Chapter Text
Jisung's lungs burned, every breath scraping painfully against his chest as his trembling hands struggled to keep hold of the containment device. Sweat dampened his palms, making the handle slick enough that he was convinced it would slip from his grasp if he squeezed any harder. Around him, shadows crawled across the training hall walls, stretching and shrinking beneath the flickering lights until they almost looked alive. The entire room buzzed with an eerie silence, broken only by the hum of electricity overhead and the frantic pounding of his own heartbeat.
One more, he reminded himself, swallowing against the knot tightening in his throat. You only need one more.
A mournful wail echoed somewhere beyond the rows of obstacles, low enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His stomach twisted into impossible knots as his head whipped around, searching every dark corner of the room. Nothing. Just shifting shadows and empty space. He exhaled shakily, trying to convince himself he was imagining things, until movement caught the corner of his eye.
A ghost drifted silently toward him.
Jisung's heart practically stopped. "Nope! Nope, absolutely not."
His fingers fumbled over the containment trap before he finally found the activation switch. He squeezed his eyes shut, as though refusing to look at the ghost would somehow make it easier, and slammed the button with far more force than necessary. Blue sparks burst from the device with a sharp hiss, lighting the room in a brilliant flash that made him grin for the briefest second.
Then the light faded.
The ghost floated straight through it without even slowing down.
"Focus, Han!" the evaluator's voice crackled through his earpiece, calm enough to be infuriating.
"I'm trying!" Jisung yelled back, stumbling away so quickly that his heel caught on the uneven flooring. He pinwheeled his arms in a desperate attempt to stay upright, but the containment trap smacked against a nearby metal barricade with an ear-splitting clang. He flinched at the noise, only to freeze as another ghost emerged from the darkness, gliding toward him with the same unsettling slowness. His entire body screamed at him to run. Hide. Curl up somewhere safe and let someone else deal with this nightmare.
You can't.
You have to pass.
Come on... just this once.
He clenched his jaw so tightly it hurt. Taking one long, unsteady breath, he forced himself to stand his ground instead of backing away again. His thumb hovered over the button for only a second before pressing down.
This time, the containment device roared to life.
Electric-blue arcs shot through the air, wrapping around the ghost in crackling ribbons of light. The projection convulsed violently, its body twisting and warping like a puppet with invisible strings before collapsing into itself. With one final distorted shriek, it dissolved into a stream of light and vanished inside the trap.
The room fell silent.
The lights steadied overhead, washing away the dancing shadows that had seemed so alive only moments ago. Jisung remained frozen where he stood, staring at the device in his hands until the last of the adrenaline drained from his body. His knees gave out beneath him, and he sank onto the floor with a shaky exhale, chest heaving as though he'd just run a marathon.
"I..." His voice cracked embarrassingly as he looked up at the evaluator. "I passed?"
The evaluator walked over with an amused smile, offering him a hand. "Barely," he admitted, pulling Jisung back onto his feet. "But you kept adapting instead of giving up. You didn't freeze when things went wrong, and that's exactly what we look for."
Jisung let out a breathless laugh, rubbing the back of his neck as his heartbeat finally began to settle. He still felt like he'd aged ten years in the last five minutes, but at least it was over.
"Yeah..." he muttered, a tired smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "...I'll take barely."
****
Jisung rolled his shoulders back as he made his way toward the announcement area, trying his best to look like someone who hadn't nearly had a panic attack five minutes earlier. His breathing had finally evened out, but his palms still felt clammy, and every now and then his fingers twitched around the containment device strapped to his belt.
The room buzzed with quiet conversations as applicants gathered in loose groups, some celebrating their success while others nervously speculated about what came next. A few glanced his way before quickly looking elsewhere, but most didn't acknowledge him at all. It wasn't intentional, probably. Still, with every person who walked past without a second glance, his shoulders seemed to sink a little lower.
A sharp burst of static crackled through the speakers overhead, silencing the room almost instantly.
"Congratulations," the voice over the microphone announced, steady and authoritative. "You've survived the entrance assessment and proven yourselves worthy of joining the Ghost Hunters."
A murmur rippled through the crowd.
"But surviving one trial doesn't make you hunters. Your real training begins today."
Several enormous digital screens flickered to life across the hall, their pale blue glow washing over the applicants' faces.
TEAM ASSIGNMENTS — EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Names began scrolling rapidly across the displays.
Jisung found himself holding his breath.
Please don't stick me with people who hate me...
Or worse... people who expect me to actually know what I'm doing.
His eyes darted frantically across the endless list as names continued appearing one after another.
"Kim Minseo — Team Delta."
"Lee Haneul — Team Echo."
"Park Soobin — Team Bravo."
The names blurred together until—
Han Jisung — Team SKZ.
"...Huh?"
He blinked once. Then twice.
Team SKZ?
He'd imagined something... bigger.
Maybe a famous squad with dozens of members and an intimidating reputation. A team packed with experienced hunters who looked like they'd stepped straight out of recruitment posters. Instead, he spotted only three people waiting near one of the briefing tables.
...That's it?
Four members, including him. His stomach churned all over again.
As he approached, the tallest among them leaned casually against the wall with his arms folded, watching him with calm, observant eyes. There wasn't anything particularly intimidating about his posture, but something about the quiet confidence he carried made Jisung instinctively straighten his own back. Beside him, another boy lounged comfortably across a chair, spinning a datapad between his fingers as though the briefing wasn't worth paying attention to. Every few seconds he'd glance toward the youngest member of the group, who seemed to be losing an argument with the rug beneath his feet.
"Why is this thing even here?" the younger boy muttered, nudging the edge of the rug with his shoe. "It's literally trying to kill me."
"It has a better success rate than most ghosts," the boy with the datapad replied without looking up.
"I heard that."
"I wanted you to."
Before Jisung could decide whether he should interrupt them, the lounging boy finally looked up.
"Oh." A grin spread across his face.
"So this is the rookie." His gaze swept over Jisung from head to toe before he tilted his head thoughtfully.
"Hm. Didn't think they'd send us someone this... frantic." He paused deliberately.
"Feels like we've accidentally recruited another Jeongin." Jeongin's head snapped around.
"Hey!"
He smacked the older boy squarely on the shoulder, earning nothing more than an amused laugh. "I'm not frantic."
"No?"
"No."
Seungmin raised an eyebrow. "You tripped over a stationary rug ten seconds ago."
"...That rug has something against me."
Jisung couldn't help letting out a small laugh before immediately clamping a hand over his mouth. Three pairs of eyes turned toward him.
"...Sorry." The word came out embarrassingly fast.
"I-I mean, I'm not frantic either. I'm actually really calm. Like... incredibly calm." As if the universe had taken that as a personal challenge, his foot caught on the exact same rug.
"Oh—" He stumbled forward.
"—peach."
Silence. Jisung blinked.
"...Why did I say peach?"
Nobody answered. For exactly two seconds.
Then Seungmin burst into laughter so hard he had to grab the edge of the table to stay upright. Jeongin wasn't much better, doubled over with both hands clutching his stomach.
"I..." Seungmin wheezed between laughs. "Peach?"
"I don't know!"
"I wasn't expecting that."
"I wasn't either!"
Trying to recover what little dignity he had left, Jisung hurriedly pushed himself upright, only for Jeongin to reach out and steady him. Unfortunately, the moment Jeongin took a step forward, his own foot caught beneath the rug. "Oh, come on!" He stumbled into Jisung, who somehow managed to keep both of them standing.
Seungmin pointed dramatically. "See? I told you. Another Jeongin."
The shorter (but older) man finally let out a quiet sigh, somewhere between exhausted and amused. "Alright."
His voice wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.
Almost immediately, the laughter died down. He stepped away from the wall, offering Jisung a small, reassuring smile before extending a hand.
"I'm Chan." He gestured toward the still-laughing pair.
"That's Seungmin." Seungmin raised a hand.
"And that's Jeongin." Jeongin waved enthusiastically.
"Nice to meet you!"
Seungmin clicked his tongue. "You introduced us wrong."
Chan blinked. "...Did I?"
"Obviously." Seungmin sat up straighter, pointing dramatically around the group.
"That's Grandpa Chan."
Chan sighed.
"I'm Puppy Seungmin."
A proud nod.
"And that clumsy disaster over there is Fox Jeongin."
"I'm not a disaster!"
"You literally fell over trying to help someone else who fell over."
"That rug cheated!"
Chan pinched the bridge of his nose. "...I'm not a grandpa."
Without missing a beat, Seungmin patted him sympathetically on the shoulder. "That's exactly what a grandpa would say."
Chan lightly smacked the back of Seungmin's head. Seungmin gasped dramatically, placing a hand over his heart as though he'd suffered a fatal injury.
"Betrayed..."
"I barely touched you."
"I'll never recover."
Jisung stared at the four of them.
...This is the weirdest team I've ever met.
****
The laughter lingered for another few seconds before slowly dying down. Seungmin wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye, still grinning to himself, while Jeongin leaned against the table to catch his breath. Chan simply watched the three of them with a patient expression that suggested this wasn't even close to the most chaotic briefing he'd had to sit through. When he finally cleared his throat, the room quietened almost immediately.
"Alright," he said, his voice calm but firm. "If everyone's finished bullying the rookie..."
"We're not bullying him," Seungmin corrected, though the smile tugging at the corner of his lips suggested otherwise. "We're helping him build character." Jisung frowned. "I've known you for three minutes."
"And look how much you've grown already." A laugh escaped Jeongin before he could stop it.
Chan shook his head with a quiet sigh, gesturing toward the chairs gathered around the table. "Sit. We still have an equipment briefing before our first mission, and I'd rather none of you accidentally injure yourselves before we even leave."
As everyone settled into their seats, Jisung unclipped the containment device from his belt and placed it carefully on the table. He turned it over once, then twice, studying the unfamiliar buttons and switches scattered across its frame. "...These things are a lot more confusing when you're not panicking," he admitted quietly, tracing a finger along one of the safety catches. "I kind of just... pressed whatever looked important."
"You can tell." Seungmin reached over before Jisung had the chance to protest, gently taking the device from his hands. He rotated it with practiced ease, his brows lifting ever so slightly. "You've been holding it backwards."
Jisung blinked. "...I have?"
"Mhm." Seungmin pointed toward a small vent near the handle.
"This side releases the containment field." He flipped the device around and placed it back in Jisung's hands.
"You've been aiming it at yourself." For a long moment, Jisung didn't say anything.
He simply stared at the trap resting in his lap as the realization slowly settled in. "...So if I'd actually used it like that..."
"You would've stunned yourself before the ghost even had a chance."
"..."
"..."
Jisung lowered his forehead onto the edge of the table with a soft thunk. "I'd like to formally apologise to everyone who had faith in me."
Jeongin burst into laughter. "I'm sorry," he managed between breaths, waving both hands in surrender. "I know I shouldn't laugh, but that's actually kind of impressive."
"I don't think 'impressive' is the word you're looking for."
"No, I think it is." Seungmin nodded thoughtfully. "I've never seen someone nearly fail in such a creative way."
"I passed!"
"Barely."
"I still passed!"
"You did," Chan agreed, the corners of his mouth lifting just enough to betray his amusement. "Which means there's something worth teaching." Jisung looked up. "...Really?"
"If you were hopeless, you wouldn't be here." The words were simple. Matter-of-fact.
But hearing them from Chan eased something tight inside his chest. Before Jisung could respond, Seungmin tilted his head, studying him a little more closely.
"Hang on." Jisung immediately looked suspicious. "...What?"
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
Seungmin froze. "...Seriously?"
"Yeah?"
"I genuinely thought you were younger." He comments.
"I get that a lot."
"Huh." Seungmin leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "You're older than me."
Jisung nearly dropped the containment device all over again. "...You're kidding."
"Nope."
"...How old are you?"
"Twenty." Before Jisung had a chance to process that, Jeongin leaned forward with the biggest grin on his face.
"I'm also twenty, but I'm younger than Seung."
Jisung slowly turned toward him. "...You're the youngest?" Jeongin nodded proudly. "The baby of the team."
Jisung let out a long groan, rubbing both hands over his face. "So... I'm the second oldest?"
His eyes drifted toward Chan. "...Please tell me you're older."
Chan gave a single nod. "I'm twenty-four."
Relief washed over Jisung so quickly his shoulders visibly relaxed. "Oh, thank goodness."
"I told you," Seungmin said, pointing dramatically at Chan. "Grandpa."
"I'm not a grandpa."
"You practically are."
"I'm twenty-four."
"Exactly."
Chan let out the kind of sigh that suggested he'd had this exact conversation dozens of times before. "One day," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "you're all going to realise twenty-four isn't old."
Jeongin tilted his head thoughtfully. "...Maybe." A pause. "But today isn't that day." Even Chan laughed.
It was quiet, more of an amused breath than a proper laugh, but it was enough to make the room feel lighter.
Jisung found himself smiling without meaning to. Only half an hour ago, he'd been convinced he'd never survive the entrance exam.
Now he was sitting around a table arguing about whether his team leader qualified for retirement.
Somehow... It wasn't nearly as terrifying as he'd expected.
Chan let the conversation settle on its own before resting his elbows against the table, his expression growing a little more serious. "Listen."
Nobody interrupted this time. "You'll learn the equipment." His gaze shifted from one face to the next before settling briefly on Jisung. "You'll get faster. Stronger. More confident." He picked up one of the containment devices, turning it slowly between his hands. "But none of that will matter if you don't trust the people standing beside you."
The room fell silent. "When things go wrong—and they will—you won't have time to come up with the perfect plan. You'll rely on instinct. On training."
He looked toward Seungmin. "On someone covering your blind spot."
Then Jeongin. "On someone pulling you back before you make a mistake."
Finally, Jisung. "And sometimes..." His voice softened. "...on someone believing in you before you're able to believe in yourself."
Jisung's fingers instinctively tightened around the device in his lap. He wasn't sure why.
Maybe because Chan wasn't looking at him like he was a burden. Or maybe because, for the first time that day...
Someone had spoken to him as though he already belonged.
****
Chan was the first to stand, clipping the containment device back onto his belt before reaching for the rest of his gear. The others followed suit, though Seungmin stretched dramatically as if sitting through a briefing had drained every ounce of energy from him.
"Gear check," Chan said, slinging a duffel bag over one shoulder. His eyes moved from one teammate to the next. "Containment traps?"
"Charged," Seungmin answered, patting the one clipped to his belt. Jeongin gave a thumbs-up. "Ready."
Chan looked at Jisung, who immediately froze before hurriedly patting every pocket he had. His expression grew increasingly panicked until his fingers finally brushed against the device hanging from his belt. "...Found it."
A quiet laugh escaped Jeongin. "You looked like you lost your wallet."
"I thought I did."
Chan shook his head, though the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly. "Keep your headset on at all times. If you see something unusual, report it immediately. Don't assume someone else has already noticed it, and don't wander off on your own." As Jisung adjusted the earpiece over one ear, he nodded along to every instruction, determined not to miss a single word. The memory of nearly failing the assessment was still painfully fresh in his mind, and the last thing he wanted was to make another stupid mistake.
Chan let the silence continue for another second before speaking again. "If one person gets separated, everyone goes after them. We leave together, and we come back together. That's not negotiable."
Jisung wasn't sure why those words stuck with him more than everything else Chan had said, but they settled somewhere deep in his chest. They didn't sound like another academy rule someone had memorised from a handbook. They sounded personal, as though they came from experience. As they left the briefing room, the atmosphere around the academy seemed to shift. The lively chatter from the training halls gradually faded behind them, replaced by the quiet hum of machinery echoing through the lower corridors. Thick observation windows lined the walls, revealing technicians preparing equipment behind reinforced glass while rows of containment units blinked softly with blue indicator lights.
Jisung found himself looking everywhere at once. It was strange. Jeongin slowed his pace until they were walking side by side. "Nervous?"
Jisung let out a small laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Is it really that obvious?"
"A little."
"A lot," Seungmin corrected from behind them. "I was trying to be nice," Jeongin complained.
"And I was trying to be accurate." Jisung rolled his eyes with a smile despite himself. "You know, I'm starting to think you enjoy making me panic."
"I do."
"I knew it."
The laughter eased some of the tension sitting on Jisung's shoulders, and for the first time since meeting them, he found himself relaxing without even noticing. After a moment, his attention drifted toward Chan, who was walking several steps ahead while quietly checking something on a holographic tablet.
"...He's different than I expected."
Jeongin followed his gaze before smiling knowingly. "Chan?"
Jisung nodded. "I thought he'd be... scarier."
"He gets that a lot." Jeongin's smile softened as he looked back at their leader. "People see him once and assume he's really strict. He is, sometimes. But he's also probably the kindest person I've ever met."
"What makes you say that?" Jeongin was quiet for a second, choosing his words carefully.
"If one of us gets hurt, he blames himself. Doesn't matter whose fault it actually was—he always thinks there was something more he could've done." He let out a quiet breath, his smile turning faintly bittersweet. "Sometimes I think he forgets he can't protect everyone."
Jisung frowned. "...Has something happened before?"
For the first time since they'd met, Jeongin's expression faltered. Only slightly. "...Yeah."
He didn't elaborate. After a brief silence, he simply shook his head. "But that's Chan's story to tell."
Jisung looked at him for another moment before nodding.
"...Okay." He didn't ask again.