Ch.166Chapter 166. The Train Runs Even When Dogs Bark (1)

Early morning.

Cuss woke up with her silver hair scattered about, amid the chirping of birds.

Her body felt light.

Her head didn’t hurt either.

“How refreshing… Ow! Ahhh!”

“What is it?”

Cuss tried to sit up quickly but had to lay her head back down on the bed due to a pain that felt like someone was pulling her hair. Now she noticed that Jinsoo’s hand, lying next to her, was holding onto the ends of her hair.

Jinsoo, who had opened his eyes because of her scream, released his arm from around her waist and slowly sat up.

‘I shouldn’t have screamed.’

I should have turned my head first.

I should have looked at Jinsoo’s sleeping face a little longer.

I should have savored Jinsoo’s warm touch more.

Cuss ended up feeling a bit of regret.

“Are you feeling better?”

“I’m completely revived. I might even be better than before.”

“Is that so?”

It was only natural.

Having been with Jinsoo all weekend, how could her condition not have improved?

“Ah… Cuss, you’re up? Will you give Mommy a kiss?”

“Ugh. No.”

“What? If you’re refusing, I guess you must be all better?”

“…?”

What on earth did I do when I was sick?

Cuss was suddenly filled with terror.

“Go wash up. We need to eat and get you to school.”

“Okay.”

A morning like any other.

Like any other day, she stood at the sink still drowsy from sleep while Jinsoo’s voice urged her to hurry up. After washing her hair and roughly drying it with a towel, Juliane, who couldn’t bear to watch, came to help dry it properly. By the time she came out to the kitchen, Jinsoo had already set the table.

“Ugh… There’s no meat in the side dishes.”

“What do you mean there’s none? Mushrooms and beans are just as good as meat.”

“I think you should look up the dictionary definition of meat, Jinsoo.”

“Shut up and eat quickly. Chew thoroughly.”

Beside her was Juliane, who struggled with chopsticks before giving up and picking up a fork.

Come to think of it, Cuss had become quite skilled with chopsticks at some point.

She picked up some of the vegetable side dishes Jinsoo had made and put them in her mouth, savoring the taste.

They had no taste at all.

If anything, they were slightly bitter.

Yet she kept reaching for more.

It was truly an incomprehensible mystery.

“The bus is here. Time to go.”

“Should I call right away if I get a fever?”

“I know.”

Now it was time to go to school.

Cuss gave a kiss to the reluctant Jinsoo and another to Juliane, who seemed impatient with waiting, before leaving the house.

It was a school commute like any other day.

Yet why did she feel this strange sense of discomfort?

*

“Cuss.”

“…”

“Hey! Cuss!”

“Oh, yes?!”

She opened her eyes wide, startled by the call.

Somehow, Cuss found herself sitting at a desk in the classroom.

Now she noticed that girls were gathered around her.

Were they here to pick a fight?

“What is it?”

“Last Friday, you know? When it snowed. Who was that person who came to school? Was it your brother?”

“…?”

One girl stepped forward as a representative and asked while fidgeting.

By “brother,” didn’t they mean a male sibling born from the same parents?

No matter how she thought about it, Cuss didn’t have anyone she could call a brother.

“I don’t have anything like a brother.”

“What? Then who was it? The person who came by car and hung out with you.”

“That was Jinsoo.”

“Jinsoo? Oh. Ohh.”

The girl seemed confused for a moment upon hearing the name but quickly nodded in understanding.

Everyone here knew the name Jinsoo.

There wasn’t a student who didn’t know that was the name of Cuss’s father.

“But why do you call your dad by his name?”

“Just… Is that not allowed?”

“It’s not that it’s not allowed, but isn’t it awkward?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s much more natural and nice to call him ‘Dad’ rather than Jinsoo. If someone who doesn’t know hears it, they wouldn’t think he’s your father at all.”

“Hey, you guys. That’s enough.”

Jake intervened, slapping his hand on the desk.

It seemed he was getting irritated just listening to this.

“Cuss’s father is… well… not related to Cuss by blood. So she might be uncomfortable calling him Dad. Stop bothering her.”

“I’m not uncomfortable at all.”

“What?”

“I just call him Jinsoo because it’s more familiar and comfortable. I don’t particularly feel any resistance to it.”

“See, Jake!”

“It’s not about Cuss.”

“Ugh…”

As the girls’ protests grew louder, Jake had no choice but to back down.

“I see… So in human society, it’s more natural to call him Dad. I understand.”

“You don’t need to force yourself, Cuss.”

“I’m not forcing anything.”

“She’s not, Jake. Why do you keep saying weird things?”

“Anyway, Cuss, could you maybe give me your father’s phone number…”

Dad.

After saying that word out loud, Cuss felt something strange.

A peculiar sense of discomfort. Similar to what she felt on the school bus during her commute earlier.

For some reason, her chest felt tight and ticklish.

Was it because she was trying to say something she wasn’t used to?

‘Jinsoo would like it too.’

Jinsoo is trying to treat me as his daughter.

He’s trying to be satisfied with me instead of his daughter who died early.

So he’d be really happy if I called him Dad, Cuss thought.

***

“The data recovery results…”

Juliane opened her company messenger and checked her email first.

It seemed that the data recovery she had requested from the computers of the suspicious research team—later revealed to be connected to Allison Hospital—was now complete.

-96% recovery complete. The data is attached as a file.

The hard drive was found almost undamaged inside the burnt-out computer case.

It seemed they had left in such a hurry that they couldn’t properly destroy it.

This would be a good weapon to deliver another blow to the already dying Allison Hospital.

Juliane took a sip of coffee from her mug and opened the file.

“Hmm… So there were more clones?”

Just as I thought.

She had finally found the traces that Allison Hospital was trying to erase before fleeing.

The file contained information about several more children who had become the templates for clones, which she hadn’t known about before.

As Juliane quickly skimmed through, her eyes widened.

-Age at death: 1 year

-Gender: Female

She had discovered a profile that she couldn’t possibly ignore.

When she clicked on the profile, a DNA structure appeared below.

Before she knew it, Juliane was automatically opening Jinsoo’s DNA file.

It was a file she had created to check if Jinsoo’s dead daughter had been used in experiments.

The program began automatically comparing and analyzing the two DNA sequences.

“N-No way…”

Cold sweat dripped down Juliane’s forehead.

The loading bar filled up, and then the results appeared.

-Probability of parent-child relationship: 99.9999%

“Ha.”

Science really hates the term “100 percent.”

99.9999% doesn’t mean there’s a 0.0001% chance of error.

It means it’s essentially 100% certain.

In other words, this child was definitely Jinsoo’s biological daughter.

-Status: Deceased

Looking at the screen, Juliane swallowed her tears.

She had been holding onto the last thread of hope, but it turned out the child was dead after all.

Juliane took a deep breath and scrolled down.

She really didn’t want to look, but she had to see it herself.

Only then could she decide whether to tell Jinsoo or not.

-Number of clones produced: 1 specimen

Only one clone was made based on this child…

It seemed that when they raided the production facility, the culprits fled in such a hurry that they lost the genetic information data.

So they only managed to create one clone before production was abruptly halted.

As for where that one clone went, on the next page…

“Huh?”

Crash!

Juliane’s mouth gradually opened wider.

She didn’t even notice that the mug in her hand had fallen and shattered as she focused on the screen.

She read the same sentence over and over again.

She hadn’t misread it.

It definitely wasn’t a typo.

“Oh my God…”

After a moment’s delay, Juliane finally fully understood the meaning and was left dumbfounded.

It was simply too much information to process all at once.

.

.

.

“I’m home.”

“…”

Darkness and silence.

No one was home.

I felt a bit lonely as I took off my shoes and entered the house.

It had been a while since I was the first one home.

Usually, Cuss or Ms. Juliane would welcome me.

Ding!

“Hmm?”

As I turned on the light in my room, a notification sound came from the computer.

Actually, it was more like a reminder notification.

It seemed to be urging me to check an email that had arrived yesterday but I hadn’t yet seen.

I should probably check it now, since it’s hard to go through a pile of emails all at once later.

I pulled up a chair and sat down at the desk, turning on the computer.

-Health examination results for Electra and Agamemnon have arrived.

“Pfft…”

I burst out laughing as soon as I saw the email subject.

Electra and Agamemnon?

Aren’t those characters from mythology?

It seems Ms. Juliane must have entered these strange names to maintain anonymity.

-Electra (14 years old) is in good health. Except for slightly lower iron levels than average…

I quickly skimmed through to check Cuss’s health status.

There were no issues with Cuss’s health.

No diseases, viruses, or bacteria that I was worried about.

She was perfectly clean.

I had more or less expected this, but seeing the results made me feel relieved.

It seemed I wouldn’t have to worry about some dormant alien virus suddenly activating and killing her.

“And as for me…”

-Agamemnon (34 years old) is in excellent health. All indicators are well above average…

Apparently, I’m in the top 1% of healthy people.

Despite all the drinking I do, my liver function was normal.

Moreover, the probability of developing adult diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure was extremely low.

It says if I maintain my current lifestyle, I could live well past 100…

Damn. I don’t want to live so long that I become a burden to those around me.

“And… let’s see. Paternity probability?”

Oh right, there was this too.

They offered a paternity test as a service.

I definitely said it wasn’t necessary, but it seems Ms. Juliane insisted on adding the option for fun.

Creak…

“Jinsoo!”

“Oh, you’re back?”

Just then, the front door opened and Cuss came running in with a large backpack.

Cute kid.

“You should wash your hands first.”

“Mmm.”

After confirming the sound of running water, I looked back at the screen.

A paternity test, huh.

I’ll just check the results for fun and then get up.

I need to check if Cuss’s fever has returned.

-The probability that Electra is Agamemnon’s biological child is 99.9999%.

“As expected.”

I turned off the screen immediately, gave a hollow laugh, and stood up.

Of course it would show that… Wait, what?

“W-What did it say?”

Wait a minute.

What did it just say?

I quickly bent down and turned the screen back on.

-The probability that Electra is Agamemnon’s biological child is 99.9999%.

The probability of being a biological child.

Not the probability of not being a biological child, but of being one…

So Cuss is my biological daughter?

That’s impossible.

Maybe Juliane’s DNA sample accidentally got mixed in when they were collecting samples.

But there’s no way Juliane would show up as my biological child either.

So is the machine broken?

Ah. That’s it.

It must be a machine error.

That had to be it.

It had to be.

“What the hell…”

As I stood up straight after turning off the screen, all sorts of crazy thoughts came to mind.

Everything suddenly connected—how Cuss had a cold constitution similar to Elli’s, how Mari was supposedly sold for organ donation, and the occasional comments about how Cuss and I looked alike.

All these things converged on one question.

The question of whether Cuss might be my daughter.

It was practically established fact that the damn hospital had messed with Mari’s body to create a clone and sold it to some research team.

Then the question is, where did that clone go?

If that clone went to space, everything would make sense.

If the body of that black-haired girl that Cuss entered was Mari’s clone, everything would be cleanly and clearly resolved.

“Haa… Haa…”

My breathing became rapid.

I had clearly concluded earlier that it was a machine error, yet I was still entertaining these absurd delusions.

If. It’s just a hypothetical…

If it were true, then I was the one who opened that hibernation chamber and let Cuss in.

I was the one who stood by blankly watching as she ate Mari’s—no, Mari’s clone’s—brain.

I was the one who sent that thing down to Earth.

And I was the one who took in that damn thing and played house, pretending she was my daughter…

Me. Me. Me. Me…

Everything, absolutely everything, was my doing.

“Jinsoo…”

I turned sharply at the chilling voice.

There stood Cuss, looking up at me with worried eyes.

Only now did I seem to see it.

Eyes just like Elli’s, fine hair, and pale skin.

And that round face and pretty little nose seemed to resemble me.

“Is something wrong?”

“Huh, what?”

Cuss approached and took my hand.

Then she slowly lifted it and placed it on her chest.

As Cuss always did.

As she always did when I was feeling down, making me hold her chest.

“D-Dad?”

With that one word, I lost my mind.

“Hiiik?!”

“…?!”

I quickly pulled my hand away and backed up, only to fall backward.

Cuss was still approaching with a worried face, and it terrified me.

“No… No…”

“Dad…?”

“Don’t call me that, you bitch!”

“Huk?!”

Cuss flinched and shrank back at my sudden outburst.

You’re not originally like that.

You were the kind of girl who didn’t give a damn no matter what curses I spewed.

So why are you pretending to be human?

Why are you pretending to be my daughter?

“Don’t come near me… Stay away…!”

“Jinsoo! I’m sorry!”

I got up, pushed past Cuss, and ran.

I brushed off Cuss’s outstretched hand and fled the house.

I ran and ran until I could no longer hear Cuss’s voice.

Until that chilling voice and face disappeared.