I Returned as a Ghost After Ten Years Chapter 2

Knox and I were high school classmates, but back then, we were absolute mortal enemies.

He was ranked first in our grade. I was ranked second.

Every single exam, I would lose to him by a agonizing margin of just a few points.

I was highly competitive since childhood, always praised as the golden child by everyone's parents. But the moment I entered high school and collided with Knox, I became the eternal runner-up.

It was the greatest humiliation of my life.

So, I made it my mission to battle him in absolutely everything.

That dynamic carried over into college until one day, out of nowhere, he cornered me and asked, "Hazel, do you want a taste of being number one?"

I narrowed my eyes. "How?"

I genuinely thought he was going to share some secret study technique with me.

Who knew he meant the literal taste of it.

But if I'm being completely honest, the taste wasn't bad at all.

From that day on, the world gained another fiercely competitive, enemies-to-lovers couple.

As my mind swam in memories, Knox suddenly stood up, inadvertently raising my field of vision since I was still piggybacking on him.

I have to say, the air up here was pretty nice.

He touched my tombstone. The gesture was as gentle as if he were stroking my hair. His tone was terribly lonely.

"Hazel, are you mad that it took me this long to finally come see you?"

"Hell yeah I am. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would've forgotten you even existed. Where the hell have you been for ten years?" I floated just above his head, resting my hands on my hips.

He let out a self-deprecating laugh and muttered something under his breath.

I didn't catch the whole sentence, just the faint outline of a few words.

"...coming... to join you soon..."

My non-existent heart dropped. I immediately floated down from his head and grabbed his shoulders. "Knox, absolutely not. I might be dead, but you need to live a good, long life for the both of us."

His deep, dark eyes stared straight ahead, looking right through me.

In that split second, I felt my dead heart kickstart back to life. How else could I explain the sudden nervous flutter in my stomach just from his gaze?

I drifted to the side and followed his line of sight. He was just looking at a purple butterfly.

Snapping out of his daze, he started pulling more snacks out of the bag, arranging them in a perfectly neat line in front of my headstone.

"Hazel, even if you're dead, you need to eat well. Don't let yourself go hungry." He patted the cold stone.

I nodded, looking at him with deep approval.

"Good boy. You learned well. These are all my favorites."

"I'm leaving now. I'll come see you again soon."

He smiled, brushing his thumb lovingly over the engraved photo on my stone, and turned to walk away.

I frantically rushed in front of him.

"Hold on, don't leave yet. Explain what you meant about coming to join me!"

But he couldn't see me, and he walked right through my translucent body.

I spun around in absolute panic, wanting to chase him but terrifyingly aware of the rules.

Ever since I died, I had been bound to my grave. The maximum distance I could travel was fifty meters. Whenever new ghosts arrived at the cemetery, I couldn't even go over to gossip with them. I had to wait for them to wander into my zone.

But watching his broad back get further and further away, I stopped caring about the rules.

Whatever. If I get violently yanked back by the invisible tether, so be it.

I braced myself and chased after him.

Fifty meters.

Sixty meters.

Wait.

I was fine!

I floated right next to Knox, suddenly realizing the air around me smelled amazing. Even though I didn't actually need to breathe.

I matched his pace, grinning from ear to ear. "Knox, you really are my lucky charm. You show up one time, and my invisible leash snaps. You're basically a miracle worker."

His walking pace suddenly quickened, and he muttered under his breath, "Why does it feel like there's a freezing draft right next to me?"

I burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.

I couldn't believe it. After all these years, this heavily tattooed badass was still terrified of ghosts.

Whenever we watched horror movies in the past, he would shrink down and hide his face against my chest like a terrified little bird. It always made my protective instincts go into overdrive.