hey, stranger.

chapter three: mystery.

Never once in my life did I ever think I would team up with a dead man to find his murderers but here we are, I guess. There's always a first time for everything.

I was still doubting the situation, thinking that I was having some crazy dream but that all faded away as soon as Jeno smiled at me. His eyes crinkled and formed half moon shapes, giving him the appearance that greatly contrasted to my first impression of him. How did I ever think he looked intimidating?

"Will you seriously help me? " he clasped his hand together as I nodded, smiling back at him. He took a step forward but stopped himself abruptly, "I forgot, I can't hug you. " Jeno retreated back with a sad look. He'd been this way for over a year but he suddenly seemed to be having an extra hard time now that he found someone who was able to see and speak to him.

I frowned and looked around the room. My eyes landed on one of my stuff animals, a little furry bear that was given to me by my father before he divorced my mother. I grabbed the bear and tossed it to Jeno, surprised as he caught it perfectly.

"How are you able to hold that? " I asked him.

He shrugged and studied the bear, "Maybe I can only touch inanimate objects? "

"What about the shoes I threw at you? " I glanced at the sneakers that laid behind him, "Sorry about that by the way. "

He shook his head saying that he didn't mind shoes flying through his abdomen, "Maybe they went through because I was caught of guard. "

We both pondered over his theory for a while before I decided to test it. I removed one of the rings from my finger and waited for a while before throwing at him as hard a I could. Sure enough, the ring flew straight through his shoulder and hit the window. I tried again with another ring, this time warning him about it.

"Catch. " I tossed the ring at him.

He caught it effortlessly just like he did with the bear. "Skulls, how ironic. " he referred to the pattern on the ring which was just a bunch of silver skull shaped charms that formed the band of the ring. "I guess we have one mystery solved. "

"One down but we still have infinity left. " I sighed and glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost midnight. This day has been way too long.

Jeno followed my gaze and looked at the time. He immediately set the bear down and rushed out of the room leaving me confused at his sudden actions. I followed him out of the room and found his sitting on the couch in a stiff position, the same way he used to sit on the bus, arms folded with his back pressed against the seat with perfect posture.

"It's late, you should go to sleep. " he says, looking at the blank screen of the T.V. instead of at me.

"What about you? " I didn't know if ghosts slept or not so I was unsure if I should give him a blanket and pillow. I didn't know the basics of how to entertain a ghost, they didn't have that class back at school.

"Don't worry about me. The fact that you agreed to help me is enough, please go to bed. " he gave me another smile because gesturing for me to go to my room.

I reluctantly left him, shutting the door softly when I entered the room. I sat at my desk instead of going to bed and searched the internet for things that were related to Jeno. Multiple pictures, videos and articles came up, most of them were on his disappearance. I clicked on the first article I saw.

Immediately a picture of Jeno came up. He was clad in the same outfit he was currently wearing, the only difference to the Jeno sitting in my lounge was that the outfit looked newer and his hair was styled professionally. He was smiling at someone next to the person who took out the picture.