Chapter Text
Welcome! Welcome!
Turn them upside down
No more frowning
The Carnival’s in town!
Welcome! Welcome!
Turn them upside down
No more frowning
The Carnival’s in town!
Welcome! Welc- SKKCKCKKSHHCHKCkkh
“Hey what gives!”
Jaehyun glared at the young man who took his hand away from the radio, placing it back on the steering wheel. He doesn’t move to change it back as the man responds to him.
“Forget traveling 12 hours to go to some random town for some random carnival, now you want me to listen about it too!?” He gave Jaehyun a displeased look, lips pulling into a pout. Jaehyun rolled his eyes, mimicking him.
“Sungho, it was your idea to go to the carnival.”
“The carnival, not a carnival in a random town in the middle of a forest!”
The young man, Sungho, threw one hand in the air, still continuing to drive ahead steadily. He kept his eyes trained forward as he engaged in the argument. “What kind of summer vacation is this?”
“A fun one,” Jaehyun received a badly aimed flick on the forehead, landing in the corner of his eye instead. He huffed in mock anger, “come on, I promise it’ll be fun! You’ve never been to a carnival before, this is why you’re acting like this.”
“No darling, even if I had been to the carnival a hundred times I still wouldn’t have gotten out of my way to drive 12 hours to a random town in the middle of a forest for a carnival that skipped over our own town just to come here.”
“...Sure you wouldn’t.”
Sungho sighed loudly, not deigning the pouting boy with a response. He knew full well that it was a losing argument he was having. He rarely won arguments against Jaehyun after all, always too quick to fold when faced against his pout or pleading looks.
Instead he focused on the road ahead. The trip had been a long but boring one. Three hours of their trip had been dedicated to the dirt filled roads of the forest that they had entered. Jaehyun had spent the first hour excitedly on his phone, camera turned on and prepared to document any animal they would be seeing. He had spoken Sungho's ears off about how he had read that deer were abundant in this forest as hunting them were illegal. An hour later they had come across nothing but bushes and trees causing the young man to give up on the deer, making a disappointed comment about how maybe their timing or season was off. The rest of the drive had been the same, with nothing but flora in sight, becoming thicker by the minute.
Strangely, the GPS on his phone had informed that they had reached fifteen minutes ago but all Sungho could see in front of him was the same empty path with the same row of tall trees stretched out. He had turned his phone off in case Jaehyun had noticed it and freaked out. He figured that the searched up location was only the estimated coordinates of the town, since no one could figure out the exact location of a place in a dense forest if he kept driving straight ahead they would reach the town eventually. His own town was similar after all.
Even though he had a barrage of complaints, he still wanted this summer to be an enjoyable one for Jaehyun - even if it meant going to some carnival in some town.
They drove wordlessly with only the low crackle of the radio when Jaehyun suddenly perked up, pointing at a signboard in front.
“We’re here! Finally!”
Sure enough, they could finally see brightly colored houses and people walking around in a town. Unlike the darkness of the forest, the town was well lit with streetlights that Sungho could make out by the long poles.
As he slowed the car down to a halt Sungho looked up at the towering trees on either sides of the town. Their trunks were thicker and wider than the rest of the trees they had seen on their trip but just as tall. It was daunting, like he was being stared down deep into the ground. Sungho ripped his gaze away from the tree and turned towards the signboard Jaehyun was still pointing at, now also laughing.
“It’s pointed in the wrong direction!” He heard the boy say as he focused on the board.
It was similar to the one back at the town he was living in, an old piece of wood carved into an arrow and handwritten in large painted letters.
Except this one had its arrow pointing away from the town.
Jaehyun laughed again, a wholehearted sound that made Sungho smile as well.
“Probably just a prank,” Sungho said as he stepped out of the car. He remembered doing the same thing as a child, pushing the signboard to point it away from his town. Their village elders used to hate them for it, scolding and running after them. It was the only reason that they even pulled such petty, pointless pranks. It wasn’t as if any visitors would fall for it.
He pushed the sign back around with a hefty pull, surprised by how well it was lodged into the ground. It must have taken a group of children to push it, fueled by only their dedication to the joke.
“Glad to see the tradition is still going strong.”
Jaehyun laughed to himself, Sungho joining him as he entered the car again. He closed the car door shut and turned the engine back on as Jaehyun continued to speak to him, now about his own childhood and about how he always got into trouble with his mother for his prank.
Sungho looked back up from the ignition towards the front of the gate. As he did, from the corner of his eye he saw the rearview mirror Jaehyun had been playing around with at the start of the trip before he had been chastised to put it back to how it was. His eyes travelled up to fully look at the mirror and made eye contact with the figure grinning at him in the backseat.
Sungho felt his arms lock as he stared at the mostly shadowy figure that eyed him with glee, the only other thing visible in his face was his grin, far too wide, far too red. It continued to stretch as it slowly leaned forward. Sungho finally saw the hands resting on its lap politely, they were paper white and its fingers were longer and thinner than its enlarged palm like malnourished and deformed radishes. He made eye contact with the figure again just in time to see its mouth move and-
“Sungho!”
His whole body jolted, his arms falling down from the steering wheel and onto his lap. He turned to see Jaehyun grabbing onto his shoulder.
“What’s up? What are we thinking of?”
Jaehyun’s eyebrows were knitted together into a frown, large doe eyes filled to the brim with concern. Sungho studied him for a minute before whirling around in his seat. There was nothing in the back, as empty as it had been when they first left. He checked the rearview mirror to see it reflected the same as well. Empty and ordinary.
With a deep breath he smiled at Jaehyun.
“It’s nothing, I think I’m too tired from the drive.”
“That’s right, we’ve been driving nonstop for twelve hours now! I need to go to the bathroom!”
“And I need a nap,” Sungho muttered to himself as he drove forward into the town. This time he didn’t stop until he reached the hotel room they had booked.
The hotel was a small, bright red one, named the Pianist’s hotel and they proudly stuck to their theme. Walking through the large piano shaped doorway, they were immediately greeted by a young receptionist dressed like she was about to start performing on stage. She had taken their luggage and handed them their room key before wishing them an enjoyable stay. They hopped up the black and white stairs when they entered a pitch black hallway.
“Why’s it so-” Jaehyun interrupted himself with a yelp as the hallway lit up a dim orange, showing way to a long corridor of black and white striped doors.
“The hallways are motion sensored.”
“Thought they were going for a tunnel aesthetic.”
“I think their aesthetic is pretty clear,” Sungho dangled the key they received with a tiny piano keychain attached to it. Jaehyun took it from him to open their door, revealing a small bedroom clearly made for one person. There was a twin bed placed to a side, its covering replicating a large keyboard. A large full body mirror in a corner between the bathroom door and dresser, all of it decorated with small splashes of black white. It was comfortable and clean, although clearly too small for two people.
Sungho whistled, impressed. “Even the inside is on theme.”
“And the bed is way too small.” Jaehyun huffed as he fell onto the bed, making a more surprised comment on how soft it was.
Sungho scanned the room, eyes stopping at a large painting hung above their bed. He tried to make sense of all the little figures he was seeing when he felt a tug on his hand.
Jaehyun grinned at him and tugged once more, successfully pulling him into the bed. Sungho lifted his legs up and placed them on the bed, letting Jaehyun throw his own legs over him. He wrapped an arm around Jaehyun's waist and let Jaehyun snuggle up to him. They both relaxed into each other's touch, the trip's exhaustion finally catching up to them.
“It really is too small of a bed.”
“Clearly they wanted us to be this close.”
“That’s so gay”
Sungho felt his heart warm to the sound of Jaehyun’s giggling. He wrapped his arms tighter and closed his eyes. “I’m going to sleep.”
“Same, and then we’ll explore the town.”
Sungho stayed silent, hoping they would oversleep through their exhaustion and wake up the next morning...
As he was shaken awake, a shrieking voice piercing his eardrums, Sungho realized that he had severely underestimated Jaehyun’s energy.
Groggy, he opened his eyes to see Jaehyun standing over him with his hands on his hips. He had changed out of his clothes into new ones and was saying something that Sungho had to focus to hear.
“It’s sunset now, Sungho! We need to go now if we want to walk around and get dinner before coming back!”
“Let’s skip dinner,” Sungho put a pillow over his face only for it to be taken away. His next series of attempts at not getting up were all foiled as Jaehyun forced him into a sitting position. Sungho groaned in complaint, though getting up to take a shower. He really could never win against Jaehyun.
“Let’s use the elevator this time, it’s closer to the entrance.”
Sungho hums in agreement as they walk down the hallway, passing by the open stairwell. He feels a short tug on his hand and sees that Jaehyun had slowed down, looking at the stairwell with a small frown.
There was a girl, dark hair covering most of her face as she crouched down in the middle of the stairwell. She had a long red skirt that was bunched up over the floor, covering her legs completely. Sungho couldn't see most of her upper clothes from the way she was hunched over but could see a sliver of a white sleeve due to the book she was holding open.
Sungho noticed that Jaehyun was trying to approach the girl and pulled him away, continuing to walk down the hall.
“What gives!?”
Sungho gave Jaehyun a look of disapproval, “she’s just reading, leave her alone.”
Instead of replying, Jaehyun looks over at the hallway one last time before entering the elevator after Sungho. He was frowning again, prompting Sungho to ask what was wrong.
“That girl was looking at us from the hallway. She had her book open towards us.”
Sungho tried to shake away the ever-growing bad feeling as he asked again.
“What did you see?”
Jaehyun shrugged, he looked up at his boyfriend, squeezing his hand tighter as he answered.
“I don’t know, but I think it was pictures.”