The night before Halloween, Dahyun couldn’t contain her excitement.

After spending the whole day decorating her house with spooky stuff,  she found herself struggling during the night.

Halloween was by far her favourite holiday out of the entire year-

Even when she’s already 20 years old and can no longer go trick-or-treating.

She didn’t mind. As long as she could throw a Halloween-themed party for her and her two best friends while they binge-watch as many horror movies as they can before passing out from the alcohol Jeongyeon had promised to bring, she was happy.

So happy that she couldn’t fall asleep.

Usually, without a fail, Kim Dahyun was out of it by 12 AM.

No matter how energetic she felt or how much coffee she had taken in, she was always knocked out as soon as midnight strikes.

She was capable of sleeping soundly like a baby every year on the night before her favourite holiday too, but this year she somehow broke the record.

Even Dahyun was confused. And eventually irritated.

No matter how she tossed around her comfortable bed or listen to as many calming piano pieces through her MP3 player, she just wasn’t falling asleep.

Ticked, she ultimately got up and checked the time on her phone.

It was 3 AM. It was technically Halloween now.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to start celebrating already.” Dahyun merely shrugged as she shoved her phone into her pockets.

She then went out into the living room and her TV.

If she was going to stay awake anyways, she might as well enjoy her time.

Since it was already Halloween, Dahyun decided to start her movie marathon early without the rest of her friends. They can join her later in the evening.

As Dahyun scanned through the list of horror films on Netflix, she suddenly felt a little cold.

Although it was almost November, her house had a smart thermostat which would always maintain the place at a comfortable warmth.

The owner of the house instantly went to check on her device, which seemed to be working perfectly fine- yet not at the same time since she was freezing.

She then checked her own temperature, thinking that maybe she caught a fever. Maybe that was why she felt cold.

But her digital thermometer stated that she wasn’t sick.

“Maybe I should get someone to check it out for me… but that’s a problem for another day. Right now, it’s Halloween time.” Dahyun hummed to herself happily before grabbing a blanket from her bedroom to keep herself warm.

Yet, just as she pressed the play button, she felt another breeze.

It was as if someone was directly blowing air onto the back of her neck, making her goose-bumps appear.

Because Kim Dahyun lived alone, and the girl clearly knew that fact.

She was a little scared at this point.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to watch scary movies alone at 3 AM.

Although Dahyun really wanted to seek for comfort, she was too shy to text either of her friends.

It would be bad to piss them off when they were supposed to party to their hearts content in a few hours.

Abandoning the movie, the lonely girl decided to go on her phone instead.

Maybe some cute puppy videos would make her feel better.

They did at first- but not for long.

Since she heard a voice.

A feminine giggle.

Faint, yet audible to her ears.

Dahyun was visibly panicking now, yet she had nowhere to escape.

She was already at her house.

There wasn’t a safer place on Earth than her own home.

She was about to dial for Chaeyoung’s number when all of a sudden, she heard a word. ‘Hey’.

She shrieked as she jumped up from the sofa, rushing to turn on all the lights within the living room.

Dahyun couldn’t come up with any sensible reasons for what had just happened.

The voice was so clear that she was convinced someone was right behind her.

But once again, the fact was she lived alone.

For four years already, she had rented out the small house for herself.

And for herself only.

So who on Earth spoke up?

“Unnie, stop it.”

“AHHH!” Dahyun screamed once more before slapping her own mouth shut with her hands.

She didn’t want her neighbours to call the cops on herself.

That was not how she wanted her Halloween to begin.

But she was 100% positive she heard it this time, although the voice seemed different from the previous giggle.

Breathing hard, she turned towards the direction of the mysterious voice.

And there she saw, with her very own eyes-

“Oh shoot- she sees us, Sana-unnie.”

“I mean, we are the most energetic at this time of the day. Why would we be invisible?”

“Wait, does 3 AM count as night-time or daytime?”

“Day, of course! We say ‘three in the morning’, don’t we?”

“Oh, you do have a poi-”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS?!”

Dahyun’s whole body trembled as she defended herself with whatever she could grab, which happened to be a metal backscratcher.

She was clutching onto it for dear life, threating to strike.

“Aw Chewy, look at her tremble. Poor thing.”

“Maybe she wouldn’t be almost pissing herself if it wasn’t for your tricks, you culprit.”

“Wha- what did I ever do?!”

“You were messing with her and the temperature!”

“She was too cute, and it was too hot!”

“You can’t just mess things up in here. It’s her goddamn hou-”

“SERIOUSLY, WHO ARE YOU TWO?!”

The taller of the two glanced at Dahyun before letting out a sigh. “Can you like, stop cutting me off like that? It’s rude.”

“Yeah Dahyunnie, hasn’t your mommy ever taught you manners?” the other chimed in playfully before she tried to approach the scaredy-cat.

Scared out of her wits, Dahyun closed her eyes and swung with all her might.

But she felt the backscratcher contact absolutely nothing.

Opening her eyes in shock, she looked at the stranger who was now standing right in front of her, causing her to shriek out loud again and pray to God that she didn’t wake up any of her neighbours.

“You wanted to hurt me?” the girl before her now pouted with a tilt of her head, “That’s not very nice, Dahyunnie.”

“H-How do you know my name?” Dahyun gulped, still gripping onto her weapon tightly.

“Because we’ve lived with you for four years.” the taller one answered from the back, shocking the home owner with the information.

“W-What…?”

“Yeah Dahyunnie. Me and Chewy have been with you ever since you moved in!”

“It’s Tzuyu, okay? When will you ever pronounce it correctly?”

“But to me it sounds exactly the same.”

“How bad is your listening to think they sound similar, unnie? Or is it your brain that’s the problem?”

“Excuse me, that’s rude of you to say, Chewy!”

“Like I’ve said, it’s pronounced Tzu-”

“Wait.” Dahyun interrupted once again, gaining herself an eye-roll, “How come I’ve never met you two when you’ve clearly seen me?”

The two mysterious girls glanced at one another, one having a frown on her face while the other had a huge grin.

“You tell her, unnie. I ain’t going to break the news.”

“If you insist.” Sana cleared as she turned to face Dahyun again. “We’ve been stuck in this house for many, many years! We’ve lived with the previous tenant, and the last-last tenant, and the one before that, an-”

“Just get to the point.” Tzuyu snapped impatiently, receiving herself a big pout.

Sana eventually chose to comply despite being upset with her friend’s attitude.

“We’re ghosts!”

Dahyun could only blink blankly at the two, who were mirroring her reaction.

One was waiting for her brain to finish comprehending what she had just heard, while the others were waiting for a response.

“Hellooo? Earth to Ms. Kim?” Sana waved her hand in front of the home-owner’s face, making her snap out of it as she took a few steps back.

“Ghosts…” the pale human blurted out lowly before the words had successfully registered into her brain.

Using her backscratcher to establish a distance between the other party, she let out another shriek. “I’m talking with g-g-g-ghosts?! Oh God, I must’ve gone insane. It must be from all the stress I’ve been getting from university. Yeah, that must be it. I’m usually asleep at this time, that’s why I’m starting to see things. Ghosts aren’t real. They can’t be…”

“That’s pretty rude and stupid for you to say when there’s two right in front of you.” Tzuyu scoffed, making Dahyun stare right into her eyes.

“Am I a ghost too?” Dahyun blinked, “I might’ve died in my sleep. Maybe this is why I can see you guys.”

“No, you’re very much alive, don’t worry.” Sana smiled back, “It’s because you’re usually asleep at this time that’s why you’ve never met us. We’re the most visible to the human’s eye during the devil’s hour.”

“The d-devil’s hour…?” the human blinked some more, flabbergasted that she was still holding a conversation with apparent ghosts.

“Yup. Every day from 3 to 4 AM.” Tzuyu explained, “It’s when us paranormal beings are the most active, so it’ll be the easiest to spot one of us.”

“And since we’re stuck here, you get to see us!” Sana cheered as she went to cling onto her fellow ghost, who instantly tried to pluck her off from her tall body.

Dahyun had agape after taking in what the two had just revealed.

She met two real ghosts.

She even chatted with two real ghosts.

They haunted her house, and have been watching over her during all four years of her stay.

Two ghosts.

Dead peoples’ souls.

“I-I think I need some sleep.” the home-owner simply addressed before she slowly shuffled herself back into her room with her blanket in hand, abruptly leaving the two girls in the living room.

The remaining two looked at each other after the home-owner’s retreat.

“Aww, do you think she hates us?” Sana frowned sadly, “But I love her so much! She’s so cute.”

“I mean, it’s not uncommon for humans to fear us.” Tzuyu shrugged, “But please stop stalking her. She deserves some privacy. This is her house, you know.”

“It was ours too!” Sana bickered right back while crossing her arms.

Tzuyu knew she could never win against the older ghost when it came to this sort of stuff.

All she could do was sigh once more.

“… Yeah, I guess it was.”