Arcadia Chapter 1.7

“I’ll give you a discount. 10 dollars. Put it on my tab.”

With a camera installed, why wouldn’t there be recording too? Once he had a verbal contract for the money, he felt his fatigue lift somewhat. Just as he was about to fall back again, a rather baffling suggestion came from the phone against his ear.

— Smile.

“…Are you kidding me right now?”

— 100 dollars.

Van dropped the phone and glared alternately at the screen and the camera. What do they take people for…

Lifting Dia, who had climbed onto his thigh, into his arms, Van gave a bright smile toward the camera. The corners of his slightly drooping eyes went down as his mouth split into a wide grin. He didn’t know what that guy’s gender was, but it was the expression the women he had met until now had been crazy about. On rare occasions, men liked it too, so it was a smile that could be useful in a pinch.

“Happy now?”

The sound of loud laughter could be heard. After achieving his goal, Van instantly dropped the smile and flopped down on his back. Selling a smile for a few bucks wasn’t hard, but he suddenly became curious about the identity of the person calling him. It was probably an acquaintance of Michel’s, and if so, their age…

“Ugh.”

He felt a little nauseous imagining some old geezer on the other side of the camera putting a price on his antics. It was not a very pleasant thought. He didn’t know whether to call it a relief, but the tone of the mechanical voice didn’t have a particularly elderly feel to it. He wasn’t hoping for someone his own age, but just as he was hoping it wasn’t an old man, the mechanical voice, which had been laughing for a while, slowly asked.

— You like money that much?

“I’m crazy about it.”

Isn’t that why I snatched up a job like this? He glanced down at his chest, and Dia, who was perched on his waist, seemed to think it was a new game and started happily slapping Van’s upper abdomen with both hands. He lifted the child, moved it to the floor, and whipped off his sweater. Thanks to regaining his body heat, he felt less cold.

— What are you doing now?

The mechanical voice, tinged with a faint trace of laughter, was starting to get on his nerves. It definitely wasn’t an old man.

“If you like it, put a bonus on my tab.”

Van closed the flip phone, ending the call, and wrapped Dia in the sweater that still held his warmth. He wound the sleeves around and tied a loose knot, then got to his feet. Dia, trying to follow quickly, toppled forward. It struggled with its short legs while buried in the sleeves.

“We’ve said our hellos for today, so…”

Van glanced sideways at the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling and started walking.

“See you tomorrow.”

He vaulted over Dia, who was grunting and sitting up, and headed for the entrance. As Van disappeared from its sight in an instant, the child whipped its head around.

“Uwah…!”

Realizing it couldn’t crawl with its arms tied, it started rolling its body to get closer again. Glancing back over his shoulder, Van entered the password, and slipped out quickly through the glass that slid open. The door closed immediately, as if there were a separate recognition device, leaving Dia alone and stranded on the other side. Reaching the closed door, 07 tapped its forehead on the glass, thump thump, but there was no way it would open.

“It’s my break time now.”

Van shrugged as if to say, open it if you can, then turned his back, rubbing his arms which had quickly grown cold. Once you’re big enough to punch in a password, you can get out on your own. He taunted it nonchalantly and then stepped onto the ladder.

Returning to his room, Van immediately pulled out a new sweater and pants, put them on, and dove into bed. Perhaps because a rush of unrealistic events had befallen him, he felt so tired it was as if his whole body was melting. He stared up at the pitch-black ceiling and then closed his eyes, but unlike his insanely tired body, an anxiety that slowly grew in size like it was being warmed over a low flame visited him each time he was about to fall asleep.

Is it okay to leave it alone?

The final scene of it tapping its forehead against the glass wouldn’t leave his mind. Tossing and turning, Van lay with his back to the door and squeezed his eyes shut. It is said that a child must sleep alone to build independence and grow up to be self-reliant. Countless children on this earth were growing up that way, he himself had grown up that way, and besides, that thing wasn’t even human, so it was fine. Of course, it was fine.

No matter how he tried to rationalize it, a faint sense of guilt disturbed his peaceful sleep. In the end, he was only able to get some sleep around the time the light of dawn seeped through the new curtains, but even that was a light doze.

20XX. 12. 7. That thing is sulking.

Leaving a note that was closer to backbiting than a record, Van tossed the file onto the desk and stared crookedly at the other side of the glass wall. Dia was huddled in a corner with its back to the wall. It had been stuck right at the entrance until he came down the ladder, but upon spotting Van, it had rolled far away and had been protesting like that for a whole twenty minutes. It was acting as if it was ready to turn its back on the world.

Van glanced once at the clock in his right hand and dragged his feet toward the entrance. Even while he was keying in the password and the door was opening, Dia didn’t lift its head from where it was tucked in the corner.

“Did you get bigger overnight?”

He laboriously crawled inside and offered a gruff morning greeting. The light-colored hair, which had grown even longer than yesterday, covered the back of the child’s head and was scattered around the blue sweater. He had expected it to have grown during the night, but seeing it in person was so fascinating he felt like reporting it somewhere.

As he pushed his stiff body up and slowly took one step at a time, Dia fidgeted and burrowed deeper into the corner where there was no more room to go. Seeing it express its sulky feelings so openly with its palm-sized back, a wicked playfulness welled up in him, regardless of what the thing’s identity was.

“Ah. Have you lost interest now?”

Yesterday, if he put it down, it would crawl up with all its might, but today, even when he approached with dragging feet, it wouldn’t show its face. If he had his way, he would have just left it alone, but its body possessed a value he dared not ignore.

Van sat down behind the small back and quietly watched Dia, which was no different from a human child. For all the fear-mongering about projects, secrets, and how dangerous it was, this strange creature was not at all, not one bit, threatening.

Its mouth didn’t split into four parts to reveal bumpy teeth and a grotesque tongue, nor did it spew toxic mucus everywhere. All it had was a soft body and a gaze that could be called persistent, and Van felt the last grain of his guard loosening.

Of course, he couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that it might suddenly change, so he let out a short sigh and attempted to reconcile. Whether he liked it or not, they would be together for a year, so wouldn’t it be better to be on friendly terms rather than cold ones? Without hesitation, he tapped the shoulder that would fit in one palm with room to spare.

“Excuse me.”

His long fingers moved lightly over the narrow shoulder as if playing a piano keyboard.

“May I see your face?”

After patting its shoulder a few times, he cupped its soft cheek and lifted it. Its head tilted back without resistance, and its hair, like a golden skein, cascaded down. Blinking, Van let out a sound of admiration before he even realized it.

“…Huh.”

He didn’t know how many months it had grown overnight, but the face, contorted with a sense of injustice, had less baby fat than yesterday, and its features were beginning to show, albeit faintly. Van didn’t hide his bemused expression and spent a long time scrutinizing the child’s face before muttering.

“Your face is really…”

He randomly groped the tiny face. It was a merciless touch, imbued with the determination to peel it off if it was fake leather.

He tried stretching the soft cheek, pushing up the tip of the already well-defined nose for a baby, and pressing down on the plump flesh under its eyes with his thumb, but not a single thing broke unnaturally. With a serious look, Van swiftly turned Dia around and fiddled with its face.

For the appearance of a monster or an alien to be this outstanding. And a young child who couldn’t even walk yet, at that.

When he let go of its cheeks while squinting, the angelic face gradually relaxed. The small body wriggled through his suspended arms and snuggled into his chest. He hadn’t exactly been fiddling with it as a form of apology, but it seemed to have taken it that way and had a change of heart.

“Eu… ae!”

It was babbling while rubbing its face against him, so he untied the sleeves of the sweater. As soon as Dia confirmed its arms were finally free, it suddenly wrapped them around Van’s neck. Because it was gripping his collar tightly with its small fists, Van felt a slight sense of guilt and bewilderment as he patted its back.

“Well, everyone’s pretty at this age.”

They said that even Jack, who was now armed with a common sort of plainness, was that pretty when he was young, so how would this one be any different? Van leaned the clock he had briefly placed on the floor against the wall and gently pushed Dia away. The child struggled with all its might not to be separated, but the grip of a young child was a laughable amount of force to Van.

“This.”

Its eyes, filled with a sullen light, followed Van’s finger to the clock. Since he’d taken it off the wall, it was quite large. The long hand, having just passed the 8, silently moved to the right.

“When the short hand points to this and this, I’m going out and I’ll be back.”

He pointed to the 12 and the 7 with his index finger. He didn’t know if it would understand, but he felt like he had to at least say it to lessen the guilt he’d feel when he left. This was the result of agonizing over it all night.

The child’s eyes followed his finger as it pointed to the numbers and the entrance. After indicating mealtime, his index finger swiftly circled the clock face.

“And this is my break time. If you interrupt me, you’ll be in trouble.”

He grabbed the top of Dia’s head, which was just blinking without a response, and made it nod up and down.

“Good. You have to have personal time.”

To recover from the mental anguish of caring for a baby, even investing half a day felt insufficient, but he decided to stop at this for conscience’s sake. Therefore, this creature ought to be grateful to him. Anyway.

Van bent over and pushed up its plump cheek. The narrow inside of its mouth was revealed through its twisted lips.

“You’ve got molars…”

There were some empty spots here and there, but it looked like they would all have grown in by tomorrow. Dia, who had obediently opened its mouth, smiled slyly as soon as his hand moved away. The neatly aligned teeth that followed the “ee” shape of its mouth were also cute. It seemed to be seeking praise, so he gently stroked its head, and it giggled.

Grow up quickly. Grow five years in a day so you’ll be less of a handful.

Van stroked the soft hair, filled with this earnest wish.

Now that he had confirmed that nothing was wrong with Dia, the effects of his poor night’s sleep washed over his body. As he lay down using <The Encyclopedia of Child Rearing> as a pillow, Dia crawled onto his stomach, pressed both palms against Van’s collarbone area, and pushed its face close. Its wobbly head looked like it was about to topple over, so he supported its round forehead with his index finger and pushed it up.

“I brought your clothes.”

He took the fluffy sweater he had been carrying under his arm and shook it out a couple of times. Fortunately, there was a piece of clothing left in his closet that he had worn when he was around four years old. It was a tacky Christmas sweater his dad had gifted him as a joke. He rolled up the clothing, which was embroidered with a red ribbon and a reindeer, and slipped it over the child’s head.

“Hey. You look like a present.”

Van chuckled and neatly arranged the sweater sleeves he had tied in the front. It was much better than the blue sweater that had been so big it was like a sack, but it still looked like it was being swallowed by the large clothes. Van shot up his upper body and sat the child, who was fidgeting uncomfortably, against the wall.

“Alright. Shall we begin the investigation?”

Dia, dressed in the tacky sweater like a straitjacket, scrunched up its chubby cheeks into a pout. It was a cute enough face to make one want to soothe it right away, but Van, who knew that it wasn’t human, nonchalantly started what he had to do.

As the first step, he reached for Dia’s feet, which were peeking out from under the sweater. When he bent his fingers and gently scratched the tiny soles, the toenail-sized toes twitched and curled. As he grabbed both feet and tickled them, Dia started giggling and kicking its legs.

“So you are ticklish.”

Letting go of its feet, Van moved on to his next target, its hands, and gently pinched its chubby cheek. When he pulled it sideways, the soft flesh stretched out and then wouldn’t pull any further. It seemed there was nothing special about its skin composition.

“Eueh…”

Through its parted lips, teeth the size of specks of dust were visible. The inside of its mouth, too, contrary to his worries, had nothing resembling tentacles.

“Hmm…”

Just then, he remembered <The Encyclopedia of Child Rearing>. Even if it wasn’t human, since it looked the same, he should be able to grasp the general order of its growth. He quickly pulled the book over and read the page describing the growth process.

From 6 months of age, the two bottom teeth begin to emerge.

“6 months? Are you kidding me?”

Van found solace in the sentence stating there were individual differences. As he flipped through the pages with cute illustrations, appreciating the baby’s growth, something strange caught his eye. The babies in the pictures were all much smaller than Dia and were wrapped in soft cloth. Flipping the page, Van muttered the sentence written at the very end in a daze.

“Can begin crawling from 8 months…”

He had already confirmed it, but just in case, he untied Dia’s sleeves and immediately ran to the entrance. When he stuck to the glass wall and looked back, sure enough, the child was crawling diligently toward him.

To avoid Dia, who was approaching while dragging its sweater, he made a wide circle inside the enclosure, and during that time it not only chased him relentlessly without tiring, but it was also fast. When it couldn’t get closer no matter how hard it crawled, it started to whimper, but still didn’t give up, so he let himself be caught.

Gripping his ankle firmly, Dia rested its head on the instep of his foot and burst into laughter as if it had won. The clear laughter certainly had its cute side, but its grotesquely fast growth was eerie enough to bury the creature’s loveliness. Van, rubbing the crease between his brows, rolled up Dia’s long, trailing sleeves. There are times when curiosity outweighs fear of the unknown. Like right now.

“I think you might be able to walk…”

Kneeling down, Van took Dia’s two hands, which were on the floor, and pulled it up. He steadied its swaying center of gravity and stood it straight, and its small feet awkwardly touched the floor.

“I think you can do it. Let’s walk now.”

Holding its hands tightly, he pulled forward slightly. Dia hesitated, then took one step. As it took the next step, and the next, its gait gradually became stable.

“You’re doing great.”

Tossing out a light compliment, Van carefully let go of its hands. He was prepared to catch it if it fell, but Dia stood straight without even a wobble and looked at Van. Its toes, peeking out from under the sweater, wriggled and then moved toward Van, who had retreated on his knees. Each time it put weight on its feet, it was a precarious balancing act. Finally, its awkward steps stopped right next to Van’s knees.

“…You’re really fast.”

He grabbed Dia’s outstretched hand and shook it up and down meaninglessly. He tried not to overthink it, but his mind was already in a jumble.

Born yesterday, and walking today. A year from now, when the contract ends, how much will it have grown? He glanced up at the camera, but the mechanical voice that loved to interfere in every little thing was quiet.

“Let’s just go back to crawling.”

He grabbed the child and made it lie on its stomach again. If by any chance the reason for its rapid growth was due to some impure intention, it was better to slow down its development even a little. With the thought of having it practice crawling, he ran a distance away, and its wide green eyes gave him a look full of betrayal, as if asking why he was running away.

“Crawl over here. Don’t stand.”

Van bent his knees and sat, opening both arms. Contrary to his wish, Dia reached out one hand, placed it on the floor, and slowly stood up, and he waved his hands.

“No! I said don’t stand!”

He made an ‘X’ with his arms, but Dia just covered its mouth with both hands and giggled like a little kid who had seen something funny. It walked stealthily while holding onto the glass wall, and then finally started running toward Van, who was sitting dejectedly.

Dia, who had flopped into his arms, looked up and blinked its large eyes. As if asking for praise. But Van just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“You can’t… you can’t be running right now.”

Van lifted the child and made it lie on its stomach again.

“You still have to crawl. Crawling is weird too, but you have to.”

Dia seemed to understand and crawled a little, but then it shot right back up and ran around Van. Van would catch the child who was running around, stomping its feet, and make it lie on its stomach, and the child would get up like a roly-poly toy. After this was repeated several times, Van threw up both his hands and feet in surrender.

“Fine. Run, go ahead and run. Just fly around, you crazy little thing.”

Whether it understood Van’s words or not, Dia smiled silently and repeated the act of running around Van and then jumping into his arms.