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The dorm was quieter than usual.
It wasn’t silent. It was never silent. But it was the kind of quiet that settled in after a long day, when everyone retreated into their own spaces. The hum of electronics filled the spaces between walls. A faint laugh from down the hall. The soft click of a controller. Someone’s music leaking through a door, low enough to ignore.
Jungwon sat cross-legged on his bed, phone in hand, only half paying attention to whatever he was scrolling through. The light from the screen cast a pale glow across his face, the rest of the room dim except for a lamp he hadn’t bothered to turn off.
It was normal.
Everything felt normal.
Knock.
He blinked.
It wasn’t loud. Not aggressive. Just… there. Two steady taps against his door.
Jungwon glanced up immediately.
“Yeah?” he called, already swinging his legs off the bed.
No answer.
He frowned slightly, pushing himself up and crossing the room in a few steps. Without thinking much of it, he grabbed the handle and pulled the door open.
The hallway was empty.
Not just empty, still. The overhead lights were on, casting the same warm glow they always did. The walls looked the same. The doors, all shut. Nothing out of place.
Jungwon leaned out a little, glancing left, then right.
“...Hello?”
No response.
He stepped back inside slowly, his brows pulling together. For a second, he just stood there, hand still on the doorknob, like maybe someone would suddenly appear and laugh.
No one did.
A quiet exhale left him as he shut the door again, a small scoff under his breath.
“Seriously?”
He walked back to his bed, grabbing his phone and unlocking it. If someone was trying to be funny, they weren’t even trying that hard.
The group chat was already open.
Cute Leader 🐈: Okay, who was just at my door.
He hit send, then waited.
It didn’t take long.
House Husband 🐈⬛: ???
Ice Prince 🐧: What
Dog Boy 🐕: I didn’t move bro
Jungwon frowned, typing again.
Cute Leader 🐈: Someone knocked
Noonoo 🦊: Not me
Little Brat 🐥: why would i knock
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m literally in bed
Ice Prince 🐧: Same
The replies came too fast. Too immediate.
Jungwon’s thumb hovered over the screen.
Cute Leader 🐈: Stop lying
A few seconds passed.
Dog Boy 🐕: I’m not??
Noonoo 🦊: Wait, someone actually knocked?
Little Brat 🐥: that’s creepy
Jungwon rolled his eyes, though the crease between his brows didn’t fade. He pushed himself off the bed again, more out of irritation now than anything else.
“Yeah, okay,” he muttered, heading back to the door.
He opened it again, faster this time.
Empty.
Exactly the same as before.
The hallway stretched out in both directions, quiet and undisturbed. No footsteps fading, no doors closing, nothing.
Jungwon stared for a moment longer this time.
Then shut the door a little more firmly than before.
His phone buzzed in his hand.
House Husband 🐈⬛: Did you actually check
Cute Leader 🐈: Yes I checked
Ice Prince 🐧: No one’s out there?
Jungwon paused.
His eyes flicked to the door.
Then back to his phone.
Cute Leader 🐈: You’re in your room?
Ice Prince 🐧: Yeah?
Dog Boy 🐕: Why are you asking that
A faint unease crept in, small, easy to ignore, but there.
Jungwon glanced toward the door again.
“...Weird,” he murmured.
He sat back down on his bed, phone still in hand, trying to shake it off. It was nothing. Someone probably knocked and ran. They were just committing to the bit.
That was all.
His screen dimmed slightly as the chat slowed.
The room settled again.
Quiet.
Normal.
Knock.
Jungwon froze.
The sound was the same. Same rhythm. Same weight.
Right on the other side of his door.
This time, he didn’t move.
His eyes stayed fixed on the door, his phone slowly lowering in his hand.
The silence that followed felt… different.
He swallowed.
“...Okay,” he said under his breath, though there was no one to hear it.
Another second passed.
Then another.
Jungwon stood up, but slower this time.
More careful.
He stepped toward the door, stopping just short of it.
His hand hovered over the handle.
He didn’t open it.
He stood there for a few seconds longer, hand hovering over the handle, listening.
Nothing.
No footsteps. No movement.
Just silence.
He stepped back slowly, turning to his phone.
Cute Leader 🐈: What the hell guys
Noonoo 🦊: did it happen again
Cute Leader 🐈: Yeah
House Husband 🐈⬛: You’re sure someone knocked?
Cute Leader 🐈: I heard it twice
Hamster Hyung 🐹: You’re probably getting pranked 😭
Jungwon frowned slightly at that, glancing at the door again.
Cute Leader 🐈: Then who is it
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Not me I’m in bed
Little Brat 🐥: same
Dog Boy 🐕: same
Ice Prince 🐧: same
House Husband 🐈⬛: Wait
A pause.
House Husband 🐈⬛: Something just knocked on my door
The shift was immediate.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: …okay that’s weird
Noonoo 🦊: Open it
Dog Boy 🐕: Go check
A few seconds passed.
Then--
House Husband 🐈⬛: No one’s there
Jungwon sat up straighter, unease creeping in.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Did you look properly
House Husband 🐈⬛: Yes
Little Brat 🐥: bro 😭
Another knock echoed faintly through the dorm.
Noonoo 🦊: WAIT
Noonoo 🦊: That was mine
Hamster Hyung 🐹: No way
Dog Boy 🐕: Open it fast
Ice Prince 🐧: Don’t wait
A pause.
Noonoo 🦊: There’s no one
The chat began to move faster now, messages overlapping.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Okay that’s actually creepy
Cute Leader 🐈: No one’s in the hallway
House Husband 🐈⬛: I didn’t hear anyone run either
Little Brat 🐥: how are we not hearing footsteps
Little Brat 🐥: who’s doing this
Another knock.
Dog Boy 🐕: …
Dog Boy 🐕: It’s at my door
Hamster Hyung 🐹: This has to be one of you
Dog Boy 🐕: I swear it’s not
Noonoo 🦊: Just open it
A few seconds passed.
Dog Boy 🐕: Nothing. No one’s there
Jungwon felt something cold settle in his chest.
It wasn’t just happening.
It was moving.
From room to room.
One by one.
Always the same knock.
Always the same result.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Okay wait
Hamster Hyung 🐹: That doesn’t make sense
Ice Prince 🐧: Exactly
House Husband 🐈⬛: It just knocked here too
Little Brat 🐥: again??
House Husband 🐈⬛: Yeah
Another pause.
Knock.
Message.
A door opens.
Nothing.
Over and over again.
Jungwon found himself sitting on the edge of his bed now, his door firmly shut and locked, though he didn’t remember locking it.
His phone felt heavier in his hands.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Try opening it right away next time
Ice Prince 🐧: I did
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Like immediately
Dog Boy 🐕: I did too
Noonoo 🦊: Same
Little Brat 🐥: it doesn’t change anything
Another knock echoed somewhere down the hall.
No one texted for a second.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Whose was that
House Husband 🐈⬛: Not mine
Dog Boy 🐕: Not mine
Ice Prince 🐧: Not mine
Little Brat 🐥: Not mine
Jungwon’s grip tightened.
Cute Leader🐈: Not mine either
Noonoo 🦊: It was mine again
The realization crept in slowly.
Then all at once.
Little Brat 🐥: …wait
Hamster Hyung 🐹: What
Little Brat 🐥: it hit everyone right
Dog Boy 🐕: Yeah
Noonoo 🦊: I think so
A pause.
Then--
House Husband 🐈⬛: No
Jungwon’s stomach dropped.
Ice Prince 🐧: Wait
Cute Leader 🐈: Who hasn’t
The typing bubble flickered.
Stopped.
Dog Boy 🐕: Heeseung hyung
Silence filled the chat for a second.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Oh
Another pause.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Wait you’re right
Jungwon stared at the message.
Something about that felt… wrong.
Noonoo 🦊: It didn’t go to your door at all
Little Brat 🐥: not even once
House Husband 🐈⬛: That’s weird
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Why am I being skipped 😭
No one answered that.
Because suddenly, being skipped didn’t feel like a good thing.
The dorm had gone quiet again.
No knocking.
No movement.
Just that heavy, waiting silence.
Jungwon glanced toward his door.
Then toward the wall, in the direction of Heeseung’s room.
His chest tightened slightly.
Cute Leader 🐈: …it might go there next.
The message sat in the chat, unread for a second.
Then read.
No one replied.
The words just sat in the chat, read by everyone, answered by no one.
The dorm had gone completely still.
Jungwon hadn’t realized how constant the knocking had been until it stopped. Now, the silence felt wrong, like something was missing, like something waiting.
He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his phone, barely blinking.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: You’re all overthinking it
Jungwon let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: It probably just stopped
House Husband 🐈⬛: It didn’t just “stop”
Ice Prince 🐧: It hit every room except yours
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Okay but that doesn’t mean anything
Little Brat 🐥: Then why didn’t it knock on yours
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I don’t know 😭
Jungwon glanced at his door again.
Still closed. Still quiet.
Noonoo 🦊: Just don’t open it if it does
Dog Boy 🐕: Yeah seriously
House Husband 🐈⬛: Don’t even go near the door
The typing bubble appeared again.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: You guys are acting like something’s actually there
No one responded to that.
Because no one could explain why it didn’t feel like a joke anymore.
Seconds passed.
Then a full minute.
Jungwon’s eyes kept drifting, door, phone, door, phone, like he was expecting something to happen the second he looked away.
Nothing did.
Until--
Knock.
The sound cut cleanly through the silence.
Not distant.
Not faint.
Clear.
Close.
Jungwon froze.
His breath caught in his throat as his eyes snapped to his phone.
The chat lit up instantly.
Noonoo 🦊: …
Dog Boy 🐕: No way
House Husband 🐈⬛: Hyung
A pause. A long one.
Then--
Hamster Hyung 🐹: Yeah
Jungwon’s grip tightened around his phone.
Ice Prince 🐧: Don’t open it
Little Brat 🐥 : Don’t touch the door
Dog Boy 🐕: Just stay where you are
The typing bubble blinked.
Stopped.
Then--
Hamster Hyung 🐹: It’s just a knock
Another one.
Knock.
The exact same sound.
Measured.
Unchanged.
Like had been at every other door.
Jungwon felt something cold crawl up his spine.
Cute Leader 🐈: Don’t open it
A pause.
Then--
Hamster Hyung 🐹: There’s nothing there
House Husband 🐈⬛: You don’t know that
Noonoo 🦊: Just ignore it i have a bad feeling
Silence.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m checking
Jungwon sat up straight.
Cute Leader 🐈: No
Dog Boy 🐕: Don’t
Ice Prince 🐧: Wait
The typing bubble flickered.
Disappeared.
Then--
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m at the door
Jungwon’s chest felt tight. Too tight. Like the air in the room had thinned without warning.
Another message came through.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: It sounds the same as yours
No one replied.
Because there was nothing to say.
Everyone already knew that.
A few seconds passed.
Too quiet.
Too long.
Then--
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m opening it
Jungwon’s fingers tightened around his phone.
Cute Leader 🐈: Wait
The message sent.
But no reply.
The chat stayed still.
No typing bubble.
No response.
Just the faint glow of the screen.
Seconds dragged.
One.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
Jungwon’s breathing felt too loud in his own ears.
Dog Boy 🐕: What’s there
No answer.
Noonoo 🦊: Hyung?
Nothing.
House Husband 🐈⬛: Say something
Still nothing.
Jungwon stood up without realizing it, his eyes locked on his phone.
Cute Leader 🐈: What do you see
No response.
The silence stretched.
Then snapped.
Because all at once, Jungwon realized something.
There was no knocking anymore.
Not at his door.
Not anywhere.
The dorm had gone completely, unnaturally quiet.
His stomach dropped.
He looked back at the chat.
Still nothing from Heeseung.
Ice Prince 🐧: …why did it stop
No one answered.
Because they all knew.
It stopped the moment Heeseung opened his door.
Jungwon swallowed hard, his throat dry.
Cute Leader 🐈: Heeseung hyung
The message sent.
Read by everyone but Heeseung.
No reply.
And the silence that followed felt heavier than anything before it.
And the silence didn’t fade.
It settled.
Heavy, thick, and unmoving.
Jungwon stood in the middle of his room, staring at his phone.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m opening it
That had been the last message.
Nothing after.
He tried calling Heeseung.
The ringing filled his room, too loud, too sharp, before cutting off into nothing.
No answer.
Jungwon lowered his phone slowly.
“...Hyung,” he muttered under his breath, like saying it out loud might somehow reach him.
It didn’t.
The dorm felt wrong now.
Not louder. Not darker.
Just… empty.
His phone buzzed again, messages all saying the same thing. No answer.
Jungwon swallowed.
They couldn’t just stay in their rooms.
They couldn’t.
He moved toward the door, stopping just in front of it. His hand hovered over the lock.
For a second, he hesitated.
Then--
Click.
The sound was too loud.
He opened the door slowly.
The hallway was exactly the same. And somehow completely different.
Jungwon stepped out.
Other doors opened almost at the same time, soft clicks echoing down the hall. One by one, the others stepped out, glancing around like they expected something to be there waiting for them.
It wasn’t.
Jake was the first to speak.
“...Okay, this isn’t funny anymore.”
His voice sounded off. Too loud in the quiet.
“Did anyone get him to answer?” Sunoo asked quietly, looking between them.
Everyone shook their heads.
“No,” Jay said. “I called like three times.”
“Same,” Sunghoon added, arms folded tightly. “Nothing.”
Riki glanced down the hallway toward Heeseung’s door.
“It stopped,” he said quietly.
No one asked what he meant.
They all knew.
The knocking.
Jungwon followed his gaze.
Heeseung’s door stood at the end of the hall.
Closed.
Still.
Jungwon’s chest tightened.
“...We should check,” he said.
No one argued.
No one agreed, either.
For a second, they just stood there.
Then Jake exhaled shakily. “He’s fine, right?”
“Obviously not,” Jay muttered.
Jungwon nodded. “...Let’s go.”
They moved slowly. No one rushed.
Each step felt heavier than it should have, their footsteps muted against the floor. The hallway seemed longer now, stretched out in a way that didn’t feel right.
Jungwon could hear their breathing.
That was it.
No knock.
No movement.
Nothing from behind the door.
They stopped in front of Heeseung’s room.
Up close it looked normal.
Exactly the same as always.
“Do we just… open it?” Sunghoon asked quietly.
No one answered.
Jungwon swallowed.
“...Heeseung hyung?” he called, his voice careful.
No response.
He tried again, a little louder.
“Hyung?”
Nothing.
The silence pressed in harder.
Riki shifted slightly behind him. “That’s not--”
He stopped.
Jungwon didn’t ask him to finish.
Because he didn’t want to hear it said out loud.
Jay stepped closer, frowning. “He wouldn’t just ignore us.”
“No,” Jake said quickly. “He wouldn’t.”
Sunoo hugged his arms. “Maybe he’s messing with us.”
No one believed that.
Jungwon stared at the door.
Something felt wrong.
Not just the silence.
Something else.
Something just out of reach.
A feeling that crept up his spine and settled there.
Like--
Like they weren’t alone.
Jungwon’s hand lifted slowly toward the handle.
“...Just open it,” Jay said, quieter now.
Jungwon nodded faintly.
His fingers brushed the handle and stilled.
Jungwon forced his hand to move.
He turned the handle.
Slowly.
The door opened slowly.
No sound came from inside.
Just darkness, soft, familiar, harmless-looking darkness that didn’t match what they were expecting.
Jungwon stepped in first.
The others followed behind him without speaking.
The room was exactly how it should have been.
Neat. Ordinary. Lit faintly by a small lamp left on in the corner.
Nothing overturned. Nothing broken. Nothing strange at all.
Except--
Heeseung wasn’t there.
Jungwon stopped walking.
“...Hyung?” he said quietly.
No answer.
Jake stepped in beside him, scanning the room. “Maybe he went to the bathroom?”
Sunoo shook his head immediately. “His phone’s here.”
That pulled everyone’s attention at once.
It was on the bed.
Screen lit.
Still open.
Still on their group chat.
Jungwon moved closer, heart pounding a little harder now.
The chat was frozen on Heeseung’s last message.
Hamster Hyung 🐹: I’m opening it
Nothing after that.
No new messages.
Sunghoon exhaled shakily. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Riki stepped toward the bed slowly. “He didn’t leave it like this.”
Jay looked around the room again, sharper now. “There’s nowhere he could have gone.”
Jake opened the closet.
Empty.
Sunoo checked the bathroom.
Empty.
Every space confirmed the same thing without saying it out loud.
He wasn’t there.
Jungwon felt something cold settle in his stomach.
“...Heeseung hyung?” he called again, softer this time.
Silence answered him.
Not even an echo.
Jake stepped back from the closet. “Okay, no. That’s not--”
He stopped.
Because no one wanted to finish sentences like that anymore.
Sunghoon rubbed the back of his neck, looking uneasy. “He was literally just here.”
“He was replying,” Sunoo said quickly. “He was in the chat. He was… he was fine.”
Jungwon didn’t look away from the bed. From the phone.
Something about it felt wrong in a way he couldn’t explain.
Riki whispered, almost to himself, “Where did he go?”
No one answered.
Because there was no answer.
Sunoo took a small step back. “Guys… I don’t like this.”
“Yeah,” Jay said under his breath. “Same.”
Heeseung’s jacket was on the chair.
His bag was by the desk.
His shoes were by the door.
No signs of struggle.
No signs of anything at all.
Just absence.
Like he had never been there in the first place.
Jungwon slowly lowered his hand.
“...He’s gone,” he said quietly.
No one corrected him.
No one disagreed.
The silence deepened.
For a split second, everything felt too quiet.
Too still.
Then--
Something shifted.
Not in front of them.
Behind them.
Jungwon’s breath caught.
He didn’t turn around.
None of them did.
Because they all felt it.
That same sudden, suffocating awareness.
Like something was standing in the hallway with them.
Right behind them.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
From somewhere outside the room,
A sound.
Knock.
Every single one of them stopped.
Instantly.
The sound didn’t come from the door they had entered.
It didn’t come from inside the room either.
It came from the hallway.
Right behind them.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Jungwon felt his entire body go cold.
Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head slightly.
Just enough to know.
The others didn’t turn at all.
Because they knew what was there.
Or what wasn’t.
The knock came again.
Knock.
Closer this time.
And then--
Silence.