The Mysterious Class ~ Ghost POV

Episode 4 ~ Chapter 1

"I can't do anything without you, you probably think I'm a fool, yeah!"

Junkyu was normally a little strange, but this was another level, singing a cute romance song while carrying a huge teddy bear. He sat down in his spot next to me, almost the entire class staring at him like he was insane.

"What's that?" Jihoon asked curiously.
"A gift for my honey for our 100th day anniversary!!" Junkyu exclaimed happily, more hyper than usual. "I'm giving it to her after school!"

"It's cute," I said calmly, seeing if my gentle atmosphere would help him settle down. Like normal, it didn't work.

"I know, right?!" Junkyu proclaimed. I took out my camera - one I had gotten from my father before I had died - and snapped a picture of him posing with the bear.

That camera held most of my life, it felt like.
It had taken pictures of me before my death, happy with my parents.
It had taken pictures of me and Junkyu and Jihoon, the first week we had known each other.
It had even taken pictures of Doyoung and I before he was made class representative.

I brushed the familiar feeling of sudden emotion away and set the camera down.

"Does the person you call 'honey' even exist?" Jihoon asked out of the blue.

"You're just picking a fight again," Junkyu pouted, looking amused.
"I just mean, Haruto and I are your friends, and you've never introduced her to us," Jihoon explained. "Maybe your girlfriend is also a ghost."

Could she be? Was that possible? I hadn't met any other ghosts like me before... could whoever Junkyu dated be one of them? Or is it just Jihoon's eccentric imagination again?

"Joke all you want," Junkyu smiled bright as day, looking like an anime character. "I know you're just jealous."

Junkyu clicked a small button on the bear's tie and cleared his throat.
"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Recording," he replied.

With that, he started singing "Happy one hundredth day to you, happy one hundredth day to you, happy one hundredth day my honey and Junkyu, happy one hundredth day to you!!"

The entire class really was staring at him now. Because he really was insane.

That was interesting.

• • •

A little while later, I was waiting in the line to get our food for lunch. Although I didn't eat, it was still polite to pretend, right? Even if the cooks couldn't see me.

While I was waiting, listening to the conversations around me and staring blankly into the distance as I daydreamed, suddenly Yoshi accidentally bumped against my shoulder.

I gasped in pain and almost fell forward. The remains of my near-exorcism still hurt, pain sparking through me like a virus.

"Are you okay?" Yoshi's anxious voice sounded.

I turned back to look at him. "Y-Yeah. I'm okay."

Did Yoshi know his grandmother was doing things like this?

Luckily, no one was suspicious of what had happened, or at least it looked that way. So I looked straight ahead again and acted like everything was normal.

• • •

"Also known as the great master, he was an incredible musician and composer. I'm sure you all know Beethoven..."

I was sitting in music class, listening to my teacher go on about classical composers. My shoulder had stopped aching, and now I was trying to lapse things back to normal. Or, as normal as things could get at this school...

"Mrs Lee?" A teacher from another class knocked on the door. Mrs Lee stopped her lecture and stared at him. "I'm sorry to interrupt your class..."
"No, it's alright," she said brightly. "What brings you here?"

"I think you should step out for a second," the other teacher told her, grimacing.

When Mrs Lee looked behind him, surprised, he said, "Someone terrorized your car."

"What?" she exclaimed, throwing her notes to the floor. "Who the heck would do that?!" She began to storm out of the room, but suddenly looked back at us, smiling. "Guys, work on your books yourself for a while."

Then she ran out, and after giving a small laugh, the other teacher rushed after her.

"What did I just see?" Yedam said surprisedly.
"All the teachers here are so weird," Mashiho said.

Yep. Try listening to them for ten years straight.

After stretching for a second, Junkyu laid on his desk, trying to fall asleep.

Then, the metronome began ticking slowly.

Junkyu sat up suddenly.
"Wh-Who here touched that?" he asked nervously. "What the..."

I was surprised. No one had touched it, or even gone near it. And I didn't use magic on it. Maybe it was just a malfunction?

Junkyu stood up and shut the metronome off.

But once he sat down again, it started ticking once more, faster than last time.

Now I was definitely suspicious. I wasn't doing anything... what was happening?

"You saw that too, right?" Junkyu asked me, sounding terrified. Everyone in the room stared at the metronome as it continued. Getting a little mad, I stood and clicked it off again. The second I turned my back to go sit down, it started ticking louder and quicker.

"What the heck?!" Junkyu gasped as he hid behind my arm.

"What's wrong with it?" Yedam said, agitated and scared at the same time, standing up. He took the metronome and threw it onto the ground, where it only sounded faster still.

"Why isn't it stopping?" Hyunsuk gasped. Suddenly, the bell rang to signal the start of a new class. Almost automatically, Junghwan gathered his things and went over to the door. "Aren't you guys leaving? I'm off," he said, rushing away.
A little bit after he left, the metronome stopped on its own.

That's when it hit me.

Junghwan.

He was doing that. He must've taken the remote from the metronome a while ago, and used it to scare us. To get another YouTube video.

"D-Did it stop?" Jeongwoo said nervously.

Yedam, Hyunsuk, Doyoung, and I edged closer to the ordinary music object.
"It seems like," Yedam said slowly, "the ghost is playing pranks on us."

It WASN'T ME, my thoughts screamed.

"What if it harms us?" Hyunsuk asked, shocked.

"No," I said without thinking. "It'll never hurt you guys." While that was true, and I never wanted to see my friends hurt, I realized that that statement could make them figure out what I was.

Instead, Doyoung moved forward and picked up the metronome. "You don't know that for sure," he said quietly.