My close friend

Spooky Night

"Happy Halloween! Trick or treat ?"

"Stop being a child already and come in, will ya ?"

Ah, it was that time of the year already. Halloween was the time when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld was believed to have thinned, implying that the spirits on the other side would breach in our world more easily and hence, spiritual and paranormal activity would supposedly be at its peak. Well, this belief originated from the ancient Celtic religion. The Celts, thinking that strange creatures with strange powers would be wandering around on Earth on that particular day, had a really big party with the intention of scaring the ghosts and spirits away. But it was in America that Halloween really took off, with traditions like pumpkin carving and treat-or-treating. We are not going to go further in the history of Halloween, but it is always interesting to know a little bit about the origins of some festivals, especially spooky ones, isn't it ? You guys are welcome, hehe...

Just like any other year, I was spending Halloween's night with Chanyeol with, obviously, a horror movie and scary stories. We would alternately sleep over at my place or at his, and this time, it was at his. We would not celebrate Halloween as you would have expected, with the treats and costumes- okay, we had been doing it when we were little, but we would obviously not do anymore. Telling authentic and frighteningly true stories and scaring the hell out of ourselves was our 'grown-up' way of spending this spooky night.

"So... your mom and dad are really out huh...? That leaves us only you, me, Toben and Eric, in this really big house", I said, quite taken aback by all this as each year, there would always be either of our parents with us at home, in that horrific night. Even though Eric was Chanyeol's uncle, we knew little about his personality so it was almost as if we were on our own in the house, along with our little Toben.

"Yeah, that's pretty much the situation we are in, right now. Hehe... Don't worry, if anything should happen, I am here to protect you", said Chanyeol, trying to sound like the macho man, but who was actually the more coward of us both, hahaha!!

"Ha, that is my line right here, mister. I am sure I will end up being the one to be shielding you from your own shadow. Hahaha!!" I laughed. You guys certainly remember the time when he came to stay over and we had watched Paranormal Activity, and I had scared the hell out of him with my hair all over my face! HAHAHA!! That was honestly a good fright he got there! And I was thinking of scaring him likewise again the moment I would get the opportunity to.

"Ha ha ha", he childishly mimicked my laughter.
"We shall see about that. As they say, he who laughs last, laughs best", he cockily let out.

"Anyway, I will be heading in your studio."

"Good, in the meantime, I'll be getting the snacks. Oh, and you should check Toben out! I think you'll love his little costume."
He loved dressing Toben up during Halloween, and it would seem that with time, Toben had even started to like being dressed too! 

As I was heading towards the studio, I passed by Eric's room, whose door was ajarred only slight, luckily enough for me to have a little peek in and hear about what he was talking about.

"... will be alright. I know you will be able to pull it through; you are a capable man... No, now is no time to doubt your... Good. Okay then, contact me once you shall have accomplish the task at hand. Okay..."
He was normally walking across the room with his phone at his ears. He was wearing a white woolen turtle-neck sweater and black sweater pants. He seemed to really like the turtle-necks, huh. And he still had that fade smile while he was saying those encouraging words, but the melancholy in it was less apparent this time.

That little bit of conversation I 'happened' to have overheard would have certainly convinced Chanyeol that Eric was rightful of a second chance. I was at least able to deduct that he was a really supportive guy and a little bit of an optimist too, as he was trusting a seemingly important matter in the hands of quite a doubtful person. 

I did not linger any longer in front of his room and headed for the studio. Upon opening the doors and lighting up the room, I went to look for Toben in his little bone-imprinted pillow bed that Chanyeol was so proud of having bought. And indeed, that was where I found him, dressed in a dinner suit!! Oh my God, I could not believe my eyes: he was so cute with in little bowtie and black Tuxedo that I was literally on my knees!! He was so well-dressed for a romantic date!!

"Oh my, Toben! You are so cute! Just look at you, all set-up for a candlelight dinner!" Oh my God, I would never be able to thank Chanyeol enough for having had that brilliantly ingenious idea of dressing him up in this little costume!! And if you guys had seen him waggling his little tail and running around excitedly like that, you would have probably started tearing up too!  

"Hey, so he looks fine, isn't he ?" said Chanyeol, proudly. 
When did he even get in!? I did not hear him at all!

"You startled me! Oh he looks way better than just fine Chan! Oh God, thank you for grooming him up like that; that was really an amazing thing you thought about! With that, he is sure to grab all those bitches' attention- Oh", I paused. This sentence was somehow not sounding correct; it had a better sound to it in my head.

"Is there any way to make the thought I have in mind sound less... vulgar ?" I inquired as I looked at Chanyeol who was already dying of laughter at my words. I had to admit that it was quite funny, but that was simply not what I had in mind!

"HAHAHA! He'll be attracting bitches!! HAHAHA!!"

It felt good to hear him laugh like that, and his laughter was so contagious that I could not hold in my laughter, hence I started laughing too. But Chanyeol was laughing really hard at this, thing which I found really satisfying and yet, weird as there was nothing to laugh that hard about. However, making someone laugh was something so gratifying and so pleasant, especially when it was not meant to be funny in the first place!

"Oh, haha... my belly is hurting me now", let out Chanyeol, almost out of breath for having laughed so hard, too hard according to me. It was not even that funny, but since it was Chanyeol, he would laugh on any petty thing, even the least funny one. Yet again, seeing him out of breath and almost tearing up on a silly thing that I said was one of the happiest and nicest view that I have ever had in my life.

"Why are you laughing like that ? Would you just look at how red your ears and cheeks have become, you giant tomato! Haha!! Anyway, what's the plan for tonight ?" I said, trying to get him back on track.

"Well for starters, put your bag down and get comfortable, will you ?" he said as he turned on his laptop. I did as he said and sat on the couch with Toben in my laps. I was honestly not going to let go of him that soon...! 

"What movie are we going  to watch ? IT ?  The Grudge!? Oh, let's watch The Grudge! It's apparently really scary!" I excitedly let out. As much as I liked watching horror movies, I had not yet watched that movie, despite having heard many great reviews about it.

"Okay then, let me look for it... Okay! Let me turn the lights down then. Oh babe, you might as well put Toben down; I don't want you to be squeezing his tiny fragile body on top of having just hurt his paw, if you don't mind", he said sarcastically.

"Oh really ? We shall see about the squeezing. But you are right, Toben should be resting now. Off you go, my handsome little man!" I said as I put Toben down. He nevertheless stayed and laid at my feet, where he soon started sleeping.

Chanyeol turned the lights off, jumped on the sofa next to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I quickly grabbed a bag of chips, tucked into his arms and gave him a light kiss on his cheeks before I got engrossed in the movie.

"You know what is to be done in case we would be having some troubles sleeping later, right ?" cockily said that smirking giant, before leaving a small peck on my lips. Ah, his charming and sexy smirk was at it again!

"Hmm... no, I can't seem to remember. Hehe..." Oh, as if I could have ever forgotten about that night!
He pulled me in closer and kept grinning.

"Well... We might get even more serious tonight then, so that next time it will be impossible for you to forget."