Jaokhun woke up Tuesday morning to three things: his alarm screaming at 6:30 AM, a text from Nont asking if he wanted breakfast, and the ghost in the corner of his room staring at him.
"Can you not?" he said to the ghost.
The ghost kept staring.
"Personal space is a thing. Learn about it."
He got ready, put on yesterday's shirt because it was the only professional one he owned, and checked his bank account. Still 47 baht. Still depressing.
The BTS ride to work was worse now that he could see everything. There were spirits everywhere. On the platform. In the train cars. Floating through the ceiling. An elderly ghost woman was sitting in a seat reading a newspaper that didn't exist. A child spirit was playing with invisible toys in the corner. A translucent man in old-fashioned clothes was standing by the door, staring out the window with a sad expression.
Nobody else could see them. A businessman sat down right through the newspaper ghost. A student stood next to the sad man, scrolling through TikTok, completely unaware.
Jaokhun tried not to stare. Tried to act normal. But it was impossible to ignore the fact that he was sharing public transportation with dozens of dead people.
A spirit floated up to his face. Too close. Way too close.
"Back up," Jaokhun muttered.
The spirit tilted its head, curious.
"I said back up. Personal space."
It drifted away slowly, looking offended.
The woman next to him gave him a weird look. Right. He was talking to invisible things. That was his life now.
He arrived at the office at 7:58 AM. Grace was already at her desk, surrounded by cat photos and typing rapidly.
"Good morning!" she said cheerfully. "Ready for your second day?"
"Sure."
"Great! Today you're learning our filing system!" She stood up and gestured toward a door at the back of the office. "Come on! I'll show you the archive room!"
"Archive room?"
"Where we keep all the case files! Manifestation reports, incident documentation, historical records, everything!" Grace walked toward the door. "It's very organized! Mostly!"
That 'mostly' did not sound promising.
She opened the door. Heat blasted out like someone had opened an oven.
"Why is it so hot?" Jaokhun asked.
"No air conditioning! Budget cuts!" Grace walked in cheerfully. "You get used to it!"
The room was small, maybe three meters by four meters, and packed floor to ceiling with filing cabinets, boxes, and loose papers. There was one small window that didn't open. The temperature felt like 35 degrees at least.
"This is hell," Jaokhun said.
"This is the filing room!" Grace corrected. "Very important space! All our documentation lives here!"
Lek floated through the wall, looking curious. The child spirit drifted around the room, examining the boxes with interest.
"Hi Lek!" Grace waved. "We're teaching Jaokhun the filing system!"
Lek waved back shyly, then floated near Somsong's usual spot, apparently waiting for her.
"Okay!" Grace pulled out a folder. "Let me explain our color-coded system! Red folders are urgent cases. Blue folders are standard cases. Yellow folders are historical research. Green folders are practitioner reports. Purple folders are equipment documentation. Orange folders are administrative. Pink folders are... actually I'm not sure what pink is for. I think someone just liked pink."
"That seems straightforward," Jaokhun said.
"It would be! If everyone actually used it!" Grace laughed. "But we're so understaffed and busy that people just grab whatever folder is available and file things wherever there's space. So the color-coding is more like a suggestion than a rule."
"So the system doesn't work."
"The system works in theory! In practice, it's chaos!" Grace opened a filing cabinet. It was stuffed with folders of every color, all mixed together, some upside down. "Your job is to reorganize everything properly! Go through all the files, check the color-coding, re-file them correctly, and update the index!"
"How many files are there?"
"In this room? Maybe eight thousand?"
Jaokhun stared at her. "Eight thousand files."
"Give or take! We've been operating for over 800 years in Bangkok! That's a lot of manifestations!" Grace smiled. "Don't worry! Lek helps! He's very good at finding things!"
The child spirit perked up at his name. "I help! I help!" His voice was high and sweet, with the adorable lisp of a young child. "I find files! I very good!"
"Lek can search through files very quickly," Grace explained. "He can't pick them up or move them, but he can look through everything and point to what you need. Very helpful!"
"I super helpful!" Lek said proudly, floating in a little circle.
"So I'm reorganizing eight thousand files in a room with no air conditioning with the help of a ghost child."
"Yes! Exactly!" Grace beamed. "Oh, and watch out for the gremlin. He likes to knock things over."
"What?"
A chittering sound came from the corner. The microwave gremlin was perched on top of a filing cabinet, its too-many fingers tapping against the metal.
"He comes in here sometimes," Grace said. "Just shoo him away if he bothers you."
"How do I shoo a gremlin?"
"Firmly. With confidence." Grace checked her watch. "Okay! I need to get back to the phones! You'll be fine! Just start with that cabinet!" She pointed at a cabinet that looked like it hadn't been opened in five years. "Good luck!"
She left.
Jaokhun stood in the hot room, surrounded by filing cabinets, watched by a ghost child and a gremlin.
"This is my life now," he said to nobody.
"You talk funny!" Lek said, giggling.
"Thanks, kid."
He opened the first filing cabinet. Files spilled out onto the floor.
"Okay. This is fine. Just pick them up and start organizing."
He knelt down and started gathering files. Red folder containing a blue form about a yellow-priority case. Blue folder containing incident reports that should be in green folders. A pink folder containing what looked like someone's grocery list.
"Why is there a grocery list in here?"
"People forget!" Lek said helpfully, floating upside down. "Sometimes they put wrong papers in wrong place!"
"That's not helpful information, but thanks."
Jaokhun spent the next hour pulling files out, checking their contents, and trying to sort them. The heat was unbearable. Sweat dripped down his back. His shirt was sticking to him.
Lek floated around, occasionally pointing at files. "That one is blue case! That one is red case! That one is... um..." He squinted at a folder. "I don't know! Maybe pink?"
"What year is this from?" Jaokhun held up a file.
Lek drifted closer, reading the faded writing. "Um... nineteen... eighty... two?"
"1982?"
"Yes! Old old old!"
"Why is a file from 1982 mixed in with files from last month?"
"Because nobody organize!" Lek said matter-of-factly. "Everyone too busy! They just put files anywhere!"
The gremlin chittered from its perch. It was watching Jaokhun with interest.
"Don't even think about it," Jaokhun warned.
The gremlin chittered again, louder.
"I'm serious. Don't."
The gremlin launched itself off the filing cabinet, screeched, and landed on a stack of papers. The entire stack exploded outward, scattering across the floor.
"NO!" Jaokhun dove to catch them. He missed. Papers flew everywhere.
The gremlin cackled and ran out of the room.
"I hate that thing," Jaokhun said, lying on the floor surrounded by loose papers.
"Gremlin is naughty!" Lek said, giggling. "Very very naughty!"
"Yeah, I noticed."
Jaokhun spent the next twenty minutes picking up papers, trying to match them to their folders. Half of them had no dates. A quarter had no identifying information. Some were written in old Thai script he could barely read.
"This is impossible," he muttered.
"Not impossible!" Lek said encouragingly. "Just hard hard hard!"
"That's the same thing."
"No! Impossible mean cannot do! Hard mean can do but ow!" Lek demonstrated by making a struggling face.
"That's actually pretty wise for a five-year-old ghost."
"I not five! I seven!" Lek said indignantly.
"Sorry. Seven."
"Actually maybe six. I forget." Lek went back to floating in circles.
At 10:30 AM, Prart appeared in the doorway, carrying a clipboard.
"You're doing it wrong," he said immediately.
"I haven't even done anything yet."
"You're sorting by color first. You should sort by year first, then by case type, THEN by color. That's the proper procedure according to the 2012 filing manual revision." Prart flipped through papers on his clipboard. "Page forty-seven, section 3.2, subsection B."
"Nobody told me that."
"I'm telling you now. Also, you're supposed to wear gloves when handling files older than ten years. Preservation protocol. Page seventy-three." Prart adjusted his glasses. "And you need to log every file you touch in the archive access registry. Page fifteen."
"There's a registry?"
"Of course there's a registry. How else would we track who accessed which files?" Prart looked at him like he was stupid. "It's on Grace's desk. You need to sign in and out every time you enter this room."
"Grace didn't mention that."
"Grace doesn't follow proper procedures. That's why I write down when rules get broken." Prart made a note on his clipboard. "I'm writing down that you didn't sign the registry."
"I didn't know about the registry."
"Ignorance doesn't excuse protocol violations." Prart made another note. "I'm also writing down that you're not wearing gloves."
"I don't have gloves."
"Supply closet. Third shelf. Box labeled 'archive handling equipment.'" Prart turned to leave. "Follow proper procedures, please. The system only works if everyone follows the rules."
He left.
"He's fun at parties, I bet," Jaokhun said.
"Mister Prart is very very smart!" Lek said. "But he talks too much about rules."
"You got that right."
Jaokhun went to the supply closet, found the gloves, and went back to the filing room. He was hungry. Thirsty. Covered in sweat. And he'd barely made progress on one filing cabinet.
At 12:30, Somsong appeared with a bowl of instant noodles.
"Lunch time, dear!" She handed him the bowl. "You look exhausted. Come eat in the break room where there's air conditioning."
"Thank god."
He followed her out of the heat, sat at the break room table, and ate the noodles like they were the best thing he'd ever tasted. Lek floated next to Somsong, humming happily.
"How's the filing going?" Somsong asked.
"Terrible. There's no system. Everything is mixed together. The gremlin attacked me."
"Oh, he does that. He thinks it's funny." Somsong smiled warmly. "Don't take it personally. He's just playful."
"He's a menace."
"That too." She patted his shoulder. "You're doing fine, dear. Just do your best. Nobody expects you to finish quickly."
"How long did the last person take to organize the files?"
"We haven't organized them in... oh, maybe six years?"
Jaokhun stopped mid-bite. "Six years?"
"We've been too short-staffed! Everyone's busy with active cases!" Somsong said this cheerfully. "That's why we're so happy you're here! We finally have someone who can focus on archives!"
"This is my entire job for six months?"
"Probably! Along with training sessions and occasionally helping Grace with intake documentation!" Somsong pulled out her knitting. "Very important work! The archive is the foundation of everything!"
"The foundation is on fire and falling apart."
"That's why we need you!" She smiled. "You're going to do great!"
At 1:00 PM, the phone rang. Grace's voice came over the intercom. "Jaokhun? Can you come to reception? We have an intake call to process!"
Jaokhun walked to Grace's desk. She had her phone on speaker.
"Yes, sir, I understand you're seeing things," Grace was saying in her most professional voice. "Can you describe what you're seeing?"
"Shadows! In my apartment! They're moving! Watching me!" The man on the phone sounded panicked. "I hear voices! They're talking about me!"
"When did this start?" Grace asked, typing notes.
"Three days ago! Maybe four! I don't know! I can't sleep! Every time I close my eyes, they're there!"
Grace looked at Jaokhun and mouthed: "False alarm."
"Sir," Grace said gently, "how much sleep have you gotten in the last three days?"
"I don't know! Maybe... four hours? Total?"
"And have you been taking any medication? Drinking coffee?"
"I've been drinking a lot of coffee. To stay awake. So they can't get me while I'm sleeping."
Grace made a note. "Sir, I think you might be experiencing sleep deprivation hallucinations. This is very common. The shadows and voices are not supernatural. Your brain is just very tired."
"But they're real! I see them!"
"Your brain is making you see them because it needs sleep. I recommend you speak with a doctor, take something to help you sleep, and rest. I promise the shadows will go away."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm very sure. This happens all the time. You're not haunted. You're just exhausted." Grace's voice was kind. "Please get some rest, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you."
"Take care!" Grace hung up. She looked at Jaokhun. "See? That's what we deal with. Ninety-five percent of calls are like that. Sleep deprivation. Mental health issues. Carbon monoxide poisoning making people see things. Regular explanations."
"How do you tell the difference?"
"Experience! After a while, you can tell which ones are real supernatural events and which ones are human stuff." Grace pulled up a form on her computer. "Real manifestations have specific markers. Temperature drops. Multiple witnesses. Physical evidence. Consistent entity behavior. That guy just needed sleep."
"What if you're wrong?"
"I've only been wrong twice in four years! Once it was a very quiet ghost that was easy to miss. The other time it was a Krasue pretending to be a regular person." Grace shrugged. "But mostly I'm right! I have a system!"
"What's the system?"
"Vibes." Grace said this confidently. "I can feel when something is real supernatural versus regular human problems. It's intuition!"
"That doesn't sound scientific."
"It's very scientific! I have a ninety-three percent accuracy rate!" Grace smiled. "Now go back to filing! You have seven thousand nine hundred files to go!"
Jaokhun trudged back to the hot filing room. Lek was waiting, floating near the door.
"You back!" Lek said happily. "I guard the files while you gone!"
"Thanks, buddy."
"The gremlin try to come back but I tell him no! Very stern!" Lek puffed up his chest. "I say 'no mister gremlin! These are important files!' and he run away!"
"Good job."
"I very brave!" Lek did a little flip in the air.
Jaokhun went back to sorting. He pulled out another drawer. More mixed folders. More chaos. A blue folder contained red-priority incident reports from 1997. A green folder contained someone's birthday party invitation from 2003.
"Why is there a birthday invitation in here?" Jaokhun held it up.
Lek floated over to look. "Oh! That Mister Pradit party! Very old!"
"This is from 2003."
"He not have many parties," Lek said seriously. "Maybe he keep as memory?"
"It's filed with manifestation reports."
"Everybody make mistakes!" Lek said cheerfully.
By 3:00 PM, Jaokhun had made a dent in the first filing cabinet. His brain hurt from reading poorly handwritten reports about entities he'd never heard of.
He was pulling at a heavy file from 1997, wedged deep in the drawer, when his hand brushed against something that had fallen behind the drawer itself. It had no label.
"What's this?" he muttered.
Lek floated over. "That's a secret paper! A very secret, dusty paper!"
Jaokhun pulled it out. It was a yellow folder, so old the edges were crumbling. He opened it.
On the first page was a faded ID photo of a much younger, much less tired Agent Pradit, stapled to a form.
File Title: "PRADIT - FIELD AGENT APTITUDE ASSESSMENT - 2003."
Jaokhun's heart hammered. This wasn't a standard manual. This was an agent's personal file. He looked around…the gremlin was sleeping, and Lek was playing with his imaginary toy.
He quickly flipped through. There was the official scoring rubric, a stapled copy of the 2003 Field Agent Physical Training Guide, and tucked in the back, Pradit's own handwritten notes on 7-Eleven napkins, stuffed into the folder. His eyes scanned the main rubric. It was all there, the official minimums for passing: 2km run: 12:00. 10 pull-ups. 30 push-ups. Obstacle course: 3:30."
One napkin said: "Obstacle course is a joke, just don't trip. Real test is the entity. Don't engage, just document. They're grading your paperwork, not your courage."
Another said: "2km run = 11:30. Good enough. Focus on pull-ups. They care about pull-ups."
This was gold. Absolute gold! This wasn't a manual, it was an answer key.
"Lek," Jaokhun said, his voice low. "Can you keep a secret?"
"I very good at secrets!" Lek whispered loudly. "What secret?"
"This file. Let's not tell anyone I found it."
"Why?"
"Because I want to surprise everyone when I pass the assessment."
"Oh! Surprise!" Lek clapped his little hands. "I like surprises! Okay, I not tell nobody!"
Jaokhun waited until Lek floated away, then quickly laid the file's contents on a clear patch of floor. His hands shaking slightly, he pulled out his phone and took rapid, clear photos of the rubric, Pradit's notes, and every single page of the training guide. He then carefully placed everything back in the folder and hid it behind the drawer, exactly as he'd found it.
By 5:00 PM, he'd managed to completely reorganize a single drawer. Out of twenty. In one cabinet. Out of fifty. Properly sorted. Correctly color-coded. Everything logged in the registry like Prart wanted.
His shirt was soaked through with sweat. His hands were filthy. His back was screaming. But he had what he needed.
He washed his hands in the bathroom, avoiding eye contact with the talkative bathroom ghost Grace had warned him about, and headed toward the door.
Grace waved goodbye. "Good work today! See you tomorrow!"
"Yeah. See you."
He walked down the stairs, out into the street. Spirits everywhere. On the sidewalk. In the shops. Floating past. He was starting to get used to it. Barely.
On the BTS ride home, he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the photos. Training schedules. Workout progressions. Tips for improving pull-up strength.
Six months. He could do this. He had the roadmap now.
50,000 baht per month. New sneakers. Designer clothes. Never filing papers in a hot room again.
He just needed to follow the plan.