A Battle of Wills with the Police
"I refuse. So…."
At my firm reply, Officer Unho's face twisted into a faintly awkward grimace.
"Even if you say that, well, for me…."
"'Per police policy, she has to come with us'?"
"Th… that's right. For now."
"And if I still refuse?"
"…."
Faced with my words once more, Unho chewed uncomfortably at the corner of his mouth and pressed a hand to his forehead.
Of course I knew.
It wasn't as if this man was a bad person. He was simply trying to do the job assigned to him as a police officer.
He had his own position, his own responsibilities. I understood that.
I understood — but I couldn't yield.
"…It's a good facility."
"My place is a good home too. Being a one-room studio is the only real downside."
"The area around the lodging we prepare for you has excellent public safety…."
"There's a small police station three minutes from here. It may not measure up to yours, but the officers there are fine people too, aren't they?"
"…Counseling as well…."
"Stop repeating yourself, Unho. Let's cut the crap and talk straight."
Getting into a war of words with a police officer was hardly a normal thing to do. But what else was I supposed to do?
"…."
She was clinging to the hem of my clothes, trembling. Depending on me. There was no way I could just stand there and do nothing.
"You call it protection, but the government's real intention is isolation, isn't it?"
"…As an officer, I have no choice but to say it isn't."
"I'll take that as confirmation that you know it too."
Herding every newly appeared special race into one place as much as possible, stationing police around them, and calling it protection?
Sure, protection was one of the purposes. But there was no way that was the only purpose.
"Surveillance, examination, isolation — and if we're being optimistic, education. If we're being pessimistic, experimentation."
"…You have quite the imagination."
"Fantasy just became reality. All I can do is put that imagination to work."
Unho let out a long, deep sigh. Then he lifted his head again. The look in his eyes had completely changed — he'd steeled himself.
"Even so, as a police officer, I will tell you that the primary purpose of providing lodging is protection. There are practical concerns as well."
"Practical concerns?"
"People who harbor ill will toward otherworlders. I mentioned the troublemakers who were running wild and fleeing earlier, didn't I? There are more of them than you'd think."
I'd been completely cut off from the news these past two days, so I hadn't known. But looking at Unho, he didn't seem to be lying. His expression was utterly serious.
"We've even got idiots going crazy over internet streams about 'otherworlder hunting' and pulling all kinds of stunts. If you refuse without any plan, you could end up in more danger yourselves."
"So leave it to the police, then?"
"At the very least, we can guarantee a basic human standard of safety."
I nodded.
It wasn't entirely absurd. As I'd said earlier, what the police were trying to do was both the isolation and the protection of otherworlders.
Even so, my mind hadn't changed.
"I still refuse."
"Eunhyuk…. You're putting me in a difficult position."
"Even so. You don't strike me as the immoral type, Unho."
I glanced toward Cecilia, gesturing with my eyes.
"Looking at this, does nothing cross your mind?"
My hand never stopped stroking her back.
She was still fidgeting with her right ear. Whether that simply meant she didn't want to hear the conversation, or whether it meant something else entirely, I couldn't tell.
"If it's protection, I can do that myself. I can't leave her with anyone else."
"…That."
I saw the look in Unho's eyes waver. Relieved that he was a decent person, I delivered the finishing blow.
"And earlier — you barged into my home without a warrant, didn't you?"
"…You're a terrifying man."
Another long, thin sigh echoed through the room.
As if giving up, Unho flopped onto his back on the floor. Exhaustion poured from the side of his face that I could just barely see.
"Why are you refusing so hard…? You two clearly haven't known each other that long…."
It was a question full of genuine curiosity. I hesitated for a moment, kept stroking her, then opened my mouth.
"Two or three days is plenty of time to get close to someone, isn't it?"
"You're quite the extrovert…."
"And more than that — I can see perfectly well what would happen if I sent her somewhere else right now."
What would happen if I sent this terrified girl to some unfamiliar place. It wasn't hard to imagine. And it wasn't hard to predict that nothing good would come of it, either.
"She's most at ease by my side."
"You two are like a pair of lovebirds already…."
Unho sighed again and, still lying flat, clutched his head in both hands.
"Ugh…. I'm definitely going to get chewed out for this…."
By "chewed out," he probably meant getting yelled at by his superior. I felt a twinge of guilt, but I had no intention of changing my mind.
"…I lose."
Still on his back, Unho suddenly flung both hands up in the air.
"Meaning?"
"Even so, you can't hide her existence itself. I'll have to file a report. But, well…."
He sat up and looked toward Cecilia — at her body, which had calmed considerably compared to earlier but was still trembling faintly.
"…Tch. Fine. I'll try to talk them into it. Protection of an otherworlder carried out by a civilian rather than the police…. I don't know if it'll fly."
"So that means—"
"You can live together. Just like you have been, going forward. What I mean is, I'll handle that process for you."
The moment I heard those words, my spirits soared.
I'd gotten the go-ahead from the police. It wasn't one hundred percent yet, but I no longer had to send Cecilia to them.
"…Thank you."
"Well, if I frame it as having found more suitable protective arrangements, the higher-ups should buy it to some degree. Agh, my head…. …This is a no-smoking place, right?"
Faced with the suddenly casual attitude of an active-duty police officer, I couldn't help but snort out a laugh. When I nodded in answer to the smoking question, Unho stood up with a look of regret.
"Alright…. Well, you've been through a lot. Sorry for barging in out of nowhere."
"It might have been a good thing, actually. If it'd been a different officer, who knows whether the conversation would have gone this way."
"It's complicated, isn't it."
Unho laughed hollowly.
With heavy, exhausted steps, he walked to the front door. He put on his shoes, and before opening the door, he looked back at me and Cecilia one last time.
"…Once again, I'm sorry for barging in so suddenly."
It was a thoroughly human expression, mixed with fatigue and a touch of worry.
With a click, the front door closed. Silence settled over the room, and once again only Cecilia and I were left inside.
"Cecilia."
"…."
"Cecilia? Hey, hey?"
The moment I turned to check on her, her small hand gave my shoulder a shove.
My center of gravity tipped easily backward. I felt my body falling.
"Huh."
I landed fully on my back. The ceiling came into view. She hadn't pushed hard, so it didn't hurt much.
But then Cecilia came over and draped herself across my body where I lay on the floor. She quietly buried her face against my stomach.
"Ce… Cecilia."
"I was scared."
Her voice was a murmur. A voice full of fear, on the verge of tears, clinging and dependent.
"…Cecilia."
"I was scared…. I… I…."
Murmuring in a voice that clung to me, she gripped the hem of my clothes tightly.
"I don't want to go anywhere else…."
"…Yeah. Yeah. I don't want that either. It's okay, Cecilia. You don't have to be scared anymore."
I started to stroke this small, faintly trembling creature on my stomach — then stopped. In this position, my hand couldn't reach her back. The only place I could pet was her head, and Cecilia….
"Cecilia."
"Mm…?"
"…Can I touch your head?"
A brief silence. Then she gave a tiny nod.
"…Okay."
I carefully reached toward her head.
The moment my hand made contact, I felt her body flinch once. But she showed no further sign of resisting or pulling away.
Feeling the soft texture, I began to move my hand slowly.
A small "mmnh…" drifted up — almost like she was being coy. Matching it, I felt the tension gradually drain from that small body.
"Don't push me away…."
"I won't."
"Don't send me somewhere else…."
"I won't. I'll protect you. I promise."
"…Why?"
Cecilia lifted her head a little. Her watery sky-blue eyes met mine.
"Why are you… so good to me…?"
"Well…."
Why was I so good to her? I'd always thought it was obvious, so I'd never really thought about it. But if I had to put it into words — well. Embarrassing as it was….
"Because you're cute."
"Cu…!"
Still on the verge of tears, Cecilia's face flushed bright red. Feeling a bit of heat rise to my own face, I kept talking.
"You're small and cute. Like a cat."
"U-uuh…!"
"Your hair and your eye color are so pretty, too. And your personality—"
"S-stop!"
She yelped and scrambled off my body. Chuckling, I sat up from the floor as well.
"Uuuh…."
"Looks like you've got your energy back. That's a relief."
"Uuuh…!"
Apparently thinking I'd been teasing her, Cecilia glared at me cutely with her reddened face. I hadn't been lying, though.
"Whatever. Cecilia, you still have some stamina left, right?"
"? U-uh-huh."
"Good."
Answering lightly, I opened the fridge. With a soft clink, I pulled out a bottle.
"Let's have a drink together."
Far too much had happened in the span of just a few minutes. I knew it was still daytime, but… when it came to washing away your troubles, nothing beat a drink.