three

Jihoon slammed his head down on the desk and let the throbbing pain comfort him. He was predictably getting nowhere with Soonyoung. He needed to help him so he could get him out of his life for good and the ghost didn't seem to want to cooperate.

"Okay," Jihoon began as he lifted his head. "Let's go with something easier." He had to. His last ten questions either had no answers or strange ones. It seemed they would have to go back to the basics.

"How did you die?' He asked calmly.

Soonyoung seemed to perk up at the easy question he could answer. "Asthma attack. Crummy way to go, but here I am."

"Okay, can you think of any unfinished business you might have?"

Soonyoung thought for a moment. "I wanted to lead my own dance crew, but it wasn't that big of a deal either." He finally shook his head. "Nah. I don't have any unfinished business."

Jihoon was starting to get aggravated once more. Did this ghost really want help or did he just want to annoy Jihoon?

"Okay, so if you know how you died and why, and you don't have any unfinished business, then why are you still here?" He asked.

"I don't know! I've tried so many times to move on. I've tried every ritual, every shaman, but I never leave. I'm stuck here and I have no idea why." He explained. "Every time I feel like I'm able to go, there's some odd force pulling me back."

Jihoon softened a bit. It was indeed an odd situation. Usually, accidental deaths or self-aware spirits moved on rather quickly with little to no problem. He had dealt with a few cases of ghosts who couldn't remember how they died, but once they recalled all the details, they were able to move on. However, Soonyoung knew how he died. He should have been able to move on. So, that left one other possibility. He eyed the spirit.

"I had a case like this only one other time. The spirit thought she knew how she died and couldn't think of any unfinished business, however, just like you, she couldn't move on."

"So what was wrong with her?" Soonyoung asked, sounding serious for once.

"It turns out she was murdered."

Soonyoung instantly scoffed. "I couldn't have been murdered. I had a simple asthma attack. That's it." His voice was full of disbelief, which Jihoon expected. It was a lot to take in.

Jihoon shrugged. "Don't asthmatics usually keep their inhalers handy in case of emergencies? Where was yours?" He questioned.

"I was clumsy and messy! I used to lose things all the time!" The ghost exclaimed, trying to defend himself.

"If you say so."

The usually cheerful ghost now wore an angry expression. Jihoon jumped a bit when noticed the lights in his apartment blinking rapidly. It seemed Soonyoung wasn't lying about being more powerful than the average ghost. That kind of power usually came from pent-up rage, further proving Jihoon's theory. Deep down, Soonyoung had to know something was wrong. He was just confused and in denial. It was something Jihoon often saw in cases such as this one.

"Calm down!" Jihoon ordered, "I'm sorry." The last thing he needed was an angry ghost raising his already high electric bill.

Slowly the lights stopped flickering and they returned to their normal brightness. Jihoon sighed in relief. It seemed he had to be careful how he approached the topic of Soonyoung's death in the future. He didn't want a repeat of the lights or something worse. Soonyoung's expression of anger had shifted to one of slight annoyance.

"Murder by asthma. You're ridiculous." He scoffed.

Jihoon wanted to retaliate, but instead, he kept quiet in fear of angering the ghost again. He got up and headed to his room. Curious, Soonyoung followed closely behind. When he saw Jihoon grabbing his laptop, he scoffed.

"We're talking about my death and you have the audacity to work?"

Jihoon glared at him as he sat at his desk."I'm going to do research." He clarified.

"On what?'

"On you, stupid." Jihoon snapped. "It would help to know your life before your death. There has to be a missing piece somewhere. This could at least help."

"Oh."

Soonyoung, now embarrassed, sat atop Jihoon's desk and watched patiently as the other took a deep dive into his personal life. After twenty minutes, Soonyoung began to get bored and he jumped down to look at the screen over the smaller's shoulders.

"So? Aren't I interesting?"

"Hardly," Jihoon muttered as he scrolled through Soonyoung's social media. "Wow, you really like tigers." He noted.

Before Soonyoung could reply, Jihoon let out a small noise of victory. "Okay! I found something. It says here that you died on August 3rd, 2023. That's just last year."

Soonyoung stared at the screen with a sad expression. "Has it really been that long It only feels like a month ago." He said in a quiet voice.

His soft tone took Jihoon aback. It was the first time he heard the ghost talk so softly. It almost made him feel sorry for him. He even almost forgave him for the throwing trash at him incident...almost.

"That's because you no longer have any concept of time. Once you're a ghost, you just aimlessly wander around, no longer aware of your surroundings." Jihoon explained.

"I know that." Soonyoung snapped. "I'm the ghost here."

And just like that, all feelings of sympathy Jihoon felt toward him, vanished. Instead of continuing to fight with the obnoxious spirit, he resumed scrolling for more information. He found a post Soonyoung's account was tagged in and Jihoon clicked on it. It was a selfie of Soonyoung with two other guys, presumably his friends. It was posted on August 4th, 2023, a day after Soonyoung's death.

'Our best friend... I can't believe I have to type something like this. You were the first friend I had here. We became adults together and I always thought we would continue together, but unfortunately, your journey stops here and we must continue without you. We'll miss you, Soonie. We'll save a dance for you.'

Jihoon felt sad as he read the caption. However, he was delighted to see that more than one person knew Soonyoung. The post was made by a man named Xu Minghao and he had tagged Soonyoung and a man named Junhui in the post. Maybe they could help piece the events leading to Soonyoung's death together. It would put Jihoon a step closer to figuring out how to get the ghost to cross over. Jihoon turned his chair a bit to give Soonyoung a better look at the screen.

"Do you remember them?"

Soonyoung's eyes widened. "That's Minghao and Junhui, my best friends. We attended the same dance academy and we were all roommates."

Jihoon nodded in satisfaction as he shut his laptop. "Maybe we should pay them a visit."

Much to Jihoon's surprise and annoyance, the spirit behind him laughed at the suggestion.

"What?" Jihoon snapped.

He was sure Soonyoung would go along with the suggestion considering it would help, but he was getting laughed at instead. It was why he hated the whole helping spirits business. He was better off ignoring Soonyoung until he left him alone, just as he originally planned.

"You? You want to go up to a couple of strangers and tell them that their dead best friend talked to you and you think he was murdered? Do you really think that is a good idea?" Soonyoung questioned.

"It was an idea! I don't see you coming up with anything solid." Jihoon shot back.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not even solid." Soonyoung smartly pointed out.

Jihoon glared at him, not finding the ghost's humor even the slightest bit funny.

"Fine. I have another idea. This one should work, but only if you cooperate," He said instead.

"As long as it's not as stupid as the first one."

Jihoon turned in his chair. "You could go see your friends alone."

Soonyoung shook his head in what seemed to be disappointment. "For a well-respected person, you sure are the dumbest. I'm dead. D-E-A-D. They can't see me or hear me."

"That's the point, dumbass. You can easily observe them, find clues leading to your death." Jihoon explained.

"You want me to haunt my friends?" Soonyoung asked in disbelief.

"I'm not saying you flicker the lights and throw the china around. I'm simply saying to go and investigate. Don't you want to find out what happened to you so you can finally move on?"

The apparition sighed. "To be honest, I'm afraid of what I'll find out. What if I was actually murdered?"

"Then we bring you to justice," Jihoon answered more seriously this time.

Soonyoung may have annoyed him, but at the end of the day, if Soonyoung truly had been murdered, he deserved to find out what happened to him. He needed to be brought to justice so he could finally rest in peace. That was what Jihoon's part-time job was truly about. Soonyoung seemed to relax a bit and gave one last nod before disappearing, leaving a cold draft in Jihoon's apartment.