Ch.147142 – Strawberry Candy

“Hey Dayeon, yeah I’m telling you it’s real! I’m with NoName right now. Yeah, right next to me. You don’t believe it? She says it’s really her! Didn’t you say you had class… What are you coming over for? Hey, Woo Dayeon!”

The call abruptly cut off, and the woman gave a wry smile.

“Haha… Sorry about that. That was my little sister, and she seems to be a huge fan of yours. Dayeon even put up posters in our house for some project about streamers! She made such a fuss that I remember your face clearly, and wow, you’re just as cute as your photos! Are you a VTuber? Or not?”

“I actually stream on Twissy… Do you know Professor Cheon? That grad student…?”

“Ah, Professor Cheon Kyu-jin is my advisor. You recognized my name tag! But what brings you here?”

“Shouldn’t you have asked that question before letting me into the building?”

“Ahah, I guess so?”

What was the point of asking why I came now that we were already in the elevator?

“Professor Cheon called me here too.”

“Wow, really? You came alone? That’s impressive!”

“It’s nothing. Thanks for guiding me.”

The elevator doors opened to reveal a dreary building interior.

Structurally, it wasn’t much different from other buildings, but the atmosphere felt somehow gloomy.

Maybe because the lighting was dim?

“Damn it, why are all the corridor lights off! Sorry, the people here really hate light. They think they’re vampires or something!”

It seemed like more than just a lighting issue.

“How do you know Professor Cheon? Are you his niece?”

The corridor lights brightened.

And from the far end came the sound of people chattering.

Walking hand in hand with the woman, I calmly replied.

“He’s my father.”

“Pfft!”

She spat out the banana milk she was drinking.

“What… wait, what did you say?”

She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and looked at me with shocked eyes.

For a moment, a thousand thoughts seemed to cross her mind as she stammered.

“But Professor Cheon is definitely single… like, a hidden daughter? No, that doesn’t make sense age-wise! Or does it? Ah, what the…”

“He’s my adoptive father. Adoption.”

The woman, who seemed to have gone through an entire soap opera in that brief moment, clutched her chest in relief, but her eyes still looked at me with complexity.

“Ah…”

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t mind.”

“I’m so sorry… it was just such shocking news… Why didn’t he ever mention this to any of us?”

Professor Cheon was on sabbatical this year but instead of traveling abroad, he kept coming to the lab and occasionally helped graduate students with their research.

The students were relieved about not having to worry about graduation, but they had mixed feelings about our professor due to the avalanche of assignments. I guess that’s what you’d call a love-hate relationship.

Still, they must have shared many personal conversations during their time together, so I was also surprised that he never mentioned me.

Perhaps he wanted to protect my privacy.

“He said he prepared a surprise today, could it be…?”

When I entered the lab with Hwi-jin, several people were gathered around a table.

Even without sniffing, I could tell the smell was coming from pizza.

Excluding Hwi-jin, there were no women, just four men.

And from the farthest cubicle, an older man with graying hair stood up and raised his hand.

“Oh, Name, you’re here!”

At Professor Cheon’s call, the four men reflexively stood up, almost spitting out their pizza.

Their speed resembled a conditioned reflex.

“Hello.”

Still, since they were meeting me for the first time, they all politely bowed their heads.

I didn’t bow too deeply though, as it might have made me look too childish.

“Uh, hello… who…?”

The man at the front barely acknowledged my greeting.

“Why did you take the bus instead of a taxi? That must have been tiring.”

“It’s been a while since I went somewhere other than school, so I prefer the bus.”

“Alright, alright. Would you like to sit down and have a slice of pizza? Our guest is running a bit late, so we’ll have to wait a little.”

“I’m not very hungry, so I’ll just have one slice.”

“Could someone make room for the kid to sit?”

“Yes, Professor!”

“No need to stand up, just move over a bit.”

Amidst the bustling atmosphere, I found myself seated in the middle of the sofa and awkwardly placed my hands neatly on my knees.

Am I really supposed to just sit here and eat pizza without saying anything?

This is so uncomfortable it’s making my stomach turn.

“Professor?”

“Yes?”

“If you could introduce everyone…”

Just then, one of the men carefully poured grapefruit juice into my cup and gathered his courage. I don’t really like grapefruit though, isn’t there any orange juice?

“Ah, right! What was I thinking! This is our daughter Name. Everyone, please introduce yourselves to Name one by one.”

“Pardon?”

“What did you say?”

“Cough! Hack!”

* * *

After a round of introductions led by Professor Cheon, everyone stuffed pizza into their mouths in a heavy atmosphere.

And when he left the room to greet the guest, the graduate students finally exhaled like deer released from a trap.

I hadn’t noticed at home, but is he actually strict with his lab people?

“Phew! Oh my god, she’s sooooo cuuuute!”

“Hey Kim Hyun-woo! Watch your mouth!”

“Right! *gasp* I didn’t say anything!”

Due to the age difference between Professor Cheon and me, Hwi-jin discreetly explained the truth to the others, as assuming I was his biological daughter would send imaginations flying to Andromeda.

“I mean, it would be impossible for Professor Cheon to have a daughter like this. He’s old enough to have grandchildren.”

“Hey, should you be saying that in front of her! What if she tells on you?”

“I’ll make sure to relay that comment to the professor.”

“Aaaah no! It was a lie, I mean, a joke. You know that, right?”

“This oppa, make sure to tell your father. He deserves to be scolded.”

“I feel betrayed by the professor. If he had asked us to come to work on the condition of showing us one picture of Name each day, I would have come gladly.”

“I think I understand why the professor hid you from us.”

These people don’t seem very trustworthy.

But they all seemed like good people, probably because they’d spent time under the professor.

“Hwi-jin unnie!”

“Oh, Dayeon!”

“Oh, Hwi-jin’s sister is here!”

“Hi, hi.”

The door burst open, and another woman wearing a straw hat entered.

A straw hat in Seoul, South Korea? Her fashion sense is peculiar.

Woo Dayeon covered her mouth with both hands.

“No way. She looks identical… what the…”

The straw hat slid down and fluttered to the ground.

The woman approached me as if in a trance, and I recognized her too.

As I picked up her hat and handed it to her, I asked quietly.

“Didn’t we meet last year?”

“Huh?”

“At the career fair.”

* * *

Woo Dayeon was shocked as if struck by lightning.

‘Yes, that’s right, that genius kid from back then!’

After criticizing protagonists with face blindness in dramas and movies for so long, she couldn’t believe she was now in that position herself.

NoName’s main avatar and that kid from back then didn’t just look similar—they were identical.

“Wait, you two know each other?”

“Unnie, remember that super genius kid I told you about! It’s her!”

Dayeon had never hated her memory more than at this moment. How could she not have connected these two events?

“Genius…? Oh, from your volunteer work last year?”

“Yes! But not just any genius.”

If it was just a career fair, she could have dismissed it as a talented child who might appear on a gifted children’s show.

But if this kid was actually the “NoName” she knew?

This would be beyond a variety show—it would be a worldwide exclusive scoop!

She could consider the possibility that a malicious third party had broken the capsule ethics code and copied the child’s appearance for an avatar, but that seemed completely unrealistic.

Name sat back on the sofa, sipping her juice.

She shook her head at the sour taste of the grapefruit juice.

Dayeon’s internal conflict continued.

NoName had always seemed too mature on her streams, beyond just being knowledgeable.

Being a genius and appearing experienced were two different things, so a seed of doubt remained in her mind.

Fortunately, Dayeon had plenty of strawberry candies in her bag, which she offered to Name who was struggling with the sour juice.

“Name…? Would you like one of these instead?”

*Snatch*

Name quickly grabbed the candy and popped the pink sugar ball into her mouth.

*Munch munch*

“Thank you. Do you happen to have another one?”

“Oh yes…! Would you like one more?”

“I’d appreciate it if you’re offering.”

Even her speech pattern is similar.

Unnaturally adult-like for a child.

Unlike the men who were watching the child happily eating candy, Dayeon’s feelings grew more complicated.

“How much of a genius is she?” Hwi-jin nudged Dayeon’s side.

“If it’s true, maybe the best in the world?”

Hwi-jin, Dayeon’s sister, had never watched internet streams or VTube, so she knew nothing about Name.

Even as she said this, Dayeon felt it sounded like middle school syndrome, but no other description was necessary.

Dayeon pulled over a whiteboard from the corner of Professor Cheon’s lab and quickly wrote something.

[20,387,739*390,394 = ]

“Hey Name, want more candy?”

“Yes, I like how sweet they are.”

“Then I’ll give you one if you solve this!”

“Um… 7,959,250,979,166.”

“…?”

A graduate student who belatedly took out a scientific calculator was shocked at Name’s correct answer.

“How did she get that right?”

“Is that really the correct answer?”

“This is fun. Do you have another problem?”

“T-then how about this?”

[ln(123,456,789)=]

“Hmm, approximately 18.6314… If I had to be more precise, between 017661 and 2? Closer to 2.”

“How do you calculate natural logarithms mentally? Multiplication is one thing, but this is beyond mental arithmetic!”

“Is the answer r-right?”

“Holy shit, that’s insane.”

“Give me the candy quickly. And if you memorize logarithm tables, anyone can do this.”

Dayeon ended up losing five candies in quick succession.

Name leaned back on the sofa with her cheeks full of candy like a hamster, closing her eyes in satisfaction.

“So it is you, NoName… Was that your real name all along?”

The name of the child Hwi-jin had told her about was No Na-me.

Any way you look at it, isn’t that just “NoName” spelled out?

“Dayeon unnie.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I heard you’re a PD at Hicks Studio.”

That was correct. She had recently uploaded science and magic content videos based on NoName’s gameplay.

“Why did you upload my video without permission?”