Bubble

33. Vessel

With Changbin and Han's help, Bonita, Minho, and Hyunjin were relocated to a patient room by themselves so they didn't look anymore insane than they already did when they had the talk to come with Chris. Minho was lying propped up in one of the beds in the room while Hyunjin was lying propped up in the other. The folder that Seungmin had left with Hyunjin before he had run off after Bang Chan with Felix and I.N laid on the small nightstand between their two beds. Bonita stood by the shuttered window that faced the indigo blue night while Chris stood at the head of the room right by the blacked out television screen.

"So is he really there?" asked Bonita in an attempt to fill the silence that had fallen on the room.

Chris smirked as both Minho and Hyunjin said 'yes' at the same time. Minho narrowed his eyes at Chris as he stood there.

"You need to start explaining what is going on this instant," snapped Minho. "Do you know what we've been through the past few days?! I feel like you've significantly shortened my life span..."

"Be nice..." interrupted Bonita, but Minho chose to ignore her and instead continued on.

"...not to mention you have been a gigantic pain in the butt making me risk life and limb to see if you were fecking murdered!"

"You done?" asked Hyunjin as he turned to look at Minho who fell silent with a series of coughs, shooting him a look.

"No," said Minho through some of his coughing, pointing a finger at Chris. "How long have you been here? Have you been here this whole time and could have just flipping told us if you were murdered and by whom?"

"It's...complicated."

"You're about to be dead twice over..." grumbled Minho as Bonita shot him a look.

"I can explain," said Chris. "Well, try to at least."

"It better be fecking good you son of a frick fracking, tic tacking rooster!"

Bonita smirked at the substitute swears leaving Minho's mouth that made him seem like he was a polished up sailor. That one time they had done a swear jar had really left an impression on Minho.

"I have been a ghost ever since my accident," said Chris. "I assumed it was for a reason since — no matter what I tried — I couldn't pass over to the other side. It was a form of torture for me since I had to be a bystander and watch the family I love and care about suffer due to my passing. I couldn't do anything but watch them suffer, wishing that I could somehow fix it."

"Why can Lee Know and I see you if you have been invisible to everyone this whole time?" asked Hyunjin.

"It's because you two almost died just now," said Chris as if it was the most simple thing to understand in the world. "You were close enough to death that it left you with the gift of sight."

"Gah! Great! Just great! You're telling me that now I get to see Casper-the-pain-in-my-butt ghosties everywhere I go? Just wonderful!"

Minho knew that Bonita was shooting him another look, but he didn't care at that point. He was past the point of irritation and at the intersection of annoyed and angry. Chris could tell but remained unphased a bit as he said to Minho, "I feel like you and I need to talk."

"Aren't we doing that already?" asked Minho as Hyunjin shifted to sit up with a small wince.

"Bonita," said Hyunjin as he looked over at her. "Can you help me to get to a vending machine for a bite to eat?"

"Oh I can just run and get it. You should stay in bed."

"No, I need to come with you," said Hyunjin as he tried to move to stand up.