Chapter 49 Part 3: New Year Event

A wide lawn spread out at my feet.

The park, which was always full of people, looked empty and deserted.

For some reason, I felt good and started walking as if I was jogging.

The bag on my back danced excitedly.

“Jeff always looks happy when he comes to the park.”

“Yeah. It makes my stuffy feelings fly away.”

As I answered Shine’s question, I realized that I was getting close to my first target, the silver pond.

The pavilion was visible in the distance.

And the huge rock where Jin was sitting while fishing came into view.

I stopped walking and hid behind a large tree to examine the pond.

Shine was the same.

I clung to the tree and looked around with only my head slightly out.

“Is there?”

“Um…”

I squinted my eyes at Shine’s question and carefully examined my surroundings.

However, Jin was nowhere to be seen.

In the first place, there wasn’t a single person near the pond.

The cool wind blew my bangs slightly.

“I don’t think there are any.” I said and stepped forward cautiously.

The sound of rustling grass and the faint chirping of birds made me feel good.

Without that scoundrel, I felt even better.

“Let’s go!”

After confirming that Jin was gone, I held hands with Shine and ran forward.

We circled the wide pond and entered the shaded pavilion, out of breath.

“There’s no one.”

“I guess everyone’s on vacation.”

I sat down on the ground and felt the wind.

The gentle breeze felt even cooler as it blew past the pond.

I closed my eyes and lay down, feeling the pleasant sensation.

My whole body felt like it was wrapped in the wind.

I smiled at the pleasant sense of liberation.

“Are you going to draw here?”

“No.”

I shook my head in response to Shine’s question.

Although it was a bad memory, I wanted to draw somewhere else because I had drawn a picture near the pond when I met Jin.

I jumped up from my seat and took a drink out of my bag.

“What does Shine taste like?”

“I have this.”

Shine reached into his bag and took the lemon-flavored drink in response to my question.

I picked up the orange-flavored drink that was left next to it.

Shine and I sat on the railing of the pavilion and drank our drinks.

Drinking a sweet carbonated drink while feeling the cool breeze.

If heaven exists, wouldn’t it be here?

I savored the sweet and sour orange juice, then flicked my tongue and stuffed the half-empty drink back into my bag.

I had to eat the rest with my sandwich.

Shine, like me, also put the remaining drink back into his bag.

I put my bag back on and left the pavilion.

“This time, it’s the rabbit farm, right?”

“Yeah.”

As I headed toward the rabbit farm while holding hands with Shine, I suddenly remembered Jin’s shoes that I had thrown onto the pond.

The pond surface I glanced at.

The pond flowing gently, reflecting the sky.

The black bag containing Jin’s shoes that I had thrown on it was nowhere to be found.

Heck, a small laugh escaped.

It was clear that he had not found his shoes until the very end.

It was something I could tell from what I had heard on the phone with Amy.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Ugh. It’s nothing.”

I passed the pond and went deep into the park.

After passing the wide lawn, a pretty stone path unfolded.

Stones shaped like stars, moons, suns, and round stones were embedded deep into the ground.

I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks, as if I was entranced.

This was because shapes I had never seen before had been added.

“Ball… dinosaur…!”

Yes.

The newly added stone shapes on the stone path were shaped like dinosaurs.

“Dinosaur?”

Shine also showed interest and stopped with me.

I squatted down on the ground and pointed to the dinosaur-shaped stone.

“This is it. This is a dinosaur.”

“It’s so strangely shaped.”

Shine reached out and touched the dinosaur-shaped rock.

Her fingers slipped on the smooth surface.

I got up and looked around.

“Jeff, what are you doing?”

“Wait a minute….”

There wasn’t a single branch on the floor, as if they cleaned it every day.

I could dig it out with my hands, but my fingernails would get damaged and my hands would get dirty with dirt.

Not wanting to get scolded by Amy, I desperately started looking for a suitable tool to dig the ground.

After looking around for a while, I was able to pick up a suitable branch.

It was hard and sharp.

I was sure that I could dig up the dinosaur-shaped rock without any problems.

After bringing the branch, I started poking the side of the dinosaur-shaped rock.

“You want this?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.”

“Is there anything you want, Shine?”

“Hmm….”

Shine looked around blankly.

She didn’t seem particularly interested in the rock.

“I want the dinosaur rock, too.”

She pointed to the side of the rock I was digging.

I nodded and started working hard.

Pitter-patter.

The long tree branch dug through the dirt efficiently.

Perhaps because it was buried deeper than I thought, the work time began to get longer.

“It-It!”

Knock knock.

I gathered strength in my fingertips and twisted the tree branch.

At that moment, a dinosaur-shaped rock came out with a popping sound.

“Oh.”

The impact made me fall to the ground, but I got up, shaking my butt.

The dinosaur-shaped rock was heavier than I thought.

It was too big to hold in one hand.

I roughly brushed off the dirt on the surface and put the rock in the small pocket of my bag.

It didn’t take long to dig up Shine’s dinosaur rock.

Since it was right next to it, I was able to focus on the hole I made when I pulled out the dinosaur and pull Shine’s dinosaur out.

“Does Jeff like that?”

“Oh… It’s cool.”

I said as I brushed off the dirt on the rock.

However, Shine asked back as if he didn’t understand.

“Is this cool?”

I bit my lip after putting the rock in my bag.

I didn’t have the confidence to explain to her how cool dinosaurs were.

Later, when I went back to my room, I thought I should show her a video of dinosaurs.

I looked up at the stone path.

The traces of two heavy dinosaurs were clearly visible.

Holes gaping in the straight path.

My conscience pricked at that sight, so I shoved an ugly rock nearby into it.

The crooked and ugly stones somehow managed to fill the empty space.

“Let’s go.”

Shine and I ran along the stone path without looking back.

There was no one around anyway.

It meant there were no witnesses.

The dinosaur stone kidnapping case would remain an unsolved case forever.

As we ran along the stone path, we could see a small farm built.

A sign with large letters.

Rabbit Farm.

I don’t know whose taste it was, but judging from the large rabbit head hanging above the sign, it seemed like the person didn’t have a good eye for aesthetics.

Shine and I ran straight toward the rabbit farm.

The sound of small footsteps echoed through the empty space.

When I arrived in front of the farm’s transparent glass door, I stopped walking in the empty space.

“Is anyone there?”

Shine, who arrived late, stuck her head through the crack in the door to look inside.

“I don’t think there’s anyone there.”

Just as she said, it seemed like no one was there.

Inside the building, in the spot where the farm manager always sat, there was no one.

If there had simply been no caretaker, I would have thought he had left to take care of the rabbits, but there wasn’t even a single visitor.

I stepped away from the building and began to examine the outside of the building.

“That’s strange.”

There was no sign indicating that it was closed.

“Could it be that he went to the bathroom?”

“Is that so?”

I tilted my head at Shine’s words and followed her into the building.

Judging by the bright lights inside the building, it seemed that there weren’t any people.

“Let’s go check out the rabbits.”

Shine walked briskly, taking my hand.

I followed her with an unsteady pace.

Shine, who was heading to the enclosure where the rabbits were, picked up the rabbit food next to him.

“Shine, you have to pay for that.”

“But there’s no clerk?”

I hastily took out my credit card from my pocket.

“Give it to me.”

I didn’t know the exact method, but when I saw the convenience store POS machine, I could roughly guess how to use it.

Other people do it.

I’ve seen it a lot, so it should be easy.

That’s what I thought.

I scanned the barcode on the rabbit food and swiped my card on the card machine next to me.

“Are you done?”

“Are you done?”

But the alarm sound that sounded every time I bought rabbit food didn’t come.

It meant that the transaction had gone wrong.

Panicked, I reached out and started pressing the buttons on the machine here and there.

Beep

Beep

Beep

Beep

Beep-Beep

The error sound kept coming.

Cold sweat ran down my back.

“Jeff?”

At that moment, I was startled by Shine’s voice that suddenly came to me.

Maybe that’s why.

Blue electricity flowed out from my hand.

A very weak manifestation of ability.

Dismissal-!

But the aftereffects were not weak.

Pazjik!

The current that fell on the force machine instantly covered the force machine.

The current of the ability user had a completely different property from the normal current.

That is why home appliances affected by the current of the ability user are easily damaged.

This force machine was no different from other home appliances.

The force machine that had been sending out blue lights several times stopped working after showing a blue screen on its screen.

“Huh….”

“Is it all over?”

Shine asked with an expression that said she had no idea.

I slowly nodded to her.

“Yeah… I think so.”

I got up from my seat in a hurry.

Then I looked around hurriedly.

There must be no CCTV, right?

Fortunately, there was nothing that looked like a camera inside the building.

I sighed in relief, put the card in my pocket, grabbed some rabbit food, and left the counter.

“Let’s go!”

I grabbed Shine’s hand and headed towards the fence where the rabbits were.

A small smile appeared on my face at the thought of feeding the rabbits.

The thought of the force machine disappeared from my mind in an instant.

Shine and I, who were running excitedly, were able to arrive in front of the small fence.

Fortunately, the rabbits were still inside the fence.

“The rabbits didn’t go on vacation,” Shine said, leaning against the fence.

“I guess so.”

I started to open the package of food I was holding.

Through repeated learning, the rabbits realized that the rustling noise was their feeding time and quickly came around the cage.

“Hello!”

Shine greeted the rabbits with sparkling eyes.

“Hello!”

But it wasn’t the rabbits who answered the greeting.

A voice that shouldn’t exist, a voice that shouldn’t be heard.

My body stiffened at the sound of a familiar man’s voice.

A man came out from inside the fence, from what seemed to be the rabbits’ home.

He was wearing the same work clothes as the staff who managed this place.

He was holding a cleaning tool in his hand.

It was Jin.

He placed the cleaning tool he was holding next to the rabbit house and waved with a bright smile.

Shine’s expression suddenly crumpled.

It was the same for me.

The rabbit food I was holding in my hand poured out.