Ghostly Beauty - Minsung

Chapter 5

Jisung walked into the ice rink.

"Minho?" He stopped in his tracks, surprised at the older who was sitting on the floor, knees up to his chest, sleeping.

He looked at the clock on the wall, 19:37. It was quite late and Minho's family were probably wondering were he was.

"Hey, Minho," Jisung went closer to Minho, annoyed that he couldn't shake him. Then, an idea popped into his head.

He grabbed a hockey stick from the storage cupboard and went over to the sleeping boy and prodded him with it. The other woke up with a start, making the younger worry about why he woke up in such a panic.

He decided not to question it.

"Hey," Jisung waved. Minho quickly turned his head towards the voice, putting a hand on his heart and sighing in relief when he saw the boy in front of him.

"Oh my god, Jisungie, you scared me- wait." He paused suddenly, making eye contact with the younger, "Jisung?!"

Jisung looked at him sheepishly.

"Where were you? What happened? Are you okay? Did you manage to leave?" He bombarded Jisung with all these questions.

"Calm down, I only managed to go to the garden out back, but-"

"Seriously?!" Minho's face lit up in excitement, a smile beamed across his face, "oh my god! Let's go right now!"

"You seem more excited than me." Jisung laughed, running after Minho.

"Maybe I am!"

"You're crazy." Jisung shook his head slowly, an airy laugh escaped his mouth.

They opened the backdoor and stepped outside. It was a little chilly, but pleasant. A clean feel washed over them. Seoul was very polluted and so it was nice to be surrounded by greenery after such a long time. Both boys felt they hadn't been around nature much. Minho because he was always training or at home and never really took much time for himself and Jisung because, you guessed it, he physically couldn't.

"This is nice."

"Yeah."

They sat on a bench, in silence for a few minutes. It was dark outside by now, the sun had set.

"What time is it?"

"Probably around 8pm by now."

"Oh shit."

"You need to go?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll be waiting, if I'm not on the rink, check out here." He smiled softly at the older.

"Alright. Bye, Ji." He smiled back and left the building.

Jisung felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach that he hadn't really ever felt before. Even when he was alive. He didn't know how he was feeling it because his insides are probably not real, but, even he didn't know his biology.

He sighed, getting up and walking to the rink. He hadn't skated in a while, meaning one day, and felt the urge to go on the ice.

He went over to the storage closet to get his things, when he noticed something stuck next to the door that he hadn't noticed before. A note. A yellow sticky note. He picked it up and read it.

Hey, you weren't here today :(. Have you managed to get out. If so, well done. I'm proud of you. If you find this somehow and you haven't gone to the afterlife. Where were you? I miss you. I haven't been here a lot because of practice. The new seasons starting soon. I hope we meet again.

-Minho

Jisung felt his eyes wanting to well up slightly, but of course, he's still a ghost. He can't cry.

It's true. Minho hadn't been visiting as much, but Jisung knew the new season was starting, Minho had mentioned it, but he still missed him. He felt happy knowing that he was missed by him like he missed him.

"Where were you?"

That question stuck in his mind. Where was he? He was in the garden the whole time. How come he didn't hear Minho? The garden isn't sound proof, he could hear the air conditioning inside even with the doors shut. Maybe he passed out. No, ghosts can't pass out. But then why can't he remember?

He must have passed out, that's the only explanation.

'Maybe it's like men in black and I saw an alien so they had to erase my memory.' He laughed at his own thoughts.

He decided to just forget about it. There's probably a reason he didn't remember. He can't have fallen asleep, or passed out, or got drunk, because he can't do any of those things. It's not physically possible. But then again, he's never really tried.

He lay down on a bench and shut his eyes, attempting to calm his racing mind and fully relax his body.

'If I can fall asleep, maybe I'm becoming more human.' He thought.

He held the note lightly in his hand and drifted off.

~+*+~

"Minho, where the hell have you been?" His mother called, "it's extremely late."

"I had late practice and then the traffic was bad." Minho lied.

"You could've gone up and the other road and you could've called me."

"I did. You didn't pick up and I didn't know there was traffic on that road." Minho was notorious for being a good liar. If he could, he would plan it out ahead. Like this time, for example, he knew his mother would tell him he's late, and so he came up with the idea of traffic and late practice.

He researched the traffic. There was a lot today, but he took a different road, of course his mother would ask that, so he would say he didn't know there was traffic that day.

Late practice was an obvious one because the new season is starting.

And for the phone call? He went on messages and saw her phone was on do not disturb. He called her, knowing she wouldn't pick up.

"I'm sorry, son."

"It's okay." He smiled forcefully at her before leaving to go to his room and finish his studies and homework for the night.

His father wouldn't be home for a while. To be honest, he hated his father, more than anything. He was greedy, selfish and was not against the idea of doing crimes for money.

Minho didn't have it easy at home, he mostly felt alone even when he was with his family. He knew he should be thankful for everything he has, his dad wouldn't shut up about it if Minho ever complained, but he just wasn't happy, he wasn't happy with his life and he received no love from either of his parents. He felt lonely. He felt empty.

But every time he was with Jisung. He didn't feel that anymore.

Jisung...

He's so beautiful.

'Jisung...I swear I've known him before...'