Since he was young, Luhan could see ghosts.

They were attracted to him, the ghosts. They were usually friendly and only stayed with him for a short time before ‘moving on.’ The only time he encountered an unhappy ghost was when he was 6, but even then, the ghost never once harmed Luhan. That same year, he met a child spirit who had told him that she had died in an accident.

“What kind of accident?” Luhan asked.

“My daddy fell asleep on our way to visit granny. We got hit,” the little girl said sadly.

“Did it hurt?” The girl brightened and smiled.

“I was asleep. I didn’t feel anything. I’m not mad at my daddy though. At least I get to be with him,” she said, gesturing her head in front of them. About ten feet away stood an elder man with dark hair dressed in a suit.

“He says it’s time to go now. It was nice to meet you,” she said, kissing Luhan on the cheek before standing up and running into her father’s arms, the two then walking off and disappearing into a shimmer of bright light.

When he was seven, he realized he was different from other kids. No one wanted to play with him because they thought he was a freak, and not even the ghosts who visited him stayed for long. He would often watch the others play with each other from his bed room window.

On his eighth birthday, he made his first real, living friend.

“Who were you talking to just now?” a small pale-skinned child asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Luhan said. The kid pouted. “You’ll only laugh at me,” Luhan pouted in return. The kid climbed up next to Luhan and sat on his knees.

“I promise I won’t,” he said, holding out his pinky. Luhan looked around to see if anyone was watching and took the other boy’s pinky in his own.

“I can see ghosts,” he whispered into the other’s ear. Luhan sat, head dropped, waiting for the laughter to start. Instead, he got a different response.

“That’s so cool!” the small boy said. “Are there any here right now?” Luhan looked around and then shook his head. Sehun looked over Luhan’s shoulder seeing the party scene going on.

“Is it your birthday today?” Luhan nodded. 

“Sehun-aaahh!” A female voice called out. The small boy jerked his head in that direction.

“I hafta go. My name is Sehun. “

“I’m Luhan.”

“I’ll see you around, Luhan!”  Luhan waved back at Sehun. And in the years after that, the two became inseparable at school where they bonded quickly over a common love of power rangers.

When he was 13, they walked home from school together and stopped for milk tea everyday.

“Hyung! Hurry up in there! I hafta go too!” Luhan giggled as Sehun pounded on the bathroom door. The milk tea worked its way fast through their systems.

Luhan opened the door and Sehun shoved past him, locking the door behind him. Luhan laughed. “I’ll be waiting outside, ok?”

Luhan walked outside and sat down at one of the tables outside. A small girl sat down across from him and played with his fingers. Sometimes Luhan found it hard to tell when he was faced with a ghost or a living person, simply because the ghosts looked just as alive. But when a ghost touched him, he could feel an overwhelming sense of cold pass through him, just as it did now as the little girl traced the lines of his palms with her finger. The little girl waved goodbye, giggling as she stood up and skipped away, disappearing in a shimmer of golden light, just like the others.

Sehun emerged from the building and saw Luhan staring off.

“You saw another one, didn’t you?” Sehun asked.

“Yeah. It was a little kid this time. She couldn’t have been any older than 5.” Luhan looked down at his hand that she was playing with minutes before. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

“It’s ok, Hyung. She’s in a better place.”

When he was eighteen, he graduated high school.

“Let’s drive somewhere to celebrate, just us,” Sehun insisted.

“Later,” Luhan promised. After his parents went to bed, Luhan slipped out of his window, not forgetting to grab his car keys. He drove to Sehun’s house a few blocks over, the younger boy waiting for him with snacks in hand.

He hopped in and the two drove to the park they first met at. It was empty of people, living and dead alike. The two lay across the grassy lawn and looked up at the sky.

“Sehun?”

“Hmm?” the younger replied, eyes closed. Luhan got up on his elbow and looked over his features- his pale skin, soft lips, and blissful expression.

“I love you.” Sehun opened his eyes and looked up at Luhan. Luhan expected nothing more than rejection and reprimandation for ruining their friendship. It took him by surprise to feel Sehun’s lips on his moments later.

“I love you too,” he said before lying down once more. Luhan smiled widely and lay down next to him.

When he was 20, Sehun’s older brother died in a horrible fire started by faulty electric wiring. Sehun wept to Luhan that night, the younger encircled by Luhan’s arms. Luhan’s eyes widened as a familiar figure materialized next to him and Sehun.

“So you can see me, huh?” Luhan nodded. “Guess you weren’t lying all those years.” Luhan remained silent as the ghost of Sehun’s older brother leaned against his desk.

“Sehun-ah,” Luhan pried the younger off his shoulder for a moment. “Your brother, he, he wants to say goodbye.” Sehun looked up at Luhan.

“Tell him I love him. Tell him he needs to be a man for umma and appa, ok?” Luhan repeated the older male’s words to Sehun, whose eyes began to overflow once more. He wiped his tears with his sleeve and nodded.

“Luhan, watch out for him.” Luhan nodded and without another word, he disappeared in the all-too-familiar shimmer of golden light that only he could see.

One night, three years later, the couple came back from dinner together to find their apartment door forced open.

“Wait here,” Sehun whispered. Luhan tugged on Sehun’s sleeve, silently pleading for him to stay.

“It’ll be ok, I promise,” he said, sticking out his pinky, just like he had done when they met. Luhan nodded, slowly letting go of his lover. Luhan pulled out his phone and dialed the police station, his finger hovering above the call button as Sehun crept in through the opening of their apartment door. A struggle was heard and immediately Luhan called the police, dropping his phone once he heard a gun shot.

“Hello? Is anybody there? What was that?” the operator yelled into the phone, its counterpart lying uselessly on the ground.

The burglar pushed Luhan to the ground and ran, a duffle bag in his hands. Luhan rose immediately and stumbled over to the figure lying on the ground in a pool of blood in front of him. Sehun’s eyes were closed, a gunshot wound spewing blood from his leg.

“Sehun-ah! Sehun-ah! Wake up! Sehun-ah, stay with me!” Luhan shouted with broken sobs at the motionless figure, his eyes stinging with tears. Luhan cried out as he took off his jacket and wrapped it around the wound as gauze. It was useless yelling out now. He held his boyfriend’s hands, unwilling to let go. Sehun’s grip tightened around Luhan’s hands as he was carried to the ambulance on a stretcher, and slackened as he drifted back out of consciousness.

Sehun fell into a comma. Luhan visited him every day, hoping Sehun would finally wake. He brought him flowers everyday and sang to him at night before he was forced to leave. In the hospital, he saw more ghosts than he would have liked. One was an ajumma, who glanced at him with a slight smile and disappeared. The next few were also elderly men and women and there was even one child. Another was a boy, not too much older than him. He had jet black hair and eyes with a stare that could kill. They met with Luhan’s and softened.

“Can you see me?” the boy asked. Luhan nodded. The taller boy sat down next to Luhan.

“I’m Tao.”

“Luhan.”

“I had liver cancer,” Tao said with a bittersweet tone.

“I’m sorry,” Luhan said.

“I knew it was coming. At least I got to do everything I wanted to before I died,” the other sighed, leaning back. “My ma’s not gunna take this too well though,” he continued, scratching the back of his neck.

“You see ghosts often?”

"It's sort of a curse," he sighed. 

Tao placed an arm on Luhan’s shoulder sending a shiver down his spine.

“Take care,” he said.

"I'll try." Tao nodded, stood up, and walked into the golden shimmer, disappearing like all the others.

Luhan sang to Sehun that night and came back the next day bearing flowers as usual.

He kissed the younger’s lips, only a faint warmth remained there. He stayed all day and sang to Sehun that night once again. He fell asleep at his lover’s side, his head resting next to Sehun’s elbow. He woke up, feeling his hair being by that familiar touch and warmth that he craved in the last months.

“Luhannie,”  Sehun cooed.

“S-Sehun?” Luhan’s eyes brimmed with tears, letting them fall shamelessly down his cheeks.

“You look so cute when you’re asleep,” Sehun said. Luhan smiled at his boyfriend, who was standing dressed in a white suit.

“S-Sehun, why are you—“ he looked over and saw Sehun’s corpse lying still on the hospital bed, the heart monitor next to him showed nothing but a straight green line. Luhan had to be torn away from the body by several nurses and pushed outside as the doctors tried to restart Sehun’s heart.

“Shhhh, it’s ok,” Sehun whispered, appearing once more next to Luhan.

“Not you, oh please, not you. Not you. Anyone but you,” he cried hysterically over and over into Sehun’s ghost of a shoulder.

“I love you Luhan,” Sehun whispered, his hair lovingly. Luhan wondered why Sehun was so warm for a ghost but brushed it off for fear that this was the last hour he would spend with him.

“Luhan, look at me,” Sehun said as Luhan’s sobs quieted down to a slight whimper.

“I-I Sh-should’ve been w-with you,” Luhan stuttered.

“I’m glad that you weren’t. I could never forgive myself for endangering you,” Sehun smiled. “Luhan, keep living for me, ok?” Luhan nodded. Sehun held out his pinky. With a sort of half laugh, half sob, Luhan held out his own pinky and wrapped it for the last time around Sehun’s.

“I love you,” he said, pecking Luhan once more on his lips. Sehun pulled away, his warmth with him, and stood up. “Don’t forget me,” he said. Luhan bit his tongue, trying not to cry. He shook his head furiously.

“Never. I love you, Sehun.”

“Good.” Sehun looked into Luhan’s eyes one last time, the blissful expression Luhan tried so hard to protect all his life returning to his face. Then he turned around and disappeared into a golden shimmer, a warm breeze blowing over Luhan’s cheeks.

Luhan felt numb in the weeks that followed. He only cried in private after the funeral service ended and had nightmares almost every night of Sehun’s lifeless body in their apartment.

Luhan packed up the final boxes and taped them shut and looked out of the window.

“Sehun-ah, I’m moving out. Not to forget you, but to move on. Please understand.” A summer breeze blew through the window and caressed his cheeks.

Luhan smiled. He had to keep his promise to Sehun no matter what.