Chapter Text
“So remind me, how’s this supposed to be a good use of our hiatus time?”
It’s an ironic role reversal for Rumi, considering how she’s often the one who has to drag both Zoey and Mira off the couch to do things other than veg out and watch the former’s impressively large assortment of seven hundred two-second videos all about turtles. So, color her a little surprised when they were the ones dragging her on what they so quaintly call an ‘overnight expedition’.
She later found out it was, in fact, not exactly the tamest of surprises, considering that halfway through the drive to their mystery destination, Zoey let slip that the destination in question was an abandoned house.
Known for its supernatural activity.
It's abundance in supernatural activity.
And Zoey and Mira were absolutely adamant in not only hunting for demons and ghosts, but also sleeping in said house, so forgive her if she was feeling a little reluctant.
(And maybe, maybe just the tiniest bit betrayed, considering that she knows that they know she’s a skeptic to this sort of thing. But she’s also sure that this is a ploy to sway her over to the side of the believers.)
She sighs, propping her head against her hand as she leans against the car door. Her girlfriends can sure as hell try, but she’s not one to be so easily swayed on such things.
“Trust us, Rumi!” Zoey cheerfully yells over the radio, blaring out some indistinct pop song that she only knows half the lyrics of. “It’ll be fun! And once we’re done, we can finally tell our fans that we put the hunt in Huntrix!”
It wasn’t a bad idea, in retrospect. Besides the usual idol activities of photoshoots, meet-and-greets, concerts, and interviews, Huntrix had barely touched on promotional material showcasing the more human side of its members, such as appearing on game shows or sharing more personalized content. Hell, Bobby had been talking to them about it yesterday, which is probably where Zoey and Mira first got the idea in the first place.
Although Rumi was still a little baffled about how they made the logical jump from ‘let’s show the human side to Huntrix’ to ‘let’s go camping out in a supposedly haunted house to hunt for ghosts’.
“It’s a way to make your fans feel more connected to you as a whole,” Bobby had said sagely. “Just as human. To be able to see themselves in you, too.”
Be seen as more human, huh?
“We’ll be recording the whole thing, too,” Mira interrupts Rumi out of her thoughts, waving a camcorder held haphazardly in her hand out of nowhere, whilst the other remains firmly on the steering wheel. “Going old school with this, since apparently ghosts like the older stuff. And hey, even if we don’t get anything out here, maybe when we upload the footage we’ll see some paranormal activity there instead. Or,” She says, and Rumi spots a familiar glint of mischief in her dark eyes through the rearview mirror. “We get to catch our brave and fearless leader screaming her lungs out on camera.”
The woman in question huffs, indignant. “I don’t see why I would scream. Ghosts aren’t real, and neither are demons.”
With one final turn that sends them a little ways off the beaten path and deeper into the quieter parts of town and into a small clearing in the woods, tires crunching over fallen twigs and yellowing leaves, Rumi catches Mira smiling through the mirror, her eyes crinkling up into smug little crescents.
“Well, we’ll see.”
“It’s ghost hunting time!” Zoey whoops, practically flying out of the car at record speed.
Rumi, albeit with only half the enthusiasm as Zoey, steps out of the car and slams the door shut. Dry, dead grass crunches under her step as she looks around the place, taking in the sights of spindly trees and thick underbrush lit dimly under the moonlight, before her gaze settles on a large, ramshackle hanok that’s definitely seen better days. The shingles on its roof were cracked and badly damaged, the wooden beams worn and borderline rotten. A stray gust of wind sweeps through the place, and the house seems to shudder, to groan under the weight of its age.
Small dirt paths gouged their way out of the earth, lined with big stones and small statues that built up into makeshift walls, but had done nothing to stop the creep of nature from pushing through their barriers, making them look unkempt and wild. One of the paths leads to a large tree that sways in the background, with thickly woven geumjul tethered around its trunk and branches. It’s nothing short of ominous. What was once a sign, a symbol of protection, now abandoned and turned into a foreboding set piece.
She frowns.
“Sick, isn’t it?” Mira says, some ways beside her.
“If you’re talking about how I would describe the state of the house, yes,” Rumi says flatly, finally wrenching her eyes away from the tree to look at Mira. “So, should I be worried if we’re trespassing or not? I know one thing that’s definitely real, and it’s trespassing fines.”
“Not to worry, the internet blogs say the land’s not owned by anyone,” Zoey says, emerging from behind the car with a large duffel and their sleeping bags. “It’s totally legit. Just like the rest of—” There’s a second where the maknae fumbles around in the dark, before Rumi hears the click of a button and is almost half-blinded by the powerful beam of yellowish light that’s suddenly pointed directly at her eyes. “— the stuff I got for ghost hunting! Oh, shit! Sorry, Rumi.”
“S’fine,” She blinks a few bleary tears out of her eyes. “Just be careful where you point that.”
”And if it isn’t,” Mira said, reaching from behind Rumi’s back to grab Zoey’s flashlight in exchange for the camcorder, thankfully pointing the light away from any of their eyes, “I’m sure you’ve got enough inheritance money from Celine to bail us out.”
That does earn a short bark of laughter out of Rumi, and she leans forward to give them both a playful peck on the cheek. “Glad to hear the real reason you girls invited me. Bail money.”