>_____<;;

Chorong was too stressed to sleep well. With only four hours of sleep she was awake by dawn.

She was the kind of person who believed in an illustrious reality. That meant people were just normal people with jobs and family affairs, lovers, and pets. Not things like having magical powers or fighting off evil as her grandma had said. Chorong didn’t want that in her life. She wanted normal.

She turned the faucet off and hurried to the stove as the boiler started screaming and steam floated out of its mouth. Turning the stove off she poured herself a cup of coffee before helping herself to the morning newspaper. It was the kind of perfect sunny day just great enough for a pretty dress or shorts with a fancy top.

Her brand new tennis shoes softly thudded against the concrete stairs as she made her way toward the newspaper sitting at the third step. Birds were chirping as they flew over her and a car drove by calmly as she crouched down to pick up the paper. Chorong was more of a feminine figure compared to both her sisters. That played a part in her more reserved nature and made Namjoo and Victoria seem more straightforward than they actually were. It brought her memories of their childhood. While she would remain by her parents’ sides, Victoria and Namjoo would be running into the ocean waves or chase each other till one got hurt. The two used to get along so well before Namjoo started her rebellious phase and Victoria became more distant and mature. Whether it had been a natural cause or not, Chorong could never figure it out.

“Chorong?”

The voice had a vague familiarity in her memory. Her mind raced before she slowly looked up. Chorong’s eyes traced the tree’s shadow adjacent to her before she spotted a 17 year old boy standing on the sidewalk just in front of her. A gust of wind rushed by before she fully stood. Deep inside her heart, a kind of pain resonated slowly, its beat was like a loud African drum.

“Victoria!” Chorong screamed before running back inside forgetting the newspaper she had come out for.

Her heart was suddenly beating so fast she thought she would hyperventilate on the spot.

“Victoria!!”

The front door slammed behind her. It was much worse than seeing her grandma last night. This was much worse.

“Victoria!!!”

A door opened as she started running up the stairs and footsteps scurried across the carpet before Victoria appeared at the top of the stairs. Missing a step Chorong crashed forward against the stairs and felt a painful cry scorch through her.

“Oh my god,” the words slid out before Chorong suddenly sobbed.

“What!? What!?” Victoria rushed forward to pull her sister up. “What!?”

Her body went limp before her body crashed into a cry against Victoria’s shoulder.

“I think I’m going crazy,” Chorong sobbed.

>_____<;;

“Nuh-uh, no way,” Victoria crossed her arms and paced back and forth in front of an upset Chorong, who was still recovering from her earlier crash.

Her eyes were red and slowly swelling up, but she was still freaking out. Thanks to her, Victoria was starting to freak out as well. She wasn’t sure she could handle this any better than Chorong could.

“Are you sure you’re not just seeing things?” Victoria asked shaking her voice. “You said you can’t summon ghosts.”

“Do you think I would lie about this!?” Chorong asked upset, trying to sniff up the snot dripping from her nose.

“So what, now we can see the dead?” Victoria questioned throwing her hands out. “And where in the world is Namjoo?” She turned her head toward the sitting room entrance, “Namjoo!”

“How can this happen?” Chorong looked around bewildered. “I’m going crazy, aren’t I? I told you I want to leave this house. It's like...cursed.”

“You are not going anywhere!” Victoria threw her finger out at her before turning her head back toward the entrance and raised her voice even more. “Namjoo!!”

“Oh my god,” Chorong leaned forward to hide her face into the palms of her hands.

“Stay here,” Victoria ordered before she started for the stairs, but as her foot landed on the first step the doorbell rang. She turned toward the front door with a frown before turning it into her first priority. “This better not be a ghost ringing the doorbell.”

When she pulled the door open, a tall man with big eyes looked at her a little confused. His brown hair was neatly combed and he was well dressed in fashionable clothes. At least he was human, but Victoria didn’t recognize him.

“May I help you?” Victoria asked.

“Is Namjoo home? I was told she moved back home.”

Home. Namjoo. Victoria’s mind swirled.

“And you are…”

“Ah…sorry, I’m Chanyeol.” He raised a smile onto his face and Victoria felt her eyebrows shoot up.

The young nerd wasn’t who she remembered him to be. 6 years definitely changed him, everything about him.

Victoria invited him inside and told him to wait by the door before she stomped up the stairs muttering to herself, “I’m going to kill her when I find her.”   

>_____<;;

Namjoo bobbed her head up and down to the music from her earphones as she walked around in the tiny library her grandmother had converted her bedroom into. It wowed and amused her greatly. About half the room had been changed and grandma had left enough room for a sitting space and her new twin sized bed. Well her grandma had been a conservative person, so Namjoo guessed her grandma had thought a twin sized bed was better than sleeping in a big queen sized bed all by herself. Everything else about the room looked the same - pink carpeted floor, portraits of roses on the yellow wall, little decorations of angels sitting on the bedside table, but it was a wonder how an old woman had managed to bring up 4 tall bookcases by herself.

“Fairytales, autobiographies, books about Shadows, little trolls, the Joseon Dynasty, etcetera, etcetera,” Namjoo mumbled as she paced through the tiny aisles only wide enough for one person.

Honestly, Namjoo didn’t quite take her grandma’s words seriously. Everything seemed like a play to her. Namjoo was only playing along for the heck of it. She was a person who needed entertainment in her life, and she decided last night’s event was very entertaining indeed.

She took another two steps forward before something landed against the ground. Namjoo froze in spot and twisted her head around in alarm. The bright sunlight beamed in front of her and cast a long glow on the ground where a school yearbook lay. Shifting around she stepped toward it and picked the book up.

It was Chorong’s high school yearbook.

Shivers traveled up and down her spine. Her eyes searched the room as well as the spaces between the books on the shelves before she gulped. Randomly opening the book she skimmed her eyes through the neatly printed photos before her eyes landed on a boy’s innocent smile. His eyes weren’t too big or too small and his hair had been neatly trimmed so that they covered his forehead well enough. Namjoo really liked his boyish smile before her eyes rolled over to his name.

“Nam Woohyun,” she quietly read before a gasp escaped her lips.

Below his name was a memorandum written by the school.

“Special Woohyunie, the best student, hardworking boy, who cared for his friends no matter the circumstances. The one who looked out for us all, may you rest in peace. We will never forget you.”

Woohyun died when he was 17. He had been Chorong’s best friend. The one who got run over in place of her when they were walking home from a night out. Namjoo still remembered the night Chorong came home at two in the morning with blood shot eyes. Her cries had awoken the whole household and she had watched from the stairway as Chorong’s father, Victoria, and their grandmother comforted her in the living room.

“What are you doing!?” Victoria’s loud voice raced into her ears when she pulled an earphone out.

Namjoo let out a scream throwing her hand over her chest before turning around so abruptly that she shocked Victoria.

“Whoa!” Namjoo shouted. “Make some noise will you?”

“If you wouldn’t have been listening to your damn music so early in the morning, you would have heard me!” Victoria scolded before her eyes landed on the yearbook. “What are you looking at?”

“Oh…” Namjoo quickly flipped the book shut. “Well…uh…”

She wondered how she was going to explain about the book falling and randomly landing on the page with Woohyun’s picture.

Losing her patience Victoria said, “Your boyfriend is downstairs. After talking to him, we need to talk to you.”

“Why?” Namjoo almost panicked. “Did I do something?”

“No,” Victoria replied, “but make it quick. It’s serious.”

Namjoo watched Victoria head out before following.

>_____<;;

This wasn’t happening, it wasn’t. That night from 7 years ago painfully flashed through Chorong’s mentality. She had never gotten over it. The guilt that stained her never really died and she had never been at peace with herself.

“Chorong.”

Her head shot up to see a figure walk through the wall and the red couch that sat against it. She let out a terrified scream in response and shouted for Victoria, who was just making her way down the stairs.

>_____<;;

“No, you stay there!” Victoria pointed her finger at Chanyeol who was taking a step toward the shout. She turned to Namjoo and scolded, “Get your boyfriend out of here!”

Namjoo was about to retort, but thought better of it and just rolled her eyes. Chorong shot up from her seat and grabbed Victoria’s arm.

“This is a dream, tell me this is a dream,” Chorong half sobbed unable to contain herself.

Victoria took a solemn deep breath before she turned to see a solid looking Woohyun in front of her. He was still in his school uniform and looked as normal as ever. How that was, she didn’t know and decided she didn’t want to know.

“Uh…you…Woohyun,” Victoria put her fingers against her forehead. Even she was having trouble trying to make sense of all of this.

“Hi,” Woohyun nervously greeted. “I’m sorry, about this. But…I waited for a long time and you’re…finally able…to see me.”

And he sounded as normal as ever. Victoria’s eyes sat on him before she turned to look at Chorong. Her eyes were droopy and she looked as shocked as ever. The cat seemed to have gotten her tongue this time.

“Why…were you waiting?” Victoria questioned after a moment of awkward silence. “I mean…doesn’t Heaven exist?”

“I can’t go when my best friend hasn’t bid me farewell,” Woohyun shifted his sorry eyes over to Chorong, who quickly turned away. “When she hasn’t…let go yet.”

Victoria turned to look at Chorong emphatic and suddenly realized this wasn’t a case in which she should interfere. It was an obstacle Chorong needed to overcome by herself.

“I know this sounds unbelievable, but you will understand what you’re supposed to do in due time. You will be fine. I believe in you three. I believe the three of you will learn to believe in each other.”

Their grandma’s words repeated themselves in her head. Well, this was just the beginning, Victoria assumed.

“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” Victoria gently forced Chorong’s hand off her arm before walking away.

>_____<;;

“Come on, lets go,” Namjoo grabbed Chanyeol’s arm and led him out the door as Victoria’s hurried steps carried her into the sitting room where she assumed Chorong was.

“What was that?” Chanyeol asked. “Something going on?”

“What are you doing here?” Namjoo switched the subject.

“You weren’t returning my calls.”

She heaved a sigh before biting her lower lip, “Look, we already…”

He cut her off quickly, “No. Why are you the one who decides everything? That’s unfair, Namjoo.”

She stared at him hard.

“I don’t want to go over this with you again,” he told her, “we didn’t break up. You’re the only one who backed away. Can you stop doing this?”

“I’m not.” she shook her head.

“Yes, you are,” Chanyeol stated, “stop acting so cowardly. You can’t do this forever.”

“Don’t call me a coward.”

“Why?” he dropped his tone into a challenge. “Because you aren’t?”

Namjoo shot a glare at him. “Just leave me alone and stop calling.”

“What is it you’re so scared of?” he wondered. “I’ve been wondering that the last nine times you tried leaving me. Why do you keep coming back? Are you scared of commitment?”

Namjoo felt fire burn up in her before she turned around to walk back inside slamming the door behind her. She was irritated and very annoyed and decided she needed a glass of water…fast. Forgetting about Chorong and her problem she skidded past the sitting room and into the kitchen where Victoria was currently eating cereal out of a bowl. She could feel Victoria’s curious eyes burn her from where she sat. Namjoo did her best to ignore her and gulped down a cold glass of water before slightly slamming the cup against the counter.

“Hey!” Victoria scolded.

Namjoo turned to look at her before placing the cup into the sink. Victoria swung her eyes toward the kitchen doorway before turning back to her.

“What’d your boyfriend want?”

“None of your business.”

“So you claiming he is your boyfriend?” Victoria asked in which Namjoo shot her a glare. She shrugged in retort, “Not like you said he wasn’t earlier.”

“Don’t you ever get bored making assumptions about my life?” Namjoo asked angrily, that feeling of fury slowly rising in her again.

“Well aren’t I right?”

Namjoo gritted her teeth, “Just because you’re the oldest, don’t think you’re always right 90 percent of the time! I have my own problems too. If you took the time to understand them a little, you wouldn’t be such a pain in the about it!”

“What did you say!?” an angry frown took over Victoria’s expression.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me!”

“No, I dare you to repeat that again!”

“Urgh! I hate you, I hate this house, I wish I never came back!”

“Namjoo!”

Namjoo hardened her stare, hatred boiling inside her, unable to understand why Victoria always despised her. Then something cackled and the air popped before a flash of orange and red appeared. Namjoo’s eyes widened when Victoria’s shirt suddenly caught on fire. She shot up from her seat with a shriek trying to put out the tiny flame with her hands. Twisting around Namjoo grabbed the cup in the sink, filled it with quick water, and turned around to splash it on Victoria, dousing her with water. The flame died instantly and they stared at each other appalled by what just happened.