Archive of Our Own ^beta

Despite thinking themselves prepared, everything went wrong in the blink of an eye. 

The mission statements were straightforward— it was meant to be another test for their newbie member, something a little harder than the previous rescues, but still fairly doable for their youngest. 

Agent Choi himself insisted on it when he read through the information that the Investigation Team brought back: stories of children going missing in the middle of the night, and shaken adults who spoke that their kids had been taken away by the ‘Bogeyman.’ A classic modern tale of monsters hiding under the bed or in closets, except one that ended with torn-apart families. 

With the miracle missions that Hyeonmu-1’s newest rookie managed to complete, surely this was nothing more than a step up from his previous encounters. 

He wanted to know how Kim Soleum would handle something like this, especially since he claimed to be scared of the very instances that he so easily conquered. The dichotomy between what the rookie felt and his accomplishments were just too wide a gap to currently understand. 

The worst thing was that Choi genuinely believed their Agent Grape when he said he was scared. 

Yet he couldn’t help but test it. 

1372PSYA.1989.나39 was an Idle Type Disaster featuring a supernatural creature commonly nicknamed by Bureau personnel as the Bogeyman. Akin to the Dragon Palace, every once in a while Bureau teams were sent after the creature in hopes of finding missing children before they disappeared forever. 

The difference was that attempts at pretending to be children did not deceive the Bogeyman, and thus their missions were based on stealth, as the creature attacked every adult that attempted to intrude into its lair. 

With the right equipment and care, the mission would have been a good fit for testing Kim Soleum’s abilities. 

Team Hyeonmu-1 had all the proper gear and information for what should have been an easy, if thrilling, stealth mission to search for missing children while avoiding a stalking monster of the night. 

None of them expected that the simple ritual to enter the Bogeyman’s lair (walking along a residential hallway with creaky floorboards three times before entering the bedroom of a recently taken child, and then turning off the nightlight and slowly crawling under the bed in the dark at 3:33am) would end with their immediate discovery— 

Along with Agent Grape being physically pulled into the Disaster just as he was attempting the last part of the ritual, eyes wide with horror behind his glasses as he attempted to scramble out from under the bed only to be yanked inside in one smooth stroke. 

Agent Choi was too experienced to utter his curses aloud, although he was most definitely cursing up a storm in his mind as he and Agent Bronze chased after their newest team member, at first squirming his way under a child’s bed amongst fallen clothes and discarded toys, and eventually ending up in a more twisted and labyrinthine darkness that expanded outward so they could first crawl and then finally run, until the space underneath the bed became its own dimension as expansive as a forest with a moonlit sky above them. 

The supernatural space had exaggerated and oversized objects, with toy blocks the size of people and upright picture books that acted as walls to guide them along certain paths. The entire world was dark, with the stars in the sky more like glow stickers on a ceiling, and clouds like a looming cot mobile that swayed in a circle. Anything too far away faded out into black, as if the entire world just fell away into darkness. 

From area to area, there were nightlights to light the way like a movie set: some revealed plush toys the size of small houses, while others looked like parts of a perfectly normal child’s bedroom with a dresser full of colourful but worn clothes, or a blanket fort surrounded by twinkle lights. 

There was no sign of a monster, or of their teammate. 

Next to Choi, Agent Bronze looked agitated, already equipped with his glass gun, and his worry evident even in the dark. 

“Which way?” He asked, and Agent Choi— 

He didn’t know. 

Their whole plan had been for the three of them to sneak in and slowly explore the area, mapping it if they could, searching for any missing children. They were supposed to be avoiding the monster, not chasing after it! 

He pulled out his jakdu and stuck it down into the floor, a mere imitation of a soft bedroom carpet that ended up splitting apart as easily as loose soil. 

All of their original plans included stealth— a slow and steady approach, in and out before the witching hour ended, leaving markers to retrace their path and come back to the same bedroom. 

But that was based on the idea that the Bogeyman would hardly even notice their presence. 

This was different. 

The slightest movement, barely more than a breeze in the dark, and Choi turned his head to stare off in that direction. 

“That way!” He called out, pulling out the jakdu as he and Bronze set off immediately in the direction of the movement, their original plans thrown out the window entirely. 

It would be fantastic to rescue any children while they were down in this realm, but their priority would have to be their kidnapped teammate before anything else. The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau was not going to lose such a promising young talent less than a handful of missions into his career, not on Choi’s watch. 

This was meant to be a test, not a death sentence. 

The monster was known to attack adults, known to try and drive them out of its territory, often leaving heavy injuries on those who escaped. It had never once pulled an agent into its lair, not even when that person was disguised as a child—!

Another smooth movement in the darkness camouflaged between the spotlighted areas, and Choi and Bronze moved to follow again, skidding to a turn around a wall of children’s books with brightly painted animals that faded eerily into the darkness, the cartoon eyes watching them as they passed. 

Another movement, and this time it was higher than before, climbing up a mountain of plastic dolls in the dark, each large enough to be full-sized mannequins, and Choi darted to follow, his feet slipping and sinking around plastic limbs and tangled hair. 

Fuck, it was almost impossible to find a proper foothold, like sinking into an uneven ballpit, but he wasn’t going to let that monster get away! 

The dolls fell and scattered on the floor as he attempted to climb them, and he made a disgruntled noise and stopped, finding a stable bit with his back foot and then arching his back down before using himself as a bow to propel his jakdu forward like an arrow, throwing it at the moving shade with as much force as he could manage. 

There was an unholy shrieking noise that cut through their ears, echoing into the night, and Choi reached out to grab onto Bronze’s hand, the man having made his way higher in the brief time Choi had stopped to launch the attack. 

It would do nothing against the Bogeyman, of course. Merely slow the monster down for a few moments until it untangled itself from the weapon. 

“Bronze!” Choi roared out, and the other man took the cue to pull him up in one overexaggerated feat of strength, using the momentum to swing him up higher on the mountain of dolls, letting go after he himself was pushed down by the swing. 

Choi landed above Agent Bronze’s position on both hands and feet, the knock of plastic against plastic loud in his ears even as he scrambled to get his footing, pushing himself up on the uneven surface and then quickly darting forward again, one arm out for balance atop the mannequin-like dolls and the other pulling out a dokkaebi lantern from underneath his jacket. 

The dokkaebi fire flickered, and then grew brighter in the darkness, illuminating the space with an unearthly blue glow and casting eerie shadows around the area as it grew bigger, bigger, until it looked like it would envelop Choi’s entire arm as he raced forward. 

Ahead, a dark mass shrieked yet again, writhing around the stuck jakdu and the glow of the fire. He could see tangled hair and black, leathery skin wrapped around fingers that ended in claws. Another flicker of the goblin fire and he could see rows and rows of sharp teeth in a maw that was far too large for the silhouette of its head, peeling back all the way to where the ears might be. 

Another flare of the dokkaebi lantern, and bits of the dark mass sizzled away from the light, like it was catching fire at the edges.

The monster’s form pulsed, rearing back from the light, hissing as Choi approached and it quickly extracted itself from the jakdu to once again flee, although this time back down onto the ground, back into the darkness to hide, staggering from hurt. 

Choi wasted no time, running to grab the handle of the jakdu and yanking it out of the book wall where it was embedded, before jumping down the tower of dolls, giving chase once more with the dokkaebi lantern held in front of himself to light the way. 

A mere moment later, he could hear the heavy footsteps of Agent Bronze right on his heels, and then hear a thunderous shot as the glass gun fired, and the swirling mass of darkness in front of them flinched away to make a sharp turn past a night light illuminating an empty dining table covered with childhood drawings until it fell onto the ground. 

“I’ll take left!” Bronze gasped out as they ran, and Choi didn’t waste the breath to agree, already swerving right to go around that illuminated set piece. Ordinarily, they would not have split up, but double the path meant double the chances of catching the monster. 

Where was Agent Grape?! 

It hadn’t looked like the monster was carrying a person when it was attacked earlier, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to a supernatural entity. If it had eaten Grape, then Choi would split open the creature’s stomach to dig their youngest out with his own hands. 

As if responding to those grim thoughts, the Bogeyman ahead of them let out a high pitched wailing that reverberated the surroundings, urging him to cringe back and cover his ears, although Agent Choi chose not to do so. Even if he bled out by the ears, even if his eardrums burst from the cacophony, he wouldn’t have stopped or slowed down at that moment. 

Another wall of books blocked his way, and Choi jumped up rather than slowing down, a foot on the wall to push himself off and change directions mid-run and not lose any speed. 

The creature ahead of him grew wispier, fainter in the dark, as if trying to fade away to something invisible— 

“Oh no you don’t!” Choi snapped, bringing forward the dokkaebi fire again and letting it flare bright in the dark, even as it burned against the skin of his hand, his arm, creeping up onto his clothes in a phantom heat up to his torso and neck. 

The dokkaebi fire sputtered a moment and then flared outwards like a starburst, until he felt blinded by it even as he continued to run, speeding toward not the sight but the sound of the Bogeyman screaming in pain with only blind trust that the path ahead was clear. 

All of this was merely a stopgap— the Investigation Team had long since written the warnings in its report: the monster can’t be permanently harmed. Its weakness was light, but even that only made it disperse until it could gather itself together again. Within its own domain, it was nigh immortal. It was a Disaster they hadn’t been able to contain, hadn’t been able to mitigate; only tried to follow and steal back some of the children. 

With that thought in mind, Choi swung his other arm in a circle for momentum and threw the jakdu again, the dulled blade piercing through the dark mass to pin it down, the blade sinking nearly halfway into the ground with some liquid flickers of blue dokkaebi fire attached from where it arched through the light as it was thrown. 

On the other side, Agent Bronze appeared from a turn in the wall, skidding on his heel the moment he saw the situation, and threw a luminous net over the dark creature that made it shriek louder in protest. 

The net sank down onto the writhing mass of black, and then tightened itself into a ball like a trap, imprisoning the monster inside. 

It would, of course, only work for a minute or so, but they would have to make do with that. 

(It had originally been part of the emergency supplies meant for their escape in the event they were caught by the monster, in order to slow it down— to capture and confront it had been unthinkable just minutes before. Yet it was being used for this purpose now, and all Choi could think was that Grape was driving him insane. )

Choi nearly fell forward as he slowed his run and stopped before the monster, watching it shriek and struggle against the net as he brought the dokkaebi fire close to it, bits of blackness sizzling off from the creature in smoky wisps. 

On the other side, Agent Bronze did the same, breathing heavily and stumbling a bit before he came to a stop. 

…The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau had written into the report for 1372PSYA.1989.나39 that it was not to be confronted. It would chase and attack agents in its domain, very often resulting in brutal injuries. It couldn’t be killed, and could merely be slowed once in a while. All agents were to use stealth to hide from the monster as they explored, with the best case scenario being that they never alerted it at all. 

Choi heaved for breath. His legs were burning, in a different way from his hand and arm holding the dokkaebi fire, and he leaned over to brace his free hand against his thigh, baring his teeth at the monster like an animal as it tried to hiss at him. 

Oh gods, he already felt too old for this… 

Of course, that was merely an illusion. If the Elder could continue the fight against the supernatural disasters, then he had no excuse to stop. 

Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, he gritted out, “Where is he?!”

The monster hissed at him, black clawed hands gripping the net surrounding it, trying to scratch it to pieces. It wouldn’t take long before it managed to do so. 

And then he and Agent Bronze would have a difficult fight on their hands. 

On the other side of the monster, Agent Bronze also demanded, “Where is the agent that you grabbed? What happened to him!”

As the younger approached aggressively, Choi held out his free arm to block him from getting too close to the monster, pressing a palm in a calming manner on Bronze’s chest. They didn’t know what it would do, after all, and he didn’t want two teammates down.

The monster revealed a wide, gaping maw of teeth, rows and rows that spanned inwards like an infinity mirror, and then managed to surprise both agents as it shut its jaw with an audible gnashing of teeth and hissed out— 

M I N E !

It wasn’t so much a sound as a deep echo in their mind, layers folding in upon layers of reverberations vibrating within their skull. It didn’t feel like a language , not a word either of them knew could be uttered by the human tongue, but it was understandable nevertheless.

Choi merely flinched back, the dokkaebi lantern still up and strong, but Agent Bronze reeled and covered both his ears with his hands, almost curling up into a ball as he stumbled back a step. In response, Choi stepped in front of him before the monster.

M I N E M I N E M I N E M I N E M I N E
goodchildgoodgood
MINEMINEMINEMINE

There was a liquid trickling from his ears, and Agent Choi grimaced and gritted his teeth against the way those words, those sounds or echoes or whatever it was, seemed to shake his very being, until it looked like the world around them was vibrating. 

“He’s not a child,” Choi rasped, pushing his words together over the wailing of the Bogeyman, “he is not yours! Where is he!”

Perhaps Agent Grape was once again living up to his nickname as the Disaster King Rookie despite not even being there at the moment, since Agent Choi had never seen this Disaster monster so panicked and so helpless. Had it not been for the kidnapping, neither he nor Agent Bronze would have dared deviate from the instructions to stay out of its sight. 

Perhaps after this they could amend the manuals, could inform other teams that the Bogeyman could be taken down, even if it was for brief periods of time. Not slowed, but stopped in its tracks entirely.

That is, if they managed to get out in one piece. 

Long, clawed fingers shot out from the holes of the net and attempted to scratch at him, but pulled back against another flare of the dokkaebi fire. The monster hissed once more, twice, before it finally started to settle, still writhing, still agitated and screaming, but with less furore than before. 

It gnashed pointed teeth at him again, its long black hairs moving like liquid around its body to obscure its form from view. 

goodchildgoodMINEMYCHILDMYCHILDRENMINEMINE

Behind Choi, Agent Bronze was slowly acclimating to the inhuman language, still wincing in pain that was exaggerated by the blue light of the dokkaebi fire, but there was also the sense of bewilderment in the furrow of his brows.

This… didn’t sound like a monster that wanted to harm children. 

youBADyoustealBADtakeCRUELBADBAD
CHILDRENgoodCHILDRENMINE

The more words that rushed out, for whatever words they were, the more it felt— wrong. Like the monster under the net was the victim, the weak creature bullied by predators, and it was lashing out and crying against the treatment when it had done nothing wrong. 

Like they were the villains in this scenario.

But Choi could only think of one thing from this. 

“Does this mean you have all the children?” He demanded, shoving the dokkaebi fire forward again until the Bogeyman shrieked once more. “All of them? All the ones you’ve taken?”

Could they save all the children in one fell swoop? Was this possible?

His fingertips trembled at the possibility, at the families that would finally heal. The people they could help. 

This was the very reason that the Dispatch and Rescue teams existed. If they could save all the children, just like they had in the Mermaid Graveyard… but even more this time—

The Bogeyman snarled back with teeth and claws. 

notyoursnotyoursNOTYOURS
M I N E 

“Where are they?” Agent Choi demanded. The trap would not hold for much longer. That meant they didn’t have time for pleasantries or niceties. They had a teammate to find, and innocent children to rescue. 

At this point, he shoved the dokkaebi fire so close that the lantern brushed against the glowing net, the light nearly warping the monster that was trapped inside and screaming. 

“Where are Agent Grape and the children?!”

MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE

As if responding to the scream, the environment around them vibrated, roiled, until even the starry ceiling and the cot mobile clouds were shaking violently. Some of the nightlights illuminating various scenes flickered and then went dim, the set they were in slowly fading to something illusory. Other nightlights turned cold and muted. Around them, the children’s book walls trembled and shrunk until Choi could see the various lights from further instances over them. 

Dimly, distantly, there was one light that stayed steady and warm in the shaking world. 

Choi and Bronze exchanged a quick look, their thoughts in sync. 

There!  

They both moved immediately, Choi only pausing to grab his jakdu before abandoning the monster trapped under the thinning net to vault over a crumbling book wall and race off into the darkness with the dokkaebi fire, now at a more reasonable light, guiding the way. 

Behind them, there was a pitched screaming, and the world shook harder. 

It only served to emphasize that one spot in the distance that stayed solid and stable. 

The trap wouldn’t hold, wouldn’t last, and once the monster was free, it was certain to do grave damage. There would be no hiding for either Agent Choi or Agent Bronze now, not once the Bogeyman was angry and actively hunting them. 

But that would be a problem for future him to solve. Right now their greatest lead was the one place that the Bogeyman continued to protect even as the rest of the realm was crumbling. 

The stable light drew closer and closer as they ran, dodging various falling obstacles along the way. There was a giant teddy bear that fell before them for them to climb, and a pit of marbles for them to wade through. 

As they drew closer, they could see the warm nightlight illuminating the scene of a child’s bedroom: bright wallpaper and shelves overflowing with books and toys. There was a small desk with various school workbooks, a dresser, and a side table next to a single bed covered with a warm blue duvet. 

Behind them, the screaming grew into roaring, the pitch lowering and lowering until it sounded like an ominous rumble chasing them. 

Around them the world crumbled into bits, the darkness spreading and consuming like an abyss actively eating the scenery. The ground underneath their feet was unstable, shaking, trying to make them lose their footing. 

But Bronze and Choi were both consummate Bureau agents, experienced at keeping their focus on escaping until their minds narrowed to only the path in front of them. They ran, they jumped, they stumbled and pushed themselves back to their feet again, until finally they arrived at the scene of the sweetly lit bedroom. 

The moment they stepped onto the set, the rest of the terrifying world faded away, and rather than the darkness surrounding them and the stretched fake ceiling, suddenly they appeared to be in a real bedroom; small and crowded with personal belongings. 

The nightlight atop the side table was one that shone with stars, projecting a faint and colourful image of the galaxy onto the walls and ceiling as it rotated. Next to it was an open music box playing a low and sweet lullaby, complete with a small spinning ballerina. In front of both objects was a carefully folded pair of glasses. 

There, sleeping soundly under the covers of the single bed in the room, was Agent Grape, curled up facing them with one hand tucked sweetly next to his face, his dark hair a mussed halo spread over the patterned pillowcase. Underneath the warm covers, his legs were curled up to fit on the small bed, guarded by an oversized pink bunny plush that smiled at them with black button eyes. His shoes were neatly arranged at the foot of the bed.

The music box played on, and the stars projected onto the walls and ceiling danced merrily to the rhythm. 

It was Agent Bronze who approached first, dropping to one knee next to the bed, one hand out to check on Agent Grape’s pulse. After a brief moment, the man let out a relieved breath, and both knees hit the ground as he said with a shaking voice, “He’s okay.”

Choi let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, his lungs screaming as he finally breathed in deep after that, the toll from both the run and the pressure getting to him physically. 

But it wasn’t over yet. The Bogeyman was still after them, and they were still in its lair. 

On the small bed, Agent Grape stirred, making a sleepy noise as he moved his hand slightly higher as if to hide his face, like a cat hiding from the light. He made a quiet noise as Agent Bronze set a gentle hand on his shoulder to wake him. 

The man opened his dark eyes slightly and then blinked blearily at them. 

“...Agent Bronze?” He slurred quietly, sounding half asleep. He frowned. “...Agent Choi?”

“C’mon, Grape, time to get up now,” Choi urged him, coming closer to the bed as well. He smiled widely to encourage their youngest into waking, but his entire body was tense with vigilance, too aware that they were not in a safe place, no matter what the visuals would suggest. 

It could not, would not, lower his guard here. 

Agent Grape pushed himself up, revealing the loosened tie and slightly wrinkled shirt under his Bureau jacket. He frowned, looking down at his attire as if just realising that something wasn’t right. He then looked up at the room, and then startled to full wakefulness. 

“We’re in a Disaster,” Agent Bronze informed him, tone soft but words straightforward and rushed. “Shoes on, we need to go right now.”  

As Choi stood guard with the dokkaebi lantern out, adjusting his grip on the jakdu as Agent Bronze quickly ushered Grape into his shoes and to stand, until— 

The door to the bedroom opened. 

The blue dokkaebi fire in the lantern suddenly flickered out, as if blown out by an invisible breath like a weak birthday candle versus an enthusiastic child.

All three of them froze, Agent Grape still seated tensely on the child’s bed. 

Choi attempted to move, to throw his weapon, but found himself frozen in place not of his own volition. Like a spell, like a statue, he found himself a prisoner of his own stiffened body as a figure stepped calmly over the threshold into the small bedroom. 

It was a petite woman, unassuming, with a faint spray of grey sprinkled through a short boy-cut hairstyle that framed a round face with faint smile lines around the mouth. She didn’t look particularly striking, instead rather plain and without a hint of makeup on. She wore a warm sweater and loose jeans rolled up at the bottom to reveal bare ankles and low socks under her house slippers. 

There was something to her features— something familiar, and she smiled as she saw them. 

No. 

When she saw Grape. 

She didn’t spare a look at either Bronze or Choi. 

With two steps, she crossed the small bedroom and stood before Agent Grape, leaning forward with one hand extended to touch his cheek lightly. 

“What are you doing up, child?” She tsked, and switched her touch to his hair. Even her voice was warm and soothing, like a gently reprimanding mother. “You need to catch up on your sleep.”

It sounded nothing like the inhuman and eldritch words from before, but Choi knew the moment the door opened just who, or what, had stepped through. 

The woman smiled warmly, her hand back on Agent Grape’s cheek. 

For his part, Agent Grape was also frozen where he sat, although it didn’t look like it was from a spell. He had an impassive blank expression on his face as his eyes followed her every movement, body just relaxed enough that Choi couldn’t begin to guess what he might be thinking. 

He was doing an impressive job at keeping calm. 

There was no waver in his voice as he looked up at the creature and said, “You’re not her.”

Looking closely, the lady and Agent Grape shared the same slope of their nose, the same phoenix lid to their eyes and the same long lashes. The same shade of paleness to their skin. 

She didn’t take offense to those words, although her expression turned wistful and soft, a thumb brushing against the soft skin under his eye. 

“...I can be. If you want.”

She moved around Agent Bronze, frozen where he was at the foot of the bed with only his eyes free to follow her movements, and sat next to Agent Grape on the bed. There, she folded her hands on her lap, not pushing too close to him, but rather settling comfortably as if the presence of the other two unwanted agents in the room didn’t bother her at all. 

“This isn’t real,” Agent Grape said, as if the words itself would dispel the illusion. It didn’t. “I know what you are. But you only take children. So why try this on me?”

“You are a child,” the woman insisted, posture still relaxed. “My child.”

She then breathed out in a sigh, a gesture so human that it seemed to shake Agent Grape for the first time. She interlaced her fingers on her lap and smiled down blankly. Softly. Sadly. 

“Do I look like a monster to you?” She asked. “Even now?”

Instead of answering, Agent Grape asked, “What did you do to my team?”

Her attention was still only on Grape when she looked up, the same smile tugging on her lips. “Nothing bad. Far less than what they did to me. If you want, they can leave here entirely unharmed. No pain.”

“And can I leave with them?” Agent Grape asked calmly. For someone who claimed to fear Disasters, he reacted better than anyone Choi had ever seen in them.

Here the woman’s expression twisted, and for a moment Choi imagined she would turn back to looking like a monster, like what she truly was on the inside, but her features only turned to that of grief. 

“Why would you want that?” She asked. Demanded. She gestured to the warm room, with its childlike simplicity and human wear and tear, and stared at him anxiously. “This could be home. Your home. You can rest here. Play. Grow.”  

“I don’t need to grow,” Agent Grape said, tone blank. “I’m an adult. And this isn’t my home.”

The woman made a pained noise, one hand going to her heart. She looked so sweet, so hurt, that for a moment Choi’s heart almost went out to her if only she wasn’t actually a monster wearing human skin. 

Maybe literally, what did he know?

With that grim thought, he struggled fiercely against the spell binding him, wanting to gnash and snarl and attack, perhaps the same way the Bogeyman did when it was captured. Yet not a single muscle was affected at all, as if he were jailed within his own body, all control taken from him. 

What frightening power— why had the monster never displayed this before? Why now?

Agent Grape was quiet for a moment, obviously moved by her plight, although he recovered quickly enough to ask, “...is this what happens with all the other children? You think you’re giving them homes in a Disaster? What about their families?”

The woman scowled, expression twisting to a bitter and angry look. 

“I am giving them homes,” She claimed, lifting her chin. “I am careful with it. I watch, close by while they sleep, sometimes for months. Sometimes for years. They’re good children, and those… families,” she spat the last word out like a curse, “they’re the ones who do not want those good children. Those sweet children. They deserve better than the slow death waiting should they place their hopes on the wrong adults.”

Choi would have scoffed if he could. That couldn’t be true. Each and every one of those families reported the children missing almost immediately. They put up posters and begged for any information on the streets. They waited with bated breath for their child to come home, and it never happened. They suffered, going through unimaginable pain. They would repeatedly frequent police stations and government offices, crying and begging and screaming, sometimes standing outside with signs as if refusing to leave until someone did something, anything, to help find their missing child. 

And no one could tell them outright that it wasn’t a human kidnapper, or help bring their child back. 

This was another case of monsters only pretending to understand humans, and playing with a disastrous outcome. 

The woman raised a finger at Agent Grape’s incredulous expression. 

“One,” she said, voice low, “beat his child every week. On schedule, even. Friday evening, to ensure the child had a maximum amount of time to heal before going back to school. Never enough to break bones. Rarely enough to break skin. Never in an obvious place. Every time, he said it was an accident. But it was calculated. Deliberate. When I took his child away, he begged and wailed and got so much attention and money that he moved somewhere new and lived off it for several years.”

She then turned to look at Agent Bronze for the first time, meeting his eyes. 

“One would force her child to take every class she could think of. Until the child hardly had time to sleep, or time to think. Every moment of that child’s life was scheduled and partitioned. The child was never asked if they wanted any of the lessons, but screamed at when they could not excel. Their food was rationed so they could look a certain way she wanted them to look. She dressed them in ways she wanted. She did not allow for friends that she did not approve of, or outings that might take her child from her. She raged and screamed when I took the child away, breaking everything in that empty home of theirs.”

Her eyes met Choi’s. 

“One child,” she said, “took care of the entire house. Barely tall enough to see over the counters, but they were already cooking and cleaning. They woke their parents in the morning and learned how to use the laundry machine. That one…” her eyes lowered, “that one was already dying. The parents could not take them to be healed. So I took that one away, and showed them all the pretty and fun places in the world. They laughed and played every day until the very end.”

Choi didn’t know how to respond. 

Her gaze turned back to Agent Grape, and her expression softened. 

“There are many more stories, most of them worse. All of them were not happy before I took them away, and they grew to be happy after. If I cannot give them a home, then I find them a home.”

Her sentences had become more and more disjointed as she went on, a little more inhuman, as if emotion had rushed the words faster than the language could translate. Yet here she smiled at Agent Grape lovingly. 

“I can build you a home.” She said, almost pleading. “Good children should not have to fear the coming of each day. They should sleep well, eat well, and play. Grow.”

Choi remembered the black leather claws, the tangled black hair, the endless fangs. He remembered the screams, the wails, the monstrous entity that threw itself against its prison, and the darkness that emanated from its very being.

Yet… 

The Bogeyman’s lair was classified as an Idle Type because despite grievous injury, Bureau agents all managed to escape with their lives, although not with the children.

The realm of endless children’s toys, bright and cheerful even when shrouded in the dark. 

No, it could all be a trick. 

Yet Agent Grape’s blank expression seemed to have softened, growing fonder as the woman slipped a little more in the realm of uncanny valley, looking just a bit like a monster, almost but not quite human. 

It was like he suddenly recognised her, when he had been so on guard just a minute ago when she was actually attempting to pry into the role of someone he knew. 

“You find new homes for them?” he asked, quiet. 

She nodded, head bobbing. It didn’t look quite right. Just the visual sent warnings screaming through Agent Choi’s thoughts; that this thing in front of them wasn’t human, that it was merely impersonating one, and no one impersonates another without nefarious purposes— 

A person’s warning sense for something that looks human but is not human is as sharp as a shark’s sense for blood in the water. It is something instinctual, primal, just as most humans know to be wary of heights and sharp objects. It is the same as a fear of the dark, but there is no need to teach it to a person— humans grew tense the moment something they originally saw as a person became something… other.  

Everyone except for Agent Grape, it seemed. 

Rather than flinching back from her when her eyes grew a little too large, when her neck moved a little too strangely, or when her shadow stretched in ways it shouldn’t under the nightlight, Agent Grape almost looked… relieved. 

Contemplative. 

“I’m really not a child,” he said, and she shook her head at his words immediately, reaching to touch his hair again. 

“You are.” She insisted. 

Grape snuck a glance at Bronze, and then Choi, before dropping his gaze in thought. It seemed as if she would not accept any other answer. It both answered the question as to why she would take Agent Grape in the first place, while also raised new questions at the same time. 

Next to them, the gentle lulling music box continued to play, with the small ballerina moving in endless circles. 

“If you’re rehoming hurt children… Would you accept another option for them? If we— the Bureau, that is, can help rehome the children, would you be willing to bring them to us? We can— you can have pictures, evidence, if you want— that those children will get a better home and be happy.”

The strangely shaped woman drew back in surprise. 

“My— children?”

Agent Grape nodded after a moment of hesitation. 

“No,” she told him simply. Her tone wasn’t angry or upset, but merely firm as if telling a child they must not touch a hot stove. “They are my children now. They are so good, and I cannot trust them with humans.”

Whatever spell was holding them still, Agent Choi bit and gnashed against it. Just because the Bogeyman was calm now, was deceptively cooperative, didn’t mean that the peace would last. 

Agent Grape seemed to change tactics, switching the subject rather than accepting or fighting that answer. 

“I know someone else who takes care of good children,” he said casually, and tugged at the sleeve of his right arm to show a pale wrist. “Is it a little like what you’re trying to do?”

The strange not-woman inhaled sharply and gently pulled at Agent Grape’s wrist with both hands, fingers tracing over pale skin. Her shoulders slumped in that moment in defeat as she said sadly, “You are already marked.”

“Yes,” Agent Grape agreed, alarming both Choi and Bronze, who could see nothing out of the ordinary. He leaned in toward her, eyes wide with curiosity and intrigue. “Is that why you think I’m a child? I’ve always wanted to ask— why do you do this? Have the stories always been told wrong? And is this marking the same thing—?”

“It is not why,” she answered gently. She looked down and tapped his wrist with a finger before pulling across the skin, as if tracing an invisible word. “The story was not always like this. It used to be as humans thought. And this means you are protected. Why would they let you go back…?”

“I asked to leave.” Agent Grape said, adding to the confusion of the conversation. “And doesn’t a part of caring for children mean giving them autonomy? I chose to leave. Can I choose to leave here as well? With my team?”

This seemed to disturb the woman, whose features were contorting more now, skin slipping in some places as she made soft and distressed noises. 

“But you’re so young…” she protested, before slumping in defeat. “...Yes. You can leave, if this is your wish to do so. I am not like those awful human guardians. I…”

“Can I ask…” Agent Grape was gentle with his tone in return, although a relieved smile tugged at his lips at the confirmation that they would be allowed to go. He didn’t pull his arm out from her grasp. “How did this start? Didn’t you… wasn’t your original story about scaring children? The monster under the bed that might take them away… The core concept is still the same, especially if you’re watching over them while they sleep and taking them away if things are bad for them, but…”

“It wasn’t always this way,” she admitted. “But a long time ago by your standards, one of ours found a good child amongst the humans. A girl-child hurt by her family, hurt every day, but she continued to smile. She said— kindness. Even when others hurt her, she would help them. Even when she was betrayed, she would not stop. She was thin and cold and covered in wounds when she met one of ours in the dark. One of ours who was hurt and hunted down, and she gave them her food and her blanket. She sheltered them through the night and let them go in the morning.”

She hummed in thought, a very human noise for the slowly melting human features. 

“It happened again and again, so one day ours asked what she would want. Revenge? Wealth? Power? She asked for one night to feel like everyone else. One night when no one would know who she was and would love her.”

Agent Grape’s eyes were wide as he mouthed, ‘Cinderella?’

Bronze, similarly, looked stunned by the fairy tale reference. 

Choi felt like perhaps he could move the tips of his fingers now, and doubled his efforts to break free from the spell. Another minute, maybe two, and he might be able to do something, so he needed Grape to distract the Bogeyman more. 

It didn’t matter if the monster was telling the truth or not. The fact that it could imprison them within their own bodies was a danger.

“I know the story,” Agent Grape said. “She grew up and lived happily ever after. Isn’t that right?”

The monster in human form nodded, bobbing its head. 

“Then… wouldn’t it be nice for all the children you rescue to do the same? And instead of being known as the monster under the bed, or the Bogeyman, they can think of you as a fairy godmother. Their fairy godmother, just like the one who changed that girl’s life. If her life changed in the human world, then the same can happen for those children.”

Agent Grape ducked his head, and then looked up pleadingly in a manner that almost made Choi laugh at how thick he was laying it on. But that didn’t matter, because if it worked…

“Please,” Grape said to the monster, “give them another chance to grow up in the light.”

— 

The entire thing took less than an hour. 

The majority of the time was spent hashing out details and clauses, the outline of a contract in place between the Bureau and the monster of 1372PSYA.1989.나39. Bureau agents would stop invading its lair, and open up a safe location for the monster to drop children off, where they would be given a new home, no questions asked. 

Once that space was set up, the monster would start sending children there. In return, the nicknamed Bogeyman could pick up packages of photos, drawings, and even letters from the children it rescued to let it know those children were being well taken care of. 

It would be referred to as a ‘sponsor’ of the children, who would eventually grow out of believing in monsters but still fondly remember that there was someone out there who saved them once upon a time. 

It was a ridiculous idea.

It was…

Civil. 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Agent Grape asked when Bronze and Choi were both freed from the spell that kept them frozen, and they sat awkwardly, tensely, in a circle on the floor of the small bedroom in order to hash out agreements. “The Bureau utilises the aid of the Dokkaebi, don’t they? Why not work with other supernatural beings who are trying to help?”

Choi gave the man a long look then, perhaps giving a little too much away at that moment. 

“I thought you would be scared.”

Agent Grape stared back at him with round eyes underneath his glasses, and then looked to where Agent Bronze was attempting a stilted conversation with the humanoid creature that looked less and less human and more and more ghostly. Already the previously gentle face was covered by wiry black hair, and the soft human hands from before had elongated and darkened, while the homely clothing started to darken and fray at the edges. 

“I am,” Grape admitted. “I am scared. Even right now. All of this was… it’s scary. It’s normal to be scared in a situation like this.”

He didn’t look scared. He looked as composed as could be, although there was a truth ringing through his words. Agent Choi remained conflicted. 

“But I don’t think it’s right,” Grape continued, “if we attack just because we’re scared. That might be a normal reaction, but if we’re given the knowledge that something is not dangerous, and we’re given the time to adjust, then isn’t it better to work together than to destroy it?”

Agent Choi wasn’t sure he agreed. There would never be a guarantee that a Disaster would not turn on them, and would not become a greater danger thanks to trust. It was in the very name that the Bureau assigned supernatural incidents— disasters. It was a warning and a reminder all in one. 

But rather than express his doubts, Choi smiled widely and patted Agent Grape enthusiastically on the shoulder, delighting as the man staggered slightly from the enthusiasm. Sitting across from them, the monster turned briefly to glare at Choi, baring its still human shaped teeth. 

Rather than doing the same, Choi made sure to grin back. 

“No hard feelings, then,” he very deliberately said to the monster, “about earlier?”

The creatures turned away from him. 

He instead turned his attention back to Agent Grape with the same smile, eyes carefully scanning the man’s expression. 

“Seems like the Disaster King Rookie has done it again,” he teased. “If this actually works out, then you’ll be solving another Disaster in a way no one else has ever thought to.”

Agent Grape gave him a weak smile in return, barely grimacing at the mention of that nickname this time. 

“I think it was just luck.” He paused and looked back at the monster. He seemed to shudder for a moment at the frightening visage, but then added, “I’m glad she didn’t get hurt.”

‘She’ was a supernatural monster that couldn’t stay hurt, instead easily hurting anyone around ‘her.’ There should be no need to worry about that monster.

At times, Agent Choi despaired over his newest teammate. It was one thing to have a soft heart, the same way Agent Bronze did— evident with the way he was interacting with the monster now— but it was too much to hold that same attitude toward the very creatures that sought to hurt them. 

Grape was rubbing a hand against his wrist absentmindedly in thought, and Choi couldn’t help but ask. 

“What’s with that supposed mark on you, then?” He jutted his chin at the wrist when Grape blinked at him. “Care to share?”

Catching himself, Grape flushed and pulled his sleeve down to cover half his hand. 

“It’s just,” he muttered, “a previous encounter.”

“Something like this?” Agent Choi teased, wrapping an arm around the newbie’s shoulder and staring straight at the monster as he did so. “Some other Disaster tried to kidnap you and say you’re it’s child?”

Grape flushed more, the colour spreading to his ears. “...Something like that.”

“Seriously?” Choi paused, previous superficial smile dropping to stare at him in shock. “That’s really happened before? Is this something we need to have on record? ‘Agent Grape susceptible to being randomly adopted by supernatural monsters’?”

The man made an incoherent noise before protesting, “It was only once, and it wasn’t like this. It— it let me go.”

“Yeah, this one is letting you go, too.”

Actually, now that he said it, Choi had to admit that it really did sound rather reasonable. This was perhaps the most reasonable monster he ever encountered. Whether that would last and whether it would bring misfortune in the future aside, it really did seem to be working with them. 

And it listened to Grape. 

Weird. 

It was just before the end of witching hour as they prepared to leave, the Bogeyman now standing off to the side in the corner of the small bedroom, once again mostly ghostly darkness and black blurs hiding the fangs and claws under flowing wiry hair. 

Just before they left out the bedroom door that promised to connect them straight back to the bedroom they originally came from, the towering monster reached out slowly and used its sharp black claws to gently tap Agent Grape on the shoulder. 

The man turned, freezing a moment at the sight before seeing the music box in the monster’s hand, extended toward him. 

“For me?” He asked, even as the monster pushed the carved music box into his hands. He opened his mouth to say something and then seemed to think better of it as he blinked down at the box, and then eventually settled on, “...Thank you.”

“For sleeę̵̹̓e̴͈̒̂ẻ̵͇̋p.” The words were still human, but drawn out as if spoken by a somewhat inhuman mouth. After the witching hour was over, it would likely revert entirely to what it had been before, making communication difficult. Whatever power necessarily to maintain the deceptive human form was something that the Bogeyman couldn’t keep up for long. 

A long, clawed black finger tapped against the box. 

“No d̷r̴e̶a̵m̴s̶.”

Grape stared at the hand, and then at the box with bright eyes.

“Thank you,” Agent Grape repeated, this time more heartfelt. He gripped the music box with both hands as it was a priceless treasure, eyes shining at the gift. 

The monster bobbed the approximation of its head and drifted back again, watching quietly as they stepped to the door. 

Agent Bronze went first, staring at his team as he did so, and then Agent Grape. 

He didn’t look back. 

Choi had a hand on the doorframe as he turned his head, the smile directed at his team dropping away as they disappeared from the Disaster, and he stared back at the monster in the room. 

“One question.”

The monster floated at the edge of the room, half faded into the shadows in the corner. 

Choi’s gaze was sharp. “You keep insisting that Agent Grape is a child. We’ve sent agents to befriend the children before, but you’ve always chased us out. Why now? What’s the difference?”

Why the abnormality of mistaking a grown man for a child, but kicking out all the agents disguised as children by supernatural powers?

He waited a moment, but the monster didn’t answer him. It figured, really. Seems that it was cooperative only due to Agent Grape’s presence, which just meant Choi was even more curious about the secrets that his newest teammate kept close to his chest. But it didn’t matter if he didn’t get answers tonight, as he would get them regardless—

The Bogeyman shifted in the corner, catching his eye.

“Tha̷t̵ ̵c̴h̵i̶l̶d̵,” the monster intoned, words harder and harder to understand, “is no̵t̶ ̵s̵a̸f̸e̶. You knoo̵o̶o̵w̸ ̶this.”

Choi narrowed his eyes at the monster. Well. At least it didn’t seem to suddenly change its mind about cooperating. Even now, it was thinking of Agent Grape. It just meant that there was something about Grape that was more than what the Bureau could figure out. 

“Soo̷̞͂o̸̞̿ȍ̷̝n̵̠̉. Dang̴e̵r.”

“I can’t keep him from danger,” Choi said. He shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s part of our job.”

The entirety of the dark mass seemed to shake in rejection. 

“Da̴n̷g̶er,” it said, now sounding more like grunts and hisses. “Not u̴s̶.̷ ̵Y̵o̷u̴r̶ ̶w̷o̷r̴l̷d. Good child’s huma̸n̵ ̶g̵u̴a̵r̷d̸i̵a̶ns. Dange̶̹̥̓́r̷̙̤̒ô̴̙͜u̶͓̮̔s̴̮̓ͅ.” It shook again, and then there was a tendril of dark hair that started to reach out to Choi, who stared at it blankly as if he weren’t calculating how fast he could cut it off before it touched him.

It didn’t touch, instead drawing back at his impassive stare. 

“You.” It said, “wea̴p̴o̶n̶ ̵f̶i̶r̸st. Protect. Goo̵d̸ ̸c̷h̷ild.”

“Of course I will,” Choi said, deciding that the monster didn’t have anything else to add. It was telling him this specifically because he attacked the very first moment he could, facing the Bogeyman with no mercy the moment his teammate had been taken. His teammates might have hesitated when faced with a sudden disadvantage. He was experienced enough that his first instinct was to attack.

Choi turned to the door in a moment of pure hubris to show his back to the monster, knowing now that it couldn’t attack. Not if it wanted to keep the goodwill of the ‘child’ on Team Hyeonmu-1. 

And wasn’t it interesting to note that there were monsters out there that wanted the goodwill of Agent Grape, or the enigmatic Kim Soleum?

“As long as he’s a part of my team, I will do what’s necessary to keep him safe.”

With those words, he left the lair of the Bogeyman to return back to the world the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau was attempting to safeguard from monsters. 

With yet another mystery to add to the file of their newest member.