Seryung woke with a slight drumming pinching at her temples. She rubbed her eyes, and massaged her temples.

“Yah you cheated!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yah I saw you!”

“Yah, you lying old hag, go pass on already!”

“What?! Yaaah! Look at this crazy ahjusshi, he’s lost his mind!”

Seryung groaned, and flung the covers over her head. She turned to her side, and squealed jumping up as an intense wave of fire spread from her hand to her shoulder. She groaned a little, and rotated her right arms ball joint. It didn’t hurt but what pained her was her radius bone.

“Oh, look! That person just woke up. Waaah! She glows just like the rumors say!”

“Yah you old hag, I have eyes too. I know she’s awake.”

“Crazy ahjusshi, stop being so loud! She’s already in pain. Your annoying cobbling voice will only add to her troubles.”

“Look, look, look! This old hag treats her husband like a broken medieval pavement. Yah! If you were going to be like this, why did you marry me?”

“Hmph! This crazy ahjusshi keeps talking to himself! Who killed his wife driving like a horse on fire?”

“I died too! We both died together! They said dying together means you’ll be together in the next life too. This hag will follow me for the rest of eternity!”

Seryung blinked, two lost souls were bickering in front of her. She expected herself to pass out again, but was taking their presence strangely well. She scrunched her nose waiting for the on-slaughter of her senses. Surprisingly, she couldn't smell them, and her sense of taste was absent of iron. Perplexed, she finally chose to peer at them carefully. Their injuries definitely told her they were lost soul,s but her reaction to them was puzzling.

“Young miss, we’re so glad to get the chance to see you before we leave. They say that meeting you brings luck to us.”

“Yah, you hag, you forgot the warning. Little miss, you’re in danger! We are expected to warn you. You’re in grave danger. We cannot say how, why or from who. It’s against the rules, but you must be careful. Your kind nature will be taken advantage of. You mustn’t trust strangers!”

“She’s not Little Red Riding Hood, nor is she Alice in Wonderland, nor is she Gretel or Dorothy. Why do you speak to her like that? You crazy ahjusshi! Young miss, this crazy ahjusshi, and this kind ahjumma were waiting to warn you. Your glow is fading! It means someone will try to hurt you. You must be careful, promise us!”

Seryung brought her knees towards her chest awkwardly. The cast around her arm was uncomfortable, and the sheer attention of the ghosts only illuminated her discomfort.

“Why is everyone warning me? What glow? Why are the two of you not making me hysterical? And, wait… Why am I in hospital? How did I get here?”

Seryung looked around sure enough she was in a hospital, in a private room in fact. She scoffed at herself. She only remembered as far as the car accident where a ghost had managed to slip her into unconsciousness. Then there were these ghosts, lost souls, who were taking their time instead leaving as they should have done so. Seryung recalled how quickly lost ghosts passed into the after life. They would stare at her in fascination as if she were a product on display. Some would say a few words, and that was it, they left, but these two were still here trying to strike a conversation with her.

“We warn you because you’re a lucky charm for our kind. I don’t think you knew that. Why did no one tell you thus far? You must be at least seventeen years old…” The female ghost with the pet name ‘hag’ proclaimed with a frown.

Her husband just shrugged. “Maybe everyone was in a hurry to go?” He speculated scratching his chin. His eyes were hooded and sunken. Sprinkles of white colored his dark hair, and his stubble.

“So disrespectful of them! Well, its to be expected. They must not have been sanitized properly. Little miss, do we smell rank to you?”

Seryung clutched onto the edge of the blanket, and shook her head meekly. The lost ghosts high fived each other and laughed. “So that’s it! Little miss, our bodies have already been cleaned, and cleared. That must be why we aren’t affecting you in a horrible way.” They cheered at the hypothesis, and Seryung couldn’t help but smile with them.

“But... Aren’t you going to pass on?” The ghosts blinked at each other upon hearing Seryung’s shy question. They tapped their chins in synchronization, and veered closer to her. They floated at either edge of her bed.

“We were meaning to, but you asked us questions-“

“-So now we are going to answer them for you.”

Seryung nodded uncertainly. The ‘hag’ smiled, and hugged herself as she spun back into the air doing a waltz as she did.

“It was so romantic! That boy carried you here in his arms as if you were the most frail little fairy!~”

Seryung lowered her gaze. She felt her cheeks burn instinctively as the hag continued to describe the scene in her fairy-tale, sing-song voice. Her husband shook his head, and nodded at Seryung apologetically.

“He did carry you, and he was careful, but to be honest there was nothing else he could have done in that situation. You were out cold. He even insisted to put you in a private room,” he pointed to the surrounding vicinity.

“He was so cool!~ He pulled out his card, and requested that you should immediately be taken care of!~”

“This old bat keeps dramatizing stuff… He only did as a man should, and he’s waiting outside for you hoping you wake up. He seemed upset. We reckon it's young love.”

“So romantic!~ So sweet!~ So cool!~ So handsome!~ You should hold onto him tightly!”

Seryung laughed nervously. The lost souls were convinced she and Tao were a couple.

“He was just being nice. It’s his fault I’m like this, and didn’t you warn me not to trust people so quickly? I don’t even know him properly, and I think… I think he likes someone else… I’m just the friend of his crush…”

The ahjusshi shook his head and sighed. He glanced at his wife reproachfully, and she deflated her tone at Seryung’s response. The couple looked towards each other knowing they could say nothing more. They could only wish well for the glowing young miss, and the handsome Chinese man. The ghosts were unable to tell the young miss that she was fated to be with the Chinese man. Their intervention would count as a black mark on their slate. That particular piece of information wasn’t something they were allowed to share with her.

“Oh honey!” The ahjumma ghost wrapped her arms around Seryung and comforted her. “I’m so sorry. I said it out of turn. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Seryung shook her head, she wasn’t in love with him. She didn’t like him. He was arrogant! His ego was bigger than the sun.

 ‘But then why? Why are you falling for him? He loves someone else! Don’t let him into your heart! Think about it and be logical! Do you want to suffer one-sidedly? Like oppa did, like Hana is now? Do you want to be miserable staring at someone’s cold back? Don’t do this to yourself. You’ll get hurt. Rhe ghosts keep warning you of ‘danger.’ What if he’s that danger?!’

Seryung shuddered as she felt the ahjumma pat her head. “We have to go sweetie. We’re out of time… Stay strong for us okay! Who knows, we might meet in our next life? Let’s look forward to that okay?”
 

Seryung nodded bravely. She felt a vortex open up in her heart. It was destructive, and she knew she would get hurt. There was no such thing as seduction. Hana had gotten caught. Her terms with her one-sided crush sat on a boundary that swayed dangerously from side to side. Her brother had failed too. The same brother who achieved nothing, but the best had failed. She knew she would fail like him. Her ‘friendship’ with her peers had crumbled so easily. She wasn’t good at forming relationships with people. She was a lone wolf in the world of friendship. She had failed at friendship when she was seven. She’d failed it twice recently, and love? Love was harder, much harder than friendship.

-

Tao sat in the waiting area with his head in his hands. Fate was telling him to drop Wushu too. He’d chosen Wushu over everything, but fate was against him. He’d injured a person enough to make her faint. He didn’t trust himself anymore, and Hana would say the same once she found out.

‘Leave wushu behind Tao, you can’t let Wushu become your life. You’ll get carried away, and everyone around you will hate Wushu. You don’t want that! You want everyone to support you when you play the combat sport.’

Tao grimaced, he was sorry towards Seryung. More sorry than he’d been in his entire life. More sorry than when he’d told his parents he would be repeating a grade. He was sorry because he’d been careless. He’d been told that she’d bruised her radius bone, however the reason for her fainting spell was unknown.

Tao thought about what she’d told her about ghosts. It didn’t make sense to him. Was she one of those people who could see them? He tapped his chin. They were in a hospital. Were there ghosts around here too? Was she that afraid of them? Tao’s thoughts were interrupted when a nurse told him Seryung had woken up.

-

Seryung rolled her eyes after Tao inclined his head curtly at her. He said nothing to the nurse who assumed they were a couple, and so Seryung said nothing either. She didn’t know why it bothered her but it did. He didn’t correct anyone who assumed such things. Seryung pouted, and turned her head away as the nurse spoke to Tao about her condition. Seryung was glad to hear there was nothing too wrong with her arm. She wondered if it would be enough to get her out of school for a few days, or at least until she planned some kind of revenge against her classmates.

“You didn’t bother correcting her,” Seryung muttered loud enough for Tao to hear.

Tao simply shrugged in response, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

There was a silence as both of them realized they didn’t know what to say. Tao scrutinized the room. The first thing he’d used his card on had been this expensive. Tao had wanted to avoid the card when he’d first received it as his step-up to a sort-of-chaebol. Although he’d accepted it he’d never considered the money as his but he’d spent it anyway…

“How are you feeling?”

“You already asked that.”

“Oh…”

More silence.

Seryung smiled to herself. Before his appearance, ghosts had been visiting her. They never deviated from their ‘warnings.’ She’d grown sick of them, and was glad that Tao had come because she was in need of living company.

“Were you that worried about me? You even carried me the rest of the way here.”

“I think any decent human being would have worried at that point.”

“Maybe…”

“I thought about what you said, about the ghosts.”

Seryung turned to look at him. She was surprised he’d believed her so quickly. Her brother hadn’t been so easily convinced at all. In fact, she would have thought he would look at her strangely, but instead he’d accepted such a strange feat.

“And?”

Tao grinned and ran his fingers through his hair. “Can you really see ghosts, or was that just an excuse to faint into this handsome guy's arms?”

Seryung pursed her lips as Tao looked at her with amused eyes. “I see them. If you’re not going to believe me then lets not talk about this anymore.”

Tao sighed, she was so easily offended! It would be hard to get along with her. “You said you were fine. Are you well enough to go home now, or do you want to stay a while because you weren’t feeling well earlier?”

“I’m good to go,” Seryung replied. She pointed to where a new ghost had appeared.

“There’s a ghost right there, judging from appearance she died from an injury to her head. She’s looking at us right now, and making the same assumptions that the nurse did.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not.”

Tao turned to look where Seryung was pointing to. Unknown to him the ghost covered her face with her hands, and then complained to Seryung about giving her away. She gave a ‘warning’ before she disappeared.

“She’s gone.”

“This joke stopped being funny ages ago.”

“I’m not joking though.”

“I don’t like ghosts.”

“You’re lucky, at least you don’t go through what I do when I see them. It’s horrible. It's like dying yourself except worse. You can feel their pain when you see them hurt. You can hear their dying breaths, but there’s nothing you can do for them. You smell blood, and flesh just as strongly as you can taste it.”

“Okay, that’s enough detail. Stop talking now! I just ate, and I’m going to be sick you if you don’t stop.”

-

Seryung was glad to be out of hospital. The fresh air that hit her face felt like a blessing. She enjoyed the breeze, and was thankful to be away from the ghosts.

“You should have your driver take you home from here because you won’t be able to support yourself, and that arm in a bus… Sorry about this…”

Seryung made a face. If she called the driver now there would be a confrontation about why she was in hospital, and not in school. She didn’t want to answer any questions. “If you’re really sorry, then you’ll take me home like a true gentleman.”

Tao chuckled. He hadn’t been willing to leave her here without knowing she was home safe either. “I’m not sure about the ‘gentle’ part, but I’m definitely a man so I guess I will drop you.”

The walk to the bus stop was filled with silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was a pleasant, comfortable silence with the only sound being that of cars that drove by. A screeching of tires however immediately disturbed the pleasant silence then came a crash that made Seryung freeze. A pile-up crash occurred at a traffic-light intersection.

Tao swore under his breath.  Seryung held her nose. She shook her head to try and erase the ghouls in front of her eyes. There were so many of them! They were all floating towards her. She shut her eyes tightly. She heard them . Her expression crumpled. She wanted to cry. She felt sick, like she were trapped in a morgue that had caught fire.

Tao shook his head at the accident. He knew Korean motorists were ruthless drivers, but he’d never thought he’d witness something like this. He turned to his companion to ask if such a thing was common. Seryung had paled considerably. She mumbled incoherently, and quivered like a leaf in the wind. Tao tilted his head, and frowned. She was acting extremely strange, and then he recalled her words about ghosts.

‘She wasn’t lying…?’