Chick 304
by Cristae304
Groo stared fixedly at Chloe, who was leading her away, looking completely at a loss.
All she wanted was to find a way home—how had things ended up like this?
It had now been about a week since Groo warped six years into the past.
During that time, Groo had attempted to escape the lab about five times.
Every attempt had ended in failure.
What the researchers had thought about these escapes, she didn’t know, but afterward they told her they’d arrange for her to go outside, and introduced her to a guardian.
That was Chloe Han, who now sat beside her.
[Would you like to register ‘Chloe Han’ as a caregiver?]
The prompt had appeared the moment Groo laid eyes on Chloe.
‘Is she S-rank?’
Groo tilted her head slightly, sneaking a look at Chloe.
White skin, fine nose, green eyes sunken with fatigue, and an expression soured with cynicism—objectively, she had a bright and pretty face.
Her personality, however, did not match her looks.
BEEEEP!
A horn blared, and Chloe growled,
“Why on earth do Korean drivers drive like this? Maybe they need a collision or two to get it together!”
Scowling as she shouted, Chloe glanced absentmindedly toward the passenger seat.
Groo, who had been stealing glances at her, inhaled sharply as their eyes met.
“……”
“……”
After a pause, Chloe pursed her lips, awkwardly.
“I’m not always like this. Normally I try to just take it easy…”
“Aha…”
Groo, hands folded neatly atop her belly, nodded with polite agreement.
“When you’re an adult and you’re driving, sometimes situations just make you angry, you know, so…”
“Y-yes…”
Her small body trembled, cold sweat running down her back.
What now? She was too scared to even ask if Chloe was S-rank.
And why could she register her as a caregiver without affection level requirements?
With so many mysteries, Groo hesitated to proceed with registration.
As her head spun, Chloe asked,
“So, what should I call you? Do you have a name you’d like to be called?”
“Groo.”
“Groo?”
“Yes. Groo.”
“Groo, huh…” Chloe muttered, nodding as if convinced.
“My grandfather would’ve loved that name.”
“Grandfather?”
“He loved trees.”
Mentioning her grandfather brought a faint smile to Chloe’s lips.
“I almost named myself Groo for my Korean name, too, but since my surname’s Han, that would make it ‘Han Groo.’ He thought that sounded lonely. Funny, isn’t it?”
“Han Groo…”
Groo murmured the name to herself, then shook her head gently.
“Even Han Groo isn’t lonely.”
Chloe blinked.
“…What?”
Raising her brows in earnest, Groo repeated herself: she wasn’t lonely.
“…Well. I suppose that’s true.”
After that, Chloe drove in silence and, after some time, they arrived at her apartment.
Watching the child gape openly at the interior, Chloe cocked her head.
“Let’s get you changed first. That’s just… too much, right now.”
“Too much?”
Groo peered down at her plain white dress.
It looked as if someone had just cut arm holes into a sack, but on her face was only puzzlement—it seemed she had no idea how she appeared.
Chloe ran a hand down her face.
‘Right now, she just looks like an escaped test subject from the lab.’
But she couldn’t say that.
Not in front of the child. Not right now.
“You look too much like an angel.”
Groo’s eyes went wide.
Why did she react like that? Was I overdoing it?
As Chloe began to regret her words, the child suddenly let out a bright, tinkling laugh.
Her white cheeks dimpled as she smiled like an actual angel, and, in the deepest part of Chloe’s chest, a tremor ran through her.
Ah, she smiled.
Beautiful.
Groo wore one of Chloe’s thick pajamas like a dress.
Chloe, buttoning it carefully for her, gave a soft grunt.
“I’ll have to buy you new clothes tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Dinner was, as promised, frozen pasta and pizza.
Even so, Chloe, not wholly without conscience, eyed the oily plates of pasta and pizza she set before the child, uncertain.
‘Will this be okay?’
Now? After everything?
But there was nothing else she knew how to cook.
Contrary to Chloe’s concerns, the child ate heartily whatever was given.
“…Does it taste okay?”
Stuffing a long string of cheese into her mouth, Groo nodded and thrust up a thumb.
“Tastes deliberate!”
As Groo mimicked her intonation, Chloe let out a laugh.
“Just don’t tell anyone I taught you that, all right?”
“Why?”
“It’s not exactly a good thing to say.”
Chloe picked a clump of topping from Groo’s cheek.
She paused at the surprising plumpness of that pudding-soft cheek, then popped the piece into her own mouth.
“Chew thoroughly before you swallow.”
“Yes.”
Groo, chewing her pizza with her small teeth, glanced up at Chloe before drinking her cola with a slurp.
As Chloe wiped Groo’s hands free of grease, Groo gazed up at her and suddenly asked,
“Unni, do you work where there are a lot of kids?”
A lot of kids.
She must have meant the lab.
Chloe replied, keeping her tone as relaxed as possible.
“…That’s right. Adults call it a ‘lab.’”
“Um, so what do you do at the lab?”
Meticulously cleaning Groo’s hands, Chloe looked away.
On the TV in the living room, news about Tower conquests was playing.
[It has been two days since the successful raid of the 98th floor. Following the maintenance period at the training center, challenges for the 99th floor will soon begin…>
“We’re making that person.”
Groo craned her neck to follow her gaze to the screen as well.
On the screen was On Ijo, giving an interview about the 98th floor conquest.
His gentle face smiled, dimples gently bracketing both cheeks.
‘Uncle…!’
It was a face she had often seen on TV even in the future.
She had also seen him in photo albums at her grandfather’s house.
He was alive here—a real, breathing person. The sensation sent a pang through her chest.
Groo shivered, unable to take her eyes off her uncle’s face, and thought,
But why are they trying to “make” him?
“Why?”
“He’s someone humanity can’t do without.”
Among all living humans, the man closest to god.
A being who could copy anything, even miraculously manipulating life and death.
A superhuman holding the world—speeding toward destruction—together all by himself.
Without On Ijo, humanity’s survival odds in the Tower were virtually nil.
So they kept these unethical experiments secret from him.
On Ijo would never turn a blind eye to using children for experiments.
“You can make people in a lab? Like how moms and dads make babies?”
At Groo’s innocent question, Chloe suddenly recalled the pregnancy test.
Two lines.
Forcing the image away, she repeated softly,
“We’re trying.”
Then—
Bzzzz–
The doorbell rang.
“Now who could that be?”
Relieved for an excuse to change the subject, Chloe shot to her feet and grabbed the intercom.
But on the screen appeared a face even more uncomfortable than the conversation had been.
“….”
On Ijo’s face, shyly smiling.
Groo, who had followed behind, looked from the uncle on the TV interview to the face on the intercom screen and stared open-mouthed.
Chloe, startled, turned off the TV.
Groo’s eyes sparkled.
‘Uncle!’