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Soleum should have known something was off from the moment he walked into the building. The first thing that set off the alarm bells in his head were the looks he received upon entering. They weren't laced with any amount of suspicion, but rather pity.
Pity? Why? He could feel his heartrate pick up steadily. He'd been gone for a single day. Surely nothing major could have happened in that one day, right?
But, then again, they were Bureau agents. They could drop off like flies in a Disaster at any moment. It wouldn't have been anything majorly surprising if any one of them died over the course of a single day.
He cautiously made his way towards the Hyunmoo Team 1 waiting room, mind racing at a million miles per hour. On his way, he passed by Agent Haegeum, who patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, shaking her head in something like amusement. At that, the dread that had slowly been pooling in his stomach began to turn into confusion, nausea subsiding alongside it.
"Don't be too surprised," she said in warning, a playful smile gracing her lips.
"What does that..?" But before he could get his whole question out, she was already walking away and out of earshot. Soleum stared after the agent for a moment before returning to his original task, which was just to make his way to the waiting room.
He hesitated outside the door for a moment before steeling his resolve and opening the door, stepping inside the waiting room. "I'm… back?"
The immediate sight inside the room was odd. Agent Choi was sitting in Bronze's usual seat, looking nothing short of irritated. His clothes were different, too, being worn like how Bronze wore his uniform. As for Agent Bronze, he was the opposite. He was leaning over Choi, chattering about this or that. His uniform was worn like Choi's, loose at the neck and unzipped. When Soleum announced his presence, they both turned to look at him.
[Well, this is quite the predicament, Friend!] Braun's voice rang, light and amused. [Seems like these agents are not quite themselves.]
Not quite themselves? No, rather, it seemed like they were each other.
[Quite right!]
"Grapes-ie!" Not-Bronze exclaimed, waving him over. "Good to see you back. How was your day off? Ah, wait, I should be acting like Bronze-ie right now." His posture straightened, a more serious expression being plastered on his face. It was a little uncanny to see Agent Bronze attempting to do an impersonation of Agent Bronze. In an overly serious voice, he said, "Grapes-ah. How are you?"
"I don't sound like that," Not-Choi grumbled before locking eyes with Soleum across the room. "Ignore him, Grapes-ah. How are you?"
You sounded exactly like his impression of you, Soleum carefully didn't say. Though, that was mostly because Not-Bronze-Definitely-Choi got to it before he could.
"That's almost exactly what I said," he said incredulously, looking between Not-Choi (who, for simplicity's sake, he would now be simply referring to as Bronze) and Soleum. "Did you not hear that, Grapes-ie?"
Wisely, Soleum chose not to comment on that. Instead, he moved to sit down at his own desk and asked, "What happened? For you two to end up like this, I mean."
Choi, in Bronze's body, waved his concerns off. "Mm. Side effects of a Disaster we went into yesterday, you know how it is. What'd they say about it, Bronze-ie?"
"It's supposed to wear off by tomorrow," Bronze muttered, attention turning to the computer before him. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is awful."
"What? My body isn't that bad," Choi said, pouting. Again, the expression was extremely odd on Bronze's face. Choi turned to Soleum. "Listen, this guy's body is great, actually. It's such a shame that–"
"If you do anything to my body, I swear to everything that I will–"
Soleum watched them devolve into a nearly incomprehensible "argument" that consisted mostly of Choi teasing Bronze about various things and Bronze falling for the bait every single time. He looked between them and the computer in front of him, screen prompting him to insert his password, and he decided there that he doubted any work would be getting finished.
He pushed himself slightly away from the desk, crossing his legs on the chair and resting his hand on his cheek. For now, he'd just watch. He'd watch and make sure nothing got broken, because it seemed like they were about to start getting physical at any moment if the way Choi had Bronze's head in a headlock and was ruffling his hair was anything to go by.
Soleum couldn't help it. He snorted, devolving into laughter. The other two went quiet at that staring at him with shocked eyes before laughing themselves, Choi suscepting before Bronze did.
"Still, senior, get your– my?– arm off of me."
"Ah, you're so cold, Bronze-ie."
Rather than doing actual work that they had to get done, Soleum spent the grand majority of the day just watching his seniors try and work around the restrictions that came with using bodies that weren't their own. The whole situation made him incredibly glad to not have come in the day before, lest he also find himself in an unfamiliar body.
[Hm, I suppose it is fortunate,] Braun commented. [Though, Friend, you must admit that it would make for a fantastic episode.]
Not exactly the type of episode I would want to find myself in, Soleum thought. Watching it was amusing enough, certainly, but it wasn't something he wanted to find himself participating in. Still, he supposed it was one of the better things that could happen to a person coming out of a Disaster.
For the most part, they (by which Soleum meant himself and Bronze) came to the consensus that for the duration that whatever this was was active, the two agents should probably remain mostly within the waiting room. Choi had been more reluctant to agree, though Soleum was mostly sure that was a joke on his part, citing that he "wanted to see the world from Bronze-ie's eyes." Whatever that meant.
He was pretty sure that that just translated into him wanting to mess around with Agent Bronze's body, something that the other agent was adamantly against.
"How would you feel if I went around doing random stuff in your body?" Bronze attempted to ask.
Choi had just smiled, all trustworthy. "Aw, Bronze-ie, you wouldn't do anything bad in my body, though. You're too upright for that."
Soleum watched Bronze's (or rather Choi's) face flicker through several different emotions, both positive and negative but none staying around long enough for him to exactly pinpoint one before finally landing on resignation. He put his face in his hands, letting out a low groan. "That's not what I meant…"
I get it, Soleum thought, though he didn't say it out loud. Bronze wouldn't be the type to go out and do anything ridiculous in Choi's body, but whether that was true the other way around…
Well, he wanted to say that Choi wouldn't, but there was definitely no guarantee. He wouldn't do anything outright harmful, of course, but whether or not he would do something embarrassing was an entirely different story.
"Just… stay still for today, senior," Bronze said defeatedly. Choi pouted, but shrugged in assent. (And, wow, no matter how many times Choi would pout that day, the expression would never become something normal to Soleum.)
"Since my juniors are so insistent, I guess I have no choice."
Thankfully, though, that was the last of the eventfulness of the day. They actually did manage to get some work done, contrary to his initial expectations, which was definitely nice, though by the end of it he could tell both were growing to be very done with being in the other's body.
"I need a smoke," Choi groaned, laying his head on the table.
"I need to be able to breathe well," Bronze deadpanned. "Senior, please take better care of your body. This is awful."
"You're so mean."
At the end of the day, Soleum watched them go in the directions of their own apartments. "Uh, seniors?" he prompted, watching both of them stop and turn to look at him. "You might want to go to each other's places," he pointed out. "If you want to wake up in the right place."
"You're right," Bronze muttered. "Uh, senior." He watched them exchange keys before they both took off in different directions once more. I hope they're back to normal tomorrow, Soleum thought. I think I've had enough of that.
He was more than relieved to walk in the next day to find that, indeed, they had swapped back. He didn't know if the world could take it if they had remained that way for any longer.