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Sucking in a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, he twisted the key to open the door to his new room. Or rather his new unit, which had two rooms.
That he would be sharing.
With Baek Saheon.
So far, so good? Yeah right, this was going to be awkward.
And terrifying.
Mostly terrifying.
'Haa... no, let's not imagine the worst. 'Kim Soleum tried to run internal interference as he fully pushed open the door. ‘If we can both just ignore each other, then that would be ideal.’
Only to have every expectation immediately blown out of the water by the scene he was confronted with.
There was a third person in the unit.
A man that looked oddly more like the fanart he had seen of Baek Saheon than the actual goods he had met a few hours ago.
And clutched in the stranger’s chokehold was what Kim Soleum could vaguely make out to be said ‘actual goods'; even if his presence was dim like he was a chalk outline of himself rather than the full being, it was definitely his new roommate.
What was happening? This was way too crazy.
He hadn’t even been given a chance to recover from orientation and already something like this…
Kim Soleum desperately wanted to turn around, slam the door shut, and pretend he hadn’t seen anything.
But…
There were obvious signs of a struggle scattered across the room, yet Baek Saheon’s gaze was distant. None of the fight for survival he was so popular for- that Kim Soleum had seen firsthand not even an hour ago- was left in his visible murky eye.
And the item lodged in his arm, Kim Soleum recognized it.
He knew that if he didn’t act right now.
Baek Saheon would disappear.
A character who wasn’t supposed to die- even however far into the future his records in the [DER] represented- was fading before his very eyes.
It felt wrong.
…Was it his fault?
Because he showed up and changed the flow of the story, now someone who was supposed to live would die.
Someone who wanted to live more than anything?
Personal feelings aside, how could he leave things as they were? It would be as good as killing the man with his own hands.
No, Kim Soleum had to act.
He could still save him; it wasn’t too late.
All those considerations had happened within the space of the few seconds since Kim Soleum opened the door, to him now- springing into action.
Cold sweat drenched his back and his ears rang as his breath failed to settle properly in his lungs.
But his eyes were laser focused.
Everything else faded away around him; through his fear Kim Soleum could only desperately keep his gaze on the syringe-shaped item sticking from an arm that was quickly losing familiarity, almost entirely filled with a liquid that could be described in no other way than ‘the color of Baek Saheon.'
Once he had that…
The aggressor, of course, tried to move away, but he didn’t seem to expect Kim Soleum’s approach, so he was barely able to grasp the item and wrench it from the unconscious figure the man was holding.
With that, both Kim Soleum and the attacker moved as far from the other as possible within the small living space of the unit.
This seemed to raise suspicion in the other party if his narrowed eye was anything to go off of.
Which confirmed to Kim Soleum, the man didn’t know about this item’s weakness.
Soleum could take a moment to calm himself.
He took a deep breath to steady his trembling hands as he lifted the syringe to his own exposed skin.
That’s right, this was a necessary step to breaking the terrifying ‘essence extractor,' an item created by the mimicry sect of the white cult faction within the [DER] in order to spread the powers of a certain entity that they hold up as a saint.
It’s an extremely powerful one-time-use item that can extract the essence, in this case meaning the fundamental existence, of any-one or -thing that its needle can pierce. Once the extractor has completely emptied the subject, everything that made it a unique existence will disappear from the vessel and leave only meaningless mass in the shape of whatever the subject used to be behind.
So in the case of a person, not only will your corpse be unidentifiable, as any trace of your existence will have been removed from it, but nobody would even bother trying to identify it in the first place, as they would only be able to see the remains as mass coincidentally taking on the appearance of a human body, not actually as a corpse of a once living being that died.
The essence of the subject will then remain inside the extractor until it is injected into a host. The host will then take over the existence of the original subject- assuming the host in this case is different from the vessel of the subject- and so long as the host has the mental strength to overcome the ego of the subject, the existence of the subject will be seamlessly integrated into the host with no further complications.
A perfect, untraceable replacement.
Even the idea of it gives Soleum goosebumps.
He would rather not have to use such a dangerous item on himself in any capacity, but the only other option would be…he quickly darts his gaze over to the stranger's arm, which seems to be exerting very little effort to lift an entire grown man, and promptly returns his eyes to the extractor now pushing into his skin instead.
Yeah, sorry, Baek Saheon, but this poor, untrained office worker can’t retrieve your body under these conditions.
So this is the only real solution.
Kim Soleum kind of wants to cry.
Once the needle had fully sunk into his arm, he immediately started injecting Baek Saheon’s essence into himself.
Breaking the essence extractor was a precise process, so even as he heard a loud thud and cursing Soleum didn’t let himself mind it; it helped that he partially expected the reaction.
No way someone who was willing to use this type of item would be okay with another person taking the essence they’d worked so hard to gather, even if the attacker didn’t know what Soleum was actually doing.
So, he ignored it.
Focusing solely on the liquid slowly draining into his body and the way his body was feeling.
Until…
He felt it, the first sign of someone else inside him, and as soon as he did-
Swoosh
Kim Soleum switched it from injection mode back to extraction.
The item, which had just registered ‘Baek Saheon’ as an existing essence within the vessel, but before the essence had a chance to be assimilated into Kim Soleum, acted per its rules to try and entirely fill up with the essence it had marked for extraction- that being “Baek Saheon’s”- and dutifully started the extraction process once more. However, what the item had recognized as ‘Baek Saheon’s’ essence was actually what it had just injected into Kim Soleum, meaning it accidentally also started extracting ‘Kim Soleum’s’ essence- the item was never meant to hold more than one essence, and as soon as it registered a different essence within itself, it started overheating.
The two liquids clashed, bubbling violently against each other, causing a powerful reaction that warped the container of the syringe, blowing it outward and outward until it cracked. It almost seemed the liquid essence would escape through these cracks, but as soon as it touched air, it simply disappeared- which Kim Soleum recognized as the sign that the essence had safely returned to its original vessel.
Soleum let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, relief flooding him with the success.
But before he had a chance to remove the needle himself, a gloved hand pulled the extractor out of him instead.
With that, the flood of relief froze over, and any tension that might’ve been released from saving Baek Saheon piled right back on his shoulders. He carefully shifted his gaze upward, directly meeting the singular blazing eye of…
The attacker.
The exact same guy who managed to source an item as dangerous as the essence extractor was meticulous enough to devise a plan to attack someone in a secured employee dorm without anyone noticing and strong enough to subdue an agitated Baek Saheon with enough time that the extraction process- which is rather lengthy- had been almost complete when Kim Soleum arrived.
And he looked pissed.
Haha. Can Kim Soleum die now, please?
At least as long as his attention’s on Soleum, he won’t be able to do anything to Baek Saheon, who was still only slowly coming back to himself.
Needless to say, when the man lifts his fist clenched tightly around the ruined extractor, Kim Soleum expects at best that he’s going to get a black eye and at worst the needle will be torn violently through his carotid artery, leaving him to slowly bleed out.
What he absolutely didn’t expect was for that same fist to instead throw the extractor off into some corner of the room before lowering somewhere close to Kim Soleum’s collar like it couldn’t decide whether to grab him or not, while the owner spoke in a tone that sounded as if Soleum had personally offended him.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Excuse me?”
“What the hell were you thinking? Are you an idiot? Sticking something that dangerous into yourself, did you even know what it was?!”
“…?”
How exactly does this guy expect Soleum to react here?
Who chastises their victims like that?
Well, no. Technically he’d only attacked Baek Saheon, not him.
Then is this a case of a grudge or something?
That makes sense. Baek Saheon isn’t exactly the most pleasant person.
Still…killing someone, let alone completely overriding their existence, is way too extreme. Also way too scary to even imagine; no way he could watch it happen, ugh.
Isn’t it because he decided to do this in their shared unit that Kim Soleum saw it?
So it’s completely normal for him to assume this weirdo was after them both!
Unless the guy didn’t know… after all, it’s been less than half an hour since they were assigned roommates.
Wait, but then he wouldn’t have known Baek Saheon would show up either!
Was this a random attack on whatever poor sod happened to get assigned to this room?
But that circles back around to the original problem: why would he react to Soleum like that if this was an arbitrary decision??
No matter how Kim Soleum tried to make sense of things, this stranger’s thought process was completely incomprehensible.
Moments after his thoughts concluded, the now-annoyed voice made another comment.
“Well? Figured out an answer yet? Or at least thought up an excuse?”
Had he waited for Soleum to finish his thought process before speaking again?
That’s strangely considerate…
Or maybe just strange.
“No, I don’t believe I have reason to explain anything to you.”
A bitter look crossed the man’s face as he scoffed.
“Ha. Right, of course you don’t.”
‘Sir, what relationship do you think we have exactly?’
Before Soleum could try to tentatively probe at what this guy’s problem was, he suddenly turned on his heel to face Baek Saheon, who had stood up at some point and started discreetly inching toward the door.
Not discreetly enough, apparently.
Kim Soleum watched from behind as the attacker’s entire stance shifted once facing Baek Saheon.
Where once had been a tightly wound ball of anger that seemed to want to grab Soleum by the throat and shake him around, was now a completely relaxed- almost disinterested- figure.
He calmly clasped his hands behind his back as Baek Saheon froze under his attention and lightly tilted his head as if witnessing a simple curiosity. Soleum could hear the off-putting smile in his voice as he spoke.
“So you’re running away? Hmm, but that’s too bad…”
“What the hell are you saying, you bastard! Of course I’m- you You tried to Kill me!!”
“See, catching you would be no fun; after all, I already know exactly what you’d try to do, and it’d be too easy.”
As the blood drained from Baek Saheon’s face, Kim Soleum shifted far enough from behind the stranger to slip between the pair, placing his roommate behind him as he faced the weirdo who seemed to be talking about hunting people for sport.
And again the man’s energy shifted, more subtly this time, but he definitely grew more tense, and his gaze more focused now the Soleum was in front of him again.
Honestly, just from his reactions, one would think he had more of an issue with Soleum than Baek Saheon, yet the next words out of his mouth put that into a tailspin.
“Why are you protecting him?”
“…?”
“Because you…tried to kill him?”
“What does that matter!? You don’t even like m- him!”
Does he seriously have to explain this? Is he talking to a toddler?
Kim Soleum instinctively leans back a bit at the sheer genuine upset radiating off the man before him.
He feels Baek Saheon clutch his clothes from behind.
Probably making sure he doesn’t run off or something.
Jerk.
“I don’t want people to die, even if I don’t like them.”
In return for stating common sense, he gets a deep, searching gaze from the weirdo.
Which- look.
Soleum really didn’t think his response warranted such heavy contemplation, but he also didn’t tend to go around killing and replacing people, so clearly standards for basic decency were a bit up in the air here.
Speaking of basic decency, or a lack thereof.
Did that guy seriously just click his tongue at him?
“So this was really- whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
After muttering some nonsense to himself, he sighed, aggrieved.
“Haa, fine. Yes, if I was killing him, then it’d be... wrong or whatever, but Baek Saheon wasn’t going to die, so it doesn’t matter.”
“…”
He’s not implying that the continued existence of Baek Saheon’s essence is enough for him to be considered alive, right?
Please don’t tell Soleum that’s the excuse he’s going with…
There are truly numerous types of people in this world.
“Hey! Don’t look at me like that. It isn’t what you think; the Baek Saheon behind you would- cease. But! Baek Saheon wouldn’t die, because I am Baek Saheon!”
What?
“What!?”
That echo was Baek Saheon… the one behind him, for the record.
“No seriously, what the fuck is your damage? You broke in here, attacked and almost killed me with some strange item, and now you’re claiming to be me?! Shit, you’re insane!”
Well, if the item had worked, he actually would have become you.
What’s strange is that he’s still making the claim after it failed.
“You’re aware your extractor plan didn’t work, yes? Nobody here sees you as Baek Saheon.”
The Baek Saheon behind him let out an incredulous sound, probably realizing what Soleum’s previous statement implied, while the alleged Baek Saheon-
No, too confusing.
The Fake Saheon simply snorted.
“Sure, would’ve been nice if the plan worked out, but it was just for convenience. I was Baek Saheon from the beginning after all.”
“What does that mean?”
Kim Soleum had an ominous premonition that he might actually know exactly what was going on. He’d noticed earlier how similar Fake Saheon looked to Viper fanart he’d seen back home, but he didn’t have it in himself to confirm.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Baek Saheon- who was currently making a solid effort at tearing the back off of Soleum’s suit- had no such qualms, as he practically growled out the question.
And they received the exact answer he expected but the last one he wanted.
“I’m you. From the future.”
Ah.
The Viper.
“How.”
Isn’t this too much?
He only just came to terms with dealing with the younger, less experienced murder enthusiast.
“Wish ticket, obviously.”
Now Soleum needs to figure out how to survive a fully grown, prepared, and accomplished Viper.
Someone give him a shovel; he might as well start digging his-
Ack!
Rudely ripped from his breakdown by a certain violent clothes shredder behind him, who suddenly yanked his suit so hard he was pulled off balance, Kim Soleum became aware of the tension rippling between present and future.
Baek Saheon looked ready to explode, while Viper was staring at him like he thought he was an idiot.
“HOW COULD Y- shit! You wasted a wish ticket for some bumfuck reason when. When she’s- there’s more important. Things.”
“No. I didn’t waste anything.”
“Oh? Then let me guess. You screwed things up so bad in the future; the only way forward was to go back in time.”
Viper narrowed his eyes at the snark before taking a few steps forward and placing a hand on his shoulder as he loomed intimidatingly over Baek Saheon.
Kim Soleum glanced at the hand now suddenly on his shoulder, contemplating.
'Buddy, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to grab the person you’re trying to intimidate.’
Well, in this case, it seemed Viper was trying to stop Soleum from interfering- which could only be so effective with Baek Saheon determinedly tugging his meat shield back into place- so he could say his piece.
“I wouldn’t assume anything if I were you. And, oh, would you look at that! I am.”
“Wait, you didn’t manage- no way. Did you escape? Without a wish ticket?”
“Didn’t I just tell you not to assume-“
“If you did, tell me how! You have to- ngh!”
As Baek Saheon started demanding, Viper’s unoccupied hand darted out and did something out of Soleum’s line of sight, if Saheon’s pained noise was anything to go off of.
“No. Why would I tell you?”
“…what?”
“Do I look like an idiot? If I tell you, you’ll try and kill me. You wouldn’t succeed, but it’d be annoying.”
“Are you serious!?”
“Once we have something that can guarantee you can’t try to hurt me, I might consider telling you. But only if I’m in a good mood. So you might want to consider being more polite if you want to stay on my good side. I’m a section chief in my time, y’know?”
With Baek Saheon now busy muttering curses under his breath, Soleum decides to step up and make sure Viper doesn’t kill them both for their disrespect.
“Understood, Sir.”
Somehow, this is still the wrong answer as the Viper balks as soon as he speaks.
“Don’t do that.”
“Pardon me?”
“That. It’s weird; don’t be weird.”
‘Very good, I’ll just go ahead and die then.’ Soleum thinks while maintaining a perfect client-pleasing smile.
“I apologize Sir, but I don’t understand?”
“Just talk normally, acting all fake nice. Who’re you trying to fool?”
Hm. Soleum would really rather prefer if Viper at least let him go before making completely contradictory requests.
Every word that comes out of that guy’s mouth just seems to make everything more confusing, and he could really use some space to process everything that had happened in the span of not even a whole day.
Unfortunately he’s a bit caught in the middle of… whatever is going on between these two, literally even, with the way they’re both latched on to him.
It’s very overwhelming.
“Then could both of you please let go of me and back up a bit.”
An effective request, as both of them immediately wrenched back, looking various degrees of burned by the contact.
If it’s that upsetting, just don’t grab him, honestly.
It’s like managing children.
Dangerous, murderous children.
Scary.
“So, you’re Baek Saheon from the future, and you used a wish ticket to return to now.
Then in order to hide yourself, you created a plot to kill and replace your younger self using the essence extractor item. Am I understanding everything correctly?”
“Very basically, yeah.”
How casually he admits to doing something completely unhinged.
Deep breaths, Soleum.
“Why?”
“…”
“Why did you return?”
“I know what you're asking, but-“
He smiles smugly, and Soleum gets a bad feeling-
“I don’t believe I have reason to explain anything to you.”
Petty bastard.
Can he leave now?
Which he you ask? Yes.
Instead, Baek Saheon pipes back up with a sickeningly sweet, faux-polite tone.
“If telling us anything isn’t an option, why shouldn’t we just report this incident to Daydream? Sir.”
Is this guy shockingly naive? Trusting corporations to work in your favor, especially a pit like Daydream…
Needless to say, Viper's response is completely predictable.
“Feel free, but I should warn you they have systems in place to account for those that use their wish ticket for time travel. I show them my identification, and I’ll be added right back into the system as an employee! Highly convenient.”
“What does that matter? You tried to kill me!”
“Sigh. Was I really this ignorant? Didn’t I tell you before, as long as Baek Saheon is still alive undergoing a bit of ego death in order to return grown and better, it hardly counts as murder.
Daydream loves easy excuses that allow them to keep a clean record without having to put in any effort themselves. Trust me, I have lots of experience on that front.”
Terrifying way of putting it, but he’s not wrong.
Although, it does take a special type of person to willingly return to employment under Daydream after getting their wish ticket.
Most people who used it for time travel ran from Daydream and never looked back.
Kim Soleum shoots a look at Baek Saheon, subtly shaking his head.
They weren’t going to win this one.
The man only turns away sulkily, pouting.
“Reporting you is pointless, and you won’t tell us anything. At this point, maybe we should collect our thoughts. Privately.”
“If you knew it was pointless from the beginning, why not stop my younger self from talking like an idiot?”
“…”
“And who said I wouldn’t tell you anything? I just said I won’t tell you why I came back.”
“Then what are you willing to tell us?”
“Tell you and- nothing, for now at least.”
He was going to punch this bastard.
If you agree, just say that and go; don’t waste time.
It seemed Baek Saheon felt similarly, with the vicious glare he was sending the Viper.
Kim Soleum felt that maybe a bit of camaraderie had formed between them from being mutually annoyed by this snake.
All the while he was just watching them, vaguely amused.
“Fine, fine, it’s your first day, right? I’ll let you unpack.”
Finally.
He expected from there that Viper would leave, maybe out the door, or a window, even with an item.
But he’s quickly learning that expecting anything from this man is already giving him too much credit.
Instead, he marches right up to the door of one of the rooms and makes to enter, with all the authority of someone returning to their own space.
Which elicits a squawk from the intended owner of the room.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going? I was gonna take that room!”
“I’m aware; it’s my room too after all. That’s why I’m going into it.”
“What! So you’re kicking me out when you’re the intruder!? You can’t just do whatever you want just because you’re also Baek Saheon!”
“Dramatic. I’m not kicking you out; we’ll just have to share.”
Oh no, that won’t work.
He absolutely does not want to wake up to a bloodbath in the other room.
“SHARE?! Why should I? Go find your own-“
“Baek Saheon.”
“What!?”
“Let’s share instead.”
The offer shocked him enough that he actually calmed down; now he was just staring at Soleum like he’d spoken to him in fluent Flemish.
Was it that strange?
“You probably don’t want to share a space with someone who tried to kill you, right? Sleeping out in the open wouldn’t work either. So us sharing makes the most-“
“NO!”
At the extremely sudden outburst, they both turn to the third person who’s gritting his teeth out of embarrassment but still looking at them fiercely.
“Kim Soleum. You cannot share a room with him.”
“…?”
“What if he… does something to you?”
Like kill him? Certainly that wouldn’t be ideal, but Viper killing Baek Saheon isn’t really better.
“What do you propose then?”
“We can share. Then there’d be no problem, right?”
No, actually there are still multiple problems.
There’s no guarantee that Soleum is any safer than he would be with the younger version.
Viper is still all but stealing space in their unit.
And those rooms are only set up to house one person.
But…
“That…works.”
“Don’t agree so easily! This is why I need to keep an eye on you. Picking someone you hate over yourself- you’re so- !”
Why was he getting nagged for going along with what the guy himself wanted?
What was he even talking about?
Soleum decided to ignore him, turning to Baek Saheon- who was looking between them with an unfamiliar look in his eye- to see if he had any issues with the setup.
“…whatever. Better you than me.”
Hey. I’m doing you a favor here.
“See! He doesn’t even appreciate what you’re doing for him!”
If he has to put up with another second of this, he is going to scream.
Or cry.
Probably both.
That’s how he finds himself in a room with one bed and a nagging Viper, exhaustedly trying to figure out how he was going to make this work and still be able to sleep at night.
Haaaaaaa
Fuck.