The effect was tremendous!
When I changed the channel, the Jellies who had been gazing blankly at the TV turned to look at me.
Seeing some vitality return to the Jellies, who had previously looked rather dull, made me realize that the old saying of calling the TV a “boob tube” wasn’t entirely wrong.
…Or maybe it just seemed that way because of my mood.
After all, reading the expressions of Jellies is quite a difficult task in the first place.
Daesik is inside the doll, so there’s no way to see his expression.
Even if he were out, he’d still just be a blob of jelly, with no distinguishable expression to begin with.
Jung-sik, who takes the form of a whale… well, reading his emotions is similarly difficult. Jung-sik expresses his emotions by charging forward or spurting jelly from his back—
Ah, judging by the jelly currently spurting from his back, he seems to be angry.
…So what exactly can you do?
Aside from charging at me—
—oh, he’s really charging now!
It seems our Jung-sik has the critical weakness of being unable to properly control his anger.
This isn’t because I’m an easy target, right?
Anyway.
I caught Jung-sik, who had attempted to ram into my torso, with my tentacles and lifted him up.
As Jung-sik flailed and floated into the air, my body also began to rise slowly. As I retracted my tentacles towards my body, I got closer and closer to Jung-sik.
Hanging onto Jung-sik in the air for the first time in a while, I then turned my gaze to Sosik.
He also returned my gaze, as if sensing the channel had changed. Since he resembled a miniature version of me in appearance, it seemed relatively easy to read his emotions, but in another sense, it was difficult.
Because all other emotions were overshadowed by the overwhelming sense of “annoyance.”
Still, it felt rather endearing that he was looking at me, considering how he usually just slept, showing no interest in anything.
…Although it did seem a bit strange that his method of entertainment was watching TV, but since he wasn’t human, it was probably fine.
“Wow…”
Then, when Yang Ha-na looked at me and exclaimed in amazement, I started to feel a bit embarrassed.
It wasn’t so much that I had become a spectacle, but more that I realized I had acted somewhat childishly in front of her.
…Even though Yang Ha-na wouldn’t think I was childish, that didn’t make the embarrassment vanish.
It crossed my mind that this kind of behavior might actually be effective in hiding my true identity, so for a moment, I floated around doing acrobatics.
Yang Ha-na’s response from below:
“Cute! Awesome!”
Seated Daesik clapped his stuffed-animal hands, and Sosik simply watched attentively, as if waiting to see how long I would continue.
…No, is he looking at the remote?
Anyway.
I was still embarrassed.
Let’s stop.
Gently landing on the bed, I noticed there wasn’t much interesting news, so I switched the channel back to the one the Jellies had been watching.
Only then did Jung-sik seem to calm down his anger, leaning against me and starting to watch the TV. Daesik, having crossed the soft mattress, clung to me.
He wriggled around a bit, then faced the TV while snuggling up in my arms.
“Ah, so cute.”
Yang Ha-na took a peculiar camera-like device out of her pocket, apparently finding something unbearably cute, and began snapping pictures, “Click, click.”
…It wasn’t as if I could ask her to stop, so with my jelly quivering, I simply stayed still.
Hmmm.
The continuous photography made my jelly start feeling a bit ticklish.
As the embarrassment began to fade, the feeling of being the center of attention didn’t feel too bad.
I didn’t like having my photo taken before, did I?
Why is that happening now?
I don’t know.
It doesn’t matter anyway, since it isn’t dangerous, and if it’s enjoyable, I should just enjoy it, right?
While being photographed with my jelly quivering,
I noticed So-sik out of the corner of my eye; he was still out of the frame.
Hey.
In situations like this, shouldn’t you quickly join us?
He didn’t seem to have reached that level of awareness yet, so I extended a tentacle and gently lifted So-sik’s body.
So-sik came over to me, his outfit flapping as he floated in the air.
Seeing this, I felt a bit strange, as if something was off.
I had used these tentacles to finely slice things in the stairwell, yet now I was using them for something like this—it felt odd.
No, that doesn’t mean I want to slice any Jellies.
It’s just… a strange feeling.
Anyway.
I positioned So-sik next to me, and Yang Ha-na became even more delighted, clicking away endlessly as she circled and took pictures of me and the Jellies.
But why does she need so many photos?
…After all, she can’t take them outside.
Still, it didn’t feel bad, so I naturally posed with the Jellies as if watching TV, allowing a few photos to be taken.
While holding the Jellies in my arms, I could feel the emotions that had lingered at the door being diluted.
Though my emotions weren’t so strong as to completely control me, it was like washing away the remaining residue.
It made me realize that, aside from physical bathing, we sometimes need a mental bath as well.
…Maybe escaping with Hwang Bo-yul was mentally exhausting.
Still, why did they act that way?
While pondering this unresolved question and watching TV, Kim Cheon-soo entered the room with a lot of delicious-looking pudding.
Seeing the Jellies naturally reaching for the pudding,
For some reason,
It didn’t sit well with me.
—
Kim Cheon-soo, while packing his things, asked Han Seori with a slightly uneasy look on his face:
“Is it really okay to leave Ms. Yang behind?”
“Mr. Kim, aren’t you underestimating Ms. Yang too much? She’s a fully grown adult, you know. Telling her would make her feel left out.”
“No, I mean… well, here’s the thing.”
Kim Cheon-soo was quite uneasy about having to leave Yang Ha-na behind, even if she was an adult woman.
Though he thought it was odd to worry about an adult female as if she were a child left by the riverbank, he couldn’t help but be concerned when he remembered the circumstances under which she had come here.
As if reading Kim Cheon-soo’s thoughts, Han Seori gave him a faint smile and nudged his shoulder, continuing:
“That surly guy will stay, though, right?”
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
Han Seori was referring to the entity known as Sphere.
For her plan, it was necessary for all others aside from Jelly Girl, the Jellies, and Yang Ha-na to leave the laboratory.
At first glance, it might seem like using Yang Ha-na as bait, but it was quite the opposite.
Her plan wasn’t about throwing Yang Ha-na into danger and then hiding—it was about confronting the goals directly while maintaining proper decorum.
That said, neither she nor Jelly Girl intended to return to the research facility that had wronged them.
After all, that place was their home ground; no matter how angry they might be, going there wouldn’t be a wise move.
There was only one target.
The scattered research facilities convene regularly—not frequently, but it was still a meeting.
It wasn’t merely a social event.
It was also a venue for reporting achievements, and if there was any special purpose, discussions would ensue.
The current topic, without question, was 7496 – KR.
Since they hadn’t yet received the news that Hwang Bo-yul was alive, it was bound to be a hot topic.
If the issue at the problematic research facility was due to them sending meaningless documents over this topic, then Han Seori intended to drop the bomb there.
Of course, not a physical bomb—it was research after all, and she wasn’t some kind of terrorist of the “Twilight Group.”
She had plenty of data to present.
That Hwang Bo-yul was alive.
Footage of Jelly Girl.
Scenes of the other Jellies peacefully gathering, watching TV, or eating pudding.
Numerous materials proving that 7496 – KR, Jelly Girl and her Jellies, are not dangerous.
…Though she didn’t know what Jelly Girl herself thought.
Moreover, she aimed to firmly imprint the consequences of entertaining misguided notions about how close Jelly Girl and herself were.
Though it was unlikely Jelly Girl would rampage, there were indirect ways to simulate the experience.
Just what did they think 7496 – KR was?
Perhaps they hadn’t thought about whether their approach to achieving their goals would work.
At some point, as Han Seori organized her thoughts and reached here, she fell into deep contemplation.
Maybe they could think that way.
Since the narrative about not treating the Singularity like Jelly Girl had been continuously ingrained in ‘this place’ from the start, they might have not thought of her as a person.
They may have assumed she could be controlled with gentle manipulation.
Or perhaps there really were members of the “Twilight Group” who staged an attack, claiming to rescue 7496 – KR, to gain her favor.
As Han Seori considered these possibilities, she began to think this mission might be dangerous.
But she couldn’t not do it.
Otherwise, something similar would happen again eventually.
And while they’d gotten lucky this time, there was no guarantee next time would be the same.
Jelly Girl seemed likely to survive somehow, but she had shown a strong attachment to that which had entered her boundaries.
…If something in her boundaries were lost,
Han Seori couldn’t predict what might happen.
Though Jelly Girl liked humans, affection could sometimes flip to hatred in the blink of an eye.
Jelly Girl was a singularity, but she shouldn’t be treated as one.
Until now, they only knew her to be intelligent… revealing this fact would undoubtedly cause an uproar, but she believed it was worth the troubles.
This was not only for Jelly Girl’s sake,
But also for the future of the humans who would live together with Jelly Girl.
Though the path ahead seemed long, she remembered the saying: “Half the task is done when it’s begun.”
Thus, first—
Having completed her thoughts, Han Seori gestured to Jelly Girl, who had quietly approached the control room.
Seeing Jelly Girl’s approach with a “squelch, squelch,” Han Seori gave a faint smile and spoke:
“…Would you come stay with me?”
Han Seori looked at Jelly Girl with a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
It was a glance that somehow felt a bit strained.
