Echoes In The Wood|| Taekook|✓

2. Echoes of the Fall

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"The forest has a way of pulling you in, doesn’t it?"

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Jungkook moved deeper into the forest, his footsteps crunching softly against the bed of leaves and twigs scattered across the ground. The air was thick with the scent of pine and damp earth, cool against his skin compared to the warmth of the clearing. Despite the sunlight filtering through the branches, there was a dimness here that made it feel like twilight had already settled in.

He scanned the ground for fallen branches, mentally calculating how much firewood they’d need for the night. His friends’ voices grew fainter behind him, swallowed by the trees.

Alone, at last. He didn’t mind solitude, especially not in a place like this. It was peaceful, in a way.

But even as he told himself that, the strange sensation crept back. That quiet, heavy feeling. Like he was being watched.

Jungkook paused and looked around. The forest stretched out in every direction, the trees packed tightly together, their branches twisting and curling in ways that almost seemed unnatural. He shivered but brushed it off, continuing his search.

Just as he crouched down to pick up a fallen branch, a soft rustling sound caught his attention. His hand froze mid-air. It wasn’t the wind—that much he knew. It was subtle, too deliberate.

He straightened up slowly, his eyes scanning the trees.

“Probably just an animal,” he muttered under his breath, though his heartbeat quickened a little.

Still, he felt it again—that pull. Like something deeper in the forest was calling him, drawing him closer. He stood there for a moment, listening, but the sound had stopped. The forest was eerily quiet now.

A moment later, he heard laughter in the distance—his friends, still back at camp, oblivious to whatever was stirring out here. Jungkook exhaled, shaking his head. He needed to focus. The quicker he collected the wood, the sooner he could get back and enjoy the fire with the others.

“Alright, no more ghost stories for me,” he muttered, trying to shake off the strange feeling once more.

He began walking again, this time venturing a bit farther. It seemed like the best branches were just out of reach, hidden in the denser part of the woods. The trees grew closer together here, their trunks thick and gnarled, making it harder to navigate. But Jungkook pressed on.

After a few more minutes of walking, he spotted a perfect pile of firewood near a cluster of rocks.

“Finally,” he sighed in relief, bending down to gather as much as he could carry. As he worked, the forest remained quiet—too quiet, maybe. But he forced himself not to think about it.

It wasn’t until he straightened up again, arms full of wood, that he realized something was wrong.

The path he had come from... it wasn’t there.

Jungkook blinked, turning in a slow circle. The trees looked the same in every direction, dense and unfamiliar. He frowned, trying to remember exactly which way he had walked, but everything blurred together. It wasn’t like him to get turned around so easily.

"Just retrace your steps," he muttered to himself, glancing over his shoulder. But the more he looked, the more he realized the path had vanished completely.

His heart gave a small, nervous flutter. "Okay. No big deal."

He started walking in what he thought was the direction of the camp, but with each step, the forest seemed to close in tighter. The trees were taller here, their branches tangled and twisted above him, blocking out more of the sky. There was no sound—no rustle of animals, no wind. Just silence.