Work Text:
“Is there anyone home? It’s me, Baek Eunhu.”
It was a cold, quiet night when you heard the voice of your deeply missed childhood friend, Baek Eunhu, from the front door of your small traditional house. Your whole body cannot move the second words fell from his lips, and you could see the shadow of the man standing in front of your door.
You exhale a shaky breath, instinctively shaking your head in an attempt of rejection. You open your mouth, mentally preparing for whatever response you will get from Eunhu after your words left your lips.
“No, Eunhu-ya, I’m afraid I’m a bit busy at the moment.” You unconsciously gulp your saliva, strangely nervous at the thought of opening the door. Which you think is ridiculous. You haven’t kept in touch with him for almost four years. You tried to shake away the pouring thoughts, to no avail.
“Oh.” You clenched your eyes shut hearing the disappointed, almost sad tone of his.
“You don’t… miss me?”
The familiar voice should’ve brought you to open the door immediately, having truly missed the feeling of his skin touching yours. But something in your head is screaming at you to not open the door. You grip your trembling left arm, trying to not let out a single sound. Your instinct is only telling you to run, to not let Eunhu in.
“Eunhu-ya, I miss you, I really do, but I think it would be best if you return tomorrow.” You curse at yourself silently when your voice cracks, and suddenly it feels as if time had stopped. Eunhu had stopped moving completely, the shadow of his unmoving body painting an eerie image. Slowly, Eunhu tilted his head, as if questioning your words. His sudden action snapped you out of trance, as you quickly took a step back before realizing it.
“You don’t want me here, is that it?” His tone became even sadder than before, and it tore your heart to hear him like this. The last time you heard him sounding like this, it hadn’t been a pretty moment. But the strange lilt of his voice to the way he’s acting is setting you on fight or flight response, and you aren’t going to risk it.
“Eunhu-ya, please…” You plead, wishing for the man to go away.
He didn't say anything, and you were almost, almost, glad. Until you hear sobbing sounds, that is. Your breath hitched. You grit your teeth, trying to not give in to the temptation to console him, to have him in your arms again. Your body is trembling as the sobbing grows even more and more desperate. The bad memories from back then when the both of you are just children are coming in uninvited into your head. You almost puked remembering it, flashes of memories from your childhood making you dizzy.
“... hyung?” The sobbing in front of the door stops, and you can hear how Eunhu’s breath hitches as he talks. “ Hyung? Are you okay?” The voice grew increasingly worried, and you forced yourself to steady your breath. “Please let me in, I-- I want to see you.” Your eyes widened hearing the sentence, the last words whispered in the dead of the night.
You want to laugh at yourself. Yeah, right. It’s only Eunhu, after all. What are you afraid of?
So you take a step forward.
Then another.
Another.
Another.
And another.
Right in front of you, the sliding door stands still as always, as if daring you to do it. You don’t know why, but a sense of horror looms around the corner of your mind. You shake your head, looking at the shadow of Eunhu just behind the door. You reach out to the door then, and slide it open.
What greets you is neither Baek Eunhu, your childhood best friend, nor is it a man at all.
What greets you is the strange, eerie grin of a monster you used to hear from your mother all the time, its sharp teeth gleaming in promise of horrors.
And now, when it leaps at you with the voice of Eunhu, you futilely attempt to escape its grip on you.
###
The Jansang beom licks the drop of blood off the floor without remorse.
As the clock ticks, it finishes off its meal, its bloody teeth gleaming as the moonlight seeping in through the opened door is lighting the now empty house. The strange grin returned on its face, and it opened its mouth.
“Oh, I miss you so much, hyung.”
Baek Eunhu’s voice echoes in the cloudless night, and with no one to reply, it vanishes off into the mountains, once again looking for another one to invite it in.