Once again, all events in this chapter are parallel to Mark's story in case you guys are confused about the timeline! This is early in 2019.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You are the sunrise
I'll be your sunset
You are my moonlight
I'll be your sky

You've always been my home
There's nothing like you
You just take me to a place
Where it's so high

- 92914, KOH

Or maybe there are two times for everything because the first-time fainting wasn’t enough.

I must have thought it was a fever dream. I must have thought that it would disappear because it was too good to be true. The many times I’ve dreamt of Matthew was right before my eyes and I didn’t know that I had knocked out for god knows how long. I felt like I was floating, my head hollow and the moment I opened my eyes, I was greeted by another dose of reality.

The type of reality that dumped hot water on me and made my head turn.

Matthew Lee, looking down on me with concern on his face, the same midnight black hair and high cheekbones that jutted up into a smile. His eyes swirled with confusion and worry when I slowly pushed myself off the couch, not looking away from him.

And then I socked him.

“Oh, damn! Woman!” Matthew yelped, a hand going to grab the nose that was the victim of my aggression. I gasped, bringing my hands up to my eyes. I felt it—I felt his skin underneath mine and with that, I had pounced onto Matthew, the male flailing and knocking onto the floor while I grabbed onto his face.

“Haha, wrestling match,” Kyungsoo mused, Matthew allowing me to do whatever I wanted with his face when I pushed him away hastily, still unable to grasp the fact that he was there. I slid away from him, rubbing my eyes and pushing myself to stand up, my knees wobbling.

“You’re not real,” I stated, Matthew lifting his head ever so slightly to blink at me. He smacked his lips.

“Yes, I am not. It’s all a dream.”

“I knew it—”

“No, I’m actually real and I wasn’t expecting this kind of welcome,” Matthew butted in, standing up to brush himself off. I looked to the side to see Chanyeol staring at Matthew wordlessly, Suho in confusion, and Kyungsoo looking like it wasn’t new news. “They warned me about this but I had to meet you. I had to find Kyungsoo and he’s always here, isn’t he?”

I turned slowly to Kyungsoo, the handler’s face still.

“You knew?” I demanded, Kyungsoo turning to me.

He smiled, a peace sign lifting into the air.

“How long have you known?” I asked, the vibrato in my voice became prominent from the shock.

“I was going to keep it from you,” he said simply. “Because I haven’t renewed my contract relationships and re-registered you as a counter in the afterlife.”

I had no idea what he was talking about and I heard only the first part.

“You were going to keep it from me?” I asked, my voice cracking. Matthew on earth? Back? And both of them were going to keep it from me? “Both of you?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t have seen you, anyway. I almost got stationed in Egypt but I demanded! I demanded that I stay in Korea!” He paused, smiling at me. “I was going to watch you from afar.”

“You were going to watch me from afar?” I echoed, a feeling of betrayal from Kyungsoo’s knowledge and their future plan that did not work out settling in the middle of my chest. Maybe this was what Kyungsoo felt when I didn’t invite him to Suho’s funeral.

“I watched Goblin and it seemed very romantic. Some Korean drama. It’s good, you should try to—”

A phone flew through the air and bonked Matthew on the head, our newly come visitor howling in pain. The phone very miraculously bounced off him and landed on the couch. Safe and sound, leaving Matthew making a face at the crime of the action.

Chanyeol.

Chanyeol was frozen in place and I saw Suho wave a hand in front of Chanyeol to try to get his attention but it seemed that shock had taken over him. Suho sighed, turning to Matthew before he asked for his name.

“Matthew. Matthew Lee, at your service.” Matthew jumped forward, a hand going to pat Suho on the shoulder when our friendly ghost gasped out that Matthew could touch him. “You’ve grown, Suho! My man! Such a sad thing for us to meet when you’re dead.”

“I-I’m sorry, do we know each other?” Suho asked, also frozen on the spot as Matthew casually lay a hand on Suho’s shoulder like they were best friends. “And am I getting something wrong here? The night before, Bora and I were talking about you and she said you were dead—”

The night before, I had opened up to Suho. I had told him that there was something worse than death for me—ascension, as they called it. Death wasn’t the end of the road for counters like me, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo. It was the final stretch after death.

All Suho got from that conversation was that Matthew Lee was a ghost who had gone up and left Earth.

“Very much dead, thank you for the reminder,” Matthew mused like he enjoyed the impact that he had brought with him.  “You don’t know me, but I do know you.”

“Is this your first time down?” Kyungsoo asked casually and I found myself passing him a glare that he ignored.

“Yeah. I’m on probation. I don’t have my spiritual pouch and can’t phase into soul form just yet. Going to be solid for a while.” Matthew moved away from Suho and rubbed his hands together. “I’m still an intern, as they call me.”

“I’m sorry, what? Are we going to skip over the fact that you come back here after seven years and I have no idea what you are?” I demanded, Matthew smiling at me. I looked away, my heart still hammering in my chest.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Matthew asked back, giving a small twirl. “I’m a Grim Reaper! I even have my own KPI screen!”

He pressed down onto his wrist, a screen coming up in the air to show numbers. Percentages, maps, info graphs.

“I was given a task to do. KPI stands for Key Performance Index. Every time I do something right or complete a task, the percentage goes up. See, mine is at ninety-one!”

We didn’t say anything, Matthew placing a hand on his hips.

“No congratulations?” He prodded. “No “I’m happy for you, Matthew?””

“Yeah, yeah,” Kyungsoo muttered, a pillow shooting through the air once more, Chanyeol having chucked it at Matthew. I remained silent, trying to process everything.

“Took me a while to appeal to the management team of the afterlife but now they say I’m… vigorous! Tentative!” Matthew broke into a smile when he frowned almost immediately after. “I had to lie on resume, however—”

“Why would you do that?” Suho asked, frowning. “Wait, resume? For the afterlife? What is this, some system?”

“Oh, of course. They even have border control, VISA’s… How do you think ghosts get allocated after ascending?” Matthew asked, Kyungsoo humming. My knees finally gave way, Matthew shooting forward to steady me but I raised a hand in the air.

“Don’t touch me yet.” My voice came out harsher than I thought it would and I gave him an apologetic smile before I shot a look at Kyungsoo. “Kyungsoo, you—”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry. But not my call. Don’t want to be sued in justice court, breaching the confidentiality of Grim Reapers.” Kyungsoo answered, taking a seat. Matthew took a step away from me to give me space.

“Mhm, but what happened to you?” Matthew asked the question directed to me when I looked up at the tall male.

“What happened to me? I’m in shock!”

“No, I don’t mean now. I mean….” Matthew frowned and I wanted to say that it was because he left, that is why I ended up as jaded. So dead inside. “We’ll talk about it later. We have all the time in the world.”

A magazine smacked Matthew on the face, the Grim Reaper turning to Chanyeol.

“Fine, you’ve got amazing aim,” he complimented, Chanyeol still staring at Matthew, his hands finding another item to fling at him. “I’m still solid, you know. Like I said, I’m still an intern on Earth. Can’t phase. Too much power and my body is adjusting.”

He touched himself on the chest.

“How does one become a Grim Reaper?” Suho asked and I heard a tinge of interest in his voice, Kyungsoo’s eyes widening.

“You are not thinking about it. It’s a curse,” Kyungsoo said to the older man, Suho shaking his head.

“I’m not thinking about it!”

“Yeah, that’s what Matthew said.” I pointed at Matthew who decided to take a seat. He massaged his legs. “Start from the beginning.”

He cleared his throat, Matthew leaning back.

“It all started when I died,” he began. “as a baby.”

“Oh, just cut to it,” Kyungsoo snapped, Matthew giving him a meek smile. Chanyeol had found a sealed yogurt, the item shooting towards Matthew but the Grim’s hands shot out to catch it.

“Holy Mama.” Matthew chuckled. “So, I ascended and then I stayed at the Viewing Room. You know, the room where souls stay for a while. A rest stop, per se. You can look down on the people you love and see how they are living.”

He paused and sniffed as if he was reliving the memory in his head.

“And it was either heaven or hell for me, like every other ghost so I decided that there is a loophole to that. To have become a Grim Reaper! But like every other job, there is meant to be a selection of people but with my determination; I begged and begged and begged until they caved.” He beamed.

“And you became a Grim Reaper?” Suho asked, Matthew waving a hand.

“No, I became the doorman,” he corrected, pointing at Suho. “As I said, my resume wasn’t good enough so I lied but because there was an influx of forms, they didn’t check it thoroughly. Yeah, afterlife system not so far off from the real world.”

“You wouldn’t have ended up in hell, though.” I found myself saying, Matthew giving me a soft smile.

“I would,” he replied simply, our eyes connecting for a split second before I looked away. “Even if I was in heaven, I would have been in hell.”

“Poetic,” Kyungsoo murmured. “He’s saying that even if he ended up in heaven with you, it would have been hell.”

“Kyungsoo, if you point it out that way, it’s not anymore romantic!” Matthew threw the yogurt he was holding to Kyungsoo.

Matthew breathed a sigh, looking down on the hat that I hadn’t noticed before. He had placed it beside him, the dead male turned Grim Reaper continuing to speak.

“I was a doorman for the longest time. Afterlife time, I mean, until one time I noticed an old man. Turns out he was the old pope and he had refused to leave. The management team couldn’t do anything about it. He wanted to see his great-granddaughter baptized, as every old pope gives importance to baptism.” He narrated it for us. “But after the next great-granddaughter, he insisted on waiting for the next one, and the management team didn’t have it in them to get rid of him, you know?”

“Cowards,” Kyungsoo commented.

“To be fair, he was once the pope. Should give him credit where it is due.” Matthew shrugged. “After some talking, some loving, and a splash of Matthew persuasion—he decided to leave and gave the management team a good push. He really liked me and that was the trigger of my new career. Old Pope was good to me.”

“Stop calling him the old pope,” Kyungsoo grumbled, Matthew frowning at the handler.

“Well, there is a new pope now, innit?” Matthew pointed out.

“And then you became a Grim Reaper?” Suho asked again, Matthew shaking his head.

“No, I began to work for the record room. Filing records and whatnot. Tedious but then I looked into all your files. Very interesting. Top-notch counters, if I say so myself.” There was a slip of a British accent in the Korean he was speaking and Kyungsoo made a face, Matthew apologizing. “Sorry. Granger and Hagrid trained me so the accents rubbed off. But now I’m here as an intern on Earth grounds and a full reaper of the afterlife. Kind of different procedures.”

“Conclusion is that you ended up as a Grim Reaper and now you’re here.” I clarified, Matthew nodding.

“Yeah, after one hundred and twenty-five hours a day of training, I am now licensed and ready to serve! Time works differently there and I don’t sleep so,” He shrugged before he yawned. “Need to remind myself that.”

“What task do you have?” Kyungsoo asked, Matthew pressing down on his wrist to show a number increasing.

“Increase of possessions on the map. Other Grims are running away from it, says it’s too much for them to handle with their pending tasks so they threw it at me. I caught it, gripped it and it’s now in my hands… but the good part is that they sent me to Earth.” The screen showed a map, red beeping dots on it. “That’s that for an explanation.”

A shoe flew through the air, Chanyeol’s expression still deadpan, Matthew dodging it.

“Damn,” Matthew murmured before pointed at me. “Aren’t you happy I’m here?”

I don’t remember if I answered that question and I don’t know if I even thought of answering that question because for the second time that day, I fainted.

Like I said, two times for everything.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I woke up thinking it was a dream and it didn’t help that night had fallen. My body ached and I was in my bedroom. I turned around, closing my eyes at the absurd dream I had dreamt of. It felt so real, I told myself. Did I miss Matthew that much? Was I finally losing my mind with the amount of soju I have been drinking?

My stomach grumbled. It was empty and as much as I recalled my dream very vividly, I did not recall eating the whole day. I stood up when I heard a shuffle from the other side of the door. I opened it coming face to face with Matthew Lee when I slammed it shut.

“Did you just slam the door in my face?” He asked and I gasped, blinking rapidly when the string of memories from the day came rushing in. It wasn’t a dream. “How are you feeling, Bora?”

I stepped away from the door and it opened, Matthew standing there in his black clothes. Kyungsoo was in the kitchen eating and Chanyeol and Suho were nowhere to be found.

“Wow, woman. I heard about the shock but I didn’t expect it from you, considering you’re a counter and all.”

It wasn’t that. I just didn’t know how to act with him and as if I was on autopilot, I pushed past him to walk to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo looked up and stared at me before he shrugged, Matthew grabbing my wrist from behind.

“Seven years,” I found myself blurting out as I came face to face to him. “Seven years to not even completely get over you and now you’re back and you’ll have to leave again.”

His features were taken over by confusion then realization in a matter of seconds when Matthew tilted his head at me.

“Who said I’m leaving?” He asked simply and I stuttered. “I’m here to stay, woman. I’ll be staying on Earth