Haunted Melodies

Seola was a very calm and collected young woman, much like Jaebin. She was one year younger than the twin and Minho.

She had been gifted with a gorgeous feline beauty, standing tall, thin body, and possessing a captivating appeal.

She attracted way too much male attention, but many were scared of her because of her cold manner and scary glare.

Even though Minho also harbored affection for her, the previous incident kept them apart.

She was not the kind of girl who liked lovey-dovey types of things.

When Minho proposed to Seola in front of their entire school, she gave him a harsh smack, and that is how everything between them began to get weird.

Jaena frequently used her name to make fun of him.

Seola and Jaena were good friends as well. They were aware of one another's lives and supported one another in their objectives despite the fact that they were not particularly close. They were friendly with one another, generally.

"What!? No! No…!" Minho screamed, his cheeks scarlet as he glared fiercely at his friends.

He had just learned that Seola would be his traveling companion as they made their way to Jeju Island.

"There is no way she will be the only person, among all people, to sit next to me," he snorted.

She was seated next to him on the window seat when he spotted her. In his search for another open seat, he discovered that there were already too many people on board. No seat was found by him.

"I'm never going to sit with her," he said, pointing at her. "She doesn't deserve to sit next to me."

He had been sweating hard and had a red complexion, giving the impression that he was worried since learning that they would be sharing a seat with her, on this journey.

Seola had enough of his talking, got up, and walked to him since she wasn't liking his words at all and thought they were embarrassing.

As she formed eye contact with him and spoke solemnly, he felt that he could have been instantaneously killed by her powerful gaze.

"If you don't stop talking like that, I'll have to slap you again." It was the first time she approached him, initiated eye contact with him, and pierced him with her words since the incident.

Minho was startled since he never expected her to reply to him in such a way.

"And perhaps Mr. Minho doesn't realize that his ego is so big and he is so full of himself; he should work on it." Seola crossed her hands and arched an eyebrow while taunting with disgust in her gaze.

Minho felt ashamed, and when he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he slowly made his way to his seat on the plane as if nothing had happened.

Because of how he got treated by Seola, his buddies were thrilled to see that he was getting what he deserved. Since the matter affected Minho and Seola personally, they remained silent.

Seola rolled her eyes at Minho as she sat down next to him. Everyone took their seats, too.

Minho suddenly looked like a scared kitten. He was so anxious that his hands were shaking.

Despite his hatred for Seola, he still carried a special place in his heart for her.

Seola and Minho never spoke, even though all the friends appreciated one other's presence. They arrived on the island without any problem.

As they were making their way to their hotel in the Forest, Daehyun questioned his friends, "Did I give you guys all the detail about the 'White Witch'? I spent the entire night yesterday looking up White Witch."

"Yes, you told us about her white hair," Jaena replied.

Minho questioned, "What else do you want to inform?" out of curiosity.

Everyone's hearts began to rush as Daehyun exclaimed, "Everyone in the village hears her spooky and haunting music every night."

"Everyone in the town got shivers every time they heard that," Daehyun kept saying, making their heart skip a beat.

"What are your thoughts on this news? Seola, do you think it's real or false?" Jaebin enquired with interest.

Seola responded, "Umm, I have no clue, to be honest, but I want it to be truthful," as she was tying up her short, shoulder-length, shiny black hair, revealing her long, lean neck.

When she was fixing her hair, a person was looking at her from behind. Jaena saw his admiring eyes of him, smiled, and remarked, "Why are you walking so slow, come forward," as she observed Minho was moving much too slowly while looking at something.

Jaebin shocked everyone when he added, "Yeah, I wish and want it to be true. Wherever we went on our previous ghost-hunting excursions, we wasted our time, no one was around."

He said too much in one go. Such a wish has never before been stated by him.

He watched everyone's faces plastered with surprise and answered tentatively, "Because I was tired of being disappointed every time everywhere we go.

"Daehyun replied, "Hmm... that's true, me too," as they walked into the hotel and got their room keys.

"Let's go, and meet the locals after putting our luggage in our rooms," suggested Daehyun.

Everyone agreed. All of them placed the belongings in their rooms, then went downstairs to meet some locals and find out whether or not the rumor about the "White Witch" was genuine.

They all came here with a lot of hopes and were very enthusiastic compared to previous haunt-hunting outings.

"Dear Sir, What's up?" Jaena went up to an elderly man and said.

"How about you all? I'm doing fine. Which city are you all from?" The old man inquired. Minho revealed in a formal introduction that they were from Seoul.

"Well good. Do you guys need anything?" The old man proceeded.

Daehyun said, "Yes, we do want to interview you about the "White Witch." The old man's humorous demeanor changed to one of seriousness, and he appeared he was terrified and didn't want to talk about it.

Under pressure from the children, the elderly man claimed that the white witch has eaten so many residents of their village that they are now unable to leave for the forest.

He also expressed how everyone is outraged by her. Her creepy music kept them up at night and stopped them from sleeping properly.

Jaena enquired, "Do you know for sure that the White Witch is real?"

The old man was enraged and responded to the question by standing up while pointing the stick he was holding in his hand toward Jaena, "We lost so many loved ones and you are wondering if this is true or not."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to hurt you." Jaena experienced humiliation.

The elderly man said gravely, "I'm giving a warning to everyone to stay away from the forest because I know you're all here to investigate it. If you go there, you'll get killed." He pointed toward the direction of the forest.

Everyone they had spoken with, had a different account of what had happened; some professed to believe it, while others claimed it was merely a myth and that someone else had definitely abducted the victims.

"What should we do next? Each person told a different tale. Should we leave or stay? If it's real, we'll all pass away," Minho was now terrified.

"After coming so far, we can't go back," concluded Jaebin.

Seola continued, "Because of what brings us here, we must complete it."

They all agreed that sleeping today and continuing inside the Forest tomorrow would be preferable.

***

Maya was oblivious to what was going to happen since she stayed in the Forest. Another change was about to happen shortly in her life.

She continued to spend her days in the forest singing, experimenting with her abilities, interacting with animals, wandering around the forests, and robbing Hikers for their belongings and food.