Every other street lamp was lit, illuminating the area with a dim halo of warm light.

Yoona had counted ten street lamps so far, not once slowing down in her stride to keep up with Jungkook. Deciding that breaking his concentration was most likely cause him to snarl and spit something bitter in her direction, Yoona shoved her hands in her pockets and continued to count the stars.

Jungkook kept up with her as though he were her shadow.

She would pause to adjust her shoelaces, he would freeze in place. She would speed up, he would too. She would slow down, he would too.

“Okay, I’ve got it!” Junglook declared out of the blue, causing Yoona to lose count of her fiftieth star.

“Got what?” she asked warily. “You figured out how to scare me?”

“No, not that,” he waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea. “Everyone has Energy, and I tuned in to see if there was anything unusual about yours.”

“Okay,” Yoona raised a brow at the fact that Jungkook was practically vibrating on the spot. “Ignoring the fact that I have no idea what you’re talking about, is there anything wrong with my Energy?”

“It took me practically an hour to tap into it. It normally shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes with non-clairvoyants.”

Yoona paused to squint at him. “But we’ve only been walking for five minutes.”

Jungkook scratched the back of his neck before stretching his arms above his head. “I’ve been trying since before we sat down for dinner.”

“Oh,” Yoona blinked as she resumed walking, Jungkook not far behind. So she had a weird Energy, which was a good thing. Right? “Am I a clairvoyant?”

Her neighbour was silent for a few seconds to mull over the answer. Kicking a soda can out of the way, he nodded. “It depends. You could be a few different things or have an abnormal amount of restraint. Energy is what the name itself suggests: the energy your mind gives out. Telepaths use this to read minds, but clairvoyants can assess it for ESP markers.”

Fascinated by the amount of information thrown her way, Yoona could barely pick her jaw up from the floor. “How do you know so much about this?”

Jungkook shrugged. “My mom was my assigned mentor, she left me a bunch of notes before she passed away.” He quickly shot her a warning glare before she could even ask any more questions. “This isn’t something to be impressed by, Yoona. This job killed her. This is not the life I want for myself. I’m only helping you because I promised Yugyeom.”

Biting her lip at the chastising tone, Yoona tried her best to stomp on the growing embers of fury alight in her chest before it could inflict any damage. “I understand,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

Momentarily caught off guard at having been thanked instead of hurled a curse at, Jungkook did a double take at the woman walking beside him and nodded solemnly. “Okay, your Energy feels clairvoyant, but something feels off.”

At Yoona’s questioning glance, he waved a hand and continued. “Which is typical for most haunting. You can see ghosts right? Fully reconstituted?”

Yoona was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts as she thought about her answer. “When I see them, it’s like they’re real. It’s like how I see you, not washed out into the background or anything like that.”

“So they look solid?” Jungkook frowned in confusion. “Well that’s not so typical. Do they talk to you?”

Yoona picked a leaf off her shoulder. “No. But I can feel when they’re close, like a sort of electric buzz cutting through the air.”

“Okay,” Jungkook nodded, “but you hear no voices.” After a moment, he snapped his fingers. “You must be a half-switch then.”

“A what? I feel like you’re calling me a mud-blood.”

“It’s not a derogatory term,” Jungkook rolled his eyes. “Just think of your problem as a light switch. Most people are in the off position, while you’re stuck in the middle: someone who sees ghosts but can’t hear them. That’s dangerous.”

“Oh yeah, thanks, don’t sugarcoat it for me.”

“Shut up. I don’t know if you’re really that, most half-switches are children. Anyway, ghosts don’t want to be found. They usually prefer full clairvoyants because they can do things like help them cross over when they’re tired of haunting. But most clairvoyants have the power to force ghosts to cross over, hence the hiding. Ghosts love half-switches because they can feed off their fear.”

Feeling the force of a strong headache ebbing to life, Yoona shook her head. “Okay, so how do turn myself back off? Or full on?”

“You definitely want off,” Jungkook shot her a thin smile. “That’s where the scaring part comes in.”

Jungkook set his phone down and tapped the nib of his pen on the table.

God, what was he thinking? This entire thing with Yoona way more than it should. He put on a damn good show in front of her, but the truth was that he just didn’t have the power to fix half-switches.

He had been serious when he said that he didn’t want anything to do with this world. Or rather, the paranormal world was better off without him. He was by no means a professional, because he was weak, and couldn’t even begin to compare himself to the legend that was his mother. But really, when Yoona had looked up at him with those adoring eyes glimmering with all that hope and wonder, how could he have refused? In her eyes, he knew everything while she knew nothing.

The need