“Come on guys, let’s tidy up,” Xiumin said sadly.

Everyone was unwilling to move but we couldn’t sit around staring at Chen’s empty seat all day. After a few seconds, Lay stood up and took the plates from the table and went to the kitchen. I followed after and left the others to mourn over the loss of Chen.

“Are you okay, Lay?” I asked when I was in the kitchen too, he was standing by the sink and rinsing the cake stained plates under the tap.

“Yeah, just sad that we couldn’t stay with Chen for long enough,” he said glumly, “He was such a nice person but I only saw him when I become a ghost. Such a good looking man as well.”

“I know,” I agreed, nodding and handed the plates to Lay, “I don’t want to do the mission or whatever you want to call it anymore, I can’t bear to see anymore breakups between such close friends.”

“But it’s for their good, they need to move on and eventually, we will get through all of them, none of them would want to be left behind, it just so happen that Chen was first.”

“But…” I started.

“We are also helping to restore the peace between the worlds remember?” Lay interrupted.

“I know.”

“So don’t think about it too much, let’s just do what the book says and it will be sorted soon, hopefully.”

Back outside, everyone was taking down the decorations; it was nice while it lasted. Sadness was on all their faces and I didn’t know what to say. I was glad that we fulfilled Chen’s wish but annoyed that he couldn’t stay with the others. After a few more minutes, we all went upstairs. Some went to their rooms but some stayed in the living room.

“I don’t want to be next,” Tao said out of nowhere, “I want to be last so I can hear everyone else’s story.”

“But that isn’t fair!” Luhan exclaimed, “No one will hear your story then.”

“Lay and Raine will,” Tao snapped back with a smirk.

Luhan just shook his head and went back to watching the football match with Xiumin. My eyes lids were slowly closing but I wanted to stay awake, seeing what will appear out of the book. I had it clutched to my chest whilst I leant against the armrest on the large, cream coloured sofa. Lay sat beside me and chatted quietly to Chanyeol, meanwhile the others were on the floor, glancing at the television or staring into space mindlessly.

“Goodnight everyone,” I said and went upstairs.

“Night, Raine!” they said.

Once I was in my room, I closed the door and flopped into the soft covers like a fish out of water. It has been such a tiring day. Flying from one place to another just to find a book and then complete Chen’s wish. I hope it will be easier next time seeing as we have had a taste of what it is like.

The book was on my bedside table, but it dropped onto the floor with a loud thud. I woke up from the sound and peeked at the alarm clock. Midnight; my least favourite time of the day but there was a knock shortly after the noise.

“Raine, are you alright?” Lay asked.

I got up and opened the door, the hallway was unlit so I turned my lamp on, Lay came in and looked around, making sure there wasn’t anything suspicious lingering around in my room, but I’m sure this place is safer than any other place right now in the village.

“The book fell and it woke me up, sorry it woke you up as well,” I said and picked the book up.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t asleep yet and I thought something bad happened to you so I came to check.”

“Bad things always happen to me,” I moaned, “Nothing has been good apart from meeting you and the guys.”

“Don’t say that now, everyone has their good times and bad times,” Lay said, “Before meeting you, I would always visit the café because there were voices I could talk, otherwise, in the streets, I would only see the security men marching around searching for people they can’t even see or foreigners who has managed to get in but then disappear the next day, so knowing you is amazing too, the fact that our ancestors knew each other is pretty cool.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re really nice?” I suddenly confessed stupidly and looked at the window, blushing slightly.

“No, you’ve never told me that,” Lay replied and laughed at my odd comment.

I wanted to say that he was really good-looking, kind hearted and thoughtful as well, but I kept that comment to myself. We were too caught up in the moment to realise that the book was vibrating against my bed and it snapped opened so violently. A beam of light shone through the blank pages and lit the room up so brightly that we both shielded our eyes. The light bulb burst from the energy being emitted from the book but after a few minutes, the lighting died down.

“It’s okay now, Raine,” Lay said and I placed my arm down.

We walked closer to it and realised that words have already been formed on the page.

Who’s next? You wonder. It’s…Suho. Hear him out clearly and deal with carefully.

I handed the book to Lay and plopped onto the bed, “Already?” I said, “Can’t we get a day rest or something?”

Lay turned the book over and looked at the timer. Twenty four hours has already started counting down.

“Should we wake them up?” he asked.

“We should, but then Chen has only just left and everyone is sad and tired,” I weighed out, “But I’m worried we might run out of time.”

“I don’t know what to do either,” Lay said in a frustrated tone and ran his hand through his hair.

After a few moments of thought, we decided to wake them up and listen to Suho’s story and work out whether there is enough time for any sleep. We crept out and knocked on his door. He shared a room with Kris, so we’ll wake him up as well.

“What’s wrong?” Suho said as he opened the door and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

“You’re next,” Lay told him, “The message just came and the timer has started, sorry to wake you up but we weren’t sure whether there is enough time.”

“That’s alright, it has gotta be someone and it’s me,” Suho said and made us come into his warm, cosy room, “I’ll tell you the story of my death now.”

Half of his room was still lit up; Kris was on his bed playing the computer and looked up when we walked in.

“Still awake?” Lay asked and took a peek at his screen.

“Can’t sleep,” Kris said and yawned, “What’s happening?”

“Suho needs to tell us his death so we can fulfil his wish.”

“What?” Kris shouted, “Already?”

“Shush!” Suho said with the sign as well, “You’ll wake the others up and I don’t want them to know about my death, so you better be quiet if you want to stay.”

Kris nodded obediently. We took a seat on Suho’s bed whilst he sat on the chair, facing us.

“My story is pretty boring,” Suho started, “I was bullied for liking a girl and they stabbed me, the end.”

“What?” I exclaimed, “A bit more detail please.”

“I was in the maths club in secondary school, a nerd, a geek or whatever you want to call it basically. Everyone was categorized but I gave a girl in my class a love letter secretly. One of the bullies probably found out it was me, so after school, they pushed me into an alleyway on the way home, they were trying to scare me but then the girl came. She told them to go away and stop punching me, but the bully didn’t want to hear orders from a girl he liked as well, so he took out his knife and stabbed me. It really hurt and I died from blood loss,” Suho said, “Is that detailed enough, such an embarrassing story.”

“No, it’s not Suho,” I said, “It’s not a crime to like a girl and that girl is lucky to have someone like you liking her, the bullies are such s.”

“Thanks, Raine,” Suho’s laughed.

“So what’s your wish?” I asked.