Lu Han doesn’t dream anymore. He doesn’t even remember the last time he dreamt, let alone slept. Probably back when he was still alive. Whenever that was. When you don’t sleep five to seven hours per day, keeping track of time is much harder. A week feels like two weeks, or maybe three and a year feels like half a decade. When you can walk through walls and other obstacles it really messes up your sense of distance. And most importantly, when nobody’s been talking to you for what feels like years, it really messes up your head. Imagine having no one to boast to about ManU’s success except yourself. To Lu Han it’s an absolute nightmare.

So, it’s not a surprise the happiest moment of his afterlife was the “good morning” he heard earlier today. Communication, finally!

On the downside the other boy fled the scene pretty fast, but that was understandable. Lu Han just told him he was a ghost after all. That didn’t damp his mood too much. It didn’t affect the most important thing - the boy clearly saw him. Lu Han wasn’t completely alone anymore.

For months, possibly for years, he’s been trying to contact someone, anyone. He’s been stalking the trainees in the showers, trying to knock off soaps from the shelves and using some unknown ghost powers to freeze the water (he was clearly a lousy ghost because the steam had kept rising from the hot water and the trainee under it had continued to enjoy his warm shower). Lu Han’s been standing next to people in the hallways, yelling things into their ears. Blowing air into them. One time he thought he had finally made a breakthrough when a boy, some Chinese kid, had slightly whimpered under Lu Han’s breath on his neck. In the end Lu Han hadn’t managed to get his further attention, so he had concluded the boy had a very sensitive neck and that was that. It was still the closest to any kind of communication he’d had for years.

Lu Han has sung with the trainees in the singing classes. He’s been practicing choreographies of other idol groups with them, has been taking classes for acting and variety shows. He’s been doing everything and anything a trainee with big dreams would, not worrying about being dead at all.

Lu Han just really, really wants to debut already.

He’s vaguely sure the last time he dreamt, it was either about ManU or debuting. The only thing telling him it hasn’t actually been decades since his death is Junmyeon. He manages to remember the guy from the days he was still a trainee, still alive. They had trained together for some time before Lu Han had died. And if Junmyeon is still a trainee that clearly means it hasn’t even been ten years since his death. Surely SM wouldn’t keep someone as a trainee for that long. Right? Lu Han sure hopes so, even if just out of pity for Junmyeon. Nobody should stay as a trainee for that many years. It really takes a toll on your mental health. Much like being a ghost and laughing alone in the empty hallways after 3am when everyone else has gone home.

Lu Han isn’t stupid of course, he regularly checks the dates from the newspapers other trainees bring with them. But the thing is, the year 2011 just doesn’t tell him anything anymore. What year did he even die? What year was he born in? He’s not sure if it’s a ghost thing or something else, but he feels like he’s slowly losing his memories of his past life. Just some time ago he realized he couldn’t remember the name of his mother anymore. Once, years(?) ago, he had tried to float back to China. It had been a lesson well learned – Lu Han can’t leave the SM Entertainment building. The further he goes the weaker he feels, until he’s at the stage where he can barely move but is still very much dead-alive. Not wanting to spend the rest of his haunting days in some dark alleyway unable to do anything but lie there, Lu Han has been restlessly wandering in the SM building, for a long, long time.

Well, not wandering. Training. Because he just wants to debut before he forgets he wants it. Just because he’s a ghost doesn’t mean he can’t sing or dance well. Nobody just sees him doing so anymore.

Nobody until Minseok anyway.

Here’s what Lu Han knows about his new savior: Minseok’s been a trainee for some time. Maybe three years, or two. Possibly five. Anyway, time really doesn’t matter to Lu Han anymore. Minseok likes football and Barcelona, so naturally Lu Han has spent too much time reminding the other trainee that ManU clearly is the superior team (he’s going to kill himself if he ever forgets about ManU. And it doesn’t matter that he’s already dead. He’s going to do it). For some odd reason Minseok seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Americano. That, Lu Han will probably never understand. He also knows Minseok has sweet dance moves, a pat-able and that he’s usually rather shy around new people.

Luckily Lu Han isn’t new. He’s practically known Minseok for years already. They’ve been even sharing showers. Not that Minseok knows this but that’s beside the point.

But in the end Minseok had been just another pretty face in the building, just another trainee who hadn’t noticed Lu Han standing next to them in the showers (Lu Han’s pretty sure he can’t sweat anymore, let alone actually feel the water on his skin, but it’s not a crime to want to take a (mentally) refreshing shower after hours of dancing, is it!? And it’s not like he can turn the shower on by himself so…). But now Minseok is so much more to him. He’s Lu Han’s lifeline. Or deadline. Or whatever lines there are for ghosts. It’s not like there are some ghost-hyungs floating around that he can ask about these things.

Lu Han has a weak theory why Minseok suddenly sees him now and he’s pretty sure the other boy’s not going to like it when he hears it.

Hears it.

Someone is finally hearing whatever’s on Lu Han’s mind. He’s so happy he could cry (he’s pretty sure he actually did before Minseok went and stuck his hand in his ghost-brain).

So, their first mutual meeting didn’t exactly go the way Lu Han had planned. The problem probably lay within the way Lu Han had just blurted out he was a ghost. He should have first asked if Minseok even believed in ghosts. Or maybe made some small talk about football, since that seems to be a mutual interest between them. It’s a shame Minseok didn’t become a trainee a little earlier, Lu Han feels like they could have been great friends.

Can still be, he corrects himself. Just because he’s dead, it doesn’t mean the two of them can’t be friends. After years of waiting for someone to notice him, Lu Han sure as hell isn’t letting Minseok slip away. He has finally found a way to check ManU’s latest results and ask someone how Ronaldo is doing. And maybe, if he’s being really nice, Minseok will show him all the goals he’s missed these years. Now that the other trainee finally hears him, Lu Han can finally convince him that Ronaldo is a way better player than Messi will ever be. And ask Minseok what exactly he sees in Americano because the drink looks and smells like a black piss to Lu Han.

Lu Han may not dream anymore, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have dreams.

And now he finally has someone that can help him fulfill those dream of debuting as an idol.

With a new hope in his dead and probably already molding veins, Lu Han runs… well, floats after Minseok.

He’s not letting this chance slip away.