Chapter Text
Hansol is still trying to shake slimy alien goo off his hair when Jeonghan calls him and Joshua back to the office. Joshua pats his back as he walks back to the car, covering the back of Hansol's jacket in the goo that was on Joshua's own hand and making him groan.
“You didn't even really get dirty,” he mutters as he gets into the passenger seat, rubbing his back against the seat so at least Joshua’s car will suffer, too.
“You complain too much, V,” Joshua replies, in the calmest tone Hansol has ever heard.
“You would complain if you were covered in alien…” he looks down at his suit. “Whatever this is.”
Joshua doesn’t even glance at him as he drives. Hansol kind of wants to jump off the car so the sensory nightmare covering him isn't the main thing on his mind. Instead, he messes around with the stereo, because he knows that'll bother Joshua more—he can tell it works when Joshua's eyebrow twitches after the third time Hansol lets a song play for a minute before changing it again. Hansol tries to hold back his smile.
They park outside of the Men in Black building soon enough, and walk in silence until they're inside the office, where Joshua stops Hansol by the elbow.
"If J asks, we only found the Venusian cargo and nothing more, alright?"
Hansol blinks. "Did we find something else?"
"No," Joshua replies, probably lying. Hansol shrugs—it's none of his business.
"Okay," he replies, walking towards Jeonghan's office.
The office seems packed today. There are all sorts of people and aliens walking around, seemingly working, and Hansol is somewhat used to the chaoticness of the MIB, but it's almost overwhelming, rather than the organized disaster it usually is. He waves at Chan, who's sitting on top of Wonwoo's desk with a thick folder and a highlighter pen and tries to wave at Wonwoo, who looks dazed as Chan explains something to him.
Joshua leads them to the other side of the place, where Seungkwan's desk is, and grins as Seungkwan looks up at them.
“Oh, hey, agents JS and… oh,” Seungkwan pauses, scrunching his nose as he takes Hansol in his gooey glory. “Are— are you okay, agent V?”
Hansol is going to kill Joshua. Probably.
“Peachy,” he replies.
“Peachy?” Seungkwan’s eyes are wide and bright in confusion.
“Human expression,” Joshua says with a sweet smile. “It means he’s fine.”
Seungkwan blinks slowly, carefully glancing at Hansol’s suit. “Oh, alright. I’m glad you’re, um, peachy, agent V."
"I— um, well," Hansol starts, but then he makes the mistake of really looking into Seungkwan's pretty eyes and he thinks they shine, but maybe it's just the lights over them reflecting on them. It doesn't matter, really, because his train of thought has been interrupted by the sight of him.
Joshua isn't even subtle when he laughs at Hansol.
"Anyway, is J free? He called me," Joshua asks as he plays with the colorful pens Seungkwan keeps on his desk. "Is the shark one new?" He asks, taking a pen with a silicone shark on the end. Seungkwan frowns and takes it from Joshua's hand.
"Is that what it's called?" He stares at the tiny shark in wonder. "And J is with—"
That's when Seungcheol walks out of Jeonghan's office with a goofy smile, not even noticing them at first. Seungkwan sighs.
"He's free now," he tells Joshua.
Joshua looks at Seungcheol with disdain. "You're at work," he says. Seungcheol grins.
"I love work," he says dreamily.
"I seriously can't stand you two," Joshua mutters, but it comes out fond.
He walks into Jeonghan's office without looking back, and Hansol is about to follow before he pauses.
"It's a great white shark," he tells Seungkwan, and feels his ears warm up as Seungkwan looks up, his face near glowing. Seungkwan looks back down to scribble something down and, because Hansol doesn't have the ability to predict how he'll act around Seungkwan, he adds. "There's a movie I liked when I was a kid where one of the main characters is one."
Seungkwan's eyes widen and Hansol thinks he's about to speak, but that's when Joshua pulls him by the arm and drags him into Jeonghan's office, closing the door behind him.
Sitting on Jeonghan's office always makes Hansol a bit fidgety. He likes to spend his time inside it spinning some weird floating toy Jeonghan keeps on his desk, feeling a bit like a child while Joshua reports back their work.
It's not that Hansol doesn't care for it, it's mostly that he prefers doing the work rather than reporting it back to some guy he's never really understood.
He listens as Joshua and Jeonghan go back and forth, Joshua insisting there's nothing else to report, while Jeonghan asks again if they found anything aside from the Venusian cargo. When Jeonghan looks at Hansol and questions him instead, Hansol shrugs.
"Well, at least I didn't find anything else," he replies. Not a lie.
Jeonghan purses his lips but nods and goes over something on the computer.
"Are we done here?" Joshua asks, and even though he seems as collected as ever, there's something in his tone that makes both Jeonghan and Hansol frown.
Jeonghan nods slowly and Joshua is quick to stand up, Hansol trailing behind him, when Jeonghan speaks again.
"Actually," he starts. "V, I have something I would like to speak with you about."
Something flashes through Joshua's face, but he doesn't say anything or stop walking when Hansol sits back down in front of Jeonghan.
Jeonghan types something on his computer, silence stretching for a couple of minutes where Hansol taps his his foot against the leg of his chair, before he turns his monitor towards Hansol.
On the screen, there's a picture of a handsome alien. His platinum hair reaches above his shoulders and his skin has a blue tint to it that almost glitters, even through the pixelated picture, his features are somehow sharp around the edges and soft in a particular way.
His name reads Wen Junhui and under his information Hansol can see that he's from the Andromeda galaxy.
"He's a prince in his planet," Jeonghan says and, yeah, Hansol doesn't doubt it. "Next in line to rule. He was supposed to go on some diplomatic tour around our neighbor galaxy when he disappeared."
"Do they think he's in Earth or something?" Hansol asks as he squints to the picture again.
Jeonghan shrugs. "We don't have many clues," he says. "But they're sure he isn't anywhere in Andromeda, so," he raises his eyebrows at Hansol. "I want you to look for him."
That makes Hansol look up. He knows why Jeonghan is asking him, however, he doesn't understand why he's asking him without involving Joshua.
"Have you told JS about this?" Hansol asks carefully.
"I was hoping you'd do this on the side, actually. Without JS noticing," he explains.
"Why?" Hansol can't help but ask.
Jeonghan looks at him, his eyes cold, but not unkind.
"Are you saying no?"
Hansol huffs. He really doesn't get Jeonghan's deal.
"Fine, I'll look into it," he replies. "But I need somewhere to start."
Jeonghan grins, almost maniacally. "Perfect! I'll put you in contact with agent Z, he'll have something to help you."
Hansol blinks. "He exists?"
"You can leave now, V."
Hansol spends the next hour or so looking through the archives of Andromeda, grateful that Joshua was already gone from the office when Hansol had gotten to his desk.
His headphones were blasting whatever he could find that would drown the noise of the office as he scrolled through a chart of the galaxy leaders in different planets of Andromeda, ignoring Wonwoo next to him doodling hearts on the folder Hansol had seen in Chan's hands earlier.
After a while, he gets an email. It has no subject but the sender's name is Z and Hansol's eyes widen when he sees it.
Agent Z exists, his brain supplies in wonder and he thinks he can hear Wonwoo laugh but he ignores it.
He scrolls through the contents of the email. A small message that says "Found in prince Junhui's things", and a folder attached with some pictures of trinkets. Some are human, but not all of them, most are from different planets and cultures, but as far as Hansol can tell, they're all from the Milky Way, not a single one from Andromeda or anywhere else.
At the end, there's what seems to be the picture of a letter. It's using the Latin-script alphabet, but the order of the letters makes no sense.
Hansol takes off his headphones but Wonwoo replies before he can even ask.
"Definitely some type of code," he says, watching the screen. "Don't know which one, though. Also JS is walking towards us."
That makes Hansol scramble to close the window on his computer with the information agent Z mailed him.
When Joshua reaches Hansol's desk with a grin, he places a bottle of water on the surface.
"Where were you?" Hansol asks, as casual as he can while he tries to open some random website so Joshua doesn't question what he was doing before he arrived.
"Weekly lunch with Seungkwan, you know, since I actually talk to him," he replies, sitting down on a chair next to Hansol. Hansol rolls his eyes. "What are you doing?" He asks, squinting at Hansol's monitor. "Shark Tale?"
Hansol looks back at his screen, where the Wiki Fandom page for Shark Tale is. He didn't even know that existed.
"Yeah, uh, I mentioned it to Seungkwan earlier and—"
"Does Seungkwan ever mention V when you guys hang out?" Asks Chan's curious voice when he walks into their little bubble in the office, going immediately to sit on top of Wonwoo's desk. Again.
"Now why would you need to know that, C?" Joshua asks, not even looking Chan, his full attention on Hansol and his tone edging towards teasing.
Hansol breathes in sharply when Chan replies. "I don't, V does!"
“Well, if he must know—which he doesn’t, by the way—, yes. Seungkwan has mentioned V,” Joshua says, his eyes glinting. “A lot, in fact," he says to Hansol. "He’s always asking me how you’re doing and all that silly stuff like I’m your babysitter or something. It’d be endearing if he didn’t ask about you before he asks about me every single time I see him.”
Hansol considers himself a fairly chill person. He also might be about to explode.
“Oh, that’s… that’s nice,” he mumbles, looking down.
“Jesus Christ,” is what Joshua says. And then, “oh, hey, Seungkwan!”
It’s almost embarrassing how fast Hansol turns around on his chair. So fast, in fact, that the chair tips behind him, only stopped from falling by Chan's reflexes when he stops the chair.
"Hi, again!" Seungkwan greets Joshua cheerfully, then his smile grows even more when he sees Hansol. "Agent V, I wanted to ask about the movie you—"
"Hi, Seungkwan," Chan says, wrapping his arm around Seungkwan's shoulder. "We were just talking about you!"
Seungkwan blinks, his eyes shining with curiosity. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, but actually," Chan looks down to his watch. "W and I need to leave right now," he pouts dramatically.
"We d—?" Wonwoo starts, interrupted by Chan pulling him by the arm away from his desk.
Seungkwan frowns slightly, but he doesn't say anything as he watches Chan and Wonwoo leave.
Joshua snickers before he speaks. "Actually, I'm leaving, too," he comments casually. "Gotta sleep before we head to Minghao's shop tomorrow," he adds, glancing towards Hansol. "See you later, V," he ruffles Seungkwan's hair. "Bye, Seungkwannie."
Seungkwan waves him goodbye, looking a little confused and then looks expectantly at Hansol.
"Don't you have to go, too?"
"Do you want me to leave?" Hansol shoots back, accidentally sounding more dry than intended and making Seungkwan's eyes widen.
"No, no! I just thought—"
"I'm joking," Hansol rushes to say, mentally slapping himself. "I, uh, I'm working on something."
"Oh, of course," Seungkwan nods, and Hansol can see the way he looks up, like he's trying to file something inside his head. "Should I leave you alone? I don't want to get in the way."
Hansol shakes his head. "No, well, I could use the help," he says hesitantly. "Your planet was in Andromeda, right?"
Seungkwan's cheeks glow, almost gold, as he says yes and Hansol starts explaining the case to Seungkwan.
They carefully analyze each of the pictures agent Z sent Hansol for what seems like an eternity. Just as he suspected, none of the objects is from any planets or stars in Andromeda, and Seungkwan doesn't recognize the words on the letter at all.
Seungkwan clicks, frustrated, through the pictures for what seems like the millionth time, trying to see if there's anything they could've missed, groaning in annoyance as he goes over them, until he stops on one.
The picture is of a silver key. The handle is shaped like a star, adorned with tiny stones along the edges. It's pretty, but it doesn't seem particularly special to Hansol. Still, Seungkwan looks at it intensely.
"Is this not a human key?" He asks, his voice sounding tired.
Hansol hums. "Probably."
"Do you think you could find what it opens?" Seungkwan's voice is starting to sound excited.
No, Hansol's mind supplies, because, really, how would he even find that?
"I could try?" Is what he says instead, because he doesn't want Seungkwan's hopeful look to fall and it works, because Seungkwan's eyes crinkle as his smile widens. And, since Hansol has no idea of how to keep a normal conversation with Seungkwan he asks, "Do you wanna watch Shark Tale with me?"
Seungkwan pauses, his smile falling into a smaller, puzzled version of it.
"What?" He asks, his voice soft.
"The, err, movie. With the shark," Hansol says, cringing at how unsure his voice sounds.
"Oh!" Seungkwan lights up. "Yes! I was going to ask about that!"
"I— I have it on DVD," Hansol explains. "At home. We could—"
"Right now?" Seungkwan asks excitedly, his cheeks so painfully cute as he can't contain his grin.
"Right n— really?"
"If," Seungkwan pauses. "Well, I suppose you're busy and—"
"No, let's go right now," Hansol says without thinking, but it's worth it whenn he says when he sees the golden blush on Seungkwan's face as he nods, ready to follow Hansol.