séance

vi

corpse in the backseat

“are you fucking serious?!”

“watch your language, ms. kang.”

seulgi rolled her eyes peevishly. “i am not going to stay in a jungle in the middle of summer! fuck studying nature's behavior!”

mr. park pointed the chalk between his fingers at her, “say fuck one more time and i will make you set camp for the whole summer! now you listen to me, that is what you get from neglecting your assignments and tests. your grades are far beneath average, you should be ashamed of yourself, young lady.”

that shut seulgi's gripe as she folded her arms furiously and leaned back on her seat.

when the bell rang and the whole class was dismissed, lisa fast-walked until she was right beside the tangerine haired girl. leaning a bit as she whispered, “sucks to be you,”

//

then, summer rolled in warmly as school was finally on break. the sky was a smack dab blue among the melting cotton candy clouds.

rays of sunshine came showering through jennie's glass roof while the four was dipping their feets into her indoor pool—licking edible flower popsicles.

“have you guys heard? seulgi was sent to summer camp by mr. park, it was hilarious.” lisa said.

chaeyoung tilted her head at her direction, “ah, really?”

“she deserves it anyway,”

“true, jen.”

silence swept back in. while softly pushing the floaties around with her toes, jennie let out the only thoughts that had been nesting in her head, “i'm scared.”

the other three was slightly taken aback, they had never seen this kind of expression coming out of jennie kim. but to be honest, they were scared too.

so they softly nodded their heads, letting out exhales as if it could cure the situation they were trapped in.

it wasn't the happiest summer.

//

"do you believe in ghost?" jisoo asked lisa that night while brushing their teeth.  the girls were up for a sleepover.

lisa let out an artificial laugh, “seriously?”

kim jisoo shrugged, “it feels so unreal. so vague and hazy. its like nothing happened but something happened at the same time. it feels like.. a bad dream.”

the younger looked at her in a sympathetic way, petting jisoo's shoulder silently.

though in her head, jisoo's words replayed over and over again like a broken record. could a bad dream turn into a nightmare? lisa frightenedly thought.

and yes, yes it could.

//

after brushing their teeth, jisoo and lisa went back to the living room where the rest of the girls were sitting upon layers of sheets and pillows—phones on their hands.

chaeyoung and jennie was as pale as they could be. blank faces turned into fear and disbelief as soon as they saw the two.

mouth stuttering, jennie strugglingly deliver the dark news.

“t-the bus that seulgi rides to her camp site.. rolled down a hill.”

vi| corpse in the backseat