I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER

Chapter 220: Hmmmm... I’m a cyutie — II

Okay so....

The crying earlier? Completely strategic. Totally planned from the beginning.

I nodded to myself, sitting across the table from the scary noona and beside Ahjussi, both hands folded very calmly in my lap. It was all a plan. A very smart plan made by a very smart 9 year old.

Then Ahjussi raised his hand and put it on my head, and started patting, and I... maybe forgot about the plan for a second.

"You okay?" he asked, voice gentle. "And— thank you for lending us your apartment. Where are yo—" He stopped. Looked at the noona across the table.

She shook her head, just slightly.

Ahjussi was about to ask me about my parents didn’t he? I knew it, I’m not dumb. "My parents got eaten by the Sporeheads," I said, looking at the table. "Yesterday. At night."

The patting kept going, steady and unhurried.

I took a breath. Looked up at the scary noona, with definitely not teary eyes, and nodded to myself once, very composed. Good. That was fine. Everything was fine.

Ahem.

That was embarrassing, but anyway, the crying earlier was a plan.

I thought about this firmly, looking back down at the table surface. A plan that I made on purpose. Because if I cried, Ahjussi would feel sad, and if he felt sad he’d want to sit beside me, and then he’d be away from the noona.

Which had worked. Which meant I was a genius... hehe, yep yep. I totally am! (⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

I stood up, noticed immediately that the patting stopped, felt slightly sad about that, and pushed the feeling aside professionally.

I went to the shelf, grabbed some tuna cans and water bottles, and set them on the table. "Let’s eat? Hehe."

The noona lunged at me.

I sidestepped. Luckily dodge and she hit the couch. She looked up at me with a sad face.

I was not moved... I was a 9 year old on a mission and a sad face from the scary noona was not going to change anything about that. Hmmp, I nodded to myself.

We ate after that. And— okay, it was actually kind of fun. Ahjussi talked in a way that made things feel smaller than they were, and even the scary noona was funny sometimes in a way I hadn’t expected, though I would not be telling her that.

That’s probably just an act, a good definitely act.

I made sure to pass Ahjussi things first. More tuna. Better water bottle. The one without the small dent in it. Favoritism, executed with precision.

Afterward we moved to the couch— me on Ahjussi’s right, noona on his left, which wasn’t ideal but was at least symmetrical.

We kept talking, and time did the thing it did when you were actually having fun, where it moved without telling youuuu!!!

When I looked out the window, it was getting dark.

Ahjussi— whose full name was Kim-Si Hon, which I’d learned over tuna... hah, turned to the noona. "Hey, Jisoo. What time is it?"

"6:57," Park Jisoo said, the scary noona, whose full name I now knew too. "One more hour left. Hehe. Ahhh, Hon Hon."

I frowned at that. Hon Hon. She’s been calling Ahjussi that, hmm... cute nickname though... I need to steal it... heh. (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

I turned the sound of it over in my head, and then very carefully stood up from the couch, walked to the end of it where Jisoo was sitting, and looked up at her.

Then I acted cute, which I was good at, because I was in fact cute... hehe. "Umm... Noona. Can I call Ahjussi Hon too?"

She looked at me. Then at Si Hon. Then she lunged forward and grabbed me and pulled me into a hug so fast I didn’t have time to dodge, pressing her cheek against mine with a sound that was mostly just noise of course.

I let this happen. I allowed it. Because I needed her answer and this was the price.

"Yes, you can— AGHH you’re so CUTE!!! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)"

I felt slightly embarrassed. Just slightly. Though, I was still a professional...(⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

Hon watched from the couch with an expression I couldn’t fully read.

After that, I showed them their rooms— Jisoo in the one beside the door, Hon in the other— and they both thanked me, which landed somewhere warm that I wasn’t expecting.

I went to my own room after that, and closed the door.

I looked at my room, this again... this lonely massive room for me.

Then the moonlight came through the window and hit the big mirror first, the way it always did, and I was looking at myself before I decided to.

Messy black hair, shoulder-length, slightly uneven because Dad had cut it with scissors and said it was a burden and would leave me alone if it actually did turn out to be a burden...(⁠´⁠;⁠ω⁠;⁠｀⁠) even though they’re mean, I somehow still miss them...

Ahem. Anyway. The stubborn cowlick at the top that refused to stay flat no matter what I did. Round cheeks. Tiny nose. Oversized hoodie with the sleeves half-covering my hands because it was Dad’s and I’d taken it from his bag before— ahem.

I tapped my chin and looked at myself seriously. "I’m such a cutie," I said. "Cyuwtieee."

I kept looking.

Then I measured myself against the mirror’s edge the way the camp people had measured me when we arrived. 4’6. Which was, actually, quite tall for a 9yrsold, I had decided. "Heheheh."

But then the room was quiet again, and the moonlight just sat there being moonlight, and I went and lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

"I wish..." I started. Stopped. "I don’t even know what to wish for."

I lay there for another minute.

Then I sat up, because lying there alone wasn’t solving anything, and I was a problem-solving 9 year old. I went out into the hall, walked to Hon’s door, and opened it slowly.

He was awake. Sitting on the bed, not doing anything, just sitting there with his face doing something heavy and tired that I recognized without being able to name it.

He saw me. I waved. He waved back.

I crossed the room, climbed onto his bed, and lay down in the middle of it. "Can I sleep here?"

"Yeah, sure." His voice came out quieter than usual. "I’m pretty lonely, honestly." With a dramatic sigh.

I gasped. Then I crawled across the mattress and hugged him, arms around him, face against his side.

Me too. Me too, Hon...

He laughed— soft, the kind that happened by accident— and it was probably because I was being cringe but it was still nice. It was still the best sound I’d heard all day.

Then the door creaked.

I looked up.

Jisoo’s head appeared in the gap, eyes finding Si Hon immediately, then finding me... a sinister smile then formed in her face.

I stared at her over Hon’s arm.

She stared back.

I am DEFINITELY saving Hon Hon.

***

Extra — Shiori notes #2

Successfully infiltrated Hon room. Heh. Hehe.

✓ Hon Hon accepted protection.

✓ Enemy hugged me... Sadly, but it is needed for her permission.

(Unexpected.)

Enemy still suspicious.