## Chapter 35 – Spare Time (3)
“So, what’s the reason you weren’t answering your phone?”
“It’s a secret, I told you? Besides, you’re not telling me anything either.”
I’m arguing with Chaeyoon as we head back to my place from the university, where she’d been waiting for me until the sun had almost completely set and twilight was settling in.
I called her several times on the way, but she didn’t pick up.
I was worried something might have happened to her since she usually answers her phone just fine.
But today, she’s being so sensitive, and I couldn’t help but keep pressing her.
I guess I’ve messed up in the past too, so I don’t think I can ask any more…
“By the way, Oppa. You wrote the message with flower petals to the professor, right?”
“Why are you asking when you already know?”
“Well, I don’t even know what that professor looks like, so I might be curious. I don’t even know their name.”
“Come to school tomorrow and find out.”
I jokingly say as I quicken my pace, passing Chaeyoon, who had been walking alongside me.
Behind me, she mutters in a small voice, ‘What is with him, really,’ as she follows.
As I continue chatting with Chaeyoon, who caught up with me, I arrive in front of my apartment before I know it.
I reach out, enter the password on the door lock, grab the doorknob, and open the door.
I almost fainted.
“…Ugh!”
I was so startled that I was about to scream, but Chaeyoon, who peeked into the room from behind me and assessed the situation, quickly covered my mouth with her hand to stop the scream from escaping, then pushed me into the room, causing me to fall.
What touched my cheek as I fell was a red liquid that was cold but still lukewarm,
a fishy smell that I’ve been encountering a lot lately.
Blood was splattered all over my room.
What is this, did something happen?
Seohee, where’s Seohee?
I quickly get up and turn my head to scan the dark room.
All sorts of thoughts flash through my mind.
The woman who was at home with Seohee comes to mind.
Damn it, I shouldn’t have left it like that.
As I get up and survey my surroundings,
I hear a noise from the side.
“What are you guys doing?”
“…Unni?”
Seohee bursts out of the bathroom door right next to me, looking back and forth between me and Chaeyoon,
greeting us with a voice and expression that suggests she’s the one who’s dumbfounded.
“…Ah, the floor? Sorry about this, I’ll clean it all up later.”
Still dumbfounded, I stand there blankly with blood on my clothes,
while Seohee, only covered with a towel in her naked state, comes out and casually apologizes for the state of the house.
“…No, uh…”
Damn it, I’m so flustered and embarrassed that I can’t even speak properly.
“What happened?”
Chaeyoon walks out from behind me, taking my place,
asking Seohee about the situation, her face also showing that she can’t believe what’s happening.
“Well, the girl in there wasn’t listening,
so one thing led to another…”
Seohee gestures towards the bathroom,
and we both turn our gazes in that direction almost simultaneously.
At the end of our line of sight, the straitjacketed girl, looking much cleaner than when we first met her, is squatting in the corner of the bathroom, trembling.
“……”
“What are you looking at.”
“……”
“What are *you* looking at.”
When Chaeyoon and I shift our gazes back to Seohee, she’s blushing, perhaps out of embarrassment,
threatening us with a sharp tone.
“…What on earth did you do to make her so scared?”
Chaeyoon is being sarcastic.
Or is she being direct?
Seohee doesn’t seem to want to answer,
turning her head away and trying to ignore Chaeyoon’s words and gaze.
Just looking at the state of the house, I think I know what happened even if she doesn’t tell me.
“…More importantly, this.”
Seohee threw something small and black at me from her hand,
and I caught it without difficulty.
“This is, a seed…”
“Eh?! Unni, when did you…!?”
I casually put the seed in my pocket.
Chaeyoon runs up to Seohee, bombarding her with questions,
and the person who surprised us from the beginning is blushing, ignoring Chaeyoon and getting dressed.
Of course, I was surprised.
But now, even I think my reactions are forced…
“Aaaargh! Stop it already!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Eventually, her embarrassment reaching its limit,
she yells with a face as red as a beet, pushing Chaeyoon away,
and barely overcoming her shame with tears in her eyes, she says to me.
“Use it well.”
“…Okay.”
Damn it, why are you making me embarrassed too?
After the commotion ended and Seohee got dressed,
I also changed out of my blood-stained clothes, and we all gathered in the living room to clean up before sitting down together in the room.
Of course, the girl was with us too.
More subdued than when we first met her, the girl sits quietly in the living room, carefully watching our every move.
Chaeyoon was the one who broke our silence, which had become quiet along with her.
“If you can beat her up this well, you could have just fought in Oppa’s place.”
“……”
“Okay, sorry.”
“Stop it, and more importantly, what did she say?”
“Uh, she did say something, but it’s slurred.
Most importantly, it seems like she doesn’t know anything at all.”
I sigh and look at the girl.
I was hoping she’d have some important information.
“…Then isn’t our business with her done?”
Chaeyoon is right, if she doesn’t have any information, there’s no need for us to be doing this.
“Then what should we do with her now…”
My head is starting to hurt.
Even if she’s just a girl who doesn’t know anything and is sitting there trembling in fear,
I can’t just throw a woman who can wield her hair like a sword out on the street…
“Can I take her?”
Seohee says something unexpected, and the girl starts to tremble greatly at those words.
Whether she doesn’t know or is ignoring it,
Seohee continues to speak without paying attention.
“There are already two people living in your house, and it’s a bit cramped for three people to live there.
My house has no one in it anyway, and I think she might be useful.”
“Is that okay…”
“I think it’s a good idea.”
Chaeyoon cuts me off and gives her opinion, her expression revealing her intentions.
Her expression clearly shows that she wants to be alone with me.
“Okay, then let’s do that.
But we gathered here thinking there would be something,
but it turns out there wasn’t much after all.”
“…I guess so.”
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but I’m still a little disappointed.
The house becomes quiet again, as if everyone is thinking the same thing.
The silence doesn’t last long before it’s broken,
and I’m the one who breaks it.
“Ah, right. I forgot to mention something.”
“What is it all of a sudden?”
“I’m going to learn to exercise, preferably boxing.”
————————
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Goodbye, Unni.”
I leave Chanwoo’s house and head back to my place.
Chaeyoon comes out and greets me cheerfully, and Lim Chanwoo is waving his hand while yawning behind her.
I greet them back and start walking.
I take out a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth,
but I’m annoyed to death by this girl who’s been flinching at my every little move from behind.
“Seriously, if you keep doing that, they’re going to misunderstand and think I only beat you up.
Here, you cut off this hand first, right?”
I say in annoyance, shaking my right hand in front of the girl’s eyes to show her.
Damn it, it still hurts, I think.
This happened right after those two went to school in the morning.
After seeing them off and closing the door,
I came back into the room, and my right hand was immediately blown away.
Having heard about the nature of the attack from Chanwoo, I immediately recognized it
and looked at this girl, who should have been asleep, and she immediately got up and lunged at me.
It seemed like she had been waiting for Chanwoo, who had defeated her, to leave.
After fighting for about three hours or so,
she eventually became afraid of me and is now in this state.
“…Hah, whatever.”
I let out an annoyed sigh, put the cigarette that I was holding back in my mouth,
and took out a lighter, but even the ‘click, click’ sound of me trying to light it makes her scared and shrink into a small ball.
“…It’s hard to call you since you don’t have a name. Hey, what’s your name?”
“…03, is…”
“What, what’s that?”
Is that what she said her name was?
“Is that your name?”
“…Name, what is?”
“…You should start by learning Korean when you get back.”
This girl looks perfectly normal, but her speech and actions are almost like a child.
She has almost no social knowledge and doesn’t even remember simple things like her name or age.
Is this girl really one of our kind?
It definitely feels like it, though.
“…”
Those bastards probably pulled some trick.
Doing this to our own kind?
The humans our ancestors knew weren’t this advanced.
But what can I do, I don’t have any information.
The only word this girl has uttered while being with me is ‘Father.’
It seems like she doesn’t know anything beyond that.
I have no idea what those bastards are thinking.
It’s almost certain that they sent this girl with Chanwoo as the target,
but even though they confirmed that Chanwoo was seriously injured, they didn’t send reinforcements
or try to retrieve this girl, and they suddenly became quiet.
…I don’t know, damn it.
I drop the cigarette that’s already become short on the ground and stomp it out,
then take out another cigarette and light it.
“…It’s inconvenient not having a name, so I’ll give you one.”
I can’t keep calling this girl who doesn’t even know her own name ‘this girl,’ ‘woman,’
or ‘this girl,’ so I’ll just give her a name.
“…Name? Then, are you my mom?”
“What are you saying, you want to die?”
I raise my fist, and she shrinks again…
Let’s start with the name.
She’s small, and her actions are strange, so…
“Okay, from now on, your name is Nabi. Got it?”
“Nabi? You gave me a name, so you’re not my mom, then?”
“Don’t call me Mom.”
“Then, what are you? Name.”
“Just call me Unni.”
“…Unni.”
Ignoring Nabi, who keeps following me and chirping ‘Unni, Unni’ in a small voice, I throw away the empty cigarette pack and go into the convenience store.
————————
“Come to think of it, Oppa, you’re going to learn boxing? Why all of a sudden?”
“…No reason, just.”
Chaeyoon suddenly becomes interested in the topic of exercise while we’re eating,
is she trying to do something weird again?
“Why all of a sudden?”
“It’s just that I know a gym. You should try going there.”
“……”
“It’s not something weird this time, it might actually be good for you.”
