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The kid that works the counter at Ijeong Bookstore is a scrappy little thing. Cute as a button, if Choi might add. A little strange, but that’s just how kids are– especially when they’re in active contact with the supernatural.
When popping in, gifts are essential to brightening the kid’s day. It’s in the “Civilian Associates” manual!
“Heya Dong-ie!” He lifts up the box in his hands, flashing him with colorful sets of desserts through the plastic screen. “I come bearing offerings~”
Jaekwan receives the box with both hands, his serious little face somehow becoming even serious-er. “The Learned One doesn’t accept offerings,” he says, gravely. “If you’re looking to show thanks or ask for blessings, it’s best to offer texts, not food.”
Choi laughs, leaning against the counter. “It’s for not for the Owner. It’s for our great priest Dong-ie!”
Jaekwan’s eyes widen, looking stunned. “F-For me?” Aw, he stuttered. “...I appreciate the… offerings, but I am just a humble servant sitting by the Learned One’s feet. I simply assist you great heroes, and I am unqualified for sacred gifts…”
Choi cuts him off by pushing a tiny sakura cookie through his lips. It stops him in place, but the flush on his cheeks starts spreading down his neck. “Ah, ah, ah. No talking down on yourself. Everyday heroes like you are still heroes! That’s why workshops like these need human hands, after all.”
He pinches Jaekwan’s cheek, just because. “You’re recorded in our manual as an associate, so technically, you’re a hero already marked down in history!” He leaves out that it’s an unofficial manual made specifically for the agents to keep track of and maintain friendly relationships with their civilian associates.
Jaekwan has been growing a lot recently, but Choi is still just a head taller than him. This way, when Jaekwan tilts his head up, he gets a full view of Jaekwan’s sparkling eyes. Completely at odds with his ever-serious expression and the slow chewing as he stews in his thoughts. This kid, ah, seriously so cute.
“A hero? In history…?” Jaekwan seems to mull over the thought. His eyes never lose the sparkle. “...I am unsure if I can truly bear the weight of such an honorable title… But I will try my best not to disappoint the great heroes of the past and of today.”
Choi ruffles his hair and pulls away from the counter. “I’m sure you will,” he hums. “Dong-ie is our most hardworking and talented–”
“The Learned One demands your presence,” Jaekwan says loudly. “You must hurry before the hour of judgment is decided upon you.”
“Ahaha, yes, yes, I’ll be going~”
At this point, Yeongeun is used to strange people, and even stranger environments. It’s a jump from her dreary school life entrenched in helplessness, and she can’t really say if that’s a good thing.
Yeongeun has met more memorable characters in the past six months than she ever has in her life. It’s disorienting, especially when they come (appear briefly as a colleague) and go (die) like the water, but Yeongeun is used to it. Or so she tells herself.
“Agent Mint, don’t fear the darkness,” Agent Bronze says gravely. A brand new Disaster means rescue and exploration team up, so it’s her and him and her superior and Soleum. “What lies ahead is only a small obstacle. It will not redefine your life.”
The words, though dramatic, are strangely reassuring. Yeongeun doesn’t have to worry about watching her back because no one here would leave her to die. Still, though…
“…Yes, Agent.” She can’t help but shiver. She has never been fond of the quiet, and this place took away both sight and sound.
Her superior leads the group, holding a lantern that shines wispy blue bright yet only reveals the step ahead of them, the rest swallowed by the darkness. Even the crackles taper off and fade unnaturally.
It’s not long before they run into monsters. Three or so creatures that slither in and out of the shadows, barely visible only by their glowing pupils, circle them with incomprehensible hissing that pounds her head.
Despite the terrors, though, they get defeated pretty easily.
Agent Bronze cocks his gun, the glass iridescent in the flicker of blue flame and framing his face in a play of light and shadow. His expression is serious, unbothered, not a hair out of place.
“Creatures of the dark never last against even a flicker of light.” He spins the gun flawlessly, allowing it to briefly illuminate the darkness around them with flashing iridescence. He stops the spin with a sharp whoosh blowing, lowering it to his side. “That is why you must not give your fear to the shadows; they take your room when you give your light away.”
He levels them with a searingly stony look, chin held just high enough to look slightly proud. “Do not forget what the light gives you.”
With that, he takes the lead and ushers their group towards a darkness that slowly grows lighter with each defeat of its sustainers.
At the end, when they stand on normal streets and walk in illuminated night, Yeongeun hangs back, matching Soleum’s deliberately slow pace. “Is he always… like that?” She murmurs to him, as evenly and polite-sounding as possible. He gives her an awkward smile.
“You get used to it,” he whispers back. “He can be a bit extreme, but he’s not a bad guy.”
Certainly more reasonable than most people at Daydream. Goes unsaid.
Still. “…How old is he again?”
“…Nearing thirty. I think.”
“How long has he been working for the Bureau…?”
“Since college, apparently.” Soleum pauses. “Agent Choi mentioned he was speaking like… that since he was a teenager. Apparently, some Bureau agent saved him and wanted to look cool?”
“…So, they acted like the overly cool side character of a shounen?”
“Exactly.” He looks at her, with slightly wider eyes behind fake glasses. “I didn’t know you were into manga, Agent.”
She almost flinches, but she pushes it down. It’s been years! Get a hold of yourself… “Haha, I like to check out what’s famous every once in a while…”
“Agent Grapes. Agent Mint.” This time, she really does flinch. Standing before them is Agent Bronze, and behind him is the entrance to the Bureau. “The two of you have done well in unraveling false destinies. Thanks to your courage, less innocents will fear the darkness today.”
His eyes soften slightly. “Good work. Make sure to get some proper rest. Forces beyond this world’s comprehension won’t be the only things you’re fighting when you’re sleep deprived.” Thankfully, he’s not the physical type, so he leaves after bidding them farewell.
“…How does he manage to make what he says sound normal?”
“I guess some personality traits only mellow out with age…”
“Okay. Let’s break down the names.” Eun Haje points at him with a pen. “You’re ‘Agent Grapes’, he rarely calls you by name. He also calls you his shidi, and says you are a ‘fledgling angel of true justice’.”
She points to Lee Seonghae. “You’re ‘Lady Dolphin’, and behind your back says you’re a human who ‘assumes the position of an angel’ and serves your own justice with bloodied and broken hands.” Lee Seonghae tilts her head.
“Well~ Sure! That sounds prettyyy cool!”
“You,” points at Lee Jaheon. “Are ‘Lord Lizard’, the ‘usurper of lands’ whose strength will eventually be recognized by the gods and accused of wanting to usurp the thrones of heaven.”
“I do not want that.”
“We know, Chief.”
“You should if you could!”
“And you,” points to Ho Yuwon. “Are an indecipherable ‘envoy of death’ who seeks the secrets of the underworld.” Ho Yuwon hums, his smile never slipping from his face.
“I see. How interesting.” He simply says, psychoanalyzing the agent on the spot.
“You.” Baek Saheon sits rigidly. Why is he even here? “The foster son of darkness borne from ‘evil soil’.”
“Not even a name…?”
“You.” Lastly, her finger points to Choi. She squints at him. “…He never calls you anything but ‘Agent Choi’. Sometimes ‘shixiong’. Usually ‘brethren’.”
“That’s it?” Baek Saheon says disbelievingly.
“That’s it.”
“Well, what can be done? Bronze-ah and I have known each other for a long time,” Choi shrugs casually. “Even his speech mellows out around me.”
“He does speak more normally with you,” Soleum notes. “But… sometimes, he also speaks more… dramatic with you.”
“He speaks more with you, in general.” Eun Haje points out.
“I mean, they’re ‘brethren’ in life and death! Mister Agent probably is just more comfy with him~”
“Well, that should be everything, right?” Eun Haje scribbles into the notebook, before raising it and showing it off to everyone. At the top read,
‘AGENT BRONZE VOCABULARY LANGUAGE MANUAL’
“If I may add,” Ho Yuwon says pleasantly. “He doesn’t use flowery phrasing often due to having a career that majorly requires clarity and directness. His speech is not difficult to understand for well-read adults.” He raises a brow. “I don’t see why a language manual is necessary.”
“It’s for the juniors,” Choi insists. “They have to know who and what he’s talking about when they’re not in emergency situations. Imagine not understanding the person you see everyday.”
“I can imagine,” Baek Saheon mutters.
“The name section is complete,” Eun Haje interrupts. She flips to the next page. “Next is…”
“I chose the name ‘Bronze’ because of olden heroes.” He looks down at his hands, rough and callused. “Today, bronze is associated with the last place winner. Back then, it was the armor of godlike heroes, the material in which divine weapons were forged. My name may not go down in history as a hero, nor will my face be carved into statues…”
He clenches his fists tightly, watching them with heavy eyes. “…But the weight I carry will be a weight that lays the land for many.”
“Hero is an honorable title. I am but a mortal, given divine power beyond my comprehension to save innocents and purge darkness, but the celestial title of hero is the weight I must bear.”
He looks up, into the distance. The figures of his brethren, of godlike Choi tossing his head back in laughter, glimpsing on his neck scars left by evil, of steady Haegeum, with a smile and hands marked by the burns of her divine weapon, of softhearted Grapes, who sits amongst mortals with a presence sweeter than light.
“It is the weight all of us must bear.”