Star-Crossed Lovers

Chapter II - First Encounter

The regular Sunday Assembly ended about half an hour past noon. When Jaemin tried to fish out his phone from his back pocket, it was not there. The phone was nowhere to be found on him. Maybe the phone had dropped on the seat back in the church. Jaemin let out a sigh.

"Granny, do you mind to walk back home with your friends first? I think I dropped my phone back there. I'm going to go look for it."

Jaemin grinned and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed by his carelessness.

"That's alright, Jaemin. I can walk home myself. Be careful, my dear."

Jaemin's granny waved at him and continued her conversation with her friends while walking home.

Jaemin waved and turned back towards the church direction. When he reached his destination, he quickly searched the area where they sat before and found his phone on the floor. When he was about to leave, he heard subtle voices coming from the underground storage room.

The church was empty and quite dark with all the closed windows, so the place had became quite eerie. Jaemin did not believe in ghost, so he did not feel even the slightest of fear. He bluntly walked towards the storage room.

"It's Jaemin isn't it? It really is her. But she died that evening. Hundreds of years ago. And that kid, he's a boy. Jaemin was a girl. But they looked exactly the same. Or maybe not. But that pink hair. And that eyelashes. And those eyes. And lips."

The male's voice was deep. Full of despair and longing.

Jaemin could heard those subtle whispers from the other side of the door. He twisted the knob and swang the door open.

"Aaaahhhh!"

The floating young male screamed at the sudden intrusion, surprising Jaemin and making him jumped to his feet. He entered the room and slammed the door shut behind him.

"What the hell, man?"

Jaemin blurted out, while rubbing the tip of his forefinger on his ear. He looked up as the male was now sitting on the top shelf in the small room.

"Are you talking to me? You can see me?"

The male asked while pointing a finger on himself, emphasizing on the word 'me'. His tone sounded surprised.

"No, genius. I was talking to the person behind you. Of course I was talking to you! We're the only people in this room. Am I not supposed to see you?"

Jaemin could not believe himself and face palmed when the male was actually turned around to look behind him.

"Well don't blame me for being paranoid. I haven't talked to anyone for the past several hundred years. Or more accurately, no one had talked to me before. This is actually my first time. And FYI, I'm not a person either. I'm a ghost, if you can't see that."

The male rolled his eyes. Still sitting on the shelf, with his arms crossed against his chest.

"Ghost doesn't exist."

Jaemin answered monotonously, earning a surprised gasp from the male who was looking down on him.

"Look, kid. I'm already dead. Hundreds of years ago. If I'm not a ghost, then what am I?"

The male ghost was starting to lose his patience.

"Well, you're a soul. A lost one."

Jaemin answered confidently, fingers on his chin, acting like he was actually thinking. The male ghost scoffed at his answer.

"As if you know any better. Whatever then. What are you doing here anyway? You could just pretend not to notice me and walked away. Are you a shaman or something and come here to get rid of me? I won't lose easily, though. I'm not a hundreds-year-old ghost for nothing. You should be intimidated. Go home now or you'll regret it later."

With the words being said, the male ghost floated down from the shelf and stood straight in front of Jaemin, trying to look intimidating.

"Wow. For a ghost who had lived for hundreds of years, you sure talked a lot. And if you still haven't noticed, you're too cute to be scared of."

Jaemin chuckled at the cute ghost's cute rant. Jaemin swore with his life that he just saw the male ghost blushed. But that could never be true, ghosts were supposed to be pale and bloodless.

"Let's cut the chase. What do you want from me? Why are you here?"

The male ghost stared right into Jaemin's eyes.

"Okay, I'll go straight to the point. How do you know my name?"

Jaemin's tone was serious.

"Name? What name? I didn't know any name."

The male ghost was fidgeting on the hem of his shirt, trying to avoid Jaemin's gaze.

"Don't act dumb. The name you've been repeating since earlier. Jaemin. That's my name. How did you know my name?"

The male's eyes were wide at the newly known fact to him.

"Your name is Jaemin? No way, this can't be real."

The male ghost started to pace back and forth, trying to keep his composure but failed miserably. He was so lost in his thoughts, that he totally forgot about the presence of another person in the room. Jaemin had had enough.

"Hey!"

No response.

"Hey!"

Louder than the first but still not loud enough. Jaemin rolled his eyes and tried for the third time.

"Hey!"

This time, with a help of an old newspaper being thrown through the ghost's body, his voice was loud enough to reach the other's eardrums and snapped him out of his thoughts. The pacing male startled and looked up at Jaemin.

"Huh? What? Does it ever crossed your mind that it would be rude and offensive to throw things through a ghost's body?"

The male frowned at him, quite offended. Still cute.

"Sorry. You didn't hear me calling you anyway. Well, whatever. Now that you knew my name, what's yours?"

Jaemin asked, out of curiosity, with a smile on his lips, trying to act friendly.

"Oh, it's Jeno. Lee Jeno."

With the words being spoken, Jaemin almost melt at the other's beautiful crescent shaped eyes smile.