Lu Han can finally move objects and touch Minseok without either of them getting zapped. He should be happy.

He really should be happy. 

And he is… kinda. But with great power comes great responsibility. And that is something he isn’t quite ready to handle yet. Before, when he was always hit by electricity it was easy not to touch Minseok. Too much anyway. But now? Now there’s nothing holding him back, and he really isn’t good at holding himself back either. Minseok already snapped at him once (although he later apologized after Lu Han had saved his life), and even though angry Minseok is rather hot, he… no, not hot. 

Lu Han blinks, pausing his thoughts. Hot wasn’t the word he was going for. Well, hot in the sense that steam rising from Minseok’s ears wasn’t too far away. But not like y-hot (then again, he has seen his moves in the shower...), but just like… literally body-temperature-rising-hot. He pauses his mind again, hovering through a random wall without noticing it. What point was he making again?

Oh right, Minseok doesn’t like people touching him (or maybe he just doesn’t like him touching him, the ghost adds bitterly, remembering all the time Yixing’s been rewarded with a smile after touching Minseok), and Lu Han finds it impossible to stop doing so. Nowadays he’s doing it almost unconsciously; his hands on Minseok’s , slightly pushing him forward whenever Minseok is too shy to get the attention by himself. He only notices the movement of his hands when Minseok whips his head around to stare at him with an annoyed expression on his face. Lu Han always greets him with the most innocent smile on his lips but of course it doesn’t work as Minseok quickly wrestles his hands off his body. It probably looks weird to anyone happening to witness Minseok grabbing empty air, but so far no one has said anything. To Minseok at least.

Even though they usually keep their conversation a secret from anyone else or only talk in the empty hallways, the rumors have still spread like they always do when there are a bunch of teenagers gathered in one place. Minseok hasn’t mentioned anything about the gazes, not to him at least, and he hasn’t said anything simply because he doesn’t want to burden Minseok further. But people talk. And they stare whenever they think Minseok isn’t watching. But they don’t know that Lu Han is always watching them. He hears all the things they say whenever Minseok’s not around.

Did you hear, he was talking to himself again.

Argued with nobody.

I heard that sometimes he punches empty air randomly.

Do you think it’s the stress? Well, if he quits there will be one less to compete with.

Lu Han tries not to get angry, he really does. But sometimes… sometimes people who talk about ugly things find their shoes wet with the contents of a water bottle that somehow got knocked down from the table. He never hurts anyone because he knows Minseok wouldn’t forgive him for that. Even he couldn’t forgive himself for that. So the ghost settles with pranks. Nothing major enough to cause any serious commodation, he doesn’t want that. He just wants people to stop talking about Minseok, even for a while.

Lu Han knows what he’s doing to the other boy. Harming him, causing him stress, making his life harder. But Minseok’s his only friend, the only person who can see him, who can talk to him, and he doesn’t want to let go of all that. It’s just not the same to stare at Yixing’s stupid face, listening to his monologue, knowing the younger trainee won’t hear any of the Lu Han’s comments on the topic anyway. Yixing still keeps talking to him, sometimes staring at the wall, instead of looking at where Lu Han really is, but still keeping the rather one-sided conversation going. He would be grateful, and maybe even like Yixing, if he still didn’t feel bitter about Yixing and Minseok becoming such good buddies in such a short time.

But so far Lu Han’s only dumped one water bottle on Yixing and made it seem like it was an accident. Minseok did give him some serious side-eye though, so maybe his cover-up wasn’t as good as what he thought.

“What would you do...” Lu Han begins after he’s back from checking all the nearby hallways and classrooms to make sure nobody hears them this time. “What would you do if I became a violent ghost?”

“Burn your bones,” Minseok replies without a beat. His eyes are closed and he’s listening to his mp3 player. 

Lu Han can hear the quiet beats through his headphones.“Burn my bones!? Cruel! Do you even know where I’m buried?” He asks him. eyes wide. He had been expecting Minseok to play a little nicer.

Minseok opens one of his eyes to look at Lu Han. “You probably made a testament before dying. Something about how your bones must be buried at Old Trafford.”

It’s a joke, but instead of laughing Lu Han falls into silence. 

It lasts long enough to make Minseok open both of his eyes to look at the ghost. “What’s wrong?” He asks, sounding worried.

“Would you…” Lu Han bites his lower lip. “Would you burn my bones if you knew where I was buried? You know to… get rid of me.” The topic makes him anxious. He doesn’t think he’s invincible or anything, but it’s a little scary how easy it would be to erase his existence from this world for a second time.

Minseok turns off his music player, gets rid of the earphones and sits up properly. Lu Han is still looking at the floor. He didn’t mean to bring the mood down, but it happened anyway. Must be a ghost thing. 

Only when he feels Minseok’s arm draping over his shoulder does Lu Han look up, feeling a little surprised. The touch is nice even if Minseok’s arm hovers over his shoulder rather than pressing against it. But this whole touching thing is still a bit difficult for both of them and half of the time stuff just goes straight through Lu Han’s body.

“Luhan,” Minseok says, his voice surprisingly soft. “I’d never want to get rid of you, unless you really turn into a dangerous being. And even then I’d like to at least reason with you first. Before burning your bones or anything.”

“Really?” Lu Han wants to make sure. Minseok squeezes his shoulder and he can almost feel it. It feels like electricity but not quite.

“Really,” Minseok assures him, then flashes him that adorable crooked smile. “You’re my friend Luhan. Ghost or not.”

Lu Han fakes a sniff to hide his real need to sniff. “That’s the most touching thing you’ve ever said to me, Baozi.”

Minseok rolls his eyes, punches Lu Han’s shoulder and the moment is over.

“However, if you touch my one more time I’ll take the next flight to China, dig up your bones, splash gasoline on them and watch them burn with a smile on my face.”

“Yessir,” Lu Han winces weakly, rubbing his sore shoulder.

Somehow he’s not happy at all to be able to touch things.