The main question on Kai’s mind was how to get hold of his mother’s blood; it was closely followed by how much of his mother’s blood he needed. He thought hard about it all the time he was at school, barely concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing. The answer he was looking for came to him when the phone rang. He picked it up and answered it.

“Hello. May I speak to Mrs Kim please?” The voice at the other end requested. He told the voice that she was out at that time. “Well, would you please pass on a message?”

“Of course.” He replied politely, not knowing that the solution to his first problem was about to be told to him by a complete stranger who apparently knew his mother.

“Please tell her she has an appointment tomorrow at 4:30.”

“May I ask who is speaking?” Kai inquired.

“I work for the blood donor centre.” The voice replied.

Blood donor. As soon as he put down the phone, he darted upstairs to tell the good news to Kyungsoo. A plan formed between them: Kai would tell his mother he was interested in blood donations, and he would go with her to the centre to see her give blood; he would take the first opportunity to steal even a single droplet of her blood and collect it in a small plastic bag.

“Do you want me to go with you, Jonginnie?” Kyungsoo asked. Kai declined the offer. He said it would be better if he found the spider’s head while he was getting the blood. “It has to be done in order, though, baby.” Baby? Kyungsoo draped his arm around Kai’s shoulder – at least, that was what it felt like – causing shivers to ripple through his body. Kai began to wonder when he had actually started dating the ghost.

So at 4 o’clock the next day, Kai and his invisible boyfriend followed Mrs Kim to the blood donor centre. When it was time for his mother to give blood and he saw the needle plunge into her arm, Kai realised what and idiot he’d been. Kyungsoo whispered to him, “Are you sure this is going to work?” But he never expected an answer; he knew Kai couldn’t reveal the secret of Kyungsoo’s existence – at least not yet, anyway. Their plan had failed. There were no opportunities that would have allowed Kai to take the blood. But they weren’t going to give up easily.

“Maybe you should just ask her.” Kyungsoo suggested that night as he lay next to Kai, who simply shook his head as if to say “wouldn’t work.” “Are you tired?” Kyungsoo whispered in his ear.

Kai rolled over so that their faces were almost touching. His heart had leapt out of his chest at the question, as he wondered if his dead boyfriend was really initiating what he assumed – how would that even work? “N- No.” He answered shakily.

Kyungsoo smirked at his slight stutter – although he knew Kai couldn’t see it. “Good. Let’s play chess.”

Kai’s heart jumped back into his chest and slowed to a steady pace. Chess, of course. What was he thinking? Of course it had to be chess.

They moved over to the armchairs (between which was a table, on the table was a chess board that had already been set up to play) at the side of the room. Kyungsoo’s quick wittedness and sharp mind surprised Kai greatly and it wasn’t long before he had bested the latter at the game and taken his king.

Kai went to sleep late that night, afraid that when he finally woke up Kyungsoo would be gone.

He had nothing to worry about. Kyungsoo wasn’t gone; the warmth radiating from his transparent body told him that. But something was wrong. His mother was screaming.

Throwing Kyungsoo a worried glance – he sensed his presence, the sensation of which warmed his heart to the core, on the bed beside him – he leapt up and rushed in the direction of the high-pitched screams.

Blood. The first thing he saw upon entering his parent’s bedroom was blood. He couldn’t miss this chance; that wasn’t an option. He dashed to the medicine cabinet in the en suite bathroom to grab a plaster while his poor father did his best to calm his wife – Kai’s mother – down. Kai swiped a tissue from the bedside table and carefully – yet bizarrely eagerly – wiped up the few droplets of blood protruding from a thin, and in no way severe slit in the flesh of her arm. He gently placed the plaster over the cut, applying a slight amount of pressure to make sure it stuck. He discreetly pocketed the bloody tissue while his father thanked him sincerely.

But his mother didn’t stop screaming. She pointed frantically across the room. Kai followed her gaze and couldn’t believe his luck. A spider was casually making its way up the wall opposite the bed. At that moment he felt something that a normal person whose boyfriend wasn’t a ghost wouldn’t understand: he felt overjoyed; he was excited to capture the spider and decapitate it. He picked up a glass from the table next to the bed. Trying to go unnoticed by the graceful creature on the wall, he crept up behind it before trapping it inside the glass. “I will dispose of it.” He told his mother who had by then stopped her screeches.