Chapter Text
“Hakyeon!”
I briefly debated jumping out of the window to escape. The classroom was on the second floor- I was unlikely to seriously break anything.
“Hakyeon!”
But, knowing the personality of my pursuer, he would jump right out after me.
“Cha Hakyeon!”
As two hands slammed down on my table and a grinning childlike face swam into my vision, I was pulled out my thoughts by the inevitable reality- escape was impossible from Han Sanghyuk.
I sighed and leaned back as Sanghyuk forcefully ejected a poor student- my longtime friend Woohyun, who shrieked in surprise- and sat upon the plastic chair like a misplaced feudal lord. He grinned at me and folded his arms across his chest expectantly. I was probably supposed to know why he was here, but I couldn't for the life of me recall any alien invasion or space-time bombs going off in school. That was our ‘job’ as members of the Excelsis Brigade after all. To search for any paranormal, extraterrestrial or unusual phenomenon of any sort.
Yes, Han Sanghyuk's Brigade could be described as ‘odd’.
Sanghyuk's patience was well and gone it seemed because he sighed and unfolded his arms to glare at me. “Have you heard of ‘Leo of the Choir’?”
Ah, so the ‘Seven Mysteries of Jellyfish High’ have finally reached Sanghyuk's ears.
“I've heard of that.’ I said, but Sanghyuk gave me a dubious look and I was forced to rely upon what little I knew of the story. “Leo is the nickname of the ghost of the old choir club. He sings in the old music room on Friday evenings, but no one has ever seen him.”
Sangkyuk seemed satisfied by my bare-bones retelling of the story and began happily making additions to it. “I've gone around asking and the film club says they set up a camera in the room for a cultural festival project but they only managed to record his voice. The footage, however, was mysteriously blank! And the choir club is being strangely tight-lipped about this…”
I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
Sanghyuk smiled at me triumphantly, as if he had just delivered a speech befitting of Gandhi and not a short report of his exploits in harassment- the choir and film clubs would be sending in fresh complains about an intrusive brigade leader by now.
“And so, we as the Exelcis Brigade will be investigating this matter!” Sanghyuk declared after a lack of response.
I knew it.
Han Sanghyuk was four years younger than me, a giant pain in the ass and the leader of his self formed Excelsis Brigade, not necessarily in that order. I had the misfortune of meeting this overly enthusiastic, bubbly boy as I was fighting off the throes of depression. I had suffered through the disease that ails all young men (a broken heart), suffered an injury that kept me well away from my beloved dance club and on the horizon loomed my final year of brain-crushing exams that would lead me into a university. I wholly expected this bright-eyed freshman to be the final nail in the coffin and drown me, but…
Surprisingly, he helped.
Sanghyuk's overflow of positive energy was diffusing into me, spread through his infectious smiles and exhausting escapades. Between indulging Sanghyuk's fantastical adventures and managing school, my brain pushed unnecessary gloomy thoughts to make way for vector equations and the theory of parallel universes.
It was such that I became slightly less snappish towards Sanghyuk as the subjects of my depression became afterthoughts and my mood lightened. And because Sanghyuk was growing to be less a tolerant presence and more an enjoyable one, I arrived at the old music room five minutes after school ended, precisely punctual.
But of course, the other two had beaten me to the punch again.
Sanghyuk had his excitable energy to blame I suppose- I pictured him dashing out of class a the school bell began ringing as the speed of a rocket. It was an entirely believable scenario.
As for the second person- Kim Wonshik, a second-year who had been dragged in to fulfil minimum club membership requirements- he had an even more perfect excuse. As a time traveller, Wonshik should have an extraordinary sense of punctuality.
I would perhaps explain the nature of Wonshik's… uniqueness but today this will be a ‘ghost’ story, starring me and only featuring Wonshik. Not starring Kim Wonshik, 51st century young male of questionable intentions.
“Where'd the camera come from?” I asked, pointing out the suspiciously new and shiny black device. Sanghyuk hummed happily and informed that yes, we had once again effectively bullied some poor club of hardworking students. (My dearest apologies to the media club- I'll go on my knees for you later.)
“Wonshik will hold the camera!” Sanghyuk began dictating, as he rummaged in his pockets for what I guessed to be the old music room keys, which I also guessed had been coerced from an unfortunate teacher. “Hakyeon will attempt communication with Leo on my directions!”
I had, as usual, gotten the most troublesome job.
It was somewhat to be expected, but nothing appeared for the duration of which we were in the room. I won't go into the boring details, but we basically stood there for hours- Wonshik fiddling away with a camera, Sanghyuk in a chair directing me to ask questions that would give the average person an existential crisis- and nothing showed. Leo's voice remained silent, and his face remained invisible.
“Maybe he's shy,” Sanghyuk said, a pout on his face as we trudged through the sunset lighted halls of the school. We had drawn out our impromptu ghost hunting as long as we could, which meant we were one of the last group of students to be leaving the school now. Well, the last duo. Wonshik had gone ahead with one of his friends. (Judging by their friendliness, I suspected Lee Taemin to also be a time traveller.)
I would have been content to walk home now since I had successfully evaded an encounter with a ghost. But I had forgotten one vital fact.
“Sanghyuk, go one ahead. I left my school bag in the music room.”
“Are you serious?” Sanghyuk asked, looking at me sceptically. I lifted my bare hands and nodded with a heavy sigh. Seriously, I had left such an important item behind. Sanghyuk shook his head, astounded by my absentminded and handed me the music room keys. I took them with some reluctance. I knew that the likelihood of a ghost appearing when Sanghyuk wasn't here was greater than when he was.
That was because every form of unusual existence in this universe was hyper-aware of the most powerful unusual existence of them all- the oblivious Han Sanghyuk.
As I neared the old music room, my suspicions became more sound. Filtering down the darkened hallways was the melodic singing of School Seven Mysteries No.7, Leo.
It could have been a diligent member of the choir club or a janitor with an unexpectedly good singing voice, but the chances of that were slimmer once Han Sanghyuk entered the equation. Of course, it helped that I knew exactly who Leo was.
“Sorry for the trouble.” I apologised as I slid the ‘mysteriously unlocked’ door open. Sure enough, waiting for me in a state of translucency was Jung Taekwoon, the undead resident of the old music room.
And incidentally, my deceased childhood friend.