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"I'm so excited!", Ji Changmin beamed as he walked side by side with his best friend, Choi Chanhee. The former was chosen to be one of the leaders in charge of this year's haunted house. Every year, students from every major looked forward to how much scarier the attraction could get. Changmin himself loved horror and every aspect of it, from the gore to jump scares and everything in between.
The people around him found it somewhat strange, especially the amount he showed his love for the genre, going as far as setting his iPad wallpaper to a photo of Annabelle. Changmin recalls the time his friend Eric picked up the device and almost threw it across the room.
Chanhee rolled his eyes at the excited boy who happily skipped towards the library, where they would begin their final preparations for the horror attraction. The brown haired was anticipating being able to share his ideas with the rest of the team, not realizing that he took horror more seriously than the rest. There wasn't a specific reason why scary things had no effect on Changmin, but it might be the fact that he easily convinced himself that everything was fake.
On the other side of the campus, Kim Sunwoo slowly made his way to the library by himself, regretting saying yes to Sangyeon, the main student in charge of coordinating events like these. The older didn't necessarily guilt trip him, he more or less bribed him into participating with a week's worth of coffee. Extra activities such as volunteering were important, as it presented a student's leadership and dedication, which Sunwoo had previously only shown through soccer practices.
Sunwoo didn't exactly know what event he was helping with, as the older boy only told him that he would assist with fall festival preparations. He figured that whatever he was helping with, could get it done quickly so he could spend the rest of the time with his friends at the festival.
As Sunwoo approached the large library, he sighed. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep, but he shouldn't complain since he was looking forward to the week ahead. After taking one more long breath, he entered.
When he navigated his way through the hundreds of bookshelves, he reached a long rectangular table, with Sangyeon sitting on one end and half the remaining seats filled with other students, many of which Sunwoo didn't recall. The only others he immediately recognized besides Sangyeon were Jacob, who was a couple years older than him, and a boy he knew as Changmin, who often waited outside Sunwoo's classroom to leave school with Chanhee, a friend of his. The youngest wasn't really close to the pair, but casual conversations sparked between the three from time to time.
The dancer flashed a smile at Sunwoo as he occupied the empty chair next to him, the younger returning the action. Sangyeon cleared his throat as he started the meeting. He introduced the event they would be helping set up and run, to which Changmin smiled radiantly. Sunwoo, on the other hand, sat wide-eyed as he tried to process all the words coming out of the oldest's mouth at once.
A haunted house? The black haired was afraid of dogs, what made Sangyeon think that it was a good idea to let him host anything related to horror? He knew the boy sitting next to him was more than excited to participate, since he's seen multiple instances where the older showcased his love (or obsession) for Annabelle.
As Sangyeon continued to talk, Sunwoo stole glances every so often at the boy seated next to him. The older looked like he was some kid at an amusement park, nodding at everything the leader said and pitching in his ideas once in a while. In Sunwoo's mind, Changmin's love for horror went from strange to purely scary.
After a couple minutes, Sunwoo shifted his chair farther and farther away from Changmin, hoping that the latter wouldn't notice. But being who he is, he had to say something about it.
Changmin turned to the younger with a pout.
"Why are you moving away from me? I don't bite." Sunwoo sighed and moved his chair back a couple inches to where it originally was and tried to focus back on the meeting. Unfortunately for him, he should have taken Changmin's words a little more seriously than he did.
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Sunwoo exited his classroom and was met with Chanhee, who was probably waiting for his best friend, holding his arm in what seemed like pain. Although they weren't close, Sunwoo didn't like seeing people get hurt.
"Uh, are you okay?" Chanhee looked up and nodded before responding.
"Yeah, it's just Changmin. He bites sometimes when he gets excited or stressed. In this case, he was so thrilled about the upcoming fall festival that he bit my arm. I'll be fine though, don't worry." The pink haired gave Sunwoo a thumbs up and walked into the classroom to find Changmin.
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One week later.
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"Yay!" Changmin was practically flying by now, seeing the set up of the haunted house. The festival would start in five minutes and Sunwoo hadn't shown up yet. Everyone excused it though, since the boy had a long record of being tardy.
Once he arrived, he checked in with Sangyeon to ask if he needed help with anything. After receiving a quick explanation from the older on how to decorate the exterior of the haunted house entrance, Sunwoo nodded then felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around slowly. The figure behind him laughed loudly as the younger screamed at the top of his lungs.
It was Changmin, of course, wearing a creepy mask. By now, the festival had already started and he was really getting into the spirit. Sunwoo was still clutching his chest and breathing heavily as he glared at the older for scaring him.
Even though Changmin was enjoying the misfortune of the black haired, it didn't bother Sunwoo as much as he thought it would. Seeing the corners of his eyes crease and all his teeth showing when he smiled, the genuine pleasure that came from the dancer made Sunwoo happy.
"Hey, do you mind helping me with the entrance decorations?" Changmin nodded, a bit too excitedly, and pulled the younger over to the box that held various decoration items.
During the past few meetings, the team decided to make the attraction stand out, which also meant making the entrance very high. Sunwoo sighed as he jumped up and down, constantly throwing an orange streamer, hoping it would catch onto the hooks above the door.
The older boy noticed and began to look around for a ladder. Not being able to find one at their station, he made his way over to the cooking team's station, where they surprisingly had one ("and for what reason", Changmin thought).
The male approached their team leader, Jaehyun, who was baking cookies, and tapped on the counter. The latter looked up, face covered in flour as he made a questioning face. Changmin simply pointed to the ladder behind him and the older just nodded as a response. With the tool in his arms, the dancer made his way back to his own station.
Laughing at the sight of the black haired still working on the same streamer, Changmin opened the ladder and pushed it in front of him. Sunwoo sheepishly grinned and said a quick "thank you" before making his way up. Five minutes later, he was done with the entrance. The younger took a step back to admire his work, not realizing he was still elevated. He missed a step, and that sent him flying backwards towards the ground. He braced himself for the impact, but there was none. Instead he was embraced by two arms and looked up to see Changmin. At the sight of how close the older's face was, Sunwoo quickly got back on his feet and muttered a "sorry", hoping the other would hear.
The younger put his hands on his face, not knowing why it was so warm. Shaking off his thoughts, he walked around the large gym, looking at the various stations.
For the remainder of that night, Sunwoo was sure there was something in the Halloween cookie he had eaten earlier. Anything Changmin asked him to do, he did; which was not common for him.
So even when the older asked him to go through the haunted house with him to check it out, Sunwoo absentmindedly agreed.
Realizing what he had gotten himself into, the younger took hold of the shoulders in front of him, belonging to the person who had ask him to go in the first place. The darkness took over the pair as they continued to walk through the horror attraction, Changmin being excited and Sunwoo wanting to cry.
As soon as they entered, a figure grabbed Sunwoo's leg, which caused him to screech and Changmin to laugh. The rest of the time, the older kept repeating the words "it's not real" to the boy behind him.
They encountered more and more frightening things along the way, which Changmin found intriguing. Soon, the duo spotted a beam of light and Sunwoo was relieved to say the least.
Changmin laughed as he turned around to face the younger after they exited the haunted house. The boy had a single tear streaming down his face in pure fear.
"Aw, are you crying?" The younger tried to turn away from the other, not wanting him to know how scared he was. It was such a childish fear, really.
"No, it's just sweat." The brown haired was amused at Sunwoo's cover-up, and lifted his hand to wipe the tears off his face (while still laughing, of course).
Changmin gave Sunwoo a quick hug and pulled him back to their team's station.
The rest of the festival was spent with the two boys walking around the various booths and laughing until they couldn't breath anymore.