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Baek Saheon woke up in a dorm room. It was peculiar. He hadn't had a dorm for over two years. He moved out of Baekilmong's dorm building and paid for an apartment when he was promoted to Section Chief.
He glanced around, finding the room familiar. It looked like his bedroom when he was a rookie.
Had he fallen into a Darkness that used his memories against him?
The layout was the same as ever. Saheon wrangled himself from the sheets and stood up, taking a closer look.
The books on the shelf were slightly different from what he could recall, but he didn't have a perfect memory. The photos on the wall were the same, his older sister's eyes looking at him eerily. Even the way he arranged his clothes drawer was the same.
The only things missing from his room were the items he had accumulated during his first year. He had to cut many deals and do things that no other rookie would dare do so that he'd have times that would save his life.
He was peeved that it wasn't a perfect match.
Saheon exited his room, seeing how far this Darkness took him. He saw the familiar hallway, and then the door to where his dorm mate would be. If he had one still, that was.
In the early weeks, Saheon's original dorm mate was killed during an assignment to recover Dream Essence.
Curiously, Saheon opened the door to see if the Darkness had recreated another person. Someone from his past whom he hadn't interacted with much.
He peeked his head in and frowned immediately.
There was a person in the room, but it wasn't someone he recognized. Saheon tried to think of a person with that same hair color and style, or even the same face, but none popped up.
Was this not a memory? Did the Darkness target something else instead?
Saheon frowned and ventured further into the room. He stood at the end of the bed, seeing a stuffed pink bunny lying on top of the pillow next to his dorm mate's head.
This had never happened. Saheon knew that because he would have ridiculed his roommate if he had stuffed animals or plushies.
What did he need to do to end this Darkness? Saheon's lips twisted as he attempted to find clues. His dorm mate's room was too plain to hold anything interesting.
He went to leave, only to hear a voice.
"Braun...? What? He's in my room—!?"
The man on the bed had woken up.
With his dark strands astray and his eyes dazed from sleep, Soleum warily glanced over to the stranger in his room.
Saheon held up a hand, waving as he smiled. He wasn't sure what he needed to do to fulfill the Darkness. He would play along with whatever happened.
"Saheon-ssi? What are you doing in here?"
"I thought I heard something," Saheon lied, not batting an eye or wincing.
Soleum turned pale. "Y- You did?"
Of course, Saheon had no idea that Soleum was thinking that Saheon had heard him having a nightmare. It wouldn't be the first time Soleum had to be snapped away from the terrors of his dreams.
"Sorry," Soleum said, voice rougher than normal. "I'll be quieter."
He was too tired to even pretend to put on his normal act. Saheon was acting fine, anyway. Just a tad stranger than normal. Saheon tended to just ignore him...
Saheon didn't leave. He was intrigued by the way his dorm mate acted.
"Are you well?"
"Hah?" Soleum glanced up unsteadily. He reached out to Braun instinctively to hold something comforting.
Saheon stepped back into the room. He hovered above Soleum and asked again, "Do you find yourself often plagued by disorderly sleep?"
Soleum didn't know how to react. He gulped, his throat raw. He felt trapped, but didn't know why. This was just Saheon. Saheon, who behaved himself. Saheon, who was afraid of him.
Saheon, who was in his room for an unknown reason.
Soleum cautiously took in Saheon's appearance. That's when he noticed that Saheon was looking at him with two pale green eyes, not only one. He squeezed the cotton out of Braun, anxious and overwhelmed.
Viper. Those two green eyes were in the holder of someone vicious.
"Only sometimes," he replied, looking away so that he didn't have to act in front of a psychopath.
"I see." Saheon took a step back. Soleum looked up, hoping to see the man's back as he left, but Saheon stayed. His green eyes almost seemed to light up. "You're interesting."
"Why do you say so?" Soleum asked quickly, practically feeling the hives break out across his skin.
"You aren't afraid of me despite knowing who I am."
Not afraid? Him? Soleum was shivering in terror! He was just good at hiding it. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have been put on D-squad. He'd be in a worse position than Jang Heoun!
"I want to put you in my pocket," Saheon muttered, placing his hand—which was gloved, how did Soleum miss that?—over his mouth, hiding his smile.
Soleum was going to faint.
Sometimes, he was still afraid of the Saheon he knew. The one that he had raised to be submissive and fearful of him. Now that he had met the real deal, the actual Viper, he knew that he had been worried for nothing.
Viper's sheer aura made people tremble. Soleum's hands were minutely shaking, the nerves wanting to find a way out. He hadn't been this afraid before. He was going to die if he showed that, though.
He raised his chin, meeting Saheon's gaze. He had to win here. If he couldn't win, he had to leave it as a draw. If he lost... he was forfeiting his life.
"Why would I be afraid of a stranger who took over my roommate's appearance?"
"Ah... haha?" Saheon's voice was utterly delighted. "So you noticed that, did you?"
"I did..." Soleum muttered the next part. "I was hard to miss."
Others might not have noticed Viper's slightly thicker frame, his body filling out more with muscle, but Soleum knew one thing that the others didn't. Only this world's Saheon was missing an eye. Viper, according to the wiki, still had both of his.
The Saheon in front of him was more dangerous than the average Darkness. He might even be classified as a C-Class Darkness purely based on how many people met their end because of his involvement.
Saheon didn't know that Soleum was scared. He saw someone who met his gaze unflinching, and practically fell in love.
"You should have been with me from the start," he murmured, ever so slightly in awe.
Saheon helped himself to sit on Soleum's bed. He sat on the edge by Soleum's thigh, crossing one leg over the other. He looked like a gentleman, dressed in his suit from Baekilmong.
Honestly, how didn't Soleum notice it? His Saheon would never walk around in the middle of the night in a suit with his hair all done up.
He was an idiot! And now a snake was in his den, practically slithering around him, waiting to crush and suffocate him till death.
"What's your name?" Saheon asked, his green eyes focused solely on Soleum's reaction.
Soleum gnawed the inside of his cheek. He really didn't want to tell Saheon. Part of him hoped this was simply a vivid nightmare that he'd wake up from in a few minutes.
"I can tell you mine if you want," Saheon offered. "Baek Saheon, Section Chief of F-squad. Codename: Goat. Nickname: Viper." He winked, holding out a hand. "Most call me Viper."
Soleum took the man's hand, hating how the man had undone his glove so that they were touching skin to skin. It was actually very warm. Viper wasn't as cold-blooded as some suggested. Small mercies.
"Kim Soleum," he returned, Saheon squeezing his hands in the process. "Roe Deer. D-squad."
Saheon's eyes flashed. "You're a rookie, but you're so far at the top." His voice had an edge to it. "You must adapt well."
"I do well for myself." Soleum couldn't deny it. He was surviving better than he expected, practically thriving at work.
His life in the dorm was a different matter. He didn't receive much rest at all. Braun kept him company, leaving him to be sane, but at times, that wasn't enough.
Saheon's lips curled into a smirk. "I like you even more now."
Tears prickled at the corners of Soleum's eyes. He wasn't in want of Saheon's interest. No one who dealt with Viper ended up happy or alive. They either became a person he had leverage against or they died a pitiful, brutal death.
Hesitantly, with one hand gripping Braun and the other clenching the sheets, Soleum suggested, "You need to return to your own world."
"I will when this Darkness is over," agreed Saheon, eyes bright. "But until then, we should spend some time together."
Fear for his future. That's what Soleum felt.
Saheon woke up in a dark room. It was pitch black. He didn't like it at all.
He roamed the void, and eventually, he lifted his eyepatch so that he would hopefully be greeted with a threat he could take down.
As he shifted his gaze this way and that, he noticed a red spark in the distance. He ran toward it, wanting to escape from wherever he was placed.
His last memory was falling asleep. Part of him assumed this was a bad dream. It wasn't abnormal for him to have nightmares on this scale. At least it didn't involve his village or his sister this time around.
The red halo increased, and eventually, Saheon reached out. He didn't care about the thing in front of him. He survived Kim Soleum. He would survive someone whose threat level was as pitiful as this.
The halo holder struggled. Saheon wasn't sure if it was a humanoid entity or not. The skin under his fingerpads was rough. With his vision filled with only darkness, he couldn't tell what it actually was.
But then, after applying enough pressure to what Saheon assumed was the neck, the warm body he was holding went limp.
He threw it to the ground, and not a moment later, sunlight returned. He shut his eyes instantly, placing his eyepatch back where it belonged.
Saheon carefully opened his good eye, just a squint, and saw that he was in a room at Baekilmong. He must have entered a Darkness that confused his memories.
He took out his Dream Essence Collector to see a pale yellow swirl glittering inside. It wasn't a high-ranking Darkness, but it was something. With his eye, it was good enough.
Saheon walked out of the room, and thought about returning to the F-squad office. He'd need to fill out paperwork. Filing his report today while his memories were still fresh was the best way for researchers to learn more knowledge about the Darkness field agents entered.
As he walked down the hallway, he received... Well. He didn't receive looks at all. No one stared.
It was different from normal. Saheon tended to get a lot of curious looks. He was the second, or third, top rookie at the moment.
Soleum was undoubtedly the first, which was more irritating than anything. Saheon wanted to be second place, but Yeongeun tended to claim that spot whenever she saved his ass.
He looked up at the ceiling of the elevator. He was alone in it for once. As soon as he stepped on, the others fled, even though he noticed that other floors were called to.
It was weird. He was having a strange day, but he thought it had to be because he didn't remember most of it. Darknesses be damned and all that.
He entered the F-squad office, only to recognize no one. Worried that he was still in a Darkness, Saheon didn't point that out. It was never good to be the one who acted out. That'd get him killed.
He took the only open chair. It was a comfortable chair, one of those office deluxes that reclined and had a lot of padding. Worth too much money, most would say.
He proceeded to try to access his computer. When he typed in the password he knew of, it didn't work. He frowned, typed it again, and was left stumped as it gave him another error.
Saheon played around with a few different options for his password. It landed on a mix between his sister's birthday and her favorite meal.
At least this Darkness took notice that his sister was important to him.
He glanced through his inbox. There were too many emails, in his opinion. Why were the directors and higher-ups contacting him of all people?
He received an answer when he noticed the small triangular name plate. Saheon paled as he saw it, his gut churning.
'Section Chief Baek Saheon.'
Was this a Darkness that trapped him in a daydream? A fantasy of his hopes?
Saheon wanted to rank up quickly. The more money, the better. By receiving promotions, he'd be given higher-classed Darknesses, too. He'd earn a Wish Potion with no time.
This was dangerous. Saheon wasn't sure if he'd be able to find a way out. Dreams were always dangerous like that, striking hope into places where it didn't belong. The place where you wanted it most.
Saheon sweated as he saw how he replied to some of the emails. He was blunt and short, no matter if he was sending a message to Kwak Jekang or replying to Director Cheong.
It was terrifying to think that this was a possible future. How long had this version of Baek Saheon worked here for him to be so nonchalant? There was no fear in his veins.
He worked through the motions even as he was sick to his stomach. Saheon would figure this out.
Saheon found the Darkness he had entered. It appeared to be a messed-up Hide and Seek.
A creature would trap a person in an area completely devoid of light, and hide. If the person didn't escape within 10 hours, then the creature would attack and kill the person if it could.
Saheon managed to kill the creature, so he escaped. He was proud of himself for doing it even whilst he was confused.
As he read through the Darkness Manual, though, he grew more anxious. There was a small mention at the bottom that sometimes the void-like existence where the Hide and Seek took place would cause anomalies.
Saheond disliked that word immensely. Anomalies. It spelled nothing good for him.
Some of the listed known anomalies were: temporary time displacement, age regression, age progression, world travel, dimension travel, etc.
He had that gut feeling that he had somehow activated the anomaly. He held his forehead in stress, his mouth suddenly parched. He left his desk and went to grab some water.
As he filled cold water into a cup, he heard a cough.
An F-squad member nervously raised their hand, and stuttered out, "S- Sir, did you get injured? Why don't you take a potion, if so?"
Take a potion? Saheon wasn't going to waste his points just to fix his eye. He scoffed at the idea, which made the member who asked him pale and turn away, apologizing quickly under their breath.
Saheon wanted to get out of here. It was suffocating.
No one would look at him. Had he been placed into a world where he was a raging asshole or something? The only other thing he could think of was that this world's Baek Saheon was avoided because he was that much of a loser.
Damn it, why was he hoping Soleum had fallen into this ghost story, too? Soleum wasn't even there for all the horrible situations Saheon got himself into. He couldn't rely on that bastard.
He was incredibly grateful when, just before the day was over and Saheon was going to clock out, he felt a shift in his vision.
His body whirled. He would definitely throw up if he could. It wasn't possible, though, because he wasn't even a person while he felt sick.
Saheon came to when he was on his back. He blinked, seeing the familiar ceiling of his dorm room. He cheered in his head.
"I'm back," he uttered happily.
He then heard a cough.
Saheon's eyes drifted over quickly. That's right, the bed against his back felt a little bumpy and a little too warm.
That's when he met Soleum's gaze.
The dark-haired man was politely not mentioning that Saheon was lying against his thighs. They were quite comfy, though Saheon would die if he ever said that.
Soleum raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
At least Saheon wasn't being attacked. There was yet to be blood!
He had to move, regrettably. He sat up slowly, already missing the warmth he received from Soleum's body heat. Could he pretend to be sick and stay here?
No... Soleum might actually kill him if he did that.
"Did... Did anything happen while I was gone?" Saheon asked.
He couldn't avoid being in Soleum's room. He definitely didn't do that, since he valued his life, so someone else did. Primarily, the Baek Saheon he swapped worlds with.
Soleum averted his gaze, his cheeks darkening slightly, turning from pale, to pink, to red.
"Nothing happened."
The guy was surely lying. Soleum wouldn't be looking so caught off guard unless the other Saheon had done something noteworthy. Still, Saheon was concerned to call Soleum out on it, only to be threatened with his immediate death.
"If he did something," Saheon offered as a bridge, because being ignored all day made his head all messed up, giving him courage he shouldn't have, "I'll make sure it never happens again."
Soleum shooed him away from his room. Saheon should've expected that.