Jieun yawns as she stretches. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and stares at her laptop screen. She’s watching a video of the memorial they held for Chanyeol. He, weirdly enough, went to the same high school as her and the principal has stayed the same. He mournfully says his speech. She scoffs. He’s being completely fake but everyone seems to be buying it. She pays attention to anyone in the crowd as well; to their expression. But no one stands out. She groans and sips the coffee she had gone out for. She stares for a moment before brushing her hair with her fingers and quickly putting it up in a ponytail. 

“Okay, let’s focus on the mom. She got shot in the head four times which suggests a personal connection,” She speaks into the recorder. Jieun glances at the tv, remembering the night before. The student slowly sets her laptop to the side before standing and approaching the screen. Taking a deep breath, she kneels and stares at it. She places her hand on it. “Can you communicate with me through here?” She asks, still feeling stupid. Groaning, she glances outside and at the rainy night sky. “I’m an idiot…” She leans back and looks back at the screen. At that moment, the crash of thunder warns her of the lightning to come. And yet, when it strikes, something causes her to almost scream. Her eyes grow wide as light flashes into the room. A man’s figure appears, right in front of her. It’s for a brief moment along with the clash of the storm but it still elicits a cry from her. Jieun slams her back against the bed as her heart beats faster and she feels a sweat come on. Her eyes grow wide when the static starts up once again. Another figure but it’s closer now, besides the bed as if looking down at her; its head and body bowed toward her direction. “Stop it” She shrieks out. “You’re scaring me!”

“I’m s...y, I d.dn’t mean to.”

Jieun sniffs and wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “H-huh?”

“W.o…?”

“Who?” She gasps when the static dies down again. She lunges forward and grabs the side of the television. “Wait, no! Hello?! Hello!” She stares at it and then outside. Did the lightning do this? This happened before when the lightning struck. She bites her lip, waiting impatiently for the next strike. When it does she turns to the TV again and waits. And just like before, the static appears. “H-hello?”

“H.llo.”

“Chanyeol, who killed you?” she asks as she grips her recorder quickly.

“W.ho wh..?”

She groans in frustration when it dies down again and he disappears. She stands up and begins to pace. Jieun can’t wait around for those damn lightning strikes to come. If she’s going to use this ghost’s help to solve his murder, she needs to think of something to keep the communication open for longer. “Think!” She mumbles and puts her glasses back on. “Lightning,” she mumbles and pauses. “Electricity?” She looks at the time and sits back in her spot further back on the bed. She has an idea. But it would have to wait for tomorrow.

Jieun slowly approaches her aunt as she lounges on the couch. She watches the tv with a beer in her hand. “Auntie,” She greets, shyly fiddling with her long sleeve. 

“Oh, hey Jieun,” she sighs. She can tell the woman is already drunk and it makes her a bit more confident.

“Do you think I can borrow some money?”

“Sure, m-my wallet is on my dresser. Take what you need.”

She stares at her aunt. “Are you okay…?”

“Yeah, I'm fine,” She mumbles, her eyes never leaving the screen. Jieun stands there for a moment, unsure what to do. “Did you...need something, honey?”

“No, just...just the money,” She whispers before turning away and heading for her aunt’s bedroom. She sighs as she fumbles with her wallet and pulls out the amount she needs. Without looking at her aunt again, Jieun pulls on her coat and quickly leaves the apartment. She wonders if her aunt blames her for her sister’s death. Jieun’s mother. It’s not like she was driving the car when it crashed but…still. Jieun shakes her head before mounting her bike and heading for the store. She has more important things to think about today.

Jieun groans, straining as she drags the portable generator up the stairs. She pauses for a moment to catch her breath. Once she manages to get it into Chanyeol’s room, she kneels and begins to hook it all up. While following the manual, of course. She pulls out the proper cords needed from her backpack and sets those up as well; leading from the old TV. She sighs and sits back. After a moment, she reaches over and turns the tv on. A smile finds its way to her face when the same static appears. 

Clearing , Jieun goes to the screen. “Hello?” she calls out.

She waits for a moment anxiously. She flinches when the door shuts behind her and seems to lock. Clearing , she speaks up again. “A-are you there?”

“H.llo?”

“It worked!” She gasps. “Hi, hello!”

“...Wh. a.. ..o?”

Jieun groans. “You what?” She furrows her brows. “I can’t hear you,” She mumbles and grabs one of the knobs to change channels. She feels so stupid but it’s the only thing she can really think of. “Can you hear me?” She asks as she slowly shifts through channels. 

“Yeah, I can hear you.”

“Oh!” the student grins. “You can?”

“Yeah...why is there some girl’s voice coming through my tv? And um...are you the one that screamed last night?”

Jieun sits back. “Well, you scared me…”

“I...didn’t mean to, whatever I did.”

She stands up and begins to pace. “God, I have so many questions for you!”

“Well, I do too! For starters, why are you in my tv?”

Jieun shakes her head. “I’m just using this so we can communicate. My name is Kim Jieun and I’m trying to solve your murder.”

“My...what?”

“Your murder,” She repeats. “Oh, I read about this. Some ghosts don’t know they’re dead.”

“Um…”

“They wander around, looking for something, unaware they’re in limbo or whatever,” she goes on.

“Jieun.”

“But I believe if I can solve this, I can help you...I don’t know, move into the light? And-”

“Jieun!”

Jieun stops and looks at the tv. “What? I’m trying to…” She trails off, her eyes growing wide. She slowly walks back to her place in front of the screen and sits down. She can see, as clear as day, Chanyeol himself. He’s in his room, his own bed behind him. But unlike the room Jieun is in, it’s full of life and still looks like a regular home. And he doesn’t look dead. Quite the opposite, with his hair short and messy; he seems to be wearing a black sweater. 

“H...holy crap!”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“My tv ghost is cute…”

“I’m not a ghost!” Jieun gasps, her cheeks growing warm. “I told you, I’m investigating your murder!”

Chanyeol shakes his head as well. “I’m not dead either, okay? I just got back from basketball practice with my friends. And earlier today, I had lunch with my friends; what’s your proof that YOU’RE not dead?”

Jieun scoffs. “I was talking with my aunt and the cashier when I bought a generator. I don’t think ghosts can ride bikes either!” She grabs her whiteboard. “I can prove to you that you’re dead!”

“Go ahead then.”

The student pulls out the photo of Chanyeol’s crime scene and holds it up to the tv. “See? You were shot right in the head while trying to escape.”

Chanyeol stares at the photo, the color leaving his face. “W...when is that?”

“September 14. You died at seven in the evening.”

The boy swallows hard. “That’s...a few months away.”

Jieun blinks a few times. “Excuse me?”

“That...that’s picture day.”

“You’re...still alive…?”

“...Yeah.”

“What the hell is going on?” Jieun whispers as she glances at her crime scene photos. “If you're not dead, then why can I...talk to you?”

Chanyeol shrugs. “Maybe you’re...from the future?”

Jieun scoffs. “That’s ridiculous!”

“Is it? You believe in ghosts but not that?”

“And what? You do?”

“Hell yeah!” Chanyeol nods quickly. “I thought I was having a ghost haunt me recently. I think I accidentally even ran into you! I...it was weird. I was walking up to my room when I hit something and it sounded like you fell. And then you...ran out of the house?”

“Yeah, that kind of hurt…”

“Right, sorry. I’m pretty strong because-”

“You’re on the basketball team, I know.”

“You do…”

“I told you,” She says and shows him a file. “I’m investigating your murder.”

Chanyeol squints. “Really?”

“I know you’re about six-one, you have an older sister named Yoora who moved out two years before your...um, death.”

The man sighs and sits back, seeming a bit defeated. “Really…” Jieun looks back at her board and bites at her nails. She stands up and begins to pace; Chanyeol’s eyes follow her as she does so. “The room you’re in...my room? But it’s all…”

“Abandoned,” the girl mumbles as she thinks. “If you’re not...dead yet.” She stops and goes back to the photos. She stares at it for a long while. “Wait!” she gasps. “What if I...find out who killed you BEFORE you die? Maybe I can...prevent it?”

Chanyeol furrows his brows. “You want to prevent my death? You think you can do that?”

“Why not?” Jieun asks. “I’m already looking into it. I mean, if I can help solve it, that’s great. But it’s even better if I can...prevent it.” The student gasps and goes back to the TV. “You can help!”

“Me? How...can I help?”

“I don’t know, maybe you can dig around a little on your side,” Jieun offers. “I’m still looking for a motivate as to why someone would want to kill your parents and you-”

“Wait, my parents?!” Chanyeol cuts in. “My parents die too?! Do you...have the photos?”

Jieun gives him an apologetic look. “I...don’t feel comfortable showing you that, Chanyeol.”

“But I-”

“Look, you don’t need to see how you die or the photos to look around,” she asks, moving the board a bit further from the tv screen. “I’m going to start with you.” Jieun grabs her laptop and pulls up the video of the principal. “Look deeper into the people around you. I wanna start with your records and everything your teachers had to say about you. I know what they told the media but people lie,” She explains, quickly going through all her papers. “But the place they leave all their records has some lady there during the day-” She pauses again. “Unless I sneak in at night…”

“You’re...wanting to break into your high school…”

“Our high school, we went...uh, go to the same school,” Jieun says and sits back on her feet. “Your files would have been from twenty years ago, so I guess they’d be in the basement, in the record room,” She looks out the window and then at the time. “I’ll go in a couple of hours, they close up around eight.”

Chanyeol scoffs. “You’re...different.”

“Yeah, I hear that a lot. Go figure a boy from the past would think so too…”

“Um...I just want to mention, you’re relatively calm for someone who just found out about...all this.”

Jieun raises a brow at the screen. “So are you.”

“But I believed in this stuff. You...apparently didn’t?”

“...I never thought about it. It was an easy thing for me to accept the ghost thing,” she says. “It’s the whole...timeline thing that confuses me.” She stares at her laptop for a moment before pulling it onto her lap. Jieun begins to type in the search bar. She stretches her legs out comfortably and clicks as many links as she can. “I might need to visit the library instead.” She looks at the time. “Tomorrow. I’ll go tomorrow.”

“Does that mean you’ll be back tomorrow?”

“Well, I kind of have to unless I can, I don’t know, find a way to make you portable,” Jieun says. “You know, I know we just met and this whole...tv thing is so weird. But thank you for keeping calm about all this.”

“Oh, it's alright. I’ll probably have a random breakdown about this all later. Maybe in the shower or something.”

The girl chuckles a bit at that and pulls off her glasses. She rubs her eyes as she yawns and looks at the time. “I’ll nap before I break in. I’ll...let you know tomorrow if I find anything?”

Chanyeol nods. “This is all still weird...but I guess I’ll go along with it for now.”

“So kind of you,” Jieun jokes. “Good night,” she mumbles before leaning over and turning off the generator. She lets out a sigh as she stares at the blank screen. What did she just stumble into?

Jieun keeps her eyes glued to her phone screen, staring at the time as the minutes go by. As soon as it’s midnight, she slips it back into her pocket and looks around. When seeing no one, she quickly makes her way across the street and to the side of the school. The girl grabs the top of the fence and pulls herself up and over. Jieun grunts a little as she lands. She quickly sneaks toward one of the back doors and tries to open it. When feeling it’s locked, she pulls out her lock picks and begins to work on it. She makes quick work of the door before she slowly pushes it open and slips in. 

The girl tries to be as quiet as possible as she makes her way through the halls, keeping a close eye for any nighttime guards. She knows there are only two and they tend to take their break around this time. Jieun sneaks as best as she can, her eyes darting around and keeping a lookout. When she passes the room the guards have their first break, she pauses. She takes a peek through the window and at the two men. They chatter with each other as they sit in chairs, seeming to play some card game. She watches them for a few more seconds before continuing to walk forward, crouched down. Knowing where the two men are, she feels a bit more confident and quickens her pace toward the basement stairs. Using the railing to keep herself balanced, she descents down. Jieun stops by the bottom stair and kneels; trying to get a good look at the record room; just in case it isn’t empty. When the coast is clear, she slowly approaches the caged-off section of the room. Once again pulling out her pick locks, Jieun begins to work her magic. Luckily, it’s a pretty easy and old lock; clicking open for her in no time. She slips through and leaves it open a crack. The girl begins to quickly look through all of the files, trying to search by the last name first. She clicks her tongue at how messy it is. She’d like to have a few words with whoever organized this room. Jieun mumbles under her breath as she looks for Park, Chanyeol. “There you are,” She sighs, surprised by the thick file. “What the heck do you have on you…?” Jieun gasps when hearing footsteps, causing her head to snap in the direction of the stairs. “!” She grabs the file and flips it into her bag. Just as she sees the shine of a flashlight, she falls to the floor and scoots herself under one of the desks. 

“I heard it down here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I know what I heard, alright?” She puts her hand over as the light shines toward the cage. “Aww, . The damn door is open.” Jieun listens to their footsteps as they approach. The door squeaks as it’s open and the two men step inside. “The door was open…”

“The lock was old anyways, are you surprised?”

“I guess not. Should tell the principal and get a new one. You know how he insists these records stay private.”

Jieun clutches her back tight, her heart beating faster and faster with each step. She shuts her eyes tight and tries to squeeze against the wood as best she can. She almost lets out a yelp when the men suddenly step out in front of her hiding spot and stop. Her eyes grow wide when she sees the man crouch, facing his back to her. Jieun swallows hard as she slowly reaches into her bag; her gaze never once leaves the guard. She pulls out a small eraser and takes a deep breath; holding it. Just as the man starts to turn toward her, she tosses the erase over toward the corner. The rubbery object makes a thunking noise as it hits the wall. The man quickly stands and looks over. “What was that?!” She lets out a sigh of relief when he quickly approaches the sound. As soon as he’s away, she slides onto her hands and knees and quietly crawls under the other desk; the one he had just checked. 

“You need to relax. Look, it’s just a ing eraser; it must’ve just fallen.”

“Right, right,” the guard sighs as he returns and crouches down. He puts the flashlight toward where she had just been. “Well, it’s all clear on this side. How about you?”

“Obviously. Look, these places are just old; let’s return to our post and report this to the principal. They’ll search for anything missing tomorrow.”

“You're right. Let’s go and be sure to lock up.”

Jieun keeps completely still, waiting until she hears their footsteps wake away. She can hear the door again as it closes and as they lock it. As soon as they’re up the stairs, she finally crawls out and stands. Jieun approaches the cage and looks at the lock from this side. She curses under her breath when seeing she can’t open it. She looks up, now noticing the opening at the top; like a small window. The girl grabs onto the gate and tests it with a bit of her weight. When she’s sure it’ll hold, Jieun puts her foot in one of the holes and starts to cautiously climb to the top. She carefully throws her leg over to the other side and makes her way down. She lands as quietly as she can and looks around again. 

Jieun ascends up the stairs, once again trying to keep as quiet as possible. She begins to head back for the stop but stops. She’s already here. Perhaps she should search the principal’s office. The sound of those guards heading in her direction snaps her out of her thoughts. She can come back some other day when she has more information. Jieun quickly walks down the hall, constantly looking over her shoulder for those men. She slips into one of the bathrooms and heads for the window. After unlocking it, she climbs out and shuts it behind her. She was kind of sloppy this time, to be honest. But she’s had worse runs. 

As soon as she’s outside, Jieun runs back to the side of the building and toward her bike. She gets on and hurriedly pedals away. She’ll look at the file tomorrow.