Chapter Text
One:
They weren’t supposed to be using the walkie-talkies after bedtime. But Bokkie did as she pleased and snuck the little device under her pillow when her parents weren’t looking. Before turning in for the night, she turned it on in hopes to say goodnight to her cousin. Since his family moved in, just several houses down, she’d really enjoyed how she could use the walkie talkies to chat with her cousin rather than having to phone, or FaceTime, or wait until his family decided to visit.
“Goodnight, Channie. Bokkie is going to sleep now.” She waited a moment or two, expecting the older to reply with a question as to why she was up so late, but received nothing but silence in return. Thinking her older cousin had already fallen asleep, Bokkie shrugged it off. Just as she was about to her walkie talkie off, the thing crackled to life from the other end, the sound of someone trying to respond, only for it to cut off suddenly. The little walkie talkie crackled to life once, twice, but there was nothing that came from her cousin’s end other than static. It was on the third time that it crackled to life that a rustling sound could be heard on Chan’s end, which was followed by a shaky intake of breath. His voice came out as a mere whisper.
“Bokkie…eomma isn’t eomma anymore.” His voice, although quiet, was scared.
Bokkie’s face screwed up in confusion, not understanding what her cousin meant. “What do you mean?” she asked.
She waited for a reply, staring at the small little device intensely, willing it to come back to life. Several moments went by before the little device came back to life. She heard a hitch of his breath followed by a gasp as there was a loud crash on his end, probably a door hitting the wall as it was slammed open. She heard Chan whimper
"Christopher. I thought I told you it was time for bed."
The voice sent chills down young Yongbok's back. It was Aunt Honey's voice, but the tone, it didn't sound right. There was just something about her voice that sounded...off; she couldn't place her finger on it. After hearing a large commotion on Chan's end, a moment of eerie silence followed before it was interrupted by the sound of ragged breathing and the slap of bare feet on a laminated floor.
“I'm going outside, Bokkie-” An inhuman like scream ripped through the speaker of the device, making Yongbok recoil as it struck fear into her heart, making the organ beat faster. The walkie-talkie connection cut short, leaving Yongbok in an uncomfortable silence. She tossed the covers off herself and bounded out of bed as she shuffled over to her bedroom window.
Outside, in the dark of the night, the streetlights were the only thing that kept everything from being lost to the pitch black of the night. From where Bokkie’s bedroom window was positioned, it looked out perfectly onto the street, and if she pressed her face to the glass and looked to the left, she could see her cousin’s house. All the windows were dark, the only lights on were the porchlights and the streetlights that cast warm pools down the street. Even from the awkward position, her face smushed against the glass, what she saw with her little eyes didn’t look good at all.
She saw the front door burst open and her aunt emerged, dragging Chan, one hand on the back of his neck, the other gripping firmly to his bicep. Auntie Honey wasn’t the type to ever be mean or aggressive with Changbin or Chan, so seeing the older woman being so rough with her youngest disturbed Bokkie. She watched as her aunt continued to drag her cousin down the street, stopping briefly only to lift him up and carry him under her arm. Bokkie's heart pounded so loud as she watched her cousin struggle, any screams for help were quickly cut short as Auntie Honey slapped her free hand over his mouth.
Shaking herself from her shock, she went running downstairs to the kitchen where both her were. They normally stayed up later to discuss how their own days had gone as well as to clean up the kitchen and sometimes prepare meals for the following day. He father sat at the kitchen table, his eyes focused on a newspaper as he sipped tea from his favorite coffee mug.
“Daddy!”
“What’s wrong, princess?” he asked, brushing back a strand of her hair. All her words came out in a rush, to which her father only looked at her, a puzzled look on his face. Bokkie whined in distress, at not being understood the first time.
“What’s going on?” her mother asked, glancing up from the dishes she'd been drying, looking concerned. “Baby, why are you up?”
“Channie! He’s in trouble!” She ran over to her mother and yanked on her hand, urging her to come to the front door. “I was saying goodnight to Channie, and he sounded very scared. And there were a bunch of loud noises on the other end of the walkie talkies–something bad happened!”
"I thought I told you to keep those walkie-talkie out of your bedroom," Lina said. She came and knelt down in front of Bokkie so they were eye level. "Why would Channie be in trouble though, hmm, lovebug?"
Bokkie blinked back tears that threatened to fall. "I don't know," she whined, "But it's bad! Something bad happened!"
Seungmin got up from his spot at the kitchen table and headed to the front door where he slipped on some shoes. “Well, why don’t we go check it out, hmm?”
Lina straightened up and wrapped her housecoat tighter around her frame, tying the belt, looking apprehensive. “Really? At this hour? I’d hate to disturb them-”
“We know where they keep the extra key—I don’t think they’ll mind if we slip in and see if things are okay.” Lina sighed and slipped on a pair of flipflops that sat near the front door. She picked up Bokkie, balancing her on her hip as they made the short walk down the street to Hyunjin and Jisung’s house.
Other than the porch light, which only gave off a small pool of light around the door, the entire house was shrouded in darkness. Using the flashlight on his phone, Seungmin hunted around the front step until he found the broken flower pot that hid amongst the flowers that sat on the porch, producing a spare house key. He glanced over to the driveway, noting how the car was still there, so if they had gone somewhere, it had to have been on foot. That was concerning--people disappearing in the middle of the night when they should have been snuggly tucked in bed was always concerning. Disappearing seemingly into thin air was all the more concerning.
The front door swung open, a soft squeak sound as it swing back on its hinges. And as they edged their way further into the house, Seungmin noticed a purse sitting on one of the stools that stood at the kitchen island. Quietly, he crept up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. Some of the doors stood closed, some were open, but with each room he glanced into, each room came up empty. At the top landing of the stairs, he looked around again, uncertain about what to do.
“Hello? Hyunjin? Chan?”
The silence responded loudly.
The house was empty.
“Were you trying to find a place that was close to us, or was that just pure coincidence?” Seungmin asked, eyeing the house in admiration.
“Pure coincidence. Why would I want to be near you when I struggled so hard to get away from the family home?” Jisung asked, giving a playful nudge to his brother’s shoulder. “We were looking something a bit bigger, something reasonably priced, and something Hyunjin liked. She can be so picky when it comes to some things.”
“You don’t say?”
Jisung sighed. He pulled a couple boxes that had been wedged into the back of their vehicle, gesturing with his head for Seungmin to lend a hand and help out. He took out a couple more boxes too and the pair made the short trek from the driveway to the garage door that led into the kitchen. “We must have viewed at least twelve other places before coming to this place.”
This house was slightly bigger than their previous one, and older as well. But the previous owners had renovated almost all the rooms other than the basement, which remained unfinished. The outside was made from dark bricks, the door and window trims painted a dark green color. Although the paint was starting to peel a bit, and the roof tiles would probably need to be replaced soon, it had so much charm just by looking at it. During the viewing, Hyunjin had walked through the house as though in a trance, truly enthralled by every little detail.
After they had left, she wouldn’t stop talking about it to Jisung. She’d practically pestered him into putting in an offer to buy the house. The first floor and the stairs were a dark laminated flooring, made to look like real wood grain. It complimented the different shades of beige that the rooms were painted. The only room on the main floor that offered any color was the kitchen, which was painted a light yellow. It went well with the honey colored cabinets, warming up the room.
He directed Seungmin to place the box in the hall near the living room and he placed his box atop that. As he headed back out to the car to remove more boxes, he spotted Chan sitting at the base of the staircase, his chin resting in his hands, his expression looking rather glum.
“What’s the matter, champ?” Jisung asked, kneeling down so he was eye level with his son.
“I want to share a room with Binnie,” Chan whined. "But he doesn't want to share with me."
"Well, this house is big enough for both of you to have your own room. Isn’t that exciting?” He lifted Chan up into his arms, groaning a bit as he did so; it wasn’t like Chan weighed much but sometimes he forgot how quickly his youngest was growing. "Do you want daddy to help you pick a room?"
Chan hummed in thought before nodding, leaning in as he rested his head on Jisung's shoulder. Jisung carried his son upstairs and spun around on the upstairs landing as he analyzed the availiable rooms. The master bedroom was the first on the left, followed by the hall bathroom straight ahead. That left three or four empty rooms for Chan to choose from. Jisung hummed thoughtfully as he walked into one room that was next to the bathroom.
"What about this one? You're ight across from Binnie's room," he said, pointing to the room across the hall where he could see Changbin had brought up his stuff that had been packed away in the back of their car. "And you got a great view of the backyard.
Still looking displeased at his options, Chan pouted. He shrugged. "It's okay."
For a few days, as they started to settle and unpack, they had to manage with finding their stuff by rooting around in all the boxes. The kitchen and bathrooms were among some of the first rooms to be fully unpacked. The boys had unpacked most of their belongings by the end of the week, as had Jisung and Hyunjin for most of the stuff belonging in the master bedroom.
The living room, dining room and basement were still an mess of boxes as they started to near the two week period of being in their new home. The only other room that had been mostly unpacked was the shared roomed that doubled as an office and art studio. Hyunjin had unpacked all her painting supplies, and had stored them away in their respective places while Jisung's desk was still surrounded by boxes. His work hours hadn't given him a lot of spare time to unpack. But he didn't need the space right away.
He was just about to retire for the night and came to bid his wife goodnight. For the last hour and a half, she’d shut herself away in their shared office space, glued to an easel as she started to sketch out her next painting. That was something he admired about her, how in the zone she got about her passions--it reminded him a bit of himself, and perhaps that was one of the reasons why they'd clicked so well when they'd first met back in college.
“I’m going to head to bed now.”
“...goodnight, honey.” Her response was soft, absent-minded, as her focus was clearly elsewhere. Jisung glanced at the clock, his eyes widening at the time; it was nearing one o'clock; he knew that his sleep schedule was all over the place, but his wife's sleep schedule was fairly consistent. Only when she'd been pregnant with Chan had she really struggled with any type of sleeping problem. She must have been really in the zone to be sketching so late into the night.
“Did you plan on coming to bed soon, baby?”
Not even bothering to look away from the canvas, Hyunjin simply nodded, humming an affirmative. Clearly, whatever piece she was working on was far more interesting than he could ever be. Jisung pouted and shuffled his way further into the room. He rested his hands on his wife's shoulders and gave them a small squeeze as he then wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder.
“What are you drawing?” Jisung asked, glancing at the canvas, curious. He tilted his head, trying to to make sense of what he saw. It looked like someone's portrait, but rarely did he ever see Hyunjin sketch out portraits. Especially of people they didn’t know. Hyunjin shrugged, placing the pencil on the little shelf where art supplies could be stored in the easel. One hand came up to caress Han's face softly while her eyes were still focused on what she had drawn.
“I’m not really sure…I just felt…compelled to draw. And this is what came out.”
“...huh.” He continued to stare at the sketch, unable to look away from the beady eyes that stared back at him. There was something unnerving about it, even though it was just a rough sketch. If she decided to finish the portrait, he couldn’t help but think it would be something from someone’s nightmare.