“wait, what?”

sunggyu raised his hands to his hair, fingers tangling in his strands as he yanked at them, finding himself mad. “they just disappeared!”

“it’s like fate!” dongwoo gasped, eyes going wide as his lips turned up. “the mysterious man whose touch frees you from your curse.”

“dongwoo, that’s stupid.”

“you’re stupid.”

sunggyu whined pathetically and let his head fall forward onto the table again, ignoring how howon shot is hand out to stop it from hitting the wood. “okay, so maybe it was a fluke?” he muttered, and sunggyu pursed his lips. “fluke?”

“yeah,” howon mused, “a one time sorta thing.”

sunggyu thought about that, and it might very well be the truth, he wasn’t to know for sure if just touching that man would negate his ability; perhaps it was just a coincidence? if so, it was one hell of a coincidence, to have them vanish like that when touched.

“i still say it’s fate.” dongwoo persisted, “i have a sort of sixth sense about this kind of thing.”

“the only one here with a sixth sense is sunggyu.” howon deadpanned, “it wasn’t fate, just a fluke.”
 

as the two argued about sunggyu’s little ( big ) problem, sunggyu stood from the table and grabbed his drink, muttering about how he had a cat to take care of and quickly left the two to their bickering.

on his way home, he did manage to buy some supplies for his new housemate, clara. a little kitten bed and some toys along as some food and a litter box. there was no way sunggyu was going to let the little thing on his carpet. it wasn’t long before he was home and setting up the ‘ kitty corner ‘ as he decided to call it, right near the couch in the living room. the cat bed and her plates of food, and then the litter box situated in the laundry room. that should be good enough, right? leaning back on his feet, sunggyu realized he’d never taken care of another life before; having a mother who was allergic to most pets. he looked down to see clara waddling towards the food and sighed.

let’s hope she didn’t die.

even if she did, he’d still see her.

he relocated to his bedroom and took out his laptop, curiosity hitting him hard as he opened up his browser. despite being his two closest friends, dongwoo and howon were kind of stupid when it came to the supernatural sunggyu usually had to deal with, so his only answered seemed to be the internet, and that’s when he realized he was really desperate.

‘ people who see ghosts, touching others and not seeing them ‘

that’s pretty specific but google usually has something, even if it’s utter bull, it’s better than nothing. he scrolls through a few and squints at ‘what kind of person sees ghosts?’  and ‘ 12 signs that a ghost is near ‘. it’s all utter and he exits out of the page and leans back on his bed, letting his gaze settle on the ceiling. a definite down point to seeing spirits was being the only person he knew that could see them; he had no one to talk to, not one to understand him. he feels alone, so very much alone. no cat, or friend, or lover would be able to fix that -- no spirit. he raises his hand to his chest, and closes his eyes.

over the next few weeks, sunggyu busied himself with school and work as much as possible, and of course the occasional spirit. he’d managed to pass a test he was seriously dreading and even got the souls of two lost lovers together. dongwoo had mentioned that it was like romeo and juliet and howon said that romeo and juliet were stupid so it didn’t matter. sunggyu had easily forgotten the interaction with the stranger, his usual hectic everyday life easily pushing those questions and worries from his mind.

it was friday afternoon, no classes, but he did have work, so he dressed in the kinda ugly uniform. the uniform consisted of black pants and a navy blue polo with the mall’s logo over his heart. his hair was a bit messy and he really didn’t have the time to try fixing it, when did he ever have the time to do anything other than the usual crazy.

sunggyu worked at one of the many retail shops in WOOLLIM mall, he folds clothes and helps customers and does all that really stupid stuff a retail worker does. he hates his job but he hates not having money more. he gets in on time and is quickly stopped by his manager.

lee sungjong, aka the prettiest man he’s ever seen, and it was kinda terrifying how pretty he was.

“sunggyu hyung,” sungjong sighed, “i need you to deliver these papers up to LOVELYZ, yein said she needed these orders in and i forgot to bring them up.”

sunggyu took the papers and frowned, “why can’t you bring them up now?”

“because i’m lazy, and you need to lose weight.”

“wow, rude.”

sungjong gave him a grin before turning on his heel and walking off to go do whatever it was sungjong did, sunggyu still thought that the other was some sort of spawn of satan or something, must have been to look so sweet but be such a little . a loud sigh left him, and he walked out of INFINITE, and towards the elevators down past the fountain. he really should get paid more for being sungjong’s lakey, the kid was younger yet treated sunggyu with such disrespect.

entering the elevator, he didn’t pay much attention to who else was there with him, as he was still mentally complaining about his manager. the doors slid shut and sunggyu leaned back against the wall, letting his head lean back. it was a moment later did he turn his head and blink lazily at the only other person inside the elevator, and it was then that he realized that it was him -- the stranger. his eyes grew wide and he let his lips fall open, it seemed the other didn’t recognize sunggyu or at least not right away. but when he did turn his head and their eyes met, sunggyu felt like shrinking back.

“don’t i know you from somewhere?” his smooth voice sounded out and sunggyu swallowed thickly. ‘yeah,’ he wanted to say, ‘i’m the freak who grabbed your wrist like a desperate idiot’.

“i work here, so maybe you’ve seen me around?”

the other stared at him for a moment, and sunggyu was about to try and save his yet again but the sudden shaking of the elevator caused them both to stumble and sunggyu to grab onto the railing behind him. the lights flickered before turning off completely and for a moment, it was silent.

“oh .” sunggyu mumbled, fumbling for his phone, “, -- of course this would happen to me of ing course.” he continued to ramble on as he worked on turning on his phone’s flashlight and waving it around. his eyes narrowed as he noticed something in the corner of the elevator, shining the light towards the area he saw the eyes of what had to been a spirit; but the hues were a dark red and sunggyu had only seen that once before. he felt a chill run down his spine and swallowed, his throat feeling dry. nothing was worse than an angry spirit.

he remembered then, he wasn’t alone in the elevator and shined the light on the stranger, who to sunggyu’s surprise looked horribly pale. worry shot through sunggyu, he didn’t quite understand why, it wasn’t like he was friends with the man. but the look of sheer horror on the strangers sharp features made sunggyu want to reach out and comfort him. but he couldn’t, if touching this man hindered his ability to see the spirits around him, then he wouldn’t be able to keep track of the one causing this.

“hey,” he called out, trying to grab his attention, “don’t worry we’ll be okay.”

sunggyu shifted slightly and got a bit closer, but still far enough as to where they couldn't touch, he peered closer and frowned.

“are you sick?”

the stranger shook his head and slowly sunk down to the ground. sunggyu felt his stomach sink as he saw the others fingers twitching, and noticed the sweat forming at his brow. he could easily deduce that the other was most likely claustrophobic and knew he had to fix the situation and fast before he had a serious panic attack. sunggyu, who suffered from his own anxiety, knew it wasn’t a happy experience. but the question was, how could he talk to the spirit without the stranger finding him weird? his lips, sunggyu glanced back towards the corner and saw the eyes staring dead at him. he shivered again and glanced back at the man beside him.

“what’s your name?” he asked quickly, wanting to try and distract him from his fears, “i’m sunggyu.”

“... woohyun.”

“alright woohyun,” sunggyu began, “i’m … well, i’m gonna tell you something that will probably seem weird --”

“oh my god please tell me you didn’t plan this.”

sunggyu blinked, “-- er, no.”

woohyun glanced at him and frowned his brow, “you didn’t?”

“why would i?”

“my father owns this place, i thought… i don’t really know what i thought.”

sunggyu let out a sigh and raised his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “no i didn’t plan this, but i do have something to tell you before i try and fix the situation.”

he could tell he had woohyun’s attention, at least for the moment so he spoke fast, “alright so i can see ghosts. weird right? yeah well anyway, there’s one in here right now and if i don’t find out why he’s doing this we’ll probably die.”

“...is that supposed to reassure me?”

“no, it’s supposed to stop me from looking like a complete lunatic.”  

“it’s not working.”
 

sunggyu’s cheeks heated up in embarrassment and he quickly turned away from woohyun to get on with business. he searched for the specter again, and noticed those eyes and took a deep breath.

“i know you’re in here.” he called out, inching closer, “but i don’t know why you’re trapping us here.”

as he spoke, the elevator shook some and he could hear woohyun’s breath hitch, sunggyu bit the inside of his cheek and narrowed his eyes.

“why are you doing this? can i help --”  his words were cut off by the elevator suddenly jerking and the lights flickering once again. this time woohyun let out a small scream and sunggyu really did want to reach out and help him, wanting to actually reassure him that he was going to be okay; but he couldn’t risk it. his eyes frantically looked around and he noticed the eyes now fit a face and well a body. the body of a little girl. he felt his heart clench as the spirit stared up at him, her eyes blank and her skin glowing. there was dark bruises around her wrists and neck and it only took a moment for him to realize what had happened. slowly, he kneeled down before her and raised his hand to her cheek, his brows frowning.

“who did this to you?” he whispered and the little girl looked down. she didn’t speak, but sunggyu noticed her hands clenching around a locket. he reached forward and carefully took it from her grip and opened up the small picture holder. inside where her parents and herself.

“...hey woohyun.” he called out, “did a little girl and her parents ever… well die here?” he questioned, looking at the faces before him.

“w-what?”

“you heard me, a little girl and her parents.”
 

“um… maybe? my father would know.”

“well he isn’t here right now and until i figure out what happened we can’t get to him.”

sunggyu looked up at the girl once more and bit the inside of his cheek, he peered closer into her sad eyes and tried to search for an answer.

“did your parents do this?” he asked softly. the little girl sniffled and looked down once again. sunggyu tried to piece together what could have happened, and the realization made him feel sick. so he reached out and brought the spirit child into his arms, feeling sympathy for the little girl. he raised his hand to pet her hair and closed his eyes.

“it’s okay.” he whispered, “it’s okay. you can go now. you don’t need to be here. they aren’t going to come back.”

her little hands gripped onto his shirt and she nodded. suddenly the elevator lights and he felt one more squeeze before suddenly nothing. sunggyu opened his eyes and she was gone. leaning back, he let out a breath and watched the elevator doors open, woohyun gasped and sunggyu frowned as security guards rushed in.

“woohyun sir! are you alright?”

sunggyu found himself suddenly facing the floor with his arms pressed against his back, and confused. “wha--”

“you’re under arrest for keeping nam woohyun hostage.” the security guard said lowly, and sunggyu squeaked. “yah! i didn’t even! we were both stuck in here you idiot!”
 

“sir, please settle down.”

“i will not ing settle down!”

“enough!”

the two turned to see woohyun starting at them with an unreadable  expression. “he didn't lock me here, he saved me. get off him sungyeol.”

“but sir --”

“sungyeol.”
 

sunggyu felt the weight being lifted off of him and he groaned lowly, slowly pushing himself up to his feet, he raised a hand to his cheek and rubbed it softly; it was probably gonna bruise now thanks to that lanky jerk.

“sunggyu, that is your name right?” woohyun spoke out, and sunggyu frowned. “yeah?”

“come with me.”

before sunggyu could say anything, woohyun his heel and walked off, leaving sunggyu to follow after him. which of course he did, after all -- if woohyun seemed to have questions for sunggyu, sunggyu surely had questions of his own.