In an Instant

1: In which Divergents converge (and one of them used to be Malfoy) (Prologue)

08/17/22: Revised. Adding Valentinos and Eruhaben*. Adding more reactions. Details at the end.

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Kim Rok Soo calmly seats on his luxurious, devastatingly comfortable chair. Reddish-brown eyes coolly take in his surroundings, arms deliberately casual as he rests them on the chair's arms.

He is the picture perfect of nonchalance, but inside, he's cursing up a storm.

Truthfully, even after everything, he still can't understand how he keeps getting caught up in this kind of shit.

Because let's be honest, the closest he ever came to being the main character in any story was that time he annoyed one and got beaten up halfway to death as a result.

Oh yeah, and there's also that surreal experience of making a deal with a God that was eerily like buying drugs from shady back-alley dealers.

The last thing he remembers, he was trudging through the stack of reports Kim Min Ah had ungraciously brought to his desk about their latest monster encounter. He remembers wishing, not for the hundredth time, that the hours would be a bit more reasonable because all these all-nighters he had been pulling were ridiculous. He remembers closing his eyes in irritation at the property damages that had once again, got billed to his company even though the guild responsible for the area had failed their one fucking job.

And then here he is.

Scanning his unfamiliar surroundings, he ruefully acknowledges that the man who had once been Kim Rok Soo had probably been in the same boat once upon a time thanks to him, and that yeah, it really is that disorienting.

The place he is in is a large, lavish auditorium perfectly divided into two sides, with lines and everything, and him seated right in the middle. Both sides are generously supplied with a bunch of sofas, throw pillows, blankets, and a prodigious amount of bandages and medical supplies. Kim Rok Soo has a sinking idea that whoever brings him here expects them to be used.

One side - side A, he decides - for some reason, has a plush bed reminiscent of his bed back in Roan Kingdom, and Kim Rok Soo is so tempted to just go there and smush his face into the pillow since it's tiring, he hasn't slept properly in 3 days, he just doesn't have time for this bullshit–

But, of course, since life is a bitch, he can't even get up from this, admittedly, very comfortable sofa. Before he can ponder on the possibility of falling asleep right here, though, two doors materialize on two sides of the room, heralding the coming of unknown things.

Click. Clack. Clack.

The door on side B swings open into the void, and a figure stumbles through the threshold.

'Not unknown things,' he thinks, faint horror crawling up his throat, 'familiar things'. Familiar people, more like. People who he never thinks he'd meet again. Who he never wants to meet again.

Fuck. Everything.

This is the fault of that God, isn't it? It fucking must be, since he is staring at a 20-year-old Cale Henituse who is undoubtedly not the one he had been wanting to talk to. No, he is looking at a Cale Henituse who is such a trashy young master that he was passed off in favor of his younger brother for the title of heir. The guy even has a bottle in his hand!

Kim Rok Soo looks at a Cale Henituse that is most likely his past self, and resists the urge to bury his head into his hand and scream. No, he's a mature 40 years old team leader of the most active division of his company who can handle this kind of shit. He can't have a breakdown now after everything he's been through!