"Okay. I promise I'll let you speak until you're ready for me to say anything." Jisung wasn't sure how easy it would be, but he was willing to try.
Lino took a deep breath.
"Okay. First off, I was really upset with what you said to me the other day, but I never really planned to stop bugging you." Lino chuckled slightly. "I thought about scaring Hyunjin that night, just for fun, especially since even you wouldn't have expected it."
Lino paused as if he needed a rest from already saying so much. He still wasn't feeling well and talking was surprisingly exhausting.
"I...decided to try the thing we were talking about the other day. You know...possession."
Jisung bit his tongue as he tried not to jump in with a thousand questions. They had barely talked about it, as if it were just a gimmick that might not even be possible. But apparently Lino took it seriously, and something drove him to suddenly try it. Jisung couldn't help blaming himself even more.
"I figured I already had experience as a cat, so I thought about Shadow. I wasn't sure if I could even do it or what would happen if I did. I suppose I probably wasn't thinking with a clear head."
After hearing that Lino wanted to use Shadow, Jisung started thinking about the little cat's behavior that night. The coughing and other random strange noises, his interest in pineapple pizza, and especially the part where he fell off the couch and landed in a daze.
"Well...it worked. But once I came into the living room, I became more interested in what you two were talking about than trying to pull any pranks."
Now it was 100% confirmed. Lino had been eavesdropping, just as Jisung believed. What he couldn't believe was that he was Shadow the entire time, just sitting there right next to him listening to everything.
"Is what you said really true?" Lino was too nervous to look at Jisung while waiting for a response. But Jisung said nothing. "This is the part where you can speak, dummy."
"O-oh, right. Is...what true?" Jisung knew he said a lot of things that night, but he didn't want to assume which thing Lino was questioning.
"You said...that you can't imagine your life without me."
"Lino...When I told you that day that I 'have a life', I regretted it instantly," Jisung sighed. "And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you are part of my life too."
Lino looked up as Jisung brushed the matted hair from his forehead. He hadn't been part of anyone's life since he had one of his own.
"Oh no, you're started to get warm again. Maybe we should finish talking about this another time."
Jisung ran to the bathroom to wet the cloth again and quickly returned to place it on Lino's head.
"Why is this happening to me?" Lino groaned.
"I don't know. When exactly did it start?"
"Well...when I heard you say those things about me, I suddenly felt like I was going to burst, so I bolted out of Shadow's body and up to this room."
"That explains why he fell off the couch and acted like he was spaced out. That was you leaving." Jisung didn't want to laugh, but the thought of Lino flying out of there in embarrassment was a little funny.
"Once I was in here, I felt really dizzy and...well, you can see the mess I made."
"I thought maybe you were trying to scare us again. Or that you were upset and destroying the place. Thankfully Hyunjin assumed it was an animal." Jisung looked around the room again. It really was a bit of a disaster.
YOU ARE READING
My Roommate is Dead | Minsung
Hayran KurguJisung moves into an old house only to discover that it's haunted. But after getting to know his very strange roommate, he doesn't actually mind sharing the place. What he does have a hard time with, however, is that the ghost shares a face with his...