Work Text:
Donghyuck isn't afraid of ghosts. He doesn't lie awake at night after a good horror film, caught up in the possibilities and what ifs. But there's something inherently creepy about graveyards, especially graveyards you've broken into at 2am on Halloween night with only the sliver of a waning crescent moon to light your way.
Yuta didn't think he would do it, and Taeyong said he didn't have to. Taeil said that he'd pay for Donghyuck's lunch until Christmas, if Donghyuck did it.
So Donghyuck, with a boost from Johnny and a fist-bump of encouragement from Jaehyun, had jumped the fence of the local cemetery. Jungwoo had taken a photo of Donghyuck posing in the moonlight as evidence, and Mark and Doyoung said they'd meet him back at the entrance in an hour.
Then they left him alone and Donghyuck realises that graveyards are creepier when you're on your own.
He has to get to the middle of the graveyard, where there was a mausoleum for some rich asshole who died two hundred and fifty years ago, and take a photo. It isn't too hard to get to, all paths in the graveyard spiral out from there, and Donghyuck just has to walk straight.
He's in one of the older parts of the graveyard, where the tombstones are weathered and the plants are overgrown. It might have been beautiful, during the day. But there are more shadows than not, and the only sounds Donghyuck can hear are the gravel beneath his boots and an owl in the distance.
Which of course makes it all the worse when he turns a corner and there’s a boy sitting on a tombstone, silent and still as anything.
‘You’re not Jeno,’ the boy says, and his accusation cuts through the night like a crack of thunder, sharp and loud and echoing in Donghyuck’s ears.
‘No, I’m not.’ Donghyuck edges away carefully. ‘I don’t even know a Jeno.’
There’s a difference between breaking into a graveyard and hanging out in a graveyard looking over dressed, because the boy is definitely overdressed. He’s wearing a pale collared shirt, a pale vest and pale pants that have a crisp, pressed edge. It makes him stand out in the dark of the night, attracting the limited light from the moon.
‘He probably got distracted by Chenle,’ the boy says, derision strong in his tone as he pushes off the tombstone, landing on the gravel with soft feet. ‘Typical.’
‘Do we not like Chenle?’ Donghyuck asks, because he’s in a graveyard in the middle of the night with a boy who looks like he hangs out in graveyard regularly.
‘No, we love Chenle,’ the boy says, ‘Chenle is adorable. But Jeno was supposed to meet me when the moon was high over the Large Oak.’
‘Right,’ Donghyuck draws out the word carefully, ‘well I’m going to go now.’
Donghyuck isn’t so humble as to say that he isn’t judgemental, and someone who arranges meetings by the position of the moon rather than using a clock definitely isn’t someone Donghyuck particularly wants to spend much time around. He turns back to the path, because it’s not that hard to get to the mausoleum but it’s a fairly long walk during the day, where you can see what you’re going.
He blinks, and the boy is in front of him.
‘Are you new?’ the boy asks. ‘I’ve never seen you here before.’
‘I’ve lived here my entire life,’ Donghyuck says, slowly. It’s not a large town, most of the people around Donghyuck’s age went to the same high school and know each other on sight even a few years out. He’s never seen the boy in front of him before, even though they look at the same age.
The boy pauses, and now his eyes are more assessing, dark, as he takes in Donghyuck’s figure. Donghyuck steps around the boy, and focuses on the crunch of gravel beneath his feet. He’s not here to make friends, just to complete Taeil’s stupid dare so that he doesn’t need to buy food for the next month and a half.
Except the boy jogs, to catch up with Donghyuck and falls into step.
‘Why are you following me?’ Donghyuck hisses. ‘Go find your friends, Jeno and Chenle or whatever.’
‘But you’re so much more interesting than them,’ the boy says, tucking his hands into his pockets and grinning in a way that is too broad and bright to be anything but entirely put upon. ‘What’s your name, anyway? I’m Jaemin.’
‘Donghyuck.’
‘Donghyuck,’ Jaemin rolls the name around in his mouth, ‘what are you doing here?’
‘I’m just trying to take a photo,’ he says. ‘It’s stupid, but my friends wanted me to do it.’
‘A photograph? With what?’ Jaemin looks at Donghyuck. ‘You do not have a camera on you?’
‘My... phone?’ Donghyuck says, pulling it out of his pocket. ‘Like a normal person?’
Although as he says it he realises that maybe the boy thinks that he’s a photographer, which probably sounds a lot better than he got dared to break into a graveyard when he was halfway to drunk.
Jaemin hums, voice light as he leans in to inspect Donghyuck’s phone. There’s something in his eyes that Donghyuck can’t identify, curiosity mixed with something else. ‘Fascinating,’ he says, and Donghyuck can’t tell what he’s talking about. ‘What do you need to take a photo of?’
‘Myself,’ Donghyuck says, ‘in front of the mausoleum.’
Jaemin laughs, and this time it’s realer than the smile that he forced upon his face earlier and the moonlight hits his face just right. Donghyuck thought the alcohol he had at the start of the night had burnt off before they even got to the graveyard, but it mustn’t have because Donghyuck thinks that Jaemin looks ethereal.
‘You are fascinating,’ Jaemin repeats.
‘What, are you coming with me?’ Donghyuck says, turning away from Jaemin, because the boy has followed him everywhere so far.
Only.
Jaemin stays silent, and when Donghyuck turns back he isn’t there.
Only.
Donghyuck is alone in the cemetery, with no trace of the boy behind him.
Only.
Carved into the mausoleum is the name Jaemin Na.