The mysterious helper
Answer, the music shop
❝The mysterious helper
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A filler story about the background of the staffs in the shop.
Sunggyu sat at the counter, his eyes following a certain male who was wiping the instruments gently, with a soft felt cloth.
The other male had been hanging around the shop since the day Sunggyu opened it, mainly helping out with the maintenance of the instruments. He had been a great help to Sunggyu, despite the fact that they had never talked much to each other, despite the few customers they had for the past few days.
Sunggyu seriously considered opening a cafe in the shop in order to attract more customers, but was persuaded against it by Woohyun who seemed to want to protect the instruments more than anything else.
“You could have just told me what to use, you know…” His voice trailed off, as soon as he realised that the other male was not listening to him at all.
“I have nothing else to do anyway.” The other male muttered, as he started wiping at the legs of one of the grand pianos. “I’m stuck here.”
“Don’t you have any other things to do?”
Sunggyu swore that he heard a pout in the other male’s voice. “I’ve been dying of boredom until you came along you know…”
“You’re already dead.”
Sunggyu could not help but point that fact out, as he winded another music box up, so that there would always be welcoming music in the shop in case any customer walked in.
“Good point.” To his surprise, the other male agreed and laughed to himself. “I guess I haven’t introduced myself to you yet, right? My name is Nam Woohyun and the last time I checked, I’m 25 years of age.”
“When you died?”
“Nope, I died way before that. You’re looking at my 23 year old form now.”
Sunggyu was at a loss of words after that, as he looked back at the small glass cabinet worth of music boxes in front of him.
“Hey hey it’s alright, I didn’t get murdered or committed suicide, so it’s fine.” Woohyun chuckled at Sunggyu’s vexed expression, marveling at how comical he looked with his eyebrows knitted together, looking like a kid who had committed a crime of stealing candies from his best friend. “I died because I had a breakup on a rainy day, and was crossing the overhead bridge when I slipped and fell off. My scarf got caught onto a lamppost and well… You get the picture. It was a quick death, don't worry.”
Woohyun laughed to himself, scratching his head in the process. “Sounds unbelievable, but that’s what happened. Hades did not believe what I said and told me to get revenge before going to meet him. I had no one to take revenge on and that’s why I’m stuck here.”
Is Hades even that free to entertain a nobody like you?
He glanced at the incredulous look plastered onto Sunggyu’s face, before bursting into laughter again. “I’m serious! I am stuck here because my ex lived upstairs and moved away as soon as she found out I died!” Woohyun felt like slapping his face onto the floor as he raised his voice, trying to convince Sunggyu that he was speaking the truth.
“I believe you.” To his surprise, Sunggyu was looking at him with a serious expression. There's no other explanation which can tell me why is he stuck here all the time. “May I ask then why is the previous owner so afraid of you? You don’t seem like a very scary ghost to me.”
For some reason, Woohyun shrugged with a nonchalant expression. “Need you ask such a simple question? I almost scared him to death.”
“How did you even…”
“He told me to scram, and so I did. But he fainted. He doesn’t seem to like me that much, does he?”
God, save me from this idiot… “Well Woohyun, he’s a human, of course he will be scared if you just appear and disappear suddenly like that. And who knows where you disappear to.”
Woohyun scratched his head, making him resemble more like a puppy than anything else. “But you didn’t faint when you saw me that day.” He then stuck out his tongue in a cheeky manner. “But I don't exactly disappear, I make myself invisible.”
“I almost did faint and wow, I never knew ghosts had powers..”
There was silence, the chiming of the music boxes masking the silence in comfortable warmth.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
There was a lag in reaction, and Sunggyu found it rather intriguing. “Apology accepted, although I would request for you not to do that when there are customers in the shop. There are some really faint-hearted people around here, you know…”
As if on cue, the door to the shop opened with a light chime.
“Welcome!” Sunggyu yelled warmly from the counter. “Feel free to look around and treat the instruments with care! Thank you!”
The customer was in her early-twenties, with dark and nicely styled brown hair. She had a rather small and thin frame, fitted nicely into a black skin-hugging dress with flairs at the bottom.
She was their second customer in two weeks, but there was a high chance that she was not going to buy anything, just like the previous one. Sunggyu was quite sure that he was not going to earn anything for that month, maybe even incur losses. There are electricity and water bills… Payment for the imported instruments...
He sighed to himself, barely noticing the way Woohyun’s expression turned a shade darker the moment the female walked in.
Woohyun had stood up from his crouched position earlier, his hands tightly clenched around the felt cloth he was holding earlier. He made his way behind the counter, where Sunggyu was, and whispered, “She’s the one.” He did not know what made him do so, but he just did.
“Your ex?”
He nodded, looking away from the female, who now had her nose buried into one of the music scores. She clearly had not seen or sensed the presence of the ghost, or she would have run out of the shop, screaming at the top of her lungs already.
“You know that if you do not want to see her, you may actually disappear, right?”
“I do actually want to grab the chance to talk to her.”
“By all means go ahead.” Sunggyu’s tone made him seem detached from the whole issue, and Woohyun could not help but was hurt by it.
“You think I shouldn’t?”
“I think you should.” Sunggyu looked at him with the stern expression he had always used on his juniors in school. “Settle whatever thing you have going on with her. I believe she must be feeling very guilty over your death by now. It’s been two years, Woohyun.”
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