Jungkook sighed. Haunted houses were so boring.  It took something really good to freak him out, but the houses he was able to go to with his hyungs never really had his level of scare.  Hoseok and Jin were incapable of tolerating truly scary things, so the rest of the hyungs always try to take that into consideration for group outings.  

Jimin had the bright idea to try and finally get Hobi together with Kat by bringing them all to one of the most tame haunted houses in the area.  Taehyung had taken this opportunity to invite his girlfriend on their outing, too. He was glad for his hyungs, but he was once again the odd man out, bored by their outing even though he enjoyed their company.  

Jungkook decided that he would go to the front of their line so he could get this over with more quickly.  Maybe if they made it out of this one quickly and no one was really scared they might get to go do something more fun, like bowling.  Behind him, he could hear Jimin “subtly” pairing up Hobi and Kat. Jungkook scoffed under his breath. Jimin was good at playing cupid, but he was so obvious it was shocking that Hobi and Kat couldn’t tell.  Namjoon stepped up beside him, chuckling at his blah mood.  

“Jimin sure isn’t very subtle is he?” Namjoon asked, patting Jungkook on the shoulder.

“About as subtle as a brick through a window,” Jungkook answered, a small chuckle escaping him. Namjoon smirked and rolled his eyes at his younger friend.

“You know he’s been dying to fix them up for years.  Let him have his moment. We all know they’re a good match.”

Jungkook sighed.  “I know you’re right, hyung, but does every outing we have have to be so. . . vanilla?  Couldn’t we go to an actual scary haunted house just once?”

Namjoon squinched his eyebrows as he considered his answer.  Finally he said, “I know that for you this isn’t as fun as something ‘super scary,’ but we have to take everyone’s feelings into consideration.”

Jungkook knew that Namjoon was right, but somehow he felt like he always ended up getting the short end of the stick.  Being the youngest in his friend group was a real bummer sometimes. “I understand, hyung.” he answered as the line moved forward ushering them into the haunted house.

He watched, a bored expression on his face as Kat and Hobi made their way past him, deeper inside the house.  Even if he wasn’t having any fun, maybe they would finally realize how they felt about each other. Stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets, Jungkook made his way to the next room.  Actors dressed as zombies kept jumping out at people, frightening them every time. One couple was so startled they fell over; Jungkook started laughing at their expense, not understanding how anyone could be scared by the hokeyness of this whole thing.

Still chuckling, Jungkook stepped into the next room.  Before he could fully enter the room a zombie who, based on what he could tell from the shape of her face under the make up, was very pretty.  The girl was trying so hard to be frightening, but Jungkook only felt amusement. Jungkook sputtered for a moment, before he threw his head back as he laughed.  Tears ran out of his eyes and he found himself bending at the waist, still laughing. When he finally calmed down again, he righted himself, wiping the tears from his eyes.  The zombie before him was gaping, eyes blinking rapidly as she looked at him.

Jungkook sobered when he saw the girl’s face; he didn’t want to offend her, but she was trying so hard to be scary in the midst of all the cheese of this haunted house. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared down at his shoes before fixing his gaze on her again.  Jungkook’s eyes widened when he took in her new posture; arms crossed, hip cocked, eyebrows raised. As amused as he was, she was decidedly not.

"S-sorry," Jungkook sputtered, surprised by the irritation on her face. Somehow one of her eyebrows seemed to raise higher at his apology. "It's just that, you're trying so hard to be scary and this place is just," Jungkook spread his hands in front of him as he searched for the right word. "Ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" She deadpanned, obviously unimpressed with his answer.  Even as cocky as he could be, Jungkook was still squirming under her stare.  The girl’s eyes scanned over him concentration glinting in her eyes. She circled him, nodding to herself as he twisted, trying to keep an eye on her.  Finally, she broke the silence, “I think we can make it work. Come with me.”

“Come with you?  Make what work?” Jungkook asked, the space between his eyes wrinkling as he gaped at her.  The girl rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm, taking off down a hallway he hadn’t noticed before.  He was so surprised at the ease with which she was towing him along that he was momentarily speechless.  Before he knew it, they were stepping into a room that appeared to be where the workers underwent the transformation into zombies.

Jungkook looked at the girl in front of him with wide eyes. “You want me to be one of the zombies?”

“Yep.” she answered, popping the p.  “If the way we do it is too vanilla for you why don’t you give it a crack?”

Jungkook blinked at her stupidly for a moment.  She wanted him to be one of the zombies.  

“All right.  Yeah!” Jungkook said, excitement slowly replacing shock.  “Let’s do this!” A wide grin broke out on his face and the girl eyed him with uncertainty on her face before leading him over to a rack of “zombified” clothes.  Once they found some that would fit him, she sent him off to get dressed. When Jungkook returned, his zombie girl was nowhere in sight, but a different zombie was waiting for him.  Once he was all made up and given directions on what he could and couldn’t do, he was led back to the room he originally came from. 

Almost immediately there were people for him to scare.  Jungkook rushed out at them, eliciting a scream from the pair.  When he realized who he had just startled, it took all of his willpower not to laugh. Taehyung and his girlfriend were both cowering and trying to scurry away, but with Taehyung hanging off of Kailen like a koala, their progress was stilted.  Eventually, Kailen was able to wrestle Taehyung off of her, wrapping a protective arm around him as she proceeded to hustle him out of the room.  

Chuckling under his breath, Jungkook got back into his hiding place and waited for his next victims.  This scaring stuff wasn’t so hard; he couldn’t imagine why zombie girl had been so put out by his amusement.  As he waited, he found his thoughts wandering back to the girl. What did she look like without all that zombie makeup on?  What sort of things did she do for fun? If they’d met under different circumstances and he hadn’t, apparently, offended her he wondered if maybe they could have hit it off.

Jungkook’s train of thought derailed when he heard familiar voices coming toward him: Namjoon and Jin. Excitement bubbled up in Jungkook’s body. He finally had an acceptable reason to scare his hyungs, he was part of the haunted house now after all. The closer Jin and namjoon got the more excited Jungkook felt. Just as the entered the room, he prepared to leap out at them, when someone else beat him to the punch. 

The zombie girl from earlier leapt out of a hidden hallway on the other side of the room, snarls coming from her throat. Jin screamed in terror, leaping onto Namjoon’s back in an attempt to put distance between the zombie and himself. Namjoon’s arms pinwheeled as he tried to maintain his balance. All thoughts of scaring fled from Jungkook’s mind; his only thought now was helping his hyungs. 

Jungkook shot out of the hallway and ran toward his hyungs. As he reached for Namjoon’s arm, Jin’s screams of terror intensified. Jin flailed harder, one of his legs catching Jungkook in the jaw, his elbow jabbing the top of Namjoon’s head. Jungkook saw stars from the impact of Jin’s foot to his jaw. In his haste to help his hyungs he had forgotten what he looked like. 

Shaking his head, he looked around the room and noticed the zombie girl gaping with wide eyes at them. Some time between him kicking Jungkook in the jaw and the stars clearing from Jungkook’s vision, Jin had hopped off Namjoon’s back and hightailed it out of the room. Jungkook watched, equal parts worried and amused, as Namjoon raced after Jin.  

Jungkook was shaken from his daze when small, cool hands gripped his cheeks. “Are you okay?” Zombie girl asked, eyes shining. Jungkook nodded dazedly.  Unimpressed with his lackluster response, the girl grabbed his hand and pulled him down the same hallway he’d previously sprinted out of. Jungkook blinked when he was pulled into the room from earlier; the quick change from darkness to light was almost blinding.  The girl led him to a chair and pushed him down in it, muttering about makeup remover and concussions.

When she’d found what she was looking for, she returned to Jungkook and set to work removing the heavy makeup from his face.  As she scrubbed at his cheek, Jungkook found himself asking her her name. She paused, pulling back to stare at him with slightly widened eyes.

“Riss,” she answered quietly, before leaning back in to work on his face.

“Riss,” he repeated to himself, a small smile making its way to his face.  The silence stretched between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.  

After a while, Jungkook could tell that Riss was almost done with his face and he knew if he was going to make a move he would have to do it soon. 

“So, uh, Riss,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his gaze to a spot somewhere over her shoulder.  “I was wondering if you maybe, might want to go to a haunted house with me?” Riss pulled back and considered him for a moment.

“Why?” she asked finally, arching a brow.

Jungkook fidgeted with the ends of his raggy zombie shirt, “Well, I’ve never seen someone scare my hyung that much before, and I thought maybe you’d enjoy the same type of scary stuff as me.”

The look Riss was giving him made Jungkook regret asking. She's going to say no he thought, shoulders starting to sag. Jungkook inhaled, preparing to stand and tell her to forget about it when her hand shot out in front of him palm up, fingers wiggling. 

"Phone." 

Jungkook scrambled, checking his pockets before finally finding his device and placing it in her palm. She tapped on the screen a few times and he heard a beep coming from her pocket. Riss handed his phone back to him and shot him a small smile. 

"Just let me know when and where."

Jungkook's face broke out in a huge smile as he nodded enthusiastically. Riss chuckled at him and shook her head. Jungkook stood to leave with a giddy feeling in his chest and a bounce in his step, when Riss' voice stopped him. 

"Just promise me one thing," she said with a Cheshire grin. "Don't bring your terrified hyung on our date."

Jungkook gaped at her as she winked and made her way past him, back down the hallway. After a moment, Jungkook made his way down the hallway and through the rest of the house. When he finally made it outside, Hobi and Kat were cuddling on a bench, Jimin was proudly crowing about his success as a matchmaker, and Jin was flailing his arms around, regaling a bored looking Yoongi with his tale of terror from the haunted house. 

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled out his phone, smiling when he saw a message from Riss. As he typed out a response, he couldn't help but chuckle. Jimin, self-proclaimed matchmaker had paired off not one, but two of his friends tonight. Shaking his head fondly, Jungkook called out to Jimin, "I think you should quit dancing and start a matchmaking business!" 

Jimin looked at him like he was crazy. His response of, "What the--" cut off when Jin started screaming at the top of his lungs again. Jungkook looked behind him and there was Riss in full zombie attire with a bag of ice. 

"Couldn't let your hyung ruin your pretty face," she said, pressing the ice into his hand and a kiss to his cheek. Jungkook walked with wide eyes as Riss walked away. When he finally broke free of his stupor, he turned around to find all of his gaping at him. He rubbed the back of his neck and pressed the ice pack to his jaw. He couldn't wait to search out a haunted house to take Riss to. As their friend group made their way back to the parking lot, with much ribbing thrown his way, one thought kept circling his mind: This might be my favorite haunted house ever. 

Y'all can thank Born2beSad for this one. She's my sounding board for story ideas and one day she was like, "What if!!" And BOOM this one was born.

Happy (early) spoopy day, y'all! Scare responsibly!