Chapter 44: Raincoat

I followed the stretching diligently.

After finishing the stretching, I ran to the wall and leaned against it.

A faint solid line drawn above my head.

It was a mark to check how much I had grown without Amy and Shine knowing. I lifted the pen and lightly pressed it on my head, then turned my body to check.

But the dot was in a similar place as yesterday.

Isn’t it?

Did it get a little bigger?

“Jeff, what are you doing?”

Shine approached me at that moment and I asked.

Embarrassed, I stretched out my hand and covered the wall.

“It’s nothing.”

I shifted my gaze to look at Amy. She was still holding up her phone and pointing it at us.

“Aren’t you going to do it today?”

“Yes. I said it’s good to do it consistently every day.”

After answering Amy’s question, I grabbed Shine’s hand and pulled her away from the wall.

“Do you do this every day?”

“Yes.”

Shine frowned, not really liking it.

“But you have to do it to grow taller.”

“It doesn’t seem to help much to me.”

Shine lifted her hand and placed it on her head.

She seemed to be dissatisfied with the fact that she hadn’t grown taller yet.

I agreed with her words.

When I nodded, Shine said, “I want to watch the news.”

Shine immediately ran over and sat down in front of the TV.

Finally, I was left alone, so I approached the large teddy bear, Baekshi.

Wearing a witch’s hat pulled down tightly, he greeted me with his big eyes sparkling.

“Hello, Bakshi.”

Baekshi didn’t say anything.

“Do you think I’m a little tall?”

Baekshi still didn’t say anything.

I didn’t like the sparkling eyes.

I reached out and pressed Baekshi’s forehead.

Baekshi’s forehead went in softly. Baekshi soon fell backward.

Playing with a doll alone was fun for the first day or two.

Now, it was so boring.

I moved the hat on Baekshi’s head to my head.

“Amy.”

“Huh?”

“What kind of person is Rain?”

I walked up to Amy with quick steps and asked.

She, who was sitting in front of the table, lifted my body and sat down next to her.

“Rain?”

“Yes.”

“Um… A noisy person?”

I nodded, thinking of Rain’s appearance.

I could almost hear Rain’s voice squeaking in my ear.

“What’s Rain’s ability?”

“She can make it rain from the sky.”

“Rain?”

“Yeah, it pours down a lot.”

I reached out to Amy’s words and grabbed a small piece of paper and a pen.

I wanted to draw out Rain’s image in my head.

“Like this?”

In the drawing, Rain was a small girl wearing a large raincoat. She was smiling wickedly and reaching out to the sky to call for rain.

“No, a little more.”

I drew a little more rain in response to Amy’s words. It was as if a hole had been ripped open in the sky and water was pouring down.

“Like this?”

“More.”

“More…?”

“Yeah.”

Amy nodded.

But there was a problem.

Didn’t she clearly say that Rain’s ability was to make rain fall from the sky? If I drew more rain like Amy said, the entire space would just be submerged in water.

“This isn’t rain?”

“In her own words, it’s the future,” Amy said, nodding.

I was afraid to imagine Rain’s abilities.

I pushed away the paper with the scribbles and laid down on the desk.

My soft cheeks sagged and rubbed against the desk.

“Um…”

“Are you bored?”

“Yes.”

I answered while shaking my leg.

I couldn’t stand it anymore.

In fact, asking about Rain was also a signal to Amy.

I was interested in Rain, so let’s go to her.

That was the signal.

However, Amy didn’t seem to notice my signal, and she smiled and lifted her phone. I looked up at her with puffed-out cheeks.

“Jeff.”

“Yes.”

“Are you interested in Rain?”

“Uh…yes.”

I answered while avoiding eye contact. To be honest, I felt embarrassed for some reason.

“Why?”

“Uh…”

I lifted my fingers and started counting the reasons why I was interested in her.

“Because Shine and I are similar heights?”

“And?”

“And…”

One by one, the fingers grew longer.

“But you can’t go now.”

“Yes? Are you going?”

“Weren’t you going to tell Rain to go?”

“No.”

I turned my head. My gaze suddenly turned, and the direction of my cheek that was resting on the table changed. My other cheek became bruised.

“Let’s go next time. Rain just got back and is busy.”

“Very busy?”

“Yeah, I have to meet Jin too.”

“Does Rain work under Jin too?”

“Yeah, of course. Everyone here works under Jin.”

I picture Jin’s face.

An evil sandwich thief. A bad guy. A stupid guy. A guy with smelly feet.

It wasn’t a good image.

And he wasn’t trustworthy. When I looked up at her with a subtle expression, Amy patted my head with a bitter smile.

“Why do you work under him?”

“Because he’s capable.”

“He didn’t look attractive?”

“I thought so too.”

“Then why does Amy work under Jin?”

“Because he saved me.”

“Save me?”

Amy patted my head silently.

I shut my mouth when she answered with a smile, as if she didn’t want to say anything more.

My curiosity about Amy and Jin’s relationship only deepened.

“Victor too?”

“No, Victor just agreed with Jin’s ideology.”

“Jin’s idea?”

“Yeah.”

“What is that?”

“Freedom for all ability users.”

“Freedom…”

I stopped kicking back and forth.

I couldn’t forget the sight of countless test subjects flashing before my eyes.

“Isn’t that good?”

“Good, it’s a good idea. But…”

She trailed off and got up from her seat.

“Should I go out for a bit?”

She spoke while looking at her cell phone. There must have been a reason she had been fiddling with her cell phone all this time.

It seemed like something had come up.

“Have a nice day.”

I waved goodbye to Amy as she left the room.

After confirming that Amy had completely left, I headed straight to the kitchen shelf.

My target was the numerous coffee mixes in there.

I moved slowly, lifting my heels so as not to make a sound. Right now, there were only two people in the room, Shine and me.

Shine was currently focused on the news, so there was no problem.

I pulled up a high chair and climbed on it. I grabbed a handful of coffee mix.

After safely securing the coffee mix, I immediately ran to Baekshi.

I flipped Baekshi over, who was lying down with his stomach exposed, and lowered the zipper on his back.

The zipper went all the way down.

A heart-shaped machine was visible through it.

I pushed Baekshi’s heart to the side and stuffed the coffee mix in.

“Jeff, what are you doing?”

“Ugh…”

I hurriedly hid Baekshi’s body behind my back. Maybe because I couldn’t close the zipper.

The coffee mix bag scattered everywhere with a clatter.

“What’s that?”

“This…?”

“Is that what Amy always drinks?”

Shine jumped down from the chair with an interested face. I quickly moved and picked up the coffee mix and pressed it firmly against Baekshi’s back.

“Uh… Baekshi said she wanted to drink it…”

I sweat profusely and watched Shine’s reaction. Shine came closer, picked up the coffee mix that had fallen at his feet, and opened his mouth.

“I want to drink it too.”

“But… Amy told me not to drink it.”

“Jeff did drink it, right?”

“Me…? When did I?”

“No, I’m going to drink it.”

Shine shook his head and corrected himself.

“You’re not going to drink it?”

“Then it’s okay for me to tell Amy about this, right?”

Shine came closer and pressed Baekshi’s back.

In the end, I had no choice but to prepare coffee for Shine and me.

Shine sat at the table with eyes sparkling with anticipation.

I poured the coffee mix into the rabbit-printed cup that Amy brought.

A faint smile came to my face at the faint scent.

I immediately poured hot water into the cup.

The faint scent became stronger.

As I poured the hot water, the rabbit printed on the cup changed its appearance.

The droopy ears stood up stiffly. I really liked that cute appearance.

I approached the table with the rabbit cup in both hands.

“We have to drink it quickly before Amy comes.”

Shine and I sat side by side and started blowing on our coffee. The hot air rose.

“Hoo-hoo-”

Shine seemed to be completely focused on the coffee, not moving her gaze.

I also blew on my coffee and held it to my lips.

“It’s delicious.”

Shine seemed to like the coffee. She glared at my bare face with sparkling eyes.

“If you drink it every day, you’ll get sick.”

Shine didn’t answer.

“Amy’s going to scold you!”

Shine didn’t answer this time either. In the end, Shine drank another cup of coffee.

“Why did Amy tell me not to eat this delicious thing?”

“Because I can’t sleep at night.”

“At night?”

“Yeah.”

Shine looked at me with a strange expression.

Then she smiled.

That look felt strangely sexy.

I took the cup I had emptied into the bathroom and washed it.

I wiped the cup clean. I shook off the moisture and put it back where it was.

“Perfect.”

I could just throw away the empty coffee mix bag when I went out for dinner later. It was a really perfect plan.

“Jeff.”

“Yeah.”

“I told you that if you drink this, you won’t be able to sleep at night.”

“Yeah.”

“Then what did Jeff plan to do at night?”

“Uh…”

He didn’t plan on doing anything in particular. He just drank it because he liked coffee.

“I didn’t plan on doing anything in particular.”

“I see.”

Shine nodded and went to sit in front of the television.

I looked at her back and sat down in front of the computer.

The strange notepad that kept growing every day was making me feel uneasy.

“Shine.”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t use the computer, did you?”

“Yeah, I hate that.”

If not Shine and Amy, then who? I wiped away all the notepads that had piled up on my desktop. It wasn’t until much later that Amy came back.

I heard the rustling sound of coffee mix.

“Ah…”

I was sprawled out on the bed, and when I heard the front door open, I jumped up.

“Amy?”

Shine, like me, got up and looked around the front door. Soon the door opened and Amy came in. She was carrying a yellow chick.

“Hello, girls!”

It was Rain.