Anya came to stand in front of the gates, her hands filled with grocery bags.

The setting sun painted the shade of blush in the sky, like the beginning of a long held dream coming to life. In a way, this was her dream. A dream that she would fully live in.

For however long it could last.

The gates swung open by itself as she saw Joon step outside, wearing a simple shirt and dark cotton pants.

Anya smiled at him, "Okay I have to say, having a Ghost does seem to have some perks."

Joon took the bags from her, "Just one of the many that you will slowly discover."

"Wink!"

"Huh?"

Anya laughed and ran a little to stand in front and turned to face him, walking backwards while saying, "You need to finish such a sentence with a wink!"

"I do?" Joon smiled, then winked. Or tried to anyway. Both his eyelids weirdly fluttered.

Watching him, Anya giggled, "Oh my, that was absolutely horrible."

"Hey! Wait!" Joon stopped with both hands holding the bags and tried again. This time, he looked like a patient suffering from seizure, blinking or rather fluttering both eyelids awkwardly.

Anya burst out in peals of laughter on seeing him, "NO please stop!" she laughed as she stretched on her tippy toes to cover his non stop blinking eyes with her hand, "The image of you being a fierce ghost will collapse otherwise."

Kissing his cheeks with a sweet peck, Anya kept laughing as she went in.

Namjoon stood where he had, his eyes closed, his chest warm in his cold existence, a heartfelt smile of joy on his lips.

Happiness.

Bliss.

This was what he wanted.

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2 HOURS EARLIER :

Having been dropped off by the lawyer, Anya had wanted to wander around, shopping for food before going home. So Hyun, Mira and Soyeon had to have moved out by then, as Anya had requested them to. Considering she would be the only person eating, Anya just wanted to collect the few things she would be satisfied with.

Going to the carts selling the ingredients she wanted and taking the seasonings from the shops, she had a small mishap in one of the shops.

A man collided with her on his way out.

As was her habit, Anya had immediately uttered out an apology, then rubbed the part of her shoulder which had banged against the man.

"Hey Lady, watch where you are going." The man had grunted.

Apologising again, Anya had wanted to go past him but the man held his ground, "You are carrying way too much in your hands. Do you want me to help you miss?"

Politely refusing him, Anya was starting to get annoyed by the typical behaviour of a guy hitting on a girl they saw without a ring on their finger and out alone.

"It is going to get dark soon Miss, such a beautiful person like you being alone is dangerous. Why don't I accompany you till you finish your shopping and take you home? You can trust me, I have no bad intentions."

"Can you please leave? I have not taken my medicine yet and I don't know when I may have a psychotic breakdown. Foolish of me I know, but I forgot to take them. You see, I was released from the mental hospital only 3 days back and was always given the medicine by nurses so I am a little forgetful now that I need to take them by myself." Anya smoothly lied with a straight face, "You seem like such a good and upstanding person. I can see you truly want to help but I. . . will be so heartbroken if I hurt you in one of my breakdowns. So. . ."

The man's face had started changing from its charming expression to a guarded one. He rapidly nodded his head, "Then you should leave now and go take your medicines quickly. Its irresponsible of you to do so. Goodnight." He hurriedly left.

Anya sighed and turned to the grinning shopkeeper. She was a regular here, her tactics only flew well on strangers.

Anya shrugged when the shopkeeper laughed. All she wanted was to get rid of that annoying person.

Spending some time gathering a few more needed necessities, she tallied up her purchases and paid for it. Hefting the bags, she stepped out of the shop.

While walking away from it, she perceived that she was being followed. Anya had no intention or energy in doing anything other than turning around right there on the spot, to see another stranger following her. He appeared well dressed, in his early thirties.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Anya directly asked the man, who jerked a little on being discovered, but then smoothly walked up to her, stopping at a respectable distance.

"You are such a little liar." He smiled.

Vaguely remembering another man to be present in the shop when the incident took place, she understood him to have been present and to have seen the exchange between her and the shopkeeper.

Anya sighed again, "I simply don't wish to be bothered by persistent people who cannot take the hint. Are you one of them?"

The man gave her a playful smile, "And if I am? What excuse will you use on me?"

Anya answered, deadpan, "My fiancé is a ghost who is extremely possessive. If he finds out, your life will be in danger."

The man burst out laughing, smile lines showing in the corner of his eyes, indicating him to be a jolly fellow, "I must say, your reasons and excuses for rebuffing men are quite innovative."

Anya gave a careless shrug, "I just want them to be effective."

"I have a little sister a little younger than you. Will you have a cup of coffee with me and tell me a few of your tricks? For my sister, I mean."

Against her will, Anya felt a small genuine smile forming at the shameless excuse the man presented her with, "And you, Sir, are quite experienced in your pick up lines. Very innovative."

The man tipped his head slightly, taking her compliment, "If I don't, how will the interesting ladies such as you ever take an interest in me?"

Anya did not even want to speculate why the man at such an age was still unmarried even though he appeared well off, judging by the state of his clothes. She just shook her head apologetically, "I have someone I love, very dearly. I am sorry, but it would be better to use this line again on some other beautiful lady who is single."

Even though the smile stayed in place, the man said in a light voice but with a hidden sincerity, plainly audible, "What if I say that I fell in love with you when I saw you? And also say that this, is no pick up line?"

"Then I would reply that I am not free to receive or reciprocate your love. I am sorry, but as I said, I have someone."

The man kept looking at Anya, his eyes filled with a bit of regret, a bit of stubbornness.

Reaching inside is coat, he took out his card and extended it to her, "Well, don't scold me for trying my best. At least keep my card in the off chance that you may one day fall out of love with him, or" he shrugged good naturedly, "if you would like to go have some coffee with a new friend and actually give him some tips for his sister."

Wanting to just go home, Anya politely smiled and took the card, hoping to have an end to the pointless conversation.

"At least let me know your name? Mine is on the card." The man raised his voice a bit as he saw her turn away.

"If you ever get the call for that coffee? You'll know my name then." Anya walked away, not looking back.

The man had smiled at her answer, placing a hand over his heart which had skipped a beat on seeing the beautiful girl.

Meanwhile Anya had absentmindedly slipped the card in one of her bags, forgetting about him as soon as she turned away.

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BEACH HOUSE :

"You should eat more than that if don't want to remain Little for life, Blueberry." Joon had his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned with one shoulder on the wall at the entryway of the kitchen, smiling and watching Anya put away the few bowls she had used for her dinner.

"You are the only one who thinks I am little in any way or shape!" Anya scoffed angrily.

The small tugging of his lips got a little more wider as he walked in, "Is Little Fruit still angry at me?" but when he tried to hug her from behind, Anya flared up like a kitten with her soft claws all out,

"Don't touch me you mega destroyer!! And didn't I tell you, you are NOT allowed in the kitchen!!!" Anya pushed him as hard as she could.

Joon groaned as he was pushed out by the small sized bulldozer "I swear I just wanted to help you! I was cleaning the bowl set for you."

"And you somehow managed to drop every single one of them??? All of the 5 bowls?"

"No!" Joon almost whined, "I cleaned 4 of them and kept them all on the towel. As I was cleaning the 5th one, I noticed a little spilled water on the table and absently tugged at the towel to clean it. 4 of them started tumbling down and to save the other 4 the one in my hand also. . ."

"Waah" Anya was amazed, "You mean to say you are that destructive even without using your ghostly powers?"

"Listen here." Joon pushed his specs up, then assumed a very dignified pose, "Stop saying ghostly powers, okay? I am so much more than your average ghost wandering about. I am different entity on my own."

Anya raised a single brow, not looking even a little bit impressed, "And these extra entity powers could not save my bowl set that has been passed down for 4 generations?"

"Now, Little Fruit," Joon started trailing behind Anya who took the tea she had made and made a beeline for the television, "Why would you bring something that precious out here?"

"Why?" Anya sat down, "You'll destroy everything precious I have?"

Namjoon startled on hearing her say something like that so casually, "No. Never."

Anya instinctively controlled her emotions, and tugged Joon to sit down beside her, then lightly nodded towards the television, "Do I need to go to manually turn that on Oh, Elite Dark Entity?"

No sooner had she completed the last syllable, the television turned on. Anya smiled and patted Joon's head, "Good boy. Master is happy."

"Woof" Joon responded as he pulled her body closer to her, making her lean on his torso, "You always wanted a companion dog. . . I planned on getting you one when we settled down. Shall we go out tomorrow and adopt one?"

Joon's eyes reflected the content he felt as he rubbed Anya's arm as he cuddled her closer, using a soft wrap to keep her warm, the weight of her body against her a satisfaction he had been chasing all through his life, "If you get a small one, he will get adjusted to my presence since the start. What do you say?"

Anya looked up, her sight getting blocked by his chin, "You used the word companion?"

Joonie laughed at that, "Can't use pet now, can I? knowing that is exactly how you wont train the poor animal as." He lifted his other hand and started counting, "You'd want him to be able to walk beside you without a leash, you want him not to be confined, he should never be scolded by anyone else, he should be trained to be able to attack should he perceives danger and you will coddle and love him every second he is with you." Joon looked down at the squirming girl and asked with a dry voice, "Any of this sounds like a pet to you?"

"I wont train him strictly!" she protested, "But as a puppy, I'll make sure it will be like playing. I just don't like a leash. I don't know why but I seriously hate it!"

Joon nodded sagely, "Yes, yes, I understand you."

Anya grumbled and snatched the pillow from his lap to herself. Joon felt another sense of joy at her pouty behavior.

"So?" he asked gently, "Want to go get one tomorrow?"

Anya did not answer for sometime, looking straight ahead at the news. Her hand kept absently rubbing her thumb over Joon's knees.

"Little Fruit?"

"No."

Namjoon frowned and peered at her face. That made his hair flick forward to fall over his rimless specs, his red yes concerned, "Why not? It was all you could talk about whenever I talked to you about our future. Even before saying anything about what kind of house you want, adopting a dog took priority."

When he saw she was still not answering, Joon joked, "Sometimes I thought you wanted me to marry you just so you could adopt a dog. Like I was your ticket for you getting one."

In her voice, Joon heard the smile, "You caught that, huh?" but he could not see the sadness sparkling in the gaze she hid.

"Any blind man could pick that up." Joon kissed her head lovingly as he laughingly imitated her voice, "Ooooooh Joonie you like cute little puppies too, right? We'll get one for ourselves, okay? You will love him too!! It will be good having someone smaller around us!"

"I am very much offended by that horrendous voice and manner." Anya scowled, "I do NOT talk like that!"

"Right, right you don't."

"Hey!! Don't patronize me!!" Anya got riled up as she sat up straight and threateningly showed her fist in front of his face. Obediently, Joon acted to be scared, "No. Okay! Don't hit me!" he feigned terror from her puny, adorable paws.

"Hmph!" Anya turned away and cuddled up to his body again, arranging him the way she felt was most comfortable for her, then laying her head down on his chest again to watch the news. Joon only smiled.

"So, what is it Little Fruit?" he asked gently after a long time, lovingly combing through her hair with his ice cold fingers, "What changed? You don't want one?"

Anya finally answered back with a petulant voice, "No, its not that. I . . . ummm want something else now."

"Hmmm?"

Anya dug herself deeper in his embrace, "I bonaa bul" she whispered the words in his tshirt.

"What? You want a bull?" Joon asked, perplexed and surprised.

"WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD WANT A BULL FOR A PET????" Anya exploded out of his arms, scowling fiercely at the poor person shrinking away from her.

"You think you have a 'right mind'?" Joon cautiously asked.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU WISP OF DEAD SMOKE??"

Joon tried smiling, which came out really awkward, "You are cuddling with a Ghost right now, I have no idea if you. . . would not want a bull."

Anya stared at him with a deadly expression, "It shows that you are dead. That logic can only come from a decayed brain."

"I am not a zombie." Joon pointed out. Then he hurriedly went on to say, "So. . . you want a what exactly?"

Anya kept staring at him, her glare making the red eyed entity shift uncomfortably. Deeming him to have suffered enough, Anya sighed, "A wolf."

"Ah." Joon nodded, "Of course." He kept nodding sagely, "That choice definitely makes a more logical thought for a pet than a bull. So very common."

Anya's glare notched up a level, "Are you mocking me??"

"How dare I?" Joon smiled innocently.

Anya looked him up and down, then continued, "Which is why, I was hesitating. I know its not only uncommon but kind of impossible. Which is also why, I was going to suggest to delay taking up a companion until I make up my mind!"

"Understood Master." Namjoon seriously responded, then tugged her suddenly in his arms, his fingers tickling all her weak spots.

Faced with the unexpected attack, Anya burst out laughing and gasping as she struggled to get away from him. She squirmed on the couch, her attempts making her lay down as he hovered over her, his fingers not stopping, his eyes adoringly lit with happiness as he watched her face painted with bright laughter.

"STOP!!!" Anya gasped and laughed, hitting him weakly on his chest.

In the brightly lit house by the beach, the peals of light laughter rang out in a cozy room with a television on and a man with his woman on the couch, playfully enjoying the joy they shared.

Just as suddenly Joon had started his tickle feast attack, he stopped abruptly. Anya's breathing had not gone to normal before Joon lay down on her, pinning her in place, his face buried in her chest, over her heart. He held her with his arms around her body and then said a simple line.

"I am happy."

Three words.

Just three words.

But the weight of those words were more crushing than a physical blow. Anya quickly shut her eyes tightly as she took that emotional hit, tightening her hands around his pale and cold body.

That was all he had ever wanted. To be happy. There never had been any more ambition in him, no grand plans. Joon had only ever chased happiness. She was his happiness.

A feeling rose in her, but Anya quickly pushed it down.

Clearing her throat, she pushed at Joon, "I am not used to you being so openly affectionate, you know."

Joon moved at the first sign of her wanting to pull away, letting go of her to slide to one side, lying on the sofa as he watched her bend to take the empty teacup, stand and walk away.

"You should get adapted Little Fruit." He called after her retreating form, "I plan to be much, much more affectionate."

Anya blushed involuntarily on hearing him and replied with a flustered voice, "You are so shameless!" and then fled to the kitchen with his soft chuckles ringing in her ears.

Trying to keep busy while the blush faded from her face, Anya washed the teacup and started putting the shopping bags away, upturning them on the counter before folding them away, when something slid from inside one of the bags and dropped on the floor.

Absently, she bent to pick it up.

It was a small black thin object.

"Hmm?" Anya mused as she looked at it, confused, before it hit her. This was a burnt piece of paper. Puzzled, she tried recalling if she had any such thing in the bag already or if she had any paper at all.

"At least keep my card in the off chance that you may one day fall out of love with him"

Jerking a little, Anya stared at the black parchment, then got up to look through the rest of the bags.

The card the man had given was not present in any of those.

She looked back at the burnt paper in her hand, positive at what it had been. The feeling she had just tried suppressing on the sofa rose again this time.

Though he achieved happiness at last, the cost of it was too high. Too high to keep paying. It needed to stop.

Anya blankly stared at the black paper, lost to her surroundings.

"What are you looking at Blueberry?"

His emotionless voice called her out of the trance she had fallen into. Praying, begging to any God who would listen, for the doubt in her mind to not be true, she looked up to face him.

Joon was standing still, just a few steps away from her. His red eyes shining brightly in his pale face, his face, completely void of expression.

Anya closed her fist around the paper, feeling it crumpling in her palms before asking in a thready voice.

"The Man who gave me this. Did you do something to him?"

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2 HOURS EARLIER :

Nam Byung Ho walked with the red chilli paste he had brought on the way back home. It had been on the last minute that he remembered that he had ran out of it. Seeing that he had almost half an hour till his bus came, he had gone to the nearby store trying to find the item, all the while groaning at himself to just leave this bother and rest his exhausted body in the bus stand.

It had been a long day in the office.

Thankfully though, he had rejected his laziness and gone to that store.

Or else he could never have been able to meet that beautiful and exceptional girl.

From the moment she had wandered in, Byung Ho was captured by her blue eyes, a colour that was rare in his country. His attention had been caught, but exhaustion had overwhelmed him enough to turn away from that novelty and to continue finding the item he needed.

While doing so, he heard another man bothering her. Thinking to himself, with a beautiful face as such and no other companion, she must have faced this sort of situation a lot of times.

Byung Ho was highly valued in his office for this particular trait. He could read people quite correctly, making him the one who would be called to handle the tenacious and difficult clients.

Pausing a bit with the item in his hands, he had waited to hear the lady's response, to see if she would get afraid, or surprise him.

Surprise him she did.

Byung Ho supressed his laughter as the Lady lied with a straight face, almost making him believe her. It was only when she shrugged at the grinning shopkeeper that he felt a strange feeling of recognition in his chest. Like, he was meant to meet her.

Not thinking much about anything else, he had followed her out after paying for his purchase. The Lady had found him out pretty soon.

Talking with her, watching her sharp mind tempered with her polite tongue blessed with such beauty, it felt very natural. . . falling for her there and then.

When she claimed to have someone in her life, he wasn't too surprised. The world could not be blind enough to let a treasure such as her be undiscovered for so long.

Still, placing his money on his instincts and on that small but genuine smile she offered, he had tried his luck anyways.

Now, standing in the bus stop, wating for his bus, Byung Ho thought about the way she had slipped his card inside her bag. Would she call? That question kept circling his mind.

More than that, it was truly driving him insane that he did not know the name of the one woman who had such a profound effect on him! He should have gone to the shopkeeper to ask for her name at least.

Looking at his watch, he sighed at the lack of time.

He would definitely stop by tomorrow to ask for her name. And who knows? Maybe she might be back there by chance as well.

Buoyant with an unexpected feeling of joy and nervous excitement at the prospect of tomorrow, lost in the fog of daze for meeting her today, Byung Ho smiled without thought, his exhaustion magically gone.

That was when, he suddenly felt something.

Something that felt uncomfortable. As if he was being watched.

Blinking, retreating from his fantasies, he looked around him. He was surrounded by men just like him, who had completed office hours, smoking cigarettes. Couple of them talked, a few women with their children also waiting for the bus.

The streets were busy and bustling as well, pedestrians walking about, shops still open and brightly lit, customers milling in them.

Everything was normal.

But the tingling feeling of being watched only intensified. He reached up to rub his neck, trying to shake off the feeling.

Trying to distract himself, he looked up at the night sky, noticing the moon nearing its complete phase. It would be a full moon in two days. But the dark sky devoid of stars had a negative effect on him, making him feel more anxious.

Byung Ho looked left and right, observing with hasty eyes, trying to pinpoint why he was feeling so anxious, just who was watching him with such aggression.

Nothing out of the ordinary caught his attention, nothing was wrong.

But the intention of the watcher was clear. Byung Ho felt the hairs on his body stand up as a creeping fear slowly snaked around him, sinking its fangs deep.

Whoever was watching him, was angry. He was furious.

Breath coming out in a frozen stutter of fear, he stood up from where he sat, startled to realize that his back was drenched in cold sweat that made the shirt stick to his skin.

The people around him glanced his way at his abrupt movement, then looked away finding nothing unusual.

But Byung Ho was becoming increasingly frightened. The anger of the one watching him was climbing a steep peak, his emotions pressing him down, suffocating Byung Ho.

Byung Ho started walking a little further from the stop, wanting to see if the feeling would disappear, but with each step he took, a strange horror filled his soul, shrivelling him up.

He felt a strong rage lashing at him, a malicious gaze of insane savagery directed his way.

He stumbled, his eyes wide as he spun in circles, desperately trying to find anyone who was looking his way. His ears started buzzing with a ringing noise, his breaths becoming choppy in panic.

People around him started noticing his bizarre behaviour, his large terrified eyes, and sweat drenched appearance.

Someone approached Byung Ho cautiously, "Mr. Are you alright?"

The approach of the stranger was lost to Byung Ho who could only hear a ringing sound. A sound that seemed to leech every bit of his joy, a void of vacuum engulfing him, making him shiver with extreme cold.

When the stranger received no reply, he reached out to grab him. His touch frightened a paranoid Byung Ho, who screamed and swatted the hand away.

"STAY BACK!!!!"

His shout triggered people around him to become startled as well, moving away from him.

At the same time, at that exact moment, a deep, demonic laughter rang out in Byung Ho's ears, the sound pushing fear to a different height, making him go insane.

Wanting to distance himself away from it, blindly, Byung Ho turned and ran forward.

In his absolute, soul consuming fear, he failed to see that the bus he had been waiting for, had almost reached him.

As he stepped in front of the rapidly approaching bright headlights, he heard a voice drenched in viciously suppressed madness before his body exploded in a world of pain, his consciousness turning black.

"Her smiles, are only mine."

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A/N : See the problem now?

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