The Mysterious Class ~ Ghost POV

Episode 3 ~ Chapter 1

After a few silent moments, Asahi stood up and pulled back his sleeve.

A black cross was tattooed onto his forearm.

Yedam stepped back, his expression unreadable. Asahi reached up and pulled a dangling chain away from his neck, another cross hanging from it.

"But that's a cross..." Jihoon murmured.
"Can a ghost wear a cross?" Junkyu asked in a hushed voice.
"Probably not."

"Does this answer your question?" Asahi asked, looking tired and almost bored. "Then explain this," Junghwan demanded, holding out the video of Asahi on his phone.

"I was praying for our class," Asahi snapped. "And this is what I get in return?"

It took me a moment to remember that Asahi was religious, so this made sense. The one question - was he praying for me to be revealed, or for me to go away?
Asahi walked forward and snatched Hyunsuk's wrist. "How is it?" he asked snarkily. "Is it still cold?"

Hyunsuk nodded.
"This is called cold feet and hands. Not a ghost."

There was an awkward silence.

"So then," Jeongwoo said quietly, "Asahi isn't the ghost?"
Of course Asahi isn't the ghost.

• • •

I was situated with Junghwan, Jihoon, and Junkyu, watching a horror movie. It was late at night.

"Haruto, I know it's scary, but don't cry, okay?" Jihoon joked to me.

"Me?" I smiled. He would be the one trembling in fear if I called another crow.
"I'll let you hug me if you're scared," he returned my grin. Junkyu was already using my hands to cover his eyes, so obviously I wasn't the terrified one in the room. "Look who's taking," I teased, laughing.

Not long after, Hyunsuk and Yedam walked into the room and sat next to us.
"What's up?" Junghwan asked. "Where have you two been?"

"Art room, to see Asahi," Hyunsuk replied.
"Why?" I asked curiously.

"We apologized for suspecting him earlier," Yedam said with a nervous smile.
"It was really weird, though," Junkyu said, "Anyone would have suspected Asahi in that situation."

"You're right," I said with a sudden stroke of inspiration, hoping it would keep my cover a little more, "It felt like all the pieces of a puzzle came together."

"Anyway," Hyunsuk said, moving his hands to make the symbol they did when he was searching the class, "the fact that the crow smashed into the Fox Window... means that there really is something going on in our class. Aigoo, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it."

"It really is a bummer," Junghwan murmured, checking his phone, "The views would've gone through the roof if we'd posted... that..."

He stood up so quickly and suddenly I had thought something had scared him, or even that he found out the truth.

"What? What is it?" Junkyu asked him.

"Nothing," Junghwan exclaimed breathlessly. "I'm just going to head out for a while."

"Where are you going this late at night?" Hyunsuk called. "Isn't he scared?"
"Shush," Jihoon said, "Here it comes..." he gestured to the horror movie still playing, which had gone dark and creepy.

Everyone except me jumped as the girl was killed by the demon. Jihoon accidentally dropped his bowl of popcorn right over Junkyu's head.

I didn't react to the scary bit at all, because, if anything, I was scarier than anything a horror movie can come up with.

"Come on!" Junkyu exclaimed, brushing popcorn out of his hair. Jihoon gave an apologetic smile.

I stood up to leave. "Where are you going?" Junkyu asked me.

"I'm just stepping out for a while," I replied. I walked away, through the door and towards the area where Junghwan had rushed off. His random departure had something to do with the ghost, I was sure of it. So, once I was far enough down the hall, I disappeared, turning myself invisible and continuing.

• • •

"... but I'll talk to the school tomorrow to get it replaced with a new one," a voice from inside the classroom said. It was dark outside, almost fully black. The voice speaking wasn't Junghwan, although Junghwan was in the room with the other person.

I knew that voice.

I backed out of the way, still invisible, letting my father pass me. He was dressed in his security guard uniform and walked down the hall, leaving Junghwan alone in the classroom. Although I did want to follow my father, I instead creeped silently into the classroom.

"That was strange," Junghwan murmured to himself. Then I realized that his phone was on and recording - this was all another stupid thing for his YouTube channel. He set his phone on a stand on a desk, hit a small button in the corner, and started speaking.

"Hello everyone! This is the classroom where it's said ghosts show up!"

What.
The.
Hell.
Was he just using my existence and whereabouts to get more subscribers?

"Oh," Junghwan exclaimed as a comment appeared on the vlog screen. "'Addictedtohorror' just wrote, 'how can we believe there's a ghost? Show us proof.'"

Just this once, should I have fun with him? He wants a ghost... maybe I should just give him a ghost. As long as I stayed invisible, it wouldn't hurt, right?

"I also thought about it," Junghwan replied, "and found this..." he pulled a small tablet out of a bag he carried. "...this app, called 'Ghost Finder'. I don't know if it'll really detect a ghost, but I'll give it a try. Let's get it!"

An app? He was trusting an app to show him where ghosts were? As he turned around to look through the classroom, I slightly moved in front of him.

"Oh, it detected something right away," Junghwan exclaimed. Had I showed up on the screen, even when I was invisible? I darted around the room, and he moved the tablet to follow me everywhere I went.

"Everyone, do you see this?" Junghwan said excitedly as I paused in the center of the room. "the ghost is wandering around the room..."

This was a little too much for me. He couldn't see my actual shape, or he would know that I was Haruto and he would stop doing this. And probably run away screaming to the others.

So, instead, I curled myself into a ball, trying to appear as small as possible. Then I slid another cover of invisibility over myself, hoping that it would outsmart the app.

I hated having to go to the second level of disappearance, because it was almost painful to drag even more invisibility over my body, and if I held it for too long, I would almost become nonexistent.

Thankfully, it did work, because Junghwan muttered, "What the..." and started looking around the room in places I wasn't.

I was struck by inspiration suddenly. He was always messing around with me... I suppose I could risk one little trick...

I crept up right beside him and went back to normal invisibility. He turned the tablet to me and I shot at him, going straight through his body with another one of my ghost features - while I was invisible, I could become fully transparent, like simple air.

Junghwan gasped in fear, and I backed away and ran as fast as I could out of the room.

And I was happier than I had been in a long time.

This is who I was - a ghost. And, since I couldn't change that, I might as well use it to have fun.