Chapter 177 - That Notebook

"Kai...ren? Kairen? Is that your name?"

Kain tilted his head from side to side with a puzzled look.

"Kairen!"

Ignoring his question, the kid only repeated that name once again.

"Is that your name?"

"...."

"Hey, kid! Answer me properly!"

"...."

The kid tilted his head as if he didn't understand what Kain just said and moved his hand, pointing at Kain and then himself.

"Kain... Kairen!"

"Yes Yes. My name is Kain so yours is Kairen."

"....."

It was written all over his face that the kid didn't understand anything again.

"Uh..."

Kairen suddenly gasped and turned his head around, looking at the room he was in. His eyes widened as soon as he saw something on the desk and pointed at it with shiny eyes.

"...."

Kain turned to look at what he was pointing.

"...You want a notebook?"

"....."

The kid just pointed at the notebook, his eyes urging Kain to hand it to him.

"...."

Giving up, Kain walked to his desk and picked up the notebook that he had only bought recently and a pen, and handed them to Kairen.

As soon as the kid received the notebook and the pen, he started to draw something on the notebook.

"...."

"...."

Scribe Scribe 

"...."

"...."

Scribe scribe

After a few minutes, the kid finally stopped drawing and raised the notebook, holding it in front of Kain's face.

Kain leaned forward and looked at the drawing.

"...."

There was a big building drawn on one side of the paper and there were two people standing beside it, one smaller than the other. The symbol of SMF was drawn on the building and the surroundings looked like the orphanage's yard.

"Is this the orphanage?"

Kain looked at the kid. Kairen just tilted his head. He then lowered the notebook and tapped the drawing with the pen while looking back at Kain with a questioning gaze.

"Um... Do you mean to ask where this place is?"

"...."

"It's an orphanage!"

"...."

"Somewhere that homeless kids live."

"...."

Blink Blink Blink

"Don't look at me as if you didn't understand anything!"

"....."

"No way you really didn't understand?"

"...."

"Forget it."

Kain sighed.

The kid was willing to communicate with him so he had to first know some basic information about him.

"First, tell me how old you are."

"...."

Kain grabbed the pen and the notebook and started to draw as well. He first drew a newborn baby, then a toddler, then a kid, then a teenager. 

"This, I am 17. What about you?"

As he said that, he drew 17 small lines near the teenager. After he was done, he put the pen in Kairen's hand.

"...."

He grabbed the pen and stared at the paper, unmoving. He looked at the paper in silence, his face slowly bending to a frown. The more time passed, the deeper the frown got.

"Uh-"

Eventually, the pen dropped out of his hand.

"Uhh..."

The kid's body curled up as he clenched his head with both hands. 

"H-hey! What's wrong?"

"Argh!"

The small body of the child was shaking, drenched in sweat. The fever had suddenly gone up and his breathing also seemed irregular.

"W-wait! I'll call the nurse right away!"

Kain said that and ran out of the room.

. . . . .

Riiiiip

The sound of a paper getting ripped was what woke him up late at night.

Riiiip

Riiiip

Kain rose his head as he opened his eyes. He had fallen asleep beside the kid's bed who was almost unconscious due to the fever.

Once he opened his eyes, he saw the said kid ripping off the papers of the notebook they used to draw. He ripped off the drawn papers and tore them to pieces.

"What are you doing?"

As if he didn't hear, or notice Kain, the kid continued to tear the papers. 

"Hey?"

After he was done, he picked up the pen and looked at the notebook with a strange face.

"Are you not feeling fine again?"

Kain slightly shook the kid's body. 

'He is cold...'

He could feel how cold the kid's body was.

Not even looking at Kain, the kid moved the pen, placing its tip on the paper.

Scribe Scribe

And he started to write down some stuff in a messy way. 

"What are you..."

Kain moved closer and peeked at the notebook. As the kid didn't seem to mind him, he thought it would be alright if he looked at the notebook. But he couldn't suppress his surprise after he saw the contents of the notebook.

"What in the..."

The kid was hurriedly writing things down in a messy way while clenching his head with his other hand. 

He acted in a way that one would think he would forget the things in his mind if he didn't write them down right now. 

But the strangest thing was that he was writing them in an unknown language. It was Kain's first time seeing such a language.

"Hey... are you probably not from this country?"

The kid didn't answer as usual.

Dorp Drop

Drops of sweat were falling down to the notebook from Kairen's forehead and he was slightly panting.

'He is in fever yet his body is so cold...'

Kain looked at the kid's miserable state.

After a few minutes of continuously writing, it seemed that he was done as he moved his hand away from the notebook and dropped the pen.

"..."

Kain carefully examined his face.

"Um... Are you fine..."

"...."

The kid finally turned his head to look at Kain. Kain looked at his tired and bloodshot eyes and gulped.

"...Hey... let's just... sleep, okay?"

He said that and slowly pushed the kid back. Kairen powerlessly fell on the bed with just a slight push.

"Ah!"

That made Kain surprised. What was wrong with this dude?

"Um... By the way... Are you hungry? You haven't eaten since..."

Kairen stopped talking. He closed his mouth and silently stared at Kairen, who had already fallen asleep.

"...Anyway..."

With a sigh, he plopped down on the chair.

'Why do I have to deal with this dude? What have I done wrong?'

Kain covered him with his blanket before picking up a towel and cleaning the sweat on the kid's face.

. . . . .

It was a new notebook. It was one of those blank notebooks that were used by kids to draw on it. The notebook was now on a bed. Sitting around it were two boys, one younger and one older. The older one was drawing something on the notebook while the other one was munching on some cookies.

After he was done, Kain moved back and gestured to Kairen to look at the notebook.

"Here. This is what we call a 'car'. And this is how it is written."

Kain pointed at the drawn car with his pen.

"Do you get it?"

"...."

"Sigh!"

It has already been three weeks since he was assigned to take care of the kid. He had to take care of this strange kid with a strange sickness every fucking day! 

Now, after a few weeks has passed, the strange sickness seemed to be getting better little by little and the kid was starting to interact with people, mostly only Kain.

The other strange thing was the kid's behavior. Sometimes he just acted like a normal 13-year-old boy. Sometimes he looked too pure and innocent that one would think he was only 5. And sometimes he acted like he was even older than Kain. He couldn't really talk but Kain didn't need to hear his worlds to realize these things. He was a trained agent, after all, he could understand a lot of things only by looking at one's face and eyes.

After he talked to the caregiver regarding his guess that the reason Kairen doesn't talk is that he might not know the language, he was assigned to teach him the basics of the language as much as he could. He was not only supposed to take care of him, but also teach him! It was really irritating, especially that he had to teach a kid who only stared at him with a tired face most of the time. Kain thought it would be easier to teach a 3-year-old than this guy.

"Car!"

To his surprise, Kairen opened his mouth and repeated what he just taught him.

"Car!! Car!!"

He said with a rarely-seen excited face.

'Maybe I should use some cartoons or something...' 

He had already tried using children's toys and books, but Kairen was so irritated after seeing the stuff belonging to children being used on him that he didn't look at Kain for a whole day.

It was while he was having such thoughts...

"Kain! Kain!"

He looked down after sensing his sleeves being pulled.

"Cookie!"

"...."

Kairen was looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

"....."

"Cookie!"

"...You want more?"

"Cookie!!"

"...Alright."

Kain surrendered with a sigh.

Smile

The kid smiled brightly again. So bright that Kain thought his eyes would burn from looking at it.

With another sigh, Kain stood up and walked to the kitchen to bring back more cookies for the boy that was now acting like an innocent 5-year-old. 

He sensed other kids in the orphanage staring at him in his way, but he didn't mind. He was more than used to the people's envious glares by now. 

The thing that he didn't know was that the reason the others were staring at him was not because of envy today. 

They were all looking at the almost-never-seen smile on Kain's face.