#149
It felt like I was using a naturalization I never intended to go through with as leverage, but I had no choice. I felt I had to speak strongly for them to listen to me.
“And you initially brought me here saying you’d show me the good points of America, right? How am I supposed to judge anything while stuck in a place like this?”
I pressed again, and Nikki relayed my words with a troubled expression. Ray listened quietly and nodded, saying, “That’s not wrong.”
“Then go out at dawn later. Anyway, if you naturalize, I’ll give this house to Hani.”
“What…!”
For a moment, I almost shouted, “What did you say?” However, I had to control my facial muscles somehow to pretend I couldn’t understand English well.
He’d give me this house? I’d only seen a small part of it, but it was clearly an extremely expensive house at first glance. If it was the same house I saw on the internet, even more so.
My heart raced for a moment, but then I thought it was pointless since I wasn’t going to naturalize anyway. Whether I returned to the home I had worked hard to acquire or woke up in my humble reality, this house would have no connection to me.
I managed my expression as best I could, only revealing my shock after Nikki interpreted. Ray seemed to think I liked it, as he wore a very pleased expression.
When dawn came, Nikki came to get me. I grabbed the laptop to compare it directly with the photos, and Nikki glanced at me before guiding me to the mansion’s entrance.
The mansion clearly showed signs of having few people. It was very quiet and luxurious. As I followed Nikki across the living room, I thought the windows were similar to what I had seen in the photos. Although the interior had completely changed, the structure felt similar.
Once outside, I first noticed the clean air. Well, in terms of air quality alone, the basement was actually better, but just the thought of being outside made it feel good.
“Follow that direction and go around the outskirts of the mansion. There’s a pretty flower garden in that direction that’s worth seeing. The garden is quite large, so it should be good for a walk.”
I see. I nodded obediently. Then Nikki told me to enjoy my walk time, and disappeared into the mansion, rubbing under her eyes as if tired.
Wondering where to start in the garden, I decided to follow Nikki’s words and go around the mansion once. It would be impossible to escape right away today anyway, and I needed to grasp the overall size and structure of the mansion.
‘Wow, it’s really big…’
I was surprised by the size of the house when I first went to Shin Haejun’s place, but this luxurious single-family home in the vast land of America was beyond just big. It was overwhelming with the house wall stretching as far as the eye could see.
Walking alone should make one’s mind comfortable, but instead, my head ached more thinking about how to escape and what the house structure was like.
As I walked around and observed, I noticed that this house had CCTVs installed on every outer wall. Someone might be monitoring my movements right now. However, judging by the landscaping of the garden, it seemed like I wouldn’t be visible if I went far enough.
Then the key would be getting from the house to the outskirts of the garden, and it seemed the only possible time was during walks.
‘By the way, this really is endless…’
I was surprised that the garden looked like a small forest. It took 20 minutes just to go around once, and as I moved towards the outskirts, it felt like I was walking through a dense forest of trees.
Intentionally avoiding the long paths and pushing through between trees to check for hiding spots, I found several good-looking spots here and there.
‘With this much space, there should be quite a few places to hide.’
This might be good for escape. At least I hadn’t heard any dog sounds or seen any dog houses, so they probably couldn’t track me by scent. It would be perfect to quickly hide between trees if necessary.
The important thing was where this end was. When I checked on the internet map, it only showed that it was extremely large and it was difficult to get a clear sense. I decided to keep walking to the end, but my legs were hurting as the forest wouldn’t end. When I checked the time on the laptop, I had walked for a good hour, but still hadn’t found the end!
‘Is this okay…?’
At this rate, I expected it would take a very long time to get to the downtown area I saw on the map. It was already tiring to walk this much, would it be okay when escaping?
Fortunately or unfortunately, my only belongings were this laptop and the 700,000 won I had prepared in advance in Korea. It was fortunate that it wasn’t cumbersome, but I wondered if I could escape and survive afterwards with just this.
‘I’m an illegal resident now, so it might be difficult to find even short-term part-time jobs… Do they have short-term part-time jobs in America?’
As I was worrying and continuing forward, I suddenly heard what sounded like a car in the distance. Soon after, I heard the sound of someone striding across the grass.
I froze in surprise, unable to make out who it was, when Liam suddenly appeared through the trees.
“Uh…”
“Let’s go back.”
Liam said in simple English that I could understand, without any explanation, and held out his hand. When I reflexively took his hand, he frowned as if he didn’t understand, and slightly dropped the held hand. Then he twirled his hand and pointed in the direction he had come from.
‘Ah…!’
My face suddenly felt hot. He was just indicating the direction to guide me back the way he had come. I was so used to holding hands with Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun that I grabbed his hand without thinking.
Unable to lift my head, I followed behind Liam and got into a small vehicle that seemed to be used for going around the garden.
By the time we reached the mansion entrance following the path we had come, my embarrassment had barely subsided. As reason returned, more serious issues came to mind than embarrassment.
‘How did he find me?’
Liam seemed to have known exactly where I was. If he had been wandering around looking for me, he would have called my name or there would have been sounds of the car going back and forth for a while.
Above all, where I was wasn’t a place that could be seen by the naked eye, being a bit away from the road.
‘With his Esper sensing abilities?’
I already knew that Espers had amazing sensing abilities. However, there was still something I couldn’t understand even with that.
‘Ah.’
I suddenly thought of the laptop I was holding. There was nothing particularly cumbersome about what I was wearing, so the only thing left was the laptop they had given me. It made sense if they had tracked my location using the laptop from the start.
Thinking about it that way, I felt it was incredibly fortunate that Liam had come to find me today. If I had run away with the laptop without knowing this crucial information, I would have been caught quickly. Just imagining it made my head spin.
“Hey…!”
I called out abruptly to Liam as he was turning to leave after bringing me to the basement door. Liam, who turned to look at me when I suddenly called in Korean, tilted his head as if asking if I was calling him.
“Uh, I mean… Would you like to talk tomorrow?”
I racked my brain and managed to produce a short English sentence while panting. Fortunately, Liam seemed to understand and nodded.
“I’ll come around 1 AM tomorrow morning.”
After saying that, Liam pointed at the door as if telling me to go in quickly.
‘Ray didn’t seem to have any personal fondness for me either, but… Liam feels even more awkward…? No, more dry?’
The thought that came to me as I obediently entered the room was whether Liam really wanted to form a pair with me. In this matter, Liam tended to act like a third party, and he didn’t seem to be trying to impress me particularly. Rather, his attitude was more like he was doing it because Ray wanted it, rather than because he wanted it himself.
It seemed like a good idea to confirm that, since Ray and Liam’s thoughts could be different. If Liam had different thoughts from Ray, it might help with my escape.
I entered the room and glared at the laptop on the table. The laptop that had initially seemed so welcome now looked like shackles. Of course, if I could memorize the entire map of this area, I wouldn’t have to worry about anything, but unfortunately, I wasn’t that smart.
For now, judging by the fact that the GPS function didn’t work, it didn’t seem like they were tracking the laptop’s location through software.
That means they probably installed a component that could track location inside the laptop, right? It would have been great if I had the ability to figure that out and remove it, but unfortunately, I was an ordinary person without such skills.
‘How should I use this?’
For now… I should ask Nikki for a sketchbook and colored pencils tomorrow. It seemed like a good idea to use the excuse of wanting to draw because I was bored, and then copy the entire map as drawings.
And this laptop… wouldn’t it be good to use it to confuse my location?
‘For now, it’s best to make them think I don’t know about the laptop’s tracking device.’
Although it felt uneasy, I’d have to keep the laptop with me all day tomorrow as well. It would be great if I could escape in one go, but if not, it seemed better to take the laptop out again tomorrow.
‘Let’s copy the map first and then think.’
Thanks to thinking about solutions while groaning from the fatigue accumulated during the walk, my brain was now in an uproar wanting to go on strike, so I had to postpone it until tomorrow.
***
When I said in the morning that I wanted to draw, Nikki asked what I wanted to draw. So I said I was thinking of drawing some landscapes, and she told me to wait for a few hours. I wondered why it was taking so long when I expected her to bring just a notebook and colored pencils at most…
“When I relayed your request to draw to Ray and Liam, they told me to prepare as luxuriously as possible.”
Nikki said with a slight smile, efficiently moving items into the room with someone I hadn’t seen before. And I stared with a blank expression at the canvas mounted on an easel and the countless paints placed beside it.
‘How am I supposed to copy the map like this…?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
