Hefting one of the last of the few boxes of his possessions, Leo sighed and looked around the tiny room which was all he'd been able to afford to rent on his miniscule salary. He wasn't able to work as much as he'd have liked, given he was still a student (and would be for at least another term, if not longer...), and it meant that this little one-roomed flat was all he could afford. Turning to his best friend, Ravi, he smiled faintly.

"At least that's our exercise quotient for the next few weeks," he joked feebly as the younger man just gave him a dirty look, sprawled on the futon on the floor and looking exhausted. "You won't need to waste your money going to the gym..."

"I don't waste my money," Ravi replied, kicking out at Leo, though he missed thanks to Leo's nimble jump out of the way, though it nearly sent him into one of his boxes. "It makes me look good, and everyone knows it." He looked smug, as well he might; he wasn't known as one of the best-looking men with the best body on campus for nothing. If only someone could do something about that ridiculous hair cut...

Pushing himself up onto his elbows, Ravi sighed. "You're sure you won't move in with me and Hongbin? I'm sure his parents won't mind..."

Ravi lived with another one of their friends, Hongbin, whose parents owned the house they lived in. It was small, but Ravi insisted there was always room for one more. Leo, on the other hand, preferred to live alone, and being a proud man, wanted to be able to stand on his own two feet. Since losing his parents, Leo had stubbornly insisted on doing everything on his own, to prove that he was capable of looking after himself and wasn't falling apart like everyone had expected him to. At least, not in public, where everyone could see him. In private, it was an entirely different matter.

Shaking his head, Leo offered Ravi a hand to help him to his feet. "No, thanks for the offer, but you know I can't," he murmured apologetically. "And you know why..."

Looking unhappy, Ravi surveyed the small room. "I just... we don't like the idea of you living on your own in a place like this," he said, running a hand through his sweaty hair in frustration. "And those stairs are killer. How many times did we almost kill ourselves on them?" He glared at the doorway. "This place really should be condemned..."

"But then where would I live?" Leo pointed out softly, with a resigned shrug. "We both know I can't afford anything else. And I'm sure it's not really that bad."

He looked around. It didn't seem to be too terribly bad, even if the building was positively ancient. The stairs had been steep, to be sure, but hopefully it would discourage anyone out to rob the place. If any self-respecting thieves even thought to try, that was. The wallpaper had seen better days, but at least it was clean and reasonably well-kept. Not damp and drafty like some of the other flats they'd both seen over the past few weeks.

"And there's a shop underneath," Leo added wryly. "That means it's not too dead around here. There have to be some customers for it to be able to stay open, surely..." It wasn't his kind of shop, being the sort of strange place he vaguely recalled his grandparents visiting every time his parents took him when he'd been a very young child, full of musty old packages of leaves, roots, powders, and other strange medicinal things that he could never hope to understand.

Leo shivered suddenly, rubbing at his arms as he felt a draft. "It's starting to get cold," he murmured, glancing worriedly out the small window at the sky. "You should go before Hongbin calls, wondering where you are."

Ravi smirked. "He knows better than that," he grinned, though he dusted off his clothes and headed for the door as he spoke. "He can't act like a jealous boyfriend when we're not even dating."

"That doesn't stop him from trying," Leo pointed out with a grin of his own as he saw Ravi out. "Just be careful on those stairs..." He watched as Ravi left, making sure his friend made it all the way down to the bottom safely, and then out the door before closing the door to his tiny flat with a sigh that wasn't quite relief, but wasn't quite sorrow either.

It didn't take long for Leo to make himself at home in his new flat, though he didn't tend to spend very much time there other than to sleep. The place, though small, clean, and otherwise inoffensive-seeming, had started to creep him out, especially at night. He couldn't put his finger on when it had started, or how, but he just knew he didn't like it.

Coming in one night after a long shift at the café where he worked part-time, Leo was surprised to see a young man sitting on the stairs as he entered the building and began to climb, coming to a halt about halfway up as he stared in shock at the intruder who smiled at him.

Tempted to push his way past, something in him told Leo that this would not only be bad manners, but would just generally be a bad thing to do, so he shoved down his irritation and nodded a greeting to the stranger.

"Can I help you?" he asked warily, careful to stay where he was until he was sure the other man was harmless. He certainly looked harmless, but Leo knew full well looks could often be deceiving. "Are you waiting for someone?" He gestured to the other flats in the building, though he didn't know who lived in them and didn't really care, either.

The young man looked at him thoughtfully, then smiled again. "You could say that," he said, his voice sending shivers down Leo's spine. It wasn't that the stranger was trying to sound creepy, Leo suspected. He just sounded strange to him, his voice nothing like he'd ever heard before. It made him feel things he wasn't sure he wanted to feel. "What about you? Are you waiting for anyone?"

Blinking at the strange question, Leo shook his head, and with the pleasantries now dispensed with (he hoped), he did his best to hurry past, ignoring the way the other man's eyes followed him up the stairs and to his flat. Given there were only four flats in the whole place, it wasn't like he could really avoid showing him which was his, much to Leo's dismay, but hopefully he wouldn't bother him. Once he'd unlocked his door, a procedure that took less than five seconds, Leo looked back and stopped, his eyes widening.

The young man who'd been sitting on the stairs was gone, yet the door at the bottom hadn't opened (Leo would have heard and felt it, if it had), nor had he gone behind Leo to any of the other flats in the building. Startled and not a little creeped out, Leo looked around warily, then hurried into his flat and slammed the door closed behind him, leaning against it with his eyes closed as he tried not to panic. What the hell had just happened? Where had that guy gone? For that matter, who was he and where had he come from?

His heart pounding and his breaths coming in short pants, Leo sank down onto his bed, shaking his head in disbelief. There had to be some rational explanation for what had just happened. Maybe Leo had missed the main door opening somehow while he'd been busy unlocking his flat? It was far more likely that the man had gone into one of the other flats without him noticing. He'd been slight and quiet enough that he could have done it, Leo thought to himself. That had to be the answer.

Having decided on that, Leo quickly got ready for bed and did his best to fall asleep as quickly as possible, exhausted beyond belief by the events of the day, and the brief scare he'd given himself over the stranger on the stairs. He'd have to have a word with the other occupants though; they weren't supposed to allow strangers into the flats, since it was a security risk, and the area they lived in wasn't the greatest as it was. The landlord didn't want any trouble, and Leo himself didn't want any trouble.

Eventually falling asleep, Leo quickly forgot about the stranger on the stairs until the next night, when he came back from work to find him sitting on the stairs again, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he asked, standing at the bottom of the stairs, by this time too wary to even think of making his way up to his flat. "You don't belong here."

"Actually, I do," the young man replied quietly, biting his lip as he looked away. "More so than you do, I'd reckon..." He shrugged. "It's not like I can leave, even if I wanted to," he added with an off-handed wave of his hand.

"Why's that?" Leo asked, his curiosity piqued. This guy didn't seem threatening; for all that he was creepy as hell, he was also pleasant on the eyes and ears. But Leo didn't want to take any chances, staying where he was until he was satisfied about the other man's intentions. "You still haven't said who you are."

The man's grin widened as he looked down at Leo. "You haven't exactly told me who you are," he pointed out with a smirk. "How can you expect me to tell you who I am without introducing yourself?"

Growing tired of the circular nature the conversation was starting to take, Leo began to head back outside. He would have to call Ravi and ask if he could stay at his and Hongbin's place for the night until he could work out what to do about this guy. He was going to go crazy if he had to stay here and talk to him for much longer.  

"Don't go," the man said, something in his voice stopping Leo from leaving. "Please. You're the first person I've been able to talk to in a long time. Don't leave..."

"Then stop talking in riddles and just answer my damned questions," Leo snapped irritably, feeling awkward when the man's eyes widened at the tone of his voice, the way he leaned back almost as though afraid of him making him feel even worse. "Look, I am tired and need to sleep. I don't have the energy to play twenty questions with you, no matter how pretty you are or how nice you sound."

The man's expression brightened. "You think I'm pretty?" he asked, looking flattered. "Thank you..." A light blush stained his pale cheeks. "Nobody's called me pretty in so long..." He sounded sad as he looked at Leo, and then away. "My name... is Hakyeon. I've been here for so long I've kind of forgotten how long..."

Raising an eyebrow, Leo looked bemused. "You don't look that old, Hakyeon," he murmured, giving the other man a critical look. His clothes looked out-dated, like he hadn't been clothes shopping since perhaps Leo's grandfather's day, but other than that... "Though your clothes..."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Hakyeon said defensively, pulling at the hem of his white button-up shirt self-consciously. "They're new. Or they were..." He bit at his lip and looked away again, something in his eyes that threw Leo.

"They were new, when?" Leo prompted with a snort. "About fifty years ago, maybe. My grandfather used to wear that sort of thing... but not now. Most guys our age wear jeans and t-shirts, unless they work in an office..."

Hakyeon blinked at Leo. "Has it been that long?" he mused, almost to himself. "Really?" He looked up at the top of the stairs, and Leo's eyes followed almost automatically, recoiling at what he saw. Another man stood at the top of the stairs, white-blond hair contrasting with a dark turtleneck and dark-coloured trousers. The second stranger's hands were in his pockets, instantly setting Leo's teeth on edge. "Has it really been that long, Jaehwannie?"

Jaehwan looked at Leo, then at Hakyeon, and shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted, his voice having a different quality to it than Hakyeon's. It was as though he was used to being a lot louder, but was moderating it for Leo's benefit. "I don't remember."

"Wait, there are two of you?" Leo asked, starting to shiver. This Jaehwan really gave him the creeps. "Who are you?"

"More like what are we." Jaehwan shrugged, though he didn't move from his position at the top of the stairs. "You haven't figured it out yet?" He looked at Hakyeon, a smirk on his face. "Is it me or have people gotten stupider over the years since we've been stuck here?"

"Be nice," Hakyeon admonished Jaehwan, flapping a hand at him and then turning to Leo. "Though he's right. You didn't figure it out last night?" He sighed. "I thought it was pretty obvious when I disappeared practically under your nose..."

Going pale, Leo sat down on the bottom step, feeling faint. "You're not serious, are you?" he asked, his voice softer than usual. "You're not... are you?"

"If you were about to say ghosts, then yes," Jaehwan said, shrugging again, though he gave an apologetic glance at Hakyeon when he gave him a sad look. "Hakyeon prefers to be called a spirit, or whatever, but I don't care. I'm dead, so it can't hurt me anymore." His tone was slightly bitter, which told Leo that it probably did hurt, but he was trying to hide it. "But yes. We've both been here too long without anyone to talk to who would give us the time of day. I don't think anyone else could actually see us, except you..."

He looked thoughtful. "And maybe that cute friend of yours who came around that first day..." he added as Leo's eyes narrowed.

"Ravi's taken, even if he denies it to everyone and their dog," Leo said quietly. "So don't get any ideas..." He ignored the insulted look on Jaehwan's face and turned to Hakyeon. "How did you both end up here in the first place? Did you die at the same time?"

Hakyeon shook his head sadly. "No," he murmured without looking at either Leo or Jaehwan. "I've been here the longest. I don't really remember when Jaehwan came, though, but it can't have been that long after..." He glanced at Leo and it made him shiver, the look in Hakyeon's eyes. "I heard what your friend said, by the way," he added, his voice barely above a whisper. "These stairs are indeed killer..."

"Why do you think we're stuck here?" Jaehwan's voice was mocking. "We died here. On these killer stairs." His handsome features twisted angrily. "Murdered..."

Leo's breath caught. "You were both... murdered?" he asked, pressing his back against the wall. He'd thought it must have been an accident, after all, these stairs were clearly hazardous. "But why? And do you know by whom?"

"Well, would you look at that?" Jaehwan drawled, looking down at Leo with a scornful look on his face. "A young'un who actually knows his grammar. And here I thought they were all stupid nowadays..."

"Jaehwan, please," Hakyeon pleaded softly, looking up at the other man, though Leo couldn't see his expression so he couldn't tell what exactly was passing between the two of them, just that something clearly was, as Jaehwan bit his lip and looked away, his expression changing to something a little less hostile. "He's not responsible for our deaths. And certainly not mine..."

Jaehwan's body jerked in reaction to Hakyeon's words and his expression became closed off. "It wasn't my fault," he muttered sullenly, still facing away from them. "I didn't kill you. You know that. I had nothing to do with it."

"You were there," Hakyeon said softly and Jaehwan's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I know you were, no matter how much you want to deny it to yourself. You didn't kill me, and I honestly don't believe there was anything you could have done to stop him from killing me, but you were still there when he did it."

"For all the good that did me," Jaehwan said harshly, stepping back from the top of the stairs until all Leo could see were his eyes, angry and full of pain. "Because apparently he decided he couldn't trust me to keep my mouth shut, so he did the same to me as he did to you, and you know that as well as I do. So where does that leave us?"

"Dead," Hakyeon said quietly, looking down at his hands. "The same as we've been for the past however long." He sighed and shrugged. "And I dare say he's dead by now as well..."

Leo felt faint and ill, unable to look at either of them as they spoke, apparently unaware that he was still there. Why would anyone want to murder Hakyeon? He seemed harmless enough as a spirit, and probably had been while alive as well. Unaware he'd spoken out loud, Leo shivered as he became aware they were both looking at him with odd expressions on their faces.

"Why would anyone want to murder me?" Hakyeon repeated, still giving Leo an odd look. "He was jealous. He thought I was cheating on him, even though I wasn't." He sighed. "We weren't even dating, for one thing... but even if we had been, I wouldn't have cheated on him, because I don't do that. I'm not that kind of person."

"And as you probably heard, he killed Jaehwan because he thought he was going to go to the police," he added sadly. "Whether he would have done, I don't know, and it's a moot point now." Hakyeon himself didn't want to know the answer. He'd never asked and Jaehwan had never volunteered the information. "As I said, he's probably dead now too. You said it's been a long time..."

"I don't know that for sure," Leo protested faintly, shaking his head. "I'm only going off the style of your clothes. I've never heard anything about any murders here, so perhaps it was covered up? The landlord never told me anything about it when I moved in, that's for sure." He wouldn't have taken the place if he'd known, desperate or not. "You never told me his name, by the way. The person who killed you..."

"Would it really make a difference?" Hakyeon murmured, looking up at Jaehwan, whose expression was impassive as he returned the gaze. "It's been too long. Nothing would be solved by telling you."

"Maybe you would both be at peace," Leo replied quietly, his expression earnest. "You could both move on, stop haunting this place. You'd be free. At least I hope so. It can't be very pleasant, stuck here on your own for years without anyone else." He wasn't finding it very pleasant, even though they weren't doing anything to hurt him or anyone else.

"I have Jaehwan," Hakyeon said, looking away. "And he has me. Sure, we don't always get along, but..."

"It's not the same thing, and you know it," Leo interrupted, shaking his head. "Are you afraid, Hakyeon?" It seemed ironic, that a spirit would be afraid. "It's not like anything can hurt you anymore..." The longer he spent talking to the young man (he refused to think of him as anything but...), the less afraid of him, or rather, them, he became, and the more sorry he felt instead. "I don't like the idea of either of you hurting like this."

"You don't know anything about us," Jaehwan said coldly, glaring at Leo. "Save your do-gooding for someone who cares." Leo would have been angry with him except for the fact that Jaehwan's voice shook slightly. "Leave me, leave us alone." With that, he disappeared, leaving Hakyeon alone with Leo.

Hakyeon sighed. "I'm sorry," he apologised softly, looking at Leo with a sad expression. "Please don't be upset with him. He's..." He shook his head and looked down at his hands. "Jaehwan has more reason than most to be upset about being like this. He didn't do anything to deserve this other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and friends with perhaps the wrong person, even if he didn't realise it at the time. And he's a very sensitive person, even if he tries to hide it."

Leo shook his head. "I'm not angry with him, Hakyeon," he replied, sighing. "I feel sorry for you both, and I wish there was something I could do to help you, but when you won't let me..." He gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "There's nothing else I can do."

"I'm sorry," Hakyeon apologised again, then stood up. "I'll leave you alone for tonight," he added, fading away slowly. "You look exhausted."

Getting to his feet, Leo realised Hakyeon was right when he had to grab the flimsy handrail to haul himself up and keep himself upright as he climbed the stairs to his flat, clumsily letting himself in and flopping down onto his futon. He'd barely managed to get his shoes and jacket off, his keys falling out of his pocket somewhere in the semi-darkness. He had a lot to think about, but his mind was too tired, and had had enough, and Leo fell asleep not long after, still fully clothed.