A click sounded behind him—the release of an armor clasp.
The White Comet battlesuit, the one that had accompanied Kiana through countless days of wandering in Sky City and was already battered beyond repair, was peeled off. It hit the floor with a heavy, dull thud.
The chill raised goosebumps across her skin.
But colder than the air was the pain—raw and biting—as the wound met it.
Her hands trembling, Kiana picked up a cotton swab soaked in iodine.
Fabric and flesh had stuck together. When she tore them apart, her entire body jerked with the agony, cold sweat bursting out instantly.
But she clenched her teeth into the back of her hand and didn't let even a single cry escape.
Su Yu kept his back to her, yet in that moment his hearing became unnaturally sharp.
He heard her suppressed breathing, the faint rasp of cotton against skin—he could even smell the thin blood-scent in the air mixed with iodine.
He sighed, and the urge to drag whoever was behind this "system" out into the open and beat them senseless grew stronger.
Forcing a girl into this kind of corner—this damn system's sense of humor was truly vile.
After who knew how long, the sounds behind him changed.
The soft friction of cloth.
It was the clothes Fu Hua had left behind.
Kiana clumsily pulled on a white shirt that was clearly too big for her.
She buttoned it all the way up. Between the collar, there was a faint, clean scent—like ink and old tea mixed together.
It was Class Monitor's smell.
That familiar scent made her movements stall for a beat. Her eyes stung, but she quickly sniffed hard and crushed that weakness back down.
She put on the black track pants too. The legs were long—she had to roll them up twice.
The Valkyrie who'd once felt lethal and almost sci-fi in presence looked… oddly fragile now, wrapped in loose everyday clothes—thin, narrow, small.
"I… I'm done."
Her hoarse voice came from behind him.
Su Yu felt like he'd been granted a pardon. The tension in his nerves finally loosened.
He turned around slowly.
Kiana was wearing Fu Hua's old clothes, the sleeves long enough to hide the backs of her hands, leaving only the tips of her fingers visible.
She had gathered her messy hair behind her head. The wariness on her pale face hadn't faded, but after cleaning the wound and the embarrassment of changing clothes, there was the faintest hint of color in her cheeks.
She no longer looked like a ghost that might shatter at the slightest touch.
She looked—just barely—like someone alive.
Su Yu let his eyes rest on her for only a second before politely shifting away, looking instead at the pile of blood-stained armor.
"How's the wound?" he asked naturally, as if the earlier "one-meter confinement" had never happened. "Can you still walk?"
Kiana pressed her lips together and nodded. Then, as if remembering something, she turned her face aside, voice muffled:
"Th—…"
It was so quiet it was almost a mosquito's buzz, but Su Yu still heard it.
Just then, someone knocked on the break-room door.
"Su Yu? Are you still in there?"
Fu Hua's voice came from outside. "The rain seems lighter. If it's inconvenient, I can—"
The moment Kiana heard that voice, her body snapped tight like a bowstring. She instinctively shrank back behind Su Yu, exposing herself by only half a head.
"Um… Su Yu."
The door opened.
Fu Hua's gaze slipped past Su Yu's shoulder, landing worriedly on Kiana—who was hiding behind him like a startled animal.
Even in dry clothes, the girl's bloodless face and the wary, hunted look in her eyes didn't say "fine" in any universe.
"She looks badly hurt… and her mental state seems unstable." Fu Hua lowered her voice, clearly trying not to provoke the stranger. "Do we really not need to call the police? Or an ambulance?"
"If it's domestic violence or some kind of dispute, police involvement would be safer…"
The word police made Kiana's breathing turn sharp and fast—as if she wanted to fold herself entirely into Su Yu's shadow.
For her, any official institution meant Schicksal's hounds. Endless pursuit. A cold laboratory.
Su Yu shifted back half a step, quietly positioning his body to shield her.
"No, A Hua. If we call the police… it'll only make things worse."
He sighed.
"You know how it is—some people have special situations. Lost ID, no documents… basically 'unregistered.' If the police show up, it won't help. We'll probably all end up 'having tea' at the station tonight."
Fu Hua paused, then her expression softened with understanding.
In a city like Sky City, people living in gray zones did exist.
She was law-abiding, but not naïve.
She looked at Su Yu deeply—those gray-blue eyes flashing with a trace of curiosity—then settling into calm.
"I understand."
She nodded and didn't press further.
Out of trust for this easygoing senior who often came by, she chose not to interfere too much.
"Alright. If you say so, I won't meddle."
And she left.
Su Yu turned back to Kiana.
But Kiana stiffly, stubbornly, refused to meet his eyes.
Outside, rain pattered against the awning. Inside the break room, only that rain remained.
"I'm Su Yu," he said first, breaking the dead air. "Hi."
"…Kiana."
Her eyes were still guarded.
Su Yu noticed how tense she was—like she could bolt at any second.
"I'm not a bad person," he said. "Well… bad people don't call themselves bad."
He paused and pointed at the panel only he could see.
"But you've probably felt it too. If you go more than a meter away from me, you'll start disappearing."
Kiana's body went rigid.
She knew he was telling the truth.
"What are you going to do to me?" Her voice was hoarse, threaded with hatred. "Hand me over to Otto? Or…"
"Sorry. I'm not connected to any lunatic who wants to go hugging trees every other day."
"…What?"
"I mean it like this—I don't know any Otto."
Kiana didn't believe him. She didn't say it, but her eyes did.
"You don't have to believe me," Su Yu said. "Come on. Let's go."
"Go… where?"
"My place."
"Why?"
Su Yu looked at the prickly, hedgehog-like Kiana and let out a helpless little breath.
"…I'm hungry. I'm going home to eat instant noodles."
Kiana didn't move.
Su Yu realized: this version of Kiana—the Sky City era—had her guard up thicker than armor. She didn't trust anyone. Cracking that wall wouldn't be easy.
Then he decided to drop something heavier.
"Mei would be heartbroken if she saw you like this."
"Wha—"
At that name, Kiana's pupils shrank.
"Who are you?"
Su Yu didn't answer. He just turned away.
"Come back with me, and I'll tell you."
He stopped wasting words and walked out of the break room.
He'd never thought of himself as a savior. Kiana at this stage really was that hard to talk to—her mind was probably racing through a hundred possibilities.
"W-wait."
Her voice made him stop.
She was pointing at the Valkyrie armor on the floor.
"Clothes…"
Su Yu got it immediately and called out, "A Hua—can you grab me a big plastic bag?"
Not long after—
Su Yu carried the bagged White Comet suit, with Kiana following behind.
Because of the one-meter restriction, they had to stay very close.
Kiana kept her face buried under the hood of the sweatshirt, head lowered, refusing to look at Fu Hua.
Fu Hua pointed at the landline by the register.
"I'm on the night shift tonight—until seven tomorrow morning. If… if something urgent happens that you can't handle, or her wound gets worse and you need medicine, you can come find me anytime."
Then she took a carton of warmed milk from the shelf and pressed it into Su Yu's hands.
"Take it. Warm up."
"Thanks, A Hua. I'll treat you to the Divine-Continent Houttuynia 'Family Bucket' some day."
"…Please don't."
Su Yu pushed open the convenience store's glass door, and the damp chill—mixed with thin rain—hit them again.
The rain was lighter than before, but the sky still looked like a spilled ink bottle.
He opened the black umbrella.
And because of that damn one-meter rule, the two of them had no choice but to stick close together.
Kiana lowered her head and tugged at the fabric near Su Yu's lower back, like an autistic child being dragged outside against her will.
She walked mechanically. The legs inside the oversized pant tubes stumbled a little, but she never dared fall even half a step behind.
After they went a short distance, the convenience store's warm light was already swallowed by the rain curtain behind them.
Kiana suddenly stopped and looked back.
Through the blurred rain, she could still see that ponytailed figure busy behind the counter—apparently cleaning up the wet floor from earlier.
"…Still the same bleeding-heart personality."
Her voice was so low it nearly vanished under the rain, carrying a self-mocking cold laugh.
"Caring about strangers. Giving strangers warm milk… Hah. She really knows how to act."
She lowered her head and looked at the shirt on her body—the one that belonged to "Fu Hua." Something complicated—pain and hate—flashed in her eyes.
"Just don't know… under that face, is there also calculation? Is she still carrying out some 'surveillance mission'?"
Su Yu's hand on the umbrella handle paused for a fraction.
He turned his head slightly, looking at the thorn-covered girl beside him.
Rain dampened her bangs. In the eyes that used to be as clear as the sky, there was now only deep distrust of the world.
In that heavy story she carried, Kiana had been betrayed by everything.
The class monitor she trusted most was a watcher. The teacher she respected most died to save her. She herself was treated as a Herrscher vessel meant to destroy the world…
After that kind of betrayal and loss, expecting her to drop her guard because of a carton of warm milk and a few caring words—that was the kind of fairy tale written by third-rate hacks.
For Kiana now, suspicion was survival instinct.
Every kindness looked like candy coated around poison.
Su Yu didn't argue. He didn't insist that this world's Fu Hua was a good person.
He didn't feed her any "the world still has warmth" motivational soup either.
He only tilted the umbrella a little more toward her side, blocking the rain from drifting in.
Then, as if he hadn't heard her at all, he spoke evenly:
"Come on. Once we're home, I'll cook you a bowl of noodles. That cold rice ball won't fill you up."
"…I didn't say I wanted to eat."
"Fine, fine. I'm hungry. You're just keeping me company. Happy?"
Kiana bit her lip and said nothing.
But the hand clutching his clothes didn't let go.
In this freezing rainy night, this man she was forced to stay within one meter of had become the only solid thing she could grab.
Even if she didn't trust him. Even if she doubted the entire world.
At least…
The umbrella in his hand was real—and it really could keep out the rain.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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