Flutter//Jaehyun

Chapter 4

When we enter, the spacious lobby leads us to to a shadowed stairwell--its affect almost just as mystical as my first glance of this beast of a building. Jaehyun leads me down a quiet corridor to his apartment door and after he clumsily fumbles with his key for a couple of seconds, we enter the dark living room. 

Jaehyun walks towards his room with me following close behind him and I try my best to step quietly to avoid waking up his roomate. 

Yet as soon as we reach his door, another door right next to his swings open, releasing a stream of light into the hallway. His roomate appears in the doorway with a sly smile.

"Jung Jaehyun! You're past your cerfew." His roomate, Johnny chuckles out. "And with a girl?"

"I knew you would be awake." Jaehyun grumbles while he simultaniously lets me into his room. He turns on the light and I am met with his clean room. It is exactly what I thought it would look like. Neatly folded sheets stacked on top of his comforter and not an article of clothing on his floor. However, glancing to the far corner of his room, I can see his desk is littered with papers and books. 

"Johnny this is Deka." Jae introduces to the eager--and from what I can detect, a slightly high--Johnny. "And Deka, this is-"

"Uber guy." I reach out my hand smiling. "Nice to officially meet you."

Johnny pauses to think for a bit and then laughs.

"Oh, a couple of weeks ago I picked you and your friend up, right?" He shakes my hand and nods curtly, finally understanding our first meeting following Jaehyun's white lie. I make a note in my head to ask him more about that night. Who were those guys? They didn't seem like friends. 

"I thought you weren't coming home tonight." Johnny directs this towards Jae now and raises his eyebrows while doing so. 

"C'mon, don't say it like that. I usually come home, just really late." He chuckles, attempting to hide his slight tone of embarassment."No need to worry."

There is an awkward beat goes by and I feel like they forget i'm there for a second.

"Imma go grab some snacks." Johnny says disappearing into the kitchen. 

I wonder if Jaehyun is always out at night. I think about him wandering the city streets drunk and feel a weight of concern press against my chest. Clearly something is not okay.

I venture into Jaehyun's room as he hops onto his bed. When I reach his messy desk, which felt like an acentuated feature in the midst of his neat room, my eyes are once again drawn to the arrangement of papers and books stacked upon one another. I feel a need to sift through his urgent notes to try and understand the missing things about Jaeheyun.

"This is what I wanted to show you." He appears behind me, suddenly covered by a black hoodie.

He then proceeds to brings his lamp light to a slighly crumpled piece of notebook paper with beautifully placed, scribbled handwriting. There are stories filling the pages and even dripping onto post it notes when he runs out space.

"It's kind of a long story, but I've had dreams about those who've already died since I was a kid." He begins. "They bring me to places i've never seen before and tell me to go there. I've pushed these dreams away for the most part of my childhood, but they would keep getting worst and more frequent throughout highschool and I...I really thought I was going crazy.

"I make sure to write as much as I can remember from these dreams...hence" He gestures to his scattered notes.

I really can't think of a reply to this as I am still battling with the idea of Jaehyun being a spiritual medium.

"Why? I-I mean why do they tell you to go places?" 

"Mostly to help relay a message to family members or loved ones. Some have grudges, but I can uh...sense when theres bad energy? I don't know if I can explain it but--" He looks at me with a puzzled look in his eyes.

"What?" I respond when he just stares. 

"Sorry, I just can't quite figure out what your ghost wants. Like I typically know the premise of what someone's ghost might be looking for based on the it's behavior--like revenge, a lost message, lost love, fear for loved one. But with you? I can't tell..." He stares harder, furrowing his brow. 

I think about my brother's last message to me and i'm not completely sure if I want to share it just yet. But if this is something that could help, then he can finally rest peacefully. I suck in a breath, hoping I don't get emotional while speaking about him.

"Um..My brother--" I begin. However, I am quickly interrupted by a bellowing voice entering Jae's room.

"Okayy! So I got doritos, hot cheetos, chocopie's, there are a couple hot pocket bags in the freezer-- I don't know how hungry you might be Deka but my dude Jae here loves chocopie's, so you might wanna leave the whole box for him," Johnny rushes into the room to unload a fuckton of snacks onto the bed. He turns his head slowly. "Fuck....I forgot to ask if you had any dietary restrictions, Deka. I'm so sorry."

"Dude." Jaehyun shoots Johnny a deathglare.

"Wait, are you guys having a moment? Should I come back?" Johnny mumbles.

"Yeah--"

"What are you guys looking at?" Johnny is now on the other side of me, looking at the paper in front of me. He thumbs through the pages on the desk, looking at Jae's scribbled notes as if he's read them a bunch of times. I'm imagining that he would tell Johnny about the different cases for a new perspective. I don't notice, however that his fingers point to a familiar name.

"Ahh so we're talking about this Noor kid  again?" Johnny blurts out.

Its weird to hear your late sibling's name-- typically hushed and whispered as its bounced around family gossip, hushed even in your own head--to be spoken by complete strangers. This is weird, isn't it.

I bring my attention to Jaehyun's panicked eyes. 

"You knew his name?" I bring myself to say.

"Deka...I was gonna tell you--" He begins to say, his speech is halted by his running thoughts. Is he thinking of nice ways to tell me he's researched Noor's case without even talking to me first. 

"This is too weird." I say. But it isn't; detectives have probably uttered his name numerous times, conference rooms even, studying his schedule, his life, our lives all before closing the case. This is the same thing. But I somehow feel embarrassed. I'm the mysterious sister behind the impossible case of Noor. Is it wrong for me to feel embarrassed?

Johnny moves away from the line of fire between Jaehyun and I's back and forth gaze.

"No, you're right..." Jae states, his tone is monotonous. "This must be too much for one night. I'm sorry for springing this onto you."

I want to apologize. I want him to show me more but then I would know that it is too late to back out.

"I want to sleep." I manage to say. I can feel my shoulders cascading into themselves, like my energy has been sucked out at the thought of sleep.

"Yeah," Jaehyun grabs my shoulders to keep me upright. "Lets get you to bed."

"No snacks then?" Johnny shouts from the bed.

"Dude, get out." Jaehyun points harshly to the door. 

As Johnny grasps the snacks to his chest and exits abruptly, Jaehyun smiles at me sweetly--even when half of his head is covered by a hoodie he still looks good. 

I pinch myself for having that precipitous thought.

"I'll take the couch." He mumbles, distancing himself slowly until he eventually closes the door behind him.  

I am now left standing in the room of a spiritual medium in an old diner uniform. 

Cool.