Hakyeon was running around his house making sure that everything was ready for his friends. It had been a little bit less than a year since Hongbin and Taekwoon had come into his life. He was very grateful for that day. It was the beginning of a long healing process, one he was still taking part of. He couldn’t say that he was healed from what he had been through, and he didn’t really think he would ever be “fully” healed. He didn’t think the fear of being abandoned again would ever not be a burden sitting in the back of his mind. But his new found friends sure did make his burden lighter than it would have been without them. Hongbin taught him how to filter out the voices of the dead when he was in areas with a high concentration of spirits. Taekwoon had slowly, but surely, incorporated him into the friend group that he and Hongbin had. And now here they were, having weekly dinners at his house with all of his new friends. It was awkward at the beginning, seeing as Hakyeon had never really had someone he could call a friend in his life. The beginning was full of over formality and anxiety over being abandoned once again. But soon enough he had become a member of the “Spooky Gang” as Jaehwan liked to call them.

Hakyeon smiled fondly at the memory before being shook out of it by a knock at the door. “You know the door isn’t locked on Sundays!” He screamed at the door, hiding the strawberry shortcake he had made for Taekwoon’s birthday in case it was him and Hongbin. Instead Sanghyuk and Jaehwan walked through the door. “You shouldn’t be screaming that your door is unlocked. And shouldn’t you open the door for your guests?” Hakyeon stuck out his tongue at Jaehwan’s comment. Sanghyuk laughed as he sat at his place at the table. It didn’t take long for him and Sanghyuk to get in a heated argument about different dance styles. Jaehwan was cackling in the background at the comments being thrown around by the two dancers. Soon Hongbin and Taekwoon walked in, breaking up the fight. They began to eat and exchange stories about work and the spirits that had been crossed over that week. It was in a rare moment of silence during the meal that Hakyeon thought to himself,

“Thank you all. For keeping me company”