Guru stared blankly at Chloe, who was taking her away, with an expression that said she didn’t know what to do.
She had only been trying to find a way back. Why had it turned out like this?
It had already been about a week since Guru warped back to the past six years ago.
During that ti, Guru had attempted to escape the institute about five tis.
All of them had failed.
What the researchers had thought of that, she didn’t know, but they said they would make arrangents so she could go outside, and then introduced her to a guardian.
That guardian was Chloe Han, the one sitting beside her now.
[Would you like to register ‘Chloe Han’ as a caregiver?]
That was the window that had popped up the mont she saw Chloe.
‘An S-Rank?’
Guru tilted her head slightly, sneaking a look at Chloe.
A pale face, a high nose, green eyes soaked in fatigue, and an expression so cynical it looked rotten, yet objectively she was bright and beautiful.
Unlike the pretty face, her personality was not.
Baaaaang!
The horn blared, and Chloe growled.
“Why the hell do Korean drivers drive like this?! Do they only straighten up if you slam their cars into the wall?”
Shouting in frustration, Chloe happened to glance at the passenger seat.
The mont her eyes t Guru’s, who had been sneaking glances at her, Guru sucked in a breath.
“......”
“......”
With an awkward expression, Chloe bit her lip.
“I don’t always act like this. Usually, I hold back, you know...?”
“Aaah......”
Guru, politely folding her hands above her belly button, nodded out of courtesy.
“Adults sotis get a little angry when they drive and, um, things happen and so......”
“Yeeeh......”
Her small body trembled as cold sweat stread down her face.
What should she do? She was too scared to ask if Chloe was really S-Rank.
But why was it possible to register ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) her without raising attachnt points?
There were too many strange points, so Guru couldn’t easily bring herself to register Chloe as her caregiver.
Her vision was spinning when Chloe asked,
“So, what should I call you? Is there a na you’d like to use?”
“Gwuu.”
“Gwuu?”
“Yeeeh. Gwuu.”
Murmuring, ‘So, Gwuu...’ she nodded as though accepting it.
“That’s a na my grandfather would have liked.”
“Gwampa?”
“He loved trees.”
At the thought of her grandfather, Chloe faintly smiled.
“He wanted to give the Korean na ‘Guru’ too, but since my family na is Han, it would’ve been ‘Han Guru.’ He said that sounded lonely. Funny, right?”
‘Han Gwuu......’
Guru whispered the na and then quietly shook her head.
“Han Gwuu not wonwy.”
Chloe blinked.
“......?”
Guru raised her eyebrows high and repeated, insisting she wasn’t lonely.
“...Yeah. I guess that could be true.”
After that, Chloe drove in silence until they sohow arrived at the apartnt.
Watching the child gape wide-eyed at the place, Chloe tilted her head.
“Let’s change your clothes first. Right now you look too much like... that.”
“Dat?”
Guru glanced down at her plain white dress.
It looked like a sack with armholes punched through, but from her expression, she had no sense of how it appeared to others.
Chloe rubbed her face.
‘Right now you look too much like an escaped lab specin.’
But she couldn’t say that.
Not in front of the kid. Not now.
“You look too much like an angel right now.”
The child’s eyes went round.
Why was she looking like that? Did she overdo it?
Just as Chloe regretted her words, the child suddenly burst out laughing.
Her pale cheeks puffed up, her angelic smile making Chloe feel a stir deep in her chest.
She laughed.
Pretty.
***
Guru wore Chloe’s thick pajama shirt like a dress.
After fastening the buttons one by one, Chloe let out a strained sound.
“We’ll have to buy new clothes tomorrow.”
“Yeeeh.”
Dinner was, as forewarned, frozen pasta and pizza.
Still, Chloe had a shred of conscience left. As she looked at the greasy pasta and pizza in front of the child, her eyes shifted uneasily.
‘Will this be okay?’
‘Now?’
But she couldn’t cook anything else.
Contrary to her worries, the child ate everything she was given.
“...Does it taste okay?”
Stuffing a mouthful of stretchy cheese, the child nodded, humming, and stuck out her thumb.
“Juggin is yummy!”
When Guru echoed her words back, Chloe burst into a laugh.
“Don’t go telling people I taught you that, okay?”
“Wuuh? Why?”
“It’s not exactly polite.”
Chloe plucked a piece of topping stuck to Guru’s cheek.
She froze for a mont at the pudding-soft cheek, then popped the topping into her mouth.
“Chew carefully.”
“Yeeeh.”
Guru bit the pizza with her tiny teeth, chewing dutifully, while sneaking upward glances at Chloe before sucking up cola through her straw.
When Chloe wiped the grease off Guru’s hands, Guru stared at her and suddenly asked,
“Unnie, awe you soone who wowks where dere awe wots of kids?”
Lots of kids.
She must’ve ant the research institute.
Chloe answered as casually as she could.
“...Yeah. Adults call that place the ‘lab.’”
“Uum, what do you do at the wab?”
Chloe, carefully wiping Guru’s hands, turned her head.
The living room TV happened to be airing news about the tower raid.
“We’re making that person.”
Guru tilted her head to look at the screen with her.
On the screen was On Ijo, being interviewed about the 98th floor clear.
When his face softened into a smile, faint dimples appeared in both cheeks.
‘Uncwe......!’
It was a face she’d sotis seen on TV even in the future.
She had even seen it in photo albums at Grandpa’s house.
Now, thinking of him as a living, breathing human, her chest ached and tingled.
Shivering, Guru couldn’t take her eyes off her uncle’s face as she thought,
‘But why are they trying to “make” Uncle?’
“Why?”
“Because he’s soone humanity can’t live without right now.”
Among all humanity, the man closest to god.
A superhuman who could copy everything without regard to life or death.
The one holding this dood world together all by himself.
Without On Ijo, humanity’s chance of survival in the Tower was as good as zero.
That was why the unethical experints were being kept secret from him.
There was no way On Ijo would allow experints that used children.
“Can da wab weawwy make a pewson too? Wike how Mama and Dada make babies?”
At the innocent question, Chloe suddenly thought of a pregnancy test.
Two lines.
She forcibly erased the afterimage and muttered softly,
“We’re trying.”
At that mont—
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
“Who could that be?”
Glad for a chance to switch to a less uncomfortable topic, Chloe jumped up to check the intercom.
But on the intercom screen was soone even more uncomfortable.
“......”
It was On Ijo’s shyly smiling face.
Guru, who had followed her, glanced between the TV showing his interview and the intercom screen, her mouth falling open.
Chloe, flustered, quickly turned off the TV.
Guru’s eyes sparkled.
‘Uncwe!’
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