NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
Episode 2
Beep!
Several days had passed since our defeat by the HunterKiller Team. Today, as usual, I was at the convenience store, being checked out by Red. With her crimson hair, she silently scanned the barcodes.
When I thought about it, it was a rather peculiar scene. Red, a member of the HunterKiller Team that opposed Spacystro—the organization sent from Seoul to invade Earth—was working part-time at a convenience store. Meanwhile, I, a member of Spacystro, was buying food and having her ring me up.
As I stood there, momentarily spacing out and watching her, she suddenly staggered and dropped the triangular kimbap she was scanning onto the counter.
“Ah.”
She let out a small sound as she resumed scanning. Under her eyes were faint dark circles, and it was clear at a glance that she was exhausted. There was no reason for me to be concerned about her, nor was it my place to be, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bothered.
“You look really tired today.”
“Yes. A little.”
I hadn’t expected her to respond. I’d been coming here at the same time for over a month now, so I thought she’d find it suspicious. Yet, since I wasn’t doing anything particularly strange, she probably just saw me as a regular customer who came at the same time every day, and might have even thought she was misunderstanding me. But in my opinion, she surely saw me as someone suspicious.
“You seem like a student.”
“Yes. I’m a college student. I’ve had a lot of assignments lately.”
The June sun was scorching, and it seemed to be the busiest exam period for college students. Since I hadn’t interacted with any other college students, I didn’t know if they were all in the same state, but according to my research, college students tend to feel extreme fatigue during exam periods.
“That must be tough.”
“Well, it’s what I have to do.”
Her hand passed me the card after charging 10,700 won, and I took the bag containing my purchases.
“Have a good day.”
“Yes.”
I responded to her farewell and left the store. After walking a short distance, I observed her through the glass window.
“Nothing unusual today…”
Her behavior seemed normal. But the fact that she was exhausted during this period might mean we’d have a chance to win the next time we faced off.
I entertained the thought for a moment, but it was a useless fantasy. Even when one or two members of the HunterKiller Team were absent during our battles, all it did was prolong the fight—the conclusion of our defeat never changed.
“What’s the problem?”
Before coming to Earth, I thought about the times we invaded other planets. Back then, invasions could be completed in as little as a month or, at most, 4-5 years. But now, it’s been 20 years, an unprecedented situation.
In any case, recalling previous invasions that took up to 4-5 years, I didn’t do much. I was just a grunt who’d get knocked out after one hit, and I never stood out back then either.
In fact, when the higher-ups stepped in, things were resolved quickly, so all I ever did was work inside the spaceship. Given that losing on the field has become routine, I can’t help but think working on the spaceship would have been better.
♬~
The ringtone from my smartphone snapped me out of my thoughts. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw ‘Sergeant Luche’ displayed on the screen. I answered the call.
“Yes. What’s up?”
“How’s Red?”
“No big difference from usual, but suddenly, I’m curious about something.”
“Huh?”
A sudden grievance arose. Excluding the officers, there were about 40 personnel of my rank stationed at the Seoul Branch, with around 20 actively participating in missions, including me.
“Why am I both on surveillance and going on missions?”
Frankly, the work we’re doing doesn’t lack manpower. In fact, it’d be more efficient to assign one person to surveillance while I focus on missions, or vice versa.
“Well, you live close by.”
Her words left me momentarily speechless, unable to find a retort. Luche was right—my one-room apartment and the convenience store where Red worked were significantly closer than anyone else’s. How close? It takes just one minute to walk from my apartment to the store.
“That’s the reason?”
“The others live too far to be sent on surveillance.”
The reason we live apart is to avoid exposing our identities. Living close and moving around in a group would surely draw attention, leading to interference or disruptions. Of course, Earth’s rules include a ‘no killing’ clause, and we can only fight on designated days, so there’s no risk of ambushes or accidents. Still, having our location discovered doesn’t sit well with me.
“What if I just handle surveillance and someone else takes the missions?”
“…Would you do that for me?”
Her voice on the other end sounded like she was about to cry. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to appear charismatic or vulnerable to us.
“Fine! I’ll do it, so stop crying.”
“Okay.”
“So, is that all?”
“Yeah. It’s about time for you to start surveillance, so I wanted to check in.”
There wasn’t much more to report. While she was tired from exams, I didn’t think it was enough to change our odds against the HunterKiller Team, so I left it out of the report.
Since there were no missions today, I decided to keep watch from a distance outside the convenience store. The sun was scorching, so I kept moving to find shade while monitoring. To passersby, I probably just looked like someone standing in the middle of the street, fiddling with their phone.
Summer days are long, and as the sun slowly set and dusk approached, Red finished her shift, handed over to the next part-timer, and left the store to head home.
I debated whether to follow her but decided it would look too suspicious. If she caught on, her guard would increase, making future surveillance difficult, so I decided against tailing her.
“I should head home too.”
Watching her walk away, I returned to my small one-room apartment.
The next day, I went to the convenience store at the same time.
The chime of the store door rang, and I heard Red’s voice, “Welcome.”
Today, too, I pretended not to pay attention to her while picking out items, and she put down the book she was reading and stood up.
“…”
I glanced at her subtly, and our eyes met for a moment. I quickly looked away and continued picking out my lunch and drink, then placed them on the counter.
Beep!
The sound of the barcode scanner had become familiar, and as I listened to it, my gaze drifted slightly and landed on the book she had been reading.
‘Deep Space Technology Theory’ was the title, and from it, I could tell her major was in science—specifically, space-related science. But this information wouldn’t help us in our confrontation with her.
“That seems like a difficult subject.”
I must have been crazy.
During our invasions of other planets, I had learned a fair amount about deep space navigation technology while working on the spaceship. I had studied it so deeply that it could be considered a major if I had gone to university.
Running a spaceship required a lot of personnel, and it was essential manpower, so I thought learning about it would be useful. The desire for knowledge bloomed the moment I saw her book, and before I knew it, I had spoken to her.
Realizing I was talking about her book, she stopped scanning and looked at me, her crimson eyes locking onto mine. I tried to look away but felt her gaze on me, and like I was mesmerized, I slowly met her eyes.
“It’s hard. My sister and brothers said this was the most difficult first-year subject.”
In Korea, college freshmen are usually 20 years old. Some might be 21 or 22 due to taking a gap year, but generally, first-year students are 20.
Meaning, we’ve been losing to a girl barely over 20. Last year, she wasn’t even an adult yet.
“Deep space technology is tough. The initial theories are really challenging.”
Excitement about the knowledge I had made me speak, and without thinking about how different Earth’s college curriculum might be, I couldn’t help but feel exhilarated.
“You seem to know a lot about it?”
At that moment, I snapped back to reality, realizing I had slipped up, and avoided her gaze. But she was already looking at me with a hint of interest.
“Yeah. A little…”
I tried to brush it off, thinking I should leave the store as soon as the items were scanned. As soon as the last barcode was scanned, I handed her my card.
“You come at the same time every day.”
I had already expected that she’d notice I was coming at the same time daily. Only a fool wouldn’t realize it.
“Yeah. Well…”
As soon as the payment was processed, I grabbed my bag and left the store. I missed her farewell and hurried out, only realizing a short distance away that I still had to monitor her. Most importantly, today I hadn’t properly checked her condition because I was avoiding eye contact.
I thought I’d at least observe her through the window, but when I looked, our eyes met again.
“!”
Unable to hide my surprise, I quickly hurried toward my apartment, but the entrance to my building, just a minute’s walk away, was clearly visible from the store. I couldn’t be sure, but it felt like she watched me until I entered the building.
Once inside, I leaned against the wall and let out a sigh.
My job was to monitor her from a distance, but I had gotten carried away when I saw a book on a topic I knew and ended up speaking to her first.
I had spoken to her yesterday, but that was solely to check her condition. I hadn’t expected her to respond, but my initial goal was just to observe her reaction, and her answering was just an additional step to gather more information.
But today was different. Unintentionally, I had provided her with information that could let her identify me. Moreover, she already knew I came to the store every day at the same time.
“I need to be careful.”
♬
Once again, my smartphone rang. And, once again, it was Luche.
The report was… there was nothing unusual to report.
And so, another day passed. Red works from Friday to Sunday afternoons. After today, she wouldn’t be at the store from Monday to Thursday, so today was the last day of surveillance for this week.
Although yesterday’s incident had been unsettling, I couldn’t stop the surveillance. To make up for yesterday’s mistake, I needed to observe her in detail today.
As usual, I entered the store, and as soon as she noticed me, she greeted me, “Hello.”
“Hello.”
Returning her greeting, I entered the store and, feeling strangely uncomfortable, avoided her gaze as I picked out my lunch and drink.
When I placed my items on the counter and she began scanning them, her gaze turned toward me.
“…”
Feeling slightly nervous, I glanced down and saw the same book she had been reading yesterday on the chair where she had been sitting.
“Do you know the orbital calculation formula for asteroids during deep space exploration?”
“The distance between stars and the orbit of the asteroid around the planet…!”
In my panicked state, I reflexively answered the question that came up while I was looking at her textbook. Languages may vary across countries and planets, but the laws of physics are absolute across the universe, so the physics knowledge from Earth and space are the same. Having studied intensively during my time working on the spaceship, I couldn’t not know the formula she mentioned. Realizing I had spoken without thinking, I stopped myself.
When I looked up at her, she was staring at me with sparkling eyes.
“You know about it?!”
“Uh, yes… a little.”
I’m not used to being looked at so intently by a pretty girl. I couldn’t meet her eyes and looked away.
“Do you work from home?”
“Huh? Oh, yes… something like that…”
I didn’t actually work from home, and I clearly belonged to an organization, but I couldn’t tell her that, so I just answered vaguely.
“I thought so. Yesterday, I saw you entering the apartment building in front.”
As I suspected. She must’ve seen me running in panic yesterday. This would make surveillance difficult from now on.
“Then, I’m really sorry, but if you have time, could you take a look at my major?”
“Huh?”
Unable to hide my shock, I retraced her words in my mind.
In relationships, there’s something called internal intimacy. To her, until yesterday, I was just a customer at the convenience store, someone she barely knew. But after what I said yesterday, a small connection had formed. If there was no internal intimacy, she might’ve just brushed it off, but having seen each other at the store for over a month, both she and I had developed a strange sense of internal intimacy.
Even though I’m supposed to be surveilling her, internal intimacy is something that can’t be helped. Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Where hostages start sympathizing with their captors and develop internal intimacy? Is this a similar case? No. It’s different. Definitely different, but whatever the reason, the conclusion is that I was in a very awkward position to refuse her request.
“Sure. Just for a little bit…”
I ended up agreeing to her request.