Happy Holidays~~! I apologize for the really late update! I FINALLY have Winter Break-meaning that I literally just got out of school. ノಠ_ಠノ I would like to take the time to thank everyone who read, reviewed, favorite(d), and followed this story! Thank you for encouraging me to continue on with story! *hugs you all* ⊂((・▽・))⊃ With that being said, here are some responses to your reviews!
Guest: Thank you so much! ´･ᴗ･`
Para-DX: Hello and I'm sorry that this isn't a reference to Nanana's Buried Treasure! I looked it up and I can see how you would think it was; this story and Nanana's Buried Treasure seem really similar! Wait no longer, here's the new chapter! （＾ｖ＾）
Queen of Hearts and Spades: No, this wasn't intended for Halloween, but thank you for your compliment! (๑•́ω•̀)
Sugar Spice Rush: Thank you for your review! Ah, haha...I figured that college life must be extremely hectic on top with juggling a job, so Shun must have very little time to take care of himself. Alice is going to "show up" in this chapter, so wait no longer! （●＞ω＜●）
FabiaOkamiVentus: Thank you so much! (=^_^=)
InnocentDiamond: Oh really? That's a lot of sources, and I thought that I used too many! You got me there! Don't worry about the credit card going into the wrong "hands"...just read and find out! o(^▽^)o
cherry-tree-of-life: Haha, I personally think that Shun is top concerned about college that he doesn't care much about the ghost occupying his apartment. Aw, thank you! You're the first person to mention that the blanket-tucking gesture was cute! (*≧∀≦*) Hmm...let's see if your thoughts of Alice not knowing how she died true or not... (*ゝω・)ﾉ
Chapter 2: The "Friendly" Ghost
A small hum escaped the once pale pink lips of a nineteen year old girl as she tucked a strand of her once orange hair behind her ear. The girl supposed that if anybody were to walk into the apartment right now, it would either be the most terrifying or most magical thing they'd ever saw. She laughed at that thought. People screaming in shock as thin air folded a black muscle tee as well as other clothing items. The girl finished up the last of the clothes as she began concentrating on the clothes, willing them into the open drawer in their respectful places before closing the drawer.
She sighed at her completed work. "Well, that's one chore down. I really do hope he takes better care of himself next time. Why, it might have been quite a while since I was alive, but I certainly wasn't like this!"
Alice Gehabich was a nineteen year old college student who studied abroad from Russia to Wardington, Japan. It had hardly been a year since she arrived to the bustling city of Wardington when she was murdered. Thinking back about to the events before her death, all she knew was that it had been a relatively normal day, until it wasn't. All she remembered before realizing that she was dead was feeling impossibly sleepy and when she woke the next day, she had transformed into a ghost, her body sprawled over on the kitchen floor with multiple stab wounds and police hovering over her body. Ever since that fateful day, she vowed to find out her murderer. But, she found a problem: she could never leave the apartment. Her soul wasn't at rest because she was longing to know how and why she died, thus, her inability to leave the apartment. So, she found another solution; befriend the new tenants so that they could help her find out how she died. Unfortunately for the Russian girl, her idea of being friendly wasn't so 'friendly' to her tenants.
Her first tenant, a middle-aged man with an alcohol addiction, stayed in her apartment the second year after her death. Alice knew that the man only rented the apartment because it was dirt cheap and he could hardly make money; all of the money he would make would then be completely wasted by alcohol. For the first month, the Russian girl couldn't think of ways to befriend him, because if the alcohol addiction wasn't bad enough, he was an animal abuser. He had an adorable Rottweiler who Alice loved immediately when she first saw it, yet due to his alcoholism and wasteful spending, the poor dog became malnourished as well as abused due to its' owner's drunken state. With a heavy heart, Alice tried her best to scare off the owner, so that's where the screaming-at-exactly-eight-twenty-six-in-the-morning-rumor came to be. Alice would scream at exactly 8:26 A.M., since it was the usual time the tenant would drink. It took approximately a week for the tenant to be afraid of the ghost in his apartment, causing him to flee. As for the dog, the tenant was so afraid of her that he forgot to bring his dog with him, so when the now-former-landlord found the dog, he took it in.
About five years after her first tenant and eight years after her death, Alice had her second tenant, who was a poor culinary major student who had hopes of becoming a chef cook. The ghost was immediately overjoyed; it was perfect! Before her death, she had quite a talent for cooking and the girl decided that it would be an amazing opportunity for her to find out how she died via cooking for her new tenant. Unfortunately for her, it didn't end well.
About two weeks or so, Alice found a chance to cook for her tenant, when the Russian girl supposed that he was off to school. Alice concentrated on the variety of knives her tenant owned, willing them to slice and dice the assortment of vegetables that the culinary student had in his refrigerator; ghosts were unable to touch objects, but instead, they were able to control objects with their minds. Because of her concentration, Alice didn't hear the door to the apartment open and her tenant coming into the kitchen until she heard screams. She immediately faced towards the direction of the screams, the knives now in mid-air. Out of fear, Alice had lost her chance as well as a tenant, and earned a new rumor about the ghost of apartment 86.
Time continued to pass and with it, new rumors about the "haunted" apartment began to form. At first, Alice would be so distraught over those rumors. She wasn't an evil ghost who wanted to haunt people! She was just a soul who wanted some answers and of course, none of her attempts would go her way, but she knew that she just had to try if she was going to get any closure. More years would pass with the same results and at that point, she could care less if any new rumors would be fabricated.
That was...until this year.
This year, a college student by the name of Shun Kazami came to live in her apartment and he was unlike any other tenant she ever had. He, of course, had the same reason for living in this apartment like the rest of her previous tenants, but there was something about him that Alice couldn't exactly pinpoint. He kept to himself and hardly seemed to bring any friends over, making the ghost think that he rather be alone than with others-well, either that or he truly was scared of bringing friends over because of her. Hopeful as ever, Alice decided that she would try her luck again with Shun, but she decided to be a bit more cautious this time; she was rather ambitious the other times and they didn't end up well. So, instead of taking action, she decided to just simply observe the college student.
Shun Kazami was like those stereotypical college students. He really did only eat instant noodles besides eating in the campus dining hall (Alice could only hope that was true, as she herself could not confirm that for sure. She overheard the student tell his friend, some boy named Dan Kuso, that he ate instant noodles or the dining hall and told Dan to not tell his grandfather.). The apartment was untidy for nearly weeks at a time, until Shun had enough time to clean. Furthermore, he almost always passed out once reaching the apartment, collapsing on the bed and falling asleep the mere instant his head touched the pillow. Alice would always pull a blanket over him out of pity and the cycle would continue.
That is..until today.
Nearly a month and a half since Shun's grandfather came to visit him, Alice was quick to notice Shun's subtle excitement over a home-cooked meal and she understood. After all, a bowl of instant ramen was nothing over a meal cooked by a family member. And even if Alice hadn't cooked a meal ever since her incident with the culinary major student, it matters not! She was sure that this time would be different. Shun would appreciate a home-cooked meal.
Using the open laptop that was left at home due to the college student being late to class, the ghost ordered groceries on the website that Grandpa Kazami used so long ago, paying for it with the credit card that Shun had hid underneath his mattress a few days after he decided that leaving the credit card out on the counter would be dangerous and deemed that putting the credit card in his wallet would only tempt him to use his grandfather's money. Even if she wasn't born into a generation or era where technology was this advanced, Alice was a rather quick learner and had a good memory, allowing her to remember exactly how the elderly Kazami ordered online. It only took a few mere minutes until the delivery came, a quick ring of the doorbell, the thud of the box of groceries, and footsteps walking off, before Alice allowed herself to open the door and retrieve the groceries.
"Thank goodness for online deliveries! I wish we had that when I was living here." She mused as she floated into the kitchen, the box of groceries floating in mid-air, trailing behind her. She immediately went to work on cooking a few takoyaki balls and omurice. Even after the incident of her culinary tenant, Alice was still able to remember the recipes for the two dishes and finished in a matter of an hour. She glanced up at the clock. 1:27. Since today was Thursday, Shun usually finishes up his Physics class at around 1:25 and it would take him approximately until 1:40 or so until he would reach the apartment. Because his Thursday classes weren't as packed as his other classes, he usually wasn't as exhausted once he came back home.
"Well, here we go!" Alice prep-talked to herself as she concentrated on the dishes of food reaching the dining table with a pack of wooden chopsticks and a plastic spoon and fork floating besides the dishes. "I hope he likes my cooking, even if it is a bit rusty after forty-two years!"
XOXO
"Holy shi-" Shun nearly cussed out loud, staring at the food in front of him. His mouth started to water and he wanted nothing more but to devour the food in front of him. The fragrant small of onions, tempura, and octopus of the takoyaki filled the air and the college student could see the steam rising out of the omurice and as he neared the table, he stopped. How did the food appear here? Who could possibly-?
"The credit card!" He dashed to his room and lifted up his mattress, only to find the credit card the exact same spot that he had placed it. "Who could have done tha-what the fu-" He managed to look around his room to notice that his pile of dirty clothes was gone and were all folded neatly and were placed in his dressing drawer. He was so confused. How the hell and who the hell did this? He knew that he was a relatively poor college student who lived off of the food from the dining hall and instant noodles, but he was sure that his sleep-deprived mind couldn't conjure up real food and a clean apartment.
"Could it be Grandpa?" He wondered aloud as he walked back to his dining table. He immediately shot that idea down. His grandpa had just texted him nearly a week ago, saying that he would be in America for a small vacation for about three weeks ago and at this current time, Grandpa Kazami is in America doing whatever it is he's doing.
"The ghost?" The college student whispered before reluctantly shaking his head. No, no way. He doesn't believe in ghosts and besides, even if the ghost did do this, who's to say that she would want to poison him? He picked up his chopsticks, poking at the takoyaki balls and the omurice. They looked legit. He turned back to his discarded backpack laying on the floor, with the bowls of instant noodles peeking out of the zipper. He decided that he would throw away the appealing meal and just eat the instant noodles that he had just bought.
"I didn't poison the food, if you were wondering." Shun whipped his head around at the voice but he saw no one.
"W-Who's there?" He tried to mask the slight feeling of fear within him with an aggressive tone.
"Please eat it, I worked so hard on it." And with that, a somewhat blurry silhouette of a girl came into view, and even though he couldn't see her facial features all that well, the college student didn't need glasses or a magnifying glass to tell that that was the ghost of Apartment 86.
"Oh my God.." Was the last thing that he remembered mumbling before taking a deep breath and screaming.
XOXO
"Not again! Oh, I'm so stupid! Why did I do that?! What do I do...he fainted!"
End of Chapter 2.
Note: *laughs awkwardly* Ahaha...so? I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS CRINGEY CHAPTER AND SHUN'S OOCNESS AND AHHHHH! PLEASE FORGIVE ME! (ó﹏ò｡) I can't believe it. I'm gone for a month and when I do come back, I come back with this terrible chapter. (つ﹏。) Anyways, cringiness aside, Alice appeared! Yay! But seriously though, I truly apologize for Shun's OOCness. I know that he usually isn't like this, but if you were him and you come back to your apartment to see that it wasn't the way you remembered you left it and a freaking ghost suddenly appeared right in front of your eyes, wouldn't you be freaked out too? Anyways, I'm planning on writing this story in this sort of style, where I alternate the point-of-views, although it would mostly be in Shun's or Alice's point of view. Please review your thoughts, concerns, questions, hopes, dreams, and fears for this story and because I'm on break, I might update my other stories pretty soon! And if I have enough time, maybe there will be a third chapter! ٩(^ᴗ^)۶ Whoo! I'll talk to you soon! Bye~! (￣▽￣)ノ
P.S: I apologize about the almost-cuss-words that Shun nearly said in this chapter, if that offends anyone. I personally think that most college students do use profanities (haha, if you look at today's middle school students and high school students, I'm sure you know what I mean), thus why I implied it in this chapter, but I wouldn't use the full word, since 1) I am terrified if this chapter is going to get taken down because of that and 2) I'm unsure if many readers are sensitive to profanities. So yeah...hope that makes sense. Sort of. Maybe. Hopefully.
*Well then again, this is rated T, so...
P.P.S: I decided to change a few bits of the first chapter; Shun is now a twenty year old sophomore college student and Alice died before she finished her freshman year of college. I realized after publishing the first chapter that the ages were pretty weird; it's a bit weird for a nineteen year old to be finishing up their sophomore year of college, since I was trying to go by the traditionally going-to-college-at-eighteen-thing. I really should've mentioned this first. Oh well. Okay, I'll stop so you can stop reading this extremely long chapter. Bye.