Chapter 15: Nowhere to Run

“2,000 Nova. I can’t go any higher than that.”

The man with a reddish face and bags under his eyes like pockets said firmly.
Yet, his gaze fixed on the lighter was dripping with a desire that was hard to distinguish between lingering attachment and greed.

“It certainly looks like your family’s seal, but I can’t tell if it’s genuine or not, and I have to take the risk on my end.”

It was at the pawn shop.
The only things they had were their guns, and the only thing of value was Zakar’s lighter.
“The original value would probably be around seven thousand.”
At Zakar’s indifferent murmur as he looked down at the desk, my tired mind snapped awake.
Their monthly salary, including life allowance, was about 7,000 Nova.
I felt like I would never be able to understand the thinking of a person who was so nonchalant about leaving an item of that value in her house.
And his arrogant attitude, showing no intention of haggling even at a price that was a rip-off compared to the market value.

“It’s not a product for sale, so how would I know? And it’s a used item.”

“I’ll just take it back. I can’t sell it for a pittance.”

Unable to watch any longer, I put my chin on the desk and enclosed the lighter in my hand.
Only then did the two men’s gazes fall on me.
Hannah, who had been standing back, slowly shifted her gaze from the pawn shop owner to Zakar with a sigh.

“It’s not like we’re in a hurry. Let’s go somewhere else. There are so many gambling dens around here, pawn shops are everywhere.”

Of course, this was the third one, and they had all offered similar prices, but that didn’t matter.
Perhaps because I had been uncomfortable the whole time and then spoke to him in a friendly manner, Zakar’s eyes took on a strange hue.

“Ah, the calm-looking lady has a surprisingly impatient side. Let’s talk a little more. We’ve come all this way, it would be a shame to end the deal here. Let’s be frank, how much do you need? Two thousand five hundred?”

“Have a good day.”

“Three thousand?”

Ignoring the half-risen man, I pulled Zakar’s arm and turned around.
The sound of a chair scraping came from behind me.

“Ah, really, let’s just talk. I really want to give you a good price. But if I can’t sell the item, I’m the one who gets stuck with it. Just a moment, wait. How about 3,500?”

The prices offered at pawn shops near gambling dens are usually 30 percent to at most 50 percent lower than the market price.
This probably meant it was the maximum.
He seemed to want it quite badly.
Only then did I turn around and nod.
The man who had clicked his tongue sat down with a thud and took out a bundle of green bills from the safe.

“You’ve got yourself a sharp girlfriend.”

He didn’t forget to grumble as he counted the money.
It was a common enough thing in the world for a young man and woman to be seen together and be assumed to be dating, married, or even parents.
Since it happened so often when I was with my team members, I didn’t bother to deny it and just supervised the counting of the money, but my cheek was stinging.
When I turned my head, our eyes met immediately.

“What?”

“I’m just surprised that you and I look like that.”

The man with the well-formed lips answered in a nonchalant way and then turned his head to the front.
It was unclear whether he meant that such a misunderstanding was awkward because Ian had always been between them, or if he meant it literally.
But there was a sting to it.
Just then, the pawn shop owner, who had finished counting the money, seemed quite satisfied with the deal itself, despite his earlier grumbling.
Even as they confirmed the amount and left, he was still wearing his magnifying glasses and carefully comparing the lighter with the desert seal displayed on the screen.

“You seem to have done this a lot.”

Zakar spoke again when they were standing in front of the old, creaking elevator.
Hannah stared at the long, black figure reflected in the door.

“Not as carelessly as today. But if I just stood by, I felt like I’d really be walking around with a fool.”

At her sharp words, Zakar met her eyes in the stainless steel mirror and smiled like a cold wind.
He seemed unfazed that his family’s belongings were about to fall into someone else’s hands in 40 days.
As I glanced at the curve of his lips, I thought for a fleeting moment as I got into the elevator.
‘Has he ever been to a place like this?’

“I’ll pay you back for the room. No, the food, the change of clothes, all the money we spend here.”

The plan was to stay at a motel for a while to take care of their injuries, and then use that room as a base camp to discuss what to do next.
In order to investigate anything properly, it was difficult to be in the state of a rain- and blood-soaked mouse until daytime.
In fact, to stay in a more decent place, they would have to go outside this street, but they had agreed not to stray too far from the pub they first entered.
The entertainment district, full of unregistered people, had few self-service terminals that required ID, so it was easy to take advantage of that.
Zakar, without saying to pay him back or not to, pressed the 7th floor.
When the elevator doors opened, a dark, long hallway appeared in front of them, and a desk with a person sitting at it appeared on the right.
Seeing someone working, it was clear that this was an illegal establishment.

“Do you have a room?”

As she lowered her head and spoke, the woman with sunken cheeks answered mechanically without even taking her eyes off the screen she was looking at.

“50 Nova for a room. The size and view are all the same, and from three people onwards, there’s an additional charge of 10 Nova per person.”

“One, please. Two people, and we’ll be staying until tomorrow afternoon. We might extend.”

At those words, Zakar’s hand, which was putting out the money, suddenly stopped.

“You want to share a room?”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, so there’s no need to waste money by renting two rooms. We’ve already seen everything there is to see about each other.”

As she nonchalantly alluded to the incident between them, Zakar seemed to press his molars with his tongue with a blank expression, then put down the money and grabbed the key that had come out on the desk.
I tore my eyes away from the long hand that was grabbing the condom at the same time.
‘That’s just a man’s essential item.’
Like some meticulous women who carry around portable tissues without even needing them.
While he walked ahead down the long hallway with the room key with the tag ‘721’, Hannah stretched her damp, rain-soaked body and confirmed that there was a separate laundry room.
Click.
The room they finally opened, as expected, was simple, with only one bed, one vanity, and one screen.
Perhaps because it was a rainy day, it was damp… and when the door closed and the outside noise was blocked, a black silence descended on the small room.
Why, there are times like that.
When the room feels full with just the two of you, and it feels like a huge, formless elephant is standing in the middle.
When it looks at you with its deep, large eyes.
Thinking it might be better if she opened the thick curtains, she approached the window.
It was then that a low voice clung to her feet.

“Go ahead and wash up first. I’ll go get some necessary things.”

A moment later, the sound of the door opening and closing fell behind her.
If he was going to leave the key, he could have just told me in the lobby instead of coming all the way in here.
Hannah slowly opened the wine-colored curtains.
As if to prove the receptionist’s words that the view was all the same, there was nothing to see outside the window but the gray wall of the building next door.
It was like her house.
As she stared blankly at the wall bathed in the dawn light, she turned on the air conditioner and went in to wash.
A small bathroom, the water pressure was unnecessarily strong.
Nevertheless, she didn’t lower the faucet and let the dust that had fallen off be washed down the drain.
So that the glass of fatigue could be washed clean and stand out.
Putting on the underwear she had taken off was a terrible thing, so she roughly wrapped herself in a large towel and towel-dried her hair.
And then she seriously turned on the TV screen and accessed the internet.
While searching for the massive earthquake, the Nemesis base, and Sector 17 in order, she was able to quickly confirm that the people she had met today were not liars or skilled actors.
There had been no earthquake in this area.
And there was no mention of a military base either.
‘What on earth is this?’
She stood with her arms crossed and watched the drop of water that had fallen from her hair draw an ugly circle on the floor.
It was misshapen, but still a circle.
This world was the same.
A little different, but still real.
If so.

“If there’s no disposal unit…”

This time, she searched for Abaddon.
She scrolled down, but there were no results she wanted.
Hannah’s hand moved faster.
‘Abyss’, ‘subterranean creatures’—all only came up with urban legends or the meaning of the words.
There was no mention of the disaster from a few years ago.
Finally, her frantically moving hand slowly subsided with a realization.

“…The Abyss never opened in the first place.”

As if it were an Earth with a completely different past.