I wasn´t that naïve as to hope for Kim Heechul to visit our café again. He must have been disturbed by a blonde waiter trying to pick him up. I felt also honestly ashamed for my behaviour, I wasn´t the type to act so spontaneously. And that´s why I was incredibly shocked when the glass door opened on Monday morning and the so called ghost investigator entered.

During weekdays the café was much busier so there was another waitress with me to help me out. I was by the counter and accepting orders, mostly from people who wanted to take away. My colleague would tend to those, who decided to have a breakfast inside the café and one of those people was now Kim Heechul. He chose the same table as the last time and put down his long coat.

The next time I had a second to glance at him, he was talking to the waitress. When she left, he pulled out a laptop from his bag and a bunch of old papers. He began working on something and I thought that he looked handsome again today.

“Hey, Yuri,” I called my colleague. She came bouncing. “What did that guy order?”

“That weirdo? Why?” She looked confused but when I clicked my tongue, she told me. “Just Americano and a sandwich.”

“Give him a cupcake on me, please,” I said, my hands busy making a latté for a waiting customer.

“Do you know him?” Yuri blinked at me. I was known to be a scrooge so I understand why she was so surprised.

“Yeah, I do,” I rolled my eyes, “now hurry!” I ushered her because I was the first in charge here at the moment and we didn´t have time for chatting. Or more like I didn´t really want her to dig into the topic any more.

Still I took off a few seconds to watch Yuri deliver the cupcake to Kim Heechul. He looked up at her and said something, and then Yuri pointed at the counter and I rushed to hide behind the coffee machine. I didn´t learn my lesson, I was being unreasonable again.

An hour later the café calmed down, another rush would start when office workers would go back from their lunch break and would pick a coffee on the way to the office. After listening to endless Yuri´s inquiries about the cupcake thing, I decided to go and greet Heechul after all. When I came to the small table in the corner, I found the investigator busy and the cupcake untouched.

“Hello,” against the panicking voices in my head I greeted. Kim Heechul looked up from the papers he was holding but didn´t say a word. He wanted me to disappear, right? “How is the investigation going?” I asked, because if I left after the ´hello´ part, it would be a complete embarrassment.

“Well,” Heechul muttered. I should have just stayed quiet. “Is that from you?” He pointed to the cupcake.

“Yeah, it´s a novelty,” I smoothened my sideburns in a habit, “green tea flavour.” I didn´t want to seem like a sick patient in front of him but all possible feelings, triggered by all possible scenarios popping up in my head, were turning wildly inside me. Yeah, just like a laundry in a washing machine.

“Japanese tea?” He asked me, putting down the papers. His face was expressionless, perfectly throwing me off my feet.

“Chinese,” I answered because I thought it was a joke. He couldn´t mean that question seriously, could he?

“Have you heard of the king Hsuan?” He asked me another weird question but by now his full attention was on me and I was liking it. My frozen body began thawing slightly with visions of better words coming from the investigator.

“No, I haven´t, why?” I smiled at him to show him my interest.

“He was killed by a ghost,” Kim Heechul told me with his eyes wide. At first I wanted to laugh but then I remembered his profession and decided to act scared instead. Or at least captivated, which wasn´t hard since I´ve been captivated by the man since yesterday.

“I didn´t know,” I answered and stealthily sat down in front of him. I was excited, he surely wanted to tell me the story.

“It´s a truthful story about the king from the Chou dynasty. The king had a minister called Tu Pai. They had a fight and the king unjustly sentenced Tu Pai to death, saying he was just pulling out a weed.” Kim Heechul was telling the story in his deep eerie voice and I didn´t feel like laughing anymore.

“What happened next?” I asked once again genuinely wanting to know the ending.

“Three years later in front of an assembly of feudal lords king Hsuan was killed. He was shot to death by an arrow that came out of nowhere. And then it appeared, a scary ghost that resembled Tu Pai, laughing cruelly.”

“And that really happened?” I asked in a whisper, my hands in front of my mouth.

“Yes, it´s a story from Mozi, Chinese philosopher,” Kim Heechul shrugged.

“You know a lot about your field, don´t you?” I was trying to get the images of the revengeful ghost out of my head.

“That´s given, I´m a professional and not just some ghost hunter from TV,” the older man frowned and I was worried that I offended him. I decided to give him another question that would hopefully save me from his disdain.

“So you are now working on that case from yesterday? The last will?” I threw at least tenth question at him today.

“That´s right,” Kim Heechul´s face softened and his eyes brightened. “I´m doing a background check.”

“I see,” I nodded while looking into those charming eyes.

“I´m looking into the family history and the history of the house. Also I have to consider relations between the members and everything that could have any influence on the case. The first rule is to be sceptical,” Heechul explained.

“I thought you have to be open minded to believe in existence of ghosts,” I bravely said and hoped he wouldn´t punch me. I didn´t believe in ghosts but I was scared of them. Does that make sense?

“And that´s the difference between a gothic fanatic and a real ghost investigator, dear Hyukjae,” the raven haired man smiled and my heartbeat was suddenly no joke. “I have to get rid of all the common possibilities and the last one that remains has to be the right one. And if it´s something supernatural, then I will go and hunt it down.”

“Somehow it sounds really cool,” the sentence came out of nowhere and I felt embarrassed for saying something so immature.

“I knew I would dazzle you with my intelligence,” Kim Heechul then answered in the same immature manner just to make me feel better. I was amused, this guy was much more interesting than I had initially thought. He´s a little strange, that´s true, but I think I´m liking this side of him too. I guess I should be even more careful from now on, if I don´t want to fall for him for real.

“It was really nice talking to you and hearing about king Hsuan,” I had to get up because before I knew it, the afternoon rush hours were about to begin. I couldn´t leave Yuri there all by herself, even though I wanted to hear more stories from Kim Heechul. “I need to return to the counter.”

“Because you want to listen,” Kim Heechul smiled the brightest I have seen him so far, “I don´t mind telling.”

I blushed and ran back to the main counter. I was busy with customers when Yuri went to Kim Heechul to take the dishes. He paid and was going to leave, therefore I wouldn´t be able to sit down to him the next time I have a break. I felt tired but then I heard his voice and my personal battery loaded so much that it almost burst.

“Hyukjae?” Kim Heechul called from the door. “See you!” And I swear I must have eaten my tongue from the startle because I couldn´t even say a word back.

Hi! So you want to know, if Heechul sees ghosts? Well, I can´t tell you that because I don´t know. :P I know only as much as Hyukjae knows... kkkk Anyway, I´m glad you like the story, even though it´s HeeHyuk. I think Heechul´s character, the real one or the one in ff, is always fun. So thank you for reading and have a nice day. - PandaHero