I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 210: The Horizon.

The light hit US... okay I mean just me, the second the door gave out— not gradually, just all at once, bright enough that I actually flinched before my eyes adjusted.

Jisoo popped her head out from behind my shoulder, blinking against it too.

Now it’s US.

I raised both hands to shield my face from the sunlight and walked forward, toward the edge of the roof, and looked up.

The sky above wasn’t quite right, it is in the best possible way. Clouds drifted thin and scattered, not enough to cover anything, just enough to give the light blue color something above.

And the color of the sky itself was wrong too— too saturated, too light, like someone had turned the color up past what a normal sky should be capable of. It’s beautiful.

I found the sun first, sitting low near one edge of the horizon, gold and ordinary enough. Then I looked further across and found a moon. Pale, faint against the daylight blue.

Then I found the second one.

Smaller, dimmer, sitting at a completely different angle from the first, both of them visible in the same sky at the same time like the rules here had simply decided two moons made more sense than one.

Jisoo’s voice came from beside me, quiet, almost reverent. "Woah. It’s so beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this before."

I reached over without really thinking about it and patted her head. She leaned into it immediately, practically purring, pressing against my side and hugging me with the easy affection of someone who’d stopped pretending she didn’t want comfort.

Wait— what. I froze slightly, I couldn’t help but be surprised at how cute and clingy she is, well it’s cute Jisoo. Okay. Got it.

When she let go, I climbed up onto the concrete barrier running along the roof’s edge and stood there, feeling the open air all around me.

"No— no!! Si Hon!!" Her voice spiked immediately, sharp with panic. "Don’t jump! Don’t— don’t kill yourself!!"

I looked back at her, completely confused. "What? No. Why would I do that? I’m just feeling the wind."

She stared at me, something shifting slowly across her face as the panic drained out and embarrassment rushed in to fill the space. "...Oh."

"Why did you even think of that?"

"I— uh— I— (｡•́︿•̀｡)"

Ahhh!!! She’s so cute.

And then it clicked. Right. This was the same girl who’d regressed dozens of times in one stretch purely because she’d seen something beautiful once and wanted to see it again, and again, and again, chasing the same view through loop after loop until it stopped being about the view and started being about something else entirely.

Of course a person standing on a ledge looking peaceful would read as something dangerous to her.

Agh! I forgot she’s actually sensitive if she’s not being a madman.

I sighed, pinched the bridge of my nose, and laughed despite myself. "Come here," I said, spreading my arms out and letting the wind hit me fully.

It carried the faint smell of soil and grass from somewhere far below, green and clean in a way nothing in this trial had any right to smell like. I didn’t fight it. Let it settle into something almost good. "It feels nice."

"I can’t," Jisoo said. "I’m scared. I might fall."

I looked back at her and held out a hand. "I’m right here. I won’t let you fall."

She hesitated, her eyes flicking between my hand and the open drop beyond the concrete barrier,her whole posture caught in that specific tension of wanting something and being afraid of it at the same time.

Then, slowly, she stepped forward and took my hand.

I helped her up onto the barrier, steadying her the whole way, and she stood there shaking at first, visible trembling, her grip on my hand locked tight enough to hurt slightly.

I moved my free hand to her shoulder, just resting there, steady just there, and the shaking eased. Slowly. Then her arms came open too, spreading out the same way mine had, and a smile broke across her face that I hadn’t seen from her in this entire trial.

"Thank you, Si Hon," she said, quiet, almost lost in the wind. "For being with me."

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah..."

I already told myself I’m bad with this...

I looked out past her at the view stretching beyond the building— rooftops in every direction, vines threading up through the gaps between them, the city sprawling out further than I’d realized from ground level.

And then, far in the distance, miles out, something caught at the very edge of what I could see. A wall. Faint, pale against the horizon, but there.

I turned left. Another wall, just as far, just as faint.

I turned further, scanning the whole horizon in a slow circle, and found the same thing in every direction— walls, far enough away that they blurred into the haze, but unmistakably there, boxing the entire city in on all sides like the world had been built inside something with edges.

Then a window appeared.

「Miss me? Congratulations! You finally figured out the first hint on how to complete this trial! In this trial, you are trapped in a box— in every direction, there’s a wall hundreds of miles away, and your goal is to find an exit!!!!

.

Tip — only one exit exists, and it is located in the middle of one wall, so... choose carefully which direction you go. (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)」

Jisoo’s grip slipped in surprise, and I caught her on instinct, both of us losing our balance together and tipping backward off the barrier, landing in a heap on the rooftop concrete.

She started laughing immediately, staring up at the strange double mooned beautiful sky. "Hahaha— we actually found the hint."

"Yeah," I said, lying there beside her, looking up at the same sky. "I know." even though I was the one who found it.

W speed.