*
Gru stared at Chloe, who was taking her along, with a face that said she had no idea what to do.
She had only been trying to find a way back, so why had things turned out like this?
It had already been roughly a week since Gru had warped six years into the past.
During that time, Gru had attempted to escape from the research institute about five times.
All had failed, however.
The researchers, for whatever reason, had said they would arrange for her to go outside and introduced a guardian to her.
That was Chloe Han, who was currently sitting beside her.
[‘Would you like to register ‘Chloe Han’ as your caretaker?’]
It was a window that had floated up the moment she saw Chloe.
‘Is she S-rank?’
Gru tilted her head slightly and stole a glance at Chloe.
Pale face, prominent nose, green eyes steeped in exhaustion, an expression so cynical it was practically rotten—yet objectively, a bright and pretty face.
Though her personality didn’t match her pretty face.
Beeeeep!
The horn blared, and Chloe growled.
“Just why do Korean drivers drive like this?! Do they all need to crash into something before they come to their senses?”
Chloe, who had shouted in annoyance, inadvertently looked toward the passenger seat.
Gru, who had been stealing glances at Chloe, gasped the moment their eyes met.
“…….”
“…….”
With an awkward expression, Chloe bit her lip.
“I don’t always act like this. I’m usually pretty good at holding it in……?”
“Aah…….”
Clasping her hands politely above her stomach, Gru nodded out of courtesy.
“Adults tend to get a little angry when they drive, so situations happen where……”
“Y-yes…….”
Her small body trembled violently as cold sweat poured down.
What should she do? She was too scared to ask if Chloe was S-rank.
But why was registration possible without raising the attachment index?
There were so many questionable points that she couldn’t rashly register Chloe as her caretaker.
As her vision spun, Chloe asked,
“By the way, what should I call you? Is there a name you’d like me to use?”
“Gru.”
“Gru?”
“Y-yes. Gru.”
‘Right, Gru…….’ she muttered, nodding as if acquiescing to something.
“It’s a name my grandfather would have liked.”
“Your grandfather?”
“He liked trees.”
Perhaps recalling her grandfather brought a smile to her face, for her lips curved into a faint smile.
“He tried to name me Gru for my Korean name too, but with the surname Han, it became Hangru—meaning one tree—and he didn’t like that. He said it looked lonely. Funny, isn’t it?”
‘Hangru…….’
Gru murmured the name, then quietly shook her head.
“Hangru isn’t lonely either.”
Chloe blinked.
“……?”
Gru raised her eyebrows high and said once again that it wasn’t lonely.
“……Right. I suppose it could be.”
After that, Chloe drove quietly, and they somehow arrived at the apartment.
Chloe looked at the child looking around the house with her mouth hanging open, tilting her head askew.
“Let’s change your clothes first. Right now you look too…… you know.”
“Like what?”
Wearing a puzzled expression, Gru looked at her plain white one-piece dress.
It looked like a gunnysack with armholes cut into it, but the child had a face that showed she had no idea how she appeared.
Chloe ran a hand down her face.
‘Right now you look too much like a test subject who escaped from a research institute.’
But she couldn’t say that.
There’s a child in front of her. Right now, there’s a child in front of her.
“Right now you look too much like an angel.”
At that, the child’s eyes went wide.
Why is she reacting like that? Did I overdo it?
The moment Chloe regretted it, the child suddenly burst into a bright laugh.
With her white cheeks puffing up as she laughed like an angel, Chloe felt something deep inside her stir.
Ah, she laughed.
Beautiful.
*
Gru wore Chloe’s thick pajama shirt like a one-piece dress.
Chloe, who had carefully buttoned it up for her, let out a grunt.
“We’ll have to buy new clothes tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Dinner was frozen pasta and pizza, just as announced.
However, Chloe still had a shred of conscience left, so she looked at the greasy pasta and pizza placed in front of the child and rolled her eyes.
‘Will this be okay?’
Now of all times?
But there was nothing she could cook.
However, contrary to Chloe’s worries, the child ate whatever was given to her.
“……Does it taste okay?”
The child, who had pushed a strand of stretchy cheese into her mouth in one bite, hummed and nodded before sticking her thumb straight up.
“It’s to die for!”
When Gru repeated after her, Chloe burst out laughing.
“Don’t tell anyone I taught you that, okay?”
“Hmm? Why?”
“Because it’s not a very nice expression.”
Chloe picked off a topping piece stuck to Gru’s cheek.
Surprised by the cheek that was soft and squishy like pudding, she hesitated for a moment before popping the topping piece into her own mouth.
“Chew it up properly.”
“Yes.”
Gru chewed the pizza thoroughly with her small teeth and glanced slightly up at Chloe with only her eyes. Then she slurped her cola.
As Chloe wiped Gru’s grease-covered hands, Gru, who had been staring at this, suddenly asked,
“What about you, unni? Do you work at a place with lots of kids?”
A place with many kids.
She must be referring to the research institute.
Chloe answered, feigning nonchalance.
“……Right. Adults call that place the ‘research institute.’”
“Hmm, what do you do there?”
Chloe, who had been meticulously wiping Gru’s hands, turned her head back.
Just then, the TV in the living room was broadcasting news related to Tower conquest.
“We’re making that person.”
Gru tilted her head and looked at the screen together with her.
On the screen was the face of On Ijo, giving an interview about his impressions of clearing the 98th floor.
His gentle-looking face broke into a bright smile, revealing shallow dimples on both cheeks.
‘It’s Uncle……!’
He was someone who occasionally appeared on TV even in the future.
She had also seen his face in photo albums at her grandfather’s house.
Here, thinking of him as a living, breathing human being, her heart ached sharply.
Trembling, Gru couldn’t take her eyes off her uncle’s face, and thought,
But why are they trying to ‘make’ Uncle?
“Why?”
“Because right now, he’s someone humanity can’t do without.”
The man closest to a god among present-day humanity.
A person who could copy everything without distinguishing between life and death, like a god.
A superhuman who alone held together this world racing toward ruin.
As long as On Ijo did not exist, the probability of humanity surviving in the Tower was virtually zero.
That was why they were keeping this unethical experiment a secret from On Ijo.
There was no way On Ijo would stand by and watch children being used in experiments.
“Can you make people at the research institute too? Like how mommies and daddies make babies?”
At the innocent question, Chloe suddenly recalled a pregnancy test.
Two lines.
She forcibly erased the afterimage and spoke as if murmuring.
“We’re trying.”
It was then.
Bzzzzz—
The doorbell rang.
“Who is it?”
Thinking she could change the uncomfortable topic, Chloe sprang up and picked up the intercom.
But on the intercom screen appeared the very person who was an even more uncomfortable topic.
“…….”
It was the face of On Ijo, smiling shyly.
Gru, who had followed behind, looked back and forth between On Ijo on the TV interview and his face on the intercom screen, gaping with an “Huh.”
Chloe turned off the TV with an ‘oops’ expression.
Gru’s eyes sparkled.
‘Uncle!’