Last entry of this season! I hope it's to your liking. Happy reading! — L

Stupid, stupid things.

He was doing so many stupid things, but he wasn’t being punished for them.

Normally, discretion was preferred over exposition on the front page of every single newspaper once his silhouette was caught on camera. Being in the tongue of every single person in both the underground citadel and the actual city since Maria disappeared wasn’t ideal, either.

Sure, it was nice to have some odd legend about you, but it sounded so far-fetched and made up he might as well have been a cryptid incognito searching for a girl to eat, rather than… well, him. But rumours can only grow, and what started as a mere breeze on the coast side was now a massive tidal wave that threatened to take away any anonymity he would’ve wished to preserve.

But it’s okay, apparently. His father seemed to enjoy it, Jeongwon doesn’t know why, or rather, he’s not quite sure why.

He knew the maid at the Olympia had seen him, he knew she was keeping track of him, she wasn’t as subtle as she thought she was, but damn he was not counting on her photographic memory. Sure, some elements had been exaggerated for dramatic purposes, Jeongwon assumes, still, when his father slammed the portrait of the “kid” that had hunted Maria Lionheart, Jeongwon thought he was going to follow her to the afterlife in a blink.

What happened, though, was so, so odd.

His father just looked at him, then at the portrait, and decided it wasn’t a big deal.

Jeongwon had been yelled at for creating a mere creek with his steps back when he was around five, and now his cover blown away by Jadis, the maid, was… not a big deal?

“You’ll wear a mask, you can paint on it, like you did your walls.”

And so masked he was. It became incredibly useful when he passed by the red zones of the city, near the big factories that never really closed or were shut down. One could see the lakes around them turn green and black due to the heavy dyes and toxic residue from whatever produce they needed to finish. His skin and lungs heavily thanked the mask.

However, his father’s behaviour had been so odd, he wanted to test it.

He knew it was stupid, and was practically a scream for a death sentence, but he had to know why.

That's when Yoo Rohan entered the picture. The woman was the epitome of the truth, honest to a fault and so earnest and determined when it came to criminal justice. If anyone could find him, it was her. And so, Officer Yoo Rohan saw him fairly close during one of Jeongwon’s scouting into the upper city, he had even talked to her, just two words, but they were enough for the woman to be startled by his age.

She had access to Maria’s file, if she saw his portrait, and connected it to how he looked now, years later, she would recognise him. Even with scars on his eyelids, temples and cheeks, he looked the same, she could’ve made it explode into the news.

But when she went to talk to her superiors, they shut her down. He was there, figuratively of course, listening close by. He felt so bad for Officer Yoo, one of her supervisors was a regular at the under city. Jeongwon had seen him in brothels and clandestine fighting clubs. More importantly, he had seen him fight in said clubs, win, and then treat the pretty boys and girls he fooled around with to the nicest place that hidden dark paradise had to offer.

Jeongwon’s father sponsored the man.

Nothing came of it.

A paper or two, but that was it.

Like Maria had been a no one. Like her death meant nothing.

His father had cackled at Officer Yoo once he found out, calling her naive and too pure-spirited.

Soon after, Officer Yoo became a mere civilian again. Jeongwon couldn’t help but feel he was directly at fault.

His father had praised him. “She was a liability either way, good foresight, son”.

Jeongwon felt sick.

What really caused a wave of infamy for him, though, was the video.

One of the places he hated the most was that damned hospital, it was rotten from the inside out. He shudders at the memory of how the girl he became fond of, Jiro, cowered when first meeting him. She was only seven.

Interesting things happened that night, though.

Nobody cared about anything in this place, anything but the children.

People had hope in them, after waves of sickness and foul play had decimated the nations' natality rate, children were the only beings that people of all ranks were determined to protect. Or so people thought.

He had managed to blow the whole thing up, while also exposing all the secrets that used to cling onto the walls. His father didn’t mingle with whatever it was that was going on in there, but he didn’t stop it, either. Jeongwon just sprung into action when the hospital was in so much shit they couldn’t even defend themselves any more.

There were lawyers involved, politicians, detectives, police officers, lieutenants. If he remembers correctly, Iris Lionheart was supposed to deliver Maria in that hospital. Maria was supposed to be taken to the undercity, raised in a brothel, or converted to a maid. She was supposed to be sold. The Lionhearts were never supposed to rise to power, back then, Joseph was only a prolific attorney that was dangerously close to certain members of the Senate, and the undercity didn’t like it.

A quick change of plans, however, had everyone on edge for seventeen years.

The first person at the scene wasn’t the firefighters, nor the police, nor the reporters. The first person at the scene was none other than Yoo fucking Rohan.

After the two reporters were shooed away from Jiro, Yoo had taken it upon herself to take care of her, and she became her guardian not long after.

Yoo Rohan now had Jeongwon’s little secret under her wing. Despite all the chaos of that night, and his fear of what was to come when he went back to the tower, aka, back to his father, he was glad the little girl had someone like Rohan to protect her.

With his alias now whispered throughout the whole city, and with his old portrait brought back into the picture from the dusty basement of every police department in charge, he thought he was going to die. It was too much noise for his liking, for his father’s liking.

But he had never felt so cold and scared as he did when his father just said, with a warm smile:

“You are turning out to be so much like me nowadays,”

He ran, of course he ran.

It took him years, but he did.

Why would such a wretched man compare himself to Jeongwon? Why would he care about the good deeds of the son he trained to be emotionless? He had coated Jeongwon’s hands with blood and had forced the humanity right out of him for years. Scientists didn’t even know what he was any more.

And the man just… smiled?

Jeongwon was terrified, what would he have to do now? He didn’t want to know, he had seen enough to know that if he stayed, there would be no way to save himself. Was he worth being saved? He didn’t think so, but he wanted to live, he was so exhausted, so he ran.

He ran from the screams down at the lab.

Ran from the sick, disgustingly addicted people that he had to deliver for.

Ran from the secret packages and coded messages from both higher-ups and underdogs.

Ran from the hurt, the scars, and the blood.

He ran like he had never done before, even if his legs shot pains up his spine, and he started seeing stars after a few hours of running. He ran.

And after years of hiding from the outside world, and secluding himself in a tower no one paid attention to. After knowing the putrid and rancid facets of the city, he ran over the sun-coated pavement and saw the clouds, the sky, and the sea.

It was nearly six in the afternoon, autumn made it so that it was somewhat dark when he arrived at the beach. He let go of his jacket, his boots, and anything that could hold him down, and dived into the waves.

The water was cold, but it was welcomed to soothe his drained muscles. He could see the last rays of sunlight sprinkle over him, like liquid gold. It was quiet, for once.

In the quiet company of the sea, he found a start to bring this all crashing down.

—

Yoo Rohan was late to pick Jiro up from school.

The café had got so busy out of nowhere, and none of the students she had hired to help could make it in time due to finals week.

It was okay though, Jiro was only going to be such a nuisance when she climbed into the car. She would probably go on and on about how awful Rohan was, and how self-absorbed and inattentive she was to the girl. Or she would stay quiet the entire ride home, proceed to ignore the food Rohan had prepared for dinner and go to bed early.

She was probably not going to sleep, and be cranky all morning of the next day in retaliation.

Rohan just inhaled and exhaled. She had ice cream and pie back at home, Jiro’s favourite, maybe she would forgive her a little.

She looked for her glasses in the glove box of the car, and out fell the drawings a younger Jiro had made. She had been around seven, and her pencil strokes were better now than they were then. As she waited at the red light, she looked through the drawings and remembered why she didn’t keep them at the house.

Nemo is featured in most of them.

The former detective hadn’t been able to make Jiro tell her who Nemo was, or anything about him for the matter. It was as if the girl had signed a stupid NDA and refused to spill the secrets of the young man who had helped her escape the children’s hospital.

One of the drawings featured a tall figure with metal wings, grey eyes, and an off array of marks on his face. On the back, Jiro had written down: Maybe Nemo made himself some wings, and that's how he flies at night.

A car was honking from behind, and only then did she realize she hadn’t seen the light turn green. She hit the gas and drove as fast as she could in order to get to Jiro’s school safely.

She even ran up the stairs of the entrance, and while pushing the door open, she was met with Jiro’s home room teacher.

“Hi, I’m sorry for being late, the café had a rush right as I was about to make my way here” She sheepishly apologized when she looked behind the teacher, and onto the patio where the kids whose parents took too long to pick up used to play, she didn’t see Jiro.

Maybe she was in the bathroom.

“Oh, Miss Yoo, what brings you here, did Jiro forget anything?”

The world zeroed in on the teacher, and time stopped, for a brief moment. Cold seeping into her heart.

“...What?”

She was frozen in place.

“I thought Jiro’s older brother had come to pick her up? He came by an hour ago, she jumped on him immediately and I—”

“What are you talking about? Her brother? Don’t you think I would’ve notified if she had a brother, and he was gonna come pick her up?!” She yelled at the teacher.

“Oh god” The teacher just took her hands up to her face, clearly shocked at her stupidity “I had no idea, Miss Yoo I’m so—”

“Fucking don’t, how did the man look like? Did he have a vehicle? What do you mean she jumped at him?”

Useless teacher with their useless nonchalance to anything that didn’t involve them. Useless, useless, senseless teachers.

Her daughter was with a stranger in god knows where.

“H-he came walking I think, they left in the direction of the park down the street, he said he was gonna get her ice cream that’s all ma’am I swear. He was wearing a dark grey hoodie and some jogger pants, even a cap and a face mask, but Jiro seemed to recognize him, I thought—”

“Wait, wait, stop, she recognized him?”

“Yes! Um, well she ran right at him, he picked her up easily and took her bag, waved back at me and all and—”

Jiro knew no man who could look like her brother, Rohan was a lonely woman after her younger brother moved out of the city for college back in 2018. The few people she trusted were either very old or her girlfriends from back at the academy. There was no way for Jiro to know another man outside their circle, she had been an orphan for years. Unless…

“Did… did she say anything to him?”

“I think… I think she called him Nemo”

—

She was now parked in front of the ice cream place Nemo had taken Jiro to. They were happily eating ice cream, with Jiro probably talking his ear off about all the things she had done since they had last seen each other. Rohan didn’t go inside immediately, she didn’t know why, but it just… the image just struck her.

She knew about Nemo, but the general public had forgotten about the case. Maria Lionheart was not a name the new generations recognized. Only people who clung to the past still thought about her, still prayed for her soul, mourned for her, and wished for her safety. Be it in hell or heaven.

Nemo had taken Maria Lionheart from the Olympia all those years ago, made her disappear into thin air. Rohan thought maybe the undercity held the secret to her whereabouts, after all, they had planned to use her against Joseph the moment she had been born. But her contacts of the undercity either gave her no answers, or straight up disappeared.

Maria Lionheart was legally missing until 2022, the year in which she was pronounced dead by all intents and purposes.

Her killer and captor was right there, drinking a smoothie, next to Rohan’s daughter, who was eating ice cream with all the toppings she could ever ask for and more.

Jiro looked so at ease, so happy, happier than Rohan had ever seen her. Nemo made her laugh like a normal kid, and complied whenever she asked to try his smoothie “one last time”. From afar, he looked like Jiro’s brother, or very young uncle, and he seemed so relaxed, and she seemed so at ease. Anyone could’ve mistaken them for family.

When Jiro got ice cream on her face, Nemo gently cleaned it up with a napkin.

Do you know how hard it was for Rohan to gain Jiro’s trust? How hard it was for her to be able to do so much as brush Jiro’s hair without her looking like she was going to start crying? Nemo had just touched her face with the gentleness one would attribute to handling fine Chinese porcelain, so careful and mindful and tender it made Rohan want to smile at how Jiro was treated.

But Rohan was unnerved by the scene either way. What got her nearly sprinting out of the car was how, during a small, very brief stop of the conversation, Nemo looked up and straight at her.

His eyes were white, and his eyelids had scars on them. His hair covered most of his face, but she could still see it. It was the exact same guy from the portrait Jadis Guzmán had provided for the police all those years ago, only older, and ruined.

The young Nemo didn’t have scars on his face like that, his temples and cheekbones weren’t covered with raised skin, and his hair was far, far shorter.

Rohan walked out of the car and into the ice cream shop. She stood in front of their table somewhat lost, wanting to reach out and protect Jiro, but part of her instincts were questioning why.

“Ohmygod hi mum!” Jiro said as if nothing was wrong, as if she hadn’t just left with a wanted criminal in the middle of the day. “Nemo said you’d be here soon, but you took some time”

She had to fight herself to appear composed, her purse nearly slipping off her hands at her daughter's comment. She was about to reply when another voice spoke.

“Hello, Miss Yoo”

It was kind of raspy but light, not chirpy, rather unrestrained. His timbre was deep, but not as deep as her late father. Her head was spinning. There was no air of taunt, no ego behind those words, nothing but distant respect.

She looked at Jiro first and stroked a few hairs off her face with the tips of her fingers.

“Jiro, I didn’t know you were going to leave with Nemo today” She commented lightly.

“I’m sorry, but he said he left you a message? Nemo, you did text her, right? You told me you did” She looked at the young man accusingly, like her stern concerned face was going to make him recoil for his lies.

It didn’t.

“I did, but I think Miss Yoo’s café was busier than usual today” he spoke in a low volume, enough for the two of them to listen, but not enough for eavesdroppers to chime in. “Why don’t you sit down? Running must have you tired, ma’am”.

Again, not a tint of sarcasm, or a joke, or anything that indicated he was making fun of her. So Rohan sat down next to Jiro in the booth and looked at Nemo.

Normally, her gut would tell her how dangerous someone was. It seemed stupid, but it was true. She’d get this awful churning sensation whenever she spoke with her old boss at Greta Station, and whenever they were interrogating a suspect. She’d get it from cashiers, retail assistants, teachers, fathers, mothers. People. She’d walk by and feel the hairs of her nape rise up as if her instincts were screaming at her to never approach that person because they could harm her.

She didn’t feel that coming from Nemo, not quite. It was as if her instincts were doubting themselves, despite all of Nemo’s known history, she didn’t feel it.

Did it have to do with the fact he couldn’t fit into the “human” label? But here he was, looking as human as one can.

Well, besides the obvious.

“Why did you take Jiro?”

“Mum!”

“No it’s okay kid, she’s right to be upset” He placated “Check your phone every once in a while, please, I didn’t want you breaking glasses or anything when picking up, so I just texted.”

She just stared at him. Texted? Nemo had texted her?

She quickly whipped out her phone and, lo and behold, there it was, a message from an unknown number that read:

Hello Miss Yoo. Jiro is with me, we’re at Diary and Co. Please don’t call the police, we have much to discuss.

—Nemo.

When she looked back at him, he was passing his smoothie for Jiro once again, and Rohan found it strange how she didn’t feel the urge to swat the drink off her hand and storm out of there.

“You haven’t answered.” She decided.

“I really thank you, for taking care of my little secret when I couldn’t do it any more” He says, looking at Jiro fondly. This close, when Rohan concentrated on his eyes, she could see a small sliver of what looked like brown around white, probably where his iris once was. It's as if hard white material was covering his irises, leaving only the figment of an aureola around. She could also see the edges of his cornea, very subtle hills of something that now surrounds the brown leftovers.

Belatedly, she realizes she’s been staring at him for too long, because he looks back at her, and seems to understand where her thoughts are going.

“They’re sewn in, Miss Yoo, but thanks for noticing.”

“Sorry,” Why did she apologize? She felt she had been rude, but this was Nemo for crying out loud, “But I don’t really understand why you’re here, and why you’re taking Jiro unprompted, and why now of all times. Your connection with Lee Hwangryeon unsettles me”

At that, Nemo stops. “You know his name”

“Jiro why don’t you—”

“I wanna stay” She says, eating the mini waffles her ice cream has to offer. “I know everything about him, it’s okay”

Rohan purses her lips, she can’t really send Jiro to the car alone, and she doesn’t want her to listen to their conversation. She doesn’t want to expose her like this. Whatever Nemo wants to discuss should stay between adults. Jiro has been through enough already, and the girl doesn’t need more information from the world she used to be a part of.

Lee Hwangryeon used to be someone important in New Atlantis, she was fifteen when she first heard about him. Former soldier turned wannabe vigilante. Nobody believes in heroes nowadays, but back in the day, people like him were a game changer. Higher-ups quivered at the mention of his name. No one knew where he came from or what he stood for, but it seemed like his only moving force was destroying the undercity and ending the evil that enveloped the city once and for all. He wanted to bring life back to the nation.

Then, he grew rotten. He ran the undercity up until 1997, where allegedly, an entire operation was made in attempts to bring him down and make him pay for his crimes, organized crime and gang activity had thrived under his rule. He disappeared right in front of the entire squat, no even undercity dogs could find him. He poofed out of existence that day, and no one has known anything about him since.

“Don’t play with me, boy, I was there when he rose and fell from grace. Don’t taunt me with history I’ve lived.”

Nemo looked at her, nodded almost imperceptibly, and looked back at his drink. “Didn’t mean to offend you, ma’am, and I’m sorry I have to tell you this so out of the blue. I’ve known everything you’ve been up to for the last decade or so”.

Rohan accepted a spoonful of gummies and ice cream Jiro offered her, smiling to try to play off her nerves. Jiro squeezed her hand under the table and kept eating her ice cream as if nothing was happening.

“You have to take him out of his hospital now, mum” She commented like it was nothing.

“What do you mean?” She looked back at Nemo, and he put his smoothie down and leaned closer to her, beckoning her to do the same.

Once they were close enough, he looked at the table, and whispered as quietly as he could, only for her to hear.

“Hwangryeon is alive, he’s my father, and I need your help”

End.