Seryung blinked as an arm looped around her waist, she held her breath as Tao brought her close to take a picture. Her expression was one of shock and was clearly visible in the photographs.

“What are you doing?” She hissed pushing his arm away.

Tao gritted his teeth, “Smile for me, we should at least pretend we get along, right?”

Seryung forced a smile before aiming her elbow for his stomach.

“You creep! What are you doing?” She demanded snatching his phone to delete her pictures.

Tao rubbed his stomach, ‘You deserved that one, Tao. Guess this means she’s not a pushover.’ He watched Seryung delete his pictures and waited until she came across a set that belonged to him and Hana.

Seryung clenched her jaw, her finger hovered over the delete button. ‘They look comfortable together.’ Seryung smiled sarcastically and turned to look towards the bubble-tea shop.

She let Tao take his phone from her hand, he flicked through the pictures to see how much she’d deleted and smiled when he noted that his pictures with Hana were still intact.

Seryung felt a forefinger poke her head and break her thought process. “How close are you guys?” She asked quietly.

Tao brushed off her question with a question of his own, “Why do you want to know?”

“I want to know, if I should be pushing my brother, towards Hana!” Seryung suddenly felt bitter resement bubble in her stomach, she recalled letting Hana call her a ‘sister’ and clenched her teeth. ‘Is she using me? Who is she? And who is this guy? Will oppa get hurt by them?’

Seryung shook her head and ran a hand through her hair, ‘I shouldn’t trust any of them.’

Tao clicked his fingers in front of her face and grinned, “I think you’re reading too much into this. You want to know if there’s something between Hana and I.

“Why don’t you use your head? What would Hana gain from cheating? The answer is, nothing.

“As to whether I like her, why would I carry her pictures if I didn’t? We’re close, closer than you can imagine but not in the way your head thinks. I heard that you were clever, can you solve this conundrum?

“We’re close but not in that way. We’re close enough to be living in the same house but not in that way. We know everything about each other, we constantly keep in touch with each other, we know more about each other than our parents know about us. How can that be possible between a man and woman?”

Seryung didn’t like his cocky attitude and she was beginning to dislike Hana too. The two of them were up to something, she could see Tao’s eyes flicker with amusement at her expense. He was up to something but Seryung couldn’t identify what it was. She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned, he was trying to disturb the future Seryung had envisioned for her brother.

All Seryung wanted was, to have her brother move on from Rae Mi, to fall in love and simmer down, to let go of the past and lower his defense and most importantly, to be happy again but that image was fading because Tao had appeared.

Tao tilted his head as she glared at him, he wondered what he’d liked about her when he’d first heard about her, she was different from what he’d thought. He didn’t know it was possible to judge someone so wrongly.

Tao grinned, she’d taken MAMA so readily just to spite him and the thought still bothered him. Her one action had spoken millions, Tao knew who she was now, she was someone who did as she pleased, she didn’t think about others, she only thought about herself. He’d wanted to take a picture with her, as a reminder of his adversary. Her tears had almost fooled him, women’s tears were not to be trusted. Tao’s gege had taught him that, his gege had also taught him that it was the wealthy ones, who were the ones to watch out for because they were the ones, who chewed you up and spat you out.

Seryung tried to weight her options, her legs began to move on their own accord as she tried to balance her thoughts.

She tried to ignore Tao who followed behind her. She wondered if he was trying to distract her because if he were, he was doing an excellent job. Seryung tousled her hair and decided against taking refuge in the girls toilets, instead she decided to leave the mall and stroll along the path.

“He’s actually not a bad guy, you met him at the homeless shelter, remember?”

Seryung stopped walking and turned to look at the ghost girl, she crossed her arms and frowned, there were too many people standing around for her to reply to an entity that no one else could see. People spent years arguing the existence of ghosts yet Seryung begged to differ. They did exist, she could see one, only one, she didn’t know why and neither did the ghost, it was an abstract ordeal.

‘He knew who I was back then. How do I know Hana’s not out to hurt him for revenge? Oppa’s an idiot too, he brought this onto himself but-‘

“Look out!” Miyoung screamed loudly into Seryung’s ear. Seryung blinked, her thought process was thwarted when someone pulled her arm.

Miyoung had witnessed the whole thing with her eyes wide open. Seryung had been walking absent mindedly, she was deep in thought about her brother’s present situation. She was so engrossed in thought that she didn’t see the crazy scooter headed her way. Although Miyoung blamed Seryung for her death and often cursed at her, Miyoung had been scared that this time Seryung would really die. Tao had pulled her out of the way just in time to see the scooter fall on its side and hit the street light. There were screams all around as the driver lay unconscious, no one had bothered to ask about the girl the driver almost killed.

Seryung trembled in his arms, she leaned against him for support until she realized that her head was resting against his chest. Seryung stumbled away from him and bowed a ‘thanks,’ she covered with her hand and forced her feet to move, her mind turned blank. People pushed past her to gather around the driver. Seryung clenched her teeth and landed on the ground, she felt the cement scrape her palms but felt no pain.

Tao muttered a string of colorful words and roughly helped her up off the ground. Seryung let him drag her away from the crowd until they were back in the mall, he held her hand and sat her on a bench.

Seryung remained unresponsive, a series of chain events crossed her mind: a reckless driver speeding through the street, a tire falling off the scooter, a wheel scratching the ground, a hand reaching out to save her, a whack when the scooter hit against a street light, a bone crunching sound as the scooter landed on the drivers torso and a river blood.

Seryung covered her ears as the sound of tricking blood flowing into the gutter swamped and her scrunched her nose as the scent of iron filled her nostrils, the taste of metal on her tongue made her stomach churn. Seryung shuddered and wished she could switch her senses off because she could smell was the scent of death, the taste of blood was in , she could hear the blood drip and if she concentrated she might have been able to see it too but her sight was reserved for something else.

Miyoung jumped when she heard Seryung’s blood curling scream. The ghost stared at what she suspected Seryung was seeing, the driver in his gory glory. Miyoung slapped her forehead and tried to shoo the new entity.

“I’m sorry for almost hurting you,” the driver bowed ignoring the seven year old ghost child.

Seryung whimpered and covered her eyes. Miyoung furrowed her brows and eyed the driver up and down, “You’re scaring her! Just look at yourself, your ribs are sticking out of your back and you’re covered in blood. If you were really sorry you wouldn’t show up in such a state!”

The driver blinked at the indignant young ghost, "Go, go, go and pass on! You're stinking up the place!"

Miyoung clicked her tongue enviously as the driver turned to dust. She felt jealous of him, he'd left so easily, while she was still here, it had been ten years yet she was still here, wandering aimlessly, not knowing what her 'unfinished business' was. Miyoung clenched her teeth, she didn't understand why Seryung was so strange. Why could she see ghosts? Miyoung didn't understand it at all, normal humans couldn't do that. Miyoung had traveled across the world and back but never had she encountered someone who was the same as Seryung. There had been many people who'd claimed to see ghosts but Miyoung knew they lied, Seryung too, couldn't see ghosts properly.

Se Ryung hated ghosts, she could see them if she was close enough to someone’s passing, she saw, smelt and tasted them before they vanished. She’d seen deformations, smelt blood and flesh and tasted iron and skin often enough to be turned off meat. It was a strange thing, no one else saw them, either her brother nor her parents had complained about such a thing, it was just her and it had started after Miyoung’s death.

Se Ryung  her lips and rubbed her arms, the ghosts never tried to do anything to her, some of them didn’t even know that she could see them until they made her cry out by overtaking her senses. In her seventeen years of living, she’d met with one Miyoung and very few ‘lost’ ghosts, after all, how often did someone witness an accident?

Tao shook Seryung’s shoulders, “Snap out of it!” Her scream had made heads turn and Tao had received dirty glares. Tao had clenched his teeth because their eyes told him he was doing something wrong to the girl, he was thankful no one had tried to approach them. Seryung’s eyes remained glued to one spot, she gagged and covered quickly. Her body trembled in his grasp making Tao sigh exasperatedly.

“Take deep breaths,” he advised and wondered what he was doing.

“Deep breaths Seryungie,” Miyoung encouraged, “You just caught a glimpse of a ghost passing into the next world. It’s nothing big, he’s gone, you’ll never see him again.”

Seryung heeded their advice, her breath came in short gasps. She tried to stand but her body was unresponsive. Seryung covered her face with her hands, she felt her stomach churn and knew how her body planned to react. She didn't want to vomit because of those things, she hated them very much, it wasn't the first time someone had died in front of her but it still felt as horrible as the first time.

Seryung was aware that other people didn't experience what she did. She'd learnt that the hard way, in a hospital, where people died, whether it was mid surgery or in an ambulance, they came to see her but before they did, she 'sensed' them. The ghosts didn't need to come see her but they did out of curiosity, Miyoung said it was because they were lost.

'Lost' souls took time to digest their own death, they would cry along with their loved ones and would pass on after their burial, those who were unable to be buried passed on eventually too. 'Lost' souls were visually striking compared to 'vengeful' ghosts and that's how Miyoung could tell them apart. 'Vengeful' ghosts retained their youth, their form and weren't visually harrowing unlike 'lost' ghosts whose age would be the same as their age at the time of death, they also kept their injuries or wounds. Miyoung didn't know why a difference existed, she didn't know a lot of things about ghosts at all, no one had taught her about their existence. She had learnt it through experience and had told Seryung who could see ghosts under certain conditions.

Seryung held her breath and tried not to inhale too sharply, the scent of blood was still strong, "Let's go, somewhere else!" Seryung urged and tried to move her body that was paralyzed in fright. Tao nodded not wanting to stay with her yet he felt obliged to help. Miyoung's expression remained stiff, an ambulance had arrived to remove the body but the soul was long gone. A crowd had gathered around the vicinity of the accident, they were left to their own speculations of 'suicide' and 'drink driving.'

Seryung clenched her stomach and was careful to keep herself from getting sick. However on doing so she didn't realize that her dead weight was being carried by Tao. Tao grimaced, he was tempted to throw her over his shoulder because that was the easiest way to carry something but he chose to grit his teeth and lead her as far away from the accident scene as his strength allowed.

Seryung didn't realize she was shaking until she was made to sit on a bench. Tao removed his hoodie and placed it over her shoulders making Seryung flinch. Her eyes traveled to his face and remained there for a few seconds as she tried to recall him.

“It’s okay,” Tao forced a smile not knowing what else to do, he squeezed her shoulders encouragingly, "Wait here, I'll get you something to drink." Seryung shook her head and clutched onto him, she shut her eyes tightly when the vivid image of the ghost was brought back.

"Hey!" Tao whispered and sat down next to her, "There's no need to cry," he coaxed and patted her head, “You’ll be okay.”

Seryung shook her head and turned to him with lost eyes, “I think I saw a ghost,” she whispered with a shaky voice, she covered her face with her hands.

Tao stiffened, clenched his jaw and forced his eyes to scale the vicinity. 'We're not even in a cemetery... Where could it come from? Unless!'

"The crazy guy died?" Tao asked stupefied, 'He looked fine though..'

Seryung sniffed and rubbed her eyes, "Yes."

Seryung winced as the grip on her arms tightened, she shook her shoulders in protest making Tao loosen his hold, "The ghost! Is it still here?"

Seryung shook her head and Tao sighed in relief, he ran a hand through his hair and laughed, "If he's gone, there's no reason to cry!" Seryung pursed her lips and wiped her eyes, the nausea she'd been feeling had subsided and Tao's laughter came as salt to her wounds.

Miyoung laughed too when Seryung pointed into the distance with her eyes wide open making Tao jump from his seat and stare to where she'd been pointing.

 “You’re not supposed to tell other people you see ghosts! They’re going to book you an appointment with a psychiatrist! Tell him you were joking or something!” Miyoung whispered into Seryung's ear.

Seryung's recalled how pitifully people had looked at her when she’d told them she saw Miyoung. Their eyes told her she was crazy but she wasn’t. She scowled, a thousand visits to the psychiatrist couldn't fix her. She removed the hoodie from her shoulders and folded it carefully before handing it back to Tao.

Tao grinned sheepishly, he'd pretended to fall for her trap to amuse her and make her forget that she'd almost died. Tao didn't believe that ghost's could haunt a shopping centre, they ususlly stalked creep places like graveyards and haunted houses, somewhere dark and dreary.

Seryung laughed nervously and brushed her hair out of her face, “I was kidding, I wanted to get back at you for the selca incident.”

Seryung pinched the bridge of her nose and walked away. She wanted to return home where there were no 'lost' souls. The thought of them made her dizzy. She held onto a pillar for support and waited until her senses became normal. Miyoung glanced at her curiously.

“Next time, let me know when someone’s about to die,” Seryung warned the ghost.

“How am I meant to know when someone’s going to die?” Tao asked in wonder. He peered at her curiously, ‘She’s so strange, how does she know that guy died? I’ll have to confirm that to be sure. Ghosts though? That one, is subject to controversy. Ms. Oh, you’ve suddenly become a very interesting person, did you know that?’

“Come on, let’s do something fun and forget about what just happened!”

Seryung blinked as he looped arms with her, ‘Is he this forward with everyone?’

Seryung tilted her head in amusement when he led her to an arcade. ‘This is your idea of fun? You’re more childish than I thought, but thank you for trying.’

Miyoung grinned and watched them from afar, she was glad that Tao had provided Seryung with a distraction. Although a part of her wanted to see Seryung buried under the cold ground, Miyoung was happy to see her alive and happy like now.

I wrote this chapter on whim because Halloween is coming!~ ^^