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In a turn of events no one expected, Kim Soleum is blasted in the face with a purple gas. The teenager in front of him gapes. “I didn’t mean to,” she says, dropping the gun. Purple smoke curls out of the barrel and disappears into the air, fleeting.
“You didn’t mean to,” he echoes, unsure how to defend against this blatant misinterpretation of reality.
She nods vigorously.
He feels faint.
“…What does this do?” he manages to choke out. Then the world turn black and he faints.
Thank god they’re out of the Disaster.
Kim Soleum wakes up in a hospital bed to peeled apples waiting for him. The deja vu hits him so hard he reels for a moment, wondering if he’s perhaps travelled back in time but no, because Choi stares down at him, unimpressed as he pops an apple slice into his mouth. “Grapes-ie,” he starts. “Next time you faint, you can call for help.”
Ryu Jaekwan waves a phone from the side.
“Text,” Choi continues. “An emoji. A letter. A voice mail if you’re feeling fancy.”
“What,” Kim Soleum asks, voice strained, “happened to the teenager?”
“Memory alterations,”Ryu Jaekwan informs helpfully. “Don’t worry, she’s safe. We’re worried about you now.” Choi has resumed cutting the apple into even smaller pieces.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Kim Soleum says. “It’s not worth it.” Dead silence falls in the hospital room. Agent Choi's apple cutting fumbles, stuttering to a stop.
“I didn’t mean to say that," he adds. "Was the gas a truth stimulant?” He should have known; it was a often featured in fan fiction of Darkness Exploration Records — compulsion, an inability to lie — it had all the features of a great fan fiction trope. He hadn’t expected a random teenager to have it though.
Agent Bronze has frozen midair, phone dangling from his fingers. The silence stretches horribly, like over-chewed gum. Flavourless and hard to stretch. Agent Choi’s face has turned carefully neutral, which is terrible, and Agent Bronze looks quietly devastated, which is also terrible.
Across from him, another agent shifts uncomfortably in their own hospital bed.
Everything is fine, except for the part where it’s not, and Kim Soleum is wheeled to the Hyeonmu-1 waiting room in dead silence. Or, it would be, if not for the fact that the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau is always busy.
The impenetrable wall of silence that surrounds Hyeonmu-1 is penetrated by the cheerful whistling of another agent passing by. “All good there, Agent Grapes?”
Everything’s fine. “No.”
The agent, otherwise Agent Coat, stares back, a bit lost. She looks to the two figures standing behind his wheelchair, then back to him. “Uh,” she says. “Do you need help?”
Kim Soleum is under a truth gas. He cannot be held accountable for what he says, except for the fact that what he says is what his honest thoughts are. “I don’t think you can help me,” he says. “I don’t think anyone can.”
The wheelchair creaks under the force of Agent Bronze’s grip strength. Agent Coat begins picking at the loose threads of her uniform. “What do you need help with? I’m sure your sunbaes —”
“I don’t want to keep talking.” Then, before his mouth can begin to answer the questions, he keeps rambling. “The sky was a shade of grey today, I think it’ll rain soon. Help? I need help with a lot of things. I’m sure my sunbaes can help with certain things.” There. He just needs to answer the question directly, and the compulsion to keep talking will vanish. It's just difficult to answer so vaguely, requiring every ounce of his willpower to do so.
“I’m sure our hoobae wants to get back to the waiting room,” Agent Choi says cheerfully. “His sunbaes can help him with anything he wants, there.”
“Right,” Agent Bronze says.
“Right,” Agent Coat echoes.
“I want your help so much sometimes it scares me I’ll ask for it,” Kim Soleum blurts out.
Back in the Hyeonmu-1 waiting room Kim Soleum sits in the wheelchair (that he doesn’t need) while facing his sunbaes.
“We’re glad to have you here,” Agent Bronze begins. “With us. In Hyeonmu-1.”
Agent Choi’s approach is slightly different. “Bronze-ah,” he says. “Can I talk to Soleum-ah in private? Just for a little bit.”
Agent Bronze hesitates. “Actually,” he says. “There’s something that you don’t know.”
“Oh. Well. There’s something you don’t know as well.”
They both turn to him beseechingly. Kim Soleum has a pretty good idea of what Agent Bronze is talking about: his background at Daydream. He has not the faintest idea what Agent Choi is talking about, though.
“…”
“…”
Agent Choi says, “Actually, let’s talk about what happened earlier.”
“In the hospital room,” Agent Bronze agrees, seemingly relieved. He clears his throat and turns back to Kim Soleum. “We weren’t aware that you felt this way,” he says. “But we can help you.”
“With anything.” The way Agent Choi’s voice dips on ‘anything’ makes Kim Soleum feel like Agent Choi knows he’s a spy.
Agent Bronze asks, “How do you feel?”
A direct question. “I want to go to the contamination labs. Terrible. Isn’t there an antidote?” By Agent Bronze and Agent Choi’s unimpressed looks, the way he slipped his answer in the middle wasn’t missed.
“You’re —” Agent Choi clears his throat. “You’re really. You fit here. Soleum-ah, won’t you stay? Even if there’s a massive secret, if you tell us, we can help you. Really.”
Agent Choi definitely knows he’s a spy.
“I can’t stay,” he says. It’s unfair, really, how his biggest secret is torn away from him like this. “I’ll die if I stay.” He hadn’t known he would until he said it, but that’s it, huh? He really will die if he stays in this world full of ghost stories and danger and contamination.
“We can protect you,” Agent Choi reassures him. “We just need to know how deep you’re in — but we can help. We will help.”
Agent Bronze says, “I know it’s difficult for you, but you’re safe now.”
“Yeah — what Jaekwan-ie said. You just need to confess to everything.”
“Agent Grapes has been a model agent so far, the Bureau will overlook your past.”
A pause.
“Ah,” Agent Choi says knowingly. “Yeah. Your past.” Agent Bronze casts a confused stare at Agent Choi’s confused voice.
Kim Soleum can’t do this. “I’m a spy for Daydream,” he tells Ryu Jaekwan. To Choi, he says, “You cannot help me in any way that matters. I wouldn’t let you.”