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It’s just a regular haunted house with fake props and paid actors. At least, that’s what Chan’s desperately trying to tell himself. The whole thing started innocently enough. Seungmin had been away the whole semester, busy with his studies, and now that he was back and free he wanted to grab every opportunity to hang out, which is, in part, why Chan couldn’t bring himself to say no when he invited him to the fair.
The other part came from Felix, who Seungmin asked first, and who came to Chan begging him to tag along. Felix’s crush on Seungmin had gotten worse through the years, mostly because Felix was starting to get in his own head and overthinking every interaction, convincing himself Seungmin would never feel the same. So, obviously, Felix had decided that a two person outing at the fair was too romantic and had begged Chan to tag along, simply to easy his nervousness. And, of course, Chan had been unable to say no and was now third wheeling heavily.
No biggie, he was used to it. Especially with these two. It would’ve been fine, really, if Seungmin hadn’t spotted a haunted house in the distance and immediately insisted they go in.
At first, he’d proposed to just let the two go by themselves while he waited, but Seungmin insisted and Felix shot him a desperate look. Ah, yeah. Alright. Third wheeling in the haunted house. Sure.
And so, here he is. Trying to remind himself that all he sees is painted cardboard and accessories probably bought at the dollar store. Although that proves difficult because, damn, whoever owns this attraction must be loaded. Some of the decor is suspiciously high quality and the actors must be well paid, because they’re not even through the first door that a lady dressed in white and decked in horror makeup suddenly gets on her hands and starts walking towards them like the exorcist.
But it’s fine, it’s fine, everything’s FINE.
I mean, worst case, he can just pretend to walk slower and let Seungmin and Felix take the lead. He’s not hiding behind them (he is).
And his plan works. For a while at least.
After going through a narrow room covered with shelves of jars containing random specimens, they’re led through a second door and that’s where things go to shit. Because now they’re told they must go one by one, alone, in the next room. And it’s pitch black. Felix goes, then Seungmin. Chan waits until he gets the ‘go ahead’ and enters the room.
The room really is dark. There’s just enough light (red, of course), for him to see the path, but not enough to clearly see his surroundings. He can tell there are… things.. hanging from the celling, as he keeps bumping into them and getting increasingly frazzled. He’s keeping it all inside though, he knows he would never hear the end of it if Seungmin saw or heard him.
Suddenly, something brushes against his arm, a different consistency than what he’s been bumping into. He violently jerks to the right, away from the offending item and collides with something hard. He hears a loud thud, followed by “ah fuck.”
And he realises with horror that he just accidentally shoved an actor to the ground.
“Holy shit are you okay”, he asks, slightly out of breath from the previous scare. He can feel sweat pearling on his forehead and under his nose.
“You slammed into me, asshole, what do you think?”
Oh, he sounds pissed. He also sounds hot, but that’s besides the point right now.
In the dark, he can barely distinguish the silhouette of the man, but he still bends down and grab his arm, helping him to his feet. “Dude, I am so sorry, I really didn’t mean to.” He hopes he didn’t do too much damage. The man seems fine, from what he can actually tell, which is not much to say.
“Are you bleeding?”
Huh.
Letting go of the man, Chan wipes his upper lip and look at the dark spot left on his hand. Guess it wasn’t just sweat after all. He sees the silhouette move and motions to something further down the room. Probably another actor.
“We got a hurt one”, he says, “I’m taking him outside.”
And with that, Chan is led through a series of doors, until he’s finally blinded by the outside light and guided to a bench, where he’s told to sit while the actor goes to get the first aid kit. He’s not quite sure what the first aid kit is going to do for him, though, as he’s not actually hurt. He used to get stress nosebleeds all the time when he was younger, and he still get them sometimes when watching horror movies. He can now live with the knowledge that haunted houses have the same effect. Kinda sucks, but at least now he has an excuse to miss any further ghostly outing Seungmin would try to drag them to.
Speaking of, he quickly sends a text to Felix, telling him where he is and what happened, just to make sure he’s not too worried about him.
When the man finally comes back and Chan’s eyes have adjusted to the light, he realises that he doesn’t just sound hot, he also looks hot, which is extremely distracting when you’re trying to not bleed over yourself. He gives Chan some tissues, a cold compress and a juice box.
The man asks for his name, which he gives while stuffing tissues up his nose.
“Emergency contact?” Chan throws him a look. It can’t be that serious over a simple nosebleed. “We need that in case you faint”, he explains.
Alright. Makes sense. So, Chan gives Felix’s information and, while the guy is busy writing it down and filling the rest of the form, he takes the opportunity to subtly check him out. He’s not decked in heavy horror makeup like the other actors, but he’s wearing a black shirt and black pants (better to hide in the dark, probably). Despite it, Chan can see the outline of strong back muscles and strong thighs. He gets stuck on the thighs for a while. They look really nice, sue him.
After he’s satisfied with his little check out session, he looks up, only to be met by dark brown eyes looking back at him.
Ah, he got caught staring. Oh well, it doesn’t seem to bother the man, who just huffs a laugh at him.
“If I gave you my name, does that mean I get to ask yours?” Can’t blame a guy for trying, even with a bloody nose.
“Minho”, he says as he puts the paperwork away. For a moment, Chan thinks that he’s going to go back inside and all he’ll have to remember him is going to be a name and the memory of that face (and thighs). But no, Minho decides to sit on the bench with him.
“I have to stay”, he explains, “to make sure you don’t faint or anything.” And Chan doesn’t argue or say that his nose has stopped bleeding or point out that you don’t need to sit shoulder to shoulder when monitoring someone. Honestly, he’s just happy to be here.
“Also, we’re gonna need your picture.”
“Huh? For what?”
“Every time someone can’t go through the haunted house, we take their picture and put it at the entrance to show the world they’re a little bitch.” Minho says, matter-of-factly.
“Wait, for real?”
“Nah, I’m just fucking with you.” He smiles, clearly proud of himself.
Chan laughs, finding both his antics and his smile devastatingly attractive. “Aw, come on! I thought you were serious for a second.”
“I can’t believe you rammed into me and yet I’m the one taking care of you, that’s a new level of victimhood right there.”
“Hey, I don’t do well in horror settings, alright.”
Minho sends him a look between amused and unimpressed, staring at the bloody tissues in his hands “yeah, no shit.”
Minho’s interesting, he thinks, which only adds to his charms. After a few moments, when the bleeding has truly stopped and the juice box has been consumed, Chan asks “Are you sure it’s okay for you to be sitting here so long with me? Not that I’m complaining, but I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Minho hums in response, “Yeah, I’m on my break, don’t worry.”
And so, they keep sitting together and making small talk. Chan learns that Minho is a film major and he’s a big fan of anything horror related, podcasts, films, games, you name it, he loves it. Which is why when he saw the application for this job, he jumped on the opportunity. Getting to scare people AND make money doing it? Sign him up, baby.
For his part, Chan tells him he’s a producer, who’s trying to get his big break in the industry. He’s also a personal trainer most days, because producing doesn’t earn much yet and he’s got bills to pay and groceries to buy. He’s not too disheartened by it, he tells Minho, because despite really wanting the producing thing to work, he also loves being a personal trainer and working out.
“Not surprising”, Minho says, eyeing his biceps in the same way Chan was eyeing his thighs before.
He tries not to preen too much under his gaze, but he loves having his hard work appreciated, so obviously he indulges the man by flexing for him, which leads to Minho squeezing his arm appreciatively, sending goosebumps down Chan’s back.
They talk back and forth for a few more minutes, before the staff door behind the haunted house opens and another actor motions to Minho.
“Ah” he says, sounding a bit disappointed, “Break’s over, I guess.”
Judging by the expression on the other actor’s face, Minho’s ‘break’ has been over for a while now. Chan’s not even sure there was a break to begin with.
As Minho gets up from the bench, Chan decides to take his chance.
“Hey, so I really feel bad about pushing you earlier and also for monopolizing your break”, Minho looks ready to protest, but Chan treks on, “So I think the only logical way to make it up to you would be to invite you for dinner some time soon.”
Minho blinks at him rapidly, then smiles. “Ah, I guess you’re right, that’s clearly the only way to fix things.” And he takes his phone out of his pocket, handing it to Chan who hastily puts his number in.
” Text me when you want that date and try not to die of blood loss on your way back home”, he waves as he makes his way back inside.
Chan laughs, as he makes his way back to Seungmin and Felix. The day didn’t go as planned, but in the end, going to that house of horror was worth it to get Minho’s number.