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It was a foregone conclusion.
There was no way, not a chance that Kim Soleum could dare to keep existing in the world of <Darkness Exploration Records>, not when it meant waking up every day to a mass of terror and fear crushing him into the sagging mattress, a spring digging uncomfortably into his back.
After he’d woken up from been turned into a mass of pulsing flesh, the first thing he’d done was ask what Go Yeongeun had wished for. Even then he’d known it was useless; the original form of the wish ticket wasn’t reliant on careful phrasing and deliberate words, it was reliant on intention. As expected of Go Yeongeun, she’d been considerate of every area — her father, the intent — there was no way, he knew, that she could have been any less exact.
The truth was evident, then:
He was stuck here.
i.
Hyeonmu-1, Rescue and Dispatch team had taken leave. The destination?
“Woo,” Choi fanned himself, looking at Jaekwan. “How do you even find the time to work out so much?”
Ryu Jaekwan glared back, ears red. He sunk deeper into the water, until half his face was submerged. Beneath the water, his skin wavered like a mirage, pinking from the steam.
Beside him, Kim Soleum let himself relax, sinking deeper into the hot springs. It really was relaxing, he thought. He’d left Braun behind in the waiting room, situating him comfortably on the cushion. He still didn’t know who bought it; it was certainly out of Kim Soleum’s price range, given his current salary and the insurmountable debt he owed to Lee Jaheon.
On the way here, Choi had waxed about the healing properties at length. Kim Soleum was certain about half of it had been made up, as evidenced by Jaekwan’s repeated exasperated sighs. From the back seat, he’d seen Jaekwan’s hands tighten over the steering wheel more than once while Choi’s expression became more amused over time.
Kim Soleum had spent half the time looking out the window and the other half dutifully replying whenever Choi twisted his head around, as if incapable of talking to someone without looking at them. Twice, he’d leaned back enough Jaekwan had been squished in his own seat. Kim Soleum had just been grateful he was in the backseat and not in charge of driving.
The hot springs almost made up for the horrific car trip.
“Let’s make this an annual trip,” Choi was saying. Jaekwan nodded along. It was a familiar scene, and Kim Soleum felt an odd sense of distance. They’d known each other for years, before Kim Soleum even came to this world. They’d know each other for years after, Kim Soleum hoped. “Hyeonmu-1, come to terrorise the hot springs every November.” Choi stretched, exaggerated, cheerful. He winked. “How about it?”
He wouldn’t be here for that long. Kim Soleum nodded, it was a nice thought. “Yeah,” he said warmly. He liked the thought of it.
ii.
It was a rare two person mission, and Choi was left alone in the waiting room.
Agent Bronze breathed quietly next to him, fingers wound around the Bureau issued gun. Exorcism, Hyeonmu-1’s speciality. They didn’t just rescue, they ended Disasters. Agent Chogae was set to be released from the glass prison soon, and would join Hyeonmu-1 until they found enough members to re-establish a Cheongryong team.
“Look forward to it,” Choi had said idly. “Our workload will lessen.” The mood had been melancholic. The only reason that Agent Chogae was joining them, after all, was because everyone else was dead. Kim Soleum found that he did look forward to it. It would be nice to see the Disaster Management Bureau with all four sections, as it was always meant to be.
In front of Kim Soleum, the ghost lady wandered mournfully, seeking the hiders. Her head spun 180 degrees as she searched for them, bones cracking as she wailed through the pain. Goosebumps pricked his flesh, if he was caught that would be him, forever treading the streets as his neck was broken.
It was a familiar ghost story, in that he had seen it in many different forms, no matter how many times Agent Bronze exorcised them with talismans or Agent Choi slashed through them, bells jingling as the jakdu swished, displacing air.
People would keep dying, and they would keep dying with regrets. They would keep turning into ghost stories, and Hyeonmu-1’s work would never end, because there would always be another seeker, wandering, waiting.
Kim Soleum felt sick. “…Now,” he muttered through a numb face, springing up. He was charging forward before he realised as Agent Bronze covered him. The ghost lady saw him, and with a cry that shook him to the bones, her neck slid off as she opened her arms wide, completely ignoring Agent Bronze who smoothly rolled out, the gun raised. Three shots, the ghost was sucked into the glass balls.
It was hardly a Disaster that required two people.
Kim Soleum examined the glass, twirling an empty one around his fingers. It had been a sickening experience, for him. It had been the safest he’d ever been, gagged and bound and interrogated as he forced himself to stay awake for days on end. He offered it back, and saw Jaekwan watching him carefully.
“Let’s head back,” Kim Soleum said. He looked up at the sky, it was grey, a sign of rain. He hated been outside when it rained; it seemed like a bad omen he didn’t need in a world of ghost stories. He felt the bones shift in his neck as he did so, and a jolt of fear shot through him as he thought of the glass ball in Jaekwan’s possession.
What an awful way to die, he thought, and imagined himself in that position.
“Agent Grapes.”
He looked up. “Is there something wrong?” The dokkaebi flame, although he didn’t need it anymore, flew around him, nuzzling him. He remembered once, that Jaekwan had promised he could find his own personalised dokkaebi flame.
Jaekwan deliberated over his words as he stayed still. Their bikes were a street over, Kim Soleum hoped they wouldn’t be stolen. It had happened too many times already. “You didn’t need to run forward.”
“Pardon?”
“I could have shot her from that distance.” It was true, Agent Bronze’s accuracy was one of the highest in the Bureau. He’d taught Kim Soleum how to use a gun once, steady instruction next to him as Kim Soleum had gotten used to the heft of it, the weight. Kim Soleum looked to the side, brief.
He needed to pull his own weight in Disasters. He didn’t say that. “I didn’t realise that,” he lied.
Agent Bronze stood a careful distance away. Kim Soleum wondered if he could tell when he was lying now. He’d lied so many times, after all, from the very beginning. There was not a single moment in his memory that he had not lied to Bronze to some extent.
Finally, Agent Bronze said, “Let’s practice shooting more when we get back.” He smiled, a soft lift of his lips. “We’ll teach you proper Bureau tactics for exorcism,” he promised.
Once, Jaekwan had said they could build a home here. Kim Soleum had been tempted, he could easily imagine it: staying in the waiting room for the rest of his days, saving people, doing some good. He’d come up with his Agent Codename even before he came to DER, after all. In many ways, it sounded like the best option for him, more tangible than home, at least.
Choi had started hinting at moving in together, the three of them. Jaekwan took to filling the waiting room with more grape snacks than ever before, and cushions appeared for Braun at alarming speed. Kim Soleum found that he wanted to stay. It was that want that lead him to writing his will late at night. He didn’t have much.
He left all his money to Lee Jaheon and apologised for never being able to pay off the debt. He sealed the envelope to Choi and Jaekwan even as his eyes lingered on the calender Jaekwan had bought as a souvenir from the hot springs for next year, Choi’s handwriting on the margins. The dokkaebi flame flickered wildly, distressed as he told it to go gently. It was a child. It shouldn’t have to see him as he dragged a chair to the middle of the room, rope in his hands.
This was a kindness to himself, he thought.