"How do you know this is my car?" Jisoo asks when Rosie closes the passenger door. The latter fixes her sitting position a little with eyes that glance at Jisoo while the older girl continues, "When we had reached the parking lot, you immediately went to this car. How do you know which one is my car?
Rosie curtly answers, "You have a ghost following you."
Jisoo nods in understanding. "He showed you which one my car then? Or did he wait for me at my car?"
Rosie gives the other girl another glance before those eyes move to a ghost of old man who leans against the car. The old man, Mr. Lee, realizes the eyes on him and turns his head to Rosie while lifts his hand to give the girl a wave. The latter raises an eyebrow.
"Is the ghost that haunted me outside the car?"
That question brings Rosie's out from her mind and returns her attention to Jisoo who gives her a smile with an amused look in her face.
"You're surprisingly calm about this."
The older girl lets out a shrug. "If you were me you'll be calm."
What is that supposed to mean? Nonetheless Rosie decides to start asking questions that plagued her mind, "How do you know I can see ghost? And here I thought I'm good at hiding it."
"You're good at hiding it," agrees Jisoo. "It took close observations and lucky guess for me to be really sure that you can see ghost."
Lucky guess? Then it clicks in Rosie's mind. "The two cats. That was a guess?"
This time the smile Jisoo gives her is close to a smirk. "There was a cat played around near my leg and you looked at it unblinkingly. I decided to take a risk and somebody once said to me there are a lot of cats in that park. You also do that often."
Confusion and curiosity come into her more and more with each words Jisoo says. Rosie decides to ask again, "Do what often?"
"Looking at empty spot for a little too long, giving a little reaction even when nothing happens..." Jisoo shrugs. "Things like that."
Rosie doesn't take her eyes away from the other girl although she needs to admit, she's impressed. She admits she does that often but she never does a full-blown stare. The look she gives to the ghost is only a glance and it's just for a few seconds too long. When she gives the ghost a reaction Rosie also makes sure it's not obvious, just like when she dodged a cat that time with movement as natural as breathing. Does this girl realize all of that?
"You're surprisingly observant."
Those words make Jisoo smile even though Rosie can't help but think there's something else in that smile, something darker. She doesn't have time to think about that more though because Jisoo says again, "I heard that a lot and maybe the fact I knew somebody like you also help." Rosie notices Mr. Lee looks at them when Jisoo's talking but she returns her eyes back to the other girl when the latter asks her, "Anything else you want to ask me? I'm still in the mood at explaining now. Better use your chance."
There are too many questions in her mind and her ability to let them out is too little. Nonetheless, Rosie opens her mouth again, "You know you have a ghost following you."
That one is more of statement than question but Jisoo still answers, "Yes and that's because of you. Thanks for that. That ghost didn't give me any problem yet though so I decide to let it be."
"But you can't see him or feel him." Jisoo nods in agreement. "You didn't realize you had an eye contact with the ghost then?"
Jisoo gives Rosie a stare that stays for a while before she says slowly, "I did?" Rosie nods. There's a brief silent after that before Jisoo says again with tone as slow as before, "Wow, that was scary."
Rosie gives the other girl a flabbergasted look. "You just realize that now?"
The brown haired just shrugs while Rosie looks at her for a little longer as her mind process all of information she just got. The younger girl then lets out a sigh but it seems that sigh catches Jisoo's attention because the girl says, "You seem disappointed. Mind to tell me why? Is it because you found out I can't see ghost?"
Yes, that's a part of it. "I don't mean to offend," Rosie then says. "But when Lisa told me to seek you if I ever need help, I expected something... grand." Maybe somebody who can see ghost too or somebody who can do more. "Yet you turn out as a, no offense once more, really observant normal people."
"I honestly don't think I'm your definition of normal. After all, will normal people be this calm when you talk to them about ghost?" Jisoo calmly talks back with no trace of being offended, which is a good thing. Rosie also needs to admit this girl has a point. "And who says I can't interact with ghost?"
The younger girl does something she does a lot in these few hours, looking at Jisoo in confusion, while her mouth tries to give an answer, "Uh, Lisa?"
The brown haired girl raises both of her eyebrows in surprise. "She said that?"
Not really. "Well, to be exact, she said you couldn't interact with ghost like I do."
"That one is right. I can't interact with ghost like you but that doesn't mean I can't interact with ghost at all. Be careful with words, Rosie, they can be misleading." Rosie's confuse stare still doesn't leave so Jisoo elaborates, "I can talk to them. When I know they're around I just need to talk out loud, like talking to myself. I can't hear they talk back to me, of course."
Is this girl serious? "And if you accidentally hurt their feeling?"
"Ever heard a saying, 'ignorance is a bliss'?"
From the corners of her eyes, Rosie can see Mr. Lee glances at them. It seems haunting this brown haired girl isn't an easy job.
"Like what you did in Mrs. Lee's house? You tried to talk to her, didn't you?"
The atmosphere changes right away after those words leave Rosie's mouth. Jisoo's expression turns pretty dark pretty quickly and any trace of happy spark in her eyes gone right away. Rosie realizes her mistake more and more when she sees hollowness makes an appearance in Jisoo's eyes before the girl slowly turns her head forward and leans back on her seat. Those blank eyes keep staring forward emptily while the owner limply sits there, like a broken doll. Rosie wants to curse herself. Her and her damn mouth! And Lisa told her to handle this subject carefully with Jisoo!
Rosie is about to touch Jisoo's shoulder, trying to somehow fix her mistake, but a transparent hand beats her into it. She whips her head to the owner of that hand and sees Mr. Lee, who's already inside the car, looks at the brown haired girl with worry visible in his eyes. He then turns his face to Rosie. He doesn't say anything even though his expression demands for explanation but Rosie is unable to say anything except mouthed a 'sorry'.
"What's the ghost name?"
Jisoo's voice catches both of their attention. Rosie can see Mr. Lee looks at the brown haired girl for a little longer before he lets go of her shoulder and takes a seat on the backside. Rosie then returns her eyes to the older girl.
"Who's your talking about? Lisa? Or Mrs. Lee? I don't know the latter first name."
Jisoo puts both of her hands to the steering wheel before she moves her body forward and rests the side of her head on those hands while her eyes look at the younger girl. Her expression is casual and those eyes are calm with no trace that sorrow just touched that face not so long ago. Rosie doesn't know how this girl does that, changing her whole expression and body language that easily in a short time.
"Not them." Jisoo then calmly asks again, "The child. What's the ghost child name?"
Rosie tilts her head as her mouth gives an answer, "I don't know. How should I know and why should I care?"
"You should know and you should care." Before Rosie's able to retort, the older girl leans back again on the seat as she continues, "Name is important, Rosie. You don't know yet how much a name can help you. Next time you meet him, make sure to ask his name."
"Don't jinx it. I don't want to meet him again."
"You're definitely going to meet him again." Rosie opens her mouth, about to say something, but Jisoo cuts her off again before she's able to utter any words, "He'll talk to you again and that's the only way for us to know how to help him or, in your words, get rid of him. His coming doesn't always mean a bad thing."
Maybe that's true but that doesn't mean Rosie needs to like it. Nonetheless, she sighs before she says, "So according to you, I just need to do what he wants? Is that it?"
"Yes and no."
Rosie scowls at the vague answer. "Explain."
The older girl gives her a look that blank like usual as an answer yet Rosie can't help but think that look somehow different than usual.
"You know, you ask for my help so you better watch your words. I can accept or reject your request." The younger girl blinks. Why is this sound familiar? "You only ask for help so don't think you can tell me what to do."
Rosie shifts on her seat a little. She begins to understand how Lisa feels but she also needs to admit this girl has a point. Rosie then takes a deep breathe before says more politely and genuinely, "I'm sorry. Can you explain more? What do you mean by that?"
That apology doesn't stop Jisoo to keep staring at her with mouth that doesn't say anything. Rosie shifts on her seat a little more. She forgets how scary this girl is when she wants to be and it seems the older girl is perfectly aware of that fact. It's also obvious the latter doesn't mind using that fact for her advantage.
After another minute in uncanny silent Jisoo finally nods, making Rosie knows she's forgiven. The younger girl's shoulders immediately slumps with relief. There's another minute of silent after that, a more comfortable one this time, before Jisoo starts to explain, "What people need and what people want can be two totally different things. Not to mention ghosts tend not to tell us the full story of something." True. "They'll only tell us what they think we need to know and only will say the full story when we force it out from them. Even that is full of vagueness." Also true. "I really loathe it when they do that. It's annoying as hell."
From the corners of her eyes, Rosie can see Mr. Lee glances at them again. She starts to understand this ghost's hardship.
"For children it can be even more complicated." Jisoo's voice makes Rosie return her attention back to the girl. "Children capabilities to understand complicated things aren't as developed as adults. Sometimes, as adults, we don't even know what we want or need and it can be worse for children. Not to mention the concept of death and ghost isn't a simple thing either. I honestly aren't surprise if some of the ghost children aren't aware they're already dead." Well, if been put that way this ghost case seems more complicated than Lisa's and she's not even finish Lisa's case yet. "That's why, Rosie, name is important."
Rosie blinks.
"Knowing their name will give us opportunity to do our own research about them so not only we prevent them to take fully advantage of us, we can also know the situation better without being really dependent on them," Jisoo explains more as Rosie keeps staring at her. The younger girl never thinks about that before. The older girl keeps her eyes at the girl beside her for a little longer before she finally gets a conclusion. "You never did that with Lisa, didn't you?"
True but admitting that doesn't mean Rosie will go down without a fight. "In my defense, Lisa was with me all the time. I couldn't do research about her when she was right beside me."
"Why couldn't you?" The younger girl gives the older one a bewildered stare as the latter continues, "She couldn't do anything except annoy you with words anyway. What ghost can do is pretty limited so we, as humans, actually have much more advantage than them."
From the corners of her eyes, Rosie can see Mr. Lee once again glances at them. She begins to pity the ghost who haunted this girl, really, and to think Mr. Lee actually looks like a decent man (or ghost?)
Rosie lifts one of her hand to rub her forehead as she says, "I'll keep that in mind." She then moves her hand down. "For somebody who can't see ghost, you're really knowledgeable about them."
"For somebody who can see ghost, you're really clueless about them."
Rosie quickly glares at the girl as an answer but Jisoo immediately retorts with another glare. The younger girl tilts her head a little while the older girl does the same as fiery glare meets icy one. They stay like that for another seconds before, with another little tilt of head, Rosie moves her eyes away. She stubbornly keeps her eyes away although she can hear Jisoo chuckles before says, "Don't think you can beat me at glaring contest. I'm pretty good at that." Rosie snorts as a reply even though she glances to the other girl and the scenery that visible from the window when the latter talks again, "By the way the sun begins to set. Where is your house? I'll drive you home."
Rosie raises her eyebrows in surprise. "It's quite far from here. I can take bus."
"Are you sure? You can meet that child along the way, you know, and although I can't stop him I think you don't want to meet him alone."
Is this girl worried? Nevertheless her house is still quite far from here and it's cruel to let this girl drives that far so Rosie says again, "Thanks for the offer but I think I'll be okay...for now."
Jisoo still looks straight at her and, although this girl expression is still the same as usual, Rosie has a feeling she doesn't feel convinced yet. The younger girl has no intention to say this out loud but it's honestly endearing to know there's somebody who worried about her. Rosie takes a deep breath and exhales slowly before a genuine smile graces her lips as she talks to Jisoo with gentler voice, "Thank you, I really appreciate it, but I think I'll be okay for today. Although, if you don't mind of course, can I have your phone number so I know where to call if I need help? And if you don't mind too maybe... you can drive me to the nearest bus stop?"
The unconvinced look still stays for a little longer before Jisoo closes her eyes and sighs. She then takes out her phone from her pocket, making Rosie smile again because of the gesture. After a few moments of exchanging number, the car begins to leave the parking lot. Rosie lets Jisoo drives in silent that only break by the sound of music as she leans back on her seat and closes her eyes with tiredness. This time though relief because of knowledge that she's not alone anymore in this accompanies the tiredness.
Rosie shifts a little more on her seat as she vaguely hears the sound of giggle. Is it from the music? Still with her eyes closed, she fixes her sitting position and turns her head to the side yet the giggle sound actually becomes louder. Rosie clenches her eyes before slowly opens them. Her unfocused eyes are able to see blur sight of hand and Rosie blinks a few times, trying to make her eyes more focused. The next time she opens her eyes, the realization there's a hand, a transparent hand, right in front of her face hits her hard.
Rosie widens her eyes in fear while now she's completely aware with another giggle that come too close to her ear. The giggle then stops and exchanged by whisper from a certain ghost child.
"Hello, there. We meet again."
-/-/-/-
The car swerves wildly and it takes a few more seconds for Jisoo to regain control of it. When she does, she immediately stops at the side of the road and faces the girl beside her who just screamed from the top of her lungs.
"Rosie!! What the hell?!"
The said girl doesn't answer her. Rosie keeps rocking back and forth with arms that wrapped around her trembling body. Even with the lack of light, Jisoo can see the younger girl's eyes widen with fear while her mouth keeps muttering words to herself. Jisoo furrows her eyebrows while her hands take off the seatbelt from herself. One of those hands then begins to move to Rosie but before she's able to touch the younger girl whips her whole body to Jisoo, making the older girl jump and raise both of her hands in surrender.
"Rosie, it's me. It's just me, Jisoo."
The distraught expression is clearly visible in the younger girl's face as she mutters, "I hear him."
Jisoo furrows her eyebrows even more while the other girl keeps mumbling, "I hear him. I still hear him." Rosie's eyes then look wildly to the small space around them before she turns those eyes to Jisoo again with mouth that keeps moving, "He's here. He's right here. I can hear him. He keeps whispering. In my ears. He whispers. Voice. Jis-"
Jisoo quickly pulls the girl into embrace, burying the latter's head into her shoulder. Her arms wrap around the girl's head, especially the ears, but, even with that, Jisoo still can feel the way Rosie's body tremble while she keeps mutterings against Jisoo's shirt, "He's here. I can hear him. Whispers. It doesn't stop. It keeps coming. No, Mom.. Mom.. Mom, where are you?"
The embrace tightens a little. "Shhh. It's okay. Try to calm down, Rosie."
Unfortunately, that gesture doesn't take the girl's fear away as she keeps whimpering, "Mom. Mom."
Jisoo closes her eyes in frustration. What should she do now? One thing she knows though, they can't stay here but this girl isn't in condition to take a bus. She doesn't tell Jisoo where her home is either and the older girl only has one place in mind to go now.
Jisoo opens her eyes and turns to the girl in her embrace, "Rosie, I'm sorry but can I let go for a short while? I need to drive."
Rather than let go, Rosie's arms wrap around the older girl's body while the former's lips keep muttering words over words (the most often one is 'mom') against the latter's cloth. Jisoo wants to curse. She really wants to curse out loud. She doesn't do that though, knowing it won't make the situation better. Instead she opts to groan, "This is going to be one long night."
And the night is just barely starting.