*CRISTOPHER’S POV*

[Cristopher: Get to work on that list! I need it!]-I write one last text to Kim Hajin before putting down my arm and looking at the entering Fran.

“Sorry for the wait!! I had to organize a few things from dinner… *sigh…*”-She says as she brings a tray with two cups of steaming drinks, that I presume are both hot chocolates.

“Don’t worry. I was talking with a friend meanwhile.”-I answer to her.

“Oh? Oh!? Friend? As in girlfriend!!!???”-She says while putting the tray on the table in the reception hall and looking at me while moving her eyebrows up and down.

“No. I already told you I don’t have a girlfriend.”-I answered while I spin my eyes in annoyance. “He’s a friend I’m helping with some stuff.”

“Wow. That’s weird. I never thought I would listen to you say the word ‘Friend’ so seriously… It gave me the chills you know!!”-She retorts while chuckling

“…”-I stare at her blankly.

“Well… Tell me, what made you come here?”-She asks while grabbing her cup of hot chocolate.

“What makes you think I’m not here just for a visit?”

“C’mon!!! I know you wouldn’t come here just for a visit! You are too petty for that!! You either need something or want something.”-She says while staring directly at my eyes. “So, what brings you here?”-She asks again before sipping from her cup.

“*sigh…* Well, fine… I’m here to ask some questions… Can I?”-I ask before grabbing my own cup and sipping.

“Sure!! You can ask whatever you want!! I’ll answer everything you need to know!!!”-She says while moving her index finger around rhythmically. She sure is bubbly huh?

“… First of all… Why is this place so-”

“So… broken? Abandoned? Neglected? Which one?”-She says while interrupting me with a smile.

“Well… All of them… I guess?”-I answer with an awkward smile.

“*sigh…* Honestly… I thought you would ask this long before… Last time you came actually.”-She paused to take a sip of hot chocolate as if to clear up her throat. “We… are not precisely the best orphanage around Seoul as you can see. Actually… We are barely able to meet months’ end…”-She says with a saddened smile.

“Why? Isn’t this a public orphanage? The government should take care of it right?”-I ask while lifting my eyebrow.

“Sure… And the director is even someone from the government… Is just that he is almost never here. The ones you see working here are the ones tending up to this place. Including me…”-She says, pause to take a sip, and then continues. “What would you expect from a place that shelters a bunch of sons and daughters of foreign criminals?”

“Huh? What?”

“Hahaha… C’mon! Don’t tell me you didn’t realize? All the children here, even we, the ones who work here, have foreign names. Even you.”

“Yes… I noticed… But… what does that have to do with you all being-”

“Sons and daughters of foreign criminals?”-She interrupts me again before taking another little sip. “Well, in Korea you don’t have a law that incriminates the children of a criminal, even less when the said child is not even past the year old. So… The ‘best’ thing they could do was put them inside somewhere. And that’s what makes up this place. A Korean orphanage? No. Why would they mix foreign children with their own? Even if they were all orphans…”

“But what does that have anything to do with this place being so neglected? I can’t understand that part…”

“Even if the law says different. People won’t think any good of the child of a criminal. What’s the saying? The apple doesn’t fall far off from the tree? *sigh…*”

“… So, everyone here’s like that? Sons or daughters of some criminal?”-I ask

“Of course not… It was like that from the start. But after some years passed… They just sent here orphans of any unknown origin. If you’re not the child of someone that meets their standard, you end up here. In the Locket of Hope! Haha…”-She ends with an ironic laugh…

“What was my case?”

“You? What with the sudden need to know about your past?”

“Well… Maybe that way I can know more of what happened to me. Right?”

“Mmm… Maybe you’re right? Well… Yours was a story I’ll never forget… After all, you were the first child I took care of.”-She while looking up with her index finger in her chin, as if remembering something from the past.

“I was?”

“Yes! You sure were hahaha!”-She says before finishing his cup of chocolate and putting it in the tray on the table. “I was in training actually, here at this place… I just went out from here, only to come back here, this time as a caretaker.”

“Why? You didn’t have anywhere to go?”

“Hahaha, C’mon!! With how beautiful and young I am? I sure could go anywhere! But… This place… It somehow felt right for me to help here. To help other kids like me. To actually give someone else hope and be truthful to the name of this place you know!?”

“Mmm… So… You were in training when I got here, right?”

“Yes! Exactly! And the old granny that took care of me during my childhood actually told me something like ‘Here, you’re lucky, even if newborn babies are not common at all, they still come from time to time, so you better learn to take care of them, start with this little child’”-She said while trying to imitate a grumpy old hag with a frown and his finger doing some kind of signaling game.

“So… I got here as a newborn baby?”

“Yup! You were ugly as fuck! Really!! I know some babies are born with reddened skin… But you were just like a tomato!!! As if someone just painted you red…”-She says while pointing at me…

“You know… You could be a little more polite when referring to others…*sigh…*”

“What? It’s the truth. I took care of you, changed your diapers, and everything else. Thankfully, you were really quiet. Never cried, not even when you were hungry… If it wasn’t for your steady breathing, we would think you were dead…”

“Well, I glad I wasn’t a problem for you…”

“Me too!!! Imagine it. Me being just a trainee taking care of a problematic baby… I would surely be lamenting my poor destiny…”-She says while faking a crying face… Really…

“Well… How did I end up in the first place?”-I ask. Trying to keep her focused on the story.

“It seems like some hero from the Association found you in one of the alleys in Seoul… You were thrown inside some trash can, with only a little letter with a name. ‘Cristopher David Lamas’. An obvious foreign name…*sigh…*” She paused to sigh… “Well, it seems like finding you inside a trash can made them think you were abandoned by some criminal or some poor family… So, they did what the thought was better. Bring you to the only orphanage in Seoul that caters to that kind of child… here.”

“Well… I’m indeed thankful for that…”

“Sure, you got to know me! Who wouldn’t be!?”

“What’s with you today?”

“Nothing! Why you ask?”

“No real reason… Well, how was I growing up?”

“Quiet.”

“Huh?”

“Really. You were quiet. The only times that we actually worried about you was when you were a year old and 5 years old. Other than that, well, it was as if you weren’t actually here…”

“What happened then? In those moments I mean.”

“When you were just a year old. You suddenly turned red, like when you were a newborn baby. And you started to cry and cry, and wouldn’t stop for anything. It was as if you were hurting or something… And your temperature rose a lot… We were worried that you were sick or something… But nothing we did was of any effect. You were like that for an entire day, until you just stopped crying, and everything went back to normal…”

“… And when I was 5?”-I ask again… This time in confusion…

“The same. You turned red… Your temperature rose and you started crying and crying. This time while screaming that it hurts, it hurts. You just keep repeating that while crying for an entire day. We were really scared. But like the first time. You just stopped once a day passed by… We couldn’t find what caused any of that.”-She paused for a second. But then continued. “When it first happened in your first year, your hair started changing its color, from a light auburn to a really dark brown hair… We didn’t know what was happening to you… And then… After your five years… Well, it suddenly started to change again, until it got to that weird hair of yours… A mix of white and dark brown almost black hair…”

{This… What’s this? It’s almost as if David Ross lived my own transformation here… But sooner than I did…}

The changes that he went through, were the ones I went through. But I did it at my 24 years old and 29 years old respectively… What the fuck happened… He just doesn’t share my same taste for chocolate or alcohol… But also, the same drastic change? What’s wrong here?

“Oh well, other than those two times, you were really quiet, introverted, and really liked to read any book you found in the public library. At least until the Association came to make an inspection in look for prospect heroes…”

“They do that here?”

“Sure, once every what? 5 or 10 years? They don’t pay too much attention to us here, but sometimes kids like you get lucky enough to have the Association making a search and having the opportunity to be tested. Though… Of all the kids of 6 years old here, only you were lucky enough to be acknowledged as a hero candidate.”

“Well… The world sure works in a weird way, huh…”

“Yes! That’s right!! Who would think that the quiet nerdy kid would end up being a hero candidate! We all got a real surprise that day!”

“Oh… About that… When is the next time they’re coming to take the test? I mean… Antonio is pretty excited you know?”

“Sadly… I don’t know… They came here 3 years ago… But not even one of the kids at that time was selected as a hero candidate. And now? Antonio is already 6 years old… If they don’t come here before he turns 8, it would be pretty hard for him to live his dream…”

“Why 8? Can’t he still be accepted at that age?”

“Nope, they only test those with 6 or 7 years old at max… More than that is impossible… Even more for orphans like us.”

“…”

“What’s with your sudden interest in Antonio and his dream of being a hero?”

“Well… I thought that maybe I could train him a little… Just in case he went to the Agent Military Academy like me…”

“Hahaha, I’m sure he would be really happy with that. But… I don’t know… I’m worried that he’ll grow excited only to be turned down when the Association doesn’t come…”

“What makes you be so sure that they wouldn’t come?”

“I told you… They come every 5 or 10 years… There are still 2 years until they come again, and that’s if we are lucky… We are the Locket of Hope… Not the Locket of Luck, you know?”

“Well. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m training him. And everyone that wants to for that matter.”

“What? Why would you do that!?”

“Just because.”

“Just… because?”

“Sure. You said so yourself. We’re the Locket of Hope. So, what’s wrong with us hoping for a better future, right?”

“… We’re? I’m pretty sure you’re now a Cube’s cadet. Not the same orphan. You know?”

“Oh come on. What? I can’t identify myself as someone from this place just for being a cadet?”

“No! No! Of course… you can… It’s just that, you know… It’s better for you to be called a ‘cadet’ and not an ‘orphan’…”

“What I’m called it’s none of my problem, even less yours. I’m proud to be whatever I am. Not whatever people call me. I’ll decide what I am. And I’ll keep to it. Until the very day, I die. Understood?”

“So, you should have grown up huh… I’m glad. That the little nerdy brat I raised is already a grown-up adult. *sigh…* Only if he could find himself some beautiful girlfriend to take care of him… I’ll be completely relieved…”

“Oi. Stop there.”

“Hahahaha fine! Fine!! I’ll accept it. I’ll let you train Antonio. Not so sure about the other kids. But if that would make them happy. It will be welcomed.”

“Thanks… But don’t tell them yet… I’ll first look for some money. We’ll need to do a thing or two about this place if we want it to become a good place for training.”

“Ohhh look at you! So worried about us… But, really, don’t worry too much. You have your own problems. First focus on your Academy Life.”

“Ha! You see me so unreliable that I can’t get money and good grades at the same time? Just wait. I’ll prove how wrong you are!”-I said while standing up. Ready to get back to Cube.

“Hahaha… I’m sure you will… I’ll be waiting.”-She says while also standing up. “So… You won’t wait for the kids to end classes?”

“No… I do have things to do… So, for today, I’ll be going back.”-I say while walking towards the entrance with her following me. “Say hi to the kids for me.”

“Okay! I hope you have a good day. And please contact me before you come here, that way I’ll be able to prepare some snacks beforehand, you know?”

“Sure, sure, I’ll try not to get here unnoticed.”-I say to her while passing through the door.

“You better!!!”-She says while giving me a light slap on the arm. “Well. We’ll see each other again!”

“Yes. Thanks for answering my questions.”

“Don’t worry. It wasn’t that hard, really! Haha! Now leave. I also have to clean a little before bedtime.”

“Sure. Have a great day, Fran.”

With those parting words, I leave the place.

Walking through the city of Seoul, looking around all the futuristic buildings, I find myself wondering.

{What will I do? I need to find some money. Fast. I could use the same method as Hajin. Maybe I’ll go with him, or something. And after that, play a little with the stocks to make as much money as possible.}

While looking to the now night sky. I found the moon high up in the sky.

{I still don’t know what will happen to me in this world. But. For the moments. I sure can spare some time to help the kids. As a way to pay you. David Ross. Wherever you are man.}

With that thought, I make my way back to Cube. Thinking about how I’ll make money to do the things that need to be done.

*KIM HAJIN’S POV*

*sigh…* Finally… I ended the goddamn list… And right before the time for training… I’ll just send it to that bastard…”-Right as I finish saying that, a text came to my smartwatch.

[Cristopher: I’m done. Already in Cube. Are you ready for training? Only 10 minutes left.]

“Is he able to see what I’m doing? How can he be so precise when it comes to stuff like this?”

[Kim Hajin: I’m done. I’ll send the list to you now and get ready for training. Wait for me in the training center.]

[Cristopher: Perfect. I’ll be waiting.]

“Wheew… Better be ready fast. I won’t hold it if this bastard suddenly increases my training just for getting a little bit late.”

While saying that, I send the list to him, and start changing my clothes to some training clothes.

*OLIVIA’S POV*

{That asshole… Is he coming today? I hope he does… I still want to try to get him to do that recovery thing he did with Hajin yesterday.}- I thought while waiting on a bench inside the training center.

Right then, the door opened and I look up to see who is it. {Maybe is it him?}

Sadly. The one to enter was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair. Chae Nayun. Rank 4 cadet. And a sharpshooter like me. And that made me sigh…

{Why is she here at this hour… She never came here so late before…}

While I was thinking about that, she went past me, looking all around with a glare as if trying to find someone.

“Hey.”-She suddenly turned to me and called.

“Hmm? What is it? Chae Nayun-ssi.”-I said, with my blood boiling from trying to be respectful.

“Well… I was just wanting to ask… If you haven’t seen that gunner guy… Kim Hajin. Your bo-boyfriend’s friend…”

{…}

“… First. No, I haven’t seen him. And second. That asshole isn’t my boyfriend.”-I said while frowning.

“Oh… Sure… Well… Thanks. Also… You shouldn’t lay unconscious on the ground after training… It isn’t safe…”-She says to me before turning again to walk towards the gravity rooms.

{What’s with her?}

After she went there, the door opened again. And sure enough. The one I was looking for came through them. With a somewhat lost-in-thought’s face.

{And what’s wrong with him? Why does it look like he is going through some problem or shit? An asshole like him wouldn’t worry about anything at all…}-I thought as I stand up to go towards Cristopher.