Operatives || Park Sunghoon

44 | realistic dreams

Sunghoon's POV

I was in a building, my legs automatically running up the staircase with a gun in my hand. The building seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't point out exactly what was giving me that feeling.

After climbing up two floors, I kicked open a door labelled as 'Fire Exit' and entered into a corridor which was newly painted.

After all, I was in an office building which has recently opened.

I pressed my back against the wall, keeping a look-out if someone was coming in my way. Seeing that no one was here apart from me, I turned to my left and began jogging to the room at the end of the corridor, which was supposed to be the room where my target was present.

To my surprise, the entire room was deserted. My pace slowed down to a walk as I looked around the room to find the criminal I was here to catch hold of.

I walked over to the rows of drawers, opening each one of them to find the pen drive I was here for. But unfortunately, it was no where to be found.

I cursed under my breath when suddenly I heard someone clear their throat through the speakers in the room, making me alert.

"You thought I'll let a pathetic agent like you ruin my perfect plan?" A deep voice said, followed by a dark chuckle.

"Tell me where the pen drive is. I'll probably let you live then." I spoke up, still searching for that object even though I knew this room was bugged and I probably had cameras on me. Laughter echoed through the room, my enemy perhaps enjoying this conversation.

"Pen drive? I'm sorry to say but that's long gone, Agent Park. Even this building is deserted."

No.

This can't be true— I can't be outsmarted like this. Everything was just too perfect for something to go wrong.

"You are lying." I spoke softly as realisation settled upon me that I had stepped right into his trap.

"Ah, yes. This building is not entirely deserted, you see. Your friend is stuck in the east elevator if I'm not wrong."  He said, his voice giving away that he was quite amused to see this all happening.

"Shit!" I muttered under my breath, running out of the room in full speed and making my way to the east elevator. Unfortunately, it wasn't operational and was stuck on the sixth floor of the building. I quickly ran to the staircase and climbed up to the sixth floor and as expected, I saw a human figure sitting in the elevator, the entire thing visible due to the glass doors.

I went towards the elevator and froze in my tracks after seeing the scene in front of me.

Thea was sitting down with her back facing the wall of the elevator. Maybe she saw me because as soon as I stood in front of her, she quickly stood up, looking at me.

"Don't break the glass, it will trigger the explosives." She warned me, probably knowing what was going on in my mind.

"I'll think of something— wait—" I spoke up, my brain working overtime to think of something while panic inhibited me to think of a sensible way out.

"There's no way, Sunghoon. A bomb's gonna go off any moment. It will break the rope with which the elevator is hanging." She said, her voice surprisingly calm and composed, though she had to pause for a second in between to keep her voice steady. Tears threatened to fall down my eyes as I touched the glass with my hand, as if trying to reach to her.

"I'm so sorry. I failed." I muttered, guilt weighing down upon me, the sting in the heart so painful that the tears finally began to fall down my face, a sense of hopelessness present in the atmosphere.

"You need to get out of here. It's too dangerous."  She stated, trying to persuade me in leaving her alone here and escape before I get hurt. I shook my head, rejecting her suggestion.

"I'm not leaving you alone in here." I spoke firmly, determined to stay put on my decision.

"Go, please." She pleaded, her voice laced with urgency while she looked at me with worried eyes. She placed her hand on the glass where mine was, such that if the glass wasn't there, our hands would be touching each others'.

"No, and that's final." I said, a soft sob escaping my mouth since the pain of seeing her in this situation hurt so much, I couldn't suppress it anymore. "I love you." I muttered, looking at her which made her smile warmly at me.

"I—" She began to speak but even before she could say the next word, a loud explosion was heard and the elevator car fell down, Thea vanishing out of my sight as she went down with it.

"No!" I shouted as I looked down, my knees giving away which caused me to fall on the ground. "No...please..." I muttered, overwhelmed by my emotions.

Suddenly, I felt as if someone was choking me which made my breath cut short. I gagged, my hands reaching up to my neck trying to get rid of the cause of choking.

"Sunghoon!" I heard a distant voice in my head as if someone was calling me from another dimension. I felt the air supply to my lungs completely cut off, making me choke even more.

"Sunghoon! You are having a panic attack!" I suddenly heard a voice whisper-shouting when suddenly my upper body was heaved up, two arms wrapping around me protectively while my head was placed right in the crook of someone's neck.

"Follow my breathing." Thea spoke softly, rubbing my back with one of her hands. I nodded slowly as I did as she said because of which my breathing turned to normal soon after. "Are you okay?" She asked after sometime, looking down at me to check whether I was alright or not.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I said, my eyes shut tightly as I desperately tried to forget the nightmare I just had.

Thea's POV

"I'll get you some water, wait." I said, slowly unwrapping my hands around him to which he just hugged me back tighter, shaking his head.

"Don't leave me, please. Stay here." He muttered, his soft breath hitting my skin which sent shivers down my spine. Smiling to myself, I ran my fingers through his hair, both of us huddled up on his air mattress while he tried to recover from his nightmare.

Soon after ten minutes or so, he sat up straight, unwrapping his hands from me and rubbing eyes.

"You didn't ask me anything." He spoke up softly, taking me by surprise. "You didn't ask me about my nightmare, though." He explained further after seeing my confused expression. I sighed, shrugging my shoulders casually.

"I felt it was the right thing to do. Even you did it back at the hotel in Japan, didn't you?" I said as I smiled warmly at him. He hummed in response, after which silence filled the air, both of us just sitting quietly cross-legged in the dark and doing nothing.

The room was dimly illuminated by the light of the billboards coming from outside, along with the moonlight.

After a few moments Sunghoon lifted his head up to look at me, perhaps wanting to say something.

"Do you have any regret in life which you would want to correct if given a chance?"