The Party That Killed || Hyunlix

43 🕸️

3rd person pov.
The boys were once again sitting amidst a pile of tapes and letters, playing one of the recordings. But the atmosphere in the room had changed. Everyone sensed that something was shifting. Things were no longer fitting together logically.

Seungmin stared at the screen, his thoughts racing. With each new tape, he felt that what they were doing was leading them further away from answers. Instead of uncovering the truth, it was as if they were slipping backward – not reaching any goal, only growing more lost.

“What if we’re not supposed to be doing this?” he blurted out suddenly, though he wasn’t sure if he was asking the whole group or himself.

Felix looked at him, surprised. “What do you mean?”

Seungmin ran a hand through his hair, trying to gather his thoughts. “We started all this because we wanted to know the truth, to find out what happened to Chan... But now? I feel like we’re straying from what really happened. The more we watch these tapes, the more everything becomes muddled. Maybe what we’re looking for has already been lost.”

“We can’t give up,” Jeongin replied, as if trying to reassure himself. “If we don’t search for the truth, who will? Chan deserves for us to find out what happened to him.”

“But this isn’t just about Chan anymore, is it?” Felix added, looking at Seungmin with concern. “I feel like it’s more about us now. About what happens when you get too close to things you’d rather not uncover.”

Seungmin paused, deep in thought. “What we’re doing feels… wrong. Like we’re crossing some line. As if we’re starting to dig up things that were meant to stay forgotten. And Chan… He probably wouldn’t want us doing this.”

“We could walk away, but could we live with ourselves knowing we did nothing?” Jeongin asked, his expression momentarily uncertain.

The boys fell silent again. The atmosphere in the room grew heavier, as if the tapes and letters, instead of providing answers, only deepened their uncertainty. Seungmin knew there was no turning back. They had to see it through, but he increasingly felt that each new step took them further from what really mattered.

The boys settled back in front of the screen, the tension in the air thickening. Seungmin, Jeongin, and Felix knew that each new recording might be a key to solving the mystery, yet it also felt as if they were entangling themselves deeper in a web of secrets.

They played the next tape. The screen flickered, and Chan’s voice filled the room. The boys immediately reached for their notes, ready to record each word.

“I’m coming back. The decision’s made, though I’m not sure if it’s the right move… But I’ll try to live better. I just can’t keep going on like this. I need to change,” Chan’s voice sounded tired.

Seungmin felt a twinge of unease, hearing how Chan struggled with his words. “I came back home. I don’t know if it’s a good idea... But maybe this is the beginning of something new. Something I needed.”

“But something’s off…” Felix muttered, and Seungmin looked at him with interest.

On the screen, Chan took a deep breath, as if trying to gather his thoughts. “Lately, I’ve been buying weed from some guy. Sometimes it feels like it’s the only way to feel better… I don’t know why I did it, but… it’s starting to wear me out, I think.”

The screen wavered, and Chan’s voice paused momentarily.

Seungmin flinched at the words. He remembered a conversation they’d had with that guy they’d met a few days earlier. The guy, who allegedly sold Chan the weed, seemed strangely calm when mentioning Chan. He had said that Chan had “started freaking out” after that. It hadn’t seemed right then, but now… everything started to form some strange pattern.

“It all makes sense…” Jeongin said, as if piecing together the facts. “That guy… he said Chan was acting weird. And now we can see that this weed… It could’ve had something to do with what happened to him later.”

“Why didn’t we notice this sooner?” Seungmin felt his heart race. All of it – the strange disappearances, the changes in behavior – it was beginning to make sense, although it still felt incomprehensible. “He mentioned that guy, but we didn’t connect it.”

“And the fact that he came back home seems odd… If it all started with the weed, what happened after that?” Felix glanced at the screen. “There’s something to this. Chan couldn’t just come back and start living normally. Something must have happened after he started taking those things.”

“We need to find out what really happened after… And who led him down that path. If it’s that guy, we need to know where he is now,” Jeongin added.

The boys sat in silence again, feeling that each new discovery only deepened their sense of confusion. Chan hadn’t just disappeared; he was changing into someone completely different.

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3rd person pov.
Seungmin had fallen asleep on the couch, exhausted from the long day filled with revelations and dark recordings. His mind was still on his brother, each new detail disturbing and confusing him more. He didn’t know how to deal with it all. Everything they uncovered became more ambiguous and unsettling.

Sleep came quickly. He was home. In his old house – the one he barely remembered. He stood in a room that seemed the same, yet somehow different. The space felt unnaturally quiet, as if time had frozen here. Everything was covered in dust, except for one detail: the same old photograph lay on the table, the one he had seen in one of the recordings. The same boy was in it. But something was wrong. His face was blurred. And although Seungmin knew he shouldn’t, he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the picture. Something drew him in, something unsettling, something he didn’t understand.

Suddenly, he felt a tug from behind. He turned, frightened. Someone was in the room, but he couldn’t see their face. The figure stood in the shadows, waiting for something. Then… it took hold of his hand. He recognized the touch. It was Chan. Seungmin felt it in his heart, stronger than any logical explanation.

“Brother…” Chan said, but his voice sounded strange, distant, as if it was coming from another dimension.

Seungmin wanted to respond, but he couldn’t. His throat was tight, and he couldn’t make a sound. He didn’t understand why he was playing the role of his brother in this dream. A forgotten brother…

“Don’t go,” he pleaded, his hand still gripped by Chan.

Suddenly, he felt the ground start to collapse. The floor began to crumble, and he and Chan started to fall into darkness. His scream caught in his throat, the sky above them growing darker until it disappeared entirely. And then, in the distance, a face appeared – blurred, unrecognizable. The same face from the photograph he had seen earlier.

Seungmin tried to do something, tried to hold on to Chan, but his hands slipped. All he could do was watch as the image of the boy slowly faded into the darkness.

He woke up with a scream.

Struggling to open his eyes, he felt lost. It was just a dream, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that some part of his life – a part he couldn’t fully remember – was lost in the dark. He felt as if not only Chan was in danger, but he himself was, too.

He lay there in silence for a moment, unsure if everything that was happening was just his imagination or if he was really uncovering something he wasn’t meant to know.

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Movie suggestion: Ginger Snaps II (2004)