# Chapter 57
I was on my way back from the café, using my lunch break. Since it was an errand for my superior, I couldn’t refuse.
The café I visited for the first time was interesting but also challenging. First of all, placing an order was a hurdle. I didn’t understand why there were so many menu options for just a drink, and the payment method was incredibly complicated.
Still, fortunately, I managed to buy coffee after much difficulty. Holding the coffee in one hand, I carefully entered the company building.
And at that moment, someone was walking out from the opposite direction. We both failed to see each other.
Splash—
With the sound of liquid scattering, coffee tumbled across the floor. I stared blankly at the coffee soaking the asphalt before finally coming to my senses. Turning my head to check my clothes, fortunately, it seemed both the other person’s clothes and mine were unharmed.
I quickly raised my head to check who it was. The other person seemed surprised too, their eyes trembling.
“I’m sorry! Are you hurt anywhere?”
The problem was that this person was someone far too familiar to me. Brown hair softly flowing in the wind and green eyes beneath it. The person with a friendly impression was Tade.
I stopped breathing for a moment. First Ben, now this—why do I keep running into people from my past? At this rate, I’m not sure if I’m Kane or Kay anymore.
“Ah… I’m fine.”
While there was nothing I could do about Ben who already knew Kane, there was a high possibility that Tade and Kane were strangers. The important thing was to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.
I had no desire to get involved with anyone else. I just wanted to live quietly. If I formed connections with many people, it would also cause trouble for Kane when he returned.
I backed away, leaving Tade who was looking at me with concern. He would surely want to move past this situation as well.
“Your coffee…”
“I can just buy another one.”
I smiled as if it wasn’t a problem at all, turned my body, and created distance. Since it was just an errand, I had nothing to lose. I could just tell the truth to the researcher.
“Let me buy you a cup.”
But Tade apparently couldn’t just let it go. Contrary to my expectations, he grabbed my arm as I tried to move away.
“It’s okay—”
I waved my hands in refusal, not needing such compensation, but it was already too late.
“I was heading there anyway.”
Tade ignored my gesture and began walking ahead. Since he didn’t let go of my arm, I had no choice but to follow him.
I let out a small sigh that Tade wouldn’t notice as I trudged behind him. Who would have thought his kindness would become a problem one day.
As I kept quiet and maintained silence, Tade, perhaps finding the situation awkward, spoke first.
“You’re a researcher, right?”
His gaze went to my white lab coat. It was clothing anyone would recognize as what a researcher would wear.
“Ah, yes.”
“Must be tough.”
“It’s not that hard…”
I couldn’t possibly finish that sentence. The experiments at Peace were more mentally damaging than physically. The work from when I infiltrated as Hans was nothing in comparison.
“I’m Tade. I’m with the security team.”
Seeing me trail off, he smiled. His bright green eyes revealed his friendliness toward me.
I thought his sociability was impressive before, but to think he’d be like this even in this situation. Looking at him reluctantly, I had no choice but to open my mouth.
“…My name is Kane.”
I had hoped to remain just a passing stranger. To think we’d even exchange names. I wonder if we can remain strangers. Will he try talking to me later? The problem was that I couldn’t deny it.
“You’re not much of a talker, are you?”
“…Yes.”
I thought my intention to not be engaged was clear enough, but either oblivious or uncaring, Tade kept talking to me. Smiling brightly, he seemed completely at ease.
“I have a friend like that too.”
“Is that so?”
Having found a conversation topic, he subtly brought up his own story. No matter how dismissively I answered, it was useless.
“When I’m with that friend, I feel comfortable. There’s no need to force myself to be cheerful, it’s just right.”
“Why are you telling me this…”
It’s not like he doesn’t have other friends. We’re not even acquaintances, we just met. I couldn’t understand why Tade would say such things to me. This was strange even for him.
Tade stared at me for a moment before calmly speaking.
“Because you resemble him.”
“…We’ve only just met a few minutes ago?”
Moreover, we hadn’t even properly conversed. Yet he says I resemble someone? What part of me is he basing that on? Besides, Hans was among his acquaintances. Surely the person I resemble couldn’t be Hans.
All sorts of questions swirled inside me at his words. Unable to speak, I stared at him with suspicious eyes.
“I know, right? But you’re similar.”
He didn’t seem bothered by my reaction. Instead, his smile deepened, and his eyes curved into bright crescents.
And just then, we arrived at the café. I don’t know if he had planned this, but thanks to that, there was no more conversation. He remembered what coffee I had spilled and naturally ordered it.
Actually, I was grateful for that part since I had already thrown away the note with the menu. I might have ordered the wrong coffee otherwise.
“Here you go.”
“Ah… thank you.”
When our order came out, Tade handed me the coffee. However, what I thought would be one cup of coffee came back as two. Unlike the coffee I had ordered for the researcher’s errand, this one had plenty of whipped cream on top.
I stared at it for a moment before finally speaking.
“Um, I don’t think this is mine…”
I tried to hand it back to him, but Tade refused with a low laugh.
“I thought you might like it. Consider it my apology.”
Of course, I didn’t dislike sweet things, but this was clearly not a basic coffee. And that bothered me. Wouldn’t people normally offer the most ordinary coffee in this situation? Like an Americano?
Yet Tade offered me a sweet coffee as if he knew my taste exactly. It might be overthinking, but I had a strange feeling. Could it be that he knows something?
But there’s no way he could recognize me when we’ve just met. Then why is Tade acting this way?
I was just about to open my mouth toward him again after barely organizing my chaotic thoughts.
“Well, I have some business to attend to, so I’ll be going now. Hope we meet again by chance.”
But Tade spoke first. He seemed to have noticed my hesitation and began moving away from me as soon as he finished speaking. Left alone, I quietly followed his retreating figure with my eyes.
Everything was incomprehensible. Only after Tade’s figure had completely disappeared could I move my feet again.
The coffee I drank as I walked tasted the same as the coffee he had given me during the days I was acting as Hans.
* * *
After Hans resigned, Tade spent somewhat boring days. It was because someone he was interested in had suddenly disappeared. Since they hadn’t even fully become friends before he vanished, Tade couldn’t be feeling good.
But change came to his routine. As he was leaving the company building, a certain person caught Tade’s eye.
It was a researcher wearing a white lab coat. With horn-rimmed glasses and bangs covering his face, he didn’t have an easily likable impression. In fact, he looked rather gloomy.
But the reason he entered Tade’s field of vision was simple. His atmosphere resembled someone else’s.
“He was similar.”
That peculiar atmosphere reminded him of Hans enough to naturally make him think of him. Although there was no physical resemblance, the distinctive atmosphere was very similar.
An ordinary person wouldn’t have thought they resembled each other. But Tade had always been exceptional at sensing others’ auras.
“It was exactly the same as back then.”
And Hans who had appeared with a completely changed atmosphere. That’s why Tade became even more interested in him. Because a person’s atmosphere doesn’t change in an instant. Unless they become a different person, that is.
After observing consistently, Tade realized that he was different from the Hans in his memory. From small habits to speech patterns, they were “similar” but differed in the details.
And the one Tade preferred was the recent Hans. The past Hans somehow gave him a sense of discomfort, as if he knew everything. But the recent one was different. Tade found his changed appearance interesting. That’s why he tried to approach Hans to learn more. Although he couldn’t do that now.
“But to think someone similar would appear again.”
So when a person with Hans’s atmosphere entered his field of vision, he couldn’t help but be interested. Tade immediately approached him.
He deliberately bumped into that researcher to create a point of contact. Up close, he resembled Hans even more. Especially his eyes—they were so similar he could believe it was Hans.
Someone who was merely disguising another’s personality. Someone who, in reality, was indifferent to everything. Tade thought he should approach this person named Kane more.
That’s why he offered excessive kindness he wouldn’t normally give. Although Kane showed clear signs of discomfort, satisfying his curiosity came first for now.
And that curiosity was satisfied when he offered Kane the exact same coffee he had given to Hans.
Kane deeply contemplated something that an ordinary person would have just accepted without a second thought. As if he understood the significance of his action.
The only one who would know this meaning is Hans.
“Well, it doesn’t matter either way.”
Tade, who had been lost in thought for quite some time, cut off his contemplation. Even if he suspected it was Hans, he didn’t want to do anything about it. Everyone has their own circumstances.
Tade just wanted to meet Hans once more.
“I should become friends with him, shouldn’t I?”
Even if Kane wasn’t Hans, it didn’t matter. Kane was interesting enough on his own.
