"Okay, class, We will begin to pull numbers for the haunted trail to team you up. Please form a single line." The teacher instructed.
Soona stands beside Yena, followed by Yeonjun then Beomgyu.
"What if you're teamed with Taehyun?" Yena snickered.
"Not funny!" Soona lightly slaps her arm.
The teacher started the beginning of the line and finally reached Yena; Yena pulls the paper out of the box.
"You can't open it until everyone has one, no peeking!"
Soona reaches her hand inside, fiddling around and finally grabbing one. 'Anyone but Taehyun, please,' she thinks to herself.
The last person to draw was Kai, and everyone was standing with papers in their fingers, waiting anxiously.
"Everyone open your paper and find your partner, no switching papers." Slowly the four opened their papers.
"4." Soona says, "12" Beomgyu reads, "12 Yeonjun reads, and finally Soona opened her paper to see the number '8'.
"8? who?" She looked around.
"I was hoping we'd be paired, but that's okay!" Yena signed; Kai walked toward Yena and opened his paper to her.
"I'm four too." He smiled. "Oh, thankfully, it's someone I don't dislike." She sighed, relieved.
"Who's eight?" Beomgyu asks; Soona's eyes darted around the crowd. At least four people were looking around for their partners, not including her.
"Good luck guys, I'll go find my partner." Soona dismisses herself and walks over to her classmate.
"What's your number?"
"9"
"Excuse me, What's your number?"
"6"
"Soona, what's your number?" Soobin asks beside her; Soona hoped in her heart it was him and not Taehyun.
"I'm 8."
"Oh? I'm eight too." He smiles, holding the small paper cup.
"Thank God!" Soona yelled, causing the people in the vicinity to look.
"Sorry.." She whispered.
"Since everyone has their partner, I'll tell you the rules. Everyone cannot separate from their partner the woods is very big it's easy to become lost. We have painted trees leading to exits, but it's easy to miss if you're running. Please look after the classmates you're responsible for, and everyone should be back before two hours is over. Also, no inappropriate acts as last year; we will not tolerate it." The teacher handed everyone a flashlight with a map.
"We will have a big celebration when everyone arrives back, so do your best!"
"Woah, This maps huge!"Â Yena says, looking at the map, it was made into three different types of areas.
"Are you scared yet?" Kai asks.
"Not even! You'll hear Soona scream later, and I'm sure, though." She chuckled to herself.
"Don't worry, and I'll protect you." Yeonjun teased Beomgyu.
"Who said I'm scared? I bet you'll scream first!"
"I bet you your thermal backpack you'll scream first."
"My backpack?! that was expensive!" Beomgyu rejected his offer.
"Too late to reject it; let's see who wins." Yeonjun walked ahead. "H-Hey wait!" Beomgyu ran behind him.
"Are you cold?" Soobin asks, seeing Soona shaking a little.
"I'm fine; I'm just anxious." She says, darting her eyes around feeling watched.
"Don't worry; we haven't reached the first stop yet."
"R-Right." She nodded.
"That's a nice watch." Soobin pointed out.
"Oh, thank you, it was a gift."
"Is it digital?"
"It's a touchscreen too but doesn't touch it. It's highly sensitive." She warned.
"I see; it must have been expensive."
"It's one of a kind."
"We're about to reach the first stop. It's ahead."
"Let's just hurry." Soona prepared herself as they approached the spiderwebs dangling in the trees. It was a long sticky material they used that clung to the clothes.
"Are we the first ones here?" Soobin looks around.
"That or they chose another route." She picks the strings off her clothing.
Suddenly the machine begins to disperse the fog making it hard to see.
"Watch your feet; it's easier to trip," Soobin warned.
Soona picks her feet up high with every step to avoid anything in the way.
In the distance, they see a giant spider figure; as they approached closer to the spider, it suddenly opened, and a person shot out.
Soona screams and grabs into Soobin's arm tightly.
Soobin tried to retain his laughter; Soona slowly looks up to see the person staring back at her; she quickly closes her eyes again and continued walking.
"It wasn't that bad." Soobin laughed as they continued through the fog.
"No, that bad?!" She says in disbelief.
"I expected that to happen."
As they walked on the path, they heard a screen echo behind them, and someone else was walking the path.
"Oh my god, no, no-no." Yena dodges the person coming toward her.
"Yena, don't leave me!" Kai catches up to her.
"Ah no!" She yelled as the person shoots the sticky string toward her hair.
"not my hair!" She whined, which was heard by Soona and Soobin ahead.
"You're worried about only that?!" Kai exclaimed, seeing the freakishly dressed person.
"Help me!" She says, picking the strings out of her hair.
"Ew, it feels like old spaghetti," Kai says in disgust.
"The flashlight stopped working," Yeonjun says, hitting it.
"No, you're lying." Beomgyu grabbed it from him and continued hitting it, but nothing came on.
"Well, come on, let's go ahead and enter the tent." Yeonjun dragged him along.
"No, no! it's dark!" Beomgyu tried to pull back but failed.
They stepped inside the dark tent, and it was pitch black with low red lighting. The fog made the effect look as if they were in the water.
"This is cool," Yeonjun says.
"No!" Beomgyu clinches to his arm.
"Leave my woods." Evil laughter erupted out of the darkness.
"Let's go back!" Beomgyu exclaimed, pulling the arm of Yeonjun.
"There's no turning back." The voice croaks out.
A hand was placed on Beomgyu's shoulder. He turned his head to see the witch staring at him.
He screams and throws Yeonjun behind him toward the witch.
"Did you hear that scream?" Soona says, walking toward the tent.
"It sounded scared.. are you sure we should go?" Soobin looks.
"Let's just go." Soona grabs his arm, walking bravely inside.
"It's so dark!" Soobin says, trying to adjust his eyes, the red lights began to flow.
Another scream was heard not too far ahead by Yeonjun this time.
"That's Yeonjun." Soona laughed; suddenly, the witch begins talking, making her laughter stopped.
"Oh no," Soobin says.
"I'll put you in my oven~."
"Come see the food I've prepared for you from our last guests.~"
"Oh no, I'm out of here." Soona rushes forwards, leaving Soobin to fend for himself.
She rushes out of the tent to be met with black fog; she covers her nose and walks forward.
"Soona! don't just leave me." Soobin says behind her.
"Sorry!" She says, squinting ahead.
Suddenly sounds of metal chains begin to appear behind them.
Soona runs off again; this time, she ran without seeing ahead that she bumps into someone's back, making them both fall over under the fog.
"I'm sorry- Yeonjun?" She widened her eyes.
"Shh!" He pulled her down more to the ground.
"Why?"
"I'm trying to scare Beomgyu." He says, looking smug.
"That's bad." She scolded him, and the fog was so thick you couldn't see above or under it.
"Soona?" Soobin asks, walking the path.
"I'm-" Suddenly, Yeonjun places a hand over her mouth.
"Let's get him too." He whispered.
Soona nods her head and waits for him to pass them both by; he walks by them and continues looking until he met up with Beomgyu.
"Soobin? where's Soona?"
"Where's Yeonjun?" Soobin asks the same.
"Oh my gosh, they're both gone!" Beomgyu panicked.
"Relax, I'm sure they're still around."
"What if they got lost?!"
"It'll be fine, don't worry."
"Come on." Yeonjun helps her stand from the fog, Soona wipes her jeans off.
"Let's catch up to them, and then we'll scare them." He grabs Soona's, pulling her along.
"Soona! Yeonjun!" They take turns yelling out.
"They are gone," Beomgyu says, worrying.
"That's the last area ahead. Maybe they're inside."
"Oh no, they're going inside there; we have to go too," Yeonjun says, sighing.
"Let's just go."
The last area was the opposite of scary, and it seemed almost a dreamlike state. The trees had glowing branches, the leaves even appearing a green color.
The flowers were bloomed all around, the colors filling their eyes. The minor lighting bugs flew around Soona and Yeonjun.
"This doesn't seem scary.." He says, looking confused.
"He did this.." She whispered out; Yeonjun looks over, "What? Who?"
"Nothing it's - it cant be a part of the trail."
"Then what is it?"
"It's ..." She stops her words; he shouldn't even be seeing this. It was against the rules to use your power like this, a rule Taehyun was breaking.
Yeonjun bent down to touch the flowers, his fingers traced over the red ones.
"Don't pick them." Soona grabs his hand.
"Why?"
"Just don't let's get out of here." She grabs his arm.
"Are you okay?" Yeonjun asks.
"I'm fine."
They walked along the trail, but it didn't seem to end after five minutes.
"Why aren't we out yet?" Yeonjun asks, looking around.
"I- Close your eyes."
"Close my eyes. Why?."
"Just do it and promise me you won't open them until I say so!"
"Okay, I'm closing them." He closes his eyes tightly.
She never takes her eyes off him as she takes a deep breath. She clears her mind, calling upon her internal power, which starts to emit out from her fingertips.
She points the light toward the center of the path to see a seal was placed from anyone exiting.
"That Taehyun." She sighed and closed her eyes.
"It seems I've caught you both." A voice erupts Soona from her concentration. She quickly retracts her form and turns back to see Taehyun.
"Why are you here?" Soona snarls.
"Let's talk." He says, walking past Yeonjun toward Soona.
"But first, let's do something about him." He raises his hand toward Yeonjun, and Suddenly Yeonjun collapses.
"Yeonjun! What did you do?!" Soona bends down, trying to wake him.
"He'll be asleep for an hour, time for me to fix this and talk." He destroys his deal, and the woods returned to normal.
"What are you doing?!" Soona stands to face him.
"I'm doing what you should have." He laughed, walking away.
"You!" Soona feels enraged and shoots a beam of her internal force toward Taehyun.
He blocks it; the beam returned, hitting Soona, making her fall over.
"Injured with your powers; how fun. He walked toward her on the ground, bent over.
"That's also against the rules, no fighting." He says, stopping in his tracks.
"You have broken many already." She stands up, trying again, but he blocked it this time; it hits the tree, doing a split down the middle.
"What a strong force this is...A fire element, right? It's been a long time since I've seen one. You know fire angels can never be true angels. They hurt everything they touch." He laughed.
"You don't know that." She says with anger dripping from her voice, and she stood.
"I was one. You'll end up like me if you continue trying to fight the truth."
"Let's see your true form tonight. I'll allow you to fight me in return for seeing your form." He steps back.
"True form? That's another rule I won't be breaking." She laughed.
"Are you afraid it's not good enough?"
"I'm afraid you can't handle it." She laughed, walking forwards.
"What if.." He holds his hand in the direction of Yeonjun.
"Stop! they have nothing to do with this." She steps in front of his hand.
"Why do you care so much for these clients?" He huffed.
"They're my friends!"
"They're just your mission. They'll forget you." He laughed at her stupidity.
"I'm afraid I picked the wrong guy; it's not Yeonjun you worried of; he's just a normal human. It's Beomgyu you should be." He chuckled.
"Beomgyu, why?"
"You don't have good eyes. Beomgyu isn't like normal clients."
"How?"
"Beomgyu; He's your opposite."
"You're lying."
"Why would I lie? why do you think I'm so set on keeping him?" He laughed.
"You can have this...Yeonjun. Find me when you want a real fight." He disappears.
Soona rushes over toward Yeonjun; she lightly slaps his cheeks.
"Yeonjun, wake up now." She continued this for ten minutes until, finally, his eyes shot open. He awoke, gulping for air.
"What happened?!"