Work Text:
Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau: Glass Prison Inmate Files
Inmate Number: 37-999
Inmate: Kim ▇▇ (Agent Codename: Grapes)
Affiliation: Black Tortise (Hyunmoo) Team 1, Dispatch & Rescue Unit (Suspended)
Day 10:
Inmate Status: Stable (Recovering)
Inmate requested to have one civilian video call. Due to unique circumstances, the request has been permitted. Video Call will be recorded and closely monitored.
See Call Record below.
"I'm blind," Go Yeongeun starts, wearing a black blindfold.
"I'm deaf," Jang Heoun follows, with neutral grey soundproof headphones over his ears.
Kang Yihak has a piece of duct tape over her mouth. "Mmph," she sounds.
"And I'm stuck in the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau Glass Prison," Kim Soleum finishes. His face was displayed on a large screen through a video call.
"And today—" "And today—" "—we're trying to—" "—going to- to- to—" "—bake a cake." "—see if we can—" "—actually make a—" "—successfully—" "—cake." "—bake a cake."
"Wait, Kim Soleum's in prison?" Jang Heoun asks, turning around to the screen behind them. He squints at the screen and Kim Soleum's background. He's in what looks to be a room made out of glass. "That doesn't look like a prison."
On screen, Kim Soleum just shrugs.
"We have a— is this box cake mix?" Go Yeongeun taps the box sitting on the counter and frowns. "I thought we agreed to make it from scratch. Who bought the ingredients?"
Kang Yihak raises her hand, then makes an X with her arms.
"No?" Jang Heoun frowns, and Kang Yihak switches to making flying motions with her hands. "Flying…? No flying?" She switches to sliding one hand across her other palm. "Money? No flying money?"
"Yihak-ssi, then," Go Yeongeun sighs. "I think she's saying she bought the box mix to save money."
Kang Yihak makes a thumbs-up. Go Yeongeun, still blindfolded, does not see it.
Kim Soleum coughs lightly. "Sorry, um, could someone move the camera? I can't see anything…"
Kang Yihak shakes her head, just to be contrary.
"Oh! Yes, here," Go Yeongeun turns around, then hits her face against the monitor. "Ow…" She angles the screen downward. "Is this better?"
"A little too low, Yeongeun-ssi, but how did you get flour on your clothes already? We didn't even start yet…"
"Let me adjust it back… there, is that better?"
"Yes, thank you, Yeongeun-ssi. Are you going to clean that flour?" Go Yeongeun pats blindly at her slacks. "Lower— to the right—" Kim Soleum sighs. "Never mind."
"Before we start, everyone should tie up their hair," Jang Heoun proposes, but when he reaches for his wrist, he comes up empty. "Uh, does anyone have a hair tie I can borrow?"
Kang Yihak, hair already up, shakes her head, then points to Kim Soleum.
"Soleum-ssi? Do you have a hair tie I could borrow?"
Kim Soleum stares straight at him through the screen. "I'm in prison."
"What? I can't hear you."
"I said, I'm in prison."
"I still can't hear you— hey, can we put captions on this?"
Go Yeongeun has a hair tie in hand and has been waving it around, hoping to hit Jang Heoun. "Yihak-ssi, could you help…?"
Kang Yihak is hunched over, trying not to laugh. She does not help. Go Yeongeun manages to hit Jang Heoun in the face.
"Ack— oh, thank you, Yeongeun-ssi."
"Did everyone wash their hands already?" Go Yeongeun asks. "Soleum-ssi?"
"…I'm still in the Glass Prison."
"Right, sorry, you won't be touching the cake anyway."
"I'll start!" Jang Heoun exclaims, already pouring the boxed cake mix into a large glass bowl. At least one of them is excited. "It says we need eggs and water."
"Where are the eggs?" Go Yeongeun asks, starting to lightly pat around the countertop. "Am I getting close?"
Kang Yihak nods. Go Yeongeun can't see the nod. It doesn't matter, because Kang Yihak was lying. She moves the egg carton further away from Go Yeongeun.
"The eggs are to your left," Jang Heoun offers. "To— yes, over there—"
"I don't feel them, Heoun-ssi, are you lying to me? Wait, here," Go Yeongeun stretches out her palms. "Just place it in my hands."
Jang Heoun reaches for the eggs. Kang Yihak gets there first. She cracks an egg against the countertop, then opens the egg into her palm.
"Did- did you just crack the egg into my hand?!" Go Yeongeun stammers out.
"Can someone move my camera again? I can't see the bowl, only your back," Kim Soleum interjects. No one moves to adjust his camera.
"Ew, ew, ew," Jang Heoun starts chanting, eyes fixated on the egg.
"I still can't see very well. Oh, hey, I can show you guys my Dokkaebi fire." Kim Soleum says instead, lifting his right arm to reveal the glass form of his arm. The Dokkaebi detaches itself and waves, before taking over the entire camera view with a display of pyrotechnics.
"Where's the bowl? Let me drop the egg into the bowl." Go Yeongeun suggests instead. Kang Yihak begins to move the bowl in figure-eights around the countertop, before stopping at a completely random spot.
"I'll hit the rim of the bowl so you know where to drop it," Jang Heoun offers, moving the bowl a little closer to Go Yeongeun and hitting his palm against the glass rim, as promised. Go Yeongeun drops the egg straight down, and it falls into the bowl with a cloud of cake mix flying up. Jang Heoun cheers. Kang Yihak pouts.
"Yay, I did it?" Go Yeongeun asks, then makes her way to the sink to wash her hands. Jang Heoun, meanwhile, goes to the screen to look for the caption button proposed earlier. He looks at the screen in a frown.
"Wait, Kim Soleum's gone?" Jang Heoun says, and Go Yeongeun and Kang Yihak both turn around. They huddle around the screen.
"Wait, did he actually leave? I don't hear anyone." Go Yeongeun frowns. "Did someone cut off the call?"
Kang Yihak shakes her head at the same time Jang Heoun notes, "But it looks like the same background."
A head pops up from the bottom of the screen. Jang Heoun screams, and then Go Yeongeun screams from him screaming. Kim Soleum, who had just bent down to pick something up and stood back up, screams too. Kang Yihak hits all of them across the back. Including the screen.
"Sorry, I dropped something…" Kim Soleum says awkwardly after the screaming stops. "By the way, did anyone preheat the oven yet?"
Go Yeongeun curses. "Ah, Yihak-ssi, could you get that?"
Kang Yihak very visibly slumps and drags herself over to the oven with exaggeratedly slow movements.
"Here, let me help," Kim Soleum offers, stepping closer to the camera like it will somehow get him closer to the oven. Still, Kang Yihak complies, moving the camera closer in.
"Let's finish the batter, Heoun-ssi," Go Yeongeun says, turning to the vague direction she thinks Jang Heoun is standing, and mimes pouring a measuring cup into a bowl and mixing. Luckily, she was facing the right direction.
"Ah! Yes, let's add water," Jang Heoun concludes, checking the box instructions. "One cup of water, and then we mix," he says, heading over to the sink.
"Make sure to take the pan out of the oven before you preheat it, Yihak-ssi," Kim Soleum offers, and Kang Yihak salutes quickly before moving everything from the oven to the stovetop.
Jang Heoun pours a cup of water into the bowl, then starts to mix. "Can someone get the cake pan ready?"
Go Yeongeun turns to get the cake pan and instead runs, again, into Kim Soleum's screen. Kang Yihak's face is red from not being able to laugh, but she diligently puts the cake pan in Go Yeongeun's hand and turns her back towards the counter.
"Thank you, Yihak-ssi," Go Yeongeun says, placing down the cake pan and greasing it. Unbeknownst to her, she missed. There's a ring of oil on the marble counter surrounding the pan. Hopefully, that won't be a problem sometime in the future.
Jang Heoun pours the batter into the pan, then moves to put the cake in the oven. After setting the timer, he looks to the stove and frowns.
"Soleum-ssi… was this you?" Jang Heon angles the screen with Kim Soleum's face on it downward, showing a stove fire with an empty pan on top.
Kim Soleum sighs. "Did I somehow turn the stove on from inside the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau Glass Prison, no, I did not— wait, why is the stove on? Who did that?"
Kang Yihak giggles.
"How is the stove on??" Go Yeongeun asks, turning around.
"I'd like to know that too," comes a new voice from the door, and everyone jumps. Even Kim Soleum jumps from where he is in the Glass Prison. Baek Saheon, who just took off his shoes, walks into the kitchen and scowls. "How the fuck did you all get in here?"
"Surprise!" Go Yeongeun says, instead of answering. Kang Yihak just points to the screen, which is still facing the oven.
Jang Heoun turns away from the oven and jumps, 30 seconds after everyone else, at the sight of Baek Saheon. "Saheon-ssi! Funny seeing you here," he bluffs, leaning a hand on the counter. "What— ACK—"
Bad luck for Jang Heoun to lean his hand on the spot of the counter that was oily from earlier. He goes tumbling to the floor, grabbing Go Yeongeun and Kang Yihak and pulling them with him as he goes down.
"Is everyone okay? I heard a loud crash," Kim Soleum says. He's still facing the oven, again walking closer to the camera like he'll somehow be able to leave the Glass Prison.
Bask Saheon freezes. "Was that Kim Soleum? How's Kim Soleum here? Isn't he, fuck, I don't know, in hiding or something?" Baek Saheon makes his way around the counter and narrows his eyes on Kang Yihak. "Take that off. Ten bucks if you tell me how you got in."
Kang Yihak rips the tape off her mouth instantly. "Twenty, and I'll even tell you where Kim Soleum is."
"Is that Kang Yihak's voice? Yihak-ssi, did you take off the tape?" Go Yeongeun frowns as Jang Heoun begins to point accusatorily.
"Put the tape back on," he insists, because even if he can't hear anything, it's hard to miss her mouth moving.
"Argh, just take everything off and tell me what you're doing here already!" Baek Saheon shouts, pulling at Jang Heoun's headphones.
"We might as well. The cake is finished anyway," Go Yeongeun sighs, taking off her blindfold as she climbs to her feet. "Soleum-ssi, I'll turn you back around."
"Did you just say 'cake'? I swear, you better not have messed up my kitchen," Baek Saheon grumbles, then blinks at the screen, scowl fading away to confusion. "Sol—, um, Supervisor-nim? Where… are you?"
"Happy birthday, Baek Saheon," Kim Soleum responds dryly. The Dokkaebi fire enters the camera frame again, making a celebratory firework explosion. "You should be grateful, we made you a cake."
Conveniently, the oven dings. "That was fast!" Kang Yihak sings, pulling out the cake and placing it on the now turned-off stove. She sticks a spoon directly into the cake, scooping out a piece and blowing on it quickly. Then she sticks it straight into the jar of icing sitting on the counter, as if an afterthought, before waving the bite of cake into Baek Saheon's face. "Taste it, birthday boy!!"
Baek Saheon makes a face. "That better not be my icing," he says, but takes the spoon into his mouth. Everyone watches and waits as he swallows.
"Well…?" Jang Heoun asks hesitantly. "How is it?"
"It tastes like box cake mix," Baek Saheon responds flatly.
Kang Yihak cheers. "He didn't say bad! Glad you don't hate it, birthday boy!"
For a second, Jang Heoun looks like he wants to object, but then he just sighs, shoulders dropping. "I guess he didn't. Happy birthday, Baek Saheon."
"I guess we can call this a success, then?" Go Yeongeun follows, clapping. "Happy birthday, Saheon-ssi."
Baek Saheon, who had expected to be spending his birthday alone, like he did year after year before this one, only scowls. "Get out of my kitchen," he says, but makes no move to actually kick anyone out.
Only because he doesn't hate the cake!! Definitely not because he appreciates the company.