Prologue

“—is gone.”

As soon as Jang Wonyoung crumples onto her hands and knees, the screen fizzles and snaps as the scene turns into static.

“Hey, I was watching that,” the hunched-over figure grumbles, dumping his bucket of popcorn next to his raised feet on the table. Buttered flecks and kernels flutter off his heaving chest. “It was starting to get good.”

“You’re twisted, you know that?” the second figure grumbles, pausing just behind the first, her arms stiff and crossed as she huffs. “Quit slacking. There’s way too much left to do.”

“I’m on break,” he reminds her, signaling to the half-consumed liter of diet coke across him. He tries to reach for it without getting up, but his torso can only bend forward so much. “Shouldn’t you be off right now too? I saw what you did with the recent cases. You work ridiculously fast.”

“Anyone would look like an efficient worker next to you,” she retorts, gliding over to the desk. The dull glow of the television highlights the outline of her skintight padded kevlar. Grabbing a handful, she nicks up popcorn from her gloved palm one at a time. “I’ll bet you the next case load that Z-131’ll beat your ass if she finds you going through her stuff.”

The first figure shrugs, snatching the remote from his squadmate with little to no luck. “It’s the team breakroom for a damn reason, now hand over the bloody remote, N.”

N switches the channel back to what her comrade was watching earlier, leaning forward to observe a group of girls arguing with one another in a large auditorium. “This again? Didn’t we send D-99 into this reality?”

“Beats me. I tend to keep my nose out of the other’s affairs.” 

“You’re one to talk probing around with Z’s Monitor. This is why you aren’t getting that promotion any time soon, K.”

K scoffs, placing his feet back down on the floor, boots tucked together by the heels. “This wouldn’t be a problem if you weren’t here. Look—now I missed that fucking scene. Need to skip back a bit.”

Except N is nimble, and N is quick. But above anything else, N, much like K, is, in fact, quite bored. Quite bored indeed. “How about we change things up a bit here? How about … this one?”

There are lines of protest marching out of K’s lips now, but he waves his troops of tirades off for a moment to witness what N is scheming first. “Huh? That’s—.”

“Yup. Channel 191520812081161651454.”

K signals to N, and she turns up the volume a few pumps so they can hear what’s going on. “Aw, come on. Not this boring slice-of-life shit again. This is why I never give you the aux on the chronojet.”

“Relax, K. Aren’t you tired of watching the same old miserable muck you always turn to?”

“At least there’s story in those. Can’t be bothered to waste my precious fucking break time watching snippets from some random collapsible reality’s day-to-day life.”

N leans against K’s shoulder and rests her hip on it. “Relax. After all we’ve been through, what we need’s a little more … fluff.”

“Fluff my ass. I’d rather watch from D’s Monitor. He’s always got the raunchy shit at least.”

Rolling her eyes from behind her goggles, N reaches for the popcorn and tips it towards K. “This one’s cute. Worth your time. Swear on it.”

“If you’ve already watched this before,” K pauses, stuffing his mouth full before continuing, “Then can we at least watch something else?”

N elbows him in the head and ruffles his hair. “Just watch.”

“I’m want to enjoy my—.”

“Just watch.”

And with a final sigh, K allows N to use him as support while the two of them split snacks and tune into the current available programming.

What show are they watching?