CHAPTER 1

Joo Saem rushed across the street as soon as the walk light flashed on. She dodged the pedestrians walking the opposite way, ignoring their irritable hollers toward her. She was already late and didn't have time to deal with cranky middle-aged people. As she reached the bottom of the hill, she paused a quick moment to in a deep breath, a glance at her watch - which told her she only had two minutes left - and a quick adjustment of her uniform skirt before sprinting up the incline. Saem hadn't even made it half way up the hill before her legs started to burn. However she pushed through it with a groan of pain.

As she reached the top of the hill she heard the school bell chiming and noticed the security guard walking the gate closed.

"Wait!" Saem shouted as she refused to halt her pace. The guard looked over and gave her a disapproving look but stopped for her still. Perks of making friends with the guard, Saem thought to herself. As she rushed through the gate she waved and smiled. "Thank you Mr. Jang. See you at lunch." Mr. Jang only gave a wave of his hand in response.

Saem didn't stop until she stood outside the rear classroom door. Calming her breathing as much as she could, she slid the door open, prepared for her scolding. As she stepped into the classroom, the students turned in their seats and giggled.

"Ms. Joo, so nice of you to join us. Have a seat," Mrs. Kim said, the disapproval clear on her voice. Saem smiled sheepishly and quickly shuffled to her desk. When Saem was seated the lesson began again. 

"That could've been worse," a voice said behind her. Saem sighed as she pulled out her textbook, notebook, and pencil. A boy, maybe one year younger than her, walked around and sat on the desk of the student diagonal to her. The student didn't react, no one did, but that was normal. This boy was the same ghost who'd been following Saem for the past week. 

Ignoring him, Saem opened up her textbook and accidentally bumped her deskmate's arm. She startled slightly and turned to apologize, but found him with his head laying on his arms, asleep. As usual. 

"All I'm asking is that you talk to him," the ghost pleaded. He hopped off the desk and came to stand over the sleeping student. "He used to love school so much." The ghost turned his sad brown eyes on Saem, but she pointedly ignored him. He came to stand in front of Saem and she sighed in frustration. Unlike the legends, ghosts weren't always see-through. They could choose how opaque they appeared and this ghost decided to turn on full clarity. He blocked the board as if he were a real human. 

Saem risked a look up at his face. Figuring that if anyone looked over at her it would look like she was looking at the ceiling. The boy looked younger than his age, or so he claimed on his multiple rambles - always ignored on her part. In the times that he'd been following her, he'd practically told her his life story. Well, except for how he died, and what exactly he want from her. He had short dark brown hair and a friendly face. His cheeks were full and Saem couldn't help but feel sad at the realization that he'd never grow older than this. 

He noticed then that he'd caught her attention and smiled brightly. He crouched in front of her desk and looked up at her. "You're looking at me! This is great progress. Now if you'll just hear me out."

"Not now," Saem muttered under her breath trying not to move her lips. "At break. We'll go to the roof."

"Psst," a new voice joined. Saem stiffened and blinked looking over at her deskmate. His head was still buried in his arms but he'd turned so his face was in her direction. His eyes were still closed however. "Stop talking to yourself."

Saem cursed herself before whispering a quick, "Sorry." Her deskmate opened his eyes and sighed in annoyance before turning his head the opposite direction. When Saem looked over to the front of her desk, the ghost was gone.

• • •

When the bell for break signaled, Saem got up and made her way through the hallways up to the roof top. Luckily no other students decided to loiter here this time around. Not seeing the ghost anywhere, Saem stretched her arms above her head and sighed in relief when she felt her back pop. Walking over to the ledge, she sat on the inside of the roof and leaned her head back on the ledge, smiling slightly at the sun. 

"I wish I could still feel the sun," the ghost said from next to her. Saem blinked and looked to her right to find the ghost in the same position as her. He was completely visible again. Saem figured it probably made him still feel somewhat alive. She turned her head away again and closed her eyes.

"What do you want," Saem murmured. "I'm not supposed to talk to you guys."

"'You guys'?" the ghost asked. After a momen he let out a noise of realization. "Ghosts."

Saem nodded. "Draws too much attention. And people look at you like you're a freak. Trust me, I know from experience."

"I figured. When I get really bored, I wander the school. I've heard what people say about you."

Saem scrunched up her nose. "What do you want?"

Silence.

Saem looked over again and found the spotempty. Frowning, Saem got up and looked around. She found the ghost sitting on the ledge, his feet dangling off the roof. "My name is Kunpimook Bhuwakul. But you can call me BamBam...my friends always did."

"Alright then, BamBam, what do you want with me?"

He looked over his shoulder at Saem and smiled sadly. "When I...you know...my friends they, uh...they hit a low." He got up from the ledge and hopped back onto the roof. "They stopped hanging out, stopped doing things they loved. I want you to get them back together. Get them back to how they were."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Saem rushed out. "That's a lot of work! And how am I, a complete stranger to these people, supposed to get them to be friends again. All I do is see ghosts, I'm not some...some...guidance counselor!"

"Calm down," BamBam chuckled. "I'd help you, of course. Tell you where to find them, what they like. Because it's not that hard. You go to school with most of them anyway. In fact you sit next to...Youngjae!" 

Saem noticed that BamBam wasn't looking at her anymore, but over her shoulder. She turned around and found her deskmate, Youngjae apparently - she didn't know why she never bothered to learn his name - walking onto the roof top towards her. He looked slightly bored but if Saem looked hard enough she could've sworn to see some relief in his face.

"You said you'd be up here," Youngjae said, coming to stand next to her.

Saem frowned. "I did?"

"Yeah, in class when you were talking to yourself."

Saem felt her face heat up. "Ah...yeah." She looked over and found Youngjae staring off at the city and BamBam looking at his friend in wonder, as if it was a completely different person. 

"Well, see you in class," Youngjae said suddenly.

"What? Why'd you come up here if your were just going to leave?"

Youngjae, who had started back towards the door, stopped for a moment before looking back at her. "Just wanted to make sure you weren't going to jump. It would've been a real burden for me if I was the last person you interacted with and heard your...plans."

Saem blinked and then jolted. "Wait you thought...? Oh! No, that wasn't..." She stopped talking when she started to ramble.

"Well, see you then." He turned around and waved over his shoulder. When he was gone, Saem turned to look at BamBam in disbelief.

"You were friends with that guy?"

"He wasn't always like that. And he's still practically the same. Youngjae has always been a good and kind person. He probably really was legitimately worried for you, even if he didn't know you. But he just played it off like it was nothing."

Saem thought back to the look of relief on Youngjae's face when he had seen she was okay. Pursing her lips, Saem looked out towards the city. It was slightly hazy from pollution and because of its close distance if you listened hard enough you could hear some honking car horns every now and then. 

"Before I decide if I'm going to help you," Saem said at last. "I want to see all your friends. And you'll need to tell me something about them."

Bambam beamed and nodded, "Okay! Deal!" The warning bell rang and Saem made her way back towards the door. "After you eat lunch, I'll show you the guys who go here. Then later I can show you the other two."

Saem nodded her agreement and couldn't help a smile at BamBam's excitement.

• • •

A/N: Hello everyone! I am back with a new story though this is the last thing I should be doing right now.  This is actually a story I've been planning for awhile and have a good 9 chapters already written. I just need to proofreed and get them published. I'm not sure how long this story will be right now but ate the rate I'm going it should be at east 15 chapters (give or take a few). 

And I know I have another story still incomplete but I've just completely hit a wall with that story. So in the meantime please enjoy this first chapter! Second chapter should be out very soon as well.