Chapter 8

"What do you think of Kai?"

Irene tilts her head confusedly at Theresa's question. "Kai? He's a friend." She answers, even as confused as she is.

"Just a friend?" Theresa asks again, trying to make sure Irene's telling the truth.

"Yes, just a friend." Irene answers, exasperated at Theresa's sudden question and interest in her relationship with Kai. "Why are you asking this anyway?"

"... Don't... don't think I'm reaching with my thoughts but... I think Kai may be interested in you."

Irene sits up straight after hearing what Theresa said. "Tess, there's literally no way Kai's interested in me."

"No, listen to me! He definitely is! Irene, he gave you a nickname and he's willing to call you!"

"Doesn't he have nicknames for other people?"

"Have you ever heard him call me by my nickname even though my name is long?"

Irene stops to think about what Theresa said, it's true that Kai calls Theresa, Aisya, and Safira by their names and not what they prefer to be called. "Maybe he's just trying to make me comfortable, I'm in this situation, after all."

Theresa looks at Irene in disbelief, surely her friend can't be this sceptical about it, right? "Let me tell you something, Kai has said that he's interested in someone during our familiarity night but never said who! I think you're the one he's interested in because he gives you special treatment!"

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Tess--" As soon as Irene starts her sentence, she hears a knock on the window next to her door. A few second of silence pass and another knock comes, but after Irene listens intently, she realises it isn't a knock, it's more of a thud as if someone's using a heavy object to make contact with the glass.

"Irene...?"

"Do you hear that?"

Theresa shakes her head no, confused on what exactly Irene is talking about. "Is something wrong?" She asks.

"Someone's knocking on my window..." Irene says in a low voice, subconsciously trying to quell her voice from being heard from the outside.

Irene stands up and slowly inches towards the window, she notices that the thudding on her window is rythmic, if Irene were to compare it to something, it would probably something like a miner mining a rock. Her hand grips the curtain and slowly opens it, revealing just what is making the noise.

"Oh my god..." Irene mutters as she stumbles backwards, her hazel eyes wide at what she's currently seeing.

A human-like figure is currently banging its head on the window, though Irene's unsure if it's exactly human as its body is covered in a muddy, bloody white shroud. When Irene gets a glimpse of its face, she sees a decomposing human face, its skin black and peeling off with blood slowly dripping from one of its empty eye sockets. The blood smears across her window and it's not a sight anyone would enjoy, yet Theresa seems to just be confused.

"Irene? Irene, are you okay?" Theresa asks as she shuffles over to a hyperventilating Irene.

"That-- t-there! Do you-- do you not see it?!" Irene asks, pointing over to the window.

"See what? There's nothing there!"

Irene quickly concludes that what she's currently seeing is a ghost. She rushes over to where she placed her phone after her phonecall with Kai and immediately redials his number. The line connects and he answers before the first ring even stops.

"Ren? Is something wrong?" Kai asks from the other end of the line.

"There's-- there's this thing!" Irene tells him in a panic. "A ghost! I don't know how to describe it, but it's banging on my window!"

"Alright, okay, will you be able to turn on video call so I can clearly see it?" Kai requests.

Irene doesn't know if ghosts can be seen through electronics, but if Kai's requesting for it, then she can assume that ghosts are able to be seen through the camera. She quickly does as he instructed and points the camera over to the window, where the ghost is currently still banging its head on it.

"Ah... well, I didn't think he would show himself this soon..." Kai mumbles to himself. "Ren, listen to me. The ghost cannot get to you. You're in a protected area at the moment."

"I-- yeah, it can't get to me..." Irene mumbles, repeating what Kai said. "But... but it'll go away, right?"

Kai hesitates before answering, his eyebrows scrunching nervously. "Well, he won't. Not unless I either seal it away or deal with the root of the problem. The ghost himself is called a pocong and he's relatively harmless considering the colour of his shroud."

"Is it... it is too much for me to ask you to seal it away...?" Irene asks, though her eyes continue to be locked onto the pocong.

"I would, but I've been swamped with jobs lately and I wouldn't be able to seal it correctly. My energy is far too low to combat his and I have to save some energy to help Safira's friend." Kai says with a sigh. "I'm so sorry, but you'll have to tough it out for now, at least once I get my energy up enough to help you."

"That's okay, that's fine. If what you said is true and that I'll be seeing them constantly soon, that just means I have to start getting used to them." Irene mutters to herself.

Kai sighs once more, placing a hand on his chin. "Theresa, please close Ren's curtains." Theresa does as she is instructed and quickly closes the curtains, though it seems she can't resist but take a quick peek outside by pulling the curtain just enough for her eyes to catch everything outside.

"Ren, how about I stick by you every day, including picking you up and dropping you off until you don't feel bothered by the pocong or any other ghost that might bother you, how does that sound?" Kai offers.

Irene mulls it over for a bit, with the constant thudding still persisting outside combined with her anxious mind, she quickly agrees to that. If anyone will be able to ease her into the paranormal world, it would be Kai. "But... don't you have jobs you have to do? Won't basically escorting me everywhere get in the way?"

"Didn't I say that I'd never be too busy for you? If you'll let me, I'll bring you along to my jobs, how's that sound?" Kai asks, but realises that his choice of wording may sound ambiguous. "Most of my jobs these days are still in the consultation phase, I definitely won't bring you along for any sealing or hunting missions."

"Okay, yeah, I can... yeah, I'll be fine with that..." Irene stutters. She never thought that seeing the thing that has been following her all day would trumatise her so badly, however she guesses that the gandaruwa wasn't as scary as a pocong in her opinion. Seeing that man die just hours prior is also something that didn't really affect Irene as much, most probably she didn't think it would happen to her, but seeing something so horrendous targeting her made her realise that something as horrifying or maybe more might actually happen to her hits her harder than she'd like to admit.

"Alright, I'll pick you up around 6.45 tomorrow, how's that sound?" Kai asks.

"That's fine."

Kai then proceeds to give Irene more tips to calm herself down before ending the call. Irene puts her phone down and takes a deep breath, slowly trying to relax herself. Theresa notices her friend's turmoil and sits next to her on the floor, patting her shoulder tenderly.

"I don't know what you saw and I don't want to ask what it was, but know I'm here if you need help." Theresa says softly, comforting Irene.

"That's fine, thanks Tess. Kai will be sticking around me a lot and I'll feel much safer for now, but I know I'll have to get used to them eventually since I'm being targeted by them..."

"But he said he'll bring you to his jobs! Aren't you at least aftaid of it?"

"Well, I can't lie and say that I'm not, but I actually have been to one of his consultations before and it's not that bad." Irene reassures, smiling weakly at Theresa. "I'm sure if Kai knew that it wasn't safe, he wouldn't have let me stay there for his consultation with one of our seniors. If he feels it'll be too dangerous for me, he'll definitely send me to a safe place."

Even though Theresa still looks apprehensive, she accepts the decision. Having been Kai's classmate since their freshman year in university, she knows that Kai cares for living beings despite being quite cynical at times, evident by the way he would carry around cat food to feed strays or how much he cares about the plants he has in his room. "... Alright, but if Kai does anything to even leave a scratch on you, you better tell me and I'll personally fight him."

Irene laughs, the image of a 153-centimetre (5'0) Theresa tackling a 188-centimetre (6'2) Kai. She knows Kai can easily run away or overpower Theresa but she has a feeling he'd entertain her and let her get a few hits in. "Thanks Tess, I'll keep that in mind. You should go back now, you said you have an assignment due tomorrow, right?"

"Ah, yeah... I should head back..." Theresa mumbles but looks up at Irene. "You promise you'll be fine?"

"I promise."

Theresa goes home soon after, leaving Irene alone in her locked room. All throughout the night, she notices the silhouette of the pocong and the occasional thuds, but she's learnt how to deal with them, eventually being able to sleep after much effort.