Chapter 70: Exam

“Jeff. Shine.”

“Yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you both want to go to school?”

The usual routine.

While studying with Amy, Shine and I blinked at her question.

School?

I mumbled at the unexpected question and asked her back.

“Why school?”

“Because you can make a lot of friends your age if you go there.”

I spun the pen in my hand in response to Amy’s question.

The pen, spinning around and around, lost its balance and fell onto the book.

“Do you need friends?”

Shine asked back, seemingly puzzled by Amy’s words.

Amy nodded with a small smile at Shine’s question.

“The more friends you have, the better. And aren’t you bored staying here?”

“I’m not bored. And this is the safest place, so I don’t want to go out.”

Shine firmly shook his head and refused.

I nodded as if agreeing with her words.

“You don’t have to go outside. There’s a school inside here too.”

I gaped at Amy’s words.

It was such a large building that it wouldn’t be strange if there were things inside, but it was quite shocking that there was a separate space that could be called a school.

“Are there kids that go there?”

“Yeah, most of them are kids like you.”

I nodded to Amy.

The research lab terror incidents that we heard about on the news happened quite often.

I wondered where the countless kids rescued from there were taken, and it seemed like they were staying in a place called a school inside.

“Amy.”

“Huh?”

“Do we have to go there too?”

I looked straight into Amy’s eyes and asked.

Aside from me and Shine, there were no other children to be seen here.

If that was true, then Shine and I would have to go there someday.

“That’s not it. It’s just…”

I exchanged glances with Shine.

Our eyes met in midair, and we nodded as if we understood each other’s meaning without saying a word.

Neither I nor Shine wanted to part ways with Amy.

“No.”

“No.”

I shook my head and closed the workbook on my desk.

I was done studying for today.

I didn’t even need to guess the answers; they were all correct.

“I don’t want to break up with Amy.”

I recalled the last memory.

Amy’s figure throwing herself into dangerous places for us without any hesitation.

Aside from Shine, Amy was the first to show me unconditional affection.

I like Amy.

A blue light sparkled above the hand held small under the desk.

I don’t want to break up.

Amy shut her mouth at our answer.

Her gaze wavered, the corners of her lips slightly raised.

Amy covered her face with both hands, with a strange expression that was neither smiling nor crying.

I knew that Amy couldn’t always look after us.

She was always busy.

It was right to do something more valuable than spending time on us.

That day, after Amy left the room for work, I called Shine and sat her down at the desk.

Since I had to have a serious conversation, I took out the coffee I had hidden behind Baek-shi’s back and poured it into a mug with rabbit ears sticking out.

“Shine.”

“Yeah.”

“I have to go to Jin.”

“No.”

Shine shook her head at my words and blew on the rabbit ear mug.

The strong coffee scent rose like a mist.

“Amy can’t always look after us.”

“There’s Victor and Lane.”

“Victor and Lane each have a lot of work to do.”

“But I don’t like Jin.”

“Shine.”

Shine shut her eyes tightly at my words.

Her whole body was expressing that she didn’t like Jin.

Her fluffy dinosaur tail hung limply.

“Jin wants us.”

“I don’t.”

“I can spend more time with him if I can do the same thing as Amy.”

“No, it’s dangerous outside.”

“Shine.”

Shine, who had her eyes closed, drank all of her coffee and put the mug down with a thud.

“Jeff.”

Shine’s closed eyes opened wide.

A strange current swirled inside her eyes.

I raised my hand without saying a word.

Crack!

“Jeff. It’s dangerous outside.”

“That’s right. It’s dangerous outside, just like you said.”

Shine’s voice began to flow into my ears.

My head became dizzy and my focus became unfocused.

But I shook my head and raised my power.

Crack!

Blue lights bloomed before my eyes.

The strange current contained in Shine’s voice dispersed.

“Jeff..?”

Shine’s gaze wavered.

She reached out to me with a trembling voice.

“How did you do that…?”

Shine got up from her seat and slowly began to approach me.

I looked at her and took a step back.

“Jeff… Don’t do that…”

When did it start?

It was probably right after I got hit by lightning from the sky.

I realized that Shine was lying to me.

A lot of lies.

I put my hand on my forehead and reached forward.

“Shine. If you’re really my family. If you really like me. I want you to stop lying to me.”

Crackle-!

A flash of blue light enveloped my mind.

A blue curtain spread out in front of my hand, blocking Shine’s approach.

My memories became murky and mixed.

“Jeff!”

Shine’s screaming voice.

The strange waves contained within it began to penetrate my brain, overcoming the blue curtain.

I grabbed my head and collapsed.

The blue curtain that had spread over my entire body had already disappeared.

Shine slowly began to approach me.

I could hear her small footsteps, matching the sound of her heartbeat.

“Shine. You’re lying to me, right…?”

She hugged me without saying a word.

Shine’s warm body is transmitted through the fluffy pajamas.

“Shine. I’m confused.”

I reached out and hugged her body.

“Shine is my precious family…. Over and over. Those people keep getting in my way. Aren’t they trying to break us up?”

My breathing became rapid.

I held Shine tighter and tighter, panting.

If I let go even for a moment, it felt like she would disappear.

“Shine…. I don’t want to break up with Amy either. I like Rain too.”

“It’s okay. Jeff. I’m here.”

“That’s right, Shine. I have you. You’re my family. Right? You’re not lying, are you?”

Shine’s voice whispered in my ear.

Behind her voice, a hazy memory came to mind.

A large glass wall.

Shine’s figure sitting on the other side.

“They…. I have to get rid of the bad guys at the lab…. To do that, I have to do the same thing as Amy…”

My heart that had been beating hard began to slowly calm down.

My labored breathing became calm, and the strength in my hands that had been holding Shine loosened.

“Amy is dangerous… Then I have to go to Gene and…”

“Jeff.”

“I have to go to Gene and tell him… that I want to do the same thing as Amy…”

“Jeff…”

“Don’t lie!”

In my hazy memory, I was sitting in front of Shine.

With a large glass wall in front of me.

I was holding the microphone in my hand and looking at her.

I asked her.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Don’t lie!”

I never did that.

It’s all a lie.

There’s no way Shine would lie to me.

Right?

Shine.

Tell me that.

They, the people at the lab, lied to me.

“Shine. Answer me. They lied, right? They, the people at the lab lied to me?”

“Yes. Jeff. That’s right.”

“Yeah… That’s right.”

Shine’s focus, which had been shaking unsteadily, began to return.

Shine held onto my hands, which were trembling with anxiety, and hugged them tightly.

“Shine. I hate liars.”

“Yeah.”

“Once upon a time. When I was little. I made my first friend at the garbage dump.”

“Yeah. Jeff.”

“He told me. He said that if I waited here, I could eat delicious food.”

“Yeah.”

“I was there. I kept waiting. But there was no delicious food.”

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“I was standing there, and this old man suddenly ran out and beat me up, calling me a thief.”

I opened my mouth, recalling the events of that day calmly.

The old man who had been beating me up, calling me a thief.

He didn’t even think about listening to me.

I couldn’t resist and kept getting beaten.

When my mind started to blur, I saw that guy from afar.

He was eating while watching me, holding delicious food in his hand.

Liar.

With my mind becoming blurry, I glared at him and opened my mouth.

The salty taste of blood.

I could never forget the moment when the blue light flashed.

I still couldn’t forget the screams coming from all directions and the trembling movement of the person lying down at my feet.

Where’s the delicious food?

I didn’t hear an answer.

It really snowed that day.

The blue light flowing from my hand blew out all the streetlights that were lit up around me.

“Shine. I really hate liars.”

So don’t lie to me.

I released my hand from Shine’s grip and hugged her with my arms.

“You’re not lying, are you?”

Shine answered, brushing my hair back.

“Yeah. Jeff, I didn’t lie.”

I nodded.

Shine doesn’t lie.

That was enough.

I slowly took a deep breath and said to Shine, “Shine. I have to go to Jin.”

Shine looked at me without saying a word.

Our eyes met in the air, and she was still confused.

“Shine, you have to go with me.”

I grabbed Shine’s hand, turned my body, and walked forward.

Shine was being dragged weakly.

She staggered and clung to my back.

“Let’s go.”

I left the room and headed straight to the park.

Shine, who was being held by my hand, followed me without saying a word.

The entrance to the park.

There weren’t many people because the vacation hadn’t ended yet.

But maybe because I was wearing dinosaur pajamas, their eyes were drawn to us.

I passed them without saying a word.

Since the vacation hadn’t ended, there must be no staff managing the rabbit farm.

I asked Amy before, so I know.

Jin really likes rabbits.

The rabbit farm that exists here was also managed by him at first.

So, while the staff was away, if you went to the rabbit farm, you could meet Jin.

Jin.

I don’t have any good memories of him, though.

I needed his help to keep Amy from breaking up.

I wanted to help Amy.

I was more than capable of doing so.

I walked along the park path with Shine and arrived at the rabbit farm at the end.

An empty building.

It seemed like I had finished cleaning up the building I had messed up.

Everything sparkled like new.

I walked past the building and inside.

Where the rabbit farm was.

Arriving in front of a small fence, I looked around.

“Hmm….”

There, sitting, was Jin, the man I was looking for.

Surrounded by rabbits, he was chewing on dry hay in his mouth.

“Hay…?”

Jin was eating rabbit food.