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“Wooyoung hurry uppp!” Mingi whined, leaning impatiently in the bedroom doorway.
Wooyoung grumbled in response, “Alright, alright I’m coming.” He sloppy tied up his shoelaces and sprung up from his seated spot on the bed. “I’m ready now.”
“Finally,” Mingi cheered as he raced to the front door, keys in hand. “I swear if all the booze is gone by the time we get there, I'm beating your ass.”
The two didn’t waste any time making their way to their destination- a party their friend Choi San was hosting. San's family, luckily enough, lived close to their university. The Choi’s weren’t by any means rich but their house was the perfect size for whatever bullshit was going to go down tonight.
Wooyoung knocked on the door with a heavy hand, the music blaring from behind it making him wince slightly.
“Sanie!” he cheered as he went to hug the other.
San pushed the other off of him with a playful grimace, “How many times do I have to tell you not to throw yourself at me like that?’
“Since when do I listen to anything you say?”
“Whatever,” San rolled his eyes with a smile, “we were just about to toast come on.”
They were lead through the house, weaving between a crowd of strangers and vaguely familiar faces. In the kitchen was their main friend group, all huddled around the kitchen island with easy smiles on their faces. Wooyoung stood next to Hongjoong, the second oldest of their group after offering quick ‘hi’s to the others.
“Okay now that these two are finally here, we can start the night off right.” San started as Jongho passed Mingi and Wooyoung a beer can. “I’ll keep this short— It took a while but we finally got through first semester. Now after this weekend, let’s start kicking second semester in the ass, yeah?”
“Hell yeah!!” they cheered in unison, sloppily smashing their drinks into each other.
Wooyoung wasted no time chugging back half of the can, roughly wiping at his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie. He was already starting to relax — not that his tolerance was that shit but this first can marked the beginning of his first party in a while. He looked across from him at Seonghwa who only took a small sip from his glass. “You’re drinking wine at a house party…??”
“There’s never not a time for wine.” Seonghwa took another sip from his glass. “Oh, and guys, don’t drink too much tonight alright? I’m not trying to deal with another ‘Pants Incident’.”
The group snickered at the way Yunho’s ears immediately turned a deep red at the olders’ words. The aforementioned ‘Pants Incident’ wherein Hongjoong chased a drunken and half-naked Yunho for a good twenty minutes down the street, the latters’ pants clutched tightly in his panicked hands. Sure, the others could’ve helped poor Hongjoong pin down their giant friend but it was much funnier to watch with their phones out recording.
“Wouldn’t let that shit happen to me.” Jongho laughed before downing a shot.
“Guys! Guys! Come up to San’s room- I found something cool in the attic.” Yunho, who was tasked with rounding up the group, tugged on Wooyoung and Jongho’s arms as he hurriedly lead them upstairs.
In the bedroom sat the rest of the group. Yunho excitedly took a seat next to Hongjoong.
“The hell is that?” Jongho asked as he looked in the middle of the circle the others formed. It was a board of some kind with a bunch of printed letters and numbers in a tacky font.
“Sit down and I’ll tell you.” Yunho urged, patting the floor on his other side for one of them to sit.
Jongho shrugged absentmindedly, guiding the pretty-much-wasted Wooyoung to sit with him.
“Okay, so, the long and short of it- this is basically a demon board. You can talk to spirits with it.” Yunho hastily explained with a grin.
“Hey.. are sure this is okay?” San asked, his tone full of worry.
“Of course it is. Stop being a pussy.”
San groaned, “You say that but once the demon comes, you guys can go home. I still live here..”
“Things like this are just toys, ya know? There’s nothing to worry about.” Hongjoong said with a bored sigh before taking a sip from the bottle in his hand.
“Well, we’ll see about that once we start, won’t we?”
They all squeezed to place one finger on the planchette that rested atop the board, giving off an ominous and uninviting aura. It felt like a bad decision waiting to happen, but aren’t all house parties?
“Were the red LEDs and candles really necessary..?” Seonghwa inquired, scrunched into himself as he bore the weight of a hammered Mingi leaning on top of him.
Yunho grinned proudly, “I had to make sure this room was just like home for whoever the hell we summon.”
“So you DO plan for that thing to stay in my room!!”
Wooyoung shushed them, “Whatever, let’s just get this shit over with. What do I gotta do first?” Yunho quickly explained the ‘rules’ of the ouija board to the group. “Kay..” Wooyoung shakily sighed to himself. He was so quick to volunteer for this position and so quick to regret it, “Is there a- anyone here right now?”
They all waited quietly for any response. Some stared hard at the planchette, watching for any sign of movement in fear or anticipation while the others… well they were bored out of their mind.
“See? I told you it was a toy.” Hongjoong broke the silence.
“Hey! Be quiet!” Yunho glared at him. “Wooyoung, ask again.”
“I don’t wanna do this anymore… This shit is making me feel sober.” he mumbled to himself, but continued anyway, “I’ll ask again, is there anyone here with us?”
San sucked in a breath, anxiously tapping his other hand against his leg. They waited and waited for something, anything , to happen.
One second.
Two seconds..
Three seconds...
And
A loud shriek sounded through the room. Everyone, startled, looked over to Mingi.
“Look, look, LOOK! It’s moving!!”
The planchette moves at a steady pace to hover over the word ‘YES’.
“Okay.. which one of you is doing that? Fess up.” Seonghwa looks between the group with narrowed eyes, not believing this for a second. If Hongjoong said it was bullshit, he was sure going to take his word.
“It’s not me I swear!” San reeled back, going to take his finger off to plead his case.
Yunho reached across with his empty hand and grabbed the man to stop him in his place. “Stop! You can’t take your hand off or you’ll be cursed.”
“CursED?!”
Jongho ignored the arguing — or more San yelling at Yunho for dragging him into this — and looked over to Hongjoong, “What are you laughing about to yourself?”
The second eldest sat with a lowered head and shaking shoulders. “I was- the one who- moved it-” he managed to get out between wheezes.
“You think you’re oh-so-funny don’t you?” San grumbled with cherry-dusted cheeks.
“You scared poor little Mingles.” Seonghwa reprimanded as he stroked the formers’ hair.
“Sorry, but I was getting seriously bored playing with this thing. You should all thank me for providing such quality entertainment.”
San huffed, “I’m going back downstairs.”
“Me too,” Jongho let out a groan as he stood, stretching his arms. He was stopped in his tracks when there was a tug on the leg of his jeans.
Wooyoung looked up to him with big, pleading eyes, “Grab me a beer?”
Jongho shook him off, leaving the room with San. “Grab your own damn beer.”
“Asshole..”
“You’ve had enough to drink already Wooyoung, this is for the best.” Seonghwa helped Mingi over to the bed with a huff and furrowed eyebrows.
“Well, that was short-lived..” Yunho sighed in disappointment.
Hongjoong patted him on his shoulder, “You tried buddy.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, you piece of shit.”
Wooyung sloppily pushed open the front door, a slew of curses coming out in a grumble. He threw his keys somewhere across the room even though he knew he’d regret it the next day. He adjusted the arm of his roommate that hung loosely around his smaller shoulders.
“Lucky bastard..” he spat in jealously as he looked at Mingi. Seonghwa had made Wooyoung sober up a few hours before so he could make it home, practically forcing a jug of water down his throat. He’d kill to be Mingi right now — drunk and pampered.
Wooyoung struggled his way over to the couch and carelessly threw the other down out of spite. He couldn’t bother making the trip all the way to Mingi’s room anyways.
With a sigh, he slipped off his shoes and haphazardly placed them next to the door. He wasted no time heading into his room, wanting nothing else but to fall face down into his soft sheets and take a fat nap. And he did just that— flopping onto the bed without even turning on the lights to change out of his clothes. His eyes were barely able to stay open at that point.
He did, however, lift his head in bewilderment just as he was about to drift off. His hand had come in contact with something both squishy and hard..? Which was odd since, as far as he remembered, his bed was completely empty when he first left.
He moved his hand around sightlessly, grabbing at whatever this thing was in frustration that it was keeping him from the sweet release of sleep.
“Is this how you greet everyone you’ve first met?” an unknown presence made itself known, voice and tone void of any sort of humor.
Wooyoung let out a scream, falling to the floor as he scrambled to flick on the lights. He stared at the person(?) on the bed, black eyes staring back at him.
“Who- Who the hell are you?!”
“Who am I? Well, I am the one you summoned.”
“S-summoned..?”
“Precisely. Don’t you remember; this was only a few hours ago.”
Wooyoung racked his brain, trying to think back to when he was still at San’s party. “Yeah but… but nothing ended up happening. Hey.. if you’re looking to rob someone, you came to the wrong place— I’m broke as shit okay? You can leave now.”
The man(?) looked him over without a word. Wooyoung watched him carefully in return. He couldn’t help the chills that ran down his spine from being so heavily studied by such pitch-black eyes.
A creak could be heard as the man(?) stood from the bed, giving Wooyoung the chance to take in his attire. Donning heukhye on his feet with a black and red hanbok of all things. The sleeves were eye-catching — they were made of black lace and accompanied with what looked to be small crystals. In his haste, Wooyoung seemed to have missed the gigantic gat he wore on his head. He sweatdropped as he started to realize just how similarly this guy was dressed to a grim reaper.
Maybe the black eyes aren’t just contacts.
Wooyoung dropped to his knees, hands clasped in front of him as tears pricked at the corner of his eyes. He started to have a breakdown as he pleaded, “Please, please, pleasepleaseplease don’t take me! I’m not ready to die,,, I’m not even twenty-two yet! There’s so many places I haven’t been, so many guys I haven’t dated.” He crawled closer to the other, tugging on the end of his hanbok. “Please sir, my soul isn’t even tasty I swear you don’t want me!”
The guy stared down at him with a tilted head. “Your… soul? What good would your soul do me?”
Wooyoung slowly loosened his grasp and sat back on his heels. “So.. you aren’t a grim reaper?”
A scowl greeted him in response, “Do not insult me! I am nothing like those vile things , I am a demon. True and proud.”
“Do grim reapers and demons have beef or something?”
“Otherworldly affairs are no business of some human.”
“Okay… then if you aren’t a grim reaper… who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my apartment?”
The ‘demon’ bent down to stare him in the eyes. Wooyoung felt as something sharp tapped at his chin, looking down to see black, claw-like fingernails near piercing his skin. “You do not listen well, do you? You, human, have summoned me to fulfill a wish of yours and as an ouija-bound demon, it is my job to do so without refusal.”