The Gangster Boss in a High Schooler's Body

Find My Body in Kallang River!

Ah Beng walked away from the parade square with unsteady steps. The female teacher was still behind him, coaxing him to the sick bay, but Ah Beng ignored her.

He didn't need help. What he needed were answers. Where was he? Who owned this body? And most importantly, how was he going to get back?

"Get back where?"

The question slammed into his mind out of nowhere. Ah Beng froze in the middle of the footpath connecting the parade square to the school building. His gaze grew distant.

His home—a grand mansion in a wealthy enclave near Joo Chiat with high iron gates and four Dobermans—had surely been seized by Marcus by now. Or maybe burned down. Marcus wouldn't leave a single trace behind.

Ah Beng didn't have a home anymore.

He had nothing.

His stomach still throbbed with pain. As he ran his tongue along his gums, he tasted metal. Blood. From inside his mouth, likely where his teeth had cut into his lip from that punch. Ah Beng spat to the side, a splatter of crimson staining the gravel beneath his feet.

"I need to clean this up."

The blood in his mouth dragged him right back to his final moments in the river. Water and blood—a mixture that made him nauseous.

Ah Beng stepped inside the school building. The corridors were empty since classes had already resumed. Ah Beng couldn't care less. He was looking for a toilet.

Finally, he spotted a door marked "Gents" at the far end of the back hallway, tucked near a sports storehouse that looked rarely used. The place was deserted. Perfect.

The toilet was run-down, featuring cracked floor tiles and a smudged mirror above the sink. He approached the basin and turned on the tap. Water rushed out with a low hiss.

Ah Beng leaned down, splashing cold water over his face. The lingering dirt and grass from the parade square began to wash away. He scrubbed hard at his cheeks, trying to purge every bit of grime.

Yet the taste of blood remained in his mouth. Ah Beng spat into the sink, the red fluid mixing with the continuous stream of tap water.

And right then, like a lightning strike, his entire frame shuddered violently.

Ah Beng felt a massive yank in the pit of his stomach. As if a giant hand had clawed into his soul and yanked it out of this body by force.

He screamed, but no sound escaped Darren’s throat. Instead, Darren’s body went completely limp, his knees gave out, and his head cracked against the rim of the basin before the boy collapsed onto the toilet floor, unmoving.

Ah Beng’s spirit recoiled backward. He drifted in the air for a second before "landing" against the toilet wall. But he felt no pain. He felt nothing at all.

When Ah Beng looked down, he saw himself—or rather, a faint outline of himself. His body was transparent, like a thin wisp of smoke shaped into the figure of a grown man. The dragon ink on his arms looked blurred. The scar across his cheek was barely visible.

"What ... what the hell happened?"

Ah Beng moved his hand, but he couldn't feel the cold tiles beneath his feet. His feet floated a few centimetres above the floor. He tried to reach for the sink, but his hand passed right through it like air.

Ah Beng was a spirit.

He looked at Darren’s body lying on the toilet floor. The secondary school kid was curled on his side, his uniform soaked, his forehead bleeding slightly from the impact. His lips let out a low groan. The whimpering sounded weak, almost imperceptible.

Ah Beng drifted closer. He tried to lift Darren’s body, tried to shake him awake. His hands passed through the boy’s frame like mist. No grip. No contact.

"I'm ... I'm a ghost?" Ah Beng muttered, his voice echoing eerily in the empty toilet. Only he could hear it, or so he thought.

Suddenly, Darren’s body moved. The kid squirmed, then slowly opened his eyes. Darren stared at the toilet ceiling in utter confusion. Then he looked up, and his eyes widened to full circles as he caught sight of the transparent figure hovering in front of him.

"Who the hell are you?!" Darren shrieked, his voice trembling with terror. He scrambled backward, his back slamming against the toilet wall. His hand pointed wildly at Ah Beng.

Ah Beng was caught off guard. "You can see me?"

Darren nodded frantically, his eyes locked onto the transparent apparition. His face was as pale as paper. "I saw you! You just popped out of my body! Like a freaking ghost!"

"Calm down," Ah Beng said, trying to soothe him even though he was panicking himself. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Are you a ghost?" Darren asked, wincing from the bruises on his face.

"Like hell I am! I'm Ah Beng, not a ghost!" Ah Beng snapped, refusing to be called a spirit.

"Then what were you doing inside my body when I was getting jumped? I freaked out because I felt my soul getting yanked, and now we swapped back!" Darren tried to stand up, even though his entire body ached.

"How the hell should I know?"

"Who are you? Where did you die? Don't mess with me! I’m sick of getting bullied, I’m not gonna get bullied by a ghost too!" Darren limped toward the door, trying to get out.

"Wait, hold on! I'm not a ghost!"

"How are you not a ghost? Look in the mirror! I'm solid, you're clear as air! Ow!" Darren winced as blood began running down his jaw again.

Darren turned back to the sink and washed the blood away with water. But suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his chest, his head spun, and he felt as if his soul was being ripped clean from his physical frame.

They swapped places again. Ah Beng crashed back into Darren’s body. He snapped his head to the side.

Darren was utterly terrified. The spirit floated a few centimetres above the ground, staring at Ah Beng with wide, saucer-like eyes.

That was Darren.

The real soul of Darren, which had been cast out of its own body the moment Ah Beng took over.

"Aaaah!!" Darren shrieked as a spirit. His voice echoed strangely in the toilet, like a hollow cry from inside a cave. "I'm out of my body! Am I dead? I'm dead, oh God!"

Ah Beng stared at him in disbelief. "You're not dead, kid!"

"But I'm floating! I can see my own body!" Darren pointed his see-through finger at Ah Beng. "What are you doing in my body! Give it back! Give it back right now!"

"Relax, take it easy!" Ah Beng raised both of Darren’s hands, trying to calm him down. But the gesture only drove Darren deeper into hysteria.

"I don't care! Give it back! I don't wanna die yet, I gotta get back at the bastards who bullied me! Give it back!" Darren wailed, spinning around like a possessed spirit.

Ah Beng let out a heavy sigh. This was way more complicated than he had anticipated. But at least now he knew—the moment he entered the body, the original soul got kicked out. And that soul could see him and speak to him. Like two spirits trading places.

"Alright, listen," Ah Beng said, his tone firm and commanding. "We’ll try it again. I'll get out of your body. But I need to get to the sink first. There's water and blood there. Looks like we swap souls whenever blood and water mix."

Ah Beng walked to the sink. Darren drifted after him as a spirit, floating behind like a terrified transparent balloon.

"What are you gonna do?" Darren asked anxiously.

"I'm getting out. So you can get back into your own body," Ah Beng explained. He turned on the tap, then smeared a bit of blood from his lip into the running water. The moment the blood and water fused—swoosh!

Ah Beng was flung out of Darren’s body like a projectile from a slingshot. He drifted backward, crashing against the wall without a hint of pain, and came to a halt right beside Darren, who had collapsed onto the floor once more, unmoving.

"Hey, kid! Get up!"

Darren groaned again. "When I was a spirit, it didn't hurt at all," he whined.

"Stop complaining, you brat. Follow me!"

"Where to?"

"To the Kallang River. You gotta help me find my body!"

"Hell no, who do you think you are!" Darren winced.

"Listen up, kid! You want me to pay back those bullies for you, right? I'm a gang boss. Taekwondo? Kyokushin? That's child's play. I'll turn you into a fighter! Now, let's go find my body first, move!"

Hearing that Ah Beng was willing to help him get his revenge, Darren reluctantly gave in, following Ah Beng’s lead despite feeling sore and bizarre all over.