if i didn't hear it, then the tree didn't fall

“ —World’s your oyster. ” It comes out a little too fast, too rushed, Ik’s thoughts cut short by the startling realisation that Xiaosi, the Kumiho’s blessed honey pot who’s traversed the underbelly of Seoul and has been to more PC Bangs than he ever will likely doesn’t know how to play minesweeper.

Something twinges in Ik’s chest. If empathy manifests as a hollow ache, then Ik chalks it up to the heartburn from having a spicy lunch.

“ You can upgrade your lil’ town. Call a ceremony to celebrate every single one of your achievements. Do whatever you want you can’t do in here. ” Ik waves a casual hand around him: the tapered, dusty ceiling of the loft they were temporary housed in.

It’s not like he hasn’t thought about it before, about being ICARUS who explodes safes and IKARUS who games behind a screen and how both warrant him a home arrest.

“ if we don’t do that than what do you suggest ? “ she blinks and tilts her head waiting for a response.

Ahn Kyungmi speaks in morse; unhurried, even and deliberate which is, good, so Ik catches every word... except that he’s kind of distracted, barely listening reading, eyes only flitting back to her painted lips at the right moments. There’s still something disconcerting about the timbre of her voice, like it’s been fed through some kind of manipulation software and spoken by an AI. 

High ranking. Inner security. Distraction. Yeah, she’s got a point. 

Ik briefly wonders if there were to be a human-built version of Alexa, she’d definitely be modelled after Kyungmi. Or maybe Kyungmi’s Alexa— frighteningly beautiful, expression always unreadable, inscrutable with her staring, doll eyes. 

Okay. Ik nods, sucked back into their one-sided conversation. I understand. Time is and will always be of the essence in every planned heist, and distractions are effective buyers of time. There’s no denying that her explanation served to assuage his concerns about their scheme, and now Ik has to mend the gap between them. 

About time that Ik plays the responsible adult amongst the bunch of kindergarteners and does the right thing for once. 

“ Um, okay... ” He says audibly, swallowing stones, as he takes hold of the proffered cup of poison — it looks worse than it smells— and dumps it into the hood of his hoodie, making a big show of tipping his head backwards like he just downed the shot of the century. Gross.

He’s not stressed. Of course he isn’t. How can he, when one half of the safe cracking team’s is downed by a stray bullet— which makes him the only other person in the entire damned Kumiho who has the key to the panic room — one that they just haven’t acquired yet ?

The feedback crackling in one ear’s a distraction, probably caused by running his earpiece and hearing aids simultaneously. Not uncommon during Ik’s gaming tournaments, except this time it’s real, too real with law enforcement stacked up against the entrance and there are no respawns. 

Jeon Ik waves one of his crew members over. 

I need your help, he mouths. “Hey. Hey. Are you listening?” Ik half-yells when they’re close enough, taking their face in his hands and squishes it, because in times like these actions speak louder than words and blaring alarms. God, it hurt to think. “I’m gonna need you to hold the jammer against the safe door for me while I program it.” 

A pause, as Ik searches their face for a reaction. “And no, it’s not gonna explode.”

Jeon Ik’s seen them all on the regular: fanmade compilations of [ INSERT IDOL’S NAME HERE ] TOP 20 CUTEST MOMENTS, Instagram accounts which tirelessly update daily, and perhaps, the most absurd of them all, fantasy ‘fanfic’ stories between celebrities who probably never even met. Most, if not all of the Kumiho’s crew were subjected to this angelisation by their dedicated followers; declared gods and goddesses far superior than the ones Ik had known in history books. 

Fans will be eating their words if they knew how well their favourite celebrity is faring against what Ik reckons is the trashiest mobile game of the millennium. 

“You so suck at this game,” Ik quips cheerily, leaning over his crew member’s shoulder to get a better look at the screen. “Bet I can get a high score on the first try—“

Ik’s never one to contradict any coordinator’s plans and he’s learnt enough from newspaper clippings about his crew to meddle with theirs— especially Kyungmi’s, but the first segment of her instructional brief had already presented itself with a systematic flaw. 

If the Kumiho planned on infiltrating their location without setting off the primary alarm system, perhaps drawing first blood within the first 10 minutes of their inconspicuous entrance isn’t such a good idea. Ik’s played enough stealth-based games like Payday or the Hitman series to know what happens in those scenarios: oftentimes civilians alerted by blood or bullets become liabilities and info leaks. With the police hot on their tail, the crew’s bound to blunder. 

A tentative palm presses on her shoulder- it’s cold. Ik clears the cobwebs in his throat. “I don’t see why slaughtering those businessmen ranks so high in your priorities… we still have inner security, don’t we? Shouldn’t we be focusing on what’s inside and then take out whoever’s remaining at the scene?” 

He’s garbling. Or maybe it comes out sounding a little more harsher than he intends it to, because Ik’s never seen anyone’s expression change as fast as hers. If there’s a calm before the storm, it’s this. He can just about hear the bite in her voice before it comes; for now he’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Which is why Ik choses to leave his hearing aids behind in his desk drawer, tucked away with his chemistry textbook and forgotten aspirations.

( byun baekhyun, male, he/him, twenty-seven. ) — JEON IK, better known to the authorities as ICARUS, has been working for the kumiho for around FIVE YEARS as a SAFE CRACKER. rumor has it, they can be ADAPTIVE & INTREPID but also OBSTINATE & DEAF which is why the dial tone proceeding four telephone rings, a kitchen clock stuck at 15:00, two unpacked school lunchboxes and the sound of water in your ears makes you think of them. 

hi hello my loves i'm brie ( she/her, 20 ) and this is my babyyy jeon ik aka icarus... life is short, like this post and i’ll figure out a way for your muse and him to meet ✧・ﾟ:*