Thrill of the hunt

19. Minho

I hadn't realised how stressed I'd become, both mentally and physically until I opened that parcel from my Ghost.  It was like someone had just given me some kind of fast-acting sedative, all the tension in my body just melted away, making me feel weak at the knees, in the best way possible and my mind was no longer filled with dark thoughts and feelings of loss. While I was indulging in this blissfully euphoric feeling, we sat and listened to the recording a few times and each time I noticed something different, even though I still wasn't able to concentrate fully on what was being said I got the impression that my little ghost was a little frustrated, didn't want me to suffer and he was annoyed with the council. 

Before I could fully focus, it was time for us to go and get changed for the shift.  I reluctantly sealed the plush back up and locked it safely away in my locker.  I knew that when I had a few moments during the shift I'd pop back to check it was still there and have a few seconds of burying my face in it.  I also knew that over the next couple of days, my need to keep smelling him would reduce considerably but right now it was like a drug I couldn't keep away from.  One thing that I had to do was to make sure to keep it hidden, if Amid got his hands on it, he might be able to pick up enough of his scent to be able to track my ghost as well.

The Shift started fairly normal, the customers greeted us all and then began cooing over how cute Felix was, it was a regular thing now and Felix barely ever blushed when he heard the comments, even when they were made by large muscular guys that had been dragged along by their wives.  To start with Changbin had found it difficult to just stand around and let people flirt with his boyfriend, he would regularly drag the boy back to the staff area to quickly remind him that he was his boyfriend and no one else's.

It was the quiet bit before the mad rush when everyone got off work and we were in the middle of prepping to make sure we had everything ready so we wouldn't have to screw around when we needed to find anything.  However my problem was that my mind kept wandering to my Ghost,  Changbin had already tapped the back of my head twice to jolt me out of my thoughts.  I quickly made a stop at my locker and smooshed my face into the plushie squirrel breathing deeply, I felt a roll of contented pleasure run up my spine and I reluctantly placed the toy back in the bag and locked it safely away.  I was having difficulty remembering the things that were said in the audio recording from earlier and I wanted to analyse it so I might be able to pick up a few things that might make hunting him easier.

Minho > Group chat

Minho - Binnie can you send me that audio file, I'm trying to remember the wording he used.

Changbin:-Sure 

<audio file attached>

Minho - Thanks 

Chan: - I was going to ask for this too.

I wanted to listen to it now but unfortunately, I needed to focus on work, I'd listen to it tonight while I was locked in that room and the others were out hunting.  I walked back into the main room and stopped dead in my tracks, Hyunjin was putting up a ladder in front of one of our giant board displays.

"Hyunjin!" I scolded as he wrestled the A-framed ladder into place "What are you doing? You're banned from ladders" Hyunjin had been banned from ladders for almost two years, when we first put up the boards he had fallen off the ladder or slipped each time he used it, so Chan banned him just to make sure he didn't get hurt.

"I'm not going up there, just putting the ladder up so Felix can switch out those two boards" he indicated a chalkboard that was laying across the top of one of the machines.