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So this was how it ended.
Hundreds of Darknesses, countless near-death experiences… and now when Kim Soleum actually was dying, it was while stuck with Baek Saheon of all people.
Then again… Baek Saheon wasn’t as bad company as he used to be. It was surreal, to think that Kim Soleum had actually had some impact on the man who would originally have turned into the ruthless Viper. Not that he wasn’t still rather ruthless, but…
Kim Soleum was too lightheaded to have the mental capacity to finish that thought.
He glanced down at the pool of blood that was quickly covering the entire floor of the hiding place they were currently trapped. And then up, at Baek Saheon, who was watching him bleed out with an inscrutable expression on his face. Then again, there was a goat mask covering half of it.
“I still don’t have any healing potions,” Baek Saheon snapped when they made eye contact.
Kim Soleum blinked sluggishly. He already knew that. There was no chance for him - they were nowhere near even starting to figure out how to get out of this Darkness (which they had only entered by complete accident without anyone else’s knowledge), he was covered in countless lacerations, and of course there was the big thing - most of his left leg had been savagely ripped off by some bear-like creature with teeth that were half a foot long. The monster had then been distracted by its new chew toy enough to allow the two employees to escape to this safe zone, but the damage was just too severe - even with an attempt at a tourniquet cutting off some of the bloodflow, stopping all of it was just not possible. And Braun had been torn away as part of a chunk of fabric that had been ripped off of his suit, too, although Kim Soleum was too out of it to feel as bereft as he usually was at the absence of his constant companion.
“...I guess I sh’ld tell you,” Kim Soleum said after a long stretch of odd silence (in here, that was - outside this little cubby, plenty of horrifying sounds were still quite audible). Getting out words was hard, but at the same time, with death being so imminent there was no reason to not get this off his chest. “That ‘t was all… just acting.”
“What are you talking about,” Baek Saheon demanded, his voice flat.
“My…” Kim Soleum waved his hand in the air in a way that really didn’t convey anything. “...‘M not actually a psychopath, y’ know.”
“...What.”
Kim Soleum closed his eyes again briefly, pushing through another wave of dizziness. “To…” he trailed off. “The d’pamine stuff. And… whatever. ‘Was just trying to… didn’t want you to. Be scary.”
“You’re not making any sense,” Baek Saheon said, his voice audibly irritated again.
Kim Soleum frowned, trying to get his thoughts even remotely in order. “...Y’r pretty ruthless. So I d’cided to pretend to be scary. So you wouldn’t be scary.” That got his point across, he was pretty sure.
When Baek Saheon didn’t respond, Kim Soleum forced his eyelids open again. His vision was blurry now, so it wasn’t really helpful - the other man’s face was too indistinct to glean any information from it.
Seeing his face did spark another thought, though - Agent Grapes. Baek Saheon would be wondering where Agent Grapes went, too.
…It wasn’t like Kim Soleum had anything to lose by finally revealing that identity either. And Baek Saheon would probably want his paper boat back.
“Th’re’s… something else,” he said after another second of attempting to collect his thoughts. “‘M sorry for not telling you… t’ be fair, I thought you w’ld figure it out immediately…”
“What.”
Oh yeah, he hadn’t actually gotten to the point yet. “‘M the agent you talk to. With…” he fumbled around with his wrist inventory for a moment, and then found the item he had been looking for - the paper boat.
“...What.”
“Oh.” He blearily noticed that he was getting blood all over it, now. “S’rry.”
Baek Saheon snatched the boat out of his hands. Kim Soleum let him.
“I guess that was s'rt of acting too…” he added. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had last spoken. Or if Baek Saheon had said anything else, either. None of his senses were really working anymore. “Not as much, though. ‘t was… Didn’t ‘xpect you to be nice.” Kim Soleum wasn’t sure if his words were making any sense, again, but once again there wasn’t really any reason for him to quit talking, so he didn’t bother stopping. “‘ope y’r not too mad. Or…” He lost that train of thought. “...G’luck with y’r… ticket…”
Vaguely, he was aware of some sort of sensation - was it sound? Someone talking? Maybe there was some sort of pressure on his arm? “...‘m gonna…”
And then consciousness fully slipped away.
[ Oh, friend, you’re awake! ]
Kim Soleum’s first sensation upon waking up was the (metaphorical) sound of Braun’s voice speaking directly into his head.
…Wait, waking up?
His eyes flew open, and then immediately shut again as he winced at the bright sunlight spilling that hit them.
Ah. He was in the Fox Counselling Office recovery room, then.
But… how? The last thing Kim Soleum remembered was passing out from blood loss, alone with a single coworker, neither of them having any healing potions on them.
[ You must be wondering how you got here! ]
Despite Kim Soleum not being able to think coherently enough to respond yet, luckily his 'good friend' was all too willing to provide some commentary anyway.
[Well, worry not, this Braun would be happy to enlighten you. It seems some of your acquaintances realized you and that surly coworker of yours were missing, and managed to find you just before you died!]
…Oh.
[ Including that humourless blade grunt… although this time, I suppose I am somewhat glad for his presence there. Goodness, friend, to think a mere C-grade story was so close to being the cause of your demise! It truly would have been a shame. ]
…Kim Soleum had a sneaking suspicion Braun meant that more in a narrative sense than out of an actual sense of worry. Still, it wasn’t like Kim Soleum was fully used to the doll’s ghost story eccentricities by now, so the thought didn’t dishearten him too much. That was just how Braun was.
Thanks, Braun, he said back, and then he opened his eyes properly this time.
Sure enough, the sunlight bathing his bed was artificial, and he was in the recovery room, just as he’d thought. The room was otherwise empty, the other beds currently unoccupied (and that, too, was a relief - nobody else had been injured). Glancing down at himself, it seemed Kim Soleum had been outfitted with a hospital gown, which made sense considering his suit had been pretty much torn to shreds. It was pretty high quality and still had a pocket, though, where Braun was resting safely.
He was just contemplating attempting to get up when the door at the end of the room swung open.
Unsurprisingly, it was Ho Yuwon - he probably had some way of sensing what happened in his domain. “You’re awake,” he said with a calm smile as he shut the door behind him. “How are you feeling?”
“...Good,” Kim Soleum said, the first words he’d spoken out loud since waking up. He winced at his voice, though, which cracked in the middle of the word.
“There’s water on the table beside you,” Ho Yuwon advised. Kim Soleum glanced to the side; so there was. “Although the potion healed all of your wounds, you still may be a bit dizzy from not eating while you were recovering. I recommend staying here until tomorrow morning so that you can make a full recovery.”
Kim Soleum waited to speak until he had taken a few sips. “How… long was I out?”
“Just a day and a half. The amount of blood you lost made it a bit more difficult for your body and brain to adjust to the potion, though, so it took much longer than healing potions normally do. Of course,” he added, “several of your friends tried to insist on staying with you, so if you need to recover by yourself for a bit longer, you’ll have to do that now.”
“No, it’s…” Clearly, his brain still wasn’t fully back online. Still, after such an experience, he was looking forward to seeing more people, actually. “You can send them in.”
Ho Yuwon smiled again, looking oddly relieved. Kim Soleum wasn’t sure if that was out of his instinct to care for his ‘clients’ (now that he was done manipulating them, that was), or simply because it was annoying to have to deal with keeping people out of his office. “Wonderful. Please let me know if you need anything else.”
Guests came in waves after that, coming to see him whenever they had a break from their various tasks. The Agency employees arrived after their workday was over, looking a little bit shaken that Kim Soleum had been so close to death and they hadn’t even known about it until half a day later. He was also brought dinner by some of his visitors - it was the blandest meal possible, as they seemed to have decided he needed essentially hospital food while he was recovering, but it was very welcome.
After the last visitors of the day (J3 and Park Minseong, who due to their schedule had learned he was awake much later than anyone else), Kim Soleum prepared himself to go to sleep. It was a bit early for that, but he was looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning and fully feeling like himself again.
…Or at least he thought they were the last visitors of the day. He had seen everyone he had been expecting to come visit him, after all, so there wasn’t anyone else to wait for.
And yet, just after the sun set in the artificial scenery, Baek Saheon appeared in the doorway.
“...Ah… hello,” Kim Soleum said, completely unsure what to expect right now. Was he about to be murdered? He had said all of those things under the impression that he was about to die! He hadn’t expected them to actually matter!
Baek Saheon silently approached the bed, and Kim Soleum’s heart started to beat faster. Oh god, he really was about to be murdered.
[ Oh, did you and your coworker have some sort of deathbed conversation and I missed it? I never would have expected him of all people to come visit you! ]
…Later. Not the time to be having lighthearted discussions right now, Braun!
“...Um, about what I said-” Kim Soleum blurted out, not sure where he was even going with that sentence, but hoping that whatever he pulled out of his ass would at least be enough to delay whatever potential assassination attempt was happening right now-
“...Here.”
Kim Soleum barely avoided flinching when Baek Saheon pulled something out of his suit pocket. But…
It wasn’t a knife or a gun or any other type of horrible weapon.
Inexplicably, it was the paper boat. A boat that was abruptly tossed towards him with absolutely no warning.
Luckily, Kim Soleum’s reflexes were fast enough that he caught it. He flipped it over in bewilderment - yep, there were still bloody fingerprints on it from his near-death injuries. It was definitely the same one.
“...Sorry, what-?”
“Take it,” Baek Saheon said, now scowling again.
And then he turned around to leave.
“Wait-”
His protests did nothing. Mere seconds later, Baek Saheon was gone, practically slamming the door behind him, and Kim Soleum was left alone (well, other than Braun, obviously) once again.
…What was that.
[ Well, that was unexpected! ]
Braun’s cheerful interjection broke Kim Soleum out of his daze, and he carefully tucked the paper boat back into his wrist. That…
Huh.
…Maybe deliriously confessing a bunch of secrets to one of his most ruthless coworkers hadn’t ended up being that bad of an idea after all.