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creaaaaaak
yang jungwon was attempting to study. key word, attempting. his bedroom window wouldn't quit swinging from side to side, making an awfully annoying noise every time the wind blew.
he ignored it the best he could, trying to focus on the chemistry book in front of him. there was an exam on monday, and he had spent the whole weekend studying for it. even with all the hard work he'd put in, he wasn't expecting anything higher than 87%.
the teacher said his grades had gone down, they were still good, but he was scared. his parents never demanded anything from him, but he still feared that being a good student was the only thing that set him apart from the other kids his age.
the window creaked again, this time much louder and slower than the ones before. that noise took away what was left of jungwon's sanity, making him scream in frustration.
"could you stop doing that? i can't hear myself think!" he yelled at the emptiness of the room, hoping the window would magically stop moving if he scolded it. talking to a window, pfft, you've really lost it this time, won.
to jungwon's surprise, it actually stopped moving right after he spoke. he was a little disturbed by it but didn't think much of it, shaking any random theories off his mind and carrying on with his studies much more peacefully than the last 15 minutes.
this had happened before, things around the house would randomly move or creak, startling jungwon the first few times. eventually he got used to it, figuring maybe his mind was playing him and he was just paranoid about being home alone.
a few hours passed, and the window had stayed still. jungwon was able to finish studying and still have time to do some much needed self care. a warm shower, a face mask and his playlist "3:03" were all he needed to relax and read one more chapter of his book before going to bed.
once the clock hit 12:09am, his eyes began to falter. gently placing the book back on his nightstand, the boy soon found himself falling into a deep slumber the second his head met the pillow. the window never creaked again that night, giving jungwon the most peaceful sleep he'd had in quite a while.
however, the noise didn't stop completely after that day. only one thing had changed because now, whenever jungwon asked for it, the window would stop abruptly. it became creepy for a while, but a month later he had gotten used to it, joking to himself that perhaps his house was magical like the one in encanto.
then one odd winter day, jungwon learned the disturbing truth. his room wasn't magically moving things around on its own as he had supposed, this was actually caused by something much more complex, something people like him would never consider possible unless they experienced it firsthand.
