SO YEONWOO WAS walking towards her tent, feeling very pleased with herself. Suho would have never approached Jugyeong if she hadn't intervened—with that, she gave herself a mental pat on the back.

She was thinking about unveiling the deck of cards she had packed into her suitcase when she came across Chorong and 'the gang' exiting their tent.

"Hi Yeonwoo!" Chorong said, waving emphatically at her. The rest of the gang followed suit, calling out cheerfully, "Hello Jeong Yeonwoo!"

"Hello to you all!" Yeonwoo chuckled. She found them likeable and funny, despite the street fighter persona they attempted to keep up. She noticed that they all had headlights fastened to their foreheads. "What are you guys up to?"

"Can you keep a secret?" He whispered loudly.

"Of course I can. What's up?"

"We're going to visit the haunted well!"

"The haunted well? The one the campsite manager told us to stay away from?"

"Exactly! You're so smart, Yeonwoo-ah." The rest of the boys murmured their agreement. "Wanna tag along?"

"S-Sure," she said slowly. 

Chorong linked arms with her. "We're going to have so much fun!" He nodded towards Manshik, whose expression was one of slight terror. "See! Yeonwoo's braver than you."

"Yeahhh!" They cheered voraciously. Yeonwoo gave him a sympathetic smile, as she too felt a bit trepidatious going to a haunted well.

They all whooped again when Mansik relented. Their excitement was so infectious, she couldn't help but laugh with them.

They walked towards the forest path, in which Seojun appeared.

"Where are you guys headed?" He asked, eyes resting for a tad second longer upon Yeonwoo. 

(He still felt a bit iffy over her abandoning them for Ha Minkyu).

Mansik blurted out, "He's off to see the ghost!"

Chorong said excitedly, "A ghost is said to appear at the well. A video of us searching for it will go viral! Come with us."

Seojun scoffed. "I can't be bothered so have fun."

The gang whined. Chorong said, "Seojun, I see you're scared of ghosts. Look, even Yeonwoo's not scared of them!" He tugged on Yeonwoo's arm, inciting a laugh from the girl.

Seojun laughed loudly, before fixing a deadly expression upon them. "So where's this well?"

The boys saluted. "There!" Seojun walked swiftly ahead of them, and they all cheered. "Seojun is going with us!"

"What are you doing? Let's go!" Chorong had noticed Yeonwoo's feet were still firmly planted upon the ground.

Her face, which had been devoid of emotion, immediately broke into a smile. "Let's go then."

—

It just so happened that along the walk, Seojun had slowed his walk to the point where he was walking beside Chorong and Yeonwoo, whose arms were still linked.

"I'm thinking about starting to go to the gym. I need to lose at least five pounds," Chorong pouted.

Yeonwoo patted his arm affectionately. "If you decide to go to the gym, do it for fun. And don't do it for anyone else's standards."

He brightened. "Will you join me?"

"Of course! I haven't been to the gym in ages, and I really want to start going again."

Chorong gasped in amazement. "Seriously, Wah, you're really amazing."

Seojun cleared his throat. But the pair was oblivious to his presence, and were still busy chattering about everything under the sun—their favourite food, movies, hobbies.

"Hey, hey, hey," Mansik whispered to the rest of the gang. "Doesn't Seojun look a little bit ... jealous?" They dissolved into giggles.

"Look at his face!" Jinwoong chortled. "He looks as if he's about to piss his pants."

"Our leader," Gunwoo snickered.

Hearing their laughter, Seojun snapped his head towards them accusingly. That immediately shut them up, for they began looking anywhere else in order to avoid his murderous eyes.

"Yah, yah, yah!" Having finally reached his breaking point, Seojun eased his way in between the pair. "Chorong, bug off. I want to talk to Yeonwoo for a little while."

Chorong protested, "But I want to—" But he looked down meekly when Seojun's eyes pierced daggers into him.

Once the gang had walked on ahead, Yeonwoo began, "Sooo, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Ah ... that. Did ... did someone from the company approach you for Seyeon's memorial album?"

"Oh that. Yes, Heekyung-unnie."

"You're on a first-name basis with her?"

"She was very polite and friendly. And she said she has siblings who attend Saebom with us."

"And did you ... "

"Did I what?"

He bit back a chuckle and said with good humour, "You can be very infuriating sometimes. Did you agree for Seyeon's memorial album to be released."

"I did."

"You did?!"

"And what's so startling about that? Heekyung-unnie seemed very genuine. I know very well the CEO had nothing to do with it, he would never think of anything that touching. And Seyeonnie's fans deserve a memorial album." She narrowed her eyes. "They approached you too, didn't they? How did you respond? Judging by your expression, rudely I suppose. But I'm one to talk." 

She sighed. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you in front of Hyungjin-oppa at the shopping centre."

Seojun flushed. "No, it was understandable. I was being very ... annoying."

"No, I should have explained in the first place. Hyungjin-oppa is my grandmother's neighbour. He lives at least half a mile away from us, but he's the closest neighbour we've got. My grandmother and his grandmother have side-by-side produce stalls at the market so we always hung out there with them. He's most definitely not a 'strange man', he's like my older brother."

Seojun could not help but breathe a sigh of relief once she said that. He was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud shriek followed by another series of terrified yells.

They glanced at each other. "What was that?"

"I-I don't know." A shiver went down Yeonwoo's back when he remembered they were on the way to visit a haunted well. "But it sounded like Chorong and the gang."

"Are you scared?" He teased, despite feeling slightly scared himself. "Want to hold my hand?"

Her face blushed red. "Don't say things like that with such a serious face. Let's go check it out."

They walked on further until they reached the junction where another path converged from the well.

"The well is right here. Where did they go?" Yeonwoo said, peering around the well. "He was right though—the well does look creepy. Take a look, Seojun." She reached for his hand to pull him closer.

When he did not bend down, she raised herself up, confused. Her cheeks were red from the cold and her hair blew across her face. Seojun's hand went up to push it back behind her ear—he still wasn't used to her jet-black tresses. Nonetheless, he thought her as beautiful as ever; as beautiful as she was when they were fifteen and happy, when Seyeon was still alive and the constant veil of melancholy surrounding her didn't exist.

"What are you doing?" Her heart skipped a beat.

"I'm tired of not chasing after what I want." It was now or never. "Jeong Yeonwoo, I—"

Just then, there was the sound of a bell ringing from the tree. Instantly, they were drawn to the sound and they both turned to look towards the tree.

A shadowy figure with long, dark hair clung onto the tree, dripping water onto the ground. Drip, drip, drip. Suddenly, it flew down to the ground, white nightgown billowing around it. It settled on its haunches and glanced at them, and the pair were terrified out of their wits at the sight of its mud-covered face.

With no warning at all, it rushed past them. A shocked yell escaped from Seojun as he fell back like a rag doll, arms flailing about uselessly. On the other hand, Yeonwoo simply turned pale and eyes rolling backwards, she passed out on top of Seojun.

The poor souls—they had been knocked out cold.

—

a/n: hahaha sike! just a reminder this story is going to be really really slow burn with a tad of angst 😀