Kang Jin-Ho looked up at Sister Yi. “...Yes, Director?”

“Please come closer.” She beckoned at him and reached out to him once more as he got closer. “Jin-Ho, do you know why I keep wanting to hold hands?”

“...No, ma'am.”

“You see, we humans...”

“...!” Kang Jin-Ho saw her smile and held his breath. He had never seen anything quite like that before. Her smile seemed incomparably warm, yet something about it also felt distant, lonely. A kind of smile that made it difficult to stare back... That was what it felt like.

“...Still feel lonely sometimes even when we are surrounded by other people.”

“...”

“You know what I mean, don't you?”

“...Yes.”

Sister Yi didn't know what kind of a life Kang Jin-Ho had lived. He had never told her, after all. But the way she spoke, it sounded as if she knew everything.

Kang Jin-Ho wasn't 'alone' back in Zhongyuan. No human could survive by themselves, and that was why he sought out a group to be a part of. He tried to be one of them, but even then, Kang Jin-Ho had always been alone—lonely.

However, he believed that would no longer be the case now. He had regained his family and his life, hadn't he? For some strange reason, though, Sister Yi's words were loudly resonating within his soul.

“It can get so lonesome. That's what humans are like. And it's difficult to truly understand other people, Jin-Ho. It also means others also can't fully understand...