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Kim Soleum had found the past week of going on rescue missions with Ryu jaekwan and Agent Choi to be smooth sailing. Going in with the other two agents was less scary than being by himself so being in Hyunmu team 1 wasn’t as bad as he thought but after doing rescue work once every three days he barely had time to rest.
Suddenly the door opened with a lively Agent Choi walking through with a small bag of candies in his hand.
“Good afternoon Grapes! You got here early like usual! Hmm, seems like Jaekwan isn’t here yet.”
Agent Choi sat right beside Soleum and looked at the papers while eating some candies.
“Um, what is it that you are eating?”
“It’s a bag of sweets a kid gave me after I rescued them from a disaster! They are pretty good, you want one?”
“Ah, no it's alright…”
“Come on, just try it!”
“Okay then…”
Soleum politely took one small purple ball out from the bag and placed it in his mouth. A sweet juice broke through the hard shell causing the taste of grape juice to fill his mouth.
His eyes widened slightly as he continued to eat, it was unexpectedly delicious.
“Good right?!”
“mhm…”
Agent Choi held out the bag so Soleum could take another but he quickly declined. In the end the pack of sweets were placed in the middle and the two did their own work while waiting for Ryu Jaekwan to arrive.
Agent Choi chatted about various topics carefreely, when all of a sudden Soleum felt a bit dizzy as his vision blurred. A sharp pang came from his head as he felt a sudden headache, his eyes shut tightly and he passed out.
***
A loud sound of crashing echoed in Soleum’s ears followed by a surprised shout. Warmed toned lights were as bright as ever, making him wince as he opened his eyes. His head spun in circles, clutching his head he looked upwards to see someone who didn’t look like Agent Choi at all. In fact, the face he saw was the same face Soleum saw everyday in the mirror.
“Hahaha! This is a surprising situation we got ourselves in! Haha~”
Agent Choi laughed uncontrollably in a body that didn’t quite fit his personality. It seemed that they had swapped bodies all of a sudden. Soleum sat on the soft couch with his hands to his head. His mind flashed with memories of what could have caused this and was reminded with the candies that he ate earlier.
SOUL SWAPPING CANDIES!!!
Delicious and irresistible sweets that look ordinary but will make you swap bodies with the person who gave you it for one day if you had one of the same flavour candies!
Fortunately those candies were only a temporary curse phenomenon but it was extremely troublesome to deal with since there was nothing you could do to change it. Kim Soleum sighed defeatedly but was comforted by his senior.
“Don’t worry Grapes! This is probably only temporary, lets just hope we don’t meet anyone we know tod-”
He wasn’t even able to finish his last word before the door opened without warning, surprising the two people in the waiting room.
“My bike had a flat tire, my apologies I am a little late today…”
The first thing he saw was Soleum waving at him leisurely with a wide smile on his face. Followed by seeing Agent Choi awkwardly looking his way with a pack of sweets still in his hand.
“Agent Bronze, about this…”
“Oh Jaekwan is here! Perfect timing, let's just have Jaekwan help us out.”
Agent Choi jumped up from his seat and dragged Ryu Jaekwan into the room, patting his back repeatedly.
“It’s good that it was you who came and not the other teams~ You haven’t heard of any reports of people having their bodies swapped after eating any candies have you? Hopefully none of these sweets got passed around too much otherwise it would be chaos hahaha!”
Soleum prayed in his mind that had not been the case. Knowing his luck, there was a possibility of the effect spreading.
Ryu Jaekwan -who was in a state of utter shock- stood there, unable to find the words to come out of his mouth. In the end only a heavy sigh was heard.
“So, how long is this going to last for?”
“Haha, hopefully it just lasts for a day or two. Missing my old self already Jaekwan~”
“No… did you forget Grapes is going to have to meet the other members?”
“!!!”
The two seniors of Team Hyunmu turned to Soleum who was quietly listening to the conversation, slightly startled by the sudden change of focus. Agent Choi’s expression turned into one that looked as if being faced by a hard question on a test.
“Soleum… It seems that we are going to have to act like each other until this is over…”
“...um, I don’t think it would matter very much if I acted differently since I am still new after all”
“Of course it matters! You need to make a good first impression and they are all curious about you! Your nickname of the king of destruction and disasters has spread all around!”
“???”
“If I go around and act like I usually do in your body won’t weird rumours about you start going around and make the famous king of destruction seem like a lunatic!?”
“Can’t we-”
“The people who don’t read the notice board will hear from others about how you are acting and gossip since they don’t know the situation. They are all going to be saying ‘oh isn’t this newbie being too pushy?’ or ‘why is he acting so close?’ that is going to ruin your image!”
‘...can’t the agent avoid talking and sit still…?
Jaekwan sighed, pitying the youngest deeply for getting into this situation.
“Choi, don’t go causing trouble for Grapes…”
“Don't you worry! You could call me a pro actor since you wouldn't even think it wasn’t our youngest!”
“I will also try my best…”
Soleum had known Choi for a very short amount of time so the other two Hyunmu members were slightly worried things would go. Fortunately, as long as he roughly knew his personality they could just be blaming it on a cold or something of the sort.
They had not worried over this problem for too long as nothing could be done about it, leaving them sitting in the waiting room like every other day.
And it wasn’t very long before the two had their first hurdle arrived.
One of the members from Hyunmu team 3 had come knocking and invited themselves in, unknowing of the current situation. Jaekwan made an effort in trying to talk to them in the other two’s stead but it wasn’t very effective. It seemed that the other had come in just out of pure curiosity towards the newbie.
“Ah~ so you are the famous newbie everyone is talking about!”
“Is there anything that you need..?”
“Don’t worry about it Agent bronze! I just came to see the newbie~ Isn’t he handsome as well!”
“...oh is that so…”
“Hah, I also am here to say that you could consider maybe switching to Hyunmu team 3. We could use more talented rookies like you!”
The conversation had inevitably pointed towards Soleum's (agent Choi) direction. A moment of silence was played for a moment as Choi contemplated his response.
“Ah, hello senior…”
With an expression looking slightly skittish and innocent, Jaekwan and Soleum were still shocked that the energetic Agent Choi could even pull something like this off. Still, it was a little unsettling to watch from an outsider's perspective.
‘Do I really act like that…?’
Soleum didn’t say a word as Choi continued speaking in his body, acting like a frail and vulnerable little deer. It was somewhat accurate but way too exaggerated.
“So are you really going to miss out on a chance to join my team? We are pretty good!”
“Sorry senior… I am fine with staying in Hyunmu team 1. Thank you for the offer though.”
“Ah dammit~ Alrighty then! I did say you're going to miss out on the chance but I take it back you are always welcome to switch teams!”
“Haha… Senior, my apologies but my heart is set on staying in Hyunmu team 1 forever!”
Agent Choi declared with a slightly more confident expression leaving Jaekwan to worry for Soleum in case he actually did want to switch teams. Of course it would be nice for Soleum to want to stay, but what mattered was what he wanted after all.
Meanwhile, Soleum did not really mind at all as he was busy stressing out on how to act if the other went to talk to him. That worry was almost immediately brought up as the Hyunmu team 3 member turned their head to speak to newcomer in Agent Choi's body.
“Agent Choi! Aren’t you jealous at how popular your new recruit is?”
Soleum cursed internally at the question before quickly calming himself.
“Haha, are you sure you should be trying to recruit our newcomer when I am right in front of you~?”
Choi and Jaekwan sat in awe at the sudden change of their junior. A casual laugh and wide smile that was usually seen on the Senior's face was replicated perfectly without a single flaw
“Our team is already short on manpower and you are trying to take away one of our hard working members~?”
“Ah sorry sorry!”
The Hyunmu team 3 member apologised a couple times after being lightly reprimanded. They had not even noticed a single thing that was off with Agent Choi.
“No worries~ we already know how amazing our youngest is but rather than him why don’t you focus on my handsome face~”
Soleum kept on chatting naturally with the other for a couple minutes which for him felt like hours. His two seniors felt more calm as no mistakes were made at all it was like any other day. Agent Choi's friendly and joking nature was captured perfectly that even Agent Choi felt as if his words were being taken right out of his mind.
'I've read quite a few stories with Agent Choi in it, hopefully I am speaking correctly...'
Though it was not known to anyone else, Soleum had read countless exploration records about Agent Choi's rescues so he knew a lot more about him than the others would have thought. He might have been imagining it but it was as if you could hear Braun’s claps at how well his acting was.
It was only when the other had finally left the room that Soleum was able to let out an exhausted sigh. As he looked back to face his seniors, they were both speechless and stuck in a face of shock. Not understanding their expressions, Soleum felt embarrassed. A moment of silence spread throughout the room, scratching the back of his neck, Soleum thought that he had misspoken and messed up though in reality it was the opposite.
“Ah… sorry if I said something wrong Agent Choi…”
“Eh?! Of course not! Wow, that was perfect! I even thought that was me, our youngest is really amazing isn’t he Jaekwan?”
Jaekwan nodded in agreement leaving Soleum flustered by the positive reaction.
“You did well. If someone else does come then I think that nobody would notice.”
“Thank you…”
Choi came up to him and patted him on the shoulder, smiling brightly with Soleum’s face. Perhaps it was because he had some experience as a talkshow host with Braun that his acting was better than he had expected. Their wait came to an end the moment the alert for a rescue request came in. By the time they had escaped the disaster with the civilian safely brought back home, it was already about to be a full day since they had last ate the cookies.
Soleum was worried that Agent Choi might have found out anything that could have exposed him as a spy, but with such little time left there was nothing to worry about. It was as they were filling out some documents that the dizziness had struck again and the two Agents passed out awakening in their usual bodies.
“It feels good to be back! Did you miss me Jaekwan~?”
“You were always here. Next time don’t go passing around sweets and causing trouble for Grapes.”
Scrolling through his phone, Soleum made sure there were no messages that were sent and seen by the other. It was lucky no one he knew contacted him today.
“It would have been bad if it had lasted longer than a day. I ate so many and it tasted amazing!”
"Perhaps it also mattered how many Grapes had eaten aswell.
The two discussed about the cause of the situation whilst Soleum was just relieved it was all over.
“All that matters is that we are back to normal…”
Soleum let out a light sigh after checking his phone, items and tattoo finding no changes. After deciding to go home for the day the three of them parted ways.
Now they had learnt their lesson not to eat strange candies without knowing whether it came from a disaster or not.