"……"
"……"
The soft give of her thighs pressed against my backside.
She had plopped me down on her lap without a second thought and was now enthusiastically petting my head to her heart's content.
My scalp's going to catch fire.
"…Hey, so what's your name, little one?"
Her voice poured down from somewhere above my head.
I stared blankly into the air, resigned, and answered in a word.
"…Shin-a."
"Ohh… Shin-a! Even your name is cute!"
She kept exclaiming and kept petting.
Her touch was gentle enough, but the speed was something else entirely.
"I'm Ji-woo. Kang Ji-woo. So what were you doing out here, Shin-a? Did you get lost?"
"……My guardian works here. I came along."
"Huh…? Guardian…? Do you mean your mom or dad?"
"Something like that."
My flat answer didn't faze her in the slightest. She just broke into a wide grin.
"Hehe… I came along with a friend too~ Feels like we're kind of the same, huh?"
"……"
Way too sociable.
The energy is overwhelming.
"……"
She kept me pinned on her lap and pulled out her phone with one hand, tapping away at it.
The screen's light reflected in her eyes, flickering in tiny ripples.
Then, after a moment, she glanced at me with a slightly cautious look.
"Hey… Shin-a, would it be okay if I took a photo? Just one?"
"……Why?"
"Because you're cute, hehe… I want to keep it!"
"…Do what you want."
The moment I gave permission, her fingers got busy.
Click, click!
A rapid burst of shutter sounds filled the quiet space.
She looked at the results and the corners of her mouth twitched upward.
"Hehe…"
Then, just as abruptly, Ji-woo's bright mood collapsed.
"Wh… wait?"
Behind me, she tilted her head with a puzzled little sound.
Her eyes darted left and right as she stared at the screen.
She kept tilting her head, checking something — and then went still.
"……!"
"……?"
I turned to look up at her. Ji-woo was staring down at me with an expression caught somewhere between shock and mortification.
Her lips trembled before they finally parted.
"Hey… Shin-a, do you… do you know a hunter named Kim Shin-woo?"
"Yes……"
"Then… so… could it be……"
A creeping emotion — something close to dread — settled into her eyes.
I answered evenly, with the lie that had by now become as natural as breathing.
"He's my father."
"Wow… really…? Wait, hold on……"
She went silent for a moment.
The color drained from her face in an instant.
"Oh… um… so that means……"
Ji-woo froze, the hand that had been petting me hovering awkwardly in midair, her expression shifting into something deeply uncomfortable — the kind that's hard to put into words.
Her pupils shook.
Ah. Right.
I was dead.
"It's okay."
"Uh… um…? Oh… r-right… I see……"
Ji-woo stared at me with a face like she was about to cry, completely frozen.
The lively energy from moments ago had vanished without a trace. Only silence remained in the air.
***
'This is bad… this is really bad…!'
Ji-woo screamed internally.
She could have kicked herself for the fingers that had, just minutes ago, been cheerfully poking a child's cheek and sitting her on her lap.
'To a kid whose parent is gone… what have I been doing?!'
A cold sweat trickled lightly down her spine.
The girl's blank expression, as Ji-woo read it, could only mean cold fury or a grief sunken too deep to surface.
'What do I… is she mad? Is she mad?! I can't read her face at all…!'
Ji-woo's eyes darted frantically left and right.
"U-um… Shin-a?"
"Yes."
"Is there… um… anything you want to eat?"
Ji-woo asked carefully, as if seeking penance.
Her voice wavered at the edges.
"I'm not really hungry…"
"Th-then a snack?! Something sweet!"
"Mm… I'm fine."
At my firm refusal, Ji-woo's shoulders drooped.
She wailed inwardly.
'She's definitely mad… that's what this is, right?!'
***
Lick.
"……"
I'd said no, but she dragged me to the break area anyway and pressed an ice cream into my hand.
Ice cream in hand, I returned with Ji-woo.
The door opened just as we arrived, and three figures stepped out.
Their gazes naturally drifted toward me.
"……?"
One of them — a girl with white hair — stopped in her tracks.
Her clear blue eyes fixed on me, unblinking.
A strange silence settled. Then Jang-mi stepped toward me first.
"Shin-a, where did you go…?"
"This unni bought me ice cream."
I held up the ice cream slightly.
Ji-woo followed behind me, laughing awkwardly as she greeted them.
"Ahaha… hello."
"Oh… Ji-woo, you shouldn't have… did Shin-a cause any trouble?"
"No! It's just… ahaha…"
Ji-woo was trailing off, scratching the back of her head, when it happened.
"Shin-woo… -nim?"
The white-haired girl who had been standing still in the distance spoke quietly.
Her voice carried emotions that were difficult to name.
"……?"
She walked toward me as if in a trance.
The air felt like it was freezing solid around her.
I looked up at the girl who had come to stand right in front of me, my expression blank.
She said nothing. She only stared at me, as though she were seeing a ghost.
"Ah… Ri-da. That child is……"
"Ri-da, that child is……"
Jang-mi and Ji-woo spoke at the same time.
"Shin-woo's daughter."
"She's Hunter Kim Shin-woo's daughter."
"What…?"
The white-haired girl — Ri-da — her eyes went wide.
"Th-then……"
"I'm looking after her now."
The moment Jang-mi finished explaining, my field of vision lurched.
Flash.
"……?"
Without hesitation, Ri-da slipped her hands under my arms and lifted me straight up.
She raised me to eye level and stared directly into my eyes.
"His… daughter……?"
"Wha…?"
Still holding me in the air, Ri-da turned only her head to look at Jang-mi.
An unprecedented certainty and longing flashed in her eyes.
"I… I'll sign the contract."
***
A short while later…
A strange tension and silence hung over the office.
Five people were gathered in the room.
Jang-mi and Min-ji on one side, and across from them on the sofa, Ji-woo and the girl named Ri-da sat side by side.
I settled in next to Jang-mi and watched this peculiar scene unfold.
From Min-ji's mouth came a long, detailed list of contract terms.
Compensation, benefits, scope of activities — Ri-da listened, or perhaps didn't, nodding repeatedly with unfocused eyes.
Her gaze kept drifting toward me as if pulled by something, and every time I tried to meet it, she startled and dropped her eyes to the floor.
"Yes. So… once you both graduate, you'll be active with us at Red Lotus! The contract period will be……"
Eventually, all the formalities were wrapped up.
The two of them, it seemed, were promising prospects who had come to sign.
"……"
After the contracts were signed, they rose from their seats.
But whatever boldness had made Ri-da lift me off the ground earlier was nowhere to be found — she stood at a distance, watching me with a forlorn look.
"……"
When I stared back at her, expressionless, Ji-woo leaned close to my ear and whispered.
"……She's just shy. She's a huge fan of your dad."
"Is that so……"
My fan?
Several emotions rippled through Ri-da's eyes as she watched me from afar.
Was it true?
Curious, I took a step toward her.
But the moment my foot moved, Ri-da stepped back — as if pushed by an invisible wall.
"……?"
I turned to Ji-woo in disbelief. She scratched her head with an awkward laugh.
"She's embarrassed, I think… haha……"
***
"We'll be going now!"
"……Goodbye."
Ji-woo and Ri-da left with brief farewells and stepped out of the office.
The door closed. Silence returned to the room.
Jang-mi crossed her arms and slowly turned to face me.
"……"
"……"
"So… our Shin-a. Want to tell me why you went outside?"
Jang-mi's voice was soft, but the feeling underneath it was not particularly soft at all.
I averted my eyes slightly and answered in a small voice.
"That was… because I was bored……"
She gave me a worried look for a moment, then sighed with a wry smile — the kind that said there was no helping it — and gently stroked my head.
***
As they left the guild building, Ji-woo casually struck up a conversation with Ri-da, who had been unusually quiet beside her.
"Why did you suddenly change your mind? Just yesterday you said you needed more time to think. Was it… because of Shin-a?"
"……Yeah."
Ri-da's answer was short.
"But why were you just standing there staring from so far away? You picked her right up earlier."
"That was rude of me…"
"Oh come on, you're just embarrassed. I got to touch her, by the way~ Shin-a's cheeks are so squishy!"
"What…?"
Ri-da stopped dead in her tracks.
At Ji-woo's boastful words, Ri-da's eyes went cold in an instant — and burned with something unmistakably like envy.
Ri-da fell into thought.
The daughter left behind by 'him.'
The moment she had first laid eyes on Shin-a, memories had crashed over Ri-da like a wave.
The hand that had reached down and pulled her out.
The indescribable relief she had felt, watching that broad back ahead of her.
That grace she could never put into words.
'Just like how he saved me……'
Without thinking, Ri-da clenched her fist.
"I have to… protect her too."
But behind that firm resolve, Ji-woo's words from moments ago kept circling stubbornly in her ears.
'Shin-a's cheeks are so squishy!'
"……"
Ri-da's brow furrowed slightly.
Perhaps it wasn't only that feeling.
There was a little something else mixed in too…
Ri-da's cheeks went red.