paranoia / gyuricky

02: ghost hunting

Night fell, and Gyuvin was digging through his dresser while Ricky sat comforting on the former's bed, eating from a package of Hello Panda biscuits. He stared at Gyuvin with interest, stifling a laugh as most of the contents from one of the drawers were being tossed onto the floor.

"What are you looking for?" Ricky eventually asks, getting tired and impatient as it seemed that Gyuvin's search was never going to end.

Gyuvin rips open another drawer, tossing random items that didn't seem necessary for a teenager like him to have onto the floor. "I can't find my flashlight!" he complains.

Ricky glances at the flashlight sitting next to him. and although Gyuvin can't see it, he makes quite the face at him. "Do you mean this one?"

Spinning around, Gyuvin first looks at Ricky, then at the flashlight that was now in his hand. "Yeah," was all he could say, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

"You're so stupid," Ricky lets out with a laugh, standing up to slip the flashlight into Gyuvin's bag, which was already on his back. "We can get going now, right?"

Giving Ricky an enthusiastic nod, Gyuvin beams. "Yes, we are!" He grabs the blonde's hand, giggling excitedly as they leave Gyuvin's house. "Ooh, I'm so excited now! This is my first time ghost-hunting with you. Honestly, I was expecting you to say no, 'cause you don't do dirt or whatever, but no! You actually decided to come! Maybe you just wanted my snacks, but still, this-"

Gyuvin was met with a hand covering his mouth.

"You talk way too much," Ricky interrupts, pulling his other hand free from Gyuvin's tight grasp. "By the time we get there, it'll be morning."

In response, Gyuvin just rolled his eyes, trying to grab Ricky's hand again, pouting when he pulled away. "It's not even that far," he grumbled.

Ricky let the taller hold his hand after being petty about it, chuckling when he noticed Gyuvin's bright smile that lit up the path. "Really? Because it already feels like we've been walking for ages."

"No, we're basically here," Gyuvin protested, pulling Ricky along as they entered the forest.

"Gross," Ricky remarked, lifting his legs up high with every step he took, his feet sinking into the mud.

After walking for what felt like hours, Gyuvin squinted at the map on his phone. He stops dead in his tracks, grabbing onto Ricky's arm to abruptly stop him as well. "I think we're standing on top of it?"

Ricky, with wide eyes, glanced down at his feet; the two were now standing on a mossy patch of dirt that wasn't too far from a road that lacked any cars driving down it. "So," he started, "what now?"

"We dig," Gyuvin replies simply, swinging his bag off one shoulder and opening it to pull out a small gardening shovel. "We only have one, so you can use it."

"You're going to use your hands?" Ricky questioned, making a face of disgust.

The younger nods as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It'll be faster," he states with a shrug, crouching down to the ground, with Ricky doing the same.

Gyuvin first uses his hands to pull away some of the moss that was covering the ground, allowing Ricky to begin digging with the shovel. He turns to another spot, grimacing at the feeling of dirt under his fingernails as he creates a hole in the ground with his hands.

"There's nothing here," Ricky eventually says after the two dig multiple holes in the area. He lets a yawn escape his lips as he uses the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. "She's probably not real."

"No!" Gyuvin exclaimed (rather loudly) in disagreement. "Of course she's real! Maybe she's..." he trails off, standing up and using his flashlight to examine the area once more. "Maybe she's over there!" Gyuvin points to a spot that remained untouched, the moss covering it being red rather than the normal green colour it should be.

With an annoyed sigh, Ricky finds himself crouching over the red and mossy dirt. "If we end up finding nothing, I'm gonna kill you."

Ricky has to take back his words immediately, as his shovel ends up colliding with something hard while he was digging. Despite his aversion to using his hands, Gyuvin pushed him to do so because the shovel wouldn't be able to pry whatever was stuck down there out of the dirt. He gets a good grip on the suspicious item and pulls with all his strength, falling back once it came loose.

...

"We are gathered here today to put an end to Jo Hayoon's evil doings. She is nothing but a witch!"

"I'm not! You have to believe me! I'm not a witch, I'm-"

"Silence at once! Dawn is approaching rapidly, and by the end, you witch will no longer terrorize this very town."

"But it wasn't me!"

"Hang the witch! Hang the witch! Hang the witch! Hang the witch!"