TDAV 06

Chapter 06

Betty’s eyes widened.

The person standing before her was none other than James.

Why are you here?

Just as Betty was unable to bring herself to say the words lingering on the tip of her tongue, James, who had recognized her, slowly moved his lips.

“Oh? This morning…”

He had recognized her.

Betty opened her mouth, pretending to be as indifferent as possible.

“Would you like to place an order?”

She didn’t want any other conversation to take place.

James hesitated. Then, seeing Betty’s expressionless face, he slowly answered.

“Ah… One latte, please.”

“Would you like it hot?”

“Yes.”

“For here or to go?”

“Oh, no—yes. I’ll have it here.”

“Understood. Please take a seat at any empty table, and I’ll bring it to you.”

Betty deliberately avoided looking at James. She kept her eyes fixed only on the POS terminal as she entered his order.

As James walked toward an empty table, Betty quickly prepared his latte. She figured that the faster she made it, the sooner James would finish it and leave.

But the persistent gaze boring into her back seemed to tell her that James had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

Why is he looking at me like that?

Betty narrowed her brows as she poured the coffee into a mug.

If the café were busy, she wouldn’t have to think about it so much, but for some reason, even during peak hours, the café remained unusually quiet today.

“Here is your hot Americano.”

Betty carefully placed the mug on the table.

James’s persistent gaze landed on her profile before drifting away.

“Thank you. You’re the person I saw at school this morning, right?”

James asked without even looking at the mug.

Unable to ignore such a direct question any longer, Betty met James’s gaze as he stared intently at her.

“Yes. That’s right.”

“I knew it… Do you work here?”

“Yes.”

James looked at Betty and smoothly lifted the corners of his lips.

There was an inexplicable fondness in his eyes as he looked up at her.

It’s only our second chance meeting. He must just be that kind of person.

Kind and gentle Hero James.

Those were the words that always accompanied his name.

That’s right. He must simply have such a good personality.

Betty tried to shake off her uncomfortable feeling and leave.

But James spoke first.

“Um… Did everything work out okay this morning?”

This morning…

Betty remembered the books that had been soaked in spoiled milk.

Concern appeared in James’s brown eyes.

He seemed genuinely worried about her.

Betty looked at James, who was repeatedly rubbing the handle of his mug, and answered in a dry voice.

“Yes.”

It was a short answer, deliberately conveying that she didn’t want to continue the conversation.

She was grateful for his kindness and concern, but she couldn’t return those feelings. She wasn’t in a position to do so.

Fortunately, James seemed to understand her intention, because his smile slowly faded.

“I think I bothered you while you were working. You resemble someone I used to know. I’m sorry.”

“…Yes.”

At his words—that she resembled someone he used to know—Betty’s heart gave a brief, involuntary thump.

Because she had a feeling she knew exactly who that someone was.

Betty’s fingertips trembled for a moment, but thankfully, James didn’t notice.

As if on cue, the café door opened.

“Welcome.”

Perhaps the quiet café was finally about to become crowded, because people began pouring in one after another.

James pulled his cap down even lower and buried his face behind his mug.

Betty could no longer pay attention to James.

The evening rush had begun, with couples and families alike filling the café.

Betty moved frantically.

She made coffee until she could no longer even smell the aroma of the beans.

Only after handing the final order—a cappuccino—to a customer did she finally get a chance to catch her breath.

Then she looked toward the empty seat where James had been sitting.

“He left…”

Only the mug remained on the table.

Betty walked over to the empty table.

The coffee inside the mug had been completely finished.

“…Huh?”

Betty stopped as she picked up the mug.

There was a small note underneath it.

She placed the mug on one side of the table and picked up the note.

When she unfolded the neatly folded paper, she saw clean, orderly handwriting.

[My name is James McMillan. See you at school.]

It was only a short message, but Betty could not fail to understand the feelings behind it.

He wanted to become closer to her.

Betty looked down at the note with complicated feelings.

It hadn’t even been a day since she decided she needed to avoid James, yet things already seemed to be getting tangled.

“You resemble someone I used to know.”

Those were the words James had said to her.

That was probably the reason he wanted to become close to her.

She had thought he had changed a lot since they were children.

Had she been wrong?

It seemed that James had seen traces of Haeju in Betty’s face.

Otherwise, there was no reason for a world-famous celebrity like him to take an interest in an ordinary East Asian girl he had met only twice.

“…Will this be okay?”

Betty felt anxious, but she tried to think calmly.

Haeju was dead.

James would know that too.

If he truly still hadn’t forgotten Haeju, he would have searched for news about her at least once after losing contact with her.

He must have heard that she had died.

Yes.

Now that she thought about it, James had only said that Betty resembled someone he knew. He had never once shown any sign that he suspected she was Haeju.

That’s right. It’ll be okay.

Even if he became interested in her, if Betty continued to keep her distance, his interest would eventually fade on its own.

Besides, James would be surrounded by his fans at school. He wouldn’t have much time to approach her anyway.

And he wasn’t the kind of person who had enough free time to devote all his attention to some girl.

Betty folded the paper again.

She tried to throw it away so she wouldn’t become attached to it.

But when she stood in front of the trash can, she couldn’t bring herself to let go.

Instead, she fidgeted with the note.

Haeju.

The face of Seunghyun smiling brightly as he called her name surfaced in her mind.

A forgotten memory from the past came calling to Betty.

Now that even her uncle had stopped contacting her, James was the only remaining connection she had to her past.

So… wouldn’t it be okay to keep just the note?

Keeping the note wouldn’t put her in danger.

Betty hesitated.

In the end, instead of throwing the note into the trash, she slipped it into her pants pocket.

Mason Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

A steady mechanical sound echoed throughout the laboratory.

A man wearing a protective suit was transferring a red-colored drug into a flask.

So absorbed in his work was he that he failed to notice the small commotion occurring at the entrance to the laboratory.

“Ah!”

The brief cry disappeared in less than a second.

Not long afterward, the laboratory door opened.

A man carrying a tray, apparently preparing to move a flask, was standing in front of the desk when another person’s body collided with his back.

The man transferring the drug staggered from the impact, causing the flask to shake violently.

“What the hell! Are you crazy? Be careful!”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I didn’t spill anything, right?”

The other man who had accidentally bumped into him looked at the flask as he asked.

Fortunately, none of the substance inside had spilled.

“Haa…”

The man let out a sigh of relief before carefully placing the container of medicine inside a chemical storage case from which cold air was pouring.

Then, the moment he turned around, the other man standing behind him removed the hood of his protective suit.

His colleague shouted in surprise.

“Are you crazy? Don’t you know there’s radiation in here?”

“I know. But it doesn’t really matter to me.”

“What?”

The man in the protective suit stared at his colleague as if he had just said something completely insane.

Then the man who had removed his hood grabbed his own face.

And tore it off.

Literally.

His colleague’s eyes widened as he watched the man peel away the entire surface of his face.

“You—you, what are you doing…?”

In an instant, the man’s face was ripped away, along with the covering over his head.

And platinum-blond hair emerged from beneath the fake face.

“Haa… I thought I was going to suffocate in there.”

The man shook his head, as though relieved to finally be free of the stuffiness.

His platinum-blond hair swayed and shimmered beneath the fluorescent lights of the laboratory.

“Who… who are you…?”

The voice of the man in the protective suit trembled.

Even after witnessing everything before his eyes, he couldn’t believe it.

His colleague’s face had disappeared right in front of him, and a completely unfamiliar man had appeared in his place.

The man in the protective suit glanced at the piece of skin-like material lying on the floor.

A specially manufactured fake face.

No way…

Just as a chill ran down the man’s spine, the platinum-blond man lifted his head.

He smoothly raised the corners of his lips.

It was a sinister smile that did not suit his handsome face.

At that moment, the man in the protective suit realized the platinum-blond man’s identity.

“Y-You’re… Villain… Dave…!”

“That’s right. Nice to meet you.”

At Dave’s dazzling smile, the man’s face turned deathly pale.

Gasping, the man in the protective suit frantically backed away.

He desperately pressed the emergency button used in critical situations.

But no matter how many times he pressed it, no alarm sounded.

Click. Click.

Only the pitiful sound of the button echoed through the laboratory.

“Come on, stop doing something so pointless. Did you really think I’d come all the way here without taking any precautions?”

Dave narrowed his eyes as though he pitied the man before taking a step toward him.

“D-Don’t come any closer! G-Go away!”

Unlike the screaming man, Dave’s expression remained completely relaxed.

With every step Dave took toward him, the man in the protective suit screamed louder.

Driven to the brink of terror, he threw anything he could get his hands on at Dave.

But every object he threw was burned to ashes before it could even touch the platinum-blond man’s body.

“I told you to stop doing pointless things. You really don’t know when to give up. Poor thing.”

“Ugh… ugh…”

At last, Dave stopped in front of the man.

Dave looked down at the man in the protective suit, who had collapsed on the floor.

Even with a layer of material covering his face, his terror was plainly visible in his eyes.

The man reached for a shard of broken glass, but Dave grabbed his arm roughly and twisted it.

“I’ve been lenient with you until now. That’s where it ends.”

“Ugh…”

Dave looked at the man’s distorted face and smiled twistedly.

“If you want to live, you’d better answer my questions properly from now on. As you know, I’m a madman and a murderer.”

I don’t have much patience.

Dave’s eyes glinted dangerously as he met the man’s trembling gaze.

And that night, one researcher from the Cookeville Mason Pharmaceutical Research Institute disappeared.

But not a single news outlet reported the researcher’s disappearance.

As though nothing had happened at all.