Chapter Text
Jisung skips a step as he runs across the small plaza, the sound of his shoes thumping against the stones accompanying him on his way to find his friends. The sun is already high in the sky, but is not that bright yet, this time of year. It has just become spring and the weather is already pretty nice, which only adds to Jisung’s cheerful mood today.
He is excited to tell his friends about his findings of the day, after spending the morning scouring through the library once again, and when he finds Changbin already strolling outside, he feels even more excited. He waves to get his friend’s attention as he runs up to him.
“Hey, Changbin! Just the person I was looking for,” he greets his friend happily, gesturing around with his hands. Changbin stops walking when he sees Jisung and brushes some of his bangs out of his face, revealing his eyes and eyebrows. Jisung always tells him to cut his bangs shorter and even says that he’s willing to help him with it, but Changbin simply refuses every time, stubbornly letting his bangs grow out until they’re covering his eyes.
“Hi, ‘Sungie,” Changbin says with a wave, a small smile appearing on his face. He squints a bit against the sunlight and points forward. “You say that as if we don’t see each other every day. I was just on my way home. You wanna come with me?”
“Yes! I have something to tell you and Chan.” Jisung nods and gestures at Changbin before he puts up two fingers, but he gives up signing along with his words halfway through and just grabs Changbin’s hand. He starts dragging the shorter boy along with him, too excited to tell him and Chan about what he found.
He has been in the small neighbourhood library the whole morning and his time spent there, looking through the old and less well-kept part, with dusty books and almost rotten bookcases, was not spent in vain. The old part of the library is actually off-limits, because of a mould issue affecting the wood of the bookcases and making them fragile, but Jisung decided to look there anyway, and now he realizes that he should have done so earlier.
When they knock on the door to Chan’s house, Jisung can barely contain his excitement, doing a sloppy job at signing a proper greeting before barging inside.
“I found a map!” he announces as he pulls out the piece of paper he retrieved from the library and lays it down onto the dinner table, smoothing out some of the wrinkles with his hands. He waits for Chan and Changbin to join him at the table and waits to see if Chan has something to say before he starts telling them what he found. Chan gestures at the map to tell Jisung he can explain.
“Okay, so I was looking around in the library again this morning,” he begins, signing along with his words, “and I happened to sneak into the old part, and I looked behind the nasty bookcases as well because, you know, by now I’ve basically seen the whole library. Guess what I saw.”
“Wait, you went into the old part? Isn’t that dangerous?” Changbin looks at him with a worried look, but Jisung waves him off, shaking his head.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m fine, am I not?” He gestures at himself, raising one eyebrow. Changbin lets out a sigh, so Jisung continues, “Either way, it’s not important. Guess what I found.”
“This map?” Changbin asks, while Chan just dryly points at the map.
“Yes! Well, actually, it was a book with this map in it,” Jisung explains, shifting his gaze to the map. “It’s a map of the area and... look here!” He drags his finger along the contours of the map until it lands on a particular drawing of a house in the middle of the forest that surrounds their little town. Next to the house is a little drawing of a black cauldron with purple goo in it. “It’s a witches hut!”
Changbin looks up at him with a frown, his eyes almost completely obscured by his bangs. He seems afraid, but Jisung expected him to be afraid beforehand, so he has a speech prepared for him, which he rehearsed in his head while leaving the library, but first, he wants to know what Chan thinks.
‘What are you saying?’ Chan asks and he mimics walking before gesturing at the three of them and pointing at the map. ‘Do you want us to go there?’
“Yes, I mean, we should take this chance, right? If a witch cursed us, they can un curse us again.” Jisung signs the words as he says them, looking between Changbin and Chan. “I know you think you can live with this curse, Channie, but wouldn’t it be nice for you to be able to sing along with us? Or to get our attention without having to tap us on the back or clap? I certainly think it would be nice to hear your laugh as well.”
Chan presses his lips together and Jisung feels his stomach churn. Chan’s curse isn’t necessarily taboo, but Chan does tend to feel guilty whenever Jisung or Changbin talk about trying to help him find a cure. A cure isn’t urgent, the three of them are holding up just fine, but it would be nice because Jisung can tell that Chan’s curse makes him insecure, and makes others feel like Chan is worth less than others or something.
Jisung doesn’t even remember how it happened exactly, despite the event making a major impact on him. He was barely five years old when one moment, the three of them were playing outside and having fun, and the next moment, Chan couldn’t speak anymore. He vaguely remembers being chased away from wherever they were playing and not understanding why his six-year-old friend Changbin was crying.
Chan was almost eight years old when he suddenly couldn’t make any sounds anymore. The three of them couldn’t explain it to his parents, Changbin was too busy crying and Jisung didn’t understand what happened.
Changbin didn’t want to come out of his house for weeks after the incident, and despite not understanding exactly what happened, Jisung asked his parents to visit his friends almost every day, making sure they’d go to Changbin’s house and figure out a way to communicate.
The first thing they tried was communicating via writing on paper, but that method was incredibly flawed from the beginning. The most obvious flaw was that Jisung couldn’t read, and he still can’t read that well, but he would have learned to write and read for Chan if it would have been necessary. It didn’t end up being necessary, because having Changbin very slowly recite Chan’s written words to Jisung wasn’t a very effective way of communicating and the three of them got frustrated pretty quickly.
There was also of course the problem of too little paper, too little ink, not wanting to carry around writing supplies all the time, Chan’s parents scolding him because ink and paper are expensive, the list goes on. Long story short, they quickly abandoned that idea.
The next thing they came up with, as well as the thing they stuck with, was using sign language. It sort of went automatically, Chan would gesture or sign something and Changbin and Jisung would try to figure out what he meant. It took a lot of trial and error, but they’ve been using their own made-up sign language for about fourteen years now.
It has become a habit for Jisung and Changbin to use it all the time as well. First, they did it to practice memorizing the signs, and even though their parents told them to stop doing it because it looked odd , the habit stuck. Sometimes, when they have to be quiet or are simply too lazy to speak, their sign language comes in handy, too.
Unfortunately, Chan’s parents didn’t want to bother learning sign language, so he had to do with writing with erasable pencils at home, until his parents and siblings moved out to live with his grandparents, leaving Chan to live alone in the house when he was only fifteen years old. Now, he doesn’t live alone anymore, Jisung and Changbin basically live with him, barely ever visiting their own parents.
“That witch's hut doesn’t look like somewhere I’d want to go,” Changbin speaks up first. “I mean, the one witch we encountered wasn’t exactly… nice , but I do think we should go. If it’s safe. Only if it’s safe.” He turns to Jisung with a serious look. “Do you know if it’s safe?”
“Uhm, no…” he admits, scratching his arm abashedly. “I didn’t want to put in the effort to read the book and look for a description of the map— I was just so excited to tell you guys what I found! I did bring the book for you guys to look at.” Jisung holds his hand up and rummages through his improvised cloth bag to retrieve the book and lay it down on the table.
Changbin nods in understanding, and Chan signs him that it’s okay. ‘If you two think we should go…’ he signs and Jisung lets out a sigh.
“Channie, you can say you want it,” Jisung assures him. He can tell that Chan wants to get rid of his curse. He and Changbin have gotten quite good at reading Chan’s face and body language, so even if he tries to hide what he feels, they can usually tell. It’s obvious whenever they make music together, or whenever they have late-night conversations together and it gets too dark to tell apart the movements of his fingers.
‘I do want it,’ Chan signs. He pauses to run a hand through his hair before he continues. ‘But I don’t want you guys to do something you’re not comfortable doing. Or put yourselves in danger for me.’
“We won’t.” Changbin places a hand on Chan’s shoulder, signing the rest of his sentence a bit sloppily with one hand. “I have to admit that I’m hesitant about this, but I’m sure I’ll feel better if we read the book before we decide what we’re going to do.”
Chan and Changbin start reading through the book Jisung borrowed while Jisung studies the map. He can barely tell where the town is on this map, but the way to the witch’s hut doesn’t seem too difficult. Although, he can’t exactly tell how far from the town the hut is either. They’ll figure it out later.
Jisung feels a tap on his back and he turns to face Chan and Changbin. ‘There’s nothing about the witch’s hut in this book,’ he signs before turning to Changbin. ‘What do you think?’
“I think…” Changbin stops speaking to brush his bangs out of his face again and Chan and Jisung silently snicker at him. Changbin pouts and huffs before continuing, his hands ready to accompany his words again. “I think we should do it, but the moment we think it’s too dangerous we should go back.”
‘I agree,’ Chan adds and Jisung nods, glad that his friends agree that they should take this chance and go. They’ve tried witchcraft themselves, Chan and Changbin have read every book about witchcraft and curses they could find, but they couldn’t find anything about reversing curses so far, never mind ever having an opportunity to try something out.
“Okay.” Jisung claps his hands together and grins at his friends. He’s excited to get out there and actually try to help Chan. He’s aware of the risks of going to a witch’s hut, they didn’t exactly have great experiences with witches in the past, but then again, they’ve only had one experience. And if there’s one thing Jisung is confident about, it’s the fact that Chan is worth the risk. “Let’s pack some things and let’s go on a trip!”
Old and muddy leaves from past autumn and branches crunch under their feet as the three make their way through the trees. The sunlight that is filtering through the foliage serves as their ambience and the sounds of the forest serve as background music for Jisung and Changbin’s half-improvised travel melodies. Chan softly claps along to the rhythm and Jisung is glad to see a smile on his face.
Jisung has never been to this part of the forest, but then again, he rarely leaves town. He does get the urge to go out there and explore, but even though his life isn’t perfect, all he needs is in town. Food, a place to sleep, and most importantly, Chan and Changbin are there, and wherever they go, Jisung follows, or in this case, Jisung wouldn’t go where they won’t follow.
They’ve been walking for a while, but the only way Jisung can tell the passage of time is by the way the sun is lower in the sky than before. He wonders if they’re close to the witch’s hut by now, but before he can finish that thought, a rustle of the foliage startles him and Changbin. He abruptly stops singing and they come to a halt, looking around for the source of the sound.
“It was probably just a bird, or a squirrel,” Jisung says. Chan grins at him and Jisung is confused for a second, but then Chan repeats Jisung’s hand gestures, suddenly making Jisung aware of the other meaning of the words, ‘It was probably just a bird or Jisung.’
Changbin laughs too and Jisung rolls his eyes. He should have never agreed to have the sign for his name be the same as the sign for squirrel . He shakes his head and puts his hands on his hips. “Let’s continue! Uhm… uh, which way are we going again?”
“Right, uhm, which way are we supposed to go?” Changbin wonders out loud, looking around. “Did you keep the map with you?”
“No…” Jisung admits, guiltily pressing his lips together. He thought Changbin was going to keep the map with him after Jisung pointed them in the original correct direction. “I can’t read. I thought you were going to do it.”
“I don’t even have it with me,” Changbin says as he quickly rummages through his backpack, but comes up empty-handed. Chan waves his hands around to get their attention and points back at his backpack.
‘I think I have it. Sorry.’
“No, no, that’s okay, uhm, I gave it to you, right? Either way, I think we may be a little lost, then.” Jisung swallows, but before he can start regretting singing with Changbin and not paying attention to which way they were going, the foliage rustles again and he whips his head towards the sound.
“Why did you stop singing?” a voice suddenly sounds from above them and Changbin lets out a yelp as Jisung tries to spot where the sound is coming from. It sounds like it’s coming from up in the trees, but he doesn’t see anyone.
“It was nice!” The voice is deep and Jisung imagines it belongs to a big person, but how can they hide themselves this well, then?
“We're lost,” Jisung says in an attempt to make the voice reveal themselves, but Changbin hits him on the shoulder and gives him a look of warning.
'What are you doing?!' he signs angrily, but before Jisung can answer, a figure hops out of the tree and stands before them.
“You're lost?” a freckled boy with a slender figure and button nose asks, his physique contrasting his deep voice. Perhaps the most notable part about him is the small set of antlers peeking through his white-blonde hair. He has white eyelashes, contrasting his bluish brown eyes. “If I show you the way, will you continue singing?”
Jisung blinks at the boy in confusion before sharing a look with Chan and Changbin. ‘ We could use some directions,’ Chan signs, but Changbin still seems a little hesitant.
“Oh, what language are you speaking? This is not regular sign language, is it?” the boy asks curiously, leaning into their space. Changbin gives him a hostile look and the boy quickly takes a step back and holds his hands up. “Sorry, I don’t mean to pry. I was just enjoying your singing, and I think the forest enjoyed it as well.”
The forest enjoyed our singing? This… creature is not human, Jisung thinks. The antlers should have given that away already, but the way he speaks confirms it.
“Who are you?” Changbin puts Jisung’s thoughts into words, but then in a more hesitant and careful form, instead of curious like Jisung would put it.
“Right, introductions! Excuse me. My name is Felix,” he says with a little bow, his raggy clothing folding along with the movement. He straightens himself and beams brightly at the trio. “I am one of the forest spirits protecting this forest, so I know this place by heart. Just tell me where you want to go and I’ll guide you.”
A forest spirit. Jisung has heard about them, but he didn’t know they looked so human . He has also never heard about forest spirits ever revealing themselves, so maybe that’s why Jisung didn’t know, and why Felix was so invisible between the foliage earlier.
“We want to go to the witch’s hut,” Jisung tells him, but he feels a bit shy when he sees Felix stare intensely at his hands. He quickly lowers them, somehow feeling like his privacy is being violated, but Felix looks up at him again with wide eyes.
“Oh, don’t be shy! I was just studying the language, you know? So I can maybe communicate with you better, since all three of you use it,” Felix explains, a kind smile on his face. Jisung turns to Chan, barely containing an excited smile. Chan’s eyes flit between Jisung and the forest spirit, a grateful smile on his face.
‘I think we should trust him,’ Jisung signs the words without speaking so that they can discuss without Felix understanding them, ‘or at least let him guide us to the witch.’
Chan nods and Jisung can imagine how much of a relief this must be for Chan, to have someone who doesn’t even know about his curse so willing to learn their language. Changbin seems to agree as well, a little less on edge than before now that Felix has shown an open attitude towards them.
“I know where the witch’s hut is,” Felix says after a beat of silence and Jisung thanks him and tells him that they’ll accept his help. Felix points where to go and starts leading the group, his steps barely making a sound and Jisung only notices then that he’s barefoot. Fitting for a forest spirit, Jisung thinks.
Felix seems very observant, always looking around and noticing a bird, an insect, a squirrel or even a deer in the distance. He also seems to notice Changbin’s slightly weary demeanour, because he starts walking next to him, giving him a kind smile and assuring him not to be afraid of him. After all, he’s just there to make sure the forest stays safe.
Jisung starts walking next to Chan and links their arms loosely, leaving enough space for them both to still use them for speaking, but for now, exchanging looks will do as they watch Felix and Changbin talk to each other.
“Do you know if the witch is dangerous?” Changbin asks and he brushes his hair out of his face again. It’s a sign that Changbin isn’t really afraid of Felix anymore, a sign that he’s not afraid to show his eyes. Felix purses his lips in thought for a moment.
“I don’t know. They aren’t dangerous to the forest,” he says, mimicking the sign for witch with his hands. A small smile appears on Changbin’s face as he looks at the forest spirit’s hands and Jisung mirrors it, sharing a look with Chan. “I don’t know much about human standards, so I can’t tell you much more. We, uhm— Forest spirits aren’t actually supposed to interact with others without a proper reason,” Felix continues.
“Okay, well, if they aren’t dangerous to the forest, it should be good, right?” Changbin says. Jisung is happy to see him open up a little, pride and fondness welling up in his chest at the interaction between his friend and the forest spirit.
‘Lovely,’ Chan signs simply and Jisung wholeheartedly agrees.
Before they know it, Jisung can see a small house appearing between the trees. It’s a two-story house, blending in perfectly between the trees, and if it wasn’t for the variety of plants growing around the house that he hasn’t seen anywhere else around the forest, Jisung would have surely missed it.
“There it is!” he exclaims, and he quickens his step, taking Chan with him by their linked arms, the latter clumsily stumbling after him. His friend tugs at his arm a little, probably trying to tell him to slow down, but Jisung keeps a steady pace.
“Jisung! Wait a second!” Changbin calls after him, so Jisung slows down, but he can’t tear his eyes away from the house. Plants are peeking out between the bricks and Jisung can’t tell if it’s intentional or not. The house looks both old and new at the same time, like it has been partly renovated a couple of years ago, and he wonders what the witch looks like that lives here. He has never seen a witch before, after all. Would that witch be able to help them? Would he be able to tell by looking at the witch if they are benevolent?
Jisung suddenly gets the urge to go inside and take a look—
Chan taps his shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts. He has a stern expression on his face. ‘You can’t just run off, okay? We still have to be careful.’ Chan looks like he means it and Jisung ducks his head in apology. He didn’t mean to worry him, but he can’t help his curiosity.
Felix and Changbin join them and they start devising a plan. Jisung offers to just knock on the door, but Changbin wants them to look through the windows first, just to be sure. Jisung sees nothing inside, the house seems dark and almost uninhabited, making him wonder if someone even still lives here. The map didn’t indicate that.
The witch could be upstairs , Jisung thinks, we should just knock . He looks to his side at the rest before he walks over to the door. He knocks on the old wood of the entrance and leans a little closer to hear if there’s someone inside, but he hears nothing. He knocks again, a little louder this time, just to be sure.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s in here,” he announces to the rest as he still hears nothing. Chan presses his lips together in thought and Changbin huffs out a breath. “That means we can just go inside and look around, right?” he says. He really wants to take a look inside, maybe they can find a book they can borrow for a while which can help them fix the curse themselves.
“What? Are you serious?” Changbin hisses at him, keeping his voice down as if the witch could possibly hear him. There isn’t even a witch.
Chan seems to agree with Changbin, giving Jisung a hesitant look. ‘We can’t just go inside, Jisung, I don’t think that’s a good idea.’
“Why not? No one’s home, I doubt if someone even lives here.” However much Jisung wants to listen to his friends and be careful, they’ve just seen that no one’s home with their own eyes. He understands that they don’t want a repeat of what happened almost fifteen years ago, but there’s no witch to be scared of.
‘What do you think, forest spirit?’ Chan asks, but maybe he means to say Felix , instead of forest spirit . Changbin quickly translates it for Felix, who thinks about it for a moment. “I don’t know. As I said, I’m not supposed to interact with others. I’m sorry.”
“No it’s fine, I’ll just go inside and take a quick look, okay?” Jisung says and he turns around before anyone can protest. He places his hand on the doorknob, ignoring Changbin’s plea to wait, he needs to go inside and look, there’s nothing to be scared of. He’ll be back in no time.
Jisung turns the knob and pushes the door open. It gets stuck for a moment, but Jisung easily pushes through and steps inside. The first thing he notices is that the inside of the house somehow looks different from the inside than it did from the outside—
SLAM!
Jisung jumps two meters into the air as the door slams close behind him and a sudden fear settles in his stomach like a boulder. The house goes dark and silent, not even the windows he looked through before are providing much light. He freezes, unsure if he should turn around and leave or not. He figures that if he needs help, he'll just yell, he's good at that. And besides, the others should be able to see him through the windows. He will be fine.
He takes a hesitant step forward but he flinches when he hears the floors creak. There's no one here, he tells himself, I saw it , and it calms him down slightly—
“ Who interrupts me?! ” a sudden voice booms through the home and Jisung lets out a scream. So far for this place being uninhabited. How could it be? He heard nothing through the door, saw nothing through the windows. He should have listened to his friends, because this witch does not sound happy. In fact, they sound livid .
“M-My name is Jisung, Han Jisung. I'm sorry for intruding!” he stutters out, his hands instinctively coming up to join his words until he realizes what he's doing and keeps them still in the air. Better not to move at all, probably. “I'm not here to harm anyone, I'm just here to help my friend—”
A figure appears in front of Jisung, eyes wide and angry , but before Jisung can feel scared, he feels a sharp pain in his abdomen. “Ah—!” He coughs sharply as his arms shoot down to clutch his stomach. He looks down when he feels some kind of liquid seeping through his shirt and— oh fucking hell .
“Wha— Why—?” Jisung stammers weakly as he looks up at the witch, tears pricking in his eyes from the searing pain. The witch is staring down at him with wide and… afraid eyes? He blinks rapidly, trying to stay conscious and understand what happened and how to fix it, but the numbing pain and blood loss aren't really helping him.
“Oh no. Oh no .” Jisung barely hears the word come out of the witch's mouth before he collapses onto the floor. He squeezes his eyes shut in agony, his forehead knocking against the floor. Sharp shots of pain in his abdomen torment him as he breathes heavily against the dark wooden floorboards. He winces when the witch touches his back with a cold hand. “Oh lord— Fuck— Goodness— This was not what I wanted…! Where is Seungmin?!”
Jisung barely registers the panicked and angry words, only registering the cold hands taking off his backpack before flipping him onto his back, and the witch's whispered apologies to him. He doesn't understand. He doesn’t need apologies. He needs someone to help him.
“H-Help me…” he croaks out desperately, but the witch apologizes again.
Jisung suddenly feels something a bit softer than wood under him, and a shiver runs through his body at the sudden change of temperature. When he forcefully blinks his eyes open again, he sees the sky. He blinks rapidly, his eyes adjusting to the sudden light and his heart going into overdrive as he tries to figure out what happened and how he got outside all of a sudden.
A heart-wrenching scream sounds. Changbin? Is that him?
“ Jisung! ”
End of chapter 1