September 15th, Rainy ☂

Surprisingly, I wasn’t angry at Kim In-woo.

I was angry at myself.

I just felt sorry for Kim In-woo.

It was unfamiliar to feel pity and sympathy for someone while being angry at myself. This was a change Kim In-woo created. That alone is enough to prove Kim In-woo’s worth.

***

September 16th, Clear ☀

I entered Kim In-woo’s cage.

To blend in with Kim In-woo, I reduced my body size as much as possible. However, there were limits to how much I could reduce. Even our adjustment abilities aren’t omnipotent.

Even at my most reduced size, I was still almost a head taller than Kim In-woo. Still, compared to Strawberry’s build, I was relieved it wasn’t abnormally large.

I changed my face using the cognitive conversion device. At first, I mimicked the average Korean male face I saw in Kim In-woo’s memories. But I wasn’t quite satisfied with it, so I changed my face again for a better first impression.

I modified my face, which Kim In-woo would see as Western-looking, to match Asian bone structure, but it still seemed too similar, so I mixed in features from other humans I saw in Kim In-woo’s memories. Kim In-woo was very particular about faces. The more handsome, the better. My original face would be best, but sadly, Kim In-woo doesn’t like my face…

I slipped into the cage while Kim In-woo was sleeping. It felt strange seeing Kim In-woo at a similar size to mine. It felt like seeing one of my own kind. I quietly waited for Kim In-woo to wake up.

When Kim In-woo came to his senses and saw me, he fell backward in shock as if he was about to faint. I immediately caught him. However, Kim In-woo pushed away even my hand and looked around very warily.

He seems to have mistakenly thought he was back at the training facility. Kim In-woo was very relieved at first, but then became outraged thinking that the <f*cking bastard> had brought another human. Then he started questioning me about various things.

I had planned to pose as a human who had just arrived from Earth. I pretended not to know anything. When I asked Kim In-woo what exactly was going on here, he explained everything earnestly. He was so earnest in his explanation that there wasn’t a single time he referred to me without using a curse word starting with ‘sh’.

Kim In-woo didn’t say it explicitly, but he seemed scared that this cage might house many humans like the training facility. I have no intention of bringing in any humans other than Kim In-woo. I wanted to correct this misunderstanding. But I kept quiet since there was no way to convey this.

Only after ranting for a while did Kim In-woo introduce himself. It felt good to hear Kim In-woo’s name directly.

I introduced myself as Lee Sun-ho, from Seoul, Korea, twenty-three years old this year.

Kim In-woo was surprised that I had the same name as a hyung he knew. Of course he was. I had chosen that name deliberately.

Lee Sun-ho was Kim In-woo’s first crush from high school. He had been quite fond of Kim In-woo, and was the only one who tried to stop him when he said he was dropping out. Though they completely lost contact afterward, Kim In-woo still had deep affection for him. Actually, I even adjusted my appearance to look similar to Lee Sun-ho. So that Kim In-woo would easily feel affection for me.

The familiar name and first impression helped break down Kim In-woo’s walls a bit. Of course, what made Kim In-woo most vulnerable was his sense of responsibility to take care of a poor human who had been brought to the cage.

After cursing about me at length, Kim In-woo must have noticed my expression didn’t look good, because he belatedly started explaining the advantages of this cage. It was mainly compared to the training facility he had been to.

I could hear about the training facility from Kim In-woo’s perspective. He said at first he was happy because there were quite a lot of humans gathered there. But gradually he started feeling something was off, and after a certain incident (probably referring to when one human got angry at Kim In-woo. Kim In-woo didn’t explain specifically), he discovered the bizarre structure of the training facility.

Most humans at the training facility were criminals. Especially Jacob (probably referring to Strawberry), who tried hard to get on his good side, was a gang leader who made money selling drugs and managing pr*stitutes when he was on Earth. He explained that most humans at the training facility were that kind of criminal, and a minority were humans who had been abandoned by other humans (Rudy seems to be this case).

I felt the urge to go pull Ezel’s hair out. They introduced such a place for my human to be sent to? Even if I couldn’t check thoroughly due to my depression-induced cognitive decline, Ezel must have known.

Come to think of it, Ezel hasn’t really done anything helpful for me. After all, Ezel was probably the reason I erased my own memories in the first place.

Well, even if they introduced it, I was the one who made the decision. I was the one who pushed the human away.

Kim In-woo didn’t explain about Rudy. However, when he recalled Rudy, he looked down at his hands with a pained expression.

Thinking it wouldn’t be good to let him sink into depressing thoughts, I pulled Kim In-woo along. When I asked him to show me around this place, Kim In-woo laughed, asking if I wasn’t being too carefree.

Kim In-woo showed me around various parts of the cage. While explaining about the hamster wheel, Kim In-woo again showered me with curses like <f*cking bastard>, <stupid bastard>, <who do you think is a rodent?> and such. I became somewhat sulky.

To explain the usefulness of the wheel to Kim In-woo, I removed the fixed stone and tried rolling it myself. However, I only confirmed that a wheel isn’t particularly comfortable for bipedal beings. I’m a mental ability user, so my physical abilities aren’t particularly outstanding either.

Kim In-woo, who had been watching quietly, raised his index finger and spun it around his head about twice. I had to spend 5 minutes insisting that I wasn’t crazy at all.

It took almost half a day to explain the cage, which wasn’t enormously spacious even at Kim In-woo’s size. Kim In-woo cursed about everything I had given him.

However, he didn’t mention the dress I had gifted him or helping him m*sturbate. Having looked into Kim In-woo’s mind, I also knew how shameful those things were for him as a young man from Earth. But I really thought he would look pretty in it.

When evening came, an android entered the cage with dinner. The android seemed to want to stop its owner from doing such outlandish things. Of course, I ignored it. The android set down the meal, kept glancing this way, and left.

Kim In-woo said he particularly liked today’s side dishes. Of course he would.

Now I knew Kim In-woo’s preferences inside and out. Better than anyone else in this universe. I knew even the smallest details, like how Kim In-woo likes kimchi stew, prefers it with pork rather than tuna, and likes drinking the soup more than eating the solid ingredients. It was easy to prepare meals to Kim In-woo’s taste.

Having eaten more than usual, Kim In-woo started nodding off and fell asleep. I completely put him to sleep with sleeping gas so he wouldn’t have nightmares, then left the cage.

Though I was cursed at all day, I felt strangely good. I had no headache and no depression gripping my body.

I was planning to sleep at my original size since my whole body was stiff from being reduced so much, but. I changed my mind. I went back into the cage. And now I’m writing this record while holding Kim In-woo. His scent is comforting.