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"I don't like this," Hyunjun said, looking around as they walked in through the gate labeled Staff. They weren't as loaded down as usual, since they'd left Woosu's drum set back home. Instead, he carried his cajon and one amp, while Jihoo and Junyoung carried the other amps and their instruments.
Part of his dislike came from the lack of people around. Not even staff. They saw no one in the parking lot, although that might be because the staff didn't need to drive anywhere, not really. Or, at least, not to park in the parking lot. Probably they were sleeping behind the midway.
But the gate had been unlocked, like he'd been told it would be, so they stopped well within to look around.
The carnival was still there. The rides turned off, the music quiet, game set up but the prizes locked away. It still seemed so weird, so...
"You're IZ?" someone said.
All four of them started. Junyoung dropped his amp and clutched his bass to his chest, staring at the man that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. "Yes," Hyunjun said, his voice as steady as he could make it. "Where did you want us?"
The man smiled. "This way," he said. "We really appreciate this. Our usual musicians are indisposed."
"What does that mean?" Jihoo asked, almost too soft to be heard.
"They ate something that disagreed with them," the man said. "From town."
"Oh," Jihoo said.
Hyunjun could imagine his expression, eyes wide and nervous. He shoved the thought away and followed the man with the other three falling in behind him like ducklings.
Weird thought.
Still, the small dais the man led them to under one of the tents looked just right, and they didn't have to worry about the batteries in the amps, so that was good. Setting up drove away the jitters, and so they didn't realize that the man hadn't left until Hyunjun turned around to see him sitting just inside the tent. "So... you want two 20 minute sets an hour?" he asked. It could be hard, but they'd have water, and lunch supplied for them.
"Yes, that's perfect. An hour for lunch, and run of the carnival when the sun goes down," the man said.
"Thank you," Hyunjun said, and bowed.
The man bowed back and took himself out of the tent.
"This is so weird," Jihoo said, sitting down on the bench on one side of the dais. "It feels weird."
"We have a bit before we have to start, want to go out and look around?" Hyunjun asked.
They all balked at the idea. Hyunjun couldn't blame them, because the tent didn't seem all that secure. Maybe because they didn't know the place that well? He wasn't sure.
Woosu opened the tent flap, and then sighed. "There are people around now," he said, his eyes on something outside. Hyunjun didn't know what, and he didn't move.
Junyoung went to look out with him, leaning against Woosu as he looked out. "There are people. I think they belong to the carnival, because they're setting everything up. But... We didn't even hear them?"
"It's weird," Jihoo said. "Everything is weird, and I suddenly want to go home."
"Yeah," Hyunjun said, but instead, he got his guitar out and started to tune it. "However, we've never gone back on a contract, and it's not a good idea to start. Come on. Let's get warmed up, at least, and then see about getting out later."
Reluctantly, Woosu closed the tent door, bringing Junyoung back with him to the dais. They played something simple to warm up, a jam that let them get things moving - fingers and tongues and brains - and then Hyunjun led them into the first song of their set.
The tent flap opened. Someone looked in, and then a stream of people came in, obviously the carnival people, settling down on the benches to watch in an eerie silence.
At the end of the first song, silence filled the tent. After a moment, when it became clear they wouldn't clap, Hyunjun glanced at Woosu to count them down to the next one.
The whole set went that way, silence from their audience making Junyoung grow more and more still. Hyunjun wanted to say something, but he didn't feel like talking was a good idea. They just went through each song.
"That's it," he announced when they reached the last song of the set.
"Can you play one more?" someone asked. Hyunjun didn't know who, no one seemed to move.
Hyunjun looked at the rest of the band. "One more?" he asked.
Surprisingly, they all agreed. Jihoo frowned softly, and then gestured them close. "We have that one we just finished. Let's do that one."
Hyunjun stared at him. He didn't like doing songs they hadn't perfected, and yet... Jihoo was right. "Fine. And then we're done until we start."
Woosu counted them down, and they started.
Something shattered. Hyunjun flinched without losing the music, surprised at the sound, but nothing else seemed to change. He glanced at the rest of them, and then at the audience.
The people in the audience didn't react either, and it was just... so strange. Such a weird reaction to something he'd felt, and he knew he'd felt, and he knew the others had felt it.
When the song was over, the audience got up, smiled, and walked out.
Without saying a word.
Hyunjun stopped trying to make it all make sense, turned to the group, and smiled in the face of their wide eyes. "I vote we do two at a time - two to stay, two to go out and get whatever we want or need. Any dissenting votes?"
They all shook their heads, and then Jihoo and Woosu took off, to look around, to walk around, to figure out anything they could.
"How are you so calm?" Junyoung asked, his voice shaking.
"Nothing happened to us," Hyunjun pointed out. "It was just some weird sound."
"It wasn't just a sound," Junyoung insisted. "It was a physical feeling. Like... we were in a snow globe and it shattered. Didn't you feel that?"
Yes, he had. "What do you want to do about it?" he asked softly. "Something happened. We don't know what, but it didn't hurt us."
"it was just so creepy," Junyoung said, but he withdrew, sitting down with his bass in his lap. He started to play, just random things - nothing Hyunjun recognized, so probably nothing of theirs - and so Hyunjun did the same, unplugging from the amp so he could keep it quiet.
The day passed in heat and crowds. IZ played everything they had, finishing their set each time. By the end of the day, the tent was still hot but not too bad, thanks to someone opening the back of the tent so what breeze there was could move through. It helped.
They packed up at the end of the day. The owner of the Carnival met them at the mouth of the tent with an envelope and a smile. "Thank you," he said, and there seemed to be more to his words than just gratitude for playing for the people in a place they could sit and rest. "We won't need you tomorrow after all."
Hyunjun tilted his head. "Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes," the man said. "Thank you again. Please, put your instruments in your car, and come back and enjoy the carnival."
It didn't take them long to decide to do that, and so they did as he suggested. The evening went by with fun and food and games. They enjoyed themselves, and the workers seemed happy to see them, too.
Finally, when the place closed, they went home, happy and full and with enough money to at least manage rent for the next month.
The next morning, when they went back, the field looked like it hadn't been used in years. The four of the exchange glances, and walked on, though what would have been the front gates. It didn't even look like it'd been visited, but Hyunjun knew they'd seen kids, enough of them to flatten the grass and create paths that wore the grass down to the dirt.
He could see no evidence of that. "I'm not crazy, right?" Woosu asked, turning around in place. "We were here, there was a carnival, there was... people, we didn't imagine it, right?"
"No, we didn't imagine it," Jihoo said. He picked up a piece of paper, one of the ads they'd seen when they'd found out about the carnival, the reason they'd even applied for the job. Junyoung looked at it over his arm, and went white, then shoved the hand holding the paper toward Hyunjun.
"IZ, thank you for freeing us. You have our undying gratitude," someone had written along one side. The signature looked like the same as the one on the contract they'd signed for their one day of playing.
"Well," Hyunjun said, and turned around. "That's too much for me. Let's see if we can find a place to play around town."
As they got in the car, they all froze, the sound of the carnival's merry-go-round wafting to them on the breeze.