The ghost stormed to the closet and began to rattle the doors, making the hangers inside clatter noisily. The sound of the hangers banging against each other filled the room.
The nurse let out a high-pitched shriek, and the barman's face paled. Even Joshua, who had been trying to maintain his composure, was looking a bit shaken.
"Let's... let's just talk tomorrow!" the barman blurted out, making a run for the door.
Adriel laughed, chasing him out with a hanger, "You scared? Was that scary? How far are you willing to run?"
Once the barman noticed the flying hanger behind his back, his eyes bulged. He flung the door open and bolted down the hall.
The nurse, seeing her colleague's reaction, shrieked again and burst out of the room in a hurry, running down the hall in the opposite direction.
Left alone, Joshua took a step back, eyeing the closet warily. But Adriel had locked in on the barman. He ran after the man, laughing in full throat as he whipped the hanger around.
"Run! Run as fast as you can!" Adriel hollered, forgetting about his anger in the heat of the chase.
Panting, the barman cast a glance over his shoulder. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the wooden hanger flying after him. It was like a low-budget horror movie, but terrifying nonetheless.
He spotted a personnel room, and made a sharp turn, slamming the door behind him. The hanger bumped against it, falling to the ground, while the ghost ran through the door.
"You think you can get away from me?" Adriel followed into the small break room, snickering.
The dim white light added to the eerie atmosphere, playing in ghost's favor.
"T-This can't be happening..." The barman leaned against the table, hands shaking wildly as he tried to take his phone out of his jeans pocket.
Adriel stopped in front of him with an amused grin. "Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters?"
The man still fumbled with his phone. His nerves threw off the coordination of his fingers. "Why can't I get a damn signal here," he cursed, banging his phone against the table.
But the ghost wasn't done chasing him around. He looked around and grabbed the nearest object in sight, then dragged it around the desk, making a scraping noise.
"Round two?" Adriel hummed, lifting a flowerpot up in the air.
The barman's face turned as pale as a sheet. He dropped his phone and stumbled back, frantically looking around like a trapped bird.
"Get away from me!" he shouted, waving in a pitiable attempt at intimidation before bolting.
Expecting it, the ghost ran after the man, cackling while holding the flowerpot high above his head.
"You better prepare yourself! Once I come back to life, floating objects will be the least of your worries. I'll make sure you end up in prison, you drug dealer!"
The barman ran away without a second thought, but before Adriel could get to him, he spotted a familiar figure standing in the shadows. The ghost froze mid-run, the flowerpot raised above his head like a trophy.
Ein watched the terrified barman dart down the hall before glancing at the hanger on the floor, then back at the ghost. His brow furrowed as he struggled to make sense of the situation.
"I turn my head for one second, and you turn this place into a haunted house?"
Adriel lowered the flowerpot slowly, a sheepish look on his face. "I didn't expect you to be lurking around. Weren't you supposed to be resting?"
Ein's eyes locked with his, and it almost looked like it took him effort to keep up the irked act. "You think it's easy to sleep while someone's throwing hangers around?"
"Oh, I was just giving them a little taste of their own medicine. A bit of staged hallucination ought to give them the jitters." Adriel shook the the pot with a mischievous grin.
The green leaves of the flower fluttered gently, bringing out the color of his eyes.
Adriel cradled the plant in his arms, his grin fading to a teasing smirk. "Besides, you're not a light sleeper. Why are you up? Couldn't sleep without me?"
Ein let out a weary sigh, though his expression softened. His eyes flickered down to Adriel's lips before quickly shifting to the flowerpot in his hands.
"Put that back," Ein murmured, reaching out and picking up the hanger as if he needed something to keep his hands busy. "And where did you take this from?"
Adriel shrugged, stepping a little closer as he passed to return the flowerpot to the desk in the personnel room. "Borrowed from another room."
"Borrowed," Ein repeated, the word sounding more like a statement than a question. "You sure have an interesting definition of borrowing."
The ghost set the flowerpot down, a soft thudding sound coming from the room, followed by the echo of a chuckle.
"Well, it's not like I was going to keep it," Adriel replied, emerging from the room. He closed the door behind him with a quiet click, then reached to take the hanger from Ein on the way to the staff room he took it from.
But a tug on the hanger forced him to pause in his tracks. He turned back and stared at Ein's hand holding on.
"I haven't thanked you yet," Ein began, the words heavy on his tongue. Hesitation wasn't something he felt on the daily, yet here he was, dragging it out.
Adriel's head tilted to the side a bit, his eyebrows raising in anticipation.
"So..." Ein's fingers tightened around the wooden hanger unconsciously. He tugged again, pulling Adriel a bit closer to buy himself time.
There were many things he wanted to say out loud, but couldn't dare to.
First of all, this ghost was distracting, but he was nice to have around. A part of Ein dreaded the thought of going back to the dead silence of his solitary life.
Ein found himself wanting to hold onto Adriel for as long as he could. To cherish him and learn everything all he was allowed to learn.
But he wasn't naive. This desire was unrealistic, selfish, and even immoral, given their circumstances.
The least he could do was let himself go along with whatever Adriel wanted until they brought him back to life. And once it was done, Ein would step back to his place and let go.
In the end, this whirlwind of thoughts condensed into a simple "Thank you."
Adriel's teasing smirk faltered for a split second. His eyes widened just a fraction of a second before narrowing slightly in curiosity. He had caught onto the fact that there was a few pages of subtext behind the gratitude, but struggled to read what was written on them.
The ghost's grip on the hanger loosened, his fingers lingering against the wood while his gaze prodded Ein's dark eyes for a clue or an elaboration.
But as the silence stretched out, the reflex to lighten the serious mood took over.
"That sounded a bit weighty for a 'thank you'."
Ein let out a quiet huff, holding on to the hanger all the same. "I'm taking this back," he said, walking in the direction the barman had fled.
Adriel didn't let go, falling into step and letting himself be pulled along.
"Do you know which way to go?"
Without looking back, Ein replied, "I'll figure it out."
The ghost scoffed. He found himself studying the way Ein's fingers wrapped around the corner of the hanger, and his wide shoulders leading the way.
Adriel snickered and blurted out the first thought that came to mind, "How about you figure me out?"
Ein's steps slowed and he turned halfway towards Adriel. His gaze flicked up to the ghost, who wore a confused look, as if he hadn't been the one to say it.
"You mean, figure out your," Ein's eyes traveled over the ghost's figure, "air?"
Adriel snorted, and carried on with the unserious topic, "Right, I have no body at the moment. I guess you could say my body count went from zero to minus one."
Ein shook his head, looking ahead with a barely contained straight face, but the ghost wasn't done.
"Do you think if two ghosts have sex, their body count increases or decreases?"
Ein choked on a scoff, masking it with a cough. The hanger jerked, drawing a snicker from Adriel.
"Don't choke. Can't have you suffocating again. But if you do... wanna check out if we can do it without bodies?"
Ein looked back again, feeling his pulse pick up a beat at the comment. "You're too..." He bit down on other words and exhaled, turning back to move ahead.
The ghost followed silently, his shoulders shaking faintly with silent laughter.
"What? You don't want to?" Adriel leaned in. "With the way you were sweet-talking me a few hours ago, one would've thought—" his voice dropped, his smirk widening.
"I was half-conscious. You can't use that against me," Ein cut in. He sped up, his ears burning.
The ghost was forced to pick up the speed, chuckling as the hanger pulled him forward. "Oh, but I can—and I will."