Chapter 1
Heejin sees dead people. She has since the day she fell off the monkey bars when she was six years old and her heart stopped beating for two minutes. She assumes something must have happened that day. Perhaps her soul found itself stuck in between two worlds, or maybe Heejin is just crazy.
When she was younger, her parents wrapped up her invisible friends to a wild imagination and nothing more, but as she got older, Heejin learned that her friends are real. Or… were…. At one point in life.
The first time she encountered one, a ghost, was the day her heart stopped. They took her to the hospital and although her mother and father never left her side, there was another that watched over her that day. A little boy, not much older than Heejin, had appeared at the end of her bed. Heejin didn’t know where he came from, he was just suddenly… there.
He had gestured to her and Heejin had followed, slipping past her sleeping parents and the preoccupied nurses at the desk. She had reached for his hand, but she never could make contact with it. Still, even with the mystery of why her hand wouldn’t fit into his, she followed him.
He pointed to the door at the very end of the hall where a woman sat, sobbing into her hands. Heejin meant to ask him what she was meant to do, but he vanished before she could get the question out. She had shrugged it off and walked to the woman anyway, tugging on her pant leg to get her attention.
The woman looked sad, kind of like her parents had earlier when she had woken up with a sore chest and heavy lids. Heejin opened her arms up for a hug, because that seemed to cheer her parents up as well earlier, but the woman only stares. Heejin deflated a bit, but instead of accepting defeat, she climbed into the woman’s lap and wrapped an arm around her.
The sobbing returned, but this time into Heejin’s tiny shoulder, and when Heejin looked back down the hall, the boy was back. He had smiled at her and disappeared right before her eyes, like a ghost.
Ever since that day, she’s been encountering the dead. Sometimes it’s in obvious places, like during the aftermath of a deadly car accident or near the cemetary, but there’s times she’s taken by surprise too, like when she’s merely grocery shopping or at the dance studio by her house.
It’s never pleasant. Some of them require Heejin to be the one to explain to them that they’re dead, and those few never take it well. Most of the time they already know, have known for a long time, but are angry at the world. They almost always want Heejin’s help though, and it gets tiresome, but Heejin remembers that night all those years ago; the boy and what Heejin has always presumed to be his mother.
She doesn’t tell anyone about it anymore because they don’t get it. Her parents still don’t get it and think Heejin is a bit odd, even to this day. The only person she’s ever let in on her secret is Jiwoo, and that’s because they’ve been best friends since they were toddlers.
Jiwoo doesn’t really get it, and she sure didn’t believe Heejin for the first couple months after she told her, but Jiwoo caught on quickly when Heejin began knowing things that she shouldn’t, like how one of their middle school’s janitors died in the eighties and how he had a secret stash of Twinkies in the floorboards of the basement. Now Jiwoo is her right hand (wo)man, and the only reason Heejin hasn’t lost her mind trying to solve so many ghost’s problems.
If only Jiwoo wasn’t in class, because this new girl, ghost, Haseul, is driving her nuts.
“What do you mean you don’t know who you are?” Heejin would be screaming right now if she weren’t afraid of someone overhearing her- and oh how crazy she would look screaming to herself in the middle of a public bathroom.
“I don’t know!” Haseul grabs at her hair, pulling in what Heejin thinks is a desperate attempt to regain her memories. “I just told you, I woke up in the school parking lot and I’ve been roaming around the entire campus trying to get someone to help me, but when I finally find someone who can apparently see me, which is you, you’re telling me I’m dead?”
Haseul screams in frustration and begins pacing the floor. Heejin wants to take pity on her, really, but what is she supposed to do? She’s never dealt with a ghost that doesn’t know who they are. If she doesn't know who this girl is then how is she supposed to be helping her cross over to the other side, or whatever it is that they do?
“Look.” Heejin sighs, almost reaching out to grab the girl’s shoulder, but stops herself. Heejin thinks that’s strange. She knows better, she can’t touch them, but there’s something about this one that seems different and it’s throwing Heejin off. “I have to get back to class. It’s my first day here and I need to make a good impression, but I will help you. Just come find me later.”
Haseul throws her hands out. “How am I supposed to do that?”
Heejin blinks. “Um, usually ghosts-”
“Don’t call me that, please.” Haseul pleads with her.
Heejin nods. “Sorry. Most… people just know how to find me. I’ve never asked how they do it, they just always seem to know where I am.”
“Well I- I don’t.” Haseul shrugs, looking utterly defeated.
Heejin sighs before pulling out a pen and paper. “Here. I’ll write down my schedule and my dorm number okay?”
Haseul nods, reaching out to grab the paper, only for it to drop onto the ground. Both of them stare at it. Heejin wants to curse herself for forgetting that they can’t hold onto real world objects. How stupid of her.
Haseul’s eyes look glassy, but it must be a trick of the light because ghosts can’t cry. They can’t do anything that humanly. “What do I do now?”
Her voice sounds so broken, leaving Heejin to suggest the last thing she can think of. “Okay, just… follow me. You can stay with me, but no distractions, okay? I have a class to get to.”
Haseul’s eyes light up. “Yes, okay!
What the hell has she gotten herself into now?
Haseul’s presence is both loud and silent to Heejin. She never makes a peep, but she looms over Heejin’s shoulder to read her texts to Jiwoo as she explains the situation to her best friend and sometimes gets ahead of Heejin while they’re walking and ends up running right through things. It takes all of Heejin’s energy not to yell at her for her erratic behavior.
Heejin has to repeatedly remind herself that she’s basically dealing with a child at this point. This Haseul has no idea who or what she is and is probably panicking every time she discovers something about herself.
Halfway through their walk to Heejin’s class, someone walks right through Haseul. Haseul stops dead and eyes the boy as he violently shivers, rubbing his arms up and down the sudden goosebumps that appear on his arms. The ghost girl frowns and tries her best to walk behind Heejin from then on.
When Heejin makes it to class, Haseul attempts to sit next to her, only to jump up when another of Heejin’s classmates nearly sits on her. She probably doesn't want a repeat of the walk to class. Heejin imagines it’s not pleasant to be walked through.
Haseul idly walks around the room while her professor drawls on and on about the ‘beautiful’ and ‘sorrowful’ history of music. The ghost girl seems genuinely interested in his words, which is more than Heejin can say for herself. She makes a mental note of her interest, hoping that might help her later find something about Haseul.
She finds herself distracted throughout the lecture, too busy watching Haseul. It’s not a terrible class to be distracted she supposes because the professor informs them that he sends sends them all the powerpoint at the end of the day anyways. Still, the man does seem to pick up on her wandering mind.
Thankfully, he doesn’t say anything to her at the end of class, merely giving her a disappointed look. Heejin wants to bolt the moment she sees it, really, but she waits for the room to clear out before leaving, Haseul at her heels. She would really rather not make Haseul suffer through the crowds if a single person bothered her so much.
Haseul peeks over her shoulder once again when Heejin texts Jiwoo, asking her to come back to their dorm room. “Who’s Jiwoo?”
Heejin sighs in relief when Jiwoo replies that she’s already there. “She’s my best friend. She’ll help us.”
Haseul brightens just a little. “She’s like you? She can help me?”
“Well.” Heejin pauses at the door to her dorm, pulling out her card to swipe. The door clicks and Heejin yanks it open. She holds it open for Haseul on instinct, momentarily forgetting that Haseul could probably just walk through with no problem. “She can’t see you like I can, but she helps me with gho- people like you.”
She feels a stab in her chest at the wince from Haseul that her slip up gets.
“Are you sure?” Haseul asks. Heejin frowns at the suggestion that Jiwoo isn’t up to the task, but Haseul shakes her head when she sees it. “No, I mean- are you sure I’m dead?”
Heejin stops just in front of her door, struggling to pull her keys from her pocket. “I- Yeah. Yeah, Haseul. I’m pretty sure.”
The ghost girl’s body slumps, the little light she had in her eyes extinguished. She hates being that person, breaking the last of hope they have, but Heejin knows she can give them something better; a real way to be at peace.
“Jiwoo?” Heejin calls out into the room, finally having unlocked the door.
The bed on the right side shuffles, but before Heejin can ask why Jiwoo is on her side of the room, her best friend rolls out from under her bed, large book in hand. Heejin can only imagine what Haseul thinks of this girl on the floor, hair full of dust.
Jiwoo is smart though, already one step ahead of Heejin by grabbing their trusty book of everything ghostly. It's not much,really, just a few steps they typically take to help ghosts and accounts of previous ghosts that they've helped throughout the years. It had been Jiwoo's idea to keep a... scrapbook of sorts. It tends to calm a lot of the dead that they meet and give them hope that Heejin can really help them.
Maybe it will do that for Haseul.
“Is she here?” Jiwoo asks.
Heejin nods, pulling her friend up from the floor and wiping the dirt from her hair. She’ll never understand why she’s so fond of this little weirdo, but her life would definitely be a lot duller without her.
“So, she’s just…. Following you?” Jiwoo frowns, eyes roaming the room, searching for something that she’ll never be able to see.
Haseul seems uncomfortable as Heejin’s best friend looks around, avoiding the spots that Jiwoo’s gaze land on despite the girl not actually being able to see her. Heejin doesn’t think she’s met a ghost so uncomfortable around humans before.
“Yeah.” Heejin sighs, flopping down onto her bed. “Has been all day.”
Heejin doesn’t mean to make it sound like Haseul’s presence is unwelcome, but it undoubtedly comes out that way. She doesn’t dare look Haseul in the eye, afraid of the sad look she would probably be giving.
“Okay, well this is harder than usual, but we can do this.” Jiwoo jumps up onto Heejin’s stomach, book flying from her hands and nearly landing on Heejin's face. “We can look and see if there’s any updates from the funeral homes around here. If that fails, we can ask around the hospitals. Interns never know when to stop talking about patients, especially when they lose one.”
Heejin feels a calm rush over her. Jiwoo always knows what to say to help. “You’re right.”
“What if you can’t find me?” Haseul asks, not even really paying attention to them anymore.
Heejin pushes Jiwoo off her, curiously watching the way Haseul is suddenly perched on the windowsill. The ghost girl has a troubled look on her face. “We will.”
Maybe she shouldn’t be making promises, but Heejin has never failed the dead before and she doesn’t plan on starting today.
“We will what?” Jiwoo tilts her head curiously.
“We’ll find her. Figure out who she is.” Heejin nods determinedly.
“Oh yeah!” Jiwoo jumps up and glances around before her gaze finds Heejin’s again. Heejin shakes her head in amusement, pointing toward the window. Jiwoo skips over, gazing more at the top of Haseul’s forehead than anything. Although, Jiwoo is actually probably staring through the girl and at the tree just outside their window. “Don’t worry. Heejin and I have had years of practice. We’ll find you.”
Haseul seems to relax at that, but Jiwoo startles her when she steps closer to Haseul again. Heejin sees her begin to slip backward before Haseul even seems to register what her body is unconsciously doing.
“Hey, don't! You’re going to-!” Heejin only realizes what she’s doing when she’s grabbed hold of Haseul’s hand, keeping her from falling out of the window using Haseul’s unconscious ghostly power. “-fall out.”
Heejin looks at the hand she’s holding in shock. Haseul looks back, just as confused. Neither move a muscle until Jiwoo screams.
“Ahhhh!” Jiwoo points an accusing finger, right at Haseul.
“What?” Haseul looks behind her, like she might find something dangerous outside. “What is she yelling at?
“I can see her!” Jiwoo screeches. “I can hear her!”
“What?” Heejin whips her head around, staring both girls down in confusion.
Haseul perks up, eyes lighting up with that look of hope once again. Heejin would be happy to see it if she weren’t so baffled. “You can see me?”
Jiwoo does that thing where she stomps her feet in a panic, mouth opening like it wants to say something, but yells of confusion are the only thing released. Heejin is trying to think of a way to calm her down when someone bangs on their door.
“Hey! I’m studying for a test! Could you stop screaming?”
Heejin let’s go of Haseul’s hand as she frantically calls back to reassure the person they’ve disturbed, “Sorry, we’ll-!”
“Heejin!” Haseul falls, unsteady from the lack of Heejin’s hold, right through the window.
“Ahhh!” Heejin slaps a hand over her mouth, desperately trying to silence herself before they get complained about by their neighbor. “Why did I do that? Why did I let go?”
Jiwoo’s head whips back and forth. “Where’d she go?”
“She fell out the window.” Heejin rubs a frustrated hand down her face. “Damn it. I’m an idiot.”
“What do you mean she fell?” Jiwoo furrows her brow, her body still wiggling with energy. “Who falls through a window?”
“A ghost that doesn’t know how to do ghost stuff, I guess!”Heejin throws her arms up. “We have to find her.”
Jiwoo nods and pulls Heejin by the hand toward the door, stopping suddenly before turning back to her. “I saw her. I saw a ghost.”
“I know.”
Jiwoo blinks. “You touched her.”
Heejin is growing frustrated. Not at Jiwoo, but by the new revelation that this strange ghost is the reason for. “I know, Jiwoo.”
“Have you ever…”
Heejin shakes her head. “No.”
Jiwoo nods slowly. “I think this is going to be a little different from the times before.”
Heejin has a feeling that Jiwoo is right. She usually is.
----
Heejin tosses and turns all night, the guilt of losing Haseul keeping her awake. She and Jiwoo searched all day, only to come up empty handed. One would think finding an entire person, even if that person is a ghost, would be easy.
They had given up once the sun set, deciding to wait for Haseul to find her way back to their dorm room, but it’s nearing midnight and the girl still hasn’t appeared again. There’s no way that Haseul doesn’t know where her dorm room is, unless she’s just terribly forgetful. It’s possible, but Heejin doubts it.
Which leads to the question that’s plaguing her mind: why hasn’t Haseul found them again? Did she just give up on her and Jiwoo? Did they scare her away? Did Heejin fail someone for the first time ever?
“Stop thinking so loud.” Jiwoo punctuates the demand with the pillow she throws across the room.
Heejin barely blinks when it hits her in the face. She would really like to know when Jiwoo got so good at throwing things at her in the pitch black of their room. She also wants to know how she can acquire the ability… for educational purposes.
“Funny that you assume I can think.” Heejin tries to ease the tension they’re both feeling.
Jiwoo lets out a disturbing snort. “You’re right. I’m the brains of this friendship.”
Heejin isn’t dumb, but Jiwoo is right. Jiwoo might be the more playful, while Heejin comes across as the more mature of the two, but Jiwoo is the one that thinks things through. Heejin tends to rely on instinct and it gets her in trouble more often than not. For instance, it gets her ghost buddies thrown out windows.
And now Heejin is thinking about Haseul again.
“Hey, can I have my pillow back?”
Heejin sighs, pulling her body up, much to her aching back’s displeasure, and throwing Jiwoo’s pillow back. She doesn’t have the aim that her best friend does, hitting the wall instead of Jiwoo’s head like she was aiming for.
“I’ll be back.” She says when her eyes stop on the giant book on her desk, the one they never got to show Haseul. Heejin ignores Jiwoo’s complaints, finding herself in the empty hallway. Jiwoo’s voice is still noticeable from the other side of her door.
She walks aimlessly around the dorm, searching for a sign of Haseul. There’s no way Heejin’s body is going to allow her sleep until she knows Haseul is okay, and there’s definitely no way Jiwoo is going to get any sleep with Heejin sighing every five minutes.
There’s not a single corner she turns that doesn’t look exactly the same as the one before; the university isn’t one for originality, that’s for sure. It should probably be comforting to see a similar sight, but Heejin doesn’t like it. It’s weird enough in the light, but there’s an uneasy feeling that it gives off at night.
Or maybe Heejin and Jiwoo’s horror movie marathon from last week is still getting to her. She’s never been very good with things like that. It’s a little ironic now that she thinks about it, how she can’t deal with a movie about ghost hunting when all she seems to be doing with her life is saving them.
Heejin stops dead when she hears something, something that’s most definitely not just the floorboard settling into place. She blinks down the dark hallway, almost certain that the noise came from the other end. There’s no windows in this part of the building, meaning Heejin is now desperately wishing she had brought her phone with her for some sort of light.
“Hello?” Heejin whispers. Part of her is hoping that it’s Haseul, but a larger part of her knows that Haseul would have already come barreling down the halls. “Anyone there?”
Heejin takes a step forward, only noticing the slight shake to her leg when it nearly give out from underneath her. She takes a deep breath and takes another step. And another. And one more after that.
“He- Oh. Hello.” Heejin bends down, getting a better look at the noisy offender. It seems Heejin had been afraid for nothing. “What the hell are you doing here?”
The dog, Heejin thinks it’s a dog, for it’s almost too large to be one, blinks at her twice. Heejin tilts her head, baffled to see an animal in the dorms. They’re certainly not allowed and to hide one of this size seems impossible.
“You’re gorgeous.” Heejin slowly settles her hand onto the dog’s head, careful not to disturb their alert ears. It’s true, she, or he, is probably the prettiest dog Heejin has ever seen. Their fur is nearly as dark as the pitch black that surrounds them, but so shiny. “Whose a good boy?” The dog huffs, almost seeming offended. Heejin pauses. “Good… girl?”
The dog settles then, digging her head into Heejin’s palm. Heejin thinks she might actually be going crazy from looking for Haseul because she’s starting to think she can communicate with dogs now too.
Maybe her parents were right to suggest therapy all those years ago.
“Okay…” Heejin frowns at herself, realizing how silly she must look as she talks to this strange animal. “How do I get you back to your owner?” She’s asking herself, really, but when the dog sneezes and shakes her head, looking offended once again, Heejin thinks she’s received an answer. “Do you have an owner?”
The dog stares her down with a frightening intensity. It’s enough to send a shiver down Heejin’s spine because those don’t look like dog eyes. There’s nothing particularly threatening about them, but they don’t belong in this dog’s head, that’s for sure.
“You don’t.” Heejin concludes.
The dog blinks.
“Okay.” Heejin is at a loss. What does she do now? She can’t just let this giant dog roam the halls. “I guess you can come to my dorm. Jiwoo probably won’t be happy, but-”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Heejin startles, jumping up at the voice. She struggles to her feet, turning abruptly. The sight that meets her leaves her knees a little wobbly, but not in fear like before.
The voice doesn’t look like it should belong to this girl, such dainty words coming from an intimidating form. She’s taller than Heejin and looks like a girl she would see in a commercial or on a web series. Terribly beautiful, but nothing about her that particularly stick out, just overall perfect.
“Hi, is she yours?” Heejin asks, voice shaky.
Girls like this, the ones that look like they know exactly how much better they are than the rest of the world, have always been intimidating to Heejin. They’ve always seemed so out of reach to Heejin. Jiwoo is the only one that ever really understood her, the only one that she felt comfortable with.
The difference in those girls and this new one though, is the easy, welcoming smile and her baggy clothes. Heejin doubts she would ever catch one of those type of girls with anything other than a scowl and set of clothes that look like they cost more than Heejin’s entire wardrobe. There's nothing expesive looking about her.
Except, perhaps the pin on the girl’s shoulder. It’s golden, a moon ingrained into the middle. Heejin has never seen anything like it, but it looks like its probably worth more money that the university has spent on the dorm bathrooms. A family heirloom maybe?
This new girl, the one that’s managed to completely sneak up on Heejin somehow, gives an amused smile. “Yeah, she’s mine.”
The dog whines, and if Heejin had to place an emotion to the noise, she would say it was full of displeasure. Of course, again, Heejin can’t understand animals and they can’t understand her. Her powers are reserved for the dead only.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you.” The girl says, eyes bright with humor. Heejin wants to know what she finds so funny. Perhaps she watched Heejin have an entire conversation with her dog. That would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it? Heejin has done worse in public though. “Thank you for finding her. I’ve been looking for her.”
“Well.” Heejin tries not to get distracted by how pretty this girl is, remembering exactly why she was walking the halls in the first place. “I’m glad one of us found what we were looking for.”
The pretty girl tilts her head, unknowingly mimicking the dog at the exact same time. “You lost something?”
“Someone.” Heejin tells her. She doesn’t know why she tells her. There’s something strange about this girl that Heejin cant quite put her finger on. “But I’ll find her.”
Her words sound more confidant that she feels, but Heejin doubts the girl can tell. She leans against the wall, hoping the nervous tremors will subside, and more importantly, that this girl doesn't notice.
“Maybe I could help? Since you helped me?”
Heejin laughs and it comes out a little more bitter than she expects. She’s becoming more irritable the longer she goes without a sign of Haseul. “Thanks, but I don’t think anyone can help.”
“Ah, I see.” The girl smirks. “You’re the mysterious type then?”
Heejin balks. “I- what? No! Oh my gosh, that came out so stupidly edgy and it wasn’t supposed to.”
The stranger laughs, and wow, does Heejin want to swoon at the sound. “Right, well, how about you tell me your name? If I find anyone walking the halls I can ask them if they know their angsty friend…”
“Heejin.”
“Heejin.” The girl pauses, eyeing her in a way that makes Heejin feel bare, like she knows every single one of Heejin’s secrets. Not that Heejin has many, but the ones she does have are pretty big. “I’m Hyunjin.”
Heejin nods, deciding it’s time to leave this pretty girl and continue looking for Haseul. She just needs to look for the familiar glow. It’s always easier finding the dead in the dark, their glow so much brighter than normal. “It’s been nice meeting you and…”
Hyunjin glances down at the dog, a tiny smirk on her lips. “Ah, this is Hyejoo.”
It’s a weird name for a dog, but Hyejoo is pretty strange herself, so Heejin merely nods. “It was nice meeting you and Hyejoo. You might want to keep her away from the halls on the weekends. I've heard people come back from parties a lot, might get caught with her.”
Hyunjin pats Hyejoo’s head. “Don’t worry, she won’t get caught. Hyejoo is pretty smart for a… dog.”
Hyejoo growls deeply, much more angry with Hyunjin than she had been with Heejin. Still just as strange though.
Hyunjin gives one last wave, walking back the way they came from. “Good luck finding your someone.”
Heejin tries to give her one last smile, but her face falls as she notices the dull glow around Hyunjin’s form as she slips into the darkness. “..thanks.”