Can't Leave You (Jeongmi Oneshot)

Can't Leave You

I sighed.

I was in the last place I ever expected to be.

We weren't great friends, but I still cared about her.

Maybe more than I wanted to.

The service wasn't starting for another half hour, but the parking lot was already full. Large crowds had always made me tense, and the depressing atmosphere was hard to handle, so I went to the bathroom to get away.

I went through the back entrance so I wouldn't have to go through the crowd of people in front. There were at least 100 people here already, most of them being students from our school. I sighed again as I walked past all of the cars. You could tell if a car belonged to a student or parent by how old it was; parents usually gave their children secondhand cars. I kicked a stick on the crumbling asphalt path. I chased it and kicked it again. This time it disappeared under a silver Toyota. I glanced at the model number on the back. It was made in 2015.

Jeongyeon had a Toyota. Hers was white and a newer 2018 model. She always took good care of it, neither the outside nor the inside ever staying dirty for long. I'd ridden in it a few times to go with her to group study sessions at her house or to our many sports games. We both played basketball on our school team of 15. She was one of three centers, I was one of three point guards. Jeongyeon was the best on the team, no doubt about that. She often stayed behind to practice with me. She was the main reason I had improved so much in my freshman and sophomore years.

Her car had been totaled in the accident. I took a deep breath and walked on.

I made it to the metal door in the back of the church. The black paint was flaking off, making it more of a dusty gray color. The only security on the door was a small rusty padlock, this entrance all but forgotten. I had no trouble guessing the 4-digit code. It was the year the church was founded.

I walked down the dimly lit hallway to the bathroom labeled "WOMEN." I pushed open the chipped wooden door and squinted at the bright lights inside. The church had apparently put more effort into maintaining the bathroom than the hallway.

I had opened the first blue stall door halfway before I heard her.

"Mina."

It was Jeongyeon's voice. I turned around.

She was standing by the row of sinks with her brown hair in a ponytail, draped across her shoulder. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and gray sweatpants. Her sneakers were navy Nike's, the same ones she always wore to basketball practice.

The most shocking thing about her was the blinding, fluorescent glow that radiated from her. The second most shocking thing was that it was Jeongyeon.

I thought I was dreaming at first, so I pinched my arm. When I didn't wake up, I thought I was hallucinating.

I looked up in shock, expecting her to be gone. She wasn't.

"I know what you're thinking, and no, this isn't a hallucination or a dream. Is the glow too bright? Here, I'll turn it off." The glow dimmed, but she couldn't seem to turn it all the way off. She looked like the Jeongyeon I always knew, moving to lean against one of the sinks.

"B-but you're d-dead." I slowly stepped forward, letting the stall door swing back and forth behind me. "A-aren't you?"

She nodded. "I am."

"G-ghost?"

She looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I guess I kind of am, but not in the way you're thinking. For starters, you're the only person that can see or touch me. I'm invisible to everyone else. You can interact with me like a normal person."