Minseok dreams of many things. Being able to sing in front of huge crowds. Having his own fansites. Barcelona winning La Liga. Losing weight. Debuting soon. Success. Daesangs.

Sometimes he dreams of that perfect steaming cup of coffee he’s made himself from scratch.

A lot of times he just dreams of being able to sleep an hour or two longer between the hectic training classes. He’s dreaming his muscles would stop hurting and his throat would feel less sore after hours and hours of singing practice. Dreaming of being a fast learner, like Baekhyun, so he wouldn’t have to stay and practice on his own after everyone else has gone home already.

Minseok dreams of many things but he never dreams of ghosts. Not even when he’s having nightmares.

Which is why he’s feeling slightly confused when a head pops out of the wall just next to him, wishing him ‘good morning’.

Minseok’s pretty sure he’s awake. In fact, he remembers waking up about a half an hour ago, heading for the gym to exercise before any of the other trainees wake up flooding the place. It’s only a little past five in the morning but he’s most definitely not dreaming the pretty head next to his.

Maybe it’s a hologram. Meant to scare people. Zitao, the Chinese trainee, had been complaining about weird noises in the shower earlier this week. The kid has become too scared to shower alone anymore after dance practices and Minseok’s pretty sure there’s someone messing with him and the other trainees. Someone scaring people for good laughs. There’s no other explanation, because Minseok doesn’t dream of ghosts and if he’s awake the head next to him makes even less sense.

“Good morning”, he answers the head, taking a cautious step back because hologram or not, a head coming out of the wall is still pretty freaky looking. Even if the face on the head is pretty. The hairstyle on the hologram looks a little outdated and in need of a proper cut. The dark and long strands remind Minseok of the hairstyle idols often wore maybe five years ago.

His words are barely out of his mouth when the eyes belonging to the head widen. Then there’s suddenly a whole body coming out of the wall and Minseok backs off even more, giving the hologram the space it clearly needs. Someone’s really going all out with this stuff. Luckily, it’s just Minseok here and not Zitao. Poor boy would probably be too scared to use the gym ever again. Before Minseok can get a good look at the hologram-boy’s body (he does manage to note that aside from being pretty he looks rather young) the holo-boy speaks again, this time faster and words more slurred together than before. Minseok thinks he can hear an accent. It sounds oddly similar to their other trainees from China.

“You can see me!?” The holo-boy looks a lot like what Minseok imagines himself looking when whatever group he’s going to be in, wins their first grand prize in the future. Also, is it normal for holograms to speak? This is some advanced technology here, Minseok thinks. Almost too good to be used just to scare people off. He’s resisting the urge to touch the holo-boy just to make sure his hand would actually go through him. He speaks to him… to it, instead.

“Yes…?”

“Oh my god, finally!” The holo-boy sinks to his knees, his eyes wet with what seem to be tears of relief. Minseok’s still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the holo-boy almost seems like he’s having a conversation with Minseok. But that’s impossible, right? That kind of technical masterpiece belongs to anywhere else but to the gym in SM Entertainment building. Unless there’s a mic somewhere and an actual person talking to him through it.

“I feel like I’ve been wandering here for years, trying to talk to people, but no one ever answers me! And I swear it’s not the accent. I’ve been trying to talk to Chinese people as well and still getting nothing back.” The holo-boy rambles on and Minseok can’t really do anything but keep staring at him. He’s quickly coming to the scary conclusion that the boy in front of him may not be a hologram after all. Maybe the hologram was actually the white wall behind them, so it just looked like the possibly-not-holo-boy walked through it. The maybe-holo-boy in front of him seems a little transparent and if Minseok squints his eyes he’s pretty sure he can see through him. Then again, maybe it’s just the lightning and the fact that it’s not even six in the morning yet and Minseok has only been sleeping five hours last night. His eyes are probably just playing tricks on him. The boy in front of him is just some new trainee he hasn’t met before and it’s only Minseok’s brain that’s coming up with these crazy hologram or not-hologram explanations.

To be certain he touches the holo-or-not-holo-boy with his right hand. It goes through the soft looking dark brown hair straight into the boy’s head. Minseok shrieks and pulls his hand back in such a quick motion that he almost stumbles backwards because of it.

The most-definitely-not-human-boy stops his rambling and looks scandalized.

“W-why would you stick your hand in my head!? That didn’t feel very nice!”

Minseok doesn’t reply, only stumbles backwards as fast as he can. “What are you!?” Holograms shouldn’t feel like anything, he thinks. But what he had felt, was coldness. Electricity too. Like small needles attacking his hand. He’s never going to accidentally stick his hand into anyone’s brain ever again.

The something-boy walks forward the same number of steps Minseok’s using to get away from him. He looks desperate. Or maybe that’s his psychopath face and Minseok’s about to get killed.

“Don’t come any closer!” Minseok raises his hands to protect himself. He’s not sure how exactly he’s supposed to protect himself from this thing, but it doesn’t hurt to try. He would prefer not becoming a dead body Chaneyol is going to find when he arrives at the gym too. The-something-boy stops at Minseok’s harsh voice and fidgets in his place, trying to come up with something to say. Now that Minseok takes a better look at him he realizes the-something-boy isn’t even properly touching the floor, he’s just kind of… floating above it. The realization makes Minseok’s stomach flip.

“Look”, the thing in front of him finally speaks again, big eyes looking pleadingly at Minseok. The trainee is having none of it. He has better survival instincts than to lower his guard just because the boy… thing, in front of him is making a cute face.

“What are you?” Minseok repeats the previous question, hissing it through his teeth. If this creature is indeed a hologram someone’s probably going to have a big laugh at Minseok’s expense with the way he’s acting at the moment. But that’s really the least of his worries right now. Better to be safe than sorry later.

“I’m Lu Han”, the thing answers him, “and I think… I think I’m a ghost.”

Kim Minseok dreams of many things but he doesn’t dream of ghosts. Ever. Which means this isn’t a dream.

Minseok has never ran out of the gym that fast in his entire life.