FREAKSHOW ~Jungkook {Not Edited}

There was a girl who believed the world was never handed to you on a silver platter. That life was a never-ending routine of survival. School, college, work, family, retirement, death.

That was her goal. To live a long life and be proud of her accomplishments. It was as simple as learning the ABCs. Of course she could be a bit more elaborate with it. She could thrive to have an ultimate cliché movie-like romance just like the ones the princesses have in Disney.

But she knew that those dreams were difficult to negotiate with because she was well aware of how the world works. Or at least had an idea of it. hThe past few years of her life were spent behind a desk, listening to her professors talk about how life isn't a sweet walk on a beach and that love didn't exist when you had expensive bills to pay or an entire family to take care of.

     "If T.V. was as real as life was, there wouldn't be so many heartbroken people out there in the world." your teacher always told you.

Those words stuck with you all throughout high school. You avoided boys, you avoided conversations about how hot Mark got through junior year, and definitely avoided people who liked to talk about their everyday life now that they have a boyfriend.

To you, young love was... a fairytale.

Of course you wanted to find someone special. Someone who you can trust and have a family with, but you didn't want to rush things. Your life was complicated enough.

You simply did not have time for obstacles.

.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・

The red liquid oozed down from the faucet. It was a sticky substance that filled the plastic cup at the bottom to the brim. It matched the color of your chipped red nails.

Red was always your favorite color.

You closed the cup securely and stuck a green straw through it. Turning your entire body around, you faced the customer standing at the other end of the counter. A smile grew on her face as she saw her drink being set in front of her.

     "One medium strawberry lemonade with no ice." you said. "That'll be $3.50."

She handed you a five and once you have her the change, she left with a small thank you. She had her expensive purse hanging from her shoulder and her heels started to click down the tile.

     "Thank you, come again!" you said.

It was a typical Friday evening for you. You spend the morning going to your college classes, then you go to work straight after. Your schedule was exhausting, to say the least. But you had to pay off your student loans somehow.

Christmas wasn't even a month away, and people were already trying to be one step ahead and buy early presents for the upcoming holiday.

You weren't very fond of Christmas. Halloween was more of your scene where you could get all the candy you wanted and dress up as your favorite character.

But Halloween passed, and you haven't dressed up since you were very young.

"(Y/N)," someone called behind you. You turned around and saw your coworker, Jiyoon jog up to you. She was wearing the same green work apron and same black shirt and jeans.

She was tying up her hair as she made her way towards you. As per usual, she was always a few minutes late but you checked her in at the same time you did. She needed the job as much as you did and if the boss ever found out she was late, he would fire your only coworker and leave you to deal with the build up of orders.

"Thanks for clocking me in. There was a serious traffic jam." she said.

Of course, the same excuse.

"It's fine, just help me with the register. I'm gonna go check the inventory." you said.

"Okay," she answered with a shrug.

You walked down the kitchen, away from the sight it sound of the food court. You grabbed the silver keys off the wall on your left and used them to unlock the large door beside it.

Upon opening the said door, your nostrils were attacked with the scent of fresh ground coffee beans and the sweetness of various different sugars.

The storage room had shelves on all four walls, each stacked with bags of coffee and sugar, syrup bottles, and various other ingredients. Taking the clipboard hanging off the end of one shelf, you started from that same shelf and going all around, counting and checking off the amount of items.

It was a thorough process; you had to make sure everything was up to date and take notes of everything.

It wasn't until you reached the third shelf that you noticed something strange sticking out from between two bags of powered milk. It was a piece of red paper.

Taking the object between your fingers, you slowly slid it out of its place to get a better look at it. Only, it wasn't just paper.

It was a ticket.

CRY BABY CARNIVAL 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Admit One

Your eyebrows caved in at the strange and sudden invitation. What was that doing there? You looked at the back of the ticket and saw a date typed on the back.

September 1, 1997

Okay, that was strange. You decided not to think much of it and went back to checking the storage. You only had one more shelf to check. Placing the ticket in your back pocket, you proceeded to the next wall.

You crouched down and started to count the espresso bags before you. Once you were done, you checked it off on the board and continued upwards to shelf on top.

You eventually ended up standing up completely, getting your pen ready to count the bags of sugar at the high shelf in which you needed to stand on your tip toes.

You came eye level with the shelf and started counting.

One, two, three, what?

A lollipop stick?

"What is this?" you mumbled to yourself, grabbing the white stick and inspecting it closely. The top was eaten off, as if someone just left it there without a second glance.

That was probably just a coincidence. Possibly Jiyoon left it there.

What was Jiyoon doing in this room, anyways?

You put the clipboard back in its respective spot by the first shelf and walked out of the room, locking it before going out to the counter where Jiyoon was casually taking an order.

"Thank you, come again!" she said flashing her signature smile. The customer left smiling with his drink in hand before disappearing in the crowd of faces in the food court.

"Hey, Jiyoon!" you tapped her holder and she turned to face you in confusion. "Did you go into the storage room?" you confronted her.

It was her turn to frown,
"Ew, no. That place is creepy." she answered with a scowl.

"Don't play with me, I know you went in there. I found this and this in there with no explanation to it." you took out the stick and the ticket to show her.

"Okay, first of all, I hate lollipops, and second of all, that ticket is millions of years old. Our boss is an old dinosaur, maybe he left it in there." she explained, placing her hand on her hip.

"Tsk, but why leave it somewhere so suspicious?" you meant to ask yourself that question, but you didn't realize you asked it out loud. "What is Cry Baby Carnival, anyway?"

"You don't know?" Jiyoon asked in pure disbelief. You let out a small shrug. "Cry Baby Carnival is this old carnival at the far end of the city. It opened years ago, but shut down after some weird things started to happen. Children started to disappear, the workers over there were extremely shady and suspicious.

Apparently, people from the city created this huge riot, demanding to know where their children are. They ended up having this huge fight and, well, the carnival shut down. On its anniversary, too."

You looked down at the ticket in your hand.

50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

"Then what happened?" you asked, intrigued by her story.

She shrugged,
"They never found the children. The carnival was shut down, and all the workers were killed, down to the lions."

You winced at the last sentence. Looking back down at the ticket, you held it between your fingers. What was this doing there in the first place?

Being the stubborn and unenthusiastic person you are, you shook your head to remove any lingering thoughts of this.

"Let's just get back to work."

.・.・.・.・.

You got home that night completely and utterly exhausted. Your feet were begging you to rest and your hair was matted on to your forehead from the sweat.

"Go take a shower, I bought some ramen to make for dinner." your roommate, Krystal said.

You gave her a small smile in appreciation,
"Thanks,"

After taking a long, well-deserved shower, you changed into your nightclothes and dried your hair. You tied it into a bun, you went downstairs to the kitchen.

Krystal stood by the old stove pouring the powder on to the pan filled with boiling water and noodles. The table had two empty bowls and chopsticks set out along with glasses of iced water.

You took your seat quietly, but Krystal could hear the movement behind her. She turned and smiled at you kindly.

"Do you need help?" you offered.

"No, it's okay. You've worked hard enough." she said. You sighed and leaned back against the chair. Krystal walked up to you with the steaming pan in hand. "Watch out, it's hot." she warned.

You leaned back against the chair and let her pour the ramen. It smelled like salt and water, and you both hated eating the same thing every day, but you both barely had enough money to make the rent. Food was the least of your worries.

She took her seat across from you, grabbing the chopsticks and digging right in. You followed afterwards and started eating. You ate in silence, like most of the time.

"So... I went on a date with Kai today." she said somewhat hesitantly. Her voice was low, as if she were hiding something.

Krystal and her boyfriend Kai have been dating for at least three years since high school. You've met him when he comes over and he's really nice. They have had their drama, but other than that, it's pretty stable.

"That's nice," you said, twirling the ramen in your chopsticks.

Krystal sighed,
"Y-Yeah, and, um..." she trailed off.

You eventually looked up to see what she was on about. Did they break up? Why was she acting strange? Your eyes trailed down to her hand on the table.

A ring?

"Are you..." you began slowly. She looked up at you. "getting married?"

She nodded slowly.

Marriage?

You recall a bit about the couple naming their future children and deciding if they want a beach wedding or a church wedding.

Never thought it would come to this... go figure.

"Wow, congratulations." you said.

"Thanks, but... I'm scared." she shivered a bit, probably because of the poor heating conditions.

"Well, of course you are. You are gonna get married." you told her nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but, what about you? We can barely survive on the rent together. I don't want to leave you like this."

You've known Krystal for barely a month and a half, and you know how attached she can get to someone. When her cat died, she had a full-on funeral and told you to write a eulogy about her wonderful cat whose life ended after taunting a large dog.

"I'll be fine, really." you assured.

You really weren't fine. Money has always been an issue for you. It seemed as if no matter how hard you tried, there was just never enough. You couldn't borrow any more loans from anyone, otherwise you'd be a bother.

"Thanks, (Y/N)." she smiled and stood up to hug you. "If you ever need anything, I'll be there, okay? You'll be all right, I know you will."

"I hope so." you thought.

.・.・.・.・.

He watched closely from the outside window. Crouched down behind the bushes, staring at the scene before him intently. His eyes peeked out from the top of the leaves, scanning you from head to waist; as far as he can see.

You and your friend broke the hug and she walked away, muttering something about going to go do the laundry as she wiped her tearful face.

You stood there, watching you stare at your friend with a sad smile on your face until she left sight. He waited until you started to pick up the dishes and then got up off his knees, tip toeing with his back lurched forward to avoid anyone spotting him.

He went to the opposite side of the small home where your bedroom window was. Your room was completely different from the living room or kitchen. Your room was less cramped and you could walk a bit more freely.

Your bed was perfectly made, a drawer, a nightstand, and a small T.V. all placed where you liked them to. His face perked up when he saw the door open and you walk inside.

He looked like a child observing a display of chocolates through the counter glass, hoping that someone would give him a piece or two.

You, being completely unaware of his presence, let yourself fall on your bed. Your face smushed into the mattress in exhaustion.

What were you gonna do?

You had to move, of course. The rent is impossible to keep up with, and now that your roommate is leaving soon, you weren't sure of your next move.

The boy smirked to himself, knowing the stress of your struggle. Your home sure did have thin walls. His hand went up to his face and pulled out the lollipop from between his teeth, licking his lips from the sugar coating them.

He wants what he sees, and he wants you.

And he will do anything to get just that.

.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・.・

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
What to do?
He's coming for you.