*
“Whoa—”
As Geuru hung ribbons on the tree, she pursed her lips into a round little O as she looked toward the balcony.
Beyond the large balcony blinds, Chloe and On Ijo were kissing over and over again.
“Stop looking.”
As Jurim hung the string lights, he pulled Geuru into his arms.
Even so, Geuru twisted her head around to peek at the two of them.
“Love!”
“Looks like it.”
“Ooh!”
Geuru clasped both hands over her chest, her cheeks flushing bright red.
Bang!
[Quest complete!]
At that moment, the quest was completed, and a cat-paw stamp appeared.
‘Love! They got together!’
The leaves swayed fresh and green.
When she opened the status window, the attachment tree that had been around the age of a teenager had already become a grown tree.
‘Then!’
At last, the title would be unlocked!
Filled with anticipation, Geuru stared at the status window.
‘Thump-thump!’
It was then.
“Ppi!”
Mephisto let out a small cry, escaped from the inventory, and fluttered up into the air.
“Mephi!”
“Ppiiit!”
Perhaps he still had not fully regained consciousness, for Mephisto flew in a limp, wobbly fashion before landing in Geuru’s arms.
“Are you completely awake now?”
“Ppi-ppi!”
Mephisto nodded and rubbed his cheek against hers.
It was time to go back.
Unable to take his eyes off the child welcoming Mephisto, Jurim hesitated for a moment.
How hurt would the child be if he told her?
And if he did not tell her? How much would the child resent him when she learned the truth later?
“Geuru.”
Even so, they had to prepare to return.
Swallowing down the distant fear, Jurim drew over one of her little hands and held it.
“Let’s go now.”
And so, pretending not to know, pretending not to see.
“Already?”
“Yeah.”
His heart was growing impatient.
He felt that if they did not return quickly, it might become impossible to undo.
“You’re not even gonna say bye to Sis and Uncle?”
“Even if you say goodbye, you’ll forget them all anyway. It’s better to leave quietly.”
“……”
Jurim’s tone was firm.
He was just about to grab Mephisto by the neck and threaten him to hurry up and send them back when Geuru suddenly blinked.
The child stood there as if entranced, staring straight ahead.
Puzzled, Jurim gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
“Dad, you know…”
“Yeah.”
“You know…”
For some reason, deep sorrow had seeped into the child’s voice.
Geuru looked up at Jurim.
When their eyes met unexpectedly, Jurim drew in a breath. The child’s eyes were trembling.
‘Why?’
“Dad, how sad do you think you’d be if Geuru wasn’t here?”
At the completely unexpected question, Jurim’s eyes crumpled with pain.
He instinctively knew that the child had noticed something.
Geuru lowered her head again and quietly stared ahead.
In front of her floated the quest-complete window she had not yet read.
[Guardian Quest: Bring Mother and Father Together Through Love]
[Complete!]
*
Why had Chloe and On Ijo been able to register as guardians without building up an attachment score?
The answer was obvious.
‘Because they were Geuru’s mother and father.’
Geuru looked at Chloe and On Ijo, who were holding hands.
Jurim followed the child’s gaze.
It was the back view of a family that would be even happier if they were together with their child.
And yet, even knowing that—
“Without Geuru… Dad would be very, terribly sad. It would hurt so much that it might feel better to disappear, reduced to dust, than to go on without a heart.”
“……I see.”
For a moment, Jurim was frightened because he could not tell what thoughts were running through that small head.
Could she be thinking of remaining in the past?
Even though before long she might become lost in the past and be erased from the world?
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
He had to be careful not to let his voice tremble. Was pretending to remain calm truly this difficult?
But he could not help collapsing soon afterward.
“Are Sis and Uncle Geuru’s real mom and dad?”
“……”
His throat constricted, making it impossible to breathe.
Tears brimmed in the child’s enormous eyes.
Just as he hurriedly reached out to wipe them away with his sleeve—
“When we go back… in the world where Geuru lives… there won’t be a mommy or daddy?”
Geuru knew instinctively.
The person who had sent her to the orphanage.
The person who had given her the name Han Geuru.
That person was Chloe Han—her mother.
The very person who, according to the G Folder, had died after sending Geuru to the orphanage.
Drip. Drip.
Tears fell endlessly from both of Geuru’s eyes as she lifted her head.
Jurim wiped them away over and over.
If only I could take all your sorrow away.
“I’m sorry, Geuru. For not telling you…”
Nod, nod. The little head bobbed as if she understood why.
“But, Dad… no. I can’t. I can’t be without Geuru.”
The desperate words burst out of him.
“……”
The child did not answer.
Jurim turned her face toward him so she could not see the backs of her birth parents.
“We have to go back. Otherwise, your existence might disappear.”
“……”
When the child gave no response, Jurim gently pressed his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes.
“If that happens, you won’t be happy. No one will…”
“……No one?”
“Yes. No one.”
Jurim opened his eyes.
Tears continued to fall from the child’s pale coral eyes.
“The two of them will fall in love. And they’ll have a child born from that love. That child will be you.”
Geuru slowly blinked, turning the word love over in her mind.
Jurim gently stroked the corners of the child’s reddened eyes again.
“And that child will come to meet me. And we’ll continue becoming happy. That’s the future waiting for us after we return.”
“……”
“Big Brother said so, didn’t he? That if he didn’t go to the Tower, everyone could never be happy.”
Nod, nod.
“That’s how it is. If you don’t go back, no one can be happy.”
Remembering On Ijo’s face as he firmly declared that they could not be happy, Geuru clutched Jurim’s sleeve.
If she did not return, then at the very least, the father in front of her would be unhappy. Very, very unhappy.
As unhappy as he had been the day he sent his big brother alone to the hundredth floor.
I don’t want to leave him like that. I love Dad so much. I can’t make him unhappy.
Geuru lowered her head and held back her sobs. Her shoulders trembled.
Mephisto, who had been quietly watching the two of them, spread his wings wide and pulled Geuru into a tight embrace.
[We have to go, Geuru.]
A message that had clearly been sent by Mephisto appeared before her eyes.
With his tiny body, he rubbed his head against Geuru’s cheek.
[The past is only the past. No matter what you do, you can’t live in the past.]
Held in the arms of both Mephisto and Jurim, Geuru gazed at the backs of her parents.
“I’ll love you even more. So let’s go back together. Please.”
“……”
When she slowly blinked again, tears dropped from the corners of her eyes.
“If you want to say goodbye one last time…”
The child gave a small shake of her head.
“……I just wanna go.”
Because she did not want it to become even harder to part from them.
Relieved, Jurim bit his lip.
Geuru squeezed her eyes shut and silently wrapped her arms around Jurim’s neck.
Light burst from Mephisto’s body.
The light enveloped Geuru and Jurim, spreading warmly as if comforting them for the choice they had made.
*
Back in the living room, Chloe stood blankly in front of the empty tree.
On Ijo, who had followed her inside, asked,
“What’s wrong?”
“What were we doing?”
He smiled faintly.
“We said we were going to decorate the tree.”
“Two of them?”
“Oh, right. There aren’t just one, but two trees here.”
“Geuru…”
Chloe murmured the name. Her mind grew hazy, as though she had forgotten something.
But the thought was soon forgotten.
She placed a hand on her stomach and stared toward the spot where the listening device was hidden.
*
Geuru slowly opened her eyes at the sensation of someone shaking her.
“Meow!”
“Kyuu!”
It was Beilak and Ruksifer.
‘Where is this…’
As the golden, crumbling afterimage of the past vanished, the sound of a jet engine filled the air from every direction.
She tried to get up, but a solid chest held her tightly in its embrace.
Avoiding the worried gazes around her, Geuru buried her face against the chest.
The sound of sobbing continued.
After patting the small body, Jurim glanced at his wristwatch and confirmed that only a few minutes had passed, then let out a sigh.
‘Was it only an instant?’
Furrowing his brow, he kissed the head buried against his chest again and again.
Jurim held the child carefully in his arms for a long while, until she calmed down.
Geuru wiped away the tears that kept trickling down onto Jurim’s chest and sniffed.
A strange emptiness swept over her.
Geuru clenched her empty hand into a fist, as though trying to grasp the backs of her mother and father, whom she had seen for the last time.
Geuru’s birth parents had loved each other.
They had said Geuru was the fruit of that love.
Then had her mother and father loved Geuru?
The question came to her belatedly.
Why had her mother sent Geuru to an orphanage?
At that moment, she heard the rustling sound of leaves fluttering in the wind.
‘The title…’
She still had not opened the title. Geuru opened the status window.
[The message left within the title will now be revealed.]
At first, you were merely a part of my sense of responsibility.
When did I begin to love you?
When you began kicking inside my belly?
When I started secretly carrying your photograph with me, even while tightening my belt to keep my stomach hidden?
Measuring the beginning of love is always such an enigmatic thing.
Just as I cannot remember when I began loving your father.
After On Jurim cleared the ninety-ninth floor and returned alone, I decided to run away.
I think I sensed death from that moment on.
I had begun to realize that the Company was experimenting on me.
I tried to hide it, but they must have guessed that I had a child.
Sneaking into the laboratory and opening every glass wall imprisoning the children was truly exhilarating. It was absolutely thrilling.
It would not be an exaggeration to call it the most thrilling thing I ever did.
I entrusted the children to someone I could trust and smuggled out the research data.
It was difficult for an ordinary pregnant woman to evade the eyes of a conglomerate.
Even so, whenever I felt you inside me, it was as though I was experiencing all the happiness in the world.
When I gave birth to you in an abandoned, dilapidated warehouse in the mountains, do you know how much joy filled the months I spent with you afterward?
But I soon had to run again, so I wrote your name down and sent you to an orphanage.
As Han Geuru, the name someone once gave me so I would not be lonely.
The experimental data is going to disappear along with me.
The world has now escaped destruction, and I hope the cruel experiments on children like you will not continue.
I’m sorry, but I’ll become a part of you and watch over you.
I can’t help it. This is the only way I know how to love.
I hope you won’t become obsessed only with achievement.
I hope you come to understand relationships and love.
I hope you live freely, enjoying the world your father protected.
I love you.
I love you so very much.
Mom loves Geuru so very much.
[The lock on (Unknown Title) will now be released.]
[Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■]
The square blocks concealing the title began to disappear.
[Title: Mom Loves Geuru So Very Much]
Something surged up to Geuru’s throat.
Her mother had loved Geuru so very much.
And even now, she was still with her, continuing to love her.