episode_0083

The next morning after making candy.

Shine Lane and I went to find Victor, holding candies in our arms.

Since I had just finished breakfast, I thought I could give Victor his present and then head to the training grounds.

dripping-

I reached out and knocked on Victor’s door.

“No?”

Shine put her head near the door and listened.

I followed her and put my ear close to the door.

A rustling sound.

The sound of footsteps thumping echoes through the room.

Shine and I exchanged glances and then took a step back behind the door.

Click-

The door opens with a small noise.

Inside, Victor stood with a tired expression.

His gaze scans the air and then turns downward.

Blink, blink.

Victor’s large eyes blink slowly.

Me, Shine, and Rain also blink like Victor.

“Hello?”

“….”

Victor rubbed his eyes silently at my greeting.

“Amy is…?”

“Amy said she was busy.”

Victor looked around as if he was looking for Amy, who was always with us.

But Amy couldn’t be here.

Because she got a phone call early in the morning and ran off somewhere in a hurry.

“Please accept this.”

I handed Victor the bag of candy I was holding in my arms.

A pretty wrapper was wrapped around the candy.

It was so twinkling it looked like starlight.

How about the ribbon that ties the package together?

A delicate red ribbon added to the cuteness of the candy packaging.

“What is this…?”

“It’s a gift of apology.”

Victor has a bewildered expression.

The three of us shoved candy into his arms.

“I’m really sorry about what happened yesterday… .”

I bowed my head to Victor again and apologized.

Rain and Shine, who were watching me from the side, also bowed their heads and apologized like me.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry!”

Even after receiving our apology, Victor didn’t say anything for a long time.

After a while of nervousness, Victor answered with a small sigh.

“Be careful next time.”

“Yes!”

After answering Victor forcefully, I held Rain and Shine’s hands and started heading to the training grounds.

Now that Victor had accepted my apology, there was nothing more to do.

“Wait a minute… Where are you going?”

“Training ground.”

Victor, who was holding a candy in his arms, wiped his dry face at my answer.

He looked around, then went into the room, put down the candy, and came out.

“Let’s go.”

“Is Victor going to the training ground too?”

“I think that’s what I should do.”

Victor answered me, pulling his phone out of his pocket and starting to tap the screen.

It seemed like he was exchanging messages with someone.

Victor started walking with us.

Lane stared at Victor intently, then walked over to him and grabbed his pants.

“Victor. Victor.”

“Yeah.”

Victor answered without even glancing at Lane, as if he was used to her behavior.

“What did you decide on as your team name?”

“Harmonize.”

I listened to Victor’s answer.

“Harmonize?”

“Yeah.”

“Did Victor decide that?”

“Yeah.”

“Why is the answer so cold?”

“Because it’s annoying.”

Lane frowned, not seeming to like Victor’s answer.

Her slightly puffy cheeks told me she was feeling uneasy.

“I hate Victor.”

“I hate myself too.”

In response to Victor’s reply, Lane kicked his leg.

But Victor didn’t even blink.

He just walked on as if nothing had happened.

The training ground we arrived at with Victor.

The place was still crowded with people.

I took the note with the training contents out of my pocket.

It was a note Amy gave me before she left.

“First of all… .”

The content of the training was unusual.

There was more written than yesterday.

I read the contents of the note with a confused face.

“Give it to me.”

At that moment, Victor snatched the note I was holding.

Startled, I reached out to him in surprise.

“Ouch!”

But I couldn’t reach it.

I tried jumping around in place, but I still couldn’t reach it.

“You guys are already challenging the exam?”

Victor, who had snatched the note and was reading it, looked down at us with an uneasy expression.

“Test?”

“I guess you’re really thinking of running a team.”

Victor sighed and pulled up a nearby chair and sat down.

“Come here.”

Victor gestured to me and Shine.

I exchanged glances with Shine and then approached Victor.

“You guys, is this real?”

“What is it?”

“I’m sure Amy didn’t write this for nothing.”

Victor said that and handed the note back to me.

After receiving the note, I folded it neatly and put it in my pocket and answered.

“I heard that to work with Amy, you have to go through all the training stages.”

“You said you’d get through it?”

“Yes.”

Victor looked around furtively at my answer.

Victor then lets out a small sigh.

“You don’t know anything?”

“What is it?”

“How many days has it been since you started training?”

Victor answers questions with questions.

I started counting the days on my fingers in response to his question.

It was an inevitable choice because my memory was hazy.

“Umm… .”

“It’s been a little over two weeks now.”

It was Shine who answered instead of me.

When I looked at Shine with a blank expression, she answered with a smile.

“Week 2 now?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve used all the training devices here, right?”

Victor spoke as if to tell me to spread my arms and look around.

I hesitated to answer because my memory was hazy.

“Yeah. Jeff and I have used them all.”

At Shine’s answer, Victor put his hand on his forehead and began to think about something.

He took a small iron bar out of his bosom and began to rotate it with his hand.

It was one of Victor’s habits that came out when he started thinking about something.

“Rain. You saw it too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“It was perfect.”

A faint blue light sparkled on the spinning iron rod.

widely-

Victor stood up, holding the spinning rod in his hand.

“Okay. If Amy asked you to do it, there must be a reason.”

Victor said this and took his cell phone out of his pocket.

A glimpse of the screen.

Inside was a message from Amy.

“Let’s go.”

Victor, who had been tapping his phone, started walking away.

Where do you want to go?

Anyway, we decided to follow Victor.

The place we arrived with Victor was in front of a large room.

A pure white room with a transparent glass wall between them, allowing the inside to be seen from the outside.

As I stared blankly at the sight, I could see a blurry afterimage floating before my eyes.

A sight of a long line of people wearing pure white gowns.

When I reached out my hand in confusion, Shine grabbed my hand.

“Jeff.”

“Huh… ?”

“It’s nothing.”

Shine’s voice is heard as if buzzing.

I nodded to her words.

The blurry afterimage that appeared before my eyes disappeared in an instant.

“Victor?”

A man wearing a blue uniform stood in front of the white room.

For some reason, he looked like a security guard, recognized Victor, and approached him to talk.

“Long time no see?”

“Yes… . But… . Really?”

His gaze turns to me and Shine.

I hid behind Victor’s legs.

“Can’t I see it?”

“Oh… Rain was here too.”

Lane walked up to the man who didn’t recognize him and kicked his leg like he had done to Victor earlier.

But he wasn’t sick.

“I’m sorry, Rain.”

“Is it over if I say sorry?”

“That’s… .”

“Did I teach you that?”

“That… .”

“Do you want to get scolded by Amy?”

Why is Amy’s name mentioned here?

The man struggling with Rain looked somehow pitiful.

“Rain.”

“Yeah.”

“Stop bothering Raymond.”

“I’m not bullying you.”

The man’s name seemed to be Raymond.

I slipped out from behind Victor’s legs and greeted him.

“Hello?”

“Hello… .”

Raymond, who was struggling with Lane, greeted me with a small smile.

“Let’s ignore Rain for now and take the test for these guys.”

At Victor’s words, Raymond looks surprised.

“These… children… these people?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you just like Rain in appearance…?”

“No. They’re really 12 year olds.”

Raymond answered Victor’s words with an awkward laugh.

“12 year old kids taking a test…?”

“Amy gave me permission.”

Raymond nodded when Amy’s name was mentioned.

“If he allowed it… . But wouldn’t it be dangerous?”

Victor crossed his arms without answering.

Raymond was startled by his appearance and stepped aside, saying:

“That was a pointless meddling… .”

Victor walked past him and into the white room.

Shine and I also followed after him.

Victor arrived at the door and looked around at us and spoke.

“The time limit is 5 minutes. If you can safely exit this room after that time, you will pass the first stage of the test.”

“5 minutes… ?”

I looked up at him as if asking for further explanation, but Victor turned his head away as if he had nothing more to say.

“Who will go in first?”

Shine and I looked at each other.

In the gazes that meet, the two white girls are contained within.

Shine, who was watching me anxiously, smiled brightly and said.

“I’ll go first, Jeff.”

I nodded, my mouth still open.

“Rain. What kind of room is this?”

“Here… ?”

“Yeah.”

“I fought sharks with an umbrella.”

“Shark… ?”

“Yeah.”

Is this room full of sharks?

While I was thinking about that, Raymond explained about the room.

“This is the test room. I can’t explain it because the test is different for each person.”

“Are you hallucinating?”

“It’s a slightly different concept from hallucination.”

I didn’t understand Raymond’s confusing explanation.

But Shine opened the door and started to go inside, as if she had no worries.

She answers me with a small smile as I look at her with concern.

The door closed with the back of the white girl getting smaller and smaller.

“It’s not dangerous, is it…?”

Victor didn’t answer.

I clutched my sleeves as anxiety rose inside me.

A view of Shine beyond the white glass wall.

She stood in the middle of the room and looked around.

And that was the moment.

The room beyond the glass wall was turned pitch black.