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It felt like a déjà vu. Mihee opened her eyes to the rather dark surroundings at the same classroom like yesterday; except this time eleven other people woke up together with her. All of them, except probably Chanyeol, instantly sat straight on their own seats like it was an everyday’s routine. It took time for her to notice her surroundings or understanding why she was there when the truth suddenly hit her like a hammer; she was already dead.

“Why are we here?” Chanyeol’s voice woke her up from her daze like cold water. Everyone turned their heads to him, some raising their brows, so he found the need to elaborate. “I mean this class. Why do we always wake up in this class? There are plenty other classes in this school.” he continued while standing up.

“Good question. I’ve been wondering that for a while. Years.” Baekhyun commented, grinning at Yunho. The latter made a disbelief face when some of the heads turned towards him, some with sheepish smiles; some others, her and Chanyeol, with confused expressions.

“Seriously?” he asked rhetorically. “I’ve been explaining about it for years too, bacon. I have no idea. This is my class.” he directed this last statement to Chanyeol, while Baekhyun, to whom he addressed the tease, only snickered, didn’t seem offended at all. “I woke up here. But you guys started to show up here instead of your own classes so I just figured, theoretically, since I was the first between all of us, I opened the class for you and you guys all joined with me.” he shrugged. “Theoretically. I’m as oblivious as the rest of you.”

Soojung had been listening quietly while Yunho talked; and when he finished, she got up and glanced towards Jongin who then followed her to the door. Minho watched the place where the two disappeared, sighing.

“Yunho is the only one who can make her sit quietly and listening.” he commented not to anyone, and then walked to the door and disappeared on the opposite direction from the former two. Yunho and Hyoyeon smiled to both Mihee and Chanyeol before walking through the wall to the next class. The rest left one by one until there were only her and Chanyeol left. He glanced towards her after the last person left the class.

“I’ll head to the gymnasium. You?”

“Walking around, I think.” she shrugged. He then waved and disappeared from where Yunho and Hyoyeon did, while she just stood there for a moment, wondering what she should do.

There were still many students left, especially those in the final year who were forced to study harder for the college entrance exam. Mihee’s first thought was to go to the library, where she figured the living soul would be plenty. As she had predicted, there were many people there, focusing on their books. Most of them were people she recognized, being in the same grade, though she didn’t really know them personally. She traced her fingers on the dusty books before arriving at a hidden corner of the room, where one boy was sleeping. His face was buried on his arms so she couldn’t see anything aside from his jet black hair. But then he suddenly woke up, tapping his cheeks lightly and then tried to read the book on the table again with red eyes. Right then she got a clear view of his face, and she instantly chuckled.

He was the boy she bumped into just the night ago. She didn’t notice before but she could remember him vaguely while she walked on the corridor from class to class, when she was still alive. Yeah, it was him. She finally remembered those big eyes and his youngish face, but what was his name?

The guy had fallen asleep again while she frowned, trying to recall. She giggled and then casually tried to shake his shoulder, wanting to wake him up. Of course, her hand just went through his body, as she had expected, but his reaction was what surprised her. He jumped up and then threw his gaze around with a confused face. Not finding anything unordinary, he sighed and started studying again.

Meanwhile Mihee stared at her hand, scared. Did she imagine it, or was there really a tingling feeling when she tried to touch him? And did the guy react to her or was it just a mere coincidence?

She watched him again for a moment interestedly, but he only stared at his book. There was no sign of him realizing her presence at all, so she left the place, disappointed.

Jinki was on the rooftop, as Mihee had predicted, staring at the night sky. But that time he wasn’t alone. Sitting beside him was the guy, Taemin, with whom she had talked the least with. He gave her a curt smile when he saw her coming, and then nudged Jinki who glanced and smiled too.

“Hey!” he greeted. She greeted him back while throwing a smile too to Taemin. Jinki motioned to her to sit there with them so she obliged, taking her seat at the right side of Jinki and joined them staring at the darkness with sparkling light from the stars.

“Have you ever felt bored?” she asked after some moment in silence. “I mean, this is great, being able to stay here and all, but this is all we have. This is all we can see. Isn’t it tiring sometimes?”

Jinki pondered for his answer as she watched both of them curiously, but Taemin was the one coming up with it first.

“But without this Night School we got nothing at all.” he answered shortly. Funny how by appearance Taemin gave a very misleading impression. He looked shy and kind until he actually talked; his tone was nothing but cold. Jinki sighed at the bitter truth, but then added cheerfully.

“And it’s not like we are completely alone. We’ve got each other here. It’s actually pretty fun when all of us gather around, just chatting. Isn’t it?” he glanced towards Taemin for confirmation and the latter gave a strange motion which looked like a mix of shrugging and nodding. Jinki chuckled at his friend before continuing again. “Anyway, you’re still new. You still don’t feel close with us so it might be boring. But it’ll get better with time.” he promised kindly. She just nodded and let the silent struck again before something suddenly bugged her mind.

“By the way,” she began, glancing at the two, “We are supposed to not be able to touch anything from the living world, right? But Baekhyun can touch the piano and actually play it. Do you have something you can touch?” her mind flew to the strange incident at the library as she spoke, thinking of the possibilities. But it couldn’t be. Baekhyun said something about attachment, but what attachment could she possibly have with a boy she didn’t even know well?

“Sadly, no.” Jinki’s voice brings her back from daze. “It would be nice if I have one, but no. Baekhyun got his piano. Chanyeol told me that he could play basketball. Seohyun can still read, she frequents to the library one she is sure that there’s no students around anymore. The rest of us aren’t that lucky.” he shrugged. “Why? Can you touch something?” he suddenly asked, staring at her questioningly. The image of the guy emerged again in her mind but she just shook her head, trying to ignore her own silly theories on why it could have happened. It possibly didn’t happen at all, just her imagination gone wild. Probably.

Taemin was staring at her in silence before she answered Jinki, and now he faced up front again; there was emptiness in his eyes. She stole one last gaze at his cold expression before following suit and drowned herself in the night sky’s beauty.

“Those new people.” Jongin began as he positioned himself carefully at a stronger branch of the tree. Soojoong watched him from the ground with envious face, unable to touch the tree like her best friend did.

“What about them?” she asked with her usual sulky tone. Ignoring his obviously annoyed friend, Jongin picked some leaves and dropped it above Soojoong’s head like some leaves rain which fell directly to the ground after going through her transparent body. She folded her arms, frowning up at the guy who was snickering childishly.

“Especially the girl. Shin Mihee.” he continued, examining her expression. “Why don’t you like her?”

“I don’t dislike her.” she objected, still frowning. “And you, of anyone else, should know why I can’t be friendly with her.”

Jongin sighed at the hardheaded girl who stared back at him with a defensive expression. It had been years. She should have let it go; he had hoped so. But her expression showed how wrong he was; how the wound was still fresh and opened in her heart.

“I wonder if she could touch something. Chanyeol said he could touch basketball.” he descended from the tree and threw his arm around her shoulder in a clear attempt to change the topic. Soojoong just shrugged, uninterested.

“She didn’t say anything.”

“Maybe it’s better if she doesn’t have that specialty.” Jongin wondered. Soojoong instantly glared at his words, and he, chuckling, quickly explained himself. “Sorry, I mean, it worked great for me, and the others who could touch inanimate objects.” he said. “But remember how it went for Taemin.” his face fell at the memory of what their friend had experienced. How heartbroken it was. “I was actually surprised that he decided to stay since he clearly lost the reason to.”

“Taemin is strong.” Soojong replied with a final tone, refusing to lengthen the topic any longer. She gazed up with a heavy sigh, and found three figures sitting on the rooftop. Jinki and surprisingly Mihee were enchanted by the night sky, unaware of Jongin and Soojoong’s presence below. But Taemin was looking down straight at them with an expression she couldn’t see from afar, as if he was listening to their conversation. Shivering, she dragged Jongin back to the school building until they were out of his sight.

Seohyun walked with Yoona side by side after the latter finished her routine swimming at the school’s pool. Considering that it was where she died, one would think that Yoona would clearly hate water as it would remind her of the terrible memory. But it was actually far from that. Yoona loved swimming and she would continue to do so and Seohyun knew that the best. The two might not have known each other when they were still alive but they definitely shared a genuine friendship in the other world, where they were dead.

Seohyun’s eyes wandered as she walked, to a class where Hyoyeon and Yunho were at, chatting with adoring eyes to each other. She tore her gaze away from the lovely couple and her eyes travelled to the class not far from where the two lovebirds were. Only that the person she saw at that other class was alive, and alone. The person faced the other way so Seohyun could only see his back, the familiar back of the guy he knew very well. The guy traced his hand on a desk and Seohyun found himself stopping, staring at the guy with a sad face. Yoona, who noticed where her friend’s eyes were directed at, placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to give her as much comfort as she could. Seohyun looked down for a while, struggling to recollect her mind. And when she finally raised her eyes again, they looked dead, and she continued walking with Yoona without any word until they reached their destination.

Chanyeol, Minho, Seohyun, and Yoona were already there when Mihee, companied by Jinki and Taemin, arrived at the music room. Hyoyeon and Yunho came after them, and Soojoong and Jongin followed shortly after. Baekhyun was already sitting there next to the piano since the beginning.

“Alright.” he smiled when Jongin walked through the door. “Since all of you have gathered here we can begin right away.”

“Begin what?” Chanyeol asked with a puzzled face.

“Your welcoming party.” Hyoyeon answered, smiling. “Both of you.” she glanced at Mihee.

“We would have decorated this place or at least write ‘Welcome to the Night School’ or whatever but we don’t have the privilege to touch the needed stuffs.” Minho announced.

“Seohyun could easily take some papers from the library but she refused to tear any paper from her precious books.” Yoona grinned.

“And she can’t touch the pen to write the welcoming statement so what’s the point of ruining books?”  Seohyun quickly commented, raising her brows.

“No papers are necessary,” Baekhyun bragged, “when you can directly hear my beautiful music.”

“So why don’t you start already?” Jinki rolled his eyes, smirking. “We’re dying to hear it. And that’s saying something since all of us are already, you know, dead.”

“Alright, alright, stop it.” Yunho who had been quiet all the while chuckled. “Let’s just hear it.”

Baekhyun smiled to the mature guy, and then to Mihee and Chanyeol who were then standing by side, before focusing to the piano. Soon a sweet melody filled the air. Mihee didn’t notice the song at first until all of the others excluding them two started singing. Into the New World. Everyone’s eyes were bright as they chanted the lyric together with a cheerful voice, and soon the happiness spread and Mihee found herself singing alone to the song while Chanyeol had started singing long ago. Baekhyun’s eyes danced beautifully on the piano keys until without them realizing, the song came to an end.

I leave behind this world’s endless sadness. Walking the many and unknowable paths, I follow a dim light. It’s something we’ll do together to the end, into our new world.

Baekhyun pressed the last key dramatically as the rest of us applauded. Yunho had his hand on Hyoyeon shoulder and Soojoong had a rare smile on her face. In that moment, it felt as if all of them are bound together, like they had been friends for a long time.

“How dare you start a party without me.” a deep, sulky voice said, and Mihee automatically turned around to face the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, if not for the annoyed face and the scary black wings on his back which made him look magical and unreal. “Don’t look that surprised. You are a ghost. You surely didn’t expect that other creatures didn’t exist, did you?” he directed the last statement to her, and she had to remind herself to close her stupid, gaping mouth.

“And hello.” he grumbily added, this time saying it to Chanyeol too who looked no less surprised than her.

“It’s not really a party, Kris.” Yunho laughed. “And how did you expect us to call you when you only come anytime you wish.”

“Well, true that.” he raised a brow before shifting his attention back to people who still stared at him in awe. “You clearly haven’t told these newbies about me.” he concluded.

“Ah, right.” Minho regretted. “We didn’t think of you.”

“It’s not that we didn’t think of you. We do like twice a year.” Jinki commented.

“Or once.” said Yoona.

“Or not at all.” Soojoong rebutted.

“Don’t be cruel, guys. We do think of him sometimes. Especially for Christmas. Or Valentine. Since you delivered the presents to us.” Jongin grinned.

“Except he didn’t. Suho did all the work while he’s just standing there spoiling the mood.” Baekhyun shook his head, and Kris bulged his eyes at all of them if it was even possible.

“Shut up, all of you.” he pouted, and then stared at the two confused people with a frown as if they were the one that had been saying all the teases.

“Now both of you. Behave. You know the rules. If you don’t, ask them. My time is precious. If you break it, not that you could anyway, you’ll regret it. And we’ll know. Me and Suho. And I’m not as lenient as him, so watch out.” he said all of that in one breathe while the two just stared at him with a blank expression.

“What are you anyway?” Chanyeol finally found his voice. The scary black winged guy narrowed his eyes at him and she couldn’t blame Chanyeol for taking a step back.

“He’s the police.” Hyoyeon whispered with a joking tone.

“No, I’m not.” Kris frowned again. “I watch over this Night School.” he glanced towards Mihee and Chanyeol and added before disappearing into thin air. “I’m the Guardian.”

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