Yeah, didn't turn out as I hoped. After coming home from a family gathering this weekend, I got sick the next day. Sorry for the late update, but I churned this out for you all tonight before heading off to bed. Hopefully you'll enjoy it like the first chapter :D

I didn’t go back the next day, or the day after that. However, on the third day since my last visit, I decided to drop by. Knocking on the door again, I waited for his answer. After a couple of minutes, and hearing no answer, I decided to let myself in. I slowly cracked the door open and peaked inside. Seeing no one there, I walked in and closed the door behind me. Just as I did, a voice spoke up.

“I didn’t say you could come in.”

His voice didn’t sound threatening, so that was a start. Letting out a deep breath, I spoke up.

“No, but you made clear it was okay for me to be here last time. Surely that hasn’t changed since then?”

A silence pursued before I turned around to meet his face.

“Hello, by the way.” Again, I was met with no answer, but I continued to talk.

“I know that you don’t want me here, but I want to be here. What’s wrong with being friends? No one said that couldn’t happen between a ghost and a human, right? Technically, you’re still human, just in spirit form.”

I snuck a glance at him and saw that his stance was slightly more relaxed.

“I won’t tell anyone about this, and neither will you. Well, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t.”

He was sporting a smirk now, and I knew that I was in his good books again.

“Plus, I can help you move on.”

“Move on?” So now he spoke.

“You know, go on to the afterlife, heaven, where ever you’re supposed to go. That way you’re not stuck as a ghost anymore.”

“And you know about this…how?”

“I read books…and it’s sort of common sense that a ghost stays around for something, right?”

I dusted off part of a loveseat and sat down. Onew walked over and sat down as well.

“Well, that’s what the books and mass entertainment say anyway.”

“What if I don’t know why I’m here?”

“That could happen too.”

“If that happens, then what do we do?”

“We wing it. The answers will come to us later.”

He looked at me warily and I smiled in return.

“Come on! Spending some time with me isn’t that bad, is it?”

“No, no! I didn’t mean it that way!”

I laughed at his response before standing up. Looking up at the stairs, I spoke again.

“If so…are you going to give me a tour of this house?”

“Why not? Follow me.”

Onew led the way as he gave me a once over around his home, showing me the kitchen and sitting room, and then leading me upstairs to indicate the rooms of his parents, the guest rooms, and “for my convenience” the bathrooms. He allowed me to open the doors, and I peeked into each room to admire the setting before returning to the hallway where he stood.

“Was it everything you imagined it to be?”

I grinned before we began walking again and shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, I don’t really have any other connotation of an abandoned mansion except for cobwebs and scary looking things. Obviously, what movies and books have taught us were wrong.”

I thought about it again and spied some cobwebs before pointing at them.

“Well, maybe not all wrong.”

Onew laughed as we continued down the hallway. It was the last room in the mansion, and so far he hadn’t shown me his room. I assumed that this last one was his.

“Well, here we are.”

“Your room, I’m assuming?”

“Yes.”

I looked at him and before I could move to open the door, he beat me to it. He opened the door and stepped aside to invite me in.

“Ladies first,” he said with a flourish of his hand.

I looked at him amusedly before walking into the room, looking around.

“Well, it looks nice enough. Perhaps the room needs a bit of cleaning.”

“Perhaps?”

I looked at him and grinned.

“Okay, more than perhaps. It definitely needs a cleaning up, but other than that, it’s fine.”

Making my way over to his personal library, I ran my fingers along the spines of the novels. I noticed he had many of the ones I enjoyed. There was just something about classic fiction or romance novels that attracted me.

“You like to read?”

“Love it. I could just lose myself in one of those worlds,” I said looking at him. “Funny how I’m actually involved in a story now too.”

“I bet you never thought you’d see a real live ghost in front of your eyes.”

Or be able to touch him.

“No, I didn’t,” I admitted. “But, hey, there’s a first time for everything, right?”

“Right.”

I looked at the time and realized that it was getting late.

“Hey, I have to go.”

His face fell, and I immediately felt bad for leaving.

“But I’ll come back tomorrow if I can.”

“You will?”

“That is, if you’re okay with that.”

His face turned up into a grin and he nodded.

“Of course!”

“All right,” I said making my way out of his room. “I’ll see you soon.”

With that, I waved bye and showed myself out.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I made time to visit Onew whenever I could. Of course, I still had various other things to do. I couldn’t go every day, or else my parents and friends would get suspicious. On the days that I did get to visit Onew, I felt utterly blissful. I had finally met someone who I could talk to honestly and openly, something that I rarely did with my friends. Strange how we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, yet I’m so comfortable with him.

One day when I walked into the house (Onew said I no longer needed to knock now), I was surprised to see that the sitting room was clean, spotless from the dust that I had seen weeks before. No longer were  cobwebs or light layers of dusk on the furniture. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed and looked around in wonder, touching things to make sure what I saw was really true.

“It’s cleaner now, right?”

Onew had materialized next to me and I smiled, nodding. In the beginning, he usually entered the room from the hallway or the stairs. As he grew more comfortable with me, he decided to save time and just appear in front of me. I remember the first time I saw him do that, and least to say, I was shocked. However, I gradually got used to it, and now it was of no consequence.

“Definitely, but how did you do it?”

Thinking back, I remember Yi Jung and Yeon Ah telling me something about floating chairs. Raising my eyebrow, I further questioned Onew.

“Does this have something related to those floating chairs my friends were talking about?”

“I suppose so. I can move things mentally. I guess you could call it telekinesis if you wanted to, but I can also move things physically.  I just found the cleaning supplies and decided to clean the sitting room. I figured that it’d benefit you to spend time in a clean room rather than a dirty one.”

“That’s thoughtful of you. Thanks,” I said with a grateful smile.

Although I didn’t mention it, the dust was a bit hard to deal with, and I was glad that Onew had thought of cleaning to accommodate me.

“I’m assuming you only cleaned the sitting room and your personal room, right? I mean, we don’t even spend any time in the other rooms.”

Onew matched his pace with mine as we made our way through the mansion.

“Actually, I cleaned everything.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to stare at him. He smirked before shrugging his shoulders, moving on ahead.

“Everything?!”

“Yes, is it that hard to believe?”

“Well, this isn’t exactly a cottage, Onew.”

“And do you think I have anything else to do while you’re gone?”

That question stopped me in my tracks again. I looked at him before a frown made its way on my face.

“You really don’t have anything to do, do you?”

He walked back to me and gave me a smile, reaching out to pat my head gently.

“Since I’ve been stuck here as a ghost? No, but it’s okay. I had fun cleaning for you; I finally have something to do now.”

“You didn’t have to do that all for me…” Great, now I just felt guilty.

“No, but I wanted to. Besides, you haven’t seen the best part yet.”

“Best part?”

“The garden is the best part.”

With a grin, he plucked the book I had meant to return out of my hands before sending it to his room and then closing the door, ten feet away from where we were standing. Once he was done, he grasped my hand and led me down the stairs and out back to where the garden apparently was. He didn’t show me this during my tour of the house earlier, so it must have been something for him to be excited for, just like he was now.

After opening the gate, I looked up and my eyes widened to see a fountain that was lined with colorful flowers all around the stone walkway. Further up from the fountain was a path that led to a gazebo with more flowers surrounding it, and a manicured lawn on either side with the greenest grass I had ever seen. I could see that there was much more to the garden upon walking further out.

“Onew, how did all of these survive this long?” I mean, it had been 100 years, hadn’t it?

“I’ve been taking care of it every day.”

“You have?”

“Yes, as I’ve mentioned before, I really have nothing of interest to do. I neglected the house because I didn’t really spend that much time in it. The garden is a different story, however. I spent my days out here, taking care of the plants and nurturing them to keep their former glory.”

I reached out to touch the petals of the flowers we walked by, marveling at their softness and bent down to smell their scent. If I could use one word to describe the garden, I would use ‘heavenly’. Hmm, heaven...that's where Onew should be, shouldn't he?

Straightening up and turning around, I was surprised to face a small bouquet of roses and baby’s breath. The bundle lowered to reveal a smiling Onew.

“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.”

“Why, thank you kind sir. You flatter me,” I said with a smile and curtsied for fun.

I held the flowers up to smell and basked in their sweet aroma before looking again at Onew.

“You know, I’m going to have a hard time explaining where I got this to my parents.”

“I’m sure you can handle it. After all, it’s nothing compared to a ghost, right?”

“True.”

And we kept walking, Onew leading the way and pointing out his favorite flowers or spots to sit in the shade while reading during his earlier days. We made a whole round of the massive garden, and somehow, his hand slipped into mine; however, I didn’t notice it until later, probably because I was still thinking about Onew's situation as a ghost. I admit, I was zoned out through most of the tour, though Onew didn't point it out if he noticed. That was how we stayed until we arrived at the gazebo. Settling on the bench, I set the bouquet to the side as I stared unseeingly in front of me. After a few moments of silence, I spoke.

“Onew.”

“Hmm?”

“Have you figured it out yet?”

“Have I figured out what?”

“What I need to do for you to move on.”

He stayed silent in response to my question and I turned toward him. He looked away into the distance and I sighed.

“Onew, you can’t stay here forever.”

“And why not?”

“It’s just not right. You’re trapped here with nothing to do but to keep a mansion and garden in tip top shape, and for who?”

“I may have been doing it for no one before, but now it’s different. I have you now, don’t I? It’s not for nothing.”

“I can’t come here forever, you know that. Things change.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want things to change. Did you ever think of that?”

“But Onew…”

“No buts.”

And he stood up before walking away from me, materializing into thin air. Sighing, I stood up and made my way out of the garden before exiting the mansion and making my way home. Once I arrived home, I realized that I had left the roses on the bench in the gazebo.

Yup, that's the next chapter. Please remember to subscribe if you haven't already and comment! Thank you much and I'll see you all in the next chapter.

<3 WinterRose

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