Chapter Text
Please send me home.
Clutching the iridescent bottle, a desperate plea emerged. But.
‘Home’ is too abstract of a concept.
So, how should I phrase this?
After careful thought, keeping in mind the amount of time that might’ve passed over here in this world, and possible time distortions in between worlds…
“Please, send me back…To a time when I felt safe in a world without ghost stories.”
–Oh dear.
I heard a surprised exclamation but, not allowing myself any more doubts, I quickly opened the cap of the Wish Ticket potion.
Gulp
A dream that you drink. That was the only way I could describe the taste.
An indescribable sensation passed through me.
…!!
Wai–
.
.
.
.
.
.
On the floor, near the foot of the bed.
A child opened their eyes.
Swamped in oversized clothes, red pupils flicked here and there in confusion as they slowly sat up. Fabric pooled down as they wriggled around to get their bearings.
Kim Soleum blinked.
He looked around at the unfamiliar space. A tidy, clean room, impersonal and barren of colours. There was no one around but…
There!
Amidst the sparsely decorated space, he spotted a splash of pink.
He peeked down, looking at the plush pink bunny leaning against the leg of the bed.
…Cute.
An apt way to describe it. Plush pink fur, round black beady eyes, and even a little ribbon tied at the base of one ear.
Kim Soleum reached a hand over.
It was soft…
He lightly squeezed it.
–Heavens, Friend, yo–
He shrieked, and flung the plush toy away. It landed on the opposite side of the room with a small thud.
What!
What the heck! Did the doll just start talking?!
Soleum scooted back frantically, widening the distance between him and the freaky doll. He whipped his head around, looking for guidance of some sort.
Hiccup
No way…was, was he just left alone here with a bizarre talking doll?! Soleum’s chest tightened.
Just then, his foot collided with a hard object.
Hissss, owwww…
The pain temporarily put a stop to his panic.
Fearing it was another haunted object, he quickly stood up, ignoring his throbbing toe, and kicked away the excess fabric pooling at his legs.
It was a phone.
Alternating his gaze between the strange doll and phone, Soleum cautiously moved to pick it up.
The phone remained still.
He switched it on.
…The phone was already unlocked.
Onscreen, a video was playing.
In it, a cute pink bunny waved at the audience. A bright, clear voice sounded from the phone speakers.
Hey there!
The bunny onstage looked eerily similar to the pink plush now lying in a heap across from him.
It’s not often that this Braun meets a young fan all alone in a situation like this, but a good show host knows when to adapt and improvise!
The bunny moved around the stage enthusiastically.
Now, how may I address this young friend?
The bunny paused, and the video zoomed in to it looking at him expectantly.
Was he supposed to answer? Seconds ticked by, as Soleum hesitantly opened his mouth.
“...’m Soleum…”
It felt a little embarrassing to be talking to a screen. Soleum was old enough to know that these videos didn’t really look for a response, they would continue to play regardless.
But he was in a weird place, and the bunny felt like it was talking to him, so, it would be rude not to respond, right? Anyways, there was no one around to see, so…
Soleum! A nice name indeed.
Soleum’s eyes widened. Wait, it actually responded to him? It could hear him?!
He stared at the screen in confusion. Was this some sort of new game?
But this situation…was kinda creepy.
He glanced over at the unmoving rabbit doll again, then back at the phone.
Weird. It was definitely, absolutely super weird.
Was the phone haunted too? But, these kinds of things weren’t real. They shouldn’t be. Sure, Soleum might’ve been the type to get easily spooked, and he barely dared to peek at those ghost stories some kids snuck to school to share with others, but even he knew that they weren’t actually real.
They weren’t.
They weren’t real…
…Right?
But, but then, what could explain this?
“Hic…”
‘I’m scared…’
Are you confused about where you are? Not to worry, for your friend is here to guide you!
“Friend…?”
The haunted bunny onscreen patted its chest with confidence, nose twitching.
Yes, friend! Although one party may not appear to share the same feelings, and misunderstandings may occur…
The bunny wiped away a large teardrop, looking forlorn.
It is the duty of a loyal friend to stay by their side, even amidst turbulent times!
What?
Now, wouldn’t you like to consider us friends?
…Soleum didn't really get it, but in this kind of strange situation, he knew better than to refute.
Ah, friend, it seems you aren't convinced.
“Ah, no!”
Not to worry, this Braun understands the situation is confusing, especially so for a mind as young as yours. Even so, as your dearest friend, I will be here to guide you!
Now, friend. Would you mind picking my plush self up from over there? It does feel a little sad to only be interacting through the screen like this, no?
!!
So the plush doll onscreen was the doll that he tossed earlier.
Soleum hesitated, but figured it was best to just follow along first and pick the doll up. Wasn’t there some horror film about a doll that haunted people that treated it badly? Then, that just meant it wouldn’t hurt those that treated it nicely, right?
And the doll hadn’t been mean to him at all! No, in fact, Soleum was the one that meanly threw it when it probably just wanted to talk and be friends!
Now he felt kinda bad.
“...’m sorry for throwing you, Braun.”
Holding the pink rabbit plush in his hands, it did look rather small and cute, with a dark brown ribbon tied around it.
“He turned back to the phone screen, where the rabbit looked to be patiently waiting. He apologised once again.
“I’m really sorry…it must’ve hurt…”
An exclamation mark appeared onscreen, and the rabbit shook itself.
All water under the bridge, Little Soleum! No harm done.
A little bandage appeared on the rabbit character, and sparkles appeared as they ripped it off to look good as new.
Something of this magnitude would never hurt me. But please, do mind the way you handle my plush self from now on. I’d hardly fancy a repeat!
A good show host strives to look impeccable in any form.
Mag-nee-tiude…?
But Soleum quickly nodded. It was a good thing Braun wasn’t mad! It was his fault for tossing him, but Soleum just got startled! He gently patted the doll and cradled it in his hands, then curiously explored the phone.
Could it only project the video with Braun, or did it work like a normal phone too? Soleum wondered if there were games in there?
He wasn’t sure what he was meant to be doing here, was he waiting for someone?
Soleum looked around again, but there wasn’t anything resembling a note lying around.
Just as he was wondering about what to do next, Braun’s voice rang out again.
–Oh dear, it looks like uninvited guests are making their way in!
What?
Then, he saw it.
A faint blue glow, visible from the small gap under the door.
“Eep..!”
Soleum dove under the bed.
The lock clicked open, and heavy footsteps sounded out.
Soleum clutched onto the soft cotton plush, not daring to make a sound.
From under the bed, he glimpsed two pairs of shoes. They moved around the space, and one even got close enough to the bed that Soleum could reach out and touch it. A large hand reached down–
Heuk..!
He shrunk back, not even daring to breathe.
–And picked up something from the ground.
The shoes moved away.
Before he could sigh in relief, a brightly glowing blue thing darted under the bed.
!!!
Soleum jolted backwards, but there was no space to go. His head collided painfully with the underside of the bed
Wuu!
His eyes watered from the pain, but that soon became the least of his concern.
He looked up.
A pair of piercing blue eyes met his gaze, looking at him from under the bed.
Wahhh, save me!!!
It had been a week.
One week since their youngest had disappeared, one week since their hope of extending their home had been extinguished by a resignation letter.
–I still want to go home.
The junior that, as if possessed, couldn't give up on the notion of a home that was already gone.
–I hope you stay healthy and happy.
Yet, he still managed to extend well wishes to others, and pass on all the mysteriously gathered information deemed useful to help them.
It had been a week of fruitless searching. They’d gone through his previous place of residence (a run-down motel room, barren, empty, impersonal-), tried to find traces of him, track where he might’ve gone.
Choi had torn through that accursed laboratory chamber for clues, waiting there for ages and ages in the unlikeliest chance that he might turn up. Predictably, though, there was no one. Kim Soleum wasn’t one to make such an amateur mistake. He may have slipped up once, but he was too competent, too smart to mess up a second time.
Would things have gone differently, had he not jumped the gun that day? Could things have gone better, or would they have just gotten worse?
Choi didn’t know. He was scared to know. He was scared the answer might be that he was the problem, the one who just destroyed the home that they’d been painstakingly cultivating.
Jaekwan had been angry with him. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Choi had a tendency to mess up, to get on his nerves. There were plenty of things they didn’t agree on.
All they could do was try to fix it.
Choi didn’t know if they were able to fix this.
Yet, as if all that struggling had been a lie, as if the world had finally heard his pleas and decided to grant them another chance, a blue ball of fire shot towards them.
It zoomed around them, bobbing in mid-air as if in greeting, then formed a small arrow in one direction.
A dokkaebi fire.
More than that, there was just one particular dokkaebi fire that was unaccounted for, that had disappeared along with Kim Soleum.
Choi made eye contact with Ryu Jaekwan.
He refused to get his hopes up, he refused. There was rarely any point holding onto unnecessary faith, not in their line of career. But it was still something, and it was worth checking out.
They sped off, following the will o’ wisp.
Jaekwan-ie, ever the rational one, went to procure bikes for them.
They arrived outside an innocuous hotel room door. The dokkaebi fire flickered, darting from side to side, arrow pointed at the door as it seemed to vibrate in place.
Choi and Jaekwan moved silently. If Kim Soleum was inside, it wouldn’t do to alert him preemptively of their presence.
If their junior was inside…
‘Please.’
Choi wasn’t one for prayers, but.
‘Please, let him still be there.’
As long as they could find him. Everything else could be worked out, they just needed to find him, first and foremost.
They unlocked the lock on the door, and–
The room was abandoned.
A cozy space greeted them, an upgrade from the run down motel room that was his initial residence. It was unlike someone who was on the run, and needed to save money.
‘Not unless they no longer needed to do so.’
Choi’s eyes landed on an emptied bottle, cap open and discarded on the ground. On the inner surface of the bottle, traces of a weirdly iridescent liquid lingered.
His heart sank.
They were too late.
A barely audible exhale sounded from behind. Jaekwan had reached the same conclusion.
He examined the room in more detail while Jaekwan moved to pick up the wish potion bottle.
There was a strange lump of fabric, located at the base of the bed near the bottle. Choi bent down to inspect it.
It was a pair of pants, seemingly tossed on the floor with no regard for whether it’d get dirty or not. They’d never seen him wear it, but it was highly unlikely for the pants to belong to anybody else.
‘But, haphazardly throwing clothing on the floor didn’t seem like normal behavior from him either.’
His heart clenched. Did something happen to him, afterall? He knew the wish potion couldn’t be trusted. Had noticed the disappearance of many who managed to acquire it. Now, the question was where their junior could possibly be.
Just as he was about to go over to Jaekwan, who was looking over Kim Soleum’s belongings, the dokkaebi will o’ wisp that had been meandering in circles around the room suddenly dove under the bed.
A thump sounded from under the bed, followed by a muffled whimper.
!
Choi dropped to his knees immediately, peering under the bed. His breath caught.
Under the bed which could in no way fit a fully grown man, Choi met a pair of wide, teary eyes on a very familiar looking face.
Wide, fearful eyes gazed back at him, terror stark on the young face illuminated by the azure glow of the dokkaebi fire. Those eyes held no recognition towards him.
“Hic..!”
The child–Kim Soleum (?)–shrunk back as the dokkaebi fire hovered closer, hand over his mouth in an attempt to muffle any excess noise.
It spun away, flames flickering, buzzing agitatedly.
A muffled thud sounded from next to him.
“Agent, what–” A choked gasp.
Choi glanced towards his side. Jaekwan-ie was kneeling there, trembling pupils fixed on the child form of their missing maknae.
He looked back. Soleum (or, the entity that looks like him) had only grown more tense with the addition of another person.
For now, in order to verify anything, they needed to first get the kid out from under the bed.
Of course, there was always the option of just pulling him out, but without even knowing what kind of paranormal phenomena this was, forceful actions like this was just inviting useless trouble. Not to mention, what if this really was their youngest, hit by some unknown aftereffect of some kind? Those frightened doe eyes were already breaking his heart, Choi really didn’t want to do anything else to deepen that fear unnecessarily. It was an absolute last resort.
Choi maintained the smile on his face, gentling his tone like he would any frightened civilian.
“Soleum-ah? Hello there~ Would you mind getting out from under there? It can’t be comfortable, crammed under the bed like that.”
Anxious red eyes darted back and forth, looking at Choi, then Jaekwan, the hovering will o’ wisp, and back to Choi. His gaze fell lower then snapped back up, to the side, and back. Choi could see the cogs in that little noggin turning from here. Their youngest truly never changes.
“Soleum-ah? We promise we’re just trying to help, do you remember how you got here?”
The eyes darted back to him as he spoke, then drifted lower, towards…
Ah.
Choi kept his smile up, hands steady and very much not rising up to cover his neck. He glanced back at Jaekwan, his posture tense, looking at him with, with an expression he didn’t care much for deciphering right now.
Jaekwan-ie opened his mouth hesitantly (what, why was he hesitating?), “Sunbae…let me try.”
Right. Jaekwan-ie had always been better with kids. Perks of still regularly visiting the orphanage, perhaps. Choi moved back, adjusting his collar.
They didn’t know how the phenomena worked. For all they knew, the memories of those affected were gone, but impressions might still remain.
He moved to a distance from the bed, close enough to immediately assist if anything happened, but far enough that, that he wouldn’t be there to affect the child from coming out.
“...I’m Agent Bronze, and that over there is Agent Choi. We’re…”
He could hear Jaekwan talking in soft voices, coaxing. He had flattened himself completely on the floor, and even shifted back a little to give the person, the entity under the bed some space.
Choi wanted to be cautious, tell his junior not to leave himself in such a vulnerable position, that it’ll cause a delay in any response, tell him not to fully let his guard down, but, but.
Choi had messed up enough already.
And just like back during the interrogation in the glass prison, just like all the times before…
There was a high-pitched yelp, as the little form under the bed finally got out and was hoisted into Jaekwan’s arms.
…Jaekwan was good at fixing things.
“Soleum-ah, hello there, do you remember me?”
The man with a scary scar was gone, replaced with the man that’d been silent up until now. He lowered himself down, until he was almost flat on the ground, cheek on the floor.
…He looked kinda silly. Soleum quickly covered his mouth. He didn’t want the man to think he was laughing at him!
Even if he was.
But laughing at people wasn’t a very nice thing to do. They might not find the same things funny, so Soleum needed to ‘take notice and be aware of that’.
And he was a stranger, so…Soleum probably shouldn’t be doing anything to ante- anta- an-tag-go-ry him? He shouldn’t be poking him unnecessarily.
–I think you meant antagonise, friend!
Yeah!
Wait!!
Soleum clutched the doll tighter. ‘I can hear you talk!!’
The phone was turned off, how could he hear Braun?
–My my, friend, I said it, didn’t I? This Braun will always be by your side! As long as you hold me close to your heart, you’ll be able to hear me always :)
–Now, while I quite appreciate the enthusiasm from our young viewer, if you could relax your grip a little, this cotton stuffed body would very much prefer it.
Oh. Soleum quickly loosened his grip, and stroked over the soft fur of the plush.
‘Sorry…’
–It’s quite alright, friend! Just keep it in mind, hm?
“Soleum?”
Ack! Soleum quickly looked back up from the plush. He got distracted!
Worried blue eyes looked back at him. Yeah. That’s what it was. The man looked worried, like his mama when…when?
…Huh?
What had he been thinking about again?
“Is something wrong? Are you hurt anywhere?” The man’s tone seemed more worried by the second. His hand twitched, like he was going to reach in and grab him, and Soleum scooted back a little more, flattening himself against the wall of the bed, just in case.
The man paused, then shifted backwards, placing himself further away.
“I mean you no harm, I promise.”
The words were gentle, and the man seemed nice.
“Do you remember how you got here?”
Soleum hesitated, then shook his head once, twice.
“That’s okay, we can figure it out together. Do you want to get out from under the bed, Soleum? Wouldn’t it be easier to get help that way?”
Under the man’s gentle coaxing and encouragement, Soleum slowly crawled out from under the bed. Strong hands lifted him up, and he yelped as his grip loosened on the rabbit plush.
‘Braun!’
The man noticed, and quickly bent down to pick up the plush with a murmured apology.
–My, what a tumble.
Soleum checked that Braun was okay, as his hand subconsciously fisted the man’s shirt.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could still see the glowing ball of light that gave away his hiding spot. It had come out from under the bed with him.
The bright glowy blue orb was whizzing in rapid circles around them now.
Looking at it, and the talking rabbit that called itself his friend, Soleum came to a belated realisation.
‘I’m in a magic world!’
So then that meant…
Soleum turned his sparkling gaze on the two ‘Agents’ that wore matching outfits and came together with the floating blue orb.
‘They must be wizards!’