Ever since the whole guide thing happened and Nayoung came into his life, Sunggyu has begun to look at the world in a different way.

He'd never thought of life as something that could be recycled. Or souls, at least. It would appear that there truly are some old souls. He finds himself thinking of people's stories and sometimes catches himself looking at the little details. Like was Woohyun this greasy in his past life? Was Dongwoo always caught in the thin line between genius and idiot? Is natural talent really something that you're born with or is it the result of many lifetimes work?

He wonders how many roads he's gone down. How many people he's known and... how many times he's fallen in love.

Was he happy?

If he was, he wonders if he'll be as lucky this time aroud.

It's looking a little bleak, though.

The past few days have been oddly quiet as Nayoung has taken upon herself the task of spying on Joo-hee. Ghost girl spends the day following human girl around and then returns in the evening to relay information.

Useless information.

Like how Joo-hee is allergic to peanuts. Something he's known for a while now.

Joo-hee has nice penmanship.

Joo-hee's favorite color is pink. Sometimes green.

She poses in front of the mirror in her room every day before leaving for school.

Okay, that he didn't know.

But none of that information really helps him with talking to Joo-hee. It's not like he can go up to her and say something lame like, "Hey, nice handwriting. Very neat and easy to read."

Because he'd already done that before and it didn't really segue into an actual conversation. So yeah.

Checking the clock, he sees that it's nearing midnight and the ghost girl is nowhere to be found. Just as well, he thinks, as he pushes open his window and steps out onto the roof and is greeted with a cool spring breeze. He's lived in this house forever with his family and since he was seven, he's been climbing out onto the roof whenever he needed time away. That, or when he did something bad and his mother was on the warpath and on his scent like a blood hound. But nowadays, when school and friends and the impending doom that is the rest of his life become too much, he climbs out here, lays on his back much like he is now and looks up at the stars.

"When I was little, I used to wonder what it would be like to be a star."

He turns his head and watches Nayoung fly down to the small space beside him. Her hair is unbound and left to float all around her making her look almost ethereal. "Really?"

She nods slowly. "The reality is far less enchanting than the dream," she tells him, her words uncharacteristically poetic. "You know what they say? That you should never meet your heroes? It's sort of like that. They're pretty from far away. Then when you get closer? Gorgeous. But when you're there, when you're in it? It's almost like being trapped inside a cosmic fart or something."

And there's ghost girl's special brand of wording. He was wondering where it went.

"You're late."

Nayoung leans back on her shoulders. "Yeah, well. I may or may not have made a pitstop at your next door neighbor."

"My cousin's house?" Sunggyu frowns, marring his forehead. "You're disgusting."

"I'm a ghost. There's not much I can do in my unlife, okay?"

"Whatever. What was he up to?"

She puffs up her cheeks and looks up at the sky, refusing to answer his question.

"Ghost girl."

She whistles.

"Nayoung."

"What?"

"What was my cousin doing?"

"Well..." she drawls out. "He may or may not have been taking a shower."

Sunggyu shudders. "Ugh, gross. Are you sure you weren't some erted old man in your past life?"

Nayoung rolls her eyes then slumps down completely, strands of her translucent hair passing through his arm and shoulder. "Hey, Sunggyu. What did you want to be when you were little?"

"I, uh... I haven't thought about that in a long time." He grins, stretching his hands out in front of him before folding them underneath his head. "I wanted to be a rockstar."

"A rockstar?" Nayoung snorts.

"Yours couldn't have been any better," he retorts defensively.

Nayoung sighs. "A ballerina," she finally answers after some time, "I wanted to be a ballerina."

He can't help the way his jaw falls open nor the ensuing the laughter that tumbles out of his mouth and echoes in the night sky. "What? Like prancing around in tutus to classical music kind of ballet?" he asks between breaths.

There is no scathing retort. No biting comeback. Just silence.

When Sunggyu looks up at her, Nayoung is looking up at the sky and his laughter stops abruptly.

"Yes," she replies, her voice as soft as the smile on her lips. "Tutus and classical music. Pointe shoes and blisters. Blood, sweat and tears... Yes. That kind of ballet."

Sunggyu opens his mouth to say something but he can't really think of anything to say. He's not used to this Nayoung. Ghost girl has always bombarded him with her wit and sarcasm, her blatant disrepect for him and her obvious dislike for everything that he stands for. With her, it's always explosions in the sky when they open their mouths, insults flying from their lips, hurtling themselves heartless and cruel.

But the quiet is welcome.

The more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense. He chalked up her gracefulness to the fact that she's basically made out of thin air. But perhaps, she was always graceful despite the crass things that she says. And it makes him wonder more about Nayoung as a human being instead of Nayoung the ghost girl.

It's easy to forget that she was once also a girl who went to bed at night and woke up in the morning to go to school. Who probably had a family who loved her. Who had friends who made her laugh. He wonders what she was like when she was still alive. What she liked to eat and if she read books or had a pet... Nayoung is turning out to be more complex than just an annoying ghost girl who doesn't know when to shut up.

"Sunggyu?"

He humms in response, turning his own attention to the stars.

"Will you sing for me?"

He turns his head to face her once again and notes the almost wistful expression on her face, completely devoid of antagonism or ridicule.

"What do you want me to sing?"

She shrugs and turns to him, her face tilted up and her skin glistens silver in the moonlight. "You choose," she whispers, "Sing whatever you want. Sing about the night sky. Sing about the stars..."

He purses his lips in thought.

"Go on..." She smiles up at him. "I want to hear you."

So he takes a deep breath. He sits up straight.

And he sings.

She floats up into the sky in front of him.

And she dances.

He concentrates on the words but finds it difficult as she dips and sways across the sky. She flashes him a giddy smile in mid-twirl and he returns it, his voice gaining confidence, his high notes unwavering as he shifts effortlessly into a bright falsetto.

Her giggles are carefree as she leaps over his head, then dances around him, her arms graceful as if painting clouds into the sky with gentle of her hand. She urges him to sing louder, tells him that the whole world should hear his voice.

So he does. And he hasn't felt so free in a long while. So relaxed. So... himself.

Singing isn't really something he does in front of his friends or family. He'll bust out a tune once in a while in the shower but it isn't really something that he shares openly with others. Watching Nayoung now as she glides beautifully in the sky... it feels right. Like something has suddenly clicked inside of him that he can't quite explain.

"Yah! Shut the up! We're trying to sleep here!" A shrill voice pierces through their bubble, followed by a slamming of a window.

A horrified giggle escapes Nayoung before she disappears, leaving Sunggyu to escape by himself. Scrambling off the roof (and trying not to fall off and die, basically), he bursts back into his bedroom and collapses on his bed.

"That was fantastic!" Nayoung appears, sitting on his desk with her legs stretched out in front of her and her feet propped up on the foot of his bed. "You sounded amazing!"

His head snaps up and searches her face for any sign of mockery but there isn't any. But he's still unsure if he even sounded anywhere near as good as he felt when he was singing. "You think so?" He hates the uncertainty in his voice when he asks, like a little kid longing for his parents' approval.

She nods enthusiastically. "Yeah! Well... You probably won't be winning any awards," her face contorts with sarcasm, as if her head is finally catching up with the words that have been coming out of . He doesn't think he's ever seen an honest reaction from her in the past couple of weeks than he has in the past couple of minutes. For a moment, Sunggyu ponders the possibility that her being blunt to a fault is something that came about post-death.

"But you know..." she continues slowly. "I mean, it was pretty good. Like, you should do that."

"I should sing?"

She nods, not quite meeting his eyes. "Yeah. Like a permanent kind of thing. Like a career and stuff."

"Oh." He's never considered it before, to be honest. He always assumed that he'd go to on to university and study something that would eventually lead him to a life of wearing suits to work in a corner office in some highrise building in the heart of the business district in Seoul and driving fancy cars. Like finance. Or business. Or business finance?

That's the dream, right?

Or maybe not?

"Whatever," ghost girl murmurs, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, ghost girl?" Sunggyu says after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean we're friends?" he asks with a grin. "Because friends can't be mean to friends."

"Right... Because you and your friends act like such saints to one another." She shoots him a pointed look, one that he laughs at because yeah, she's got him there.

"I'm not Casper the Friendly Ghost, Sunggyu. Besides," she waves a hand around, "This is temporary. Even if we got along from the get go, once the mission is done, we won't be seeing each other anymore."

He nods slowly. "Of course. Because of the reincarnation thing."

"Well, yeah. But that's not always immediate."

"Okay..."

"Look," she sighs, crossing her legs at the ankles. "We literally won't be able to see each other anymore. Or, rather, I'll be able to see you still. I think. You just won't be able to see me."

"Oh."

"Yup. The ways of the universe and all... Freaking complicated and mysterious as hell. But that's just how it is..."

...

"There's something different about you."

Sunggyu turns to look at Woohyun who is walking beside him as they near their school. He hasn't really had a conversation for a while. They've been friends since middle school when they were the opposite the friends and found each other irritating. Only to realize that perhaps it was because they were too similar that they bumped heads often. Years pass and immature boys become young men and so differences are put aside to make way for steadfast friendships that they'd stake their very lives on.

You see, Sunggyu doesn't have very many people he calls friends. But he knows that the ones that do, really do deserve such a title.

But the month and a half since school started hasn't really given them a chance to talk. It's their final year of school and next year they'll have university to worry about and it's highly unlikely that they'll be attending the same one.

Unless a miracle happens and Woohyun finally manages to get act together.

(Unlikely.)

Even now, Woohyun is walking with sleep still stuck in his eyes. His uniform is ruffled, his blazer collar tucked into itself and his button-down shirt is slightly askew, making Sunggyu wonder if he got dressed in the dark. Woohyun doesn't enjoy school and barely manages to scrape by. But Sunggyu and the others never allow Woohyun to fail completely and he'll ever let that happen if he had a choice about it.

Sunggyu accompanies a smile with a shrug. "How do you mean different?"

"I don't know... Just that, the past few weeks, you've been all high-strung and on edge all the time. And Dongwoo even mentioned you having an episode in the bathroom where—"

"Please don't bring that up," Sunggyu interrupts, flushing a tiny bit.

Woohyun chuckles, shuffling his feet against the pavement. "Still, though. Now you're all relaxed and stuff. Like someone finally managed to dislodge that stick up your ."

"Yah!"

Sunggyu nudges Woohyun, almost making him lose his balance. Woohyun being Woohyun shoves him back. And so starts the great shoving fight of 2014 which only ends when Dongwoo runs up to them and shoves both their heads down.

"Yah!" The twosome shout together.

But Dongwoo is already several meters ahead of them before he turns around. "C'mon, you slowpokes!" he shouts exuberantly before blowing them a raspberry. "You guys are a bunch of losers!"

Sunggyu and Woohyun look at each other for a moment. They both break out into a grin and a silent agreement has been made.

"Hang on! I was kidding!" Dongwoo shouts again, this time in fear as his two closest friends charge towards him.

And thus, ends the story of Jang Dongwoo. Death by noogie.

Except there isn't such a thing.

"You guys ," he complains when he and Sunggyu reach their classroom. Both his hands are running through his hair, attempting to fix the damage. Which is hard to do without a mirror. "I spent half an hour on my hair this morning!"

Sunggyu merely laughs. In the classroom, he spots Nayoung sitting on Joo-hee's desk while the girl in question is busy talking to the girl in the seat behind her.

Nayoung gives him a mock two-finger salute then goes back to braiding her hair. Doesn't she ever get bored? Even though he'd like to do nothing more than laze around on a weekend, having nothing else to do other than that seems a little tedious for Sunggyu.

Probably why she's often so unpleasant.

"Yo, loser," Nayoung says once he's settled into his seat beside her. And honestly, he's been called a loser twice today and it isn't even lunch! What the hell? "You studied for the science test, right?"

Sunggyu shoots her a pointed look as he pulls out the notes he made for to prepare for the test. As if he would ever be ill-prepared for a test.

"Yeah, whatever, dorkus maximus." She rolls her eyes. Her braid is done and hanging down her right shoulder. She inclines her head toward Joo-hee. "You should give Princess Clueless here your notes because she totally forgot about that test."

"What?"

"I said, 'Are you doing something this weekend?' because I really wanted to go to Seoul and check something out."

Sunggyu blinks a couple. Looking away from Nayoung, he sees Dongwoo staring down at him, his hair a comical mess but his smile bright.

"Uh, yeah sure," he says slowly. "Why not?"

Nayoung scrunches up her nose. "What kind of bird lives in the nest on top of Dongwoo's head?"

"Dude, just go to the bathroom and fix your hair. People are staring." Sunggyu gestures to their classmates.

But Dongwoo just bestows him another blinding smile. "Thanks, dude! I owe you one!"

Sunggyu can't help but chuckle at the way Dongwoo does a fancy dance move before rushing out to the bathroom to do as he instructed. A pair of ghost shoes attached to ghost feet and legs land on his desk. He looks up at Nayoung who's staring at him, drumming her ghost fingers noiselessly against Joo-hee's desk.

"So? Notes? Science test?" She raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to do something? It's basically your first period. Which starts in three minutes. Go be chivalrous and save her from ruin and stuff."

"I... I..." Sunggyu stutters and the sound is embarrassing even to his ears. Nayoung narrows her eyes at him, but it's like he's on repeat and he can't stop himself. "I... I..." Then his mind starts playing tricks on him. "I... I..." And it's like the room is closing in on him. Both his classroom and his classmates have swirled into a muted color in the background and their noise now merely a quiet humm. "I... I..." And his throat falls suit and it must be his shirt getting too tight around the collar but how exactly did that happen? "I... I..."

"Sunggyu-sshi?"

Joo-hee.

"Are you okay?" Her smile is soft but her eyes are unsure. She blinks a couple of times when he doesn't answer immediately, but that's only because he's tranced by that small curl of hair by her right ear.

"Sunggyu... Do you always have to have disgustingly cheesy thoughts about her?" Nayoung whines, plugging a finger into each ear.

Sunggyu finally comes to and goes for the defense. "What are you talking about?" he snaps.

And because Kim Sunggyu is Kim Sunggyu, nothing ever goes his way. Hence, Joo-hee looking shocked for a moment. He almost dies when he sees her lower lip quiver a little and her eyebrows drawing together before bowing her head.

"I'm sorry, Sunggyu-sshi," she apologizes softly, sliding back into her seat. "I didn't mean to pry."

Fighting down the overwhelming need to slam his head against the wall, Sunggyu hurriedly reaches over and touches her shoulder. It's amazing how he doesn't implode with that one touch—his fingers against the cloth of her school blazer—but it gets the desired result when she lifts her eyes to look at him.

Except that her eyes are looking a little wary at him and he could totally do without that. But you know. Beggars not being able to be choosers and such.

"Sciencetestsciencetestsciencetest!" Nayoung practically screams in his ear.

"Sciencetest!" he parrots. Loudly.

"What?" Joo-hee laughs. A little nervously. "Scientist?"

He shakes his head, now torn between flinging himself out the window and peeling his fingernails off. "Science test. There's a science test," he informs, carefully enunciating each word. He grabs his notes from his table and practically s them in her face. "Here. Notes. Study."

And Sunggyu has officially de-evolved into a neanderthal.

Great.

"Uh," she pushes his hand away gently, "No, it's okay. It's a little too late for that—"

"No!" He shoves the notes into her hands.

"Sunggyu—"

"Go!" he insists, not noticing how silent the classroom has become.

"Dude," Nayoung cuts in, "Stop it."

Joo-hee's eyes flicker to the front of the classroom. "Sunggyu—"

"This will help you with the test—"

"Mr. Kim. Ms. Ahn."  Sunggyu closes his eyes in defeat at the sound of their teacher's voice. "I hope this isn't a rather poor attempt to cheat."

Sunggyu chances a glance at Joo-hee who is staring at her hands placed demurely on her lap. Crap.

"Or maybe a poor attempt to flirt, Sunggyu?"

He looks up to see the teacher's perfectly plucked eyebrow arched and her lips curved into an amused smile. Shaking his head, he murmurs an apology, which is quickly waved off.

"Just keep your eyes on your paper. Don't think I notice how often they tend to stray toward Ms. Ahn."

Sunggyu sinks into his chair, trying to block out the humiliating snickers from his classmates.

...

"This is all your fault!" he yells at Nayoung. It's lunch and they're on the roof—the only place in school that he can avoid the taunts and nudges from his schoolmates as news has traveled fast about what happened that morning.

Nayoung merely rolls her eyes. "Of course. Of course it's my fault. When something goes wrong, it's my fault." She throws her hands in the air. "I was only trying to give you an in. You were the one who basically ruined everything what with your idiotic stuttering and being all cavemen and ."

"I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't insisted!"

"Like I could ever make you do anything," Nayoung interjects. "If that were the case, I'd be done here by now. So yeah. This is your fault. Not mine. Yours."

Sunggyu lets out an exasperated groan. "How is this my fault when my life was perfectly fine before you came showed up and started ruining everything?"

"Perfectly fine?" Nayoung stares at him with wide open. "You think your life was perfectly fine? News flash, mister. You spending your life watching the girl you love live her life while you wallow in the misery of your own making isn't perfectly fine," she ends with a sneer on her face. "That's what we call pathetic."

Sunggyu stiffens. No one calls him pathetic. They can use a whole slew of other words but calling him pathetic feels unnecessarily below the belt.

"You know what the problem with you is?" He sighs, walking toward the half wall that borders the roof. He slumps down, onto the ground with his back against the wall. "You never listen, Nayoung."

"I listen plenty!" she answers defensively.

"No, you don't. You always do what you want, say what you want, but you never listen."

A slight breeze passes but Nayoung the ghost remains ruffled as she stands before him, eyes narrowed into slits.

"Kim Sunggyu. You're hopeless."

"And you, Nayoung, aren't needed here. So go away."

"Fine."

"Great."

"I'm going," she threatens.

"So go," he says tiredly, closing his eyes.

And she disappears.

...

Another chapter done! I hope you enjoyed this as much as the previous ones. I hope you guys aren't getting sick with the whole one step forward two steps back thing that's happening but additional characters will be added into the mix in the following chapters so yay!

Thank you so much to you guys for subscribing and commenting. Your encouragement means a lot to me and inspires me to write better. And faster, of course! Although, this update took me longer than expected. But! The next chapter is already half-written!

In case you were wondering about the song that Sunggyu sings, it's My Heart Is Like a Star—one of the songs he sang on Immortal Song 2. He sang it so beautifully that I had to put it in there.

Anyway! Back to writing for me! Hope you have a wonderful day!