Chapter Text
Despite her general cynicism and distrust of humanity, Baek Saheon liked to imagine she was pretty adaptable, all things considered. She had learned early on that putting up a gentle, approachable front for others was the easiest way to get what she wanted, and that the only way to survive in the world was by exploiting people’s soft-heartedness to get ahead. Pity, sympathy, fear—such emotions were foolish in a society where so much as a suggestion of weakness could get you killed.
When she had started working at Daydream Inc., Baek Saheon had felt at first that perhaps this was her salvation; the universe rewarding her for all that it had put her through. She knew she would never be able to fully escape the village, but at least she could create a fresh start for herself here in the city. Working a real job, making a living for herself.
Then she met Kim Soleum, who was just about as terrifying as Jisan.
She was a veritable psychopath, Baek Saheon was sure of it—she spoke to her stuffed rabbit, for fuck's sake! Not to mention her confession that seeing Saheon lose her eye at the company’s entry test had given the crazy bastard a dopamine rush. Or watching children’s cartoons in the living room every night, or cornering her into a wall after she’d confronted the freak for trying to poison her dinner last week. Really, the world would be better off without that maniac…
One day and seemingly out of nowhere, though, the bastard had the gall to try and strike up a deal. Not without manhandling her again—seriously, what was her deal?—she had promised Baek Saheon useful items in exchange for taking care of the cooking, which was just fine by Saheon. Kim Soleum was exceptional at her job, but her culinary skills… left much to be desired.
In hindsight, though, it was hard not to feel a tug of triumph upon learning Daydream’s “golden employee” wasn’t quite as perfect as everyone seemed to think.
Regardless of their tentative truce—which still involved near-daily threatening and those horrifying text messages about looking out for serial killers—Kim Soleum was completely and utterly insane. The others at the company claimed she was perfectly polite; they just didn’t see the true crazy self she hid underneath her polished mask of indifference. If she had the chance, Saheon just knew Kim Soleum would have already killed her in her sleep, or God-knows what else (good thing she slept with her door locked).
But it had been three weeks now since Soleum had last come back to the company housing. Star rookie Kim Soleum, who cleared S-rank Darknesses meant to take three days in less than twenty-four hours, who’d been the fastest employee promoted to section chief, who’d even received an invitation to clear a Darkness with the A-Team.
It had been three weeks and Kim Soleum hadn’t come back from her latest assignment, and Baek Saheon was worried. For her items, of course—it would be a horrible waste of her time and energy if the main source of potentially useful items was dead before she could get anything out of her. And the japchae she’d made in the fridge would go to waste.
For now, though, it was the end of another day. Another C-grade Darkness, another several hours of being forced to play at politeness in front of her supervisors. Already Thursday, and Kim Soleum was still off the radar, and Saheon hated that she couldn’t keep her mind off the most sociopathic person she knew. Sure, she’d convinced the A-team leader not to kill any civilians last month, but she’d also outright admitted to planning to use Saheon as a human shield against the flesh-eating crows in the tunnel Darkness they’d gotten themselves stuck in just a few weeks ago! She clearly had it out for Saheon.
Right before bed, Saheon chanced a glance at Soleum's bedroom door. If she really was dead, maybe this was the perfect chance to go through the little shit's things…
But there was no way to be sure, Saheon reasoned, and who could guess at the manner of things Soleum might do to her if she caught her snooping? It was probably best to wait for now, and so she turned tail from a potentially disastrous situation and headed to bed as usual.
A few hours later, a freezing sensation—like liquid frigidity pouring over her head—jolted her out of her rather pleasant dream about throwing darts between the eyes of a life-sized figure of Kim Soleum.
Then, from the darkness:
“I find defenselessness rather suits you, Saheon.”
It took a moment for the words and who had spoken them to register in Baek Saheon’s sleep-addled mind, but once they did she jolted upright where she laid. This fucking psychopath…
“Oh, don’t bother getting up. Would make it more difficult for… say, a murderer to catch you off guard and slit your throat in the dark.” Her grin, no doubt, was razor-sharp. It was completely dark in the room, but Saheon could just hear the cold, manic edge in that woman’s voice; after all, she’d been terrorized by her for almost a year.
Still, her favorite pair of nightclothes were soaked through, and it was some ungodly hour in the morning; she'd taken a look outside, and, as expected, it was pitch black past the blinds.
“You—” she started, suddenly at a loss for words. Her next remark was cut off by the other woman’s sharp tone.
“Have you forgotten your manners already? Speak properly to your superiors.”
“—You–you seriously poured cold water over my head! What’s wrong with you, you crazy— ma’am.” Sensing a palpable murderous intent from the foot of her bed, Saheon immediately backpedaled. “Why did you pour water on me— ma’am?”
“Good job, I knew you could manage that much.” Saheon was close to tears.
“As for the water… I knocked. You didn’t answer, so I let myself in.” A rustle. Kim Soleum’s head had cocked, most likely, as it tended to do when she threatened Saheon. Her voice was light, as if they were discussing the weather and not a serious violation of company regulations. The fucking psychopath. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Saheon figured she’d rather keep all her limbs intact than vocalize her dissent, and shook her head stiffly before realizing it wouldn’t be seen in the dark. Kim Soleum continued speaking without waiting for a response.
“Some people are after me,” the demented woman across from her clicked her tongue, sounding mildly annoyed. “So I’m hiding out here in the meantime. I hope you didn't miss me too much in the meantime.”
Saeheon felt faint. She hung her head, already defeated. What had she been thinking, hoping to see this bastard again?! She must have been out of her mind!
“Say, Baek Saheon.” Kim Soleum’s voice sharpened almost imperceptibly. There was an undercurrent of haste beneath that bravado, and Saheon sat up straighter despite herself. Damn this jerk and her natural charisma. “You need to come with me.”
‘Why should I, you bastard?’ Saheon thought to herself, scowling even as she dressed herself dutifully; her supervisor now standing just outside the door. It's enough to wake her up like this, and now she's making Saheon run her damn errands for her in the middle of the night.
“You’re taking too long. Hurry up.” came an unimpressed voice from outside, and Saheon gritted her teeth.
“...Yes, ma’am.”
Saheon truly surprised herself, sometimes, with how much self-control she could muster. That deferential response alone had taken thirty seconds of the box breathing technique she learned from the company-provided therapy sessions.
When she’d finally gotten out of her now-ruined nightclothes and into something more comfortable—Kim Soleum might be forcing her to run her errands at three in the morning, but she wouldn’t be able to force Saheon into her work clothes for it, dammit—she opened her bedroom door to an uncharacteristically disheveled psychopathic roommate. Kim Soleum's usually immaculate tie was slightly askew and a button on her collar had been undone, which for any other person would be the equivalent of having jumped in a lake and rolled in the mud like swine. She couldn't help but balk at the rare sight, and it wasn't clear whether or not Kim Soleum seemed to notice or even care about her reaction to her attire.
Still fearing for her life, Saheon let herself be led out of the company's main building and down a dingy, incredibly suspicious flight of stairs.
...This wasn’t some elaborate ploy to kill her, was it?
Fortunately, though—and right when Saheon had started lamenting the absence of the ballpoint pen in her shoe, deciding she that even if she was stabbed to death and left to bleed out on the ground in this remote storage room, she wouldn't go down without at least kneeing that psychopath a few times—the other woman was quick to leave her by the entrance of whatever space they’d entered to fuss over some kind of cog mechanism in the center of the room, disregarding her presence entirely.
Something interesting enough for the illustrious star-rookie Kim Soleum? This room must be the real deal.
The first thing Saheon noticed was that the space they'd entered looked and felt like a living artifact, like a leviathan left groping in the dark; breathing in an empty house long after everyone had left. Through the peeling paint on the walls, she could make out a few words related to Darknesses and collecting dream extract—they must be in one of Daydream's abandoned wings.
Just as she turned to ask Kim Soleum what the absolute hell they were doing in a place like this, she caught the grim expression on the taller woman's face.
It was in the knit of her brows, the hard line of her mouth, the narrowing of her eyes: Kim Soleum had set her mind on something, and she would stop at absolutely nothing to achieve it. It was a terrifying sight, though, because Baek Saheon was also here and therefore also now implicated in whatever batshit idea her roommate had in mind.
‘Dammit. I'm so screwed, aren't I?’
“Baek Saheon,” For the first time since they'd entered the room, Kim Soleum addressed her directly. There was a strange gleam in her eyes as she spoke. “I hope you'll find your happiness, after all of this.”
Then the rumbling started, and the ground erupted to swallow the light whole.
When she finally came to, Saheon was assaulted by sensation from every direction. Sunlight sharded into yellow-pain pinpricks behind her eyelids, something sharp was digging into her side, and—well, the fabric dragged over her was quite soft, actually, and smelled nice. Like fabric softener, maybe, or an unplaceable dream.
So even though she’d technically already woken up, maybe staying asleep—or at least pretending to—for just a little longer wouldn’t be so bad…
That was, of course, until she heard a soft huff of air, like someone letting a quick, exasperated breath from their nose.
Saheon’s instincts, honed from almost a year of narrowly escaping death from all manner of supernatural phenomena and entities, jarred her into snapping her eyes open…
…where she was immediately met with none other than her crazy fucking roommate, who was fixing her with an even stare.
Saheon must have jumped five feet in the air in shock. It almost seemed like that psychopath’s expression flickered with amusement for a moment—because of fucking course she would have sadistic tendencies alongside the psychopathy.
“Rise and shine.” In true sociopathic fashion, Kim Soleum’s voice was completely flat. Saheon shuddered in horror, already bracing for the worst. Why did this keep happening to her?
“Baek Saheon. I need you to follow my instructions, or something horrible is going to happen.” Her eyes widened in mock surprise, as if she'd just thought of something.
“Ah, and it's also a great opportunity for you—this is your chance to prove you’re at least useful for following orders.” Another terrifying sight, except this time it was Kim Soleum baring her teeth in a sardonic grin. “Stay in the house. And don’t leave, no matter what you hear outside.”
Just another goddamn Darkness, then—did the work ever end? Saheon could never catch a break when this rat of a woman was around. “Why should I listen to what you have to say? You’re probably just trying to save your own skin, you self-centered pri—”
Kim Soleum slammed the flat of her palm on the closest surface to her—a vinyl coffee table—and it, for lack of a better word, imploded. As if it had been struck with enormous strength, the table splintered into pieces before Saheon had the chance to finish her sentence.
Stunned into silence, the rest of her remark shriveled up and died a miserable death in the back of Saheon’s throat.
‘What the fuck…?!’
“Wrong answer.”
Was the ground shaking? Or was Saheon’s mind still reeling from what she had just witnessed?
“You will stay in this house. Understood?”
Saheon didn’t even remember nodding, but Kim Soleum seemed appeased by whatever dumbstruck expression she must have been making and turned towards the door. Belatedly, it occurred to Saheon that her roommate was dressed for work.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Kim Soleum spoke over her shoulder, twirling a key in her hand. “You wouldn’t mind continuing to cook for the two of us, would you?”
The front door slammed shut with an intensity that made Saheon jump where she stood.
‘This goddamn psychopath!’
A few days had passed since Saheon had been trapped inside this hellish Darkness, and she’d had a lot of time to reflect. Reflect on the Offering Ceremony back at the village, wonder what her brother would have said (if he was still alive) about her predicament; ponder her life decisions up until this point. It was a lot of the latter.
Namely, what could she have done differently to have never met Kim Soleum?
She’d drawn a blank so far. Daydream was her only way out of Jisan, and Daydream and Kim Soleum were inextricable, at this point—the latter was the pride and joy of the company’s new hires, after all. But was her current situation truly and completely unavoidable?
Over the course of the week, Saheon had done what Kim Soleum had said without a word of complaint, even more petrified by the woman after that monstrous display of strength. The sorry remains of the coffee table had remained in the living room for two entire days before Saheon made the executive decision to sweep it up.
…
She told herself it didn’t mean anything, even as her supervisor gave her a curious look when she got back from work, like she was a particularly difficult-to-tackle Darkness. No words were exchanged during dinner, but the atmosphere had felt infinitesimally less frosty than usual. Still, Saheon couldn’t help but scoff whenever she remembered her roommate’s impassive face as they ate—she had made jajangmyeon, for fuck's sake, and Kim Soleum hadn’t so much as acknowledged the fact that she’d made the black bean paste from scratch!
Aside from all of that, though, Saheon had to admit that they’d once again entered an unspoken, extremely fragile truce, albeit one where she was most definitely getting the short end of the stick. And she knew she should probably respect the silent agreement laid between the two of them…
But Saheon was getting antsy…
It had almost been a week! If Kim Soleum wouldn’t let her leave the house, for whatever reason, she couldn’t fault Saheon for at least poking around a bit.
So that Thursday when Kim Soleum left the house at seven-on-the-dot (as she always did—seriously, did she never get tired of being so stupidly perfect all the time?), Saheon knew she had approximately ten hours before she was at risk of dismemberment (and that memorizing Kim Soleum’s morning routine probably wasn’t necessary—who the hell brushes through their hair three times in a row before work?).
The door to Kim Soleum’s bedroom, albeit made of oak or mahogany or whatever kind of wood doors are usually made of, exuded a chilling aura that almost made Saheon think twice about picking the lock.
…Almost.
Kim Soleum’s room was… surprisingly normal, if not a bit plain. A bed, a nightstand, and a drawer full of clothes. Saheon didn’t find a single dead body or bloody murder weapon or collection of toenails or the kind of sick things cold-blooded murderers were supposed to keep in their rooms. And it smelled like the blanket and pillow Saheon slept on in the living room, so Kim Soleum probably used fabric softener on her laundry.
Saheon didn’t know why that was important. There were more pressing things at hand—finding evidence of Kim Soleum’s crimes against humanity, for one.
‘I’m going to catch you red-handed, you sicko…’ She muttered to herself, trying to rifle through a pile of clothes in a way that wouldn’t be obvious for Kim Soleum to notice later. For what conceivable reason did one (1) human being need seven identical button ups?
The next drawer, then.
…Why was there a box of tissues inside the cabinet? This had to be some kind of cardinal sin.
‘Then, maybe…?’
Saheon hesitated for a moment before checking the closet. But still, the room was not at all incriminating, if not a little depressing.
Kim Soleum's bedroom was bare of anything personal and almost completely monochrome, save for the yellowish, candle-like hue from the lamp and a handful of books propped up on a shelf next to the bed. There was no sign of that possessed rabbit plush the bastard carried around with her at the company, either, which was weird because Saheon could have sworn the two were weirdly inseparable.
She'd bring it to most Darknesses, her meals, the couch where she watched her goddamn cartoons, and probably even slept with the thing, the psycho—but she hadn't brought it along here…
Something felt really off about this whole situation.
The only thing Saheon hadn't checked was Kim Soleum’s home computer, and it was mostly because she had no clue what the password could be. At a whim, and more out of idle curiosity than anything, she typed in a few combinations: their company housing room number, Kim Soleum's birthday, Kim Soleum's ID pin, Saheon's birthday—
‘Wait, what?!’
The computer's password was Saheon's birthday.
…In other words, Kim Soleum had set her computer password as Baek Saheon's birthday.
‘?????’
Saheon tried to reason through it.
‘It must have been a coincidence. I mean, 0511 is a common enough combination, right?’
Trying to still her shaking hands, she clicked into the open browser. Some coding-related jargon, some corporate webpage, but something was seriously wrong.
If Kim Soleum worked at Daydream…
Why did this place have an account for a Kim Soleum who had been working at their company as a web developer for the past decade?
And why was her age listed as twenty-eight when Saheon knew for a fact she was twenty-three in her company file?
A lot of things weren't adding up, and although she was tempted to chalk it up to the general weirdness of the Darkness they were trapped in, she couldn't leave things as they were. Who knew when she'd get another chance to uncover the star rookie's vulnerabilities?
So Saheon clicked on the other open window, a folder titled “DER VIPER,” and the air in her lungs condensed, suddenly; the impact akin to taking a punch to the gut.
Brown hair, an eyepatch, a goat company mask. What she was seeing—and its magnitude—took a moment for her to register.
They were drawings—some hand-drawn, others digital. Drawings of Saheon herself!
Countless drawings of Baek Saheon were on her supervisor's personal computer!
‘!!!’
This had to be an abuse of power! Saheon could report her to the company for this.
Fuck, if only they weren't stuck in this accursed Darkness! And what kind of a plotline even was this, keeping Saheon trapped in the house? Cooking meals for her, cleaning the house, and even greeting her sometimes when she got back from work…
Wait just a moment.
‘There's no way…’
Had Kim Soleum kidnapped Saheon so that she could fulfill some twisted marital fantasy?
‘?!?’
Was Kim Soleum in love with her?
‘?!?!?!?’
This all had to be a misunderstanding. Kim Soleum had made it her life's mission to terrorize her!
Just to confirm she had definitely reached the wrong conclusion, Saheon clicked on the last file in the folder, titled “Records: VIPER.”
And promptly hit her knee on the side of the desk with the force at which she did a double-take.
Baek Saheon, codename: ‘black goat.’ A woman in her 20s with curly hair and green eyes. There is no one among her peers with a stronger survival instinct. Despite her innocent and gentle expression, she is extremely intelligent and capable…
Saheon stared dimly at the computer screen, immobile even as her knee throbbed with pain. A page-long dossier on her?
This was Kim Soleum's computer. The very same Kim Soleum that threatened Saheon with bodily harm any chance she got, told her she was nothing but her “human shield,” and claimed Saheon's suffering gave her a dopamine rush.
The woman was truly and utterly insane!
‘Her idea of “love” is probably abducting them and forcing them to cater to her sick whims!’
Which would, in fact, seem to be the predicament Saheon was in currently.
…Fuck.
She let out a bitter laugh. It was really just her luck, wasn't it, to have escaped Jisan just to end up in the clutches of this obsessive bastard.
Saheon wracked her brain for a while: what in the world was she meant to do with this information, now that she knew the truth?
Should she risk confronting her clearly mentally unstable supervisor, or should she go along with her deranged wishes?
Though after that display with the coffee table, Baek Saheon really wasn't too fond of her bones being crushed to dust. Maybe she should just go along with the plot of the Darkness. That bastard didn't seem to need her to do much more than cook dinner every night and stay inside the house. Plus, this was Saheon’s chance to use Kim Soleum's feelings for her to her advantage—even if the freak was completely crazy, love was, at its core, weakness. And weaknesses could be exploited, whether for useful items or—assuming Saheon wasn't getting too ahead of herself—for getting the so-called “monster rookie” out of the running entirely.
Saheon was the second ranked new hire in their initiation batch, after all. With Kim Soleum gone, who knows—Saheon's own deeds might get more recognition.
When cleaning up the evidence of her snooping, Saheon was careful to smooth down the folds of the clothes just as she’d seen her roommate do, and closed the files she had clicked on while keeping the open windows as they were. Still, her thoughts refused to settle in her head.
Her head was still racing nine hours and thirty minutes later (overtime for the third time in a row—did the fucker even get tired?) when Kim Soleum got back from work.
Before turning to lock the door, the psychopath greeted her with a nod of acknowledgement and visibly paused when Saheon gestured shakily in response, clearly shaken.
‘Dammit… Am I being too obvious?’
Saheon watched her stride across the room—courtesy of her freakishly long legs—to hang her coat from her vantage point across the house, perched on a kitchen stool. Now was as good a chance as she'd ever get, probably.
So when her supervisor turned around to hook her charcoal coat on the rack, Saheon came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her in a tentative hug.
“Welcome ho—”
‘!!!’
Before she'd even had the chance to react, both of Saheon's wrists were seized in an iron grip, her back digging painfully into the wall where she was held aloft by her forearms.
…Oh, right.
She’d forgotten the woman in front of her was completely and utterly insane! Of course this psychopath would try and pull something like this. Her unhinged ideas of love were probably something straight out of a slasher film!
Then Kim Soleum moved closer to her, face right in front of her nose as she spoke in a low, threatening voice.
“What are you trying to pull, exactly?” And the bastard had the gall to say that to Saheon after pinning her to another wall!
Still… she could work with this.
Now that she knew of the psychopath's feelings for her, Saheon finally understood the intent behind manhandling her every chance she got—Kim Soleum was a sadist who got off on hurting the people she cared about. So what she should do, if she wanted to get important information out of her, is continue playing along so she could get some useful info out of her.
But her unspoken words were blown to pieces in the suddenly tense silence, over their still forms locked in stalemate, and she noted dimly that this was the closest she'd ever been to Kim Soleum. The distance between them was small enough that Saheon could smell the break-room coffee on the psychopath's clothes, see her bangs heave where they were split across her face, feel the barely-there tremor in her hold on her wrists.
They stared at each other, the room silent except for the faint noises of their exhales; proof of life exchanged in the sparse space between them. Kim Soleum's eyes were much closer than usual, than she was used to, and having those red pupils focused solely on Saheon was literal nightmare fuel.
And that’s when things start to get confusing; I mean, it’s not clear who initiates it first, really, but suddenly one has grabbed the other’s chin between a thumb and forefinger and there’s a hand in someone’s hair and a tug and her distance from Kim Soleum has abruptly shrunk to zero. And there’s contact, somewhere in between, and it’s harsh and deliberate and devastating, like a ruthless storm trembling along the lines of their drawn-taut bodies. Saheon allows herself to feel a brief flash of surprise at the fact that this psychopath seemed to know what she was doing—who in their right mind would put up with her, batshit insane and high-strung as she was?
Kim Soleum drags a wet line along the open seam of Saheon’s lips and she lets out a shuddering breath; it’s pressed into silence between their mouths, then there’s suddenly the gleam of teeth and biting and pain because nothing between them has ever existed without violence. Kim Soleum wipes the blood from her lip with a thumb, and she’s dragged in again, again by her collar—Saheon stops thinking, after that.
They part when Kim Soleum pushes her away with a palm pressed to her chest, uncharacteristically gentle, and Saheon sees a strange and alien glint in her Lovecraftian gaze. If Saheon didn’t know any better, she’d say it almost looked like fondness. But Saheon knew better than anyone else that her supervisor was incapable of human emotions; that she was a sadist and completely unhinged and only cared about herself. She must have been seeing things.
That's when Saheon realized her feet were hovering almost half a meter from the ground, and that she was losing sensation in both her arms.
‘This fucking nutjob! I'm getting lightheaded from her cutting off my circulation!’
“Fuck, let me go! I can't feel my arms— ma'am.”
Abruptly, Kim Soleum let go of her grip on her arms. Saheon fell to the ground in a graceless heap, rubbing at where she'd been shackled by Kim Soleum's inhumanly strong grasp.
Red marks had been left behind by the other woman's fingers, coiled around her wrist like a grotesque crimson garland, and they were going to leave ugly bruises. This damn psycho—was she really so controlling that she had to injure the person she supposedly loved? What a fucking freak!
“Did you have to grab me so tightly? I thought I was going to pass out…ma’am.”
Said woman only watches mutely Saheon as she hisses faintly in pain, flexing and rolling her wrist to stimulate her circulation; to hopefully regain sensation in her hands.
There was silence for a moment longer, and just when Saheon had resigned herself to apologizing to this bastard again, convinced she had said something to earn her ire, Kim Soleum cut off her panicking thoughts with an impassive voice.
“Then should I cook dinner for us instead? Seeing as you’re currently… compromised.” Why was she still so close? Saheon was getting heart palpitations from being too close to such a terrifying woman—this fucking psychopath!
And this was definitely a test—if Saheon showed weakness here, Kim Soleum would probably try to bash her head in like she did with the coffee table!
Also, there was a reason Baek Saheon had been cooking for the two of them in the first place: Kim Soleum was so horrible at cooking that when they’d first started rooming together, Saheon had thought she was being poisoned; that it was another one of her intimidation tactics. She only realized it was unintentional when she’d hesitantly offered to cook for them one night and Kim Soleum had looked genuinely surprised at the food she’d made, as if she’d never eaten food that tasted remotely edible. It had been the first time she’d seen any semblance of human emotion on her face. The psycho’s peaceful expression while eating might have almost—almost—even passed as pleasant, if Kim Soleum hadn't taken that exact moment to nod in agreement at her fucking stuffed rabbit and warn Saheon to stay away from open water if she wanted to keep her head. What the absolute fuck.
“No-no. I can still cook, ma’am.” Saheon was stuttering, for some weird reason—Kim Soleum always had a way of getting under her skin, the complete and utter dick—and was being frowned at by the aforementioned psychopathic supervisor.
She was sweating bullets as Kim Soleum scrutinized her for what felt like forever. Hopefully she’d passed the test! That crazy fucker wouldn’t be able to find a single reason to criticize her for anything after this.
“Fine. Have it your way.”
Hence, another stilted meal over noodles as cold as Kim Soleum’s facial expressions.
They never talk about it. Neither of them acknowledge the heated moment from before, but Kim Soleum pointedly avoids the coat rack and Saheon, to her credit, doesn’t try to initiate physical contact again.
The night ends in unease, leaving the two of them groping in the dark of a nameless limbo that gnaws on Saheon’s nerves: a roiling under her nails, a weird bloating sensation between her joints like she needed to pop her knuckles but couldn't. In truth, it reminds her of the unnatural stillness of the village just before a sacrifice was chosen; the hush before screams broke out in the robe-clad crowd. Kim Soleum—calculating, inscrutable, and fucking terrifying—had always reminded her of Jisan, but this time things felt different, somehow.
If only Saheon had known at the time that she had come far too close to uncovering the truth, she might have done something at the time—anything—to avoid what would soon become the most catastrophic event of her life (and she’d had to carry out her brother’s remains in her school bag).
But for now, the two continued to lie to each other; to themselves in this unbearably lonely apartment, the silence coiling around them like the lazy, serpentine steam of a mug of something warm.