Seokjin was on his own little moon, in the middle of the sea of ​​clouds.

He slept so well, his head resting on her lap, letting her hands caress his hair gently.

He felt like he had known this girl forever and let himself be lulled by her voice and touch, which already seemed so familiar to him. He wanted to see her every night. No, he would have liked her to really exist because he had the impression that with her, all his problems suddenly disappeared, he didn't think about them at all.

It was amazing to have the same dream two nights in a row. He was happy to have found again this place where he felt so good and where he had slept so well the first time. But to get there, he had to climb again the endless bars of the rope ladder weighed down by metal balls which were attached to him again. He didn't understand why it was so hard to reach his moon : if it was a dream, it should have been enough for him to want it, right? After all, it was only a dream so why so much effort? But the reward after the effort was worth it.

That night, the girl had made him "fish" again and grow not one but two people, each weighted with one of his heavy balls that he had to painfully carry with him during his ascent. The two people with erased faces had not let out a cry when they fell from the top of the moon. One of the them was the boy who was already in his dream from the night before.

The girl had told him that tonight it was up to him to throw his burdens. But without knowing why, he had refused, shaking his head. Even though he knew he wanted to feel light like the first time, his subconscious seemed to remind him that it wasn't right to push someone, even in a dream. So, sighing, she had taken him by the hand like the first time and had guided him towards the two young men who were waiting motionless.

He didn't know how, knowing he couldn't see his face, but he felt like he knew those people. Even without a face, he had the impression of recognizing the silhouettes, the postures... but the dreams were bits of distorted reality so it wouldn't have been surprising if behind the blur of that face was someone he knew very well.

Seokjin wanted to talk to them, ask them who they were, but no sound came out of his mouth so he raised a hand to touch one of them and get his attention but the girl stopped him.

"If you get rid of this one first," she told him, giving him her sweetest smile pointing at the boy he had pushed the first night. "You will fall asleep without having removed another of your burden. Push this one first."

Seokjin looked at the boy he had to push and, trying to speak again, he saw that he was able and said:

"Why do I have to push them? Is there no other way?"

"No, there isn't," the girl replied.Didn't you whisper tonight, Seokjin? Weren't you full of worries?"

"Yes, I did whisper..." Seokjin murmured without understanding what the connection was or even why he had to "get rid" of those boys to get to sleep. But after all, it was a dream and dreams couldn't be explained.  And if it was this girl who asked him to do this, he had to listen to her.

Nodding, the girl had removed one of his ankle balls to hook it to the leg of the other person who was waiting, as motionless as the first and again, looking at it carefully, Seokjin had the impression to recognize the boy without being capable to give gim a face or a name. He suddenly felt lighter without the one of the metal balls attached to him and thanked the girl with a smile. Then, the girl had drawn Seokjin to her, to place him in front of the boy.

"You can push that one, first" she whispered in his ear.

So Seokjin had raised his hands and kept his palms stretched out towards that person. But strangely, he couldn't do what she had asked. Why couldn't he manage to do it when it was only a dream and the person who otherwise had no face was not going to suffer? Why did he have any scruples about doing it?

Behind him, he had heard the girl sigh - was that annoyance? - and it pained him: he did not want to see her upset. He wanted her to be happy to be there with him, as he was happy to be there with her, on that peaceful moon. And it was from this peaceful moon that it was necessary to push the two undesirable people whom the girl no longer wanted to see.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't," he had ended up stammering apologetically. Dream or not, pushing someone was wrong, he felt it instinctively, without needing to think.

"It doesn't matter," the girl had reassured him in a soft voice. "I will help you as many times as it takes."

These words drew a smile on the lips of Seokjin. Taking his hands, she then made him push the first person into the sea of ​​pearly-colored clouds. Then, she accompanied him to the other person and as he stretched out his arms, still guided by her, Seokjin felt like the faceless boy flinched. Was he scared? He was afraid... of him?

He had then had a backward movement but the girl had prevented him from stepping back and had whispered to him:

"If you want to sleep, push him with me Seokjin."

"W-Why?" he had stammered.

"It's just like that Seokjin," she had said simply without giving him an explanation.

Despite the absence of any explanations requested, he trusted her. So Seokjin stopped trying to back up and let himself be guided until he pushed the boy after the other boy, into the sea of ​​clouds.

He didn't cry out. Maybe because he had no mouth? Maybe if he had a face, he would have looked at him in fear and implored him? Seokjin had pushed those questions out of his mind when he had turned to the girl again.

"That's good Seokjin," the girl had whispered to him before laying him down and whispering, "it's time to sleep now..."

He had fallen asleep with a smile.

Seokjin woke up with a start when he heard a scream followed by a resounding boom! Still dazed with sleep, he turned worriedly to the wardrobe that separated him from his roommate.

"Yoongi?" he called softly in a sleepy voice, thinking the noise was coming from him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it wasn't me who made that noise," Yoongi's fully awake voice replied. "I think someone just fell downstairs."

"Or are we being robbed?" Seokjin suddenly whispered in panic, seeing the morning time on his phone screen and doubting it was one of their dongsaengs who was already awake.

Hearing Yoongi get up from the bed, Seokjin did the same and the two elders slipped out of their room. The dormitory floor was plunged into darkness because all the doors on the floor were closed on the young sleepers, a sign that the noise had not awakened them unlike the elders.

Arrived in front of the stairs which led to the ground floor, the two boys could see the lower floor of their small duplex where the dining room, the kitchen and the entrance hall were. Unlike the completely dark upstairs, there was dim light streaming in from either side of the thick curtains that covered the windows at night.

This dim light allowed Seokjin to see, through the stairs, what appeared to be a dark form. His heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw it.

"Y-Y-Y-Yoongi!!" he stuttered in an alarmed whisper that alerted Yoongi.

The latter was not looking at the stairs but at the ground at the bottom of the stairs and had not seen what Seokjin had seen.

"What?"

"L-l-look, t-t-t-there, o-o-on the the-the-the st-stairs!"

Seokjin pointed to the dark shape on the stairs. Squinting, Yoongi at first thought it was an item of clothing left behind by one of the boys, which often happened in this house full of young men fresh out of their teens and particularly messy for some. But next to him, he felt a panicked Seokjin and it made him doubt what he was seeing.

Suddenly, the eldest yelled:

"AAAAAAAh, YOONGI, IT HAS MOVED!!"

Indeed, this time, Yoongi saw what Seokjin was showing him. And he not only saw it but heard it too. Indeed, with a groan, the form had started to move and seemed to be climbing slowly up the stairs, with smooth movements, crawling on its four limbs, and it was looking at them with its two big round eyes shining in the semi-darkness, slowly stretching out a hand with folded fingers towards them, just like Kayako's ghost in the horror movie The Grudge.

It stared at them. 

It wanted to catch them both. 

It wanted to murder them in excruciating pain and take them to hell, that's what Seokjin immediately thought, feeling drops of icy sourness running down his back and his teeth chattering in terror.

Yoongi wasn't a coward. And he wasn't afraid of burglars, unlike Seokjin who was a very fearful person. It didn't scare him because it was about managing reality. However, dealing with ghosts, evil dolls and other supernatural horrors was beyond his courage. So, joining his scream with Seokjin's without worrying about waking up the whole dormitory, he hurriedly backed up into the upstairs hallway, and the two boys pressed against the wall, shaking.

"Y-Y-Y-Ya!!! Go turn on the light instead of following me!" Yoongi replied as he saw Seokjin approaching him as close as possible to return to take refuge in their room, under the covers of his bed which were supposed to protect him from everything. 

"W-w-why me?!" Seokjin replied, swallowing hard, not wondering how turning on the light could help them if the ghost had decided to kill them both. After all, all the fearful knew that evil creatures popped up in the dark and disappear in the light of day, just as it was well known that tucking your foot under your blanket hid it from the monster under the bed. It was obvious to Seokjin.

Yoongi seemed to think about what could justify Seokjin sacrificing himself. 

"B-because uh... Because you're the eldest, that's right!" Yoongi retorted, out of breath from screaming so much.

"B-but what if I put my hand on the switch and Kayako grabs my hand then?!" Seokjin imagined with horror.

"DON'T CALL IT KAYAKO!!" Yoongi exploded flurried, his heart pounding because Seokjin's words had just created in his mind a vision of horror straight out of The Grudge.

"W-w-why? D-do you think it'll come if we call it by name?!" Seokjin asked, pale.

"Do not say stupid things!! But stop naming horrors like you did with your ugly dol- AAAAAAAh!!" Yoongi stopped, screaming and pointing at Seokjin who retched and suddenly wondered if Kayako wasn't behind him but didn't dare turn around.

"W-w-what, Yoongi?! W-w-why are you screaming?! T-Tell me, you're scaring me!" he stuttered before whispering, frightened : "is it... Is it b-b-behind m-m-me?"

But Yoongi wasn't just showing Seokjin with his trembling finger. He was showing his hand.

"Why did you bring that scary doll with you?!!!" Yoongi yelled as he walked away from Seokjin as if he was as scary as the shadow coming up the stairs.

Dropping his gaze to his tightly clenched hand from which colored fabric protruded, Seokjin uncurled his fingers with appalling slowness and saw Yoongichi's strange face appear. Suddenly realizing that he was holding the doll in his hand without remembrance of taking it from under his pillow, Seokjin immediately dropped it to the floor in surprise, and shouted to Yoongi:

"I-I... I didn't take it, I swear!"

"D-D-DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!" roared Yoongi, who was terrified and felt hemmed in both by what was still slowly crawling up the stairs and by that awful doll that gave him cold sweats when he saw it.

"I-I-I'm not making fun of you," Seokjin stammered, frightened himself as he watched the doll's suddenly creepy smile on the floor in the dimness of the hallway. He nervously moved away from it and felt his back bang against the hard surface of a bedroom door, preventing him from going any further.

Could it be that in his rush he hadn't seen that he was holding the doll in his hand as he left the room? It was the only rational explanation that came to mind. He tried to calm his heartbeat and looked more closely at his doll on the floor. How come the details of its face came across so clearly to him? 

Seokjin had doubts but he felt like the doll was bigger than the day he brought it home, two days earlier. Now that he thought about it, he had actually felt it bigger in his hand. It didn't seem to be the size of a thumb anymore but clother to the size of a palm of a hand. Yet, it was impossible... right?

He was so absorbed in his contemplation of the doll's face that he jumped when he suddenly felt the door behind him sinisterly creak open like the door of one of his horror movie houses and a hand come out of the darkness to land on his shoulder.

"Why are you screaming?" a voice whispered.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAh!!" Seokjin screamed of fear with all his might.

Terrified, he jumped towards Yoongi in a howl of pure terror. But as a new tall shadow emerged from the room and they huddled together in anguish, a soft voice echoed behind them in a sleepy rattle which made both of them turn their heads sharply. However, on the other side, there was Kayako waiting for them on the stairs and moaning:

"Heeey, over here..."

This time, it was too much for theheart of poor two eldest. They fell stiffly on the ground, trembling with fear against each other in a high-pitched scream and before falling silent one after the other, as if passed out of dread.

Seokjin closed his eyelids with all his strength so as not to see what was happening to him, but his imagination showed him behind his closed eyelids images of Kayako running towards him on all fours and her belly turned towards the ceiling, and he screamed when he heard rushing footsteps approaching him and Yoongi at high speed, placing his arms in front of his face to shield himself from whatever was befalling him who preferred to remain blind to the horror.

"HEY, HYUNG!" several voices around them cried.

From the open door came the tall shadow who on approaching turned out to be Namjoon and from behind, Jimin whose sleepy voice had frightened them. The younger knelt beside Yoongi and Seokjin before placing a delicate hand on the sweaty forehead of Seokjin who seemed to live his last moments in agony in view of his rapid and gasped breathing.

"Jin hyung, Yoongi hyung, are you ok?!" he asked with worry.

Seokjin then opened his eyes and seemed to pull himself together upon realizing that the sleepy voice in front of him was not Kayako's but Jimin's and that the shadow that opened the door and grabbed his shoulders was Namjoon.

"Hey, what just happened to you?" Jimin asked softly looking at Yoongi as Namjoon slowly approached and his facial features became more precise in the dark.

While he was still glued to Seokjin without realizing it and letting Jimin's hand caress his back reassuringly, Yoongi remained silent and pale as death, seeking to catch the breath he had missed, realizing the state he had just put himself in and feeling the shame overtaking him. Seokjin looked up at his still standing leader who observed the two elders with concern and whispered to him:

"N-Namjoon, there's s-s-someone on the stairs!"

Instinctively, Namjoon turned towards the flight of stairs without seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"Hyung, are you sure?" he asked, frowning.

"Y-yes, I'm s-s-sure!" Seokjin asserted, nodding frantically clutching Jimin's second hand who stayed with him and Yoongi and gazed apprehensively from the side of the stairs. "Can't you see t-t-the eyes shining on the ground?!"

Shaking his head in denial, Namjoon nonetheless pulled his phone out of his pajama pants pocket and turned on the flashlight, which he aimed at the stairs. What he saw seized him with dread and he almost dropped his phone and rushed down the stairs, screaming:

"Oh my God, HOSEOK!!"

At this name, the three boys still in the corridor rush in turn up the stairs. By the light of the flashlight, they discovered that indeed, it was Hoseok who was standing across the stairs, a hand on his leg and an expression of intense pain painted on his face.

"Please, I'm over here..." he moaned again desperate that no one has come to help him yet.

The three rushed down the stairs to join Namjoon and Hoseok, turning on the light as they passed.

"Hobi, I'm so sorry, I didn't recognize you!" Seokjin exclaimed, horrified that he had left Hoseok on the stairs and mistaken him for Kayako instead of going to help him.

Hoseok seemed unable to speak, as if his fall down the stairs had knocked him out.

"If he raised his hand, it was not to grab us but to ask for help," Yoongi said to Seokjin who felt even guiltier.

The oldest rapper had regained the use of speech and was helping Namjoon to straighten Hoseok who was moaning in pain.

"I-I fell, I couldn't get up," Hoseok moaned weakly, "m-my leg...I think... it's..."

"Jimin, call Sejin hyung quickly," Namjoon ordered urgently, observing the ominous angle of Hoseok's leg.

"Okay, what do I tell him?" Jimin asked, immediately taking his phone out of his pocket.

"Tell our manager that Hoseok needs to be taken to the ER," Namjoon replied with a heavy heart. "He broke his leg and he won't be able to dance for a while."

Hearing that, the usually playful Hoseok began to cry under the sad gaze of the four other boys who understood that these were not tears of pain but tears of grief. Dancing was everything to him.

Seeing that heartbreaking scene, Seokjin thought to himself that he would have a hundred times preferred that it was Kayako lying on the stairs than a tearful Hoseok.

___________

A/N : Kayako is the scariest character of The Grudge, do you know this movie? I first saw the movie The Ring when I was in middle school (it's my favorite horror movie) and realized it was an American adaptation of this Japanese story.