Jurim gripped his throbbing head, and Guru twirled both hands round and round.
“Den when Mephisto wakes up, evewything goes back?”
Nod, nod.
Just then, far off, On Ijo lifted his head high with a please spare me look and sent them a desperate gaze.
Jurim and Guru raised their hands and waved.
On Ijo’s lips quivered as he started signing again.
Guru stared fixedly at him.
And just as she was about to open her mouth—
“Do you know when Mephisto will wake up?”
“Mephi magic powuh isn’t filled yet. Pwobably if we sweep fwee nights fwom now, it can fill up....”
Three days would put it after Christmas.
Barely—right before the assault on the 99th floor.
“Then what about memories of our existence? Will they not remember us?”
“Mm, Mephi says... when we go back to the future, what we did coming to the past will be treated like it ‘nevuh happened.’”
Jurim muttered and nodded.
So we were nothing more than people observing the past from afar.
Well, if the past could be changed this easily, a lot of what had happened in the present wouldn’t have happened.
'So in the end, what’s meant to happen, happens.'
Then the option of not sending my brother to the 100th floor had never existed from the start.
Truthfully, ever since he found Guru, he had been nursing that thought in a corner of his heart the whole time.
That if, back on that day, at that time, he didn’t send his brother to the 100th floor, the tragedy might disappear.
Even though he had more or less expected it, his chest ached.
Erasing a worry that had now become pointless, Jurim lowered his eyes.
Suddenly, he crossed one leg and propped his chin on his hand.
At the edge of his vision sat the child, swinging her legs, and his brother, busy scrawling signatures across someone’s back.
Was it because prejudice had blinded him?
It was almost laughable how much the child resembled his brother—how had he not noticed until now?
Jurim scrubbed his face with dry hands.
'Hanguru.'
Was it Chloe Han who had dropped the child off at Millet Orphanage?
The same last name.
A similar face.
Even the age.
If the person who left the child at the orphanage really was Chloe, that meant she was already dead.
And On Ijo had also gone missing on the 100th floor.
In conclusion, both of the child’s parents were people who were dead.
If, just as Mephisto said, they had no influence over the past—if they couldn’t change it like in a movie or a novel—
Then, in this situation, could he truly say it to Guru?
That the people they met here were her mom and dad, and that, in the present, both were dead?
What if he said that and then Guru refused to go back?
“...Hoo.”
A deep sigh slipped out, and his head throbbed.
The child, knowing nothing of his tangled feelings and simply wanting to play, kept stealing glances toward where Ijo was.
“Go ask him to play. Your samchun promised to build you a princess castle.”
At that, her white cheeks brightened.
“Daddychann?”
The word Dad jabbed into his head like a red-hot skewer.
“I’ll be there soon.”
Jurim followed the sprinting Guru with his eyes.
The child began stacking blocks together with the man who might be her father.
Jurim rubbed his eyes with the tip of his finger.
Countless scenes spun through his mind.
Things he’d said with his brother, the kinds of devotion his brother had shown....
What should I do? Had he ever been this lost before?
As he quietly watched them, what swept over him was a sudden, suffocating powerlessness and emptiness that bound his whole body.
Meanwhile, while building a princess castle out of blocks with On Ijo, Guru hesitated.
“Samchun. Dis is...”
“Hm?”
Guru mumbled and swallowed her words.
Maybe this was something she shouldn’t say. But...
“Can’t you not go to da Towuh?”
On Ijo scratched his cheek with an awkward face.
He must have heard the conversation; Jurim’s gaze could be felt.
Guru deliberately avoided his eyes.
She knew why he was looking at her that way.
But she had seen her daddy’s face as he grew sad at the words that nothing could be changed.
Guru clenched her tiny fist tight. If samchun disappeared, everyone would be sad.
Grandpa, Daddy, and Chloe unnie, too.
So she wanted to do what she could do.
“Our baby pwincess. You’re worried about samchun, huh?”
Nod, nod.
“Chloe unnie will be waiting for you to come back too....”
“You think so?”
A voice full of laughter asked her.
Guru nodded.
“Unnie is just... not honest. I bet actuawwy she weawwy weawwy wuvs samchun.”
“Yeah?”
Smiling, On Ijo tapped ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the tip of Guru’s nose.
“Then I should go all the more.”
Guru fiddled with the block in both hands and pouted.
“Why?”
Finding her adorable, On Ijo pressed both her cheeks in with his palms and laughed.
“Because samchun wants our Guru to build at least a hundred more princess castles.”
“Even if Gwuu doesn’t wanna make pwincess castwes anymore?”
“Yup. Samchun wants Guru to eat tons of tasty food with Chloe unnie and have lots of fun from now on.”
Guru suddenly remembered Chloe laughing about the “killer taste.”
She had looked happy.
Samchun must have meant he wanted to give them that kind of happy future.
“Samchun is a vewy stwong pewson.”
Nod, nod.
“That’s why he has to go. Because it’s something samchun can do.”
“...What if samchun doesn’t go? Den maybe evewyone could be even happiuh.”
“That won’t be the case.”
On Ijo spoke firmly.
At that, Guru looked at Jurim with eyes on the verge of tears.
Jurim slowly shook his head with a face that said that’s enough.
Back then and even now, Jurim had no way to stop his brother.
And for the first time, Guru understood Jurim’s feelings about sending his brother alone to the 100th floor. Her chest felt heavy and ached all day that day.
[“You’re continuing research on G-r00?”]
[“The results are outstanding. I didn’t expect we’d see outcomes from such a short period of emotional exchange.”]
Bill drank his coffee and patted Chloe’s shoulder.
[“Bill, is that the company’s decision?”]
[“Why? After keeping them around, did you start taking an interest in ‘this’ line of research too?”]
By “this,” he meant the research where they conducted experiments using children.
[“I told you I’m not interested in that fucked-up research.”]
Chloe chewed her lip to shreds.
Guru’s experiments would continue.
She didn’t even need to spell it out to imagine the kind of things they’d do to the child this time.
Without thinking, she clenched her fist; her nails dug into her palm.
If it came to that—would a day ever come when the child could smile again?
Bill slurped another mouthful of coffee and flashed her a grin.
[“From G-r00’s standpoint, it’s better than being disposed of, isn’t it?”]
'Better than being disposed of?'
Chloe let out a bitter, self-mocking laugh.
Right, Guru had been a child slated for disposal.
Up to now, under the excuse that it wasn’t her responsibility, she’d never once cared what became of the children “disposed of” by the lab.
So why was it catching in her heart now?
[“When are you planning to start?”]
[“Why do you care when that fucked-up experiment starts?”]
Bill shrugged.
[“If I know, I can prepare, and...”]
[“Hah. All you need to know is there’s nothing for you to prepare.”]
Gritting her teeth, Chloe stripped off her lab coat and flung it into Bill’s face.
[“Whoops.”]
[“Go eat shit.”]
Bill watched her dash out of the lab with an odd look in his eyes.
He lifted the coffee cup she had been drinking from.
With a specimen of this quality, a pregnancy test would be more than doable.
If she really was pregnant with On Ijo’s child, then we were about to witness a massive breakthrough.

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