“I’m so sorry,” Chanyeol says. “So, so, so sorry.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “I know. You’ve only told me a billion times since last night.”

“I know, but I feel like I can’t say it enough,” Chanyeol chuckles, but it’s sort of hysterical. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

“I can’t really blame you,” Baekhyun admits, chewing on his eggs. “I didn’t believe in ghosts before either, I suppose.” He thinks for a second. “I guess the woman in the attic is dead as well. I wonder how many ghosts are in this hotel?”

Chanyeol laughs again, a little less hysterical this time. “Does it matter? There’s at least two. I think that means it’s time to get the hell out.”

“Not necessarily,” Baekhyun says. “Sehun is a nice enough kid. And the girl in the attic, whoever she is, doesn’t seem particularly malevolent. The only one I’m really worried about is Mrs. Kim. Sehun says she doesn’t like us.”

Chanyeol chuckles, spearing a piece of sausage with his fork. “Maybe we should just ask Sehun to introduce us to her. Clear any bad blood between us.”

“Hm,” Baekhyun replies.

His boyfriend gives him a level look. “I was kidding, Baekhyun. It was a joke.”

“But it’s not necessarily a bad idea,” Baekhyun says. “At least we can meet her, assess the situation. If she’s scary as -”

“Or tries to kill us,” Chanyeol adds.

Baekhyun can’t help but chuckle. “Or tries to kill us,” he agrees. “We can get out. Sell the place and count our losses. What do you say? It can’t hurt.”

“Unless we end up dead,” Chanyeol grumbles.

Baekhyun chooses to ignore that.

They find Sehun playing ball in one of the back stairwells. Baekhyun tries not to dwell on the fact that it’s probably the same stairwell that the little boy died in.

“Hi, Mr. Baekhyun,” Sehun says, bouncing the ball against the wall with a resounding thunk and catching it again.

Baekhyun bends down so he’s more the same height as the little boy. “Sehun,” he says. “Can you take me and my friend here to see Mrs. Kim?”

Sehun’s eyes flicker over Chanyeol’s face before he throws the ball again. “She doesn’t like you two,” he says. “Why would you want to meet her?”

“Just to talk,” Baekhyun explains.

Sehun shakes his head. “She won’t show herself to you, you know. She doesn’t trust you. She doesn’t trust any men, really. Unless they’re dead.” His eyes twinkle as if he’s made a joke, but neither Baekhyun or Chanyeol finds it particularly funny.

“What about the other ghosts?” Baekhyun presses. “Can we talk to any of them?”

“They won’t talk to you because Mrs. Kim has forbidden it,” Sehun answers carelessly.

Baekhyun frowns. “But the girl in the attic talked to me. And you talk to me.”

“I don’t care what Mrs. Kim says. She can’t order me around,” Sehun says proudly. “And Sunyoung isn’t really in her right mind most days. She’ll talk to the walls if she thinks they’ll listen.”

“So what do we do?” Chanyeol asks later, when they’re safely shut away in their room on the second floor. “If this Mrs. Kim won’t show herself to us, then how are we going to figure out anything?”

“Research,” Baekhyun says. “We need to do research. Find a way to make Mrs. Kim take interest in us.”

“Research?” Chanyeol repeats. “Where?”

“Public records is a good place to start,” Baekhyun suggests.

That’s how the two of them end up in the nearest local library, looking through old newspaper archives for anything regarding the Westholt hotel.

“I think Mrs. Kim is probably one of the oldest ghosts,” Baekhyun whispers. They’re alone in the dank, dusty archive room, but he still keeps his voice down. It probably wouldn’t do for the old librarian to hear him talking about ghosts and whatnot. “So let’s start around the time the hotel was built.”

“Which was…?” Chanyeol prompts.

“Building started in 1853 and ended in 1855, when the hotel was first opened,” Baekhyun explained. “I’ll start with 1853 and you start with 1855.”

The room is silent as they go through, slide by slide, looking for anything pertaining to a Mrs. Kim.

They’ve been at it for four painstaking hours when Chanyeol says, “Hey, I think I found something. It’s from 1865.”

Baekhyun bounces gratefully out of his seat and over to the computer where Chanyeol is. He peers over his boyfriend’s shoulder to read the article.

“Mrs. Taeyeon Kim,” Chanyeol muses. “Found dead at the hotel due to premature labor. Think this is our girl?” He taps the picture of Mrs. Taeyeon Kim included with the news article.

Baekhyun purses his lips. “Could be. Pretty little thing, isn’t she?”

“I’d do her if I was straight,” Chanyeol agrees, causing the elder to roll his eyes and stifle a laugh. “But why do you think she’s still hanging around the hotel? Just because she died there? Or is she searching for the kid she lost or something?”

“No clue,” Baekhyun admits. “Pull up a search engine and type her name in. See if anything comes up.”

Chanyeol painstakingly types the name in – he’s not exactly a stenographer – and presses the search button. “Woah,” he says.

“There are hundreds of links with her name in them,” Baekhyun muses. “Click the first one.”

The page brought up is from about fifteen years ago, sloppily made and not updated any time recently. Still, the picture at the top of the page is the same one of Taeyeon Kim from the newspaper, so they continue reading.

“The facts: twenty-four year old Taeyeon Kim and her husband, Youngwoon, book a room at the Westholt Hotel in downtown San Francisco on March 15, 1865. The next evening, Mrs. Kim is dead. The official coroner’s report states that she died due to complications of premature labor. No investigation was ever conducted,” Baekhyun reads aloud. “Strange how even Mrs. Kim’s own mother denied any knowledge that she was pregnant, or was even trying to start a family. Strange how the couple staying next door reported the sound of a struggle hours before Mrs. Kim was pronounced dead. Strange how Mr. Kim remarried almost immediately.”

“This isn’t much of an article,” Chanyeol mutters, clicking the back button to choose another link.

The next page is titled “Who Killed Taeyeon Kim?” This has a much more romanticized version of the story, explaining how Mr. Kim violently murdered his wife in cold blood and then lied about it.

The next three web pages tell the same story.

“So that’s it then, I guess,” Chanyeol says, sitting back in his chair. “Her husband murdered her and got away with it, and now she’s holding it against him. And against all other men, if I had to guess. I don’t see how knowing any of this is going to make her not kill us.”

Baekhyun purses his lips. “I’ve got an idea.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Chanyeol says with a sigh.

Baekhyun can’t help but smile. “Probably not.” 

So a few of the ghosts have been properly identified now. I wonder if you can guess some of the others? 

;)