Work Text:
Jeongguk wasn’t entirely sure how he ended up in elaborate costume makeup working at the University’s Halloween fair, but he was pretty sure Hwang Eunbi was at fault. He remembered her mentioning something about “scaring the everliving crap out of Yuna” and then she had dragged Jeongguk with her to sign up as volunteer zombies for the annual Zombie Festival, immediately foiling Jeongguk’s plans of just having a simple night out in Hongdae on the 31st.
Not that Jeongguk actually had Halloween plans, but he liked to pretend he had other friends besides Eunbi for the sake of his reputation. And ego.
The festival was organized by the acting, make-up and costume department, but students from every course had signed up to be a part of the scare-squad, as their team leader Kim Seokjin called them. During their first meeting the pink-haired senior had opened with the encouraging words of “even if you don’t get paid for your hard work, their terrified screams will reward you enough,” and honestly that was all it took for Jeongguk to realize he wasn’t going to get on Seokjin’s bad side.
That and the fact that he managed to force Min Yoongi - Min Yoongi! - into a 'sexy dead cheerleader’-costume.
(“At least no one can recognize me in this ridiculous getup,” Yoongi had grumbled as he put on a long blonde wig.
“What about your boyfriend?” Eunbi asked, phone camera obviously pointing towards Yoongi.
“Fuck off, he is not my boyfriend,” Yoongi seethed, and Eunbi had laughed loudly as she sent the photo to Park Jimin on Snapchat.)
Jeongguk’s costume wasn’t nearly as bad as Yoongi’s. He was only dressed in a tattered, fancy-looking suit, but the people from costume makeup had spent almost an hour zombifying his face with latex and greenish-grey face paint and wounds, and his fringe was mussed up stylishly with a mixture of hairspray and fake blood. Eunbi was on his arm, dressed in a bloody wedding dress, face painted hollow, and she was wearing these milky white contacts Jeongguk’s dry-ass eyes couldn’t handle when the costume department tried putting them on him.
“That’s okay,” Eunbi had said, patting his shoulder with a clawed, bloodied hand, “you always look unapproachable anyway.”
As much as Jeongguk would like to disagree with that, he couldn’t. It’s not that Jeongguk was mean and didn’t want friends, but his default face screamed hello I am an asshole and Jeongguk was too shy to actually approach someone and prove this first impression any different. Eunbi on the other hand was about as much of an asshole as she looked, which was probably why the two of them got along so well. Even if Jeongguk sometimes questioned Eunbi’s decisions, like signing up as volunteer zombies for a school fair just so she could scare the crap out of her crush.
Jeongguk would hand it to her, though - dressing up like this was a better idea than he originally thought. He hadn’t really grown up with any Halloween traditions - at most he just watched a few scary movies with some friends - and had only started dressing up for the holiday when he moved to the capital. This - walking through the University campus with a demonic version of the wedding march following them wherever they went - was a lot more fun than watching The Ring in his parents’ basement.
“Should have called my mother for this,” Eunbi said as they passed a group of scared-looking guys, “this is the closest I’ll ever get to marrying a guy.”
Jeongguk almost broke character, squeezing Eunbi’s arm and forcing back a smile. “Stop. I’m going to laugh.”
“You should call yours, too,” Eunbi continued, “isn’t this the first time you’ve touched a girl?”
As tempting as it was to trip her, Jeongguk was used to this. Eunbi had a tendency to ‘gently’ bully people she liked, which is why she took her crush with acrophobia to go bungee-jumping that one time, because thats the sort of thing Eunbi did. Jeongguk - in retrospect - was the nice friend. The very nice friend. “Are all lesbians assholes or is it just you,” Jeongguk deadpanned, and Eunbi cackled.
The university campus was a mess of Halloween decorations and guests and the eventual food stand. Jeongguk could hear at least three version of Spooky Scary Skeletons being played at the same time, and mixed with the wedding march playing from the inconspicuous pockets in Eunbi’s dress it was kind of giving him a headache. Still, he was going to make the most of it, because if people were gathering around the stalls that meant they thought they were safe.
Quite wrong.
“To your right,” Eunbi said quietly, but still loud enough for Jeongguk to hear her over defeating, spooky bass. “High school students. They’re filming us. They look terrified already.”
Jeongguk slowly shifted his gaze towards the right without turning his head, and true enough; a gang of teenagers dressed in a local school uniform was standing at the edge of the road. They were keeping their distance, pointing at the zombies passing by and filming them.
The thing with both Jeongguk and Eunbi was that they never did anything halfway. They were both extremely competitive, and even if Kim Seokjin had smilingly said this wasn’t a competition, they were both dead set (hah) on being the absolute scariest.
So, with practiced ease (they had indeed practiced scaring techniques for about a week), the two of them carried on, but only until they were right in front of the high school students filming them. Then, on Eunbi’s third tap on Jeongguk’s arm, they snapped their heads towards them simultaneously, and charged. Jeongguk almost grinned at one of the girls screaming and running away, watching in glee as the rest of the high school students scattered around. Eunbi pretended to follow a few of them, gaining shouts of “fuck off, scary bitch!” in return.
One of the girls had left her purse in shock, and Jeongguk made sure to stand uncomfortably close to it as she came back to retrieve it. “Oh shit, please don’t move,” the girl muttered, so of course Jeongguk moved. The girl snatched her bag from the ground and ran after her friends with a rather pitiful whine.
Then Eunbi linked her arm with Jeongguk’s again, sigh escaping her lips. “Ah. Success.”
“You guys are taking this way too seriously.”
Jeongguk looked over his shoulder to see Yoongi, all dressed up in his costume, and almost snorted. During his first months of university Jeongguk had been terrified of Min Yoongi, but he was pretty sure he was never going to see past the cheerleading uniform now. And the bloody pom-poms.
“You look like Twice after the apocalypse,” Eunbi said as greeting.
“Fuck off,” Yoongi seethed, flipping Eunbi the bird. “At least I look hot, unlike you guys. I’ve gotten like thirty phone numbers already. The most you will be getting is a fist to the face with the way you’re acting.” He turned his glare towards Jeongguk. “Especially you, what the fuck, you’re terrifying.”
“That’s generally the idea of Halloween, hyung,” Jeongguk drawled. “Our job is to scare people. Sending kids crying for their mothers is what you’re supposed to be doing here, not getting phone numbers. Does Jimin even know about this?”
“Not about the phone numbers, but he knows I am here, thanks to you.” Yoongi narrowed his eyes in Eunbi’s direction. “I bet he’s going to show up here, fucking looking for me.”
“You say that as if you don’t enjoy sitting on his dick on a regular basis,” Eunbi quipped, and Jeongguk snorted unattractively.
Yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose. “One day, Hwang Eunbi - I’m probably going to strangle you.”
Eunbi hummed, detaching herself from Jeongguk and throwing one arm over Yoongi’s shoulders. “I’ll look forward to the day you actually reach my neck,” she smiled, despite not being that tall. But she was wearing heels today, and Yoongi looked pretty small next to her. “I’m hungry, so I think I’ll take my food break and scare some visitors around the food stalls all the while. Mind doing some rounds around campus alone, dear husband?”
Jeongguk grunted, waving his hand for her to go ahead.
“Great!” Eunbi grinned, because she wasn’t wearing tons of latex on her face and could actually show facial expressions. “You hungry, Yoongi-unnie?”
Jeongguk watched as Yoongi chased a laughing Eunbi towards the food-stalls, shaking his head lightly. As fun as it was scaring people with Eunbi, it was extremely difficult to stay in character around her, and walking alone around campus might actually give him an advantage against the guests. Now that he didn’t have the wedding march to accompany him, people wouldn’t know he was coming.
With newfound determination, Jeongguk put on his grimmest face and followed the pathway around campus.
.
.
.
Scaring people was fun.
Scaring people who didn’t see him coming was hilarious.
It was almost difficult for Jeongguk to keep a straight face as people screamed and jumped away from him, because his knee-jerk reaction was to just laugh. Some people cursed at him, but honestly what did they expect coming to an event that clearly said ‘there will be actors trying to scare you’?
After about half an hour later Jeongguk had sent at least fifty people screaming in the direction of either the school gates or towards the bright lights of the food stands, and Jeongguk felt very pleased with his accomplishments. Kim Seokjin was right - the guests’ terrified screams were reward enough for doing this for free.
Jeongguk briefly thought about finding Eunbi again so they could continue their couple schemes when he saw him.
It was just one guy, standing under the dim light of one of the lampposts. A small voice of reason said don’t, but he was standing with his back turned to Jeongguk and honestly it was just too easy. He looked taller than Jeongguk, his shoulders were pretty wide, and Jeongguk was certain the guy could handle a scare.
As quietly as possible, Jeongguk snuck up behind the guy. He was wearing headphones, which meant he couldn’t even hear much, and honestly Jeongguk was close to laughing. What idiot showed up to a Halloween event like this, knowing people could pop up and scare the shit out of you?
The guy wasn’t reacting even when Jeongguk stood pretty close, so - very quickly - Jeongguk leaned in and breathed against the guy’s neck. That had a reaction, because the guy turned his head, and for a second Jeongguk thought the guy wasn’t easily scared and wouldn’t have a reaction. But then he screamed bloody murder and fell back on his ass while simultaneously ripping his earbuds out, and Jeongguk stood there staring down at him in absolute glee.
Jeongguk’s gloating didn’t last very long however, because before he knew what was happening the guy started crying.
Holy shit.
“Uh.”
The guy immediately hid his face in his hands, and Jeongguk thought he saw his shoulders shaking. Was I wrong? he thought briefly, because there was no was he actually scared someone to the point where they started crying, right? It made more sense that the guy was just surprised and then started laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation was.
Tryingly, Jeongguk took one step forward, and the guy must have sensed it because he scrambled away with another shout and holy fuck the guy was really crying.
There were legit tears, and Jeongguk really wasn’t trained to deal with people crying. He was bad at comforting his friends even, and he hadn’t exactly expected to scare someone to this extent. “Oh my God I’m not equipped for a zombie apocalypse,” Jeongguk heard the guy sob, “I’m not ready to die.”
The guy then proceed to throw his phone at Jeongguk, and Jeongguk barely sidestepped it before it hit his face. It was at that moment Jeongguk considered the option that this guy might not know what the hell was going on at this campus.
“Holy sh -” Jeongguk exclaimed, “what the fuck dude?”
“Please don’t kill me, Mr. Zombie,” the guy pleaded, and he was still sobbing. “I’m - I’m scrawny and I won’t taste good, I have no meat on my bones!”
Instead of saying something along the lines of ‘I’m not a real zombie’ or ‘this is just a zombie-themed festival, you must be confused’ to calm this poor guy down, Jeongguk said, “Zombies eat brains, you idiot,” which obviously didn’t help the situation.
“Ah, shit,” the guy choked, another stream of tears running down his face, “I-I’m fucked.”
“Shouldn’t you be running?” Jeongguk continued, and honestly he was milking this. What idiot continued scaring someone who thought they were in actual danger.
Jeongguk did, apparently.
He’d been hanging out too much with Eunbi.
The guy rubbed his eyes and sniffed. “I-I’m a shit runner,” he muttered in reply, and as he moved his hand and looked up at Jeongguk with wide eyes, red-rimmed and glistening from crying, Jeongguk realized he was cute.
Shit. He was very cute.
“Can we just get this over with?” the guy stuttered. “Like, can you kill me quickly?”
“I’m - I’m just an actor,” Jeongguk blurted out in panic, and suddenly the weight of the whole situation crashed onto him all at once. He just scared someone to tears and then continued terrifying him to the point where the guy chucked his phone at Jeongguk in an act of self defense. “Fuck. I’m so sorry for sc-scaring you - shit.”
In a hurry, Jeongguk turned and jogged towards the direction of where the guy had thrown his phone. It looked like it was still slightly intact, but the screen was severely cracked. “Shit - dude, this is a halloween-themed festival, I’m supposed to scare people,” he explained as he handed the phone to the Cute Guy. Cute Guy seemed too shaken to actually take the phone from Jeongguk’s hands, so Jeongguk ended up dropping it in the guy’s lap.
“S-sorry about your phone,” Jeongguk mumbled, “I’m just doing my job.”
Well, his job didn’t exactly entail breathing down someone’s neck and then scaring them to the point of tears, but this Cute Guy didn’t need to know that. “I’ll leave, then,” Jeongguk awkwardly said, “sorry for - uh - making you cry.”
“I’m not crying,” the guy said, obviously crying.
Jeongguk bowed his head, “sorry,” he said, and then he ran away.
(Fucking idiot.)
.
.
.
“I made a guy cry,” Jeongguk said when the make-up department was peeling his zombie-face off in one of the classrooms after the festival.
Eunbi looked ecstatic, placing a hand on Jeongguk’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you, son.”
Jeongguk grimaced. “Well I’m not, and you shouldn’t be either! I didn’t just scare him, you know? He didn’t cry because he was startled, he genuinely thought I was going to eat his brains. And -” Jeongguk paused, letting the make-up artist rub off the makeup on his lips, “- he was cute. Like really cute. I made a really cute guy cry and then he threw his phone at me because he thought I was an actual zombie.”
A guy from the costume department glared as Eunbi nearly fell out of her chair while laughing, probably because she was still wearing her costume. “Oh boy,” she wheezed, drying an imaginary tear, “oh boy, you’re never going to get a boyfriend, Jeon Jeongguk.”
“Thanks,” Jeongguk drawled, “your vote of confidence really means a lot.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Eunbi giggled. “But, real talk; how cute was he?” Jeongguk groaned loudly, sinking back into his chair, because he couldn’t even find his words. It had only been a brief look under a pretty dim lamp, but Jeongguk knew the guy was adorable. Eunbi lightly patted his shoulder. “I see. Tough luck, buddy. Guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
Jeongguk grumbled. “Whatever. Not like I had a chance, anyway,” he said. “Are you going somewhere? Or do you want to go eat something?”
Eunbi clasped her hands together in a meek apology. “Sorry, Jeongguk, my dear,” she said, not sounding sorry at all, “but I have a very gay midnight date with Yuna, and I’d rather you didn’t third-wheel.”
Grunting, Jeongguk shook his head, tiny smile on his lips. “I’d rather not. I’m tired, anyway.”
“Sorry!” Eunbi said, still not sounding apologetic. “I’ll text you tomorrow to tell you how the date went?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jeongguk waved her off. “Go have fun.”
With that, Jeongguk was free to leave. Most of the makeup was off, his face scrubbed clean of latex and face paint, but his hair still had bits of blood in it. Jeongguk wasn’t doing anything anyway, so he might as well just go straight home to take a shower.
He made sure to pass by the other changing rooms to say goodbye to Yoongi and Seokjin, both of them now out of their costumes, and then he stepped out of the school building and onto the now less-crowded campus. The stalls were closing and students were scattering out of the school gates, and Jeongguk followed a throng of them towards the bus stops.
“I’m serious hyung, I actually started crying.”
A slightly familiar voice made Jeongguk turn his head to the other end of the bus stop, and there he was. Cute Guy, eyes still a little puffy and red, with a grim expression on his face as he told the person on the other end of the line in detail about their unfortunate meeting earlier. Jeongguk bit his bottom lip as a wave of guilt hit him, reminding him that he had actually made someone cry. A voice that sounded like Eunbi’s argued that he was just doing his job, but Jeongguk still felt bad.
Should I say sorry? Again?
Taking a very deep breath, Jeongguk daringly moved towards Cute Guy as the latter shoved his phone back into his pocket. Cute Guy saw him approaching, and lifted one eyebrow.
Jeongguk cleared his throat. “I - I see your phone is still working?”
It seemed like it took the guy a few seconds to process what Jeongguk meant by that, like he was figuring where he might know Jeongguk from. Then his mouth dropped open and he lifted one hand to point a finger at Jeongguk. “Zombie guy?”
“Y-yeah,” Jeongguk muttered sheepishly, suddenly feeling very stupid for having come over. “Uh - shit - sorry, again. I had no idea you would be that scared.”
The guy’s hand dropped, and it looked like he didn’t believe Jeongguk was actually the same Zombie that had scared him earlier. “You - that must have been a lot of makeup on your face?”
“Uh.” That wasn’t really the response Jeongguk had expected. “Obviously?”
Cute Guy stuttered. “No, I just - I was a little busy being scared out of my mind, I didn’t get to see you that clearly but…” He cleared his throat, “you’re very attractive. You don’t look dead at all. I might still have cried if you looked like this, honestly, but that’s just because I’m jumpy. My best friend made me watch Train to Busan yesterday.”
“Ah,” Jeongguk voiced, like an idiot. His brain was trying to process that this very cute guy had called him attractive. “Why - why were you even there? You didn’t know about the event?”
“My friend just sent me to pick some stuff up for him from the studio,” the guy groaned. “I knew there was something happening in school, but I didn’t think someone would sneak up on me like that.” He said that last part while giving Jeongguk a pointed - yet amused - glare.
“Scaredy-cats shouldn’t be out on Halloween,” Jeongguk retorted.
Cute Guy snorted. “I’m not a scaredy-cat.”
“You cried,” Jeongguk pointed out.
“I cried,” Cute Guy admitted easily. “I was scared out of my mind, and you were terrifying. Wouldn’t you have been scared if someone breathed down your neck like that?”
Jeongguk shrugged, lightly. “Maybe. Wouldn’t have cried.”
“Asshole,” Cute Guy mumbled. “You’re lucky you’re good-looking, Mr. Zombie.”
His ears were probably red, but Jeongguk still managed a small smile at that. “I’m - uh - my name’s Jeongguk.” Slowly, he withdrew his hand from his pocket and held it out for the cute guy to take. His hand was warm and his skin was soft and tan and gosh, he was so cute. “I felt genuinely bad for scaring you and making you cry, so I thought I’d come over to say, uh, well…”
“Sorry?” the guy guessed, face breaking into a box-shaped grin. “Apology accepted. Sorry for chucking my phone you. The name’s Taehyung.”
Taehyung. That was a very nice name indeed. It suited him. “Taehyung,” Jeongguk repeated. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Taehyung lifted one eyebrow, and Jeongguk felt a flush spread across his cheeks at the scrutinizing gaze. “That’s it?”
Jeongguk cleared his throat a little awkwardly, avoiding looking at Taehyung’s face. “I mean - I don’t have money to replace the your phone screen or anything, but - but,” God, Jeongguk was always the worst at asking people out, “I could pay for your coffee? Sometime? Soon?”
Taehyung was still grinning as he held out his hand. “Phone.”
Scrambling through the pockets of his jacket, Jeongguk eventually pulled out his phone, opened the lock screen and handed it to Taehyung. He allowed himself to feel giddy as Taehyung plotted in his phone number. “You should text me later tonight,” he said when he handed the phone back to Jeongguk. Taehyung had saved his number under the name scaredy cat.
“A-already?” Jeongguk voiced.
“Yeah.” Taehyung nodded. “Thanks to you I’m probably not sleeping tonight, so you might as well make up for it by keeping me company.”
Jeongguk couldn’t help the grin spreading on his face. “Yeah? That’s okay. I can do that.”
Taehyung smiled back. “Good.”
.
.
.
zombie boy: so do you watch the walking dead
scaredy cat: :)) you’re pushing it :))
.
.
.