Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

Jaewan was walking beside Gayoon, who was very quiet and visibly nervous. He was puzzled by her behavior and whenever he tried to ask her what was going on, she would simply shake her head and brush him off. They had just finished their detention and were walking towards their respective homes.     

"Where do you live?" Jaewan asked. "I can accompany you till your home."     

To his mild surprise, Gayoon shook her head.     

"It's alright!" she exclaimed. "I can go home on my own!"     

"But it's late at night," he frowned. "You might be stalked by some weirdo."     

"That's okay, " she assured him. "I can go home on my own. I have to stop by the grocery shop anyway to pick up some items for my grandma. The cafe she runs is short on supplies!"     

Before Jaewan could insist more, Gayoon ran off, leaving him in the middle of the road. He was confused by her and no matter how much he tried to get to know her, she kept on running away. Gayoon, on the other hand, was a little relieved to have gotten away from him. Even though she liked Jaewan as a friend, there were certain things she could not explain to him. Like everyone else, he,too, might end up thinking of her as a freak.     

Cursing out loud, she walked towards a secluded area where there were no people before turning around.     

The eyeless ghost had followed her all the way from school. Pale and scary, she stood behind Gayoon like a sinister shadow. She could not see Gayoon but it felt as if she was staring right at her.     

"So, what do you want me to do?" Gayoon groaned.     

"Boss, I just want you to pass on a message to the guy!" the ghost said in an unusually squeaky voice. Unlike her earlier demeanor, she was actually quite childlike and naive. She had been roaming around the school because the place she used to haunt was torn down and new ghosts had moved in, throwing her out. The poor soul then took refuge in the school, wandering around to talk to people.     

But her attempts had failed miserably. No matter how many times she tried to make new friends with the school kids, things would end up in disaster. Just a few days ago, she had tried to tell one of the teachers at school that the students had put glue on his steering wheel but the guy could not see her. In her desperation, she pulled at the guy's leg to stop him but he tripped and fell.     

"What's the message?" Gayoon frowned.      

"Tell him that I didn't steal his Playboy magazine!" the ghost claimed. "I swear! Some kids at my old school pulled a prank on me and put it in my bag. I was about to return it on the day I died. I was cooking dinner and the stove exploded which resulted in my death! But the guy thinks I stole his magazine but what would I do with it?"     

The ghost was pleading to her with her hands clasped together. "Boss, please just tell the guy I'm innocent!" she begged. "I swear that's all I want."     

"You've been haunting the school because of that?" Gayoon asked incredulously.     

"Well, I also have another aspiration but that's a far fetched one," the ghost sighed. "I wanna be a singer!"     

Gayoon resisted the urge to roll her eyes. What am I doing? She wondered. I should be out with a boyfriend or friends! Not run errands for ghosts!     

"Boss, please just do me this favor and I'll be indebted to you!" the ghost kept on begging.     

"Fine!" Gayoon agreed. "I'll do it. Just stop whining! And what's with the boss? Why am I your boss?"     

"Boss, think of me as a subordinate!" the ghost said gleefully. "All I want is for you to tell the guy that I'm not a thief and also, listen to me sing every once in a while. I'm calling you boss as a show of respect!"     

"Why me?"     

"Coz you can see me, duh! By the way, I'm Han Sooyeon."     

Gayoon sighed and was resigned to her fate. The ghost was really naive because once their names were revealed, it was easy to exorcise them. Clearly, Sooyeon had no idea about this but Gayoon chose not to tell her. Instead, she followed the ghost to her friend's house.     

"Will you move on after this?" Gayoon asked. "To the afterlife?"     

"I'll stick around for a while, wait for my family members to enter the afterlife before I move on," Sooyeon said.      

There was a hint of sadness in her voice. She used to visit her family at times and it saddened her to see that they missed her a lot. It had been a few years since her untimely demise and the thought of facing the afterlife all alone without her family scared her. So when she woke up as a ghost, she decided to stay until it was time for her family members to pass away and she could join them so that they could be together.     

Gayoon did not reply. She had no idea how long that would take but as far as she knew, ghosts could become malevolent any day. There were some good spirits who genuinely tried to help others but they could easily turn bitter and vengeful. They were imprints of humans and like humans, they too had the choice of being good or bad.      

Some chose to stay good but unlike humans, their feelings were unstable. If they see their loved ones beginning to forget about them or moving on, they become lonely and eventually this could lead them to harbor negative feelings. Gayoon wondered if Sooyeon would remain an innocent virgin ghost or would she also succumb to the darkness which she tread on?     

"There!" Sooyeon said, pointed at a house nearby. "That's his house."     

Gayoon sighed and walked up to the house. She took off her name tag in an attempt to hide her identity. Sooyeon stood beside her as Gayoon rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, a boy a few years older than her, opened the door.     

"Yes?" the boy asked. "Who are you?"     

"I'm...Shin Jiho," Gayoon lied. "I have a message to give you."     

"Message?" the boy frowned.     

"You're Kim Suho right?" she asked. "Yeah, I'm a friend of Sooyeon's and as you know she had passed away a few years ago, right?"     

"Sooyeon...oh yeah!" Suho recalled. "The girl stole my playboy magazine!"     

"Actually, that's the thing," Gayoon replied. "She didn't steal your magazine. Someone put it in her bag and when she found it, she wanted to return it to you. But she died before she could. So she's very sorry about it."     

"What?" Suho asked in confusion. "How do you know her?"     

"I...I happened to come across her diary in our school!" Gayoon lied. "And her last thoughts were written there. You see, in our English class, we were given an assignment to read the diaries of deceased people and try to fulfill their last wishes. Sooyeon's diary was there and I read it. She had mentioned how she found a magazine in her bag and was about to return it. But that's where her diary page ended since she passed away that day."     

"Nice work boss!" Sooyeon muttered but Gayoon ignored her, hoping that Suho was dumb enough to buy her excuse. Fortunately, he was.      

He nodded and said, "Oh. I guess I was mistaken about her all this time."     

Sooyeon looked very happy while Gayoon was relieved that she was not being thrown out as a lunatic. She bowed and took her leave with the ghost in tow.     

"Boss, that went well!" Sooyeon exclaimed. "Your lie was good!"     

"I got lucky," Gayoon said smugly. "Most of the time, they'd throw salt at me, thinking me to be a bad spirit."     

"Aish! Being a ghost seer must be hard."     

Tell me about it, Gayoon added in her thoughts as she walked towards her house.      

"I think I'll go back to the school," Sooyeon said. "There's this really cute spirit who haunts the bathrooms at night, holding two toilet paper rolls."     

"Toilet paper rolls?" Gayoon frowned.      

"Yeah," Sooyeon said. "He carries one red and one blue toilet paper roll. And for some reason, he always walks towards the last stall and if anyone is in it, he would ask if they wanted a red one or blue one."     

"What happens when they choose any one of them?" Gayoon asked.     

"Well, if they choose the red one then the toilet floor burst open," Sooyeon described. "And a large fire explodes through it and large black birds fly out of it, pecking the stall user until he falls into the pits of hell!"     

She flapped her hands in an attempt to show how the birds flew, making Gayoon scowl in disgust.     

"And the blue roll?" she asked.     

"Oh it turns into a snake and strangles the user to death," Sooyeon shrugged. "He's got evil methods but at least he's good looking! Just like a celebrity."     

"Ugh!" Gayoon scowled. She must tell ahjusshi to exorcise that pretty boy before he killed more people. Bidding the ghost goodbye, she continued down her path towards her house. It was almost 9 PM and the night ws getting darker.     

She shivered and pulled her sweater closer. It was a chilly night and the wind was blowing softly against her skin. Winter is arriving early this year, she noted. Personally, she loathed winter because ghosts were the most powerful during these months. The darker the days were, the more powers they gained.      

Gayoon was almost at her house when she suddenly had a strange feeling that she was being followed. She glanced back but saw no one.     

Is it a ghost? She wondered. Her heart beat fast as she quickly gained pace, trying not to attract attention from any other ghosts. But the feeling would not go away. No matter how many times she glanced back, she saw no one. Clearly, a ghost was playing pranks on her.     

She took out a handful of salt from her bag and held on to it, ready to throw it on the ghost. She kept on walking but the ghost did not come near her and once her house was in sight, she quickly ran through the gates and shut it tight.      

Heading for upstairs, she closed her bedroom door and put on a protection charm on the door. Her ahjusshi had made it in order to keep away the nightly ghosts from her. It was not always effective but gave sufficient protection. Gayoon quickly headed for the window to put the charm over it only to freeze in her steps. Peering through the glass, she noticed a figure standing on the road in front of her house. It was not a ghost.     

It was Park Seungjo.