An Angelic Intervention

Can You See Me?

“That’s right. I’m just tired because I was barely able to get any sleep last night. The pressure of schoolwork, meeting new people, being in a new environment… it’s all just catching up to me. Yup. That’s it. I’m just tired. I just need some sleep,” Kay thought to himself as he hurriedly walked back to the dorm. He was too shell-shocked to even worry about the people he passed by—and whether he should acknowledge them or not. He simply walked like a man on a mission, and that mission was to go get into his bed and get some sleep.

He couldn’t even begin to try to comprehend what he saw. How could someone just go and walk right into another human being just like that? Kay was the type of person to believe in facts—proven, research-based facts—so there must be some sort of perfectly sound explanation to what he witnessed. Maybe he just saw it wrong. A trick of the light. Or maybe it really just was because he was tired and he had started to imagine things—and if that were the case, then he had to give some props to himself for having such a wild and vivid sense of imagination.

Comforting himself with those thoughts, Kay had finally begun to calm down as he reached his dorm room. He fished for his keys in his pocket while taking deep, even breaths, telling himself, “You’re okay, you’re okay,” repeatedly.

He had a plan—a clear structure—and that was to get in bed, get some rest, finish his papers, then maybe reward himself by playing a video game afterwards. He unlocked the door and pushed it open, then he stepped in. He had just placed the keys and his bag on the study desk, when an unfamiliar voice casually greeted him with a, “Hey.”

Kay turned his head around so fast it almost made him dizzy, but what he saw sitting there on his bed made him feel nauseous. There he was again, the man wearing white, inside his dorm room, seated comfortably in the middle of the bed as if it were his own. With him only being a few steps away, Kay could clearly see the greens of his eyes, the pink undertone of his skin, even how thick and golden his eyelashes were. He did not, in any way, look even the slightest bit see-through, but that—or even the fact that Kay found him to be objectively good-looking—didn’t stop him from panicking at the fact that this stranger was inside his room.

Kay fought hard not to let his instinct to scream win as his eyes locked with the other person’s. He simply quickly avoided his gaze, grabbed his keys and bag again, then went out of the room like nothing had happened, even though his heart was beating crazily fast.

“s**t, s**t, s**t,” he repeatedly muttered under his breath as he locked the door behind him.

If this were an imagination, then that was very extremely vivid. Even he had to admit that he wasn’t that creative to make up such a realistic-looking man.

“Hey, you,” the same voice almost made Kay jump as he rushed down the hallway. It had sounded like it came so close from behind him. Kay locked the door before he went out, and he had clearly seen the man still sitting on his bed back then.

“Hey,” he said again, sounding quite impatient as Kay looked straight ahead and clenched his jaw shut. Much to his horror, he felt the man begin to walk beside him.

“Hey, you can see me, right?” he asked, waving a hand in front of Kay’s face. Kay continued to ignore him, and the man sighed and suddenly disappeared from his peripheral vision. Kay thought that the guy stopped walking and fell behind, but the very next second, he appeared three steps in front of him, forcing him to abruptly stop. The man had materialized— out of thin air! Like magic! —just at the end of the hallway where Kay had to pass in order to get to the stairs.

The man stood there with his arms crossed in front of him, looking a bit annoyed. “Look, we already made eye contact,” he stated, just as a rushing student literally passed right through him to get to the stairs. Up close, Kay could clearly see how the man turned slightly translucent as the student went past him; and even though he was supposed to pretend not to see him, he couldn’t help it when his hand flew to his mouth.

Kay had tried to deny it as much as he could, but with all the evidences piling up in front of his eyes, there was only one plausible explanation to all this madness: the man was a ghost.

“You can definitely see me,” the man said with a sigh, running his fingers through his light blond hair.

Even more freaked out now at what he just witnessed, and at the fact that he was even considering the supernatural, Kay quickly averted his widened eyes and went around the man to run down the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Kay could hear him yell in a frustrated tone from up the stairs, but he didn’t stop until he stepped foot outside of the dorm building. With shaking hands, he took out his phone and called Gina’s number. He continued to walk until he reached the street, warily looking around for the ghost. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be followed, and Gina picked up after two rings.

“Gina!” he breathed out in relief, pulling the sleeves of his hoodie up his arms—anything to cool himself down.

“Whoa, hello to you, too. What’s up? Changed your mind about grabbing a snack?” Gina asked, the sound of chatter and soft jazz music in the background.

“Yes, yes, definitely,” Kay said in a whisper as he dodged people on the sidewalk. “Can I catch up?”

“Yes, please! I’m at the coffee shop near the library, and my other friends just left me to get to their own classes. I’m so bored and my two-hour break has barely been used up. Where are you?”

“I just left my dorm. Wait for me,” Kay said, looking around again to make sure no one was listening in. The walk to the coffee shop Gina talked about normally took at least five minutes, but Kay burst into a run as soon as he dropped the call, and was able to reach the place in two—thanks to his somewhat built-up endurance from being a swimmer, and, thanks to his parents’ “mindfulness” phase, from also being a yogi.

Barely breaking any sweat because of the cool Autumn breeze, Kay arrived at the coffee shop and was able to quickly spot his closest university friend from the outside—thanks to her glaringly colorful hair. As soon as Gina noticed him when he entered, she could already tell that something was up.

“What? Did you see another rat-s***h-squirrel?” she asked with a real look of concern before Kay could even take a seat in her table.

“S-something like that,” Kay whispered, looking sideways and behind him as if to find someone. He leaned on the table towards Gina and placed his palms on the table in front of him. “I need your help, Gina,” he said in all seriousness.

“Are we… are we being chased by the Interpol or something?” Gina asked, trying to gauge if Kay was trying to joke around.

“I’m serious,” he pleadingly hissed, grabbing her hand. Gina looked down at it, surprised. The entire week or so that she had known him, he had never—not once initiated any physical contact. He was even the type of guy to sit far away from anyone on a bench, or hold the bottom part of the can to make sure that his fingers wouldn’t touch others’ when he’s handing the can over to them. So, Kay suddenly holding Gina’s hand, with his face looking quite pale, she knew that he wasn’t joking around in any way.

“I’m all ears,” she assured him.

“Oh,” he muttered, looking like he didn’t expect her to match his level of seriousness that quickly. He pulled his hand away and said a quick apology. “Okay, you’re going to think this is completely stupid, but hear me out.”

“I promise not to laugh?” she said, unsure.

“Okay, I’m uh,” Kay took a deep breath to rearrange his thoughts, “remember how you’re from all-girls catholic schools since forever?”

“Of course,” Gina raised an eyebrow, dearly curious now where this was all going. “And?”

“And,” he tightly closed his eyes and his fists, and crinkled his nose, looking as if he was having the most difficult time expressing himself verbally.

“And?” Gina urged impatiently.

Kay opened one eye and finally decided to pull the trigger. “I need you to teach me how to exorcise a ghost.”