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Chapter 3

It was 6 in the morning and Hongjoong was sitting on the couch with his legs crossed, scrolling through his phone when he came across a news article that Yunho had shared on Facebook 1 day ago. The picture showed a police car and in the background was an abandoned park... the same one that Hongjoong, Mingi and Yunho had gone to.

"2 bodies found at an abandoned amusement park."

He tapped on it and began reading.

"2 days ago (28 April, 2022), police were called to the location of an abandoned amusement park after the body of a child was discovered in a refrigerator in one of the buildings. 3 friends had gone to the park when 1 of them found the body. When police were removing the body, another one was found by the entrance. The bodies have not yet been identified."

Hongjoong kept reading, his heart pounding and his palms were beginning to sweat a little. He put his phone next to him then wiped them on his pants before picking the device up again to continue reading the article.

(8:05 AM)

Seonghwa walked out of his room and into the lounge room where he found Hongjoong asleep on the couch, his phone on the floor face down. A small smile pulled at the corners of his lips as he made his way over and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch then draped it over the younger. He bent down to grab the phone and placed it on the coffee table before walking into the kitchen to make breakfast. Hongjoong awoke when he felt a soft blanket cover him and slowly opened his eyes to see his friend placing his phone on the table before walking away.

"Seonghwa," he called out, his voice raspy due to just waking up and the mentioned male looked over at the couch.

"Yeah?" The younger fell silent for a bit, a frown pulling on his lips.

"I'm sorry."

Seonghwa had a confused expression and opened his mouth to answer when the other spoke again, "I'm sorry for getting angry at you last night. I was tired."

Seonghwa walked over to sit on the arm of the couch and looked down at Hongjoong. "It's okay. I'm the one that should be apologising." The other shook his head.

"You were only trying to help and I—"

"Hongjoong, like you said, you are capable of doing things on your own. I just wanted to help because I didn't want you cutting your hands on the glass."

Hongjoong sat up, the blanket staying around his shoulders and he held his hands out to show Seonghwa, palms facing up.

"I cut myself a little. Nothing too bad though," he muttered. His eyes stayed on his hands, a few of his fingers wrapped with band-aids and Seonghwa let out a soft sigh as he gently grabbed the other's cold hands.

"I heard you go to bed last night, so why were you asleep on the couch?"

"I woke up early 'cause I had a nightmare and came out to get breakfast but got distracted by a news article on Facebook," he slowly pulled his cold hands away from Seonghwa and put them under the blanket to warm them up.

"What was the article about?"

Hongjoong frowned and looked at his phone. "It was about the abandoned show grounds." His eyes grew watery and he bit his bottom lip to stop it from trembling. "I think what's even worse is that another one was found." Seonghwa was shocked, his mouth dropping open slightly and he moved to sit next to Hongjoong. "I...I stepped over a body and I didn't even know until a police officer told me."

"Hongjoong—"

"I thought it was a mannequin," he whispered, voice cracking halfway through his sentence and tears fell down his face. Seonghwa reached under the blanket and gripped Hongjoong's trembling hands. "And the smell was awful, I nearly vomited."