try begging

"Good morning."

When the owner, who was sweeping the steps in front of the shabby hotel, greeted him, Robert nodded in response. His gaze lingered momentarily on the phone sitting on the empty front desk as he went inside. But he quickly changed his mind and looked away.

"Morning."

He went up to the second floor and first visited Nancy's room, handing her the breakfast he had bought from the market.

"Thank you, sir. We'll leave in 30 minutes."

"Just a moment."

Robert grabbed the door as Nancy was about to close it. After confirming that there was no one else in the hallway, he lowered his voice and whispered.

"Let's make a call before we leave."

He meant to let the child talk to her mother. Since discovering the code left by that devil in the morning newspaper, he had been constantly trying to persuade Nancy, but she was stubborn.

"I told you it's a trick to track our location."

"That's why I'm saying let's do it before we leave."

"Sir, make up your mind whose side you're on."

Nancy sternly warned the old man and slammed the door shut. It was clear that the devil's child had firmly captivated the old man. A few days ago, the old man had gotten angry after reading a letter Nancy had written.

"Cutting off the child's finger? Are you out of your mind?"

"It's just a threat."

It was unbelievable that someone who knew better would take it seriously.

"As if I would really do it."

While she might actually do it if her father wasn't released by the deadline, she had told him it was just an empty threat because he kept protecting the child and she was worried that he might secretly take the child away.

"You're annoying."

She wanted to get away from the old man.

"What are you doing?"

The man opened the door to find the child kneeling beside the bed.

"Praying."

The child waved her clasped hands, placed on the bed mattress, as if to show off.

"That's very good of you to pray so earnestly."

Robert was about to praise the child for being so devout, but he was speechless at the child's answer.

"I prayed hard for Ellie to miss me so God would send Daddy from heaven. So if I pray really hard this time, God will send Mommy and Daddy to Ellie, right?"

"..."

Instead of answering, Robert handed the child a bag of bread. "Eat your breakfast."

The child smiled brightly and got up to take the bag. Forgetting about her prayers in an instant, she was now focused on the ham and cheese croissant. Watching the child, who had crumbs around her mouth, Robert asked.

"Is it delicious?"

The child nodded, her mouth full of pastry. "Chew slowly."

He sat down on a worn chair by the window and opened another bag. Inside were two oranges. As he took out his pocket knife to peel them, the child came up to him and licked her lips. She had a croissant in her mouth and her eyes were fixed on the oranges, as if worried he would eat them all before she could blink.

"These oranges are for you too. So eat your bread slowly."

Even so, the child stuffed her mouth with bread until her cheeks were as round as a squirrel's. As the orange scent grew stronger, her bright green eyes sparkled.

"Did you want this badly?"

"Hehe..."

As soon as he roughly peeled a piece, he handed it to her and the child laughed loudly. She had been singing about wanting oranges since last night, so he had gone to the market first thing in the morning and bought them at a high price. It was worth it.

"Save this for lunch, cough."

As he closed the bag with the remaining orange, he started coughing violently again. As he turned his head and pounded his chest, a milk bottle suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Drink."

The child handed him her milk.

"Thank you."

The child was an angel, raised well by her mother. Robert patted the child's head and stood up. He returned the milk to the child and went to the bathroom to find some cough medicine when someone knocked on the door.

"Let's go."

Nancy urged him, holding a bag in her hand as she opened the door.

"Is it time already?"

Robert handed a peeled orange to the child and started packing.

"Where are we going? Are we going to Mommy? I miss Mommy. When is Mommy coming?"

The child followed him like a chick, asking questions.

"Your mother will soon..."

Before Robert could finish, Nancy, who had been watching them both with disapproving eyes, interrupted.

"Your mother isn't coming."

The child, who had been eating an orange slice, looked at Nancy with wide eyes. The faint smile on the child's face gradually disappeared.

"...Why?"

"Nancy, go to the truck."

Robert waved her away, but Nancy instead approached the child, met their eye level, and said something she shouldn't.

"Your mother abandoned you. When she was asked to choose between you and your father, she chose your father and abandoned you."

"Daddy?"

S

trangely, the child opened their mouth wide and smiled as if they had heard good news.

"Mommy went to get Daddy?"

"She didn't go to get you. She abandoned you, didn't she?"

"Why did Mommy?"

"Because she doesn't love you, that's why."

Instead of being discouraged, the child furrowed their brow as if they had heard the silliest thing in the world.

"Mommy loves Ellie more than anything in the world. Doesn't Nancy know that?"

The child chewed on the orange with their mouth and stared intently at Nancy.

"Ha..." Nancy scoffed, as if she couldn't believe it, as she glared at the child. Robert pushed Nancy towards the door. He was worried that she might harm the child because she had lost an argument with a three-year-old.

"Goodness, she doesn't even cry."

Just as Nancy muttered, the child, who had been so brave until now, began to sniffle.

"Annie, no, Ellie..."

As soon as Robert tried to comfort her, the child clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and shouted, "I'm going to cry when Mommy comes!"

"You're a tough one."

"Nancy!"

"She's got a real mean streak, just like her mother."

"Exactly. Ellie is the spitting image of her mom."

The child laughed, as if she had never been crying. As Robert watched her sneakily eat an orange while eyeing Nancy who had been pushed out the door, he began to wonder if the child really was just like her mother in personality.

It was time to put on the child's coat after sending Nancy away and packing his things. The child, who had been quiet while eating the orange, asked him a question after finishing the last piece.

"Why did Nancy hate Mommy?"

"..."

Right. How could a grown adult be so mean to a three-year-old?

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry, mister? Are you Nancy's dad?"

"Well, not exactly..."

He had been helping Nancy because he felt sorry for her losing her family to that monster, and he wanted to save her last remaining family. But now he was starting to feel doubtful. He sighed and picked up the child's scarf, and she asked him, "Is Mommy with Daddy?"

When he nodded, the child smiled. "Heehee..."

Why didn't she doubt that her mother had abandoned her after hearing Nancy's words? Why was she smiling so happily?

"Aren't you upset that your mother went to be with your father?" When he asked, the child said something unexpected.

"Daddy loves Mommy very much."

Robert felt uncomfortable because it was information he didn't want to know. He suddenly remembered the image of that devil leering at 'Sally' in the torture chamber. At that time, it hadn't seemed like love.

He had thought that that devil couldn't love anyone but himself. But what had happened since then? Winston had made a child with his enemy. It wasn't an unfortunate accident, as evidenced by the fact that he had spent a large sum of money to show the circus to the child. But he didn't stop there.

Robert thought of the devil holding the child. He could see from across the circus that he loved his daughter. His thoughts naturally turned to Grace, who was standing beside him like a couple. And finally, he remembered the tears he had seen in her eyes for the last time.

"Ellie."

"Hmm?"

"Does Mommy love Daddy?"

"I don't know. Mommy is always angry at Daddy. Maybe because Daddy painted the walls all sorts of colors." The child mumbled, her fingers fiddling with her coat buttons.

Robert smiled bitterly at the child's innocent imagination. That devil was capable of painting the walls blood red.

So she's angry.

Robert had only feared Winston, not felt anger. That was still true, even now that he was out of the man's clutches.

It was an emotion that was difficult for a prisoner to have in relation to their interrogator. It was impossible unless Grace had a position of superiority over him.

T

he more he thought about it, the more he found their relationship difficult to understand.

Lost in thought, the child finished buttoning up her coat and, as if she had been holding it in, blurted out, 

"Ellie loves Mommy and Daddy very much!"

"Don't tell Nancy that."

When he warned her, the child held her hands together as if sharing a secret and gestured for him to come closer. Leaning down, he heard the child whisper in a low voice, "I don't like Nancy."

"Don't tell Nancy that either."

"I like Uncle Bobby."

Smiling at her adorable words, he stroked her head. As he stared at her face, which looked so much like her father's, he sighed and muttered, "I can see why your mother can't let go of you or your father."

It must be impossible for her.

So it must have been difficult for you to kill that devil.

"Do you know my dad, Uncle Bobby?"

Robert was startled by the unexpected question. Taking his silence as a yes, the child fiddled with her buttons and asked cautiously, "Can you tell Daddy to come see Ellie? Even if you don't tell him about Ellie."

Robert stared blankly at the child.

To use a child as a hostage? What kind of thing was this?

The child's words hit him like a blow to the head, and a sense of disillusionment washed over him again.

He recalled the image of the child sitting on a horse, enjoying herself, just before the operation began at the circus.

At first, he had thought only of revenge, as the young men in his group had said. But when he saw the child from a distance, spending happy times with her parents, his heart wavered.

But it was water under the bridge. He had hardened his heart and put his finger on the trigger, thinking that this was all his father's fault.

But that was only possible before he had seen the child up close and talked to her.

"What could you possibly have done wrong..."

With each passing day, I feel more and more sorry about what happened that day. I increasingly want to return you to your parents, just like that day. But I can't do that yet. I have to send another child back to their father as well. Robert stroked the child's head, who was waiting for an answer, and promised,

 "Don't worry. Your mother will come. If she doesn't, I'll take you there myself."

As long as I can just rescue Dave. That's the only reason I'm holding onto this child. If Nancy doesn't keep her promise to return the child once I release Dave, I intend to do it myself.

* * *

Leon returned from a brief outing and scanned his office. The soldier guarding the corridor had said Grace was in there, but he could see no one. Grace wasn't in the bathroom attached to the office either. Though she was a master of escape, he figured she wouldn't have tried to leave an office she'd voluntarily entered, so he was about to go look for her when the phone rang.

"Winston..."

Leon couldn't speak as soon as he picked up the phone at his desk. So, here you were.

Grace was huddled under the desk, her face full of despair. Her eyes were vacant, staring into space. The lifeless annex seemed to come alive again with a woman inside it. But the woman acted as if she were dead.

"Yes, proceed as planned."

The call was nothing important. Even without being told, Grace would know. The fact that her eyes didn't focus when the phone rang showed she had given up hope. The new phone installed to receive calls from the remnants had not rung once since Friday afternoon. Other phones had occasionally received tips about the wanted persons since Tuesday, but they had all turned out to be false or mistaken, and the two had been swinging between hope and despair for several days. 

Today, around lunchtime, a tip had come in. The local police, who had received a report that a woman resembling Nancy Wilkins was seen with a blond toddler in a small town near the capital, were tracking them down.

While waiting for the call, Leon had gone golfing. At David Wilkins' cell. He had asked Grace to come with him, but she had shaken her head. He wondered what she was doing alone, and it turned out she had confined herself under the desk, just like she used to be treated like a dog. 

They both inflicted pain on someone to relieve their tension and anxiety, but Leon inflicted it on others, while Grace inflicted it on herself.

Perhaps he had created that habit in her. The anxiety he had barely managed to relieve returned.

"Shall I put a leash on you?"

When he asked after hanging up the phone, Grace nodded weakly, a faint smile on her face. Leon sighed.

"Come out."

She was like a baby. Leon pulled Grace out from under the desk and seated her in a chair.

"Shall I call your brother?"

He asked, wondering if having family would stop her self-harm, but Grace shook her head.

"The hat?"

When Leon asked, Grace gestured towards the sofa. An ivory wool hat was neatly placed on the coffee table. She had started knitting it when she was pregnant with Ellie, pretending to have affection for the child in front of him, but had left it unfinished. Grace had picked it up again as soon as she returned, leaving it where he had left it on the bedside table.

"I'll give it to Ellie when she comes."

As if performing a ritual to wish for her safe return. Then, after a few days, she had finally finished it.

"Don't you think you need a scarf to go with that?"

It was something he said because he felt like if she didn't have something to hold, she might strangle him. Grace stared at him intently, clearly understanding his meaning.

"Then help me with my work."

Leon pushed a mobile desk with a typewriter on it in front of Grace and handed her a stack of handwritten notes. Soon, the sound of the typewriter, like a machine gun firing, filled the room. He sat down at his desk and started working again. He turned the radio up loud to cover the sound of the typewriter, but he was still on edge.

 He sighed and took out a cigar, but then changed his mind and opened a bottle of soda on the corner of his desk. Just as the sound of the typewriter suddenly stopped, Grace got up and walked towards the sofa.

He thought she was going to lie down, but she didn't. Grace picked up an orange from the fruit basket on the coffee table and placed it in front of him. Leon watched her curiously as she silently sat down at the typewriter, then turned his attention back to the orange. After staring at it for a moment, he took out a pocket knife. He peeled the orange and divided it into easy-to-eat segments, but there was no plate. Instead, he neatly placed them in a crystal glass and put it next to the typewriter. Grace looked up at him with a surprised expression and said, 

"...I gave that to you." This time, it was his turn to be surprised. The surprises didn't end there.

"Thank you for your hard work."

As soon as Leon hung up the phone from the special task force, he sighed. The tip, which he had secretly hoped would be promising, turned out to be a false alarm. Should I tell her? As he rested his forehead on one hand and glanced at Grace, she suddenly got up and walked towards him. Thinking she was going to grab him by the collar, Leon froze when she reached out to him. Grace hugged him. 

She buried her head in his chest, stroked his hair, and said, "It's okay." Then, she released the stunned Leon and returned to her seat. Even if he had been attacked, he couldn't have been more surprised. Leon stared blankly at the woman's back as she typed, as if nothing had happened, and asked,

 "What was that?"

"...Comforting you."

"...Comforting me? You?"

"If you don't like it, I won't do it anymore."

"That's not what I meant."

Grace knew he was asking why she felt that way. She hesitated for a moment before speaking, still with her back to him.

"I said that Ellie was also obsessed with blood, like you. I thought a lot about you back then."

I wondered if you, who had witnessed your father covered in blood, were like Ellie.

"I thought you must have been really struggling too, not being able to control yourself."

I wonder if anyone was there to comfort you back then. To tell you that everything was going to be okay. Probably not. Before the shock of his loved one's brutal death had even subsided, he had to step in front of the camera, in front of the crowd. As the family head, he had to vow to protect the family and take revenge as a soldier. In front of adults whose greed outweighed their compassion. It was an excessive and cruel burden for a thirteen-year-old boy.

"I thought if you had someone who loved you, you might have been different now."

"So, if I had someone who loved me now, could I change?"

What a manipulative thing to say. Grace just laughed.

"Anyway, thank you."

Although her tone was light, the sincerity behind her words was heavy. As she listened to his gratitude, a corner of Grace's heart fluttered. It was clear that she had comforted him, but it felt like she was the one who had been comforted.

"Next time, a kiss might be even more comforting..."

"You're too greedy."

Grace turned to Leon and glared at him with narrowed eyes. Then, she burst out laughing.

"Get back to work."

"Yes, my love."

Glancing at him once more, Grace turned away. The sound of the typewriter began to mix with the soft radio playing in the office. The sound no longer irritated Leon.

* * *

"Good morning."

When the owner, who was sweeping the steps in front of the shabby hotel, greeted him, Robert nodded in response. His gaze lingered momentarily on the phone sitting on the empty front desk as he went inside. But he quickly changed his mind and looked away.

"Morning."

He went up to the second floor and first visited Nancy's room, handing her the breakfast he had bought from the market.

"Thank you, sir. We'll leave in 30 minutes."

"Just a moment."

Robert grabbed the door as Nancy was about to close it. After confirming that there was no one else in the hallway, he lowered his voice and whispered.

"Let's make a call before we leave."

He meant to let the child talk to her mother. Since discovering the code left by that devil in the morning newspaper, he had been constantly trying to persuade Nancy, but she was stubborn.

"I told you it's a trick to track our location."

"That's why I'm saying let's do it before we leave."

"Sir, make up your mind whose side you're on."

Nancy sternly warned the old man and slammed the door shut. It was clear that the devil's child had firmly captivated the old man. A few days ago, the old man had gotten angry after reading a letter Nancy had written.

"Cutting off the child's finger? Are you out of your mind?"

"It's just a threat."

It was unbelievable that someone who knew better would take it seriously.

"As if I would really do it."

While she might actually do it if her father wasn't released by the deadline, she had told him it was just an empty threat because he kept protecting the child and she was worried that he might secretly take the child away.

"You're annoying."

She wanted to get away from the old man.

"What are you doing?"

The man opened the door to find the child kneeling beside the bed.

"Praying."

The child waved her clasped hands, placed on the bed mattress, as if to show off.

"That's very good of you to pray so earnestly."

Robert was about to praise the child for being so devout, but he was speechless at the child's answer.

"I prayed hard for Ellie to miss me so God would send Daddy from heaven. So if I pray really hard this time, God will send Mommy and Daddy to Ellie, right?"

"..."

Instead of answering, Robert handed the child a bag of bread. "Eat your breakfast."

The child smiled brightly and got up to take the bag. Forgetting about her prayers in an instant, she was now focused on the ham and cheese croissant. Watching the child, who had crumbs around her mouth, Robert asked.

"Is it delicious?"

The child nodded, her mouth full of pastry. "Chew slowly."

He sat down on a worn chair by the window and opened another bag. Inside were two oranges. As he took out his pocket knife to peel them, the child came up to him and licked her lips. She had a croissant in her mouth and her eyes were fixed on the oranges, as if worried he would eat them all before she could blink.

"These oranges are for you too. So eat your bread slowly."

Even so, the child stuffed her mouth with bread until her cheeks were as round as a squirrel's. As the orange scent grew stronger, her bright green eyes sparkled.

"Did you want this badly?"

"Hehe..."

As soon as he roughly peeled a piece, he handed it to her and the child laughed loudly. She had been singing about wanting oranges since last night, so he had gone to the market first thing in the morning and bought them at a high price. It was worth it.

"Save this for lunch, cough."

As he closed the bag with the remaining orange, he started coughing violently again. As he turned his head and pounded his chest, a milk bottle suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Drink."

The child handed him her milk.

"Thank you."

The child was an angel, raised well by her mother. Robert patted the child's head and stood up. He returned the milk to the child and went to the bathroom to find some cough medicine when someone knocked on the door.

"Let's go."

Nancy urged him, holding a bag in her hand as she opened the door.

"Is it time already?"

Robert handed a peeled orange to the child and started packing.

"Where are we going? Are we going to Mommy? I miss Mommy. When is Mommy coming?"

The child followed him like a chick, asking questions.

"Your mother will soon..."

Before Robert could finish, Nancy, who had been watching them both with disapproving eyes, interrupted.

"Your mother isn't coming."

The child, who had been eating an orange slice, looked at Nancy with wide eyes. The faint smile on the child's face gradually disappeared.

"...Why?"

"Nancy, go to the truck."

Robert waved her away, but Nancy instead approached the child, met their eye level, and said something she shouldn't.

"Your mother abandoned you. When she was asked to choose between you and your father, she chose your father and abandoned you."

"Daddy?"

S

trangely, the child opened their mouth wide and smiled as if they had heard good news.

"Mommy went to get Daddy?"

"She didn't go to get you. She abandoned you, didn't she?"

"Why did Mommy?"

"Because she doesn't love you, that's why."

Instead of being discouraged, the child furrowed their brow as if they had heard the silliest thing in the world.

"Mommy loves Ellie more than anything in the world. Doesn't Nancy know that?"

The child chewed on the orange with their mouth and stared intently at Nancy.

"Ha..." Nancy scoffed, as if she couldn't believe it, as she glared at the child. Robert pushed Nancy towards the door. He was worried that she might harm the child because she had lost an argument with a three-year-old.

"Goodness, she doesn't even cry."

Just as Nancy muttered, the child, who had been so brave until now, began to sniffle.

"Annie, no, Ellie..."

As soon as Robert tried to comfort her, the child clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and shouted, "I'm going to cry when Mommy comes!"

"You're a tough one."

"Nancy!"

"She's got a real mean streak, just like her mother."

"Exactly. Ellie is the spitting image of her mom."

The child laughed, as if she had never been crying. As Robert watched her sneakily eat an orange while eyeing Nancy who had been pushed out the door, he began to wonder if the child really was just like her mother in personality.

It was time to put on the child's coat after sending Nancy away and packing his things. The child, who had been quiet while eating the orange, asked him a question after finishing the last piece.

"Why did Nancy hate Mommy?"

"..."

Right. How could a grown adult be so mean to a three-year-old?

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry, mister? Are you Nancy's dad?"

"Well, not exactly..."

He had been helping Nancy because he felt sorry for her losing her family to that monster, and he wanted to save her last remaining family. But now he was starting to feel doubtful. He sighed and picked up the child's scarf, and she asked him, "Is Mommy with Daddy?"

When he nodded, the child smiled. "Heehee..."

Why didn't she doubt that her mother had abandoned her after hearing Nancy's words? Why was she smiling so happily?

"Aren't you upset that your mother went to be with your father?" When he asked, the child said something unexpected.

"Daddy loves Mommy very much."

Robert felt uncomfortable because it was information he didn't want to know. He suddenly remembered the image of that devil leering at 'Sally' in the torture chamber. At that time, it hadn't seemed like love.

He had thought that that devil couldn't love anyone but himself. But what had happened since then? Winston had made a child with his enemy. It wasn't an unfortunate accident, as evidenced by the fact that he had spent a large sum of money to show the circus to the child. But he didn't stop there.

Robert thought of the devil holding the child. He could see from across the circus that he loved his daughter. His thoughts naturally turned to Grace, who was standing beside him like a couple. And finally, he remembered the tears he had seen in her eyes for the last time.

"Ellie."

"Hmm?"

"Does Mommy love Daddy?"

"I don't know. Mommy is always angry at Daddy. Maybe because Daddy painted the walls all sorts of colors." The child mumbled, her fingers fiddling with her coat buttons.

Robert smiled bitterly at the child's innocent imagination. That devil was capable of painting the walls blood red.

So she's angry.

Robert had only feared Winston, not felt anger. That was still true, even now that he was out of the man's clutches.

It was an emotion that was difficult for a prisoner to have in relation to their interrogator. It was impossible unless Grace had a position of superiority over him.

T

he more he thought about it, the more he found their relationship difficult to understand.

Lost in thought, the child finished buttoning up her coat and, as if she had been holding it in, blurted out, 

"Ellie loves Mommy and Daddy very much!"

"Don't tell Nancy that."

When he warned her, the child held her hands together as if sharing a secret and gestured for him to come closer. Leaning down, he heard the child whisper in a low voice, "I don't like Nancy."

"Don't tell Nancy that either."

"I like Uncle Bobby."

Smiling at her adorable words, he stroked her head. As he stared at her face, which looked so much like her father's, he sighed and muttered, "I can see why your mother can't let go of you or your father."

It must be impossible for her.

So it must have been difficult for you to kill that devil.

"Do you know my dad, Uncle Bobby?"

Robert was startled by the unexpected question. Taking his silence as a yes, the child fiddled with her buttons and asked cautiously, "Can you tell Daddy to come see Ellie? Even if you don't tell him about Ellie."

Robert stared blankly at the child.

To use a child as a hostage? What kind of thing was this?

The child's words hit him like a blow to the head, and a sense of disillusionment washed over him again.

He recalled the image of the child sitting on a horse, enjoying herself, just before the operation began at the circus.

At first, he had thought only of revenge, as the young men in his group had said. But when he saw the child from a distance, spending happy times with her parents, his heart wavered.

But it was water under the bridge. He had hardened his heart and put his finger on the trigger, thinking that this was all his father's fault.

But that was only possible before he had seen the child up close and talked to her.

"What could you possibly have done wrong..."

With each passing day, I feel more and more sorry about what happened that day. I increasingly want to return you to your parents, just like that day. But I can't do that yet. I have to send another child back to their father as well. Robert stroked the child's head, who was waiting for an answer, and promised,

 "Don't worry. Your mother will come. If she doesn't, I'll take you there myself."

As long as I can just rescue Dave. That's the only reason I'm holding onto this child. If Nancy doesn't keep her promise to return the child once I release Dave, I intend to do it myself.

* * *

Leon returned from a brief outing and scanned his office. The soldier guarding the corridor had said Grace was in there, but he could see no one. Grace wasn't in the bathroom attached to the office either. Though she was a master of escape, he figured she wouldn't have tried to leave an office she'd voluntarily entered, so he was about to go look for her when the phone rang.

"Winston..."

Leon couldn't speak as soon as he picked up the phone at his desk. So, here you were.

Grace was huddled under the desk, her face full of despair. Her eyes were vacant, staring into space. The lifeless annex seemed to come alive again with a woman inside it. But the woman acted as if she were dead.

"Yes, proceed as planned."

The call was nothing important. Even without being told, Grace would know. The fact that her eyes didn't focus when the phone rang showed she had given up hope. The new phone installed to receive calls from the remnants had not rung once since Friday afternoon. Other phones had occasionally received tips about the wanted persons since Tuesday, but they had all turned out to be false or mistaken, and the two had been swinging between hope and despair for several days. 

Today, around lunchtime, a tip had come in. The local police, who had received a report that a woman resembling Nancy Wilkins was seen with a blond toddler in a small town near the capital, were tracking them down.

While waiting for the call, Leon had gone golfing. At David Wilkins' cell. He had asked Grace to come with him, but she had shaken her head. He wondered what she was doing alone, and it turned out she had confined herself under the desk, just like she used to be treated like a dog. 

They both inflicted pain on someone to relieve their tension and anxiety, but Leon inflicted it on others, while Grace inflicted it on herself.

Perhaps he had created that habit in her. The anxiety he had barely managed to relieve returned.

"Shall I put a leash on you?"

When he asked after hanging up the phone, Grace nodded weakly, a faint smile on her face. Leon sighed.

"Come out."

She was like a baby. Leon pulled Grace out from under the desk and seated her in a chair.

"Shall I call your brother?"

He asked, wondering if having family would stop her self-harm, but Grace shook her head.

"The hat?"

When Leon asked, Grace gestured towards the sofa. An ivory wool hat was neatly placed on the coffee table. She had started knitting it when she was pregnant with Ellie, pretending to have affection for the child in front of him, but had left it unfinished. Grace had picked it up again as soon as she returned, leaving it where he had left it on the bedside table.

"I'll give it to Ellie when she comes."

As if performing a ritual to wish for her safe return. Then, after a few days, she had finally finished it.

"Don't you think you need a scarf to go with that?"

It was something he said because he felt like if she didn't have something to hold, she might strangle him. Grace stared at him intently, clearly understanding his meaning.

"Then help me with my work."

Leon pushed a mobile desk with a typewriter on it in front of Grace and handed her a stack of handwritten notes. Soon, the sound of the typewriter, like a machine gun firing, filled the room. He sat down at his desk and started working again. He turned the radio up loud to cover the sound of the typewriter, but he was still on edge.

 He sighed and took out a cigar, but then changed his mind and opened a bottle of soda on the corner of his desk. Just as the sound of the typewriter suddenly stopped, Grace got up and walked towards the sofa.

He thought she was going to lie down, but she didn't. Grace picked up an orange from the fruit basket on the coffee table and placed it in front of him. Leon watched her curiously as she silently sat down at the typewriter, then turned his attention back to the orange. After staring at it for a moment, he took out a pocket knife. He peeled the orange and divided it into easy-to-eat segments, but there was no plate. Instead, he neatly placed them in a crystal glass and put it next to the typewriter. Grace looked up at him with a surprised expression and said, 

"...I gave that to you." This time, it was his turn to be surprised. The surprises didn't end there.

"Thank you for your hard work."

As soon as Leon hung up the phone from the special task force, he sighed. The tip, which he had secretly hoped would be promising, turned out to be a false alarm. Should I tell her? As he rested his forehead on one hand and glanced at Grace, she suddenly got up and walked towards him. Thinking she was going to grab him by the collar, Leon froze when she reached out to him. Grace hugged him. 

She buried her head in his chest, stroked his hair, and said, "It's okay." Then, she released the stunned Leon and returned to her seat. Even if he had been attacked, he couldn't have been more surprised. Leon stared blankly at the woman's back as she typed, as if nothing had happened, and asked,

 "What was that?"

"...Comforting you."

"...Comforting me? You?"

"If you don't like it, I won't do it anymore."

"That's not what I meant."

Grace knew he was asking why she felt that way. She hesitated for a moment before speaking, still with her back to him.

"I said that Ellie was also obsessed with blood, like you. I thought a lot about you back then."

I wondered if you, who had witnessed your father covered in blood, were like Ellie.

"I thought you must have been really struggling too, not being able to control yourself."

I wonder if anyone was there to comfort you back then. To tell you that everything was going to be okay. Probably not. Before the shock of his loved one's brutal death had even subsided, he had to step in front of the camera, in front of the crowd. As the family head, he had to vow to protect the family and take revenge as a soldier. In front of adults whose greed outweighed their compassion. It was an excessive and cruel burden for a thirteen-year-old boy.

"I thought if you had someone who loved you, you might have been different now."

"So, if I had someone who loved me now, could I change?"

What a manipulative thing to say. Grace just laughed.

"Anyway, thank you."

Although her tone was light, the sincerity behind her words was heavy. As she listened to his gratitude, a corner of Grace's heart fluttered. It was clear that she had comforted him, but it felt like she was the one who had been comforted.

"Next time, a kiss might be even more comforting..."

"You're too greedy."

Grace turned to Leon and glared at him with narrowed eyes. Then, she burst out laughing.

"Get back to work."

"Yes, my love."

Glancing at him once more, Grace turned away. The sound of the typewriter began to mix with the soft radio playing in the office. The sound no longer irritated Leon.

* * *