Crescent // ATEEZ ✔

5 [ghost]

She wanders aimlessly, hoping to find a place that can bring her a peace of mind after a day full of misfortune, but stumbles upon more as she is suddenly drenched from head to toe with water thrown from one of the flats above. It's a middle-aged man living at the flat on the second floor with a receding hairline, throwing out a bucket full of water for who-knows-what-reason from his balcony. He only says 'I'm sorry miss' without any apologetic note in his voice, sending her away with a wave of his hand before disappearing inside.

She is left feeling like it was her mistake for walking between the buildings, and not his for throwing out the water without looking out for potential victims.

Soaking wet, she sees the neon sign of a crescent moon flickering before it is completely switched off, the 'open' sign shifting into 'closed'. Even when she knows she will probably be kicked out of the cafe, she feels strangely drawn to it, the crescent sign radiating some sort of hope to her. Unknowingly her feet make their way to the front of the cafe, but she doesn't know what to make out of the situation inside.

The lights are still switched on. There are five people at the middle of the cafe, one young man being held back by another, threatened to be tickled by two other. Only one is free from the show, going behind the counter and retrieving a set of keys. She looks down, letting her damp long hair cover her face, sighing.

I must be going crazy, hallucinating five grown-ass men doing a tickling fest in a cafe. I really need some rest.

Then she looks up, and holds the stare of the one with the keys. She realizes that she's not hallucinating when he drops the keys and the rest are frozen in spot, as if they have seen a ghost. Maybe they had, and frantically she looks around before she comes to a dumb realization as she looks at her own reflection.

Welp, looks like I'm the ghost.

The man who was held back shows a reaction first; his mouth says something before he wriggles free from the grasp, already weakened due to their shock of seeing her. She doesn't know what expression she's wearing that's causing them to react that way. She takes one step back and the man scurries to the entrance, opening the door just enough for his face to be put through.

The man has long black hair past his earlobes, the top part tied up into a man bun, showing off his sharp jawline and the multiple piercings he has on his earlobes and along his ear cartilage. He doesn't smile, but there is a distinct softness in his eyes that for the first time today, she feels as if she has found an actual human, not just some blurry faces she bumps into along the way. He doesn't even say anything but merely stares at her, as if asking with his eyes what her business is to be standing in front of the cafe looking like a banshee.

She notices that the others are already craning their necks, huddled together, equally curious. She doesn't know what to say, but at the same time she wants to say something. She is in need of some real human interaction after attending job interviews that made her feel like a robot; she says what they want, she acts like how they want to. She's tired.

"I was thinking of having some coffee," she finds herself saying, raking out the hair sticking to her face in a feeble attempt of appearing more human. She puts on a smile and tugs at the hem of her skirt, subtly hiding the tear with her palms.

"We're closed," the man says flatly, before shutting the door with a slam. The man with the keys throws over the set to him and he makes a show by letting their eyes meet; he bends down, slots the key in and twists it before turning around.

My, what a gentleman.

Oh, fuck it.

She wipes her face with the sleeve of her shirt, drying it.