The Story of Spirits

“You’re back!” Hwayoung greeted happily as Haneul, closely followed by Hyungsoo, walked into the diner. Haneul managed a small smile at the ghostly girl, who followed her to a table.

The three sat down, Hwayoung and Hyungsoo unseen by the rest of the world. Haneul peeked up, eyes falling on the blond waiter, Sungjong. He’d cut his hair to be shorter, so it wasn’t pulled back today. Hwayoung’s eyes were on him, as well.

“He’s still here,” the short-haired girl commented lightly.

Hwayoung nodded proudly. “Yeah. He wouldn’t abandon this diner. It was our special place.” Her eyes seemed to soften when she said that.

Nodding, Haneul looked around the diner again. Her eyes fell on the boy with the camera. He was with only one other person, and, thankfully, that person was not Jiyeon. She leaned over to Hyungsoo. “Who is that next to your brother?” she asked.

Hyungsoo followed her gaze, his eyes narrowing. “That… I don’t know. He doesn’t look like anyone who I should know, although he does look familiar.” He pursed his lips.

The boy next to Myungsoo had bleached hair, clearly a dirty blond with a tint of pink in his bangs. He was staring at Myungsoo, his fingers tapping the table as he frowned, something unreadable dancing in his eyes.

Haneul’s heart sunk. “He’s another one.” Both of the ghosts looked towards her. “He’s dead, too. I don’t understand it. What’s happening with him? Myungsoo? He seems to be surrounded by the dead. His brother, his friend’s girlfriend, and this guy who his brother doesn’t know.”

“I know who he is,” Hwayoung piped up. “He’s Lee Byunghun. He was a friend of mine, but he passed due to a car crash late last year.” She looked sympathetic. “It was… um… well, it was Myungsoo’s crash, if you remember that.”

Hyungsoo nodded slowly. “Yeah. He was in the hospital for four months,” he remembered.

Thinking for a moment, Haneul gasped quietly. “You mean, that horrible pile-up on the highway last November? The one that only a few survived?” Hyungsoo nodded. “I… I helped a huge number of spirits cross over just a few days after that. I don’t understand how I missed Byunghun.” Her voice was quiet, sad.

“Byunghun’s death wasn’t publicized. His family didn’t want it.” Hwayoung frowned, sneaking another glance over to the blond boy. “He died in the hospital while in a coma, if I remember the announcement. They published an article on him in our school newspaper. He was… he was a nice kid. Shouldn’t have gone like that.” She sighed sadly.

Haneul grimaced. “That’s horrible. It must’ve been painful for his family.”

“It must’ve been,” Hyungsoo agreed, looking over to the boy sympathetically. “But… why is he around my brother? Did Myungsoo do something to him?”

“And that, Hyungsoo,” the clairvoyant sighed, “is something we may never know.”

Myungsoo looked around the diner, waiting for the rest of his friends. He’d developed the photos from a few days prior, when he’d last seen that weird girl with short hair. He’d even developed that one with her in it.

But he’d seen something weird when he saw the picture.

He hadn’t seen anything during the time in which he’d taken that picture, not in the moment, at least. But when he’d developed it, left it soaking for a few hours, he’d seen something else.

It was a woman who hadn’t been there. She had long, black hair and a smile on her face. The weird part wasn’t that she was there. It was that she was only half there. She was transparent, facing the girl, who was looking up at the ghostly figure.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Sungyeol peered over his shoulder at the picture on the top of the pile of photos. “Woah, that one turned out nice. But who is this? In the corner? I didn’t see her before… Was she there?”

Myungsoo shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know what it is, Sungyeol.” He picked up the picture, turning it a little in the light.

Haneul looked over her shoulder again, staring at the boy with pink-tinged hair. She frowned. “I’m going to need to get him away from your brother. But for that, I need a chance,” she grumbled.

There was silence among the ghosts, who exchanged a look. Hyungsoo looked down at his hands that were folded on the table. But it was Hwayoung who gently grabbed Haneul’s hands.

Her touch was cold, but somehow familiar. “Why don’t you just tell him the truth?” she asked. Her gaze was soft and kind, an almost sad smile on her face. Haneul pulled away, to which Hwayoung only frowned.

“I don’t know how I would go about telling him.”

It was Hyungsoo who piped up. “I’ll help you. I’ll convince him. Tell him things that you wouldn’t know, things that only I would know.”

Haneul finally sighed. “I guess the best way is to tell him, just lay it all out simply for him.” She stood. “This is going to be so much fun.” Hwayoung and Hyungsoo watched her as she went.

“Do you think it’s just some trick of the light? Like… maybe an image of something?”

“I have no idea. Maybe it’s one photograph burned into another.”

“Myungsoo, even I know that stuff like that is impossible… right?”

“I don’t know…”

The short-haired girl shoved her hands in her pocket, and suddenly spoke up, “It’s not a trick of the light. It’s not a photography accident. And it sure as hell isn’t impossible.” She reached over and plucked the photograph from Myungsoo’s hands.

The two whirled around and l