Ch.80Chapter 80. Misunderstanding

“Hnngh…!”

Thump.

The bed shook as Juliane’s bottom landed on it.

After carelessly kicking off her shoes, Juliane climbed onto the bed and laid her tired body down.

She had taken the train all the way to Washington and had to run around everywhere trying to secure witnesses and allies.

Despite her efforts, there were no results.

Of course, she hadn’t expected everything to go well from the first day.

Juliane struggled to get up again and entered the bathroom.

With a glimmer of hope, she picked up what she had left next to the sink.

“One line…”

No matter how closely she looked, there wasn’t even the faintest hint of a second line.

The test clearly showed just one line.

“Sigh…”

Juliane sighed and tossed the test into the trash can.

Of course, this wasn’t definitive proof that she wasn’t pregnant.

These quick test kits weren’t very accurate.

Even the latest models were only 99.9 percent accurate.

That meant there was still a 0.1 percent chance she could be pregnant.

“I should visit an OB-GYN sometime.”

Yes, that would be the most certain way.

Still clinging to a thread of hope, Juliane plopped back down on the bed.

Zzzzip…

The zipper came down, and Juliane twisted her waist to start slipping off her skirt.

However, it got caught on her hips and wouldn’t come down easily.

“Nngh… damn it!”

She laid down and adjusted her angle, and only then did the skirt finally come off.

Next was her shirt.

As she unbuttoned it one by one and removed the white shirt, she suddenly felt liberated.

Looking down, she noticed the chest area of her shirt was transparently soaked.

“Ah…”

Her chest had gotten this sweaty already…

With a reddened face, Juliane started wiping her chest with a towel.

Between her breasts was especially bad.

“Ugh…”

When she put her hand there, it was completely slick with sweat.

No wonder she felt so hot today.

She had been raising her own humidity level quite a bit.

After roughly removing her stockings too, Juliane was down to her underwear.

It would be more comfortable to take everything off, but she decided against it out of embarrassment.

Juliane slowly grabbed her left thigh area with her right hand.

Soon, a hologram window appeared before her eyes.

“Neural connection… release.”

Her left leg went limp as the strength left it.

Juliane grabbed her thigh with practiced ease and lifted her head.

“Hoo… ha… hoo… haa…”

After taking a few deep breaths.

Juliane applied force and pulled down on her thigh.

A clean line appeared on what had seemed like a naturally connected thigh, and the gap began to widen.

Soon the leg detached, leaving only a short stump attached below Juliane’s groin.

“Whew…”

She wrung out a towel that had been soaking in hot water and applied it to the cross-section.

Then slowly, carefully, she wiped it.

If she was going to stay in Washington for a while, regularly cleaning the connection point was essential.

“…”

The part where her leg had been severed still had ugly suture marks.

The surgery had been urgent, and the cross-section was too messy for it to have turned out any better.

But it didn’t matter much.

It wasn’t a part she showed to others anyway, and it didn’t hurt at all anymore.

It was fine except for the occasional tingling sensation.

“Hehe. If Jinsoo saw this, he’d be so shocked.”

As water squeezed out of the towel with a splashing sound.

A bitter smile escaped Juliane’s lips.

Jinsoo probably couldn’t even imagine this.

The only concern was the Tactum company employees who had seen her prosthetic limbs when the synthetic skin melted off, but she had already silenced them.

She had threatened them by mentioning her father, a congressman, so they wouldn’t have told Jinsoo.

“Would he hate it…?”

Of course he would hate it.

No, he would be disgusted.

He was someone who disliked even having a small chip implanted under his skin.

And now, to have arms and legs that were all prosthetics.

About half of her body was machine.

He would definitely be repulsed.

Even if he didn’t show it outwardly, he would be disgusted inside.

Absolutely.

She must never be discovered.

Especially not by Jinsoo…

“Ah… I really hate this…”

Juliane lost all her strength and fell back onto the bed.

She didn’t want to be discovered, yet she wanted to be discovered.

Even knowing Jinsoo would dislike it, she wanted to tell him.

She hated hiding anything from Jinsoo.

She wanted him to know everything about her.

That would make her feel at ease.

“What am I going to do, really…”

Her chest felt so tight.

Unable to do this or that.

It felt like she was sinning against Jinsoo.

“Hic… sniff… sob… hic…”

Tears began to flow.

She hadn’t cried even when her pet dog died.

Yet here she was, crying pathetically over something so trivial.

Was I always this emotional?

No, I don’t know.

I don’t even know what kind of person I am anymore.

Juliane covered her eyes with her hands and shook her head endlessly.

Ring ring ring…

“Huh? Ah? Yes?”

Just then, a loud ringtone started blaring.

Startled, Juliane, who had set her phone to silent, checked the caller ID.

“Jinsoo?!”

Why so suddenly?

Surprised, Juliane roughly wiped away her tears and took a deep breath.

“Ah. Ah.”

This wasn’t right.

Her voice was a mess.

Even someone as oblivious as Jinsoo would recognize this as the voice of someone who had just been crying.

But the call signal continued relentlessly.

It would disconnect soon.

Or Jinsoo would hang up after reaching the limit of his patience.

She didn’t want to miss Jinsoo’s call.

She especially didn’t want to deliberately miss it when she could answer.

“Hmm! Ahem! Hmmmm!”

Her voice was still a mess, but she had no choice.

Juliane tapped below her ear with her index finger to answer the call.

“Ah, yes! Jinsoo! What’s going on?”

“Am I interrupting? Should I call back later?”

“Ah, no. Not at all. Go ahead. What is it?”

“I need some advice. May I ask you?”

“What kind of advice? Legal advice?”

“Life wisdom advice.”

“Pfft… What’s that?”

A smile spread across Juliane’s tear-glistened cheeks.

Even though she was so far away, just hearing his voice made her feel at ease.

Juliane hugged her prosthetic leg tightly and continued the conversation while rolling around on the bed.

The phantom pain she usually felt when removing her leg was completely absent today.

***

Hiss…

The bus came to a stop.

Cuss, who got off the bus with a large backpack, was about to enter the school as usual when…

“Hmm?”

She heard noisy sounds from a distance.

It didn’t seem like a large gathering of people, but it was unusually loud.

Curious, Cuss broke away from the crowd heading toward the main entrance and scurried toward the back door.

Peeking her head out, Cuss could see a familiar face.

‘Tom?’

It was the arrogant little human, Tom.

He had his head down with a powerless expression.

The woman pointing and shouting in front of Tom was…

Was she Tom’s mother whom she had seen before?

She couldn’t hear what was being said as the sound was muffled, but it was clear she was angry.

Just then, Tom started walking in her direction, leaving his shouting mother behind.

Cuss was startled and hid her body behind the corner.

“Hey! Tom! Stop right there! How dare you walk away when your mother is talking to you!”

“Ah! I’m going to be late for class!”

“Since when have you been so diligent about studying! Try to be at least half as good as your brother!”

“If you like my brother so much, you shouldn’t have had me!”

“Oh my! Listen to how you talk!”

The voices became increasingly clear.

Tom, who was huffing, sharply turned the corner and

“Huh?!”

“…”

Came face to face with Cuss.

“Eek?!”

His slightly puffed-up chest was right in front of Tom’s eyes.

At this rate, his face would be buried right there.

Tom managed to avoid planting his nose in Cuss’s chest by applying an emergency brake, but…

“Ah.”

He lost his balance as a result.

Tom’s body was about to fall backward.

“Oop.”

“…”

Cuss grabbed Tom by both shoulders and steadied him.

As the angry voice from beyond the corner drew closer.

Cuss and Tom stood there silently, staring at each other.

Tom was the first to come to his senses.

He grabbed Cuss’s wrist and led her inside through the back door.

“Tom! Where did you go! Tom! Did you really leave?!”

Thump thump.

The angry footsteps came closer once, then receded again.

Only then could Tom breathe a sigh of relief.

“Did you fight with your mom?”

“Not really a fight. I just got scolded.”

“Why?”

“Well…”

Tom pressed his lips tightly together.

His mother had mentioned quiz scores and whatnot, but the real reason for her anger was obvious.

She must have heard about Cuss.

About how Cuss was a genius who was incredibly good at mental arithmetic.

Seeing how she suddenly got angry after talking to someone on the phone, it was clear.

She couldn’t contain her anger at hearing another child was a genius.

“Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“…?”

But he couldn’t tell Cuss it was because of her.

It would be too ugly to take out his frustrations on someone who had done nothing wrong.

He had no intention of doing the same thing as his mother.

He would rather die than hear he resembled that person.

“Let’s just go to the classroom. It’s almost class time.”

“Okay. Got it, Tom.”

“That’s better. You’re calling me by my name now.”

“Tom.”

“Much better.”

When she casually called his name, Tom quickly turned his head away.

He hadn’t expected her to call him Tom just because he asked.

He thought she had been calling him “little human” to disrespect him.

It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps all the annoying things Cuss had been doing weren’t meant to irritate him.

Maybe she really just didn’t know better.

Maybe she wasn’t autistic but simply lacked common sense, which is why she enrolled as a first-grader…

‘I don’t know, damn it.’

Why am I even thinking about this?

Tom shook his head to clear his mind.

Cuss just looked down at him with a strange gaze.

“Oh. Jesus Christ. In Ohio? Is that true?”

“Yes, Vice Principal. We just got the news.”

Just then, from far away, at the end of the corridor, voices in conversation could be heard.

Tom and Cuss peeked their heads around the wall to eavesdrop.

One was the pot-bellied vice principal.

The other was a sheriff wearing a badge.

“The perpetrator shot two students and one teacher before shooting himself in the head.”

“My goodness… Should we close the school?”

“That doesn’t seem necessary. However, there is a possibility of copycat crimes, so please be especially vigilant at least until the end of this week. I’ll send guidelines to the school shortly. Please conduct at least one evacuation drill within this month…”

It seemed like a very serious conversation.