Two and a half months later

“How was work?” Jongin asked as Sehun walked in, looking like he'd had the life out of him.

Sehun sighed and greeted Jongin with a kiss. “Let's just say that Tao kid is going to get his kicked by me one day.”

“Right, Yifan told me that Tao’s been unnaturally attached to you.”

“Can it be stopped?”

“Nope.”

“Dammit.” Sehun groaned. “How was your day?”

Now it was Jongin's turn to sigh.

After they had moved, Sehun had begun looking for a job, since he couldn’t just continue living off his high school savings, especially since he no longer had the support of his uncle. Professor Kim kept pushing Jongin to participate in things in his field, even offering a decently paid internship, and adamantly saying that he wouldn’t be after Jongin if he didn’t think that he had a lot of potential. But Jongin didn’t really pay him much mind.

He was trying to find out information about Kyungsoo from the university but he kept reaching dead ends. At every turn there was someone telling him that they weren’t allowed to release the information that he wanted, and anyone who had attended the university with Kyungsoo had long graduated. Of course, Jongdae and Minseok were no help either. He didn’t even bother going to them anymore, not because he was worried he was bothering them, but because he hated how they tried to convince him to stop digging around. It made him feel pitiful.

Sehun was still sure that the Professor was making inappropriate advances but after only a bit of research he discovered that the internship wasn’t even with the Professor. It was at their local police department and it would look pretty amazing on a resume. The best part about it was that it would get Jongin’s mind off their dead neighbour. He pushed Jongin to go for it as well and Jongin thought that if Sehun thought it was a good idea, then maybe it was. So Jongin gave his two weeks notice to Yifan and Sehun applied for the position, effectively taking his place.

But the internship wasn’t anything he was expecting at all. He was basically the mule, being told to carry things around, sort through files and put them in their correct places, clean up the temporary cells and interrogation rooms (that was probably the worst part, it’s not like they had a janitor for nothing, right?). The only part he liked was going for a coffee run because that meant he got to come to the cafe, since it was only a couple of blocks down, and flirt with Sehun while Tao and the other employees gagged at them and Yifan scolded him for distracting his staff.

He didn’t, however, want to outright tell Sehun that he kind of hated it, because it truly was good for his career—and it’s not like jobs were meant to be liked—and he felt great being too busy to think too much about Kyungsoo. The more he thought about the sad ghost, the more dreadful he felt.

“Same as always, last week I organized files A-D, this week it was E-G. Next week, who knows.”

“I have a feeling it might be H-K, but you’re right, only time will tell.”

Jongin laughed at Sehun’s dry attempt at humour. He couldn’t help but think Sehun was funny and cute even when Sehun didn’t mean to be. He couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky he was to have Sehun by his side. Because otherwise, he’d still be living in his old apartment, not knowing the hell to do with himself, and pining after a dead guy, who very clearly didn’t want him to stick around. Jongin had never been the best at voicing his feelings, but he felt Sehun ought to know how much he meant to Jongin.

Though, as much as he wanted to, he didn’t say anything. He felt guilty, because even though he was grateful that Sehun seemingly believed his crazy words without much proof—since Sehun had never seen Kyungsoo’s face and there was only one small newspaper article to go by—he was lying to Sehun about something. He had promised that he would do his best to put this ghost stuff behind him, that he’d stop trying to push through the dead ends of information he had, and that he would stay away from the allegedly haunted apartment.

Jongin knew that the reason Sehun had asked him to promise these things were for his own good. He had been driving himself insane with all of it. But Sehun thinks that Jongin’s promise was sincere. Sehun thinks that Jongin doesn’t ever go to see Kyungsoo.

That’s where the guilt comes in. Because that’s far from the truth.

----

The truth was that Jongin took every chance he could to visit Kyungsoo and try to get information out of him, since he couldn’t find information anywhere else. He wanted justice for Kyungsoo—despite how unlikely it was that he would accomplish anything at all—hoping that it could put him at peace. Most of the time, Kyungsoo would tell him not to bother and to just forget that he was there. He couldn’t really stop Jongin from coming, but that didn’t mean he was going to tell him anything.

Most of the time, when Jongin visited him, Kyungsoo seemed fairly okay. Sometimes, however, he was in an emotional state that neither of them could change. It was times like those that he would say things to Jongin, that he probably would have kept to himself otherwise. Though it was mostly just about how much he missed Luhan, how guilty he felt about getting him killed, sometimes he was angry too, and would curse at everything, even at Luhan for being stupid enough to try and help him.

Then, there was the time that Kyungsoo told Jongin that he was in love with him.

Jongin had only asked him how he was doing.

Kyungsoo had scoffed at him through tears. “How typical of someone alive to ask me something like that. I’m a ghost that's bound to reliving the last and worst week of my life over and over again, after also causing the death of someone I really cared about. All because I was and emotional. On top of that I let myself fall for someone very much alive and I even made a move on him knowing he pretty much had a boyfriend who is also very much alive unlike me who is very much dead. How do you think I’m doing?”

Jongin had wanted to cry too.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you fall for me?”

Kyungsoo’s shaky sigh had made Jongin’s heart clench painfully.

“Because you're the only one Jongin. In five years, I’ve seen people be affected by Luhan's presence all in the same way. They’ll hear things through the wall—the yelling, the fighting—just the annoying physical manifestations of our haunting. They’d bang on the wall, telling me to shut up, as if I could do something, complain to Yixing about the noise, as if he could do something. Ignore me whenever they saw me crying in the hallway or the balcony looking like I’d thrown myself through a trash compactor. They’d just leave once they got sick of it. Then you come along, and the first thing you do is offer me a joint.”

Jongin didn’t know whether to cringe or be fond of the first time he talked to Kyungsoo.

“You're the first one that's come through that's started feeling something too—not just your own emotions like confusion and annoyance—but emotions that shouldn't be there, emotions that it doesn’t make any sense for you to be feeling.”

Jongin gulped. It was true that he felt an unusual infatuation with Kyungsoo for reasons he couldn't explain, but he hadn’t realised that he was the only one to feel it. That he was the only one to interact with Kyungsoo in this way.

“You have haven't you? You felt fear, jealousy, sadness, at times you shouldn’t have. You started feeling things for me and you don't even know why but it was intense and you didn’t even realize how it started to happen. As if those feelings were always there. Then when you moved out, they weren’t so intense anymore, but they’re still there, because you keep coming back.”

Jongin nodded.

“That's why I wanted you to move, I didn’t know what would happen if you stayed too long.”

“H-how do you know this? If I'm the only one.”

“I’ve become good at predicting this place, this halfway world. Maybe it's becoming part of me, or I’m becoming part of it, that's more likely. Besides, you're the only person I've felt anything for too.”

“But Sehun, he said he felt something too. Bad vibes, and the feeling of wanting to help you.”

Kyungsoo scoffed. “Oh well, that’s probably just because he has amazing intuition and he’s a genuinely nice person who’ll help any pathetic poor soul in need. Want me to compliment your boyfriend more? Or was that enough?”

“Sorry. But you still haven't answered my question properly.”

“What do you want me to say Jongin? I'm dead and lonely and you're the first person to come around and give a about me and deep down, because I know it's probably Luhan's lingering presence that's making you care…. you make me feel less guilty. Because I don't know if there is a heaven or hell or nothing after this, and I don't know where he is—if he's at peace or suffering or just gone—and it's all my fault. Just knowing his feelings are flowing through you helps me pretend that he would still love me after everything. That's why I love you, Jongin. Because I don't know what it is about you that is channeling Luhan's soul in a way that no one else who lived here did. It's a stupid explanation but I don't care. You asked a stupid question.”

Jongin wondered that too, but he was also worried about the fact that Kyungsoo seemed to think that this was his fault.

“You know, dying wasn’t your fault. And if you couldn’t stop your own death, how did you expect to stop Luhans?”

“I've had five years to relive this week Jongin, there are a billion things I could have done differently to avoid this.”

 “But Kyungsoo—”

“The worst part is, the time I spent with Luhan, with Minseok and Jongdae, all of that is a distant memory. The only parts that are vivid, like I'm right there again, are with him. Only when he's there. And it's like he's torturing me all over again.”

Jongin didn’t know what he could say to Kyungsoo to make him feel better. It was likely there was nothing. At times he would selfishly think about why it had to be him to move next door to Kyungsoo, to start caring so much, start suffering so much. Why couldn’t it have been someone else?

Though he had moved out and found distractions, and his thoughts were no longer consumed by Kyungsoo’s situation, it wasn’t completely out of mind either, especially since he kept going back. Even though he had promised Sehun he wouldn’t, he didn’t exactly come to terms with why Sehun might have wanted him to stop, so he didn’t see the harm.

Until one particular day.

----

“Where the hell were you?”

Uh…oops.

“You told me you were done at 6. I thought we agreed that I'd meet you there and we'd go to the studio.”

That was the agreement. But it had totally slipped Jongin's mind. He'd hit another dead end that morning and decided to go visit Kyungsoo, completely forgetting that he and Sehun were going to practice that evening.

“I called like a hundred times but your phone was off. I was so worried.” Sehun came up to Jongin and embraced him, making the guilt surge up from his abdomen to his throat, practically choking him.

“I'm sorry. My battery died and I didn't have my charger on me.”

“It's okay,” Sehun said. “At least you're safe.”

“It’s not okay.”

“Seriously Jongin, it's fine. happens.”

“No Sehun, I'm really sorry. I—” He wasn't sure how Sehun would react but he just couldn't keep it in anymore. “I went to see Kyungsoo.”

Sehun pulled back. “What?”

“I know you asked me not to but—”

“It isn't just that I asked you not to, Jongin, you promised that you weren't going to. Does that mean nothing to you?”

“I just can’t help it. I need to do something—”

“He’s dead, Jongin, what can you possibly do?”

“I have to try.”

Sehun scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m serious.”

“This isn’t healthy, Jongin. You’re obsessed.”

“I’m not obsessed I just have to figure out how to—”

“I don’t think you understand how crazy you sound when you say things like this. How exactly do you expect to help someone you claim is dead?”

Jongin hesitated before answering. The way Sehun worded his sentence was bothering him. “So you do think I’m crazy. You don’t believe me at all!”

“That is not what I said.”

“You just said—”

“Are you seriously angry with me right now?! I told you I’d believe you no matter what, and I do, even without definitive proof! But the one thing I asked of you was to accept that there is nothing you can do. That you have to move on. Have you really been lying to me all this time?”

Jongin didn’t answer. He knew Sehun was right. Jongin was the one who had done wrong, and yet he was acting victimized. He just couldn’t help his desperation. He couldn’t control the way he was feeling.

Sehun seemed to mistake his silence for something other than guilt. “Just forget it.”

Sehun grabbed his coat and started to pull on his shoes. Jongin realized what was happening and quickly latched onto Sehun's arm.

“Sehun, wait. Where are you going?”

He didn’t get a reply, but Sehun pried Jongin's fingers from his arm and left before Jongin could do much else, slamming the door in his wake.

Jongin was too shocked to move at first, but just as he regained enough composure to follow Sehun out the door, he heard the telltale sound of the elevator doors shutting. He was too late.

I want to ask for forgiveness for being so bad at updating :(

I was wondering if you guys would want to see a very short sequel after this is over (I'm talking like one-shot or two-shot nothing more), or just a couple of epilogues? I was thinking epilogues might be easier since it would put everything related to this story in one place but just tell me what you think!

(They would be solely SeKai btw)