Hoseok yawned and stretched. “What a weird dream. Ghosts, ha.” A loud clattering and a muffled curse came from his living room. “Oh my god.” He whispered as he slowly crept out of bed. He opened his bedroom door just enough so that he could see out. He saw Riley sitting on the floor trying to move his keys. Oh my god, it wasn’t a dream… she’s real. He closed the door and quickly fixed his appearance in the mirror before heading out to the living room.

Riley turned and faced him with a big smile. “Morning!” she greeted cheerfully. “Morning.” He noticed a book by Riley’s side. “Were you reading?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the book. “Yeah, it gets kinda boring when you can’t touch anything so I used my ability to get the book down from the shelf. I hope you don’t mind?” he shook his head, of course not. Do you like reading?” he asked as he went to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee.

She followed him through, “Yeah, I remember I used to read a lot.” Hoseok smiled at her. “You remembered something else! That’s great!” Riley couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. Once he made his coffee, they returned to the living room. “So, this might seem a little insensitive, but why do you think you’re still here?” Hoseok asked as he sipped on his coffee.

Riley shrugged her shoulders, “I honestly don’t know. If I think about any movie I’ve seen or book I’ve read with ghosts in it, it’s because they have some kind of unfinished business. But usually they can remember who they are and can work out what their unfinished business is.” Hoseok nodded. “That sounds fair. So, what can you remember, you said you had been having flashes of your life?”

Riley's brows furrowed as she concentrated. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths (an action that Hoseok assumed was just more of a habit than anything else since she didn’t need to breathe). “I remember my apartment. I remember white curtains and flowers. Photographs… but I can’t remember any of the faces.” She paused as she continued to concentrate. “I have… I mean had a lot of books… I remember music.” Her eyes opened slowly.

“Are you ok?” Hoseok asked as she quietly levelled her breathing. “Yeah. I’ve never remembered so much before.” She said as she looked at him with a smile which Hoseok returned. “I’m sure if you keep working at it you’ll be able to remember more and more.” He said with an encouraging look. “I hope so.” She said quietly. Hoseok cleared his throat. “Maybe there’s some way I can help. I can do some research and see if there’s any way to help you.”

She gave him a grateful smile. “You don’t have to do that. I’m sure you’ve got your own life to be busy with, you don’t need to become a ghost expert as well.” She said with a chuckle. “It’s no problem. I want to help.”

They spent the rest of the day looking through website after website trying to find some information on how to help Riley recover her memories. Their searching had all been in vain. After a full day of searching, they hadn’t come any closer to finding a method to help her. This routine carried on for the next week. Hoseok would get up and spend hours looking through the internet trying to find ways to help her, while she attempted to remember anything about her life.

She had had many more flashes of her life, but she still couldn’t remember her name. She could remember the faces of her parents, but without their names or any other pieces of important information, she was unable to locate them. Hoseok had also spent some time researching news articles about any deaths of girls her age over the past few months but she hadn’t come up in any of his searches.

Riley had also taken this time to strengthen her ability. She was able to move around several small objects for an extended period of time. She had also progressed from small items to larger ones. She had been able to make the armchair rise a few inches from the floor and move around Hoseok’s living room.

They had also been taking tours around the city to see if anywhere trigged any memories for her. So far the train station where they met was the only place she felt was familiar. After a week of searching they once again sat in Hoseok's living room, Riley lying on the floor, and Hoseok sprawled out on his couch. Riley let out a loud sigh and sat up.

“Hoseok, I think that… I should leave.” Hoseok sat bolt upright. “What? Why?” he asked. She refused to look at him, her gaze fixed on the floor. “It’s not that I’m not grateful for everything you’ve done. I could never thank you enough. But that’s also the problem.” Hoseok's brows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t understand.” He said, slipping off the couch and kneeling beside her.

“You’ve spent this entire week helping me try to remember who I am and what happened to me. But that’s the thing… Hoseok, I’m dead.” The words hurt her, even though she had accepted the fact that she was a ghost, admitting that she was dead was something completely different. Hoseok felt his chest tighten at her words. “Riley…”

“You’re still alive Hoseok. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on someone like me. It’s already too late for me.” She said, her voice thick. She wondered if it was still possible for her to cry. “Riley don’t say that! I’m helping you because I want to. You didn’t force me to help you. You didn’t force me to let you stay here. It was all my choice.” He wanted to reach out to her, to make her face him. His hand itched to reach out and touch her, but he knew that he couldn’t. The thought made his heart clench painfully.

“I don’t want you to waste your life.” She said quietly. She slowly turned to him and Hoseok could swear he saw tears in her eyes. “I want you to be happy Hoseok. And you can’t be happy if you’re spending all your time helping some dead girl trying find out who she is.”

“Riley…” she stood up, cutting him off. She looked down at him with a sad smile. “Thank you so much for the past week Hoseok. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me. But I think it’s best if you forget about me.” Hoseok jumped to his feet. “Riley, please don’t go.” He couldn’t help himself as his hand reached out for hers. They both looked down sadly as his hand passed through hers.

Riley let out a sob. “Goodbye Hoseok.” She turned and ran through the closed balcony doors and disappeared from Hoseok's view. “No!” Hoseok yelled as he ran to the doors, throwing them open before crashing into the balcony railing. “Riley! Riley! No…” he fell to his knees, his hands slowly sliding down the railings before falling limply at his sides. He felt hot tears start to slide down his cheeks. “Riley… don’t go.”