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deja-vux · 3 years

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At Arms Length~The Soldier & The Thief

Word Count: 3.2k+ Warnings: Mentions of death, suicide, robbery, and revenge A/N: Not gonna lie I made myself cry with this one. When the story reaches the climax I highly recommend listening to Wish We Had More Time and Already Gone by Hans Zimmer which is what I was listening to when I wrote this. Parts of this are inspired by Hotel Del Luna which I highly recommend watching other than that enjoy story #2. Reincarnate Masterlist KPOP Masterlist

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Y/N watched over the mountain top as the carriages and carts drew near. Steal the goods, that's all they had to do. As the group neared she sent her crew down the mountain. From up tope she watched as they ravaged through stealing anything worth of value they could find while fighting off the guards. As a guard approached her brother to strike him with his sword she raised her bowing to aim her arrow hitting the man’s hand. Seonghwa turned to see who his attacker was finding them shielding their face. She watched as he boarded his horse heading towards her. She quickly turned her horse, blowing her whistle signaling the others to retreat to camp. As she left she took a detour planning to lead the soldier astray and kill him. However, that plan was cut short when he knocked her off her horse causing the wind to be knocked out of her chest as it hit the floor. Coming back to her senses she quickly got up pulling out her sword. As she charged at him he hopped off his horse to counter attack. The two moved swiftly together in an almost never-ending battle that was until he knocked her off her feet in a moment of uncertainty, her scarf revealing her identity as it fell.

Entranced by her beauty yet shocked by his opponent’s appearance Seonghwa became distracted as he admired her delicate features which only puzzled him more. Before he could say or do anything else she reached for a rock hitting his head and causing him to fall over as she stood. Seonghwa quickly composed himself as she grabbed her sword both of them pointing their weapon at one another. The two began their battle once again but instead of a fight, it became more of dance as the two moved almost in sync with one another blocking one another’s move perfectly. Every time she passed by him only inches away he felt as if the world slowed around him and there was nothing but the two of them. Her stare was almost intoxicating as her infectious smirk. Only the sound of their feet shuffling and the clanging of metal could be heard as they continued their dance. Their struggle continued until it culminated gracefully with her wrapped in his arms, her chest pressed against his as her dominant hand was held behind her back. Using her current position to her advantage she closed the space between them kissing him. Caught by surprise he returned the action melting into her kiss as his heart fluttered before everything went black.

As the soldier’s body fell with a thud Y/N wiped her mouth as she picked both her sword and his off the floor before tying him up and getting him back on his horse. As Seonghwa came to his senses he awoke to find himself off the ground and on a beach his body tied to his horse as it was led by the mystery woman in front of him. Seonghwa attempted to free himself from his restraints but could not succeed. He did though manage to reach for the rag wrapped around his mouth being used to gag him. “If you're planning to use me for ransom it won’t work. I’m just another soldier among thousands,” he said, hoping to be let go.

“That may be true but I believe you're worth more than you think,” she said nonchalantly, keeping her gaze forward.

Puzzled, Seonghwa tilted his head to the side as he attempted to figure out what she was talking about. His silence caused her to stop turning her horse so she could face him both of them side by side their gaze once again locked upon one another’s. “You see, while the princess might not have blinked an eye at her jewels being stolen something else did worry her,” Y/N explained as she grabbed his chin gently, “A certain guard who has gone beyond the line to protect and serve her majesty. I’m sure you’ll be worth a pretty penny if she wants you back in one piece,” she smirked.

“We’ve only ever spoken on this journey,” he explained her touch sending chills down his spine.

“Then she’s found herself a pretty face to admire,” she clarified.

“If she did then I’m guessing so did you that’s why you kept me isn’t it,” Seonghwa teased only for his back to hit the ground as she pushed him off the horse.

Seonghwa sat up as Y/N unmounted her horse walking towards him. As she reached him he smiled up at her mischievously. He was getting under her skin which is why she reacted the way she did, which she too might have gotten the same feeling when they shared a kiss. Giving her puppy eyes and an innocent smile he tilted his head to the side waiting for her to speak when she only returned his actions with a glare he spoke up containing his composure despite his heart feeling like it was about to implode. “Your silence only further proves my point,” he said confidently.

“You’re a nuisance I don’t even know what she sees in you,” she scoffed.

“I can assure you it’s more than just my pretty face,” he said winking as she rolled her eyes, “By the way your horse is running off,” he stated calmly, causing her to turn.

He was right as she turned to run after it he took advantage to find a way out of his restraints. As she continued running she found herself running over a sinkhole quickly becoming a victim. She began to crawl and climb her way back up to no avail only sinking further and further down as water began to pour in. as she struggled she watched as he approached his arm still tied together. He chuckled softly as she watched her struggle knowing he could use it to his advantage. “If only there was someone to help,” he teased, “Too bad I’m just a nuisance with a pretty face,” he sighed.

“Help me please,” she said, dropping the tough girl’s act as her eyes filled with fear.

“Give me my sword then,” he responded.

“What?! I can’t do that especially at this moment,” she responded.

“Then I guess I can’t help you,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

As the water went over her knees weighing her into the sand even further she sighed before reluctantly throwing the sword towards him. Quickly he bound the sword to the sand cutting himself free before walking off. She watched in dismay as panic began to take over as she began to claw at anything to grip onto, her waist now buried deep in the sand. Just as she had begun to lose all hope a rope was thrown at her. Looking up to her surprise she found that the soldier had returned with both horses in tow. “Hurry grab on,” he advised as she followed his instruction before startling the horse causing it to run a few feet the force of its speed causing her to almost fly out. Just as she landed safely back on the steady ground she lost her balance, almost falling victim to the hole again until he caught her in his arms pulling her further away from the edge. As she caught her breath and turned to face him she realized the position and the current expression on his face as she held onto him for dear life. “What did I tell you I’m more than just a pretty face,” he teased. Wanting to avoid the current feeling in her chest she pushed him away grabbing his sword from the sand. Just as he was about to follow he fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Confused by Seonghwa’s sudden silence she turned to find her brother playfully tossing a rock in his hand as if it were a ball. She held back a laugh as he helped tie up the soldier once more, mounting him on the horse before returning to camp.

Weeks would go by and in a strange turn of events, the soldier and thief would bond with one another forming a strong connection. It had all started the day they were on the beach together the three of them, the only ones awake as her brother played music the other pair shared a bottle of wine. As she passed him the bottle he took note of the carving on it puzzled he turned to her. It’s a star that’s how I know it's mine,” she relieved. Putting the pieces together, he took her hand, dipping it in the water. Confused yet intrigued she watched as he moved her finger gently making lines that formed characters she had seen but could not read. Once he finished he let her take a look at the writing in the sand, “Y/N, that's how you write it,” he revealed. As he let go to take a sip of the wine he could feel his touch linger on her skin as she turned away as pink warmth spread across her cheeks. From that point on every night once everyone had gone to bed they would meet by the tree near the shore and lay against it as they told each other stories of their past, accomplishments of their present, and things they hoped to complete in their future. As the days went by the hopes of their future quickly changed to involve one another.

As she laid in his arms her side to her chest as his back was against the bark of the tree she sighed happily as the salt breeze filled her nostrils. She closed her eyes letting the moment sink in as the fire continued to crackle before them. Seonghwa gently moved her hair to the side before kissing her temple, causing her to look up at him. I wish moments like these could last forever,” she admitted.

“They can,” he encouraged, “We could run away, find a beach just like this one and build a house away from everyone else. It would only be us, the stars, the moon, and the ocean.”

She smiled at the thought, nodding softly at him, “I’d like that.”

“Then let’s leave tomorrow,” he suggested, and to his luck, she agreed, “Same time tomorrow we’ll meet here, take what we can, and go just you and I,” he concluded.

As the pair fell into slumber dreaming of what could be it would all soon be shattered. The next day while out looking for supplies Y/N’s brother pulled Seonghwa pulled him to the side telling him not to continue with his elopement with his sister as the princess they had attacked was now seeking vengeance on her for stealing her first love. “You have to let her go, leaving with her will only cause more harm than good. If you truly love my sister, let her go, break her heart so we can leave and escape together,” Y/N’s brother pleaded. Seonghwa looked at him with pain in his eyes knowing exactly what the princess was capable of when provoked. Reluctantly he agreed, begging him to promise to keep them safe. Once he did they returned with the rest of the group before returning with them to camp. Night fell and Y/N made her way over to their spot near the tree. She spent what felt like eons waiting for him to arrive slumber eventually taking over. The next morning she awoke to the end of a blade in her face.

She sat up surrounded by palace guards unarmed and alone she put her hands up in surrender. As she was put under restraint the princess stepped forward. “This should teach you not to mess with what doesn’t belong to you,” the princess spit out venomously as she tossed a necklace at her, covered in blood. As it hit the floor realization dawned upon her that she was the last of her crew. She fell to her knees as her legs went weak, a heart-piercing wail leaving her lips as she processed the death of her crew and most importantly her brother. How could she be such a fool and let a stranger let alone a palace guard into her inner circle? As they attempted to mount her onto the horse she kicked and screamed in agony as tears ran down her face. It wasn’t long till her world went black. She awoke on the cold floor of a cell she knew it wouldn’t be long until she was executed as she sat up leaning her head against the wall she heard footsteps approaching. Without bothering to turn she already knew who it was but she didn’t wish to speak to him. “Y/N please look at me I didn’t plan this,” he begged, reaching for her but she responded with nothing but silence. “Your brother and I promised one another to keep you safe, he kept his end of the bargain and I'll keep up mine. I will make this right, I promise, I won't let them hurt you,” he confessed before getting up and saying goodbye. Little did she know it’d be the last time he’d be telling her that. As dusk approached, screams could be heard from within the palace walls.

Blades clanged against one another and the smell of smoke filled the air. Soon enough people were running left and right for salvation and in the commotion, Y/N managed to steal the keys of a guard escaping from her chains. Running along the halls and corridors she watched an ally group attack and ransack the palace, their leader stumbling upon the young girl he once raised as his own. “Hurry we must leave, the young boy has only given us so much time to distract everyone,” he admitted. This was Seonghwa’s doing?! She couldn’t believe it she had to go find him. Without a word she once again ran through the halls ignoring her name being called before getting lost in the maze of corridors. Just as she heard guards approaching she was pulled into one of the rooms shushed as they ran by. “Find the traitor, I want him alive!” the captain yelled as they passed. Turning to look at him she hugged him in a tight embrace as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You have to get out of here before they see you’ve escaped,” he warned.

“What about you?” she asked, fearing where this was headed.

“It's me they’re after, not you, I’ll only slow you down. I just wish we had more time,” he chuckled.

“No, don't say that,” she choked up.

“It’s true, I’ve already been injured, the princess’ bite is worse than her bark,” he joked before revealing his bandaged wound, “Go follow the stars till you reach the shore.,” he said, placing a short but gentle kiss on her lips.

“I’m not leaving you behind,” she complained.

“I’m not giving you a choice,” he said before hiding her in the closet and storming out of the room causing a ruckus.

Caught unexpectedly she stumbled to get back up but by the time she managed to get out he was already downstairs surrounded by guards ready to be taken in. carelessly she called out his name, tears brimming her eyes as he looked up at her with the same puppy eyes and innocent smile he had given her on the day they met. A single tear slipped from his eyes as he took a deep breath sheathing his sword into his torso causing a scream to get caught in her throat as the guards dispersed from his dying body, the captain claiming him a coward as the flames grew higher causing them to evacuate. As he was left alone she staggered down the stairs to where his body laid avoiding the corpses and falling debris. She gently lifted his head into her arms as he coughed weakly. Tears now streamed down her face as she wiped the soot off his cheek, “Please stay with me,” she begged as her hands shook. He gave a weak smile as his hand wearily cupped her face as if she were made of glass wiping her tears. “What did I tell you more than just a pretty face,” he teased his voice hoarse from the smoke, “You have to go take the sword with you it’ll protect you,” he said as his eyes began to flutter.

“No, I'm not letting you die. I already lost someone important to me. I can't lose you too,” she sobbed hysterically.

“It’s okay I promise you we’ll meet again when you least expect it just like we once did,” he said hopefully.

With the last bit of strength he had, he took his hand in hers putting it on the grip of the sword forcing her to pull it out as she begged him to stop. As his eyes fell to an eternal slumber she begged for him to wake up ignoring the flames that grew higher and higher around her. Distracted, a horse ran in with its rider pulling her off the ground ignoring her protest against it as they rode out into safety. As he examined her for any injury she sniffled softly avoiding eye contact. Her heart now frozen and made of stone she took his sword wiping off the blood before finding a horse and grabbing one of the bandit’s supply bags. “Where are you going?” the leader of the bandits asked.

“To balance the scales,” she stated coldly before riding off.

2021- 1000 years later

“We have a reported robbery at the jewelry store on western and third,” the intercom stated, causing Seonghwa to turn on his lights and drive to the destination.

Not too far away he saw someone running through the streets down an alley. Quickly he chased after them, cornering them until the car could go no further. Trapped, the mysterious figure began to climb the fire escape with Seonghwa in close pursuit. As they reached the top the stranger attempted an attack which he quickly blocked. Once again their sparr had almost turned into a dance, both of them moving harmoniously in a battle of offense and defense until she took over pinning him to the ground, her scarf falling revealing her identity. Seonghwa’s eyes widened as he recognized the face in front of him. Y/N too had become stunned as she recognized the man lying underneath her. “I know you from somewhere,” Seonghwa thought aloud before the sound of sirens approaching pulled them out of their trance. Quietly Y/N stood up quickly grabbing the bag of goods to exit. Just as she was about to leave he called out to her, “Wait I can help you. I promise I won't let them hurt you,” he said standing.

“Do me a favor, stop being a nuisance and cut the act,” she shot back before dropping to the roof of the next building, escaping leaving Seonghwa stunned.

He couldn't tell where he knew her from or why she returned his comment with such playful banter all he knew was that he had to see her again.

Taglist: @a-soft-hornytiny @little-precious-baby @yeosangmystar

#seonghwa imagines #seonghwa x y/n #seonghwa x reader #park seonghwa x y/n #park seonghwa x reader #park seonghwa imagines #ateez imagines #ateez x reader #ateez x y/n #thief au #reincarnation au #ateez reactions #soldier au #non idol au #kpop oneshots #kpop reactions #kpop imagines #Deja-Vux #+×DejaVu×+

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momobani · 2 years

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THE SECRET TO THE ART OF BEING A NUISANCE

If Your Winter Is Hard - Chapter 3 - 14.1k

medium!minghao x exorcist!reader

SERIES MASTERLIST

Warnings: exorcism(duh!); discussion of ghosts + death, reference to death of family members, light violence/ fighting, mention of guns, mention of grief, mention of suicide, mention of food and alcohol consumption

Sum: you seem to find a new friend whilst an old one won’t leave you alone.

A/N: something a little more slice of life and chilled since I think we had a little too much angst last chapter haha, a little on the longer side again oops. The song rec is ‘I got ya’ by Jung Yong Hwa from the SYHH OST cuz it’s awesome and it’s now on Netflix so you best believe I’m re-watching it.

Point of reference for series: Sell Your Haunted House (and Hotel Del Luna but to a lesser extent, both amazing dramas, go watch).

Disclaimer: lot of creative licence here lol, influenced by and used a lot of ideas from Sell Your Haunted House (e.g the setting, certain plot points and prop ideas) with some adaptation, some general/ stereotypical things about exorcism you can learn from mainstream media, nothing too intricate. [seriously go watch SYHH cuz it’s incredible and underrated af and I just had to pay homage to it somehow, so here’s a whole ass fic inspired by it haha]

You slip in and out of consciousness. A distorted recollection of sounds, movements and sensations overlapping and mismatching the way the wrong puzzle pieces don’t fit together to create the bigger picture. All you know is that you make it home, into your bed and fall asleep heavily, the way gravity takes over a falling object.

Some time in the midst of your sleep, you do wake and crack your eyes open just a smidge, to check that indeed you are still alive. You’re about to drift off again but a purple blob in your peripheral vision makes you do a double take. You edge your head towards it slightly and focus. You find a sleeping lump on the floor beside your bed, the loose bedding from your spare room, covered by your sister’s purple sheets, dragged into yours and him tucked under the duvet, still in his long coat, his boots and yours discarded haphazardly by the door.

Minghao.

You just blink and close your eyes, going back to sleep.

The way your head thumps is worse than a post frat party hangover. You roll over with a grunt and slide to a sitting position, not trusting your body to keep you upright yet. Minghao is gone, the purple bedding folded up neatly and left on top of your empty desk. You wonder briefly if he went home like the first time he slept over, but you hear a loud clang coming from the kitchen.

You shuffle down the hallway, the smells and sounds reach you before you reach the room, the door left open. You see Minghao with his back turned to you as he stands at the stove, a pan on the heat and steaming away.

“You’re awake?” He says, glancing at you over his shoulder. You’re confused, not saying anything but humming in response. “Good, I was starting to get worried. Thought you’d be hungry, you like fried eggs?” He asks, but it doesn’t matter, he’s made the effort already and you appreciate it, even if this is the second time he’s meddling in your kitchen unprompted.

“Are you going to say something?” He asks, his voice quiet and the sizzling of the pan’s contents almost drowns it out. You want to but your mouth feels dry and heavy, jaw locked. Still, you try.

“Thank you.” You say, throat still raw.

“Not what I meant, but you’re welcome.” He turns off the heat. He starts looking around for something but can’t seem to find it. “Where are your plates?”

“Bottom left.” You instruct. You mean the low cupboard to his left. He bends, scanning for the plates but the light barely reaches there and he struggles to see. He crouches, folding himself up like a little frog about to jump away and finally finds what he’s looking for.

“It’s so damn dark in here, how do you even see.” He mutters. “Seriously, you’re damaging your eyes like this.” He nags. You’re just standing there, looking at him, the way you watch daytime TV without engaging with it.

“It’s light enough.” Then you reach for the cutlery drawer. Minghao has the same idea and your hands land on the handle at the same time, pinkies brushing as you pull at it. You move your hand away, not wanting to draw attention to your bruised and bloody knuckles. You pluck out two forks and let him shut it after you.

The two of you sit at your weathered table with the plate of fried eggs between you. You’d find it odd, being comfortable to have breakfast with someone you’re not close with yet, but you didn’t have the energy to find it awkward, didn’t have the brain power to overanalyse the situation due to the grogginess of your present state.

“You want to talk about it?” He asks after you’ve started to nibble on a piece of egg. You hesitate for a second. Maybe because his tone is soft, gentle almost, as if he’s coaxing a tiny animal out of its cage for the first time. But no, you didn’t. It’s not easy to admit you broke down even if he could see that. So you shake your head. “Okay.”

You eat for a minute. But it’s bugging you.

“What happened after I left?” You inquire after struggling to stop yourself. Minghao chews, as if considering it, then puts his fork down.

“Hmm, there was a tense silence. You sure know how to make an exit.” He says jokingly, but you can tell he’s not making fun of you. “We were debating going after you but Jeonghan said to give you space. So everyone kind of left after that.”

“But you came anyway.” Your words hang in the stuffy air of your basement. “Why?” Minghao shrugs.

“Intuition. I felt like something bad might happen if I didn’t.” He says simply. “I’d remembered that photo of you and your sister at the beach. I saw it when I was here.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“And let you freeze out there by yourself?” He raises his eyebrows at you accusingly. His face softens after a moment. “I mean, you just hired me, what kind of employee would I be if I let my boss die of hypothermia on the first day.”

“I guess.”

You finish the eggs then down some painkillers with a warm glass of water. You’re starting to feel like a person again. Minghao stacks the plate next to the sink and turns to you.

“Listen, I have a class to teach in a bit, but how about after I come pick you up and we go to IKEA?”

You almost sputter with confusion, the water incredibly close to going down the wrong way.

“IKEA? Out of nowhere, why?” You ask.

“No offence but, uh,” he pauses.

“If you start a sentence with ‘no offence’ there’s probably going to be a lot of offence.” You find it in yourself to sass back.

“Okay, fine. Full offence but your kitchen is way too dark, you don’t have enough mugs and that bookcase looks like it’s about to collapse.” He juts his chin toward the bookshelf that takes up the farthest wall of the room, its shelves stuffed to the brim with books bulging to the point of bursting. You lick your lips.

“I’m not offended. It’s pretty constructive criticism. But I’ll decline.”

“What are you going to do instead?” He persists. “Go back to bed?”

“Jeez,” you sigh. When he said it like that, it sounded a little pathetic. “You don’t have to be like that.”

“Like what? I’m just trying to get you to go outside, the fresh air will help.” You watch him for a moment; his face is neutral, as if he’s only speaking factually than persuasively. There’s a part of you that agrees with him and knows he’s right but it’s still annoying.

“Yeah, I’m sure that new furniture smell will work its wonders.” You deadpan at him, voice coloured with sarcasm. “Alright. Let’s go. I like shopping therapy anyway.”

“Good, I’ll see you later.”

You see him out, then shower. The heat of the water cleanses you inside and out, it warmth caressing your skin and you watch as the dried blood from your knuckles slides down the drain. When you get out with the steam following you, you open the tiny cabinet above the sink and something falls out immediately. You pick it up.

A new pack of plasters.

There’s also antiseptic and some bandage dressing.

You feel an overwhelming warmth, unbearable hotness even, and you blame it on how steamy your shower was before leaving the bathroom.

While you wait, you find yourself in the upstairs office, reading through some files on recent cases involving vengeful spirits while a series of worried texts from Seungkwan ping your phone in succession. You text him once to say you’re fine and leave it at that. He doesn’t know much about why you are the way you are with Jeonghan and you’d rather keep it that way.

Minghao offers to drive again and you let him when he guessed you were tired. It was a good call since if you were behind the wheel, you’d have crashed already. All because something is immensely weird about him when he comes back. The car is filled with an incessant noise and it’s starting to drive you crazy: Minghao’s voice.

He talks rapidly, switching from topic to topic as the conversation (you’re not sure you can call it that since you haven’t actually said anything) morphs and grows. It’s an endless monologue and he goes from the weather (“It’s so cold for mid October, it must be one of those climate change effects.”), to the traffic (“I swear this road is never that busy, what is going on today? Just look at that!”), then about his class and how his students are bailing on him (“There’s just less and less and I’m wondering where the hell are they all going?”), circling back to the traffic when a car cuts across your lane (“Motherfucking asshole, you call that driving? Fucking stay in your lane, you piece of shit!”) and by that point you’re for the most part mentally checked out.

It’s like he compiled a lifetime of things to say and decided to unburden them on you all of a sudden. He’s like one of those pro-drivers doped up on caffeine and the nervous shaking starts to kick in except with Minghao it’s just him running his mouth like it’s an Olympic sport.

It’s somewhere at the intersection before the retail park that he realises what he’s doing.

“What the hell is wrong with me? I can’t stop talking, I swear I haven’t talked this much in the past week combined. I have no idea where this is all coming from.”

“You could become one of those Soundcloud rappers. Like Vernon.” You mutter absentmindedly.

You’re waiting at a red light, your car at the front of the line. You watch as it goes from red, to amber to green. Then it hits you.

“Oh my god, it’s the ghost!” You exclaim, your brain finally starting to shift gears. Minghao jumps slightly at your sudden outburst, trying his best to keep the wheel steady. “Of course it is, how could I have not figured it out, yet?” You mentally slap yourself. It made so much sense.

“Don’t scare the driver while the car is in motion!” He grips the steering wheel harder, visibly stressed.“What are you talking about? I’m not possessed anymore.” He pulls the car into a parking spot.

“Sometimes there are side effects, well more like after effects of an exorcism. There’s usually the ghost’s last memory that goes to the exorcist, though occasionally to the medium, and more rarely, there’s certain habits in the ghost’s life that stick to the exorcist or the medium afterward.” You explain, finally getting a word in edgewise. “For example, one time I kept craving chewing gum out of nowhere. Yesterday, I saw the memory but it seems that you picked up how talkative that lady was.”

“Great, that’s just amazing.” Minghao groans, his head banging against the headrest. “Tell me it goes away, I can’t stand it anymore.”

“You’ll be fine, it does go away after a few hours.” You reassure him. “Might have to buy duct tape but it’ll be fine.” You say under your breath as you both get out the car.

It’s drizzling slightly, the skies grey and heavy with the promise of more rain so you walk quickly towards the store. You pass a tiny locksmith shop in the retail park and something makes your feet stop short. You think of the spare key under your camellia pot, considering stopping by but you decide against it. There was nothing wrong with the actual locks, it was just Jeonghan abusing the key’s hiding spot.

Minghao notices you’ve stopped and paces back two steps.

“What is it?”

“Remind me to put the spare key in the bird feed.” You say to him. He looks perplexed but shrugs and you continue walking.

The store is hardly bustling but there’s a number of people around. While you walk around, time just passes by like a breeze. You end up arguing about which bookcase would suit the living room better, and you end up getting a matching set of three; two Billies and a Brimnes since there’s enough space along that wall to line the them up.

Your trolley gets fuller with a set of four tea cups (Färglar), a tea pot at Minghao’s insistence (Hembjuden), and a lamp that materialises while you’re not looking at the trolley (Tårgarp). You start to suspect that Minghao has a hidden agenda and he just subtly wants to redecorate your house.

You were busy looking at a metal lantern for candles. It just seemed like it would fit in with how ancient everything was in your house.

“Oh c’mon, it’s a little tacky, no?” Minghao protests when you add it to the trolley.

“Hey, don’t chat shit about Borbry.” You put your hands on either side of lantern, pretending it has ears. Minghao exhales dramatically.

“Fine, at least get two because one lantern isn’t going to solve the problem.”

You frown but ultimately concede and pull another one off the shelf, then take a good look at what you’ve already compiled and notice a box that says ‘Störtskön’. You look closer and raise your eyebrows.

“Scented tea lights? Really?” You examine the photo of little Bordeaux coloured candles.

“It’s for the vibes.”

“Are you inviting yourself to my house for tea?”

“Maybe.” Minghao evades the question by pushing the trolley and continuing down the aisle. His nonchalance makes you snort with disbelief. Now you were sure he had an agenda; he was just redecorating his new work place. You roll your eyes and follow him.

There’s nothing else you can think of needing to get while you’re there so you line up at the checkout. The cashier is an older lady with shiny white hair and a pair of spectacles. You think the way they perch on the bridge of her nose makes her look like an owl, wise and wide-eyed.

“Hello there, dears. Is that all for you today?” She asks sweetly and you muster up a genuine smile.

“Yes, thank you.” And you let Minghao bag things while you pay.

“That’s a nice ring, sugar, did your husband get it for you?” She asks, nodding her head toward Minghao as you put your card in the machine. You look up in surprise. In your peripheral vision you spy that Minghao’s ring is also on display as deals with the bags.

“Huh-”

“Oh you must be newly weds, look at you two! How lovely! Hey, let me get you two darlings a coupon. It’s so hard for young people these days-”

Minghao starts to open his mouth, obviously to attempt to protest, but you click your tongue quietly and nudge him with your foot. She looks way too happy to believe that and you don’t have the heart to say anything. He stops mid-breath and clamps his lips shut. And you pay and accept the piece of paper with a smile, teeth shiny on display.

“Aww, thank you ma’am, that’s so sweet! You have a good day now. Let’s go, honey.” You start to prod Minghao toward the door.

“All that for a coupon?” Minghao hisses through his teeth as you leave the store, pushing the trolley with your bags and boxed bookcases.

“Oh calm down.”

“You conned an old lady! Why did you do that for?” He asks accusingly. You scoff at the audacity of his question.

“Please, I didn’t con her; she assumed and didn’t give us time to correct her.” You explain. “Besides, she looked happy thinking we were some cute couple. Let her. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” And it stings, the conviction with which you say that. You knew better than anyone else to let people live under their own illusions - after all, those who didn’t believe in ghosts lived happier lives for the most part.

“Whatever. Next time you con someone, count me out, honey.” He huffs as he opens the trunk. His words ring out with an air of annoyance and it peeves you. You load the car and decide to drive on the way back.

The ride is silent.

You’re almost grateful the after effects of the exorcism are wearing off but you’d much preferred it when Minghao couldn’t shut up to this silence. You can hear yourself breathe and whilst usually it wouldn’t bother you, today it did.

“Are you that mad?” You ask him after a while. Minghao is staring out the window. It’s raining heavily now, the drops hitting the glass and sliding down the surface rapidly. He responds to the sound of your voice.

“Wha- No. Of course not, I already forgot about that. I was just thinking.” He says. You feel his eyes on you, inquisitive and quiet. It makes you feel observed. You guess he wants to ask something and you think you can predict what it is. You sigh as you stop at a red light.

“Just ask. I don’t care.” You keep your eyes on the road. Minghao shifts a little, adjusting his seat belt even though it clearly wasn’t bothering him.

“Who is Jeonghan, really? And why do you hate him so much?” His voice is soft and unimposing, and whilst you predicted the subject of the query, you didn’t predict the way he asked. He had asked this morning if you wanted to talk about it, but you’d assumed it was about the running away and going a little crazy, not specifically about him.

Nonetheless, it makes you hesitate since you don’t know where to begin and where to stop about Jeonghan.

“I don’t hate him.” You find yourself pondering the origin and verity of the statement. The light switches to green and you rev the engine.

“You don’t?”

“No. It’s complicated.” And you hate that you sound so vague but there’s no other way to even start trying to explain. Your think your heart starts to twist in your chest but you answer. “Jeonghan was part of our firm. A while ago.” You say carefully. “My aunt had taken him in as an apprentice after my sister introduced him.”

You remember so distinctly meeting him for the first time. His hair was this light brown shade and he wore a thick, black parka, his hands stuffed in its pockets. You were still in high school back then, your sister in college, but you’d been helping in the office for years already.

You were standing on the staircase, looking down at the three of them. Jeonghan noticed you first and sent a smile your way, his eyes crinkling. Somewhere in the back of your mind you wondered, was he going to stick around? It was clear your sister liked him a lot, but it didn’t matter how much you liked or loved someone, they would still leave you.

You’d learned that when your parents had left you to grow up in the office with your grandparents and aunt. You’d wondered if Jeonghan was going to be like your family too that day.

“He and my sister were close. They were dating but they tried not to show it.” You feel the corner of your mouth tug up at the memory. You don’t realise that you’re already parked in front of the house but you stay there, reminiscing.

All those times your sister shooed you out so she could talk on the phone in your shared room, the smile apparent in her voice. The times you caught them looking at each other across the office, something magnetic but secret between them. One time, you even remember Jeonghan trying to wipe what resembled the shade of lip tint your sister wore off his mouth discretely when you entered the kitchen for lunch. They really weren’t as slick as they thought.

“For a while we all worked here. Then my aunt retired and left those two in charge with me as a trainee.” You continue. “After my sister died, he couldn’t bear being in the house. So he left.” Like everyone else, but you don’t say that out loud. You were always the one getting left behind, you were used to it.

You leave out the gruesome details and lore of what lead to your sister’s death, not wanting to scare Minghao away already since he’d only just started working as a medium. If he knew truly how dangerous it was, he’d surely leave too and even if you weren’t attached to him yet, you kind of liked having him around. You did have people around you anyway, but all kept away at an arm’s length. The other guys didn’t know anything so it was easy to keep up the pretence.

The pretence of what? Of not being emotionally scarred and resenting the person who you thought was your brother?

“He’s back though. And he wants to help, why not let him try?” Minghao suggests gently. You know it’s not coming from a bad place but you’re not willing to think about that right now.

“He’ll try anyway, you don’t know him like I do.” You say, referring to Jeonghan’s ability of weaselling his way out of or into anything he set his mind to. “Let’s go, you have shelves to help me assemble.”

You bribe Minghao into helping you by immediately starting to brew some tea, rushing to wash your new pot and mugs. He agrees, giving you a sarcastic salute and a Mickey Mouse ‘Aye, aye, Captain.’ You glare at him and point towards the old bookcase.

“Dismantle that first, matey.” You say. “And be careful, some of those books are older than the house.”

The farthest wall of the living room is the biggest and emptiest out of all of them; the bookcase was the only thing against it beside a large trunk with a multitude of clasps. The connecting wall was the one where the windows were, both aged, large and single paned. One of them had a wide windowsill, wide enough to sit on and sometimes you would with a blanket and a book, watching the shadows of the outside change as the day did from your makeshift reading nook.

Inside the trunk was a collection of supplies that you never bothered to store in a proper cabinet. Mostly supplies from Joshua that you weren’t immediately using; several boxes of salt bullets, a collection of different styled exorcist blades, a couple of spare salt dispensers and a few unused candles.

You pour the tea into the pot, feeling the ghost of giddiness wash over you as you then partition some into two of your new mugs, a duo of pastel turquoise ceramic pieces with those tiny plate thingies. They’re kinda cute, you had to admit.

“Hey, what’s with the book Tetris over here?” Minghao asks suddenly. You look over there and see he’s broken through to the second layer of books on the shelf. You’d put the important exorcist books as a front layer so you could access them quickly. The other stuff behind it was just a miscellaneous bunch of paperbacks that you’d read and forgotten about.

“It’s called conserving space.” You reply. “Tea’s ready.”

“‘Kay.” He says, turning back to trying to take out more books. This layer has the spines turned around for some reason you can’t recall right now but you’re sure there must have been some thought behind it. “Oh my god. What is this?” You hear Minghao’s fake gasp as he plucks one of the paperbacks and holds it up, his lips forming an exaggerated ‘o’.

You zero in on the cover but can’t quite read the letters from the distance. Fortunately Minghao starts to read the title for you.

“‘Alpha’s Tempta-’”

Oh that’s why the spines were turned around.

“Ahhh!” You shriek and make a bee-line for Minghao. He’d managed to unearth your cringey collection of romance novels, if they could even be graced with that title because they were thoughtlessly pumped out by the authors, to hell with artistic integrity. He sees you coming and holds the book above his head so you can’t reach it whilst trying to read the blurb.

“It’s nothing-”

“Nah, it’s definitely something. ‘A steamy supernatural romance set in the city.’” He reads out. “Wow, YN, didn’t think you were into this sort of thing.” He positively giggles as you struggle. The sound would surprise you because it’s the first time you’re hearing it but you’re too busy hopping up and down trying to smack the book out of his hand and the death grip he’s got on it.

“It’s not even mine, it’s my sister’s.” You lie, almost managing to make contact with it.

“Hmm, I don’t believe you, should I go ask her?” He looks around, as if scanning the room for your sister’s ghost.

“Ugh, fine, just put it down.” You start to pant from all the jumping. You needed to work on your cardio.

“Don’t wanna.” He giggles some more, clearly enjoying teasing you. You decide to change tactics. You direct a hand slice at his abdomen and knock the breath out of him. While he’s caught off guard enough and his arms falters, you snatch the book before he recovers.

“Go drink your tea, I’ll deal with the rest.” You huff, your blood rushing around your body. Definitely needed to work on your stamina. Minghao pouts but complies. You shoo him away and get to work.

“So which one is it?” You ask Minghao, quizzing him on the case you were currently looking at. You had two possible identities of the spirit and there were several factors that gave clues as to the conclusion of who it was you were looking for.

You’re sitting behind your desk in the main office area, Minghao taking up Hoshi’s usual spot at the opposite desk. It’s been a few days and you’ve settled into some kind of routine. Minghao teaches his classes and comes in to help you with research and planning for a few hours each day, no particular pattern to his presence but a quick text and the revving of a motorcycle engine a while after. While he’s away you’re working on finishing some filing and writing reports on your previous exorcisms. It was mostly a document editing exercise but it had to be done.

“I think it’s the older one. He seems like he has more reasons to stick around and he lived closer so it’s likely he would go to that station. We still need to see his face to know for sure, but it’s probably him.” Minghao answers, his analysis as accurate as you were expecting.

You were impressed with how well he was adapting to the job, following up leads and logic smoothly. Usually you got some bizarre conspiracy theories from your mediums and whilst it was fun sometimes, you would end up more confused and doubting your own ideas and experience because they presented those slightly skewed points of view. Every once in a while they might even be on to something so you didn’t discourage them from thinking outside the box, but it was kind of nice to work with someone who at least acknowledged that the box existed for a reason.

“That’s what I thought, it’s the more obvious choice but we’ll know for sure when we go check it out later.”

“Isn’t it a little risky though? There’s a lot of trains on that line.”

“We won’t actually go on the tracks, we just need to see the ghost. Judging from the reports, it must be a vengeful spirit so we better be careful. We’ll have to summon him somewhere secluded.” You explain.

“Right, what’s the deal with vengeful spirits anyway? Like I get they’re more dangerous but how?”

“They are more dangerous - their negative energies are stronger than normal spirits who are just lost or don’t know they’re dead yet. They hold strong grudges or stay because they’ve been incredibly wronged and so it translates to them being able to channel those energies better than other ghosts. That means that they can hurt those still living.” You hadn’t worked many vengeful spirit cases in your career but you knew about them since your sister and Jeonghan had while you were a trainee.

“There’s probably another reason why the man became a vengeful spirit. All we know is that his investment went under and he lost everything. Maybe we’re missing something.”

You shake your head.

“He committed suicide, that’s enough to become a vengeful spirit.” You say. “Records show that about 8.5 times out of 10, those who become ghosts after suicide end up as vengeful spirits. You could be right that there’s something in particular related to his investment but we can operate on the basis that it’s because of the nature of his death.”

“Okay, so all we have to do is ID him and then exorcise him.” Minghao stands up, hands on hips, clearly satisfied. “Now let’s go eat, I’m starving, I skipped lunch ‘cause I had a class.”

“Sure, gimme a sec.” you say, packing your bag. You have a salt dispenser, gun, incense and five crystals - a selection of amethyst, calcite, ruby, tourmaline and obsidian. Best to cover as many bases as possible. You also make sure you’ve got your wallet, phone and umbrella, as well as some of those tiny IKEA candles Minghao bought last week. Who knew they’d come in handy.

“Should we take the bike or the car?” Minghao asks as you move to lock up the office. You now held on to Minghao’s spare helmet since you were the only one that used it. You click the lock. It had stopped raining for the day and the air was damp and humid, the atmosphere fresh but still a little wet.

“The subway.” You say and start heading down the street, toward where you could find an entrance to the metro.

You each get a day pass, getting into the first train car that you see. You have no particular plan of where you’re going to eat since you’re focused on why you got in the train in the first place. You wanted to analyse the inside of the car purposefully. It could be a good space for an exorcism, at least that’s what your theory was. You couldn’t be more wrong.

It’s cramped inside, the seats lining up each side only breaking over where the doors were. The space between the two sides was only two metres wide and there was no way you could risk a fight scene in here. One or both of you might end up with a concussion or worse.

So that’s out of the question. Instead you have a good look if you could use the car for a different purpose.

Minghao sits obliviously next to you, checking the map so you know where you can get off. That and probably what restaurants are nearby because you can hear the quiet rumble of his stomach. You feel a little bad you hadn’t gone grocery shopping recently so your fridge was empty. You lived alone so you managed to survive on whatever you found lying around so it didn’t occur to you to buy a lot of food.

You glance at the map too, looking over his shoulder. The next stop was around a park, the police station and some restaurants on the main street. Not bad.

You stand up and take another careful look around the car. You note the positioning of the poles and the overhead railing where handles were dotted around the car for those standing up. You spy two CCTV cameras above the doors at each end connecting the car to the rest of the train. You could work with that.

“What do you want to eat?” Minghao asks suddenly, waiting next to you in front of the sliding doors.

“I’m thinking chicken.” You say, a smirk threatening to appear on your lips as you formulate a plan in your head.

And you do eat chicken. There’s a quant little shop not far from the subway stop with crispy, delicious fried chicken that you imagine could move mountains and stop wars. You order two portions to eat and one to takeaway, Minghao shooting you a questioning glance when you do. You nod a subtle ‘trust me’ at him and sit down in a booth. The mouthwatering smell inside the restaurant is overwhelming and you feel your own stomach starting to growl.

“You know, I was thinking about how vengef-” Minghao starts. You shoot him a warning glare to watch his words.

“Not. In. Public.” You mouth at him. He almost rolls his eyes at you and looks around your table. There’s hardly anyone around in the shop and no one within a few metres of your booth, unlikely to hear your conversation. But you stand by what you said.

“I was thinking you need to train a little. These - clients - are more dangerous, I could teach you a few things too.” You’re taken aback by the suggestion, the offer coming as a surprise in some ways. You hadn’t thought about purposefully practicing your fighting skills with Minghao but it had definitely crossed your mind that you needed to improve, specifically in terms of your fitness.

“Alright, we can do that tomorrow then, we’re expecting Seungkwan and Vernon in the evening for a meeting but there’s time before that.” You agree.

“You can come to the studio, I only have one morning class.” Minghao says.

“We can go to Hoshi’s building; there’s a gym space there and it saves one of us a trip. I was going to ask him for help anyway.”

The chicken is worth every penny and you can’t help but close your eyes as you take a bite, the crunch echoing loudly in the crevices of your head, the intensity of how good the taste is making your brain melt consequently. You definitely chose the right place.

You open your eyes and find Minghao looking at you. He averts his eyes down to his own chicken when you catch him and you get self-conscious. He must have been judging you in that quiet and inconspicuous way of his. You don’t let it bother you though because that chicken deserves the reaction it got. You’ll be coming back for sure.

It’s starting to get dark already by the time you’re out of the restaurant and you take a moment to get your bearings. To your left was the way back to the subway, straight ahead was a main street with shops and to your right was the way to the police station.

You swivel right and walk, expecting Minghao to follow. He does after a heartbeat.

“What’s next?” He asks, his large stride slower than your pace. Damn him and his long legs.

“We’re making a delivery then going to see the ghost.” You say before telling Minghao the rest of the plan in detail.

When you arrive outside the station, you fish out your phone and make a phone call. It rings once, twice and on the third, he picks up.

“Are you at the station? I need a favour and I brought payment.” You say into the phone.

“I’ll be right down.” A voice replies on the other side. You wait for a couple of minutes and hear the entrance doors sliding open.

Wonwoo emerges from the building in a thick jumper, jeans and bomber jacket, the arsenal of action and non-action cops, his lanyard hanging around his turtle neck. He walks down the low steps to where you’re standing.

“Hey, Wonwoo.” You greet, smiling at your friend.

“Hi guys, what’s up?” He smiles back. You hold up the bag containing the box of fried chicken, its powerful aroma no match for the foil it was wrapped up in or the greased up cardboard of the box. Wonwoo’s eyebrows shoot up, his glasses sliding down his nose slightly.

“For you.” You hand it to him. He takes it hesitantly after glancing over each shoulder.

“What’s the occasion?” He adjusts his glasses, pushing them by the bridge with a single finger.

“Just a little gift. I keep my promises.” You shrug innocently.

“Did you break the law again?” Wonwoo asks suddenly alarmed. You hear Minghao choke on air next to you. You scoff.

“Please, I never broke the law. I’m not Jeonghan or my sister.”

“Oh right,” Wonwoo nods, clearly recalling the incident. “That was them. Then what is it?”

“You know how you did that stuff with the museum system, can you do it again?” You ask. “Pretty please?”

“What exactly do you need?”

“I need to locate an immobile train car within half a mile of here and cut CCTV on us.” You pause, thinking. That should do it for now, but you might need more for the actual exorcism.

“Alright, can do. Can’t guarantee it’s going to be that close though. It’s not the full job, is it?” He checks.

“No, just identifying the ghost. Look at you, learning how exorcisms work.” You praise Wonwoo.

“No problem, give me fifteen minutes and I’ll send you a location. After that it’s easy, you just need to give me a serial number and we’ll be good to go.”

True to his word, Wonwoo texts you the location of an out of service train along the tracks a few stops from where you are and instructions on how to get there through different staff entrances. So you and Minghao head to it as the late afternoon gets darker.

Within forty minutes you’re standing in front of the empty train. You’re underground somewhere in the city centre, the tunnels deserted and eerily quiet, you can’t even hear the other trains. You imagine the rush hour that must be starting on the working lines and shudder.

The location, as Wonwoo predicted, was not as close as you’d liked it to have been but it would have to do for now. The reason you needed it closer was primarily because it would be harder to summon the ghost - very often apparitions were tied to one place, and the reports you’d received were close to the chicken shop stop, so it was more likely you’d find your ghost in that area.

“Well this sure isn’t creepy.” Minghao says as you stand outside the train and text Wonwoo that you’d arrived. He tells you how to open the door in front of you and then where to look for the CCTV serial number.

You spend a good few minutes trying to locate the code, several tiny letters and numbers printed on the side of the camera itself. You resort to sitting on Minghao’s shoulders in order to get close enough to the camera to see it since that particular spot has no seat next to it. You’re grateful there’s no one to witness your circus act even though you two will always know it happened. You don’t waste energy on awkwardness though since you’re working.

Wonwoo warned you that it’s possible there are rail line workers in the area and that you should be weary of them in case they do show up nearby.

“I gotta ask, how the hell did you manage the gallery exorcism without Wonwoo’s help?” Minghao asks after a while when you’ve located the serial number and texted it to Wonwoo to work on.

“That’s the funny thing, most exorcisms don’t require this sort of extensive outside help. Very often, depending on the strength of the spirit’s energies, electrical appliances go haywire and malfunction though it’s very hit or miss.” You say as you open up your bag. “This particular time, we checked the gallery thrice over and found that the cameras had a lot of blindspots. They were concentrated at the entrance and exit points and not so much on the actual art. Ironic right? Probably ‘cause it’d be impossible to just carry out most of that art because it’s heavy or there’s security walking around on intervals.”

“Yeah, the security isn’t that great. I was actually half asleep when the ghost possessed me. When I woke up after you exorcised it out of me, I thought I’d had some kind of crazy sleep walking episode or you’d drugged me.” He laughs at the thought. “Turns out it was just a supernatural phenomenon.”

“You’d be surprised how easily explainable some things are if you just open your mind.” You shrug as you pull out the salt dispenser, crystals, candles and incense. Minghao hums in response but doesn’t say anything else whilst he watches you. You remind yourself he’s still new to all this and he’s probably focusing hard in order to learn properly.

First you open the salt and crouch to the floor of the car. You start drawing a circle, your hand steady with well-learned precision and concentration. Without breaking the line, you draw a pentagram all in one fluid motion. Next you place the crystals at each point of the star, making sure that they’re nestled on top of the salt nicely. Then you place a candle in the space between each point within the circle and the pot of incense in the centre of the pentagram.

“So this is what a bat signal for ghosts looks like.” Minghao muses in fascination from his spot on the seats. You smirk at the comparison.

“Sure, let’s call it that.” You agree, pulling out a lighter from your pocket. It has metallic casing with an indented image of a daisy on the body. You flip open the lid and click it to spark the flame. The tiny light appears and you light the candles before the incense and put the lid on it. The faint smoke starts to waft from the pot, carried gently through the air.

“You remember the plan?” You ask Minghao while you wait, legs crossed and gun in hand as you sit across from him.

“Yup, get behind you when the ghost comes. It’s quite simple, y’know.” He answers.

You know it is, for him at least. For you it wasn’t complicated either - all you had to do was isolate the ghost with several bullets and identify the face of the spirit. You found this part of exorcisms a little tedious; usually you treated it as part of one of your scouting missions but lately you were falling into a different work pattern because of working with Minghao.

You remember how you used to go on these missions with your sister instead of her resident mediums, usually freelancers from the Council or she’d take Jeonghan, and you suspected that they treated these times like dates, going ghost hunting, how romantic. You sigh at the thought. There was nothing romantic about the way the lights started flickering.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Minghao asked as he craned his neck around to watch the bulbs switch on and off on the ceiling.

“It can sometimes. The ghosts you’ve seen so far have been a cake walk compared to vengeful spirits.” You tell him, watching the shadows flit across his features as the overhead light changes. It highlights the curve of his jaw, the length of his nose and the height of his cheekbones.

And then you hear the buzzing before the lights above you spark and darkness befalls the car. Minghao flinches, curling in on himself for a split second. You sit still, unbothered. The lights are fried completely, giving out under the meddling energies coming from the ghost. You’re still alone in the car, the door to one end open. The candles are still lit, their flames dancing in the darkness.

Suppose the candlelight could be considered romantic, you think in the back of your mind. Then again, you weren’t sure you wanted to be romantic with coworkers; see how it worked out for your sister. You try to focus again on the task at hand and the darkness you sat in.

Minghao is visibly on edge, his posture stiff and tense, his eyes wide open in anticipation. You’re alert too but you knew it could take a long time so there was no use in working yourself up from now. All this was normal when it came to vengeful spirits; it had been a while but you found yourself almost comfortable because you’d experienced this all before.

It all takes you back, sitting in the dark waiting for a ghost. The last time you’d dealt with a vengeful spirit was last year with Hoshi, whose reaction was so much worse than Minghao’s. When the lights got busted Hoshi was grabbing your arm and starting to hyperventilate. You can’t even imagine if you had to finish one of these with Seokmin, who no doubt would start shrieking his head off after the first flicker.

Something about seeing Minghao being able to withstand whatever he was feeling made you a little proud.

“You want me to hold your hand?” You ask, your mouth moving on its own accord. Not exactly sure where that came from. Minghao frowns when he meets your eyes, unimpressed at the subtle teasing lilt to your tone. “Just kidding.” You raise your hands in defence. As you say that you notice your breath frosting in front of you, the chill in the air becoming apparent as instantly as it happened. That meant the ghost was nearby.

It settles over you, cutting frost, setting off a tsunami of goose bumps on your skin, the exposed areas and everything covered by your warm clothes. It makes you feel palpitating dread, the type that makes you almost choke on the air in your lungs. You knew it was coming but it was still utterly disorientating to suddenly be so uncomfortable and you had to admit, scared.

You spy the fog in the corner of your eye and take two steps forward to actually grab Minghao’s hand and pull him to your side, holding your gun up to your lips as a sign to be quiet. His hand is freezing in yours and you see how he’s paled greatly even in the darkness, the energy draining away from his face. You step up onto the seat behind you and pull him up too.

There’s faint grey smoke floating into the train car, crawling along the floor, the candlelight distorting its colour and battling against its strength, the light there starting to flicker too. The fog gets thicker and it’s finally followed by the apparition itself.

He’s a shadow at first, almost human like as he glides into the space. He’s wearing dark clothes from what you can make out. You’re gripping Minghao’s hand intuitively, trying to ground him as the ghost gets closer. You plant your eyes on where the ghost’s face is and focus. The light just about reaches him, his transparent features becoming clearer by the second.

You recognised him.

It was the man who you’d been talking about in your office, the failed investor who’d ended his own life. He walks in, calmly enough for a vengeful spirit and you must think it’s the lovely scent of the tiny candles that helped subdue him. Once he passes by you, you nudge Minghao toward the exit.

He gets the hint and steps as quietly as possible, crab shuffling to the edge of the seat then down to the floor with you in tow. You raise your gun slowly, stealthily as the ghost has his back to you. He’s moved further past your pentagram setup and so you shoot rapidly, aiming to create a series of walls around the spirit. The ghost stops abruptly as if he noticed something.

The walls materialise as the bullets hit the ground where you aimed, the energy flaring upwards and isolating the ghost. You move quickly, letting go of Minghao’s hand and dropping to the ground, blowing out the candles and incense. You take out a heatproof bag and throw them all in your backpack, grabbing the crystals in one hand and shoving the whole thing back in.

The ghost is thankfully quiet and just looking around himself as if he could see the walls, but his perplexed state is starting to agitate him, the walls barely shimmering there in the dark but their energy must be starting to bother him. He attempts to keep walking but hits a wall, the energy visibly repelling him and he hits at it with a transparent hand.

“Let’s go before the walls dissipate and he gets mad.” You usher Minghao away. He was staring in fascination the whole time, both at you and at the ghost’s mime act. You don’t blame him, the sight must be interesting to those who have never seen anything quite like it but you want to remind him that once those walls fall away, there’s no telling what the ghost might do. Vengeful spirits could control energies better, maybe even purposely and if he perceives you then things could turn sour very quickly.

You start to jog away, back the way you came through the staff routes and back out to where the main part of the station was. Your legs are not used to the running so you’re puffing by the time you stop in front of the other platform.

“You saw him right?” Minghao asks, his voice even despite the running. You felt a pang of jealousy when you see he hadn’t even broken a sweat. Meanwhile you were panting with your tongue all but dangling from your gapping mouth.

“It’s our guy. He was pretty calm for a vengeful spirit, let’s hope he stays that way.” You reply. “Good job not freaking out. We’re done for the day, let’s go back.”

“Actually, I can catch the line here, is it okay if I leave my bike at yours? I’ll be there tomorrow.” You notice Minghao has his hands stuffed in his pockets but you don’t have to imagine he’s probably a little shaken, maybe enough to not want to drive. You nod.

“No problem. Text me when your class if over. We can meet in front of Hoshi’s.” And you part ways, headed in the opposite directions.

You take several steps and something compels you to turn around. You watch as Minghao walks away, shoulders tensed and hands still deep in his pockets, the nonchalance he was attempting to exude not quite intact. You wondered if he was actually scared of the ghost; the energies of this type of spirit could really mess with your head even if you were used to it. If the effect was kinda strong on you, you worried it might have been too strong on Minghao.

“I’m starting… to… regret this.” You just about manage to huff out, completely breathless as you follow Minghao curving around the corner of the block. He’s keeping a steady pace a few feet in front of you, visibly trying hard to slow down so he doesn’t leave you behind.

“We’re almost there, it’s literally been two minutes.” Even though he turns around to make sure you can hear him, his voice is muffled by the pounding in your ears. You were so not built for running. Fighting you could do, but endurance was not your strength.

He’s right though as you make it around the corner and spot Hoshi sitting on the brick fence where you’d left him. He’s got the crutches placed next to him, his braced foot stretched out in front of him. When he sees you, he raises his hands and cheers, as if you’re about to finish a marathon. Unfortunately you do feel as if you’ve been running for that long, the distance around the block short but harrowing.

“Woooo, you can do it!! Keep going!” You hear Hoshi’s woops and yelps and you instinctively speed up, unsure how your body manages it, though you have a suspicion it’s because you feel like sinking into the ground if you have to hear more of Hoshi’s loud encouragements.

You come to a stop in front of where Hoshi’s sitting and you brace your hands on your legs, your head almost hanging. One of Minghao’s hands pats your back lightly.

“Not bad for now. You’ll be better next time.” He says. You think your ears are deceiving you.

“Next time?” You shriek, glaring up at him. “I thought we were just warming up.”

“Nope, you’ve officially joined my exorcist training programme and we’ll start every session with a jog. Congrats, you’re my first student.” He gives you a thumbs up, and you almost swipe at the smugness on his face. You hack up a glob of air and finally straighten up.

“I’m your only student.” You argue as you follow the guys into the building, Hoshi leading the way on his crutches, step-hop and stopping rapidly. He’d definitely mastered this way of walking but it still made you feel a little guilty that he’d ended up hurt. You knew you had to be more careful in this field, particularly because it was so unpredictable. You hoped at least Hoshi was enjoying the time off despite his injury and you hated to disturb him but you needed his help with all the work you had to do tonight.

Inside the gym there was a sparring area lined with blue mats just as you’d remembered seeing when Hoshi enthusiastically gave you a tour of the building when he moved in. There was only one person at this time of the day, minding their own business on one of the treadmills facing the street. They wore a heavy duty headset so you didn’t have to worry about what they might hear.

“I’m going up, you guys carry on, I’ll come back in a while.” Hoshi says vaguely, uncharacteristically so but you nod and join Minghao in doing some stretching.

It strikes you how insanely flexible he is when he extends his long limbs expertly and holds the poses with perfect balance. You on the other hand are keeping up but barely; your lines are crooked and your arms and legs shake ever so slightly, the tremors only just visible to your own eyes since you can feel them first hand.

“Okay, let’s start with some light sparring. Try to attack me.” Minghao stands with his feet shoulder width apart and faces you head on. Your face betrays your confusion. “I doubt that when I’m possessed I get into a perfect defensive position.” He says pointedly.

“Alright, I’ll pretend to exorcise you.” You say. You ready your stance, angling your body and bending slightly in all the correct places, hands raised in front of you. You meet his eyes and try to read the opportune moment to attack.

You’re standing on the balls of your feet, light and mobile. You decide to step forward quickly and aim a low kick to Minghao’s side. He doesn’t quite break eye contact when he uses his arms to throw that oncoming leg down, using the momentum of your swinging leg to knock you off balance. Within the same breath you try to strike an arm at his chest as your body veers to the side of the leg you tried to strike with, but Minghao grabs that arm and pulls you to him, turning you in motion and your back hits his firm chest.

“That was too easy.” You feel his breath at your ear and let out an annoyed hummph when it tickles slightly. “Again.” He says.

You don’t waste a heartbeat before swivelling and striking out a hand slice aimed for his neck but he once again outwits you, twisting that arm before it makes contact and bringing it rest behind your back while he kicks at the back of your thigh with only enough force to bring you to one knee. You use your free leg as support to try and get up, balancing on that leg to stand up as you throw you weight up and towards Minghao. The motion manages to surprise him and you free your arm and therefore your whole body from his grip.

“Better.” He nods in approval from where he’d been forced to step back. “Again.”

And off you go again. There’s kicks, flicks, punches being thrown, Minghao blocking and sending you flying, tossing you as gently as he can as to not hurt you. You start to get into it with every failed attack. It’s true that he can predict your moves before you can formulate them in your head but when your instinct takes over, you start to land some blows.

You end up on the floor several times, the breath knocked out of you and a sheen of sweat building up over your skin. You end up trying to hold Minghao’s limbs in some complicated judo-esque position down on the mats but he manages to always break free and pin you down in almost the exact same way until you sigh in defeat.

At some point you’re rejoined by Hoshi, who finds a cozy spot on some benchpress and sits spectating in fascination as you and Minghao go at each other’s throats. It’s always fun when you’re not the one getting your ass kicked. You barely hear his reactions, the ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s just background noise as you huff, puff and grunt while you exchange attacks.

You realise that Minghao is not just good; he’s trained in some John Wick type of shit. The type that makes your muscles ache and your joints creak and your blood rush around your body as you try to fight someone so out of your league.

Just as you think you’re doing better, Minghao has you pinned to the wall, your hands above your head. You hesitate as his eyes bore into yours, the challenge dancing in his irises. The mirth you feel from him, the amusement that coats his features, makes your pulse quicken.

It’s all just a game to him. He’s having fun while you struggle to make progress.

It makes the hairs on your arms stand up - you were determined to beat him, no matter what.

Your legs are free so you attempt a strike but he barely flinches at the weak knee you throw at his side. Your body is too adrenalised at this point to be thinking straight so you do what it tells you to; you throw your head forward with a yell and headbutt Minghao.

It sends Minghao staggering backwards and rubbing at his forehead.

“Owww! That was mean,” He pouts. “And unnecessary.” You barely feel the ache in your own head as you stand grinning, unhinged and victorious.

“But it got the job done.” You counter. If you weren’t this worked up and sore for repeatedly losing, you’re not sure you would have tried to do that move. Your competitive side had lain dormant for so long that you were surprised how quickly it was spurred back into life.

“One more round?” Minghao asks. You were sure that headbutt would have been the end but he surprised you once again. The regular occurrence was starting to confuse you.

“Yeah.” And you rush him without a second thought. You flip each other once, twice and then block whatever blow comes next. You focus on trying to back Minghao into a corner, arms and legs flying.

You succeed when his back hits the wall with a quiet thud and you bring your forearm to trap his neck. You notice how wide his eyes are, an almost innocent shock painting his face as you bring your fist, clutching an invisible exorcist blade, to rest on his chest. You swear you can feel the way Minghao’s heart is pounding but you know yours is going just as crazy. After all that, it was inevitable.

“And stab.” You breathe, the exhaustion finally catching up to you. One corner of Minghao’s mouth arches up, still amused even if he lost.

“And scene.” He brings a lazy hand up to his forehead and fakes a swoon. You hear Hoshi’s round of applause behind you as he cheers excitedly. You let Minghao go, avoiding his eyes for some reason.

“Wow, you guys are so badass!” The compliment makes you smile even if you were ready to collapse. You can’t help but lean against the wall, panting and slide down it.

“Good work. Imagine how much better you’ll be after a few sessions.” Minghao says. His voice is raspy and gruff from all the yelling and grunting. You nod, unable to speak. You needed like a five day nap to recover.

“Hey, you guys?” Hoshi asks from the other end of the gym. “Seokmin wants to know if you want pizza?”

“Are they already here?” You glance at the clock and choke on air. You were supposed to start the meeting in five minutes but you weren’t even at the office yet. “Shit, let’s go.” You make to get up but find Minghao’s extended hand in front of you. You look at his long fingers for a moment, then put your hand in his and let him haul you up.

Hoshi offers Minghao some clothes so you let them go upstairs while you muster the energy to walk up the street back to yours and take a minute long shower and change. The conference room is already buzzing when you leg it up the stairs and find yourself face to face with Hoshi and Minghao as they come in.

You’re rendered speechless when you look at Minghao’s attire.

He’s wearing bright pink leopard print joggers, a purple shirt and a pink cardigan all under his long black coat. You wanted to think it was Hoshi’s work but Hoshi would never have managed to match the colours like that.

“Don’t. I rock this and you know it.” Minghao says to before you’ve even opened your mouth.

“Didn’t say anything.” You shake your head.

In your conference room you find Seungkwan, Vernon and Seokmin sitting around the table, ready to start. The table is already stacked with ten or so massive piles of paperwork; the majority of your office’s contents on display. There was some still in the basement and some more modern cases on the hard drive of your computer, but you had hard copies of those too just in case.

There’s a happy reunion between everyone when Hoshi hobbles in with his crutches and greets everyone loudly. You smile despite the perhaps irreparable damage to your eardrums. Minghao pulls up an extra couple of chairs and you all sit down with you at the head of the table.

Just as you think that everyone is here, you hear the doorbell of the office ring.

“I’ll get it.” Seokmin offers quickly, almost too quickly for your liking but you let him, watching him practically sprint with narrowed eyes.

You hear voices and sigh, steeling yourself for what was coming. He really couldn’t just leave well enough alone could he? You’d told him expressly that you didn’t want his help. Yet when Yoon Jeonghan walks through the door, you feel your blood pressure rise automatically. Behind him however, is someone you weren’t expecting.

“Hey!” Mingyu squeaks cheerfully, waving a large paw at everyone.

“I called Jihoon for some extra help.” Seungkwan explains.

“Yeah, Jihoon said you needed my biceps. So here I am.” Mingyu says, way too enthusiastic for someone who was about to pull extra hours.

Mingyu was from the Council. He ran an office that collected intel on ghost sightings and reports and compiled them in a large database for exorcists to refer to. There were times where you’d visit his office with your sister but he was still new back then so you’d only met a few times.

“Actually we need your brain but your biceps might help too.” You reply. “Nice to see you, Mingyu.” You ignore Jeonghan until he pulls up the chair to your left, while Minghao was sitting to your right. You swivel your neck reluctantly in his direction.

“Why are you even here?” You ask, your voice drowned out by the others’ chatter.

“What? No dramatic blame game today?” He asks nonchalantly, running a hand down the spines of the files in front of him. “As I said, I’m going to help you. It sounds like a big project; are you sure you can handle it, kiddo?” Jeonghan leans back in his chair, relaxed, comfortable even, and it makes you mad. After all this time, now he wants to help? After he declared that he couldn’t stand being in this office without her and left, stopped calling you and basically evaporated? You begged to differ.

“Don’t call me that.” You bite, but your voice is quiet. “What’s in it for you?” You press. You scan his face for any sign of deceit, not that you were sure you could catch it. If you didn’t know him any better, you’d believe he was sincerely trying to offer his expertise, and you only called it that because you knew that he did learn a fair amount courtesy of your family teaching him.

“There’s always something in it for me, according to you, isn’t there?” Jeonghan counters, an edge of disappointment, real or fake you had no idea at this point, to his voice. “Can’t I just do it out of the goodness of my heart?”

You can’t help but snort obnoxiously at his ridiculousness.

“Hell’s more likely to freeze over.” You tell him.

“That could happen.” Jeonghan says, shrugging. “Or you could trust me.” He looks up, meeting you eyes. You don’t look away from his challenge.

You knew what he was doing; deploying that trick where you bat your eyelashes at people and it bends them to your will. The notion of trusting him again made you dizzy. You had trusted him once upon a time, you’d known him as a person who you could rely on, who had your back. But that was then and this is now. It wasn’t going to work on you anymore. You weren’t going to fall for the angel eye trick again.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” You conclude. You rap your knuckles against the table to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, since we’re all here now, we can proceed.” You pick up a marker and turn to moveable whiteboard behind you, the newest addition to your conference room.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to read-” Seungkwan quips up. You give him a stink face glare and he shuts up.

“This is fifty years worth of exorcisms.” You motion towards the piles of files. “Everyone grab a stack. We’re looking for-” you pause for a moment, uncapping your pen.

“Anything on group exorcisms, the cemetery at the building site and anything to do with that Platis company.” Jeonghan cuts in and finishes for you. You purse your lips, a flash of annoyance flaring up in your stomach.

“Yes, and if you find anything-”

“Separate any relevant files over here,” Jeonghan points to a cardboard box on the floor beside the two of you. “Write a summary on a post-it note and leave it on the inside.”

You clench your jaw, looking to find patience. You were going to say that, since you’d left the box there this morning with a purpose.

“Right. Anything else?” You look around. You have quite the company here, seven faces looking back at you.

“Pizza’s coming in an hour.” Seokmin adds.

“Okay, reconvene in an hour. Bon appetite.” You scribble down the list of things in case anyone got amnesia, then clamp a hand over the nearest pile to you and pull the thin folder off the top. Some of them were thin folders with only about ten pages inside whilst others were at least twenty page behemoth reports.

Everyone seems to get lost in the files, the millions of words floating off the pages as you skim and flip pages and double back because you thought you saw something relevant. Usually there was a summary page in the front of the file so you could rule out the group exorcism but it was still important to scan for the location of the cemetery if it was mentioned.

You feel like your vision is slowly blurring as you look at the words, your eyes travelling across the paper quickly. You’re hunched over a file and it mentions something about a wandering spirit that passed by a cemetery. There’s an address which you’re not sure of so you grab a post-it.

“Straighten up, or you’re going to get early on set back problems.” Jeonghan clicks his tongue at you and pokes your arm with the capped end of a ball point pen without looking up from his file. The action throws you off and you’re hit suddenly with a sickening sense of déjà vu.

You’re transported back here five years ago when you were studying for some test. Your sister and Jeonghan were both working on the big table, trapping you and making sure you sat and studied. The textbook in front of you was giving you a headache and you were almost ready to nod off on top of it before your sister extended a hand, the sharp point of the pen poking your arm when she scolded you for your terrible posture.

You look at Jeonghan in the present and he appears much the same except for his hair. The red is captured and pulled back with a hair tie, some loose wisps sticking out. You think about how you also look much the same but are so different, the years of grief and the responsibility weighing your shoulders down.

You turn back to your papers.

The eight of you get through most of the files, the speed of your work much faster than you had predicted. It strikes you that it might have been too fast. It was probably just you being paranoid. Within the hour, almost all the files had been through some inspection. The pile in the box is however rather miserable. That was not a lot of leads.

Seokmin and Mingyu go to the front door to pick up the pizza and soon the table full of paperwork, is full of warm cardboard boxes that reek deliciousness into your conference room.

“Good work everyone, we can stop for today.” You say and gather the remaining files into piles. You and Minghao can look at them some other time.

Once the pizza boxes are opened the chatter crescendos and you feel like you’re drowning in the noise. It’s a miracle everyone had been that quiet while reading.

“Eh, come on, you haven’t got any booze in this house?” Hoshi cries when you tell him that if he wants something, he knows where the convenience store is.

“I’ll go, it’s only around the corner, right?” Minghao volunteers.

“I can take you.” Vernon raises a hand like one of those boy scouts. Also probably the only person who wouldn’t be self-conscious if seen with Minghao right now, leopard print and all.

“Vern, get that one we drank-” Seungkwan calls out with a mouthful of pizza.

“Ginger beer. Got it.” You swear those two are telepathic. Or married. Or both.

They leave and you turn to Jeonghan, who’s putting away his phone into his pocket, looking shifty as usual.

“Take a slice and hit the road.” You tell him. He obediently pulls apart a piece and munches on it, but doesn’t move from the chair.

“Hey, how about some music?” You hear behind you. Hoshi and Seokmin are digging into a pizza, having a cheese slurping contest or something.

“I’ll go get the karaoke machine!” Seungkwan announces. You do a double take.

“We have one of those?” You ask.

“From my car, duh.” He replies.

“Is that something you keep on your person at all times?”

“Just something I have lying around. You never know when you’ll need it.” Your brain lags as you watch him practically skip away to find the item in question.

“I think I’m going to stick around for some tunes.” Jeonghan says, unabashed. You tap your foot angrily under the table, jiggling with annoyance.

“Go. I know Seokmin and Seungkwan are giving you updates, so next time just work at your own office. Now get out.”

“You’re not going to say ‘please, big bro’?” He juts out his bottom lip in a pout, begging to be kicked out.

“I have a lot of other names I could call you right now.” You say between gritted teeth.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” He waits, not bothering to hide the joy it brought him to bug you off his face.

“One that starts with ‘n’ and ends in ‘uisance’.”

Jeonghan chuckles, as if in acknowledgement. He pauses, then:

“I’ve already seen her.”

You’re struck silent.

“If that’s what you’re worried about, then I’ve already seen her.” He repeats. You feel a sprinkle of salt flowing through your veins that she would appear in front of Jeonghan of all people.

“Just leave, I don’t want my sister to become a vengeful spirit because of you.” You sigh, the irritation starting to overflow. Who was he to just invite himself to your house, where he’s no longer welcome and talk to you about your sister when he’s the reason she’s gone?

“She won’t.” Jeonghan says reassuringly, and you almost believe him. The old you might have. “I’ll go later, I’m still hungry. You should eat up too, I could hear your stomach rumbling.” He says and walks away. The guys have taken the boxes and presumably gone downstairs to set up in front of the TV and the couch. You had no idea how you’d allowed what is basically a house party to break out in your house of all places.

You wouldn’t mind the rest of it but Jeonghan’s presence was bothering you. Why was it bothering you so much though? Was it because he’d appeared out of nowhere uninvited? Were you angry at him? Or was it because a minuscule, tiny, microscopic fraction of you had missed him and him being there reminded you of the past, as if you could just walk downstairs and catch him and your sister not so subtly hugging?

You groaned out loud, almost mooing in exasperation and kicked at the chair in front of you. You checked the pile in the cardboard box, glancing at the ten or so files in there, all of them thin and a little hopeless looking. It was better than nothing, you reminded yourself.

Downstairs you heard the music blasting before you’ve even stepped off the staircase, the cacophony of cheers and woops making you shudder; this was them without a drop of alcohol in their systems. It was going to be a long night.

“You should have seen them earlier, Minghao and YN have equal and opposite scary energy; that’s why they work so well together.” Hoshi’s voice carries down the corridor as you near the living room. You stop at the door and see Seokmin, Seungkwan and Hoshi on the couch while Mingyu sits on the carpet in front. The song has just finished and it’s quiet for a moment.

Jeonghan is sitting at the table, ripping apart a pizza slice, piece by piece. It’s the same spot where he used to sit before, adjacent to your sister and opposite you. Was it on purpose or just an old habit? You don’t dwell on it.

“Who’s scary?” You call out, making yourself known as you walk in. The cowards in front of the TV jump at the sound of your voice, yelping like startled puppies. They scramble to laugh it off and you smile at how dorky they all are. You don’t sit at the table but take a spot on the carpet in front of the couch where Mingyu is.

“Oh YN, didn’t you say you were going to show me something the other day?” Seungkwan perks up. You think for a moment, wracking your brain for a recollection of that particular conversation. “Some video?”

Bingo.

“Ah, right. Almost forgot.” You can’t help but start laughing already. You reach forward to grab the laptop that sits under the TV, its space on the shelf below not its usual hiding spot but you’d left it there in a rush. You open the computer and search around for the file name ‘mammoth.mp4’ that you hid deep into your favourites folder then click on the thumbnail.

It’s the video that Wonwoo sent you from the museum exorcism and you thought it was too much of a gem to keep it to yourself; you don’t own diamonds if you don’t want to show them off to the world, right?

You hit the ‘f’ key and make it fullscreen then put the laptop on the coffee table.

Everyone’s so absorbed in the video that you don’t hear when Vernon and Minghao come back. You feel an ominous chill down your spine as you laugh at the screen.

“What are you guys watching?” Vernon suddenly materialises behind you. You glance up and spot Minghao there too.

Shit.

“What? Nothing, porn.” And you scramble to shut the laptop. Minghao is quicker though and grabs your wrist before you stretch all the way toward the table.

“Rewind and turn up the volume.” He says, deadly serious. Mingyu, ever the most helpful person in the universe, taps away and the video restarts, this time louder.

You’re trying to keep your laugh to a minimum while the others holler loudly, feeling a little guilty for airing your new medium out like that but it was just part of the job. Humiliation and danger apparently walked hand in hand (or was it the danger of humiliation?).

Your turn your head and find Minghao’s face inches from yours for the hundredth time today. The laugh dies in your throat and you stare. Minghao’s lips are parted in horror and his eyes are shinning with what seems to be sick fascination and disbelief as he watches the video. Now that you looked, he was pretty handsome.

What?

“Stop it!” You shake your head. You stamp on the thought the way you’d stomp on a cockroach, shocked to realise its existence as it scurries around your brain. You find several pairs of eyes on you. You chuckle awkwardly. “It’s loud, that’s all.” You say. You finally reach over and shut the lid of the laptop. That was bizarre, you must be more tired than you thought if your brain was loose like that.

“I don’t remember that so I’m going to say it never happened. I-it- that wasn’t me.” Minghao clarifies, clearly trying to convince himself.

“Hey, it’s okay, we all have some embarrassing possession stories.” Seokmin says with a smile. “Like back in school, I stole my crush’s ice cream whilst I was possessed. I ended up going to the prom alone.”

“God, Seokmin, that’s so depressing.” Seungkwan says. “Here, sing about it.” He shoves a microphone into Seokmin’s hand.

“Here we go again.” You get up and take a slice of pizza. You weren’t too tired to try and sort through the rest of the files.

“It’s been a long day, you should rest.” Minghao finds you trying to leave the kitchen. You turn around, caught red handed, cheese from the large bite of pizza protruding from your lips.

“I will.” You say but it’s impossible to discern with the way your mouth is stuffed; it just sounds like ‘owow’, and you make your way back to the couch.

With the amount of ballads that are sung that night, it’s a miracle you don’t nod off. It’s mostly because they are counterbalanced with some fast paced and obscenely deafening pop songs that are accompanied by even more outrageous yells and shouts, the alcohol fuelling the volume, it seemed. There are soulful ballads whose singers are worthy of divorcee status, some frenzied and almost high performances, especially Vernon’s solid rap features, and at one point one of Hoshi’s crutches becomes a guitar.

You sit there, amongst the chaos but not really taking it all in. You’d barely had any more food and were still holding the same one beer can that you’d opened like an hour ago. You even caught Minghao cracking a smile or laughing a few times but you were too exhausted and preoccupied to really participate. You’re too aware of Jeonghan still sitting at the table, watching from his spot as the rest of the group has fun, the attentive gaze of a parent over their children.

Your hand brings the beer can up to your lips and you chug the rest of it. You weren’t sure you could handle this. So you stand up just as Seungkwan is preparing his next song.

“I’m going to buy more booze.” You announce as you start to walk away.

“Wait up, I’ll come with.” Minghao unfolds himself from his seat on the floor.

“You don’t have to.” You wave a hand dismissively.

“Trust me, I want to.” He follows you, practically running out. You grab your coats and wallets and leave through the basement entrance door.

The night air feels heavenly on your skin, the freshness enveloping you and giving you energy. You watch as your breath forms clouds in front of you while you walk.

“I didn’t think exorcists partied like that.” Minghao says after a while.

“What, you thought we only went to funerals and sat around waiting for a ghost to pop up?” You stuff your hands in your pockets, imagining one of those arcade Whack-a-Mole games.

“Not really, I’d never thought of exorcists until I met you.”

“You were better off that way.” You sigh. “Then again, you already saw ghosts, so you were halfway there.”

“I’m glad I met you though.” He says earnestly. “It finally all made sense.”

“It must have been a relief to understand what you were seeing.” You thought about it before, how lonely it must have been, how confusing. You knew it was a curse, but amongst those cursed, community made all the difference. Minghao hadn’t had any of that. “You’re part of this now, even if you decide not to work any more, you know we’re all here.”

You reach the convenience store and mindlessly grab alcohol off the shelf and put it in the basket Minghao holds as he trails after you. Shopping with him was starting to become a regular thing, huh? You pay quickly since there’s literally no one else in the shop and leave. After the cashier gives Minghao a look, he tells you that even the cashier changed during the length of your party.

You’re almost back, your feet still somehow carrying you after all the physical torture you put them through today and you find the front doors opening. You’re only about twenty meters away but you stop. You watch as none other than Jeonghan emerges from the office. Finally, he was leaving.

You’re about to start walking but you see her.

The door doesn’t close, your sister’s ghost following him out, and he turns to look at her. The image is like a lightning strike straight to your heart. The breath leaves your body in a crispy fog.

Jeonghan extends a hand to your sister’s face, as if trying to caress her cheek and she tries to lean in to his touch, her eyes closed but she’s transparent, his fingers making contact with the air. Your vision blurs with hot tears, the picture before you becoming distorted.

His hand falls away as do your tears, and you can tell he sighs by the smoky frost before his face. Your sister’s ghost is fading away by the second, her lingering shape evaporating slowly.

You watch as Jeonghan walks away in the opposite direction, realising your fists were clenched as you held a bag of beer in one hand. The tears slide silently down your face, the cold freezing them to your cheeks as they roll on by.

There’s not a coherent thought you can cling on to inside your head, everything suspended in your mind suddenly lost in a void you couldn’t access. It must be shock.

You remember Minghao is behind you as he shuffles a few steps to stand next to you. You look away and swipe at your face quickly. He extends a hand without a word, offering you a pack of tissues.

“You keep seeing me like this, I’m not sure I should let you live.” You say jokingly as you sniffle and accept it. “Thanks.”

A/N: thanks for reading!! feedback is always appreciated <3 also i decided to add an extra projected chapter from the sister’s pov so look forward to that eventually as well

#seventeen #xu minghao #the8 #minghao #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #seventeen x reader #minghao x reader #the8 x reader #the8 imagines #the8 scenarios #seventeen fics #seventeen angst #momobani.writes

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