Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

From time to time he remembered his dreams; those he used to have when he was alive. They used to be about their future. Chan had always wanted to be someone famous, maybe a dancer or a singer. But, looking back at all, he thought it wasn't so bad to be a ghost. He had saved himself from finishing his degree, going bankrupt for not getting a job and the way he would have been disinherited when his mother found out that he liked boys more than girls.

He cleared his thoughts. If he continued like this, he wouldn't be able to concentrate.

He made a pout when the TV changed channels. The old woman next to him in the sofa decided to remove the Turkish novel which he was finally understanding to leave a history documentary.

He probably should have scared that old lady the day she arrived at the apartment, but the novels that the woman used to leave on television at least entertained him enough to not have to think much about other stuff. But, if she was going to trade novels for documentaries, Chan would definitely have to get her out of the place. Either way, Chan was already a bit jealous of his apartment. He had saved enough to buy it himself in the past, which he would not have done if he had known that a witch would soon curse him into a ghost.

He sighed resigned. The apartment was still technically his, despite having (supposedly) disappeared overnight; and so he had the right to turn away anyone who tried to rent the place, right?

And it was night, so he had it easy.

First he got up and went to the lamp in the corner of the room. He turned it on and off a couple of times, but he only got the woman to narrow her eyes curiously, perhaps believing that her dream was beginning to play tricks on her. Then he went to the kitchen, opened the cupboard and dropped a couple of porcelain plates on the floor, breaking them into pieces and making loud sounds.

"Soo?" the woman asked, calling to the kitten that used to show up once in a while.

Chan involuntarily pouted. Did the old woman really believe that Chan was just a cat that had come in through the open window?

His last try was his last; if Chan didn't manage to scare her away like that, he should probably retire as a ghost. He lit a candle, returned to the room, and simply waved the flame around her.

It took the woman a split second to process that she was seeing a candle levitate in front of her. She didn't hesitate to run out of there and scream despite the fact that it was still dark outside.

Chan blew on the flame and blew out the candle.

He smiled.

…

“… nonsense, you know. They say it's haunted and things like that.” Chan heard the voice of Jeonghan, the owner of the building, approaching the apartment. There must have been someone else with him, because he also heard a soft laughter after the comment.

"I'm not afraid of haunted things," said the person who laughed in a mocking tone. Chan wished to meet them soon to make them change them mind.

“Great! So how about you take a look at it and then sign the contract? I can give you a friends discount.”

Chan definitely hadn't expected to find a pretty blond opening the door. His cheeks were round and he had a mole under his eye that Chan wished he could touch. And, as absurd as it sounded, Chan had almost thought that the boy was seeing him too; because he was static for a second after opening the door. But that was impossible, because he was just a ghost, and he remembered it when the opposite gaze was lost on the wall behind him and his body was crossed by the boy passing by.

He felt a chill run through him.

Jeonghan followed the blonde into the apartment and Chan stepped back a bit so they wouldn't go through him again.

"Did anyone live here before?" the blond asked and Jeonghan seemed to think about it.

“An old lady.”

The boy smiled a little and Chan would have sworn that if he still had blood running through his veins his cheeks would have turned red at the pretty sight. “And before?”

Jeonghan shrugged, and that made sense because Chan knew that Jeonghan had only recently acquired the building after his father's death, so he wasn't very familiar with the old residents. “I really don't know, Seungkwan. If you want, I could look it up later in my dad's files.”

Seungkwan was a pretty name. It fit him.

“Needless. I was just curious.”

Then, without realizing it, Chan already had a new resident in his apartment to scare away.

Chapter Text

Seungkwan was a weird guy. He sang in the shower, talked to himself, studied every night, and sometimes listened to questionable podcasts, so… no. Actually he wasn't as strange as Chan wanted him to believe, in fact he did the same things that Chan used to do when he was alive. But no one could be as perfect as Seungkwan and not hide something, right? Maybe Chan just didn't trust pretty boys.

Chan let his gaze wander to the cute blond who was now humming a song that was too upbeat for his liking while playing a game on his cell phone. Despite everything he liked his voice, it was soft and safe, like a blanket that Chan could feel covering him. It was comforting to imagine that Seungkwan sang for him, because a long time ago no one sang for Chan.

"I could listen to you all day," Chan admitted. His ears would have turned red if he could have realized what he said. Either way Seungkwan didn't listen to him. No one ever listened to Chan. And he was fine with that.

Vacation had just ended. Or at least that was what Chan had heard in a phone conversation that Seungkwan had one day with one of his friends.

It was going to be nine in the morning and the blond hadn't had breakfast, too busy as he continued playing. Chan wondered how bad Seungkwan's habits must be if he always forgot to eat breakfast, he ordered his food delivered and skipped dinner.

"Woah. I'd better go now," Seungkwan said worriedly as he finally realized the time. Chan watched him run for his bag, pull on a green sweater, and run out of the apartment.

Chan had never minded being alone. But at least with Seungkwan he didn't get too bored.

He looked at one of the cupboards in the kitchen for a while. What if he cooked something for Seungkwan? It was kind of a silly idea, but it definitely sounded like fun. While Chan was alive, he had never cooked for anyone other than his family. As a ghost, what's the worst that could happen? The only thing he couldn't touch was other humans anyway (the witch who cursed him really had his priorities straight).

He waited a while longer before starting. It would be terrible if Seungkwan came back to the apartment because he forgot something and found pieces of chicken and spices levitating in the air. That was just the strategy Chan used to scare away unwanted guests. And he didn't want Seungkwan to leave. He went to the kitchen. He already had in mind the food that he wanted to cook. Luckily Jeonghan had been in charge of doing the shopping for Seungkwan recently, treating him more like a younger brother than just another resident of the building.

As he was cutting pieces of chicken, he discovered Soo, the faithful cat that kept appearing in the apartment, leaning out of one of the kitchen windows, ready to attack the raw meat that Chan was just about to cook.

"I'm not gonna give you anything," he warned the cat, receiving a meow of protest in return.

Either way, Soo entered the place and sat on the kitchen counter where Chan was working, carefully watching each of the ghost's movements. In the end, Chan ended up giving in to the cat's watchful eye and, unable to help it, ended up giving him small pieces of chicken.

The problem started after Chan finished cooking. What was Seungkwan going to think when he entered the kitchen and found the food prepared on his table? He probably would think someone had entered the apartment without permission or that he had an unwanted guest but with good seasoning. He meditated for a couple more minutes until an idea flashed in his head. He served the food in little boxes, then took a yellow sticky note and in the best handwriting he could do he wrote: from your neighbor, I hope you enjoy it :) Then, he stuck the note in the biggest box and ran to the entrance followed closely by Soo. Making sure no one was around, he opened the door and set the food to the side of the doorway before closing it again.

He smirked after finishing. He collected everything and dismissed the cat before forcing it out the window.

When the afternoon came Seungkwan returned. Chan knew it even as he heard the footsteps slowly approaching the apartment. He suppressed the smile that threatened to form on his face when he watched the blonde walk in with the food in his hands.

"I didn't know I had a neighbor," Seungkwan muttered as he cocked his head, but Chan didn't really care much that he suspected anything. He felt something warm wrap around him as he watched the boy smile at Chan's smiley face on the note and then fold it and put it in his pants pocket.

“Is chicken. Oh, I should have written that too,” Chan told himself as he followed Seungkwan's every move. “I hope you're not allergic to anything. If you are, at least you'll keep me company as a ghost,” he laughed. And then worry washed over him. What if Seungkwan really was allergic to something? Chan had never killed anyone!

He started thinking of a plan to throw the food on the floor so that Seungkwan couldn't eat it, but, almost as if he had heard it, Seungkwan said: “I'm lucky I'm not allergic to anything.”

Oh. Chan might have breathed easy if he could. He was glad that the universe (or the witch who turned him) didn't have more excuses to keep him as a ghost longer. In the end he stopped thinking so much. He stayed next to Seungkwan while he ate and tried not to watch his pretty lips get dirty from time to time.

Chapter Text

Watching Seungkwan had become his favorite activity in a matter of days. It was as if the blonde carried the opposite pole of Chan's magnet, and it was so frustrating to think about that Chan sometimes found himself doing the impossible to be distracted by something other than the cute boy. He thought about scaring him out of the apartment a few times for his own health, but Chan would be a hypocrite if he didn't admit that he actually liked Seungkwan's presence. In general, he liked Seungkwan. And a lot. He liked to hear him talking to himself, he liked to see him enjoying the food that was left out of the apartment for him, and he also liked to feel him wandering around the place, discovering the things that Chan used to keep under one of the wooden floorboards.

And it was pathetic. Because Chan had never wished he could touch someone so much in his life until Seungkwan showed up. And Chan just couldn't feel it.

“It's good?” Seungkwan asked, snapping Chan out of his thoughts. He was in the kitchen, eating the latest recipe that Chan had cooked for him and from time to time he offered small pieces to Soo (whom he seemed to have adopted one of those days) and spoke to him tenderly.

The cat meowed in satisfaction at the question and paced between Seungkwan's legs with joy as he waited for more food to fall from the sky.

"Silly cat," Chan complained. “You don't know what I would give to be able to feel him too.”

He only growls at Chan and the ghost couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance. He was pathetic. Chan never imagined that he would ever be jealous of a cat.

"What are you meowing at?" Seungkwan asked, stroking Soo's ears and directing his gaze to the same place the cat was looking. Chan hated those times when Seungkwan seemed to see him, because a part of him hoped that Seungkwan would actually be able to see him one day despite being a ghost. "There's nothing there, Soo," Seungkwan then scolded the cat.

Chan sighed dejectedly.

He stayed close to Seungkwan all morning, trying to avoid Soo's insistent gaze on him and his sudden meows when he got too close to the blonde. Maybe Soo was also in love with Seungkwan or something, Chan couldn't be sure, but he couldn't find any other logical explanation for the cat not wanting him around Seungkwan.

Late in the afternoon, while Chan was watching a Disney movie with Seungkwan, the doorbell rang. Soo ran to hide in a closet and Chan pouted as Seungkwan got up from the couch and paused the movie to open the door.

Chan got a little upset when he found three unknown guests entering his apartment. Well, his and Seungkwan's apartment. Although they were probably just his friends. Whatever they were, the three new guys had four boxes of pizza in their hands, and Chan was relieved to see food, because Seungkwan hadn't eaten anything all day.

"It's small," one of them complained.

"I think it's fine for one person," debated another, the taller one.

"Well, it was the cheapest," Seungkwan told them, closing the door and placing the pizza boxes on the table in front of the living room television.

Chan walked away from the room indignant when the only one of Seungkwan's friends who hadn't spoken plopped down on the couch, almost on top of him, carelessly.

“Really? Why?”

Seungkwan hesitated for a second before answering. He let the other two sit down and took some napkins from the kitchen before making space between them. "They say it's haunted."

"What nonsense," the last one sneered. “You would know if it was haunted.”

The other two, on the other hand, seemed quite convinced of the statement.

“Shut up, Soonyoung. If it's actually haunted and there are spirits here they could attack you,” the tallest one yelled and Seungkwan laughed.

Chan wondered what it would feel like to make Seungkwan laugh. He smiled involuntarily at the thought. Him making Seungkwan laugh. He should write it down on his to-do list before Seungkwan moved out.

"It's not haunted, Mingyu," Seungkwan assured then.

Mingyu pouted and felt a chill as Chan walked up behind him and blew on the back of his neck. "It is haunted!" he screeched, and Chan couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't say such things!” The only one Chan still didn't know the name of was complaining. “I'm going to walk out of here with my pizza if you don't stop talking about it.”

Seungkwan rolled his eyes before handing him a piece of pizza. “If you leave, we're not going to let you take anything with you, Seokmin.”

…

At night his friends had not yet left; well, at least not all of them.

Chan occasionally went into the closet to caress Soo, who completely refused to go out with Seungkwan's friends. And while he wasn't with Soo he stayed in the living room, listening to the silly stories of Seungkwan and his friends. It was fun listening to them. Chan also laughed when they did, and he slammed the odd door every time the subject of the haunted apartment came up. It was one of those times when Seokmin and Mingyu ran off, claiming that they couldn't sleep after visiting a place with angry ghosts.

Chan wished they wouldn't leave. He was actually having fun with them as if they were his own friends. Oh, Chan sometimes missed his friends. Not too much, because after all he had ended up cursed because of one of them. But, after all, they were still his friends, right?

“What's that?” Soonyoung asked suddenly, and Chan turned his attention to the two of them.

Seungkwan blinked slowly. He looked at the wooden floorboard that Soonyoung was pointing to and shrugged.

"Nothing," he replied, and Chan found that strange, because Soonyoung was pointing straight to the place where Chan used to hide his things in the past; the same one that Seungkwan had already found.

Soonyoung ignored him. He knelt on the floor and tapped the wood a couple of times. "But it sounds hollow," he insisted.

Chan approached Soonyoung's side.

"It's nothing," Seungkwan told him again, also approaching at a slow pace.

Soonyoung ignored him again. He picked up the loose board and gasped when he found Chan's old dance medals tucked in there. “What's this?” He asked taking out one of the medals, and Chan felt his stomach turn at seeing it up close.

"Leave it," Seungkwan demanded then, snatching the dusty medal from him and putting it back into the hole.

“Why?”

“Because…” Seungkwan started, but his confidence began to fade as soon as Chan approached him curiously, as if he could sense his presence. “Because they could belong to someone.”

Soonyoung sighed tiredly and reluctantly got up. "Are there really no ghosts here?" He asked Seungkwan. Direct and without hesitation.

Chan could hear Seungkwan's breath stop for a second and his heart pound in his chest.

“Really.”

Chapter Text

It was a bit absurd to think, but Chan had really begun to suspect that Seungkwan could see him. At least a little. Or feel his presence. Something like that. Chan wasn't quite sure.

Ever since Soonyoung's weird question, Seungkwan had been acting strange. It was as if he was trying hard not to see Chan, to ignore him. And the thought was so disturbing that Chan couldn't help but want to find out. And if Seungkwan could really see it, why would he ignore it?

Chan let his chin rest on the palm of his hand. Seungkwan was next to him, sitting in front of the dining room table while he solved some homework sheets that had been left for him. The blond muttered some things that Chan didn't quite understand and from time to time he complained about his teachers. Sometimes Chan missed college, only until Seungkwan came in with loads of silly homework and couldn't go out on the weekends.

“I wish I had a dog that would eat my homework,” Seungkwan pouted, and Soo meowed angrily back.

"You have a cat," Chan replied then, but Seungkwan didn't react. “If you also want a dog, Soo will be jealous," he assured, and the cat walked between Seungkwan's legs.

It took five more minutes for Seungkwan to speak again. Soo had climbed up the table and was now lying in front of Seungkwan as he purred every time Chan passed his hand between his ears.

"Where did I leave my algebra homework?" Seungkwan whispered as he shuffled through the stack of papers to the left of him.

Chan knew it. Seungkwan had left it on the table and then Soo had jumped on top of it as if Seungkwan's scholarship didn't depend on that sheet. "Under Soo," he said softly. If Seungkwan could hear him there was no need to speak up. He watched the way Seungkwan's jaw tightened, then followed his gaze to the cat.

"Did you jump on my homework, Soo?" Seungkwan scolded.

Chan opened his eyes as wide as he could. Had he really heard him? Seungkwan had heard him?

"Did you hear me?" he asked directly. Seungkwan didn't reply. He picked up the cat and took the sheets he'd been looking for before putting it back on the table. "Seungkwan," Chan demanded again, trying hard not to sound like a child crying over a cute toy.

He walked over to the stack of papers next to Seungkwan and made sure even the last one fell to the floor as he pushed all of them away hard. If Seungkwan was going to pretend he didn't exist, Chan was going to do everything he could to bug him until he left his apartment. It was torture enough to have to endure not being able to touch Seungkwan or his pretty face; he was not willing to put up with knowing that the boy saw him and just ignored him.

Seungkwan squeezed the pencil in his hand as he saw the papers fall. He gritted his teeth and bent down to pick up the mess. "I should close the windows," he muttered, and Chan rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“The windows are closed. If you're going to pretend I don't exist at least do it right,” Chan yelled in the rudest tone he'd ever used in his life.

And then Seungkwan left. He stuffed his homework into a backpack, grabbed the cat by the back, ignoring his protests, and left the apartment, slamming the door. And ouch. Chan had never felt so hurt in his life, not even when Jihoon, his brother, got mad at him for changing majors in the middle of the semester.

He had no choice but to wait for Seungkwan. Because he was coming back, right? He had been the only person who had stayed in the apartment despite it being haunted, and Chan enjoyed his company after all. If he had to be honest, Chan had to admit that he didn't want to be alone. Not again.

He heard Seungkwan's soft footsteps the next day. He had returned with Soo, and Jeonghan followed the two of them into the apartment with a disgusted scowl on his face.

"You have to be kidding," Jeonghan said and Chan raised an eyebrow in confusion. What was Seungkwan joking about?

“No. I'm leaving and I'm taking the cat.”

Oh. He was leaving.

Chan felt a pang in his chest and followed Seungkwan closely, not wanting to leave his side.

"But I gave you a friends discount!" Jeonghan complained. “I even do the shopping for you when you don't have time!” Seungkwan bit his lip, restless. As Chan moved closer to get a better look at Seungkwan, the cat he was holding in his arms screeched and scratched at him before running into his favorite closet. "See? Not even the cat wants to leave.” Jeonghan claimed.

"Then I'm leaving without him," the blond assured, heading to the kitchen to wash his recently acquired wound.

“Seungkwan…”

"It's decided, Jeonghan," he proclaimed with confidence. “This place really is haunted.”

Jeonghan pouted before leaving without saying anything else. Maybe he gave up too easily. Chan would never have given up like that. Not with Seungkwan.

"Before, it didn't bother you that it was haunted," he dared to say reproachfully as Seungkwan ran water over his scratch.

Soo took advantage of the moment to come out of his hiding place. He probably had smelled Chan's frustration, because it didn't take long for the cat to walk between his legs meowing insistently while he asked the ghost to carry him. In fact, Chan actually thought of carrying him. If Seungkwan was going to leave anyway, how bad would it be to see a flying cat?

"Can you shut up?!" Seungkwan demanded as he roughly turned off the water. Soo stopped meowing at that moment. He growled at Seungkwan and hid behind Chan.

"Don't talk to Soo like that!" Chan demanded, letting the cat rub against him.

Seungkwan's jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists. He let out a heavy breath and kept his eyes on the kitchen sink. "I'm not talking to the cat, I'm talking to you," he said.

And Seungkwan looked at Chan.

He wasn't quite sure what to do now. He had wished so much that Seungkwan could actually see and hear him that he never imagined the possibility that it could actually happen. But it was fine, right? Because that was what Chan wanted from the beginning. Well, that and being able to touch him; but something like that was already tempting his bad luck too much.

"Can you hear me?" Chan asked incredulously and Seungkwan couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Chan was slightly offended by Seungkwan's tone. He took a step towards the human and Soo walked away from the place at the inconvenience.

"And can you also see me?" he inquired, but didn't let Seungkwan answer anything before speaking again. “That's so...!” He hesitated for a second. “That's great! But I'm so angry at the same time. Why didn't you ever tell me? We could have been friends from the start! Besides, when he first saw me you went right through me, just like that.”

Seungkwan made an annoyed noise as he put a Band-Aid on Soo's scratch and then returned his full attention to the ghost in front of him. "I didn't want you to know that I could see you."

"Do you know how rude it is to walk through someone without their consent?"

Seungkwan clicked his tongue and placed his hands on his hips, definitely tired of listening to Chan. "Listen, I like you, okay? When I arrived you looked so lonely that I promised myself not to leave the place and to keep you company… But then you started doing all these weird things.”

"What are you talking about?"

Seungkwan looked away and his ears turned red. “You know what I mean; cook for me, follow me around, take care of Soo when I´m not around...”

The understanding of the words took a few moments to reach Chan. “I'm sorry. Did I bother you too much?” He asked unsure.

"It's not that. It's just that I'm so stressed with my exams, and overnight you started talking bad to me and throwing my stuff around the place. You can be very annoying, you know?”

Chan hesitated. He felt ashamed of his actions, but, in his defense, the theory that Seungkwan could see him had seemed absurd at first. "I wanted to get your attention," he admitted. “But you don't even know my name.”

Seungkwan looked at him, and it seemed such a pitying look that Chan wanted to cry even though he couldn't. Was that the horrible feeling of someone else's pity? Chan wasn't sure and he definitely wasn't used to it either.

“What´s your name?”

"Chan," he said immediately. It had been so long since he had heard his name that it even sounded strange to pronounce it.

“Chan?”

He nodded with a smile when Seungkwan repeated it, soft and light, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear it.

"Lee Chan," he confirmed, gifting Seungkwan his last name as well.

"I'm Seungkwan," the blond told him, "but you already know that."

"Seungkwan is a pretty name," Chan allowed himself to say, just as he had thought the first time he heard it. “I like it.”

Seungkwan smiled playfully. “I'd tell you that Chan is also a nice name, but the truth is that I don't like to lie.”

The ghost looked at him indignantly. So that was how things were going to be.

"Look who's saying it," Chan joked, “the medium who pretends not to be able to see ghosts.”

The words came to Seungkwan slowly. He couldn't help but suppress a pout upon hearing Chan. And boy, Chan had never seen anything cuter in his life. He was speechless for a second before noticing that Seungkwan was speaking again.

"I'm not a medium," Seungkwan protested through his pout, and Chan was really starting to get tired of being the strongest warrior and not being able to touch those pretty lips.

“Aren´t you?”

“No. It just so happens that I have the gift of seeing ghosts. Or something like that. It comes from my family, it's like a curse.”

Chan knitted his eyebrows at the mention. Curse. What a word.

"You say that's a curse? Oh no, it's definitely not a curse. Do you know what a curse really is?” He yelled irritably.

Seungkwan hesitated. “Mondays?”

Chan pretended not to laugh and stifled his laughter in his throat before speaking. "I am! A witch literally cursed me and turned me into a ghost.”

The blonde looked surprised. Chan wished again that he was able to capture those rosy cheeks between his palms and feel the warmth of Seungkwan's skin against his fingertips.

"Aren't you a ghost because you died?"

“No," Chan replied, but thought again for a few seconds. “I don't think so.”

Chapter Text

Getting used to Seungkwan was easy.

Chan would make him food and shelter him when he fell asleep studying and in return Seungkwan would tell him jokes that he always laughed at even if they weren't funny. Chan thought it was a good routine. The days with Seungkwan had become his favorite even while it was raining.

"And why don't you like the rain?" Seungkwan asked him at that moment, as the rain fell hard and the blizzard violently beat against the apartment windows.

A thunder rumbled off the walls and Chan tried to snuggle into the cat, who jumped from his spot between Chan and Seungkwan on the couch, stifled.

"Because one rainy day I turned into a ghost," Chan admitted.

Seungkwan put down the book he was holding in his hands to look at the ghost, forgetting his studies for a moment. “Hmm. I'm sorry.”

Chan shrugged without giving the matter too much importance. "It's not like I died…or anything," he said, trying more to convince himself than the pretty blond boy.

Seungkwan watched him attentively. He was asking for implicit permission to speak, and Chan immediately granted it without a second's hesitation.

"But you did. For your family you did it, and also for your friends. It's a shame Chan. I'm really sorry.”

Chan tried not to think about it too much. He had abandoned everyone in his path and it had not been of his own free will. Just as he occasionally missed his friends, he also missed his family; his parents and especially Jihoon, despite the fact that he always scolded him for coming home late from the university every day.

"I guess I did," he said in a whisper that was lost in the room. “But it's not that bad. At least now I have you.” He said, trying hard to smile.

Seungkwan rolled his eyes, but Chan managed to see the smile that appeared on his lips before the light went out.

“Oh, no!” Seungkwan yelled. “This is wrong, I have no candles and I still have to study for the exam tomorrow.”

Chan laughed just a little. "Life doesn't want you to study anymore. Haven't you thought that sometimes you demand too much of yourself?”

"I can't afford not to," Seungkwan sighed. “Today's world overexploits you, and if you can't take it then you stay poor and live under a bridge.”

Chan raised an eyebrow and pouted at Seungkwan's words. "You sound like I had lived a million years ago. Your world and mine are the same, Seungkwan,” he complained.

Seungkwan laughed then as well. Chan loved Seungkwan's laugh, it was soft and melodious, like a sunset with his friends.

"How old are you, Channie?"

Chan was slow to respond, processing the nickname Seungkwan had given him. His cheeks would have burned in his face from sudden embarrassment.

“I was 21 when I was cursed, so let's leave that age. I'm not going to tell you how old I am counting since I was born.”

"Because you are an old man?" Seungkwan sneered.

"I'm not an old man. What happens is that you are rude.”

Seungkwan's laughter was interrupted by the apartment door being slammed. Chan stayed on the couch while Seungkwan opened. Jeonghan immediately walked in with a lit candle lighting around him.

"It's good that you're okay. They say the power went out in the whole neighborhood and probably won't be back on until tomorrow.”

Chan was relieved when Jeonghan handed Seungkwan a couple more candles from his pocket along with a small box of matches.

“Thank you. You want a drink?”

Jeonghan didn't hesitate for a second to accept the invitation. Chan stood patiently in the kitchen next to Seungkwan while the blonde boiled water to make tea. He hadn't even had to ask Jeonghan what he wanted to drink to know beforehand. A few minutes passed before Seungkwan and Chan returned to the room.

“I was thinking and I wanted to know; what was it that made you change your mind?” Jeonghan asked without warning, taking a sip of his hot tea that burned his tongue.

“What do you mean?”

“I´m talking about not moving out. Last time you seemed pretty sure the place was haunted.”

Chan knew that Seungkwan hesitated. The blond opened his mouth to reply but he immediately closed it. Then he glanced at Chan, his eyes intent on his expression, before his gaze traveled to the cat behind him.

“Soo really didn't want to leave, and I didn't want to leave him alone again.”

 Chan bit his inner cheek. Was Seungkwan really talking about the cat, or was he referring to him and his boring life as a friendless ghost?

Jeonghan nodded convinced of the answer before speaking again. "It's good that you didn't leave. The place feels better with you here; more alive.”

…

"How old are you?" Chan asked after Jeonghan left.

Seungkwan lit one of the candles as the fire from the one Jeonghan left him began to die down. The rain was also starting to stop and Soo had fallen asleep on Chan's lap.

"What do I get if I tell you?"

Chan smiled. Talking to Seungkwan was fun. “Anything you want.”

"Anything?" Chan nodded and Seungkwan sighed. “I'm 22.”

"You're older than me! Wow. I thought you were about 19 or so.”

Seungkwan raised an eyebrow in disgust. “No, I'm not. You are older than me," he stressed. “Although you look like a young man, you are actually an old man.”

Chan bit his lip to keep from insulting Seungkwan. Everything he said was a lie. He was still young in appearance and in age. "What are you saying? I don't listen to liars.”

Seungkwan shifted in the chair, ready to pounce on Chan to give him what he deserves in the form of tickling. He stopped before his hand passed through the ghost's torso and cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I´m sorry.”

“Why?” Chan asked, still confused by what happened.

"For having wanted to touch you. I almost ran you through; and I remember you said it was rude.”

Chan swallowed. Did Seungkwan really remember that? The butterflies in his stomach had no right to flutter like that after those words. To begin with, Chan wasn't supposed to feel anything inside him. He was a ghost.

"It doesn't matter," he assured, trying to make his voice sound stable.

Seungkwan nodded without looking too sure, then subtly tried to deflect the subject. "Can I tell you what I want now?"

“What?”

"You said that if I told you my age, I could ask you for anything."

Right. For a moment Chan almost forgot about that.

“Yeah. Tell me. Just don't ask me for anything too embarrassing,” he teased, lightening the atmosphere that suddenly seemed tense a little more.

"I want to know what happened."

Chan looked at him confused. “When?”

Seungkwan stared at him, his cheeks flushed pink and Chan felt like he was melting when the blonde looked away, embarrassed. "When they turned you into a ghost."

Chan watched Soo on his lap. He stroked his little ears and smiled when the cat began to purr in its sleep. He did his best not to look at Seungkwan's expression when he started to speak.

"It's a silly story," he warned. “My best friend was about to turn 24, so I wanted to find him a nice present, you know? I liked him... a little. I remember that I asked another of my friends, Hansol, to accompany me to an antique shop that I had heard a lot about. My best friend had always been a fan of vintage stuff, so I thought I'd give the place a try. When we got to the store, Hansol insisted on looking at the jewelry. I've never been a fan of accessories, but since we had plenty of time, I helped him pick out a couple of rings. Among all that, he showed me a necklace with a red stone in the center, he told me to keep it for him while he kept looking at other things, so I put it in my pants pocket.”

"And don't tell me," Seungkwan interrupted him, "you forgot to pay for it and you took it in your pants."

Chan couldn't help but open his mouth. "How do you know?" he asked incredulously.

Seungkwan's laughter woke up Soo, who stormed from the living room to the bedroom.

"I saw it coming. I have read many similar stories. Many curses are actually done by mistake.” Chan exhaled. Had his cursing been a misunderstanding? “What happened after that?”

“A witch appeared in my apartment while it was raining, hit me with her cane for stealing her family heirloom, and then turned me into a ghost who couldn't leave here or touch other people. She also said that no one could break the curse except herself,” he said without much encouragement. Seungkwan had removed the element of surprise from his story, there was no point in dragging it out any longer.

"Bullshit," Seungkwan sneered before falling into realization. He jumped up and smiled big. “What was her family name? If I meet them, maybe I can help you break the curse, Channie.”

Chan shrugged his shoulders a bit, trying to remember the family name. It took him half a minute to remember. "Boo." I think it was the Boo family.”

Seungkwan looked at him stunned.

"The Boo family is my family."

…

Here's the thing: Boo Seungkwan came from a long line of powerful witches and wizards that stretched back centuries. As in any evolutionary process, some of his relatives still kept traces of the strong magical imprint that their ancestors had had, however, the magic became weaker with each new generation that was born in the Boo´s. Such was the case that Seungkwan only retained a small affinity for the paranormal traces around him. He didn't name himself as a medium, but…yeah, basically that was it. At least that was what Chan understood from the lengthy explanation Seungkwan gave him.

"So you can help me break the curse?" Chan asked.

“In theory I should. Even if my grandmother cursed you with her blood, I am her bloodline, so we shouldn't have much trouble.”

Chan blinked naively. So it was easy? He wished he could be able to touch Seungkwan right then and there, a caress or a hug was enough. Fate must have been paying him to be a hero in his past lives, because meeting that pretty blonde had been the best thing that had happened to him.

"I could kiss you right now."

There was a deafening silence. Suddenly Seungkwan's ears reddened a bit and Chan felt himself turn pale even though it was impossible. Had he said that out loud?

"What?" Seungkwan stammered.

"What?" Chan repeated.

"What did you say?"

Chan hesitated and shifted his gaze to Soo, who was sprawled on the couch taking his sixth nap of the day. "I didn't say anything.”

Then he laughed. Seungkwan laughed, and Chan wished he could just melt on the apartment floor and disappear from there. Despite everything, Seungkwan's laugh was still his favorite sound, maybe it was because it was the only sound worth remembering. He loved Seungkwan's laugh as much as he loved him. Well, he didn't really love Seungkwan, he reminded himself. Because it would be so ironic to fall in love with the same blood that cursed him that even the thought of it made his stomach churn.

“Maybe I should get a checkup. I think I've been hearing ghosts in the room,” Seungkwan joked.

"Hey! Chan complained, pouting and forgetting the embarrassment that had engulfed him before.

"I'm kidding, Channie." Chan sighed half dejectedly. “Can you light the candles Jeonghan brought?”

"Don't tell me, and I form a circle around us?" Seungkwan's silence was the answer he needed. “Why do I feel like we'll summon a demon?”

Seungkwan didn't look at him. "Because that's what we'll do."

Chan felt a chill run down his entire spine. "What?!" Seungkwan laughed again, as if Chan was the funniest being he had ever met. “You must be in a good mood. Aren't you worried one bit that what we're going to do will go wrong or something?”

Seungkwan thought about it. “Are you?”

No. At this point there wasn't really anything Chan was worried about too much. What was worse than not being able to touch another human being?

"A little," he lied to no avail, reaching for the lighter and candles.

“Hmm. Do not do it. I have done this before.”

Seungkwan definitely hadn't done that before, Chan had known since he watched him search in the internet how to break a curse. Either way he appreciated the attempt at comfort he was trying to offer him. "How many candles do I light?"

“All of them.”

Chan simply obeyed. He arranged everything and got inside the circle, waiting for Seungkwan to come in as well. "Aren't you going to get in?"

The blond said no and Chan wanted to squeeze his cheeks until they turned pink.

"Only you should be inside. Magic stuff and so... you wouldn't understand.”

Chan raised an eyebrow in question. He was sure Seungkwan didn't fully understand it either. He had to watch him for a long time, reading from his cell phone and reciting words that seemed random in a strange language. It took so long that Chan ended up sitting on the apartment floor. His eyes were beginning to grow heavy and suddenly he was somewhat sleepy. Was that normal? He had never needed to sleep as a ghost, but Soo looked so relaxed while he slept that he felt like doing it too. To sleep. To dream.

…

When he opened his eyes Seungkwan was still there, leaning in front of him. The fire from the candles had disappeared, and in its place lay wisps of smoke. At least the electricity was back on, because the light seemed to be on. "Is the electricity back on?" He asked somewhat confused, trying to get up a bit. He still saw something blurred by the reflection of the light.

Seungkwan's eyes stayed on him, and Chan felt like that first time he thought Seungkwan was looking at him. "I thought I'd killed you."

Chan blinked slowly. “What?”

"I thought something really went wrong," Seungkwan stammered in a slightly strange voice. Oh. Chan noticed it after a few seconds, just as his vision cleared. Seungkwan was crying. “You just closed your eyes and didn't open them again until...”

Chan managed to stop Seungkwan from speaking when he raised his hand just a little, enough to touch his cheeks and wipe away a slowly falling tear. He kept his palm firm against the boiling skin. And he felt it. Chan could actually touch Seungkwan, feel his soft skin and not just go right through him. His eyes traveled from his hand to Seungkwan's face over and over again. The blond seemed as surprised as him, and with good reason. Chan was even more astonished that an internet spell had worked out than he was that he was a person again.

"It worked?" he asked, as if he still didn't believe it.

Seungkwan lunged at him. “It worked!”

Chapter Text

Soo really was a very annoying cat. He meowed as if he were on the verge of death every time he was hungry, scratched the couches like they didn't cost Seungkwan's two kidneys, and growled at Chan every time he got close to Seungkwan. And, when Seungkwan wasn't around, he would yell at Chan and walk between his legs to get him to caress him, pretending that he really loved him.

"Sometimes I think I should have scared you out of my apartment too," Chan complained, picking up the cat and looking at it squarely. The cat just looked at him before trying to scratch his face and jumping away from him when there was a knock on the door.

"You again," Jeonghan told him as soon as he let him pass. “Where is Seungkwan?”

"Seungkwan?" Chan asked again, buying time to come up with a credible excuse.

“Yes. Seungkwan,” Jeonghan said rolling his eyes. “Your boyfriend who sneaks you in here.”

Chan's cheeks boiled red. It was a strange feeling. He should have gotten used to it a couple of days ago, but the way the heat spread across his skin was still a little foreign to him. "He's not my boyfriend. And he doesn't sneak me in.”

Jeonghan raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, not believing a single word. "And your cat is not a cunning cat."

“What?”

“I thought we were telling lies.”

Chan bit his lip a little. To his good luck, Seungkwan opened with his key and entered at that moment. Chan sighed into a smile. Maybe Seungkwan's destiny was always to save him.

"Hello," the blonde greeted, half confused by the unexpected visit.

"Hi Kwannie," Chan greeted him back.

“God, you already have nicknames and everything. Should I expect a wedding invitation soon?”

Seungkwan glared at Jeonghan, knitted his eyebrows together and walked over to him with a firm step. Chan stayed behind him. "What do you want?" Seungkwan asked defensively.

Jeonghan smiled a little. "My boyfriend is coming over for dinner and I wanted to invite you. It can be like a double date.”

"It's fine by me," Chan said, and despite having been expecting Seungkwan's incredulous look, he received another affirmation in return.

"Okay, then. We'll go," the blond assured. Then he forcefully dragged Jeonghan out of his apartment and slammed the door shut. "What have I told you about opening the door to strangers?"

Chan drew his eyebrows together and twisted his mouth into an adorable grin. “Jeonghan isn´t a stranger.”

"Everyone is a stranger to you," Seungkwan reminded him. “It's only been a few weeks since we broke the curse, Channie. We still have to figure out how we're going to get you back to living your life.”

Seungkwan used to talk about the problems that Chan had to solve in plural. Chan thought it was a cute habit. Actually, Chan still believed that everything in Seungkwan was cute.

“Will you help me?”

Seungkwan approached him, slow, like a photographer hoping not to startle a bird taking off. Chan snuggled into the touch of Seungkwan's palm on his cheek. The touch of him was comforting, just as knowing that his voice was directed at him and that his eyes were looking at him even as he blinked.

“I will.”

"Thank you, Seungkwan," Chan whispered.

"Why?" he inquired as if he didn't know, cocking his head and breathing softly.

“You know why.”

Seungkwan smiled. "For not ignoring the ghost in the room?" he asked, bringing his face slightly closer to Chan's.

Chan looked away, suddenly embarrassed. His heart began to pound, it could have been painful if Chan didn't know what it meant. He sometimes forgot that Seungkwan heard every single word Chan said out loud when he pretended he didn't see him. It was very likely that Seungkwan already knew, anyway, so Chan didn't think long before asking: “Can I kiss you?”

"I've never kissed a ghost."

Chan rolled his eyes and a sly smile tugged at his lips. Seungkwan was really a fool. "I'm no longer a ghost," he said.

And he kissed him. Chan kissed him, or maybe Seungkwan kissed him. Chan wasn't quite sure. He could only think of Seungkwan's lips caressing his, his skin boiling under his touch and his unruly locks stinging against his forehead.

Seungkwan felt exactly as he imagined when he first saw him.

…

“Seungkwan, Chan; this is Seungcheol, my boyfriend,” Jeonghan introduced.

“My pleasure,” Seungcheol said, offering his outstretched palm towards Chan.

After a while, Seungkwan and Jeonghan struck up their own conversation, leaving room for Chan and Seucheol to get to know each other a bit more. And it was weird for Chan, because Seungcheol reminded him a bit of his brother. Not physically, but something about him was identical to Jihoon.

"You want to hear something funny?" Chan said, half smiling. “You remind me a lot of someone.”

Seungcheol laughed and took a swallow of his drink. His gums poked out a bit and his eyes disappeared as his cheeks rose. “They usually tell me that I am identical to my father's family.”

“Really?”

Seungcheol nodded. It didn't take long for Chan to figure it out then. He smiled helplessly and his heart hammered hard. Oh, Jihoon would kill him himself when he found out that he was actually alive.