The houses in question are two houses that do not yet show signs of deterioration, apart from being dark as a wolf's mouth. They are at the end of their respective streets, separated by a fence from the neighboring houses.

The first house —one-story with a large front yard—waits, silent. There are no curtains or glass in the windows.

“I'll go take a look,” Ryujin says, noticing Chaeryeong's reluctance.

After an experiment performed weeks ago, Chaeryeong knows that Ryujin can move twenty meters away from the person she is linked to.

Chaeryeong walks into the yard, overgrown grass, far enough for Ryujin to slip into the house without trouble. The moonlight is blocked by dark, patchy clouds. A couple of minutes later, Ryujin comes out.

“There’s no one alive inside,” she reports.

Chaeryeong manages to get in through a window that looks into what she assumes was a kitchen. She trusts Ryujin enough not to worry; she only feels anticipation.

“Can you see them even if they don't want to?”-Chaeryeong asks, scanning the dimly lit room.

“Yes, although I have to see them at least once before I can do it afterwards. Get to know them, so to speak.”

“Nice.” Chaeryeong stifles a yawn. “Link up to the house.”

“Give me about ten minutes. That's what I need to link up for the first time.”

Chaeryeong steps forward, pointing the flashlight in front of her. The beam of light cuts through the shadows like a dagger. There is no furniture, but there are tables and the occasional old shelf. Chaeryeong wonders in passing who must have lived here. A well-to-do family, she guesses, for the main room is large, as are the rooms, of which there are four.

Ryujin is not with her. Chaeryeong sees her out of the corner of her eye, walking through walls to change rooms. Chaeryeong knows it's laughable to worry about her, but she does anyway. “Who knows if demons can harm good ghosts.”

Ryujin doesn't carry a flashlight with her, because when she touches something that has an electrical mechanism inside, it stops working. Chaeryeong discovered this with her EMF meter, unusable now. Something similar happens with phones and computers, only they shut down or reboot.

Chaeryeong hears a soft knock behind her.

She turns quickly and points the flashlight. An old flat-topped cap lies on the ground.

“Did you throw something, Ryujin?” she asks aloud.

“Huh? No, Chaery.”

Chaeryeong blinks at the nickname. She liked hearing it in Ryujin's non-resonant voice.

In that small moment when she is engrossed, something appears just outside the beam of light. Chaeryeong notices it late. She gasps and half screams. Instantly, Ryujin is in front of her.

“Here I am, Chaer,” she says in a voice that could be booming if it resonated.

“Wow,” says the guest, “a ghost with a live one. This is curious.”It's a young girl, judging by her voice.

“You'd better not try anything strange,” Ryujin warns.

Chaeryeong points the flashlight at the entity to detail it. There is a big difference between her and Ryujin, Chaeryeong accuses astonished. The stranger is much more transparent than Ryujin. Chaeryeong has to squint to focus on her and not the scenery. Next to her, Ryujin looks like a living human.

“Good evening,” the entity greets with a bow. It straightens up, and Chaeryeong notices its sharp eyes and oval, cute face. “Tell me your names.”

“Tell yours first,” Ryujin asks cautiously.

“No,” the entity refuses, “this is our home. The intruders first.”

“I am Chaeryeong,” Chaeryeong says in a voice that tries to be light.

Ryujin gives her a sidelong glance and Chaeryeong nods to her.

“Ryujin,” the short-haired girl finished saying.

“Okay. I'm Jimin, but I prefer to be called Karina. Winter! We have guests.”

Before Chaeryeong can ask who Winter is, a short girl appears beside Karina. She has the bearing of a cornered cat. Cautious, ready to run away.

“Two,” Chaeryeong says, astonished.

Ryujin steps back to her side and puts her feet on the ground.

“It's been a long time since we've seen another one,” Karina says with a sharp smile. “Why are you bothering us?”

“I'm glad to see other Caspers, too,” Ryujin replies sarcastically. “We just came to check for ghosts and, now that we have, to chat.”

Karina hums, a sound Chaeryeong finds contradictory in a ghost.

“Well, they seem like nice people,” Karina says, tilting her head to the side. “What do you say, Winter?”

Winter looks at Ryujin and then back at Chaeryeong. Like Karina, Winter is much more transparent than Ryujin. “Seeing through Ryujin is like seeing through an opaque window; and through these girls, like through a freshly cleaned window,” Chaeryeong reflects.

“Yes, it may be,” replies Winter, soft-spoken and wary.

“What makes her uncomfortable?” Chaeryeong wonders internally.

“You see,” Ryujin begins, approaching the girls, “I died several years ago, but I consider my death to have been a… complete bull—”

Karina interrupts with a giggle.

“Many people say that.”

“But mine was pathetic,” Ryujin insists. “Anyway, Chaeryeong and I are looking for someone who knows how to revive me.”

Karina looks at her with her eyebrows arched so high that they almost touch.

“Is this a joke or what?” she asks.

“No, I'm serious, aren't I, Chaeryeong?”

“Yeah,” Chaeryeong seconds with a nod.

Karina alternates her gaze between Ryujin, Winter and Chaeryeong. In the end, she bursts out in mocking laughter, while Winter gives a smile of the same nature.

“That it looks like you're serious makes it even funnier,” Karina says with a chuckle. She starts levitating and spinning around, laughing all the time.

“I'm serious!” Ryujin protests with a grunt. “You or she must know something,” she says, pointing at Winter, who looks at her finger suspiciously.

“Who told you there are ways to come back to life?” Karina asks with a mixture of derision and curiosity when the laughter stops.

“Chaeryeong, and she doesn't lie,” Ryujin answers firmly.

Chaeryeong held back the urge to cringe at the look on Karina's face.

“She? A live one? Well, let me tell you—”

“She knows something!” Chaeryeong interrupts with a shout, pointing at Winter, who gasps.

“Speak up!” Ryujin lunges at Winter, who grimaces before disappearing, followed by Ryujin.

Karina looks blankly at Chaeryeong, whose stomach shrinks. She approaches Chaeryeong.

“Why are you lying to her like that?” asks Karina in a low voice.

“I don't lie to her,” Chaeryeong replies, hating the insecurity in her voice.

“Oh, yes you do, and in a horrible way. The poor girl really thinks she can come back to life.” Karina shakes her head. “It's a bad person to do what you do, Chaeryeong.”

“There is a way!” insists Chaeryeong with an angry bark. She is ashamed to lose her temper.

“And which is it, Chaeryeong?” Karina looks straight at her with her almost invisible eyes.

Chaeryeong holds her gaze for a few seconds, but ends up averting her eyes.

“I don't know,” she murmurs, “but we'll find it.”

“The girl is already dead,” Karina says after a tense silence, “don't hurt her anymore.”

Chaeryeong opens to retort, but Ryujin breaks through the ceiling with a snort.

“She's fast,” she says, “and she refused to say a peep.”

Karina gives Chaeryeong one last reproachful look before turning away.

“We don't know anything,” Karina says. “I ask you to please leave. Winter and I appreciate the solitude very much.”

“But—” Ryujin begins.

“We still have another house to visit,” Chaeryeong interrupts hastily. “Maybe there are other ghosts there.”

Ryujin seems to deliberate, but finally nods.

“You're right,” she says quietly.

Chaeryeong turns away, feeling Karina's judging eyes boring into her back, drilling into her soul like daggers. The weight of guilt grows heavier and does not lessen.

~~~

“There's no one,” Ryujin says, shaking her head.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Let's leave. We've been here for half an hour already.” Ryujin steps on the ground with a defeated look on her face and slumped shoulders.

Regret burns inside Chaeryeong like a burning nail seeing Ryujin in such a state.

The girl is dead; don't hurt her anymore. Chaeryeong grimaces, feeling physical pain in her chest. The last thing she wants is to hurt Ryujin. “And that's what you're doing to her, you idiot!”

“There are other places to visit,” Chaeryeong says in an animated but forced tone. “We'll find our way.”

Ryujin, who was looking at a distant window with a sad face, turns to look at Chaeryeong and gives a faint smile.

“I hope so,” she says in a weak voice.

Chaeryeong, who already has another lie ready, goes to one of the windows of the abandoned house. She rests her hands on the frame and looks out into the backyard. The silver moonlight bathes her upper body. It is a full moon night and the once cloudy sky has cleared. She doesn't need a flashlight to detail the yard.

“There must be very old ghosts somewhere in Seoul,” Chaeryeong says with mock confidence. “They must know things that Karina and Winter, surely newbies, do not. If there are no such ghosts in Seoul, then we'll visit the rest of the country.” Chaeryeong tightens the frame. “I promise you, Ryujin. I won't stop looking for ways to help you.”

Silence answers her. Chaeryeong doesn't dare to turn around. If she does, she will leave visible the doubts that plague her face, the grimace that twists it. Chaeryeong is terrified to turn and look into Ryujin's undefined colored eyes, for she knows Ryujin will read the lie in them.

Ryujin appears at her side, as Chaeryeong glimpses out of the corner of her eye.

“I needed to hear something like that. You reminded me that together we can find a way. We're just getting started! There must be thousands of ghosts out there; one of them must know something useful.”

Chaeryeong feels an icy chill on her shoulder. She turns her face ever so slightly to look; it is Ryujin's hand, rubbing near her shoulder. Chaeryeong looks at the hand. She still can't look Ryujin in the face.

“I don't want to go back just because my death was stupid,” Ryujin says seriously. “I want to feel again. I want to feel the sun on my skin. I want to feel the texture of the pages of a book, the taste of a good meal. I long to feel the cold again, and the warmth. I want to talk to people. To study, to work, to stress… I want all that back.” The longing in Ryujin's voice tears Chaeryeong apart.

But she hides it. Clenching her jaw until she grinds her teeth, Chaeryeong turns her whole body to face Ryujin.

Then she gasps.

Ryujin is looking through the window. The silvery, powerful moonlight bathes her, envelops her, but what surprises Chaeryeong is that it does not pierce her. It crashes against her ethereal skin, and allows Chaeryeong for the first time a glimpse of what Ryujin looked like in life.

Oval, flawless face, a nose that perfectly marries said face, heart-shaped lips that hint at unmatched softness, and vivid eyes framed by black lashes.

Ryujin notices her gaze and turns towards her. The closeness makes Chaeryeong a little dizzy. Before Ryujin can say anything, Chaeryeong hurries to speak.

“You'll get it all back,” she says in a trembling voice.

Ryujin's eyes close as the smile dominates her face. She gets those dimples on her upper cheeks, and Chaeryeong feels go dry.

“Thank you, Chaeryeong.”

Ryujin is ethereal, Chaeryeong thinks. More ethereal than her ghost status suggests.

Chaeryeong clears to shake herself out of her stupor. Ryujin makes the same curious grimace as that time: a mixture of discomfort—Chaeryeong can't think of a better word—and self-consciousness.

“Is there something on my face?” she asks, looking at Chaeryeong with a shy smile.

“N—no.” Chaeryeong regrets her stuttering. “I kept thinking about something unimportant.”

Ryujin lets out a chuckle. She brings a hand to Chaeryeong's face and pauses.

“I hate not being able to touch people,” Ryujin mumbles, dropping it.

“It's the intention that counts, isn't it?” Chaeryeong says with a smile.

“Right.” Saying that, Ryujin approaches her and wraps her in a hug.

Chaeryeong is petrified, feeling the coldness go through her body, where Ryujin rests her arms. She shakes off her surprise and pulls her arms close to Ryujin's body, slowly piercing it. The cold gives her goose bumps. Chaeryeong's arms end up touching each other, and she suppresses a pout.

Despite the icy cold it brings, Ryujin also makes her chest feel a powerful and pleasant warmth.

“I know what I'll do first when I get my body back,” Ryujin says as she breaks away from Chaeryeong and they both look out the window again.

“What?” Chaeryeong asks, her mind spinning smoothly and pleasurably.

“Hug you.”

The dizziness deepens and swallowing saliva becomes more difficult.

“Good choice,” Chaeryeong says with shyness she can't hide.

She and Ryujin look out the window for a long time. Chaeryeong probably earns a scolding for coming back to her dorm so late, but she doesn't care. She ignores the pain of thinking that she will never feel a hug from Ryujin.

She ignores it and totally sinks into the moment, stealing little glances at her ethereal companion.

~~~

“Turn”

Chaeryeong turns the page and reads. A while later…

“Pass.”

“I haven't finished,” she complains.

“I do and there is nothing useful. Turn the page.”

Chaeryeong gives her a dirty look and continues reading.

“You read very slowly,” Ryujin complains now.

Chaeryeong takes a look around. She, Ryujin and Jisu are in the library where Chaeryeong works, sitting at the table farthest away from the others, looking for information about sacred or enchanted places in Seoul.

“I'm keeping watch, Ryeong,” Jisu reminds her.

“It's the custom,” Chaeryeong excuses herself, remembering the evenings when Ryujin would hang around the place and talk to her, without Chaeryeong being able to answer for the presence of customers.

“Have you finished reading?” Ryujin insists. “Turn the page.”

“You're a pain in the ,” Chaeryeong let go, exasperated.

“You're stuck with me, since you refuse to give me the book,” says Ryujin, scowling.

“And risk someone seeing the pages turning by themselves! No.”

She and Ryujin stare at each other for several seconds. Chaeryeong doesn't think to look away or blink, ignoring the growing itch in her eyes and the nervousness fluttering in her chest at having Ryujin by her side.

Finally, Chaeryeong blinks.

“I won,” Ryujin says with a chuckle.

“Nothing, because I'm not going to give you the book.” Chaeryeong goes back to being engrossed in the book, knowing that Ryujin can only push or lift things no heavier than a thick book.

“…Turn.”

“Jesus!”

Chaeryeong pushes the book to her side, where Ryujin, who lets out a triumphant laugh, remains suspended in the air.

Chaeryeong remains silent for enough seconds for Ryujin to become engrossed in the book. Then she slams it shut, earning an interjection from Ryujin.

“How childish you are,” she says.

“And you tell me?” Chaeryeong countered.

Ryujin sticks her tongue out at her and Chaeryeong lets out a silly laugh, seeing her point confirmed. Ryujin goes back to the book and Chaeryeong lets her gaze wander until it lands on Jisu, who looks at her with her eyebrows arched mischievously.

Jisu picks up her phone and types something quickly. Chaeryeong's phone vibrates and she reads the message.

Jisu :D

And then you complain about Yeji and I making eyes at each other :P

Chaeryeong's smile withers, dies and is replaced by a sullen gesture. She will never be able to touch Ryujin, or go for a walk with her and talk to her normally. Karina's accusing gaze returns to her mind.

Jisu :D

Sorry

I should have shut up

Chaeryeong

nvm

Besides, you're blind because nothing happens to me with her

Jisu :D

Yeah, was just a silly thing

Chaeryeong grabs another book, though her concentration is clouded.

~~~

Chaeryeong concludes that she lacks courage.

They have visited more “haunted” places, but either the entities that live there laugh at them when they expose their mission, or there is simply no one there. Then it's Chaeryeong's turn to cheer up a downhearted Ryujin, who bounces back as soon as Chaeryeong assures her that they'll find something. Eventually.

Fourteen days have passed since her visit to Karina and Winter. Fourteen days where Chaeryeong has repeated to herself that she has to tell Ryujin the truth, that she must stop deceiving her, that it's not right to give her false hopes.

She has had plenty of occasions to tell Ryujin. But when she manages to open to talk to Ryujin, she inexorably closes it again. Either because the glimpse of Ryujin's semi-transparent features stuns her and makes her want to see her for a while longer, or because, if she manages to say “Ryujin”, she looks at Chaeryeong with a smile and asks “Yes, Chaery?”, “What's up, Ryeong?”.

Chaeryeong concludes that she is not ready to let her go. When will she be? She prefers not to think about it.

~~~

“Bongeunsa Temple sounds perfect to me,” Ryujin says. “I'm sure there are wise ghosts there.”

“Probably,” Chaeryeong mutters. They've been discussing for a while which place might have a lot of old ghosts. She raises her voice, “We can go there. I'll take a small bottle and a small candle to—”

“I told you that you can't catch ghosts with that,” Ryujin points out wearily.

“…To catch a ghost, if necessary. They're sure to spit it all out when trapped in a jar.”

Ryujin scrutinizes her with a neutral expression. She’s levitating in the middle of the bedroom. Jisu is absent, probably in the common study area.

“You don't know everything, Ryujin, so maybe it'll work,” Chaeryeong sighs.

Ryujin shrugs and raises her hands in defeat.

“Whatever. Can we go tomorrow?”

Chaeryeong wracks her brain for an excuse to delay the day, but there is none. Final exams are far away, and she doesn't have to go to work tomorrow.

“Yes, of course,” she replies in spite of herself.

Ryujin's expectation-filled smile hurts like a dagger in the heart.

~~~

Chaeryeong walks, accompanied by her spectral partner, into Bongeunsa Temple. It's night—in fact, it's just before closing time, eleven o'clock—, something Ryujin insisted on. Ghosts are more active at night, she reminds Chaeryeong.

Chaeryeong frowns, assaulted by an observation.

“You said earlier ghosts prefer the night,” she says, “but you're just as active during the day as you are at night.”

Ryujin rubs ahead of her and crosses her legs in the air, still moving forward. Chaeryeong is still hallucinating the carefree poses Ryujin adopts in the air. Sitting in the air, lying on it, upside down… It looks amused.

“It's true what you say,” Ryujin admits. She shrugs her shoulders. “I have no idea why, maybe we're different even among ghosts, and it just so happens that the ghosts I've met prefer the night?”

“Maybe,” Chaeryeong agrees, without the slightest inkling of an idea.

Nerves gnaw at her stomach as they approach the giant Buddha statue, surrounded by a crescent-shaped wall, lined with shelves of small statues of a figure in long robes.

At this point, Chaeryeong stops to observe. There are only a few people, and they are all standing in front of some statue. Chaeryeong's eyes widen as she sees these people moving their mouths and looking at a fixed point near the statues. Chaeryeong cannot see them, but she knows they are ghosts. On internet forums, it is often commented that this specific spot in the temple is inhabited by ghosts. Some dismiss the prospect, but others defend it, Chaeryeong being of the latter.

She and Ryujin walk until they stop in front of a statue far enough away from other people. Chaeryeong the candle she carries in one of her pockets to calm her nerves. In the other pocket she carries a small glass bottle.

“Let's see, I'm a ghost and I have a