Chapter 04

I soon found out, much to my chagrin, Wang (as I started to call him) was quite a talker. Especially For a guy who kicked the bucket centuries ago, and who when he talked seemed like he belonged to the Joseon era(which maybe he did). Maybe he was delighted that someone can actually see and feel him after all these years of wandering lonely. It was the morning after the day I moved in, and I was busy unpacking my stuff and setting up my room. He was sitting on the window seat talking 100 miles per hour, in fact, I was starting to get a headache.

“So.. why did you move into this house?” he asked, lounging on the window seat while I was unpacking a carton of books.

“Long story,” I said, as I unpacked the carton containing my books.

“I have all the time in the world” he replied cheekily, grinning like the idiot ghost he is. I resisted the urge to throw my harry Potter hardbound edition at him. I had to keep reminding myself that he was just a poor lost soul and he probably did not have anyone to talk to since all those years ago when he died.

Which reminded me, “How did you die?” I asked, rather bluntly considering it could be a sensitive topic, but then I was dead tired with arranging all my stuff to be too empathetic to beat around the bush and not that it seemed to matter. That guy was making morbid jokes about his own existence.

When he didn’t answer for a few seconds, I glanced at his face. It had acquired that far away look again. “I don’t exactly remember anything preceding or following my existence as a ghost. I do remember coming here, from my kingdom....but after that..just nothing. It is like I woke up one day and found that I was a ghost when I realized I was invisible to people and walk through them. I have been trying to recall since then, how I came into being, but there’s like this wall in my head that is blocking me from my memories”.

So not only do I have a ghost in my bedroom, but he is also suffering from amnesia. How in the world can I help lead him to his destined path, when he cannot even remember how he died in the first place?

“Didn’t you ever get lonely, being in the same place year after year, watching people come and go?” I asked, now pausing all my unpacking activities, completely invested in squeezing all I could know about him.

“I did. It is weird watching generations rise and fall before my own eyes. Even after all these years I have not come to accept myself as a dead person, not when I am a ‘presence’ and even though I am as good as invisible to others. Before you, the only way I could have any contact with people was by moving their things. But I tried not to do that as they always left, once such occurrences started happening frequently, leaving me alone again. So I refrained myself and confined myself to this room” he told, looking gloomier with each passing word.

I was at a loss for words, what more could I say? I do not even know the right things to say, god knows what might trigger him, what if he turns into full mode bat poltergeist avatar? So I kept mum and let him wallow in his misery.

I was walking home after buying groceries when I felt a presence beside me. It was so unexpected that I almost spilled my bag, if not for my last minute ninja skills.

“Don’t do that!” I admonished him.

“Do what?” He asked innocently, walking beside me.

“Appear out of nowhere, I just got a heart attack”

“Oh, sorry,” he said, looking slightly ashamed of himself.

“How are you even out of the house? Aren’t you like, tied to it or something?” I asked curiously after a while later when my heart beat returned to normal.

“I told you, I can be out of the house if I am not out for too long or try to apparate too far away,” he said, dropping the ‘apparate’ word as casually as you say other mundane things.

“You can apparate?” I asked, stopping in my tracks in awe.

“Do you think I walked myself here?” he asked cocking an eyebrow. Damn! He looked hot doing that and I had to physically stop myself from ogling at him.

“Good thing, then,” I said “I hope you can apparate yourself back home, and me too if possible. It looks like we lost our way” When I realized we passed the same ice cream store for the third time in a row. Being new to the neighborhood, I still hadn’t gotten used to navigating my way back home.

He looked around like he just realized that we were lost too. “Too bad then,” he said grinning, “ I’ll just vanish, good luck finding your way back home”. Why does he have to be such a tease? I cursed him under my breath as I walked away from him.

“Wait!” I heard him say, but I continued walking farther away from him, as it was getting pretty late and if he started talking again, he wouldn’t even shut up anytime soon. I was just thinking about the fact that he acted awfully chummy to me when in fact we just met like two days ago while he was supposed to have been dead for centuries when he caught up with me.

Just as he opened his mouth, no doubt to admonish me for ‘leaving him behind’ when a door of the shop on my left threw open. I jumped in fright at that, what was with people appearing out of thin air today? I was never going to survive if I kept getting heart attacks like these.

An old lady walked out, holding a cane. She looked so old that I was afraid she would topple over any moment and kick the bucket. Her skin looked so fragile stretched across her wrinkles, she reminded me of those old books in museums which are so thin that you are afraid it will crumble the moment you touch it.

“Ah! So you have come after all. All those years I have been waiting for you...” she mumbled, her voice so low that I almost thought I imagined it, if not for Wang frowning beside me.

“Excuse me?” I said, looking around wondering if I was the one she was indeed talking to. There