ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴘ'ꜱ ʙɪᴛᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ || уαηg נєσηgιη

Chapter 6: Into The Woods

"Listen," Jisung started to explain. "I don't want to scare you... but two weeks ago, Hyunjin, Minho, Changbin, and I went camping. I told them it would be fun, and we were camping in the forest. Hyunjin and Changbin went late at night to use the bathroom, but they never came back..." His voice trailed off. The expression on his face made it obvious he was remembering a traumatic experience that both scared and shocked him to the core.

"... Daylight came and they weren't back. Minho and I decided to go out and look for them. We spent almost all day until the sun was setting. Just when we were about to call it quits, Minho found something..."

Jeongin gave up on trying to listen from far away, and he plopped down in the seat next to me. Judging by the look on his face, he was very invested in the story. Must've found Missing Person cases very intriguing, hm?

"... there was a door," Jeongin's eyes wide at Jisung's story. "A very colorful, mysterious looking door. So badly we wanted to go to it, and open it up, but we couldn't. I tried the handle, it wouldn't budge. We decided to back away, best to not try opening a random door, right? Well... it opened." Now Jeongin was on the edge of his seat, jaw dropped.

"Something came out of the door. Looking back, it's so blurry so I can't describe it... but it looked so... weird. So.. abnormal."   He enunciated the word as if he had just found the perfect word to describe the creature. His voice went cold with his next works, which made my heart skip a beat in a scary way. "It took Minho. I hid behind a tree, and thank goodness it didn't see me. I called the police. There was a search party put out. We covered 16 kilometers of woods. No sign of any of them, anywhere. They're missing. They've been taken by the aliens from the door."

I was in such shock I was still trying to process all this new information. Jeongin, on the other hand, looked scared for his life. Also as if he realized something terrible was going to happen moments before disaster. Jisung seemed lost like he just got his darkest secret off of his chest right after a panic attack. I didn't blame him though, it must've scared the hell out of him.

"That's not even the scariest part," Jisung finished. An 'oh there's more!?' type of look spread on my face. "When we were searching, I traced my steps back to where the door was. It was gone."

Now, Jeongin's face seemed to calm down a bit. He wasn't shocked anymore, he seemed rather relieved. Speaking up, he commented on Jisung's story. "I think you might need to lay off a little on the coke. There's no such thing as aliens."

I was so caught off guard by Jeongin's harsh response that I didn't see Jisung in time. I looked back just before Jisung spoke again. "I'm not on coke. I swear. I know what I saw! It's real!"

"Maybe talking about Jisung's alien isn't a good idea. Can we change the subject?" I suggested. Jisung desperately looked at me.

"Rose, you believe me right?!" He pleaded. I didn't want to lie and say it was totally believable, but I also didn't want to take anyone's side and end up hurting someone's feelings.

"Well..." I started, trying to think of an answer. "Them going missing isn't good, and I'm really worried. But aliens... Jisung... I'm sorry." He looked so disappointed at my reply. I felt bad for saying I didn't.

Jeongin excused himself from the table, making his way to the back. I moved to the seat next to Jisung so I could see him better. He looked so thin and pale after what happened, he was sweating from his anxiety. I gave him a tight hug, trying to comfort him as he started to cry.

"It'll be okay, Jisung. They'll be alright, it's not your fault." I tried to calm him down.

"I thought you'd understand, Rosa. You always have." He said through his sobs.

"I do. It's possible, truly. It's just that... it's really unlikely. Then again..." I started to think about the story. The door. I needed him to describe what it looked like. "What did the door look like?"

Tears stopped streaming down his face, almost like his tears were shocked at my question as well. Only sniffles came from him for a minute before he gave me a weak smile and began explaining. "The door had the most beautiful, colorful patterns. It looks like it came out of a palace or something. The knock was of marble, the frame was pearly white. The door was inside of a tree. It was so... tempting. But it wouldn't open. Like, we physically couldn't open it further than putting our hand on the handle."

"Jisung"

"What?"

"Come with me," I told him, shocked with realization.

Confused, he took my hand as I led him to the pantry. I pushed open the door to the pantry, the bright neon lights flashing in our eyes. He froze in fear before jumping backwards, falling onto the ground. He hid in the corner of the room.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" His tears started coming down his face.

I went numb, expression fully blank. "We need to visit Felix and Chris." I told him. He was confused, scared, and must've been filled with a ton of different emotions at once.

Helping him up, we hastily exited the back, going to the front of the store again.

"Whatever you do, Jisung," I said, catching his attention. He wiped his tears away.

"Don't talk about any of this in front of Jeongin."