the inflorescence 

chapter 2

 

Baekhyun huffed as he sat quietly beside Chanyeol on the bus—as if his perky little can actually touch the material. “Remind me again why I’m here? I seem to remember you saying ‘first things first, we need to find your memories asap’ last night.”

"Well, another first things first, even first than the other first things first, I still have to go to school. I’m a student!" He yelled accidentally loud enough to receive odd looks from the passengers. "And stop talking to me. They'll think I’m crazy." He whispered to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun snorted. "You already look like one. What difference does it make?"

Chanyeol glared at Baekhyun who only stuck a tongue out on him before disappearing into thin air, laughter echoing around. Chanyeol shook his head, slowly imagining how his life is going to be from now on now that a mischievous spirit has welcomed himself to his lonely world. He wondered where Baekhyun disappeared to but it’s probably in some spirit dimension or some .

He finally arrived at SM High just before the bell rang and was immediately greeted by his long time idiotic friend, Jongin, who’s panting and Chanyeol didn’t need to ask to know that the teachers were chasing him again seeing as he doesn’t have any shirt on again.

“Where’s your shirt?” Chanyeol asked while walking with Jongin towards their building.

Jongin merely shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. It must’ve fallen somewhere.”

"Or you took it off. Seriously, stop stripping. You're a high school student."

"I’m not stripping! My clothes just don't stick around my body that long. I swear to God, I don't even remember taking it off!"

“Ohhh,” Baekhyun crooned in between their heads. “God doesn’t care.”

Chanyeol glanced behind him and saw Baekhyun trailing behind them, grinning.

“You do know you're not making any sense right?" Chanyeol said, turning back to Jongin.

"Well, I don't expect you to understand!"

They stopped in front of their lockers to get their own books. Chanyeol, on the other hand, had to grab one of his spare clothes and then threw it towards Jongin. Seriously, he had enough of his friend having to be dragged out in the middle of the class by the HSP. “And this is why you're my friend."

Chanyeol faked a frown after closing his locker. "It hurts to know that you take my friendship for granted."

Jongin gaped and quickly put on the shirt. "I didn't say that!"

Chanyeol started walking first, smiling secretly at Baekhyun who’s giggling cutely while watching Jongin.

"Stop being so dramatic!" Jongin yelled while catching up behind Chanyeol.

Chanyeol smirked at him. “Bazinga.”

"Wow you."

"No thanks."

 

--

 

The teacher was already around saying some when Chanyeol and Jongin came in. She was supposed to scold them for being 15 minutes late like how she did yesterday—This isn’t college you little dumb s!—but figured it won’t be necessary—seeing Jongin with Chanyeol is a valid explanation enough and the teacher can only sympathize with Chanyeol for being stuck with a stripper friend.

They quietly made their way towards their seats, with Chanyeol at the back corner near the window—because he’s too tall, apparently. Baekhyun floated enthusiastically around the room, even reaching as high as the ceilings, and Chanyeol has been giving him warning looks even though none of the class can see him except for him because Baekhyun is distracting as hell. Baekhyun giggled as he disappeared again and suddenly reappeared at the window beside Chanyeol. “Chanyeol, duck.”

Chanyeol doesn’t really know why Baekhyun is telling him to duck but he did it anyway and there he saw a crumpled paper passing through Baekhyun’s body and flying out of the window. It’s those guys again. The ones beside him who do nothing but make his life miserable by playing several pranks on him just because he’s not the type to hold a grudge.

“Now lean back.”

Chanyeol leaned back and then there’s another paper flying out the window. Baekhyun giggled and said, “This is fun!”

Chanyeol’s starting to think that Baekhyun is actually insane and it makes sense because this little spirit banged his head when he died. But like what they say, enjoy the little things. It’s actually nice having someone like Baekhyun around. For years he actually thought ghosts are those scary beings with blood all over their bodies and sliced skins and whatever but this ghost—or spirit—is all kinds of cute and mischief.

It’s refreshing.

 

--

 

“All right class,” The teacher said, turning to them after erasing the writings on the board. It’s their last class for the day, History. Baekhyun has been going on and off all day, reappearing and disappearing, without any given warning that sometimes Chanyeol would suddenly scream in shock and end up being the class’ laughing stock and Jongin’s prey—dumb guy even yelled ‘Was your daydream interesting?’—and the fact that it didn’t happen only once, but a lot of times, made Chanyeol want to jump off the window and die.

“I’m giving you a project for your finals.” The teacher’s statement was quickly followed by lazy groans.

Chanyeol just leaned on his chair. He’s not really the type who complains so he just watched and waited. He didn’t even move when he saws Baekhyun’s head floating up from his crotch with a massive grin on his face. Except he just stared at the head slowly reaching his eye level and then chuckled.

Baekhyun pouted sadly. “You’re not scared?”

“I thought it was funny.” Besides, who would get scared of a face a like that?

“Fine.” Baekhyun flew up and decided to stay by the window.

“Stop complaining. This is for your grades,” The teacher said. “Alright. I want you to pick a deceased person who used to live around here. Think of something. Quickly. It doesn’t matter if some of you picked the same subjects but I need you to write the name of that person on a paper and pass it to me before the class ends.”

The class immediately started buzzing like bees, unsure of what the teacher is talking about, in all honesty.

“Come on, hurry up,”

Chanyeol grabbed a piece of paper from his bag and started thinking. He doesn’t really know any deceased person from around his neighborhood so he’s in quite a problematic situation. He thought of asking Jongin but Jongin probably only knew names of strippers. He looked around, hoping that something might pop out, when suddenly he saw Baekhyun floating around the room following a butterfly. He almost punched himself for not even considering the obvious so he quickly wrote his name and then folded the paper.

Baekhyun quickly appeared behind him. “What did you write?”

Chanyeol merely shrugged his shoulders as he stood up to give the teacher his paper. Baekhyun pouted when Chanyeol ignored him so instead he flew beside the teacher to see what was written on Chanyeol’s paper. His eyes widened as soon as he was able to read and he can only gasp at Chanyeol’s back figure retreating towards his seat. Baekhyun immediately flew beside him.

“Why did you write my name?!”

“Shh,” Chanyeol raised a finger up. The other students have also started passing their papers so the teacher continued explaining the given project.

“So, you’re all going to research the life of these people you wrote before he died. Backgrounds, important events, and whatsoever. Alright?” The class agreed in unison. “Alright, class dismissed.”

The students immediately packed up their bags to leave, leaving Chanyeol on cleaning duty. Jongin even left first for dance practice. But Chanyeol doesn’t mind, in fact, he thought that this will be a perfect time for him and Baekhyun to converse freely.

“So? Why did you write my name?” Baekhyun asked, sitting on top of the teacher’s table with his arms and legs crossed, while watching Chanyeol organizing the chairs.

“What do you mean why? You’re here, I can see you, talk to you, so it’s easier.”

"I don't even remember anything about my past!"

"That's the point.” Chanyeol looked up at him. “I get to help you and I get to finish my project. It's like hitting two birds with one stone." He looked around the room. He didn't really feel like cleaning any more so he grabbed his bag and decided to leave the place as it is. Baekhyun followed him outside immediately, just casually floating behind the giant.

"Where are you going?" Baekhyun asked.

"Well, first things first, I need to search information about you. Let's see, how did you end up in this town again?"

"Uh, I don't know, I woke up here, just like that,"

"That may mean you're just from around here. We'll probably find something about your accident or some sort at the computer room."

The computer room is a level upper than where they are so they had to take the stairs. When they finally arrived—with Baekhyun getting a bit too excited for stepping inside their computer room for the first time—Chanyeol was a bit surprised to see the number of students inside. But he guessed that it’s because most of the teachers had already given their projects to their respective classes.

They settle on the cubicle at the corner, with Chanyeol immediately typing on the keyboard.

Byun Baekhyun accident 2012

And then he pressed enter.

There were a myriad on articles that appeared and Chanyeol clicked all of them to appear in a new tab. To their disappointment though, the articles all contained the same limited information. Chanyeol turns around to ask permission to scroll down the article from Baekhyun—it might not be that big of a deal for him but maybe this is a sensitive topic for Baekhyun. This is about his death after all.

Baekhyun noticed immediately so he smiles. “It’s fine. I'm already dead. Seeing those pictures or articles wouldn’t make a difference,”

Chanyeol nodded. “Okay,” He immediately scrolls down to read the article, slightly relieved that there wasn’t any photos posted with the article.

 

Teenager found dead on a gazebo

At the night of May 2012, a teenager was found dead by a citizen passing by. Police reports say that the boy might have been robbed and killed afterwards. His family also stated that before the murder, their son asked permission to go out. The police confirmed this as a rob case.

 

Chanyeol stopped scrolling. “Something’s missing,”

Baekhyun tilted his head. “Hm?”

“This article doesn’t make sense. Actually, all the articles don’t make sense,”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? There are a lot of missing links. It doesn’t even say everything about what happened at the night of your murder. It’s like it’s purposely wiped out—oh,” Chanyeol nods at the sudden realization. “Media block out,”

“But why would they do that?”

“I don’t know. Someone definitely is responsible for this. Someone close to you, maybe?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Chanyeol sighed and then closed the windows. “So much for the internet.”

Baekhyun frowned. “You don’t have to push it.”

Chanyeol stood up abruptly, startling the spirit. “I know someone who can help us!”

 

---

 

“Hey, Chanyeol, what’s up?”

Chanyeol wasn’t so sure what to say about the ghost beside him because the moment they walked inside the Student Council’s office, Baekhyun suddenly froze, like the shocked kind of frozen and he had to keep himself from worrying because no one else can see Baekhyun.

“Hey Junmyeon.” He greeted back to the Student Council president.

“IT’S SUHO!” Baekhyun yelled beside him in utter surprise.

If Chanyeol remembered correctly, Suho is that spirit who guards the gates. Why is he calling Junmyeon Suho? He slightly shook his head, subtly reminding himself that he’s here for a different reason.

“Where’s Jongdae?”

“As usual, in the study room.” Junmyeon replied with an exhausted sigh. Chanyeol’s not particularly close with him given that he’s a year higher than him and they only met each other when Jongdae, his former classmate and somewhat Jongin’s partner-in-crime, joined the Student Council. “God knows what he’s doing with his laptop. He’s hogging the school’s electricity. Wait. Come to think of it, I’ll write a report about this. That Kim Jongdae!”

Junmyeon’s voice slowly faded as Chanyeol quietly made his way towards the study room.

“He’s quite eccentric,” Baekhyun commented. “He has the same face as Suho but definitely not the same personality.”

“Why? What’s Suho like?” Chanyeol asked, suddenly becoming interested of Junmyeon’s look-a-like.

“Suho’s very kind! Although he always scolds me, which in all honesty is my fault anyway, he takes care of me and the other spirits really well! You could say he’s like our mother.”

Chanyeol took note of Baekhyun’s bright smile as he talked. He seemed to really like this Suho guy. It made Chanyeol feel like wanting to meet the guy even though, yeah, there probably won’t be a chance. He opened the door only to be greeted with gunshots blasting through the walls of the soundproof room.

“Close the damn door!” Chanyeol heard Junmyeon yell and immediately shut the door.

He looked at the busy sight of Jongdae who didn’t even bother greeting him. Chanyeol sighed. “Jongdae,” No reply. He looked around and when he finally found the outlet, he unplugged the wire mercilessly.

“WHA—“ Jongdae froze in shock when the monitor suddenly turned black. “WHAT THE ?! WHAT HAPPENED?!” Chanyeol cleared his throat and Jongdae stared at the wire he was holding. “Come on man! That’s not cool!”

“You kept ignoring me.” Chanyeol replied, shrugging.

Jongdae sighed and decided to let it go. “So, what do you want?”

“I wanna ask if maybe you can find something about Byun Baekhyun for me.”

Jongdae walked to his desk to grab a few chips from the bowl beside his computer. Baekhyun noticed the mess. There were a lot of posters glued on the wall, some he can recognize, like the Batman and the Lord of the Rings posters. His corkboard is full of post-its and reminders, like his bills and stuff. His computer desk is filled with wires. Baekhyun doesn’t even understand how someone can stay in this place. And they call it the study room.

Jongdae leaned on the edge of the desk, chewing some chips while asking, “Why? You got the hots for this guy?”

“He’s dead.” Chanyeol said flatly and Jongdae almost choked out the chips. Baekhyun giggled beside him and Chanyeol can’t help but smile.

“You want me to stalk a dead guy?”

“N-no, uh. It’s for a project.”

Jongdae shrugged. “You could just Google him.”

“I did. But um, there wasn’t much. Almost like a—“

“—media blackout.” Jongdae nodded, finally realizing something. “I knew his name sounded familiar.” He murmured as he quickly sat in front of his computer. Chanyeol and Baekhyun glanced at each other in confusion before looking at the monitor where Jongdae’s busy typing in some codes. After a few minutes, Jongdae printed out something for him. “Why, of all the dead people in this city, you decided to pick this guy?”

Chanyeol shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anyone else.”

“Here.” Jongdae passed him a piece of paper. “You’re going to have so much fun with this.”

 

--

 

“Whoa, this is me?” Chanyeol heard Baekhyun say while floating around behind him and it kind of made him happy to see Baekhyun excited. Not only that, they’re having a little progress with this.

It’s already past 6, Chanyeol decided to buy ice cream so he can eat on the way back home. Sure enough, anybody would be surprised to see what Baekhyun looked like when he was still alive, especially with the eyeliner. Chanyeol chuckled at the image. “Byun, huh.” He whispered when he remembered what Jongdae said before they left. Byun Baekhyun was the eldest son of the Byun Group; his father is the owner of the largest and wealthiest oil company in South Korea while his mother is a famous Broadway singer.

“Wow, you sure lived a fancy life.”

Baekhyun chuckled, not even bothered the slightest. “Seems like it.” He suddenly stopped flying around when he noticed the park across them. He doesn’t normally acknowledge it but the worst thing about being a spirit is the fact that he really can’t touch anything. And there are a lot of things he wants to touch, to feel and to hold.

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol called from afar.

Baekhyun snapped out and immediately caught up to Chanyeol. “Yeah?” He noticed Chanyeol’s concentrated face. “Did you think of something?”

“I just realized…” Chanyeol said while turning to him. “Maybe we can find your friends.”

Baekhyun was caught off-guard at the mention of friends. “F-friends?”

Chanyeol nodded. “Yeah. Surely someone like you have a lot of friends, right?” He said before eating the last piece of the ice cream cone. He only got a hum in response, making him turn his head to Baekhyun. He saw him looking distracted at the kids playing at the nearby park. “Are you jealous?”

Baekhyun blinked at him. “Huh?”

“When you see them, me, holding things and stuff?”

Baekhyun raised his head, thinking deeply. “Not…jealous. Curious, maybe?” He said before looking back at Chanyeol with a smile. “I don’t really remember the feeling of being able to touch things so…I really don’t feel jealous or sad about it. I guess it just doesn’t bother me that much.” He continued with a shrug.

“That’s good…you know? Being able to smile even when you’re already dead yet stuck here.”

Baekhyun smiled mischievously while leaning closer to Chanyeol’s face.  “Ehhh, really? Why do you think it’s good?”

“Anything is better than having a ghost haunt you.” Chanyeol replied and Baekhyun pouted at him. “Besides, I like your smile, I guess.” Baekhyun slowed down, seemingly quite confused. “It’s beautiful.” He stopped completely this time and watched Chanyeol’s back pass in front of him. The sun was setting and from his spot, Baekhyun can see the sun rays passing through his transparent form.

It was utterly confusing.

To be regarded as beautiful when he was transparent.

 

 

---

a/n: i know you're not used to short updates from me (me too) but it will get longer don't worry ;___;

tell me what you think! :)

if you want, you can follow me on twitter. @baekhyundere

- gelie