"Yes! I won!!" Natsuki jumped up, doing a little dance.

"Whatever!" Yoongi whined in a small voice. That was so unlikely of him.

"What's so good about winning a race? It's just about who gets done with bathing first."

"Aki-kun, you're just jealous. Admit it," she said, teasing him.

"Oh, but where is Fumiya-kun?" Jimin quickly changed the subject.

"I think I saw him go outside. Maybe he went out for a little walk." Haruki said, rubbing his hair dry with a towel.

"Oh, it's alright then. Shall we go in first? I'm starving." Taehyung clutched his stomach, making everyone laugh.

They just finished bathing, and as expected, Natsuki won the bet she made with Yoongi. She was more than happy that Taehyung helped her and was on her side.

~~~

"Alright! Let's start. I'll go first." Fumiya announced.

Everyone was gathered in one room, seated in a circle, dressed comfortably in the yukatas.

The moon was shining, its rays illuminating the room partially. The lights were turned off intentionally.

It was time for scary stories!!

"Psst!" Natsuki whispered secretly when no one was paying attention to her.

"What is it?" Taehyung replied with a question.

"If you're scared, you can hold onto my hand, okay?"

"Really?" he smiled secretly, pretending to sound thankful, "okay, I will do that."

"So, this is about my older cousin who lives in the countryside. His friend works in a..."

And the story continued. Fumiya was really good at creating atmosphere.

The room was quiet. Everyone was slumped over, hugging their knees or covering their ears but Taehyung only had to hold onto Natsuki's hand. She offered it herself after all!

"Then, if you look back even once... BAM!" everyone flinched, surprised.

"It will crawl out of the cracks on the wall, its mouth dirty with drool dribbling all over its face and hands moving like a snake. It will groan like a dying person, like this," Fumiya put his hands on the mattress, getting on all fours as he acted it out.

"'Natsuki-chan, can you lend me your ear?' and then if you say yes, it will... snatch your ear off the skin. Painfully and slowly."

"Ahh!! Stop it," Natsuki covered her eyes, not wanting to look at Fumiya's scary expressions anymore and scurried more towards Taehyung.

He was still holding her hand, sitting beside her but she was practically hugging him at this point.

"Why do you have to use my name?!" she complained in a small voice.

"Well, that's how it works!" he just shrugged, half smirking and half smiling.

"Ah... alright! Now it's my turn." Taehyung interrupted them.

"You have a story too!? Wow! Okay, let's hear it!" Fumiya got excited, sitting back down on his usual place.

"This is from when I was in South Korea." he started and Natsuki naturally scooted away from him. No one realised because they were all curious about Taehyung's story.

He wasn't someone who talked a lot so instantly, they wanted to know what this was about.

"Both of my parents were usually out for work before my mom quit, so I was used to stay alone at home. Occasionally I'd go to play with my friends at their homes but other than that, I was a lonely kid."

Natsuki wanted to say something but she kept quiet.

"So, this one time, I was invited to a test of courage thingy. They just... well, they only used me as a shield because they thought it would be a fun prank."

"What?! That's unfair!!"

"Hey, Suki-chan, let him continue first." Fumiya shut her up and she obliged.

"We went to a mountain path which led us to an abandoned building, out in the middle of nowhere. We entered through the gate which was surprisingly not locked and suddenly there was crunch sound."

"A crunch?!" Jimin gulped.

"Yes, they were the dried leaves, scattered all over the floor. The windows were broken and the curtains were ripped off. Maybe it was a wild cat's work." he paused for a bit, looking at everyone's face. They were engrossed in the story.

"Then what happened?"

"Then, we heard a meow. We turned around at once but the other guys pushed me to the front, standing behind me. There was a large shadow on the wall facing us. It was a shadow of a cat. And then, there was another loud sound of a cat meowing. I was scared but they kept pushing me to go and take a look so I went ahead."

"Why?!" Natsuki exclaimed in a whiny voice. Her face was scrunched up in anxiety.

"I had to. So, I went inside a room with no lights, it was dark and I couldn't see anything. Then another sound was heard and..."

"And?!"

"And then I blacked out!" he smiled coolly.

"What?! Why isn't there a jump scare?" Jimin asked, disappointed.

"Well, because it happened to me for real. But the real thing is, I woke up in my bedroom after that. My friends didn't bring me back, I asked them already. They said that they heard a loud bang and they got scared so they ran away."

"What the...!! How awful?! Yukio, you should have never made friends like them!!" Natsuki sounded like she was on the verge of tearing up because of the anger.

"This is not the scariest part though!" Taehyung continued.

"Eh?"

"After that day, whenever I had a sleepover at my friend's place, they said, they could hear the eerie meowing sounds, and that I was the reason. I was the one making those sounds in my sleep but, I had no idea about any of that."

"Oh, woah!!" Jimin hurried to hug Yoongi's arm in fear.

"C-come on, Aki-kun. His friends must be kidding, right, Yukio-kun?!" Haruki laughed, trying to sound normal.

"Hmm? Not really! They even made me listen to the recordings and videos. It was me." he said it so casually that everyone was scared. Even Fumiya regretted deciding to talk about scary stories at night.

"That.. can't be! Right, Yukio? It's not possible. You're just scaring us,"

"No, Suki. Why would I lie? But, don't worry, it doesn't happen that often now."

"God damn! Not gonna lie, I'm low-key worried." Yoongi gulped, hugging Jimin back.

"You mean to say, you're scared." Jimin corrected him, earning a smack from Yoongi who was embarrassed to be sacred.

"Uh.. let's just go to sleep. I'm so tired." Haruki stood up, hurrying to find his place on one of the futons.

"Suki, shall we go to our room as well? Yoongi? Let's go." Taehyung looked at them one by one, innocently blinking his eyes.

"Uh, yes." Yoongi stood up, leaving a scared Jimin on the floor who quickly went to hug Haruki in his futon, possibly bothering him until they both will fall asleep.

They silently left the room.

The corridor was dimly lit because of the late night. Fortunately, their rooms were just next to each other.

"I will sleep on the left side, okay?" Yoongi quickly chose the furthest futon and didn't miss a second before he lied down.

"W-what?!" Natsuki sighed, she could only choose the middle one.

Taehyung also lied down on his futon, quickly trying to sleep.

He wasn't bothered at all, meanwhile, Natsuki was so anxious that she couldn't even sleep.

"Yoongi?" she called out to him in a whisper, "are you asleep already?"

"Mhm," he replied in a sleepy voice.

Natsuki mentally groaned, growing scared. The silence was running to bite her.

"Meow~"

Oh, shit!

She flinched, panicking.

He said that it didn't happen so often. He didn't guarantee that it won't happen today!

The sound of it was so low yet so sharp, slashing the silence in a single blow.

"Yukio?" she whispered again in a shaky voice.

"Meow-"

"Yukio..." she couldn't take it anymore and slid into his futon, hugging his waist.

Taehyung was actually enjoying it so far. Teasing her was fun but he didn't expect any of this. Neither he expected her to suddenly hug him like that nor did he think that she would be sobbing like that.

That was too unexpected so he dropped his act and turned around. She flinched again, making him feel guilty.

"Suki?! What happened?" he asked softly, but she only cried even more.

Although she was trying her best not to cry and to be quiet, her sobs were pretty obvious.

"Oh my! I'm so sorry, Suki. Why are you crying? Are you that scared?" he reached out for her but she swatted his hand away.

"N-no, I'm not scared. I'm just sad!" she managed to let out while gasping in between.

"Why sad?" he was confused but the more he waited for her to speak, the more he felt guilty. She didn't stop and kept crying.

"Those guys.. because of them, you had to go through all of those horrible things."

Unbelievable! That's what Taehyung thought at that moment. He realised how innocent she was and that it wasn't really a very good idea to prank everyone like that.

"Suki, please calm down. I'm sorry, I was just pranking you all. The story wasn't true."

"Eh?!" she stopped abruptly for a second, eyes still full of tears as she gazed at him under the dim moonlight.

Then, she again started crying. This time, she covered her face with her hands so that no sounds will be heard. It didn't work though!

Taehyung panicked even more, the guilt bubbled up in his chest and he didn't know what to do to calm her down.

"Suki-chan, I'm really sorry." he could only pull her closer in his arms, hugging her tightly, hoping that she would calm down soon.

"No! How could you do that?" she said groggily, trying to hit him but he kept repeating that he was sorry.

After a good five minutes, she was calmed down, only a few little sniffles were heard.

"Are you.. feeling okay now?" he dared to ask, worried.

She scoffed, pushing him away, but still stayed in his futon.

"What can I do to make things up?! Please, forgive me. I'll never do it again. I didn't know that you would take this so seriously-"

"It's not a joke. It matters. It was so sad that.." her eyes began to tear up again, "you didn't have good friends and you made it sound like you didn't care. I was so worried about you and-"

"Suki," he muttered softly, leaning in so that his face was just in front of hers.

"Stop crying first, will you?" he wiped her face with his fingers but her tears just wouldn't stop.

"N-no, you're so bad!" her voice was shaking and Taehyung couldn't take it anymore.

"If I'm already bad then..." he was so quick that Natsuki had no time to process because, after a second, all she could feel was a soft pair of lips on her own.

It was a quick peck. Soft enough to calm her down but her heart wasn't calm anymore.

"Am I forgiven?" he asked.

She was shook to the core and couldn't utter a word.

"Am I?" he repeated, pulling out the puppy eyes card.

"You- how can I stay mad now?!" she whisper yelled at him, covering her face again.

"I'll take that as a yes." he patted her head a few times, softly caressing her hair.

I wasn't scared, I was sad. The words she used kept resonating in Taehyung's mind. She cared for him. Enough for her to start sobbing like that. It touched his heart so softly it almost hurt. He wasn't used to those gentle gestures of care and support.

"Have a good night's sleep, Suki." he whispered once again before drifting off to sleep himself.

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wow.. I feel so giddy giddy~
I personally like this chapter... it's so my type!!!! Lmfao the scary stories and romance ~ ♡ ~
Hope you enjoyed as well! Vote and comment please! ;]