Nothing—nothing—ever goes the way he hopes. Of this, Sunggyu is certain.

Especially when, the next day, he wakes up to find a girl he's never seen before sitting on his bed watching him intently with curious eyes.

"Hello," she tells him.

And he answers by promptly falling off his bed.

"Who the—what—" Sunggyu struggles to his feet, pushing the covers from his limbs as he goes. Once he's able to get his bearings, he bows respectfully (it's almost mechanical with him) then demands, "Who are you and what are you doing in my room?"

The girl's brow furrows as she gracefully alights from his bed and stands before him. She's a good head shorter than him, is the first thing he notices about her. The second thing he notices is that she's dressed in a high school uniform that doesn't look familiar at all. The third thing is that she's quite pretty with her dark brown hair pulled into a messy bun on top of her head and her eyes big and wide and... expectant?

Wait a minute. She's the one who's being all creepy what with the watching him sleep and sitting on his bed and just her presence in general. And here she is, expecting answers from him?

"I don't—" he begins only to be interrupted by the girl folding into a sudden bow before him.

"Hello," she says again, a little bit uncertainly this time. "You're Sunggyu, aren't you?"

"I... I know. But who are you?"

She studies him for a moment, as if assessing him and it makes him slightly embarrassed that he's looking more than a little ruffled. "I'm Nayoung," she answers simply.

"Nayoung?"

"Yes." She nods. "Your guide."

"Guide," he repeats stupidly.

"I hate this part," he hears her mutter underneath her breath before sitting delicately back on his bed with a sigh.

"This part," he parrots. Sunggyu shakes his head, urging it to gather what little brain cells he currently has at his disposal. "What do you mean?"

She gives another sigh. "Let me refresh your memory: last night, starry sky, shooting star... Please help me be a little bit braver?" she says mockingly. "Any of that ring a bell, Sunggyu?"

What the hell? How old is this girl? She must be at least a year younger than his own eighteen years. So where the hell does she get off addressing him like this? She even looks bored out of her mind, sitting there examining her fingernails like she'd rather be anywhere else than in his presence.

"Okay okay," she holds her hands up, "For starters, I can totally hear your thoughts. It's one of those special guide powers that we have over our assigned human. Because it's really hard to help you guys out when you get all secretive about stuff. And since you're all huffy about being addressed properly—let's just say that I'm a lot older than you think I am."

Older?

"I'm thirty years older than you, Sunggyu," and Sunggyu really can't miss the extra emphasis on his name sans honorific.

He brushes that aside in favor of doing a quick computation in his head. "You're forty-eight years old? You look like you're around my age!"

"Well, you know," she shrugs lightly, "I was seventeen when I died."

What. The. Actual. .

"I know," she says with a cheeky grin, "Crazy, right? I'm a ghost! And no, this is not a dream—"

No, it's an effing nightmare is what it is.

"Not a nightmare either." She stands up and starts walking around him in a circle. "Here's the thing—and I'll try to make this short and simple enough for you to understand—"

Such a delightful girl this one.

Or ghost girl.

Whatever.

He's given up on being able to think properly. He's just thankful that he's still standing.

"There are spirits like me who have unfinished business in this world. Now, for us to be able to be reincarnated into the next life, we need to reach enlightenment that can only be achieved once we've guided another human in his or her life. Now before you ask—" She twirls on her heel and stops directly in front of him, a threatening finger pointed between his eyes. "—I have no idea what kind of enlightenment I'm supposed to reach because if I did, I wouldn't have to be here now, would I?"

Sunggyu wisely closes his mouth. It was at the tip of his tongue to ask just that.

"All I know is, I'm here to help you confess your feelings to Ahn Joo-hee. So what I suggest is you make yourself presentable," she starts to enumerate, counting off on her fingers, "We haul over to Joo-hee's place, you confess, and then bam! I get reincarnated and finally get to eat a nice juicy steak."

He looks at her with his mouth falling open.

"I really miss meat," she explains, nodding.

Sunggyu takes a deep breath then exhales, closing his eyes and bowing his head. Bringing his fisted hands to the each side of his head, he whispers to himself, "This is really weird. Obviously, I'm losing my mind. I'm late for school and I'm hallucinating. I'm just hallucinating. There is no annoying ghost girl. There is no annoying ghost girl. There is no annoying ghost girl..."

"YAH! Kim Sunggyu!" His mother's roar carries from the kitchen. "Get ready for school! You're running late!"

He counts to ten his head first before opening his eyes to discover that he's alone in his bedroom, just as he should be. Except his bed is made and he's in his uniform and he doesn't remember doing those two things.

What?

He returns to his I'm-losing-my-mind-stance from earlier and repeats, "It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay, Kim Sunggyu. Everything's going to be fine."

"Yah! Get out here and eat your breakfast!"

His eyes snap open and yeah, bed's still made and he's still in his uniform and alright, he's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and keep questioning his sanity. Perhaps this one of those things... that happen to people... without them knowing... and stuff. Yeah. That's it! This is perfectly normal!

His fear of his mother is what propels him out of his room and into his customary seat at the dining table where he proceeds to stuff his mouth with food before anyone can think to ask him anything. His mind is blown, he figures, with pieces of it scattered in his room that is either haunted or the setting for his delusions. His parents and his sister look at him curiously as he manages to shovel rice down his throat in record time before bolting into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"I'm off!" he calls out rather uncharacteristically, with his backpack now slung over one shoulder as he rushes through the front door and subsequently bumps into Myungsoo who's sitting on the front step of their house.

"You're late, hyung," Myungsoo informs him softly, standing up and pushing the book he was reading into one of the pockets of his bag. "You're never late."

Sunggyu looks around cautiously before grabbing Myungsoo by the lapel of his school blazer and pulls (drags him, really) to the sidewalk. He opens his mouth to let everything loose but then he realizes that a) he's going to sound like a crazy idiot (which is never good) or b) Myungsoo's going to think that he's been abducted by aliens (which is also not a good thing and possibly even worse). So he shuts his mouth. Because he has a reputation to keep.

He's Kim "Cool Guy" Sunggyu damnit!

"Are you okay?" his cousin asks softly, his expression that of concern.

Sunggyu runs his hands through his hair and shakes his head. "It's nothing." He readjusts his bag on his shoulder and nudges Myungsoo. "Let's go."

Myungsoo isn't completely convinced, though, and pulls on Sunggyu's elbow. "Hyung, you know you can tell me stuff, right?" He smiles then, tentative but still bright. "We're more than just cousins—we're best friends."

Sunggyu grins and ruffles Myungsoo's hair, something that his cousin normally hates. "I know. Thanks. I'm just having a rough morning, I guess." That and he's  possibly losing his grip on reality, he adds in his head.

Thankfully, Myungsoo finally gives up on the topic and the rest of the walk to school is filled with idle chatter.

Sunggyu barely manages to make through his morning classes, his mind conveniently wandering in every wild direction all the while trying to convince himself that what happened to him earlier was just the result of stress and a poor sleeping position. But try as he might, Sunggyu is still on high alert for the annoying ghost girl who haunted him. It's really not something that's easy to bounce back from.

Lunch passes without incident and he finds himself getting comfortable enough to mess around with his friends. Woohyun claims that he's got a date for the weekend (the likelihood of which is highly questionable) and Dongwoo makes a spectacle of himself by trying to see how many of the rice cakes he brought from home can be stuffed into his mouth before spewing.

A lot.

By the time his afternoon classes roll in, he's lulled himself back into his comfort zone, thinking that he's finally back to normal.

Except Ahn Joo-hee completely obliterates any chance of fully reaching normality by talking to him in between classes.

Just as the waves of inner turmoil begin to ebb into nonexistence, Joo-hee leans over her desk towards him with a friendly smile on her face. "Everything alright, Sunggyu-sshi?" she asks her timidly.

And respectfully, he notes, then quickly brushes all thoughts of ghost girl aside.

He can feel a silly grin coming over his face but is powerless to stop it. It's a tough situation when you know you're going to look like a complete idiot but there's pretty much nothing you can do about it. So he forces himself to speak.

"Uh yeah," he replies with a short nod, and he's amazed that he manages with little stuttering. Feeling a little more confident, he tries again, "Thanks for asking." And then, in his haste to grab a book to bury his head in and pretend to be all studious and stuff, he promptly slams his face against his desk.

And there it is.

The blush that he was trying to avoid is now painted on his cheeks. And his forehead, too, which is throbbing painfully, announcing the birth of what will likely be a very humiliating bump.

Death.

Death would be awesome right about now.

From the corner of his eye, he can see Joo-hee bite back a laugh.

"Sunggyu-sshi?"

Goodbye, sanity. Fare thee well.

He gives her a weak smile and waves her away. The next teacher comes into the classroom and Sunggyu quickly asks permission to use the restroom just to have a moment to gather his wits and save whatever is left of his face.

He seriously has to get over the whole ghost girl thing if he wants to be able to function like a normal human being. But he can't explain why or how or even if it actually happened.

Maybe... Just maybe the whole thing earlier was his subconcious manifesting itself out of frustration causing him to hallucinate?

Or maybe... he's just full of .

He sighs at his reflection in the mirror that stretches over the three sinks in the boys' restroom as he washes his hands. That is the face of a true coward, he thinks. Who knew unrequited love would drive him insane first before completely killing him? Honestly, if his sanity is at stake then he should confess just to get it over with.

"Finally! Some progress, Sunggyu!"

Sunggyu looks back into the mirror for someone's reflection but sees nothing, not even feet underneath the toilet stall doors. His brow furrows and before he can shake the entire thing off as his imagination playing tricks on him, he turns on his heel.

And no, the shout that he lets out is not feminine at all but a really manly and macho one.

So yeah.

Shut up.

"By the way," ghost girl says a mere couple of inches away from his face. They're at eye level now since she's floating in thin air—mind blown to smithereens. "I really don't appreciate being called ghost girl? I do have a name and it's Nayoung and I quite like it. Or... you can even call me noona!"

"I'm not calling you noona, ghost girl! I should just call you ahjumma!" he snaps. He pushes against the sink that he'd fallen back against when he shouted and tries his best to look unflustered except he can't.

Because he's officially insane.

"Look, you're not crazy," ghost girl groans, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "I don't know how many times I need to explain this to you but—"

"You explained it once! And not even very well!"

She pauses at his accusation and Sunggyu can't even take away any victory from it because he's busy trying to keep himself from hyperventilating.

"Okay... You're right." She sighs and crosses her arms. "Let's try this again. Last night, you wished for help to confess to Ahn Joo-hee."

He nods slowly. He has never regretted anything more than that serious lapse in judgment.

Ghost girl floats over to the wall opposite Sunggyu and lands gracefully on her feet. "That's where I come in. Guides aid human beings when they need help. It's not just for anything, though. Divine intervention doesn't work that way. Guides aren't going to appear out of nowhere and open your tightly sealed jars for you. Or file your taxes. Or scratch those hard to reach places on your back. Guides are only assigned to human beings who need help when they need it most."

"I..." Sunggyu frowns. "I don't get it."

"Of course you don't," she deadpans.

"No need to be offensive!" he snaps.

"Well, there's no need to be a but there you are!"

They stare at each from across the room, Sunggyu's chest heaving from his labored breaths. Never. Never in all of his eighteen years did he ever think he would find himself in the position to want to strangle a ghost.

It's terribly counterproductive.

Ghost girl sighs. "Okay okay. Let's start again—"

"No!" Sunggyu says sharply. "No more. I back out. I don't want to do this. I refuse to confess anything to anyone for as long as I live! Just go back to wherever it is you came from and don't come back!"

"As much as I would love to be able to do that, I can't." Her expression is so serious that he doesn't doubt what she's saying. "There are no take-backs with this one. I'm stuck here until you fulfill whatever it is you need fulfilling. If you don't confess to Joo-hee, that only means more of this," she explains, gesturing between the two of them. "And I don't want that anymore than you do."

"So all I have to do is confess and you'll leave me alone?"

"Yes!" Ghost girl throws her hands in the air. "Finally! Comprehension!"

"Yeah..." Sunggyu shakes his head. "That's not gonna happen."

"What?!" ghost girl screeches.

"I just... I can't, okay?" Sunggyu bites out. "I can't confess to Joo-hee. Not yet!"

"Um... okay?" a male voice answers hesitantly.

Sunggyu whirls around to see Dongwoo standing awkwardly by the door to the restroom and he colors instantly when he recalls the words that just left his lips.

"By the way," ghost girl floats towards Sunggyu.

Sunggyu holds up a hand and closes his eyes. "Lemme guess—I'm the only one who can see you."

Ghost girl gives him a thumbs up before vanishing into thin air. "Good luck trying to convince everyone you're not schizophrenic!" Her singsong voice echoes in the room.

"So..." Dongwoo says slowly, looking at everything instead of Sunggyu. "The teacher sent me to check on you because you were talking to yourself—I meant taking too long!" He quickly amends when he realizes his mistake.

Sunggyu feels his knees weaken with embarrassment causing him to fold himself into a crouch. He bows his head and brings his fisted hands to either side of his face.

This is not happening to him.