The first time Yebin and Minkyung went hunting for ghosts, it had been a foggy November day in their senior year. Yebin can't remember why they'd done it, but the small town lull of Diamond City—a rather ironic name for the mountainside civilization, as they were much too small to be referred to as a city, and lacked any austere or bling that could be labelled as "diamond"—had probably driven them to boredom. 

She can remember, sneakers squishing on the wet earth and hopping over logs as the beam of Minkyung's flashlight broke through the grey mist. 

"They say that there's a grave up on this hill." Minkyung had said. "When you go up there at midnight, the ghost will appear."

"That's sort of corny." 

"Hey! Let's just see, ok!"

Yebin remembers finding the grave, buried under damp leaves, an unmarked flat slab of cement—but besides that there had been nothing else that night, except the sound of a gunshot, probably from someone hunting illegally, that sent the two of them scattering into the thick of the trees and back home.

However, the lack of ghosts discovered only seemed to ignite their curiosity more, and they soon found themselves exploring the expansive woods surrounding Diamond City even more. 

Minkyung stabs her fork into her slice of chocolate cake as Yebin watches. The diner, mostly empty, casts a faint and lonely neon light on the two of them.

"How was work?" Yebin asks.

"ty as it always is."

"Oh."

"I can't believe in a week I'm turning 20, and this is what my ing disaster of a life has become. Working a ugly job at a convenience store, with nothing but a high school diploma to my name."

"Geez."

"Sorry, I'm in a mood." Minkyung cuts off a bite of cake. "Can we go ghost hunting tonight? I need it." 

"Of course." Yebin finds herself saying, even though she doesn't really want to, because she will always drop everything for Minkyung.

Diamond City is made up of small, old fashioned, charming houses. It's surrounded by thick, unkempt woods, with far away fire watch stations, a bubbling creek, and gravely roads. There's a few stores, two schools, parks, resturaunts—but it's small, tiny even, a minuscule blip on a giant map. 

Yebin hates it. 

It's painfully boring here, never visited by anyone or anything interesting, hours away from any sort of bustling city, engulfed completely by tall trees. It's impossible to escape—few kids even get out to college these days, ending up swallowed by shambled small town life. Yebin is one of them. 

She walks, slowly, to Minkyung's house as the sun sets past the distant mountains. 

"Hey!" a voice yells. 

She turns to see Eunwoo, and her brother Soonyoung, on the front steps of their house. 

"Oh, hey."

"Out to catch some ghouls?" Eunwoo jokes. 

"You could say that." 

"Are you gonna come tomorrow?"

"To your lame stargazing party? Think so."

"Sick."

Yebin keeps walking until she comes across one of the few apartment buildings in town, a tall orangey structure tattered by wind and rain, and presses the buzzer next to the faded name reading "Kyungwon & Minkyung". 

"Hello?" A voice, not belonging to Minkyung but, rather her tall and polite roomate, Kyungwon, says. 

"It's Yebin."

"Oh! Come right up!"

The door clicks open, and Yebin rides the rickety elevator up to the fourth floor, then traveling down a hallway to a door hung with a small wreath of flowers. She knocks, and Kyungwon opens. 

"Come in! I'm baking cookies!" 

"It's July."

"Never a bad time for cookies!" 

Kyungwon is a lean, positive-minded, gentle girl who works at the only art supply store in town. Yebin had felt a little jealous at first that she got to room with Minkyung, but Yebin also knew she was lucky to have a house and parents to live with. For Minkyung, it was different. 

That very girl currently sits on the couch, tying her boots together.

"Hey Yeb. Ready to go?" she asks.

"Yeah." Yebin replies. "I even stole a couple snack foods from work." 

"Snacks are my speciality! You work at a grocery store, you should have grabbed some sort of healthy thing. Like apples." Minkyung stands up, throws her backpack over her shoulder. "Lets do this." 

Ghost hunting in the different seasons always brings a multitude of various atmospheres. Yebin, personally, loves summer the most. The dusky tones of twilight as they wander between the trees, the tiny blips of fireflies—and most of all, Minkyung's eyes in the soft summer light.

The sun is just about gone, sky fading from it's orange streaked clouds from just a minute earlier. Minkyung switches on her flashlight, and Yebin follows. 

"What exactly are we looking for tonight?" she asks.

"Thought we'd go to the waterfall. They say someone drowned there."

"Are you sure that's actually true, or did you make that up?"

Minkyung lets out a laugh, and Yebin's stomach warms. "I mean, these are basically nature hikes at night. We've never found anything ghastly of any sort." Minkyung says. "But actually, Mom told me this one. Before she... you know. I loved ghost stories when I was younger."

Yebin gives her a sympathetic smile, slightly shrouded by the dark. "Hey, are you going to Eunwoo and Soonyoung's thing tomorrow night?"

"The thing you called 'nerdy space fest for losers'? Yeah I am." 

"Ok, shut up. It's a nerdy space fest for losers, doesn't mean I won't enjoy it." 

"I can't believe this town is so boring we throw parties to go stargazing for a couple of hours." Minkyung shines her flashlight up through the trees as the sound of rushing water fades in from the distance. "Almost there."

They tread up a long path and into a clearing among the trees—from a hill surrounded by rocks above, water tumbles down into a pool on the ground, which then continues into the creek. 

"Wow, I haven't been up here in forever." Yebin says. "I think my parents and I used to go here to have picnics when I was little. Different atmosphere at night." She kicks a rock, and watches it tumble into the water with a tiny splash.

Suddenly, from the top of the waterfall, a shadowy figure steps out of the darkness.

"Oh my god." whispers Yebin.

"." Minkyung says. 

"What are you guys doing out here so late at night?" the figure yells. 

Minkyung shines her flashlight upward onto a familiar face. 

"Wonwoo? I could ask you the ing same."

"Yeah!" Yebin shouts. "We're ghost hunting! Like sensible humans!" 

Wonwoo begins to walk down the side of the hill. 

"Oh yeah, I forgot you guys were into that." 

"Why are you up here anyway?" Minkyung asks, eyebrows creased.

"I like it in the woods at night. I was watching the sunset. Think it's pretty in the summertime." 

"I can see why all the girls called you gay in high school now." 

"See," he says, "this is why we," he makes a general hand motion encompassing the three of them, "don't hang out." 

"You should join us sometime." Yebin says, hoping to thin the tension.

"Actually," Wonwoo says with a pause, "I see some weird around here. Shapes and noises and stuff. I even saw some creepy guy watching me from the abandoned fire watch tower up on West Hill."

"Woah." 

"And hey, I have a Polaroid camera if you want to borrow it to take creepy pictures." 

"You know, Wonwoo, you're not too bad of a guy." Minkyung says.

"I'm gonna go. Have fun ghost hunting." He quickly disappears back into the darkness and down the path they had come. 

"A Polaroid camera would be kinda sick actually." Minkyung remarks as they trek up towards the top of the waterfall. 

"I think so too." Yebin says, remembering her old, now broken, camera, with which she took somewhat streaky, but nostalgic photos of Minkyung with when they were back in high school. Scrambling up across some rocks, they sit right at the creeks edge, watching the water spill off the cliff. 

"What now?" Yebin asks, reaching into her backpack for a soda. 

"I think we just wait."

"Hey um..." Yebin takes a sip of her drink and nervously swallows, "You mentioned your mom earlier. Is everything going ok, like, uh, dealing with that? Your parents?" 

Minkyung digs a hand inside Yebin's old backpack, pulling out a bag of sour gummy worms. "It's fine. I visited their graves yesterday."

"Is that why you were in such a bad mood?" 

"Eh. I don't know. I think it's more just... being an adult in general. ." 

"Yeah, I feel that." 

"You're 19! You're a baby." 

"Hey, so are you!

"But I'm almost 20." 

"Okay, old lady." 

There's a small burst of laughter in between them, echoing off into the empty sky. 

Yebin's watching the sky when she hears something—a voice, faint, indistinguishable, but still a voice, and not one she can seem to recognize. 

"Hey, do you hear that?"

"The voice?" Minkyung replies. "I think it's getting closer."

Yebin stands up. "Wonwoo! Is that you? This isn't funny!" 

Minkyung tugs on Yebin's arm, as a large shadow approaches up the path they had came, still indistinguishable, but still there. "Yebin..." she whispers.

Yebin grabs her bag. "Run." she hisses back. 

Just barely zipping up her things, she throws her backpack on, soda can falling off the edge of the cliff and into the water below. The two girls dash as fast as possible into the trees, as far away as they can get from whatever thing is approaching. There's brambles and vines and jagged logs, and it's becoming impossible to navigate and see far enough into the pitch black to move at the pace they're dashing. 

Suddenly, Minkyung trips over a log, falling forwards and on top of Yebin. The two, yelling, tumble down the side of the hill and into a patch of ferns, Yebin on her back and Minkyung on top. But that's not really the important thing, the most noticeable factor for the two is that in the confusion and entangling, it appears their lips had pressed together. 

They're kissing.