Minho slammed his glass down on the table.
“Okay, okay, I have an idea.
Let’s make a bet.”
Everyone groaned.
Everyone was also grinning.
Ishaan leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
“Last time you had an idea, we ended up singing karaoke until four in the morning.”
“This one’s better,” Minho said.
“Trust me.”
“You know the shrine on Mount Araun?” Minho said.
“The one with the goddess statue.
Everyone says don’t look into her eyes or you get cursed.”
Jisoo rolled her eyes.
“That’s just an old story to scare kids.”
“Exactly,” Minho said.
“So it should be easy money.
Five minutes.
Just stare at the statue’s eyes for five minutes straight.
Whoever does it without looking away wins the pot.”
Everyone pulled out cash and dropped it on the table.
Ishaan added his share.
“I’ll do it,” Daehyun said, holding up his phone.
“But I’m filming it.
My grandma used to tell stories about that mountain.
If one of us gets cursed tonight, I want proof.”
Jisoo pushed her cash into the pile anyway.
“I’m in on the money.
I’m out on the staring.”
Yoon stood up, wobbling.
“Come on, let’s just go already.”
They left the bar together, cash stuffed in Minho’s jacket pocket.
The city noise faded behind them with every step up the hill.
Minho made a joke about ghosts jumping out of the bushes.
Everyone laughed too loud, the way people do after a few drinks.
Yoon tripped over a root and went face-first into the dirt.
“I’m okay!
I’m okay!”
Daehyun filmed him getting up, still laughing.
“This is going straight in the video.”
The jokes got quieter the higher they climbed.
Nobody said anything about it.
By the time they reached the shrine, they were breathing hard.
Weeds covered the stone steps.
The wooden gate leaned to one side, half off its hinge, paint peeling in long gray strips.
“Guess people really don’t come here,” Ishaan said.
Yoon stopped walking.
“Wait.
Is it just me, or is it really quiet here?”
Everyone stood still and listened.
No bugs.
No wind in the leaves.
Nothing.
“Maybe the bugs think it’s creepy too,” Minho said, and everyone laughed, quieter this time.
They walked on toward the statue.
A cold spot in the air.
A shadow that moved the wrong way.
Nobody said anything about it out loud.
“Whatever, guys, it’s just a weird spot,” Jisoo said.
“Let’s just get this over with.”
The stone lanterns lining the path were cracked, some tipped over into the weeds.
Faded ribbons, once red, hung gray and torn from a rope strung between two trees.
Offering bowls sat empty at the base of a smaller shrine, dust settled thick inside them.
At the base of the statue sat a pair of small shoes, side by side, laces still tied in neat bows.
They looked too clean for a place this forgotten.
Nobody pointed it out.
Nobody wanted to be the one who noticed first.
The statue stood at the center of it all, tall and gray, its stone worn smooth by wind and rain nobody had bothered to shelter it from.
Daehyun raised his phone and hit record.
“Okay, I’m filming.
Like I said, I need to be a witness.”
Jisoo crossed her arms and stepped back.
“Fine, fine,” Minho said.
“I’ll go first.”
Minho stood in front of the statue.
Yoon started the timer.
At three minutes, Minho blinked hard, looked away, and laughed, rubbing his eyes with both hands.
“Your turn, Ishaan.”
Ishaan stepped up.
He was the middle one in line, not the first, not the last.
The statue’s eyes were carved deep, catching no light at all.
His friends counted the minutes out loud behind him, cheering, clapping.
“One minute!” Yoon shouted.
Someone whistled.
“Two minutes!
Come on, Ishaan!” Minho pumped a fist in the air.
At four minutes, they were shouting his name, stomping their feet on the stone floor.
Ishaan kept his eyes locked on the statue.
His ears started ringing, a thin high sound from somewhere behind his own skull.
He did not blink.
At the edge of his vision, a shadow slid across the ground where no shadow should have been.
It moved past the lanterns, past the broken gate, and did not stop.
Five minutes passed.
Then more.
Ishaan did not move.
“Hey, dude, you did it!
Come on, someone else’s turn,” Minho called, laughing.
Ishaan stood still, eyes on the statue.
“Hey.
Hey, Ishaan.” The voices behind him sounded far away, muffled, like they were speaking through water.
Then, close to his ear, a voice said, You didn’t flinch.
Sound rushed back in all at once, like coming up for air.
“Hey, guys, what happened?” Ishaan blinked.
His friends were staring at him.
“Dude, that was so weird,” Yoon said.
“You just zoned out.”
They played back the video on Daehyun’s phone.
It showed Ishaan standing there, still and quiet, for a strangely long time.
“I don’t know,” Ishaan said.
“I was just staring.
That’s it.”
Minho tried again and barely made it past two minutes.
Yoon lasted even less, laughing as he stepped back.
“Looks like our winner is Ishaan,” Minho said, tossing him the pot of cash.
They started back down the mountain.
Jokes flew about who blinked first and who fell the most.
The city sounds crept back in as they got closer to their street.
Yoon walked beside Ishaan toward their building.
Small rental apartments lined both sides, most windows dark, a stray cat darting under a parked scooter as they passed.
Under a streetlight ahead, a small girl sat on the ground, drawing something with her finger in the dirt.
Maybe six or seven years old.
“What’s that kid doing out here so late?” Ishaan said, slowing down.
Yoon looked around.
“Where?
I don’t see anyone.”
Ishaan pointed straight at her.
Yoon looked again.
Nothing there.
Just an empty patch of sidewalk under the streetlight.
Yoon punched him lightly on the shoulder.
“Dude, I know we just did the weirdest thing tonight.
Just don’t make it weird now, okay?”
Ishaan smiled.
“Yeah.
Whatever.”
They said their goodnights and went into separate buildings.
Ishaan fell into bed still in his clothes.
Morning came too fast.
His head pounded.
He pulled yesterday’s shirt off and grabbed a clean one from the floor, buttoning it wrong on the first try.
He brushed his teeth in ten seconds flat, foam still in his mouth as he shoved his feet into his shoes.
The toast popped up black around the edges.
He grabbed it anyway, biting off the burnt corner and tossing the rest in his bag.
No coffee in the kitchen.
He’d deal with that on the way.
He rushed through the rest of getting ready, grabbed his bag, and ran for the door.
His phone kept buzzing the whole way to the station.
cursed but broke 💀
Minho: anyone else late
Minho: hello
Yoon: yeah bro so late lol
Jisoo: i have a meeting today if im not there my boss will actually kill me
Daehyun: 😭😭😭
Jisoo: is anyone even headed toward my district
Ishaan: at the station.
heading the wrong way apparently
Minho: LMAOOOO
Yoon: boo hoo you got the money last night 💀
Jisoo: karma really said no
He shoved his phone into his pocket and slipped through the doors just before they closed.
He gripped the pole as the train pulled forward with a low hum, and kept texting.
A woman beside him scrolled through her phone.
An old man near the doors dozed off, chin dropping to his chest with every stop.
Ads for skin cream and a new phone model looped silently on the screen above the doors.
Then he looked up.
A man sat across the car, coat buttoned to the collar, staring straight ahead at nothing.
On his shoulder sat a small girl, maybe six or seven, running her fingers through his hair, slow and steady, over and over.
Why isn’t he holding her properly, Ishaan thought, and looked back down at his phone.
A moment later, he looked up again.
The girl was already looking at him.
Her eyes moved over his face.
Then her head tilted, and kept tilting, past where any human neck should stop.
Ishaan looked back down at his phone and gripped the pole tighter.
He started noticing other things in the car.
Shapes standing quietly among the passengers, shapes he hadn’t seen a minute ago.
One near the door.
One behind the old man’s seat.
None of the other passengers looked up from their phones.
He looked up once more.
The girl was smiling now, head still bent at that wrong angle, eyes locked on him.
Ishaan’s phone buzzed again in his hand.
He glanced down at it, then couldn’t make himself look back up right away.
The train slowed at the next stop.
Doors opened, a few passengers got off, a few got on.
The man with the girl on his shoulder didn’t move.
The speaker crackled overhead.
“Now arriving at Sonan Station.”
Ishaan stepped off fast.
He glanced back at the train car before the doors shut.
She was still there, twisted at that impossible angle, waving at him with a slow, wide smile.
The train pulled away.
Ishaan stood on the platform, staring after it.
“What the fuck.”