Chapter Text
"Okay," Choi said. "We'll wait for an hour, but if we hear nothing in that time…" He didn't finish his sentence, but the message was clear. If they heard nothing from Bronze in an hour, they would be booking it over.
Soleum wasn't sure about the decision himself, despite having been the one to suggest it. But then again, what difference could a sole hour possibly make, right? He tried to ignore the horrible feeling of anxiety pooling in his stomach.
Things might have been fine if the hour was all that it was, but then that hour somehow managed to stretch itself into an entire day. Soleum hadn't exactly been expecting them to end up getting dispatched into a Disaster within the one hour they had chosen to wait for anything from Bronze.
Choi looked like he wanted nothing more than to shove the dispatch onto one of the other teams, but he grit his teeth and told Soleum that they'd clear it as soon as they possibly could. It wouldn't be the first time Soleum had sped through a Disaster, and likely wouldn't be the last, either.
…Still, despite him putting his knowledge to use, it took them an entire day to get back out. It wasn't like there was a way to perfectly control the environment within a Disaster, anyway, so he wished he could have said he was surprised.
The first thing Choi did when they got into an area with reception was check his phone. His jaw was clenched so tight that Soleum could just about imagine his teeth cracking under the pressure. He could just about imagine why, so despite his better judgment telling him he probably didn't want to look, he checked his own phone.
"Nothing?" he asked Choi.
"Nothing," Choi confirmed, voice tight. His expression, other than the clenching of his jaw, didn't portray much emotion but Soleum could practically feel the amount of turmoil he was feeling. "Come on."
Choi seemed to have the way to Bronze's place engraved into his skin, the way he expertly led them there. He did have an exceptional memory, it seemed, so it wasn't exactly surprising. Before he knew it, they were standing before an unfamiliar door, Choi hesitating with his hand on the doorknob.
"We should go in," Soleum gently urged. Choi already looked pale, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Soleum was sure he looked no better.
"Right. You're right." He only hesitated for half of a second longer before finally opening the door. Door's unlocked? That wasn't something Bronze would do. Soleum was already regretting his insistence on waiting to an even greater degree than he'd been before.
The apartment was dark, so it took Soleum a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light as the door closed behind him.
[Oh, this doesn't seem good, does it, Friend?] Despite his words, Braun seemed nothing short of amused with the situation. That fact, alone, sent more shivers up Soleum's spine.
It was quiet. Too quiet. Granted, it was just one person who lived here, one person who very well could have been asleep, but it still felt too quiet. Like there was no one living inside at all.
Choi wasted little time moving further into the apartment, disregarding the flowers he was trampling over. It took Soleum a moment to kick into gear as well, jogging lightly to catch back up with Choi's long strides as they moved towards a room further in the apartment.
Choi threw one of the doors open and froze in the doorway. Soleum almost ran into him, forcing himself to a halt right before he did so.
Is he shaking?
Suddenly, Soleum felt like he was going to throw up.
"Oh, God." Choi finally seemed to manage to wrench himself from the doorway, quickly crossing the room and allowing Soleum entrance as well. He stood there for a moment in a daze as Choi dropped to his knees beside the bed and began uncovering the mess of flowers. "Wake up, Bronze-ie. This isn't funny."
Soleum remembered he existed at that moment, throat burning with bile as he cautiously made his way over just as Choi managed to uncover Bronze's face. The agent was as pale as a sheet, so much so that it made Soleum feel cold. The expression on his face was peaceful, a stark contrast to Choi's panic-stricken one. Tauntingly peaceful.
Choi pulled back the covers. There was no movement, no rise or fall of his chest. He grabbed one of Bronze's hands, pressing two of his fingers to the wrist and waiting for a moment. "No. No, no no no no–" He moved his fingers to Bronze's neck, pressing in various places and clearly searching for something, like the results would be any better, any different.
Soleum watched. He watched, frozen in place, blood running cold as Choi looked for any sign of life. It was all he could bring himself to do. Agent Bronze, dead? It didn't make sense in his head. That wasn't something that was supposed to happen.
Choi laughed, a weak and hysterical thing. Mirthless. It sounded more like he was trying to deny the truth of the situation. "Bronze, this really isn't funny," he said shakily, smiling despite sounding like he was going to cry at any moment. "I don't like this. You have to wake up, Bronze, you can't–"
"You can't leave me like this."
Choi seemed to remember that Soleum existed at that moment, head whipping around to face him. "Grapes-ie, we need to call an ambulance. We need to–"
"Agent," Soleum said shakily, interrupting the older agent in the middle of his sentence. "We can't."
Choi froze. "What do you mean we can't? He needs–"
"He's gone." It was then that Soleum noticed that he must have been shaking. His whole body felt tense. It felt achy, too, though he wasn't sure if that was from the Disaster they'd come from or from the current situation. His eyes burned. Tears? "We can't help him, Agent."
"Can't help…" It was said barely above a whisper, the words spoken like they were unfamiliar on his tongue. Soleum almost couldn't hear it at all. Choi slowly turned away from him, eyes wide. He stared at Bronze, blinking rapidly. "I failed him. I– Oh, God, Jaekwan–"
Choi abruptly stood from the floor, pushing past and making way for the door. He entered a separate room, where Soleum could hear him emptying the contents of his stomach. The bathroom, he dimly thought. Not that it really mattered.
Soleum was left alone in that room. He stared at Bronze's cor– Bronze, wondering what he must have been thinking. He must have been lonely. Cold. Soleum wondered if he'd been waiting for them to find him, too weak to call for help. Suddenly, he resented that Choi was occupying the bathroom because he wanted nothing more than to do as the agent was doing right now.
He knew that agents of the Bureau often met horrible fates. But this– It felt wrong. It felt like the wrong way for things to end. If anything, maybe he should have gone saving someone. Maybe he would have lived long enough to retire. Knowing Bronze, he would have been able to do it, too. This was wrong.
Soleum swallowed back bile. He retrieved his phone, typing in a number. Someone needed to come retrieve his body, after all. This wasn't– This wasn't something him and Choi could do. His thumb hesitated above the call button.
He pressed the power button, shutting the phone off. Instead, he approached the bed and kneeled down beside it, sitting against the wall and drawing his knees up to his chest, staring blankly at the wall across the room. Maybe, if just for a short while, he could pretend that Bronze was just asleep. He could pretend that his own breathing was that of the Agent's on the bed beside him.
He buried his head into his arms. I'm sorry, he thought. I'm so sorry.