“You know,” the red haired boy said coolly. “Just because you ignore me doesn’t mean I’m not there.”

Taehyung desperately tried to keep his eyes off the stranger in his house kitchen. The family had sat down around the dining table to have dinner; a somewhat noisy dinner, for that matter. But it was nothing usual for the boy with the neon color haired boy because there was a strange person in the room with them. A boy whom he had no idea of who he was, a teenager, judging by his looks and height and this particular boy in question was a school student. And the strangest part was this. Taehyung was the only one who could see him.

The odd one out in the room yawned in an unimpressed manner. “You know you can see me. So why not co-operate with me and get things over with?” But the other still tried his level best to ignore the ghost in the room.

“Taehyung?” his mother suddenly called out, startling the boy with the dark yet sparkling eyes. Coming back to his senses, Taehyung turned to his mom.

“Yes?”

“What’s wrong, Tae-ah? You’ve barely touched your food,” his mother said, her voice and face laced with worry.

Taehyung’s eyes shifted to his plate on the table. It was left just as the way his mother had originally served him.

“Maybe he’s realized the reason why our purses are always empty,” his ever so lovely sister, Aejin said, that teasing and provoking smirk on her face.

Taehyung rolled his eyes.

“Omo, you eat a lot?” the ghost asked, bending down to take a look at the food on the table. His eys were filled with a little sparkle for the first time, Taehyung took note. But he thought it best not to answer.

Noticing that the taller male was still ignoring him, the ghost stood back straight and folded his arms. “You know, mister,” he said, his voice hinting a sense of pride and vanity. “I meant what I said back in your room. Help me and I’ll be out of your hair before you can say spaghetti.”

Taehyung didn’t even spare the ghost a second glance. But his mind raced back to the speech that the ghost had so proudly presented back in his room an hour or so back.

“I know,” the ghost had begun, “I may be annoying. But I’ll try my hardest to stay out of your everyday life. Just help me figure this out and I assure you, you’ll never hear from me again. Besides, if my memory serves me right, every movie I’ve watched, every anime I’ve ever heard of, every story I’ve ever read about tells that things happen for a reason. Which means the reason for you seeing me, a supernatural entity, like this, out of the blue means something. It isn’t merely a coincidence.”

Taehyung wasn’t the superstitious type of person. Nor was he religious. He didn’t believe in karma either. They were too hard to understand, too vast to comprehend. But what he understood and believed (in some parts) were the movies he watched. And call him a kid but he believed and understood animes even better. So, all the evidence of things ‘happening for a reason’ was already there right in front of him.

The ghost let out an overly exaggerated sigh of exasperation. “Fine then,” he said, catching Taehyung’s attention. Let’s see if this’ll help you change your mind.”

Taehyung’s eyes immediately widened to see what the ghost was up to. Stop that, he wanted to say but he kept quiet lest his sister called him crazy, again.

The ghost bent down beside Aejin’s ear and blew a cold breeze into it. Even from his distance, Taehyung could feel the coldness so he wasn’t very keen on finding out how cold it actually was.

Aejin shivered visibly. So did the other members of the family.

“Is there a draft in here?” the father asked, looking around for an opened window or something. Taehyung’s mother only rubbed her shoulders to warm herself. “It’s the middle of summer. Strange weather, this,” she commented, taking a look at the tomato splattered spaghetti on the table.

“I can continue this,” the ghost announced proudly. “And I can do more.” Taehyung gritted his teeth and whispered, “Then why do you need my help?” But the ghost was too busy showing off to hear him.

Finally, Taehyung stood up, the back of his legs pushing away the wooden chair behind him. “Taehyung-ah?” his mothr called out.

“Sorry mom, I realized I need to do something urgently,” he lied, his eyes never leaving the ghost’s. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.” The ghost half smirked. Now they were getting somewhere.

As Taehyung got out of the seat, Aejin looked at the untouched plate. “Is he seriously not going to eat that?” Then they heard the sound of footsteps returning from the common room. “Sorry,” Taehyung apologized and grabbed the plate with a fork and spoon. He was a growing boy. He still needed to eat.

Earlier that evening:

Namjoon walked slowly, a few steps behind Seokjin. He kept track of the exact number of steps he forced himself to keep away from the elder male; Five.

“Why are you walking me home again, president ssi?” Jin asked suddenly, glancing back at his deem dimpled dongsaeng who was being a little cute at the moment. A little.

“Uhhh,” Namjoon replied dumbly. Real smooth, Namjoon, real friggen smooth.

“I mean, I do know the way back to my house, so…” Jin said, holding his hands at the back making him look like an innocent child. He strutted his chest and out as he continued to walk ahead of Namjoon. Is this guy doing this on purpose? Namjoon thought, his eyes desperately trying to look at something else that his hyung in front of him.

Come to think of it, why did Namjoon decide to walk Jin home? It didn’t make sense to Namjoon. He always admired the vice president so maybe he was trying to get to know him a little better. Nope. That wasn’t it. If Namjoon wanted, he could’ve asked that anytime and anywhere else. Or was it because he felt it unsafe for the pretty boy to be walking alone in the evening?

That’s stupid, Namjoon debated with himself mentally. It wasn’t that late. Besides, Jin always went home alone which meant that he could very well take care of himself, like he had been doing the past years.

So, why did Namjoon, all of a sudden, decide to walk Jin, the hyung he admired, respected and loved, home?

Wait, what? His brain suddenly paused all other thoughts. What was that last word again?

“Hello?” Jin said, coming to a sudden stop. “Yah, Kim Namjoon!” he called out with a shy but soothing smile on his face. “Hmm?” Namjoon asked, coming out of his daze. They had reached Jin’s house already.

“Aren’t you gonna answer my question?” Jin asked in a teasing tone. He turned back and leant down a bit. He had those eager and curious sparkling eyes like those anime characters (which Namjoon came to know of thanks to Taehyung). Oh my goodness, he looks so adorable! Namjoon mentally cooed.

“Oh,” Namjoon said, not very smartly. (At least it sounded smarter and livelier than before). “Because,” he was sweating out of nervousness and he felt his face become warm. Like, really warm.

Have you ever had that feeling when your stomach is doing somersaults because you’re so nervous of telling someone something? You know, your palms become sweaty and you begin to stutter and put a lot of ‘uh’s and ‘ummm’s in you speech? Well, that was what Namjoon was experiencing at the moment (with a bonus of heat rising rapidly to his face and his knees becoming weaker by the second). And he had no idea why.

Namjoon tried to laugh the strange feeling away. “Come on. We live in the same direction,” he said, reforming his image back to the cool and calm headed president that everyone knew him to be.

Jin gave an unimpressed and suspicious smile. “Uhh,’ he corrected, “No you don’t. You live on the opposite side of town.”

Oh yeah. Well… !

The nervousness came rushing back as soon as Jin said this. “I… uh,” he mumbled.

Jin chuckled. “Relax, you’re not in a holding cell. I’m sure you had your reasons to coming by this way. Maybe to meet Yongguk ssi? Although I really don’t think he’s at home now.”

Namjoon finally breathed easily. Jin sure did know how to make someone nervous as hell and then make them feel all better at the same time.

He nodded stupidly, not trusting himself to speak anymore in fear of saying anything dumber than what he was saying.

“Okay,” Jin laughed, opening the gates to his house. “I’d offer you to come in and have tea or something but since you have work with Yongguk…” Namjoon quickly cut in. “Yeah, no… Thanks anyway.” Jin smiled one last breathtaking smile at Namjoon. “See you tomorrow then, pres,” he wished.

Namjoon ignored his thumping heart. “Yeah, see you tomorrow,” he waved and turned away. Where was he headed again? Oh yes, Jin said to Yongguk’s house. But why exactly? He had no idea.

On the other hand:

“Would you stop following me around, you annoying idiot?” Jimin shouted as he walked ahead of the fair skinned, pretty faced male behind him.

“Oh, self centered, are we?” Yoongi asked, not amused. “I live the same way, ,” he said.

Jimin rolled his eyes and stopped dead in his tracks. “Oh for the love of… Go then. Just go away and don’t let me see you,” he said, allowing the elder to pass. Yoongi smirked mischievously. “I love it how you hate me. It’s y,” he teased. Jimin gritted his teeth and let out a long whimpering “Ewwwww”.

It wasn’t like Yoongi liked the baby faced boy in front of him. In fact, it would be an understatement to say that he hated Jimin. But he loved to annoy and tease the younger. It gave him a sort of joy and contentment to know that the younger was suffering, hating him so much.

The same could be said for Jimin. Although, he didn’t tease and irritate the elder. Well, at least not always. At first, he tried to follow the policy of ignoring the elder till the elder questioned his own existence but that didn’t work out. Jimin was a boy with a mischievous heart so he often played pranks on the elder, just so he could get the thrill of irritating and getting on every single nerve of Min Yoongi. So one thing led to the other and now, even after four years of knowing each other, they hated each other from the very core of their hearts.

However, both parties weren’t sure where all of this hatred came from. And they definitely had no idea how it started. But they didn’t bother on the cause. All they knew was that their feelings of dislike and utter loathing was mutual. And they intended to keep it that way.

Both Jimin and Yoongi turned the knobs of their house at the same time. It was kind of sad that the two people who hated each other the most had to live right next to each other. And it was even sadder that these two’s mothers had to be best friends.

“I hate you,” Jimin said out loud.

“The feeling’s mutual, kid,” Yoongi replied. And with that both males slammed the front door shut at the same time.

Meanwhile:

Hoseok flipped open a cook book and leaned on the kitchen table. He had on a pink apron which meant that he was so ready to cook.

“What the hell are you doing?” his sister asked, a laugh threatening to leave her lips. Well, who wouldn’t laugh at a ‘manly man’ wearing a pink Little Mermaid apron? Hoseok ignored his sister’s snickers. “I’m trying to make something for my Taehyungie. He seemed down today so I want to bake something for him. Care to help me?”

His sister rolled her eyes but took off another apron from the hangers. “What did you have in mind? Chocolate chip cookies? Sponge cake? Brownies?”

“Cookies,” Hoseok replied and turned to the shelves in search of a mixing bowl.

“Fine, I will help you!” Taehyung growled after closing the door. “What do you need to do so that you can get the hell out of here?”

“You see that’s the problem. I have no idea,” the semi-transparent male, who was now floating casually in front of him, replied. Taehyung fought back the urge to sigh dramatically. “You mean to say you have no idea what your unfinished business is?”

“That’s why I need your help,” the ghost said, his feet firmly touching the ground.

“Oh that’s just bloody brilliant,” Taehyung cursed.

After a inute of silence, Taehyung took a deep breath. “Alright then. At least let me introduce myself properly,” he said, trying to say further when he was shot down.

“No need. I already have a clear idea of who you are. Kim Taehyung. Currently nineteen years old, the youngest in the family. Babied by the family, even the sister, well occasionally,” he quickly added.

“Birthday, thirtieth of December,” Taehyung widened his eyes in surprise. How’d he know that? “Your table calendar is marked, genius,” the ghost simply said sarcastically and continued. “An straight A student. Judging from your physique, you play sports, or dance. But from the sports equipment in your closet, I put my money on sports. Basketball, in particular.”

“You went through my closet?” Taehyung interrupted. “What kind of nut job are you?”

“I was bored,” the ghost simply said and further continued his deductions. “You’re currently in a relationship with someone named Hoseok. She is a little clingy, yes? But nevertheless, you like her. So there’s no problem there. All in all, you’re the typical and ideal student whom every wants to be like, excluding me of course. Did I miss out on anything important?” he said. Taehyung swore he saw the ghost beaming with pride at his own deductions.

“One tiny detail, yes,” Taehyung said. “Hoseok isn’t a she.”

The ghost turned to Taehyung with wide eyes. “You mean you’re gay?” the ghost raised his voice a bit. Taehyung’s eyes went to slits. “Nah, I’m just dating guys because I’m really a girl. Yes, I’m gay!” he said. “Oh, okay then,” the ghost said. So, the ghost was open minded.

Trying to keep the irritation in check, Taehyung decided to make conversation with the ghost he was about to help. Well, at least know his name, for starters.

“Ah yes,” the ghost said, rather smugly. “My name is…” then he froze. Taehyung noticed that the spirit before him was now stuck in a dimension of his own.

“Hello, weird ghost who check’s people’s closets,” Taehyung said, waving his right hand before the spirit’s face. “Are you still there? Or did you already pass on?”

The ghost’s face suddenly regained color (well, you know what I mean) as he blinked rapidly. “What on earth was that? And weren’t you in the middle of introducing yourself?” Taehyung asked, knitting his eyebrows. He wasn’t impressed at the sudden phase that the ghost had.

“I…” the ghost said, unsure of what he was talking about anymore. The previously smug and confident attitude had totally disappeared by then.

“I can’t remember.”