Chapter Text
Kai hated horror things, including haunted houses. Even if someone said he didn’t have to look, or the classic ‘it’s just fake, none of it is real.’
It still scared him, and now he was basically bouncing his leg like he’s never done in his life in the van. Squished together in the middle by Yeonjun and Soobin, wishing someone could’ve taken his place so he wouldn’t have to ruin the content for everyone else because he’s a big baby.
Kai tries assuring himself that this is all for Moa, but it doesn’t work with the frightening fact that he’s also been pushing away his regression for far too long.
He feels the van stop, signaling they arrived at the place. Kai feels his stomach flip, and the urge to cry bubbles in his throat, climbing up to his eyes.
He bites it back on this tongue to stop it, which works. He frowns as their manager along with the rest of the crew appear after the van door opens, signaling they would need to get out.
Kai waits until everyone gets out, and purposefully goes slowly getting out. He thinks for a minute to maybe fake an injury, or maybe fake a sickness to get out of this mess.
But, when Yeonjun looks at him while their crew is explaining the concept of the video; the thought grows selfish.
“Huening Kai? Are you with us?” One of the crew members says, and everyone looks at him. He nods, watching as the person continues their explanation.
When they get inside, hair and makeup is applied to them. Outfits already planned out back before they got into the van, Kai grips at his jeans as the crew prepares them for the cameras.
Kai doesn’t want to do this, not only does he hate stuff like this, but his brain has been screaming at him to lay back and regress for months. This is the last thing he needs, really.
“You guys will be in a trio and a duo,” The manger explains lastly, “I’ve already got your group selected, so when we are done with setup and stuff we can get the cameras rolling and get on with it.”
Once everyone finished and cameras were put up everywhere, and mics were hooked up to their clothing; filming began.
Small introduction and fooling around before actual things began, introducing the teams.
Soobin, Taehyun, and Beomgyu all together due to the amount of boys in the group. Then, Kai and Yeonjun (even though Kai tried to convince them he could do it himself).
“First up, are you three, then it’s you two,” The manger explains, and they all nod.
Beomgyu looked too excited to do this while Kai was basically going to crumble down if he even saw a fake doll.
Once the trio left, and the manager was guiding the people through, Kai felt someone sneak to his ear.
“Are you okay?” Yeonjun asks in a whisper, knowing how afraid Kai is of these things. Kai refuses to crack and nods instead, Yeonjun isn’t exactly convinced, but not wanting to pressure he puts his head down to pass time.
The trio arrived hours later, smiles all on their faces talking about how fun the stuff was and how funny it was that someone did this and someone did that.
“Yeonjun, Huening Kai, you’re next,” The manager gives them GoPro’s like they did with the trio, plus lights to see them in the darkness. Kai felt his stomach turn sick as the door opened to the horror.
The duo walk for a bit before Kai is scared by an actor, backing up into Yeonjun’s arms by mistake as he comes closer for more scare. Yeonjun is quick to comfort, telling him what he doesn’t want to hear.
‘You’ll be okay. It’s fake.’ Kai felt tears prick into his eyes, they continued from the scary actor to a room to find a key.
Again, there was an actor, but Kai didn’t know it was. He walked over to find the key on the table where the actor lays, he felt a harsh grab on his wrist, it wasn’t Yeonjun.
He screams, tears now flowing down his cheeks. He’s trying to get out from the man’s grasp, but it’s too tight. Yeonjun is already next to him, trying to calm him down before the lights are turned on and the grip on his wrist disappears.
The rest of the members plus their manager are standing at the door, worried faces are plastered everywhere.
The actor takes off his mask, a guilty look over his face. “I didn’t mean to scare you like that, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Kai stutters out, wiping the tears away as the manager sighs.
“Do you want to continue?” The manager asks, and Kai nods not wanting to ruin the fun for the rest of the members.
The lights are back off, the actor stays still this time not bothering Kai, and they are continuing the search for the key.
Yeonjun is more worried about how Kai reacted, he surely never reacted this way to horror things.
They look around more until the door opens, another actor coming in, walking so close to Kai. He’s so quick to back up until he’s met with a wall, the actor is still fixated on him; ignoring Yeonjun only a few feet away.
“Go away! Go away!” Kai whispers, covering his ears as the actor says his name with a raspy voice. “Leave me alone, leave me alone.”
Kai feels the actor bring a cold hand to his face, and that’s when he sees the woman’s face up close. Kai feels his brain shut off, and his mental age drops drastically before he could stop it.
Tears flow heavily from his eyes, trying to get the actor away from him in every way possible. Yeonjun realizes now what’s happening, rushing over to give the actor the hint to leave him alone.
“Kai?” Yeonjun says softly, and Kai is shaking his head and muttering the same thing over again. Go away, go away. “It’s Yeonjun.”
Kai looks up seeing a worried frown on his face, he’s bringing hands to wipe the tears that are still flowing from his face.
The lights turn back on, and Soobin is quick to rush over (meaning the manager and the rest of the members had rushed in here once again).
“What happened?” Soobin is quick to ask in a worried and angry tone, Yeonjun shrugs and frowns as Kai looks down.
“The actor got too close in his face, and it freaked him out I think,” Yeonjun guessed, and Soobin frowned looking at their manager.
“I’ll reschedule this for another day where Kai isn’t upset, no worries,” The manager is quick to call the actors and crew to collect all the equipment. “Go home, and make sure Kai gets rest and eats a good meal.”
They nod as the manager and actor leaves, Kai feels a guilt pool in his stomach and he’s crying again.
“I ru’ned video ‘cause I can’t handle things,” Kai whispers, and Yeonjun frowns as he starts sobbing once again. “I’m so stup’d.”
Yeonjun looks at Soobin, who gets the hint to leave them alone. Yeonjun crouches down again, slowly bringing a hand to the other's hair. He threads it through his fingers, before stopping when his thumb glides to the other’s wet cheek.
“Why don’t we go home, and I’ll make you something to drink?” Yeonjun says softly, and Kai looks at him with glossed eyes. “How does angel milk sound, hm?”
Kai nods, “An’el milk so’nds nice.”
Yeonjun gets up, holding a hand out for Kai to take. Kai is quick to hug the other, even if he's two inches taller.
Yeonjun tries guiding Kai to the van, but with his tired body he physically can’t. Instead, the shorter one picks him up, carefully carrying him making sure he wasn’t uncomfortable or could possibly fall.
Kai laid his head on the other’s shoulder, letting himself drift off into Dreamland as everyone else shared weird looks at Yeonjun for carrying the other like he’s a baby.
At the van, Yeonjun lightly rubs the other’s shoulder, which feedbacks a whine.
“I’ll sit next to you so you can sleep, okay?” Yeonjun whispers softly, and Kai slips out of the others hold to tiredly walk back to his original spot in the van.
Once Yeonjun got all seated and buckled, Kai was quick to lay on the others shoulder and fall asleep.
Yeonjun watches as he falls asleep, looking back up to see Soobin with a worried face staring at Kai then locking eyes with Yeonjun.
“He’s going to be fine,” Yeonjun assures, but Soobin is still upset. “It’s Kai, he always is.”
“But, he sobbed twice over an actor doing his job,” Soobin mutters, “that’s not like him.”
“Let’s just give him space,” Yeonjun suggests, “let him explain it to us himself.”
Soobin nods, the rest of the car ride quiet. Once they arrive at the home, Yeonjun shakes Kai softly again, a whine escapes his mouth.
“Come on, I’ll carry you inside,” Yeonjun whispers, and Kai huffs as he climbs out. Not daring to make any eye contact with the other members, which upset Soobin a lot.
Yeonjun promises to catch up with the rest later, waiting until they all leave with their other body guard for Yeonjun to pick Kai up once again to carry him to the dorm with another bodyguard by their side.
“Kai?” Yeonjun says quietly, Kai hums tiredly. “What happened back there?“
“Don’ know,” Kai mutters in Yeonjun’s neck, he takes the answer anyways not pushing the boy out of answers. The bodyguard opens the door, and Yeonjun thanks him in a mutter. All the members stared intensely at the two.
Yeonjun ignores it, walking past them to carry Kai into his room to grab the drink he promised back at the place.
“Wh’re are you goin’?“ Kai asks worryingly, and Yeonjun frowns at the tone.
“Just getting you a drink, okay?” Yeonjun assures, Kai grabs a stuffed animal from his bedside table. “I’ll be back in a flash, promise.”
“O’ay,” Kai mumbled, playing with the ears of the stuffed animal. Yeonjun slips out the room, all the boys quick to get out of their seats to hear anything about Kai.
“What?” Yeonjun asks, noticing them all following their eyes as he walks into the kitchen. “Do I have something on my shirt?“
“No, we are just worried for Kai,” Beomgyu says, “He’s not like this usually.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him either, so I can’t give you guys an answer,” Yeonjun shrugs, grabbing some milk from the fridge to steam up.
“But, you should though, he trusts you more than any of us, Yeonjun,” Taehyun mumbled angrily at the others answer, “He straight up sobbed, on camera over an actor, twice.”
“I don’t know what’s up with him, guys. I wish I knew,” Yeonjun snaps, and everyone is taken back to the action. “I’m sorry, but I’m in the same boat as you guys. I want to know what’s up with him too, but the best to do is wait.”
“I don’t want to wait, Yeonjun,” Soobin frowns, Yeonjun places the mug with milk in the microwave. “This isn’t like him, sobbing over things he’d usually just jump at.”
“I don’t know,” Yeonjun says, taking the scorching mug out of the microwave. He adds the rest of the ingredients before putting it in the freezer to quickly cool down enough. “I really just want to comfort him for now, so he isn’t alone.”
“But, what about us?” Beomgyu says, his voice cracks. “We want to be there for him too.”
“I know, but it’ll stress him out more,” Yeonjun says, testing the coolness of the drink; closing the freezer to let it cool down more as he grabs a small straw. “Least thing we want is him stressed. I know it isn’t fair, but it’s going to have to be that way , I’m sorry.”
“Just tell him we are here for him,” Soobin mumbled, and Yeonjun nodded as he took the mug out after being cooled down and placed a straw in it. “Keep up updated.”
Yeonjun nods as he carries the drink into Kai’s room, a blanket now wrapped around him, the clothes on his body still.
“Do you wanna get out of those clothes, Kai?” Yeonjun asks, placing the drink down on the table. Kai nods, and points to his dresser trying to tell the other to grab him something from his bottom drawer even though his bigger brain was screaming at him not to. “You want something from the bottom?”
Kai nods, and Yeonjun goes over to it to open and see a bunch of child-like things. A bunch of t-shirts with kid shows (Hello Kitty was a huge one), and a bunch of child like things including coloring books, crayons, and plastic sippy cups.
Yeonjun looks up at Kai in confusion, who’s eyes are threatening to spill out of pure embarrassment that his secret was leaked out to one of his members.
“Don’t cry, I’m just confused what it is, love,” Yeonjun lets the pet name slip out, trying to comfort Kai the best he could. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I age re’ress, I turn small when th’ngs get too ‘uch,” Kai explains, and Yeonjun is quick to catch on. “Is ‘cause of stress, not for icky th’ngs.”
“Ah, how old are you right now?” Yeonjun enters caregiver mode almost instantly, and watches as Kai thinks for a moment before putting up four fingers. “You’re tiny huh?”
Kai nods, and Yeonjun remembers to get Kai out of the clothes. He picks out a random Hello Kitty shirt along with some comfortable shorts, handing them to Kai.
“I’ll be b’ck,” Kai mumbled, slowly walking to the connected bathroom. In that time period of waiting, the drawer was still in his brain.
Yeonjun understood a lot about it, spending time to time researching things because of curiosity.
Kai came back, his other clothes in his hand. Placing them in the hamper before walking slowly back to his bed where Yeonjun sat.
“Back,” Kai smiles, placing his head on the other’s shoulder. “Did y’u make the dr’nk?”
“Mhm, get comfy in bed, and I’ll bring it to you, okay?” Kai is quick to do so, covering himself in a fluffy blanket accompanied by a stuffed animal.
Yeonjun carefully guided the drink into the little’s lips, taking very slow sips to savor the taste.
After Kai finishes, Yeonjun sets the drink back on the table. Kai looks at him confused as Yeonjun begins to cover Kai back up in the blanket.
“Do you want me to stay?” Yeonjun asks, as Kai grips his sleeve, a soft nod. “Okay, I’ll stay.”
“Tha’ks,” Kai mumbled, snuggling into Yeonjun when they both got comfortable. Kai was quick to fall asleep, his body finally relaxing in the others hold.
Hours later, when both had fallen asleep, a horror escaped into Kai’s mind. The same situation as earlier had printed into his mind, making a mini movie in his head to taunt him.
This time, it looks more real, and Yeonjun is nowhere to be found. Tears appeared in his eyes at the thought, Yeonjun had left him here in this scary place.
“Ye’njun?” He whispers, carefully walking along the dark walls. A person covered in fake effects sneaks up on him, snatching him by his waist.
He’s quick to attempt to squirm out of it, but it doesn’t work for him. The grip the stranger has on him is harsh, and he’s carried to another room, where all his members are being horrified.
Kai awakes, his breath is shaky. The thought of the blood, and the members all scared for their lives are remembered in his brain like goo.
Kai’s quick to try and shake Yeonjun awake, but he won’t. He begs to nothing that his friend would wake up, and he tries and tries before Yeonjun finally flutters his eyes open.
“Kai? What’s wrong?” Yeonjun asks, his voice is raspy from just waking up, but Kai crashes into his chest in a heartbreaking sob. “Let it out, it’s alright.”
Yeonjun felt his heart shatter as Kai’s sobs got louder, and his grip around him got tighter. The same words repeating in a muffle, ‘please don’t leave me.’
“I won’t leave you, I promise,” Yeonjun whispers, planting a kiss on the other's head. Kai falls asleep just like that, snuggled into Yeonjun’s chest and clutching him like he’s his own huge teddy bear.