Chapter Text
“……”
no agent, please don’t look at me I don’t know what’s happening right now. Who would even write a ghost story with this premise. WHY DID PEOPLE EVEN APPROVE OF THIS TO BE CANON?????
“roe….is that..a copy of you?…” please. Don’t call that thing me.
⊹ ࣪ ˖.✦ ݁˖ ࣪ ⊹
“……”
Where I originally belonged.
Home.
“…Haa.”
I let out a long, slow sigh of relief.
As if setting everything down.
I slipped off my shoes, set the massive black box in the entryway, and hurried inside.
The comforting scent.
The familiar, cozy space.
Surrounded by things I knew well, I set down my phone.
I took off my suit and changed into pajamas.
As the tension drained from my shoulders, an exquisitely comfortable fatigue washed over me.
A safe, gentle drowsiness.
There was… a client dinner tonight.
Right.
I had to go back to work.
But before that—just a little while.
“……”
I set an alarm and lay down in my bed.
And fell asleep.
A sweet, peaceful sleep.
Rest.
…….
It’s odd, I strangely feel like I’m in the air being transported somewhere. Maybe it’s just because I’m finally resting after so much time. I rolled over and….no longer felt my bed, I opened my eyes in alarm and all I could see was white.
“…huh?..”
looking around the whole room was white. White walls, white floor, and white ceiling. The only thing different was the piece of paper next to me.
‘I thought I went home? Was everything a dream?!—no. I did go home.’ I rationalized my thoughts and stared at the paper laying on the ground. I debated whether to pick it up. The experienced part of my brain knew that this was an obvious start of a ghost story..however I’m back home now.
My home with no ghost stories, I took a deep breath and picked up the paper. In all honesty I was shaking, from stress or from fear? I don’t really know anymore. I unfurled the paper and there was only one short summary on it.
‘Welcome home roe deer-ssi! As a final parting gift I’m handing you this opportunity to say your last goodbyes. When you’re ready rip the paper and a deer will appear ≧◉ᴥ◉≦! I quite enjoyed your story.’
…well, I think I committed too much to turn away now. What’s the worst that can happen? I’m home and safe, this….is probably a dream. I ripped the paper and turned around, no door. I blinked and it appeared, ‘that's not creepy at all?..’ I suppressed a shiver and opened the door. The light was shining brightly through the door, I stepped through it.
“Roe?!”
“I- Roe?..”
“Roe deer.”
“Agent grapes!”
“Grapes-ie??”
“Y-you?! How are you here!?”
“Sol— Roe deer-ssi?”
As soon as I stepped through the door, I heard familiar voices calling my names—well.. aliases. I stared at them in shock, how are they here? How am I here!? To my left was my old squad from daydream, Baek Saheon and Go Yeonguen was with them as well. To my right was my former bureau squad…my eyes feel kind of watery… I scrunched up my nose.
Blinking away the tears I quickly walked towards them, everyone (well, besides baek saheon who seemed to freeze for a second before joining the group) walked quickly towards me. As we met up in the middle of the giant room I felt myself smiling a bit, I was about to speak but…
“Grapes-ie we sent you home a long time ago?…how are you here?!” Agent Choi grabbed my shoulders and started shaking them, his face held confusion and anxiousness.
“Agent Choi, let him go so he can explain.” Agent bronze pulled Choi away from me. I caught my breath and finally processed what he said.
“…uhm, I don’t know if there’s a time discrepancy but in my perspective I just went home.”
At my words everyone stared at me in shock, it seems I was right as Agent Choi confirmed it, “haha….Grapes we sent you home around 4 months ago.” I nodded at that.
I don’t know why but seeing everyone here and learning that it has been 4 months in their world made me feel nostalgic. I pushed that feeling away for later, there was still one thing I was confused about, “Nevermind that, how are you—all of us here together?”
“Well…we don’t really know roe, before you appeared we just randomly..woke up? In this room! It seems the agents arrived first, we—” supervisor minseong gestured towards the rest of former D squad, “—came after, and then finally Goat and err Goral arrived.”
I nodded my head, before I could say more a giant blue screen appeared in the air above us. Everyone looked up in shock, the screen started glitching out to form words.
“WELCOME!! THIS EPISODE OF ‘Will They Break or Die!” IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY NONE OTHER THAN #$@&%”
???? Oh how alluring??? The world calls for you??????? Come closer????? He waits for your arrival???? Embrace the truth???? Ireum nim is watching us????? He sees us??!!??? Shine the truth on us??!!!!!? The bell rings for them?!!!!! Praise ireum!!!!!!!
…..
“ACKK!! I’m so sorry! That wasn’t supposed to happen!”
“HAHH…” I gasped looking away from the screen. I can feel blood dripping down my face from my eyes and nose. I quickly looked to check everyone’s condition but they weren’t doing much better. I stood up(when did I fall??) and quickly tried to support the person nearest to me, which was Go yeonguen. Her trembling hands held onto my shirt as blood continued pouring out of every hole on her face. I kneeled down ignoring the throbbing pain in my stomach to try and snap her out of her dazed state.
snap.
Just as sudden as the screen came, all our injuries disappeared and we were all changed into ‘comfortable’ clothes. I reflexively tried to walk back a step and saw someone manifest in front of us.
“…uhm, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you guys…” the girl standing in front of us felt so..vague? I was clearly looking at her but I couldn’t make out any details, I couldn’t describe her face, her clothes, or even her voice. I closed my eyes, when I opened them again she was now in the form of…me? To be precise it was ‘me’ during my time at the bureau, I instinctively knew that she was not human.
“crap shes going to kill me for this!!! I didn’t know they were this fragile?? I mean they encountered worse in the n0v3|…” the entity murmured to herself in front of us.. wait, when were we spread out? I’m also in a chair?…
“…. AHHH I SHOULDNT BE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW!!” The thing screamed. It turned towards us and its face was sullen…. “Ahem, I’m so sorry for what happened before! It really wasn’t our intention ahh… anyways!” It trailed off slightly at the end, “I brought you here to hmm, you’ll figure it out! We start soon so enjoy catching up!!”
snap
The silence was loud.
“What the hell just happened?!” Ah, it was no surprise Baek Saheon broke it.
“Goat why don’t you calm down? If you act recklessly and wildly you’ll make things worse for the rest of us..” supervisor badger tried to reason.
“Dont give me that crap! That…thing! Just admitted it kidnapped us for some random purpose!” Saheon turned his head towards me, “and you! I didn’t waste my hard earned points just so you can randomly come back?!” ..I swear I could hear some underlying worry for me in his words.
Assistant manager falcon and section chief lizard quickly stood in front of me. She glared at the guy missing an eye. “Hey. Yelling won’t do anything shut your mouth.” Saheon opened and closed his mouth, he glared back, “Why should I listen to you? You’re not even my superior anymore.”
As the bunch continued to argue with one another I moved away and stood next to yeonguen-ssi. She looked towards me surprised for a second, “Roe deer it’s..nice to see you again,” she smiled softly at me, I smiled back. “Its nice to see you too, even if in my time I just went back.”
As we conversed in small talk I felt something heavy drop on my back. “Aigoo.. what are we gonna do with you grapes-ie? It seems like you’re a magnet for these dangerous situations.” His face showed that he was joking but the tone was overly worried. I looked away in guilt. “..sunbae I didn’t expect to get caught up in this. I was sleeping when I dragged into this.” He paused and looked at me in surprise. “Y-you’re actually getting proper sleep instead of making excuses?!” Ouch.