Chapter Text
Baek Saheon goes back to work.
After that crazy escape from Jisan Village, after running all the way down the mountain path carrying that heavy backpack, after bringing his sister’s bones back to his room in the company dorms and realising he cannot part with her, not just yet, Baek Saheon goes back to work.
…
He must be fucking crazy.
There is nothing keeping him here in this insane company. He does not need their stupid Wish Ticket any longer, not when he is finally free of that suffocating cult village. He can hand in his resignation, pack up his things, and find any other job in Seoul that will not try to kill him upfront.
Baek Saheon is free.
Yet, he washes up quietly, cleans off the dried mud caked on his shoes, and dumps his grime-stained clothes into the washing machine. He lays out his suit and black leather eyepatch for tomorrow. In the morning, he will clock in for work at the same time he usually does and get sent into some insane Darkness that wants his life or to ruin it beyond recognition.
Baek Saheon had already been contaminated deeply once, right after returning from a train that was bound for Mokpo but forcibly rerouted to Tamra by a Darkness. It did not help that the heartless Section Chief Lizard of D Squad kept dragging him back for interview after interview, asking him to recount his experience on the train to find out where their precious rookie went.
It did not help that he was the one who discovered the washroom in its bloodied state, with familiar items scattered all over, right after Kim Soleum vanished.
Baek Saheon rushes into his bathroom just in time and throws up the pitiful contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl. He heaves, puking gastric acid into its porcelain midst, and then stares dully at the disgusting mess he made. Ever since meeting Kim Soleum, he has been spending a lot of time in this situation for one reason or another. Now that he has vanished, even thinking about the scene of his last whereabouts makes Baek Saheon sick to his stomach. He still has not been able to clean out Kim Soleum’s room ever since the company declared him dead.
Trembling, Baek Saheon gets to his feet unsteadily and goes through the motions. Flush the toilet. Wash his hands with soap. Rinse his mouth.
Baek Saheon stares at his reflection in the mirror and his reflection stares back. There are shadows under his exposed eye. His medical eyepatch is damp with sweat and he rips it off, the purple and black eyeball that came from god knows where looking back at him. He leaves the bathroom and in his room, his sister’s skull sits on his desk with a white napkin neatly folded under it, stained with ashes from when her body had crumbled to bits the moment she stopped playing in the traditional band.
Baek Saheon stumbles out of his room and reaches blindly for the only other bedroom in this apartment. He is lucky they have not reassigned it to anyone else yet. He does not think he can stand having someone else in the same space as him this soon and… he has not cleared out Kim Soleum’s room yet.
It is still the same room Baek Saheon remembers when he bursts through the door. Neat, clean, barely looks lived in at all. He is sure that psychopath hid his things all over his room but he has not looked for them yet. Later, later, he keeps putting it off for later. He will clean it up later. He will think later. He will mourn Kim Soleum later.
For now, Baek Saheon falls onto the bed and curls up into a tight ball on the sheets, squeezing both eyes shut. Sometimes, he thinks he can still smell Kim Soleum’s scent on them, as faint as it is even for a beta.
Tomorrow… he will go to work again.
—
Nothing really exciting happens at Daydream Inc over the next few months, which Baek Saheon considers a solid win. He goes into Darknesses with his team, loses a few team members, watches them get replaced, rinse and repeat. After hanging on for more than a year, he finally gets promoted to Supervisor. With the new role, he is assigned a low-grade Darkness to manage, which means taking frequent trips to the Annex and heading down into the basement levels where they keep these stuff.
Today, something is different.
Instead of the single Security Team member at the front desk, there are two of them. He recognises the shabby man with the long, grey hair and bored, yellow eyes as a long-time Security Team sergeant but the other man is a surprise. Baek Saheon has seen him before, as part of Kim Sol— the D Squad, Supervisor Park Minseong. He heard something happened to him but he took that to mean resignation or death. He wonders what Park Minseong did to warrant his demotion to the Security Team.
As Baek Saheon approaches, he sees something else. Placed between the two Security Team members on the table is what looks to be a pet carrier and Baek Saheon eyes it warily. Is it some kind of Darkness? Tendrils of black smoke emerge from between the metal criss-cross bars and Baek Saheon shudders, resolving to stay far away from it.
“I’m here to access the—”
A wisp of smoke curls around Baek Saheon’s wrist and he freezes, sweat drenching the back of his suit immediately. He cannot see inside the carrier but he can sense something within its depths, something far larger than what the carrier should be able to contain.
The shabby-looking sergeant and the former D Squad supervisor look at the carrier quizzically.
“Is… something… the matter?” the sergeant asks, not Baek Saheon, but whatever is inside it.
Park Minseong’s gaze flicks from the carrier to Baek Saheon and lands on the goat mask hanging at his waist. Understanding dawns on his face, his mouth falling open in a little “o” as he whips his head around to stare intently at the carrier.
Black smoke flows around Baek Saheon’s forearm and he swears, he swears, he feels the barest imprint of fingers dancing along his wrist, brushing against the delicate bones under his skin, tracing along veins down to his hand before they encircle his wrist. Instinctively, Baek Saheon shudders. His well-honed self-preservation instinct is the only thing that keeps him from ripping his hand away. Who knows what kind of psychotic Darkness this thing in the carrier is? Why would the Security Team even carry something like this around in public?
The sergeant appears to be having some kind of conversation with the being in the carrier and Park Minseong picks up an access card and turns to Baek Saheon with a smile on his face. It is a smile that looks strained, not quite meeting his kind-looking eyes, but a gesture of goodwill on his end.
“You’re Baek Saheon-ssi, aren’t you?” Park Minseong asks him, the access card still in his hand. He has not made a move to give it to him yet and Baek Saheon does not dare move with the smoke still latched firmly around his wrist, feeling far too corporeal to be actual gas.
“Yes,” Baek Saheon answers in the most polite tone he can muster up. “Is something the matter?”
“Ah, um, don’t worry about it.” Park Minseong’s eyes drop to the smoke around Baek Saheon’s wrist. “He’s just… he’s just, um, inspecting you.”
???
That sounds like a problem. Baek Saheon has never had to go through any kind of inspection to get to his designated Darkness. So why now?
The sergeant nods his head at the carrier and the smoke retracts. Suddenly, Baek Saheon can move again and he reaches for his access card immediately, practically plucking it out of Park Minseong’s fingers.
“Thank you,” Baek Saheon says quickly. “I’ll be on my way.”
The sergeant unlocks—no, it was never locked—and opens the door to the carrier and dark smoke flows out of it, almost engulfing Baek Saheon entirely. Something steps out of the small carrier, through a door barely the span of two human hands, and the only reason Baek Saheon does not run is because he is certain he will be caught even if he does.
Black combat boots touch down on the floor one at a time, attached to a bipedal, human-shaped being entirely clad from head to toe in the black uniform of a Security Team member. A gas mask obscures its face and a crown of horns that resemble branching rib bones sits atop its head, looming tall over Baek Saheon. Yellow gas lamps illuminate the black smoke from within as this creature from a Darkness steps forward into Baek Saheon’s space and gazes down at him.
Baek Saheon feels so small. And scared.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Baek Saheon’s screams repeat endlessly in his head. He cannot have survived Jisan Village and all the other fucked up Darknesses only to meet his end here.
The monster before him lifts a black gloved hand and reaches towards Baek Saheon—and he flinches away from it violently, his green eye wide in fear. At that, it pauses with its hand stopped in mid-air. Baek Saheon stares up at the gas mask where a face should be and tries to tamp down on his rising terror.
Did he fuck up? Did he offend this thing somehow? Would it try to kill him with the smoke or directly with its hand? Could Baek Saheon make it out of the Annex before it reached him? Why weren’t the Security Team members doing anything?
The monster moves its hand towards Baek Saheon’s face, the smooth leather of its glove brushing his skin. Baek Saheon squeezes his eyes shut, expecting it to rip his eyeball out of his face (again, again, not again), but it only adjusts the eyepatch over his left eye, tugging it into place so the strap fits more snugly against his face. Then, it drops its hand down to its side and does not do anything else.
Baek Saheon blinks, his heartbeat thumping rabbit-quick in his chest, every instinct in him screaming at him to run. Was that it?
“You can go now,” Park Minseong tells him kindly. He is still smiling but something about it seems sad.
Baek Saheon nods and backs up slowly, about to speed-walk as fast as he can to the elevator.
“He won’t hurt you,” Park Minseong adds, his gaze resting on the monster momentarily before returning to Baek Saheon. “Try to come back to see him more, won’t you?”
“I’ll try.” Baek Saheon smiles without meaning it, then turns and speeds away.
Like hell he will.
—
The next time Baek Saheon is at the Annex to manage his Darkness, he sees the exact same combination again: the shabby sergeant, the ex-D Squad supervisor, and the pet carrier.
“What are they? Some kind of fixed combo meal?” Baek Saheon thinks irately to himself.
He had been hoping to avoid them—or rather, one of them in particular—but it seems like he is out of luck, or they have it out for him. He does not like the implication of that latter thought. Steeling himself, he approaches the front desk.
It goes surprisingly smoothly. There is no smoke, no monster manifesting from the too-small carrier to intimidate him. Baek Saheon accepts the access card from Park Minseong and turns to leave quickly, not wanting to linger any longer.
Click.
The sound of a cage door swinging open.
Oh, fuck.
Heavy combat boots tread on the floor behind him and Baek Saheon does not turn around. He keeps walking straight for the elevator like nothing happened… and he hears footsteps follow behind him all the way there. As he waits for the elevator to arrive, he glances to his side and the thing from the carrier is right there beside him, billowing black smoke around it.
As if sensing his gaze on it, the gas lamps turn in his direction.
Nope, nope, nope. Baek Saheon snaps his eye back to the elevator, swearing violently inside his head.
When the elevator arrives, he gets on and so does the monster. They do not exchange any words—he is not sure if it is capable of communication, even though he thinks he saw the sergeant talk to it. It does not press any buttons on the elevator and when Baek Saheon steps out onto his floor, it steps out after him.
Fuuuuuuck.
“Sir.” Baek Saheon turns and smiles blandly at the monster. He is so sure this is some kind of Darkness they let roam free as part of the Security Team so he puts on his best behaviour. “Are you getting off here too?”
Smoke billows out and Baek Saheon sees it form words in mid-air, courteously at a height where he can read them comfortably.
Affirmative
“Do you have business here too?”
Affirmative
“In that case, I won’t bother you then. The Darkness I’m managing is this way…” Baek Saheon turns right, heading for a familiar corridor.
It follows after him.
Why is this damn thing so fixated on him?
Baek Saheon has no choice but to commit and he walks all the way to the storage facility containing his assigned Darkness with the Security Team member following behind him. It stays with him all the way as he does his management work, waiting patiently by the door until he returns before tailing him again.
“Sir…” Baek Saheon asks, annoyance overtaking his fear at this point. “Was your business just to follow me this whole time?”
Silence comes from the creature and he turns his head to look at it, searching for any words made of smoke he might have missed.
“Did I do something wrong…?”
Negative
“Then why are you keeping such a close eye on me? If I’ve done something to offend you, I will apologise.”
Negative
Baek Saheon stops right before the elevator, barely holding back from jabbing the button repeatedly to take his frustration out on it.
“Why are you following me?”
Silence. Then, slowly the smoke rises up again and spells out a word, and then another two.
Purpose:
To stay
A chill runs up Baek Saheon’s spine. “You want me to stay here?”
The strange being shakes its head as if frustrated, the first sign of agitation Baek Saheon has seen from it, and he unconsciously backs up towards the elevator doors. It stills immediately and the smoke rises once more.
Purpose: To stay with
Subject: Baek Saheon
“Why?” Baek Saheon asks, baffled. What on earth did he do to receive such a curse?
Request
“Yours?” Baek Saheon asks uncertainly. What did it mean if a non-human being wanted to stay with him? Nothing good for sure. He would probably end up as a missing person if he lets this thing follow him around.
Requester: Baek Saheon
“Me?” Baek Saheon repeats, confusion and astonishment rising up in him. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you to do anything. Sir.” He tacks on the last word respectfully.
The being only stares at him, gas lamps in place of its eyes, washing him in yellow light. The smoke forms another word.
Stay
The elevator arrives and Baek Saheon gets on it, followed once more by the odd Security Team member. His head is full of more questions but he does not dare to ask anything else when trapped in close quarters with it. What sort of misunderstanding had he landed himself in? He only met it for the first time that one time and it is not like he had spoken a word to it. He had just stood there and let it adjust his eyepatch.
Baek Saheon arrives safely at the Annex lobby and returns his access card. Park Minseong takes it, his face hiding none of his curiosity as he peers up at Baek Saheon, glancing between him and the creature.
“Did you both talk about anything?”
Baek Saheon hesitates before speaking up. “Um, I think it might—”
“He…” the sergeant corrects from behind the desk, his yellow eyes trained on him and Baek Saheon realises uncomfortably that they look more like the eyes of a beast than a human.
“Sorry. I think he might have misunderstood something. He mentioned I asked him to stay with me?”
“Did… you?”
“We’ve barely spoken.” Baek Saheon smiles apologetically.
From behind the desk, Park Minseong looks at him like he wants to say something but then he visibly deflates and stays silent.
Black smoke billows up in front of Baek Saheon once more and he sees unexpected words form.
Apologies
For discomfort
A sincere apology, even if it is from someone with a monstrous form.
“No, it’s ok…” Baek Saheon finds himself responding. “You don’t have to apologise or anything.”
Greetings and introduction (delayed)
130666
Just a number? Baek Saheon vaguely remembers that the sergeant sitting behind the desk had some alphabet and number as his name too. Maybe they got codenames once they joined the Security Team.
Baek Saheon bows his head slightly towards the being that calls himself 130666. “You seem to already know my name but I’ll formally introduce myself too. I’m Baek Saheon.”
Baek Saheon
He lifts the corners of his lips in a well-rehearsed corporate smile. “Yes. I’ll be going then.”
Yellow gas lamps stare at him silently. Then more words form.
Come again
From behind the desk, Park Minseong chimes in, “You heard the guy. You should drop by again, Saheon-ssi.”
“I will,” Baek Saheon says. He does not want to, not willingly, but he has to come back to manage his assigned Darkness after all.
Baek Saheon peers up at 130666, his eye roving around the gas mask that covers his face and the branching horns that crown his head. Almost like deer antlers.
…
Fuck. He must be going crazy if he keeps seeing him in everyone he meets.
With that, Baek Saheon turns on his heel and leaves the Annex.
—
Shit, shit, shit.
Baek Saheon runs, feeling as though his lungs are about to collapse, his heart beating so fast that it might burst from his chest. He does not look behind him. He cannot risk it. What if it gets him the very moment he turns his head?
He had headed down to the basement in the Annex for his routine Darkness management, just like any other day he was here. The staff at the front desk were not the usual three he had come to expect by now so Baek Saheon thought his luck had been taking a turn for the better. Who knew that his luck was actually absolute dogshit today?
Containment failure.
The moment he exited the room containing his assigned Darkness, he knew that something was off. A sticky trail of liquid across his path that had not been there when he entered. The sound of childish giggling echoing around him. A persistent gaze on him, coming from somewhere. He had not wanted to look but he has to, if only to identify what he is up against.
A doll smiles at him from around a corner, holding a knife dripping blood and gore. In a blink of an eye, it is standing right before Baek Saheon, the knife tip about to stab him in the calf.
Tag, you’re it.
Baek Saheon dodges right before the knife touches him but the blade rips through his pants leg, slashing across his ankle. He hisses in pain but he cannot stop, pushing himself up from the floor on his hands and legs and breaking out into a sprint, his head racing as he thinks of a way out of the basement.
He could go for the elevator but it would take too long to arrive. By that time, the doll would have already stabbed him full of holes. Vaguely, he remembers there is an emergency exit somewhere in the basement but he does not know where exactly is it, which means spending time searching for it, all while this doll is chasing him down at an inhuman speed.
As Baek Saheon runs through all his options, he spots an emergency button nearby and sprints towards it, smashing it with his fist.
Evacuation alert. Darkness containment failure. Security Team has been notified.
From a vent next to the blaring alarm, black smoke flows out, sinking to the ground. Footsteps ring out, the heavy soles of combat boots striking the ground as the familiar shape of 130666 forms right in front of Baek Saheon.
Something sharp bites into Baek Saheon’s back and he hisses, feeling blood soak through his shirt and the back of his jacket.
130666 moves.
Smoke rushes towards Baek Saheon, obscuring his vision and choking him. He feels the knife in his back vanish, clattering to the floor, and he keeps running, unsure if he is trying to get away from that cursed doll or break free from the smoke.
Hehe.
I caught you.
IcaughtyouIcaughtyouIcaught—
Something shatters into pieces behind him and the child-like voice stops abruptly. The smoke flows away from Baek Saheon and suddenly he can breathe again. Pain flares from the open wound in his back and he collapses to the ground on his hands and knees, gasping for air with tears streaming down his eyes and fluids pouring from his nose and mouth.
A hand touches his shoulder tentatively and he flinches, jerking his head up.
Baek Saheon
Question: Current status
Baek Saheon coughs out a pained, humourless laugh. “Stabbed in the fucking back. My ankle got sliced too.”
Hands roam over the areas he just mentioned—no, that does not make sense. That is too many hands on him to be normal. Smoke runs over him, which he thinks is 130666’s way of checking him over. Then, with more gentleness than expected, 130666 picks him up and cradles him to his chest, carefully avoiding his stab wounds.
As 130666 gets to his feet, Baek Saheon’s knees are on either side of 130666’s waist and his legs are dangling in mid-air. Hands grip him under his thighs, holding him against a solid chest and he instinctively puts his hands on 130666’s shoulders, scared of falling backwards in his state. As 130666 starts walking to the elevator while carrying him, a thought hazily forms in Baek Saheon’s head through the pain settling in as the adrenaline wears off.
“You couldn’t have carried me on your back instead?” Baek Saheon wants to ask 130666. What is with this absurdly intimate position? Even being carried like a sack of potatoes would have been better than whatever this is.
However, he keeps his mouth shut as 130666 heads for the elevator and steps into it the moment it arrives. He is in enough pain and he can feel himself bleeding sluggishly all over his shirt and jacket. Ugh, this means he will have to get new ones and those cost quite a bit. His pants are ruined too so he might as well get a whole new suit.
As his blood leaves his body through his back, Baek Saheon feels light-headed and he drops his head onto 130666’s shoulder. A gloved hand comes down on his head, stroking his hair clumsily.
“What are you doing?” Baek Saheon mumbles sluggishly against his shoulder.
In front of him, he sees words form in black smoke, stark against the bright lights of the elevator.
Reassurance
Safety
“From someone like you?” Baek Saheon mutters. This is what his life has come to, being cradled by a walking nightmare while bleeding out from a stab wound in his back.
The hand in his hair pauses, then pets his head lightly.
Affirmative
Baek Saheon’s head droops against 130666’s shoulder as he mumbles out, “Ok, maybe this isn’t so bad.”
He passes out.
—
When Baek Saheon comes to, he is in a familiar place. White walls, the scent of disinfectant, the occasional scream of pain in the background and hushed, crazed laughter. He is in the infirmary in Daydream Inc.
Baek Saheon is lying on his stomach on one of the beds, his head swimming with half-formed thoughts and memories. Someone had carried him out of the basement and into the lobby. He thinks they might have tried to leave the Annex with him but were stopped from doing so. He vaguely remembers alarms blaring everywhere—and, oh, he got stabbed, didn’t he?
He turns around on the bed and groans. It feels like they put something on his back to stem the bleeding, wrapping bandages around his middle to secure it to him. His ankle feels tender and when he tugs his pants leg up he sees it similarly wrapped. Someone had changed him out of his suit and into hospital pyjamas and the stench of fresh blood he had been drenched in no longer lingers on his person.
As Baek Saheon sits up in bed and takes stock of his situation, wondering if he should take a low-grade regeneration potion to speed up his recovery, the door to his ward swings open and someone walks in, winding his way around the beds and headed straight for Baek Saheon.
White hair, green eyes, and glasses. The annoying face of someone he does not want to see comes into view.
“Hello, Baek Saheon-ssi,” Kwak Jekang greets him with a cheerful smile. “I heard that you’re awake now.”
Barely. Out of sheer willpower, Baek Saheon pulls himself together, forcing his scattered thoughts into some semblance of order. He is not about to be caught off guard by this asshole and sent off into some situation to die miserably.
Baek Saheon nods at the researcher warily, waiting for him to get to the point.
“I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear the Darkness that attacked you was successfully subdued. Almost erased entirely, actually. Do you know who might have done that?”
“No. I don’t remember much after getting stabbed,” Baek Saheon replies.
Kwak Jekang’s smile deepens. “What a shame, especially after 130666 saved you so valiantly.”
Baek Saheon remembers that. He remembers black leather gloves cradling him so carefully and so gently to a firm chest and a hand patting his head, fingers threading clumsily through his hair. He does not remember what happened to 130666 after he brought him back to the lobby.
This asshole knows for sure. That is exactly why he is here.
“Security Team member 130666 seems unusually fixated on you.” Kwak Jekang wastes no time and jumps right into it. “Do you have any idea why?”
“Fuck if I know,” is what Baek Saheon wants to say.
Instead, he says slowly, his exposed eye wide and unsure, “I’m not sure either. I don’t believe I’ve done anything out of the ordinary.”
“Hmm. Has it said anything to you? Anything unusual?”
Request: To stay with
Subject: Baek Saheon
There is no way he is ever telling this crazy researcher that.
Baek Saheon pretends to think then shakes his head. “It only introduced itself.”
“Oh? What did it call itself?”
“130666.”
Disappointment shows on Kwak Jekang’s face but it does not last long as he brings out a tablet and looks at something on the screen, words that Baek Saheon cannot make out reflecting off his glasses. “I have another question for you, Baek Saheon-ssi.”
“What is it?”
“What was your relationship with Kim Soleum, the Field Exploration Team employee called Roe Deer?”
Baek Saheon freezes. Why are they asking him this? Why now, after all this time?
“We were housemates who joined the company in the same year,” he answers, forcibly unclenching his jaw and speaking as calmly as he can.
“Hm, in your interview after his disappearance, you called him your ‘friend’.”
Baek Saheon grits his teeth. He only said that so he would look good when the higher ups got their hands on the interview transcript. Friends with the top recruit? He must be just as elite then. He had hoped that would be the thought process but who knew it would only bring him more trouble?
“We were friends but not particularly close ones. He always kept his distance.”
“Did he now?” Kwak Jekang drawls, scrolling on the screen with one finger. “I found something interesting in his company profile though. He had you listed as a dependant.”
Baek Saheon cannot breathe.
“Not only that.” Kwak Jekang’s eyes are on him, watching his every reaction. “He’s taken official time off for his dependant’s heat. That’s you, isn’t it? You’re listed as an omega in your company profile and your days off line up.”
Why did he look it up?
“Ah, not only that. I found something interesting in your medical records too.” Kwak Jekang’s eyes gleam, leaning in like a hyena digging into a rotting carcass. “When you surgically implanted that interesting purple eye into your left eye socket, you also took time off for a certain procedure, didn’t you? Kim Soleum and you must have been awfully close for that little accident to have happened. Did you even tell him about it?”
There are no words that Baek Saheon can form now. His throat has closed up. He wants to throw up. He sees the washroom in the train and the blood, so much blood, and Kim Soleum’s items littered all around. There are still items back in his room, a room that Baek Saheon has not cleaned up yet.
“You must miss him terribly, don’t you?” Kwak Jekang asks, far too merrily for someone taking a knife to Baek Saheon’s open wounds and twisting into them. He is bleeding out again.
“I don’t,” Baek Saheon forces himself to say, the words grating against his throat.
“Not even as a ‘friend’?”
“I’m sorry that he’s gone but that’s how things are in this company, isn’t it?” Baek Saheon grits out, every word a struggle for him. He just wants this damned researcher to leave him alone.
“So cold to the man who helped you through your heats.” Kwak Jekang shakes his head. “Maybe if things had gone differently, the two of you could have started a little family together?”
Not for the first time in his life, Baek Saheon contemplates murder. The urge rises in him so sharply and so strongly that for a moment, Baek Saheon thinks he might actually do it. Bash his head in. Kick him until his ribs shatter. Take a knife to him and stab until nothing but a bloody pulp remains. Anything to get this man away from him right now before Baek Saheon claws his own eyes out to escape the grief flooding him from within all over again.
“I’m sorry I can’t be of help if you want to know more about Kim Soleum,” Baek Saheon says woodenly, bile rising in his oesophagus when he says his name. “I would like to rest now so if you would excuse me.”
“Of course. I’ll leave you be then, Baek Saheon-ssi. Enjoy your precious rest, especially after you were so fortuitously saved by that thing called 130666.”
Kwak Jekang finally rises from his chair but Baek Saheon does not relax at all, his shoulders raised to his ears. He knows that something is coming for him since this devil of a man is here. He wishes that they would all just go away and leave him alone.
Sure enough, Kwak Jekang gets in the last word, eyes glinting behind his glasses in satisfaction like he had gotten something out of Baek Saheon after all. After Baek Saheon had tried so hard not to give Kwak Jekang whatever he was here for.
“I’ll be in touch again.”
The door swings shut and Baek Saheon curls into a ball, knees up to his chest and shaking hands covering his head, staring sightlessly ahead of him.
—
“You have a new assignment, Supervisor Goat.”
The expressions on his team members’ faces range from sneers to envy to pity, all of them quick to pass judgement on the unusual assignment that had landed on his desk the moment he was deemed well enough to go back to work.
It is not a Darkness. It is not a team mission. It is a hell of Kwak Jekang’s own making for sure, specially tailored for Baek Saheon for whatever reason.
Until further notice, Supervisor Baek Saheon will be housed in Annex Basement Level 13, Room 666. Regular duties as an employee of Daydream Inc in the Field Exploration Team will be carried out during work hours. Outside of work hours, Supervisor Baek Saheon is expected to stay in the designated room.
Overtime pay will be granted.
His team leader looks at him with pity. “Baek Saheon, did you get contaminated by something when you were down there managing your Darkness?”
“You fucker, you know I nearly died down there because of a containment failure.”
He had been cleared of any contamination but was recommended to go to the Fox Counselling Room for any lingering trauma. The nameplate is back in his room, sitting on the desk next to his sister’s skull.
“No, my test results came back negative,” Baek Saheon forces himself to say instead.
He wants to punch the condescending look off his team leader’s face as he says, “Take care that you don’t end up becoming a Security Team member yourself. Once your contamination gets too bad, they never let you out of the basement.”
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you know?” His team leader leans in like he is sharing a company secret. “The Security Team members are all said to be employees who got too deeply contaminated. They can’t come back to work normally like us so they use them for clean up and to suppress Darknesses.”
So that means the shabby-looking sergeant, the ex-D Squad Supervisor, and perhaps even 130666…
“Here, Saheon, your team leader cares about you so take this to protect yourself from the freaks down there.” His team leader presses what looks to be a crudely drawn talisman into his hand.
From the look on his assistant manager’s face, this is a joke for sure, but at whose expense, Baek Saheon does not know. All he can do is take the crappy talisman and shove it into his pocket while thanking his team members for their concern through clenched teeth.
When Baek Saheon returns to the company dorms, he packs. They never said this would be a permanent reassignment or that he cannot return to his room ever so he just takes the basic necessities he needs and a change of clothes. His eye keeps going back to his sister’s skull on the desk but there is no way he is taking it with him into the basement. Who knows what he would attract to him by bringing it there?
…
He should really cremate it.
Just like how he should clean up Kim Soleum’s room once and for all.
But he does neither, stuffing all his belongings into the same backpack that had seen him down the mountain path from Jisan Village. He has all his items hidden all over his person, in easy-to-reach and hard-to-spot places. It is the least he can do if he is heading down into that Darkness-ridden area. With that, he heads off to work overtime.
—
It is quiet in the Annex when Baek Saheon enters through the doors. Most of the lights have been switched off for the day and the front desk only has one person manning it, that shabby-looking sergeant who looks like he could not be bothered even if a Darkness walked in through the front door. Baek Saheon approaches him, his eye sweeping the desk for a familiar carrier but it is not there.
“I’m headed to the basement. Level 13, Room 666.”
The sergeant does not move. It is like he had not heard Baek Saheon at all. Just when the silence stretches on long enough to be awkward, he stands up. It is like watching a scarecrow in motion, his clothes hanging off his bony, lanky frame. He does not stand up straight, almost like he does not care to, and he gestures for Baek Saheon to follow him as he shambles off to the elevator.
“If… the elevator stops at other levels… don’t get off…” the sergeant tells him as they head in.
Baek Saheon nods. Even without being told, that sounds like a terrible idea.
The elevator stops at basement level 7, even though neither of them had pressed the button, and Baek Saheon very carefully does not look down the dark corridor when the doors slide open. A shuffling noise starts up somewhere in the distance, slowly at first and then ramping up in speed as it approaches, and Baek Saheon backs away into a corner of the elevator, ready to use an item if he needs to.
He does not. Just as the shuffling noise reaches its peak, accompanied by what sounds like the uncomfortable cracking of joints, a shadow in the shape of a wolf jumps out of the sergeant—no, it is the sergeant himself—and bars the open doors, drooling jaws open and snarling at whatever had dared approach.
The noise outside the elevator stops. The doors slide shut smoothly. The elevator proceeds to the lower floors.
Baek Saheon is wedged into a corner of the elevator, his back flat against the wall. The wolf turns its massive, monstrous head in his direction and sniffs the air once, its too many eyes rolling in every direction before fixing on him. Then, it vanishes as if sucked back into the worn-out, lanky frame of the sergeant.
The elevator stops at basement level 13.
“Be… nice to him… alright?”
Baek Saheon nods mutely, all the colour drained from his face.
The sergeant leads the way out of the elevator and Baek Saheon follows closely at his heels, ignoring all the doors they pass by until they reach the one that Baek Saheon is assigned to.
Room 666.
The sergeant knocks politely on the iron door. Black smoke billows out from a gap under the door before the door creaks open, ever so slowly.
130666 stands in the doorway looking down at both of them, washing them in yellow light from the gas lamps that make up his eyes.
“I… brought him…”
Gratitude
“Have… a good night…” The sergeant shambles off down the dark hallway like a Darkness himself, vanishing almost in an instant.
Baek Saheon looks up at 130666. Despite towering over him, he still retains a humanoid shape. Two legs, two arms, a torso, a head— well, Baek Saheon is not sure about that last one since he has not seen what is behind the gas mask for himself. The branching horns above his head crowd the top of the door, looking as if they would not pass through the doorframe, but they never catch on the edges, slipping past like smoke instead.
No one told him that Room 666 in basement level 13 already had an occupant. Now that he thinks about it, it makes sense. 130666. They named him after a damned room.
Come in
130666 steps away from the doorway and Baek Saheon enters the room he will be staying in for the far, unforeseeable future.
He blinks.
It looks identical to the company dorms he left behind. Four walls, a bed, a desk, even things like a laptop and microwave. If Baek Saheon had not made the horrifying trip down in the elevator, he would have thought he hallucinated leaving the dorms.
130666 shuts the iron door behind him and it closes with an eerie sound of finality, bringing Baek Saheon back to his senses. He is still in the basement of the Annex, where they store Darknesses and other creepy stuff. His roommate appears to be this guy who definitely does not look human. Baek Saheon has no idea what they want him to do at all.
Baek Saheon
Curling black smoke in front of him catches his attention and he reads the words that form before him.
Question: General wellbeing
Confused as hell.
Baek Saheon guesses that 130666 is asking about his physical health instead of his mental condition so he answers, “I took a low-grade regeneration potion so my wounds have healed.”
130666 does not physically emote but Baek Saheon can sense the relief radiating off him. Was he worried?
“… I haven’t thanked you yet,” Baek Saheon says, turning to look at 130666 in his lamplight eyes. “For saving me in the basement and bringing me back to get treated.”
Unnecessary
“Just take the thanks,” Baek Saheon scoffs, eyeing him. “It’s the least I can give you after all that. You did save my life after all.”
Suggestion:
Call for help with expedited speed in future situations
Baek Saheon scowls. “Hey, I hit that emergency button as quickly as I could.”
Suggestion:
Avoid being stabbed in future situations
Baek Saheon jabs a finger in his direction. “You think I wanted to get stabbed? Not everyone is made of smoke like you.”
Suggestion:
Enlist 130666’s help in future situations
Baek Saheon snorts but something in his chest softens at that last suggestion. “It’s not like you’re around me all the time.”
He puts his backpack down and starts unpacking his belongings. 130666 comes to stand over him, his gas lamp eyes staring down at the things he takes out with curiosity. Baek Saheon shakes out his sleepwear, an old shirt and sweatpants, then goes looking around the room for a place he can clean up.
While 130666’s room resembles the inside of the company dorms down to the slightest detail, Baek Saheon realises that some things are just props. The laptop and the window for example. Thankfully, there is a working bathroom, even though the water that comes out from the tap smells like rust, and Baek Saheon takes a cold shower since it seems like they had not bothered to install a heater for 130666 or him.
When he emerges from the bathroom, smelling fresh and chilled to the bone, 130666 is standing there, looking through the things in Baek Saheon’s backpack.
“Don’t touch my stuff,” Baek Saheon says sharply.
130666 looks up at him. Baek Saheon throws his laundry into a basket by the desk, moving on instinct since the placement of everything in this room is the same as it is in his room back in the dorms. This also means there is only one bed and Baek Saheon can guess whose it is.
“Do you… sleep?” Baek Saheon asks the question that comes to mind.
Affirmative
Now, this is awkward. Baek Saheon does not want to sleep on the floor. Who knows what might have been on this basement floor before? He has slept in horrible conditions before but he is in no hurry to subject himself to anything like that when there is a perfectly good bed in sight.
Recommendation: Take the bed
“Are you sure?” Baek Saheon asks cautiously. “Where will you sleep?”
Standing
He suspects that if the sergeant learns he had evicted 130666 from his bed, the wolf might bite his head off.
Baek Saheon throws himself down on the bed. It is a big enough bed, comfortable enough to fit at least two people—he would know that after all. While 130666 looms over him, it is not as if he is a massive, hulking beast. He is just a bit broader than Baek Saheon, that is all. Maybe a little taller. The antlers look like they might poke out his remaining eye in his sleep if he is not careful though.
“Just sleep beside me,” Baek Saheon tells 130666 irately, “but don’t jab me in my sleep with all those horns of yours.”
…
Affirmative
130666 gets into the bed with him and Baek Saheon shuffles to one side of the bed, leaving plenty of room for him on the other side. He watches 130666 lie down on the covers, uniform, boots, gas mask, and all. It does not look comfortable at all.
“Hey, can’t you take that all off before you sleep? Are you anticipating that something will attack you in your sleep?”
Negative
Necessary for body to remain in uniform
A brief pause.
To retain form
Baek Saheon’s stomach roils at that last statement, whatever that may mean.
“Fine, suit yourself. Can you switch off the lights?”
A tendril of smoke stretches out and neatly flicks the light switch, plunging them into darkness. In the dark, Baek Saheon spots tiny pinpricks of light around the room that alert him to the number of hidden cameras that have this room under surveillance. He turns to the other side to face 130666 and sees his half of the bed awash in yellow light, lit up like a nightlight. Noticing Baek Saheon looking, 130666 uses his smoke to dim the lights coming from him until it is a bearable level of light pollution for sleep.
Well. He seems like a decent roommate.
Baek Saheon turns onto his other side so that his back is facing 130666 and goes to sleep.
Sometime at night, he thinks he feels an arm creep over his waist, tugging him back against the body behind him in a hug. It is so achingly familiar that Baek Saheon does not move. He does not breathe, he does not even dare wake up. He keeps his eyes shut and wills his mind to remain in that drowsy non-waking state. That way, if turns out to only be a dream, at least he can stay in it for just a little longer.
—
“That’s mine, you know.”
Shake.
“Can you even eat that?”
Shake, shake.
“What, do you just want to see me eat it?”
Shake, shake, shake.
“Alright, give it here.” Baek Saheon holds out a hand and 130666 lowers the cup ramyeon he had been holding aloft with his smoke down into it.
Baek Saheon has been living as 130666’s roommate for about a week now and so far it has been surprisingly peaceful. On his list of previous and current roommates, 130666 ranks pretty high. He keeps things clean and neat (he does not appear to have any personal items), he is not noisy or overly talkative (he cannot speak), and he only bothers Baek Saheon in little ways like this, which is pretty harmless for a supernatural being like him. There is the matter of his sleeping habits though, especially since they only have one bed in this room. Baek Saheon is certain that 130666 has taken to using him as his personal body pillow, but Baek Saheon never brings it up and even he does not know why.
On his list of locations he has stayed in before, Room 666 in basement level 13 has to be second last, beaten only by a certain rural village in the mountains. Whenever Baek Saheon comes down here after work hours, he dreads the elevator ride down, which always has a chance of stopping at a level he did not select. Thankfully, the sergeant had escorted him down on the first night. After that, 130666 had taken over, waiting for him at the front desk every evening after work, even if Baek Saheon returns late from a Darkness exploration. He also sends him up in the elevator every morning when Baek Saheon has to get to work, the both of them going their separate ways after Baek Saheon arrives at the lobby.
From what he knows of the Security Team, 130666’s job consists of suppressing Darknesses should they ever break containment. They also ensure that no one sneaks into the basement levels for whatever reason, which Baek Saheon is sure would be certain suicide. 130666 has also alluded to other duties he has but communication via smoke is limited—or he cannot say it, just like how Baek Saheon could never speak about what happened in his village to any outsider. He gets it.
Sometimes, while cooped up in this room with 130666, Baek Saheon thinks about asking him other questions he knows he might not get the answers to. Who 130666 used to be, if he was once human. How he ended up like this. What did it feel like to be so deeply contaminated. All uncomfortable questions for sure and Baek Saheon has only been here for a week. Who knows how long more Kwak Jekang wants him to stay here for? He is probably watching them at this moment with his creepy researcher eyes through the multiple cameras planted in 130666’s room, observing and recording them for his own sick and twisted reasons.
Baek Saheon twists the cap off a bottle of mineral water he brought down here with him, pouring it into the kettle to boil water for his ramyeon. While the noodles cook, he slaps 130666’s hand away and waves away his smoke when he tries to peer under the lid to see if it is done more than once. When it is finally done, Baek Saheon lets 130666 inspect it, the delicious steam that rises from the cup mixing with 130666’s black smoke. Then, he eats the noodles while sitting at the desk as 130666 watches him.
He is not sure what kind of information Kwak Jekang wants but the observational data has to be horribly mundane. 130666 does not do much in the first place and Baek Saheon is just a regular employee.
Baek Saheon holds out the cup ramyeon to 130666 but he shakes his head, pushing it back to him with his smoke.
Unnecessary
“Do you not need to eat or can you not eat?” Baek Saheon asks as he slurps up more noodles.
Both
Something in Baek Saheon’s chest twinges at that. He has seen the other Security Team members eat at the front desk so it is not like all of them do not or cannot eat. He wonders what is the state of 130666’s body under that black uniform.
“Is there anything you like to do?” Baek Saheon asks.
130666 appears to think about it for a moment before he forms a word out of smoke.
Unnecessary
Baek Saheon furrows his eyebrows. “Not even a hobby? Like watching TV shows or something?”
Negative
Unnecessary for work
“It isn’t all about work, you know?” Baek Saheon puts down his cup ramyeon and rummages in his backpack for something he threw in impulsively. He digs out a pack of cards and places them on the desk between them. “Do you know how to play?”
Affirmative
Baek Saheon shuffles the cards then deals them. They play a few rounds of blackjack, then poker, then solitaire before finally devolving into building a house of cards. Every time the stacked cards look like they are about to collapse, a tiny wisp of smoke holds the offending card in place and they both hold their breaths—or at least Baek Saheon does—before stacking more of them. In the end, they build an entire house out of all 52 cards, which is the most Baek Saheon has ever done, even beating the previous record he set with his sister. When he squints his eye, he can see that every card is held in place by the faintest puff of smoke and he turns a grin on 130666.
“Cheater.”
Negative
No rules were given
Baek Saheon laughs. He had gotten up while they were building the house of cards, walking around the desk to find the best places to put each card. Now, with that accomplished, he sits back down comfortably.
On 130666’s lap. Almost as if his body is moving on instinct.
As the back of his thighs settle atop of 130666’s leather-clad ones, Baek Saheon jumps up, suddenly very aware of what he was about to do. However, he does not leave 130666’s lap. One of 130666’s hands rests on his knee and his other arm loops around Baek Saheon’s waist, holding him in place.
Stay
130666’s gas mask rests on his shoulder, his chest pressed up against Baek Saheon’s back and his arm hugging him close. It feels horribly familiar, like Baek Saheon has been held like this before. This close, the branching horns around 130666’s head fill the corner of his eye, twisted and textured in a way he does not want to recognise.
Deer antlers.
Baek Saheon needs to throw up.
He shoves 130666’s arms off him and nearly falls to the floor in his haste to scramble off his lap, lunging blindly for the bathroom until he makes it to the toilet bowl. He hates that he always has to come to the bathroom to do this because it makes him remember the washroom in the train. The blood. The scattered items. The inhumanly large arm that had reached out and shoved him. The talk show programme that had reached into his mind and scrambled it.
Kim Soleum.
His vision blurs as he retches, throwing up everything he just ate into the porcelain bowl. His eyes water, streaming with tears as his body heaves involuntarily. His legs are weak, folded under him like broken caprine limbs. When he turns his head away, gasping for air, he sees 130666 standing right outside the bathroom door, blocking the light coming from the bedroom and casting an inhuman shadow over the bathroom floor. Too many horns, a body that needs a uniform to retain its humanoid shape, a gas mask that cannot speak or eat. Was he ever human to begin with?
Baek Saheon
“What?” Baek Saheon responds dully, sniffling and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He knows this routine by heart now. Flush the toilet. Wash his hands with soap. Rinse his mouth. He cannot stand up. Does he even want to stand up anymore? He is so tired of trying. He wishes that he could bury himself with his sister’s bones. Someone else can clean up Kim Soleum’s room. Baek Saheon just wants to rest in the dirt and not know anything anymore.
If he leaves this room, Kwak Jekang will witness what just happened. No, he already saw what happened on those damned cameras. He wishes that everyone would just leave him alone.
Hands touch him tentatively on the back, pulling his head away from where it is slumped over the lid of the toilet bowl. His body leans back against a solid chest and hands wipe the vomit gently from his mouth. A bottle of water is put to his lips and he sees smoke puff out before him, almost anxiously.
Rinse
Spit
Rinse
Spit
He follows the instructions without thinking until the inside of his mouth tastes less sour. A damp cloth wipes his face, drying the tear tracks staining his face and cleaning up the mucus streaming from his nose. 130666 gathers up Baek Saheon’s body from where it is crumpled against the toilet bowl like a broken doll and stands up, carrying him out of the bathroom and back to the bedroom.
“No… I don’t want to…” Baek Saheon moans, his single, exposed eye rolling around wildly and tracking every camera he knows is in the room.
Black smoke fills the room, pushing up against all the walls and the ceiling, covering every nook and cranny where something could have been hidden.
Safety
Reassurance
Baek Saheon
Baek Saheon
…
Apologies
Baek Saheon laughs hysterically, tears streaming out of his eyes afresh. “Why are you apologising? You of all people? You’re the only one who ever tried to do a damn thing.”
130666’s grip on him tightens. Instead of placing Baek Saheon on the bed, he sits on it while still cradling Baek Saheon on his lap. Baek Saheon struggles, shoving at 130666’s chest and shoulders with his hands, and 130666 lets him even though he could so easily overpower him. He pushes 130666 back flat on the bed and crawls on top of him, knees on either side of his waist and hands gripping the collar of his uniform.
“How much of you is left in there, Kim Soleum?” Baek Saheon whispers, looking right into his yellow gas lamp eyes.
…
…
…
Uncertain
Baek Saheon slumps against him, his head resting on his chest and hands still curled in his collar as he lets his body go limp on top of Kim Soleum’s. Arms wrap around his back, holding him tight, and a gloved hand cups the back of his head tenderly. Baek Saheon wishes that the both of them would just disappear from this world. Kim Soleum already went missing once and ended up in this state. The next time he does, he should just take Baek Saheon along with him.
“I’ll stay with you.” Baek Saheon closes his eyes and breathes in the strange scent of leather and smoke wrapped around 130666, so different from the odd lack of scent he associates Kim Soleum with. “Fuck, just don’t go anywhere without me again. If you want to die, take me with you. If you want to live, take me with you too.” Just don’t leave me alone again. It’s so miserable. I missed you. I don’t want to be alone.
He does not say the rest. He cannot. It has already taken so much of him to even get this far.
Kim Soleum strokes his hair gently, almost as if moving purely on old memory, and does not say anything.