Chapter Text
Hoseok presses a couple of keys on the piano. The school turns off the heat at night when there are no students. It’s a bit dry during late October, and it changes the sound color of the badly maintenanced piano. He sits down at the piano bench and presses the keys lightly at random. A bit bored.
He stares out the large classroom window into the dark midnight sky with a hole in his heart. Until he’s jolted out of his daydreams by someone opening the door.
Hoseok turns around a little flustered, "Oh. Hello."
“AAAHhhhhh!!!”
The two girls who opened the music room door start screaming so loudly, Hoseok jumps up from his seat to cover his ears. Alarmed, his translucent body almost completely disappears.
They turn and run as quickly as they came, without closing the door behind them.
"Wait..." Hoseok manages to get out, but they’re already on their way.
Shrill shrieks from boys and girls are heard throughout the building now from multiple floors. They must have brought a large group of friends and scared themselves silly. The sound of running footsteps fills the halls and stairwells.
And he's left alone again. The ghost furrows his brows, and says to himself, “Rude...”
He goes to the window to see the group of ten students running away from the building, stealing quick glances behind them towards his music room window. He quickly moves to the science room two doors down, floating at top speed through the classroom walls. Before they can leave the school grounds, he smirks and rapidly toggles the light switch on and off, eliciting many more screams from the group of rule-breaking students. One of them stops to point at him as another trips in their stride. He laughs loudly all by himself. Hoseok the ghost triumphs again! He leaves the light on for a bit.
“Ha! I knew the science room would be the best because it’ll show the silhouette of this guy right here.” He leans on the anatomical model skeleton and stares at the scared students’ backs as they leave through the school gates. Some of them are really fast runners! The laughter in his throat dies down. “I guess they can’t see me from out there huh.”
He roams the school and closes up the doors the students rudely left open in their nightly exploration. Whistling now and then. Sitting on top of the piano without getting scolded by anyone. He plays some more notes and calls it a day—or a night. The sun starts to peak over the horizon so he finds it in himself to sit on the windowsill and fall asleep, his body fading away into invisible nothingness.
✁
Five years later, after those mischievous students have long been graduated, the ghostly rumors are well and alive at this high school. It’s Yoongi’s last year, and students are still avidly spinning tales with these ghost stories.
“I heard last year too from the sunbae in our club and there really is a ghost...”
“...know it’s so cliche like every other legend but our school’s piano plays by itself. I heard it when...”
“We have to sneak in sometime during our...”
“... the ghost leaves a trail of blood wherever it goes...”
Yoongi had long tuned them out, putting his earbuds in to listen to something his rapper friend had sent him earlier that day. Lunchtime in the fall always brought up these kinds of conversations.
“Yo.” His classmate Joohyun gets his attention and Yoongi pulls out one earbud. “Aren’t you mister gloomy .”
“Just sleepy from exams...” Yoongi lets out a wide yawn. They had been childhood friends since elementary school. She could always be counted on for lending him class notes, keeping Yoongi up to date with her love life, or bothering him when he was sleepy. During this time of year, it seemed to be the last of those options.
“You should be excited about, I don’t know, graduating high school? Being a third-year? Growing up, or something.” She lazily checks her phone for notifications and sits at the edge of the desk in front of Yoongi’s.
“Yeah, it’s all our parents ever talk about anyway, growing up.” Yoongi gives her a small smile. “I don’t know about you but I’m starting to not feel too motivated about this whole studying thing.”
Joohyun purses her lips. “Uh huh.” She looks up from her scrolling and puts her phone in her pocket. “I mean, you are doing music, so I guess it makes sense that studying isn’t at the forefront of your mind anymore. And I hope that’s going okay still?”
Yoongi nods. “I still want you to do vocals on one of my tracks sometime.”
“I’ll be too famous and too expensive for you,” Joohyun gives him a teasing grin. She looks towards the noisy hallway filled with students going to buy their lunches and talk with friends. “I take it you’re not doing any of that stuff with the spirits and ghost hunting?”
Yoongi shakes his head lazily. “Why would I?”
“Every third-year is.” She opens her sandwich with a crinkle. “You’re gonna miss out on nighttime exploration of the school building we’ve all known and loved for the past three years. And you might miss all of us screaming our heads off, if we find something interesting.” She takes a bite of the sandwich, furrowing her eyebrows a little. “Come on, it’s one last hurrah before the school year ends.”
“I’ll pass. Ghosts don’t exist, and I’d rather spend my time somewhere else.” Yoongi gives her a little smile. It’s nice of her to try include him in these activities even if she knows it’s futile. “If there is a ghost, you can post about it on social media and I’ll, um... definitely, wholeheartedly try my best to believe you.” He says sarcastically with a hand on his chest.
“Ok, fuck off,” she smiles. “Ghosts don’t show up in pictures.
Yoongi knows that for sure. Believe me, I’ve tried taking his picture before, he thinks to himself.
Before she leaves, she turns to him. “Don’t miss all of lunch.”
Yoongi gets up with his mind still in the music. With the time he has left before class, he grabs a red bean bun from his bag and goes up to the rooftop to smoke.
His classmates probably wouldn’t put in the work to plan an actual sneak-into-school-at-night event, not until a little later in the school year when the senioritis hit hard. But, little did they know, Yoongi already had his own very real plans for visiting the school at night. As the bell rings to signal the start of the next class, Yoongi walks past the music room with that rumored haunted piano and smiles to himself.
✁
“Let’s try that part again.”
Hoseok groans a little bit. With all the focus he can muster, showing so clearly in his bright eyes, he starts playing from the top of the second page of the Sonatina again.
Yoongi leans back in his chair and stares at the moonlight reflecting through Hoseok’s skin. He’s so beautiful. It’s a full moon tonight, and Hoseok’s translucent skin is practically glowing.
It had become their well-established routine for the past three years—Yoongi would sneak into the school building every night to come talk with Hoseok, the ghost that haunts their school. Their time spent together included, as per Hoseok’s request, weekly piano lessons from Yoongi.
At first, Yoongi had been shocked to find that there was actually a ghost there in the darkness, cluelessly pawing at the piano keys at night when the school building was closed. After getting to know the ghost, it became a nightly occurrence that Yoongi wouldn’t miss for the world. Hoseok’s piano playing has improved so much since Yoongi first started teaching him. He had declared at their first meeting: I don’t want people to say: “The piano plays itself! Can you believe it?” anymore. Instead, I want them to say, “The piano plays itself SO well! Can you believe it?”
So, Yoongi had agreed to help him. If only to see Hoseok make this adorable face when he’s focusing that has Yoongi’s heart beating faster and faster. Cute.
Hoseok finishes playing the exposition and looks to Yoongi with wide eyes.
“It’s not... perfect.” Yoongi says, looking away from Hoseok’s adorable expression. “But it’s much better than before.” Yoongi gets up from his chair and walks over to Hoseok, entering the moonlit half of the classroom. Everything is so quiet and the night is beautiful. Hoseok is beautiful.
Hoseok lets out a dramatic sigh. “You’re such a perfectionist. I’ll have you know that I actually did practice quite a bit this week.” Hoseok sits back and swings his legs beneath the piano bench.
“You could use a little more practice with the left hand by itself for this part.” Yoongi leans in to point at the beginning of the development. “And this part...”
He turns his head to see Hoseok staring straight at him. Even with the ghost’s desaturated hues, the lack of life or color in his hair and skin, Yoongi swears he sees a little blush in his cheeks when their eyes meet. Yoongi’s heart beats faster and he never finishes his critique. To still get so many butterflies from someone I see every night, I feel like the luckiest man in the world.
He pulls Hoseok’s head into his chest and leaves a kiss at his hairline. It’s cold on Yoongi’s lips. Even colder as Hoseok nuzzles his face into his shirt. Yoongi lifts Hoseok’s chin up and kisses him feverishly, hands roaming his body, traveling from Hoseok’s cheeks to his shoulders to his thighs.
Hoseok giggles when Yoongi gives him one more kiss on the neck, “You aren’t so picky when it comes to me, are you, teacher?” Yoongi nips Hoseok’s skin and the ghost lets out a small yelp.
Yoongi lets go of him and plops down on the bench next to Hoseok with a sigh, putting his head on the ghost’s shoulder—which he has found over the years is in fact possible, and he won’t slip through Hoseok’s body unless Hoseok wills the permeability in his form. Yoongi clicks his tongue. “I’m almost graduating, Seok. And I’m supposed to go all the way to Seoul for music.” He draws random shapes on Hoseok’s palm with his fingers. “What am I going to do without you…”
Hoseok presses his lips on Yoongi’s forehead. He brushes some hair behind Yoongi’s ear. Hoseok looks towards the blank chalkboard, erased of all its school day memories, then at the classroom chairs stacked on top of the desks, empty without the students filling the seats.
Hoseok closes his eyes and says, “Don’t worry, Yoongi. I’m graduating soon too.”
Yoongi tilts his head up to see Hoseok wearing a small smile on his lips and a wistful expression. What did he mean by that?
Yoongi opens his mouth to ask, but before he can speak, Hoseok’s lips are crashing onto his again, one hand in Yoongi’s hair, the other gripping the bench. Yoongi relaxes and wraps his arms around Hoseok’s neck, letting Hoseok lean into him.
That night, Yoongi walks home giddy—flushed face with an unrelenting smile. He hums the etude he gave Hoseok for homework.
Hoseok’s smile and voice replays in his head over and over: “See you tomorrow, Yoongi.”