DAY 1

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the next day started with the smell of cigarettes and instant coffee. when jaebeom pulled his tired eyes open, he clocked jinyoung and jackson leaning out of the window, allowing a morning breeze to gently wash through the room. jackson had a cigarette dangling between his lips and jinyoung grasped a cup of coffee tightly, warming his palms. jaebeom shook his head and smiled, watching as jackson wrapped an arm around jinyoung and pulled him closer. they were cute, jaebeom could give them that. with a drowsy yawn, jaebeom dragged himself out of bed, mind too cluttered and bleary for him to do much more than stand beside his bed, eyes droopy.

bambam however, was quick to spring from bed and shout, "EW OMG GET A ROOM! I JUST WOKE UP HERE" when he noticed jinyoung with his arm wrapped around jackson's shoulder.

the couple quickly pulled apart, the cigarette dropping from jackson's mouth and onto the pavement below their window, "fuck you bambam." he grunted, reaching for another from his pack that was almost half empty.

"toss me one." jaebeom grunted, and jackson chucked him the box and a lighter. the light hazy feeling from the cigarette washed away jaebeom's tiredness and he set about gathering his things for the long hike ahead of them. the plan was to treck right into the depths of the forest, in hope of locating the spot where "the unholy" had been murdered. there, jinyoung would narrate the story of "the unholy", how she was murdered on her hen night by a religious man along with three of her friends. it would serve as a gripping start to their hour long documentary, and jaebeom's head was brimming with ideas for his directing of the scene.

after bambam's outburst, the rest of the group quickly came to their senses- hair sticking up all over the place, clothes rumpled, breath pungent. jaebeom tried to hurry them as much as possible, his earring back in his ear, the jeans with the map in the pocket clutching his thighs, but apparently none of them were morning people (besides bambam of course). it had taken them almost a full hour to get dressed and washed and packed for their 3 day hike into the woods and by the time they left the motel, jaebeom was already at his wit's end - snappy and bossy.

by 9am, they were packed and ready to go. heavy rucksacks rested on their backs, stocked with food supplies and water, as well as equpiment they'd need for shooting the documentary. they wandered along the side of a  twisting country lane, jaebeom's eyes scouring the map as he tried to figure out how to find the entrance to the forest.

jinyoung and jackson trailed behind the rest of the group, sweaty hands clasped tightly together as the others wittered on in front of them, bambam whining, "why'd no one tell me how heavy this backpack would be? my shoulders huuuuurt!"

mark groaned loudly, "just suck it up." he then turned to jaebeom, "jaebeom, do you have any idea where we're going?!"

"yes." jaebeom said, "well.. i think so, if we just turn up here, then we should be able to follow a path. and from there--"

"--- just give me the map."

without much hesitation, jaebeom handed mark the map. though it felt weird to let go of the map, (he felt out of control without the flimsy paper in his hands), he was more than happy to give it away. in truth, he had absolutely no idea how to read it, and was pretty sure he had been leading them down a dead end.

from beside him, mark let out a grunt of annoyance, "for fucks sake, it was upside down. let's go, its this way." he pointed to a small bypass that jaebeom never would've noticed and began walking towards it. jaebeom followed, sheepishly, more than a little embarrassed that he'd had the map upside down, especially as mark always seemed so judgemental of him.

after maybe 10 minutes of walking down gravelled paths in stony silence (save for jinyoung and jackson's occasional whispers of reassurance to each other), they reached a huge wall of trees, and small curving pathway that would lead them into the woods.

the unholy -got7Where stories live. Discover now