Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

The cold hands were almost at her throat as the ghost grinned widely at her. She could feel its cool touch…

"AHHHHH!"

The ghost let out a loud shriek when Jina suddenly grabbed her ear and pulled it hard. Jina twisted it roughly, making the ghost squeal.

"Let me go!" the ghost protested. It was the ghost of a high school girl. It was easy to tell since she was in an uniform.

"Tch!" Jina made a face. "You really need to learn better tactics to scare people."

"Y-you brat!" Yumi yelled in pain. How come ghosts felt pain? She only wanted to scare the kid into helping her but the brat was smiling at her while pulling her ear. Even her nearly headless head was falling off!

"It's a good thing Casper taught me some tricks," Jina said, feeling victorious. "Also, I can touch ghosts and beat them up good!"

She pulled Yumi's ear even harder. 

"Oye oye oye!" Yumi shouted. "Let me go!"

"Why are you here?" Jina demanded.

"I just wanted your help!" the ghost yelled, trying to move her limbs but they were so detached that it was hard to move them. If she tried to move her arms, they kept on falling off.

"Say the magic word," Jina threatened. "Otherwise I'll call my protector and have you thrown out! Good luck trying to survive on your own with the rogue ghosts outside!"

"Aish!" Yumi winced. "Please help me!"

"That's better," Jina said, satisfied with the answer. She let go of the ghost who was looking very angry at the little thug. Jina crossed her legs and leaned on the bedrest to take a good look at the ghost. She guessed that the high schooler must have died recently since she was still a noob to the whole scaring people business.

"So what do you want?" Jina asked.

Yumi sighed and sat down. "I need your help," she said. "I can't move on until I complete my unfinished business."

Just then Casper apparated inside the room. Yumi screamed seeing his bashed in appearance.

"AHHHHHH!" she shrieked. "A GHOST!"

"How rude!" Jina scolded her. "That's my friend! You're hurting his feelings!"

Casper's ears fell at Yumi's mortified expression. The latter was looking at him as if he was some kind of freak which saddened him. He was only stopping by to say hello to the newbie.

"He's scary!" Yumi pointed out in fright.

"As if you're going to attract handsome ghosts," Jina mocked her. "Stop insulting my friend!"

Yumi was staring at the strange little girl who was unfazed by the appearance of two scary ghosts in front of her. She was even calling the scary one her friend! Is she crazy? Yumi wondered.

"Now tell me," Jina ordered, entering into full on investigation mode. Casper stood by her bed, listening carefully. "What is bothering you?"

"I…" Yumi began. "I want to know why I was killed."

"Who killed you?" Jina asked.

"I don't know."

"Do you know why you were killed?"

"I don't know."

"What do you know?"

"Nothing."

There was an awkward silence between them as Jina gaped at the ghost. Did she have amnesia like Casper?

"All I remember is," Yumi continued. "It was very cold."

The memories of that night were flashing in her head as she tried to suppress the shudder in her heart. Never in her entire life could she have imagined that she would die in such a gruesome manner.

Everything was supposed to be perfect for her. She was going to graduate school, get into a college and then get a job. Maybe even get married and have kids someday. She was supposed to die in her eighties while surrounded by her loved ones. Not hacked to death inside a cold and icy cellar at the age of seventeen.

Jina sensed the sadness in the girl's tone. She did not say anything but let the ghost narrate her tale.

"It was a normal day for me," Yumi reminisced. "My friends and I were done with cram school. We took our usual route and were chattering about the fan event we were supposed to attend the next day. Then at the southern intersection, we bid goodbyes before I set off for my house…"

Yumi broke off, unable to go on. The horror she went through was not something she could ever express out loud. Why did this happen to her? Why did he kill her? What was her fault?

"Right in front of my house, someone knocked me out," she whispered. The temperature in the room dropped lower. Jina was shivering and put on more blankets to warm herself up. Even Casper was unusually still as he listened to the young ghost's tale.

"When I woke up, I was in a very cold place," she said. "It was a cold room. And I don't mean a room with a mere AC. No. It was all ice everywhere. The whole place was like a butcher's storage with only ice but no meat. I was terrified but I couldn't move my limbs at all. He paralyzed me with some kind of drug. I could see and feel everything but couldn't move my arms or legs. I couldn't even scream for help. I was completely still."

"Then he came. A man wearing a black mask and a surgeon's coat. He was wearing a plastic covering over his scrubs. He was carrying a set of tools. I was pleading to him with my eyes to let me go but he was only giving me a nonchalant stare. As if my life did not matter to him."

"And then the first jab of pain came," Yumi breathed. "He was cutting deeper into my arm. His knife went in deeper and deeper into my skin. My whole body was in agonizing pain as he tormented me. He was slowly slicing through as if he was cutting steak-"

The rest of her words were cut off as Casper put a hand on her mouth. Yumi was startled by his sudden gesture but he shook his head and glanced at Jina who was now looking genuinely scared. The ghost was not frightening to her; the human was.

Yumi realized her folly and rephrased her words to leave out the gruesome parts.

"Anyway, he killed me," she stated. "And when I woke up as a ghost, I saw that the police were swarming around a construction site to look for my body. They found it and it's in their lab."

Jina cleared her throat and said, "Where were you found?"

"At Hwang Minho's construction site," Yumi said. "That reminds me!"

Something just lit up in her head. The killer did say something before she was completely dead.

"That killer said something about Hwang Minho!" Yumi exclaimed.

"What did he say about my dad?" Jina asked.

"He said, and I quote, 'I will reclaim what's mine, Hwang Minho,'" the ghost replied. 

Jina and Casper looked at each other. 

"Casper, looks like we have a new mystery on our hands," Jina said gleefully. Casper silently nodded in excitement.