After rubbing his ear for a moment, Doyeon simply shrugged and continued pedaling.
The road stretched ahead of him, the quiet morning slowly growing busier as more people filled the sidewalks. Cars passed by occasionally, and pedestrians moved along their usual routines.
To anyone else, it would have looked like a perfectly normal street.
But for Doyeon…
It never really was.
As he rode past people, he could see them— ghosts clinging to the living like shadows.
Some sat on people's shoulders with blank expressions.
Some leaned against their backs as if they were exhausted.
Others simply followed behind them silently like lost children.
And some ghosts are actual Childrens. Probably a lost little soul that cannot pass on due to their parents having a sad face.
Doyeon barely reacted.
He had seen things like this for years.
So instead, he just kept pedaling forward like nothing was wrong.
"Man…" he muttered under his breath. "The police station is still far away…" He leaned forward slightly on the handlebars as his legs continued to push the pedals.
"So far… aghhhh…"
He groaned dramatically.
Then—
Something unusual caught his eye.
Among the many ghosts wandering around the street, one stood out.
A girl.
She wore a long white dress that swayed faintly as she moved, and her long black hair hung messily over her shoulders.
But what really caught his attention was the way she was moving.
She looked… panicked.
The ghost girl kept jumping from person to person among the pedestrians, clinging to one shoulder for a moment before quickly leaving and moving to another person, as if desperately searching for someone who could hear her.
From one person.
To the next.
And the next.
Until she finally reached the other side of the street.
Doyeon slowed his bike slightly as he watched her.
Then the ghost suddenly turned.
Her gaze locked directly onto him.
For a split second, Doyeon felt the weight of that stare, the unmistakable sensation of being noticed by something that shouldn't have noticed him at all.
His heart skipped, but his reaction was immediate and almost automatic. He turned his head forward again as if nothing had happened, tightening his grip on the handlebars.
"Nah," he muttered quietly to himself.
He kept pedaling, pretending the road ahead was the only thing that existed. Just a normal street. Just normal people walking along the sidewalks. Nothing strange, nothing supernatural, nothing involving a panicking ghost in a white dress who had just made eye contact with him.
And of course—
BANG!
The front wheel of his bike slammed straight into a short brick barrier near the sidewalk. The sudden impact jerked the handlebars violently, sending Doyeon flying forward as the bike tipped sideways beneath him.
"Wlfhfuhck!"
He hit the ground hard, rolling once before landing awkwardly on his side. Pain shot through his head as he sat up immediately, clutching it with one hand.
"Ouch…"
The sound of the crash drew attention instantly.
Several pedestrians nearby stopped walking, turning toward the scene with surprised expressions. A few people whispered among themselves while others simply stared.
"Whoa, did you see that?"
"He rode straight into the barrier…"
"Is he okay?"
A middle-aged man shook his head slightly. "You should watch where you're going, kid."
Another woman stepped a little closer, looking concerned. "Are you alright?"
Doyeon waved one hand dismissively without even looking at them, still rubbing the back of his head as he winced.
"I'm fine, I'm fine…" he muttered, forcing a casual tone as if nothing serious had happened. "Just… lost focus for a second."
The small crowd lingered for only a moment longer. And once they saw he was able to sit up and talk normally, the curiosity quickly faded.
People shrugged, whispered a few last comments to each other, and then gradually returned to whatever they had been doing before. Footsteps resumed, conversations continued, and within seconds the flow of the street swallowed the moment completely.
Doyeon exhaled slowly and rubbed his head again before finally lifting his gaze.
And then he saw her.
Floating right behind him.
The same ghost girl.
But she wasn't simply standing there.
Her body floated slightly above the ground, leaning forward in an unnatural angle as if gravity meant nothing to her. From where Doyeon sat, her presence loomed directly over him— so close that her head hung just above his own, her long black hair dangling down around his shoulders like a dark curtain.
Now that he was this close, he could see her clearly.
Far more clearly than before.
Her pale face looked hollow and exhausted, framed by strands of messy hair that drifted slowly in the air like its in underwater.
From her eyes flowed thick streams of dark red blood, the tears sliding down her cheeks in trembling trails that never seemed to stop. They gathered along her chin before falling in slow, heavy drops.
One of those drops fell.
Doyeon felt something cold land softly against his cheek.
He froze.
The blood tear slid slowly down the side of his face before disappearing against his skin as if it had never existed at all.
Above him, the ghost girl continued staring down silently, blood still streaming from her eyes as her lips trembled weakly.
"Help…"
Her voice came out barely louder than a breath.
"Help… help… help…"
"Help…" she whispered..
"Help… help… help…."
The words repeated again and again like something stuck in a loop. As she spoke, more bloody tears streamed down her face, her expression twisting into pure desperation.
"Help please…"
Doyeon's entire body went stiff.
His shoulders tightened slightly, and for a moment he simply sat there in silence, staring ahead without moving.
The noise of the street continued around him— footsteps, quiet conversations, the faint rumble of passing cars, but all of it felt strangely distant.
"Yeah," he muttered under his breath.
Slowly, he pushed himself up to his feet.
He didn't look at the ghost again. Not even once.
Instead, he walked over to his fallen bike like a perfectly normal person who had just taken a small accident. He lifted it upright, brushing a bit of dust off the handlebars while inspecting the front wheel carefully.
Around him, people continued walking as if nothing unusual was happening. A couple of pedestrians glanced at him briefly before losing interest again, their attention already drifting back to their phones, their conversations, or the direction they were heading.
Within seconds, the moment had completely dissolved.
To everyone else on the street, it was nothing more than a kid who crashed his bike.
Meanwhile, just a few steps behind him, the ghost girl continued hovering in silence— blood still streaming endlessly from her eyes as she stared at his back, waiting, hoping that this time… someone might finally hear her.