4/13
When Jeonghan got home after visiting all of his friends, the sun was still laughing up in the sky. At least the sun wasn't looking at him, but it was still unsettling.
Jeonghan entered his house, only to get hit in the face by a towel.
"Where the hell have you been?!" his mother shrieked.
"I was just visiting people to make sure they were safe—"
"You could have died, Jeonghan! Don't do that again."
With a huff, his mother disappeared into the kitchen. Jeonghan frowned. His mother was right, but he couldn't help but worry about his friends. He didn't any more of them to vanish.
After a couple of days, Jeonghan was antsy. He wanted to check in on his friends again, but his mother had him on house arrest. She kept her eye on him as much as possible. Jeonghan understood why— his mother didn't want him to get hurt or die, but he wanted her to know that that was how he felt about his friends. He wanted his friends to be there after all this stuff with the sun laughing stopped.
He knew he shouldn't have done it or even thought it, but one night, Jeonghan snuck out of his house after he knew his mother was asleep. His first stop was going to be Soonyoung's place mainly because that one was the furthest from his house. He took a couple of steps out of his house when something grabbed his arm and covered his mouth, whisking him away into the darkness of the night.
Jeonghan for sure thought that it was the thing that grabbed all of his friends that had a hold of him. The being led him from the dirt path near his house into the outskirts of the forest before finally letting go of him. Jeonghan took a deep breath— he didn't realize that he wasn't able to breath when the person took him away— and turned to face the figure and take him head on. He kicked the person in the gut, and the person responded with a painful grunt. Jeonghan was about to throw more punches when the guy said, "Jeonghan! Stop! It's me!"
"Jisoo?!" Jeonghan was taken aback. "You're the one grabbing all of us?!"
"What?"
"Oh my God, have you been killing all of our friends?! What is wrong with you?!"
"Woah, wait! It's not me, I swear," Jisoo shook his head and took a step back.
The boys stood near the forest but close enough to one of the dirt roads through the town where a single streetlamp shone. Jeonghan was barely able to see Jisoo's shadowed face. He could see that the boy was scared, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Wind rushed past them, Jisoo's hair getting stuck to the sweat on his face. The boy had to brush his hair away, the nervousness even more apparent on his face after his hair was out of his face.
"What is going on, Jisoo?" Jeonghan questioned.
"Okay, so apparently Soonyoung disappeared too. We've figured out that it's only you, me, Junhui, Wonwoo, and Jihoon left. We've been trying to meet with you, but your mother is hellbent on not letting any of us talk to you or letting you out of the house," Jisoo explained.
"So have you been hanging outside of my house to see if I'd sneak out?"
"No, it was honestly a happy coincidence. I was going to meet with the other guys tonight to see if we can stalk out the area and see what's going on."
"That sounds like a horrible idea."
"What are you doing outside at night, then?"
"Checking in on you guys!" Jeonghan exclaimed.
"How is that any different?" Jisoo shot back.
"I'm trying to make sure you guys are safe! I'm not looking for whoever or whatever is taking our friends one by one."
Jisoo went silent. Jeonghan let out a deep sigh, another gust of wind rushing past them. The moon was starting to chuckle, but Jeonghan and Jisoo didn't hear it— the sound of the wind was a little too loud. Jeonghan shook his head and resumed their conversation. "So, you all are meeting up. Where are you meeting?"
"You know that shed that's near the intersection? It's on the main road, so we figured that we'd probably be safest there if we're not at home," Jisoo explained.
"Okay, lead the way then," Jeonghan sighed.
Jisoo started to walk towards the streetlamp, Jeonghan following shortly behind the boy. He heard the wind start to howl in his ears even more than before, which was odd because he didn't feel a huge gust of wind anywhere near him. He found himself slowing his pace, the gap between him and Jisoo increasing with each step. Jeonghan realized that he was walking at the same pace, but he wasn't getting further. He looked behind him to see if there was something holding him back, not that there should be because he didn't feel like anything was holding him back. When he turned, he saw another shadowy figure, but this one was inconsistent and kept shifting. It had three glowing eyes, and Jeonghan immediately realized what it was— this was the thing grabbing them one after the other. He tried to yell for Jisoo, but the wind was howling way too loud that he didn't even know if his words got to him. Jeonghan tried to chase after his friend, but the phantom got him first.
