This is not something I’m proud to admit but, I’ve never had a boyfriend before. I’ve had crushes on guys in the different schools I’ve transferred to, but I’ve never tried to approach them in hopes of getting into a relationship. Obviously, it’s because I knew that I would have to transfer again after several months; so really, any kind of effort on either part would just be a waste. And that means I’ve never been on a date with a guy before, I’ve never visited a guy’s home, and I’ve never been in a guy’s bedroom.

“Make yourself comfortable.” Park Chanyeol said in a casual tone as he settled down in front of his desk, and started going through the drawers to look for something.

That is, until today.

Honestly, if I knew that asking my question would lead to this, I (A/N: would’ve asked the first time we met? Haha jk) probably would have just waited for Chanshik to tell me about it. Then again, Chanshik had said he doesn’t know how he died.

“Actually…I don’t remember.” Chanshik scrunched up his eyebrows as if trying to recall something, “It’s one of the rules. When the dead come back to the realm of the living, we lose our memories involving specific details about our death. I think it’s so that we don’t directly influence your actions, and ultimately interfere with fate and how the living realm works, you know? Like, if I knew who killed me and I told you, that would be like cheating on a test or something? I’m not sure. I just know that I get these impressions, like if I died peacefully or not.”

 I waited for him to specify whether his death had been peaceful or not, but his gaze fluttered towards his brother in cautious anticipation.

After that, Chanyeol made me follow him out of the store, insisting that he needed to show me something in order to explain everything. Their mother greeted the two of us as we arrived at their house, and I noticed Chanshik smiling at his mother sadly—sparking an idea in me. Perhaps, their mother could also see Chanshik if she makes skin contact with me?

I didn’t have time to relay my plan to either of the twins, so I decided to come up with a means to test my hypothesis on my own. But then I didn’t have to think long because Mrs. Park pulled me into a hug as soon as Chanyeol introduced me as a schoolmate he was assigned on a project with (even though we weren't classmates, but I guess his mother didn't know that).

“You’re the first girl he’s ever brought home!” She exclaimed excitedly. Mental note to ask about that later, too. 

“Mom, please. This is a bit embarrassing, don’t you think?” For the second time, I witnessed Chanyeol’s ears tinge with red, though he made eye contact and smiled at me sheepishly to relieve the awkwardness. I, on the other hand, was focused on getting any kind of response from their mother; but when she pulled away without any visible reaction to Chanshik’s presence, I felt myself deflate. Thankfully, I hadn’t told the boys about my idea or it would’ve just gotten their hopes up for nothing.

From there, it was the usual 'first time visiting a friend’s house' experience. Mrs. Park offered snacks, a tour of the house, and possibly dinner; but being the polite kid I was, I refused most of it (except for the snacks, which she insisted several times that I had to eventually agree). Finally, she let us go after assuring that she will be bringing the snacks to Chanyeol’s room in a little while.

And so there I was, on the second floor of the Park residence, standing awkwardly in the middle of Chanyeol’s room as I contemplated how I was supposed to ‘settle down’ and where. Given that Chanyeol had already taken the desk, I now had two choices: the floor or the bed. I didn’t want to seem as if I had never been in guy’s room before, and sitting on the floor would definitely indicate that, so I carefully lowered myself on the edge of his bed.

The nervous feeling was instantly replaced by envy because his bed was so soft—the kind that made you sink comfortably and hugged your weariness away at the end of the day. I resisted the urge to lie down and really ‘make myself comfortable’ (even though that’s what he told me to do) due to obvious reasons. But believe me when I say it wasn’t easy to ignore the temptation.

I decided to look around Chanyeol’s room in order to distract myself from the pull of his comfy mattress. It looked like a room I guess, it’s a bit similar to mine. Aside from the desk that came with a PC (which I had in my room as well), he had some posters on the wall, and a guitar case leaning against a corner (which I didn’t have), a surprisingly organized dresser (while mine usually had partially opened drawers where the ends of my clothes get stuck from my careless handling), a few shelves with random little decorations and some books or magazines, and a small nightstand.

My eyes were drawn towards the last one, which had a couple of picture frames on it. One was of two middle aged adults; a woman and a man I assumed were his parents. The other was of him and Chanshik, possibly when they were still elementary students, judging from their height and the youth in their faces. The second picture made my chest sting, but for the next few minutes I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

I was caught off guard when someone cleared their throat behind me. It was Chanyeol. I tried to keep a straight face as I turned to face him but I could feel my cheeks heat up at the knowledge that he had seen me staring at his (and Chanshik’s) picture.

“Here.” He said as he handed me a long brown folder, before setting back down on the swivel chair in front of his desk.

I glanced at Chanshik briefly before turning to the first page. It was a newspaper clipping, the local news section, it was one of those articles you would probably see compressed among others in one of the middle pages of the newspaper. The headline read: ‘Middle school student found dead in school hiking trip.’ I felt my blood run cold. My eyes flew towards Chanyeol in hesitation, who nodded at me in encouragement. I swallowed the lump forming at the base of my throat and continued reading.

The news article referred to a middle school Student P who had been in a school trip to the mountains. The student was found dead on the third day of the school trip after being reported missing by his classmates since the second night of the trip. He was found covered in snow, with injuries to the back of his head not far off the hiking trail. The police concluded that it was an accident after the student decided to go off by himself in the middle of the night.

As if by instinct, my hands flipped the news clipping over to reveal the next one. This time, it had been smaller than the last. Earlier when I realized that the article pertained to Chanshik’s death, I felt unsettled at the thought that it didn’t even make the front page—as if his death wasn’t even worth the attention of people. I wondered how his family must have felt then. The fact that this article was even shorter than that disturbed me even more when I found out what it was about.

This time, the headline read ‘School trip accident victim’s family contests police judgement.’ The clipping gave a lousily detailed account of how the family of the victim were questioning the police’s declaration of the incident as just an accident. Apparently, the family had asked for a second autopsy after consulting with a private investigation firm. And according to the family’s ‘claims,’ there were inconsistencies with the report publicized by the police force with the second autopsy report they received. Furthermore, the second ‘possibly erroneous’ (as the article phrased it) report indicated that there might have been foul play involved in the child’s death.

The rest of the news article’s headlines pretty much summed up the whole story. ‘Officials contend authenticity of initial autopsy of the middle school hiking accident,’ ‘Hiking accident victim’s family take autopsy case to court,’ ‘Court rules initial autopsy is valid in the middle school hiking accident,’ ‘Hiking accident victim’s family appeals to public to protest autopsy case ruling.” The articles became shorter and shorter after that, and fewer over time; but I didn’t stop reading until the final word. Until I realized my shoulders were heaving as I tried to keep myself from crying out of frustration. If I was feeling that way just from reading those articles even when I hadn’t known Chanshik for long, how could his family have felt going through that ordeal on their own? So that’s why Chanyeol reacted so harshly when I first mentioned his brother. They were even twins at that.

After I made sure I wasn’t going to break down in tears, I looked up to meet Chanyeol’s eyes. It wasn’t the first time I saw those orbs, but this time I noticed the determination in them. He hadn’t given up. This was what Chanshik was talking about when he said his brother was going to get himself in trouble. And I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to stop him. 

A/N: Dun-dun-dun-dun!!! And there you go. Were you surprised? Haha. I read through your theories and they were all interesting (and plausible!). But I already had Chanshik's death plotted out so, yeah. Great guesses though! 

What do you think will happen next?? :D