Beyond, With a Yokai

Chapter 1: Who Are You?

She hoped someone would recognize the description.

Anna, one of the girls, just waved it off.
"No way. There are only two Asian guys here, and they're brothers. And they're younger than us. I think you're imagining things."

But her words only made the unease worse.

Yesenia could picture the guy's face perfectly.
The shape of his eyes. The sharpness of his features. The way he moved.
And even if she ignored all that—he looked older. Clearly older.

So why had he smiled at her? Why had he waved?
Maybe... maybe he hadn't been looking at her at all.
Maybe someone else had been standing behind her?

She wanted to believe that.

But the feeling of dread had already taken root—and it wouldn't let go.

That night, after lights out, a headache began to pulse behind her eyes.
Yesenia had learned her lesson long ago: don't wait it out.
Take a pill now—or nothing will help later.

She swallowed the painkiller, then decided to head to the bathroom to splash her face with cold water.
She moved carefully, silently—her roommates were already fast asleep.

The bathroom greeted her with its usual sterile chill.
Dim fluorescent lights hummed softly overhead, casting a cold glow over the tiled floor. Her footsteps echoed dully.
The air smelled faintly of damp cement and cheap soap.

A breeze drifted in from somewhere, brushing her skin with a sudden chill.

She stepped up to the sink—and immediately spotted a huge zit on her forehead.

Probably all that chocolate again, she thought with a groan.

Turning the tap, she let the cold water run over her hands before splashing it on her face.
To her surprise, the camp's water was actually cleaner and fresher than back home.
Because of that, she'd stopped using her usual skincare and just washed with tap water.

She repeated the motion, leaning in, when a low creak shattered the silence.

The door.

It swung open slowly... and then clicked shut.

Footsteps. Soft. Barely audible.
But there.

Something inside her twisted.

So what? Anyone could need the bathroom at night, she told herself.

But for some reason, the unease didn't pass.

Her headache had started to fade when she reached up and turned off the tap.
Lifting her eyes to the mirror—

She froze.

Behind her, half-shrouded in the dark, stood the massive outline of a man.

Her body jerked as if shocked, spinning around on instinct.
She didn't scream.
Didn't even speak.

She just gasped, like all the air had suddenly left her lungs.

"Don't freak out. I'm just here to wash my hands," the stranger said with a smug grin, stepping out of the shadows.

It was him.

The same guy who'd been smirking at her in the crowd for days.

He looked about twenty-five.
Long black hair, cut in cascading layers, shimmered under the bathroom's harsh light like strands of polished glass.
Thick brows framed slightly narrowed eyes, where lazy amusement danced just beneath the surface.

His features were sharp—high cheekbones, a pointed chin. His full lips curled into a smile that, somehow, felt more like a threat than a greeting.

He was close to six and a half feet tall, and his massive frame seemed to fill the entire room. Even Yesenia, standing at five foot eight, felt tiny next to him.