Closets Are For Ghosts And Gays | Chanbaek, Chansoo

No Body, No Crime

Chanyeol wasn't going to find any answers in his own neighborhood, that much was clear. His neighbors weren't going to give him anything and Baekhyun wouldn't tell the truth any time soon, especially not after pissing him off multiple times. He didn't need the ghost catching him snooping anyway, so he thought to look somewhere else - the graveyard.

Maybe the records of his death were brushed under the rug, but his grave had to be somewhere nearby. After all, he died in his house, so of course his friends or family would bury him near the place he seemed to love most. Perhaps his grave could give some indication as to how he died, and if not, at least he'd know someone out there cared enough to bury him and knew what happened.

He left his house early in the morning, around the time Baekhyun retracted into his closet to relax. The sun hardly peeked over the horizon when he threw a jacket on and slipped into his rain boots to hike through the muddy terrain of the graveyard. A cold fog from last night's rain hung over the ground, making it hard to read the inscriptions on each stone slab. One by one, he knelt down and held a lantern up to each one. Plenty of names old and new, but no Baekhyun.

"Hey."

As soon as that deep, guttural voice called out to him, he nearly threw his lantern in surprise and bolted towards the mausoleum. Through the thick fog, he saw the silhouette of a man creeping towards him with a limp and a lantern much larger than his own dangling in one hand.

Chanyeol slowed, recognizing the man by his irregular gait. "Mr. Suho?"

"Chanyeol." He emerged from the fog, holding his lantern up to see the boy's face clearly. "What are you doing out here this early in the morning?"

"Mr. Suho, I'm glad I ran into you. You know pretty much every name on these tombstones, don't you?"

The old man shrugged with a sigh. "You start memorizing a lot of them when you work here for about forty years."

"Great. I'm looking for the burial place of a guy named Byun Baekhyun. Sound familiar?"
Mr. Suho's eyes drifted over the graves beside them. It took him an incredibly long time to answer, making for a very awkward silence. Chanyeol eventually cleared his throat, pulling the man back to reality. "So...?"

"There's no Byun Baekhyun here."

His shoulders dropped. "What? You mean no one by that name is buried here? That can't be right."

"Sorry, but I haven't seen that name anywhere." He started back the way he came, but Chanyeol grabbed his elbow to stop him.

"Wait. You mean you don't know anything about the man that died in my house? Mr. Kim and Ms. Bae know, but they won't tell me anything. You had to have been there too, right?"
Mr. Suho stared blankly at him for a second, before blinking towards the graves again. "I know who he is and I know what happened. But, I'm telling you he's not buried here, Chanyeol."

"Where was he buried then?"

"He wasn't." Mr. Suho left it at that. He tipped his hat to Chanyeol, then went back to the mausoleum to sweep the dusty floors.

👻👻👻

"Guys! Guys!" Chanyeol shouted as he barged into the library after school to find his friends flipping through history books. Their heads shot up at the sound of his voice, as did the librarian's when she quickly shushed him.

"I have information on Baekhyun." He whispered.

"What'd you find?"
"Okay, I was in the graveyard this morning and ran into Mr. Suho. I asked him if anyone named Byun Baekhyun was buried there, and he said no. However, he knew who Baekhyun was and said that he was never buried at all."