Chapter 25: Thank You For Listening
The boy was scared but he followed the kind looking lady to her car. She opened the passenger door for him and he murmured thanks as he entered it. Jina got into the driver's seat and drove towards her apartment. There was a bag of toys on the front seat which the boy was longingly staring at.
"You can play with them," she offered. "I bought them for you anyway."
The boy glanced at Jina. From his perspective, there was a calm aura about her which felt different than other people. He could see a soft glow emitting from her as if she was shining but unlike him, she was not pale and cold. In fact, she was brighter than the other humans he had seen after becoming a spirit.
"Miss, who are you?" the boy asked. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"You're a new spirit," Jina explained. "I saw you lurking outside my house this morning."
"That was you…the light..."
The boy trailed off. That morning, when he woke up as a ghost, he was terrified to see his dead body in the dumpster. The boy was so frightened and confused that he ran off from the scene. He did not run very far and had stopped in front of a building, wondering what to do.
That was when he saw something shining brightly from one of the windows. Despite being in that state, the light was slightly hypnotizing him, acting like a magnet. He drew closer to it, trying to see what it was but before he could enter the building, someone opened the door and walked past him. The boy got scared and ran off again.
"What are you talking about?" Jina frowned.
"Sis, can you really see me?" he asked. "Like, are you telling the truth? How do I know you're not lying to me? And how did you find me?"
"You're wearing a red shirt and khaki pants," Jina stated. "You have dark hair which is parted on the side. And it wasn't really that difficult to find you. As someone who's a veteran in the field of ghost hunting, I have a few spirit pals who alert me about new ghosts. I simply asked around and one of them said that they saw you lurking at the intersection. Anything else?"
The boy was finally convinced that the lady was not lying to him and was somewhat relieved.
"Sis, are you able to see ghosts?" he asked curiously.
"See them and sometimes, I can even enter their world," Jina gritted. "But forget about all that. You have a lot to tell me."
She stopped in front of her building and got out of the car. The boy followed her upstairs to her apartment.
"Now!" Jina exclaimed, shutting the door behind her. "Sit down and tell me everything."
The boy sat cross legged on a chair and began to narrate his story.
"My name is Yang Minki," he stated. "I'm an orphan who lived at the Smiling Sun orphanage. It's not far from the subway station."
"How did you...end up in this state?" Jina asked.
Minki looked down, his eyes filled with sadness. "A few weeks ago, one of our seniors came to visit us at the orphanage," he said. "His name was Ma Wonho. He had left the orphanage a few years ago but he visits us every few weeks to bring all of us toys and sweets. But the last time I saw big bro Wonho, he seemed very upset. I asked him what was wrong but he would not tell me. However, he asked me a very strange question."
"What did he ask?"
"He asked me whether the orphanage bought any new beds and books for the children that month," Minki recalled. "I told him that we didn't get any such thing. You see, our orphanage is very poor and rundown. We rarely got any new clothes or things. The owner tries to give us some things but the matron and caretaker of the orphanage take the money for themselves."
"When I told Wonho bro about this, he became very angry," Minki continued. "That night, me and another girl, Haeji, had woken up because we felt very thirsty but the water jug was empty. Haeji was scared of the dark so I went with her to the kitchen."
"That was when we heard some strange noises. I thought that it was a burglar so we hid in a nearby closet and peeked through it. To our horror, we saw Wonho bro staggering in the hall, bloodied as if someone stabbed him. He slowly approached the closet and opened it to find us in there. Seeing us, he thrust a file in my hands and told me to hand it over to the cops as soon as possible. Before we could ask him, he closed the door and hid us there..."
Minki trailed off, too scared to tell what happened next. He was almost shaking in fear, the images of that night still haunting him. Jina did not press him but waited until he was brave enough to talk again.
"We heard Wonho bro telling someone that they won't get away with this," he whispered. "But that person must have hurt him. I peeked through the opening to find that a masked person was dragging Wonho bro's body, leaving behind a trail of blood. Haeji was whimpering beside me but I kept her mouth shut. If we were found, they could have killed us both."
"What happened after that?" Jina gently probed.
"Haeji went into shock," Minki lamented. "She was so shocked that she could not even speak. Everyone wondered what happened to her but I couldn't tell them the truth because I was also scared. What if the masked man killed us as well? I still had the file but I couldn't understand anything in it. The papers were full of numbers and a lot of complicated stuff. But it was important to Wonho bro and I knew that I must give it to the cops."
"So when I got the chance, I escaped from the orphanage," he revealed. "Yesterday morning, I ran away and tried to find the police station. I don't know the city well nor how to reach the cops so I ran in circles for a long time. But the matron caught up with me. Before I could escape again, she pressed something on my nose and made me unconscious. When I woke up, I…"
Minki could no longer go on. The boy's eyes welled up with tears and he began to sob. He was not understanding his situation at all, confused on what to do.
A warm hand patted his head and he looked up to see Jina's gentle eyes gazing at him.
"Don't worry," she assured him. "There's nothing to be scared of. Those people won't get to you here."
"But Haeji is in trouble!" Minki exclaimed. "She saw Wonho bro's murder as well. They'll kill her if they find out!"
"Leave this to me, okay?" Jina said firmly. "If you help me, then I can rescue your friend. For now, we'll have to collect evidence against them. I'm a detective. It'll take time but we'll catch your killers."
Minki was still scared but the kind detective's words assuaged him a little. Jina took out the toys from the bag and gave them to him.
"Even if you're a spirit," she said. "You can still touch things. So you can play with these. Until the bad people are caught, you can stay here with me. Okay?"
The boy slowly nodded, looking away from her. He fidgeted in his spot, unsure of what to tell her.
"Thank you," he finally said. "For listening."
Jina did not reply but ruffled his hair, smiling at him. "We'll find your killers," she vowed. "And help your friend. So don't worry."
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