[Mini-series] Now That You See Me
Chapter 1: The Lost Girl (part a)
He was barefooted, that guy. Wearing a loose white t-shirt saying “Complicated Man with Simple Life” paired with a black torn-up jeans, smiling like an idiot. His brown hair was in a mess, stylish, but still a mess, as if the one he had been waiting for had just called him to pick them up while he was getting up from his bed that morning and he thought he would save every little effort to clean himself out just so he wouldn't miss the meeting.
Behind his Rayban, Kyuhyun rolled his eyes while picking up his luggage, wondering how complicated that guy’s personality is that he had forgotten one of the basic simple rules of a civilised man - to put on his slippers. “So much for a simple life,” he sniggered, before finding a seat somewhere in the airport to rest while waiting for Ryeowook to pick him up. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes for him to reach there, given the time he called that midget about his arrival and the distance of the airport from his house. To Kyuhyun, Ryeowook was practically living inside the airport’s area for God’s sakes!
Putting his white Beats headphone on, Maxim’s Flight of the Bumblebee made the people around him appeared as if they were a huge swarm of bees buzzing and flying as fast yet as organised or tried to be as if they were, chasing the ticking hours and minutes, or even seconds, just to make sure everything was not going to fall apart in their lives. Kyuhyun laughed silently, covering his mouth, because he thought it was funny, these rushing men and women. Trying to put things together back to its old self when they were the ones who wanted to change by growing up and jumped into commitments and money-hunting.
Yet he himself was one of the victims of this scheme of illusions that life created.
When his feet stopped tapping to the ground as Maxim’s magical piano enchantment ended, the brief pause before his iPod play the next song on his playlist allowed Ryeowook’s high pitched voice to penetrate his eardrums, and he turned around. Huffing while pulling a stoic-looking man with a snowcap (God it’s summer. Doesn't that tells this man anything?) was Ryeowook, flashing his aegyo smile towards Kyuhyun. The aegyo was just a safety step, really, just in case he was late and Kyuhyun was fuming, it’ll always be that aegyo to cool things up. The truth is, to Kyuhyun, it never work (he just pretended that it did because he’s a man of peace and Ryeowook is a crybaby).
“No, you’re not late. And yes I am wondering who this guy is looking so reluctant to be dragged around by you inside this surprisingly busy district airport. So do explain as we make our way directly to the house and I can get this thing done as fast as I can and proceed with my life.”
Ryewook smiled and pulled the weird man (yes Kyuhyun would love to call him that) closer to his side and offered to carry Kyuhyun’s green knapsack (“How can you carry it when you’re already have your load in your arms, Ryeowook-ah?”) and started introducing the guy to Kyuhyun as his new lover, the local jazz club singer Kim Jongwoon, and Kyuhyun to his new lover as “my old flame, though I’m through with him.”
Kyuhyun peeked over his shoulder, just once before he walk out from the average in size but modern airport, just for a brief moment to find out where was the barefooted guy earlier; did he meet up with the person he waited for? He was still standing at the same spot alone, but this time, their eyes met, and Kyuhyun was positive that the guy was smiling at him.
(Or mouthed something, but what could he see at this distance, anyway?)
-
Kyuhyun sees dead people; if you ask Ryeowook of what his beloved friend’s special ability is. “He sees dead people, and he’s doing it with style.” Get yourself drunk a thousand times, knock yourself in the head, bite your fingernails to bits, and come back to ask him again the same question. The answer will have 99.99% chances of not having changed, unless if you consider using different words is, well, different.
From someone so flashy and immature, added with the fact that you cannot trust him with his serious words (“oh what the hell, I was just kidding! There’s no way a cat could fly; unless I threw him from the sixteenth floor of my apartment...”), you would think that Kyuhyun would slap him at the back of his head and say “stop selling my name for your own good!” and assure you that “he’s joking, like seriously, who the hell would see ghosts in this modern days? There’s lighting everywhere at night for God’s sakes!”. But yet, you were wrong.
Kyuhyun can really see dead people.
Though Kyuhyun is not seeing them all the time. Not when he is walking among the livings at daylight, or when he is in the toilet doing the Number 2. God, no way, no matter how soulless Kyuhyun is, he still could pass out when he’s horrified. Just like that one time when he was in high school and didn't have any intention of using his ability the right way, and he was greeted with a wet bloody head with long dishevelled hair and one functioning eye (the other one was out of its socket) popping out from the toilet bowl while he and a few other friends were smoking inside one of the stall of the boys’ toilet. He was knocked down very bad, by the shock and the fever, and later was only willing to wait until the school ends just so he could run back home and do his need.
But nothing was changed. The head was, somehow, having some interest in him that the worst had come to worst, on one fine day after two weeks of the toilet incident, it appeared happily on top of the writing board in his class while his teacher was explaining how adding and dividing up two letters will get you a number as an answer (“Math is my obsession, damn it!”), and Kyuhyun could only held his breath from screaming and jumping across Hyukjae’s table and out of the window from the third floor where his class was.
“It was then that he finally sucked his balls in and realised that he must do something about it,” Ryeowook would add, “and that was the early years of Kyuhyun as the modern day Kitaro!” Kyuhyun would apologise to anyone who were listening and said “sorry for the confusion, but Kitaro killed ghosts.”
Kyuhyun doesn't kill ghosts. “It would be too much trouble if you try to kill ghosts. I mean for what? They’re already dead; they don't need to be reminded for the second time, do they?
I'm a man of peace,” he said. “I negotiate; diplomacy never fail.”
-
“She doesn't believe her daughter’s dead, or does she?” Kyuhyun lit up a Dunhill as the back window of Ryeowook’s 1979 green VW Beetle rolled down on his side, and the tough breeze despite Ryeowook’s free-and-easy driving ruffled up his light honey coloured hair and Kyuhyun grunted. Jongwoon pulled out the drawer under the dashboard and took out a small packet of hair clippers naturally and handed it to Kyuhyun. He took two without any words and pinned them to his stubborn hair.
“No, I don't think she does, but the way things has turned out, I mean come on, it’s been more than seven months and the police already dumped this case into the hopeless file, I think she’s opted to believe in anything or anyone that could help. Hey you look cute,” Ryeowook said, smiling cheekily, and Kyuhyun lifted up his middle finger towards the rear mirror where Ryeowook’s eyes were. Jongwoon cleared his throat, and drummed his fingers at the edge of the opened window, his other hand was now holding his snow cap still on his head. The strong breeze made it almost impossible to open his eyes, and they went half blinking and half shut. Kyuhyun thought that was funny and was going to laugh, when Ryeowook stared back at him from the rear mirror and he cancelled his mean.
After ten minutes were spent zig-zagging the country road and the battle of wits between the two friends (“can you hold your breath before taking over the car in front, Kim Ryeowook? Because I certainly can.”) they finally arrived at the destination. And Kyuhyun didn't really like what he saw. But well, who likes it when they knew what awaited them at the end of a rather relaxing journey was a mourning family?
-
He expected the mother would be a sad, old woman sitting on the floor, face enlightened seeing him as a hope to where her daughter would be. But what he saw later was a tad different than what he had been imagining before. The first thing that proved he was not so bright in reading living human’s physically was the mother’s age. She was not an old woman.
“Mrs. Lee? I'm Cho Kyuhyun,” he said, hand held out waiting for a polite handshake that would likely to be a start of their conversation. But the young mother was avoiding his eyes and gestured him to a pink bedroom with a lot of soft toys and colourful bed. A perfect bedroom for a polite little lady. Kyuhyun could see that the bed wasn’t made up, and in most cases, it was because the family was hoping for the lost beloved to return and make it up themselves, which in most cases were left only as hopes.
“Just do what you need to do. Do not touch anything that is not necessary. Ji Hyo would be angry to know someone messes up her toys,” she said, before she bowed and left the room. The three of them were left dumbfounded, exchanging glances and undecided body languages only to be greeted again by a middle aged man with a thick rimmed glasses, introducing himself as Ji Hyo’s step-father. He apologised for his wife’s estranged behaviour and tell Kyuhyun to “try to do the best you can. We wouldn't know even if you were lying about your ability, but we would give anything just to have her back,” and left the room. Kyuhyun grunted angrily.
“These people, they love to scare themselves with horror movies but ignorant enough about someone who can really see the real shit. Why the fuck would they even call me if they do not have faith in me?” he said, and threw his knapsack slammed against the wall. There were a few sounds of someone clearing their throat, and Ryeowook quickly apologised to the wind (or the person over the wall).
“So,” Ryeowook stood the knapsack properly next to the pink bed and sat on the floor, not wanting to mess up the messy bed, “show them that they were wrong. That you don't give a shit with petty things and just wanted to help them.”
“It was you who wanted to help them, not me,” Kyuhyun said exasperatedly.
“I'm not the one with the ghost eyes, am I? And you could always say no, yet you still came. Aww Kyuhyun I know you’re an angel,” Ryeowook said and cutely snuggled to Kyuhyun’s chest and pinched his chin. Jongwoon cleared his throat (oh I get it you’re jealous, freak) and Ryeowook got off the bed.
“You’re not staying? I thought you gonna help me with this shit!” he asked, half-screaming. Ryeowook put up a pointer finger and waved it lightly.
“I did. I brought you here, didn't I? Now it’s your turn to help someone else.”
-
The truth was, after he helped the head that haunted him in high school (she was killed by a school janitor fifteen years ago and was hidden inside a secret basement under the school’s old hall, beheaded), Kyuhyun became a famous young shaman in his hometown. Calls for help in things humans couldn't see came from every part of the town, and Kyuhyun had seen enough of his fair share about the shits from the other world; literally.
“I'm not a shaman, it just happened that I can see ghost and the others don't,” he said to Ryeowook one day, when they were eating fried noodles on the rooftop during recess time. Ryeowook, who was still a new exchange student from somewhere in South Korea nodded his head and sucked in a thread of noodle with quite a strong force and got choked eventually. Kyuhyun handed him a bottle of mineral water and he gulped it down almost instantly.
“You may say something else, but that’s what the world sees about you. Like it or not, you are a shaman. Anyway, why does the calling matters a lot to you? Isn’t using your eyes to help people is more important?” he asked, throwing the empty bottle aside and continued to pig down his fried noodles. Kyuhyun squinted his eyes, a tad disgusted by the smaller guy’s eating habit but still too ignorant to care about it so he moved on with his whines.
“It might still be a cool power when you can see what other people just walk past through, like the blue limbless little boy who were trying to snatch away your noodles a few minutes ago and made you choked just now,” he said non-chalantly, and Ryeowook stopped chewing. He scanned his sides for a few seconds and shrugged his shoulders before finishing the last fishcake in his polystyrene food container and chuckled.
“I didn't close my eyes when I watched Freddy Krueger pulled sleeping boyfriends into their beds. The same goes with Jason and his farm house,” he said, proudly.
“You mean lake house,” Kyuhyun corrected, a bit frustrated that he failed to scare the midget somehow. Ryeowook looked far in front of him, thinking (blankly) about something and then laughed.
“Yeah, lake house. Anyway, your point is?” he asked, his tone was as if he blamed Kyuhyun for the distraction from the actual topic. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, and leant against the cold steel railing around the rectangular rooftop, a perfect contrast of the warm day they had that week.
“Nothing, I forgot what I wanted to say,” he said, shutting off the conversation with a lazy reason. Ryeowook clucked his tongue. “Cheap,” he said, and punched his shoulder. Kyuhyun didn't react, so Ryeowook stay close to his side.
“I’ll help you,” he said suddenly, after a few minutes tracing Kyuhyun’s bony hand. “Help me with what?” Kyuhyun asked him, dumbfounded. Ryeowook smiled, and somehow, Kyuhyun felt as if he was melting.
“Your power. Your ability. It doesn't come to you for nothing, or does it? I’ll help you to find out what it actually means. Or why you were chosen.”
“If I'm gonna have this power for the rest of my life, does this mean you gonna stick with me forever?” Kyuhyun asked.
Ryeowook nodded vigorously. Kyuhyun palmed his face. Ryeowook laughed.
-
“If you leave now, we won’t report you to the police,” the step-father said calmly after he sat at the door frame of Ji Hyo’s room for three minutes, watching Kyuhyun reading Ji Hyo’s favourite fairy tales and flipping through her drawings of her mother, their house, herself, the house, her mother, herself. The step-father’s voice didn't really mean anything to him right now.
“You’re not here,” Kyuhyun suddenly said, tapping his fingers on top of the stack of drawings, eyes watching the flock of birds in the sky through the opened window. “Excuse me?” the step-father asked him, didn't really listening to the words he had spoken. Kyuhyun turned to see his face, and he didn't really show any expression, except a raging face of someone that felt as if he had been coned, and something else. Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t love or disappointment. If he had not been careful, he might have thought it was an expression of cowardliness. But oh how could that be possible? Kyuhyun might as well take a chance.
“In these pictures she drew, none of them had you in it. Why is that?” he asked, going through the drawings once again. The step-father did not answer.
“Ji Hyo... didn't really like Chae Hyun. She thought he took her father away from us,” explained her mother who came in later with three cups of tea. Her husband held her by the shoulders once she sat next to him, as if trying to comfort her. Kyuhyun pretended not to see anything and took one cup of tea from the tray.
“Kyuhyun-ssi, I hope you understand our situation and leave while you still can. Losing Ji Hyo is painful enough for me, and I don't think I need well-planned jokes to keep me reminded about the darling I’ve lost. I know I wasn’t a good mother for her, but at least show some humanity. You can always find your profit somewhere else, but I beg you, not here,” she said those words as if they didn't mean anything to her, but Kyuhyun could see her hands shaking while she tried to look composed, resting them on her thighs. Kyuhyun took a sip of the tea in his hand, and hummed.
He could understand what the mother had been through. He knew how she was tired of being disappointed after she had her hopes high, times and times again. Kyuhyun could understand that. But here’s the problem; the daughter didn't came out. Kyuhyun stayed in her bedroom, he had tried going to her school, her favorite place - the small playground only a block away from her house at night, the beach where her mother claimed to be the place they always spent their time together, the books she loved, the drawings she stored nicely inside a pink wooden box with lock under her bed. But she still refused to show up.
“Maybe she’s still alive? Maybe that’s why you can't see her,” Ryeowook suggested after three days passed. Kyuhyun bit his thumbnail hummed a disagreement tone. “I'm sure she’s...” he paused, and took a deep breath when he saw Ryeowook’s eyes were staring at him.
“You’re sure she’s what?”
“Nothing, I wasn’t saying anything,” he lied. Ryeowook grunted.
“She’s really dead? How can you be so sure?”
“Who said I'm sure? I didn't say anything about being assured, did I?” Ryeowook pinched his cheeks, hard until they went red and Kyuhyun felt sore. “Stop being a riddleman and start telling!”
So Kyuhyun told Ryeowook how he could feel the energy left by someone near the places they loved, or the things they cared the most. How people left and gone, but their energy; their warmth, their electricity, their affection will always linger around that places and things along with the memories they created with others around them. And Ryeowook went silent for a few seconds.
“Does it turns blurry by time? Maybe when they left and didn't return to the places they went, the energy faded,” Ryeowook suggested, and Kyuhyun shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If you love a place or something that you possess, would you only go there for once in your lifetime? Holding that thing you treasure once and put it back on display?”
“Probably. You know I’ve never been too attached to anything, except you,” he said, and Kyuhyun smacked his head. “Focus. Okay let’s say we’re talking about you. You don't really get too attached to anything, but there must be a time when you think about some places that you have been to, and sometimes feels like going there again, right?” Kyuhyun began to lecture, and Ryeowook tried his best to show Kyuhyun that he was giving full attention to him (which was only one third of his focus, actually).
“When you think about the place, your energy flies back to where it left a part of itself, and it regenerates the strength. It’s sort of like your mind plays its part in full throttle,” he ended, as briefly as he thought it was. Ryeowook nodded once, clasped, and then frowned.
“Don't compare my brain to a law undergraduate like you. But I get it; it’s like you unconciously use your psychic, isn’t it? So what does that have to do with Ji Hyo? I mean, how did you know she’s really dead?” Ryeowook asked, this time almost innocently.
“It’s rather simple. Dead people means no more energy regeneration. The energy that formed during the times they went to the places or around the things they frequently touched will eventually becoming faint and pale once they’re not being recharged anymore. In Ji Hyo’s case, it is there, but merely.”
“So... you mean...” Ryeowook paused, and palmed his cheeks. Probably shocked. He should be, since in the years he had been by Kyuhyun’s side, listening to his whine and how the dead people that came for his assistance weren’t in their best appearance, this was the first time Kyuhyun told him how he can actually know if you’re alive without even seeing your body to prove it.
“Yes, Ryeowook, I know she is dead, and I am really sure about this. And I'm not trying to boast or saying that I'm right to be here,” he said, leaning against the backrest of the chair he was sitting, “but she just doesn't want to find me for help. And that really puzzles me.”
Kyuhyun bit his lower lip, still trying to refresh the conversation he had with Ryeowook two days ago. It had been five days since he arrived there, and Kyuhyun didn't feel like backing out (he got an enormous pride on his head to surrender, anyway) so he need to, he couldn't believe he’s doing this, try to find this little girl’s ghost no matter where she was hiding.
“Ma’am,” he said, trying to open up a new chance with the couple, or at least the mother. “I am not leaving until I find your daughter and bring her into your arms once again. Maybe Ryeowook didn't inform you earlier, but I never demand for any payment from those I’ve given my help, and I don't intend to start it with you,” he knelt in front of the woman who now looked a little bit shocked, and bowed. “Give me just one more day, just one more day and you can send me to the police if you feel like it. Please.”
The mother stood up, straightened her clothes, and walked towards the door, exiting it when she turned back once more.
“Just one more day. That’s all you’ll have.”
-
Kyuhyun had never been in a situation like this, not even once since his talent got known and he became sort of like a local celebrity back in his place. He wasn’t really sincere in doing his parts for the society back then anyway, but who could have ignored the sense of pride and glory once people came to your house with tons of gifts and endless gratitudes for the thing he had done half-heartedly? Kyuhyun wasn’t a strong man, he admit it; he is just a mere human. So whether he liked it or not, being ignored by a dead little lady would probably be the one thing he wanted to avoid with all his might.
“Well that’s rather rude, isn’t it? Giving you a fucking specific time constraint when you don't even give a damn about their money. Now I'm feeling a tad guilty,” Ryeowook said to him the night after he begged to help the mother, handing Kyuhyun a can of light beer and sat on the swing next to where Kyuhyun was, pushed his feet slowly onto the ground, and his swing started to move. Kyuhyun said “thanks,” and took a sip.
“It doesn't really matter to me, and you didn't do anything wrong. Like you said, I could’ve said no when you offered me this case. But I came anyway,” he said, reaching out for Ryeowook’s head next to him and ruffled it up. Ryeowook didn't seem very pleased about that, so Kyuhyun giggled. “Plus,” he added, “it’s the long break before the final semester too, spending times with my useless best friend would always been a better choice than scrutinising my juniors with their assignments.”
“You beastly senior,” Ryeowook said, scrunching his nose and pushed Kyuhyun’s hand away. A few seconds later, Ryeowook’s jumper pocket buzzed and he flipped open his phone. A few nods and giggles, twisting his hair and biting his lower lip, he told Kyuhyun he had to go because Jongwoon missed him and he needs to be by his side as soon as possible. Kyuhyun nodded in understanding, and waved him a goodbye. Ryeowook ran to his side and pecked his cheek.
“For a good luck charm,” he said, and ran towards his beetle that was parked at the other end of where they were at. Kyuhyun smiled, and traced the faint warmth on his cheek. “Idiot,” he whispered, and waited for Ryeowook’s car rear lights to disappear behind a corner before he stood up and prepared to leave.
“Look’s like I need to pack my bag tonight,” he told himself as he walked away from the twin swings, when he heard a girl laughing happily near the see-saw just a few metres away from him. Kyuhyun stopped walking, and squinted his eyes as if that would help him for a better view.
There was a guy wearing a loose white t-shirt with wide neck, too wide his left shoulder was not even covered, and his collarbones were clearly seen. It was paired with a pair of black torn-up jeans, and he was giggling and smiling like an idiot. His hair was in a mess, stylish, but still a mess, and to top all that, he was barefooted. Kyuhyun felt like a deja vu; seeing a stranger twice in a week shouldn't have been a big thing, humans roam this planet after all, but there’s always something clicked inside his head whenever he saw this guy.
“I know you,” he said, finger pointed directly to the stranger’s face. With the help of the nearest street lamp behind him and the bright night sky with the round moon, he could see what a beauty this guy who was staring back at him with a pair of hazelnut-shaped eyes, looking rather doubtful and scared of him. “You’re the guy from the airport, right?”
The weird guy nodded timidly, and looked away. Kyuhyun’s brow knitted, thinking if he made any mistake talking to a stranger in the middle of the night like this.
“Should I tell him?” the guy suddenly asked, but Kyuhyun could see that he wasn’t talking to him. He was talking to the empty spot next to him. Kyuhyun waited for another response, when the guy sighed deeply.
“I don't think he would care about how you look like,” he said again, this time almost in a whisper, and Kyuhyun finally got it. “Are you talking to Ji Hyo right now? Ji Hyo-ah, are you standing in front of oppa right now?” he immediately threw away the beer can in his hand, and squatted in front of the guy who was still sitting on the see-saw, weighted on his side.
“She’s... she’s embarassed with the way... she looked right now...” the guy suddenly spoke, getting off the see-saw, and Kyuhyun could definitely see how it was weighted on the opposite end. “Wait,” he caught the guy’s arm, and he flinched. “It’s not just us three here, am I right? There’s someone else too, right?”
Tell him, you know he can help us, someone whispered. Kyuhyun felt a gush of cold wind crept on his nape, and his hair stood up almost instantly. Kyuhyun smiled and told himself that yes, his pride is safe. The guy bit his lower lip, slowly pulled his arm away from Kyuhyun’s grip and took a few steps away from him and stood frozenly.
“But... but if I did, I won’t have any friends anymore,” he said, almost crying, and Kyuhyun grabbed his hands impatiently. “If you didn't, you’ll have them suffered forever, and we don't want that, do we?” he asked, eyes trying to search and meet with the guy’s shy ones. He still stood silently, when Kyuhyun finally resorted to a rather rushed decision.
“Fine, I’ll be your friend. Is that alright?” he could feel the guy flinched once again, and this time he looked at Kyuhyun with a pair of shining eyes. Strange, he felt a strong beat in his heart.
“I... I have Ji Hyo right here to my right,” he said, pointing to the empty ground next to his right, and a girl with torn-up pink gown and a pale face, with dry blood on his left part of head made her dark brown soft hair to stick flat slowly emerged from the night dusts. Kyuhyun almost roared up with happiness, when the guy stared at him with a puzzled look.
“I'm just... too happy to have her found,” he explained even without being asked. Inside, he secretly stabbed his chest for the embarrassment. The guy nodded cluelessly, and this time, put up his finger pointing on his left.
“...and here is,” Kyuhyun clenched his teeth, and tried to stay calm. He was sure no matter who this dead guy will be, he’d be ready to face him and figure out what his problem was. He (thought he) knew.
The guy with the white shirt gestured the invisible to stand in front of Kyuhyun itself, and the way he moved and the air that surrounded them changed, Kyuhyun knew he was now facing with it. An image of a man in his thirties started to appear, from his chapped legs, and his tall figure finally formed in front of Kyuhyun with a smile.
“Hi, Mr. Young Shaman. I'm Ji Hyo’s father,” he said, and Kyuhyun’s jaw fell. The guy with the white shirt nodded, and walked to his side. Without even looking at Kyuhyun, and without even stuttering, he said,
“I'm Lee Sungmin. They came to me first because you weren’t here.”
---TBC
He was barefooted, that guy. Wearing a loose white t-shirt saying “Complicated Man with Simple Life” paired with a black torn-up jeans, smiling like an idiot. His brown hair was in a mess, stylish, but still a mess, as if the one he had been waiting for had just called him to pick them up while he was getting up from his bed that morning and he thought he would save every little effort to clean himself out just so he wouldn't miss the meeting.
Behind his Rayban, Kyuhyun rolled his eyes while picking up his luggage, wondering how complicated that guy’s personality is that he had forgotten one of the basic simple rules of a civilised man - to put on his slippers. “So much for a simple life,” he sniggered, before finding a seat somewhere in the airport to rest while waiting for Ryeowook to pick him up. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes for him to reach there, given the time he called that midget about his arrival and the distance of the airport from his house. To Kyuhyun, Ryeowook was practically living inside the airport’s area for God’s sakes!
Putting his white Beats headphone on, Maxim’s Flight of the Bumblebee made the people around him appeared as if they were a huge swarm of bees buzzing and flying as fast yet as organised or tried to be as if they were, chasing the ticking hours and minutes, or even seconds, just to make sure everything was not going to fall apart in their lives. Kyuhyun laughed silently, covering his mouth, because he thought it was funny, these rushing men and women. Trying to put things together back to its old self when they were the ones who wanted to change by growing up and jumped into commitments and money-hunting.
Yet he himself was one of the victims of this scheme of illusions that life created.
When his feet stopped tapping to the ground as Maxim’s magical piano enchantment ended, the brief pause before his iPod play the next song on his playlist allowed Ryeowook’s high pitched voice to penetrate his eardrums, and he turned around. Huffing while pulling a stoic-looking man with a snowcap (God it’s summer. Doesn't that tells this man anything?) was Ryeowook, flashing his aegyo smile towards Kyuhyun. The aegyo was just a safety step, really, just in case he was late and Kyuhyun was fuming, it’ll always be that aegyo to cool things up. The truth is, to Kyuhyun, it never work (he just pretended that it did because he’s a man of peace and Ryeowook is a crybaby).
“No, you’re not late. And yes I am wondering who this guy is looking so reluctant to be dragged around by you inside this surprisingly busy district airport. So do explain as we make our way directly to the house and I can get this thing done as fast as I can and proceed with my life.”
Ryewook smiled and pulled the weird man (yes Kyuhyun would love to call him that) closer to his side and offered to carry Kyuhyun’s green knapsack (“How can you carry it when you’re already have your load in your arms, Ryeowook-ah?”) and started introducing the guy to Kyuhyun as his new lover, the local jazz club singer Kim Jongwoon, and Kyuhyun to his new lover as “my old flame, though I’m through with him.”
Kyuhyun peeked over his shoulder, just once before he walk out from the average in size but modern airport, just for a brief moment to find out where was the barefooted guy earlier; did he meet up with the person he waited for? He was still standing at the same spot alone, but this time, their eyes met, and Kyuhyun was positive that the guy was smiling at him.
(Or mouthed something, but what could he see at this distance, anyway?)
-
Kyuhyun sees dead people; if you ask Ryeowook of what his beloved friend’s special ability is. “He sees dead people, and he’s doing it with style.” Get yourself drunk a thousand times, knock yourself in the head, bite your fingernails to bits, and come back to ask him again the same question. The answer will have 99.99% chances of not having changed, unless if you consider using different words is, well, different.
From someone so flashy and immature, added with the fact that you cannot trust him with his serious words (“oh what the hell, I was just kidding! There’s no way a cat could fly; unless I threw him from the sixteenth floor of my apartment...”), you would think that Kyuhyun would slap him at the back of his head and say “stop selling my name for your own good!” and assure you that “he’s joking, like seriously, who the hell would see ghosts in this modern days? There’s lighting everywhere at night for God’s sakes!”. But yet, you were wrong.
Kyuhyun can really see dead people.
Though Kyuhyun is not seeing them all the time. Not when he is walking among the livings at daylight, or when he is in the toilet doing the Number 2. God, no way, no matter how soulless Kyuhyun is, he still could pass out when he’s horrified. Just like that one time when he was in high school and didn't have any intention of using his ability the right way, and he was greeted with a wet bloody head with long dishevelled hair and one functioning eye (the other one was out of its socket) popping out from the toilet bowl while he and a few other friends were smoking inside one of the stall of the boys’ toilet. He was knocked down very bad, by the shock and the fever, and later was only willing to wait until the school ends just so he could run back home and do his need.
But nothing was changed. The head was, somehow, having some interest in him that the worst had come to worst, on one fine day after two weeks of the toilet incident, it appeared happily on top of the writing board in his class while his teacher was explaining how adding and dividing up two letters will get you a number as an answer (“Math is my obsession, damn it!”), and Kyuhyun could only held his breath from screaming and jumping across Hyukjae’s table and out of the window from the third floor where his class was.
“It was then that he finally sucked his balls in and realised that he must do something about it,” Ryeowook would add, “and that was the early years of Kyuhyun as the modern day Kitaro!” Kyuhyun would apologise to anyone who were listening and said “sorry for the confusion, but Kitaro killed ghosts.”
Kyuhyun doesn't kill ghosts. “It would be too much trouble if you try to kill ghosts. I mean for what? They’re already dead; they don't need to be reminded for the second time, do they?
I'm a man of peace,” he said. “I negotiate; diplomacy never fail.”
-
“She doesn't believe her daughter’s dead, or does she?” Kyuhyun lit up a Dunhill as the back window of Ryeowook’s 1979 green VW Beetle rolled down on his side, and the tough breeze despite Ryeowook’s free-and-easy driving ruffled up his light honey coloured hair and Kyuhyun grunted. Jongwoon pulled out the drawer under the dashboard and took out a small packet of hair clippers naturally and handed it to Kyuhyun. He took two without any words and pinned them to his stubborn hair.
“No, I don't think she does, but the way things has turned out, I mean come on, it’s been more than seven months and the police already dumped this case into the hopeless file, I think she’s opted to believe in anything or anyone that could help. Hey you look cute,” Ryeowook said, smiling cheekily, and Kyuhyun lifted up his middle finger towards the rear mirror where Ryeowook’s eyes were. Jongwoon cleared his throat, and drummed his fingers at the edge of the opened window, his other hand was now holding his snow cap still on his head. The strong breeze made it almost impossible to open his eyes, and they went half blinking and half shut. Kyuhyun thought that was funny and was going to laugh, when Ryeowook stared back at him from the rear mirror and he cancelled his mean.
After ten minutes were spent zig-zagging the country road and the battle of wits between the two friends (“can you hold your breath before taking over the car in front, Kim Ryeowook? Because I certainly can.”) they finally arrived at the destination. And Kyuhyun didn't really like what he saw. But well, who likes it when they knew what awaited them at the end of a rather relaxing journey was a mourning family?
-
He expected the mother would be a sad, old woman sitting on the floor, face enlightened seeing him as a hope to where her daughter would be. But what he saw later was a tad different than what he had been imagining before. The first thing that proved he was not so bright in reading living human’s physically was the mother’s age. She was not an old woman.
“Mrs. Lee? I'm Cho Kyuhyun,” he said, hand held out waiting for a polite handshake that would likely to be a start of their conversation. But the young mother was avoiding his eyes and gestured him to a pink bedroom with a lot of soft toys and colourful bed. A perfect bedroom for a polite little lady. Kyuhyun could see that the bed wasn’t made up, and in most cases, it was because the family was hoping for the lost beloved to return and make it up themselves, which in most cases were left only as hopes.
“Just do what you need to do. Do not touch anything that is not necessary. Ji Hyo would be angry to know someone messes up her toys,” she said, before she bowed and left the room. The three of them were left dumbfounded, exchanging glances and undecided body languages only to be greeted again by a middle aged man with a thick rimmed glasses, introducing himself as Ji Hyo’s step-father. He apologised for his wife’s estranged behaviour and tell Kyuhyun to “try to do the best you can. We wouldn't know even if you were lying about your ability, but we would give anything just to have her back,” and left the room. Kyuhyun grunted angrily.
“These people, they love to scare themselves with horror movies but ignorant enough about someone who can really see the real shit. Why the fuck would they even call me if they do not have faith in me?” he said, and threw his knapsack slammed against the wall. There were a few sounds of someone clearing their throat, and Ryeowook quickly apologised to the wind (or the person over the wall).
“So,” Ryeowook stood the knapsack properly next to the pink bed and sat on the floor, not wanting to mess up the messy bed, “show them that they were wrong. That you don't give a shit with petty things and just wanted to help them.”
“It was you who wanted to help them, not me,” Kyuhyun said exasperatedly.
“I'm not the one with the ghost eyes, am I? And you could always say no, yet you still came. Aww Kyuhyun I know you’re an angel,” Ryeowook said and cutely snuggled to Kyuhyun’s chest and pinched his chin. Jongwoon cleared his throat (oh I get it you’re jealous, freak) and Ryeowook got off the bed.
“You’re not staying? I thought you gonna help me with this shit!” he asked, half-screaming. Ryeowook put up a pointer finger and waved it lightly.
“I did. I brought you here, didn't I? Now it’s your turn to help someone else.”
-
The truth was, after he helped the head that haunted him in high school (she was killed by a school janitor fifteen years ago and was hidden inside a secret basement under the school’s old hall, beheaded), Kyuhyun became a famous young shaman in his hometown. Calls for help in things humans couldn't see came from every part of the town, and Kyuhyun had seen enough of his fair share about the shits from the other world; literally.
“I'm not a shaman, it just happened that I can see ghost and the others don't,” he said to Ryeowook one day, when they were eating fried noodles on the rooftop during recess time. Ryeowook, who was still a new exchange student from somewhere in South Korea nodded his head and sucked in a thread of noodle with quite a strong force and got choked eventually. Kyuhyun handed him a bottle of mineral water and he gulped it down almost instantly.
“You may say something else, but that’s what the world sees about you. Like it or not, you are a shaman. Anyway, why does the calling matters a lot to you? Isn’t using your eyes to help people is more important?” he asked, throwing the empty bottle aside and continued to pig down his fried noodles. Kyuhyun squinted his eyes, a tad disgusted by the smaller guy’s eating habit but still too ignorant to care about it so he moved on with his whines.
“It might still be a cool power when you can see what other people just walk past through, like the blue limbless little boy who were trying to snatch away your noodles a few minutes ago and made you choked just now,” he said non-chalantly, and Ryeowook stopped chewing. He scanned his sides for a few seconds and shrugged his shoulders before finishing the last fishcake in his polystyrene food container and chuckled.
“I didn't close my eyes when I watched Freddy Krueger pulled sleeping boyfriends into their beds. The same goes with Jason and his farm house,” he said, proudly.
“You mean lake house,” Kyuhyun corrected, a bit frustrated that he failed to scare the midget somehow. Ryeowook looked far in front of him, thinking (blankly) about something and then laughed.
“Yeah, lake house. Anyway, your point is?” he asked, his tone was as if he blamed Kyuhyun for the distraction from the actual topic. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, and leant against the cold steel railing around the rectangular rooftop, a perfect contrast of the warm day they had that week.
“Nothing, I forgot what I wanted to say,” he said, shutting off the conversation with a lazy reason. Ryeowook clucked his tongue. “Cheap,” he said, and punched his shoulder. Kyuhyun didn't react, so Ryeowook stay close to his side.
“I’ll help you,” he said suddenly, after a few minutes tracing Kyuhyun’s bony hand. “Help me with what?” Kyuhyun asked him, dumbfounded. Ryeowook smiled, and somehow, Kyuhyun felt as if he was melting.
“Your power. Your ability. It doesn't come to you for nothing, or does it? I’ll help you to find out what it actually means. Or why you were chosen.”
“If I'm gonna have this power for the rest of my life, does this mean you gonna stick with me forever?” Kyuhyun asked.
Ryeowook nodded vigorously. Kyuhyun palmed his face. Ryeowook laughed.
-
“If you leave now, we won’t report you to the police,” the step-father said calmly after he sat at the door frame of Ji Hyo’s room for three minutes, watching Kyuhyun reading Ji Hyo’s favourite fairy tales and flipping through her drawings of her mother, their house, herself, the house, her mother, herself. The step-father’s voice didn't really mean anything to him right now.
“You’re not here,” Kyuhyun suddenly said, tapping his fingers on top of the stack of drawings, eyes watching the flock of birds in the sky through the opened window. “Excuse me?” the step-father asked him, didn't really listening to the words he had spoken. Kyuhyun turned to see his face, and he didn't really show any expression, except a raging face of someone that felt as if he had been coned, and something else. Kyuhyun wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t love or disappointment. If he had not been careful, he might have thought it was an expression of cowardliness. But oh how could that be possible? Kyuhyun might as well take a chance.
“In these pictures she drew, none of them had you in it. Why is that?” he asked, going through the drawings once again. The step-father did not answer.
“Ji Hyo... didn't really like Chae Hyun. She thought he took her father away from us,” explained her mother who came in later with three cups of tea. Her husband held her by the shoulders once she sat next to him, as if trying to comfort her. Kyuhyun pretended not to see anything and took one cup of tea from the tray.
“Kyuhyun-ssi, I hope you understand our situation and leave while you still can. Losing Ji Hyo is painful enough for me, and I don't think I need well-planned jokes to keep me reminded about the darling I’ve lost. I know I wasn’t a good mother for her, but at least show some humanity. You can always find your profit somewhere else, but I beg you, not here,” she said those words as if they didn't mean anything to her, but Kyuhyun could see her hands shaking while she tried to look composed, resting them on her thighs. Kyuhyun took a sip of the tea in his hand, and hummed.
He could understand what the mother had been through. He knew how she was tired of being disappointed after she had her hopes high, times and times again. Kyuhyun could understand that. But here’s the problem; the daughter didn't came out. Kyuhyun stayed in her bedroom, he had tried going to her school, her favorite place - the small playground only a block away from her house at night, the beach where her mother claimed to be the place they always spent their time together, the books she loved, the drawings she stored nicely inside a pink wooden box with lock under her bed. But she still refused to show up.
“Maybe she’s still alive? Maybe that’s why you can't see her,” Ryeowook suggested after three days passed. Kyuhyun bit his thumbnail hummed a disagreement tone. “I'm sure she’s...” he paused, and took a deep breath when he saw Ryeowook’s eyes were staring at him.
“You’re sure she’s what?”
“Nothing, I wasn’t saying anything,” he lied. Ryeowook grunted.
“She’s really dead? How can you be so sure?”
“Who said I'm sure? I didn't say anything about being assured, did I?” Ryeowook pinched his cheeks, hard until they went red and Kyuhyun felt sore. “Stop being a riddleman and start telling!”
So Kyuhyun told Ryeowook how he could feel the energy left by someone near the places they loved, or the things they cared the most. How people left and gone, but their energy; their warmth, their electricity, their affection will always linger around that places and things along with the memories they created with others around them. And Ryeowook went silent for a few seconds.
“Does it turns blurry by time? Maybe when they left and didn't return to the places they went, the energy faded,” Ryeowook suggested, and Kyuhyun shook his head. “It’s not that simple. If you love a place or something that you possess, would you only go there for once in your lifetime? Holding that thing you treasure once and put it back on display?”
“Probably. You know I’ve never been too attached to anything, except you,” he said, and Kyuhyun smacked his head. “Focus. Okay let’s say we’re talking about you. You don't really get too attached to anything, but there must be a time when you think about some places that you have been to, and sometimes feels like going there again, right?” Kyuhyun began to lecture, and Ryeowook tried his best to show Kyuhyun that he was giving full attention to him (which was only one third of his focus, actually).
“When you think about the place, your energy flies back to where it left a part of itself, and it regenerates the strength. It’s sort of like your mind plays its part in full throttle,” he ended, as briefly as he thought it was. Ryeowook nodded once, clasped, and then frowned.
“Don't compare my brain to a law undergraduate like you. But I get it; it’s like you unconciously use your psychic, isn’t it? So what does that have to do with Ji Hyo? I mean, how did you know she’s really dead?” Ryeowook asked, this time almost innocently.
“It’s rather simple. Dead people means no more energy regeneration. The energy that formed during the times they went to the places or around the things they frequently touched will eventually becoming faint and pale once they’re not being recharged anymore. In Ji Hyo’s case, it is there, but merely.”
“So... you mean...” Ryeowook paused, and palmed his cheeks. Probably shocked. He should be, since in the years he had been by Kyuhyun’s side, listening to his whine and how the dead people that came for his assistance weren’t in their best appearance, this was the first time Kyuhyun told him how he can actually know if you’re alive without even seeing your body to prove it.
“Yes, Ryeowook, I know she is dead, and I am really sure about this. And I'm not trying to boast or saying that I'm right to be here,” he said, leaning against the backrest of the chair he was sitting, “but she just doesn't want to find me for help. And that really puzzles me.”
Kyuhyun bit his lower lip, still trying to refresh the conversation he had with Ryeowook two days ago. It had been five days since he arrived there, and Kyuhyun didn't feel like backing out (he got an enormous pride on his head to surrender, anyway) so he need to, he couldn't believe he’s doing this, try to find this little girl’s ghost no matter where she was hiding.
“Ma’am,” he said, trying to open up a new chance with the couple, or at least the mother. “I am not leaving until I find your daughter and bring her into your arms once again. Maybe Ryeowook didn't inform you earlier, but I never demand for any payment from those I’ve given my help, and I don't intend to start it with you,” he knelt in front of the woman who now looked a little bit shocked, and bowed. “Give me just one more day, just one more day and you can send me to the police if you feel like it. Please.”
The mother stood up, straightened her clothes, and walked towards the door, exiting it when she turned back once more.
“Just one more day. That’s all you’ll have.”
-
Kyuhyun had never been in a situation like this, not even once since his talent got known and he became sort of like a local celebrity back in his place. He wasn’t really sincere in doing his parts for the society back then anyway, but who could have ignored the sense of pride and glory once people came to your house with tons of gifts and endless gratitudes for the thing he had done half-heartedly? Kyuhyun wasn’t a strong man, he admit it; he is just a mere human. So whether he liked it or not, being ignored by a dead little lady would probably be the one thing he wanted to avoid with all his might.
“Well that’s rather rude, isn’t it? Giving you a fucking specific time constraint when you don't even give a damn about their money. Now I'm feeling a tad guilty,” Ryeowook said to him the night after he begged to help the mother, handing Kyuhyun a can of light beer and sat on the swing next to where Kyuhyun was, pushed his feet slowly onto the ground, and his swing started to move. Kyuhyun said “thanks,” and took a sip.
“It doesn't really matter to me, and you didn't do anything wrong. Like you said, I could’ve said no when you offered me this case. But I came anyway,” he said, reaching out for Ryeowook’s head next to him and ruffled it up. Ryeowook didn't seem very pleased about that, so Kyuhyun giggled. “Plus,” he added, “it’s the long break before the final semester too, spending times with my useless best friend would always been a better choice than scrutinising my juniors with their assignments.”
“You beastly senior,” Ryeowook said, scrunching his nose and pushed Kyuhyun’s hand away. A few seconds later, Ryeowook’s jumper pocket buzzed and he flipped open his phone. A few nods and giggles, twisting his hair and biting his lower lip, he told Kyuhyun he had to go because Jongwoon missed him and he needs to be by his side as soon as possible. Kyuhyun nodded in understanding, and waved him a goodbye. Ryeowook ran to his side and pecked his cheek.
“For a good luck charm,” he said, and ran towards his beetle that was parked at the other end of where they were at. Kyuhyun smiled, and traced the faint warmth on his cheek. “Idiot,” he whispered, and waited for Ryeowook’s car rear lights to disappear behind a corner before he stood up and prepared to leave.
“Look’s like I need to pack my bag tonight,” he told himself as he walked away from the twin swings, when he heard a girl laughing happily near the see-saw just a few metres away from him. Kyuhyun stopped walking, and squinted his eyes as if that would help him for a better view.
There was a guy wearing a loose white t-shirt with wide neck, too wide his left shoulder was not even covered, and his collarbones were clearly seen. It was paired with a pair of black torn-up jeans, and he was giggling and smiling like an idiot. His hair was in a mess, stylish, but still a mess, and to top all that, he was barefooted. Kyuhyun felt like a deja vu; seeing a stranger twice in a week shouldn't have been a big thing, humans roam this planet after all, but there’s always something clicked inside his head whenever he saw this guy.
“I know you,” he said, finger pointed directly to the stranger’s face. With the help of the nearest street lamp behind him and the bright night sky with the round moon, he could see what a beauty this guy who was staring back at him with a pair of hazelnut-shaped eyes, looking rather doubtful and scared of him. “You’re the guy from the airport, right?”
The weird guy nodded timidly, and looked away. Kyuhyun’s brow knitted, thinking if he made any mistake talking to a stranger in the middle of the night like this.
“Should I tell him?” the guy suddenly asked, but Kyuhyun could see that he wasn’t talking to him. He was talking to the empty spot next to him. Kyuhyun waited for another response, when the guy sighed deeply.
“I don't think he would care about how you look like,” he said again, this time almost in a whisper, and Kyuhyun finally got it. “Are you talking to Ji Hyo right now? Ji Hyo-ah, are you standing in front of oppa right now?” he immediately threw away the beer can in his hand, and squatted in front of the guy who was still sitting on the see-saw, weighted on his side.
“She’s... she’s embarassed with the way... she looked right now...” the guy suddenly spoke, getting off the see-saw, and Kyuhyun could definitely see how it was weighted on the opposite end. “Wait,” he caught the guy’s arm, and he flinched. “It’s not just us three here, am I right? There’s someone else too, right?”
Tell him, you know he can help us, someone whispered. Kyuhyun felt a gush of cold wind crept on his nape, and his hair stood up almost instantly. Kyuhyun smiled and told himself that yes, his pride is safe. The guy bit his lower lip, slowly pulled his arm away from Kyuhyun’s grip and took a few steps away from him and stood frozenly.
“But... but if I did, I won’t have any friends anymore,” he said, almost crying, and Kyuhyun grabbed his hands impatiently. “If you didn't, you’ll have them suffered forever, and we don't want that, do we?” he asked, eyes trying to search and meet with the guy’s shy ones. He still stood silently, when Kyuhyun finally resorted to a rather rushed decision.
“Fine, I’ll be your friend. Is that alright?” he could feel the guy flinched once again, and this time he looked at Kyuhyun with a pair of shining eyes. Strange, he felt a strong beat in his heart.
“I... I have Ji Hyo right here to my right,” he said, pointing to the empty ground next to his right, and a girl with torn-up pink gown and a pale face, with dry blood on his left part of head made her dark brown soft hair to stick flat slowly emerged from the night dusts. Kyuhyun almost roared up with happiness, when the guy stared at him with a puzzled look.
“I'm just... too happy to have her found,” he explained even without being asked. Inside, he secretly stabbed his chest for the embarrassment. The guy nodded cluelessly, and this time, put up his finger pointing on his left.
“...and here is,” Kyuhyun clenched his teeth, and tried to stay calm. He was sure no matter who this dead guy will be, he’d be ready to face him and figure out what his problem was. He (thought he) knew.
The guy with the white shirt gestured the invisible to stand in front of Kyuhyun itself, and the way he moved and the air that surrounded them changed, Kyuhyun knew he was now facing with it. An image of a man in his thirties started to appear, from his chapped legs, and his tall figure finally formed in front of Kyuhyun with a smile.
“Hi, Mr. Young Shaman. I'm Ji Hyo’s father,” he said, and Kyuhyun’s jaw fell. The guy with the white shirt nodded, and walked to his side. Without even looking at Kyuhyun, and without even stuttering, he said,
“I'm Lee Sungmin. They came to me first because you weren’t here.”
---TBC