"So let me get this straight."

Nayoung sighs into a cloud puff. "Please don't."

"Oh no," her supervisor, Bob, says pleasantly, "Please let me."

"If you must." Nayoung pouts.

They're in the spirit realm where Nayoung retreated to after her experience with Sunggyu. The spirit realm is a combination of comic energy and nature, with the skies painted in hues of vivid purples and blues and Nayoung's own little nook in a tiny daffodil-filled meadow where cloud puffs hang low. This place is far more favorable than Kim Sunggyu's bedroom.

Stupid Kim Sunggyu.

"So the first human you were assigned to was a young woman who was pregnant out of wedlock and needed guidance on whether or not to have the child aborted. And you—"

"I haunted her so bad. I placed jars of fake fetuses in her room and played the screams of unborn children calling out for their mothers in her sleep." Nayoung cracks her knuckles. "It was a proud moment actually."

Bob shakes his head. "The second one was the young man who wasn't sure if his girlfriend was the one that he should marry and even though you knew it was against the rules, you possessed his body and proposed to his girlfriend."

"And she didn't say yes!" Nayoung throws her hands up in the air in exasperation. "It only took a day and I got the answer he was looking for. I think that's my biggest accomplishment to date."

"Oh, Nayoung," Bob sighs, then shakes his head again. "And then there was the young woman who—"

"Okay, that one doesn't count. She got herself into an accident and died before we could reach a conclusion."

"And you'll be happy to know that she's managed to get reincarnated before you have," Bob informs her with a raised eyebrow.

Nayoung hugs a cloud puff to her chest. "Not fair, Bob. Not fair. I wanna get reincarnated so bad. Do you know how awesome it is being a baby?"

"I don't actually," Bob tells her, a small smile on his face.

"It's the best thing, Bob! You just lay there and eat and cry and poop and everyone thinks that you're the cutest thing ever..." Nayoung smiles wistfully. "You know, it's not that I don't try... I just don't..." She sighs. "I've been in the human realm as both human and spirit for forty-eight years but I don't think I'm a year smarter than the seventeen-year-old that I was. I don't know how to deal with people's problems, Bob. Even when I was a human, I was never good at making friends..."

"Now that's not true, Nayoung." Bob chuckles lightly before he continues, "You only need one great friend and I know for a fact that you had at least one of those."

Nayoung smiles a little to herself. "I guess you're right," she admits.

"Which brings us to your current assignment."

"The Wimp."

"Kim Sunggyu," Bob amends. "I hear you haven't been speaking to him. And you weren't in the human realm for that long."

"It's just been a couple of days since we last talked... And besides, that's how we both prefer it," she points out.

Bob sighs, something he finds himself doing often whenever he's talking to the girl. "Except you'll never accomplish your mission that way. And I've never known you for a quitter. A creative rule-breaker, yes. But definitely not a quitter, Nayoung."

"But he's an annoying little idiot!"

"I really think calling him names isn't helping your cause."

"But that guy really gets on my nerves! I haven't shown myself to him because I was hoping that he'd grow a pair and confess without my having to in. But no, he's still acting like a little wimp!" Nayoung folds her legs beneath her and plays with the whisps of clouds that are floating around. "I don't know, Bob... I don't think I'll ever get reincarnated."

Bob nudges Nayoung to get her attention then with a flick of his wrist, he creates a small Sunggyu made out of cloud whisps. "Do you ever wonder why you haven't gotten reincarnated yet, Nayoung?"

Nayoung shrugs, glaring at cloud-Sunggyu. "Because I haven't reached enlightenment or whatever."

"And you haven't reached enlightenment because?"

"Bob," Nayoung whines, "Do we have to get into this now?"

"Because?" Bob repeats.

She rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Because I've yet to fulfill my own unfinished business, Bob. Everyone knows that!"

"But what is your unfinished business?" He continues to prod.

Nayoung frowns. "I..." she trails off.

"You..."

"I don't know, okay?" And it's very unfair that she doesn't know. Because if you don't know, shouldn't that mean that you don't have any unfinished business? Souls without unfinished business are reincarnated because their life cycle has reached completion and Nayoung was seventeen when she passed onto the spirit realm. No one ever finishes anything when they're seventeen!

Bob nods slowly. "You've been a spirit for a long time. Yes, some have been spirits longer than you have as everyone has their own pace. But guides aren't just here to help other humans," he explains gently, and with another wave of his hand, he creates a miniature Joo-hee but out of daffodils and floats it beside cloud-Sunggyu. "Didn't it ever occur to you that your assigned human could have helped you discover something about yourself as well?"

Nayoung bites on her lower lip and stays silent.

"Humans are curious creatures, aren't they?" he continues. "They laugh when they're sad or happy and they cry when they're sad or happy... So complex but so simple at the same time. It's never just black or white. It's a whole rainbow of colors that make up their emotions, thoughts, dreams and hopes... and even fears." He smiles softly. "It's always so beautiful to see."

He floats the miniature couple over Nayoung's lap. "When you've been a spirit for a long time, you start to forget what it's like when you were human. There's no more hunger, no more thirst. You no longer crave sleep. You feel no pain. But there is also no more..."

"Love," Nayoung finishes and Bob pats her head.

"You'll be surprised, Nayoung," Bob says with a conspiratorial wink. "I think that by helping Sunggyu, you'll find you'll also be helping yourself. Don't just give Sunggyu a chance," Bob gives her one last encouraging pat on the shoulder, "Give yourself one, too."

Long after Bob vanishes, Nayoung is still sitting there, staring at mini Sunggyu and Joo-hee. Can she do it? She'll admit that her past assignments were a joke. She just wanted in and out of there and fast. But she wants to get reincarnated because she doesn't think she can spend another lifetime here in the spirit realm trying to remember what peaches taste like or what the wind feels like on your face.

And love...

She pushes cloud Sunggyu's nose with her finger and watches as it floats a few centimeters away.

Okay then.

...

Time travels faster in the spirit realm than it does in the human one. So when Nayoung says that she hasn't spoken to Sunggyu in a couple of days, to Sunggyu it's two weeks.

Hence Sunggyu's blood curling scream when she appears to him sitting on the long library table that he's studying at. She almost smiles at his mortified expression (which is not attractive at all) but he really isn't the type of guy who enjoys being laughed at so she pretends not to notice because the last thing she needs right now is them fighting again.

The surprise in his face melts away into a stony glare when the other students in the library look at him weirdly and the librarian shushes him with a threatening finger pointed in his direction.

Nayoung smiles.

Sunggyu crosses his arms and continues to glare.

Nayoung bites her lower lip.

And Sunggyu remains silent.

Nayoung sighs and slides herself to the end of table to let her feet dangle.

Sunggyu glares.

Nayoung whistles.

Sunggyu doesn't say a word.

"Wait... You're not sleeping, are you?" Nayoung asks, tilting her head to the side. "It's hard to tell when your eyes disappear like that."

Instead of answering, Sunggyu gathers his things and pushes them hapzardly into his bag. Without another glance in her direction, he starts walking away and towards the exit.

"Hey hey hey!" Nayoung calls out as she floats after him. "Where are you going?"

She's not surprised when he ignores her.

Sighing, she decides to follow after him. There's really not much else she can do and she gets that he's not pleased with her. While he hasn't been the most pleasant assignment she's been given (which isn't saying much, really) she's mature enough to admit that their arguments haven't been all his fault. She's willing to go half-and-half.

Or maybe sixty = his fault and forty = hers.

Something like that.

It's only when she floats through Sunggyu's body and hears his resulting shout of surprise does she realize that he stopped at some point in the middle of sidewalk just outside of school.

"What the hell?"

"What?" she floats back toward him and lands softly on her feet when she's a handwidth away. "What's going on?"

"Why are you back?" He looks frustrated. Like frustrated enough to want to hit her and even though that's impossible, she still takes a couple of steps back.

"Because I have to be here."

Sunggyu shakes his head. "No. You don't."

"I do if I want to become human again," she blurts out before she can stop herself.

"So..." There's a small smile that plays along Sunggyu's lips that give Nayoung an awful feeling about what will come out of his mouth next.  "You're saying that you need me more than I need you."

"That's—when did I ever say that?" Then she adds, "stupid head" just for good measure. Except, of course, she really shouldn't have because Sunggyu looks like he's about ready to explode. "Or not a stupid head. I mean like a genius, smart head. A really intelligent boy."

Sunggyu raises an eyebrow at her.

"And by boy, I mean man," she quickly corrects herself. "Gentleman, even. You, Kim Sunggyu, are a gentleman of exemplary intellect."

He looks pleased. If the annoying smirk on his face is anything to go by. "I could get used to this..."

Nayoung closes her eyes and takes a deep breath then releases everything in a tired sigh. "Look," she starts softly, trying to get the conversation back on track. And basically stop having to fluff up an already overinflated ego. "Suffice to say, this is obviously a relationship that can be beneficial for the both of us."

"You've been saying that since day one and I've yet to see how this is beneficial to me." With a nonchalant shrug, he turns on his heel and continues walking in the direction of his house.

She watches him walk away and groans. Expletives and curse words enough to make a sailor blush gather at the tip of her tongue but she wisely keeps it all in. Things are not going the way she thought they would. At all. She stares up  at the sky for some sign.

And she gets one.

"Yah! Kim Sunggyu!" She shouts out loud except Sunggyu refuses to look back at her. Of course. She teleports to his side but not before rolling her eyes. "Didn't you hear me?" she asks.

The little pissant doesn't even glance her way.

"Ugh, you annoying ," she mutters, but he continues to ignore her. "Go buy an umbrella over at that convenience store," she tells him a little louder this time.

Now that gets his attention. His eyebrows are drawn together as he turns to face her. "An umbrella? What the hell for? It's nighttime and the sky's clear."

"Don't you trust me?"

"No!" he exclaims, quite vehemently, too.

"Can't you, for once, just trust me then? Just this one time," she pleads, even though the whole thing is quite beneath her. "And I promise that if I'm wrong about this then you can go on never trusting me again."

His jaw clenches for a moment. "I must be crazy listening to some ghost girl... Fine. Fine. I'm going to buy a stupid umbrella."

"Yes!" Nayoung does a mental fist pump as Sunggyu disappears inside the store.

"Okay. Now what?" Sunggyu asks a few minutes later, now armed with his brand new umbrella.

"Now we wait," she says simply.

"Wait," he echoes. "Wait for what exactly?"

Nayoung lifts her ten fingers in front of him then begins folding each one down slowly.

"A countdown," he says humorlessly. "How cute. Now can you cut the crap and tell me what we're waiting for?"

She grins as she folds the last finger then points at the sky. Sunggyu looks up only to be greeted by a big fat rain drop on his right eye.

"Oh !" He quickly opens up the umbrella as the rain starts pouring down. Nayoung giggles as she prances and skips underneath the downpour.

"Didn't I tell you to trust me?"

Sunggyu nods, a small smile making its way onto his lips. "Alright, weather whisperer. You win. Now let's go home."

"Wait!"

"What now?" Sunggyu asks. But this time he's almost expectant and not at all exasperated like he usually is and Nayoung does another mental fist pump with how receptive (though marginally) he's become.

As Nayoung opens to explain, Joo-hee comes speeding around the corner with her hands above her head, pathetically trying to keep herself from getting wet. She almost barrels into Sunggyu in her haste to get a little shelter from the convenience store's rather short awning. Sunggyu quickly holds out a hand and reaches for her elbow to keep her from toppling over.

"Oh shoot, I'm so sorry." The close to sopping wet girl folds automatically into a bow.

Sunggyu holds out his umbrella. "Here." He s the umbrella handle into Joo-hee's hand the shade immediately protecting her from the rain and consequently sending him right under it.

"What the hell are you doing, Sunggyu?" Nayoung grits her teeth and even though her hand drives right through him, she still tries to smack some sense into him. "You're supposed to share the umbrella! That's what they do in those crappy dramas!"

But Sunggyu ignores her as per usual and Nayoung watches on helplessly as Joo-hee gives him a couple of startled blinks before handing the umbrella back to him.

Which he promptly hands back to her with a soft chuckle. "Take it," he says with finality.

"But you're... You're getting wet."

He shrugs. "But I'm heading home. You still have cram school to get to, right?"

Joo-hee blinks again because seriously Sunggyu? You really want to clue her into your stalker tendencies now that you're making that tiny bit of progress?  Nayoung groans. Helpless. Such a stupid helpless kid.

"Right," she answers with a slow nod. She looks down for a moment and Nayoung's astute enough to see the slight blush growing on Joo-hee's cheeks. "Thank you, Sunggyu-ssi." She bows before offering him a grateful smile. "I owe you one."

"Of course you don't." He says, waving a hand in the air, brushing away her suggestion.

She laughs her tinkling laugh that makes Nayoung vomit a little in . The girl is just... too perfect. "Of course I do."

"It's fine. I promise. Now go," Sunggyu says tilting his head to the side, "You don't want to be late."

Joo-hee smiles and nods. "Thank you again. I'll see you tomorrow..."

"You probably think I'm an idiot," Sunggyu whispers to Nayoung as they both watch Joo-hee quickly walk away in the direction of her cram school.

"I did," Nayoung concedes. "But I have to admit, that turned out pretty smooth." She snaps her fingers almost absentmindedly and the rain parts to create a dry little space exactly where Sunggyu is standing, his clothes drying almost instantly.

"Ethereal powers and ," she says by way of explanation.

Sunggyu chuckles. "And I have to admit that you're good for some things."

"Ooh, a compliment!" She claps her hands then abruptly stops and looks him sternly in the eye. "But you know what I really want to hear, right?"

He rolls his eyes. "You were right. I'm glad I trusted you."

"Truce then?" Nayoung asks hopefully.

"Truce."

...