074. Beneath the Scarlet Ceiling Light, the Kitchen
074. Beneath the Scarlet Ceiling Light, the Kitchen
After drinking a little in the living room, I went up to the second floor to check whether Dick Lover had found her room properly.
‘She looked fine on the outside... but she might have actually been drunk and just bluffing.’
Reaching the end of the hallway, I opened the door to the master bedroom.
Carefully, so that So-ri and the sleeping women wouldn't be woken up.
‘...Good, she found it properly.’
On my bed.
I could see Plum Blossom and Catgirl passed out cold.
‘But why were they all undressed? Was the room a little hot?’
They were sweating profusely, wearing nothing but a single pair of panties each.
It seemed the room was stuffy after all.
Squeak.
Out of consideration for them, I turned on the air conditioner.
Then I left the door slightly ajar and exited the room.
‘Come to think of it, where did Dick go?’
At that moment, that question occurred to me.
Because I hadn't seen Dick Lover anywhere in the room.
‘Did she go into another room to sleep?’
That was possible.
There were plenty of people who felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same space as others.
To check, I decided to walk down the hallway and look into every room.
*
*
*
Dick Lover was nowhere to be seen.
Just in case, I even checked the sub-bedroom, where Bubblegum and Gyejipsa were sleeping.
But I couldn't find any trace of Dick there either.
‘Where the hell did this bitch go?’
For now, I decided to go back down to the first floor.
It was possible that while I'd been drinking in the kitchen,
she had come down from the second floor and was sleeping on the living room sofa.
***
The sub-bedroom.
After Gye Se-hun, who had suddenly entered, spent a long time scanning the room and then left.
Thud.
Dick Lover, who had been hanging from the ceiling, landed silently on the floor.
A sharp dagger was still gripped in her hand.
‘Why had he checked under the bed? If I'd been hiding there, it would have been a disaster.’
Dick Lover stared at the door and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Then she shifted her gaze back to the bed.
"Mnyah. Love Gyejipsa. Love Se-hun... Dick and Plum Blossom are dumb but kind..."
Watching Bubblegum talk in her sleep, her heart grew complicated once more.
After agonizing for a long while, Dick Lover eventually,
‘...Forget it.’
Let out a sigh and put away the dagger at the same time.
Sparing a target because of personal feelings was an unprecedented event in her life as a hitwoman.
***
I was scanning the living room.
A familiar voice came from behind me.
"Looking for something?"
When I turned around, I saw a blonde woman.
It was Dick Lover, the one I'd been searching for.
I frowned slightly and spoke.
"Where the hell did you go? I was looking for you for ages, you crazy bitch."
"Me? I just wanted some fresh air, so I was in the garden."
"You should've told me before going out. Making me worry for nothing, you trying to get yourself killed?"
"Sorry."
"But why are you dressed again?"
Instead of the clothes I'd given her, Dick Lover was wearing the black suit she'd originally had on.
"Something suddenly came up at work, so I'm heading out."
"At this hour of the night?"
"Yeah. My job tends to get busy at night."
I thought about asking what her job was, but decided against it.
It clearly didn't seem like a normal profession.
Especially since even Dick Lover, who always maintained a confident attitude, couldn't openly disclose it.
"Oh. And take this."
"What's this?"
"Something I happened to find in the yard. I took a picture and sent it to an acquaintance to ask about it, and they said it's probably a drone with a camera attached."
"A drone? Something this small?"
What she handed me was a minuscule lump of metal.
It was far too small to be called a drone.
As I was examining it closely, Dick Lover spoke again.
"Se-hun, you mentioned you've been feeling a strange gaze on you lately, right? I'm not certain, but maybe this was the source of that gaze."
"...Really?"
It didn't sound far-fetched.
If an ordinary person had been hiding and staring at me, I would have been able to pinpoint the source of the gaze immediately.
‘No wonder it hadn’t felt like a person was watching me.’
With an ultra-compact drone this small,
I could somewhat understand why I had not been able to pinpoint the gaze.
"More importantly, can this drone even be made with current science and technology?"
"Of course it's impossible with publicly known science and technology. But the underbelly of society is overflowing with irrational things ordinary people don't know about, so it wouldn't be strange if there was a scientist capable of making a machine like that."
Dick Lover paused for a beat, then added,
"...is what a hacker acquaintance of mine told me. Honestly, I find it fascinating too."
"..."
"Anyway. If you stop feeling that strange gaze after today, you can assume that drone was the culprit."
"Is there any way to find out who owns this drone?"
"Probably...? My acquaintance said tracking it would be impossible too. She's a capable hacker herself, and seeing her flat-out say it's impossible, I doubt it'll be easy."
"Then it can't be helped..."
Answering like that, I pocketed the drone's wreckage.
‘I'd have to ask Drift about it later. She was the only hacker I knew.’
I was thinking that.
Dick Lover straightened her clothes and moved toward the front door, waving her hand.
"I'll be going now. It was nice meeting you today."
"Yeah. Get home safe."
"Okay. Let's meet again when we get the chance."
And with that, Dick Lover left the house.
***
On a country road a short distance from Gye Se-hun's house.
Dick Lover was walking along the night road, talking on the phone with her acquaintance, Mengyao.
"Mengyao."
[What?]
"...Hey. Should I just quit my job?"
[What kind of bullshit is that, all of a sudden?]
"It's just something I've been feeling often lately. This line of work somehow doesn't seem to suit me."
[Why do you keep spouting nonsense? Where are you going to find someone who's as suited for this as you?]
"That's not true. I'm not suited for it; I was just raised from birth to work in this industry."
[...]
"While other kids were going to kindergarten and playing with dolls, I was locked in a facility learning how to kill people."
[Dick Lover... No, Olivia.]
"What."
[I'll pretend I didn't hear it this time. If you don't want to be disposed of, don't go around casually talking about retirement from now on.]
"...As expected, that's the reaction I figured. Got it. It was just something I said offhand, so don't worry about it."
Having stopped in her tracks, Dick Lover lifted her head and gazed up at the night sky.
She briefly looked back on her life.
She fell into contemplation over whether it was right to continue living the rest of her life as a hitwoman.
She remained like that until the break of dawn.
***
It was the next morning.
As soon as I woke up, I prepared breakfast.
After turning on the stream, I went up to the second floor and woke Bubblegum first.
"Bubblegum. Go downstairs and eat breakfast."
"Sleepy..."
Bubblegum, her hair a disheveled mess, sat up in bed.
"And take Gyejipsa their food separately."
"Mmhm."
"Open your eyes properly and go down carefully. You could tumble down the stairs."
"Mhm..."
Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Bubblegum went down to the first floor.
Next.
I moved to the master bedroom and shook Plum Blossom and Catgirl awake.
"Wake the fuck up."
"I want to sleep just a little more..."
"Ugh, me too..."
【Reformed Guburi】─Sleeping in like hell, aren't you?
【Drift AI】─I am informing you. I am reporting that they have far exceeded the recommended sleep duration.
【Yoho】─They're a bunch of lazybones.
【Se-hun Defense Force】─The early bird!
【Reformed Guburi】─Eats the dick!
【Qkrnfl892】─?
【Hottie Licker】─Lick.
【Min-ji】─But why is the screen dark? I can only hear your voice.
【BigGirl】─You must have turned the cam off.
【Qkrnfl892】─Yeah, why did you turn it off?
【Dick Lover】─Because those two are sleeping with their clothes off.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Dick's awake.
【Dick Lover】─I didn't sleep at Se-hun's place because of work.
At that moment, I was holding the camera but had the cam turned off, only broadcasting my voice.
The reason was just as Dick Lover had said.
It was because Plum Blossom and Catgirl were only wearing their underwear.
"Hurry up, get dressed, and come down. Breakfast is ready."
Leaving those words behind, I went back down to the first floor and ate breakfast with Bubblegum.
*
*
*
I fed Bubblegum, Plum Blossom, and Catgirl breakfast and sent them on their way.
Then I sat in the living room, quietly watching TV.
I had a glass of morning cola on the side.
【Reformed Guburi】─No, what the fuck! What kind of novel content is this? The streamer is neglecting the viewers and just staring at the TV, fuck.
【Min-ji】─He's not even looking at the chat window...
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Not looking. lol
【Yoho】─This is boring.
【Se-hun Defense Force】─Oh. Just checked my phone.
"..."
I briefly glanced at the chat window, then went back to watching TV.
<The recent string of suicides among famous celebrities and influencers is emerging as a serious social issue. The cause of their extreme choices is being attributed to the reckless malicious comments and terror tactics of the Male Supremacy Group...>
Provocative news continued to pour out of the TV.