Most of them have already left to some places else, I have no idea where, not that I have the heart to care. The wound of the truth is still fresh and open, it feels hard to acknowledge it or think of anything else. Staying nicely beside me are three people: Yunho, Hyoyeon, and that Chanyeol guy. Jongin originally wanted to stay but Soojung dragged him away, leaving four of us in that gloomy situation.

“I really want to see my Mom.” I miserably say, playing with the edge of my skirt. Hyoyeon nods knowingly, understanding my pain.

“I know, but you already know you can’t. We can’t set foot outside of this school building.” she taps my back, hoping to make me feel better.

“Yeah, but still. My Mom must be miserable right now. And Dad. How heartbroken they must be? I’m their only child.”

“You have to let go.” Yunho says. “Your parents would feel even sadder if they found out that you are being depressed like this. I know that it’s hard.” he adds the last sentence to appear more sympathetic. I simply nod; their words are true but it’s still hard to accept.

“Why are we here?” I ask the question I didn’t think to ask before. “What is this place?”

“It’s a Night School.” Hyoyeon is ready with her answer. “It’s the place for the young souls from this school who die when they still have the passion to live. We are given the chance to live our youth once again in this place, eternally.” she explains.

“That’s it? We are trapped here?” I widen my eyes in surprise, but Yunho shakes his head.

“No, we are free to leave. There were many who had left this place.” his eyes seem sad for a moment. “Leaving the 10 of us.” he throws his gaze to me and Chanyeol. “And now 12.”

“Yunho is the first one here.” Hyoyeon says; staring at her seems to be boyfriend affectionately.

“I don’t know if I was the first.” Yunho corrects her words. “But when I woke up here, I was alone. There was this one voice in my head, explaining to me the situation. Since then, many had come to this place, and many had left.” he stares to somewhere afar, reminiscing the friends who had left the place.

“And how do you leave?” I whisper, anticipating the answers. “And where do we go if we leave this place.”

“I don’t know.” Yunho smiles. “Maybe to heaven. Maybe to the nothingness. And you don’t just state that you’re leaving; you feel it. I have witnessed many people took that road and their presence started to fade just like that until one night, they disappeared.” he looks really sad that Hyoyeon decides to approach him to his back. “I was too attached to follow their path; my brother was here, and I was happy just to see his presence. But then after he left, she came.” he stares at Hyoyeon lovingly. “And I found another reason to stay.”

“Your brother? So he knows you are here?” I ask, a sparkling hope emerges in me and I immediately think of Sehun. A cloud appears on Yunho’s eyes when he answers with a bitter tone.

“No.” he replies. “He didn’t. We are forbidden to let the humans know about our presence.” he continues, and just like that my hope disappears.

“Really?” I comment weakly. “What happens when we break that rule?”

I can see that Chanyeol pay more attention after that question and both of us stare at the couple, waiting for the answer.

“No one knows.” Hyoyeon answers for him. “All of us here are the ones who want to stay, and we don’t want to risk our presence by breaking the rules. This is the best of life we can get now. We want to treasure this chance.” she explains.

“And why can’t you leave? Have anyone tried?” I ask desperately, and then walk toward the window to prove it myself. There’s a weird feeling when my transparent body goes through the thin glass, but I make it through. I’m about to let out a triumphant laugh and thought that I must be flying in the air right now; but then I gaze to see below me, there are gray tiles. I’m at the class again, standing in front of Yunho and Hyoyeon who seem unaffected; and Chanyeol who looks really disappointed.

“There’s no use. That’s the first thing I tried when I got into this place.” Yunho shrugs.

“How convenient.” I grumble to myself. “Having to live eternally in this place.”

“Like I said you are free to leave.” Yunho amusedly smiles. “Though I would prefer you to stay.”

“Okay.” I say with a low tone. There is silence for a while until Chanyeol decides to break it.

“Well then, since we are not going anywhere. I will explore the place. Who knows, I might be able to scare one or two annoying guys while I’m at it.” he announces, followed by Hyoyeon’s laugh telling him that he can’t do that. I quickly move from the window to approach him.

“I’m going with you.” I say. He throws me a gaze and I quickly add. “If you don’t mind.”

“Nah, that’s fine with me. Let’s go.” he replies, waiting for me to catch up with him and then we leave together after waving towards the friendly couple. We walk fast through the corridor and it feels amazing that I don’t feel tired at all when I’m naturally last place every time it’s about physical exercise. Chanyeol walks rather slow, matching his pace with me.

“I’m sorry.” I suddenly say, letting out what’s been bothering me for a while now. “If we see it in a way, you passed away because of me.”

“That’s alright.” Chanyeol lightly says, smiling friendly at me. “There’s nothing much left for me in the world anyways. Nothing special.”

I gaze at him questioningly but he doesn’t continue his words; and I don’t feel that it’s appropriate to ask him now. We keep walking, can spot some students left at school to the extracurricular activities. No one pays attention to us. No one sees us.

I really am a ghost now.

“Where do you want to go?” I glance at Chanyeol, noticing that he doesn’t stop or interested of anything on our way.

“Gymnasium.” he replies shortly. “That’s where I want to be right now.”

***

If Chanyeol didn’t seem affected at all before, that’s no longer the case right now. The activity we are watching can’t be any more contradictive than what our current situation is. The liveliness; the sound of the ball hitting the ground, the laughs of the team members, the smile, the power, the sweat.

Everything we don’t have right now.

“You were a basketball member?” I ask at last, examining the yearning in his eyes when he sees they match. He doesn’t reply, but the look on his face as he stares as them has answered enough. I shift my gaze back to the field, wondering if they hadn’t heard the news of their friend’s death.

Someone scores the last point and they stop playing, walking cheerfully towards the side to grab their drinks and towels.

“Why doesn’t he come?” someone suddenly asks. “Chanyeol?”

If my heart can still beating, it might have stopped beating for a while hearing his name. The others shrug, some laugh and joke that they should punish him into treating them for being absent without notice. The first person who asked about him before grabs his phone and start dialing. We watch as he waits to the sound of the phone until he puts it down, giving up.

“The phone couldn’t connect.” he says, frowning.

“Maybe he forgot to charge.” someone comments. “It happens a lot.”

And they are laughing again.

My heart feels like sinking. This was his life; the reason he was still grateful to live. I can’t stop myself to steal a glance at him, wondering what reaction he might have. What I see doesn’t make me feel better at all. His lips have been pulled into a thin line; he’s trying to keep his emotion inside, I know. He leaves the place without a word or looking back, and I follow behind, unsure of what to do. He stops after a few steps away from the building, and then glances at me with a forced smile.

“Those idiots.” he lets out what sounds to me as a sad chuckle. “Still don’t know that I’ve died.”

“Yeah.” I say, hesitated if I may tap his shoulder to show my sympathy, but still unsure of whether he would accept it. “They still don’t know.” I added weakly at last. We reach the locker room but Chanyeol still hasn’t said anything. His gaze is wandering faraway.

“Chanyeol,” I decide to call him at last. “I think I want to go some places else. You want to come with me?”

“No.” he creates a sad smile. “No, I’m staying here. See you.”

I steal one or two glances at his sad back before proceeding to walk towards the second floor, where my classroom is. There is a mix of emotion when I place a hand on the door like how it was on my middle school graduation. Except back then I was sad because I was leaving; and now I’m sad because I’m staying but not as a part of them anymore.

The sun has disappeared and I’m left in darkness inside that classroom, but for a weird reason, I’m not bothered. Nor do I have the difficulty to see through the dark. I was afraid of the dark before, but I don’t feel scared at all now. It becomes me; just like that.

I trace my fingers on the second table next to the window. Where I used to seat. Tears fill my eyes again and I ran as fast as I can away from that classroom. Someone passes through me as I run, and I feel a great sensation; no, not pain, more like a shock, and we both fall onto the floor.

“Hey, watch it!” I yell, though actually I’m totally in the wrong and that person obviously can’t hear me. As expected, the person, a guy, gets up with furrowing face while rubbing his sore . He mumbles something that I can’t catch while examining the ground, obviously searching for the cause to his fall. Isn’t able to find anything, he throws his gaze around to see if anyone saw the embarrassing scene before starting to walk away, scratching his head.

I watch as the guy whose face I’m not familiar with disappear on a turn, feeling slightly disappointed that I’m practically non-existent in everyone’s eyes. And it’s unfair, really. If they weren’t going to notice that I bump into them, why would we fall? It’s like doubling the pain; falling down and then get ignored.

Grumbling, I drag my feet to the rooftop to try to calm my feeling down by staring into the dark sky. I used to do that a lot when I- and my heart ache just recalling it in my head- was still alive. Now that I can’t do it from my bedroom’s window, I guess the rooftop will do now.

Sighing, I walk through the locked door, foolishly expecting the breeze which I can no longer feel to attack my body, and of course, I can’t feel anything though the night is supposed to be chilly. To my surprise, someone is already there, leaning on the brick wall which borders the rooftop from the floor 5 stories below. For a silly moment, I can’t decide whether the person, the guy, is a human or ghost until he turns around and I see the friendly smile I remember seeing just a moment ago.

“Hello.” he greets me first and I hesitated for a short while, trying to recall his name.

“Hello-” I stopped. “... Jinki.” I try at last, and judging by his smile, I wasn’t mistaken.

“Yep. What are you doing here?” he asks.

“Just walking around.” I shrug. “You?”

Jinki smiles and then turn around. His face is hidden as he stares far below when answering.

“I’m here a lot. This is where I died.” he chuckles seeing my shocked expression and then added. “Not here though. Down there.” he pointed his chin towards the ground. “I fell.”

I approach him carefully and stand beside him, unsure of what to do while the big question is still persistently lingering in my head.

“It wasn’t a suicide.” he answers as if reading my mind. “Though everyone seemingly thought that way. I just fell. I used to sit on the brick a lot, staring on the crowd below. Dangerous, I know. But I was always fine until one day I fell, just like that.”

“I’m so sorry.” I say the only appropriate reply I can think of but Jinki smiles amusedly.

“Don’t be. It’s like years ago.” he chuckles. “And I have my new life now, in this night school.” he assures me before throwing his gaze to the ground again with a dead expression.

I can’t bring myself to reply anymore. Such a waste, a young soul who had a long life ahead of him and he just died like that, falling. An accident. I frown as a memory of the screeching wheel and the siren of ambulance flash through my head. Pressing a hand on my temple just automatically though it doesn’t hurt at all, I shut my eyes hard, struggling to calm myself down.

“Yeah.” I say at last with an unstable voice. “We are here, we are alive again here.”

***

I don’t know how many hours have passed with me just wandering at the school. The rule of time no longer applies here. It’s strange, but no matter what I do; or lack of things to do for this matter, I don’t feel bored or wish that time has flown faster. As if the time moves following my wish. For all I know, it could already be nights after my death; or could be only minutes after. But the truth is the sun is still hiding below the horizon which means that the night hasn’t passed yet. I just seem to lose all the ability to detect time.

Somewhere nearby, I can hear the sound of beautiful music being played and my feet automatically move towards where the music comes from. I stop in front of the music room and then walk through the locked door to see Baekhyun playing the piano joyfully. He doesn’t seem to notice my presence, so I just stand beside him without a word, enjoying the song he plays. It is not until the song ended that he finally glances towards me and instantly smiles.

“Hey.” he greets. “Do you like playing this too?”

“How do you do that?” I ask, confused. “We are supposed to no longer be able to touch things.”

“I don’t know.” Baekhyun shrugs. “Ever since I died I have always been able to play this piano while I can’t touch anything else. Maybe it has something to do with this Night School giving us second life so it allows us to still enjoy the thing we love the most when we lived. It’s complicated.”

“I love reading comic book. Do I still able to read it, then?”

“That, you have to try for yourself.” Baekhyun laughs. He then throws his gaze outside the window, and smiles. “The dawn is near.”

“You know? Wow, I’m not even able to tell if I have been here for a second or a day.” I comment enviously.

“You just need to adjust.” he grins. “Are you coming with me? I want to see the others before dawn.” he walks towards the door and I follow behind, still loaded with lots of questions.

“What happens at dawn?” I ask, curious.

“We fall asleep.” he answers simply. “We just lose consciousness. We will wake up at twilight and sleep at dawn.”

“Why?”

“Well, the human needs to go to school. We take turn. Our school time is at night anyway.”

“I don’t see the difference if we just stay. They can’t see us anyway.” I mumble, but Baekhyun only laughs while shaking his head.

“Don’t complain to me, I’m not the one making the rules.” he says, but then a dim light coming from the corridor window catches his gaze and he curses quietly.

“Damn, we are too late.” he grumbles. I follow his gaze to see the sky has turned orange, giving fluorescent color to the surroundings. “See you tomorrow night.” he grins at me. I am just about to ask him what he means when a second later everything turns dark and I fall into unconsciousness.

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