“I’m sorry for your loss, dear, be strong,” Someone pats your shoulder and walks away.

Stop talking to me.

“Your parents were great people,” Another comes to you, caressing the side of your face.

Don’t touch me.

“Don’t give up on life, okay, dear?”

Don’t look at me with those eyes.

Stop pitying me.

Stop telling me things I know already.

Stop it.

Just then, you meet eyes with a handsome young man across the room, hands in his pocket and eyes startling grey, staring at me with an expression you can’t read.  You see his gaze flicker and notice that he was also staring at Kyungwoo and Yumi.

He was in white, in contrary with all the people in the room, black and mourning.

Nobody was noticing him.

Except you.

Instinctively, you clutch onto Kyungwoo’s arm on your right and Yumi’s on your right.  As tightly as you can, until they wince with pain, all at the same time while you stare back into his eyes.

Your expression said one thing;

No.

And that was exactly when you noticed that your parents’ wedding ring was hung on a necklace by his neck.

“Ah, you’re here again, aren’t you?” You chuckle bitterly as you look away from his eyes.

His gaze; it unnerves you.

“Not many people notice me, you know,” He says, with a surprisingly normal voice.

“So I noticed,” You close and open your hands repeatedly, happy with the lightness.  You try to cross your legs and smile at the unusual familiarity of doing the action.  “Are you doing this? How do you do this?” You wonder.

“And not many people don’t freak out when this actually happens to them,”

“I’ve seen you once and I’ve seen you twice,” You finally find the courage to meet his eyes and let out a grin.  “You don’t have that look you had back then, so I’m okay with it,”

He really doesn’t.  His eyes, although it was showing something you can’t read, but at least you can notice enough that it’s not the one he had back then.

“You do know what I am and what I do, right?” The young man frowns at you, taken aback by your strange attitude, probably.

“I was kind of wondering, but then I couldn’t come up with the right name, but you’re like the Grim Reaper right? The, err, cuter, nicer version of the Grim Reaper,” You shrug.  “You take people’s lives,”

“I do.  And doesn’t my presence here mean that—“

“I’m gonna die?” You look back at him with a glint in your eyes and a playful smile.  “No it doesn’t,”

“It doesn’t?” Now his composure breaks away. 

“No,”

“But why?”

“Because I don’t want to go.  Or I won’t let you take me.  Either way, no, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna die,”

“Wha—“

“Hey,” You jump off from the bed, walking around the room like you’re a little kid in a playground.  Walking is so strange for you, but at the same time, it’s just so familiar it’s like you were never paralyzed.  “Did you do this too, to my parents?”

“Do what?”

“Meet them and talk to them when you’re about to take them away,”

“No, I didn’t.  I mean, they were in an accident, I took them when it happened,”

“Was it painful for them?”

“I timed it so they didn’t.  So it wasn’t,”

You sigh in relief at his words.  “Thank you,”

At your thanks, he shakes his head again and finally lets the thinnest of smiles appear on his lips.  “You’re thanking me when I was the one who indirectly took your parents’ lives?”

“Yes? I mean, you made it painless for them.  I thank you for that.  I don’t challenge fate or destiny; when people are meant to die, they will die.  But you’re neither,”

“So?”

“So I can still go against you, can’t I?”

At that, he laughs aloud, clutching at his stomach and doubling over like it’s the funniest thing in the world. 

You stare at him like he’s the weirdest person (if he is one) on earth and stay still until he finishes laughing.  “What?”

“You’re cute,” He approaches me and before you could even flinch pats your head.  “Funny kid,” He says, messing up your hair.  “Lucky for this guy,” He walks towards Lay, who is sleeping soundly.

In reflex, you slap his hand away from Lay’s sleeping figure.  “Don’t touch him,” You look into his eyes and hold his gaze.

“Fear,” He says as he stares back.

“Wha—“

“All I see is fear.  Why? Don’t you hate me? Then again, your fear, it isn’t of me.  Aren’t you scared of me? I take people’s lives.  Doesn’t the very idea scare you to death? Oh, look at the irony,”

“You read minds?” You gape.

Again, he laughs.  “No.  I just read expressions very, very well.  I can, actually, I do that to most people.  But after talking to you, I doesn’t matter if I read your mind or not.  What you think and say and do are all the same,”

“Really?” You frown.  “I do hide things, though,”

“Which doesn’t mean that I can go probe into it all I want, right?”

This time, you laugh. 

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because,” You smile at him and shake my head in disbelief.  “Because I don’t think people with the ability to read minds would even think about caring for someone else’s thoughts,”

He stays quiet after my words for a while, and changes the topic.  “How long have you been dating him?”

“A long time,” You answer.  “You can read my mind for the answer, I wouldn’t hide that,”

“6 years, huh?” He smirks.  “Impressive,”

“From when I was in my 1st year of junior high until now,” You let out a smile as you stare into Lay’s sleeping face.  “It’s a wonder how Lay wants to stay with me for so long,”

“He has his own reasons,” He shrugs.  “Oh right, my name is Luhan,” He offers his hand to you.

“You know who I am,” You roll your eyes at him and shake his hand.

It’s surprisingly warm.  Welcoming.  And comfortable.

“It’s how I convince people to come with me, you know.  All begins with a single handshake,” Luhan laughs. 

“No wonder they come with you,” You follow along, grinning at him.  “You’re a nice person, Luhan-ssi,”

Abruptly, he pulls his hand away from yours and his smile disappears.  For a while, he just keeps his head lowered, tracing the lines on his palm with no reason.  When he lifts his head back up, he’s back with his unreadable expression.

“I see that you don’t want to come,” Luhan looks into my eyes, very seriously.  “To handle this, let’s see,” He glances at his watch.  “I’ll come back tomorrow?”

With genuine sincerity, you grin at him.  “I’ll be looking forward to that and your efforts to take me away,”

Chuckling, Luhan takes your hand and plants a light kiss on it, and after that, you simply lose consciousness, blackness enveloping you and the last thing you see was Luhan’s smiling face.