Chapter 38
Chapter 38
Chelsea once again held a paper bag as she visited Korea’s Connector Support Center . She looked quite adept at dodging the busy crowd now . It was the result of her frequent visits to see Sungyoon for the past two weeks .
Chelsea opened the bag to look inside . As usual, it held cold baked potatoes . However, that wasn’t all she brought . It had cooled off like the potato, but there was a long, greasy sausage next to the baked potatoes .
Chelsea had made a truly big decision of including the sausage as a treat .
‘Mmm . This still feels like a waste, but . . . ’
Unlike the potatoes, sausages were one of her favorite foods . Moreover, she usually saved the sausages for the rare occasions when beer was given out with ration . If she ate the sausage with the beer . . .
‘Koo-ooh~!’
The mere thought of the bitter yet refres.h.i.+ng beer made her body s.h.i.+ver . It was one of the few pleasures available to her in her hard life within the Moon’s research center .
Chelsea had decided to forgo this pleasure this one time . She held back her tears .
‘He seems to be a decent person . He is going down to earth tomorrow, so I"ll give this as a celebration gift . That’ll be for the best . ’
Of course, she hadn’t completely abandoned her suspicion of Sungyoon . However, she no longer viewed him as a bad person . He was just very blunt and gloomy in nature . Moreover, there was a chance that he would make a lot of money in the future . She would give him some food right now, and in the future, he might buy her delicious food when he was rich . She had an ulterior motive for doing this . This was basically an investment opportunity for her .
While she was having such thoughts, she had arrived at her destination . She didn’t hesitate as she entered the building of the Support Center . Chelsea put on a small smile as she approached the receptionist .
“h.e.l.lo!”
She had seen the receptionist several times already, so she gave a lighthearted greeting . The receptionist laughed as he spoke in a familiar manner .
“Are you here to meet him again?”
“Of course . Is he in?”
It was around the time when Sungyoon would be returning from the labyrinth . He was always in the labyrinth or his dorm . This was why Chelsea expected the receptionist to say yes . The receptionist looked at her with a perplexed expression .
“He isn’t in right now . ”
“Huh? Is he still not back?”
Chelsea’s face turned a bit serious . Sungyoon always came back from the labyrinth at this time, yet he wasn’t here . There was a chance that he got into some accident within the labyrinth . Fortunately, that wasn’t the case .
“No . He came back, but he went back out immediately . ”
“Is that so?”
She had brought her precious sausage, so she was a bit disappointed at the news that Sungyoon wasn’t here .
‘What’s gotten into him? Why did he suddenly go out?’
Normally, he was in his capsule . It was so small that she couldn’t call it a room . He wasn’t supposed to be resting, yet he wasn’t there today .
“Do you know where he went?”
“I’m not sure . . . ”
The receptionist trailed off . It seemed he really didn’t know .
“Is he in his feelings because he is returning to earth tomorrow?”
Chelsea mumbled to herself in a small voice . If that was true, he was acting cuter than he looked . However, the reason behind Sungyoon’s unexpected move was heavier in nature than she had thought .
“Excuse me…”
The receptionist had overheard Chelsea talk to herself, so he carefully interrupted her monologue .
“He found a corpse within the labyrinth today . I wonder if that has something to do with it . ”
“A corpse?”
Chelsea became surprised .
“Yes . He brought in the ID, Device and Gems of a Connector . He said he took it off a corpse . ”
Chelsea realized why Sungyoon had acted out of character today .
‘Should I go look for him?’
It was her luck that they had missed each other . She thought about heading back, but she quickly nixed that idea . Even if Connectors had a close relations.h.i.+p with death, they usually put blinders on in regard to their own mortality . Sungyoon was probably in a state of shock . It wasn’t as if he was a stranger to her . It felt wrong for her to leave like this . It couldn’t be helped . Chelsea Strobe was a good person at heart .
‘Jimin did ask me to help him a bit from the side . ’
Chelsea came up with a likely excuse to convince herself . She said goodbye to the receptionist, and she left the Support Center . However, she was immediately confronted with a difficult problem .
‘…where is he?’
Armstrong was a large city . It was basically impossible to search the entire city . Chelsea had no choice . She decided to check the nearest location that she was familiar with . Her destination was the large park where they had their daily conversations .
There was still a lot of foot traffic in the park . Chelsea swiveled her head as she looked for Sungyoon .
‘He’s there!’
Her eyes took in Sungyoon, who was sitting on a bench . His shoulders were hunched . He was bent over looking at something in his hand . He was in his own world . He kept mumbling to himself as he stroked the item in his hand . Chelsea had her hand raised . She was about to call out until she saw what he was doing . He looked like a crazy person . It seemed everyone in the park felt the same way as her . They kept well away from Sungyoon .
“Ughh!”
She thought about just turning around and going back to her lab . However, she couldn’t do that . She slowly approached Sungyoon .
“Excuse me, Mr . Woo Sungyoon . ”
She called out his name in a small voice . She was like a member of a bomb disposal unit trying to defuse a bomb .
Sungyoon raised his head . Chelsea was cautious as she inspected his face .
‘Huh?’
Chelsea was a bit surprised . He had been acting like a crazy person, so she thought he would be in rough shape . He looked to be ok .
“It’s you, Ms Strobe . ”
“Yes . You’re here . ”
Chelsea sat next to Sungyoon .
“What are you looking at?”
She craned her neck to see what Sungyoon was looking at . She saw a picture of a girl with a bright smile on her face . She was a foreigner, yet the child looked cute and adorable to her too .
“Oh wow . She’s cute . Who is she?”
Chelsea’s face was between Sungyoon’s face and the picture now . Her disheveled hair was right in front of his face . Unexpectedly, he could smell a very fragrant smell of shampoo coming from her hair . She didn’t brush her hair, but it seemed she washed her hair every day .
A normal man would have found his heart speeding up . One might also fall under the false impression that she was interested in him .
From Sungyoon’s perspective, she was merely a ‘nuisance’ obstructing him from viewing s.h.i.+nhae’s picture .
Still, he didn’t push her head away . She had done much for him in recent days, so he caught himself . In the end, he just let out a small sigh as he answered her question .
“Woo s.h.i.+nhae . She is my daughter . ”
“Daughter? Ah . You did say you had a daughter before . ”
Suddenly, Chelsea looked between the picture and Sungyoon . She couldn’t believe this gloomy guy was related to this cute child . However, it didn’t take her long to accept this fact .
‘He is handsome . ’
He always kept his mouth shut, and when he did speak, he was curt . However, if one ripped away the excess packaging, Sungyoon was a handsome man . She was barely able to convince herself that the girl in the picture was this man’s daughter .
“She is a really cute child . ”
Chelsea expressed her feelings out loud . Usually, she had enough sense to be politically correct around others . In polite society, it wasn’t proper to tell a man that ‘Your daughter is ugly . She isn’t cute . ’ Still, how could all children be cute? That was impossible . Most people spoke words they didn’t mean . They gave plat.i.tudes . This time Chelsea didn’t have to lie . If the cuteness scale was from one to ten, she was a nine .
Chelsea discreetly glanced at Sungyoon as she spoke those words .
‘Even if he is a gloomy man, I complimented his daughter . He should show some kind of reaction, right?’
Chelsea was correct in predicting the result . No, this was beyond being correct . His reaction was beyond her imagination .
“Isn’t she?”
Chelsea hadn’t known this man for too long . However, she pegged him as someone that was incapable of laughing so brightly . She now knew he was capable of speaking with joy . The dark and gloomy image was blown away in one go . There was only infinite love for his daughter reflected on his face . Sungyoon stroked the picture of his daughter with love .
Chelsea’s mouth had fallen open a little bit, and she looked at Sungyoon as if she couldn’t believe her eyes . The dark, dirty and shabbily dressed man was s.h.i.+ning brighter than anyone she had seen before .
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
As if what she had seen was an illusion, Sungyoon’s expression returned to being dark and gloomy . Chelsea’s body flinched as if she had woken up from a dream .
“Ah . It is nothing . ”
Chelsea shook her head from side to side .
“Ah . Anyways, you should eat this!”
She had been mesmerized by Sungyoon for a brief moment . She didn’t want this to be known, so she hurriedly pushed the paper bag towards him . Of course, it wasn’t as if she had suddenly fallen for him . If she had to describe the emotion she was feeling, it was akin to shock .
“I want to thank you for always doing this for me . ”
Sungyoon took the familiar paper bag . He had received food from Chelsea numerous times . He wouldn’t turn down the food now .
“I went big today . I brought you a sausage too . It is to celebrate your trip to earth tomorrow . ”
A single cold sausage was given as a celebratory present . People on earth would belly laugh if they received such a present . However, it was a very big present for those that lived at the bottom of the moon’s societal pyramid .
Sungyoon’s eyes widened in surprise, and he checked the contents of the paper bag . Aside from the potatoes she usually brought, there really was a sausage there . His mouth watered . How long had it been since he had animal protein? It didn’t matter that it was a cold sausage .
Sungyoon glanced at Chelsea . Chelsea had already regained her composure, and she gestured for him to eat with her hand .
“…thank you . ”
He gave his thanks then he carefully lifted the sausage . Until now, he had eaten her potatoes without complaint . There was no way he would refuse her generosity, because she added a sausage to it . That would be weird . Sungyoon put the sausage in his mouth, and he started to chew .
Chelsea waited for Sungyoon to finish eating the sausage . Sungyoon had been unable to have a decent meal while he lived on the moon . Chelsea knew this was a moment to be savored .
However, she was having a completely different thought at that moment .
‘I was wondering why Jimin was showing so much interest in this man . Does she see her father in this man?’
She had heard Jimin’s father had treasured her . It was the reason why she was having a hard time accepting her father"s death and was going through all kinds of hards.h.i.+p for him . When Sungyoon was looking at her daughter’s picture earlier, his face had become was full of happiness . Chelsea had received much love from her parents, but her father hadn’t shown the degree of love shown by Sungyoon .
‘He really is an idiot for his daughter . ’
She had clearly witnessed a new side of Sungyoon .
While she was having such thoughts, Sungyoon had finished eating the sausage and the potatoes . As always, Chelsea yanked the paper bag away from him . He was already familiar with her action, so he let her have the bag without any fuss .
Normally, Chelsea would use the food as a weapon . She wanted to find out if Sungyoon wanted to cause harm to Jimin, so she asked several questions for the price of giving him the food . Sungyoon knew Jimin had asked Chelsea to help him, so he tried to be honest in answering all her questions .
However, her question today was different than the ones she normally asked .
“I heard you saw a corpse today?”