Her eyes bore into the screen of her phone as she backspaced and rewrote the message for what seemed like the tenth time. She was simply asking him to meet up for coffee. She was completely sober this time around.  

[TEXT]: Would you like to meet up for some coffee?

She cringed as she pressed send.

Then she cursed aloud, realizing she forgot to even introduce herself.

[TEXT]: This is Chaerin by the way.

She gave a long sigh as she pressed her head against her desk and gazed off into oblivion. She should’ve added an emoji. She jolted up, hitting her head on the desk lamp as her phone vibrated.

[TEXT]: I’d love to.

Her door swung open and Jieun stood at the entrance.

“It’s been two hours—did you not text him yet? Why am I more anxious than you are?” Jieun complained loudly, throwing her arms into the air.

“He said he’d love to have coffee with me…” Chaerin trailed off as her face begin to flush with red.

Jieun snatched the phone out of Chaerin’s hands and read the text message out loud, putting emphasis on the word “love”.

“Why is he so bold? Why am I so flustered? Why is he so hot?” The words tumbled out of Jieun’s mouth as she paced around the room, fanning herself with a random folder she picked up off of Chaerin’s desk.

Chaerin laughed lightly and got up, slinging her purse over her shoulder.

“WAIT!” Jieun screeched, her eyes as wide as saucers. Chaerin flinched and faced her.

“What is it?”

“You’re not going in that, are you?”

“I don’t want to keep him waiting—”

“A man can wait,” she muttered as she began to look through her closet.

--

“Jung Hoseok, I need you to come somewhere with me. Be my mirror for a day.”

Hoseok raised a brow. “Where?”

Yoongi motioned towards his current outfit. “I don’t think I should wear all black. Her friend said I looked like the grim reaper.”

Hoseok spat out his coffee. “You are the grim reaper.”

Yoongi looked at him blankly. “Right. But I want to wear something brighter.”

“Black is bright if you don’t think about it,” Hoseok commented lamely.

Yoongi cocked his head and glared at him. “Were you always so boring, Hoseok?”

Hoseok rolled his eyes and made a disgusted face. Yoongi gave an airy laugh.

 “I said I’d meet her in 30 minutes.”

“That’s plenty of time to go shopping,” Hoseok said as he snapped his fingers.

The pair stood inside a fancy store located right in the middle of one of Seoul's well-known shopping malls.

“Indeed.”

--

The café brimmed with life, the addicting aroma of coffee and chatter flooding the atmosphere. When Chaerin finally arrived, she saw him seated by the window with his legs crossed. His gaze seemed to be immersed in the world on the other side of the glass. He turned his head quickly at the sound of her footsteps approaching. She smiled shyly at him. He greeted her with an elegant wave, a smile of his own lingering upon his lips.

Yoongi sported a classy style this time around: he wore a fancy white dress shirt that perfectly fit his frame along with a slim pair of black trousers. A skinny, sleek tie completed the modern look. He fitted the physical description of the word success.

Chaerin, much the opposite, was nowhere near his level in terms of style. She wore a simple black dress with a sharp white collar that Jieun had snagged her for her birthday the previous year, completed by a pair of black wedges. She wore a thin line of eyeliner and a pretty, yet subtle shade of pink on her lips.

She sat in front of him and couldn’t help but laugh. Out of all the scenarios she had played throughout her mind in terms of her romantic life, she had never expected to be so inquisitively attracted to a stranger whom she barely knew. The situation itself was awkward, yet there was something about it that made her heart race. The man laughed as well, the corners of his mouth pulling up in a genuine grin. His laugh was music. 

“What would you like to drink? It’ll be my treat,” he asked, getting up from his seat.

“I’ll just take a cup of black coffee.”

“With sugar and cream?” he prompted, despite knowing her answer.

She shook her head and smiled. “Just black is fine.”

He chuckled softly. “We share similar tastes, it seems.”

--

After asking and answering questions, the two fell silent. Chaerin, on one hand, was deeply lost in thought, wondering just how and exactly she ran into someone like Yoongi by pure chance. Yoongi, on the other hand, was entertained—he already knew the answers to all the conventional questions he had asked her, yet he was still fascinated with every word that she said. The girl had a way with words.

She took another sip of her coffee. “So you go to medical school?”

“I used to,” he corrected her. It wasn’t completely a lie.

“Is it rude to ask what happened?” she asked cautiously, not wanting to come off as the nosy type.

He gave a sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I just ran into some circumstances.”

“Oh... I see,” she said with a nod and returned to sipping her coffee.

He gauged her quiet behavior for a few moments before deciding to speak.

“Are introductions over now? You said you wanted to ask me something.”  

She perked up and laughed nervously. “I sort of pieced together the answers to my questions already.”

Yoongi raised a brow, feigning amusement. He had expected her to bombard him with questions, but it seemed as if she avoided doing so.  

“Well for starters… I figured that I just fainted that night you walked me to the bus stop. I have anemia, so sometimes I get dizzy and the world just goes black for a few minutes. And then… I figured you took me home because Jieun happened to call, asking where I was,” she explained.

Yoongi slowly nodded, motioning for her to go on.

“And everything else was just a coincidence. The whole drinking thing,” she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment as she pressed her hand against her forehead. “I don’t remember anything but your name. But I feel... a lot better now.”

“It's a relief that you're feeling better now. Although... I admit you were pretty drunk,” he offered, laughing lightly.

“I was not that drunk,” she retorted childishly, waving his comment away with her hand.

“If you say so,” Yoongi agreed in an enthusiastic manner.

“Don’t mock me!” She laughed and hit him gently on the arm.

He opened his mouth to deny it at first, and then paused when he noticed a shift in the air. His eyes settled on the figure sitting right beside Chaerin. His expression molded into one of absolute solemnity.

The teenager shifted uncomfortably side to side, surveying his surroundings with a frown. As he turned around, Yoongi realized the unsightly angle the boy’s neck was twisted at. Heavy, thick droplets of dark blood dripped from the back of his head and stained the seat with red. His pale skin was soiled with dirt and embroidered with old scars and fresh ones that still bled.

The boy finally turned to face Yoongi. “This isn’t the afterlife, is it?”

Yoongi ripped his eyes away from the boy and faced Chaerin.

“Chaerin, I just remembered I have a meeting to go to,” he stated abruptly, immediately rising from his seat with an apologetic bow. He grabbed his hat with one hand and stood there briefly, sadly gazing at Chaerin, who returned the gaze with innocent surprise.

She rose out of her chair, taken aback by the sudden change in plans. “Wait—”

“Us. Let’s meet again,” he interrupted quickly, offering her an apologetic smile. And with that, he stepped out of the store and disappeared with the wind.

--

“Why did that ghost appear in front of me? He died three hours earlier than planned,” Yoongi muttered, clawing his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“You’re causing disorder, that’s why. It’s simple, really,” Taehyung mused as he lifted his hand into the air and made a flicking motion. “Like dominoes.”

Taehyung was another grim reaper, who was sentenced to his fate for murdering his alcoholic father in his past life. He held himself with a composed dignity most of the time, yet could break out of character when necessary.  

Yoongi sighed. “I can’t turn back things to square one.”

“You already fabricated her memories. In fact, you’ve been doing so for years. So why not?”

“Because…”

“Because?” Taehyung urged him on bitterly.

“Because I don’t want to let her go,” Yoongi admitted with dejection.