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{He is exhausted.}
A simple observation, one Choi had made many times already despite them having known each other barely a month.
{He doesn’t sleep.}
That brought up two possibilities:
One, rather predictable for someone entering their field, befitting Grape’s anxious character - nightmares.
Second, unfortunately befitting Kim Soleum’s two faced character - nightly outings that could not be shared with his coworkers.
{Hm.}
Agent Choi dropped his head on the desk and stared at his hoobae’s fingers tapping on the empty report sheets.
{I hope you have sweet nightmares, Grapes.}
Grapes yawned, stretching a little in the dusty air of their break room. Choi watched the way the muscles on his neck tensed and relaxed, stretching under the pale skin, reaching down to the collarbone half hidden by the same cheap shirt the man wore every day.
Agent Choi let his head rest, cheek propped onto his arm, watching Soleum until he would inevitably cast a glance over his sunbae, shifting a little to the side as he always did. Kim Soleum did not mind direct eye contact, as if something behind his anxious scared facade was too reluctant to back away from even the knowing eyes of the agent. However, he always shivered away from being watched.
{He has pretty fingers.}
Admitting this aloud was too odd even for Choi, but nothing stopped him from entertaining the thought in his head. He watched the neatly cut nails pressing against the plastic of the blue ink pen. He watched the palm of his hand bend in a light grasp, bones shifting under the skin, making his veins prominently showing as thin blue lines.
{How come you don’t have scars?}
Choi’s eyes went up, looking at the way the long black lashes lit up light gold in the bright sunlight of the noon.
{How many of their potions have they had you take?}
He stretched his arms lazily, hands picking up one of the papers right from under Soleum’s pen.
“Hey,” Kim Soleum wanted to protest, but seeing those bright eyes watch his every move, he hesitated.
{How many?}
Agent Choi watched him look away, half in frustration, half in an unknown emotion he was still trying to piece together. In the little file named “Kim Soleum” deep in his brain, Choi still had a few empty spots he was desperate to fill - a few missing parts of what made Kim Soleum Grapes, and what made Grapes Kim Soleum.
{How much have they changed you?}
Was it wrong to admit that even despite it all he hoped that there was more of Grapes there than Roe Deer, a supervisor from D Squad of Daydream corp?
“Mm? I thought you wouldn’t mind an extra hand?”
He smiled, watching those dark eyes squint from under the round glasses Choi knew he didn’t need. How pointless. How adorably committed to the poorly written act.
“I wouldn’t have minded it about an hour ago.”
{Daring.}
{Were you the same with them?}
Of course he’d asked. Of course he’d done the research.
Roe Deer? I heard he was like a top of the batch.
He was always put as an example.
I heard he died in a darkness but honestly I think he just got his wish ticket somehow and they just don’t want us to know how.
{Were you sitting at your office desk, same as you are now?}
He smiled. He didn’t feel like smiling.
“Come now, Grapes, you know this isn’t due today.”
He reached out, tip of his finger tapping on Soleum’s hand.
“I am not leaving this until the last day, agent.”
“Agent?”
Now the smile was a little more genuine.
He watched the frown between Soleum’s brows form as his lips pursed in a frustrated pout.
“Agent?” Choi pressed, fingers trailing a little further up, voice softening with a smug he didn’t bother hiding.
“...”
{Come now…}
“Choi,” a sigh of surrender, a reddish tint on the cheeks that was so vivid it was almost too theatrical.
{And who taught you that? Clever tricks.}
“How about an early lunch?”
Happy to get an excuse, Kim Soleum reached for his phone, pulling his hand from under the touch of the scarred fingers that only reached further to grab him, pulling him back.
“Let me guess,” Choi hummed. “Isn’t it too normal of an hour for lunch for you, agent?”
Kim Soleum frowned at the teasing words, but did not pull away again.
“Isn’t it?”
“My treat,” Choi beamed, fingers circling around the thin wrist, feeling the pulse under the skin beat faster and faster.
{Nervous.}
The blue eyes studied, shifting from the red cheeks to the blush tinted neck, down to the slightly unbuttoned collar. Anywhere but the dark eyes, to provoke, to test, to tease and to get those sweet reactions he knew were more Kim Soleum than they were Grapes.
{Oh.}
Grapes didn’t push, he didn’t hide or slip away. Instead, his hand relaxed, turning up, the thin pale fingers slipping between Choi’s in a lightly tickling motion.
Is this more Grapes or more Kim Soleum, Choi wondered.
{Does it matter?}
The little cooling shade cast by his figure closed in on Choi’s face, the frowning face hiding him from the sun as Soleum leaned in.
“There is still a lot of paperwork left,” he said, but only leaned in closer.
“I will help,” Choi felt the soft breath on his face, admiring how the black hair fell on Grape’s forehead a little bit not like on Kim Soleum’s.
{He is pretty.}
A light touch, a quiet sound of parting lips: only for a moment, a small peck, a shy uncertain movement: as if Grapes, Kim Soleum, or whoever he was today was still a little bit uncertain. As if, Choi thought to himself with a smile, that little unknown emotion inside him was driven by a side of him the agent was yet to uncover.
{What a liar.}
Caught again: a longer, more demanding kiss.
{Tell me more.}