When Minseok wakes up, Lu Han is nowhere to be seen.

This time he doesn’t think the ghost is just hiding from him somewhere. This time he knows Lu Han won’t be coming back. He touches the spot on the floor where he had seen the ghost laying down before he had unfortunately fallen asleep last night. He feels nothing. No electricity, not anything. 

“Lu Han?” He calls the other weakly, getting no response. It seems Lu Han really is gone.

It takes him a while to process it all. That he won’t see the ghost’s overgrown hair ever again, hear his laugh, or feel his hands wander on his . But when he does, it’s not long until the first sob escapes his mouth. Then another. Soon he is wailing in the supply closet, faintly hoping nobody will hear him. He’s never cried in front of Lu Han, even though he’s felt sad about his death more than once, but now that the ghost is gone for good, nothing is stopping him from opening his waterways.

After having cried for a good fifteen minutes, Minseok starts to calm down. His nose is runny and his eyes are red and swollen. If Lu Han was here, he would make a joke about how ugly he is. Or maybe not. No, if he was here, he’d tell him he still looks cute even though he knows he doesn’t. Lu Han always did that; told him how cute and amazing he was, while he felt the complete opposite.

Minseok wishes he could have told Lu Han the same thing more often, when he had still been around.

Drying his tears with the back of his hand, he collects himself and finally steps out of the closet. Luckily for him, there’s nobody else in the hallway, so he doesn’t raise any questions. Quietly, he heads for the bathroom, where he can at least wash his face and pretend he didn’t just spend a night in a supply closet.

He fakes smiles well enough until it’s lunchtime and Yixing sits at the same table. The Chinese man takes a long look at Minseok.

“You’ve been crying, hyung. Why?” Yixing asks, making Minseok blush.

He had thought the traces of his earlier mourning session had already vanished. Now that Yixing had brought up Lu Han again, he is afraid he’ll start to cry once more.

Still, he has to give Yixing an explanation, since he was somehow involved in this. Even though he never got to see Lu Han. Abandoning his bread, he turns towards Yixing and mumbles.

“Lu Han’s gone…”

Yixing blinks. “I thought he was already dead?”

Minseok shakes his head. “No, I mean. He found his peace or something. He…was feeling weak when I found him in a supply closet last night. Like he was getting more and more transparent and couldn’t move very well anymore. He had vanished by this morning, so… He’s gone.” He doesn’t mention the possible kiss Lu Han may or may not have given him. Yixing doesn’t need to know all the details after all. Not when he himself still doesn’t know if it happened for real or if Lu Han really fell through him because he was feeling so weak.

Yixing takes a long time to process his words, but when he finally understands what has happened, he jumps to hug him, knocking over a glass of water in the process. “Hyung! I’m so sorry! I know you were good friends!”

Minseok hugs the other back, but can’t help but think that Lu Han would be fuming if he saw this. He’d stand next to them and accuse Yixing of ual harassment. The thought of it makes Minseok chuckle. Yixing lets go of him and sends a questioning look towards him. “Did I accidentally tickle you, hyung?”

Smiling, he shakes his head. “No, I was just… thinking about how often Luhan got mad at you.”

“Me?” Yixing’s eyes widen. “I didn’t realise I was being impolite towards him…”

“You weren’t!” He hurries to explain. “Luhan just didn’t like it when you or anyone else touched me. He must have felt territorial because I was the only one who could see him…”

Again, Yixing gives him a long look, before slightly shaking his head and simply mumbling, “I see.”

For the rest of the day, he tries to concentrate, but it’s difficult. He’s too used to catching Lu Han’s transparent figure in the corner of his eye or hearing his comments about other trainees or EXO members. The world suddenly feels a lot more silent and surprisingly, he finds himself hating it.

He’s still sullen and moody three days later when Sooman gathers all the eleven members of EXO together to talk about some changes. Briefly he hopes they aren’t getting rid of the superpower concept, because he really likes it and having ice powers (even if imaginary) is cool. 

They soon find out Sooman isn’t going to talk about superpowers, but about their group size instead. Before this, EXO was going to debut with eleven members, but now Sooman is talking about adding another member, making twelve members in total. Six for EXO-M and six for EXO-K. Minseok sharpens his ears, because even if he’s still very much sad about losing Lu Han, he feels he should listen closely. They were getting a new member after all.

Sooman explains that the circumstances are extraordinary, and that due to some things, the new member wouldn’t be joining right away, but maybe a year or two afterwards. Minseok is starting to think Sehun and Tao are going to lose their maknae statuses and Sooman is going to introduce someone really young to their group — someone too young to even join them right now. However, his thoughts are interrupted when Sooman names the new member joining EXO in the future.

“A few years ago we had a talented trainee called Lu Han, who was already close to debuting so I’ve decided he will be joining the gro—”

“WHAT!? ” Minseok shouts before flushing bright red, when he realises he just interrupted the big boss. Sinking down on his chair, he feels his heart thump in his chest. Lu Han? Joining their group? Is that… Is that why he vanished? Somehow their plan worked? Sooman had plans to debut Lu Han as the new member of their group, making the ghost finally find peace and vanish? A million thoughts run wild in his mind. Which makes him ignore everyone still staring at him. Only Yixing, who knows the real reason why Minseok yelled earlier, stares at Sooman instead. He, too, desperately wants to know how SM is going to make a dead person debut.

After clearing his throat, Sooman continues, acting like no one interrupted him at all.

“Lu Han will be joining EXO after he’s recovered. He had an accident five years ago, and has been in a coma ever since.”

Everyone in the room listens silently and even Minseok can’t utter another shout, even if he wants to. Because… What? Coma? Lu Han’s in a coma? He’s not… Lu Han’s not…

“You mean Lu Han’s not dead!?” He finally asks. Or rather – shrieks, getting all eyes on him again. But he doesn’t care, turning towards Junmyeon.

“You said he was dead!” He accuses him. Junmyeon looks surprised and mildly embarrassed that he suddenly got involved in this little shouting fest in the middle of Sooman’s important speech.

“Lu Han? Why would I say he’s dead?”

“But when I asked you what had happened to him, you said he…!” Minseok insists.

“I said he tripped on a water bottle and fell down the stairs,” Junmyeon explains hastily, as if wanting to make him stop talking to him quickly. Maybe he thinks Sooman will have a bad impression of him as well.

“But… Luhan’s not… he’s not dead?”

Junmyeon looks at him pitifully. He must think the stress finally got the better of his groupmate. “He’s not.”

The rest of the meeting flies past his head. Lu Han’s not dead. He was never dead. Why did they even think he was dead? Why didn’t he figure things out properly? Why did he think he had lost his friend for good when… Lu Han was never dead!

He’s not sure if it was Sooman or Junmyeon he threatened (he hopes it wasn’t Sooman) to get the address of the hospital Lu Han’s currently staying at, but it doesn’t really matter. All that matters to him is that Lu Han’s not dead and that… He can see him again.

After taking the wrong bus two times due to being too excited and nervous and having flashed his cutest idol-in-making -smile at the receptionist to get Lu Han’s room number, Minseok is practically running through the hospital hallways feeling almost feverish.

When his eyes finally catch the correct number on the door, he doesn’t even bother knocking before already sliding the door open. Behind it is a simple room and on a simple bed lies a boy Minseok knows very well.

His hair is shorter and body thinner. The boy’s face is pale but has more colour than Minseok’s ever seen on it. And the eyes… The eyes that turn to look at him are eyes that he knows very well. It almost hurts how familiar he is with the gentle gaze those eyes direct at him.

“Took you long enough, Baozi,” Lu Han smiles weakly and Minseok rushes to hug him.