Chapter Text
when brian first started posting coldplay covers on youtube he really didn’t expect his channel to blow up as much as it did. granted, he thinks one million subscribers - pushing on two now, after their frankenstein freak-out went viral - is still too much for what they do. not that he’s complaining, mind you. Supernatural K; Unsolved brings in profit, which means brian no longer has to work the graveyard shift at the greasy mcdonalds down by the uni’s art department to make rent. sometimes he even thinks dealing with jae’s ear-piercing screeching and the red crescents the older boy tends to leave on brian’s arms when he gets too scared like the chicken-shit he is are worth it.
only sometimes though.
“motherfuck-”
“let’s keep this pg, yeah?” brian cuts off jae mid-scream. he makes sure the camera catches jae’s frightened expression at just the right angle and deadpans, “maybe start screaming after you actually see the supernatural being?”
“dude,” jae whispers, dead-quiet but not so much so that brian’s mic doesn’t catch the frightened edge to it. “dude. did you see that?”
brian looks at where jae’s pointing. the end of the hallway is darkened and not even the faint light of the streetlamp blinking onoffonoff through the cracked window manages to cut through the shadows. the wood panelling creaks under brian’s feet when he takes a step forward and jae visibly blanches at the sound. brian counts one, clicks his flashlight on. two, shines it across the hallways. three-
“nonono,” jae goes frantically. his right hand comes down to latch firmly on brian’s arm nails digging hard into his skin as he says, “i changed my mind, i don’t wanna do this anymore. let’s go.”
“hyung,” brian sighs, can't help but snort with laughter when jae turns to him. he’s gone all wide-eyed, baby pink sweater tucked up to his chin. “you promised our viewers you’d stay a whole night here, remember?”
“i did?” jae squeaks out. he turns back to look down the hallway, swallows. then he catches brian aiming the camera right at him and scowls something fierce. “i mean, of course i did. just-” he pauses, shoots brian the kind of frightened sidelong glance that makes his nose scrunch and his forehead crease. brian tires not to coo. “the whole night?”
“do it for our subscribers, hyung.”
jae gulps. then, quietly, he whispers, “fuck this show,” and steps further into the hallway.
/
“the choi house is said to be haunted since it was first built in 1918,” brian says into the camera. behind him, jae trails hesitatingly. he’s flinching at every little noise and the slightest of movements and brian just knows he’s going to have to edit out all the heavy breathing that he’s doing into the mic. “reported ghost sightings include yoon daesuk, the original owner, his wife aerum, and their son, sungjae-”
“you mean there’s more than one ghost?” jae cuts in. to their side, a window shuts close. hurriedly, jae shuffles closer so that he’s standing next to brian, shoulder to shoulder. “there’s whole family of them?” he whisper-asks. “a ghost family?”
“well, yeah.”
“and you just forgot to tell me this?” jae huffs. “you absolute asshole. you did it on purpose.”
“did not,” brian says though he very much did. he knows jae’s inherent fear of anything and everything even remotely paranormal runs bone-deep - that, or jae’s just too much of a coward. either way his reactions are priceless. brian still remembers waking up to hundreds of notifications the day after he posted his sunday morning cover back when his channel was still music-based and not this, well, whatever the hell it is now.
he had asked jae to perform a song with him after finding out his lanky roommate could sing like the best of them and left the part of the video where the older confused a dirty bedsheet hanging from a corner of brian’s closet with a ghost - the lights dimmed for acoustic effect and the way jae always tended to squint his eyes when he sang not helping matters - just to mess with the older.
but then the video went viral and gifs of jae’s terrified face started circulating and people doing what people do best began making memes of it all. soon, brian’s channel subscriber count doubled and then tripled when jae couldn't keep his goddamn mouth shut and went on a twitter rant explaining how their dorm building was supposedly being haunted and he had every fucking right to freak the fuck out so will everyone just shut up, please.
brian thought it would stop then. a week later, though, jae came to him asking for help filming a video to prove that their building was, in fact, haunted. of course, as it turned out, their dorm was ghost-free and the only thing making those weird creaky noises jae kept hearing in the dead of night was an old rusted pipe that ‘vaguely resembled an axe-murderer. look at it, how can you not scream when you see it.’
point being: that video went viral again and now brian and jae are on a quest to find out if ghosts are real or not for the overall enjoyment of the internet. which is basically just brian scrolling through pages and pages of Korea’s Most Haunted Places articles and then figuring out how to get there.
“shitfuckshit,” jae curses suddenly and brian has barely enough time to blink before jae is scrambling around to get past him. “shitfuckshitfuck-”
“calm down,” brian snaps, camera at the ready to film whatever it was that scared jae that much. he only manages to catch a blurry shot of the door leading into one of the bedrooms before jae smacks the camera down with a wayward elbow in an effort to push past brian. he’s doing his best to move in one general direction: away.
“hyung,” brian calls out exasperatedly. he slams a hand against the wall, effectively blocking jae’s only way out of the house. “there’s nothing there.”
“didn’t you see it?” jae asks, pointing at the inside of the bedroom. the only things brian can see inside of it are a ratty bed frame and an old bedside table. he turns, raises and eyebrow up at jae. “the ghost, brian. it was right there.”
brian takes a peek again, sees nothing but dusty floors and peeling wallpaper. what he says, though, is this: “oh god, hyung! look! it’s there!”
jae makes some sort of half scream, half frightened hiccup that gets caught up at the back of his throat and clutches so tight at brian’s arm brian’s sure he’ll have bruises by tomorrow morning.
“please jesus have mercy,” jae begins chanting, “don’t let me die don’t let me die don’t let-”
brian laughs, turning bright eyes jae’s way just in time to see the betrayal wash over his face when he realises brian was just messing around with him.
“you,” he scowls, “you total dick. i’m gonna kill you, gonna murder you bloody-”
“i wouldn't do that if i were you, hyung,” brian grins. “i’d just come back to haunt you.”
jae gapes at him for a heartbeat, two, and then yells out in raw frustration, “you don’t even believe in ghosts!”
brian shrugs, “if it came to you,” he says, “i would.”
/
much to jae’s regret, brian decides that they’re going to spend the night sleeping on the bedroom where jae supposedly encountered the ghost.
jae grouches and complains and whines and then resorts to pleading and bargaining when that fails in the face of brian’s stubborn determination.
“we need to see if what you saw was real,” he insists when jae inevitably squawks in protest. “don’t you wanna show the world that ghosts are real?”
“yeah,” jae sighs, already digging up his sleeping bag from the depths of his bag. “but not like this.”
it’s only when they’re already in their sleeping bags that brian gives in. jae is tucked so far into the uncomfortable fabric that only the thing visible of him is his blond mop of hair haloing out under him. he visibly flinches when brian shifts on his side to watch him better.
“hey,” brian whispers, soft enough not to startle the older. the camera is off now, so brian doesn’t hesitate when he goes to card a hand through jae’s hair. “hey. hyung.”
“what,” jae grumbles back, annoyed no doubt, but he still pushes back into brian’s hand.
“nothing,” brian answers, shuffling closer so he can tuck his feet near jae’s calfs and curls his body closer. “you can hold my hand if you’re too scared, you know.”
“i’m not a child. i don’t need to hold your hand, for fuck’s sake,” jae snaps back but he’s far too sleepy for it too sound too biting. brian smiles, threads their fingers together either way.
when jae blinks open one judging eye his way brian grins and says, “it’s for me. you never know what’s lurking out there.”
“so now you’re scared,” jae scoffs and even through the dark brian can see the slight curve if his lips.
“shitlless,” brian agrees easily.
“you asshole,” jae laughs but he reaches out and curls his arm around brian all the same. “don’t worry, i’ll protect you.”
“i know you will,” brian answers and goes to sleep.
/
they don’t make it through the night, in the end. a window shatters in the kitchen from a too-strong gust of wind around three in the morning and jae wakes up in a fit of fright and does not go back to sleep again.
in the video there are a few frames of brian’s disgruntled face, puffy from sleep and barely awake, before jae comes flailing in the background, screaming bloody murder, and the screen goes black.
brian edits it so that it later shows them outside the choi house - both still clad in their pajamas, which for brian means a more acceptable white-shirt grey-sweatpant combo than the frayed adventure time shirt jae’s over his polka-dotted underwear.
“so,” brian says into the camera. “we didn’t quite make it through the night because someone here,” he coughs. jae’s scowls, “got scared but i think it’s safe to say the only thing haunting in this place is jae’s awful bed hair.”
“hey,” jae snaps, makes a half-hearted attempt at straightening out the mess on top of his head and curling around his forehead.
brian laughs, the sound high and bright. “this has been it for today’s episode, we hope to see you next week but until then…” he shoots jae an expectant look when the older stays quiet.
jae huffs. “i’m not gonna say it.”
“c’mon,” brian prods. “you have to admit there was nothing here.”
“nothing that we could see,” jae refutes but sighs all the same and turns to look at the camera. “but until then,” he begins. “the mystery of the choi house and whether it is actually haunted or not... remains unsolved.”
“perfect,” brian grins and shuts the camera off.