Close Encounter

            Kyuhyun couldn’t sleep.  He kept thinking of his y little host, lying in his bed just a floor below him.  But he really shouldn’t be thinking about him.  Should he?  He should be thinking about his lying, cheating ex that left him right before he was about to propose to him.  And worse, he ended up going out with one of the producers of his last film, Sailor’s Warning.  Kyuhyun had produced the movie as well and they’d both made a bundle of money off it, since it was a huge box office success.  A success that he planned to celebrate with his new fiancé.  But his boyfriend left him.  And the betrayal stung for a long time. 

            Until today.  For some reason, the moment he walked downstairs and laid eyes on his host at the Sleeping Cat, all thoughts of his ex and how miserable he’d been since leaving Seoul seemed to disappear.  Instead, he couldn’t take his eyes or his thoughts off Ryeowook.  Not only was he incredibly good looking, he was also friendly, funny, caring, and a wonderful cook.  How was he possibly going to keep his hands off him for two weeks?

            As he was trying to figure this out, there was a scratch at the door.  Kyuhyun threw off the covers and opened the door wide.  He looked down.  There was nothing there, as expected.  “Come on in, ghost kitty!”

            Kyuhyun waited a moment and then closed the door.  He walked back over to the bed, flopping down onto the mattress and dramatically covering his eyes with his arm. 

            “What the hell was your name again?  Bangshin?  Bangshin, maybe you can help me figure this out.  Nearly half a year ago, my of an ex cheated on me and left me for some better looking and richer guy…I know, hard to imagine, isn’t it?  So, after a month of moping around, I decided to leave the country on an extended vacation.  Anything to help me forget him.  It didn’t really work, so I avoided coming back, thinking I just needed more time.  But my screenplay wasn’t getting finished, so my agent talked me into coming here.  And…well…you probably already know this, but Ryeowook is y as hell and I can’t stop thinking about him.”

            There was a slight movement on the mattress, as if a cat had just jumped up on it, but Kyuhyun didn’t bother looking over because he knew there wasn’t one.  He was still a bit drunk, after all, and his mind was just hearing and feeling the things it wanted to.  Although it would have been a little better if he’d imagined that Ryeowook had knocked at his door and then crawled in his bed.  Maybe if he drank more tomorrow night.

            “The thing is, did I promise to not touch Ryeowook while Heechul was gone…or did he just tell me not to.  Those are two very different things, you know.  I wouldn’t want to break a promise…and I guess I did tell Ryeowook I wouldn’t seduce him until his brother came back, but he was pretty drunk.  He probably won’t remember that tomorrow.  What do you think?”

            There was a loud meow. 

            “I know, that was rather memorable, wasn’t it?  I can be so sly sometimes.  That will probably be the one thing he remembers,” Kyuhyun said decidedly, sighing heavily and looking over at the corner of the bed that appeared indented.  “Ghost kitty…what do you think the punishment would be for breaking a promise like that?”

            Kyuhyun could have sworn that he saw little paw prints on the blanket headed towards his head, but he blinked several times.  The room was dark and he was drunk.  It had to be a trick of the lighting.  Or his eyes were getting blurry from sleep.  But then when the prints stopped near his head, he felt something smack his cheek.  Something with claws. 

            Kyuhyun sat upright in bed, shocked.  “I don’t believe in ghosts!  You’re not real!  You’re just a figment of my imagination.  After Ryeowook talked about you, my subconscious decided to start playing tricks on me.  That’s the only explanation!”

            Just then, there was a knock at the door.  Kyuhyun’s heart was beating at double speed at feeling something hit him in the face, but now the thought of Ryeowook standing on the other side of the door had him nervous and excited for completely different reasons.  Hopefully he didn’t wake him up with his shouting at his imaginary cat.  Then again, if it brought Ryeowook to his room, was that a bad thing?  Kyuhyun took a deep breath and then got back up out of the bed.

            “Bangshin!” a muffled voice called from the other side of the door.

            Kyuhyun frowned.  Certainly he’d woken Ryeowook by yelling at the ghost cat—or what Ryeowook referred to as the ghost cat, which was probably just a drunken hallucination or something—and his poor host was concerned that he was freaking out about it.  Before he opened the door, he glanced at himself in the mirror and fixed his hair a little.  Then he ed his shirt a little more.  Satisfied he looked y enough, he grasped the handle and opened the door. 

            The person on the other side of the door was not Ryeowook.  In fact, by definition, the being on the other side of the door probably didn’t count as human at all, since Kyuhyun could see completely through the man.  He was nothing but a white image, almost an outline of a person, and he narrowed his eyes at Kyuhyun angrily. 

            Kyuhyun screamed.  Then he slammed the door shut.  Then he locked it.  Then, realizing that probably wouldn’t keep a ghost out of a room, he opened the window to his room and climbed out. 

            Ryeowook stared at the ceiling.  Just above him, Kyuhyun was sleeping.  Was he dreaming of ghosts?  Or was he awake this time and actually encountering them.  Or, by some miracle, was he not seeing or dreaming of ghosts at all?  Maybe he was thinking of him instead.  But wasn’t that wishful thinking?  Most people that came to the guest house—before it got the reputation of being one of the most haunted houses in Incheon—fell for his brother.  Heechul had the more outgoing personality and he was spunky, he was y, he was fashionable.  Everyone loved him.  Ryeowook was overshadowed by his brother.  So he was always a little unsure if someone was taking an honest interest in him.

            The other thing he wasn’t sure of was whether Kyuhyun was just interested in sleeping with him or if he had a genuine interest in having a relationship with him.  And what Ryeowook still had to decide was if that mattered or not.  Would he accept a short term lover?  It had been a while since he had any lover at all, since he was stuck taking care of the guest house and no one ever wanted to stay there, so he wasn’t meeting anyone new.  Perhaps it was fine just to have a fling for a change.  But what if he ended up wanting more as time went by?  Could he handle it when Kyuhyun left next month? 

            Ryeowook couldn’t sleep for a long time, but he eventually dozed off because he woke suddenly to the sound of someone pounding on his window.  Startled, he walked over to the window and looked out, afraid that he’d find some burglar trying to break in.  Without as many guests lately, people were starting to think the building