The sun is shining and green leaves are slowly invading Seoul. Yep, it’s spring now … I sigh while staring outside a last minute. Spring is supposed to mean rebirth, the season of love and all these good things. But in my case, I’m almost sure my life won’t change …

“Jinhee!” Someone calls me.  “What are you doing again?”

I leave my sofa right under the window and come back to the small room where my mom is. All the shelves are filled with old books covered by dust and feathers are hanged on the ceiling. Actually, these are old dream catchers but I’m not sure they can catch anything. The contrast between the two rooms make my eyes blink and it takes me some minutes to become accustomed.

“Did I do something wrong?” I ask to my mom.

She is actually quite a woman, dressed in a flowery curtain with pants too big for her and huge necklaces. She looks like a hippy but without the peaceful attitude. Yes, like a lot of children, I’m ashamed of what my mother looks like.

“I have to go buy something. Until I return, you take care of the clients.”

I nod and grab her coat. She takes it violently from my hand and leaves the small shop. Honestly, almost nobody comes here. My mother is a fortune teller and so, she has a kind of mystic shop I run with her. Maybe you don’t believe in things like magic and curses and I can understand. However, my mother is sick and I have to take care of her.

But since a few weeks, she is really cold with me and it pisses me off because I know why. The fact is : I can see ghosts. I know, it’s weird and it sounds like some kind of already done tv series but it’s true. I can see dead people’s souls. Or whatever it is …

It’s not like I talk to them and help them go on the other side! I stay away from them because I’m scared and I don’t know where talking to a ghost can lead me. So I just see them in the street, in parks or elsewhere but it’s rare. I mean, I don’t go through a ghost at each fork!

But so, my mother wanted to use this “gift” by selling it. Basically, making people pay to talk to dead trough me.

Of course I said no but it causes this tension in the air when we are in the same room.

I sigh and look around me, uneasy because of all the old stuffs here. I start to read every book’s title even if I know most of them are full of blank pages because they are just some decoration for customers. So I take one and go back to my seat, out of the strange room, right in the entrance. Then, I slowly start to draw. It’s not like I’m a good drawer but I like to make portraits.

An hour passes and all I did is a young girl’s face in an empty book. Spring means rebirth huh?

Suddenly, the door opens in a loud noise. I lift my head from the dusty pages and see who the culprit of this disturbing entrance is.

It’s just a regular man.

Korean, like a lot of people in Seoul actually. His hair is dyed in a reddish brown and fall carelessly on his forehead. He is probably in his twenty and the thing I remark the most in his face are his plain lips. Really attractive lips actually.

“You can do strange things with spirits right?” He finally says when he sees me. “You’re a fortune teller. You can talk with them and these kind of stuffs …”

I look at him for a whole minute. Now, I notice that he is out of breath, he probably ran till here. And strange thing, he has a camera in his hand. A photograph? Journalist maybe?

Coming back to my mind, I understand he was judging me the entire time I did the same with him.

“Can I help you?” I ask like a perfect saleswoman.

“I think I saw a ghost!”

I gulp slowly and ask him to repeat.

“I saw a ghost! Can you help me or are you just a liar?”

He really looks panicked and so do I. Not sure about what to do, I lead him to the only chair in the strange room and let my book fall on the table in the center. Uneasy, he keep moving on his chair.

“Can you explain me the situation entirely?” I ask him, trying to keep my voice as calm and soft as possible.

“I’m a normal guy you see. I just finished my job so I decided to go outside and take some pictures. I was just taking picture you know. Then, I checked my camera, just to see what I took and this is what I got.”

Trying to keep his hand from trembling, he hands me a nice picture of a girl in a white dress. The background is full of trees, grass and benches, a park with no doubt. But then, I look more closely and notice what probably made my customer freak out : the girl was transparent. She seems normal but when you look, you can clearly see a lake behind her and a couple of benches.

I hold my breath and let the guy take his picture back.

“Actually, it can happen in photography, I think. It can be an illusion of optic or something like that but something happened after. I was walking in the streets, thinking about that and I bounced into someone. I apologized and it was this girl. She didn’t hear me and then, she goes through the crowd. I mean, literally through people, like real ghosts!”

I cough a little then look right into his eyes.

“I can’t help you.” I apologize blankly. “I’m a mountebank.”

He widen his eyes and mutter a chocked “What?” then doesn’t stop looking at me. I expected him to get worked up and leaving the shop in a furious way but he just stays here, genuinely lost.

“Didn’t you hear? I said I’m a mountebank, I can’t help you with this ghost.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“What? ...What do you mean?”

“If you were a mountebank, you would try to make me pay and pretend to talk with this ghost but you didn’t. And honestly, you’re not a good actress. You looked really surprised by what I show you. It was like you were scared of this ghost because you know things like that exists.”

I clutch my fists and frown. This guy is really something! A good observer and a nice way to explain things precisely… I sigh and get up from my chair, starting to walk aimlessly in the room.

“Fine. But it doesn’t mean I can help you.”

“If you believe me, you probably have already seen a ghost! How did you get rid of it? Please!”

“I don’t see ghost! I don’t want to! Get out of here, my mom will come back!”

Pissed off, frustrated and full of others mixed feelings, I grab his arm and lead him out of the shop. Of course he protests and I’m sure if he really wanted to stay, he would have had the strength to do it. But luckily, he didn’t and I was able to close the door behind him.

Alone, I finally breathe again and a few tears start to fall. My heart is like, tighten by my secret. This guy can’t know I can see ghosts right? It’s impossible of course, no matter how smart he is. But what if he is like me. Maybe he can see ghosts like I do? After all, he said he saw that transparent girl in the streets …

I wipe out my cheeks and get back in the room. I didn’t realized but he left his picture on the table. I take it in my hand and look once again at the beautiful girl in the park. The picture is actually beautiful but the more I look at it, the more this girl start to vanish. Who is she? I don’t think ghosts follow alive people unless they have something to tell them. Maybe, this girl is an old friend or even a girlfriend of the guy who went.

“Why am I thinking about that?...” I mutter.

I don’t want to help him and I probably won’t see him again. All I have is a weird picture and that’s already too much. I don’t want to get involved with ghosts and this is not a handsome stranger who will change my mind.

I sigh and grab the book I left on the table. As I was about to put the picture between two white pages, I notice something written behind.

“My name is Yang Seungho. Please, help me.” I read out loud.

I have one thing to admit about this guy : he is quite determined.