SURV!VE FOR YOURSELF ... the boyz ?!

[ O7 ] - HOST!LE HOSP!TAL!TY.

Juyeon raised a hand to the door, ringing the doorbell. He stepped back to join Changmin where the camera could see them and waited.

A couple of moments of silence passed by, until the door to room 521 finally opened. Choi Chanhee stepped out, and Changmin gasped.

It was safe to call the boy — who usually never set foot outside of his dorm room without a socially acceptable outfit and well-styled hair — a mess. His eyes were red and swollen, and his blue-streaked hair was a ruffled mess on the top of his head. Chanhee's clothes were stained with dried blood, all along the collar of his once-white shirt.

The smaller boy stared blankly at his visitors, raising an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" he asked. "I hope you're not gonna stand in front of my room all day, gaping at me like that, Ji Changmin."

That snapped Changmin back to his senses. "Are you okay, Chanhee?!"

His classmate shrugged. "I'm fine," he replied, then gestured his shirt. "Just a nosebleed." Chanhee eyed Juyeon. "I see you brought a new friend."

"How are you, Chanhee?" Juyeon smiled, but the other boy wasn't having it.

The silence grew, until Juyeon cleared his throat awkwardly and turned to Changmin. "I'll see you later then, Changmin."

"Can't you stay?" the other boy asked. "What if something happens?" He shuddered. "What if there are more of those things?"

"I would," Juyeon replied, with a comforting smile. He looked at Chanhee, who's gaze was still cold and unrelenting. "But I don't think I should." The two held eye contact, and Changmin could feel electricity course through the air.

Changmin turned to Chanhee. "Can you let him stay? Please?" he pouted.

"Maybe." Chanhee narrowing his eyes, his gaze floating down to Juyeon's blood-stained clothes. "But not in that outfit."

"What?"

"Take it off," Chanhee said definitively. "I don't want to see all that blood inside."

"What am I going to wear, then?" Juyeon shot back, deciding not to point out that Chanhee also had blood on his clothes.

Chanhee gave him a look of spite. "I thought you were used to getting naked in front of strangers."

Juyeon seethed, a retort on the tip of his tongue. Before things could escalate, Changmin took off his hoodie and handsd it to Juyeon. "Here," he said. "Just wear this."

Mustering a grateful smile to the other boy, Juyeon took the hoodie and pulled his shirt off. Chanhee scoffed, turning on his heel and heading back into the room.

Changmin, on the other hand, could've had his own nosebleed at the sight. The light glinted off of the other boy's flexed muscles, capturing every curved sinew of his body.

He shook off his slight panic as Juyeon flashed him another friendly, grateful smile (even though the hoodie was one size too small for him). The two entered Chanhee's room, eyes widening.

The once-plumped and perfect couches were torn to shreds, scratches decorating the pale beige cushions. Small throw pillows were strewn across the room, embellished with scattered drops of dried blood.

Chanhee emerged from one of the connecting rooms, wearing a clean, soft blue knitted sweater. "Chanhee..." Changmin said quietly. "What is all this?"

Chanhee started to pick up the pillows on the floor. "Oh, you know, the usual. My roommate tried to kill me." He looked at Changmin blankly, making the other boy confused as to whether he was joking or not. "Maybe he decided he'd had enough."

"Where did he go?" Juyeon asked.

The smallest boy pointed to the once-intact window, now a jagged mess of broken glass shards. Changmin peered outside, looking down.

Changmin exhaled sharply, backing into Juyeon's chest. Changmin shut his eyes as Juyeon moved past him to see. The taller boy cringed at the lifeless body laying in a pool of blood below, limbs sticking out in awkward angles. Like Chanhee said, the corpse's fingernails weren't normal. They were long and curved, sharpened to a tip.

"You okay?" Juyeon asked Changmin, putting his hands on Changmin's shoulders for comfort. The younger boy nodded queasily. His friend's strange behavior had sparked a thought — one that he couldn't help but entertain, even if it was for half a second.

Did Chanhee's roommate jump?

Or was he pushed?

WORD COUNT // 729 words

AUTHOR'S NOTE // my writing is going downhill