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Corn Maze
Like every year, during the Halloween season, there was a festival in town with a wide variety of horror themed activities and food stalls. Yeonoh had never been able to go but this year, he planned on going with Jaehyuk, his boyfriend. At least, that was the original plan, but then, his little brother found out about it and insisted on coming. He couldn’t say no to him, so he enlisted the help of his best (and only) friend, Jaemin, to distract him while he spent some time with Jaehyuk.
His nine-year old brother was dressed as a ghost, the costume had been made with an old sheet their grandma had found lying around. Simple, but efficient. Yeonjun had insisted on cutting the holes for the eyes himself and now he kept stumbling as he had cut them too far apart and his view was limited. Jaehyuk shot him an amused look as his little brother stumbled yet again.
It was kinda adorable. Yeonoh thought as he watched his brother fondly. He had been so excited to dress up and go trick or treating. The neighbours had all been really nice too, playing along and finding some candy or cookies to give him.
They arrived at the festival and met up with Jaemin who was waiting for them at the candy apple stall. Yeonoh had saved all his pocket money so he would be able to afford some food for his brother. And he knew he really wanted to try a candy apple.
“Oh woaw!” Yeonjun exclaimed, as he saw the food. “That looks so tasty.” He gasped.
“Do you want one?” Jaemin asked him. “That’s my treat!”
“What? No! I'll pay!” Yeonoh said, horrified. He appreciated the gesture but it was embarrassing.
“No it’s fine, it’s my mom’s stall!” He winked. “I told her I would bring some friends here and she said we could have some for free.”
“Your mom’s so nice!” Yeonjun beamed.
“Go ahead and choose one for you and your brother. Just say Jaemin sent you.” he ruffled Yeonjun’s hair.
“Thank you!” Yeonoh timidly said. He didn’t know if it was true or not, but accepting help once in a while wasn’t so bad. After all, that was how he and Jaehyuk had gotten close in the first place. He glanced at his boyfriend who smiled at him. He knew better than anyone that it was hard for him to accept help, so it felt reassuring to have his support.
“That’s what friends are for.” Jaemin grinned.
To which Yeonoh smiled back, he was very lucky to have made such a sweet friend. Jaemin had accidentally found out about him and Jaehyuk one day, and had kinda just rolled with it. So Yeonoh hadn’t felt the need to hide it from him, and now he was their self-proclaimed wingman.
He watched as his brother hurriedly walked to the stall, his feet getting caught in the hem of the costume, at least three times.
“I think you just made his day.” He said, turning to Jaemin.
“And it’s only the beginning!” He grinned. “ You guys don’t have to worry about anything. I guarantee you, he will forget your existence!”
Yeonoh nodded, amused by his friend’s confidence.
“My plan was: We can do a few things together, and then once we get to the haunted mansions, there is one for kids and one for adults so we can separate then. I’ll go with Yeonjun and you guys can go on your own.”
“Sounds good.” Jaehyuk nodded. “That way we still spend some time with him.”
“Yes, and we can join again afterwards, to watch the movie.” Yeonoh suggested.
“Perfect, and if there’s a change of plan, we can text each other.”
They all nodded, ending their discussion right as Yeonjun came back running, four candy apples in his small hands.
“This one is for you.” He gave the biggest one to Jaehyuk.
“Thanks.” Jaehyuk smiled at him.
“He’s the one with muscles so he needs more food.” He apologetically explained this to Yeonoh and Jaemin.
Jaemin laughed out loud at that, while Jaehyuk and Yeonoh shared amused looks.
“I mean, you’re not wrong!” He grinned, as he took the apple Yeonjun was handing to him.
“Thanks Junie.” Yeonoh pinched his cheek through the sheet.
Yeonoh took a bite out of the candy apple, it was harder than he had imagined, making him struggle a little with it. It tasted good though.
“Yeonie.” His brother called him. “I forgot to cut a mouth in my costume.”
“Just take it off while you eat.” He laughed, helping his brother take the sheet off.
“Food is more important than costumes, you know.” He said wisely. “The homosexuals used to wear nothing and survived, but they still had to eat.”
Yeonoh froze, blinking a couple times as he processed what his brother had just said. He caught Jaehyuk and Jaemin exchanging a look. Before they all burst out laughing, leaving the kid in the middle, confused.
“It’s true!” He insisted.
“Well, technically he’s not wrong.” Jaehyuk smiled.
“I think you mean Homo sapiens.” Yeonoh corrected him, with a chuckle, patting his head.
“Then, what are homosexuals?”
“It’s girls that like girls and boys that like boys.” Jaehyuk explained.
“Were homo sapiens homosexuals?” He asked, curious.
“Not all of them, but some probably were.” Jaehyuk answered, glancing at him and Jaemin for confirmation, unsure of what to say.
“Then are homosexuals extinct too?”
“No.” Yeonoh chuckled. “Neither are extinct, we are homo sapiens ourselves."
“Homo sapiens are people. And some people are homosexuals.” Jaemin added. “We’re all the same really.”
“Oh ok.” He nodded, before biting his candy apple. “Can we go see the pumpkins now?”
“Sure!” Yeonoh said, with a short laugh.
He grabbed his brother by the shoulder and led him to the pumpkin patch. “Kids can be so innocent.” He thought. “And hopefully, when he gets older, Yeonjun will keep that open mind.”
They went to see the pumpkin patch, where there was a contest for the biggest one. Yeonjun was amazed to see some of them were even bigger than him.He insisted on taking photos with all of the contestants.
“I could sleep in that one!” He had said, pointing at the biggest one.
Next, they carved pumpkins. This had to be the most fun activity they did that night. Jaemin definitely had the most convincing one by the time they were done, with Jaehyuk’s being worse than Yeonjun’s. The latter had offered him a sympathetic pat on the arm, with a very pitiful look. Which amused them to no end. His little brother insisted that they each took pictures with their carved pumpkin.
“Well, the point is for it to look bad, so you did that just fine.” Yeonoh couldn’t help but tease Jaehyuk, as they checked the photos.
“You sure act like a smartass for someone with caramel on their face” he teased back, pinching his cheek.
“Where?” he asked, wiping his face.
“There.” Jaehyuk said, before flicking his nose.
“Liar!” He elbowed him in the ribs. Jaehyuk offered him the most beautiful smile, and Yeonoh felt butterflies in his stomach.
After a couple more game stands and food stalls, they finally reached the haunted mansions, and divided into two groups. Yeonjun didn’t even seem to mind being separated from his brother as he barely acknowledged him before running into the haunted mansion, Jaemin trailing behind.
Finally, he and Jaehyuk were alone. They smiled at each other and entered the house. Jaehyuk grabbed his hand as they entered the dark hallway, intertwining their fingers.
“Are you scared?” He asked him.
“A little.” He said coily. But that was a bit of a lie. Yeonoh didn’t really get scared easily, and gore didn’t really do anything to him either, especially as he knew it was fake.
“But you’re here, so it’s fine.” He said, leaning his head against Jaehyuk’s shoulder.
This made his boyfriend grin at him and he couldn't help but think he was adorable.
“I can’t believe you didn’t get scared once!” Jaehyuk said as they left the haunted mansion, fifteen minutes later.
“I did get startled a bit.” he chuckled.
“You were busy greeting all the actors, and praising their acting skills..” He said, dumbfounded. “ I got more scared than you!”
“I thought you were cute.” He whispered to him. They couldn’t be obvious now that they were out in the open so he discreetly hooked his pinky finger to his for a couple seconds. Jaehyuk smiled softly at him.
“You should have told me, you didn’t get scared easily.” He said accusingly. “You made me think I would be protecting you, but I ended up looking like a fool.”
“I wanted an excuse to cling to you.” He bashfully admitted.
“You don’t need an excuse for that. “ His boyfriend said softly, ears red.
“Okay.” He giggled.
“Wanna try the corn maze?”
“Yes! That sounds fun.” He beamed.
They had to wait around fifteen minutes to be able to enter the maze, each group having to wait five minutes after the previous to go in. Once they entered, Yeonoh reached for Jaehyuk’s hand. They could hear some people further away but they were seemingly alone. So they might as well make the most of it.
“I want to kiss you.” Jaehyuk said, squeezing his hand.
“Me too.” He blushed.
They took a turn and ended up in a dead-end with a fake corpse.
“How big is the maze?” Yeonoh asked. “Cause this could be long if we keep ending in every dead-end.”
“No idea. But maybe we could make it more fun.” He grinned.
“How?”
“How about we kiss, everytime we’re in a dead-end?” He asked deviously.
Yenoh felt himself blush, but he liked the idea. He nodded, and his boyfriend closed up the distance between them, cupping his face in his hands and pecking his lips. They couldn’t do more than this, as there was still a risk someone might walk in on tem.
“I hope we won’t find the good path right away.” Jaehyuk sighed, before winking at him.
Yeonoh laughed at that. Tugging at his arm to make him move.
“But if we don’t keep it moving a minimum, the next group will catch up to us and that’d be annoying too.”
The maze was more fun than Yeonoh had expected it to be. And as the night fell over them, it became even creepier. Especially with the suspicious way the light was reflected back by something hidden between the corn, making it look like they were being watched.
“This is scarier than the haunted house.” He said, holding Jaehyuk's arm tighter.
“I’m not falling for this again!” Jaehyuk scoffed.
“I’m serious.” Yeonoh pouted. “It’s creepier than actors jumping out of nowhere and fake blood.”
“Really?” he asked. “Cause I genuinely don’t find this scary at all?”
And just as he said that there was a blood curdling scream. They both turned to look at their left, where the scream had come from, but ut stayed silent.
“Yeah, actually, that was a little creepy…”
“You better not let me go!” Yeonoh gripped his arm tighter.
“I won’t.” Jaehyuk chuckled.
They arrived at a crossroad and stopêd, wondering where to go.
“Which way should we go?”
“That way is probably the right one.” Yeonoh pointed to the one on the left. “The other two seem like dead-ends.”
“So we agree that we should check these two first, right?” Jaehyuk smirked.
“Better be safe than sorry. Yeonoh grinned.
In order to be thorough, Jaehyuk led him to every single dead-end they could find on their way. They did this all throughout the maze and each time, they got more and more into it, until they were heavily making out in front of a poor undead bride.
“This wasn’t very considerate of us.” Yeonoh motioned towards the plastic corpse.
“It’s fine, she lost her eyes.” Jaehyuk kissed his forehead. “I think this is the last one.”
“Yeah, we can hear the crowd outside.” He sighed. “This was really nice, though.”
“We should do that every year. This could be our little tradition.” His boyfriend suggested with a devious smile.
“Sounds good.” Yeonoh chuckled, his ears burning.
They made their way out of the corn maze and Yeonoh begrudgingly let go of his boyfriend’s hand. They found Jaemin and Yeonjun at a game stand. His brother was throwing balls disguised as spiders on tin cans disguised as the frankenstein monster. He missed every shot, of course. Yeonoh stood back, to sneak a picture. His brother seemed to be having a really great time. He was so thankful to Jaemin, for doing this for them. He owed him big time.
“You guys are back!” Jaemin said. “We were starting to worry, where were you?”
“We did the corn maze after the haunted house.” Jaehyuk explained.
“Yeah, us too.” Jaemin said. “Did you get lost in it?”
“Something like that yeah.” Yeonoh laughed, scratching the back of his head.
“Oh…” Jaemin said, with a knowing smile. “My bad. It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“We won plushies for you guys!” Yeonjun said.
“How did you manage with the costume getting in your eyes?” Yeonoh asked.
“Jaemin did it.” He sighed.
“I suggested that he take off the costume but he insists this is against Halloween laws.” Jaemin chuckled.
“Except if it’s for food, right?” Jaehyuk grinned.
“Yes, I have to eat well so I can be strong like you.” Yeonjun flexed his skinny bicep.
“You’ll be even stronger than him!” Yeonoh patted his head.
This seemed to please his little brother who then started mimicking taekwondo kicks. Waiting for them to applaud and praise his antics. They had no choice but to indulge as he was too cute to resist.
“Is there something we can do the four of us?” Jaehyuk asked, turning to Jaemin as he came to the festival every year. “
“We can take a surrey bike and ride around the neighbourhood to see all the decorated houses.”
“That sounds fun.” Yeonoh excitedly said. “Let’s do that.”
“I want to go in front with Jaemin!” Yeonjun said, running towards the rental stall.
Yeonoh was surprised to hear that, but that was nice, it meant he had a great time with him. He turned to Jaemin, to give him an appreciative nod.
“I told you guys, kids just think I'm so cool.” He bragged.
“So it has nothing to do with the ketchup stain on his costume?” Jaehyuk asked, amused.
“No, that's blood, not ketchup.” Jaemin cleared his throat.
“Because hurting him is better than feeding him?” Yeonoh asked, laughing.
“Ok, yeah! I bribed him.” Jaemin admitted, raising his hands in surrender. “But he kept talking about how Jaehyuk was cool because he always gave him delicious food, so I had to step up.” He sighed dramatically.
“You realise he manipulated you, right?” Yeonoh snorted.
Jaemin blinked a couple times, giving it some thought.
“Shit, he’s good.”
“Come on, I'll buy you a corn dog for your troubles.” Yeonoh put an arm around his shoulder.
“If you don’t want to trouble me, let me go. Your boyfriend’s glaring.” Jaemin teased them.
“I’m not glaring!” Jaehyuk sulked.
“Oh come on, don’t be sad. I have two arms.” He grinned as he put his other arm around Jaehyuk’s shoulders.
Yeonjun chose a surrey bike that looked like a pirate ship, he sat at the front with Jaemin, while Yeonoh and Jaehyuk were at the back. He did not help pedal once during the trip, he was too busy hollering commands at them. However, they had a good laugh when a strong breeze made his costume fly up in his face and gagged him. It was fun, and the fact Yeonoh could hold Jaehyuk’s hand at the back, only made it better.
After the ride, Yeonjun was the most exhausted of the four, despite not doing much. So they went to grab something to eat before the movie showing started. They decided on corn dogs, pumpkin soup and fries and went to find a spot to sit in front of the giant screen.
Once the lights turned down, Yeonoh rested his head against Jaehyuk’s shoulder, as they sneakily held hands under the blanket. It didn’t take long for Yeonjun to lie down on his lap, tired from all the excitement he had that day and halfway through the film, a soft snore could be heard coming from Jaehyuk’s left, Jaemin had fallen asleep.
Yeonoh felt happy in that moment, he was surrounded by people he loved, and having fun like all the other kids his age. Something he would have never even dared to dream of, a year ago. His life really had turned around after he met Jaehyuk, it was like he was his lucky charm. He would never forget it.
“Let’s make this a tradition, every year, the four of us.” He turned to Jaehyuk.
“Gladly.” He smiled at him.
This decided it, Halloween was now his favourite holiday.