Those pitiful eyes, that story is too complex

It was that night that you blew into my heart

And I kept you

                It was early  and the sun hasn’t risen yet, but the lights are already on in an apartment not far from the city. The sound of scribbling and the rustling of pages can be heard. A lone person sitting comfortably on a lounge chair hunched over an old book, scribbling away.

                A gust of wind ruffles the papers in a nearby table, a snow globe keeping them in place.  There’s an odd sense of calm surrounding the person, too engrossed on what he’s doing to be aware of another person, though it’s presence can only be felt and not seen, joining him inside the room.

                “The living is too keen in their own thoughts, their own world, that they ignore things around them…”

                The lad looks up with a smile on his face, “It’s been a while since I heard you quote the great sages…”

                An impish grin can be seen on the other person’s face, raising an eyebrow he says with amusement “Oh but that was of my own words… I never been good at agreeing with the sages…”

                A silence envelopes them both looking at each other with smiles on their faces. It’s been a long time since the lad has seen this person. It’s a relief that the latter is not mad at the decisions he has been making regarding his cousin’s journey. Though supportive, he knows that the mission might end negatively.  Although he doesn’t say it out loud he knows that this person has an inkling about what he has in mind.

                “You’ve been toiling over these tomes all night? You have work at the bookshop later on… Won’t your body be tired?”

                “I’ll be fine, work at the shop is not that tiring.” He assured the person. It’s good to have someone worrying about him. He hasn’t felt that in a long time. “Thank you for worrying, grandfather…”

                He felt a pat on his head and then a gentle ruffling of his hair, Yi Xing relaxes to the touch. Sighing, yes it’s been a while since he has received affection.

~o~

                Yi Xing wakes up alone, slumped on the lounge chair. His back aches from sleeping in a weird position. But he can’t deny it’s been the best sleep he had in a long time. He stretched his limbs and started cleaning the mess of papers that he has left earlier. Seeing an old book opened to a certain page, he felt light. A few words were highlighted on the page. An assurance that his grandfather would provide help as much as he can.

                He has so  much to do today and he wonders how the tea ceremony went, guess he’ll find out later. Looking at the map hoisted on the wall above the TV. He watched as the two red dots move. They’re making good progress. He expects them to arrive before the week ends. Or specifically a day from now in the underworld.

                The map has been passed to him by his father on his seventh birthday. That was also the last time that he saw his father. After the latter left, everything at the ancestral house became weird. It was also the same time that he started seeing ghost.

                A week after his birthday celebration, he sees an old man visit his, then still alive, grandfather. He assumed they were discussing business. But he heard his name and his cousin’s. The topic must have something to ddo with who the heir would be. It was always obvious to him that his cousin was the favoured one and it’s not really that hard to figure out. The other is older and is part of the first family. Why they have the need to discuss it puzzles both him and his cousin.

                The discussion was too  much of an adult topic for him to comprehend. He’s not interested in heirs or anything, though he thinks it might also have something to do with marriage. He heard another person’s name, it could be another undiscovered heir or a person who’s to be married into the family. He finds the name very pretty, he hopes she is welcomed.

                His thoughts are getting side-tracked again. He has research to do and a death guardian to locate. He picks up the papers and the books from the table. It’s going to be another long day.

                He arrives at the second-hand bookstore just in time to catch Chan Yeol flipping the ‘OPEN’ sign on the door.  The latter never opens shop, it’s always been an issue with the other workers because everyone knows and understands that Chan Yeol is not a morning person and giving him coffee makes him go all creepy and hyperactive.

                “Yi Xing,why are you here this early? Have you been skipping classes?”

                Yi Xing smiles at the tall male and just shrugs his shoulders. It’s not that he has classes to skip. He does attend a few but most of the time he doesn’t need to.  He sits at one of the stools located near the counter and grabs a book from the stack they haven’t sorted out. “You usually don’t do morning shifts…” He inquires while turning the books pages, it’s a typical schoolbook. There are a few marks on  the pages. They need to have that fixed.

                “Oh that, Min Seok-ge asked if we could change shifts… So here I am.”

                “Switch schedules?” Yi Xing thinks this switch has something to do with the tea meeting. “Did he say why?”

                Chan Yeol shakes his head, “I needed the schedule change, so maybe he heard me talking about it to Joon Myeon-ge. I was actually planning on taking a leave from work but he offered. You know I can’t just deliberately take Min Seok-ge’s schedule from him, he insisted though.” Chan Yeol frowns and tilts his head, “Did Ge change classes?”

                “Not that I heard of, we could just ask Joon Myeon for the official schedule change if this continues…” And Yi Xing is sure it will. He closes the book in his hand. Desperate times calls for desperate measures as the popular saying goes. He’d have to seek the help of someone he knows is familiar with the in-between – his father.

~o~

                Traumatized is an understatement. Min Seok feels like he’s living a nightmare. Firs the hongbao and now this. He wants to avoid sleep altogether but his body and brain feels tired from all these. More questions plague his mind. What was written inside that letter? Why did the lady of the Lu house need to re-schedule the tea ceremony. And most of all, why is that young man from the Lu Household haunting his dreams?

                Sleep cannot be avoided as Min Seok finds himself in the same Plum garden as before. Having seen the garden in it’s actuality dulls the image it has in the dreamworld. If before he was fascinated by what he is seeing this time dread builds. What is dreams for?

                A familiar crunching of leaves made Min Seok turn around. Determination and anger running through his system. “What are these meetings for? Why are you haunting me?” he shouts at the person who’s frozen in his tracks by Min Seok’s outburst.

                “You’ve made your visit? How did it go?” the young man’s questioning eyes makes Min Seok more frustrated. “Xiu Min, what’s wrong?”

                “You tell me… Who are you calling Xiu Min? Have you mistaken me for someone else?”

                The young man shakes his head vigorously, eyes wide. “No, no… Xiu Min… I… I just  wanted to see you… And talk to you. Did the elders not approve?”

                The sad look on the young man’s face is enough to placate Min Seok’s anger, but he doubts it’s going to disappear completely. “The tea ceremony didn’t happen… I just…” He takes a long calming breath. “Who are you, really?”

                “I’m Lu Han… you’re bethroted…”

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a/n: I apologize for the slow updates. I don’t have an excuse, it’s true real life is getting in the way. With studies and my older sister pestering me about her wedding preps, so yeah pretty much no ‘me’ time. I was supposed to post this ages ago /ok I’m exaggerating, maybe a week ago/ but my laptop decided to mess with me so I gave up attempting to get along with it…

End of rant. I hope this makes up for the absence. I’ll try as much to update as soon as Yi Xing is able to locate his cousin and the wide-eyed ghost~ ^^v