I wish I could tell you that it was easy to look away, but the way her eyes hollowed and she stared at me curiously was enough for me to keep my eyes on her. Fortunately, it was right where Oh Sehun sat and I finally found the strength to pull my gaze back to the paper on my table. It was obvious the teacher didn’t give two s about the exam and those who were taking it—he didn’t even bother introducing me to the class like how normal teachers would and my eyes ran over the numbers on the paper.

Accounting, I thought, my fingers turning the pen between my fingers.

I looked over at Baekhyun who was chewing on the edge of his pen. This was why it was hard for us, moving in almost at the end of the year. It was exam season and we definitely were not exempted from it. But AP Business was something I have taken a liking to, even in my old small town and I had enough knowledge to string everything together, my pen beginning to leave numbers on the paper.

I saw Kim Kai answer the first two questions, Kim Minseok slowly tapping his fingers onto the table when I caught sight of him dropping an eraser on the ground. Unbeknownst to the teacher, he kicked it softly, the eraser shooting across the floor just to be stopped by Kim Kai’s foot, the male stepping on it and finally grabbing the eraser.

So, this was how they cheated.

I shook my head and I saw the female ghost look down, a sudden wash of sadness from her making me shudder. Baekhyun had finished the first four questions and I proceeded to do mine, shoving Kim Kai’s threat to the back of my mind when the timer went off and I sent in the quiz.

The teacher rolled his eyes when he saw the answers from Kim Kai, Oh Sehun, Park Chanyeol’s lack of effort, Kim Minseok’s effort in keeping his grades low and then focused on my brother and mine.

“Mhm,” he hummed, a small smile tugging on his lip. “I see the new students are a different breed.”

At his words, I saw the ghost perk up from his words, the female moving towards the papers and leaning forward. She then looked straight at me and I felt her energy shift, eyes wide and hopeful.

What was her deal?

“Byun Bora, 9/10. Byun Baekhyun, 7/10. Kim Minseok, 5/10… As always,” he looked over at Kim Kai, Oh Sehun and Park Chanyeol. “And you three… I won’t even say it.”

The classroom went silent and I saw Sehun turn to glare at me when the teacher continued to talk.

“Your exams are in less than a week. I know none of you take AP Business seriously because of your fixation on how it’s graded by average,” the teacher said, suddenly slamming his hand down onto the podium that was in front of the classroom. “One day, you will realize that AP Business is just as important to other people, and maybe even yourself.”

I heard a scoff, Sehun rolling his eyes when the school bell rang and the teacher his heel and left the room. It was obvious he had been keeping everything in—it wasn’t good for kids to constantly collectively fail because their friends told them to.

I stood up, my hand grabbing my backpack when a shadow fell on me and I looked up to see Sehun and Kai glaring at me.

Oh, the wrath.

He leaned forward.

“I told you that we’ll make your life a living hell if you ever get more than a sixty,” he hissed and tutted. What was with these kids? Why should someone ever jeopardize their grades just because their classmates didn’t want to put in the effort?

Made no sense.

“Leave them alone,” Park Chanyeol’s voice droned from behind me. “The last time you scared the new kid, he disappeared and moved to Vision Highschool.”

“As he should,” Kim Kai snapped, Chanyeol standing up and moving towards the door. He didn’t seem to care, the male walking out the door and slamming the door behind him. Kim Minseok too, didn’t seem like he wanted to intervene. “Do you know what will happen if my father sees that I’ve failed? I’m going to be sent to America—America!”

“I fail to understand why that’s my problem,” I quipped. “You don’t want to put in the effort, you don’t deserve to pass. Kim Kai, that’s the rule of the living.”

“Geez, Shakespeare,” he scoffed when his eyes went to Baekhyun, my brother watching both of us bicker. “I know how this works. You come here, all strong and mighty but the moment I lay a finger on jingle boy right there, both of you will be out of EXO High in a jiffy.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

“We should put them through an initiation,” Sehun said, loosening the sleeves of his jacket. “Like Chanyeol said, the kid moved to Vision Highschool. What makes you think they’ll stay?”

The mean boys of EXO High, I thought, Minseok moving in to break the circle up but Kim Kai already seemed like he had his mind put to it.

“I already have a plan of not staying for more than seven days. My exams will be null,” I told them. “You have nothing to worry about—”

But my words were drowned out by Sehun and Kai aggressively whispering to each other, their backs turned towards me when Kai whipped his head around and beamed.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“So, I have a proposition,” he told me, moving the chair with his foot and plopping down onto it, his face in his hands. “We should put you through an initiation. If you pass, I’ll make sure your brother is protected. God knows the Christmas tree right here needs us.”

“I’m not a Christmas tree,” Baekhyun snapped and Kai gave him a look. “I only sound like one.”

“Fair enough.”

“What kind of initiation?” I asked. I have heard of these, and a lot of them included going to secluded places, sometimes being humiliated in front of people. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that but when dealing with high school boys; it was very unpredictable.

“So,” Kim Kai’s voice dropped into a whisper. “You do know that this building is more or less abandoned, right? That only certain floors are visited but the tenth floor of this building is totally locked up.”

Kim Kai seemed less mean when he was talking like this. Sehun plopped down on the chair, excitedly telling me the story.

“It’s believed that a girl committed suicide ten years ago,” Sehun said and Baekhyun shivered. “She slit with a fan and they found her on the floor, her blood all over the tiles. People who went there all said that she haunts the tenth-floor bathroom. They took her body out and left everything else inside. No one dares to go in.”

A ghost.

“If you can stay there for three hours, we’ll leave you alone. Tonight, 6 pm when the sun goes down,” Kai concluded, patting my shoulder and standing up to grab his bag. “And we’ll keep Christmas Tree under our wing.”

“That we will,” Sehun mused, grabbing Baekhyun by the elbow, my brother pushing him away before he held him by a headlock. “Let’s go. We have P.E, next.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth, hearing Baekhyun kick Sehun on the shin when he turned to give me pleading eyes.

I knew Baekhyun was strong in his own way, my brother finally giving me a thumbs up. I could protect him from ghosts but I could hardly protect him from the real world. I rubbed the back of my neck, Minseok following me from behind.

“What happened to the last guy?” I asked Minseok, the male shrugging.

“The last guy who went for their initiation was brought to the pool. The guy before was brought to the music room. Both of them moved to Vision High,” Minseok snuck a glance at me. “None of them ever went in, though. Sehun and Kai, those two are scaredy cats. They just waited outside.”

“I can tell.”

“But they can be good people,” Minseok said and I scoffed, the guy chuckling at my reaction. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. You can always ask help from Suho. As much as Kai and Sehun try anything, they listen to Suho.”

“But the moment he turns his back to them, they’ll jump to every opportunity to bully him.”

I wasn’t stupid, I knew how high school worked and I didn’t bring up my brother to just let him get bullied like this.

“Thank you for the concern, Minseok,” I said, looking at my schedule. “Where to now?”

“Study period,” Minseok said, leading me to another building where everyone had their own free time to study.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was sitting on the chair with my books wide open, shuffling through papers when I felt a chair move and Suho plopped down in front of me. I looked up and blinked, Suho sighing.

“I heard. From Minseok.”

“Words travel fast.”

“I apologize on their behalf,” Suho said and I couldn’t help but chuckle. What a good man. His eyes fell on my phone by my hand and he grabbed it, flipping it open before entering his number. “You don’t have to, you know. Kai’s father is the director of the school, I can always report him to his dad.”

“He said he’ll be sent to America," I told him, closing the book and leaning forward. “It really isn’t a very big deal, Suho.”

“Students from EXO high have a power complex,” Suho told me. “I believed I could reform the culture as Student Council President but it’s harder than I thought.”

“Can’t change something when everyone refuses to be changed,” I looked up to see Suho staring at me. “Three hours in a bathroom. What can go wrong?”

“The last two people moved to Vision High. The first guy kept muttering to himself that he saw something. I mean, I don’t believe in ghosts, Byun Bora. But I believe in trauma and he might have been mentally weak. Going to an initiation made by high school students who simply want to bully you and your brother does more harm than good.”

“I’m not doing it for me, President,” I replied. “I’m doing it for my brother. You do know Sehun and Kai are in his class?”

“Ah…,” Suho paused. “You don’t look worried at all.”

“Should I be?”

“I see you don’t believe in ghosts,” he said this while studying me and I smiled.

“Quite the opposite, actually,” I answered. “I believe in them a little bit too much.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Night had fallen and the air was rapidly changing. The spiritual energy of EXO was hiked up and I saw Park Chanyeol sit in the courtyard, his facial expression unbothered when my brother bounded up to me—Kim Kai and Oh Sehun following close behind.

They were enjoying this a little bit too much, I realized, Kim Kai flashing me a smile.

“Noona,” Baekhyun greeted and I reached for his arm, feeling the warmth of his skin when my eyes dragged up to the abandoned building in front of me. Kim Kai proudly held up a lock and key and when I asked him what it was, he told me that it was to make sure I stayed in the bathroom for three hours.

“Some people just like to run away.”

“Let’s get this over with,” I told them. All I wanted to do was live my life in peace and to make sure everything would be a breeze with Baekhyun. “Lead the way, Kim Kai.”

“No, no. You lead the way,” Kai stuttered and I blinked, pulling Baekhyun with me. We had entered the building, Kai telling us that we had to climb the stairs to the tenth floor. The elevator wasn’t working and after a long while of huffing and puffing, we reached the tenth floor.

I understood why people were scared, Baekhyun keeping close to me and jingling his wrists when Kim Kai pointed to the end of the hall.

The girl’s bathroom.

I stepped forward, my feet going down on the papers that were splayed all over the floor, and slowly I felt Baekhyun’s grip tighten over my arm. We were nearing the bathroom and I felt a gust of cold wind, Baekhyun squeaking with Kai cleared his throat nervously.

“Alright, in you go. Three hours,” he said and I could hear his voice shake. I stepped into the girl’s bathroom just to see that the stalls were torn down and that there were writings on the walls. I could see a couple of books and random items on the floor. The mirror was blurry from the dust and I sneezed, the door closing behind me when I saw Kai hastily slam it shut.

There was the clanging of metal against metal when he began to lock the door and I looked at the small window on the door.

Kai was trembling and I could see a movement from my peripheral vision, a soft glow that did not belong to a living person.

Kai was muttering to himself and I could hear him finally lock the door when I saw her standing there.

Her uniform wasn’t bloody—and she was the girl I saw in AP Business. I saw her stare at Kai, her beautiful wide eyes turning into crescent moons as she smiled. She gave a little twirl and I cleared my throat.

“Kim Kai,” I said Kai’s name, the male jolting up and I could tell he could sense something was wrong. “I suggest you open the door. You would want to have my brother near you—”

“Why would I do that?” Kai asked, scoffing. “Why, are you scared already, Bora?”

“Quite the opposite,” I paused and I saw the ghost take rapid steps towards Kai. “I have a feeling that I’ll be amused very soon.”

“What does that mean?” Kai demanded, whipping his head around just in time to see the female ghost right in front of his face.

A moment of silence for Kai’s sanity, I thought.

I saw Kai take a step backward, the male letting out a choke-like sound before belting out a blood-curdling scream, Kim Kai’s voice suddenly stopping and then there was a thud.

The ghost blinked and I peeked through the small window to see that Kim Kai had fainted.

“Noona!” Baekhyun gasped, moving his bracelets to keep the ghost away when I saw her look at me, her face breaking into a smile. “Noona!”

I smiled back.

“You see me,” she said this as a statement and I watched as her body went through the door, Baekhyun hiding behind me. “A gifted.”

“And I hear her!” He said and I nodded, the female hovering above us.

“You showed yourself to him,” I said and she nodded. “Must be quite powerful to do that.”

“Not at all powerful,” she told me, moving to the middle of the bathroom. “I belong here and I died here so I’m stronger here.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Twenty-five years,” she replied, her voice laced with sadness. “It’s been a long while. I see people come and go and sometimes I wonder if this is how it feels like to be immortal.”

“Why can’t you ascend?” I asked. “The boys told me that you slit your throat with a fan.”

“Oh, no. Not at all!” She gasped, her hand going up to cover . “I took sleeping pills and fell asleep. Never woke up.”

“Suicide?” I asked, the ghost giving me a sad smile. My heart felt heavy for her but I knew better than to feel empathy for something that has already happened. Her eyes went to the books by the wall and I found myself walking towards them, Baekhyun following me closely.

I dusted off the cover, coughing with dust shot up my nostrils when I saw that it was an AP Business first edition book. I opened it up, a name written in the cover.

“Kwon Mina,” I read out loud and she let out a laugh, Baekhyun letting out a startled gasp. “That’s your name?”

“Yes,” she said and I saw her come back down onto the ground, her hand going out to puncture Baekhyun’s arm. “Your brother—”

“He’s sensitive. A pure soul,” I said and she smiled. Baekhyun whimpered, Mina stepping backward to give him space, Baekhyun muttering a soft ‘thank you’. “Is there a reason why you aren’t ascending?”

“Mhm…,” she heaved a sigh. “There is.”

She snuck a look at me.

“You really want to know?”

“I have three hours.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was sitting on the books, Baekhyun with his face buried against my shoulder as Kwon Mina began to tell me her story.

“I was a scholarship student,” she told me. “I had to somehow keep my GPA up and all was good until I began to take AP Business.”

“AP Business?” I asked in surprise. “Was it even a thing 25 years ago?”

“My batch was the first batch to have to take AP Business,” she told me. “Selectively, of course. The system wasn’t very different twenty-five years ago. I was put into AP Business—a class filled with rich kids. Selfish high school students.”

“Were you bullied?”

“Yes," she sighed. “I was bullied simply because they didn’t want me to get good grades. The same thing as Kim Kai told you today. It’s graded by average. Average, average! I was bullied and forced to get low grades.”

“But you were a scholarship student,” I said and she nodded, her eyes glazing over.

“And because of that, I lost my scholarship. My father was a taxi driver, he couldn’t pay for my education,” she told me. “All because rich kids didn’t want to work hard. All because they were lazy!”

“She sounds mad, she sounds mad,” Baekhyun whispered from beside me. “Miss Ghost! If I’m sitting where you died, I am really sorry!”

I pressed my lips together, Mina’s voice trembling as she recalled what happened twenty-five years ago.

“The day I lost my scholarship, I didn’t know what I would tell my father so I ended retreating to the tenth-floor bathroom. I had gotten cheap sleeping pills from a pharmacy—illegal ones. I didn’t think I would die, to be honest.”

“You thought it was the only way to cope.”

She fell silent, her knees giving way as Kwon Mina sat on the floor, her eyes empty.

“I woke up and didn’t even know I was dead,” she looked like she was deep in thought. “My father was devastated.”

“How many did you take?” I asked, Kwon Mina shrugging and telling me she didn’t remember. That it was also because she was a naturally frail woman and she didn’t eat for days because of how stressed she was. “Are you trying to seek revenge?”

“Revenge?” Her voice hiked up, the ghost shaking her head. “No, not revenge. If I was seeking revenge, I would become a ghoul.”

She smiled.

“The only way I can go is to see kids passing AP Business with a good grade.”

“Really?” Baekhyun asked from beside me as if he forgot that he was scared. He realized he was trying to talk to a spirit, my brother plugging his ears and I stared at her.

“Really?” I echoed and she nodded.

“Twenty-five years, unnie!”

“Unnie?” I asked back and she motioned to herself. “You’re like… way older than me.”

“Spiritually, I’m stuck at fourteen—”

“You were taking AP Business when you were fourteen?”

“Unnie, I told you I was a scholarship student! But that’s besides the point,” she stood up, hands on her hips. “The only way for me to be fulfilled is to see a class pass AP Business with a good grade. Do you know how long I’ve waited?”

“Uh…”

“And it just gets worse and worse with every batch!” She fumed, floating back and forth in front of me.

“Now, now, Miss Ghost,” Baekhyun mumbled under his breath.

“When Minseok joined, I thought—Maybe it’s time! At least he’s older than the rest and he’s very smart but no!” She paused in front of me, her bottom lip pouting out. “Turns out his grades didn’t matter to him either.”

I blinked.

“But now that you’re here, it’s time,” she said, beaming. “I can help you study… Only if you burn those, of course.”

She pointed at the books that I was sitting on.

“We can try, you know. Maybe finally after all these years I’ll be able to go up and repent for my sins,” she said and I realized that because she had committed suicide, she would have long years ahead of her, trying to make up for the fact that she took her own life.

“You sure this will work?” I asked, Baekhyun pouting from beside me. He knew what was going through my mind.

“Of course,” she said, zooming up into a little twirl. “Oh, I’m so happy!”

“How am I supposed to—”

“Bora?” A voice asked and I squinted forward to see Sehun shining a flashlight into the bathroom. “Who are you talking to? Why is Kai dead—”

At Sehun’s voice, I saw Mina rush towards him, her face going straight to his when I saw Sehun’s eyes widen. Mina squealed and Sehun took two steps backwards. I watched him drop the flashlight, Mina giggling when there was a thud and it wasn’t rocket science to figure out that Sehun too, had fainted.

“He’s so handsome! Oh, I’ve got to stop doing that!” Mina said sadly before brightening up. I stood up to rush to the door, peering through it to see that both Sehun and Kai were on a heap on the floor. “I’m dead!”

Well, no .

I shook my head, knowing it was time to call someone. I grabbed my flip phone, looking through it to see Suho’s newly saved number and when I pressed onto it, Suho answered almost immediately.

“President,” I greeted and he sounded scared.

“Oh my god, he fainted, d