"Manager is in a bad mood today..." Chanyeol whispered to Luhan as he changed into his outfit for his afternoon shift at the department store.

"Why?" Luhan wasn't exactly in a good mood either. He was still very, very freaked out.

"One of our staff found around 8 sensor tags in the dustbin near the store entrance." Chanyeol lowered his voice. "The weird part is that, when they watched the CCTV recording, the tags seemed to just APPEAR magically in the bin!!"

Luhan groaned really loudly. I need to go smash my head in a wall now. What's up with all the ghostly happenings around me?!

Chanyeol seemed oblivious to his friend's apparent close-to-breakdown mood. "Well you'd better not try to sleep again or I should think Manager would stick a fork up your bum and roast you over a fire."

"Oh my god. Just shut up, Chanyeol."

"Won't!!"

***

Luhan's shift ended at 10PM, as the store closed. He yawned sleepily and checked his reflection in his phone. Wow, I look really dishevelled, he thought.

He went to the washroom and dunked his face under the sink, scrubbing off the BB cream they were forced to put on. The water felt nice and cool on his skin, and he felt refreshed.

But he totally did not expect to see what he saw when he looked up.

"Arrrrghhhh!!" Luhan dunked his head back in, trying to clean out his eyeballs. To his utmost horror, the image on the mirror was still there when he looked up.

"Luhan..."

Luhan's eyes widened. He swung around the stare at the man. "How do you know my name?"

The man blinked at him. "I know all about you, Luhan. Before..." He quickly added, as Luhan's mouth flew open, "Before you say anything, let me make this clear. I'm not a ert, I'm not a beggar, and my name is Chen."

"Chen..."

"Yes."

"Your clothes..." Luhan knew where they were from, unmistakably. The department store he worked at.

Chen sighed. "Okay. Fine. I took them. I stole them. But I couldn't help it."

Luhan couldn't seem to close his jaw as he gaped at the man in front of him.

"Y-you're a ghost? I c-can see g-ghosts?"

Chen shook his head vigorously. "I'm real dammit! Look!"

He stepped forward and grabbed Luhan's arms, causing him to scream, flail his arms and run out of the toilet.

Luhan stumbled out, eyes rolling around in shock, and ran with all his might out of the shopping complex. And then he screamed manically.

"Whoa whoa, you're as loud as a banshee." Chen sighed in exasperation. 

Luhan was panicking, his heart was flying out of his chest, and there was Chen, standing in front of him when he was clearly left behind in the toilet earlier. Chen, with bright glowing metallic eyes.

"Oh my ummaaaaaaa....."

Luhan turned and staggered weakly in the opposite direction, feeling so exhausted and just wanting to curl up somewhere and die. He felt a hand on his arm, but didn't have any strength to push it away.

He felt himself being enveloped in really soft, warm arms and he felt a strange sizzling feeling in his chest. Was he actually... Calming down?

Within a few seconds, his mood was reduced to nothing and he felt so extremely peaceful that he just wanted to go to sleep on the nice firm shoulder. But no, Chen was nudging him awake.

"Luhan."

Luhan looked up slowly into the man's eyes, hovering in front of his. His eyes were still metallic silver. But then something inexplicable happened. Luhan stared as the metal in his eyes dissolved away like melting ice, and it was replaced with soft, glowing hazel orbs. 

Luhan gasped. It was a breathtaking sight. He forgot where he was, what he was doing, who he is. He just stared into those eyes.

"Are you feeling better, Luhan?"

The voice jolted him from his daze, and Luhan blinked several times. "Yeah... I am." He took a step away from Chen, swaying a little.

"I won't startle you anymore, I promise. I...I'll leave you alone for now. Just... Stop thinking I'm a ghost because although I behave like one, I'm not. Okay?"

Luhan chewed on his lower lip. His brain was screaming, he's a ghost, he's not real, you're just imagining things you crazy freak, but he nodded slowly.

"Good. See you tomorrow. And please don't scream again."

Chen walked away.

Luhan slumped on the sidewalk, his mind weary. He couldn't think anymore.

***

Chen hadn't really thought about where he would sleep. Oh heck, he thought. The roadside wasn't that bad actually. But that would make him a true blue... tramp.

"I wish I had some money, seriously." He kicked a can and watched as it sailed into the air, hit against the wall and fall perfectly into the trashbin.

For one, he was glad that he was born with an innate ability to be accurate despite not trying hard at all. It wasn't a power - it was a talent.

Chen sighed as he reached the stairwell of Luhan's house. There was a lift, but far too many people used it, for Chen's liking. So he preferred the stairs. Chen sat down beside his other two sets of stolen clothes, now wrapped in a plastic bag that he found. 

"I should've took some bed sheets or something," he grumbled, and laid down on the dusty ground, his head landing softly on the plastic bag, and he drifted into a fitful sleep.

***

Luhan didn't have work the next morning. As he sat in his tiny kitchen, Luhan gazed out of the window, and found his thoughts drifting to Chen.

Who exactly is he? Why is he so mysterious, teleporting about and making me calm down instantly and why, especially, could his eyes change colour?

Luhan burnt his tongue on his coffee, and yelped. 

Then, what happened next took him aback.


Chen burst through the door, worried. "Are you okay?"

Luhan felt his heart sputter. "How...how did you know something happened to me?"

Chen swallowed, and looked down, not saying anything.

"Why are you even here?"

Chen began to bite his lip nervously. "Luhan... I need to ask a favour from you."

"What?!"

"Can... I stay over..."

"Oh god, NO!"

Luhan stood quickly, grabbing his wallet and stalking out of the house. 

"Luhan, wait!!" He heard Chen call out, but he ignored Chen.

I knew it, he thought, that guy is just making use of me. Oh why, why did I even nod at him yesterday, I should've...

All of a sudden, Luhan felt something - someone - yank him really hard. He was pulled into the staircase area with tremendous force, and his head would've smashed against the wall if not for something - a hand - that slipped behind his head to cushion the impact.

Luhan coughed dizzily. What is going on?!

Then he saw Chen again, Chen with his metallic eyes. "Luhan, listen to me."

"I won't, and let go!! Now-"

And the rest of his sentence tumbled back down his throat as he felt lips smash against his own.

***

Truly, the world was spinning.

The lips were warm, velvety-smooth and tangy-sweet, as it brushed against his parted mouth.

Luhan still didn't know what was going on, but this feeling was something he never felt before. 

It grabbed his intestines and squeezed it, it wrung out his lungs and left him gasping when the lips pulled away. 

Chen pulled away to look at him, and once again Luhan witnessed the beautiful melting effect that Chen's ethereal eyes performed.

"Good, you're stunned. That's the effect I was hoping for." Chen smiled, and Luhan felt his heart twitch in a weird way,

Chen took his hand and pulled him gently back into the house. No more yanking, no more shoving. Just gentle pulls.

Luhan seriously thought his brain had died or something. He couldn't process anything in his head at all.

Chen set him down gently back onto the chair and he sat on the other chair, across him, and smiled brightly. 

"I'm kinda hungry, actually my kind don't really eat much because of our slightly different body systems, but I didn't have a thing to eat yesterday at all, so I'm getting slightly hungry. You mind?" He picked up a slice of toast, and without waiting for Luhan's approval, started to devour it happily.

Luhan just stared.

"Don't stare, Luhan, it's impolite." Chen pouted, and nudged the plate closer to Luhan. "Have some, then we'll talk."

Luhan's fingers mechanically picked up a toast and chewed it without much expression.

"You seemed spaced out. Did I hit your brain by accident just now?" Chen's voice rose an octave, and he looked worried.

You bloody hell kissed me and then act like nothing at all?!

Luhan realised he had actually said that out loud when he saw Chen's eyes widen.

"Oh... I didn't know you were sensitive. Sorry." Chen grinned sheepishly.

"I'm n-not sensitive..." Luhan tried to reason, but Chen cut him off with another plate-nudge.

"Have another."

"Those are my toast, Chen."

"I know."

"Then why are acting like you're the host?"

"Umm, never mind, just eat." Chen grinned, and Luhan suddenly, inexplicably felt like grinning along too.

***

Four slices of toast later, Luhan was ready.

Ready to find out who and what this strange man was, and why he was here.

"You won't chase me out?" Luhan shook his head. "You won't scream and run away? You won't collapse in the middle of the road?"

"Oh god I won't, Chen!! Just start." Luhan snarled through his teeth.

"Okay..." Chen visibly drew a deep breath, and turned to face Luhan.

"You'd probably realise I'm not exactly a normal human. Well actually I'm not a human. I don't belong to this universe."

Luhan's jaw fell on his lap in shock. 

"Have you heard of a parallel universe, Luhan? Well, that's where I'm from. And I'm here on a special mission. Two very special important tasks, to be more precise."

Luhan held his breath.

"One of them is to keep you safe. I'm your guardian, your protector. If I didn't remember wrong, you wished for one." Chen's mouth curled into a smile.

Luhan's eyes widened twice its size. Oh yes he did.

"The other one..." Chen paused and struggled to find the right words. "It's slightly more complicated. It's also about you, but not directly."

Chen wet his lips, and mentioned the one name that Luhan never wanted to hear for the rest of his life:

"Do MinJeok."

A/N: Ahhhhh this chapter. So well nothing really has happened to luhan yet, but that is bound to change *evil cackles*

:)