She furrowed her brows slightly, "nope. Oh right, Seojun, you know where to meet Yuu today right?" Whether or not it was deliberate, the change in topic meant a shift in attention.
"Yes," Seojun nodded.
-
After meeting up with Yuu, the two headed to a police station located south of the city. The case they'd been assigned was to assist in some sort of crime investigation. Due to some sort of history between Roses and a detective working at the station, the company had owed a favour to him, and today was when he called it in.
When asked about it, Yuu brushed off Seojun's curiosity and said it was just to do with a small issue they faced when Roses was first established.
It wasn't as if Kang Seojun hadn't expected it or anything, but his partner was actually quite unsociable so for the rest of their journey to the station, there remained a silence between the two as if previously agreed upon.
"Ah," with a sudden jolt from Yuu, Seojun turned to him with a questioning expression. The white hair looked back at Seojun with a slightly droopy look, he then extended his arm out and held an earpiece in front of the latter, "here."
Turns out it was a 3 man mission today, with their last teammate assisting remotely.
They entered the police station and met with the detective. After a brief chat, the two gathered enough background information to know what to look out for and was told the location of the scene.
There was a reason the detective had called in the favour. It wasn't out of laziness or the case being difficult to handle, but more to do with the fact it had ties to some sort of organisation; and what's a better way to fight one organisation than with another?
-
After taking the bus for a considerable amount of time, the pair arrived at the city's outskirts. From then onwards, it was a 30 minute journey to the house, and with a confirmation it was the right place coming through from the earpiece, Yuu gently pushed open the wooden gate to the rundown one story building. On a closer look, there were noticeable cracks on the two front windows and spiderwebs already forming. Strangely enough, it seemed as if it had been used frequently before the incident despite being in a ghost area. The location also meant the police hadn't bothered to close off the place with the typical yellow tapes yet either.
The detective had told them a recent incident took place on the premise. But due to the fact the building was in a practically abandoned area, there weren't any witnesses to testify against what had happened. The whole thing would've went under the radar had it not been for multiple calls about a fire. At first, the police had suspected arson to be the crime in question, but after a brief examination, it was obvious the house had no fire damage, the only area that showed any signs of such a thing was perhaps the front garden at the time of the initial inspection, and yet in such a short amount of time, the grass that were dry and orangey had flourished into full greens.
Such healthy garden was trampled on by Yuu and Seojun as they made their way up to the door. But before they entered, Yuu glanced at Seojun then pointed to his ears.
"Mii."
With just one word, Seojun began to hear statics in the earpiece that had been quiet since the moment he put it on.
"I'm here."
"Which one are we going with then?" He asked, referring to some test runs carried out with Hyunwoo the night before.
He could hear some keyboard clacking for a few seconds before the other replied in a frustrated tone, "I forgot what it's called.. Something with abilities acting simultaneously-"
"Outer-control."
The headset fell quiet as Yuu looked at Seojun. "You know what it is?"
He gave a slight shrug, "a little yeah."
Outer-control is a phenomenon which occurs where abilities that are compatible join together and work simultaneously. Although normally occurring in pairs, it is possible for a group to activate the phenomenon, in such cases, it is less to do with compatibility of the powers but more with how synchronised the users are. When two ability users possess the same power, it simply enhances effectiveness.
"Hm.. well that makes it easier then," Yuu slightly chuckled as Seojun heard a mumble in his ears.
In a dark office, their 3rd teammate was monitoring the surroundings from a nearby cctv. From the corner of his screen, there seemed to be a pixel that did not belong in place.
"There's a tail. I'll contact headquarters but be careful, it'll be harder for me to monitor you two once you enter." With a word of warning, they entered the house.
For some reason, the interior seemed smaller than they had anticipated. There were 2 wooden doors leading to identical rooms with nothing in them except metal bed frames, and another that led to a poorly taken care bathroom that was covered in mold and was becoming the home of a small rat who did not respond well to trespassers entering its home.
"Eugh.. Ah fuck!" Yuu's disgust was quickly interrupted by fear as the rat jumped at him. Luckily, his anxiety caused a small whirlwind to form around him and pick up the rodent just before it made contact. The quick rotations made the rat dizzy enough to faint besides Yuu before he quickly shut the door again. "Don't go in there.." he muttered to Seojun, slightly out of breath.
Seojun walked around the living room for a while, avoiding touch with the furnitures the best he could, it was technically a crime scene after all. He scanned around to see if there'd be anything like the documents the detective had mentioned earlier, and sure enough there was. A messy pile under the dark wood coffee table was visible as he got closer, he was hesitant at first because of how easy it was to find but if a fire had taken place, then of course people would've had to leave quickly and wouldn't have had time to store things back to their original places, right?
That being said, it was strange the owners didn't come back to take the papers or at least hide them considering how easy it is to enter the place.
But that's not something for me to worry about, Seojun brushed it off before calling for Yuu. "Hey."
"Hm?" The white hair peered his head around the corner, then started walking towards Seojun, "oh you found them."
He nodded, "do you have gloves or anything? I don't think it's a good idea to get our fingerprints over these."
"It's fine we can just trigger outer." A command came through the earset.
"..."
There was a silence as Seojun and Yuu exchanged looks.
"But I don't know how to." They said in unison.
"..."
"Are you two serious?" An annoyed tone sounded in both their ears followed by a deep sigh. "Activate both your abilities first, it's simple so I'll walk you through it."
"Ah but I need physical contact with an object to activate it..." Seojun said.
"Oh right. Yuu, there's a pair of gloves in your right pocket, give them to him. Seojun, just pick up a random piece from the pile and activate your psychometry."
Yuu took out a pair of thin white gloves and handed them to Seojun who then did as he was told and took the page closest to him. With both hands holding the paper, he activated psychometry, and at the same time, Yuu activated his ability; zephyr manipulation, a form of aerial control in which the user is only able to create wind.
"Yuu, focus zephyr on gathering the small energy fields in the atmosphere, you should be able to sense them easily right now because the documents are in one pile, do your best to combine them into one. Once he does that, Seojun, your ability should be able to act on the combined instead of through touch."
Each psychometry user activates their ability through contact with an object; each object has its own distinct energy field, this is what allows the user to gain access to it's history, but a normal user can only be in contact with at most two at once. Combining energy fields practically speaking, is an impossible task as they don't have a physical form, but outer control is known to override usual restrictions. Luckily, Zephyr manipulation is still able to sense the energy fields, though not as effective as pure aerial control.
It took some time but it wasn't too difficult thanks to the clear instructions. Of course, that didn't mean controlling the phenomenon itself was easy. Outer requires consistent concentration from the user and controlling their ability in a way that exceeds the limit, therefore a lot of users had abused it in an attempt to strength their ability.
Unknowingly, this was what the pair was doing.
Yuu's normal range would've only just covered the inside of the house, but due to the circumstances, the artificial wind created had extended to the front garden and almost to a neighbouring building about 12 meters away. Seojun's normal restriction would've been two objects at once, like every other user, even then it would've took a lot of mental power, and one energy fields might've overpowered the other; but after getting through the difficult bit of combining the fields, his psychometry really was able to act on the combined as if it was one.
A strong wind gathered around the property and inside the house, within that, a smaller current gathered around Seojun, eventually surrounding him in a dome made by the documents. Despite going beyond its normal limits, Seojun's psychometry still wasn't omniscient, so he could only gather bits of data here and there.
"..merger.."
"Snakes will cover- "
"We'll start in a few months."
"...gather.... crystal.."
"Lure - out."
As the phenomenon progressed on, it started to lose momentum, and after a few minutes, it had dissociated. Before Yuu's ability came to a complete stop, it directed all the documents back to its original position as Seojun let out a painful groan from a sudden headache that hit him from overusing psychometry. The wind stopped, yet for some reason from the camera Mii was monitoring from, there seemed to be no disturbance to the grass during the whole process, not when the wind was strong and not when it had stopped. Not a single piece of grass had moved.
"Hmm..?"
"What's wrong?" Yuu asked into the earset.
"...It's nothing, I think you're good to report back to the detective now."
After returning back to the station, they explained to the detective what they could gather from the documents and assured him everything was left in its original position.
"So it's a merger between 2 organisations then..." the detective mumbled, he was clearly speculative about what they had told him but quickly flashed them a fake smile as he thanked them, "alright, we'll take it from here."
"Do you think they'll actually investigate further?" Yuu asked as they walked out of the station.
"No, there really isn't any point is there? A merger isn't a crime, and the fire, they'll probably just rule out as an accident since there's not enough evidence."
"Yeah I guess that's true," Yuu hummed, "well, I'm off. You good to report to HQ yourself?"
Seojun nodded, he returned the earpiece to him and the two parted ways.
-
After a brief interaction with the ladies at the front desk, with a confirmation of the commission number, Seojun took the center elevator up to the head office, in the hopes to find someone. Unfortunately, as he entered the office, the only two people there wasn't who he was looking for. Kei and Haneul looked at each other then at Seojun who was glancing around the office like a lost puppy.
"If you're looking for Hyunwoo, he's outside."
"Huh? Oh thanks."
"Oh and well done for today!" Haneul gave an enthusiastic thumbs up that received a small smile as a response.
After he left, they suddenly burst into laughters.
"Wanna play?"
"5 days!" Haneul shouted confidently.
"What? No come on, you gotta have more faith in Hyunwoo."
"What do you say then?" She tilted her head to the side as if questioning what Kei had suggested.
"2 weeks."
With a small high five, some sort of bet was set in stone between the two regarding their friend's love life.
-
Hyunwoo leaned his head against the concrete wall as he moved the cigarette away from his mouth and breathed out. His other hand held up his phone that showcased tons of messages sent from him, all of which received no reply from the name saved on top, Jiwoo. His eyes stayed on the screen even as he heard footsteps approaching, it was only when he realised who it was, did he drop the cigarette on the ground and put it out.
"How'd your little mission go?"
Seojun slightly frowned at his teasing tone but replied anyway at he looked down at the cigarette butt, "it went fine."
"…"
-
The night before
"Mm.." Seojun groaned, biting Hyunwoo's lip in surprise before pushing him off with the remaining strength he could utter, "ha.. crazy…" The latter paused for a moment as he stared at Seojun's wrist.
For some reason after that, Hyunwoo stayed at a consistent and slow enough pace for Seojun to manage without excruciating pain. He also seemed to be in a daze for the rest of the night, that quickly went as a blur for both.
Hyunwoo sat himself against the headboard and switched on a small bed light. He straightened his back, staring into space with a stunned look on his face before grabbing Seojun's left arm. He hesitated before turning it over to reveal the inside of his wrist. It didn't take long but the clearly surprised expression on his face in the dim light meant even he didn't expect to find what he was looking for.
"Fuck…"
-
There was an awkward silence between the two before Hyunwoo asked an unexpected question, "that scar… what happened?"
"Huh?"
Hyunwoo nodded at Seojun's left hand.
"Ah...Just a small accident from when I was younger," Seojun brushed it off, but Hyunwoo was persistent for some reason and kept pestering him about it. Eventually he gave a short response, uncomfortable enough for Hyunwoo to stop with the questions. "My dad accidentally.."
"..Sorry."
6 years ago
"No, wrong. Try again."
The same piece started to sound from the piano for the fifth time in a row, from beginning to end. The frail fingers that pressed each key were red and the little girl sitting on the stool was trembling. The man stood by the side kept his arms crossed, one hand holding a flat wooden ruler.
Then, as if it was inevitable, the wrong key echoed and the girl froze in place.
"Stand up."
She slowly climbed off the stool as the man set the ruler down on top of the piano. Her eyes squeezed shut as he raised his hand. As the sound of a harsh slap hit her ears, she peered her eyes open. "Oppa..."
Her brother's figure stood between her and their father. What kind of expression did the 14 year old boy have, she didn't know. But she did know by the look their father had that he wasn't looking at them like they were his children as of that moment.
"Get out." He said to Seojun.
Kang Seojun shook his head ever so gently, an arm pulling his sister closely against his back as she hid out of direct sight.
"Get out." The same demand was repeated, and again, met with a refusal.
"I won't."
The man's brows furrowed before he spoke again, "Kang Jia."
The girl didn't dare respond. She felt her brother's grip on her loosen before he turned around and bent down to her eye level, "leave for a bit, okay?" He asked in a gentle voice, though it wasn't a request.
Her unsure childish eyes met his then she shook her head frantically. Even as the youngest, she knew what their father was like. Which was why she didn't want to leave Seojun's side.
"Jia-ah, I'll be fine so don't worry." He reassured, slowly pushing her out of the room.
The repeated "no"s from her became unheard of as Seojun shut the door to the study. The sight of a crying child banging on the closed door would cause a heartache for many, especially those close to her. Another figure approached, placing a pair of headphones over his sister's ears before picking her up, trying to calm her sobbing as he carried her away from the room.
The man lit a cigarette as he walked to the other end of the room, spinning an office chair over to face his son before sitting down. He raised 2 fingers and gestured Seojun over. "You should know what happens if you interrupt, Kang Seojun." A cold tone carried his voice.
"..."
"Hold out your hand."