Chapter 6.

“Park Yoomi. Her name is Yoomi,” Changsun explained and I smiled brightly. He directed their gaze to the laptop beside him. “She showed me this article herself, it says she died a couple of weeks ago.”

“And you’re sure this is her?” Seungho questioned and the boy nodded. “Wah, why did she come to us then?”

“It says she was a Kangnam University student,” Cheolyong pointed out and shrugged. “Maybe that was the reason because we’re in the same area?”

“Was it?” Changsun directed at me and I looked away shyly.

“Ahhhh.” I swallowed roughly, knowing I was about to start blushing. I never expected it to be so hard to admit I was a fan. Then again if I said so, it would mean they would see me as a crazy sasaeng fan. That was something I definitely wanted to avoid. “I’m not sure, the last person I saw when I was alive was you.”

I felt more comfortable with my answer, though the boy in question frowned at it. The others all watched his expression with interest, Byunghee especially. I could tell I had really scared him. Smiling to myself, I even poked my tongue at him childishly a moment later.

“What did she say?”

“She’s uh, not sure,” Changsun replied, not sharing my whole sentence. I was intrigued as to why he didn’t. “Anyway, what do we do from here?”

“Yoomi-ssi,” Seungho called and I looked right at him. He however trailed his eyes around everywhere but in my direction. The eldest coughed awkwardly and nudged Changsun. “Uh, where is she?”

“There.” He pointed in my direction and Seungho turned to smile at me.

“Yoomi, are you hear to pester us?”

Sanghyun groaned. “I can’t believe you’re trying to talk to her too hyung!”

“I’m being polite okay, find your manners, she was once a living, breathing person like us.” Seungho then smiled again. “Thank you for what you’ve done around the house. It’s a relief for us when we’re so busy to not have to clean.”

“So let’s hire a maid and be done with it eh?” Byunghee mentioned quietly, shuddering slightly. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

“Nor am I,” Sanghyun added. I sighed and looked at Changsun. He was still in his own thoughts.

Cheolyong grinned. “I actually don’t mind. I think it’s kind of cool. Yoomi-ssi has no place to be it seems, so let’s help her.”

“Help her how though? None of us can see her apart from Joon-hyung,” Sanghyun stated with a shake of his head. “We have enough problems in our own lives than to start helping someone we can’t even see.”

“I don’t think I need much help,” I mentioned and sighed. “But I can see I am too much of a burden despite my efforts. I’m sorry.”

“She says she doesn’t need help,” Changsun repeated to the boys and I watched his expression change. “Yoomi seems genuine. What harm has she really caused apart from scaring us? I’m sure when we die we’ll all scare people too.”

“Especially your face without makeup, it’s enough to scare everyone,” Cheolyong teased the second youngest who shoved him back playfully.

“Yah, talk for yourself.”

“It’s my goal to be mischievous, now and in the future too,” the two toned haired boy exclaimed happily. The others laughed together and I smiled, liking Cheolyong’s humour. I felt we would connect well.

Seungho cleared his throat. I looked back at the leader. “Those who are against Yoomi staying at least for now until we learn more, raise your hand.”

Both Byunghee and Sanghyun’s hands shot up. It was to be expected, they had both spoken their concerns. I looked at the remaining three, anticipating their thoughts.

“Like I said, I’m happy with it. Now I know why my side went cold yesterday, it was just Yoomi saying hi.”

Seungho smiled at the youngest and turned his attention to Changsun. “I don’t have too much of an issue with it either, so long as we make a list of rules. But it’s really up to you Changsun; you’re the only one who can see her. It’s up to you if you can be comfortable with her staying here.”

Changsun glanced around at each of ’s expectant faces. He then turned to me, examining my features for a moment. “I guess we could trial it.”

“Really?!” I exclaimed, getting up and shifting to his side in excitement. He regarded me warily but I grinned, clapping my hands together happily all the same. “Thank you so much!”

A new sense of hope washed over me, and I became determined to do my best to remain with Changsun.

After the decision, Byunghee and Sanghyun took off to their respective bedrooms. I wondered how I would be able to convince the pair that I wasn’t as bad as they appeared to believe I was. I knew they were scared, at least Byunghee was apparent about it ever since the ordeal I had put him through. I was sorry towards him now, and knew I would have to work hard to gain his trust.

Cheolyong seemed almost as excited as myself. Seungho was trying to calm the boy down, and had sent him to his room in order to stop bouncing around and talking fast about plans and things to test out. I knew he and I would spend a lot of time together from now on. Once the eldest shut the door, he looked back at both Changsun and I and smiled weakly. “We’ll talk about rules tomorrow. You should get some rest if you can.”

“Night hyung,” Changsun said with a smile and finally we were alone. I looked around the room, feeling as if it had suddenly gotten bigger. The way the older boy was remaining quiet beside me made me feel nervous, and I went to reach for my necklace to play with. Finding it was gone, I sighed heavily, remembering I had lost my most treasured item. “What’s wrong?”

“Huh?” I glanced up at his words, his dark eyes looking at my neck where my hand had just fallen away from. “Oh, uh I just remembered I don’t have my necklace anymore.”

“Where is it?”

“I doubt it will still be there, but it’s in the gutter where I was hit. I couldn’t grab it, at that time I had just become the person I am now.”

“Do you remember what area you were uh, you know in?” He awkwardly avoided saying I was dead. I smiled lightly at his kindness and then nodded.

“It wasn’t far from my university.”

“Kangnam University?” I nodded again and watched as Changsun became thoughtful. It was a nice change to see him this way; normally on the television he was being loud and energetic. I guess in his home he could relax and revert away from his idol mannerisms. He soon glanced back at me and smiled. “I don’t think I could sleep right now. Want to go look for it?”

I was stunned. I stared back at the boy, frozen. I tried to comprehend what he was saying and finally realised he would be curious to see if there was any proof of my death scene. There was no other reason why he would want to go and find it, except to satisfy his high level of curiosity. I had found since knowing the boy, he was someone who wanted answers. It was weird then that he was being accepting towards my hard to answer situation. I guess though, in the end I was an intriguing puzzle to attempt to put together.

“Uh sure, but I doubt it will still be there, it’s been awhile.”

He smiled. “We can always try and find it. The fresh air will be good too.”

“Okay.” We got up and after grabbing his jacket and wrapping a large red scarf around his neck, we set off into the night air. At first we travelled in silence, and I watched as Changsun evaluated the level of pedestrian traffic and my presence. I could tell he felt like if he was caught talking to himself in public, it could become very damaging.

Stepping in front of the man, he stopped abruptly and looked at me. I smiled and pointed to his pocket. “What?”

“Do you have an iPod or headphones for your phone?” He looked at me weirdly, but nodded at my statement. “You could put them in, and then if you feel the need to talk to me, you can just look like you’re singing along to music.”

Smiling, Changsun pulled out a pair of white headphones and put the ear buds in his ears, plugging the end into his phone. He then looked down at me. “Did you get this idea from Dream High?”

“Maybe,” I said with a blush and he chuckled. The rest of our trip seemed more comfortable now that I had given Changsun a way to not feel so out of place in the public eye. I was pleased that I had turned an awkward position into something good. I was sure I could help the boys more than I initially thought now.

We reached an all too familiar intersection and for a moment I stopped to stare at it. A small thought of not realising how close I had been to MBLAQ all this time crossed my mind but I squished the idea, my eyes travelling to the opposite side of the large road. Changsun moved closer to my side and I glanced up at him, trying not to allow the emotions to affect me. He smiled and stepped forward to press the pedestrian button. We crossed in silence when we had the right of way, and got to the other side unscathed.

“Uh,” I started and then realised my throat had closed up a little. I coughed and tried again. “It’s probably not here anymore, but it was in this area.”

“Let’s look then, shall we?” he suggested with another smile and I nodded weakly, checking the gutter with little enthusiasm. I was sure it would be gone, the gutter would usually get cleaned around this area every couple of weeks thoroughly. I glanced over at Changsun, who was intently searching and sighed. I didn’t want to take his gestures in any other way than him wanting proof. Even though I was beside him now, I couldn’t allow the hope to grow in that manner. Already he wasn’t exactly making that easy for me.

Sitting down on the curb, I stared at the ground and slowly moved aside a piece of newspaper. I sighed for the umpteenth time and then stopped, my eyes noticing something silver. A surge of urgency took over and I shoved everything aside to get to it. In the end it was just a coin. I dropped my head into my arms at my fruitless excitement. It would be long gone.

“Yoomi,” Changsun called and I lifted my head, my eyes widening at the silver chain in front of me. “This is it, isn’t it?”

________

Korean Word's Used..

*sasaeng; term for an obsessive fan who goes to extraordinary lengths to follow idols.

Author's Notes...

So the good news is that it's Friday and I'm posting on time WOOHOO! Haha. The bad news is that I have 4 assignments due between the 10th and 24th. So if I'm late to post again, I'm sorry I have to focus on getting my assignments done in order to pass. I hope you enjoy this chapter... wonder what Changsun is feeling. Is Yoomi right and he just wants proof?

Replies...

@Rirakuma; how helpful would it be to have a cleaning ghost?! Make life more lazier in some aspects I guess. But she's pretty good our Yoomi! Oh everyone believes something is there... just some might not want to believe in her being a part of their lives is all! Glad you're enjoying this!

@AeroRyuu; Thank you so much I'm so glad you are reading this! I'm sorry for confusing you. I'm the type to write using real names in most fictions... I feel like I'm addressing the real person (though I did do a SHINee fiction and wrote Key and Onew haha!) For reference: Changsun/Joon, Seungho/Seungho, Byunghee/G.O, Sanghyun/Thunder and Cheolyong/Mir. ^_^

@Kate; Haha you love him and ? Interesting. And that is some solid proof, you're right hehe.