Nervousness was picking on my nerves. It was storming the whole day, making me even tenser than I could afford. Kim Heechul arrived around three o´clock, dressed quite differently. His hair was tied up, he was wearing comfortable black pants, grey tee, sports shoes and thin red waterproof jacket. He put down his jacket and sat on the table that was the closest to the counter, his usual table was taken. I came slowly shuffling to him.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hey, Hyukjae,” Heechul smiled lightly, “what´s wrong?” He asked me when he saw my pale face.

“Nothing,” I tried to cheer up, “I have a bad feeling for some reason today. So, Americano and a surprise?”

“Yeah,” Heechul smiled widely at me perhaps wanting me to feel better. It worked.

I was a little busy so I just quickly put a cup of coffee and a Red Velvet cupcake on his table before rushing back to the counter. I didn´t have time for the next half an hour, it was the after lunch rush hour after all. I felt quite tired when I finally left in charge of the café Yuri.

“Are you really feeling alright?” Heechul asked when I pressed my into the chair next to him. “Here, have some sugar,” he pushed the plate with Red Velvet in front of me. “I will tell you something interesting in the meantime.”

“Fine,” at first I wanted to refuse the cupcake but then I realised, I really wanted Heechul to tell me something interesting. He can´t talk with full mouth, can he? I took the dessert.

“This Red Velvet originated in London, right?” The investigator leaned on the table looking at me kindly.

“The one in Nottingham is the most famous,” I answered, the white cream from my upper lip.

“I have a story from London then,” Heechul said in a low voice and as if nothing cleaned a bit of leftover cream from the corner of my mouth. I refused to react to this anyhow, my heart was thumping like crazy and my ears were red, I believed that was enough of a reaction. “Story from Hampton Court, the castle.”

“Ghosts of murdered royals or something like that?” I realised that Heechul wasn´t affected by his little act and I was the only one feeling something. It was disappointing and so I focused rather on the ghost of the London palace.

“There are actually three ghosts,” I wondered if Heechul actually noticed my change in mood because for some reason it seemed like he became kinder. “One is a nurse, the other is a celebrity and the third is that murdered royal of yours.”

“That´s a lot,” I said but felt a little bad for not sounding cheerful enough, therefore I pushed a big spoon of the cake into my mouth.

“The nurse was called Sybil Penn, nowadays they call her The Grey Lady,” Heechul felt a little embarrassed for the lack of my reaction. It hasn´t been this awkward between us since I hit on him the first day he came. “She was the nurse of Prince Edward and they made her ghost angry when they moved her tomb during the reconstruction of the palace. At that time people could hear the sound of spinning wheel at night. After that a secret room with an old spinning wheel was found in the palace!”

“So she was working at night in that room since she couldn´t sleep in her tomb anymore?” For the first time I honestly chuckled.

“Yeah, they think so,” Heechul breathed out after seeing me smile. I guessed he was glad I wasn´t so sad anymore. “Should I continue?” I nodded.

“I will tell you about the other lady that went through the change of name after her death. It was Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. He accused her of adultery and locked her in her rooms. She escaped to beg for her life but they dragged her through the gallery back while she was screaming on top of her lungs,” Heechul´s eyes were wide.

“Is that the murdered monarch?” I asked curiously.

“That´s right, not long after that she was executed,” the story teller confirmed. “Since then women would sometimes faint in the gallery or screams would be heard from there at night. Like that Catherine became the Screaming Lady that cries in the Haunted Gallery.”

“That´s so sad and kind of scary, what about the third ghost?” I asked, my plate already empty. Was it the sugar? I felt a little better.

“They call him Skeletor, isn´t that cool?” Heechul was very excited about this one. “For the first time he appeared about thirteen years ago, it´s pretty recent. At night the security guard had to go and close a fire door that opened harshly by itself.”

“I wouldn´t want to work as a night guard there,” I shook my head vigorously.

“Exactly!” Heechul chuckled. “People wrote in the visitors´ book about seeing strange things in the exhibition part and then the CCTV caught him! A weird apparition in historical clothes, closing the fire door!”

“No way!” I whined. “I definitely won´t visit Hampton Court if I ever go to London!”

“Lost souls are everywhere, Hyukjae,” Heechul smirked, “sometimes they just need to be haunted down.” His eyes were glinting and I didn´t understand, but I got suddenly reminded of the fear I was feeling the whole day.

“You are going tonight, right?” I asked hurriedly. “Are you going alone?”

“Of course not, you shall never go ghost investigating alone, don´t worry,” he smiled.

“I still do,” I sighed, “I won´t be able to sleep tonight.”

“Fine, give me your number and I will send you a message when I´m done. How does that sound?” I didn´t want to tell him how insanely awesome that sounds. So I just made a complete fool out of myself instead.

“I don´t have my phone by myself here, gimme a pen,” I took a red pen that was lying behind me on the counter and wrote down my number. Then I was about to add my full name too but Heechul grabbed my wrist.

“What the hell are you doing?” Heechul was looking at me shocked. “You can´t write your name in red colour! That´s like writing your own name into the Death Note!”

“Ah,” I understood finally. Superstitions. “Sorry.”

Quietly I gave him the piece of paper with my number written on it. He let go of my hand and put the paper into his pants pocket, I hoped he wouldn´t lose it. I hoped he would message me tonight. I looked down on my lap, I was worried he would get hurt. It might be a routine for Kim Heechul but for me it´s something unusual and scary, going hunting for ghosts. And this fearful feeling was mixing with another let down I was experiencing. Finally I came to admit to myself that I was broken hearted. I liked Heechul a lot, he was charming and definitely my type. I felt sad to be unable to get closer to him.

“Hyukjae?” I raised my head. “You look unwell again.”

“It´s nothing,” I answered to cut off the conversation early.

“I see,” he said knowingly, “I have to go now, I will let you know when I´m back from the night visit.” Then Heechul stood up from his place and put on his red jacket, I looked up at him and tried to smile. But before my lips could stretch over my teeth, another pair was pressed against them. It was a short peck that had a ´bye, Hyukjae´ attached to it. The investigator then left the café, leaving a red faced ghostly body at the table by the counter.

At 5AM I got a text message: Finished, going home.

Hello! One more roughly written chapter! Only one more is left now! Thank you for reading and have a nice day! - PandaHero