"What's wrong?"

Wendy massages her temples, not looking up from her laptop. She's sitting at her kitchen counter, and has been re-reading the data analylsis on her screen for the last 10 minutes, unable to make sense of the incorrectly completed report. 

"What's right?" Wendy replies with a tired sigh.

Joy scoffs. 

 "In your life? A lot of things."

Wendy stays silent, still staring at her screen in defeat. 

Joy is seated on the gray couch behind Wendy. Wendy's studio apartment is cozy, but modern. Joy used to tease Wendy about her antiquated tastes, and Wendy kept that in mind when choosing furniture and designing her new apartment. Joy laughs at Wendy, who is still glaring at her laptop with a tight frown.

"And you called me the pessimistic one." Joy tsks.

Silence.

"It's been a while, huh." Wendy croaks.

Wendy is looking in Joy's general direction now, although not making direct eye contact. Joy can see Wendy's posture is unbelievably stiff, like she's afraid even the smallest movement could cause an avalanche. 

"It has." Joy says simply.

 
"So, uh, how is it up there?"

"Up there? You think I'm in heaven?"

"Wha - are you in Hell?"

Joy chuckles. "No, don't worry. I know I could be a devil sometimes but I'm not burning for eternity yet."

"Yet." Wendy blinks.

"Mhm."

 
"So you're saying there's still a chance?"

"Anything is possible, right?" Joy says mischeviously.

Wendy blanches. She doesn't know how to respond.

"What are you doing here, Joy."

Joy smiles.

"Do you not want me here? I'm looking over you."

"Couldn't you do that more when you were alive?"

"Oof, that hurt."

Joy clutches at her heart dramatically, and makes a ridiculous pained expression to lighten the mood. She is unsuccessful, however, and she has to watch Wendy lifelessly bury her face in her hands.

"You're dead. Oh my God, you're dead. I can't avoid that, can I? I can't pretend you're still here." Wendy blurts out. 

The air in the apartment is thick, and Wendy can feel tears b at the corner of her eyes. She shuts her eyes tight, willing the sadness away, pretending that her heart isn't absolutely broken, pretending that the stress from work and life hasn't already shocked her brain into uselessness.

Joy just smiles again, a small and knowing smile.

"Well, we were always good at pretending right?"

Wendy takes her face out of her hands to look at Joy gloomily. Joy laughs lightly. It's not a ridiculing or malicious laugh; it's a genuinely amused flutter of noise. It doesn't stop Wendy from recalling memories that make her skin crawl from guilt.

When Wendy glances towards the couch again, Joy is gone.

And Wendy is alone.

=

"Yeah, do you think you could ask her to take care of that? I mean, I would myself but I honestly don't think it's a good idea for me to take anything else on right now."

Wendy is pacing around her apartment, speaking to someone on her cellphone. Rays of soft daylight propagate through Wendy's white blinds, illuminating the apartment in stripes, casting a dreamy haze over the space. There's a muffled talking from the person on the other side of the cellphone call. 

"That would be great, thank you. Yes. Bye bye."

Wendy brings the phone down away from her ear to end the call. She starts tapping the device, typing an email. Joy is sitting on the kitchen counter, mindlessly pinching and picking at her red lips, which stand out even more against her pale skin and jet black hair. Her legs are swinging to the beat of the Christmas song she is humming, which is slightly out of tune. At first the humming is a low melodious drone, but it soon turns into full blown singing that gets progressively louder.

"All I want for Christmas, is youuuu, baby!"

"Can you stop that noise?" Wendy snaps.

Joy gasps, offended. "I thought you loved my singing."

"I lied."

"Hmmm, well. It wouldn't be the first time."

Wendy seemingly doesn't hear Joy's comment (or she just chooses to ignore it), and she instead continues to type on her phone.

"..."

"..."

"It's December, Wendy."

Wendy still doesn't look at Joy. "And?"

"I died in December."

Wendy finally snaps her head up from her phone, only to see no one is there. 

=

Wendy is speed walking back to her car. Joy follows in close pursuit, having to jog to keep up. It's nighttime, and it's unbearably cold. Clouds of fog escape from Wendy's mouth every time she takes a breath. Once she gets to her car, Wendy tries to catch her breath while fumbling around in her purse, looking for her car keys.

"We need to talk, Wendy."

"Yeah, well, you can go ahead and talk, I'll be here."

Joy groans. "You're exactly the same."

"And so are you. Except you're not here."

Wendy knows it's stupid, but she fully expects a catty reply. When she gets none and only gets silence instead, she stops ruffling through her bag. Wendy glances over her shoulder and sees an empty and poorly lit parking lot. Her hands finally connect with the cold metal of her car keys in her purse, so she unlocks and gets into her car with a sigh. She rests her head against the steering wheel, and curses to herself quietly.

=

"Joy?"

No reply. The silence becomes defeaning.

"Joy."

Wendy is sitting on her bed, talking to a dark and empty apartment.

"Joy, I'm serious."

It remains quiet.

"Fine."

Wendy lies down, curls into the smallest ball she can be, and sobs.

=

Wendy is at an end of the year work party.

(She was required to be there.)

There are mutlicolored holographic streamers strung across the warmly lit room that her coworkers are occupying. Everyone is dressed comfortably but neat, and there is a murmur of conversation in the room as jazz music plays softly in the background.

"Heyyy, looks like Wendy finally left her cave!"

Wendy is shocked out of her thoughts by her younger coworker, Yeri stumbling towards her. She smiles uneasily as Yeri throws an arm around her. 

"Hey, Wendy, c'mon. Lets join the others."

Yeri drags Wendy over to a small group of her coworkers who are conversing jovially.

"Guys! The workaholic is in rehab!" Yeri boisterously laughs at her own joke. The others give light chuckles.

Seulgi smiles genuinely, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "Wendy, it's good to see you. I don't think I've seen you out this late, honestly."

Eric scoffs. "Believe me, Wendy likes to have fun, haha. She just calmed down a bit with age." Eric has known Wendy since they were kids, and has seen her teenage and even more recent rebellious phases. Wendy cringes at the memories. Her and Joy used to get into all kinds of trouble, with poor Eric bearing witness to it all.

She feigns offense. "Age? Oh okay, yeah. Alright, old man."

Eric and Wendy laugh. Wendy looks over at Irene, who has stayed silent but has been smiling at the others' conversation.

"By the way, Irene, thanks for taking over on that quarterly mission statement presentation. I asked Sam to do it, but they said they were busy too."

"No problem, Wendy. It went well. Are you feeling better?" Irene gazes at her.

Wendy is a little taken aback by the direct eye contact and sincere concern on Irene's face. She gulps down the surprise and says "Uhm...yeah. Yeah, I'm feeling better. Thanks for asking."

Irene beams, and the conversation continues around them. Wendy is listening intently, until something catches her eye across the room. Joy is standing by the drinks table, her faded hands attempting to pick up a champagne flute, but continously failing. Wendy excuses herself, and stalks angrily across the room.

"Where have you been?"

Joy, surprised, jumps a little and turns to look at Wendy.

"Jesus. You scared me."

"Where have you been? You've been gone for almost 3 weeks." Wendy crosses her arms, and taps her foot impatiently.

"3 weeks? It's been that long already, wow, damn."

Joy whistles, her hands swiping through the glass of champagne she's still trying to grasp.

"Balls! You know I'm not even sure if alcohol affects dead spiritual beings the same way? I suppose you could pour one down my throat, but that would look mental in front of yo-"

"Hey! Why the hell did you leave? You just left, like that. No warning whatsoever? You can't show up again and then leave. You pop in just to remind me what your stupid face looks like? No. You don't even have any explanations. What - Whats the point? Why did you leave?"

Wendy's voice is raised a little too high, and some of the other partygoers start looking over in her direction. Joy notices, and lowers her voice in response.

"You got busy, Wendy. I didn't want to distract you."

"What if I needed a distraction?" Wendy's voice cracks, and she hates it.

Joy looks back at her with determination. "I didn't want to be one."

After a beat, Wendy glances at the champagne flutes, picks one up, and drinks it. 

"Since when have you started drinking alcohol?" Joy gapes.

"Since I turned 21."

Joy laughs at this. 

"So the sobriety thing was for legal purposes."

Wendy swirls the remaining alcohol in her glass. "I guess. Or it was an excuse."

She drains the liquid into .

"Its better to seem principled and sheltered as opposed to terrified and broken."

Joy frowns, and instinctively raises her hand to rub Wendy's back, but realizes it would be useless. She lowers her hand reluctantly. Wendy avoids eye contact, and sets her empty champagne flute down. 

Joy clears . "Who was that girl you were talking to earlier? The one with the nice eyes."

Wendy looks at her quizzically.

"Oh, you mean Irene?"

The fact that Wendy immediately identified Irene as the girl with nice eyes makes Joy smile, but her eyes still dull some sadness. She knows she shouldn't feel jealousy, and she has even been preparing and waiting for the day Wendy would move on. But no preparation could fix the small crack that appeared on Joy's heart. 

"Yeah. She obviously has a little crush on you."

Wendy scoffs at this.

"As if. She's gotten confessed to multiple times at our workplace. She turns everyone down. Her standards must be out of this world."

"So it only makes sense for her to like you."

Wendy is unfazed by the cheesy comment. "Whatever. Stop changing the subject. At least warn me the next time you're going to leave like that, okay?"

Despair plagues Joy's heart, and her voice comes out in a whisper. "You know I can't. I never could."

Wendy understands. She understands, but all of a sudden, she's trying her hardest to keep herself from crying in the middle of this packed, festive room.

"I really wish you could have."

=

Wendy is at a cafe, waiting alone at a table. She looks at the empty seat across from her, but before she can imagine Joy laughing and cracking jokes in front of her, the bell of the cafe door rings, signalling a new customer. Irene glides in, scanning the room for Wendy. Wendy waves at her, and the older girl's face brightens in recognition. She quickly sits down in front of Wendy.

"Hello, I'm so sorry I was late..."

Wendy waves it off.

"No problem. This cafe is really nice, I was enjoying myself. The fresh juice is really good, like you said. I'm glad you recommended it."

Irene's eyebrows rise, and she grins mischeviously.

"Oh, you were enjoying it? Should I leave you alone then, so you can enjoy it more?" Irene begins to stand up, and Wendy genuinely panics and grabs Irene's arm to pull her back down.

"Ah, wait, stay! It's even better now you're here!"

Irene sits back down, giggling. Wendy wraps her arms around herself sheepishly. The two talk for a while. Wendy recalls the moment Irene asked her to meet up. She was convinced she was hearing things, so she clarified, "For work?", to which Irene giggled in response to, and said "No, to hang out, silly.".

Everyone in the office looked at Wendy like she had won the lottery that day.

A couple hours pass, and the two girls decide to relocate to a nearby park that runs next to a river. They walk along the riverside, chatting and laughing.

"Oh, Wendy, look! This is the best place in the city to watch the sunset. Look how pretty!"

Wendy looks where Irene is pointing.

"Oh, you're right! Its really stunning." Wendy rubs her neck. "Have we really been talking for that long?"

Irene laughs again, and Wendy thinks she'll never get tired of the twinkly sound. 

"I guess. It didn't feel like that long, though?" She tilts her head, and Wendy finds it too cute.

Should I be feeling like this?

It hasn't been that long since Joy's passing.

I promised her. It was going to be her, forever. No matter what.

Wendy is brought out of her thoughts by a hand intertwining fingers with her own. 

"Wendy, let's take a picture! Here, my phone has a really good camera."

Irene drags Wendy closer to the river's shore, and the older girl fishes her phone out of her pocket. She opens up her front camera and raises her phone, getting closer to Wendy so they could both be in frame with the sunset.

"1,2,3..."

Irene takes the picture and checks it before raising her phone again.

"One more. I'll count." Irene looks at Wendy, which the other girl senses. She turns to look at her, the two girls now just gazing comfortably into each other's eyes.

"1." Irene grins goofily, and Wendy laughs back.

"2." Wendy notices Irene's gaze lower from her eyes to her lips.

"3." Irene's lips fall onto Wendy's as easily as a gust of wind. 

For a second, Wendy can't even process what's happening. 

She feels soft, supple lips on her own, the pressure gentle and comfortable. It's a sensation Wendy admittedly hasn't felt in a while. She can feel her cheeks start to burn, and a warmth settles in her chest. She feels Irene lean closer to her, and her hand finds it's way onto the other girl's cheek.

Then suddenly, a flash of someone else's name thunders through her mind. 

Joy.

Wendy pulls back, eyes opened wide in shock. Joy's name, her face, her hair, her smell, suddenly permeated her mind as she was kissing Irene, and the invasion of her senses surprised her so badly she physically jumped away from Irene. The older girl takes it the wrong way, however, and starts apologizing profusely.

"Oh my goodness, I shouldn't have done that, right? I'm so sorry. I thought - well, I wasn't thinking at all, was I." Irene laughs awkwardly.

"No, it's fine, I just - " Wendy can't continue. Why did she move away? Why did her dead ex-girlfriend flash through her mind like a nightmare?

"This is completely my fault. I'm sorry if I've made things weird between us," Irene takes a deep breath. "I shouldn't have - ah. I'll just leave first. I'll see you at work." The older girl shuffles away from Wendy, and Wendy almost reaches out to stop her, but it's too late. "Take care on your way home, Wendy. I'm sorry."

Wendy watches Irene walk away until she disappears from sight. She looks around, constantly scanning her surroundings, hoping to find something or someone she's not even quite sure of herself.

=

"You messed up."

Wendy laughs bitterly at Joy's remark. She falls facefirst onto her couch, throwing her bag onto the floor. The timing of the appearance of the ghostly girl was ironically annoying.

"I know."

"Irene seems really sweet. You shouldn't let her go."

"I didn't even know she was mine to have in the first place," Wendy groans.

"Tsk, tsk. Typical clueless you."

Wendy raises her head to address Joy. "She kissed really nice too. All soft and sweet."

"So, nothing like me, ha."

"That's the thing though." Wendy sits up, facing Joy who is sitting on the other end of the couch. "You two are practically nothing alike. But when she kissed me, I couldn't stop myself from thinking of you."

Joy's hand clenches instinctively, but unclenches immediately. She hopes Wendy didn't notice.

"But that's natural, isn't it? I was your last girlfriend, after all. And it's not like you've kissed anyone since me."

Wendy nods. "I suppose. But it was just weird. And a little uncomfortable."

Joy bites her lip. She takes a good look at Wendy. Her Wendy. Wendy had developed faint wrinkle lines between her eyebrows, and her hair that used to be dyed a dark purple has grown back into a natural dark brown. She's wearing muted colors, her clothes being either a solid jet black or a dark beige as opposed to the bright fabrics she wore before. Joy thinks for a split second that "her Wendy" doesn't exist anymore, but she studies the other girl's kind brown eyes, and realizes that the woman before her is the same Wendy she claimed as her own years ago.

No. That wasn't the whole truth.

Wendy was still Wendy, but Wendy wasn't Joy's anymore. 

The realization hits Joy hard, and suddenly her leftover presence on Earth makes sense. 

Joy tries her best to make a movement that resembles her holding Wendy's hands. Wendy can't feel solid hands on her own, but she sees ghostly fingers rub circles on her palm, and she can feel a sudden chill around the area. She meets Joy's eyes, which are filled with a satisfaction that Wendy hadn't seen on the other girl for a while before death. 

"You know, when I told you I was here to watch over you, that was only partly true. I wanted to watch over you, but I also had no idea why I was still roaming around amongst the living."

Wendy stays silent and lets her continue. 

"I think I know now why I was given a little more time to see you. So that means I'll have to be going soon."

Wendy opens to retort, but Joy hovers a pale hand over Wendy's mouth.

"Shhh. It's okay. Let me tell you what I need to tell you."

Silence.

"When we were together, I was the happiest I'd ever been. You were such a light to my life, letting me experience and feel things I'd never dreamt of experiencing."

"I was so excited and ecstatic to finally be feeling this way, that I realized I never stopped and considered what you might have been going through."

Joy can see a tear rolling down Wendy's cheek. She reaches out to brush it away, and her heart breaks when her hand simply brushes over the skin, the tears streaming straight through her hand. Wendy reaches up to brush the tears away herself. Joy continues talking.

"I think I noticed you acting differently a couple months before I died. It made me think you didn't love me anymore, or you thought something was wrong with me. And me being immature, instead of talking to you about it, I decided to act like an absolute jerk." Her voice cracks. "It wasn't fair to you. It wasn't even fair to me. I should have talked to you. Asked you what you were going through."

"I passed away and left you at a crucial point in our relationship, and for that, I'll always feel sorry. I know it's no one's fault, but I'll always feel regret about leaving you here by yourself with no resolution on my part. That just," Joy laughs. "Really ." 

"When I got back here, and I saw you, I was so happy to see you. So glad to see your face again. The first time I saw you again, you were crying about me, actually. It made me feel so bad. I thought maybe, I was called back because you needed that resolution I never gave you. You needed closure."

"That was only part of my responsibility though. Following you throughout your days, seeing how you react to things, seeing your new life and all the opportunities you've been given for these past few weeks, it made me realize something. Even though I needed to help you gain closure about my death and the end of our relationship, I needed to accomplish something on my part too. I desperately needed to get over you."

Wendy is sobbing now, and all Joy can do is smile sadly and attempt to hold the other girl's head in her hands. She scoots closer to Wendy, and wraps her arms around the girl's weeping figure as best as she possibly can. She says her final goodbye, making sure each word is heard and understood. 

"What I needed to do to get over you was be confident in the fact that you're going to be okay without me. You'll be amazing, even. And now that I've realized that, I can fully pass over. That means no random visits when you're yelling at a coworker over the phone, or when you're cooking something delicious and I want to bother you about it." Both girls giggle. "So. Wendy. I need you to realize the same thing. You will do spectacular things, and will feel unbelievably happy. You radiate love. I know you think I was the end of it all, but I was just the beginning. You need to take these next steps on your own, okay?"

Wendy can barely nod through her tears, but she manages it. She tearfully looks at Joy, and whispers, "I love you. No matter what."

Joy beams, and pats her head. "I love you more. See you later, Wendy."

Wendy lowers her head to nuzzle into Joy's ghostly form, but when she opens her eyes and looks up again, the girl is gone. 

And unlike the past few times Joy has left her, Wendy smiles.

It's a content and happy smile that Wendy hopes is so wide and bright, it reaches the heavens. 

Fin.

=

Hey, so I know this was pretty simple, but it was something I wanted to crank out as quickly as possible as a kind of writing exercise! It made me happy while writing it, so I hope it made you happy while reading it.

I'm most likely going to add a short epilogue chapter because I'm a er for even happier endings :)

Until next time!