Only next to me (ghost story)

This happened a few years back.

I was living in Hiroshima prefecture and took the Shinkansen to visit my parents. The train from Hiroshima was open seating, so you could sit wherever. Holiday season though, so people kept piling on and eventually EVERY seat was taken. People were standing packed into the aisles.

But the seat next to me? Empty.

Like... every single person standing in that crammed aisle, not one of them sat down next to me. I thought it was weird but what was I gonna do, drag someone over? So I just sat there kind of zoning out.

Then we passed Shin-Osaka station and finally, an older woman sat down next to me. She'd been standing in the aisle up until the stop before.

She sat down and immediately goes, "Are you okay just staying still like that?"

I had no idea what she was talking about. Asked her to explain.

"I mean the person who was sitting next to you. She kept talking to you the whole time and you were just ignoring her. I thought she got upset and got off the train, but you're okay?"

According to this woman, there had been a young girl sitting right next to me the whole ride. Just... looking at me. Talking to me. The woman had assumed she was my girlfriend.

And here's the thing that actually made my stomach drop. Every single person standing in that aisle could see her. That's WHY no one sat down next to me. She was visible to literally everyone.

Except me.

I couldn't see her at all.

I asked the woman, kind of dreading the answer, "What was she saying? Could you make it out?"

She went quiet for a second.

"...Now that you mention it. She was talking pretty loudly. But I couldn't hear a single word."