earbuds back in and sitting back.
“That’s fine, it’ll work. We just need to remember them.” Hyunwoo focused on the road, watching the surroundings change. The city disappeared in favour of abandoned buildings and empty and overgrown land. He didn’t know as much as he wanted to about the town, only that the population was less than 500 and lowering as more and more moved to the more developed city beside it. The reputation of the town being home to a violent cult likely led to its downfall as well.
They stopped at a convenience store for water, Jooheon and Changkyun leaving Hyunwoo in search of snacks. He let them deal with paying for that themselves, setting the water on the counter and smiling at the older woman behind it.
“Are you here to see the flowers?” She asked as she scanned. Hyunwoo rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah. It’s for school.” He replied, not wanting to tip anyone one in the town off about the details of his project to keep it as genuine as possible. Her smile only widened innocently.
“Another boy your age came here alone, before the fuss about the flower in the papers,” Hyunwoo quirked a brow in interest, handing her the money. “He said he was studying it as a project for school.”
“What were the results?” He asked, and the woman handed back his change.
“I don’t know. He left suddenly. No one saw him leave. I hope he found what he was looking for. No one here fusses over the flowers. They just pop up. Are those your friends?”
“Uh, yeah.” He turned over to see Jooheon and Changkyun arguing over which snacks would be best.
“Stay with them. Lots of trouble and crime from the local kids happens at night.”
Hyunwoo nodded, beckoning the two over to the counter. “Thank you for letting us know. We don’t plan to stay here for long.” The woman sighed to herself, absent mindedly scanning the boys many snacks they spilt onto the counter.
“No one ever does…” She mused. She looked back up at Jooheon and Chngkyun and told them the price. The two pooled their money together to pay, though Hyunwoo had offered. After the items being bagged, Hyunwoo thanked the woman again before they left.
As they got back into the car, Hyunwoo gripped the steering wheel. “Hey, has anyone heard about a student going missing in this town at some point?” Jooheon and Changkyun paused to look at him, both shaking their heads.
“Why, did she say that happened?” Jooheon asked, hugging his arms. He was always so easily nervous, clinging to him during horror movies and flinching at loud sudden noises.
“Not exactly. She only said he travelled alone and no one saw him leave. I was just wondering.”
“I think we would’ve found that in our research,” Changkyun gently rubbed Jooheon’s shoulder, and Jooheon shivered. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“You’re right. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Hyunwoo started the car, pulling a bottle of water out of the bag seated in the passenger seat and took a long swig, throat dry with nerves. He didn’t want to show it to the others, feeling responsible for them as he was the oldest.
They parked at where they intended to stay for the weekend, a series of motel style cabins available for rent. Before the booming city next to them and the large fancy hotel built within it, the town’s cabin motel was the only place to stay for miles. The place was old and run-down, but preferable to camping. Unfortunately, there was poor cell service and no internet, and their only modern luxury was the ancient tv. They set their equipment on the table, and Changkyun dumped his and Jooheon’s backpacks in the one bedroom.
Hyunwoo set his backpack on the couch, his place to sleep for the next two nights. He didn’t mind since he had actually offered, as he assumed he would stay up later to look over the footage and information.
“I wanted to film some establishing shots at night. Make it more atmospheric.” Hyunwoo told them, Jooheon giving him a slight pout. Changkyun laughed, patting his shoulder and walking over to help Hyunwoo with the cameras.
“You’ll be fine, Honey,” Changkyun said in a teasing tone, already switching to their nicknames. Jooheon narrowed his eyes at him, taking off his hat and running his fingers through his hair. They set up the cameras and mics unceremoniously after changing into darker and warmer clothing.
“I think I saw a tag about walking distance from here. We’ll film that first,” Hyunwoo said quietly as he slung his camera bag over his shoulder. He held the main camera which was the biggest with more night vision power, while the others had their handheld digital cameras. Hyunwoo strapped his light clip to his jacket and turned it on as they left.
Night had fallen, and fallen hard. As they walked away from the set of cabins, the darkness quickly enveloped them, the small lights from their cameras like fireflies bobbing around. Hyunwoo angled his light clip higher so they could see where they were walking, but it didn’t do much to help them see in front of them.
“It’s up at the building ahead, but start recording now,” Hyunwoo told them. Jooheon was clinging to his arm, visibly frightened. “You film the right side and I’ll film left.” He said to Jooheon, not minding being his safety if it helped him feel better. Jooheon nodded and lifted the camera to eye level with a shaky hand. Changkyun was walking ahead bravely, filming a sweeping shot of the dark void ahead of them.
Hyunwoo was unnerved by the silence, used to the endless busy atmosphere of the city. The abandoned town had no echoing traffic, no shouts of crowds, only the crunch of their footsteps and the insects buzzing in their face. With the lack of light pollution, he felt intimidated by the enormous sky above them, bright stars looking down upon them.
Jooheon gripped his arm tighter when he stumbled, a large unseen rock in the way of his stride. Hyunwoo held him up and kept him stable, shifting his camera back up on his shoulder without effort.
“Kyunnie, come back here! You can’t see!” Jooheon called out ahead. Changkyun called out a half-hearted noise of affirmation, stopping in his stride to wait for them.
“I think I see the tag, it’s on that building up there.” Changkyun pointed ahead of them once they met up with him again. Hyunwoo nodded, turning around to film what journey they had just made behind them. He jumped slightly, his eyes tricking him into thinking he had seen a figure run past. He didn’t say anything to the others, not wanting to rouse panic.
“Changkyun, you can go and capture it,” Hyunwoo said gently, eyes glancing in every direction to assess they were truly alone. He watched Changkyun walk up to the building, leading Jooheon to the other side of the building to inspect for further clues. When they reached the building, Jooheon lowered the camera down, even crouching down to capture his shot. He found the blue flowers were wrapped around the sides of the building, as if planted there purposefully. It was too meticulous to simply be the plant spreading naturally. Hyunwoo stepped ahead a few feet to film around the corner of the building.
He jumped back and swore at the sight of a figure in frame, making Jooheon stand up straight and cry out in shock. Hyunwoo caught the person with night vision, large eyes captured with glowing green pupils in the shot. They didn’t seem surprised, standing still and unblinking.
“I’m very sorry!” Hyunwoo lowered the camera to expose his face. The figure tilted their head.
Changkyun called out from the other side of the building, making Jooheon flinch. “Ch- I.M?” He called out in response. “Are you okay?”
“Hello,” the figure said to Hyunwoo. They were slightly shorter than him, walking into the light and lowering their hood. Hyunwoo barely registered Jooheon leaving him slowly to look for Changkyun, calling out again hesitantly. The figure in front of him appeared a little younger than him, thin and long limbed. His eyes remained focused on him, only now surrendering to a delicate blink. His clothing was worn, old and rather large on him, sleeves covering his hands.
“Hello,” Hyunwoo said back, blinking to collect himself. “I-I’m sorry. Are we intruding? We were just-”
“You are not intruding. We welcome visitors.” The figure smiled wide, exposing a large and bright smile. Hyunwoo relaxed, shifting his camera again to lift his hand to him.
“My name is- uh…Shownu,” he told him. The stranger didn’t notice the falter of his introduction, carefully lifting his own surprisingly large hand to take Hyunwoo’s.
“Hello Shownu, my name is Minhyuk. Are they your friends?” he asked as Hyunwoo heard the footsteps behind him. He turned to capture Jooheon and Changkyun in his shot. Jooheon’s face was completely drained of colour, eyes wide with fear as his hand gripped Changkyun’s sleeve tightly. Changkyun gave Hyunwoo a questioning look off camera, quirking his brow. He turned back to face Minhyuk.
“Yes, they’re my team. This is uh, I.M and Honey.” Minhyuk quirked a brow, likely catching onto the pseudonyms, but he kept smiling.
“Pleased to meet you. Are you here to see the flowers too?”
“Yes…We are making a documentary about it.” Hyunwoo found himself unable to look away from Minhyuk as he processed the explanation. His calm smile remained glued to his face, eyes glazed over slightly.
“Ah, that’s why you’re filming.” He said as if the concept was foreign to him. His eyes locked onto Hyunwoo’s, his gaze soft and inviting.
“We understand the flower was created in this town, do you know anything about it?” Changkyun spoke up, and Minhyuk didn’t look over to him as he replied.
“Of course I do. I would love to share my knowledge with you.”
“G-great, thank you for co-operating.” Hyunwoo remembered this was all being filmed, so he tried to ease his racing heart and be more professional.
“I am more than happy to. There are others with me who know as well, but they’ve turned in for the night.” Minhyuk stepped closer, and Hyunwoo heard rustling from behind him as Jooheon flinched back.
“Oh, okay. Would we be able to come back tomorrow and interview you and…the others?” Hyunwoo asked, biting his lip involuntarily as Minhyuk dragged his tongue over his own.
“Yes, that can be arranged. It will be fun,” He replied, eyes looking over Hyunwoo’s camera. “We can meet here again tomorrow. Sleep well.”
“Great, thank you Minhyuk.” Hyunwoo smiled, finally turning back to Changkyun and Jooheon. Jooheon had managed to step slightly in front of Changkyun, at the same time tugging fearfully at his sleeve. Changkyun nodded his thanks to Minhyuk, eyes following him as he retreated into darkness. Hyunwoo walked back over to them casually, hearing Jooheon’s breath finally release as if he had been holding it in.
“Fucking hell, that was creepy.” He muttered, voice quavering. Changkyun looked past him to see if Minhyuk was gone.
“He seemed friendly, especially since we are technically trespassing.” Hyunwoo pointed out. Jooheon shut off his camera, lowering his arm slowly like it required effort.
“Why was he out here alone in the first place, with no light? He’s creepy, Hyunwoo. Can we go back now?” Jooheon hugged his arms and shuddered.
“Yes, we got the shots anyway.” Hyunwoo shut off his camera, grunting as he shifted the heavy weight off his tired shoulder. Changkyun kept his camera on as they walked back carefully, the night managing to feel even darker with the moon hidden behind the clouds. It was easier to go back to the cabin with the dim lights to follow. This time, Jooheon walked faster ahead of the other two back to safety.
The image of Minhyuk stuck hard in Hyunwoo’s mind as he walked, legs moving of their own accord. He couldn’t stop picturing his smile, teeth bright in the dim light. The way his eyes had focused so curiously, and how they softened when he looked at Hyunwoo. He swallowed as he remembered Minhyuk’s hand grabbing his to shake it, skin cold to the touch. Hyunwoo looked up from his thoughts to the light coming from within their cabin. He blinked in discomfort as his eyes adjusted. Changkyun unlocked the door and Jooheon forced himself in first, sighing deeply as he carefully set the camera onto the table.
“I feel like I need a shower after that.” He muttered, removing his hat and ruffling his own hair. Changkyun finally shut off his camera, setting it beside Jooheon’s.
Hyunwoo set his camera down delicately, grabbing the digital cameras chargers from his camera bag to plug them in to prepare for tomorrow. “It wasn’t that bad. You’ll feel better when we film in daylight.” He opened the two cameras to remove their memory cards before plugging them in.
“Hyunwoo, I have a bad feeling about this. What if the cult is still here?” Jooheon questioned, frowning when Hyunwoo didn’t look up at him as he spoke.
“He’s a bit young to have been in the cult.” Hyunwoo replied quietly, distracted as he leaned in to grab his laptop. Jooheon huffed.
“There’s something going on!” He exclaimed, turning to Changkyun who was watching them quietly. “Am I wrong?”
Changkyun shrugged. “Probably. I want to check it out again. It could be really good footage.”
Jooheon groaned. “You two are unbelievable! You’re going to sleep, right?” He asked Changkyun, who nodded. “Come on then, you get to bed too! Don’t get lost in the footage!” He pointed at Hyunwoo, who finally looked up.
“I won’t. Sleep well, I want to be up early.” Joooheon grumbled as he walked into the bedroom, waiting for Changkyun to wave goodnight to Hyunwoo before following. The door closed with a quiet click. Hyunwoo heard them bicker lightly about Changkyun forgetting pyjamas, Jooheon crying out in annoyance as Changkyun likely just intended to sleep in his shirt and boxers. A thump of what was probably a pillow and a loud grunt was the last thing he heard before the light in the room shut off.
He watched as the footage loaded onto his laptop, plugging his headphones in to replay a bit of footage to check its quality. The footage was from Changkyun’s camera, and Hyunwoo smiled in approval at his very steady hand. He watched far enough for the moment Changkyun focused the shot on Minhyuk. Hyunwoo paused it, looking at the image of Minhyuk. From a different angle and lighting, he looked ethereal. A dark shadow, somehow darker than his surroundings. He leaned closer to the screen as he played the footage again, listening to the conversation over again. Minhyuk’s voice was so calm, almost husky with a hint of amusement and warmth in it. Hyunwoo liked it. He turned off the footage, switching the cards to allow Jooheon’s footage to load. He rubbed the back of his neck, exhaling deeply.
It took longer than he liked, exhaustion suddenly hitting him hard. He rolled his shoulders and stretched, pulling out his ear bud and listening for anything in the other room. It was silent, and he could only hear the choir of crickets outside the cabin. The footage loaded successfully, and Hyunwoo finally shut off his laptop, setting an alarm on his phone for the next day as he settled into position on the couch. It creaked under him, and he dread waking up with the same feeling in his bones. He grunted, repositioning uncomfortably and pulling his blanket over his face, sleep finding him before he had time to collect his thoughts of the day.