“So, Mir, you can see ghosts since the beginning? It’s a gift? Not because you are trained to see ghosts?”

“…” Mir nodded.

It was a surreal scene. One girl was sitting on the toilet with her hand crossed in front of her chest. The other party was a ball of pale blue fire that floated in front of her. It had been almost half an hour as they were talking about themselves. Mostly, the ghost was asking and the girl was answering though.

“I see.” The ghost let out a sigh. Whether it was a curse or a gift was depended on the person herself. He already read a lot of materials to understand it. No, rather, he watched a children's movie about a gift that was thought of as a curse by the person who had the gift. And it seemed that the girl in front of it thought that rather than a gift, her ability to see ghosts was more like a curse.

“Have you ever thought to train your ability before? So, you can control it or something like that?” The ghost asked again.

“…” Mir shook her head.

“Oh, why not? You don’t want to control your power?” It asked curiously.

“…secret.” She replied softly.

“Hm? You don’t want to tell me… no. It’s because you kept your ability a secret from everyone? Even your parents, huh? I see. But do you want to train, if you can?”

“…” Mir didn’t immediately reply. She looked at the ghost thoughtfully. Her ability to see ghosts was not a problem. Even without being able to see ghosts, her life wouldn’t change much. After all, she thought that the problem was not the ability, but rather, her personality. And her name. It would be difficult to change her personality. And it would be impossible to change her name as well.

As for the ability to see ghosts, besides the first time she fought back, they didn’t do much to her. Naturally, she never went to a haunted place. There was one haunted place in the city that she passed every day. However, whenever she saw that place, her intuition told her not to come to that place. She would get goosebumps even when she was 100 meters away from that place. She had a feeling that if she entered that place, misfortune would befall her.

So, her ability to see ghosts was not a problem. “…don’t know.”

She replied as such because she didn’t see her ability as a problem. Yet, at the same time, she thought that her ability might be a problem in the future. So, she honestly answered with that line.

“Hm, you don’t know… So, that means, it doesn’t matter whether you train your ability or not, huh? Oh well, if that’s the case, I won’t care about it too!” The ghost laughed.

“…”

“By the way, do you have any hobbies?” The ghosts asked curiously.

Mir shook her head. She didn’t have any hobbies. Usually, she was occupied by the bullying in the school and the ghosts everywhere else, including her house. She once tried a hobby, reading a book, but when she read an emotional part where the string of her heart was tugged hard, countless ghosts appeared and swarmed her. That was why she stopped reading books. Or watched movies. Because those activities would lead to a change in her emotion.

“You don’t have hobbies? Well, that’s good, actually! Hey, Mir, will you help me with one thing?” The ghost asked.

Mir looked at the ghost and tilted her head questioningly.

“You see, I like doing a lot of things. Reading books, watching movies, playing games. Would you help me by doing those things for me? I’ll be right behind you and enjoy it with you!”

“…can’t.” Mir shook her head.

“You can’t? Oh, come on, you definitely can do it! I guarantee, once you start reading this novel I read once, you will cry your heart… ah, I see. It’s because whenever you read or watch something, the ghosts would attack you?”

Mir nodded.

“Well, tell you what? You don’t have to worry about the ghosts anymore! As long as I’m around, I can beat them easily!”

Mir felt like the ghost proudly hit his chest with his hand as he said that. No, that must be her imagination, as the ghost didn’t do anything at all.

“…”

“Come on, I assure you that you don’t have to be worried about it! I guarantee your safety!”

“…nn.” Mir finally nodded, though she was still hesitating a little. However, she was also curious about a lot of things. So, her curiosity won over her cautiousness and she agreed to the ghost.

“Great! Right, you definitely don’t have a game system in your house, right? Let’s start from reading then! I know a bookstore nearby—”

As they were talking excitedly (mostly the ghost did the talking), the bell signaled the end of the school rang. Mir breathed a sigh of relief. After this, she was going home and free from her bullies.

“…ghost.” Mir called.

“Hm? Ghost? Where? I’ll beat them up if they dare to bother you!” The ghost looked around and Mir had a feeling that it would roll its sleeves if it wore clothes.

Mir sighed and pointed at the ghost silently.

“Me? Wait, why you call me Ghost? Didn’t we agree to call me Wonder? Hey, hey, it’s alright to call me Wonder! I’m serious!”

Mir shook her head. “…weird.”

“No, no, it’s not weird at all! It’s… wonderful!”

“…weird.” Once again, she shook her head. And as if she didn’t want to talk about it anymore, she added another word. “…out.”

“Hm? What do you mean by out? Oh, you want me to get out? Why?” The ghost asked.

“…” Mir thought hard. She didn’t want to explain, but it would be hard to ask the ghost to get out if she didn’t explain. Just as she wanted to explain why the ghost had to get out, there was a sound of the door was opened. And the door was opened. With five girls in front of the door, smirking at the soaked Mir.

“…” Mir looked at the other girls who smirked at her. The girl who stood in the middle, the leader of the gang of girls, took a step forward.

“Ms. Reiner told me that you don’t have the chance to take any make-up test again.” She said with a hint of joy in her voice.

Mir sighed inwardly, but she didn’t show it outside. She just silently stared at the other girls. There was one thing that Mir didn’t mention. The reason why she was bullied was not only because of her name. There was another reason for her bullying. And that was because Mir was blessed with a lot of things.

It was a description usually used to describe a perfect person in a comic, a novel, a movie, or any story. Mir was blessed not only with beauty, but also the brain. She was the best in the school for all subjects but sports. Well, she was one of the best, because two others had almost similar scores to her. As for her beauty, even though she couldn’t be called as beautiful as an angel, there were many boys attracted by her cute face and small stature. The boys said that Mir had an aura that made them want to protect her. Not that anyone protected her from the bullies though...

Naturally, this combination was enough to make the other girls felt jealousy toward her. And so, they started bullying her.

“She also said that you shouldn’t ditch more of her class.” The leader said joyfully. The others were laughing as the leader said that.

“…” Mir kept her silence. She silently stared at the leader.

“What? You want to say something?” The leader took another step forward. Right now, the distance between them was less than a step away. The leader pushed Mir’s shoulder roughly, causing Mir to almost fall as her legs hit the toilet. That scene caused the others to laugh uproariously again.

“Hey.” The leader glanced at one of the girls behind her. “Scissors.”

“Here, Ririana.” The girl dutifully gave the scissors to the leader with a smirk. With a similar smirk, the leader, Ririana, took a step forward one more time and grabbed Mir’s hair roughly. The scissors in Rirana's hand moved slowly towards Mir as she glared silently at Ririana.

“…” Mir didn’t say anything. However, the same couldn’t be said to the ghost behind her.

“Hey, hey, hey! Are you serious!? They are going to cut your hair! Hair is something like a crown for a girl, right? A national treasure! Why don’t you fight back?” The ghost yelled angrily. However, Mir didn’t reply at all.

“Come on, I know you don’t want your hair to be cut too! If you don’t like something, just say you don’t like it!” The ghost was trying to encourage Mir. However, Mir didn’t say anything, just like usual.

As the scissors came closer to Mir’s hair, the ghost started to lose its patience. “Tsk, it can’t be helped. If you won’t act or say anything, I will act in your place!”

“…don’t.” Mir tried to stop it, but it didn’t listen to her. As for the others, they thought Mir was trying to stop them from cutting her hair, so they laughed even louder.

After the ghost said that, it moved behind the girl. There was a sink and a mirror behind them. As a ghost, normally, it couldn’t interact with a physical object. Yes, normally, it couldn’t do that. However, right now, it was not in normal condition. It was angry. It was angry for Mir.

An angry ghost was pretty different than a normal ghost. Most of the haunted places were haunted by angry ghosts. They had strong negative energy, energy strong enough to cause phenomena to the physical world. At the very least, this kind of energy could move objects easily. This kind of phenomenon was known as Poltergeist.

That was right. The ghost was causing the Poltergeist phenomenon by manipulating its negative energy. The mirror on the wall suddenly fell and broke, causing all the girls to turn around, shocked. The ghost felt that it was not enough, so it caused another object to move. It broke some lamps, and the shards fell to the girls except Mir.

“Aaaaaahhh!!!” The girls screamed in panic. They covered their head with their hands as they ran outside of the toilet. After the girls left, Mir was staring at the ghost.

Its color changed. It was pale blue when it first met Mir. Right now, it changed into pale red. Almost like a burning fire. No, it was a burning fire. However, it was not hot like a fire. It was cold. Cold sweat started pouring out of Mir’s back as she felt the anger of the ghost.

“…ghost.” Mir tried to call it. Unlike before, however, it didn’t respond to Mir. It was floating nearby, like a blazing fireball.

“…ghost.” Mir called it one more time.

This time, it reacted slightly. It flickered a bit and Mir felt like its eyes were on her.

“…thank you.” Mir said.

Hearing her gratitude, the ghost’s color turned back into pale blue. “Hmph! What? You think I lost control of myself just because of a bit of anger? Don’t worry, I’m not like the other ghosts! I can control myself quite finely, thank you.”

“…nn.” Mir nodded. She didn’t know whether she could believe it or not. But for now, she chose to believe it.

“More importantly! Mir, what were you doing? Why didn’t you fight back? I mean, come on, they wanted to cut you bald! Ah! They had cut your hair before I can scare them! Wooah, it’s long… what are you going to do now, Mir?”

Mir let out a sigh. “…salon.”

“Hm? You are going to a salon? Well, I think that is the only choice that you have, huh? But still, Mir, why didn’t you fight back? Seriously, if I were you, I would beat them, or at least, even if you know you would lose, you have to fight back.”

“…can’t.”

“I know you can’t win, but you should at least try, you know?”

Mir shook her head slowly. “…ghosts.”

“Hm? What? Er, wait, ghost…s? Ah, you mean, if you fight back, the ghosts would help them by attacking you? I see, that would be even more dangerous for you, huh?” The ghost floated up and down in understanding.

“Well, that’s in the past! From now on, if some ghosts attack you, I will beat them until they forget how they died for sure! That is why, next time, you should fight back, understand? If not, I will do more than scaring those girls!”

“…let’s go.” Mir didn’t want to reply, so she decisively walked out of the toilet. The ghost raised its voice, calling out to her.

“Hey, don’t leave me behind! Also, listen to me! I’m being serious here! If you don’t fight back, I will do more than scaring them!”

“….nn.” Mir replied perfunctorily.

“Hey, I’m seriouuuusss!!!”

“…nn.”