"Daddy’s friend...?"

The words echoed inside my head long after the little girl had disappeared around the corner.

I remained frozen in my chair as I stared at the empty sidewalk. My fingers were still wrapped around the handle of my coffee mug, but the liquid inside had long since gone cold.

Across from me, Viora slowly lowered her mug of hot chocolate.

"Woo Jin."

I didn’t answer because my mind was thinking about what had just happened.

"...Woo Jin."

Still not getting any response from me, a long, heavy sigh escaped her lips.

"Close your mouth."

Subconsciously, hearing her, my jaw immediately snapped shut. I blinked, clearing the sudden daze from my eyes, and only then cleared my throat.

"Was it open?"

"Yes," Viora murmured in a deadpan tone.

"How long?"

"A while."

I rubbed my forehead with my palm, feeling a sudden headache brewing behind my temples.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

I came here to investigate Black. I came here to gather information. I came here to quietly observe his family from a distance so I could find a single thread of leverage to use before meeting him.

Instead, his daughter had looked directly at me through a crowd of people and casually called me her father’s friend.

’How? Why? How could she notice me without even looking at me once?’

The more I thought about it, the worse it became. It felt like every single move I made around that man was already being proven wrong.

In front of me, Viora rested her chin on her palm as her sightless eyes fixed directly on my face.

"You look shocked."

"I am shocked," I admitted honestly and dropped my hand from my head onto the table.

"You deserved it."

"What does that even mean?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"It means you spent half the day planning how to investigate someone," she pointed her index finger toward the empty road where the girl had skipped away. "And then his daughter investigated you first."

"..."

I hated how accurate that was.

A tiny but mischievous smile appeared on Viora’s lips. For some reason, seeing me suffer or get completely thrown off my game always managed to improve her mood.

Her petty side was showing again. However, then, her smile vanished suddenly. Her head turned sharply toward the street where Black’s family had gone.

"Woo Jin."

"Hm?" I muttered.

"Someone is coming back."

My eyes immediately moved toward the sidewalk. A familiar figure was walking back toward us, her boots making light tapping sounds against the concrete.

It was Black’s wife.

She was coming back alone. My entire body stiffened against the back of the chair. Why? The little girl wasn’t with her anymore, and the heavy plastic grocery bags she had been carrying were gone too. She must have dropped them off somewhere nearby.

She was walking directly toward our outdoor table.

"Why is she coming here?" I mumbled under my breath.

At my words, Viora’s expression instantly darkened and her lips pressed into a thin, dangerous line.

"I don’t know," she whispered.

The woman stopped right beside our table. For a brief moment, she simply looked at me as her gaze scanned my face with a look of realization. Then, she smiled politely.

"You are Woo Jin, right?"

Though my heart had skipped a beat, I still forced my expression to remain perfectly neutral.

"Yes," I replied, and the woman nodded once as her smile widened slightly.

"I thought so," she said.

Meanwhile, Viora had already placed her mug down on the saucer.

Clack.

She did it hard. Very hard. The sound wasn’t loud enough to cause a scene, but it definitely wasn’t quiet either. It was a clear, deliberate statement of her presence.

The woman glanced toward her for a split second before looking back at me.

Sensing that the woman was kind of ignoring her, Viora smiled. It was the kind of polite smile that wasn’t actually polite at all.

An uncomfortable silence appeared between the three of us. However, soon the woman cleared her throat and began speaking.

"Sorry for bothering you."

"No, it’s fine," I said quickly.

"Actually..." She was going to say something but hesitated slightly as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other before continuing. "Would you like to come over for lunch?"

My brain completely stopped.

"What?" I let out, wondering if my ears were playing tricks on me because of the lingering effects of the flu.

And it didn’t affect only me; Viora’s fingers also tightened around the handle of her mug so fiercely I thought the clay would shatter into pieces.

The woman smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "My daughter insists that I invite you."

"Why?"

"She likes you," the woman explained. "She recognized you instantly from across the street."

The atmosphere instantly grew even heavier.

"..."

"..."

I could practically feel Viora’s intense irritation through the air. The woman, however, seemed completely oblivious to the silent war being waged at our table.

"My husband also mentioned you before," she added, delivering a sentence that nearly made me choke on my own saliva.

"He did?" I asked, my voice dropping into a serious tone just like my expression.

"Yeah. A few times after we met you."

What? A few times? Why?

How much had Black actually told his family about me? I suddenly felt as if I had walked straight into another one of his meticulously prepared traps. Was this entire sequence planned? Was Black expecting me to show up at the daycare? Was he manipulating my movements from behind the scenes again?

My mind immediately began running through the tactical possibilities. A trap. An information-gathering tactic. Psychological pressure. Observation. Testing.

Yet... as I looked at the woman standing in front of me, I couldn’t convince myself that she or her daughter were part of some elaborate, malicious scheme.

The woman looked painfully normal. She had faint dark circles under her eyes, her clothes were simple, and she looked like someone who worried about school schedules, not someone involved in shadow games like this.

And besides... this was exactly what I had wanted. I was the one planning to find a way into Black’s house. I was the one searching for leverage.

So why was she inviting me first? It felt completely backwards, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t afford to throw away. If I refused now, there might never be another chance to enter his personal domain legally.

The woman tilted her head as she waited for my response. "So?"

I slowly exhaled, letting the tension drain from my shoulders.

"Alright."

At my answer, her smile immediately brightened, and her eyes crinkled with genuine relief.

"Wonderful." After that, she said something that completely caught me off guard. "Then let’s go."

"Right now?"

"Yes."

"..."

I hadn’t expected that. Not tomorrow. Nor the day after tomorrow. Right now.

Instinctively, I looked toward Viora. She was sitting perfectly still, which was somehow ten times worse than if she had been yelling or knocking over chairs. Her arms were tightly crossed over her chest, her lips were pressed together, and despite her calm appearance, I could tell she was extremely annoyed.

The woman glanced between the two of us and finally picked up on the thick tension.

"Oh." She smiled politely, gesturing toward the seat across from me. "Your girlfriend can come too."

The table went completely silent.

Gradually, Viora’s expression improved. The deadly aura surrounding her vanished, her shoulders relaxed, and a soft, satisfied expression settled over her face.

"I would love to," Viora murmured sweetly, her voice sounding like pure honey as she stood up from her chair and adjusted her cap.

I let out a silent sigh, paid the café waiter for the drinks, and followed the woman down the street.

The walk to their house took less than five minutes. They lived in a quiet, older residential district hidden away from the main commercial roads. The house itself was a modest, two-story building with a small front yard enclosed by a low wooden fence.

The moment the woman pushed the front gate open, the front door of the house flew open.

"Mister!"

The little girl in the yellow raincoat ran out, her small boots clattering against the stone walkway. She didn’t hesitate for a second. She ran straight up to me and grabbed the fabric of my trousers, looking up at me with a massive, gap-toothed smile.

"You actually came! Mommy said you might be busy!"

I stared at her in bewilderment. Isn’t she just too friendly for a child? Most kids are afraid of going near strangers, but she...

"I wasn’t that busy," I said. I was feeling remarkably awkward as I looked down at the child.

"Come inside! Come inside!" She tugged at my hand, pulling me toward the doorway.

As we stepped into the entrance hall, the scent of warm food and baked vanilla instantly hit my nose. It felt incredibly cozy. But as I glanced around, I noticed something else.

Hanging scrolls with faint stabilization symbols were hung near the windows, and the corners of the ceiling held tiny, hidden defense artifacts. This house was a fortress disguised as a family home.

"Take off your shoes here," the mother said kindly as she shut the door behind us. "I’ll go check on the food. Yuna, show our guests to the living room."

"Okay!" the little girl, Yuna, smiled.

She led us into a brightly lit living room. In the center of the room stood a wooden table, and pushed against the wall was a small shelf covered in colorful drawings, toy blocks, and a large, brightly lit birthday cake shaped like a star.

The text on the cake read: Happy 6th Birthday, Yuna!

I paused, my eyes locking onto the cake. It was her birthday? That was why we were invited? They hadn’t mentioned anything about a celebration at the café.