Startled

Back at The Elysium, Xiajun lay down on his large king bed and sighed, finally in a state of calm.

It felt nice to finally be out of his stuffy house and shift into a totally different surrounding. To his left, on his nightstand was a bottle of champagne which he gladly poured into the toll, small ringed glass and watched as the bubbles flowed to the top in the translucent, golden liquid. He took a sip or two and opened the black folder.

On the very first page was an introduction to the gang, and it was quite a long description indeed. On the margins of the page, someone had scribbled down handwritten notes which Xiajun struggled to decipher. Anyways, what the printed text said should be enough for him.

After he reached for the champagne for another sip, he started reading. As his eyes scanned the blocks of text, he realized how unorganized the writing was. There was no specific sequence to the information and the fact really annoyed Xiajun.

Xiajun sniffed and kept reading.

When he had finally skimmed through a quarter of the information, he looked up and found an empty champagne bottle which he had unconsciously downed as he read. Behind the bottle, the dark night sky cast a blue glow on the bottle, colliding against with the golden of the lights inside the room.

Grunting, he stood up and stretched. He took slipped his feet into his hotel slippers and took of hi robes, parading around shirt-less in search of his clothes. Dinner was due in a few minutes and he had heard a lot about the quality meals at The Elysium which he was eager to try.

He got dressed in his suit shirt and decided to leave the top button of his shirt open because it felt too tight. He slipped into a pair of dark brown pants and laced his shoes. He combed his hair neatly in the long, foot-length mirror and then slipped on his coat.

As he exited and locked his room with his card key, he noticed that a lot of people were going towards the restaurant. Following them, he walked in the same direction. As he finger brushed his hair one last time, he was stopped by a blue figure to the entrance of the restaurant.

Usually, Xiajun would have just passed through the ghost, but he was startled by a ghost in The Elysium. It was most unusual. Who could've died in a luxury hotel...?

As he cleared his throat, Xiajun took a step forward but the ghost stopped him again by saying, "Hey! Do you remember me?"

Xiajun sighed and kept walking forward, passing right through the figure.

"H-hey, I know you can see me!" the ghost said as he followed Xiajun to his table. "Hey! Say something!"

Xiajun sighed loudly and dead-stared the ghost right in its eyes, which made it recoil backward.

"H-hey!" it said again as a waiter approached Xiajun and took his order. "I know you, Li Xiajun! Don't try to pretend as if you don't know me, you jerk."

At this, Xiajun stopped mid-ordering. After he shook his head to regather his thoughts, he finished the last of his order and sat straight as the waiter bowed and left to convey the order to the chef.

After the waiter was long out o earshot of the one man and the one ghost, Xiajun decided to settle things, for he was not ready to ruin the rest of his meal.

"What?" Xiajun said icily as he eyed the ghost.

Maybe it was because it was the first time Xiajun was properly looking at him, but the ghost looked familiar. It was a man younger than Xiajun, probably in his late teens. He had sharp features and a prominent jaw, over which was a nice set of teeth. Xiajun scrutinized the man further and looked at his clothes. It was a school uniform, a uniform that he recognized because it had once been his own. He narrowed his eyes: Who was this man?

"Do you really not remember me?" the ghost said sadly.

Xiajun sighed. "No, because you must not have made such a huge impression at me in your life for me to have remembered you separately from the rest of the world. Name yourself."

The ghost scoffed. "For God's sake.... You can call me Chen like you did before."

'Like he did before'? What was that supposed to mean?

"Did we perhaps go to school together?" Xiajun asked, barely moving his lips. He knew how weird some people found it when Xiajun talked to himself when he actually was talking to someone else. Well, someone dead is still someone.

Chen's face lit up. "YES! Finally, you remembered me."

"No, I just took a guess," Xiajun said but stopped when a wine waiter came to pour some wine in his glass. After he left, Xiajun continued. "I still don't quite remember you."

The ghost grimaced and tried to pick up the salt shakers on the cloth-draped table, but his grimace grew when his hand passed right through the object.

"Do you remember when someone set fire to our school?"