Perhaps no more than three or four minutes elapsed before Baekhyun saw Chanyeol come through the entrance door and hurry back across the big room in the direction of the balcony where he waited. There were still flecks of snow on his wavy brownish hair which hadn't melted and Chanyeol's face was set in a stern mask. He flinched at the grim lines etched around Chanyeol's mouth as he came to the table and again took his place beside Baekhyun. He didn't say a word or even glanced at him but picked up his martini and took a big mouthful of it.

Baekhyun reached up and touched the shoulder of his gray suit and then lightly caressed his sandy hair. "You're wet!" he worried. "You sent out into the storm without hat or coat!"

Now Chanyeol looked at him. "I guess you know why."

Baekhyun's blue eyes held a frightened light. "I saw the boy," he said quietly. "He looked so remarkably like Kyungsoo."

"I could have swornn it was Kyungsoo," he said, sounding frustrated and stunned.

"But we both know that Kyungsoo is dead. That he died a long ago," Baekhyun tried to sound reasonable and placating but there was a slight tremor in his voice that betrayed his fears.

Chanyeol's aristocratic face was still in shadow. "I followed them out into the street after I asked the head waiter who they were."

"Did he know them?

"They had been here several times before but he didn't know the names of either of them," his husband said unhappily and finished his drink.

"You shouldn't have let it go at that," Baekhyun reasoned. "It was ridiculous to jump up and leave me the way you did to follow two utter starngers into the street."

"I wasn't sure they were strangers. I'm not sure yet."

He frowned slightly. "You didn't catch up with them?"

"No."

"I was hoping that you would. So the illusion would be shattered."

"Chanyeol stared at him with worried eyes. "You're so sure it was illusion?"

Again the fear shot through him-- the fear that this man he'd married had been permanently impaired by the painful experience he'd gone through. He said, "It had to be. I don't believe in ghosts. Kyungsoo is dead."

He held the menu in his hands without giving it any attention. His eyes had a far-away, haunted look. "There is something about seeing someone you loved that instantly has an impact to you. When I looked down in the crowd and saw the boy in the trench cotton coat I was sure it was Kyungsoo."

He decieded to try and make light of it. Strive for an easy, joking approach. "In that case you'd be a bigamist and I'd be in a pretty position," he said. "You assured the minister that your first husband died in a plane accident before you had him perform the ceremony."

Chanyeol glanced at him. "So he did."

"Then are you trying to bring him back to life merely to embarrass the poor man and upset everyone else?"

A sad smile touched his mouth. "sorry, Baek," he said. "I did behave stupidly. Forgive me."

He felt a surge of relief that he'd reached him, been able to break through the barriers of scar tissue and that haunted look in his eyes. Smiling in return, he said, "You gave me a few bad moments."

"They weren't exactly easy ones for me."

"I knew what you were thinking as you began striding towards the door," he said. "And I was afraid you'd lost your mind."

"It's impossible to explain," he sighed. "But you saw the boy. He was a double for Kyungsoo."

"I'm willing to admit that."

"And I had this certainty that it was him," Chanyeol went on unhappily. "I forgot everything but my desire to reach him and talk with him."

He gave him a reproving look. "It was clear enough you'd forgotten all about me."

"Not in the way you think," he said, taking Baekhyun's hand in his. "But there I was faced with a ghost."

"A look-alike," she said quietly.

Chanyeol's eyes met his. "You rule out the possibility of ghosts in the daylight hours?"

"I've heard of some," he said. "But I doubt if the spirit of your first husband happens to be one of them. There have been times when I've been sure I've felt his presence in the house on Eighty-first Street at night. For after all it was his house. But I hardly would expect to see him in the daytime and in a crowded restaurant."

Chanyeol shrugged. "Why not? It's perfectly possible that among this great lot of people gathered at the tables here some should be ghosts returning to a beloved haunt."

Baekhyun smiled reufully. "I doubt if you could sell the restaurant's public relations man on that story. People have a dislike for dining with phantoms."

His face was shadowed again. "Seriously, I do think that ghosts can appear in the daytime and anywhere."

"So you think you saw Kyungsoo's spirit?"

"Maybe. I won't rule out the possibility. I followed those two out into the storm a moment after they left and there was no sign of them on the street. They had vanished!"

"Probably he's arranged for a car to pick them up and it was waiting there for them,"Baek said.

"I doubt that."

"You prefer to think they were both visitors from the other side who were able to fade into the air at will?"

"If you must put it so bluntly?" he said.

"That means the other man had to be a ghost as well. Did you recognize him?"

"No. I didn't get a good look at him. I lost them outside."

Baekhyun told him. "Forget it. The guy was a look-alike for Kyungsoo. That's all."

"I suppose I'll have to try and make myself believe that," he said, finally giving the menu some attention. "But it won't be easy."