The Newbie Spirit
Title: The Newbie Spirit
Pairing: Yoochun/Jaejoong (implied Yunho/Junsu)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They aren't mine in this life or in the next.
Summary: Shim Changmin died and he needs Yoochun's help.
Warning: Character death, Genre: Supernatural
A/N: This is in the same verse as Meddling Spirits and is once again dedicated to vk_loli because she had a really bad weekend.
Yoochun woke up sometime in the middle of the early morning when something sat on his legs.
“Oh, sorry. I-I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just going to wait.”
Yoochun sat up and rubbed his eyes. Jaejoong murmured next to him, but didn’t wake up.
The young man at the foot of his bed was gangly-limbed, stuck between teenage years and adulthood. He had brown hair and a slightly pudgy face. His long legs were folded beneath him and his arms were resting on his knees.
“I’m still trying to get used to this whole being dead thing.”
Yoochun smiled. “What can I do for you?” he whispered.
The young man bit his lower lip. “I … I don’t know. I was told you could help.”
Yoochun slipped from the bed despite Jaejoong’s attempts to clutch at him in his sleep.
“Sorry,” the young man said, and if he’d been in a body he’d be blushing.
Yoochun smiled and waved it away. He was more than used to his visitors interrupting his sleep. He pulled on a pair of sweat pants. “Follow me.”
The young man stood, one leg disappearing into the bed, and then walked out of it. Yoochun led the way to the kitchen and then started a pot of tea. Spirits liked tea, even if they couldn’t drink it.
“What’s your name?”
The young man frowned for a moment and then said, “Shim Changmin.”
“How long have you been dead?”
“Four days.”
“Wow. You are a newbie.”
“Yeah.”
“What brings you to my kitchen?”
“They can’t find my body and no one knows I’m missing.”
“Oh. So where is your body?”
“I don’t know. I was jumped and then dumped somewhere.”
Yoochun tried not to sigh. Spirits didn’t get the concept of distance. In two blinks of an eye, Changmin could be in the United States. Fortunately, all spirits knew where they died. Some lingered there, some didn’t.
“But you can take me there?” Yoochun asked.
“Yes. I walked …” Changmin snorted. “Excuse me. I floated here, taking my time so I would know the way back.”
“How far?”
“Far enough that you’ll want to drive.”
Yoochun nodded. “You said no one knows you’re missing?”
Changmin shook his head. “I’m in college.” He sighed. “I was in college, and I don’t have a roommate. I call my mother every Sunday. I was jumped on Monday. Today is Thursday, well almost Friday. The only person who is worried is Kim Junsu. He’s in my English class, and I’ve missed one class, and I never ever ever miss a class. And he’s asked around and no one has seen me. Even though I’ve been there.” Changmin’s spiritual chest hitched like he was trying to cry.
“It’s … I’ve … I’ve always been a bit of a loner, Yoochun-shi, and I … but to actually be invisible. It really hurts.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Yoochun said. “I’ll help you out.”
“Really?”
Yoochun nodded.
“Chunnie,” Jaejoong’s voice said in the hall. A moment later, he entered the kitchen, beautifully sleep rumpled and only in a pair of boxers. “Who’re you talking to?”
Yoochun smiled and opened his arms and Jaejoong snuggled up against his chest. “A young man by the name of Changmin. I need to go find his body.”
Jaejoong pulled away and made a face. “Ew.”
Changmin snorted. “It’s four days old, imagine how pretty it is.”
“He can’t hear you,” Yoochun said.
“No? He’s too pretty to be a man.”
Yoochun laughed. “Be glad he can’t hear you. He would have slapped you for that one.”
“What?” Jaejoong asked.
“He called you pretty.”
Jaejoong pouted in Changmin’s general direction. “I am not pretty. I’m handsome.”
“Keep telling yourself that, blondie.”
Yoochun laughed and relayed the message.
“Oh that is it. Please tell me I’m older than him.”
“You are.”
“Then you,” he pointed his finger, but not at Changmin and Yoochun moved his hand so the gesture was threatening its target. “You have to respect me.”
“Respect the dead, hyung,” Changmin said, laughing from where he sat on the table top.
After Yoochun replied, Jaejoong pouted again and said, “I don’t like this one.”
“You don’t like anyone that calls you pretty. Do you want to come with me?”
“On a body recovery? No thanks.”
“Not a recovery. I just have to go find it and then call the police. I don’t plan on getting near a five day old corpse. Let me shower and get some coffee in me and then you can lead the way, Changmin.”
“Thanks, hyung.”
Jaejoong grumbled about having to get out Yoochun’s lap and then brightened at the offer to join him in the shower. It was still the only place the two of them felt alone, and Jaejoong never passed up an opportunity to put hand prints on the mirror and shoot come all over the bathroom counter.
---
Changmin’s body was in a field southwest of Seoul. The buildings around it were warehouses and the closest home was a ten minute drive. No one would have noticed it for another week until the smell was really bad. As it was, Yoochun could smell it just fine, and he refused to get closer.
His least favorite thing was calling the police, and he doubted there was a pay phone around where he could make an anonymous tip.
“It is rather grotesque to look at,” Changmin said above him, “even from this far away.”
Yoochun nodded and fished out his cell phone. He called a number he had on speed dial and hoped that Yunho wasn’t on a call.
“Oh god, what do you want?” Yunho said as a hello.
“Body recovery.”
“Fuck. Where?”
“It’s out of your jurisdiction.”
“Do you have any idea how much you fucking owe me?” Yunho demanded.
“A lot, I know. Look. This kid has been dead for five days now and no one knows he’s missing. His mother won’t start to worry until Sunday. He has a little sister, and he was a freshman in college. At seventeen. He deserves to be properly buried.”
“Fine, fine, fine. Where are you?”
Yoochun told Yunho where he was and Yunho cursed. “Oh god. That pretty boyfriend of yours better be prepared to make me some hella good grub for this.” Yunho hung up on him.
Yoochun sat on the hood of his car and watched Changmin float above him. “You going to stick around?”
He sighed. “I um … can I ask one more favor?”
“Sure.”
“When I was jumped, they … my chain broke. Around my neck, and it’s stupid. You’re going to laugh.”
Yoochun shook his head and lifted a necklace up. It was simple, just a metal crescent. “My father died when I was younger, probably about your age, and I waited to see him. I waited and waited and waited, but then he never showed up. It was … it hurt. The day after his funeral I found this on my bed. Which was really freaky because he’d been buried with it around his neck.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“My sister gave me a Hello Kitty charm that was on her favorite bracelet and I wore it around my neck so I wouldn’t lose it.”
“That’s not stupid. It’s really sweet. Let’s go find it.”
Changmin tried to stay in Yoochun’s passenger seat, to practice the whole being a spirit thing, but while they were talking, he kept forgetting to concentrate and ended up going through the car and having to catch up.
When they were back in Seoul, Changmin stood in the middle of an alley, frowning.
“It was the weirdest thing,” Changmin said. “I walked through this alley every night. The man who has the stand on the corner always gave me a pack of ramen to take home for dinner.”
Yoochun leaned against a brick wall and watched as Changmin flickered in and out of existence while walking up and down the alley.
“I guess … I’d stayed at the library later than usual, and it was really dark, and I don’t know. I’m not rich. I didn’t have anything of value except my iPhone.”
Yoochun smiled and said, “Yes, you did.” He’d seen a sparkle of silver near the wall and went over there. The Hello Kitty charm was covered in dirt, but intact. He held it up and Changmin sighed. His hand passed through it.
“Thanks, hyung.”
Changmin winked out, and Yoochun was startled for a moment. But that sometimes happened with the spirits that where only there for some unfinished business.
Yoochun climbed into the car. His cell phone rang and he answered it before he started driving. A lot of spirits were spirits because they were stupid while they were alive.
“This is a murder investigation now. I hope you’re happy.”
“Do you want me to tell you where it happened?”
“You were there?”
“Artifact recovery, something that belonged to Changmin that he wants me to give back to his sister. It’s a frequented alleyway, and it’s been five days. I doubt there’s much evidence.” Yoochun told him where it was.
“That makes it my jurisdiction.”
“Yep.”
“Any other helpful information?”
“He doesn’t know who did it. Three guys jumped him from behind and it was dark and he was knocked out almost immediately. Then he was dead and floating above his body.”
Yunho sighed. “Please don’t go tell his mother until we have her identify the body.”
Yoochun promised he wouldn’t.
---
A sinking sense of déjà vu filled Yoochun as he woke up at three a.m. to weight on his legs.
“Shit, sorry,” Changmin said.
Yoochun rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I thought you were gone.”
“I went to watch over my mom when … yeah … My funeral is today.”
“Are you going to go?”
Changmin sighed. “That’s weird.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Changmin nodded. “My mom is very spiritual, but not in the religious sort of way. She believes in the afterlife and in spirits and she’ll believe you if you tell her you can see me.”
Yoochun looked at him and then nodded. “I still have to return your sister’s charm, too.”
“Now what?” Jaejoong mumbled.
Yoochun kissed his cheek. “Just Changmin.”
“I thought that disrespectful ghoul was gone.”
Yoochun smiled.
And Changmin started chanting, “Pretty,” over and over until his voice actually echoed in the room.
Jaejoong moaned and chucked his pillow at the sound and it flew through Changmin’s head.
“That would have hit him.”
Jaejoong grunted in approval and curled around Yoochun’s pillow since his was across the room.
“Tell Jaejoong to come too. My mom will like him.”
“Okay.”
Yoochun knew he wouldn’t sleep again, so he got up and picked Jaejoong’s pillow off the floor. He sauntered into the kitchen and sat at his laptop. He’d spent the last three days working Changmin’s story into his next novel. He didn’t stop typing until Jaejoong woke up at seven, and then the two of them got ready to go.
Changmin’s funeral had been at nine, but Yoochun waited until the services were over and most of the guests had gone.
Changmin’s mother was tall, just like he was, but not quite as. His father was over six feet though. His younger sister clung to his hand as they received guest after guest.
Surprisingly, Yunho was there, and Yoochun headed to him first.
Yunho smiled and shook his hand, and said hello to Jaejoong. “Thanks, Yoochun-ah. There’s no way we would have found or known who had died if it wasn’t for you.”
“Not going to convict me of this one, huh?”
“No. We can’t convict anyone of it, and it’s frustrating, but the parents are doing well. They do want to know how we knew it was their son though. There wasn’t a stitch of identification on him.”
Yoochun looked over at the family and smiled. Changmin was behind them, hands on his mother’s shoulders. A young man went up to the family and Yoochun headed over to him.
“He was in my English class,” Yoochun caught the young man saying.
“You’re Kim Junsu,” Yoochun said, remembering his name.
Junsu jerked in surprise and narrowed his eyes at this mysterious stranger.
“Changmin said you’d be the first one to notice he was gone. He wanted you to know that he didn’t miss last Wednesday’s class, but leaned over your shoulder and laughed at you while you wrote the wrong answers.”
Junsu’s eyes went wide.
“And you are?” Changmin’s father asked.
“Park Yoochun,” he said and bowed ninety degrees. He just noticed that Jaejoong and Yunho had followed him over and he introduced Jaejoong as his boyfriend.
“Yoochun-shi is the one who told us about Changmin,” Yunho said. “He’s a medium, and he helps out the police when we’re smart enough to listen to him.”
Changmin’s mother’s eyes widened. “You’ve spoken to my son.”
“Yes. Quite frequently actually.”
“Please don’t tell them I’m here,” Changmin said quickly. “I don’t want my mom to cry.”
“I told you, Mother,” the sister said and crossed her arms. She looked at Yoochun. “I said that I saw him in the kitchen yesterday and she didn’t believe me.”
Yoochun squatted in front of her and then reached into his pocket. “Well, Changmin dropped this and he asked me to find it and give it back to you.” He opened his hand and the girl smiled widely and grabbed at the Hello Kitty charm. And then she frowned and started to cry. Just little tears. Too stubborn to really cry. Yoochun stood back up.
“Can we put it in his casket, Momma, please? It’s his now. Not mine.”
His mother looked close to tears again and she nodded. His father picked up the girl and let her drop the charm in next to her brother’s body.
“Now he’ll never lose it.”
Yoochun felt tears in his own eyes and Jaejoong grasped his hand tightly.
They went to the cemetery with the family upon his mother’s insistence and watched as Changmin’s casket was lowered into the ground.
“I hate funerals,” Junsu said suddenly.
Yoochun smiled. “They’re for the living more than the dead.”
Junsu looked at him closely. “Are you saying there isn’t a heaven?”
Yoochun shook his head. “I don’t know if there is a heaven or not. Spirits stay on Earth because it’s familiar. I’ve heard some talk of a bright light, and others talk of a dark hole. I’ve helped spirits out like I have with Changmin and as soon as what they needed is done, they’re gone and I never see them again. Maybe they go to heaven, maybe they’re reincarnated”
Junsu thought about that and then nodded. “So they’re waiting.”
Yoochun smiled again. “Usually. But what they’re waiting for, no one knows.”
“I’m waiting for lunch,” Yunho said and looked at Jaejoong.
Jaejoong covered his mouth with his hand and laughed. “And Yoochun owes you which means I have to cook.”
“Damn right.”
“You can come with if you want,” Yoochun said to Junsu. “Jaejoong is a good cook.”
Junsu looked over at the Shim Family, again complete with a fuzzy form of their son, and then nodded. The four of them paid their respects and then left the family to their grief. They stopped at the market for Jaejoong to run in to get some meat, and then they went back to Yoochun and Jaejoong’s apartment.
Junsu seemed nervous, but Yunho just dropped into the couch and put his feet up.
“Take your shoes off, Yunho, aish,” Jaejoong said.
Yunho waved a hand at him in dismissal, but did as he was asked. Suit jackets were removed and hung up, pleasantries exchanged about how much nicer Yoochun’s apartment looked now that Jaejoong lived there, and then they congregated in the kitchen around the table and Yoochun opened his laptop. Jaejoong started cooking right away.
“Can you really see ghosts?” Junsu asked.
Yoochun smiled. “When they let me.”
“Are there any here now?” His voice sounded almost fearful.
“Not that are visible. It’s a bit crowded in here. But don’t be alarmed if you hear noises or footsteps elsewhere.”
“And laughter,” Jaejoong said. “That’s the freakiest.”
“Awesome!” Changmin suddenly said next to Yoochun. “Another weakness.” And then he laughed, and it sounded disembodied and demonic. Jaejoong dropped a spoon and Junsu cursed.
Yoochun laughed and waved a hand through Changmin’s arm. “Just Changmin.”
“Stupid, ungrateful dongsaeng,” Jaejoong muttered darkly. “You better be glad I can’t see you or touch you, dongsaeng. I would punch you so hard that you’d feel it in your next life.”
Changmin laughed and settled on the table, and Yoochun was typing through his leg. “Minnie.” Yoochun whined.
“Sorry.”
Yoochun had to explain to the other three and then had to tell Changmin to get out of Jaejoong’s way. Jaejoong kept walking through him and shivering.
“It smells so good,” Changmin whined. “I want some. This isn’t fair. I used to love to eat.”
“He wants to eat your food.”
Jaejoong stuck his tongue out at the last cold spot he walked through. “Too bad for you.”
“Are you as freaked out by this as I am?” Junsu asked Yunho.
Yunho nodded and then smiled. “Yeah, but you get used to it.”
Yoochun tried to concentrate on his novel, but knew he wouldn’t get much work done with Jaejoong snapping at Changmin’s spirit everyone and then. A wooden spoon suddenly lifted from the counter and then dropped and Jaejoong shouted, “Oh my god, get out of my kitchen. All of you. Especially you, Changmin you freak of the spiritual world. Out out out or I’ll never cook again.”
Junsu’s laughter echoed around them, and Yunho smiled at him in a way that Yoochun recognized.
“Oh god,” Changmin said. “Not them, too.”
“Go find yourself some spiritual booty.”
“What?” Junsu and Jaejoong said at once.
“Nothing,” Yoochun said and smiled at Changmin. “Let’s get out of Jaejoong’s kitchen. You too Changmin.”
“But he can’t even see me,” Changmin whined but followed him out anyway.
Yoochun herded them to the living room, and Yunho asked Junsu if he liked video games, and Junsu was more than eager to play. Jaejoong started singing in the kitchen, and Changmin added his voice to it, and Yoochun smiled widely at how good they sounded together. It was too bad he was the only one who could hear it.
“Damn it,” Junsu said and Yunho cried out in victory.
“Doesn’t matter,” Changmin muttered. “He was cheating anyway.” He swiped at Junsu’s head and his hair blew in a wind, and he jerked around and looked at Yoochun.
Yoochun smiled. “Changmin says you’re cheating.”
“I am not!”
“I knew it!” Yunho shouted and then laughed and hugged Junsu to him.
Junsu blushed.
Changmin snorted. “God, they’re so obvious. I bet it takes Junsu weeks to figure it out.”
Yoochun laughed and settled deeper into the couch and watched as Junsu cheated his way to a victory. Or Yunho let him win. Yoochun wasn’t sure.
“Thanks for all your help, hyung,” Changmin said and sat half on and half in the couch.
“I don’t mind helping those that deserve it, Changmin.”
“Do you mind if I hang out for a little while?”
Yoochun glanced over at him.
“I died young,” Changmin said. “I don’t … I don’t know. I feel like I can do more stuff. Experience things. You know.”
Yoochun nodded. “Yeah, I know. And sure. I don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind what?’ Jaejoong asked.
“Changmin’s going to stick around for a little while.”
Jaejoong glowered and then said, “Fine, but tell him to stop waking me up by screaming pretty in my ear.”
Yoochun laughed.
Changmin smirked and practically cackled. Again it was heard throughout the room.
“Yep, that’s creepy,” Jaejoong said.
“Your prettiness is creepy,” Changmin replied.
And Yoochun spent the next five minutes being in the middle of their bantering, before refusing to cooperate and concentrating on his laptop again.
Next Installment: The Tortured Spirit
.
Pairing: Yoochun/Jaejoong (implied Yunho/Junsu)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They aren't mine in this life or in the next.
Summary: Shim Changmin died and he needs Yoochun's help.
Warning: Character death, Genre: Supernatural
A/N: This is in the same verse as Meddling Spirits and is once again dedicated to vk_loli because she had a really bad weekend.
Yoochun woke up sometime in the middle of the early morning when something sat on his legs.
“Oh, sorry. I-I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just going to wait.”
Yoochun sat up and rubbed his eyes. Jaejoong murmured next to him, but didn’t wake up.
The young man at the foot of his bed was gangly-limbed, stuck between teenage years and adulthood. He had brown hair and a slightly pudgy face. His long legs were folded beneath him and his arms were resting on his knees.
“I’m still trying to get used to this whole being dead thing.”
Yoochun smiled. “What can I do for you?” he whispered.
The young man bit his lower lip. “I … I don’t know. I was told you could help.”
Yoochun slipped from the bed despite Jaejoong’s attempts to clutch at him in his sleep.
“Sorry,” the young man said, and if he’d been in a body he’d be blushing.
Yoochun smiled and waved it away. He was more than used to his visitors interrupting his sleep. He pulled on a pair of sweat pants. “Follow me.”
The young man stood, one leg disappearing into the bed, and then walked out of it. Yoochun led the way to the kitchen and then started a pot of tea. Spirits liked tea, even if they couldn’t drink it.
“What’s your name?”
The young man frowned for a moment and then said, “Shim Changmin.”
“How long have you been dead?”
“Four days.”
“Wow. You are a newbie.”
“Yeah.”
“What brings you to my kitchen?”
“They can’t find my body and no one knows I’m missing.”
“Oh. So where is your body?”
“I don’t know. I was jumped and then dumped somewhere.”
Yoochun tried not to sigh. Spirits didn’t get the concept of distance. In two blinks of an eye, Changmin could be in the United States. Fortunately, all spirits knew where they died. Some lingered there, some didn’t.
“But you can take me there?” Yoochun asked.
“Yes. I walked …” Changmin snorted. “Excuse me. I floated here, taking my time so I would know the way back.”
“How far?”
“Far enough that you’ll want to drive.”
Yoochun nodded. “You said no one knows you’re missing?”
Changmin shook his head. “I’m in college.” He sighed. “I was in college, and I don’t have a roommate. I call my mother every Sunday. I was jumped on Monday. Today is Thursday, well almost Friday. The only person who is worried is Kim Junsu. He’s in my English class, and I’ve missed one class, and I never ever ever miss a class. And he’s asked around and no one has seen me. Even though I’ve been there.” Changmin’s spiritual chest hitched like he was trying to cry.
“It’s … I’ve … I’ve always been a bit of a loner, Yoochun-shi, and I … but to actually be invisible. It really hurts.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Yoochun said. “I’ll help you out.”
“Really?”
Yoochun nodded.
“Chunnie,” Jaejoong’s voice said in the hall. A moment later, he entered the kitchen, beautifully sleep rumpled and only in a pair of boxers. “Who’re you talking to?”
Yoochun smiled and opened his arms and Jaejoong snuggled up against his chest. “A young man by the name of Changmin. I need to go find his body.”
Jaejoong pulled away and made a face. “Ew.”
Changmin snorted. “It’s four days old, imagine how pretty it is.”
“He can’t hear you,” Yoochun said.
“No? He’s too pretty to be a man.”
Yoochun laughed. “Be glad he can’t hear you. He would have slapped you for that one.”
“What?” Jaejoong asked.
“He called you pretty.”
Jaejoong pouted in Changmin’s general direction. “I am not pretty. I’m handsome.”
“Keep telling yourself that, blondie.”
Yoochun laughed and relayed the message.
“Oh that is it. Please tell me I’m older than him.”
“You are.”
“Then you,” he pointed his finger, but not at Changmin and Yoochun moved his hand so the gesture was threatening its target. “You have to respect me.”
“Respect the dead, hyung,” Changmin said, laughing from where he sat on the table top.
After Yoochun replied, Jaejoong pouted again and said, “I don’t like this one.”
“You don’t like anyone that calls you pretty. Do you want to come with me?”
“On a body recovery? No thanks.”
“Not a recovery. I just have to go find it and then call the police. I don’t plan on getting near a five day old corpse. Let me shower and get some coffee in me and then you can lead the way, Changmin.”
“Thanks, hyung.”
Jaejoong grumbled about having to get out Yoochun’s lap and then brightened at the offer to join him in the shower. It was still the only place the two of them felt alone, and Jaejoong never passed up an opportunity to put hand prints on the mirror and shoot come all over the bathroom counter.
---
Changmin’s body was in a field southwest of Seoul. The buildings around it were warehouses and the closest home was a ten minute drive. No one would have noticed it for another week until the smell was really bad. As it was, Yoochun could smell it just fine, and he refused to get closer.
His least favorite thing was calling the police, and he doubted there was a pay phone around where he could make an anonymous tip.
“It is rather grotesque to look at,” Changmin said above him, “even from this far away.”
Yoochun nodded and fished out his cell phone. He called a number he had on speed dial and hoped that Yunho wasn’t on a call.
“Oh god, what do you want?” Yunho said as a hello.
“Body recovery.”
“Fuck. Where?”
“It’s out of your jurisdiction.”
“Do you have any idea how much you fucking owe me?” Yunho demanded.
“A lot, I know. Look. This kid has been dead for five days now and no one knows he’s missing. His mother won’t start to worry until Sunday. He has a little sister, and he was a freshman in college. At seventeen. He deserves to be properly buried.”
“Fine, fine, fine. Where are you?”
Yoochun told Yunho where he was and Yunho cursed. “Oh god. That pretty boyfriend of yours better be prepared to make me some hella good grub for this.” Yunho hung up on him.
Yoochun sat on the hood of his car and watched Changmin float above him. “You going to stick around?”
He sighed. “I um … can I ask one more favor?”
“Sure.”
“When I was jumped, they … my chain broke. Around my neck, and it’s stupid. You’re going to laugh.”
Yoochun shook his head and lifted a necklace up. It was simple, just a metal crescent. “My father died when I was younger, probably about your age, and I waited to see him. I waited and waited and waited, but then he never showed up. It was … it hurt. The day after his funeral I found this on my bed. Which was really freaky because he’d been buried with it around his neck.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“My sister gave me a Hello Kitty charm that was on her favorite bracelet and I wore it around my neck so I wouldn’t lose it.”
“That’s not stupid. It’s really sweet. Let’s go find it.”
Changmin tried to stay in Yoochun’s passenger seat, to practice the whole being a spirit thing, but while they were talking, he kept forgetting to concentrate and ended up going through the car and having to catch up.
When they were back in Seoul, Changmin stood in the middle of an alley, frowning.
“It was the weirdest thing,” Changmin said. “I walked through this alley every night. The man who has the stand on the corner always gave me a pack of ramen to take home for dinner.”
Yoochun leaned against a brick wall and watched as Changmin flickered in and out of existence while walking up and down the alley.
“I guess … I’d stayed at the library later than usual, and it was really dark, and I don’t know. I’m not rich. I didn’t have anything of value except my iPhone.”
Yoochun smiled and said, “Yes, you did.” He’d seen a sparkle of silver near the wall and went over there. The Hello Kitty charm was covered in dirt, but intact. He held it up and Changmin sighed. His hand passed through it.
“Thanks, hyung.”
Changmin winked out, and Yoochun was startled for a moment. But that sometimes happened with the spirits that where only there for some unfinished business.
Yoochun climbed into the car. His cell phone rang and he answered it before he started driving. A lot of spirits were spirits because they were stupid while they were alive.
“This is a murder investigation now. I hope you’re happy.”
“Do you want me to tell you where it happened?”
“You were there?”
“Artifact recovery, something that belonged to Changmin that he wants me to give back to his sister. It’s a frequented alleyway, and it’s been five days. I doubt there’s much evidence.” Yoochun told him where it was.
“That makes it my jurisdiction.”
“Yep.”
“Any other helpful information?”
“He doesn’t know who did it. Three guys jumped him from behind and it was dark and he was knocked out almost immediately. Then he was dead and floating above his body.”
Yunho sighed. “Please don’t go tell his mother until we have her identify the body.”
Yoochun promised he wouldn’t.
---
A sinking sense of déjà vu filled Yoochun as he woke up at three a.m. to weight on his legs.
“Shit, sorry,” Changmin said.
Yoochun rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I thought you were gone.”
“I went to watch over my mom when … yeah … My funeral is today.”
“Are you going to go?”
Changmin sighed. “That’s weird.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Changmin nodded. “My mom is very spiritual, but not in the religious sort of way. She believes in the afterlife and in spirits and she’ll believe you if you tell her you can see me.”
Yoochun looked at him and then nodded. “I still have to return your sister’s charm, too.”
“Now what?” Jaejoong mumbled.
Yoochun kissed his cheek. “Just Changmin.”
“I thought that disrespectful ghoul was gone.”
Yoochun smiled.
And Changmin started chanting, “Pretty,” over and over until his voice actually echoed in the room.
Jaejoong moaned and chucked his pillow at the sound and it flew through Changmin’s head.
“That would have hit him.”
Jaejoong grunted in approval and curled around Yoochun’s pillow since his was across the room.
“Tell Jaejoong to come too. My mom will like him.”
“Okay.”
Yoochun knew he wouldn’t sleep again, so he got up and picked Jaejoong’s pillow off the floor. He sauntered into the kitchen and sat at his laptop. He’d spent the last three days working Changmin’s story into his next novel. He didn’t stop typing until Jaejoong woke up at seven, and then the two of them got ready to go.
Changmin’s funeral had been at nine, but Yoochun waited until the services were over and most of the guests had gone.
Changmin’s mother was tall, just like he was, but not quite as. His father was over six feet though. His younger sister clung to his hand as they received guest after guest.
Surprisingly, Yunho was there, and Yoochun headed to him first.
Yunho smiled and shook his hand, and said hello to Jaejoong. “Thanks, Yoochun-ah. There’s no way we would have found or known who had died if it wasn’t for you.”
“Not going to convict me of this one, huh?”
“No. We can’t convict anyone of it, and it’s frustrating, but the parents are doing well. They do want to know how we knew it was their son though. There wasn’t a stitch of identification on him.”
Yoochun looked over at the family and smiled. Changmin was behind them, hands on his mother’s shoulders. A young man went up to the family and Yoochun headed over to him.
“He was in my English class,” Yoochun caught the young man saying.
“You’re Kim Junsu,” Yoochun said, remembering his name.
Junsu jerked in surprise and narrowed his eyes at this mysterious stranger.
“Changmin said you’d be the first one to notice he was gone. He wanted you to know that he didn’t miss last Wednesday’s class, but leaned over your shoulder and laughed at you while you wrote the wrong answers.”
Junsu’s eyes went wide.
“And you are?” Changmin’s father asked.
“Park Yoochun,” he said and bowed ninety degrees. He just noticed that Jaejoong and Yunho had followed him over and he introduced Jaejoong as his boyfriend.
“Yoochun-shi is the one who told us about Changmin,” Yunho said. “He’s a medium, and he helps out the police when we’re smart enough to listen to him.”
Changmin’s mother’s eyes widened. “You’ve spoken to my son.”
“Yes. Quite frequently actually.”
“Please don’t tell them I’m here,” Changmin said quickly. “I don’t want my mom to cry.”
“I told you, Mother,” the sister said and crossed her arms. She looked at Yoochun. “I said that I saw him in the kitchen yesterday and she didn’t believe me.”
Yoochun squatted in front of her and then reached into his pocket. “Well, Changmin dropped this and he asked me to find it and give it back to you.” He opened his hand and the girl smiled widely and grabbed at the Hello Kitty charm. And then she frowned and started to cry. Just little tears. Too stubborn to really cry. Yoochun stood back up.
“Can we put it in his casket, Momma, please? It’s his now. Not mine.”
His mother looked close to tears again and she nodded. His father picked up the girl and let her drop the charm in next to her brother’s body.
“Now he’ll never lose it.”
Yoochun felt tears in his own eyes and Jaejoong grasped his hand tightly.
They went to the cemetery with the family upon his mother’s insistence and watched as Changmin’s casket was lowered into the ground.
“I hate funerals,” Junsu said suddenly.
Yoochun smiled. “They’re for the living more than the dead.”
Junsu looked at him closely. “Are you saying there isn’t a heaven?”
Yoochun shook his head. “I don’t know if there is a heaven or not. Spirits stay on Earth because it’s familiar. I’ve heard some talk of a bright light, and others talk of a dark hole. I’ve helped spirits out like I have with Changmin and as soon as what they needed is done, they’re gone and I never see them again. Maybe they go to heaven, maybe they’re reincarnated”
Junsu thought about that and then nodded. “So they’re waiting.”
Yoochun smiled again. “Usually. But what they’re waiting for, no one knows.”
“I’m waiting for lunch,” Yunho said and looked at Jaejoong.
Jaejoong covered his mouth with his hand and laughed. “And Yoochun owes you which means I have to cook.”
“Damn right.”
“You can come with if you want,” Yoochun said to Junsu. “Jaejoong is a good cook.”
Junsu looked over at the Shim Family, again complete with a fuzzy form of their son, and then nodded. The four of them paid their respects and then left the family to their grief. They stopped at the market for Jaejoong to run in to get some meat, and then they went back to Yoochun and Jaejoong’s apartment.
Junsu seemed nervous, but Yunho just dropped into the couch and put his feet up.
“Take your shoes off, Yunho, aish,” Jaejoong said.
Yunho waved a hand at him in dismissal, but did as he was asked. Suit jackets were removed and hung up, pleasantries exchanged about how much nicer Yoochun’s apartment looked now that Jaejoong lived there, and then they congregated in the kitchen around the table and Yoochun opened his laptop. Jaejoong started cooking right away.
“Can you really see ghosts?” Junsu asked.
Yoochun smiled. “When they let me.”
“Are there any here now?” His voice sounded almost fearful.
“Not that are visible. It’s a bit crowded in here. But don’t be alarmed if you hear noises or footsteps elsewhere.”
“And laughter,” Jaejoong said. “That’s the freakiest.”
“Awesome!” Changmin suddenly said next to Yoochun. “Another weakness.” And then he laughed, and it sounded disembodied and demonic. Jaejoong dropped a spoon and Junsu cursed.
Yoochun laughed and waved a hand through Changmin’s arm. “Just Changmin.”
“Stupid, ungrateful dongsaeng,” Jaejoong muttered darkly. “You better be glad I can’t see you or touch you, dongsaeng. I would punch you so hard that you’d feel it in your next life.”
Changmin laughed and settled on the table, and Yoochun was typing through his leg. “Minnie.” Yoochun whined.
“Sorry.”
Yoochun had to explain to the other three and then had to tell Changmin to get out of Jaejoong’s way. Jaejoong kept walking through him and shivering.
“It smells so good,” Changmin whined. “I want some. This isn’t fair. I used to love to eat.”
“He wants to eat your food.”
Jaejoong stuck his tongue out at the last cold spot he walked through. “Too bad for you.”
“Are you as freaked out by this as I am?” Junsu asked Yunho.
Yunho nodded and then smiled. “Yeah, but you get used to it.”
Yoochun tried to concentrate on his novel, but knew he wouldn’t get much work done with Jaejoong snapping at Changmin’s spirit everyone and then. A wooden spoon suddenly lifted from the counter and then dropped and Jaejoong shouted, “Oh my god, get out of my kitchen. All of you. Especially you, Changmin you freak of the spiritual world. Out out out or I’ll never cook again.”
Junsu’s laughter echoed around them, and Yunho smiled at him in a way that Yoochun recognized.
“Oh god,” Changmin said. “Not them, too.”
“Go find yourself some spiritual booty.”
“What?” Junsu and Jaejoong said at once.
“Nothing,” Yoochun said and smiled at Changmin. “Let’s get out of Jaejoong’s kitchen. You too Changmin.”
“But he can’t even see me,” Changmin whined but followed him out anyway.
Yoochun herded them to the living room, and Yunho asked Junsu if he liked video games, and Junsu was more than eager to play. Jaejoong started singing in the kitchen, and Changmin added his voice to it, and Yoochun smiled widely at how good they sounded together. It was too bad he was the only one who could hear it.
“Damn it,” Junsu said and Yunho cried out in victory.
“Doesn’t matter,” Changmin muttered. “He was cheating anyway.” He swiped at Junsu’s head and his hair blew in a wind, and he jerked around and looked at Yoochun.
Yoochun smiled. “Changmin says you’re cheating.”
“I am not!”
“I knew it!” Yunho shouted and then laughed and hugged Junsu to him.
Junsu blushed.
Changmin snorted. “God, they’re so obvious. I bet it takes Junsu weeks to figure it out.”
Yoochun laughed and settled deeper into the couch and watched as Junsu cheated his way to a victory. Or Yunho let him win. Yoochun wasn’t sure.
“Thanks for all your help, hyung,” Changmin said and sat half on and half in the couch.
“I don’t mind helping those that deserve it, Changmin.”
“Do you mind if I hang out for a little while?”
Yoochun glanced over at him.
“I died young,” Changmin said. “I don’t … I don’t know. I feel like I can do more stuff. Experience things. You know.”
Yoochun nodded. “Yeah, I know. And sure. I don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind what?’ Jaejoong asked.
“Changmin’s going to stick around for a little while.”
Jaejoong glowered and then said, “Fine, but tell him to stop waking me up by screaming pretty in my ear.”
Yoochun laughed.
Changmin smirked and practically cackled. Again it was heard throughout the room.
“Yep, that’s creepy,” Jaejoong said.
“Your prettiness is creepy,” Changmin replied.
And Yoochun spent the next five minutes being in the middle of their bantering, before refusing to cooperate and concentrating on his laptop again.
Next Installment: The Tortured Spirit
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