Entranced

Fire And Ice

On the other side of the Gallery, a very upbeat Park Kyung was bringing his guests around the grounds. Contrary to his prior apprehension at being of service to the chaebol guests, he was more than happy that they turned out to the opposite of what he had expected, and so far, they were satiated with the food and enthusiastic about the tour.

"And over here we have the only age-restricted place in the cirque," he said, gesturing to the locked gates of the Clown Gallery. He turned to the group of people behind him and narrowed his eyes. "Any underage peeps here?" he asked.

"You're hilarious!" Chen exclaimed, and burst into loud guffaws, slinging an arm around Kyung's shoulder like they were close friends. "I love this guy!" he said to his other friends.

Luhan smiled tightly. "We know. You've said that for almost ten times now," he said, before casting a mildly anxious glance at what lay beyond the gate. It was like everywhere he went, there was always a haunted house bound to be in his path. "Cool place, let's move on to the next attraction, yeah?"

Tao, who had been playing with the buttons on his suit, nodded quickly. Like Luhan, he was none too pleased with the idea of wanting to voluntarily terrify one's self either. "He's right, there must be more fascinating places, Kyung-ssi," he said haltingly, "I mean, what's original about a haunted house set, right? It's an ordinary staple in amusement parks anyway."

Kyung stopped in his tracks, almost like he was a car screeching to a stop. Turning to Tao with an expression so theatrically disgusted that the boy took a step back in fright, Kyung looked serious as he said dangerously close to the latter's face, "This is no ordinary haunted house right here, get it?"

The jovial air surrounding the group suddenly shifted to one of stunned silence. Even Jang Mi blinked in surprise at their tour guide, ever ready to jump in between them if things got nasty.

They stared at Kyung, half expecting he was joking around and not as threatening as he looked right now.

Tao's surprised eyes looked back at him as he gulped. "G-got it," he stammered.

And then, just when the awkwardness was getting too serious to handle, Kyung laughed. And laughed some more.

"You should have seen your face!" he said, reverting back to his bright smile as he clapped Tao's shoulder jokingly, "C'mon, I was just messing with you! Loosen up." He went to unlock the gates and opened them. "If you would please," he said invitingly.

"I don't really do haunted houses," Tao said, and for a moment it looked like he was about to cry.

Chen rolled his eyes, walking through the gates calmly. "There's no one here, I don't see why you're hesitating," he mocked.

Luhan bit his lip. "Having no one here makes it even more uncomfortable, don't you think?" he said sarcastically, glancing around, "It's like someone's waiting to scare you out of your mind when you least expect it."

Kyung looked at them and rolled his eyes. "You're all traumatized by the perils of modern amusement," he chided, "Here at our cirque, we don't purposely give our visitors heart attacks in the name of fun. It's just a gallery of clowns through the ages, with a little bit of spring screwed into them. More cute than fun, really."

It was as if he were explaining about a toy collection than a set of vintage automated clowns designed to make people feel creeped out. But well, as a person so used to the Gallery, Park Kyung saw it as more of an exhibit rather than a scary sort of attraction.

After all, there were worse things in life than to be afraid of wooden clowns.

He would know.

Luhan pointed at the huge house-like sets. "What are those then?"