“Why…Why am I here?”, she frantically looked around, confusion and panic written all over her face. It was as if it was her first time here, but it wasn’t.

       “Why am I in your room, Chaewon-unnie? What did you do?”, she said and finally looked at me.

       “Listen, Minjoo. Listen to me first, please. Calm down”, I spoke as I tried to stop and reach out to her closer, but was cut off when she abruptly stepped back and looked at my hand like it would burn her. She refused to look at me again.

       “Don’t. Don’t touch me. You can’t…You can’t”, she tried to sound serious, but her eyes gave it away, even if her eyes stayed glued to the floor. It was the first time I saw her like this, vulnerable and it looked as if she was about to cry.

       “Why not? Why can’t I?”, I tried very hard to ask without sounding like I was about to cry too but failed miserably. She finally looked at me again.

       The room was filled with this heavy atmosphere as it took her quite a while to answer.

       “Because I’m dead, unnie”, she dejectedly answered me with something I already knew, I was afraid of what she had to say next and kept quiet.

       “You have to let me go.”

       If I knew that something this painful would happen in my own room while I was with the friend I cherished the most, I would’ve done things differently 2 months ago.

       “It won’t hurt to tidy up a bit, unnie.”, I was watching my favorite series ‘Sweet Home’ and munching on a bag of chips when I heard her annoying voice as she barged into my room like it was hers again.

       “It won’t hurt to shut up, Minjoo.”, I retorted.

       I heard her sigh and start to rummage through my things like she usually does when she comes. I continued watching the series and let her clean the place as she murmured some very very kind words which were clearly directed to me.

       “You’re like a helpless child who needs my guidance and care in navigating this world.”, she said before grabbing each clothing that she finds on the floor and throwing it at me.

       “Sorry, Mom.”, I replied sarcastically but my eyes never left the screen. I continued to watch the series, ignoring her while she complains.

       “Darn it, Kim Chaewon! Even your underwear?”, my eyes widened at what she said. I abruptly stood up and grabbed my underwear before shoving them into the closet.

       “Why are you trying to hide it? I already saw your polka dots-”, I groaned and cut her off.

       “Shut up.”, I said before changing the topic and going back to bed.

       “What are you even doing here? Shouldn’t you be studying for the entrance exam?”, I asked her.

       “Why study? I’m just gonna fail anyway.”, she deadpanned.

       “Coming from you, huh?”, I asked mockingly. She would always tell me that she doesn’t care about such things like she doesn’t rank high in school.

       “Hey, it’s not like I’m the one who ranks first in school all the time and I barely even see you study. You’re always watching your precious TV shows, yet you’ve never failed, not even once.”, she retorted before sitting on my bed and grabbing a handful of chips and shoving them into , leaving me with nothing but the crumbs. I glared at her but she didn’t seem bothered at all as she made herself comfortable on my bed.

       She grabbed the remote from my hand and changed it to a different show. I rolled my eyes in annoyance and kicked her off the bed.

       She groaned and stood up from the floor while using the edge of the bed as support, looking at me with so much anger and annoyance as she did so. It was the exact same look she gave me when we met 12 years ago. When I was six, my parents would force me to go to the playground so that I could socialize with kids my age even though it was clear that it was the last thing I wanted. The town’s playground was always so noisy and full of snotty kids that would fall on the ground every 5 seconds that passes. The kids were unappealing so I spent most of time sitting on this one specific swing and would only leave when it was time to go home. One day, I was sitting on the swing, looking down past the rows of trees and the kids racing down the slide, when a girl wearing a yellow sundress, carrying a handmade frog toy, caught my attention. I had quite an eye for handmade toys, so I was intrigued by what she was playing with. I really don’t like talking to other kids but I badly wanted to borrow the toy. I was hesitant to approach her but I gathered all my courage and dragged myself in her direction.

       “Excuse me.”, I said politely and slowly walked over to her. She paused for a moment and looked at me without any expression. “Can I borrow your toy?”, I audaciously asked while pointing at her toy.

       “No.”, she immediately answered.

       “Just for a minute. I promise I won’t break it.”, I pleaded while holding my right hand raised close with my shoulder. She turned her back on me and walked away.

       “I’ll give you some chocolates in return, just please let me borrow it. Just once.”, I said while I was following her. I offered her everything I could, but she turned everything down. She just wasn’t the kind of person who gets easily swayed.

       “Tell me what you want. I’ll give you everything you want in exchange for that toy.”, I said impatiently. That’s when she finally looked at me.

       "Get lost.”, she answered with a very serious tone. She was getting on my nerves. I couldn’t stand it anymore so I quickly grabbed her toy. I tried running away with the toy but she was holding the other side of the toy really tight. She looked at me with so much anger. She pulled the toy with so much force, I had no choice but to let go. The toy hit her so hard that her nose started bleeding. She panicked when she saw the blood from her nose and I panicked when she started to cry. Both of us didn’t know what to do and I was afraid of what both her parents and mine would do, I started to cry with her too. People from the park started staring at us weirdly as we both bawled our eyes out. After too much weeping, our parents came. They told us to stop fighting and instead start being friends, we fought every day after that. Little did we know that it would be beginning of our friendship and the beginning of our nonstop bickering.

       I’ve been friends with this weirdo for a very long time now, I’m not even sure why I’m still friends with her. Everything was normal about us, except for one thing—my ability to see dead people. Minjoo is the only person who knows about this dark secret. They weren’t just eerie sensations, flickering or wisps of light caught on cameras. These ghosts appear on variety of ways—loud knocking sounds, slamming doors, lights turning on and off, objects moving, spooky footsteps, cold breeze, a rotten smell, sounds of weeping, a woman whispering, laughing and making bizarre noises. I’d usually see them roaming around at night on the streets, school halls, houses and graveyards. I’ve seen so many of them and believing that they don’t exist keeps me safe. I’ve been carrying this secret for many years, and this secret is better hidden behind the doors.

       “Don’t forget that we’re watching a movie next week.”, she tried to remind me.

       “Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? Don’t you dare ditch me like you did last time.”, I said, a serious expression on my face.

       “I won’t. I promise, okay?” She looked at me with fear in her eyes and said before taking her bag. I continued to look at her like I didn’t believe her but smiled when she rolled her eyes before glaring at me, clearly getting annoyed as I kept reminding her of her mistake for the hundredth time already. She then finally left my room and shut the door.

       “And don’t forget to bring diapers next week, you peed your pants the last time we watched a horror movie, scaredy-cat.”, I shouted jokingly through the door. She came back through the door just to glare at me again and slam the door as she left again. I laughed at her childishness, despite acting like a mother when she sees my dirty room, she was as immature and weird as I was.

       I set down the bag of chips and closed the TV, despite every part of my body not wanting to, I had to. It’s time for me to study for the exams that would determine what school I’d be going to. I prepared everything carefully on my desk, especially my brain as I had to face the terror of studying Chemistry. After setting all the important books on my desk and carefully arranging the pens I bought and others I stole from Minjoo, I sat down and started answering some practice questions. I fell asleep 5 minutes after.

       The days went on like that, studying at school, watching some dramas for a few minutes, hanging out with Minjoo, studying at home, and falling asleep sometimes became an endless routine. The routine, however, was disrupted when Minjoo decided to be even more annoying than ever. As I was pretending to understand what the teacher in front of the class was saying, I felt someone behind me throw a small piece of paper at the back of my head. I ignored the person as I knew exactly who it was. A few minutes after, instead of paper, a pen was thrown at me. I continued to ignore her.

       “Hey!”, I heard her whisper but continued to ignore her. I then felt a notebook hit my head. She was testing my patience but being with her for 12 years has trained me to lengthen my patience well. I took a deep breath before gritting my teeth and continued listening to whatever the teacher was saying.

       “Unnie! Hey! Chaewon-unnie!”, she continued to whisper. She was never really the type to give up anyway so I had no choice but to give my attention to her if I wanted her to stop. I tried to discreetly turn my head to look at her. My eyes widened when I saw that she was holding her bag, it was as if she was about to throw it at me, but she put it down once she saw that I was already looking at her, a small thud was heard as her bag was quite heavy.

       “Were you really going to throw your bag at me?”, I whispered, anger evident in my voice.

       “No… no. I wasn’t.”, she stuttered as she tried to lie despite being caught red-handed.

       “What do you want?”, I hissed before looking back at the front of the room to check if the teacher noticed what we were doing. I then looked at Minjoo again. Instead of answering, she rubbed her stomach and then motioned her hands like he was using a spoon to eat. I turned to look at the teacher again and sighed. This was exactly the reason why I didn’t want to listen to what she wanted to say, I couldn’t say ‘No’ when it comes to food.

       After class, she practically dragged me out of the room even though I had no plans of refusing to eat outside with her.

       “Minjoo, we should be studying. The exams are getting nearer and nearer.”, I tried to change her mind even though I know nothing would be able to get through her thick head and even though I could already hear the grumbling of my stomach.

       “Can’t we get a day-off from studying?”, she spoke while she giddily walked, she’s always this happy and excited when it comes to food, she looks like a happy little frog when she is, a pretty frog. As we walked through the school’s hallway, I saw the girl who always had a frown on her face again. I smiled at her but she continued to walk pass by me like I didn’t exist. I frowned at the girl’s rudeness but decided to shrug it off as I thought that maybe she was going through some things. I then gave my attention back to Minjoo who was now smiling while she was looking at her phone.

       “Don’t you get a day-off from studying every day?”, I asked to annoy her. She then looked up from her phone and hit my head lightly with it, making me laugh as I knew I succeeded.

       As we were about to cross the road, I saw the girl who was always at the middle of the pedestrian lane again. She didn’t look that much older than us but she was clearly much more different as she was covered with blood and her head was badly wounded. I looked away and continued to walk like I didn’t see her, I held my breath as I did so as I was nervous, afraid that she’d be able to figure that I could see her. I clung onto Minjoo’s arm tightly and just continued walking. The girl’s always there, just sitting there in the middle, with no expression on her face.

       I was finally able to breathe properly when we reached the street where all the best street food is sold. I expected to see Minjoo smiling as she loved hanging out here, but s