Archive of Our Own

Fuck… isn’t Daydream exaggerating? Sending only two people – who are rookies, mind you – alone in a C grade darkness? Are they aiming to get rid of us? 

I threw a glance at Baek Saheon who was checking his watch for the 20th time in the past 5 minutes.

I sighed and shook my head. “Relax. We’re on time, the movie hasn’t started- heck, the doors just opened and the ads are about to start.” 

Honestly, I was saying this more for me than him. 

“No, that’s not it… sir.” 

I tilted my head and stayed silent, signaling for him to continue. He crossed his arms and turned his head away, trying to stay stubbornly quiet. 

I couldn’t care less about what’s bothering him, but knowing him, he was probably withholding important information related to the darkness. 

Most of the wiki’s knowledge is circulating in my head, so there’s a very slim chance of me missing something, but better safe than sorry.

I silently kept looking at him. Seeing him lean away from me was the last straw, and so I calmly said, “Baek Saheon.”

“…”

“…”

He let out a curse before turning to face me. “It’s been nearly 10 minutes and no one has entered after us. Isn’t it weird considering the high civilian death rate?”

“…? Most people wouldn’t go watch a movie at 11pm though. Have you actually read the manual? Or did your eyes- well, eye started failing you?”

He furrowed his eyebrows. Whether it was the eye comment or the whole taking him for an idiot, he definitely did not like what I just said. 

“Clearly, the manual said… ah, this is boring.”

I cut myself off with a disinterested look and turned back to the screen. Truthfully, it was because the ads were coming to an end. 

This darkness – called [Between Rules and Joys] – is fairly easy to clear despite the high civilian death rate. All we needed to do it’s to watch a 4 hour long movie only shown on the 4th of the month without breaking any movie theater etiquette. 

The movie itself did influence the viewers a bit, slowly contaminating them if it stimulates strong feelings within them. Aside from the movie, there was no direct danger though. 

Most civilians don’t realize they are in a darkness and end up whispering or eating loudly, making the staff employees take them away. 

Reports indicate seeing them reappear as employees or even actors. 

The issue with Daydream employees though? Most of them don’t get along. They try to sabotage each other to rack in more points all while getting rid of annoying coworkers, basically killing two birds with one stone. 

This, of course, results in total annihilation. 

I shivered from that thought, and tried to pay attention to the movie playing. 

“!!” 

ACKKK!! 

Seriously, it had to be a prank from Lady Luck. There’s no way out of all the times this darkness triggered, this time had to be a horror movie! 

I slightly gripped my chair, doing my best to not get startled. I look at Baek Saheon, before averting my eyes. Somehow, seeing him looking all casual and even downright enjoying this felt unfair. 

My palms started to sweat and my heart was racing. At this rate, I will get fully contaminated before the end of the movie.

There’s no way I can survive 4 hours of this!

I tried to think of a way to cut this darkness short but honestly nothing came to mind. It was a darkness too easy for people to take a risk for a chance to bypass it, and writers of the wiki liked to use it as an excuse to make their favorite characters interact. 

There is nothing I can do.

My only saving grace is that I don’t scream or get startled when I’m scared. My body just freezes up and by the time it’s rebooting, the next jumpscare is already on screen. 

I couldn’t even try and keep my mind occupied by talking to Braun because he has been silent ever since we’ve entered the room. He probably counts as an outsider since I didn’t buy a ticket for him. 

I squinted, attempting to unfocus my eye so I didn’t have to stare at the gore. I couldn’t keep doing this though, especially since Baek Saheon might notice and use this against me. 

If only I could simply not watch the movie… wait. 

It hit me like a flash. The movie theater’s rules were clear: no talking, phones on silent, be on time, keep your designated seat, and no excessive PDA. Yet none of them outright say that closing your eyes is forbidden!

It makes sense when you consider that if you pay to watch a movie, then it makes no sense to close your eyes during it; it would only be a waste of time and money. But technically speaking, it doesn’t bother anyone! 

Besides, since this is a horror movie, it’s normal to be scared and close your eyes sometimes, so no one would really judge me, not even the employees. 

With that in mind, I closed my eyes with a small smile on my face, that slipped off not even 30 seconds later.

This is so boring…

I slightly opened my eyes and peeked through my eyelashes. I barely had the time to see a single image before goosebumps erupted on my skin and I shut my eyes tight.

Let’s just be bored.

.

..

…

Honestly it’s weird to hear all of the noises without seeing anything. At least it’s better than accidentally squealing. 

…

4 hours is a long time though…

—

Is that guy crazy!?

I was gaping at Kim Soleum, who was casually sleeping next to me. Were we in a normal movie theater, I wouldn’t have thought more of it but this is a ghost story! We could die at any time! 

He is so vulnerable right now. If I wanted, I could kill him.

I paused in realization.

 That’s right, I could just…

My hand twitched as I thought of the pocket knife I always keep on me. I could reach into my pocket right now and be done with it within the next 5 seconds. No more crazy roommates who could kill me in my sleep for a drop of dopamine. 

I stared at him, carefully looking at each of his features to see if he was simply pretending to doze off. 

His face was so pale it looked like he was already dead yet I could see his steady breaths. 

… 

I clicked my tongue and focused back on the movie. 

He gives me the creeps… I bet he would somehow survive. Or even worse, he’ll come back to haunt me. 

I leaned further in my seat and laid my head on my fist when I suddenly felt a pressure on my shoulder. I whipped my head around, fearing one of the staff was grabbing me before freezing.

…Vanilla?

The overpowering scent of vanilla was all my brain could process as my cheek was tickled by hair. I was frozen still, not even breathing due to the sheer absurdity of this situation.

Here I was, sitting in a movie theater plagued by horror entities straight out of made up stories because of the evil company I worked for, with my psychopath of a roommate sleeping peacefully on my shoulder.

It was so ridiculous I honestly wanted to laugh. 

Breaking out of my stupor, I put my hand on his head to try and move it away. But I stopped as soon as my hand touched his hair – why is it so soft? – and thought over my actions. 

Moving him could wake him up and I could receive his wrath. Plus, hopefully the employees could see him and deal with him, so I could be freed from that lunatic. 

My mind flashed back to the manor of the blind, when he pushed me away from the robot, but I shook the idea out of my head. He had probably done it for fun anyways. 

I debated for a few more seconds, my hand stuck on his head and awfully smooth hair, before taking it off and adjusting my position a bit so I could sit more comfortably. 

I should use this as blackmail material…

—

Maybe the real horror movie is my life. 

I just suffered through 4 hours of a horror movie, with admittedly a surprisingly good plot but not good enough to justify making a movie that long. 

In the time it took for it to be over, my body had turned stiffer than stone. 

The joy I got from seeing the end of my suffering quickly ran out of my body when I realized I still had an issue to deal with. Namely, Daydream’s top rookie who was currently dreaming away on my shoulder like he owned it! 

The end credits were already rolling in and the lights were turned on, so it was only a matter of time before the employees came to take us away. 

I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him awake. I tried to wake him gently at first before suddenly getting pissed. 

Screw gentleness. Who the hell decides to sleep in a darkness! On someone at that! On me! 

I pushed his head off my shoulder, the sudden movement immediately waking him up. He could take it as revenge. 

He shot up without warning, blinking without a word. He slowly turned toward me and I swear I could see him get impossibly pale. 

Still without a word, he stood up and turned his back to me. 

“...Sir?”

Wait… Is he embarrassed!? There’s no way! Did I really make that maniac embarrassed!?

Barely holding back my smile, I also got up and tried to get a better look at his face.

“Sir? Are you okay?” 

Still no response. I still couldn’t see his face so I leaned closer to him.

“Did you have a nice, sweet dream?”

Sarcasm was dripping from my tone, a snicker slipping out against my will. My eye must have been seeing things because I could swear his neck was turning more and more red. 

The lunatic suddenly walked off with the confidence of a soldier ready to die in battle to protect his country, straight toward the employee standing at the bottom of the stairs.

Bewildered, I impulsively followed him. It’s like my brain had associated Kim Soleum acting up to him getting the best secret clears. 

“Wait!” I hissed, glancing at the exit that was calling my name. 

I stopped a few steps away, just far enough to bolt in case something went wrong. 

He bowed and said with a slight tremble in his voice, “I got the best experience thanks to everyone working here. Thank you for your service.”

The employee didn’t respond, and instead reached into his pocket and took out something. 

I couldn’t see what it was from where I was but seeing Kim Soleum reject it firmly despite framing it nicely meant it was nothing but trouble. 

Once the back and forth was over, he walked off straight to the exit, leaving me behind without a single glance back.

“Hey! Wait up!”

I rushed outside to find him looking at his dream collector. 

“Hey… Is that— is that a B-grade essence?” I stammered out.

Did he just… change the grade of the darkness!?

I was certain of the rank of the darkness. Hell, I was sure he was holding a C-grade dream essence. But from the way it glimmered, I knew instinctively that it wasn’t purely a C-grade essence, that it was something else. Something better.

Apparently it wasn’t the right answer though, because that jerk looked at me with so much disbelief it could make an evil step-mother shake in her boots.

“Are you an idiot? It’s obviously C-grade.” He fully turned around and pushed my forehead with his fingertip. “Maybe the movie turned your brain into mush. Or maybe it’s not that you didn’t read the manual but you can’t read.” He shrugged and started to walk off.

Without stopping, he added as if on second thought, “Well, I can’t really fault you for not graduating kindergarten.”

…

Kim Soleum!!!!

Fuming, I scrambled to catch up with him, imagining all kinds of ways I could get rid of him. 

.

.

.

I sighed and closed the manual. 

Today we were going into a fairly new darkness, meaning the Research and Development Department could have all the fun they wanted with us.

We were already standing in front of the arcade, only waiting for the coast to be clear before entering. This exploration was a joint effort of D squad and – to my displeasure – F squad. 

The arcade was located in a pretty hidden alleyway despite being near a busy street. Using the darkness from both the alleyway and the night, I sneaked behind Baek Saheon and got close to his ear. 

“Wanna know who I think will get choosen?”

“Ack!” He took a step back as his eyebrows twitched. “What do you—... I—… I mean, yes, sir?”

I lifted a finger and pointed at— 

“Her.” 

Eun Haje. Taken aback, he took another step away from me. Looking at him with a careless smile, I moved my finger and stabbed it right over his heart.

“And you.” 

He froze, eye trembling and hands twitching. 

To be chosen by this darkness, meant to transform into parts of it, which we could then retrieve. However, we didn’t have to do it. 

This darkness is a B grade, meaning that not only it was a difficult one to clear, but simply interacting with the entities and escaping from them would get us highly concentrated dream essence. 

Coming from me, the insane dopamine junky, it basically meant I would find it amusing to abandon them if the opportunity arose. 

We stood there in complete silence before the F-squad team leader broke the tension, making me turn my head toward her. “Alright, let’s get in.”

I spun back toward Baek Saheon, who still hadn’t moved. I took a step and threw my arm around his shoulders.

“Hey, maybe it would be funnier if it’s only the two of us.” 

.

..

…

How the fuck did he do that!? 

Both Kim Soleum and I were standing in the arcade, our teammates having disappeared the moment we stepped into the arcade. 

Colorful lights were illuminating his pale face as he silently smiled and watched me. His bottomless black eyes glimmered with a deep red blood hue, seemingly craving for more.

More what… What does he want from me!? Items? My blood?? My soul!?

As if hearing me, he stepped toward me and grabbed my arm. He pulled me away with inhumane strength, into a more secluded part of the arcade.

“Sir-”

He put his hand over my mouth, the sudden movement making me startle. Right, we were in a darkness. 

I tried to tug my arm away from his dead grip but he ignored me and turned back around, resuming his rapid strides. 

He made sure none of the employees was looking at us before entering the toilets. Once inside, he finally let go of me.

Cautious, I waited a bit before talking. “Sir, I think-”

“Roe.”

“What?”

“Just call me Roe for today’s mission. Don’t you remember? We have to go along the darkness’ mechanisms and act close.”

That’s what I was…! Ugh, nevermind.

He seemed to hesitate a little and glance at the creepy doll drilling holes through my soul from its glorious throne – namely, Soleum’s pocket – before stepping closer to me. 

Putting his hand on my shoulder, he added, “Let’s be good friends tonight.” 

Shivers ran down my spine as I leaned away. “Right… Anyways, I think I’ll go look for my teammates.”

Yeah, as if. 

Actually, there was a rumor circulating saying that the bigger prizes from this arcade tend to be good items with fewer downsides. I wanted to try to win some or at the very least swipe one away. High risks but still worth a shot for the high reward. 

“…? No you’re not.” 

“What?”

“Partially blind and now deaf? What’s next, you’ll turn mute?”

I felt like bashing his head against the sink but I knew better than that, so instead I chose to ignore his last statement.

“Do you need me for anything?”, I asked with all the patience in the world. Seeing him look at me like I was the world’s biggest idiot was making that patience run out fast though.

“Well, yeah. Who’s gonna play with me?”

Dumbfounded, I couldn’t let even a single sound out. He kept going, crossing his arms and shaking his head as if displeased.

“We’re in this huge arcade and there are tons of games I want to play. It’s especially because they’re gone that we should go and play.” 

He sighed and continued with an annoyed tone. “And now you’re saying you want to leave? Yeah, not happening.”

This freak! Why is he dragging me into his crazy entertainment?

Hoping to deter him, I answered, “… We don’t have any currency though?”

He uncrossed his arms and pushed the door open. “We just have to get some then.” He paused before throwing me a glance. “By the way, Braun says hi.”

And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving me behind. 

__

Get me out of here!!

We hid the coins – dull, rusted blue squares covered by something slimy – in our pockets and rushed out of the back office. 

We just stole all the money stored in their back office yet Kim Soleum simply handed me half of the coins before walking off as if he owned the place. I was left scrambling behind, trying to catch up. 

We ignored the employees roaming around and walked to one of the machines then inserted all of the coins. It gave us new clean green ones and finally, or rather unfortunately, we were ready to start. 

I glanced at him, waiting for him to choose a game that made his heart soar – if he even has one –, but all he was doing was looking around as lost, or maybe if searching for something specific. 

Seeing one of the employees approach us, I tried to whisper and get his attention. “We should get moving, Roe.” 

The employee was stumbling ever closer, and he was still looking around. “Are you listening? Come on, let’s go.”, I hissed, impatient.

“Yes, just- wait a second…” he muttered.

I stared at the employee until its face distorted into an attempt at smiling that looked closer to a grimace. 

“Fuck it.”, I said as caught his arm and tugged him away.

I wasn’t planning to die in this shit hole simply because this psycho never had gone to an arcade. I decided to get rid of this awkward air no matter what, even if I had to make a fool of myself.

A few seconds passed before he started to dig his heels in and finally paid attention to me. “What are you-“

“What’s your favorite arcade game?”

Confused, he asked more than said, “… the claw machine?” 

I stopped and spun around. “The claw machines? Those obvious scams?”

“They’re not a scam because I win every time.” He said as if personally offended. “Maybe you just suck.”

“Hah? I don’t suck! It’s well known that they are a scam.” 

“Never heard of it. I’m telling you, it’s a you-issue” 

“I could win any game I want!”

Obviously skeptical, he cocked his head and sighed. “Yeah, sure. Let’s just go play something easier like Whack-A-Mole or something.”

I clenched my fists and walked straight to the claw machines, ignoring his complaints and “ow”s.

I stomped in front of the 5 machines with the authority of a war general and asked. “Which one.”

With a shrug he pointed to the one in front of us, holding huge plushies. Determined, I let go of his wrist and inserted a coin.

“Aim for the blue dragon.”, he exclaimed in a challenging tone.

Challenge accepted.

I expertly moved the joystick, taking in the perspective and the distance before lowering the claw and… completely miss it. 

Instead, the claw grabbed the red bunny next to it. It moved the plushie closer to the hole but it slipped out right before the claw reached it.

I swear I could hear that asshole laughing at me.

I inserted another coin. Made another move. Another fail. 

A coin, a move, a fail.

Again. And again. And again. And-

“Gah! This is rigged!”

I slammed my hand against the machine, whipping my head around to glare at the snickering jerk. 

“How do you manage to fail the same way everytime? You should aim a bit more left.”, he advised between two cackles. 

“I am going left!” I turned back around, refusing to leave on a loss. I told you it was a scam.”

“Yeah, of course it is that’s the skills you have.”

I inserted another coin, leaning closer to the glass as I moved the claw. 

“You’re too on the left.” 

“I know!”. Still, I listened to him and moved a bit more to the right.

“Go a bit more forward- no, forward as in deeper.” 

Before I could finish aligning the claw correctly, it went down and slid on the yellow dragon right next to the plushie, closing itself on air. 

Immediately, I inserted another coin, my pocket feeling definitely lighter than before. 

“We shouldn’t linger here too much. Let’s just go.”

Now that I had already started, there was no way I could leave just like that. “No way, just wait a bit.”

He audibly sighed and moved closer to me. He started to instruct me and, as embarrassing as it was, I was actually making progress. 

“Move to the right- no not like- ugh, like this.”

He grabbed the joystick over my hand, his cold hand moving with expertise. We both leaned closer to the glass, our nose almost touching it as the claw went down. 

It grabbed the blue dragon and moved it. The plushie was slowly sliding out of the claw, which was moving painfully slow. 

“Come on…”, he whispered.

The claw got impossibly close to the hole right but the plushie slid out before it could open. It fell and-

“!!”

The machine lit up as the doll fell into the hole by a hair. I whipped my head around to look at Soleum and confirm I wasn’t going insane. 

I slid my hand out of his lax hold and reached into the machine to bring out the plushie. 

It felt soft under the touch. It felt unreal. 

Feeling the adrenaline pump into my veins, I hurriedly handed it to Kim Soleum, who seemed to be smiling, before walking off to the games I liked more. 

“I’ll show you what a real game is.”

The puck and pushers of the air hockey table I wanted to go to were moving by themselves, locked in an intense back and forth. 

Creeped out, I moved to the next one which was thankfully still. I inserted a coin, retrieved the puck and grabbed one of the pushers. 

I glanced up in time to see Kim Soleum slip something in his pocket then put the plushie down. I scanned his face to gauge his expression, making sure the shitty psycho was having fun.

He grabbed the pusher and looked at the air hockey table with interest and curiosity.

Sensing an opportunity to scam him, I cautiously asked, “Is it your first time playing, sir– I mean… Roe?”

“Hmm, yeah it is. Can’t imagine the rules are too hard though so no need to go easy on me.”

I wasn’t planning on it, shithead.

I took a moment to tell him the basic rules, then handed him the pluck. 

“You can go ahead and start," I conceded, full of confidence. 

He looked at me as if displeased before lowering the pluck and–

“Scored.”

The indifferent way in which he said it, as if the damn thing hadn’t just flashed across the table, was worse than if he had laughed in my face. 

As if nothing happened, he added one point to his counter and raised a single eyebrow.

Muttering a curse, I retrieved the pluck and put it on the table. 

I wasn’t going to let that guy beat me. I didn’t need any kind of extra help, but I still had a few tricks up my sleeve. I know I can win. 

I will win. 

.

..

…

“How…”

I stumbled, almost falling to my knees. 

Air hockey, Mortal Kombat, shooting games, races, hell, even Dance Dance Revolution. I lost every single game we played. 

Matter of fact, it wasn’t just losing. There were some games where I hadn’t scored a single point. I didn’t even know it was possible! 

He had to have some kind of item helping him because there was no way this was pure skills. 

I looked at that monster of Kim Soleum, who wasn’t even trying to hide his smirk. 

He would definitely look scarier if he wasn’t casually walking around with two plushies. 

Actually, the plushies definitely make him look creepier…

I wasn’t willing to admit defeat but I had to accept it. He beat me at every single one of my specialities. 

I looked around for a clock before realizing there were none. 

“Isn’t it time for us to leave?”, I asked

“What, already? Are you sure you’re not just running away because you keep losing?”

 My eyebrow twitched as I answered. “No, it’s just that we’ve been here for long enough and the employees don’t seem interested in us.”

“So? I’m not interested in them either.” He gave me a once-over before tilting his head. “Are you tired? I guess it’s past your bedtime, huh? Maybe that’s why you always run to your room.”

It’s because of you and those damn cartoons, asshole! 

Now I wanted to leave just to ruin his fun. Still, this situation was pretty useful for me. 

Since we already played most of the games around here, we had to walk around to see if there was anything interesting left. This was the perfect opportunity to see if there was any useful item.

I couldn’t find anything in the back office, and I was too busy playing clown for this lunatic to actually look around. 

That guy was already looking around, probably eager to give me another beating. 

Pretending to yield, I sighed and crossed my arms. “I guess there are still a few games we haven’t played yet.”

We walked off, far and away from my last defeat, and started to wander around. 

While Kim Soleum looked around in search of something to waste the last of our coins on, I focused on avoiding the employees all while observing the tools they carried around. 

Thanks to the manual and witness reports, I knew the employees weren’t hostile and we could get close to them. The real issue was that they were too friendly, meaning the moment you talked to them they would follow you around until you left. 

When that happened, the mission was already halfway a failure because it would be impossible to retrieve our coworkers under their watchful eye. 

Then it was all a matter of shaking them off gently enough to leave without accidentally hurting their feelings, lest they take you to the back office. 

This is why it was easier to simply avoid them. Nonetheless, the item they carried around could turn out to be useful so I made sure to analyze them properly.

We were about to pass by the snack area when I realized something.

The food… was made of human remains.

The most disturbing part was seeing it get lifted in the air seemingly by magic before disappearing in thin air. 

“!!”

I was certain I had seen my assistant manager in one of the plates. Those characteristic golden eyes of her were sitting on what could almost pass for tomato pasta if it wasn’t obviously someone’s inside.  

Ugh, gross…

Kim Soleum barely took a look before turning his head in total disinterest. 

Sights like this didn’t bother me more than that but seeing his total lack of reaction always threw me off. 

We kept walking until we reached one of the machines where we could throw basketballs. It seemed to have picked Kim Soleum’s interest enough for him to speedwalk toward it. 

I waited for him to insert one of his coins since I was completely out of them, but he simply stood there, staring at the balls. 

Following his line of sight, I understood why that creep wasn’t moving. 

One of the balls was definitely his supervisor. 

I didn’t know the dude more than that, but even with his whole face deconstructed I instinctively knew it was him. 

“...”

Still, aside from that one ball, the rest of them were normal, which is probably why he didn’t hesitate to put a coin inside the machine. 

The machine lit up and I turned to my side to focus on my throws. Plus, I didn’t want to see that weirdo play around with his supervisor, or what’s left of him. 

I was still hoping to beat him. I slightly bent my knees for a better balance, and kept throwing the balls even when they bounced off the hoop and missed. 

“You look ridiculous like this.”, he said.

Shut up.

“Are you even aiming? Or do you just throw and pray it goes in?”

Don’t try to make me lose my focus.

“Should I throw with only one hand to make it easier?”, he muttered to himself as if seriously considering it.

What the hell. I know you can’t be that far ahead, asshole. 

My arms were starting to tire when a new music rang out.

I swiped the sweat off my eyebrows and glanced at Kim Soleum’s score just to find it was twice higher than mine. 

No, this is getting ridiculous. Seriously? 

Nevermind beating him, even getting close to any of his scores was nothing more than a pipe dream. It seriously felt like there wasn’t a single thing this guy couldn’t do. 

I didn’t realize my sight was scanning the balls on his side until I noticed I couldn’t find the one made out of his supervisor anymore.

…?

My eye snapped back to his face when he spoke up. “Are we going to stand there all day? You were the one who wanted to leave earlier.”

“...Hey, Roe.”

“What?”

I glanced back to the mountain of balls before shaking my head. “No, it’s nothing.”

With a shrug, he turned around and walked off. I scanned him even though I knew there was nowhere he could’ve hidden the ball if he even cared about it. 

It was none of my business anyway, so I decided to forget about it and follow him. 

We walked some more but there wasn’t much else to do. 

There was one thing I wanted to check out though. And that was…

The redemption games!

Thanks to those, I could earn tickets then trade them for a prize. This was the one of the only ways I could get out of here with an item without getting in trouble. 

Decided, I grabbed Kim Soleun’s wrist. “Hold on. I have an idea.”

I took him past multiple redemption games, my mind fixed on the best one of them all. 

A colorful wheel was standing tall in the middle of various other machines, looking more alluring than any mermaid. 

I was about to walk toward it when Kim Soleum completely froze, making his wrist slip out of my grip. Sighing, I turned my head to try to figure out what was up with him now. 

“Did you know that gambling is one of the greatest sources of dopamine and adrenaline? That wheel is a bit different from common gambling but it could still be interesting for you.”

His gaze was fixed on the wheel, looking like he was barely listening to me. 

“This…No— I…”

He stuttered, unable to formulate a sentence. I noticed his eyes trembling and hands shaking. 

What, is he excited? What a weirdo.

I decided to smile as if I was a saint bringing food to a starving orphan. “You can go first.”

His eyes snapped to me and he gave me a barely noticeable headshake. 

“..? Oh, right. Wait here, I’ll show you how it works.”

I slipped my hand in his pocket to snatch a few coins, and got closer to the wheel. I placed a coin inside and, like every other machine, it lit up and started to play music. 

I grabbed the very top and pulled it with all of my force. 

The wheel turned, passing by the first place multiple times.

I knew there wasn’t much chance for me to hit first place but I still found myself crossing my fingers. 

It turned, again and again, before slowing down to a stop. 

Kim Soleum’s gasp got drowned out by the winning music ringing.

“No way…”, I whispered.

The pointer stopped on the first place. 

The wheel started to spit tons of tickets, so much I was certain I could get any prize I wanted. I bent and grabbed all of them, barely containing my excitement.

Fuck yeah!! I’m starting to understand that psycho’s dopamine addiction!

When the wheel finally stopped glowing, I turned around to see Kim Soleum clutching his heart. I hoped the adrenaline got to him and his heart stopped, but he was unfortunately still breathing, loudly at that. 

I tried to think of an excuse to get away from him and get my items but I knew he wouldn’t let me go so easily, so I decided to get on his good side instead. 

I handed back the few coins I took from him.

“Here you go. You can keep playing while I’ll redeem those.”

He snapped out of whatever stupor got to him once opened my palm.

“... I’ll go with you.” 

Ugh, of course he knows about the items too.

I was too happy to let his presence bother me, and the expedition was surprisingly going well. I felt like something was wrong in me for almost enjoying it, and I shivered at the idea that Kim Soleum was rubbing off on me. 

We reached the front counter, where a bunch of toys and plushies were surrounding an employee. They spoke up but I couldn’t understand the language so I simply gave them a nod. 

I placed the mountain of tickets on the counter, before looking through the various items available. 

I was about to point toward one of the water guns when Kim Soleum grabbed my arm. 

“What are you doing?”, he asked. 

“Obviously picking out my prize? What else could I possibly be doing right now?”, I replied in confusion.

“With my tickets?”

What.

Outraged, I shook off his hand. “What do you mean your ticket!? I clearly won those!”

He scoffed, “Yeah, with my coins.”

I was about to answer when he threw a nod toward the employee. Their smile was starting to slip off, making their empty eye socket look wider. 

I bit my lip, thinking of ways to change the situation. I knew arguing in front of an employee was stupid but I didn’t want to give away my tickets. 

He slipped his arm around my shoulder and gave me a wide smile. “Hey, come on. Aren’t we the best of friends? What’s a few tickets between us?”

I clicked my tongue and crossed my arms. I didn’t answer and he didn’t wait for one before talking to the employee. 

“Can I get this one please?”

He pointed toward one of the big plushies on the wall behind the employee. It was an ugly white lizard with red eyes so wide it looked like it would pop out of its skull.

Seriously, what’s with plushies and this guy? 

It didn’t look like it had any ability, making it completely useless as an item. A total waste.

Even more pissed, I tried to throw Kim Soleum’s arm off my shoulder but he just squeezed harder. 

The employee’s smile – that barely qualified as one – was back, and despite struggling to stand straight, it turned around and took the plushie before putting it on the counter. 

Seeing them take all of my tickets for that useless thing felt unfair, but I didn’t want Kim Soleum to stab me so I stayed quiet. 

Pleased, he grabbed the plushie and put it under his other arm next to the blue dragon before turning to face me. 

“We can finally go back to the apartment. Happy?”, he snickered, way too close to my face. 

I hope you stub your toe everywhere in that damn apartment.

“Yeah…”, I answered, obviously not happy. 

With a nod and a smile to the employee, he tugged me toward the exit while humming. 

Honestly, I was beyond pissed that I wasted my time in this darkness just to walk off empty handed, but at the very least I escaped with a pretty high grade dream essence and most importantly, my life. 

It feels so weird to clear a B-grade so easily. I’m kind of scared the dream essence’s concentration will go down… 

Right as we reached the door to freedom, Kim Soleum stopped, making me stumble. 

“Hey. Close your eyes and open your hands.”

Is he about to give me items?

Feeling like my hard work was finally paying, I immediately complied. 

Kim Soleum dropped a bunch of objects in my arms, so much that I was wondering where the hell he had been keeping them.

I was about to open my eyes when he spoke up. 

“Don’t open your eyes. Just walk out.”

My guts were telling me something bad was about to happen but I listened anyway. It was either that or getting killed by a lunatic. 

I stepped outside of the arcade, the sound of living people instantly reaching my ears. 

“!?”

My arms became so heavy I fell over. I opened my eyes right in time to stop myself from falling on my face.

All of the items Kim Soleum handed me were gone. 

Instead, I looked up to see the entirety of D squad and even my team leader staring back at me. 

Agape, I watched the asshole crouch down to get to my eye level. Those despicable eyes of his scanned my face as his mouth twitched in satisfaction.

“You know what's funnier than arcade games? Swiping something right under an idiot’s eye.”, he whispered barely loud enough for me to hear.  

He then had to gall to pat my shoulder and place the blue dragon on my lap before strolling away. 

…

I swear on everything I own I will kill this guy with my own two hands if that’s the last thing I do!!

.

.

.

Cold…

I tightened up my scarf as I got out of the taxi. I looked at the antiques store standing in front of us, waiting for Saheon to finish paying the driver. 

Once again, we were chosen to go on a mission together, and I was seriously starting to think that Daydream doesn’t spend much time thinking before pairing people.  

Or maybe it’s because I’m the only one who comes back from missions with him…

Whatever the reason was, we were once more about to enter a darkness, one that – for once – I couldn’t wait to enter. 

Yesterday my life almost got stolen away by a follower of the Church, and tomorrow I was prophesied to die.

Today, I just wanted to breathe.

Of course, Haje’s warning is still ringing in my head, but for now it’s an issue for tomorrow-me. 

I walked through the door as the bell softly chimes. Saheon had the item and I trusted him enough to trigger the darkness by himself, so I walked away, trudging deeper into the store. 

It was quite dark inside, the only light coming from a dim warm overhead lamp. The shelves were brimming with ornaments and trinkets, making it harder to see anything more than what was around me. 

I skimmed through the shelves, barely letting my eyes stay on one object before moving to the next.

[What are we looking for, friend?]

An item that could be of help for tomorrow.

This antique store had quite a lot of cursed objects that could be life saving. The only issue with those was the huge drawback that came with it. 

Although muffled, Saheon’s voice could be heard in the entire store. I knew I didn’t have much time to find the item so I didn’t put much expectations on it, but I still tried my best to find it. 

“…!”

A loud noise rang into the store. 

Time’s up. 

I rushed to the cashier’s counter, the yammers of the old lady tending the desk getting clearer with each step. 

Emerging from the clutter, I could finally see  what was happening at the front.

The elderly woman glued to the wall behind her, as if trying to put as much distance as she could between her and Saheon. 

The latter was bowing to a perfect 90 degree and apologizing between her every sentence; but the discomfort written all over his face was clashing with his calm steady voice. 

I caught his eye and the intensity of his glare made me pause.

“… out! You and that- that wretched device! Get out!”

He straightened his back and swiped the item – a simple digital camera – away from the desk. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We’ll take our leave.” 

With one last nod he walked away, completely ignoring the insults thrown at him. I followed him out of the door, the cold breeze slapping me the moment I stepped outside. 

“Damned hag… Fuck, isn’t she doing too much?” He grumbled, glaring at the camera. “It’s not like it’s the first time she sees it either.” 

“Maybe she has dementia.” I said with a shrug.

His accusatory gaze turned toward me and I could swear I saw fire in his eye. “What were you doing that took you so long anyways?” 

I hesitated between humoring him a little to let him blow off steam and make him know he was close to crossing the line, but ultimately I needed to keep him scared so I chose the second option.

Without a word I reached out my hand and waited. As soon as he understood I only cared about the camera, he furrowed his eyebrows further.

“Hey, I asked you a question.”, he fumed.

I tilted my head and widened my eyes, trying to convey innocence and real concern. “But you’ll die?”

With a nod I added, “Well, if you really don’t care then I guess I can tell you. I was-”

“No..!” He cut me out in a hurry. I could still see the anger in his eye but it seemed he snapped out of it. “No, I’m good… sir.” He put the camera in my hand and turned away. 

I felt a bit bad though, so I decided to add, “You didn’t have to do all of that. The darkness was triggered the moment you handed her the camera, so you could’ve left without me.” 

I waited for an answer, to no avail. Well, at least next time he will probably flee faster. 

I went through the camera’s gallery, trying to figure out what was the theme and color of this expedition. 

This darkness was called [Beyond the lens], and was pretty easy for a D grade darkness. All we needed to do to trigger it was to bring this cursed camera to the old lady of the antique store. 

Then, its once empty gallery would fill up with pictures of a certain color and theme. It could be something as basic as ‘blue’ and ‘sky’ or something more weird like ‘purple’ and ‘■■’. 

To end the darkness, we needed to take a picture of three anomalies related to those keywords! There were no deaths, only disappearances likely due to failure to comply and contamination. 

That’s why it’s so weird for both of the top rookies to be sent to this low level darkness… And I’m pretty sure he went back to his hometown for the new year so why is he here…

I stared at Saheon before averting my eyes. No use being suspicious now that we were already here. 

I didn’t know about any ways to mess with this darkness, and I could handle it if the danger came from Saheon. 

I looked through the whole camera’s gallery to understand the recurring theme.

Red and… sea? Red things from the sea huh…

I nodded and tapped on Saheon’s shoulder. I handed him back the camera before walking away.

“Let’s get going.” 

—

I hummed as I browsed through the bookshelves. 

The reason I was excited for this darkness? Because it’s completely safe! From the food to the inhabitants, nothing could directly contaminate nor kill me! 

Plus, it was rare for a darkness to trigger inside of another, so it was as safe as it could get.

Well, of course, it was still a darkness. Staying here too long would lead me to complete contamination. But until then, it’s almost like I was back home! No contamination, no Daydream and most importantly no ghost!

I strolled to the next bookshelves with a spring in my steps. 

I loved Dark Exploration Record, I truly did. But it was hard to enjoy reading something when you couldn’t savor the stories, and skimming through one more story may be the key to survive one more day. 

So! I decided to visit a quaint bookstore not too far from the antique store so I could get something new to read.

I had a fleeting thought about picking a horror book but I quickly dismissed it. I see enough horrors everyday.  

“I’ve collected all the red books related to the sea, sir.”

…Of course, I couldn’t get rid of him. 

Saheon was standing there, looking proud of himself for being of use. 

“So? Need me to tell you every single thing you have to do?”, I complained.

His expression soured as he took out the camera and started to take pictures of each one. 

To know if something qualifies as an anomaly, it should behave weirdly – obviously – and should appear differently in the gallery. 

Seeing the number of expeditions recorded in the manual, it seemed they didn’t know yet that we could figure out the anomaly faster by simply recording videos instead of taking several pictures. It was because anomalies radiated some kind of black aura on videos. 

Of course, I wasn’t about to tell him and cut my leisure time short. So I let him painstakingly go through each book and returned to my books. 

Hmmm… Should I pick this one? But I already got fooled by the comedy genre before… maybe I should just go with security and get the thriller one.

Curious, I opened one of the books before slamming it shut. I slowly put it back and walked far, far from that shelf.

Saheon slightly raised his head and muttered, “What is that weirdo doing.”

Ignoring him, I snatched the camera from his hand. “You take too long.”

I took a picture of the whole pile before handing him back the camera.

“Let’s leave.” I said in a bored tone.

“You didn’t even check the picture!”

“No use. Just get up already.”

I already knew none of those books were the answer.

It’s because… I just saw the words move around in that book!

What is it with my luck?! Why did the one book I chose had to be the anomaly?! It wasn’t even red!

Well, now that I think about it, the anomaly doesn’t have to be red, just closely related to that color. And Revenge at Sea does sound red.. Blood red…

In any case, I needed to leave this place before that cunning guy figured it out. At least I knew the location of one of the anomalies, and seeing how hidden it was, it seems it was the hardest one. 

I walked out with a polite farewell to the librarian, the cold winter breeze freezing my non-existent tears.

So much for wanting to relax…

I ventured a bit further from the antique store. Both the manual and wiki stipulated that all the anomalies were contained within a 1 kilometer radius from the antique store, and some kind of force prevented us from going too far. 

With that in mind I strolled in search of something else to do. Saheon stepped next to me and sneezed for the 3rd time, red fingers rubbing at an even redder nose. 

“... Let’s go get coffee.”

He scowled and complained, “Can we even find anything related to the sea in a coffee shop?”

“Obviously not. I want coffee so we’ll get coffee. Simple.”

He kept grumbling but didn’t outright refuse. Taking that as an agreement I looked for the closest coffee shop on my phone and we immediately set off.

I opened the door, the scent of cinnamon hitting me at the same time as the warmth and light chatter. 

We walked up to the counter and quickly ordered before sitting at one of the tables near the huge window. 

Saheon seemed to hesitate a bit before cautiously asking, “Do you know any way of clearing fast, sir?”

“What makes you think I do?”

“Oh- uh, nothing, I was just thinking throwing ideas in the open would help.”, he ended wih an awkward laugh. 

Yeah, right. You think I have an item, don’t you. 

I nodded and decided to mess with him. “Hmm, you’re right. Let's start with Braun.”

Regret took over Saheon’s face as I reached into my pocket and brought Braun out. 

I held him in my cupped hand and pushed him toward Saheon, who tried to lean as far as he could without seeming disrespectful. 

“Say hi.” 

Creeped out, he hesitated before stammering out, “Um… Good- Good afternoon, mister… Braun… sir?”

[Good afternoon, Roe deer’s should-have-been-dead roommate!]

I nodded in satisfaction before turning Braun toward me so I could face him. 

“Do you have any ideas ,Braun?”

[Oh my, are you truly asking this one? I thought you wanted to relax, friend!]

Well, he was right on that. Gathering ideas never hurt. Plus, we’ll have to clear it eventually.

[Well if you ask this host’s humble opinion, isn’t it all like a talent show? Each of the participants need to make full use of their abilities and talents to win the audience’s heart! This stage is particularly good for your roommate!]

I glanced at Saheon, whose gaze was making back and forth between Braun and I. His face was torn between curiosity and fear, in some kind of morbid fascination. 

Abilities… Are you talking about his eye? 

[Bingo! I doubt that roommate of yours has any other talent he could show off at this moment anyway.]

“Huh. I guess you’re right. Thank you.”

[Anytime, friend!]

Apparently, Saheon’s face had decided neither fear nor curiosity was appropriate and decided to settle on looking at me like I lost my marbles.

Still, curiosity was still there, so he spoke up as I slipped Braun back in my pocket, making sure he was settled correctly. 

“Did he- uh, did Braun say anything, sir?”

“Yeah, he did.”

His face lit up. “Oh, what did he say?”

I looked at the waiter getting closer to our table with our order. I couldn’t stop myself from smirking as I answered, “That you cruelly lacked any talent.”

More or less.

He was stammering, barely able to align two syllables, but I ignored him in favor of thanking the waiter. 

I cut off his poor attempt at conversing by pushing his drink and food toward him. He caught the hint and huffed before snatching up his spoon.

Huh.

Unconsciously, I start to compare what he and I ordered. I stuck to my usual Iced Americano despite the freezing cold. 

Meanwhile, his side of the table looked more colorful. He picked an apple crumble topped with ice cream, and a couple macarons. As if it wasn’t enough sugar, he even ordered a caramel macchiato.

I even remember him asking for more caramel… I guess he has a sweet tooth. 

I looked outside, trying to shake out the weird feeling welling up in me. It felt so strange to learn new things about characters I thought I knew by heart. No, not characters. People.

Useless thoughts passed my mind as I sipped on my iced americano when a boy holding a fishbowl with a goldfish who wore nothing but a red swimsuit zoomed past the coffee shop. 

You have to be kidding me.

There was no way I saw not one but two of the anomalies on accident. 

Was it too much to ask for a little break?

Saheon chose this moment to speak up. “Huh, look outside.”

My heart dropped. If he noticed the boy, then we would have to go after him and say goodbye to any rest we could’ve gotten. 

I whipped my head to look at him, gears turning at full speed to figure out an excuse to not leave yet. Before I could say anything, he continued his sentence.

“It’s snowing”, he said in a breath. 

I looked back outside to see shiny white snowflakes slowly falling to the ground

“Oh. It is.” I answered in surprise. 

“So pretty.”, he muttered almost inaudibly.

My eyes widened as I glanced at him, not expecting a simple thing like snow to make him so… so amazed. 

My eyes couldn’t detach from his face. From the way his usually harsh glare was replaced by a softer look, to his lips slightly parted in awe. When I looked at him like that, he looked nothing like the infamous Viper from the wiki. 

Maybe it was the relief of knowing he hadn’t seen the boy, or it was the warm atmosphere in the coffee shop; but I answered before I could stop and think.

“Yeah, so pretty.”

—

I was starting to think that Kim Soleum sucked at treasure hunts. 

We had been at it for most of the afternoon, and we still had yet to find a single anomaly. I could blame myself for thinking it would be easy with him around, but I knew his reputation didn’t exist for no reason. 

Now we were walking around in an aquarium, which, I had to admit, was already better progress than the bookstore. 

I crossed my arm, waiting for him to finish buying his food. I looked at the tunnel, debating how mad he would be if I left without him.

Seriously, he acts like we’re on a field trip. 

Well, it’s true that we’ve been wasting time, but maybe the sugar rush was doing a bit of talking. 

After what felt like an eternity, he came back holding not one but two corndogs. The worst part is that because of all of the time we spent together unwillingly, I could tell that he was proud of himself for some reasons. 

Without a word, he held out one of them toward me.

What, does he want me to taste test it? Did he never eat any? Maybe psychopaths can’t go on field trips. 

I leaned and took a bite. The corndog really tasted exactly like expected. Really, I couldn’t understand what was his play here. But I could say that about any stunt he pulls, so I decided to choose the safest option and reassure him.

“It’s safe to eat, sir.”

Not wanting to linger here any longer, I decided to leave him behind and trudge deeper into the aquarium. 

I was tempted to walk around with my eyepatch off, but I wasn’t sure of how the folks would react to my eye and I didn’t want unnecessary attention. 

He caught up to me a few seconds later, eating silently next to me. 

Although I was focused on finding the anomaly, there were times where I unconsciously slowed down to admire the view. 

Then Kim Soleum’s annoying voice would ruin the mood as he started to monologue about the animals in here, even adding fun facts that weren’t written on the presentation boards.

Is he some kind of animal nerd…

Despite the momentary break in focus, I still remembered the task and rigorously took pictures of any red animal. 

I was starting to worry about staying stuck in this darkness but it looked like my worry was unfounded. 

There was a very obvious anomaly right behind us. 

Now, I wasn’t saying I was an expert in sea life or anything, but I was pretty damn sure seastars weren’t supposed to be almost 10 meters wide. 

“...”

“...”

I didn’t know if it was Kim Soleum’s current casual behavior or the words I heard before entering the darkness, but warning bells were ringing in my head.

I had the camera. I could turn around, take the picture, and be done with it. But I felt like this wasn’t my priority. 

I stared at Kim Soleum, almost drilling holes in his face. The blue light of the water tank was masking the pallor of his skin, and even the habitual red glint of his eye was gone. 

If anything, the deep black of his eye seemed almost mellower today, taken over by fatigue and nervousness. 

It felt like anything but Kim Soleum. 

The warning bells got louder, and my grasp on the camera got tighter. I remembered my primary mission.

I was supposed to go home for the new year, but the Research and Development department summoned me right as I was about to clock out. 

There was one of the researchers who gave me the creeps, so I never liked to go there. And to my luck, it seemed it was him who asked for me. I was wary of his intention, but his request made me pause in my tracks.

‘I want you to take a picture of D squad’s rookie, Kim Soleum.’

From the very beginning, I knew there was something wrong with the guy. I thought he was simply a psychopath but his feats were so ridiculous I started to think he was a darkness himself. 

Of course, it was just a mindless joke. It was supposed to be a mindless joke. But the strange request of that researcher made it clear it was anything but.

I started to raise my hand, reaching for my eyepatch before stopping. I already knew what I would see. A bright red halo. That same damned bright halo I saw anytime something ridiculous would happen.

But something still felt wrong. 

Even if he wasn’t human, he always cleared the darknesses in no time. Yet he was clearly ignoring the glaring anomaly in the tank behind us, talking endlessly about sharks and whatnot.

Strange things always happened to Daydream’s top rookie whenever he entered a darkness, and he always flirted with contamination. I was starting to think that this wasn’t the Kim Soleum I came here with. Maybe…

Maybe they got switched when he disappeared in the store. 

I tensed, my heart beating faster as my mind started to go through all of the items I had on me and the possible ways I could run away. 

No matter how closely I looked – at his unnecessary long eyelashes, at that hair of his I knew was soft, at the eyebags he seemed to refuse to part with – I couldn’t see anything that indicated he was an anomaly. I couldn’t even see his link to the sea.

But if he was…

Then the camera should get rid of him. 

I lifted the camera, my escape plan ready in case anything went wrong. I adjusted the setting, making sure to take a good picture so I could have an excuse if my suspicions were wrong. 

When I felt that he was looking good enough, I snapped a picture and–

“...”

–nothing.

There was… nothing.

“What are you doing?”

That annoying voice was still there. I glanced up and that detestable gaze of his was back. The one that felt like he was looking at inferior beings. Like he was mocking me. 

Like he was Kim Soleum. 

The lie slipped from my lips effortlessly. “Ah… Nothing. I just thought the lighting looked good.”

I looked back at the camera to be sure but there was no doubt. 

The picture was completely normal. There wasn’t any hint that he was an anomaly.

—

Did that guy think I was an anomaly???

My back was drenched from how much I was sweating because I was trying to keep him from noticing any anomaly. 

My efforts were worthless though because the anomaly was something we simply couldn’t ignore. 

Still, I kept talking to keep him distracted even if it was a bit ridiculous. 

But was it so ridiculous he had to mistake me for an evil entity…

Lamenting inside at the loss of my break day, I lifted my hand and pointed at the culprit.

“Are you an idiot? The anomaly is there.” I clicked my tongue before crossing my arms. “How is it you got something that increased your eyesight yet it feels like you’re even more blind? Maybe it’s eating away at your brain.”

“Ugh..! I thought you were- I was trying to- Dammit, just forget about it.”

He quickly took a picture of the seastar, which glitched like a game bug before getting smaller, then stomped away. 

I looked at his back getting smaller and smaller before sighing and throwing the sticks of the corndogs away, the fleeting confusion from his earlier actions coming back.

Was he not hungry? Or did he not understand that one was his? Whatever, it’s not time to think about this. Right now…

It’s time to work. 

—

I caught up to him at the exit, stopping in surprise. 

“The snow got thick pretty fast," I remarked.

He grumbled a complaint about how it was because I wasted time fooling around, but I pretended I couldn’t hear him and continued speaking in a bored tone.

“Anyways, I located all the anomalies. I want to leave, so let’s get it over with.”

“When did you-”, he started before glancing at Braun.

It wasn’t him, they are just basically trying to throw me out.  

I stepped forward, the snow crunching under my weight. 

The snow had now stopped falling, and the sunset was barely peeking through the clouds, creating a soft and pleasing scenery. 

We silently walked toward the bookstore, the atmosphere making it an unexpectedly calming walk. 

The silence was broken by Saheon as we reached our destination.

“Why are we back here? You said there was nothing there… sir.”

“? I never said that.”

“You clearly did!”

“No, I didn’t.” I pushed the door open, the warmth of the bookstore welcoming us as we stepped in. “I said it wasn’t the ones you had.”

I walked toward where I remembered the book was placed and was relieved to see it wasn’t purchased. 

I took it and opened it, showing the moving words forming images to Saheon. 

Like a true Daydream employee, he barely reacted to the sight and took a picture without hesitation. 

I was surprised he didn’t question why we didn’t take the picture earlier, but if he wasn’t going to ask then I wasn’t going to put me on the spot. 

“2 out of 3.”, I said, more for myself than anything.

I wanted to mess with Saheon a bit more but I knew I shouldn’t push him too much lest he would seriously try to get rid of me, so I simply continued speaking. 

“The last one is a bit tricky. Braun said that you needed to use your eye to spot a boy in the crowd.”

“Braun did, huh…”, he said as he stared at Braun once more.

Are you forgetting he also called you talentless?

“He’s pretty easy to recognize. He has a red swimsuit and a fishbowl with a goldfish. Even you can spot that, right?”

“…Yes, sir.”

I put the now normal book back where it was then left the bookstore. He discreetly lifted his eyepatch and started looking around, trying to spot the boy among the people who came out to play with the snow and those simply going on with their day.

While he was busy doing that, I tried to figure out a way to stop the boy from moving around. The pictures taken couldn’t be blurry for the camera to work, but the boy was running earlier. 

I was a bit worried about him going home earlier, but the darkness never mentioned the anomaly going far from where it was first spotted, even if it was moving around.

“Let’s go back to the coffee shop.”

He looked at me, incredulous. “Seriously?”

“The boy should be there.”, I generously explained.

His face turned serious and he nodded. 

I walked a bit slowly, trying to think of a way to solve our issue.

It would look a bit weird if two grown men were pining down a kid…

I barely suppressed a flinch as a snowball hit the pole right next to me.

My heart was beating so hard it felt it would burst out of my chest. I knew the darkness had no killing mechanism but I still wondered if it was trying to, when I got hit with a stroke of genius.

At the same time, Saheon stopped me. “Target ahead.”

There was the boy, looking through the window of some store with his trusty fishbowl in his hands before running away once more

Using his momentary distraction, I pulled Saheon’s clothes hard enough to bare his back and threw in some snow.

“Ack! What the hell?! Fuck, it’s cold! Shit-”

I was doing my best. 

I was trying really hard.

But I still couldn’t stop myself from bursting out laughing.

Dammit, I’m trying to stay serious so stop jumping around like that.

My plan was to play around with the kid so he could willingly agree to take the picture. I thought riling up Saheon so he wouldn’t be awkward was a good idea, but maybe I just liked to mess with him. 

I picked up some snow and made a quick snowball before throwing it at him. He glared at me, still trying to get the snow out of his clothes.

“What are you gonna do about it, huh?” I started to walk backward, getting ready to run away but more importantly toward the kid. “We both know your aim sucks.”

He was already fuming, but taunting him about his failed attempt in Sekwang Technical Highschool was the last straw.

Right as he bent to pick up the snow on the floor, I turned around and ran fast. 

I couldn’t see behind me so I used the reflection of cars and windows to avoid his snowballs, which apparently pissed him off even more.

We ran past the coffee shop and past the antique store. 

Cars, windowsills, hell even the floor— I took the snow from anywhere my hand could reach.

“Kim Soleum!! Come back here!”

Don’t say my name in a darkness, man…

My brain was on overdrive, trying to weave between people, avoid his attacks, retaliate, and keep track of where the stupidly fast kid was going.

We quickly reached a small playground surrounded by buildings.  

The kid was running in circles, as if fatigue was a social construct he detached himself from. 

I placed myself exactly in between him and Saheon, and dodged at the last second. The snowball hit him and almost knocked the fishbowl out of his hands

I bent over and smiled to seem less scary. “Oh my! I’m sorry kid. Are you and your friend okay?”

He put his ear against the fishbowl before nodding. “Um, yes mister!”

“That’s good to hear. Be careful when running around.” 

I glanced at Saheon before whispering like I was giving him a secret. “The guy over there is a big meanie who’s trying to hit me with his snowballs. Do you think you can help me defeat him?”

He looked at Saheon with wariness before turning back to me with determination. “Yeah, I’ll save you mister!”

“Thank you,” I said as I smiled brightly. 

I stood back up and turned around to look at Saheon. He must’ve gotten a bad feeling from this because he took a step back, slowly inching away from us. 

“Hey…”, he started. 

But before he could add anything, the boy bent down and grabbed a handful of snow. Seeing this, Saheon immediately turned around and started to run. 

Thinking he could get away from us was foolish. I ran after him, making snowballs while trying not to slip and fall. 

The kid was surprisingly keeping up pretty well, following right behind my steps. We ran around in the playground, making sure the kid wouldn’t run out of our reach.

A few of Saheon’s snowballs hit me, and it was so obvious that irritating guy was aiming for my face. 

It felt childish to react to his taunts, but he was throwing those snowballs damn hard.

He jumped over a bench and rolled on the floor, grabbing and launching snowballs like a machine gun.   

Why are you trying so hard against a kid? 

The kid whose fishbowl miraculously survived – and was now somehow sitting still on top of his head – sneaked up behind him before dumping on him a snowball so big he had to hold it with both hands. 

Saheon fell under the weight of the snow and… simply laid there.

The kid started to jump up and down while clapping his hands. “Yay! We defeated the big bad villain!” 

I knew it would take more to kill him yet I couldn’t help but get closer to him to get a look at his face. 

As soon as I got close enough to him, he grabbed my ankle and tugged me. Hard. 

My back hit the chilling ground within seconds. 

“...”

“...”

“Yay! Yay!”

I slowly sat up and shook the snow out of my hair. 

“Hey. Wasn’t that playing dirty?”

The shameless dude was already sitting up and looked proud of himself. “It was two against one. Plus, who said there were any rules?”

I looked at his shameless shrug before shaking my head and getting up. I stepped toward the jumping kid – seriously, how is the fishbowl still full – and smiled.

“Yeah, we did it! Thank you for your help, kiddo.”

I crouched down and grabbed enough snow to make another snowball. 

“Say, how about we make a snowman to celebrate?” 

The kid stopped jumping and whipped his head around so fast I got whiplash. “Yes please! I really really want to! I asked grandma but she said no so I was very sad. Can we make it right now, mister?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” I handed him the snow I was holding. “Here, take this and roll it on the snow until it gets huge.”

“Yay!” 

With that, the kid ran off to a place in the playground where the snow was more or less left untouched. 

I don’t know when he got up nor approached me but Saheon was standing next to me and throwing weird looks. 

“Are we supposed to tire him out? Because it doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon.”

I didn’t give him an answer, and it looked like he wasn’t expecting one. He walked off and started to make a snowball of his own. 

The boy looked like his ball got so big he was struggling with it, so I went to take over and sent him to look for rocks and branches so we could decorate it.  

We all worked on our job and our snowman took form faster than I expected. To make it look finished, I decided to sacrifice my gloves and put it on the snowman’s hand. Or, well, sticks. 

It looked a bit crooked, but it had the kind of ugliness that made it endearing. 

The kid was finally standing still, looking at his work with pride.

“Hey, it looks great!”, I cheered.

His face lit up even more, clearly happy to see others found it as good as he did. 

Although I had to admit I had fun playing around with the kid, I knew it was time to end this mission. 

Saheon was probably thinking the same thing as me because he spoke up and asked the exact question I had in mind. “It might melt tomorrow. Do you want to take a picture with it?”

The boy’s face fell a bit. “No it won’t. Mister snowman will still be there tomorrow.”

“Snow can melt anytime, you know.”, he answered

The boy bent down and took a handful of snow before pushing his hand toward Saheon. “Then I’ll just have to take him with me. Like this!”

Saheon sighed before saying, “Look at your hand.”

The kid wasn’t wearing gloves, so the snow melted in seconds, leaving only a puddle of water in his palm.

“See?”, Saheon said. “You’ll be able to keep it if you take a picture of it.”

The boy looked so upset I was scared he would cry but he simply shook his hand off and, with a smile, he said, “Okay!”

He walked toward the snowman and stood beside it before dashing back to us. “No, wait! You both have to be in the picture too! What if you will melt in the night?

“Don’t be silly–”, Saheon started before he started to get dragged off by the kid. 

He handed me the camera before reluctantly following the kid as I set it up. I put a timer and set it down before rushing to stand on the other side of the snowman. 

I was a bit scared the snow would damage it but since it was a cursed camera I figured it could survive a bit of snow. 

I knew it didn’t matter and it had been a while since I took a picture, but I still made an awkward peace sign. 

We waited a bit until we heard the shutter and the kid started to glitch. I went to take the camera, as Saheon watched the kid magically get winter clothes and the fishbowl finally disappearing to get replaced by a blue beanie with a goldfish. 

He was speaking to the kid but I wasn’t listening, too busy looking through the few pictures we had taken today. 

I swiped past the random pictures Saheon took, the way too numerous pictures of red books, the picture of me, the giant seastar, the thick book, and finally reached the last picture. 

Huh…

Saheon was standing with a hand on his hip, looking like he just wanted to get this over with. But I could still see his other hand resting on the head of the kid. The snow all over his hair and clothes was ruining his tough guy impression anyways. 

I bet the boy was smiling, but his face was blurry probably due to him being an anomaly. 

And here I was on the other side of the snowman, awkwardly holding up a peace sign. My cheeks were flushed and I too had snow all over my clothes. What surprised me was my smile. 

I didn’t realize I was smiling… 

Before my thoughts could get any further, I heard the kid call me over. 

“Thank you for playing with me, misters! Grandma is waiting for me so I gotta go home. I don’t wanna go yet though…”

Saheon crossed his arm. “Ugh, we just talked about it. It’s getting dark so you need to go home or she’ll worry.”

I was a bit surprised to hear him scold the kid in such a… big brother kind of way? 

“Yeah, I know.”, whined the boy. 

He turned around and started to run toward the apartment complex. 

He got further away before turning around and shouting loud enough for his voice to echo. “Goodbye, misters!”

Saheon raised his hand in a wave and shouted back. “Don’t talk to strangers!” 

This whole interaction was so weird. Seeing Saheon like this was weird. 

I checked the camera and tried to take a picture of the floor but a popup window said the storage was full.

It was officially over.  

I was tired even though it was supposed to be a break day. Still, it felt great to be done with a darkness without having any major threat to my life. 

Saheon was still looking in the direction in which the kid ran, long after he had disappeared. 

I didn’t realize I was staring at him until for some reason I started to get annoyed at his face.

Ugh, you… My back still hurts, you know.

I grabbed one last handful of snow and dumped it into his clothes. Serves him right. 

.

.

.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I didn’t even need to turn around to know who was talking. There had to be someone messing with me, because I refused to believe we kept meeting by accident.

I sighed and glanced next to me. Lo and behold, there was Saheon standing while holding a train ticket with a baffled face. 

Honestly I should’ve known there was no way I could have a peaceful train ride.

It looked like even he wasn’t questioning how this kept happening anymore, since he slipped into his seat without trying to blame me. Instead, the corner of his mouth kept twitching as if he was holding back a smirk, clearly scheming again. 

“Supervisor!” He greeted me cheerfully. “Well, I guess you aren’t working in Daydream anymore so-”

“No.” I already knew where this was going, so I stopped him before he tried to get too comfortable.

He cursed, his expression slightly souring. “A-anyways… It’s been a while since we’ve talked. Why aren’t you answering your messages?”

“Do you have any useful info?” He hesitated a bit, but I cut him off before he tried to talk. “I know you don’t. But it’s okay. I’m giving you a chance here. Bring me something worth it and you’ll get what you want.” 

He squinted, whether it was because he was creeped out at my false omniscience or offended remained a secret. 

He got surprisingly bold and started complaining. “How would you even know if you don’t bother checking? I kept sending you messages but barely got a single reply.”

Wait a minute…

His brow furrowed further, and now I understood his expression. It was confusion.

“Do you even care at all?”

“Hey, wait…” I started, trying to cut his rant short.

“I thought we had an agreement. I thought we had something.”

“No, just stop for a second…”

“But I guess this all means nothing to you? I mean nothing to you? I really hate you. No, actually I hate that I missed-”

“Don’t say it!” I hissed as I placed my hand over his mouth.

He looked at me with surprise and confusion, but understanding was slowly taking over. He wasn’t talking out of his own volition; it was the doing of a darkness. 

“Do you want to get into a darkness this badly?” I asked without expecting an answer.

I waited a few more seconds before letting go of him with a sigh. 

Crisis averted.

Or so I thought. But as soon as I leaned back, his lips started to move and pronounced the dreaded words.

“I missed you.”

“!!”

As soon as he said the words, my vision blurred and I blacked out. 

The first thing I felt was the sudden drop in temperature. Then sounds came back, laughter ringing in my ears. I blinked and realized where we were.

“… An ice rink?”, muttered the moron next to me.

I side-eyed him, silently cursing him out in my head. Even he knew he messed up because he smiled and leaned away from me. 

“Um, do you know what darkness this is, sir..?” He asked cautiously.

I crossed my arms, and grumbled. “Why should I tell you? Wouldn’t it be funnier to see you run around and die?” His face fell, but before he could say anything I reluctantly answered. “It’s an F-rank darkness.”

He seemed to pout a little in disappointment as he asked “… and?”

“We just need to go through whatever activity the darkness chooses . No mechanisms, no evil entity.”

It was one more of those darkness made just for people to see their favorite characters interact. This one was specifically made so retired agents or employees could come back in the story and was triggered by a strong desire to see and talk to someone.

This darkness sparked a debate and barely got accepted, only staying on the wiki because it was only F-rank. 

“Huh… pretty easy then.”

Talk for yourself!

The reason I was so annoyed since earlier had nothing to do with the situation but rather the activity the darkness chose. 

I can’t ice skate!

My friends had already tried to drag me multiple times to the ice rink, but ever since I had a bad fall when I was younger and broke my arm, I never wanted to set foot inside this cursed place ever again. 

Saheon got up without wasting a second. I scrambled to get up and follow him, stopping right at the border. 

He got on the ice without effort, only taking a few seconds to adjust his balance. Without looking back he started to skate and went far, far away.

I looked at my skates and the floor, my heart pounding in my ears. I tried to take a step forward, immediately gripping the wall. 

Either it took me ages to make that one step, or Saheon was one hell of an ice skater because he was already back and looking at me in confusion. 

“What are you doing?”

I stayed silent. I couldn’t tell him I was scared, but I couldn’t not tell him. Sooner or later I will have to get in the rink and clear this darkness. 

Seemed I didn’t have to say anything though, if the way his eyes widened comedically was anything to go by. His jaw was wide open and his trembling hand was pointing at me.

“Don’t tell me… you can’t skate?!”

I looked away, neither confirming nor denying his statement, but my silence was an answer in and of itself.

He burst out laughing, disbelief written all over his face.

“Hey. Wanna die?”

I reached and tried to grab him, but he slid right out of my reach. The jerk was all smug, cackles shaking his shoulders. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to assume anything of Daydream’s top rookie. I guess this means you can clear the darkness by yourself right?” 

And he left with that, smirking and laughing to himself. 

Fuming, I tried to get on the rink and get it over with. Still, my body didn’t agree with my brain and just refused to take my other foot off of the safe and secure floor to go onto the safety hazard. 

It’s in moments like these I miss Braun…

I took a deep breath and finally managed to get on the ice. I could swear I felt my arm hurting, but I couldn’t go back now. 

Saheon suddenly stopped in front of me, breaking me out of my focus and making my heart skip a beat.

“Should I help you, Supervisor?”

His smirk was pissing me off but I stopped to think for a second. Decided, I nodded to myself and looked at the hand he offered me. Taking his hand felt like signing a contract with the devil, but it was too late to go back now. 

“Soleum. Call me Soleum.” 

His eyes would pop out of his skull if he widened them any more than that. 

It felt like handing him the upper hand on a golden plate, so I added for good measure, “Being friendly is a condition to clear this darkness faster, Saheon.”

I did say that the darkness had no mechanism, but I got fooled more than once by relying too much on the wiki. 

I slipped my hand in his, barely holding onto it.

This darkness relies on friendly feelings, so it could stop us from clearing if we don’t comply. 

He was still frozen, looking at me as if I grew a second head.

Plus it was only F-rank so it’s not very dangerous.

I sighed and shook my other hand, trying to shake off the fear. Strangely, I started to feel a bit guilty as if they were just excuses.

“Are we going to stay here all day?”

Snapping out of it, he slightly shook his head and tightened his hold. 

“I don’t know, do you plan on letting go of the wall anytime soon?”

Touché. Trying to pretend I was unaffected, I let go of the boards and tried to stand. Reality and fear hit me like a wall though, so I panicked and grabbed his arm with my other hand. 

That jerk wasn’t even trying to hide his mocking smile. I would’ve said something but it felt like my life was in his palms so I just sucked it up.

I clenched my hand, his usually warm hands feeling even warmer despite not wearing any gloves. I looked at the floor and pursed my lips, trying to get the determination to move. I was seriously starting to think that ghosts would be better than this. 

“They could’ve given us warm clothes…”, I mumbled.

I was barely getting used to standing on the ice when he started to skate without warning. My stomach dropped and strangled his hand without noticing.

“Ow! Ouch- hey- Soleum-” I looked up just in time to see his face morphed from hurt to scared. “...Nevermind.”

…? 

Nevertheless, I tried to hold him more lightly. The feeling of unfairness grew in my heart as he skated backward without any struggle while I was stuck to moving like a baby deer on ice. 

I didn’t look anywhere other than my feet or Saheon, because I knew I would die of embarrassment if I saw any kid mocking me.

We went painfully slow but still completed a full lap. Saheon didn’t try to mess with me and go fast. Actually, he was taking this surprisingly seriously. 

Of course, as always, luck was against me.

“!!”

He slipped through my grasp and let go of me, sliding just out of reach. 

“Wait- hey! What are you- hey, come back!”, I yelped. 

My screams were barely louder than the pounding in my ears and that traitor was laughing so hard he was bent in two.  

I glared with all my might and cursed him out in my head. I knew I didn’t look scary though, flailing around like a baby bird. 

I lost all authority… sob…

I bent my trembling knees a little to regain a balance, looking even less scary. Yet he zipped it up immediately and came back to my side

Or not? 

Despite the cold I could swear he started sweating. 

I bit my lips and tried not to laugh. I was still in deadly danger after all. 

He grabbed one of my arms to help me stabilize before holding my hand. Confused, I held out my other hand so he could grab it but he shook his head.

“We’re going too slow. We’ll never clear at this rate. What happened to the speedrunner of Daydream?”

I guess he’s right. He didn’t have to add that last part though… 

We resumed our slow strides. I was expecting to fall immediately, but it was going surprisingly well. 

At least for me. I was pretty sure I was crushing Saheon’s hand, but that wasn't my problem. 

We both unconsciously picked up the pace lap by lap. Any time I leaned too far on one side, my heart dropped to my feet, but so far I had no issue. 

In fact, I felt good. Great, even. So great I could feel myself smiling. I didn’t know if my heart was pounding in fear or excitement, nor if the trembling of my fingers was due to the cold or the adrenaline.

Even when Saheon let go of me and left to do a lap by himself, I managed to power through the fear and skate alone. 

All in all, it was going well. Too well. 

I was nearing one of the walls so I had to turn around. One moment I was looking at the wall, and the next I was staring at the ceiling. 

My whole left side was hurting. I panicked and clutched my arm, afraid I broke it again. 

I was holding it so tight it was starting to bruise, but I was too busy regretting not having taken a Happy Maker to care.  

Saheon came back from his lap and started to circle me, laughing at my misery. 

Annoyed, I let go of my arm to try and grab him so I could make him fall. Like the slippery jerk he was, he skated right out of my reach once more. 

I was so fixated on making him pay that I didn’t even notice I was getting up by putting weight on my arm. 

It’s only when I was already standing up that I realized my arm wasn’t hurting any more than that. Matter of fact, it was barely hurting anymore.

I looked at my arm, which looked totally fine despite everything. I looked and I looked, waiting for something to happen. But no matter how long I waited, it didn’t change nor hurt. 

I felt so stupid. How is it that I risk my life every day but something as insignificant as a broken arm was making me shake in my boots. 

Maybe this darkness was the push I needed to get over it. 

I looked up, seeing Saheon’s smug face as he flexed his agility. 

New found confidence filled me up and I tried to chase after him. I was still skating like a beginner and there was still the possibility of breaking my arm or any other part of my body, but I knew I would be able to get up, and that was enough.  

I wasn’t proud to admit it but at some point I completely forgot we were in a darkness. I was having fun despite the cold biting at me, and the confidence was making me feel like nothing could defeat me. 

Plus, I could go even faster when I skated with Saheon, and felt like I had grown wings.

Perhaps I was too confident, because I went from happily skating to a total black out in the blink of an eye. 

This is it. I’m dead. This is the end.

Death felt oddly soft though. And smelled like strawberries. 

“... Are you still asleep?” asked Saheon. I felt him more than heard him, his voice rumbling through me and snapping me awake. 

The harsh light of the ice rink got replaced by the mellower shine of the sunset, and the cold freezing the tip of my nose had disappeared. 

Realizing I was, in fact, very much alive and comfortably laying on Saheon’s shoulder, I sat upright, the strange sense of déjà vu getting overshadowed by the pure mortification I felt. 

Blind to my crisis, Saheon stretched and complained. “Damn, even if it was only F-grade, I regret not taking my dream collector.”

Still, he yawned as if barely bothered and turned on his phone. 

“Seriously, I need to charge you for all the times you used me as a pillow…”, he muttered. 

I looked out of the window without saying anything, too busy trying to stop my cheeks from getting any warmer. 

.

.

.

I looked over the mall map one more time, scanning every store name to find which sparked inspiration. I knew I wouldn’t find what I wanted here but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look around. 

I was currently on Jeju Island, taking a forced break after getting contaminated during the Mermaid Grave expedition. 

Still, aren’t they doing a bit much for a new rookie?

Not having to jump into darknesses everyday was great, but I’ve been in this world for so long that it felt almost weird. 

A mere 3 day break felt like a lifetime, and I’ve started to feel restless. That's why I was at the mall today. Plus I wanted to bring back souvenirs for the agents anyway. 

I don’t want to leave too much of my presence there, but it would be rude not to bring back anything, right? 

Giving up on the map, I decided to just walk around and check out anything that looked interesting. 

I had barely taken a few steps when I recognized a face in the crowd. 

The possibility of crossing paths with someone I knew so far from Seoul was so slim yet I wasn’t surprised when I recognized who it was. If anything, it felt almost natural to see him here. 

It was Baek Saheon. 

My feet took me to him on instinct, and I was already thinking of ways to mess with him. 

I snuck up behind him and got really close to his ear without a sound before speaking up.

“Are you going in?”

“Ack-!”

He yelped and startled, whipping his head around as he took a few steps back.

Shouldn’t you be getting used to this? 

Rubbing his ear, he seemed to calm down and let go of the defensive stance he instinctively took. “Oh, it’s you.” 

Maybe it took him a few more seconds to truly register the situation because he then muttered a curse before letting out, “Of course it’s you…”

“So?”, I said with impatience. Well, I was trying to show a serious face but I couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth from going up.

“Huh? Oh, uh, not really, I just- wait a minute. I can understand crossing paths in Seoul but what are you doing here?”

“Shopping, obviously. Why else would I be at the mall?”

“That’s not… whatever.” He carefully analyzed the stores around us before turning back to me. “Did the darkness trigger yet?”

I tilted my head. “What darkness?”

“I don’t know? Isn’t there a darkness in this mall?”

I looked at him as if disappointed. “How would I know?”

I truly didn’t know of any darkness concerning this specific mall, but he was right to be on his guard. After all, a darkness always seemed to trigger whenever we met. 

Maybe this is why he followed me when I decided to step inside the store he was looking at earlier. 

It was a simple clothes store that could be found in most of Korea, so I already knew I would leave empty-handed. 

Still, I decided to go through a few aisles and look at what they were selling. Saheon just followed me silently, looking around like he was expecting something to happen. 

He kept following me, even as I left the current store and entered another clothes store. 

When I was about to enter the third store, I turned around to face him and crossed my arms. 

“Are you going to follow me forever? Do you not have a life?”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Don’t you think I have better things to do?”

“Then go and do them.”

He huffed, muttering something like ‘I don’t know why I’m here’ before turning around and walking away. 

Though before he could get too far, I reached out and grabbed his arm. I don’t know if it was because I’ve been restless, because I’ve been away from my team for too long, or because it felt weird to spend a break without Braun’s commentary, but I didn’t want to shop alone. 

Of course, I would never tell him that. 

“...”

“...”

We looked at each other silently for a few second before speaking up at the same time

“I guess a darkness could trigger–”,  I conceded. 

“I feel like the darkness here will–” he started. 

“...”

“...”

I let go of his arm and pushed back my hair. “Let’s just quickly do what we came here to do.”

He nodded, and that was all I needed to turn back around and enter the store. 

—-

Wait a minute… 

What am I doing?! 

“No, wait, I kinda see it. Go look in a mirror.”, said the presumed-dead top rookie of Daydream while holding a hot pink mini dress that obviously would not fit me.

We were in a thrift store inside the mall, skimming through various items in search of the one that fit Soleum’s requirements. 

We’ve been at it for so long that it was almost dinner. 

Originally, I had been dispatched to Jeju Island with two other people to deal with a darkness that should’ve taken us a week to clear.  

However, thanks to the heroic and very much willing sacrifice of my teammates, we– or well, I managed to clear the darkness in a record time. So basically I was on a paid vacation for the rest of the week. 

I came to the mall to pass time but honestly it was no surprise I found Soleum here, almost 450 kilometers away from Seoul. 

It was like the stars were aligned in a way that no matter how ridiculous the situation was, it would always make sense because Soleum was at the center of it. 

There was a limit to how ridiculous it could get.

I took a step back, trying discreetly to escape that abomination. “No… I really don’t think this is it.”

“Yes, it is. I promise you this will boost your charm so much you’ll get a promotion.”, he said looking dead serious.

“Then how about you try it on, Soleum?”

He gave me that damn look, the one he always gave me when I said something beyond stupid before putting the dress down. “Why would I need a boost? Between the two of us here, someone got a promotion and it wasn’t you. Whatever, your loss.”

 With that, he walked out of the clothes section to go look at objects. Despite my refusal, I couldn’t help but look at the dress again. 

Is it an item..?

My hand moved on instinct to the prospect of getting a new item. I knew that Soleum had an eye for items and was a professional in darknesses, so I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that it was an item. 

It looks normal… But if it’s an item, I could wear it under my work clothes, right? 

I turned it around, trying to figure out what could be its function. 

“Changed your mind?”

I flinched so hard I threw the dress away. 

This guy had a bad habit of sneaking up on people and it pissed me off how he always startled me.

He took a few steps back and raised his hand in mock surrender. “Hey, no need to be ashamed. If that’s your taste, then so be it.”

Screw you, Kim Soleum. 

I knew he was taunting me so I tried to keep my cool and simply walked off. He followed me, pointing at all of the weird objects his eye laid on and telling me to buy them. 

I didn't know who was weirder, between the crazy people who used to own them and the psychopath wanting to buy all of them. 

We walked through all of the aisle, and although it was kind of hard to look for something without knowing what it was, I somehow managed to figure out a general feel the object must have. 

Despite that, he left yet another store empty-handed. I was the only one who bought things, even though it was impulsive purchases I knew I would regret tonight. 

Still, I was starting to think nothing would satisfy him. 

“Ugh, I’m tired.”, I said right as my stomach growled.

He sighed and crossed his arms. “We haven’t made much progress… Let’s go eat something.”

Finally!

Being in Jeju meant that we had to get seafood, so after checking the menu hanging outside, we entered one of the restaurants not too far from the thrift store. 

We stepped toward the counter and gave our order to the old woman standing behind it, before walking off to sit deeper in the restaurant. 

Waiting for our orders to be ready, I decided to see if I could get more hints on what we were looking for. 

“Can I know what we’re supposed to buy?”, I asked.

He seemed to think a little before shrugging and answering with a smile, “Hmmm… No”

“Then can I know its purpose?”

“No.”

“... Can I at least know if it’s clothes, food, or something else entirely? Is it an item?”

“Not saying.”

Come on, work with me man! 

I probed around, trying to get implicit answers but he wouldn’t let a single hint. If he wasn’t so dead set on it I would’ve thought he himself didn’t know what he wanted. 

I was about to ask where that creepy doll of his went when the waitress placed two bowls along with a bunch of side dishes in front of us. We thanked her before she went on her way. 

I was about to dig in my bowl of seafood ramen when he spoke up. 

“You’re paying, by the way.”, he casually said as he picked up his chopsticks

“Wait, what!?”

“I said that you were paying.”, he repeated slowly like I was deaf. 

“I never agreed!”, I snapped back. 

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “It’s your stomach that kept growling so loud I couldn’t focus.”

I scoffed and gave up on arguing with someone obviously who lacked common sense. “Whatever. Sure.”

“...”

“...”

“Hey… Could it be that you don’t have much money anymore?”

“... Shut up and eat.”

Barely able to hide my snickers, I turned my head toward my food instead. 

Even though this kind of ramen was best enjoyed with lots of spice, I couldn’t handle spicy food so I asked them to take it out.  

Unfortunately, it looked like Soleum had noticed because he kept looking between his plate of spicy raw crab and my ramen. 

“Hey, Saheon. Try this”, he says as he took a piece of spicy crab and pushed it toward me. 

The sheer amount of spice coming from that singular piece of crab was already making my nose tingle. It looked neon red. It looked like pure torture. 

Didn’t he ask them for extra spice too?

“No, I’m good.”, I answered with a smile, hoping to make him back down. 

He tilted his head and pushed it further toward me. “It tastes good. Try it.”

“There’s plenty to eat on the table.”

“One bite of crab won’t kill your appetite, you know.”

No, but it’ll kill me. 

“I’m good, thanks.”

He crinkled his eyes in that mocking way I always hated. “What, it’s not like you can’t handle spicy food, right?”

I decided to stay silent, because I knew both answers would end with the crab shoved deep in my throat. I forgot silence was an answer too though. 

“Wait, seriously? You can’t handle a little spice?”

“I never said I couldn’t.”

“You never said you could,” I answered

Deciding I wouldn’t argue with him anymore, I pulled my bowl closer to me and far from this psychopath, and focused on my delicious non-spicy noodles. 

“Eat it.”

“No…”

“Yes.”

“No…!”

“Just take it!”

“Okay, fine!”

I yanked the piece of crab and shoved it into my mouth, praying that swallowing quickly wouldn’t let my taste buds realize the absurd amount of spice on it.

He observed my face, waiting to see any change, but I refused to let anything show. 

I swallowed before opening my mouth and sticking out my tongue.

“See? Empty. And I’m fine.”

“Ugh, killjoy.” He grumbled as he turned back toward his food.

I smirked  and mocked him. Or at least tried to. But inside, I was feeling anything but smug. 

Holy fucking shit. 

My mouth was on fire. No, my whole body was on fire

I knew it. That asshole finally lost it. He’s trying to kill me. 

It had to be a murder attempt. There’s no way he was actually enjoying the food. 

I grabbed my cup and chugged glasses after glasses of water. My vision was so blurry from all the tears I was shedding I couldn’t see how much water I was pouring in my glass and I could feel my nose run too. 

Is this how I die? 

I refused to let him see any of my weaknesses so I was as quiet as I could, which, was not quiet at all. 

And that jerk? He was laughing so hard he choked on his food. 

—

“I’m telling you, only psychopaths eat mint chocolate ice cream.”, I said with a nod. 

“Yeah, of course you think that when you picked vanilla. Seriously, is there anything more boring than that?”

Saheon and I were walking in the mall, ice creams melting in our hands. 

To be honest, we had already gone through most of the stores here, and it was well past dinner time. The closing time was creeping closer yet neither of us hurried to buy more things. 

We should be leaving. We really should. But I didn’t feel like it. 

And apparently, neither did he.

I felt like somewhere along the various stores, I forgot the reason I was here for in the first place. 

I glanced at Saheon, who was making a passionate speech about mint chocolate ice cream. 

When did we even decide to walk together…

I looked up at the dark blue sky illuminated by the various lights of the mall through the open roof. 

When I first came to Jeju, I felt like I was wasting time I could’ve invested toward getting home. Now, I felt like maybe my team was right. 

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stop and breathe, even for a second. 

I turned back toward Saheon who was defending mint chocolate like it was a death or life matter. 

“...and that’s why–”

“Wait– wait, Saheon… But who…?”, I cut off. 

“Everyone, I’m telling you. No one would ever–”

“No, I meant who asked.”

“...”

I bit my tongue to stop myself from laughing, but the corners of my mouth couldn’t stop going up. 

It already looks like he is cursing my whole bloodline… Is he going to snap and kill me? 

I was about to try and calm him down when someone tapped on my shoulder. 

I whipped my head around to come face to face with a lady with white hair and twin braids, and what I assumed was her boyfriend standing not too far behind us, arms crossed clashing with his faint smile. 

“Hi! Sorry to bother you both, but could you take a picture of us near the fountain if you’re not too busy, please?”

Her big red eyes were twinkling too much for me to refuse, so I gave her a nod and a smile. “Yeah, of course.”

Her smile got impossibly wider as she thanked us and handed us her phone.

Knowing that Saheon is ten times better than me at taking pictures, I reached out to take the rest of his ice cream out of his hand while he took her phone. 

She and the green eyed boy went to stand next to the fountain standing in the middle of the mall and made various poses.

I was debating whether I should sacrifice my taste buds and take a bite of Saheon’s ice cream when the girl rushed back to us. 

She looked at the photos in her gallery before turning back toward Saheon. “Thank you so much!”

“It’s nothing–”, started Saheon before the girl cut him off. 

“Here, I’ll take pictures of you two too.”

Wait, what.

“Oh no, it’s okay–”, I tried to reply before she cut me off too. 

“No, I insist! You took such great pictures that I couldn’t possibly not return the favor.” 

Before we could say anything more, she started to gently push us toward the fountain. Speechless, I couldn’t even process what was happening. 

“Say cheese!”

I was frozen stiff, and apparently it displeased the girl who looked at the picture before shaking her head. 

“Come on, relax! You’re both good looking and look even better together.”

My brain was slowly rebooting, and I could feel the heat creep up my neck. Still, I scooted closer to Saheon so I could get this over with. 

I glanced at the latter, who was making an awfully awkward smile and equally as awkward peace sign.

Staying around him was definitely doing me no good because seeing him suffer made me genuinely smile. 

I knew it was childish but I couldn’t resist holding up bunny ears behind his head. 

The girl took a couple more pictures and finally seemed satisfied with them. She asked to airdrop them on our phones before they left as fast as they came.

I looked at the picture and once more wondered why I was here. 

It looked wrong to see Saheon so casual. He had switched his work eyepatch for a simple white medical eyepatch and he didn’t even bother doing his hair in his usual side part. 

No, actually it was a sight I was already used to. 

Maybe what felt truly wrong was seeing me stand next to him with a genuine smile. It was faint but it was there. From the melting ice cream to the bunny ear, it felt so… friendly. So wrong. 

I raised my head at the same time as he did, catching his eye.

“...”

“...”

He averted his eyes. “It– it’s getting late.”

“Yeah… we– I should get going.”, I agreed, nodding with fervor.

I gobbled up my ice cream and walked the embarrassment off. 

Honestly next time, just throw us in a ghost story.