Chapter Text
Lee Jihoon liked silence.
He liked it in the early hours of the morning when the city hadn’t quite have awake from the deep slumbers. He liked it in the corners of the studio where the soundproof walls wrapped around him like a blanket.
He liked it in his apartment, where the walls didn’t creak and the neighbors didn’t talk. Most of all, he liked it because it meant nothing weird was happening.
Which is why, when he opened the door to Studio 3 and saw someone standing inside, arms raised mid-spin, bare feet sliding softly across the floor.
he nearly dropped his coke zero.
It was 3:17 a.m.
Nobody should have been there.
Jihoon blinked once. The man didn’t stop. His movements flowed, one into the next, a practiced gentleness that felt too real for a hallucination.
Jihoon stepped inside slowly, careful not to disturb the air. Still, the man froze.
And turned.
"You can see me?" he asked.
Jihoon frowned."Yeah. Should I not?"
The man’s eyes widened, like someone had just handed him a lifeline. He stumbled back a step, half-laughing.
"You don’t know how long it’s been since someone looked at me like that."
Jihoon had seen a lot of strange things in his life. Speakers turning on with no power. Unmarked footprints in the dance room. Sudden temperature drops. But this...this was a whole new level.
“What are you?l he asked, more curious than afraid.
The man’s smile was sweet. "I think I’m a ghost."
"You think?"
"I mean… I’m dead. I just don’t know why I’m still here."
Jihoon stared.
The man tilted his head. "I’m Soonyoung, by the way. But most people used to call me Hoshi."
Jihoon pointed a finger at him."You're saying you're dead...and you live here"”
"I don’t live here. I haunt here. Big difference."
"Right."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Hoshi said, "You’re not screaming. That’s new."
Jihoon rubbed his eyes."I’ve been working in producing music for twelve years. I’ve seen things. Heard worse."
"So you’re not gonna, like, call an exorcist or try to get me to cross over?"
"Are you bothering anyone?"
"…Not really?"
"Then no."
Hoshi looked stunned. "You’re the first person who hasn’t tried to run from me."
"You’re the first ghost who talks too much."
Over the next few days, Jihoon found out a lot of things about Hoshi.
One, he had died in the building, hit by a car just outside after a long rehearsal.
Two, he loved dance more than anything and had been teaching classes when the accident happened.
Three, he hadn’t realized he was dead for weeks until the students stopped answering him and the mirrors no longer showed his reflection.
And four. most important,he had no idea why he was still here.
"I thought ghosts were supposed to move on, you know to cross over to the after life," Jihoon said, flipping through files in the office while Hoshi floated cross-legged in the air.
"I want to move on. But nothing’s working."
"Unfinished business?"
"I didn’t murder anyone, if that’s what you’re asking."
"Closure? Regrets?"
"Not enough to be stuck haunting this building like it’s my eternal punishment. I just… feel like I’m waiting."
"For what?"
"I don’t know. Maybe someone like you."
Jihoon looked up."Someone like me?"
"Someone who can see me."
Later that night, as Jihoon sat mixing vocals in the booth, he found Hoshi curled up in the corner of the dance studio, watching the mirrors with quiet eyes.
For someone who couldn’t touch the world anymore, he looked achingly human. Achingly alive.
And Jihoon,despite his best efforts,felt something twist in his chest.
He’d spent so long drowning out noise. And now he was starting to wonder if maybe he’d been silencing too much.
Maybe, just maybe, Hoshi was the sound he needed to hear.