Chapter Text
Sizhui had been seeing ghosts since he was a child. His first memory of ghosts was from when he was three; his birth parents had appeared above his bed, smiling warmly and the soft, cool brush of their hands on his cheeks was a sensation burned into his brain. It was a gift he was born with, and with the guidance of his adoptive parents, the presence of ghosts had simply become part of his everyday life; seeing a ghost lingering was like seeing a cat lounging on the sidewalk. For the most part the ghosts only needed to be treated politely and then they weren’t a bother at all, and for the more vicious ghosts Sizhui went to his parents to have them taken care of. It would only be this year that he started to properly learn the techniques to vanquish spirits, but aside from that Sizhui was a fairly normal teenager.
“Hey! Sizhui!” JingYi called from the corner of his block, and Sizhui walked a little faster to catch up with his cousin. They fell into step together, JingYi swinging his school bag at his side, bumping shoulders with his cousin. “Did you hear? We’re getting a new classmate today, he’s transferring from a private school.”
“How do you know that?” Sizhui asked, although he knew that JingYi could find out just about anything with the amount of people he spoke to. He was always caught up on gossip, which meant that Sizhui was inadvertently always in the loop, too.
“Why’s it matter? Apparently he’s really scary, he got kicked out of his old school for fighting all the time. Apparently anytime someone tried to talk to him he would just flip out, and he’s totally spoiled by his family, they’re stinking rich.” JingYi continued, and Sizhui didn’t have the heart to point out that their family was also very well off-- they were never without the things they needed nor the things they wanted. The bag that JingYi was casually scuffing against the sidewalk was about sixty dollars worth of privilege. As for how valid JingYi’s gossip was… Sizhui was more interested in waiting and seeing this new classmate.
Homeroom was noisy. It was Monday morning and everyone was catching up on their weekends before the teacher came in, sitting on desks and leaning on each other as they talked, laughter erupting occasionally before being quickly shut down, just in case the teacher was just around the corner. Sizhui took his seat, hooking his bag on the side of his desk as he was sucked into a conversation alongside his cousin. More rumours swirled about the new student, and then it was all quickly hushed. Their teacher arrived and students obediently slid off the desks and into their seats. As expected, the teacher shuffled a boy into the class, making him stand at the front while he was introduced.
“This is our new student, Jin Rula--”
“Jin Ling.” The boy interrupted curtly, his fair face turning sharp while he continued to stare forward. The teacher stammered a moment, caught off guard, and then nodded.
“Jin Ling, my apologies. You can take your seat now.” Jingyi leaned over, nudging Sizhui with his elbow.
“See, see? Told you he was scary…” He trailed off, looking at his cousin’s face. “Hey. Sizhui? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
If only JingYi knew the irony of that statement. Sizhui was staring, there was no denying that. Jin Ling did look quite intimidating, his posture strong and his face, while delicate and handsome, was made to look sharp with the way he was perpetually frowning, his mouth tense and eyebrows slanted… it was only slightly undercut by the quite charming, small mole between his eyes and the sprinkling of freckles across his nose. He dressed casually in expensive clothes, a fine gold chain threaded through the lobe of his left ear, tipped with a tiny filigree bead. Yes, Sizhui was staring. But mostly because there was a ghost clinging tightly to Jin Ling’s back. It was an adult male and fiercely protective, but Sizhui couldn’t make out any features or even really pin the age. Maybe a grandfather? An uncle? Impossible to say. JingYi elbowed him again and Sizhui snapped out of it, twisting in his seat. “What?”
JingYi frowned slightly, tracking Jin Ling over his cousin’s shoulder as he took the desk across from them. “You’re staring…” JingYi said in a rare, quiet voice. “Please don’t tell me…”
“Wh- no!” Sizhui yelped, feeling heat run up his neck at his cousin’s implication. Jin Ling was definitely handsome, but Sizhui wasn’t that quick to form a crush! He huffed slightly, sitting up straight. He couldn’t exactly tell JingYi the truth, though. He loved his cousin, but he hadn’t told him yet that he could see ghosts-- for whatever reason, the ability had skipped JingYi, and he wasn’t sure how he would take any of it. Thankfully, JingYi boiled down the weirder aspects of Sizhui’s life to Sizhui’s parents, or at least one of his parents. Either way, all Sizhui could do for now was furiously deny JingYi’s implication… while probably only adding fuel to the fire. Sizhui simply couldn’t ignore the ghost on the boy’s back; curiosity burned him. He wanted to get to know Jin Ling.
They had a lot of classes together, but Sizhui found that it was almost impossible to get a word in edgewise. Jin Ling tended to ignore people, but he especially seemed to be ignoring Sizhui, even when they were sitting right next to each other. Every time Sizhui opened his mouth to say something, Jin Ling looked like he was ready to dropkick him, so Sizhui would slink away. It resulted in an incredibly frustrating day; Sizhui was always good at getting along with people. He could talk to most people easily, he was quite popular as well as polite and considerate… But Jin Ling wouldn’t let his guard down for a second. He wouldn’t even say hello back to him, and scowled when he caught Sizhui smiling at him.
When JingYi met Sizhui at the school gate, he looked downright defeated, shoulders slumped. Not at all used to seeing his cousin like his, JingYi worked extra hard to cheer him up, throwing himself over Sizhui’s shoulders and shaking him, ruffling up his hair. “A-Yuan, you look like you’re gonna cry! Who did what? I’ll kick their ass!”
“JingYi!” Sizhui wriggling against his cousin’s hold, trying to duck out from under his arms. Just like he wanted, JingYi managed to get Sizhui to laugh, but with Sizhui half way out of his arms and JingYi considering conceding, Jin Ling suddenly appeared, and they both fell silent. Sizhui quickly pushed JingYi off and righted himself, smoothing his hair out. JingYi puffed up, lifting his chin as Jin Ling approached.
“You left your notebook.” Jin Ling said. It was the most Sizhui had heard him say all day, and he and JingYi stared for a moment before Sizhui’s usual smile sprung back onto his lips and he stepped forward.
“Thank you! I hadn’t even noticed,” Sizhui’s voice was naturally soft and sweet. Jin Ling’s mouth twitched and he dropped his gaze, tossing the notebook toward him. Sizhui sprung forward to catch it, his smile wavering for a moment.
“Hey!” JingYi was the first to protest, grabbing Sizhui’s shoulder and pulling him back protectively, “don’t just throw his things!”
“JingYi, it’s fine,” Sizhui assured him, always trying to be the peace-maker. Also, he could stand up for himself. He stuffed JingYi back again, smiling brightly once again. “Thank you, Jin Ling, and please forgive my cousin.”
Jin Ling looked between JingYi and Sizhui. “Whatever,” he scoffed and then curtly turned around, stalking off with his hands shoved in his pockets. JingYi huffed, rolling his eyes as he grabbed Sizhui and headed in the opposite direction. Sizhui hadn’t even had a chance to put the notebook away, instead tucking it under the arm that JingYi wasn’t pulling on.
“I can walk, I can walk!” Sizhui protested, catching up to JingYi and shaking himself free once more. He rubbed at his wrist for the sake of the guilt trip. “You don’t have to be so mad all the time, he was just giving my book back.”
“He’s a jerk.” JingYi said dismissively, and Sizhui knew better than to keep poking the bear. It was a quiet walk home, with JingYi leaving him at the gate with the promise that they’d walk together tomorrow, too. They’d been walking to school together since elementary, so really it went without saying, but he had said it like it might be a comfort to Sizhui, and it was. The house was quiet when Sizhui got in- his parents were still out- so he went through to his room to kick off his shoes and drop off his school bag. Like most afternoons, Sizhui made himself a cup of tea and a snack, taking it all back to his room to start his homework. When he was a little boy his room felt cavernous, but now at sixteen it felt like there wasn’t enough room for all of his belongings. While he kept it organized, Sizhui’s books no longer all fit on the shelves and instead were stacked up on his desk, with his photos and awards battling for space on the pinboard by his door-- most of the awards were academic, a few of them for sports and a couple relating to music. His fathers indulged him in just about any interest he had. The photos were of him and his friends, his family. He especially liked the photo booth ones, some of them framing his mirror as well.
Sizhui’s parents were home by around 5pm, and from the hallway his dad called, “A-Yuan,” before cracking his door open and peeking in to see what Sizhui was doing. “Homework?”
“Mn,” Sizhui smiled, casually twirling his pen between his fingers as he leaned back in his chair. “I’m almost done aside from a history project, but that’s due next week.”
“Start it after dinner,” he heard his father say from behind the door. His dad rolled his eyes, pulling a face. “ Wei Ying .”
Sizhui covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing, and his dad slinked back from the door, calling to his husband, “Lan Zhan, how did you know I was making a face--?” The conversation drifted off as Sizhui’s parents moved into the kitchen to start dinner, and Sizhui turned back to the last of his homework, still smiling to himself. While his day had been quite odd, his parents were always quick to put his feet back on the ground and make him feel better with just the simplest, mundane conversation.
Still, at the dinner table, it must have been somewhat obvious that there was something on Sizhui’s mind. Fork dangling from one hand, Wei Ying reached over the dinner table to press a finger between Sizhui’s eyebrows. “It’s cloudy here. What’s on your mind, A-Yuan?”
Sizhui’s gaze darted to his father, who didn’t approve of talking at the dinner table, but he seemed to have noticed as well and nodded slightly to encourage Sizhui to speak. Sizhui twisted his mouth to one side, pushing his food around with his fork. “There’s… a new boy at school,” he began, glancing between his parents, “and he has a ghost with him. I noticed it right away; it sticks to his back. It’s very protective of him, and he seems very troubled.”
“You want to help him?” his father asked and Sizhui nodded, lowering his gaze. It sounded silly when he said it out loud; ghosts weren’t inherently bad and Sizhui’s desire to get to know Jin Ling wasn’t just because of the ghost. Watching him throughout the day, he just seemed sad and lonely, which was something Sizhui was incapable of ignoring.
“Don’t worry,” his dad said, cheerfully dismissive and around a mouthful of food, “you take after me; you’re everyone’s favorite. He’ll be your friend in no time-- the trick is to not leave him alone!” These were words that made Lan Zhan’s scalp tingle, especially because Sizhui took everything with a great deal of consideration, earnest to a fault. He opened his mouth to speak, but Wei Ying gave him a look, eyebrows raised. Despite how terrifying Wei Ying’s advice could be, this was exactly the technique he had used to land himself the husband he now had. Sizhui probably wasn’t looking to make this boy his husband in the future, but he might be able to make him his friend.
“... No talking during meals.” Lan Zhan eventually conceded and his husband winked at him while also giving Sizhui’s foot a gentle tap under the table- a victory!
By the time he had finished his dinner, Sizhui had made up his mind. With Jin Ling, he wanted to accomplish two things; he wanted to be his friend, and he wanted to know why he had a ghost on his back, at least to make sure it wasn’t causing him any problems; it didn’t seem spiteful or mean, but Sizhui was still learning to gauge the motives of ghosts. If it was parasitic then Sizhui would have to intervene. So it was decided-- Sizhui was not going to give up on Jin Ling!