Chapter 2 

Midnight Surprise

Beep beep....... Beep beep........

Jay’s phone was ringing in his pocket. He took his phone and looked at who had sent him a message. It was from Heechul that’s written :

We’ll have a live report about the assembly tomorrow. Don’t forget!

Jay typed on his phone. Okay.

He sighed as he leaned his back on the seat. He was in the bus right now. Then, he raised his hand, looking at his ring finger. He tried to take the ring off again. But, he could not. “What I should do to this ring? If I can’t take this off, how will I return this ring?”

Beep beep....... Beep beep........

Jay’s phone rang again. Jay opened his inbox to read the message from his mother. He read on his phone.

Your father and I are in your uncle’s house in Gwangju. We will go back tomorrow. I put the door key under the pot of rose. Don’t forget to get dinner, my honey.

Jay rolled his eyes. “Don’t forget? Why does everyone always remind me? Am I that forgetful?” He muttered.

All right, Mom. Jay replied his mother via text message.

The bus finally stopped as its passengers began leaving their seats. Jay put on his bag and got up, getting off the bus. The sun was already set as the sky turned dark when Jay was walking down the sidewalk. He glanced at his watch. It was 6.47 pm. Feeling goosebump, Jay looked around him. He stopped suddenly when he was seeing a strange creature under the giant tree. It was not a human, but it’s like a monster with scary face, messy hair, black appearance. Its eyes were red that looked at him directly.

Jay widened his eyes and quickly looked away. He was frightened. “What is it? Why could I see something none sense lately? Since I came to Seo’s house this afternoon and found this ring, I could see many strange creatures.” He looked at his ring before walked away.  “This is not good.” He said as he rubbed his temple.

A woman in wedding dress appeared behind Jay. She was looking at Jay and following him wherever he went to.

Feeling someone following him, Jay stopped walking and turned around to see who it was. But, he found no one. His head began thinking about ghosts and anything related. “I hate something like this. I hate to admit that I can see ghosts now. Oh God... It’s too scary.” Jay cringed as he began running to come home as fast as possible.

۩  ۩ ۩

“Finally, my report is done.” Jay said as he shut down his laptop, finishing his work at 0.52 am. His cup of coffee was already empty. He got up from his seat and stretched his back. His hand closed his mouth while yawning widely. He had been really tired and sleepy, the thought about his new ability to see ghosts made him finishing his news report slower than usual. Then, he walked to his bed and fell his body on the bed, covering his body with blanket. Jay was smiling and closing his eyes, ready to go to his dream world. “Let’s hope I can forget everything when I’m sleeping. No ghost. No something strange. No trouble. Nothing.”

Meanwhile, a woman appeared and stood up next to Jay’s bed, staring at his sleeping face. ‘When I look at you this close, you’re really resemble him. Your face, your nose, your lips, your eyes are looking all the same with him. I can’t believe this. I feel like I am meeting him again, my fiance.Is this my fate?’ Her mind said.

She was thinking of something before got onto the bed and lied her body beside Jay. Smiling sweetly, she raised her hand to touch his face, but she could not. Her hand just went through his head. She tried it once again and she failed again. She was surprised to know it. Now, she was looking at her hand and feeling confused. “Why.. Why can’t I touch him? Usually, I can touch everything.” She asked to herself.

Hearing woman’s voice beside him, Jay opened his eyes in sudden. His eyes grew wide to find a woman in wedding dress lying beside him.

“Whooaa!!” Jay screamed in response as he quickly moved from his bed. Unfortunately, his blanket twisted his foot, making him falling onto the floor as the result.

That woman sat on the bed and stared down at Jay. Feeling afraid, Jay got up and run to his bedroom door. Unfortunately, it had been locked. He was banging the door and forcing the door knob to unlock. His attempt to break it was useless. The door remained locked. In this situation, no one would help him because he was alone at home. Realizing that he was trapped with a woman ghost in his room, his heart was beating so fast as his body shivered. He turned around to see that woman was walking closer in his direction.

Being cornered, Jay covered his eyes with his hands as he pressed his back against the door. Slowly, he slid down his body to sit on the floor. “Please, get away from me. I don’t know you. Leave me alone.... Don’t kill me... Please, I don’t have any relation with you. So, go away.. Don’t kill me.” He said before he muttered a silent prayer.

That woman chuckled when she was looking his reaction. “Hey.. Am I so scary? I think my face is not ugly like a zombie.” She said as she touched her face.

Jay didn’t answer as he kept his eyes shut, ignoring her statement.

“I’m talking to you. Why don’t you look at me? I’m not scary. Let me tell you, I won’t kill you. How can I kill you when I can’t touch you?” She said.

Hearing her words, Jay opened his eyes to see her grinning at him. He was blinking his eyes. She was not scary like his thought. Although her skin was pale, but she didn’t look like another ghosts which were scary. She was like an ordinary woman with long hair who was ready to get married. It’s because she was wearing her beautiful wedding dress.

“Really? Prove it that you can’t touch me.” Jay asked.

She approached him and swung her hand onto his head. Her hand just went through his body like before. After that, she grabbed a cutter on the table and charged it in Jay’s direction.

Jay felt the horror when he was watching it. His heart was like stop beating. He closed his eyes tightly, getting ready to be jabbed by her. But it never came. Jay opened his eyes and turned his head to the side, seeing the cutter sticking on the door a few centimeters from his head. Then, he sighed in relief.

She laughed to see his face expression, he was so scared. “You see now?” She asked. “I can hold anything. But, I can’t touch you. It really makes me confused and curious.” She followed him to sat on the floor in front of him, looking at him carefully. She wondered why it could happen.

“It’s not funny! Who are you?! What do you want?” Jay started getting annoyed.

“Hey.. hey.. Don’t be mad.. Okay, I’ll introduce myself. My name is Seo Joohyun. You can call me Seohyun.”

Jay widened his eyes. “S-Seo Joo Hyun? So, the rumor was true? Y-you were d-dead? Suicide?” Jay stammered when he was asking.

“Yeah. It’s me. I am a ghost.”

“Then, why did you kill yourself?”

Seohyun looked down as she told him her sad story. “Truthfully, I was dead in 1976.”

“1976? I was not born yet. Even my parents had not gotten married in that year. And then...” He wanted her to continue.

“Yeah.. It had been decades ago...” She began telling her past life.

Flashback

Seohyun was standing in front of her giant mirror, looking at the wedding dress put on her body. A smile was seen on her face as she fitted her dress. She turned around to reassure that her dress was all okay. Today was the day she had been waiting for, her marriage.

“Why am I so nervous?” She said. “I’ll be his wife. I can’t wait.”

Then, someone knocked at the door. Seohyun turned her head to see who it was.

“Hi, Mom? Am I beautiful with this dress?” She asked her mother. She posed with her dress.

Her mother showed a sad smile as she walked closer to her daughter. “You’re so beautiful, Seohyun.. Your dress really fit your body. I’m sure your love will be happy to see your beauty. But..” Her mother paused as she thought about the right words to say.

Realizing her mother’s sadness, Seohyun asked, “Mom, what is it? What happen?”

“Please, be strong my honey.. I know it will be hard for you..”

“Mom, just tell me..”

“Junghyo and his mother are dead in the car accident on the way here while the others are in critical condition.”

Seohyun shook her head in rejection. “Impossible.. He just called me forty minutes ago... and you said that he’s dead.. No way, Mom.. No..”

Her mother quickly put her daughter in embrace. “I’m so sorry to hear that, my Seohyun.. But, it’s true.. Please, be strong.” She said as the tears began rolling down her face, trying to calm her daughter down.

Seohyun cried so hard in her mother’s embrace as she kept saying. “No.. He is not dead. We will get married.. No..”

*

*

*

Seohyun’s hand was trembling when she opened the white thin blanket covering her fiance’s body. She widened her eyes after she saw his pale face and his lifeless body. He was really her fiance. She could not hold her tears anymore. She was crying so hard while hugging her fiance.

“Why did you leave me?” Seohyun asked between her sobbing. “You promised to marry me today. Why did you break your promise? Wake up, Park Jung Hyo.. We have a marriage to do.. Please.. open your eyes.. I love you.. We have to get married. You can’t just leave me like this..”

“Seohyun..” Her mother tried to calm her down by placing her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

Suddenly, Seohyun stood upright, her eyes looked down letting her long hair covering her face. Then, without words, she ran away from that place.

*

*

*

A pair of rings on the small white box was seen. Standing alone in her bedroom, Seohyun’s eyes stared blankly at it, her eyes were red after a long time crying. She closed the box and clutched it tightly. Slowly, she raised her head to see a photo frame hanging on the wall. It was her picture with her fiance who were smiling widely. Now, she looked at her reflection in the mirror, her wedding dress was still put on her body. She never wanted to take it off because it was his last gift for her.

“Our love is everlasting. I know that you will hate about what I’ll do.. But, I am sorry.. I can’t live without you. When I knew that you’re gone, I was already dead. You will never come back. So, there’s no reason again for me to stay alive, isn’t it?”

She placed a knife on her wrist as the tears didn’t stop dropping from her eyes. “I had ever said that I would go wherever you would go, even to the depths of the hell. I won’t be able to find another man like you in this world, hell or heaven. I prove it now because I love you so much..”  It was her last words before she cut her own wrist with knife to end her life.

End Of Flashback

Seohyun stared sadly at the floor as she finished her story.

Jay took a deep breath before blew it. “So far, I think you’re not kind of people who would give in easily. But, you decided to end your life just because of your fiance death. You’re so foolish. Didn’t you think that there were millions men around this world? You could just choose one of them to replace him. Choosing to die because of your love, it’s the most stupid thing for me.” He said.

Seohyun looked at him in concern. “You did not feel what I felt. You never got into relationship, what did you know about love huh? Don’t call me foolish. The one foolish is you. You never fall in love, right?”

Jay widened his eyes. “How did you know?”

“So, I am right? I just guessed.”

Jay shook his head and looked away. “Okay, that’s enough.. I’m talking to a ghost. No way.. I must be dreaming now or maybe I have been insane.” He got up from the floor and walked toward his bed. His legs just went through the sitting Seohyun before he climbed on his bed again.

“Jay? You’re not dreaming. I’m real and this is reality.” Seohyun said as he followed him to get on the bed. She was sitting face to face with Jay right now.

“You said Jay? How could you know my name? What do you want from me?”

“It’s simple. All the people in the house called you Jay... and... I am here because of the ring.”

“The ring?”

Seohyun nodded.

Jay quickly showed his ring to her and said, “If you want this ring, just take it. I don’t need it at all. Now, take it from my finger and you can go away.”

“I can’t.”

“What?!”

“You decided to use that ring by yourself and it had fitted you. I can do nothing because the ring has chosen you.” She smiled as she continued, “It means you are only mine. You are my fiance. You will never get away from me because we have engaged. I just want you to marry me for my last wish. Is it hard for you?”

“Yes, it is hard for me and it’s impossible. I don’t want to be your bridegroom. I’m human and you’re a ghost. What a crazy thing.”

“I’m your bride! Stop denying it, Jay. That ring is a proof. As long as the ring is encircling your finger, I’ll be by your side indefinitely.” She folded her arms on her chest. "Understand?"

Jay sneered. “You said that you loved your late fiance. Now, why do you beg me to marry you? Don’t you love him anymore?”

“It’s because you remind me of him. I don’t know why it is. You-“ Her words were cut by Jay.

“Stop it!” Jay said loudly. He lied his body on the bed and buried his head under the pillow. He didn’t want to hear about it any longer. He had been enough with it.

Seohyun sighed in disappointment. “Okay.. I’ll give you time to think. I understand that you’re in shock.” Then, she smiled again.  “I hope we can start this as friends then it can grow up to something serious soon. Good night, Jay Kim. I’ll always be with you wherever you will go. Remember it.” She said before disappeared.

Jay removed his pillow from his head and found that she had gone. “This is just a joke, Jay. Just a dream.” He told himself. Then, he stared at his ring. “I am Seohyun’s fiance? The worst, she is a ghost.” He looked away from his ring to stare at the ceiling. “Ugh... It doesn’t really make sense!” Jay grabbed his blanket and put it over his head, trying to sleep again. He just hoped that it was a nightmare.