Chapter 280: Chapter 280
Derek had no idea that Suzy possessed a dimensional space.
He had been living here for quite some time, and throughout it all, she had concealed the secret flawlessly. He had never noticed anything unusual.
At most, he had occasionally found it strange how quickly she could locate things, but that was all.
Yet moments ago, he had watched an object appear out of thin air in her hand.
A walkie talkie.
Derek’s attention had always gravitated toward Suzy.
He had been standing right beside her, watching her every move.
Just seconds earlier, her hands had been completely empty.
There had been nothing there.
Then suddenly, a walkie talkie appeared.
Could it have been hidden in her pocket?
No.
She had not even reached toward a pocket.
The entire thing felt surreal.
When Suzy met his stunned gaze, she offered no explanation.
Meanwhile, the expressions on Thomas and Leonard’s faces gradually became strange.
Was Suzy finally planning to tell Derek about her space?
The same thought surfaced in both men’s minds.
They knew her well enough to understand that if she genuinely wanted to keep the secret hidden, she would never make such an obvious mistake.
There was only one reasonable explanation––she intended to come clean.
Otherwise, she would never have used her space so openly and without the slightest attempt at concealment.
Thomas glanced toward Suzy, confusion flickering in his eyes.
He already had a rough idea of what she was doing, but he still wanted confirmation.
Suzy caught his look.
She blinked once and subtly signaled with her eyes.
Immediately, Thomas understood.
Got it.
"I’m going over there for a minute."
Suzy lifted the walkie talkie and headed toward a quieter corner.
None of the three men said anything.
Once she was out of earshot, she switched on the device and began speaking with Liam.
Back where they stood, Derek still looked dazed.
Instinctively, his gaze followed her retreating figure, confusion lingering on his face.
Maybe Suzy had secretly learned magic.
The thought sounded ridiculous, yet he found himself trying to convince himself it was possible.
Just as he was about to complete that desperate mental justification, Leonard’s hand landed lightly on his shoulder.
Derek looked up in confusion.
There was a faint smile in Leonard’s eyes. Thomas wore a similar expression.
For some reason, Derek felt as though the way they looked at him had subtly changed.
Something was different.
"What?" he asked.
"Congratulations."
Leonard delivered the remark without any context.
Derek blinked.
Congratulations? For what?
The comment came completely out of nowhere.
There were armed people gathering downstairs and potentially preparing to attack their building.
What exactly was there to celebrate?
At that moment, Derek still had no idea what Leonard really meant.
Then Thomas spoke.
"You saw it too, didn’t you?"
"You mean... the walkie talkie appearing in Suzy’s hand out of nowhere?"
Thomas nodded.
Derek studied their reactions carefully. Both men looked remarkably calm, as if what had just happened was perfectly normal. As if they had seen it countless times before.
A realization slowly dawned on him.
They already knew. Not only did they know, but they had known for a long time. And somehow, he was the only one who had been left in the dark.
Letting out a slow breath, he tried to comfort himself.
It was fine. He knew now.
"Then what exactly is going on?" Derek asked, suppressing the faint bitterness in his chest.
He still could not understand how a walkie talkie had suddenly appeared in Suzy’s hand out of nowhere.
"It’s a storage space. A real storage space," Leonard explained with a grin.
Derek’s bewildered expression was surprisingly entertaining.
"A storage space?"
Derek tried to process the concept.
Then understanding struck.
"You mean the kind of dimensional space from novels?"
Thomas nodded.
"Exactly."
Derek’s surprise deepened. He had never imagined Suzy possessed something like that.
A personal storage dimension... Honestly, it sounded incredibly convenient.
At last, he understood why Suzy had sometimes reminded him of Doraemon.
No matter what he needed, she always seemed capable of producing it almost instantly.
Mystery solved. The answer had been a storage space all along.
Yet strangely enough, that was not what bothered him most.
"You two have known about this for a long time, haven’t you?"
The jealousy in Derek’s voice was impossible to miss.
Thomas and Leonard had learned the secret before him.
Which meant that, in Suzy’s heart, they had once occupied a more trusted position than he had.
The thought irritated him far more than he wanted to admit.
The corner of Leonard’s mouth twitched upward. One look at Derek’s face was enough to tell him exactly what he was thinking.
"You’re looking at this the wrong way," Leonard said with a chuckle.
"The fact that you know now means Suzy officially trusts you."
Derek’s expression froze.
Leonard had long since noticed that Derek was absurdly possessive.
The man was jealous of practically everything.
He rarely showed it openly, but it was obvious enough if you paid attention.
Thankfully, Thomas never bothered competing with him.
Otherwise, Leonard was certain their household would descend into daily chaos.
Then again, Suzy was impressive.
The fact that she could keep these two men living under the same roof without constant conflict was practically a miracle.
As expected, Suzy was something else.
Leonard secretly admired her for it.
His casual remark had a dramatic effect on Derek.
The sourness inside him vanished almost instantly, replaced by sweetness.
Suzy officially trusted him.
Just the thought was enough to make the corners of his mouth rise uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Thomas began explaining the basics of Suzy’s space.
He had understood Suzy’s intentions the moment she met his eyes earlier.
After spending so much time together, he could read her silent signals easily.
She wanted him to tell Derek the truth.
So he did.
When Thomas finished, Derek’s reaction was unexpectedly mild.
The idea of a storage space remained somewhat abstract to him.
Yes, seeing a walkie talkie appear from nowhere had been shocking.
But only for a moment.
To Derek, producing objects from thin air was not all that different from stage magic.
He had seen enough magicians in his life that the concept failed to completely overturn his worldview.
Just as Thomas finished explaining, Suzy returned with the walkie talkie in hand.
Hearing her footsteps, all three men turned toward her simultaneously.
"Finished?" Thomas asked.
Suzy nodded.
"Yeah. It was Liam."
She paused.
"He called to warn us to be careful."
The moment Liam’s name surfaced, Derek frowned.
"With all that noise downstairs, who needs him to tell us that?"
His muttered complaint carried a trace of unmistakable displeasure.
Suzy laughed helplessly.
"He was just trying to help."
Derek offered no response. He refused to believe Liam was acting out of pure kindness.
Below them, the pounding grew louder.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The relentless impacts echoed upward like war drums, vibrating through the building and making the windowpanes tremble.
Thomas cracked the window open slightly.
A gust of icy wind slipped inside, carrying with it the furious shouting from below.
"Damn it! This door is tougher than I thought!"
"Keep smashing it! We can’t let them get away!"
The angry voices drifted upward through the freezing air, sharp and hostile.
Inside the apartment, the atmosphere instantly turned tense.
The trouble they had been expecting had finally arrived.
