pairing: BaekChen
length: 4716 words

Baekhyun sighed as he stared upwards, taking in the dingy exterior of his new home. This was the best that he could afford with his measly paycheck. Even tiny apartments were more expensive than this wreck. A cold wind blew around him, causing the baby hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just move in with me?” Sehun worriedly watched as Baekhyun silently packed up his meager belongings into a ratty, black suitcase. A crumpled up eviction notice was on the floor near a small white trash can. “You can use Zitao’s old room now that he’s moved out.”

“I’ll be fine, Sehun.” Baekhyun sent his friend a tight-lipped smile. “The rent for your apartment is too expensive for me anyway. I won’t be able to contribute, and that’s not fair to you and Jongin. It’s already too much that the two of you are letting me stay over a few weeks for free.”

“We’re okay with it,” Sehun argued back. “It’s safer than you being out on the streets now that you’re literally homeless.”

But Baekhyun stood his ground. “Seriously, Sehun, I’ll be fine,” he repeated while zipping up the suitcase. His entire life was now in that bag. “I’m already looking at a few places. I won’t be homeless for long.” He smiled as he stood up while hoisting the suitcase into an upright position, but it came out looking more like a wince.

“Baek—”

“Shall we go?” Baekhyun asked, cutting off Sehun before the younger male could protest any further. Baekhyun then marched out of his former apartment with his head held high and his suitcase rattling behind him on its squeaky, worn-out wheels. Sehun groaned loudly while shaking his head as he grudgingly followed his friend out of the empty room.

And true to his word, Baekhyun had found a place with a roof, albeit a leaky one, to call home for however long it took him to scrape together enough money to buy or rent a better place. Considering he didn’t have much to his name in the first place, this would have to do for now. As long as he had a bed, a bathroom, and a kitchen, he’d be fine. It wasn’t like he’d be inviting anyone over for fun; he didn’t have any spare money to use after spending it all on this house. He didn’t even have enough for groceries, but Sehun had been kind enough to cover his food for the month until Baekhyun’s next paycheck came. The younger male was planning to stop by later that afternoon with dinner and groceries for his friend.

With another deep sigh, Baekhyun began hauling his suitcase up the cracked stone steps to the door, which was a faded brown color with visible scratch marks all over its front. A rusty knocker in the shape of a lion’s head was nailed to the door and Baekhyun made a mental note to himself to clean it as soon as he had time. Even though this wasn’t the nicest place he could have found, that didn’t mean he had to leave it in this state. The lock on the door was also rusted over, so Baekhyun had to jam his key into the lock and roughly turn it until he heard a loud click, signifying that the door was now unlocked.

As soon as the door swung open, a freezing draft blew past him. Baekhyun’s teeth chattered noisily as a result while he pulled his suitcase into the house. It was very dark inside with all of the curtains pulled close. A thick, musty scent filled the air, causing Baekhyun to pinch his nostrils together as he lamely attempted to wave away the unwelcome smell. After locking the door behind him and letting his suitcase clatter to the wooden floor, he quickly walked into the living room and to the nearest window. In less than five seconds flat, the curtains were pulled aside—sending a cloud of dust everywhere—and the windowpane was shoved upwards to air out the house.

“Much better,” Baekhyun murmured approvingly as he clapped his hands together to get rid of the dust that had gotten onto him.

“Yeah, thanks for doing that.”

A chill ran down Baekhyun’s spine as he froze where he stood. As far as he knew, this place was supposed to be uninhabited. There should have been no one here except for him.

But that apparent fact didn’t seem to stop his newfound companion from speaking and making his presence known.

“It’s been ages since anyone opened the window. Do you mind opening the other ones too? There won’t be enough circulation in here with just one open window.”

Seconds later, with Baekhyun still frozen in place, a translucent figure floated into Baekhyun’s line of vision. He was lying on his back with his left knee bent and his right arm supporting his head. A devilish smirk graced his angular face and it almost seemed like his eyes were twinkling due to the sun rays refracting off of him.

“Boo.”

Baekhyun was lucky that there was a couch—a rather old and dusty leather one—to break his fall as his knees buckled underneath him and he collapsed downwards while staring wide-eyed at the ghost that was grinning down at him. “Wh-who are you?” he stuttered while internally chastising himself for sounding so weak and frail.

“Just your friendly neighborhood ghost who happens to haunt this stereotypical dilapidated house,” the transparent male chirped while rotating into a cross-legged sitting position and floating closer to Baekhyun. He stuck out a hand before adding, “My name is Jongdae. What’s yours?”

It took a moment for Baekhyun to gather his bearings as he continued staring at the other male while trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was actually having a conversation with a ghost. He wished he could say that this was obviously a trick, some kind of sick joke that someone was playing on him, but there was no way this house was equipped with a wire-flying system; the walls looked too weak to support such expensive and heavy equipment. Jongdae was still looking at him expectantly as he waited for an answer to his question, so Baekhyun quietly said, “Byun Baekhyun,” as he staggered to his feet while brushing dust off of his pants.

“So why are you here?” Jongdae asked as he floated closer to inspect Baekhyun. His wispy, see-through fingers poked experimentally at the human male without warning. Another chill spread throughout Baekhyun’s body, shuddering when Jongdae’s fingers passed through him which caused the ghost to giggle. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

With a shake, Baekhyun began walking away and Jongdae floated right behind him with his lips curled up in a cat-like smile. “I just moved in. I’m living here from now on.”

“Why would you choose a place like this?” The ghost gestured to the ramshackle interior and a piece of wood coincidentally broke off of the rickety staircase that they passed on their way to the front hall. “See? No one in their right mind would live here.”

“Then I guess I’m crazy, considering I’m talking to a ghost right now as well,” Baekhyun commented wryly as he tried to ignore the shivers that wracked his body whenever Jongdae floated too close to him and parts of the ghost’s translucent body passed through him. The human male picked up his fallen suitcase and carefully dragged it over the wooden floor to the staircase that would lead to his bedroom.

“It’s okay. I don’t mind you being crazy, as long as you don’t go on any rampages or stuff like that,” Jongdae said with a beaming smile as he swirled around the human male until they reached the bedroom. “Oh, yeah, this place is especially awful, but the mice left ages ago, so at least you have that going for you!”

Baekhyun groaned when he saw the decrepit state of the room. The bed frame was slanted and the limp mattress was punctured with dozens of holes. There was an overwhelming smell of mothballs and the windowpane overlooking the barren front yard was shattered. The wooden closet door had multiple slash marks on it and the light bulb in the ceiling was hanging dangerously by a wire.

He dragged his suitcase close to the bed, stared at the damaged mattress for several seconds, and then heaved a sigh before letting his suitcase fall to the floor and bending down to it. As Baekhyun tugged out a threadbare blanket, Jongdae pointedly asked, “Are you really going to sleep on that filthy mattress? It’s probably infested with bedbugs and other parasites.”

“Where else will I sleep then?” Baekhyun sighed, but he honestly agreed with the ghost.

“Anywhere else is better than that. You might as well toss it out now,” Jongdae said sensibly as he floated towards it and then immediately backed away, his nose wrinkling with distaste.

“Fine, I’ll throw it away tomorrow. I’m too tired to drag it down the stairs right now.” Baekhyun sighed again as he slowly tucked his blanket back into his suitcase. Well, it seemed like that was what he’d be sleeping on that night. Just what he wanted.

The ghost floated behind Baekhyun and peered at the insides of the human male’s suitcase. “Wow, you must really be poor if this is all you own and you moved into this place.”

Baekhyun swore loudly when he turned and found himself face-to-face with an upside-down Jongdae whose smile was so wide that his eyes became crescent-shaped. “Don’t do that!”

“Do what?” the ghost asked innocently.

The human male ignored Jongdae’s question and instead asked, “Are you going to hang around me all day?”

“Yeah, what else would I do in this house? This place is as boring as watching grass grow, which I have admittedly done for far too long every spring.”

There was a loud knock, interrupting their conversation, and Baekhyun stood up while dusting himself off. “That must be Sehun.”

“Who’s that?” Jongdae asked curiously as he floated behind the human male, who began making his way to the front entrance.

“My friend. He’s bringing food.”

“What’s the occasion? Celebrating you moving into this junkyard?” the ghost snickered.

“No,” Baekhyun muttered, his eyes downcast as he stiffly walked down the shaky staircase.

“Then why?” When the human male didn’t answer, Jongdae soon realized why and his snickers turned into obnoxiously loud guffaws as he gasped out, “Oh, duh, it’s because you’re dirt poor! Oh my god, you can’t even afford groceries!”

A strawberry blush stained Baekhyun’s cheeks and he burrowed his clenched fists in his pockets of his threadbare coat. Even though he knew that Jongdae was just making up for the previous lack of social interaction by exaggerating all of his reactions, the ghost’s comments still stung. “Shut up,” Baekhyun barked when Jongdae continued to laugh hysterically. “You better be on your best behavior when I let Sehun in. Otherwise you’ll scare him away and then he’ll force me to move in with him.”

“What’s wrong with that?” the ghost asked, somewhat breathless from laughing so hard.

“I can’t afford it,” Baekhyun answered curtly. “He and his roommate, Jongin, live in the upper ring, since their families are relatively well-off. Even a day’s worth of rent there is more than what I can make in three months.”

Jongdae arched an eyebrow in surprise as he asked, “You’re that poor? Jeez, I figured you were poor, but not completely penniless.”

“I have a lot of family debt to repay,” the human male muttered as they reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly walked down the hallway to the front door. “Stuff happened a long time ago and now I’m swimming in debt, okay? Now please shut up. I’m going to let Sehun in.”

The ghost mimed locking his lips with a key and tossing it behind him before holding two thumbs up, still beaming brilliantly even though his mouth was closed.

As soon as Baekhyun unlocked the door, Sehun burst into the house with his arms laden with plastic bags overflowing with groceries. “My god, are you sure you want to live here, Baek?” Sehun wheezed as his nose overflowed with dust particles. “The closest grocery store is ten miles away and you don’t have a car.”

“I’ll make do. Thanks for coming with these, Sehun,” Baekhyun said with a tight-lipped smile as he took some of the bags off of his friend’s arms.

Jongdae continued grinning widely in the background, but Sehun didn’t seem to notice as he asked, “Where’s the kitchen? My arms feel like they’re about to fall off.”

“This way.” Baekhyun led everyone to the run-down kitchen that still had a grimy surface and cobwebs hanging from the stove vent. “Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to clean yet. I’ve been distracted,” he said, glaring at Jongdae out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t clean the kitchen!” the ghost immediately protested, forgetting that he was supposed to be silent. He immediately clapped his hands over his mouth while glancing warily at Sehun, who only grunted as he dropped the bags onto the floor.

“Have you checked the refrigerator though? I didn’t buy any perishables yet, just in case, but if it isn’t working, I can have Jongin bring over our spare mini-fridge,” Sehun rambled as he began pulling out boxes of ramen and pasta from one of the bags. “You have enough utensils, right? If you need more, Jongin can bring some as well. In fact, if you need anything, just write it down and I’ll have Jongin haul it over tomorrow. He has a day off.”

“Wow, he’s such a mother hen,” Jongdae commented as he floated closer to Sehun, who still paid no attention to the ghost.

Thus, Baekhyun realized that his friend couldn’t see Jongdae, which made no sense because he could see the ghost just fine. Jongdae had also come to the same conclusion and was instead having fun with it, making funny faces at Sehun and obnoxiously repeating whatever he said in a girly, high-pitched voice.

This revelation occupied Baekhyun’s mind as he absentmindedly helped Sehun move the dozens of cans and boxes into the dusty cupboards. It was like he was on auto-pilot and Sehun noticed how detached his friend was. “Baekhyun, is something bothering you?”

“Huh?”

“He’s talking to you, doofus,” Jongdae jibed with a hyena-like laugh.

“Oh, don’t worry, Sehun. Everything is great,” Baekhyun answered while glaring at the ghost, who mischievously stuck his tongue out as he lazily floated around Sehun.

The tall male wasn’t satisfied with that answer, since it was clear that Baekhyun was distracted, but he decided not to press the issue. His friend’s life was already hard enough and moving was a huge event in itself. “Well, let’s take inventory while I’m here,” Sehun suggested while clapping his hands together. “I haven’t seen the rest of your new place yet, so this is the perfect time to kill two birds with one stone.”

“Wow, that’s an old saying. People still talk like that?” Jongdae snorted as he somersaulted in the air, getting bored of staying in one spot.

“You really don’t have to go through all of this trouble, Sehun. I’m fine.”

But the tall male insisted and was already out the door while taking out his phone and loudly noting everything that Baekhyun needed.

Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to argue his way out of this, Baekhyun listlessly walked out of the kitchen to follow his friend while Jongdae floated beside him and mimicked everything Sehun said. It took all of Baekhyun’s self-restraint to not snap at the ghost, lest Sehun noticed, so the next half hour was spent listening to the tall male spew out lists of objects that Baekhyun apparently needed in his new house while Jongdae parroted every moment and interjected with his own thoughts—which was extremely unnecessary in Baekhyun’s opinion.

After looking through the kitchen one last time, Sehun finally seemed satisfied with the three-page-long list that was scrawled with miscellaneous items for Jongin to bring the next day. “See you soon, Baekhyun!” he called over his shoulder as he stepped through the doorway. “I’ll make sure Jongin is here for breakfast! He can take you shopping for anything else we might’ve missed!”

“Thanks, Sehun!” As soon as the tall male was gone, Baekhyun immediately rounded on Jongdae, who was startled by the other male’s sudden movements. “How come Sehun couldn’t see you?” he demanded to know.

“I dunno,” the ghost answered glibly. “I mean, I’m not surprised that he couldn’t. I was only expecting him to see me because you can. Honestly, you’re the only one who’s ever been able to see me; you’re the first human to ever acknowledge my presence, not that that’s saying much since no one ever comes to this dump. So I didn’t really have high hopes for Sehun in the first place. Too bad, though. He seems like a nice guy.”

The human male’s face paled at Jongdae’s response. “Wh-what do you mean, I’m the only one who’s seen you before? H-how is that possible?”

“Well, if you really must know…” Jongdae let his words trail before dramatically stretching his arms outward, looking like he was preaching to a large audience. “It was actually fate that brought you to this house. You, Byun Baekhyun, are the chosen one who has been tasked with bridging the supernatural and the human realms. Without you, there will be no balance between the two worlds.”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what you thought I’d say, right? Something crazy and stupid like that?” Jongdae then erupted into laughter as he curled his body in while tightly clutching his stomach. Tears—or what looked like tears—streamed down his thin face and his laughs seemed to propel him haphazardly around the room while Baekhyun watched with burning ears. After several seconds of non-stop, high-pitched laughter, the ghost was finally able to regain his composure. Jongdae wiped a stray tear from the corner of his right eye before drawing himself up while staring directly at the human male. “I honestly have no idea why you’re the only one who can see me,” the ghost said with a casual shoulder shrug. “But it’s not that bad!” Jongdae continued without a break as he reached over to pat Baekhyun’s shoulder.

The human male groaned again as that familiar chilling sensation ran through his body and he glared at Jongdae, who only cackled in response. Baekhyun swore that the ghost was purposefully doing this to annoy him. “Just leave me alone, Jongdae,” he huffed as he began marching back to the stairs to return to his bedroom.

“Aw, it was just a joke,” the ghost said, floating right behind Baekhyun like he had all day. “I just wanted to have a little fun with you, y’know?”

“Well, you can leave now,” Baekhyun snapped, bristling as he pointed to the door when they arrived in his bedroom. “In fact, you can leave this house entirely. It’s mine now and I don’t want a roommate, much less one who’s a ghost.”

“Now that’s just being prejudiced against ghosts,” Jongdae said, feigning mock hurt as he clutched his chest and pretended to fall over in distress. “You don’t really mean that.”

“Yes, I do!”

Baekhyun’s eyes were burning as he glowered at the ghost who became somber and slowly pulled himself up into a standing position, lowering his body so that the two males were level with each other. “I can’t leave,” Jongdae stated. There was no humor in his tone at all.

“Of course you can. Just pass on like every other dead person’s soul and go frolic in the fields of heaven or reincarnate or whatever happens in the afterlife.”

“I would, but I’m tethered to this house.” Jongdae pulled down his shirt, exposing his chest and the large white scar that marred his otherwise perfectly translucent skin.

A sinking feeling began swirling in Baekhyun’s stomach as he openly stared at the opaque white mark. “…What’s that?”

“The reason I’m stuck here. I was murdered in this very room, actually.” The ghost laughed and smiled as he pointed to the slashed closet door, but this laugh sounded mirthless and this smile didn’t reach his eyes. Baekhyun could tell Jongdae was forcing it. “It happened on a stormy night.”

“You really don’t need to tell me the story, Jongdae. I’m sorry I brought back such awful memories—”

“No, I want to tell you,” the ghost cut in with that same sad smile still gracing his sharp facial features. “No one got to ever hear my side of the story, because I was dead, so think of this as one of my last wishes.”

Baekhyun nodded and quietly sat down on the bed mattress, ignoring how it creaked dangerously under his weight. He motioned for Jongdae to sit next to him and the ghost was grateful for how normally the other male was currently treating him at the moment.

“It was such a stupid thing to happen, really. I was part of a gang in the past, which is surprising, right? I’m such a scrawny, skinny kid.”

“You’re not that small. We’re about the same size,” Baekhyun lamely reassured the ghost.

Jongdae laughed, this time sounding more genuine. “Yeah, you’d make an awful gang member. Anyway, I could pass off as a good, church boy during the day, but at night, I was known as Chen. Thunder Boy Chen.”

The human male couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “That was your name as a gangster?”

“We all had lame names like that back then,” Jongdae defended, but a smile was tugging at his thin lips. “It was the trend. So I was Thunder Boy Chen who shook the gang world, but no one could ever catch me since I was as quick as lightning.”

“I don’t know if I want to take this seriously anymore.”

“Hush, I’m in the middle of telling a story. So as I was saying, I was pretty infamous in the gang world and people would challenge my gang every week. We usually came to this house, since it had just been abandoned, along with the other residences on this street.”

“Other residences? But this is the only house here,” Baekhyun pointed out. “The rest of this street is just unused land.”

“Some company had bought the land in order to build a fancy resort, so the houses were slowly knocked down to clear the space. This house was the last one on the list, so we knew we’d be okay with using it for a good amount of time,” the ghost clarified. Baekhyun nodded in understanding, so Jongdae continued, “Our spats were basically little fist-fights that lasted an hour max and then everyone would go home. Then people started selling drugs, but I didn’t want to dip my hands into that. The risk of getting caught and sent to jail was too high, and I was about graduate from university, so my gang refused to deal any. But some of the other gangs thought I was being too high and mighty, which was frankly sort of true, so one of them challenged me. I thought it would be an easy fight like always, but they decided to bring knives with them and it turned into a pretty ugly brawl. That’s where all of those scratches came from.” Jongdae pointed at the closet again and Baekhyun shuddered as he imagined the scene in his head.

“So then what happened?”

“The fact that it was raining so hard that night didn’t help and I honestly wanted to go home, because I was exhausted from studying so much. So I tried to end it quickly, but then the other gang’s leader stabbed me when I was distracted by a flash of lightning. Everyone fled, because there was an unspoken code that we wouldn’t kill each other. No one wanted to deal with the penalty for murder, especially when the cops knew we got into fights. As long as we didn’t create too much trouble, the cops usually turned a blind eye. But this time, I was murdered and the entire area became ‘cursed’ in a sense.”

Baekhyun blanched as he shakily asked, “It—it’s not actually cursed, right?”

“Nah, but who wants to live in a house that a boy died in? Who wants to build a place that will bring happiness to people on a property that’s been stained by the spilled blood of an innocent person? I died as the boy who was struck by lightning, because those cowards wouldn’t own up to what they did and they spread that rumor instead to cover their tracks,” Jongdae recalled with a scowl.

“But how does that prevent you from passing on? How come you’re tethered to this house?”

“I don’t really understand it myself, but every time I try to leave, there’s a loud shrieking noise and the house starts shaking a lot. I think that’s another reason why this place was abandoned, because it actually became haunted by me.” The ghost had the decency to look sheepish at that. “I’m stuck here forever, unless I can somehow figure out how to free myself, but I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon. I’ve been trying for who-knows-how-long and at this point, I’ve basically resigned myself to living here for the rest of eternity. But at least I have you now!” Jongdae grinned as he jumped up and began floating around the human male. “We can be best friends forever and have lots of adventures together, even though this house is about to fall down any day now.”

“But what if I don’t want to do any of that with you?”

“Too late! It’s happening,” Jongdae announced as he held out his pinky. “Just humor me this once, okay?”

Baekhyun arched an eyebrow as he attempted to hook his pinky around the ghost’s while countering with a knowing smile, “You’re definitely going to coerce me into doing something else in the future.”

“Bingo!” Jongdae then added in a loud, theatrical whisper, “But let’s just pretend that I won’t! This is a special moment of friendship that will bond the supernatural world with the human world!”

The human male shook his head in exasperation, but there was a lopsided smile on his face when he saw how excited Jongdae was to finally have a friend after so many years of loneliness. “Just don’t creep on me while I’m sleeping, okay?”

“I cannot promise that,” Jongdae solemnly stated with a contrasting cheeky grin.

“…Get out. You’re banned from the bedroom from now on.”

“But Baekhyun, we’re friends!” Jongdae whined as he swirled around the other male with his hands clasped together in a pleading stance. And as they argued back and forth into the evening, the ghost couldn’t help but feel his non-existent insides bubble with glee.

As Baekhyun settled on top of his blanket, using his tiny and frayed backpack as his makeshift pillow, he groaned when he felt the cold, hard floor underneath his back. But it would have to do, since the mattress was too disgusting to sleep in. Not to mention, it was probably stained with decades-old blood from the brawl that had left Jongdae in his ghostly state.

“Jongdae?”

“Yeah?

“I’ll help you figure out how to leave this place, okay? It might not be for a while, since I need to make more money and get out of poverty. But as soon as my life is stable, I’ll make sure I do everything that I can to help you move on,” Baekhyun spoke into the darkness. Because even if Jongdae happened to be the most annoying person that the human male had ever met, he hadn’t deserved the ending that he got and he didn’t deserve to live in limbo forever.

A ghost of a smile graced Jongdae’s lips as he answered, “Thanks, Baekhyun.”

That night, for the first time in years, neither of them felt alone.

♈♈♈