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"Jaekwan-ah."
Jaekwan ignored him even as the voice took on a higher pitch, with the tone of someone who knew exactly how to press all his buttons. Years of familiarity tended to do that: give you the intimate knowledge of knowing exactly how to hurt the other. The report in from of him blurred, letters swimming against the bright screen. He had a headache.
"Jaekwan-ah," Choi continued stubbornly. "Jaekwan-ie, Jaekwan-ah, Jaekwan-ie." Each repetition managed to differ from the other. Despite himself, Jaekwan almost sighed and turned around.
"Jaeeekwaaaaaaaaan-aaaaaa-"
"Agent!" He regretted it as soon as he turned around, catching sight of Choi's unrepentant face.
Choi smiled. "There you are," he said. "I thought you were going to ignore me forever." Jaekwan could never. Choi had the singularly irritating quality of needling and prodding at Jaekwan's defences until he always looked back and swallowed down his protests and let himself be lead by Choi's schemes. It had been like that for as long as Jaekwan could remember, ever since he was an idealistic young agent hanging onto the words of Choi and Hongrim, quiet with the wonder of knowing he could stand in the Hyeonmu-1 waiting room and belong.
That was before though. Before his seonbaes died one after the other in the line of fire, threw their lives away for citizens without a second thought. Jaekwan had entered the Bureau when it had started to shift it's modus operandi. He liked to tell Choi he didn't remember how it was before. It was a lie, all he wanted to do was be as equally reckless and determined to save every last citizen. He held the Bureau's new guidelines to him close despite it.
Jaekwan exhaled softly. "I'm going to submit the report," he announced abruptly. The report, which detailed the latest of Choi's reckless, suicidal stunt to save every last citizen in the Disaster. He could still see the blood pooling in his hand, the sour pang of fear as he thought this is it. I've lost him, for good this time. He looked up again. Choi was still smiling, more plastic than genuine, and Jaekwan appreciated Choi didn't bother faking it well as opposed to merely faking it.
Choi didn't say anything. Jaekwan didn't bother, either. They'd had the same argument before, in millions of forms, in millions of ways. They'd talked it through and fought and had never ever reached a conclusion. Choi fell back to his desperate actions to save everyone. Jaekwan fell back to his rulebook, and memorised the lines with his long gone seonbaes' endings flickering at the back of his mind.
"Hey," Choi said, just before Jaekwan exited the waiting room. A beat, and rough lips brushed against his forehead, more an apology than a tangible promise. "Let's get food, after."