This chapter is really badly written in terms of plot movement but has very important explanations of things. I wanted to go over it a few billion times (or tbh even rewrite it) but I didn't want to end up disappearing for a month again so here you go!

I'll likely edit before posting the next one so that it flows more smoothly and isn't as awkward as it is right now.

“What happened then?” Jongin asked timidly.

If he was being completely honest, Jongin would almost be offended if he wasn't confused as hell. Offended that Kyungsoo thought he was that much of an idiot. But he was confused because… why would Kyungsoo lie to him.

“The next day we both went to the hospital. Luhan couldn't perform that night because his vocal chords were injured from being choked. I'd heard him sing before of course, but this performance was supposed to be special. Not just because there were going to be scouts there, but because he said that the song he was singing solo was a surprise for me.” Kyungsoo sighed deeply, looking down at his lap. “And then I confronted him.”

“About what?”

“Whether he went to talk to Junmyeon's wife or not. It was stupid of me. He was distraught with guilt. He blamed himself entirely and I knew he had just been trying to help. But I only cared about how upset I was so I let him think it was his fault.”

There were many things about Kyungsoo's story that puzzled Jongin. Kyungsoo was only telling him parts of the story, not going into detail about the people involved, but he listened quietly the whole time. Kyungsoo had told him that he was dead. But it seemed they hadn't gotten to that part.

“I left him alone in his room. I'm guessing he probably didn't get up to lock his door because that night Junmyeon came into my apartment and shot me in my bed and then went next door, in here and shot Luhan too.”

Jongin's eyes widened and he gulped. He hadn't expected Kyungsoo to say something like that so casually.

“Do you believe me?”

“I don't know.”

“So that’s a no. I'll explain anything you want me to.”

Jongin hesitated before asking. Kyungsoo mentioned the name Junmyeon, but it wasn't one that Jongin recognized. Kyungsoo hadn't said anything about how they had met or who he was. “Who is Junmyeon?”

Kyungsoo flinched visibly. “I'll tell you anything except that.”

Jongin accepted that. Sort of. He still wanted to know. “So what exactly is happening right now? If you're de—uh, not alive, how are you here?”

“As far fetched as it sounds, yes I'm dead, I just haven't gone to any purgatory-esque place, be it heaven or hell or, well nothing. After I died, I was extremely disoriented. I didn't know I was dead. It seemed like a horrible dream. I watched the police come in and take away my body. Luhan's too. I thought that I'd wake up any second. But so much time passed. I could feel every second as it ticked. But I never woke up. Before I knew it, my apartment was empty, I felt like I hadn't seen a single person in ages. I had no idea what to make of it.”

“Kyungsoo this is—”

“Ridiculous?”

“That's not what I was going to say.”

“Then be quiet and just listen okay? If you had listened to me before and just moved we wouldn't be sitting here right now.”

Jongin mumbled an apology and Kyungsoo went on.

“The first time I seemed to come to my senses, instead of just feeling like I was floating through a dream, was when I found my feet taking me to Junmyeon's street. It was like I was knocking on his door again but at the same time it was like I was watching myself do it. Nobody came out of course, I refrained from actually knocking, but i felt like someone had, like I had just experienced it over again. Just the memory of it was almost crippling. I don't know how to explain it, the feeling of experiencing something, or watching yourself on a screen, but at the same time, and on top of that, knowing that it didn’t actually happen.”

“The next seven days continued much like that. Instead of feeling like I was asleep, I was in this strange alley between two very different kind of hazes. By the end of it, I barely registered them as my own memories. It felt better to pretend it was someone else's experiences.”

“The next week, I was more lucid. Far more than I would have liked. It was way too real this time. It was very much like it was all happening all over again. And it continued like that. For several months. It was strange though. Like I couldn't really see people's faces because they weren't actually there. It was almost like someone was physically there, but their faces were just...blank. It was the most uncomfortable thing. It was like that with everyone. Luhan, Minseok and Jongdae, the police officers we had talked to. Everyone except....”

“Junmyeon?” Jongin said quietly.

Kyungsoo nodded. “His face is still so clear. It's easy to ignore the rest. I can pretty much will it all away or just avoid the memory if I wanted to, unless it's him.”

“So when did you start thinking you were—” Kyungsoo shot him an annoyed look. “—uh I mean when did you know for sure that you had died?”

“One day, it was a Monday, just like any Monday, Jongdae and Minseok were in the hallway at the same time I was, and had been that Monday on the last week of my life, sitting in front of my door, waiting for Junmyeon to come so I could confront him. I had no clue what was happening to me back then. Or why. It didn't register, for some reason, that Junmyeon had killed me and that he'd killed Luhan too. I didn't know how to explain any of it. But I saw them coming down the hall. My two friends. Chatting as they usually did. I didn't realize right away—since I’m not always in the most lucid state and things can blur into one another—but I could see their faces. It wasn't until they stopped and looked at me too.”

“That's how you figured it out?”

Kyungsoo shook his head. “Once they were done freaking out. They explained what had happened. And it was almost like I fell into that spiral from when it first happened. I learned that everything in this, world as it seems to be, is a cycle.”

“Why didn't you see them before? Or why didn't they see you? Didn't it take time before you started avoiding your memories of people or whatever?”

“It was difficult to focus on certain things. I'd be lucid during my ‘memories’ of him, but it would kind of drain me in a way and I wouldn't recall much else. As for them not seeing me, I think it sort of took time for this world to have an effect on them as well.”

There were too many holes in this delusion that Kyungsoo was spinning. Kyungsoo himself seemed unsure of what he was saying. And truthfully Jongin was getting a little tired keeping up with it.

“The basic breakdown is that I keep reliving—though reliving might not be the best word for it—the last week of my life over and over. Sunday to Saturday. It never stops, it never slows.”

“How come… how come I can hear it like it's just happening?”

“Luhan… he didn't get stuck like I did. Thankfully. I think he's still there in essence though. Observing the people that lived in this flat before you, I think that the longer you're exposed to whatever residue of his memory he left behind, the more you start hearing and feeling like him. That's why it didn't take long for you to start noticing things, because you live where Luhan lived,” Jongin shivered at the thought of it—walking, eating, sleeping in the exact same place as someone who was now dead—but then he remembered that he wasn't quite believing Kyungsoo anyways, “but it took a whole for it to take effect on Jongdae and Minseok because they're not under direct influence.”

Jongin frowned as he realized something. If that was the case—that he heard what Luhan had heard—he shouldn't have been able to hear what had happened on Friday night, before Kyungsoo comes out onto the balcony, because according to him, Luhan hadn't been home at the time. But he didn't mention it. That one little detail didn’t bother him as much as the rest of it.

“Is that why you wanted me to move?”

Kyungsoo nodded. “I don't know the long term effects. I don't want to find out.”

“If you're not really here… why can I see you? And touch you…”

“I don't know how it works. Five years of experimentation and I'm still not sure about anything.”

“What do you know?”

Kyungsoo sighed. “Well, let's say if on a Wednesday I was on the balcony at three in the afternoon, and I go out there at three on a Wednesday as I am now, you'd be able to see me. I don't think if every random person passing by would be able to, not likely since they aren’t affected by what happened here in any way, but you definitely would, Jongdae and Minseok too, since they've lived here the entire time I've been dead, they’re attuned in a way to my existence on this plane. But if I was supposed to be out there at three and I chose to break the cycle and come out into the hallway instead, not even you would see me, because I'm not supposed to be there.”

That explanation hurt Jongin's head a little.

“I thought, if I'm invisible to people when I'm not supposed to be there, I might as well make most of it. Travel, even if it's around the city. During the day, during the night, it's not like I can die again, right?”

Jongin nodded, still not entirely sure if he believed.

“It only took five minutes for that hope to be ruined entirely. I found out I can't go to places that I hadn't visited during that week. I can roam around the supermarket down the street as much as I want, but I can't go into its back parking lot. Because I didn't go there that week. And since I spent most of that week cooped up and depressed, that limits the places I can go.”

Kyungsoo didn't seem crazy to Jongin. But he was definitely talking crazy. But for some reason Jongin kept asking him things, as if all of it made sense. He didn't know what happened when crazy people were told they were crazy and he didn't want to find out.

“How do you see things?”

“Well in your flat, I see the way you've set it up, but the way Luhan had it set up is sort of visible too. Like an overlapping memory. With my flat, I see that it's physically empty, but I can still also see all of my old things. Gosh, I don't even know where all my things went, I don't remember the first few months after my death very well.”

Jongin took a deep breath as he tried to process everything. He felt like he should do something, but he had no idea what when he didn’t even know what the hell he was getting himself into. He still believed he had heard gunshots. Was Kyungsoo spinning this tale to get in hopes that Jongin will believe it instead of what he had believed to be the truth before? That Kyungsoo had gotten rid of his abuser? Or was Kyungsoo really just nuts and that’s why everyone just avoided him and Jongdae and Minseok warned him to stay out of it.

“Kyungsoo…”

“Will you leave now?”

“What?”

“Will you move?”

“I don't know.”

“Please do. Minseok's right, things are the way they are and they won't change.”

Jongin didn't question how Kyungsoo would know what Minseok had said to him earlier.

“Do they really not talk to you anymore?”

“I told them not to. It took them a while to actually listen to me, but they eventually did. I'm going to tell you the same thing.”

“Please don't.” Jongin wanted, now more than ever, to be able to understand Kyungsoo. He couldn’t do that if Kyungsoo wasn’t around.

“Jongin I've never interacted with the people who've moved into this flat the way I have with you. Clearly, I've made a mistake.”

“Stop, please.”

“I shouldn't have approached you, and I won't do it again. I don't even know why I keep coming back.”

Kyungsoo got up and walked over to the door.

“I spent the night here on Monday, with Luhan. This physical form will disappear when I walk out of this door. Don't try to talk to me again.”

Jongin was up and after him before the door had a chance to close. He caught it before it slammed and swung it wide open, but there was no one out in the hallway.

There was no way Kyungsoo could have gone anywhere in that split second and not left a trace or made the slightest of sounds.

His heart lurched painfully up his throat as he dropped to his knees, fingers itching to reach for his phone.

But who would he call?

Sehun was out of the question. He was dealing with his own demons.

Chanyeol or Baekhyun wouldn't understand the situation, since they didn't know much about it at all. And he didn't really feel like having to explain the whole ordeal from the beginning. Besides, how would that text go anyways?

Hey guys so my neighbour claims he and his friend were killed five years ago and i didn’t believe him until i saw him pretty much disappear in front of my eyes. I'm not crazy but I need your help and sympathy since I'm kinda being haunted.

Baekhyun would probably smack him to make him snap out of whatever delusion he thought Jongin was in and Chanyeol was superstitious. He might declare that he’d never talk to Jongin again if he thought Jongin had ghosts hanging around him. And then Baekhyun would smack Chanyeol, and then Chanyeol would be upset, and then they'd bicker and it'd be all Jongin's fault.

Well, it would be Junmyeon's fault. Whoever the he was.

He knew Minseok wasn't home. He'd watched him leave for work, and he wasn't about to go to his job and demand why he didn't just outright explain things. But Jongin guessed that was because he probably wouldn't have believed the truth anyways.

He wasn't sure if he was dreaming this all up right now anyways.

Still sitting in his doorway, he slapped himself across the face. And then groaned. That was stupid. He didn't wake up.

The next person that popped into his head was Jongdae. It was possible he was at home. But Jongin didn't really want to talk to Jongdae. Jongdae kind of made him feel like a nuisance. However, if someone came around and started cutting open old wounds, he wouldn't want to be the nicest person to them either. So he dropped that idea.

He wasn't sure Yixing was the right person to talk to. Though he seemed like a nice guy, he didn't seem to know much of what was going on around him. Despite Kyungsoo having told him a while ago that Yixing knew about what he had previously thought was domestic abuse, Yixing hadn't automatically thought about the ghost haunting one of his apartments when Jongin had talked to him. If many people had moved out because of Kyungsoo and Luhan's ghostly residue, but Yixing still assumed that Jongin's complaint had been about Minseok and Jongdae, then he couldn't possibly know about Kyungsoo. That was what he theorized anyways. He wasn't sure if he was in the mood to find out.

The last person he could think of, was Yifan.

Yifan had moved in and opened his cafe six years ago, and if he knew Minseok and Jongdae, then he had to know Kyungsoo. Maybe he could clear things up. Tell him that Kyungsoo was crazy and just really good at pretending to be a ghost and this Luhan person, who he had never heard of before, who supposedly had lived in Jongin's apartment, was just a figment of Kyungsoo's imagination. As was Junmyeon.

Despite all of the reassurances he wanted to hear, that none of this was real, he knew deep down, that the voices he heard through the walls couldn't be fake. Kyungsoo couldn't fake his beat up appearance on Friday and then go back to looking normal on Sunday. If Kyungsoo was crazy, he wouldn't be able to do that.

Yifan's reaction to his question—“Do you by any chance know Kyungsoo?”—dispelled any hope of Jongin's own sanity. Yifan sighed and looked at Jongin with a remorseful expression.

“I didn't really know him. Only met him once. He seemed sweet so it's so sad that he and—well, you know.” Jongin gulped. “He was good friends with a good friend of mine, Luhan. If you know about Kyungsoo, surely you know about Luhan, since he lived in the apartment you live in now.”

“It can't be true.”

Yifan frowned. “It was indeed very tragic. Even though five years have passed. Sometimes I feel like Luhan’s still around in a way. It’s stupid I know. Back when I had only just opened the cafe, I'd keep it open 24 hours. It was difficult to turn profit since I was just starting out. He was so opinionated. He'd always give me a piece of his mind when he found out I was overworking. He's the reason I won't go 24 hours again. It was a disaster. He made me stop, I started getting more rest, thinking straight, and started running things the way I do now, and I couldn't be more content. He didn’t beat around the bush. Always said what was on his mind.”

Jongin blinked away stray tears.

“I don't understand why you're so upset Jongin. Did you know them?”

Jongin shook his head. “I was just curious, you know, since I'm living there now. I'm just upset because… it's a sad thing to happen.”

“Hmm,” Yifan agreed wordlessly, staring off. He seemed upset as well and Jongin felt guilty about bringing up Luhan. “Sorry I couldn't tell you more about Kyungsoo, since it was him you asked about in the first place. But Minseok and Jongdae know plenty about him. I'm not so sure how willing they would be to talk, but you could always try. Just, you know, don't impose. Kyungsoo was a good friend of theirs just as Luhan was mine.”

Jongin nodded, apologizing for bringing up the past. Yifan waved off his apology with a good natured smile.

On his way back, Jongin decided to go against his earlier decision to avoid Jongdae and go speak to him anyways. It seemed as if he and Minseok were the only ones who knew the truth.

Jongdae took one look at him and pursed his lips, hesitating slightly before letting him in without a word.

“Do you know… why?” He asked, once the silence between the two became suffocating.

“Why what?”

“Why this is happening to him?”

“Tragedies happen all the time. People die everyday.”

“But people don't get stuck living the last tragedies of their live for who knows how long.”

“You don't know that,” Jongdae snapped.

“But there has to be some way to put him at peace right? Like Luhan is?”

Jongdae stared at him for a long time. “How much exactly do you know?”

Jongin shrunk slightly under the man's gaze. It wasn't annoyed or annoying like it usually was, but strangely soft. Jongin didn't know what to make of it. “A lot, I guess. But it doesn't seem enough.”

“Luhan's not at peace. If he was, we wouldn't be sitting here discussing the afterlife right now. Because without the manner that Luhan stays here, we wouldn't have any idea that Kyungsoo was left around.”

“Then there must be a reason both of them are still here. Maybe there's something that could lead us a to Junmyeon and—”

“Do not say that name in front of me. The fact that we knew it was him, and couldn't do a single ing thing about it haunts me more than a ghost ever could.”

“But who is he?”

Jongdae ignored him. “Do you want to know what I know or not?”

Jongin nodded.

“Then listen. If you have any questions, just shut up about them and don't interrupt me or I'll kick your scrawny .”

If anyone notices anything wrong continuity wise let me know! I've been trying to keep everything organized so I don't make mistakes but things can slip through.

Also let me know what your thoughts are so far especially now that we're back to where we left off :D

P.S. Next chapter is a Sehun special because he makes me feel a lot of things lately (more than usual) and it's extremely frustrating so imma let it all out on my keyboard :))))))))