Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

A song to accompany the fanfiction, listen out of your own preference; yomosugara kimi omou (instrumental) - TOKOTOKO

1. Meet Kim Soleum

Kim Soleum lives an ordinary life. Typical of a salaryman in his 20s low on the totem pole, he spends his day to day in barely concealed lethargy and a yearning for something more. Of course, that something more is akin to more vacation days or a bonus to spend on his favorite hobbies. This life has been kind enough to him that he has no thoughts of leaving this world for a romantic fantasy-like world. He is nowhere near miserable enough to desire such escapist fantasies. 

But there are plenty of things he doesn’t have of course. For one, that life partner that his parents want to see is nowhere in the picture. Sorry, he hasn’t gone on a blind date since his college days. The only thing he wants to do when he’s lazing around on the weekends is read (and a bit embarrassingly, write) ghost stories on the wiki he’s gotten addicted to for the past few years. He watches one or two episodes of the most sharply written children's show of the decade, and then goes out for a good meal with buddies. And although he’s a mere office worker, his efforts landed him a job at a respectable company, which allows him to watch the balance in his bank account rise comfortably. 

So life is simple. But it's good. 

“Why do you keep changing the channel to that stupid kids show? It was just getting to the good part.” 

‘Because I don’t want to watch the “good part” of a slasher film!’

Usually, when someone says their life changed because of one event or day, it’s due to some tragedy. A car accident or a medical diagnosis. In a more unreal genre, it might be amnesia or a kidnapping. Surely, even in those otaku fantasies, it’s more like an age regression or transportation to another world. 

No! Who would imagine a fictional character coming to their world?!

2. Meet Baek Saheon

Baek Saheon is no ordinary person. He has known that fact for a long time. Before he joined the great evil known as Daydream co., he had an intricately crafted social life, where he discovered most people don’t grow up in a cult village and have disregard for all other human life. He then spent a majority of his early twenties navigating through nail-biting life or death scenarios involving ghosts! It could almost be considered fiction, really.

Well, none of that really matters anymore. He’s stuck here whether he wants to or not. One day, as he was wondering about his life prospects without that village weighing on his every day, he woke up in a brand new place. No, the truth is, he had been wondering about that old co-worker of his, who lifted and turned his entire world upside-down. Such a thought was made with both reverence and total irritation. Who decides to be someone’s torturer and savior at the same time? That one moment he spent thinking about that man must’ve been the reason, for this event so maddening even a matter of darkness can’t explain it. 

The one-room studio apartment he finds himself in (a place that is the very definition of a single, working man), is so lifeless that he can’t help but make a mess of it himself. After brewing an instant coffee topped with cream, he then cooks himself omelettes with the 3 remaining eggs in the fridge. It is when he is finished with that tomfoolery, that he finally notices the family picture on the wall with a man that looks like Kim Soleum on it! No! That is plain and clear, Kim Soleum himself.

He looks down at his plate of omelettes and then back at the picture on the wall. Though he sits there with a beaming smile next to two people who he resembles (which comes to a shock to him for a multitude of reasons), that smile is sure to become one of a devilish nature, once he comes face to face with the man himself! There isn’t enough time in this world for mental preparation, as the front door suddenly sounds with a click and a creak. A pale face, known for its ability to feign innocence (which he of course, can not abuse as the other man knows his true nature), can barely turn to the door to greet the great psychopath!

With his black eyebrows furrowed, a glint in his red pupils and a clear scowl, the man who raises his head, after taking off his dress shoes, opens his mouth to a loud exclamation. 

“Who the f*ck are you?!” 

3. Home Sweet Home

He fiddles with his eyepatch, as Kim Soleum remains unbearably quiet. From across the table, neither of them make eye contact, because it’d be too awkward to address the situation. However, within the corner of his eye, he can see that the plate of omelettes is almost finished. 

Despite the fact that his hard work is being eaten without a trace, Saheon maintains a civil smile. The tension created from this war of nerves, is so grating compared to anything he could ever feel in the darkness. In the mere year that the two have not met, Kim Soleum insists to have forgotten him already!

“Not forgotten, I’ve never met you before.” Wiping his mouth neatly with a napkin, Soleum leaves him sitting there as he dumps the plate into the sink.

“Haha, you’re very funny sir? Don’t you remember giving me this?” For the 4th time this evening, he pulls down the blindfold, revealing a purple eye moving in its socket.

The same red halo shines above this Kim Soleum, who claims to lead an ordinary life without ghost stories. It’s so ridiculous, and he’s acting so normal Saheon could cry. He blinks slowly, expecting the image—anything—to change. It’s still that damn bastard, Kim Soleum. 

“I get it, I get it, so put it away.” 

‘It’s really f*cking freaky.’ That’s the real deal. A man named Baek Saheon, same as the name in the DER, has shown up in his house. 

Approaching the fridge, he takes out a jug of orange juice. What was orange juice, as not a drop of it was left. Scratching his head, he places it on the counter and boils a cup of water instead. He reaches up to check his cupboard, but it seems it's missing what he’s looking for too. Could it be that he’s out of tea as well?

Watching this ridiculous scene, a red fury rises from Saheon’s face to his ears touching his fluffy brown hair. 

“A… fridge with only three eggs in it.”

“What?”

“The only drink you have is instant coffee and tap. There’s takeout boxes piled up in the trash. Every shelf has a layer of dust on it and the air conditioning won’t even turn on. Seriously! You live like this?” 

“I’m sorry?”

He’s almost acting like he didn’t break into Soleum’s house! In a situation where he’d usually feel afraid, Kim Soleum feels oddly calm about this all. That man at his dining table is the despicable ‘Viper’ and yet something in his psyche is saying there’s no reason to be worried. Thus, he’s able to fully experience this: an anger enough that he might crack the ceramic mug in his hand.

“The Daydream hours were absurd, so I understand the residence being a little messy. I didn’t think you were just like this.” He’s now leaning back in the chair, picking at his ear. 

“Then. Why don’t you go back to that ‘residence’ of yours.” 

“According to you, that place doesn’t exist? I have nowhere else to go.”

‘And my house is not a dog shelter, go home!’

4. Two grown men in one studio apartment

In this cozy 3 room apartment on the 13th floor, is a perfectly contained space. A corner of Kim Soleum's universe all to himself. 

“Your sofa is so small, how do you expect a grown man to sleep on this?” 

If an outsider without context saw Saheon, they’d think he really lived there. In a pair of black slippers, he’s clad in polka dot pajamas (borrowed of course) and clutching a pillow under his arm. His freshly washed hair is as soft as a baby goat’s. With the blindfold off, he holds a wink which gives a loose impression similar to a child who’s dozing off. 

As “charming” as he appears, he makes no show of modesty. 

“Then would you want to sleep with me in the bed?”

“Now that I look at it, it isn’t that small. Thank you for the blanket, have a good night sir.”

Quickly tucking himself in, that gentle face is buried deep within the pillow without another word. Since the moment Soleum entered his home, he’s been swept by the rhythm of Baek Saheon. Although he was the one spoken to with a title, someone like the Viper swiftly took control and advantage of the situation. Even that detail is strange; his impression of the Viper is someone who’s wildly unyielding. A person who’d obey his superiors just enough to avoid suspicion, is not someone who’d act so brazenly.  

Kim Soleum is graced with both a shitty personality and irrational respect. And to think this all happened the night before the coveted weekend. If someone is sleeping in the living room, he can’t watch TV late into the night…! After observing the still figure for a little longer, he swings the window curtains closed and turns off the light before entering his bedroom. Clicking the lock into place, he flops into bed and lays listlessly with his thoughts. 

Overnight, Kim Soleum found himself caring for a charity case. Perhaps by the next morning, he’d find it to all be an elaborate hallucination caused by that week’s overtime work. But if it really is a hallucination of his, he sure is flanderizing the guy. As a wiki writer himself, he keeps great track of the various characters and how they’d interact with a ghost story. It’s simply disingenuous to write a community made character in a strange way after all. He sighs with resignation. If he reads the wiki now, he’ll be sure to have nightmares. 

When he finally drifts off, he returns to an old dream.

5. Food

For a while, Kim Soleum has woken up with tears in his eyes. He can’t quite explain why or how, his damp face being the only sign of his sleeping habits. He’s never been someone who remembers his dreams, so he can’t be sure what happens in them. Those first 10 minutes of his day for the past half year exist with extreme melancholy. In the past, he’d impulsively text his friends or call his family. Whenever he pauses to feel these coursing emotions, he can only assert that something is missing. 

While the quality of the rest of his day has gone downhill, with the arrival of Baek Saheon, those first 10 minutes have become a lot more bearable. It helps that, instead of the chilling, morning air, an aroma of savory breakfast fills his nose like clockwork everyday. From the plethora of useless info he knows about the wiki, it seems the fact about his dependent’s taste in food rings true. Doesn’t the air smell of bacon today?

“It is a bit too hearty for the morning, but it’s a bit hard to resist home-cooked food.” It’s pretty convincing to get out of bed for this. And his job too, he supposes.

Baek Saheon wakes up seriously early. Soleum almost feels like a slacker in comparison, so he’s been setting his alarm earlier each day as well. What’s making this freeloader wake up so early? It must be an old habit from his working days. He quietly seats himself at the dining table after setting the dishes and silverware. This dining set is one of the rare, 2 people compatible items within this house. It isn’t any great foresight from Soleum, however. If you buy just one chair, even the furniture guy will look at you weird. 

When the food arrives, his stomach sings a song for it. Although he doesn’t wish to praise the brunet too much, there hasn’t been a meal he’s disliked in the past week he’s stayed. As the homeowner, he’s been abusing his power as well, by making Saheon cook all of the meals. At this point, he can say he’s gone on tour through Europe on his stomach alone. 

“Maybe you should study for a food certificate. Or do something art related, you’re good at that.”

Now, his lunches at work weren't achieved by extortion like everything else. Similar to his item hoarding tendencies, Saheon is quite frugal. As low maintenance as he is, he firmly denied takeout food when they (Saheon) had finally bought ingredients (with Soleum’s money). When his coworkers see the boxed lunch, they immediately assume he’s finally gotten a girlfriend. Even if the box itself doesn’t appear particularly spectacular (and frankly, if he has to eat more tomato gratin, he’s hucking all the tomatoes in the house off his 13th floor window).

First off, saying “finally” is a bit much isn’t it? Staying single is a choice. But since it's not made by his hypothetical girlfriend, he just says it's a personal chef. Unfortunately, harder to explain assumptions come out of saying that, so he just says it’s a secret, a secret…

After a few bites of his own potato pancakes, Baek Saheon finally finds the time to respond. “Have I ever shown you any drawings before..?” 

“Ah. I must’ve misremembered or seen it on the wiki. Just forget about that part.” 

Inexplicably, that gentle face of his turns sour. Dragging the bowl of grapes closer to him, he bites into one with enough pressure that its crunch can be heard. 

“What’s for lunch today?”

“There were some leftovers, just roughly scoop some.” 

‘Last night’s leftovers… it’s the damn gratin again! I don’t want to see another tomato for months.’

6. This routine is so regular its embarrassing

“Rock, paper… scissors!”

“Fuck!”

“I’ll be counting on you.” The black haired man, in a single stroke with his marker, marks down the other man for laundry duty this week. 

On the fridge, stickered on with a cheap googly eye, the chore division is clearly weighed towards one direction. Aside from being bad at rock paper scissors, the difference between the two was that one of them had a job. Allegedly, they once worked at the same prestigious company: Daydream Corp. Anyone familiar with the source material would know it as one of the three major factions within the DER universe. He always considered himself a bit of a DMB purist, so has Baek Saheon been mischaracterizing him as well? 

Speaking of the DER, the weekend off has officially turned into an investigative day. Baek Saheon landed in this peaceful world roughly a month ago. He isn’t in a hurry to leave, but the questions are still swirling between the two. There isn’t a way to parse if the stories he’s telling are real or not, but there’s no reason to lie. In a position where he has no id, birth certificate or bank account, severing ties with the only person he knows would simply be foolish.

Not that Soleum would abandon him. As strange as it may sound, the Viper is trying to live an honest life too. He thinks. There hasn’t been an attempt on Soleum’s life yet, so something must have changed with the man. Their shoulders are squished together, looking at the computer screen with a seriousness that shouldn’t be applied to a website dedicated to creepy pastas. Urban legends? Neapolitan ghost stories.

It sits on a page that feels a little too surreal to read. A wiki entry that is actively edited, if only because writers wanted a mainstay asshole to cause havoc in their stories.

“17 special cases? Shouldn’t they be bored of me at this point? Even those A team bastards had it easier than me.” 

Since Soleum won’t surrender the mouse, he’s been grabbing his arm and moving it around like a controller.

“I probably resigned around the 60 mark though. I made sure to cash out everything, though not like that matters anymore.” 

“Seriously? You resigned?!” Releasing the mouse, he turns to Saheon with hands placed on his shoulders. 

The human-being side is clashing with the nerd-fandom side! The Daydream employee (the one that fans think of when you say daydream employee!) quit on his own terms! Weird replacement eye, different personality (by a little), retired far before his proper rank and number of explorations. They took this Viper out of the oven early. How could this man claim to be Baek Saheon? The signature tool is very real however, it was tested just a few days ago and KimSoleum surrendered a flowerpot for it.

Exasperated. “Why are you so surprised about that part?”

He’s starting to miss the sociopath. At least that guy was consistently f*cked in the head, in the same way every time. He watches the bug-eyed Soleum with an unfiltered boredom, and continues scrolling down the poorly coded webpage. This is a website for middle schoolers alright. A whole afternoon is spent on this pure black website with gothic lettering, and poor horror effects plastered over it.

What’s surprising is that the most shocking revelation from Kim Soleum didn’t even sit on the “Baek Saheon” character page. 

“Ah, the necronomicon. You were using it as a cat. That book is a real piece of shit, total dud. Did I have to be a cat to get full use of it?” 

The item page alone is a landmine of weird anecdotes, of DER Kim Soleum!

In an instant, the computer flickers to black. Saheon looks down, at Soleum’s hand clutching the power cord. That night’s ruckus is swiftly forgotten after the dark haired man speed dialed a delivery from the local bakery. 

7. I started sharing this life with you

An extra pair of shoes at the door, two cups on the bathroom sink and a shared morning alarm. Could this place be any damn smaller? 

Staring at the ceiling, he laments how he’s become accustomed to the couch half his size. “Hey, sis. I’m living in a different world from you now.” His gaze pierces through the ceiling and right into the sky. “I’m a bit sad I couldn’t take you with me, but I guess some poor idiot’s going to be really shocked when they open the drawer and see you in it.”

A dry laugh escapes him, alongside a strong sense of bewilderment towards himself. He wasn’t going to wish his sister alive again. Whatever monkeypaw-type revival would’ve happened made him feel, well, disgusted. He only wished he could’ve given her a proper burial. Attaching a meaning to something like a skull and bones—mere leftovers of a human body—is a thought even Saheon falls victim to. But a fragile thought like that proves he’s human too, right? Despite Soleum’s insistence on him being “fictional”, he has never said he was any less than human. 

Leaving those parts behind somehow lifted a weight off his chest. He thought seeing those bones strengthened his will to live. Living with burden is annoying too.

There has to be one or two people out there living just fine without any personal identification. Yeah. This place sucks, so he’ll pick up a job quickly and get out. While figuring out such things, a pang of nostalgia hits. Those hands begin to fumble around, and finally feel out the object he always kept on him. The paper crane he safekeeps in a small wooden box. It has been checked more times than he can count. Unfolding it puts him back on that last, abrupt message before none ever came again.

Seriously Kim Soleum. Just remember it all already.