Things Minseok thought he would never experience:

1. Hating bread.
2. Growing taller than Chaneyol.
3. Letting Yifan beat him in arm wrestling.
4. Being chased by a pretty ghost.

But here he is, running for his life and very much ignoring the shouts of “please, just stop” coming from behind him. He sure of it now - that thing is no hologram but a real freaking ghost instead. And he sure as hell isn’t going to stop running just because a ghost tells him so. In fact, all it does is make Minseok run even faster. He’s almost at the front door. Only a couple more meters and he’ll be out in the public where there are more people that will hopefully prevent this ghost from killing him.

He slams the door open, not caring that he’s still wearing his gym shoes and runs to the streets. It’s still early in the morning and the air feels chilly, despite being summer season, but right now Minseok doesn’t even miss his jacket left behind in the locker rooms. He’s headed for the 24/7 corner store nearby where he can be surrounded by other people and buy salt to fight off this killer ghost.

“Don’t go, please! I don’t have anyone else!” Desperate shouts follow him and despite not wanting to do it, Minseok reluctantly slows down for a few seconds and turns to look back. The ghost is loitering in the doorway of the SM building as if he doesn’t want or can’t step outside of it.

Minseok sure hopes so.

“Minseok, please”, the ghost pleads again and he’s… he’s not as scary as Minseok thought a ghost would be. Then again, maybe this is some ghostly trick to lure him back in to be killed. Minseok shivers at the thought of his bloody body being the topic in tomorrow’s newspaper. He takes a last quick look at the sad-looking ghost boy and runs off.

It would be ideal, of course, to never go back to the SM building and try to forget what happened in the morning. Unluckily for Minseok, he’s still a trainee and he sure as hell isn’t going to quit now, after years of training, just because some ghost decided to start haunting him for no reason.

So, a few hours after the whole meeting with the dead, Minseok is back. But this time he’s armed and dangerous. A can of salt in his backpack and newly bought iron spoons in his pockets. Jongdae, a rather new trainee, gives him a funny look when they walk together to their Chinese class. Minseok knows he looks funny, holding his spoons like they are knives, but you never know when the ghost boy is going to appear again.

“Hyung, what…” Jongdae begins but Minseok stops him. He doesn’t even want to start explaining. Not that he even could. Despite holding the spoons, he’s still half sure the whole morning fiasco was some kind of weird hallucination from his part.

“Don’t ask”, he shakes his head when they enter the small classroom. It’s full of familiar faces and Minseok feels a little safer here. After all, it’s one ghost against the ten of them and he’s armed with spoons and salt. Jongdae still gives him a look like he thinks Minseok’s gone mad and it’s not that far from the truth. Maybe he’s just been stressed enough to start hallucinating pretty ghost boys. The life of a trainee isn’t the easiest. In fact, it’s anything but that. Add university work to that and it’s no wonder Minseok’s brain can overheat from time to time. When today’s classes are done he’s going to take a nice long rest before he goes crazy. Crazy trainees won’t debut as idols and Minseok is going to debut, no matter what. This year or the next one. Before he’s too old for that.

The class proceeds smoothly. Minseok’s Chinese still despite him hanging out with Zitao, Yixing and Yifan regularly. His only salvation is that the rest of the class isn’t doing so hot either. Jongin’s tapping his leg against the floor and it’s clear he’d rather be dancing right now than practicing how to pronounce difficult Chinese words. Truth to be told, Minseok would rather be doing something else too, but he tries to concentrate on the task at hand the best he can anyway.

Which is a little difficult when the ghost boy from the morning suddenly floats through the wall into their classroom yelling, “finally I found you again!”

Minseok’s reaction at the sight of someone casually entering the room through the wall is to jump high up from his seat. He then stumbles backwards, manages to kick his chair down and fall to the floor with it. Good thing his spoons are still in the pockets of his hoodie, where he had put them once the class started. Still lying on the floor, he grabs the salt from his backpack to his left hand and holds the spoons with his right one.

“Don’t come any closer”, he hisses waving the spoons like swords. The ghost boy only stares at him, with the rest of the class, wondering what the hell Minseok is doing. Minseok would wonder about it too, if he wasn’t too busy trying to fight off the evil spirit.

“Hyung…?” Jongdae asks, eyebrows so high up they end up being hidden by his fringe. Minseok takes his eyes off the ghost for a millisecond to ask Jongdae, “you don’t see him!?”

“See what?” is the one reply Minseok didn’t want to hear. This is it, he’s really gone mental. He’s never going to debut now, is he. And if he is, Minseok is already afraid of all those interviews where someone is going to reveal that yeah, when he was still a trainee, Minseok suddenly decided to fight an invisible enemy armed with spoons and salt.

“Minseok, please”, the ghost boy suddenly speaks again and only now it hits Minseok that the ghost knows his name, “I’m not going to do anything! I just need your help. You’re the only one who can see me after all.”

The ghost boy makes its best puppy face and Minseok has to look away because he’s been weak to those ever since Baekhyun became a trainee a while ago.

“Please! I’m not a bad person… or a ghost! You can ask Junmyeon, he knows me! Or did know me at least…” the ghost boy pleads again doing a deep bow and everything. Minseok doesn’t mean to lower his guard but he can feel his grip on the spoons loosen a bit. If the ghost boy truly wanted him dead, he probably wouldn’t have wished him ‘good morning’ earlier. Or planned to attack him in the middle of Chinese class filled with other people.

Right. He’s still in class. Holding spoons and salt and pretty much acting like a crazy person, talking to himself. Minseok dares to take a quick look at his classmates and everyone is staring at him, no surprises there. He doesn’t really know how he’s going to get out of this situation without losing his reputation, but he can try.

“Erm, there… there was a bug…?”

He’s not Zitao so his reaction of falling over and arming himself with spoons doesn’t really make sense, but it’s still miles better than “by the way there’s a ghost standing next to you, Chaneyol”.

“There was?” the ghost boy answers, his gaze already scanning the classroom.

“I wasn’t talking to you”, Minseok snaps automatically, before slamming his hand to his mouth. He really shouldn’t be talking to the ghost no one else sees.

“Hyung, are you feeling sick…?” Jongdae sounds worried when Minseok finally sits again, spoons and salt back in his backpack. Minseok flashes him the best smile he can, mumbles something about the bug suddenly attacking him again and finally proceeds to fiercely apologize to the teacher for interrupting the class.

The ghost boy is still looking at him, looking ready to launch into another series of pleads and puppy faces, so Minseok experiences another thing he never thought he would. Consciously making a promise to a ghost no one else but him can see, when he silently, his mouth barely moving, mutters,

“I’ll talk to you after class.”