- brother and sister -

"You're not drunk this time," Yura noted after sniffing at Chanyeol's collar while he poured himself a glass of water in the kitchen. He wore the polo shirt under a sweater she knew he always wore for work but he was late again and very clearly smelled of tobacco and sweat.
"Yeah, it's great to see you, too, Noona," he muttered and quickly downed the water. His voice sounded slightly hoarse and he was about to just exit the kitchen like a common thief when she blocked his way.
"I mean, I'm not trying to judge you or anything because we all sometimes have a drink too much. I suppose that's what adulthood is all about," she said chattily and he threw her an exasperated glance. There was a stain on his sweater and he nervously scratched his leg, so she could tell how tired he was. He always complained about itchy legs whenever he desperately needed sleep. "I'm just saying that I'm glad to see that the girl you're dating isn't turning you into an alcoholic."
This time he looked at her curiously. It made her oddly self-conscious because he often ignored her or gave her snarky answers whenever there was something he did not want to talk about. Normally he simply disappeared inside his head but suddenly he looked as though he pondered about what to say.
"I'm not dating a girl," he then said meekly and she slapped his arm.
"What, are you saying you're dating a monkey instead?" she laughed and half expected him to join in. But he only furrowed his brows and rubbed his arm weakly.
There was a long pause before he said, "I'm not dating, period."
Something about his tone was odd and part of her realized that, but in response she snorted, "Right. So why are you smelling like an ashtray right now?"
She could tell that it came off as insensitive because there was a slight twitch of his eye before he let out a short toneless laugh. "I'm pretty sure that smelling like an ashtray isn't a sign that someone's dating," he said defensively and she raised her eyebrows at him.
He was about to turn away and leave it at that, so she kicked his leg and he yelped. He whirled around, she attempted to put him in a headlock and before things could escalate further, he quickly took a step backwards and said, "Look, I was in a club but didn't drink. People smoked there. That's the whole story."
As if to show that he told the truth and meant no harm, he put up his hands.
"It's Tuesday night though," she stated. "Don't you have work tomorrow?"
He shrugged in response, so she unwillingly asked, "What's going on?"
During her time in university she had been obsessed with clubbing so she knew that there always were open ones, even during the week. As long as alcohol was legal and young people stupid, clubs would have patrons. But this was her brother. The brother who rarely left the house. The brother who was responsible enough to barely ever take a day off at work. The brother who didn't have relationships but who occasionally got drunk. And yet here he was. Sober. Late. Supposedly not dating.
"Nothing is going on," he said evasively and scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, sometimes... Sometimes when you're sick of hearing all the noises of the world around you, it helps to just drown them out. And when there's music around you and it's so loud that you can barely hear your own voice over the beat, that's kind of... I don't know... It clears your head." It almost sounded like a recital, as if he used someone else's words. He threw her a quick glance and then fixated a spot to her right. She wasn't sure why but it made a shiver run down her spine.
"And you just went there by yourself?" she asked although she knew that it wasn't the right question. It made her uncomfortable to imagine what he would be so troubled about that he needed a hammering beat to forget about it.
At first, she thought that he was not going to reply. Whatever reason he had to deny that he was seeing someone, she thought he would simply continue to pretend that it was nothing.
But then he sighed and said, "I went with this guy I know."
"This guy?" she echoed and he shrugged. He didn't specify it.  
"Yeah. Noona, look, I really need to sleep now," he instead said with a weary glance. When she didn't reply, he took a cautious step backwards and then turned around to leave.
"That guy," she said and he stopped, still facing the opposite direction. "He's a friend?"
It took him a few seconds too long to reply with, "I guess."
Silence followed as she watched his back walk away and a strange feeling washed over her. She didn't mean to be worried. It had been years since her brother had openly shared his thoughts with her, years during which she had rarely got more than non-answers.
She didn't want to worry. She wanted to believe that he was old enough to know what he was doing.
But his choice of words bothered her. Normally, he at least gave her hints. He had a drink with an old classmate or did a farewell party for a colleague or had met someone from university on his way home. Old friends from his neighborhood had invited him out and he couldn't remember the name of the person whose house he had woken up in. The girl she had seen him with worked in the coffee shop across the street and had recently bought a bike.
But suddenly he had led her to believe that he went on dates, only to then deny it.
Suddenly there was a guy who might or might not have been a friend.
Suddenly she wondered whether the guy was the reason why her brother had gone out on Sunday and had come home late more often than usual.
And as she tried to imagine this vague shape of a person, she unwillingly thought of Byun Baekhyun and the walls of reality crashed in around her. The metallic scent of blood seemed to fill her nostrils and she could taste bile rising up in .
That was when her brother had stopped telling her everything.
"Noona, I can hear him. I can still hear him. He doesn't stop," he had whispered into her ear one day but she had been too young to really know what to say. He had been psychotic for weeks but all she had done was to hug him and to then continue living her own life. They all had believed that he would get over it because death was a part of life and they had believed that he would understand it eventually. Byun Baekhyun had only been a friend, only a boy from school Chanyeol had hung out with.
The truth was that she had never understood him.
Even now, when she knew that she was supposed to ask him if there was anything he wanted to talk about, she could only stand in the kitchen and put her hand over .

- sharing the burden -

Junmyeon was good at making schedules. There was something about it that calmed his mind. In the chaotic world he had been thrown into, order was something that was sometimes hard to achieve.
But as he looked down on the print-out of Park Chanyeol's schedule, it didn't make him as calm as he expected it to. After weeks of not really knowing what the plan was and of watching Minseok act more and more unhinged, he had thought that things would become easier the moment they would follow the normal procedure. Create files, make arrangements, listen to what the Voices said, think about everything as a team. That's how it was supposed to work.
But there were so many open questions, that Junmyeon unwillingly feared what the next weeks would bring. Park Chanyeol wasn't a regular case after all. Park Chanyeol was one of Minseok's problems and none of them had ever really dealt with those.

"I'm not saying that I don't want to do it," Jongdae said with his head low over his desk. He had stared at the print-out in front of him for a couple of minutes like a student being overwhelmed by a math equation. "I mean, I understand that it probably makes sense to split the duty because Minseok-hyung is..." He trailed off but Junmyeon knew what he meant.
There was a limit to what Minseok could teach to someone who wasn't like him. Now that Junmyeon had met Chanyeol, it had become even more obvious. He wasn't sure what kind of person he had expected but over the years he had seen many summoners and summoners-to-be and Chanyeol as a person was not necessarily one of those that immediately stood out.
"It's just, you know," Jongdae continued while he tapped his desk. "Why me? Why not just you? And why not Yixing-hyung?"
Junmyeon sighed. Because the truth was that he didn't know. The official order had been to split the training hours between himself, Minseok and Jongdae.
"What about Yixing?" he had asked as he had made notes after a Nameless One had made its announcement. It not giving him a reply had made it obvious that there was a reason he was not permitted to hear. It wasn't even unusual. Not everyone got to teach, just like how not everyone got to work every case. Yixing had also been sick for a week and even now that he was back, he still looked a little pale, so it probably had to do with that. But still...
Something about it had still puzzled Junmyeon.
"I'm not sure Jongdae is ready," he had noted and the Nameless One had answered with a howling that had sounded like laughter.
"Just give him fewer hours," Minseok had muttered in an almost indifferent voice. He had looked down, obviously also unsure about the whole procedure. For weeks he had kept everything to himself but suddenly they had to follow the orders of the Voices again. It had clearly bothered him, too.
It just all seemed odd and the more Junmyeon thought about it, the less he really understood the situation because there were too many variables that were hidden from him. He was worried about Jongdae's suspicion that Minseok got himself possessed but didn't know how to ask. It was none of his business, just like how it was none of his business why Minseok had the powers he had. He also couldn't be sure whether the whole issue was connected to Chanyeol at all.
And he still didn't understand how someone with a companion was supposed to work with them. When Minseok had brought them over on Saturday, Junmyeon had been startled at how bright the companion had been. Although he had not said a word and only wandered around the office, he had looked almost alive. Even if Minseok had made an agreement with him, and even if he actually stuck to it and temporarily disappeared every Tuesday and Sunday, how could they possibly be sure that he wouldn't intervene? Minseok could stop him but Minseok couldn't constantly follow Chanyeol around.
It made no sense. Junmyeon didn't know what the agreement was based on. He didn't know what the Voices were planning or what Minseok was thinking or why the companion was so bright or why Chanyeol would have agreed in the first place.
"I mean, what am I supposed to teach him anyway? I don't mind jumping in as a replacement or whatever, but this is on a totally different scale," Jongdae continued as he ruffled the hair on the back of his head.
"Teach him what you know and you'll be fine," Junmyeon said and felt like a liar. He wanted to help, he really did and when he had offered his help before, he had meant it. But now that the issue actually was passed on to him, he didn't feel ready. Not because he didn't know what to do with a new recruit or because he didn't know how to encourage Jongdae, but because he was not normally supposed to meddle with the things Minseok had touched.

- spark -

Kim Minseok and Chanyeol were both liars.

"Minseok-sshi, the thing is, I..." Chanyeol had muttered on the street close to the shop and had looked at him but not into his eyes. "What happened on Sunday was... I was drunk. I didn't know what I was doing and I was talking nonsense, so can we just... Can we pretend it didn't happen?"
Chanyeol had never been good with these things. That was why he had liked Kim Saebyul so much in high school. She had made it easy for him. All he had had to do was to play along.
Kim Minseok meanwhile had frowned at him because he had been aware that there was a misunderstanding. Kim Minseok wasn't innocent.
But to pretend that nothing had changed had suited his purposes, so he had agreed.

"You wish to give up?" one of the Office ghosts had asked in a bemused tone after Kim Minseok had proposed to have Chanyeol transferred to another exorcist.
Kim Minseok had sighed in return.
"Did you not tell us that we would have to kill you to stop you from helping him?" the ghost had asked mockingly.
"I didn't think it through," Kim Minseok had replied in a strained voice. "I can't help him. He isn't like me."
It was an explanation but not the full truth. The ghost had understood that, too.
"We will engage different summoners to assist you," it had concluded and Kim Minseok had stared at it, ready to protest.
But then he had only balled his hands into fists and muttered, "Thank you."

A day earlier, he had probably considered bringing Chanyeol to his apartment because ghosts couldn't intrude there. But instead he had dragged him to a place that was filled with so much noise that the voices of ghosts were drowned out by everything else. Dim light and a thumping beat had filled a room full of swaying bodies.
"It's a smart idea," Chanyeol had yelled and when Kim Minseok had only looked at him incomprehensively, he had leaned closer. "I guess if I can't hear myself, I can't hear him either," he had yelled into his ear with a grin. Kim Minseok had touched his ear as if his breath had tickled him and had smiled.
But then they had realized how close they were and had looked at each other warily.

Back home Chanyeol had managed to calmly talk to his sister, only to then press his pillow to his face as he lay in bed.

"So, uh... as you can see," yet another exorcist had explained as Chanyeol had sat across from him on an old couch in the visitor section of an even older office room and looked at a sheet of paper. Everything around them had been in shades of grey and brown. "For the first couple of weeks we have divided the training sessions. Jongdae meets you on Tuesday for field work and on Saturday and Sunday you come here and we'll see what there is to do then. On Saturday you will go with Minseok-hyung and on Sunday with me. We might have to switch in between in case there are any emergencies but that's the rough schedule for now."
Chanyeol had stared at him in bewilderment and had then quickly looked at Kim Minseok who had sat at a desk and pretended to read a file from an American Office branch despite barely knowing any English.
The other exorcist had cleared his throat uncomfortably and had then continued, "There's an unused desk you will be able to use but we still have to clear that out and there's no computer yet, so for now you can just sit next to whoever you're assigned to for the day."
The exorcist had looked at him with an odd expression and when Chanyeol had just continued to stare at the chart in front of him, he had asked, "Do you have any questions so far?"
Chanyeol had blinked at him. He obviously would have had questions, but instead he had only muttered, "No, I... no, not yet."

"So..." Chanyeol had begun when he and Kim Minseok had stood outside the office building. Despite ignoring him while the other exorcist had guided him through the proceedings, Kim Minseok had agreed to accompany him outside.
Chanyeol had obviously wanted to ask something. Why were others involved? Why were their hours reduced? Why had Kim Minseok not told him that himself?
But instead he had only put on a smile and said, "So, see you next week."
Kim Minseok had returned the smile in an equally strained way.

Kim Minseok and Chanyeol were both similarly stupid. Neither of them knew how to solve their own issues because all they had ever done was to run away from them.

"Did you say anything to him?" Chanyeol asked as he lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. His sister had tried to start an awkward conversation about his plans for the weekend, so he had fled into his room like a child.
"You told me not to," Baekhyun said and his voice came out as a screech. He had not spoken in days and had never realized how much effort it took.
"Right," Chanyeol said and closed his eyes with a sigh.
His alarm clock ticked and his parents outside watched TV and his sister next door rustled with a magazine.
"Do you want to hear my opinion?" Baekhyun asked because he figured that Chanyeol probably wanted to talk or else he wouldn't have addressed him first. It took him all his might to make his voice sound human.
"Pretty sure I know your opinion, so no," Chanyeol said with his eyes still closed and Baekhyun unwillingly snorted although it wasn't that funny. It was all so absurd. He knew what he needed to do but had made so many mistakes along the way that he wasn't sure how to begin.
"I bet you figured out that I needed his permission to possess him," he said and Chanyeol groaned but didn't protest as he continued, "But you probably wonder how I tricked him into it."
Just as expected did Chanyeol finally open his eyes and slightly turned his head to look at him suspiciously. Baekhyun had to choose his next works wisely.
"I told him you were into him," he said and Chanyeol quickly sat up with wide eyes.
"You what?" he gasped but seemed more confused than angry. It probably made not much sense because it was only a tiny portion of the truth. The actual bait had been Baekhyun himself but this was not the time to talk about all the hatred that slowly caused Kim Minseok to rot from within.
"Here's the thing," Baekhyun said calmy. "He's done it before so he knew that he'd be fully aware of what's going on with him while he's possessed."
Chanyeol frowned. "What are you even saying?" he muttered.
"How do exorcists become exorcists? They told you that, didn't they? They all go through trauma," Baekhyun explained a Chanyeol's mouth became a thin line. It didn't take a genius to guess his thoughts. Chanyeol's trauma was him.
"He's no exception," Baekhyun continued. "He's probably even worse off because he never grew up normally. He doesn't know these things. So I gave him an opportunity and he took it."
It wasn't the complete truth but it wasn't technically a lie either. Up until the last minute Kim Minseok had wished to kill him. That very wish had prevailed and had felt extremely suffocating because this time Baekhyun had been even less in control. It had felt like trying to maneuver a burning container ship instead of a human body. But there had been different emotions as well. Guilt. Curiosity. A strange sense of supressed affection. Fear. Desperation.
In the end the guilt had won over but that didn't make everything else become meaningless.
"What's that supposed to..." Chanyeol began but then seemed unsure how to continued the question.
"I don't know," Baekhyun admitted. "I'm not him. My point is that you won't find out if you keep pretending that you were not totally ready to go home with him."
Chanyeol pulled a grimace but gave no snarky retort which Baekhyun chose to take as a good sign.
He honestly couldn't stand Kim Minseok but he also understood that in the current situation he really was his best bet. He just had to push them both hard enough that they finally moved.