Instead of waiting for the resort security or the local police, the high schoolers did what horror movie protagonists do best: they made a disastrous, collective decision to form makeshift search parties.
Armed with flashlights, lanterns from the lodge, and wooden broomsticks, small groups dispersed in every direction into the pitch-black woods.
I suspected with ninety percent certainty that the whole thing was just an elaborate prank. Still, I tagged along—mostly because a midnight monster hunt sounded infinitely more entertaining than sitting around a dying campfire. My mood was bad enough to involve myself in this farce to distract from the nagging thoughts.
My assigned search group was a tactical nightmare: four terrified second-year girls from Class 2-A and zero other guys.
The moment we crossed the dark tree line, the girls glided so close to me that I could barely swing my arms. They were practically glued to my jacket sleeves, whimpering at every rustle of the wind through the pine needles.
SWISH.
A tall, dark silhouette suddenly sprinted across the narrow dirt path fifty meters ahead, disappearing into the dense underbrush.
"AHHHHHHH!" all four girls shrieked in unison, nearly tearing the sleeves off my coat as they huddled into a tight ball against my hip.
"YAH! STOP RIGHT THERE!" I yelled into the shadows, stepping forward.
"S-San-ah, no!" one of the girls sobbed, pulling on my arm. "We need to go back! We need to get the teachers!"
"Stay here," I ordered, shaking them off my sleeves. I snatched a lantern from one of their hands and took off at a full sprint into the thick timber after the mysterious runner.
Five minutes of furious sprinting later, I came to a dead halt in a clearing. The forest was dead silent. No footsteps, no broken twigs, no mysterious shadows.
Just me.
Completely, utterly lost in the middle of a freezing, dark Korean forest.
"Blyat," I swore softly under my breath, wiping cold sweat from my forehead.
It was the textbook beginning of a trashy horror film.
Ten minutes ago, the idea of a forest monster had felt like a comical joke; now, surrounded by towering, shadowy pines that blocked out the sky, the atmosphere felt oppressive and downright creepy.
I turned around, attempting to trace my steps back toward the resort. The darkness was absolute. I tripped twice over thick tree roots hidden beneath the light snow, stumbled sideways into a thorny bush, and stepped right into a deep, foul-smelling, muddy puddle that soaked straight through my sneaker.
To top off my rising misfortune, the cheap battery in my lantern gave two weak flickers and died completely.
I stood there in the pitch-black woods, covered in cold mud, reeking of marsh water, and panting heavily into the freezing air.
'If anyone sees me like this in the dark,' I thought wryly, 'they're going to assume I'm the actual monster Ji-min saw.'
I kept moving, feeling my way past girthy tree trunks until the dense canopy finally parted.
I stepped onto the edge of a wide, moonlit clearing. Below the ridge lay a shallow, natural cavity opening up to a frozen, pristine mountain lake. The moonlight reflected off the ice like a sheet of silver, illuminating the surrounding snow-dusted pines.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
But I couldn't care less about the scenery.
My eyes locked onto two figures standing down in the hollow, framed against the glowing lake.
I blinked once.
Twice.
My eyes slowly widened.
There was zero mistaking those two silhouettes.
The razor-sharp, immaculate posture belonged to Park Jun-seo.
The blonde hair and familiar glasses belonged to Lee Ha-neul.
And they were kissing.
Not a quick, accidental bump.
A real, deep, undeniable kiss under the winter moonlight.
'WHAT THE—' My brain short-circuited into pure, unadulterated shock. 'HA-NEUL AND JUN-SEO?!'CRACK.
The sharp snap of a dry stick behind my back shattered the quiet.
A blinding beam of light from a flashlight hit the back of my neck, illuminating my mud-splattered figure in stark relief against the dark trees.
"AHHHHH! MONSTER!" a chorus of screaming voices erupted from the search party approaching from behind.
'Aish! What atrocious timing!'
I panicked.
If this search group took three more steps past my tree, their flashlight beams would swing straight down into the hollow and catch the Student Council President and my host sister red-handed. The news would explode across Kirin's Secret before sunrise!
As a good host brother—and a decent human being—I had only one terrible, heroic choice.
I reached down, scooped up a palmful of wet, freezing mud from the puddle at my feet, and smeared it ruthlessly across my own face and neck. I hunched my broad shoulders, turned toward the approaching flashlight beams, and let out a guttural, terrifying groan that sounded like a dying bear.
"GRAAAAGH!"
"IT'S THE MONSTER! IT'S EATING PEOPLE!" the girls shrieked, dropping their lanterns in absolute, unhinged panic.
"WHERE DID YOU TAKE JAE-YOUNG?!" a guy holding a broomstick yelled, his voice cracking with terror. "MONSTER, DIE!"
I spun on my heel, purposely stomping my heavy boots against the brush to draw all their attention away from the lake hollow, and sprinted deeper into the dark forest, leading the screaming mob away from Ha-neul and Jun-seo's secret sanctuary.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU," I yelled, making my voice as monstrous and deep as possible, 'LEE HA-NEUL,' adding internally.