The next afternoon.
Reality proved something very important:
Between "legal pickup" and "creepy stakeout," there was often only a hair's breadth.
The crowd outside Sky Elementary churned like boiling water.
Parents packed together shoulder-to-shoulder, chatting about tutoring classes and school-district real estate.
Su Yu stood at the edge of the crowd with both hands in his pockets, looking perfectly natural.
Kiana stood half a step behind him.
She wore a hoodie with the hood pulled down so low it covered most of her face. Both hands were jammed deep into her pocket, body tense, back pressed to Su Yu's—like an agent ready to draw a gun at any moment.
"Relax," Su Yu murmured, subtly leaning back to bump her rigid shoulder with his.
"You don't look like someone here to pick up a kid. You look like someone here for a secret handoff. That security guard's glanced at you three times already."
"You're the one loitering at an elementary school gate," Kiana said, voice muffled under the hood. "How am I supposed to not be nervous?"
"I told you, it's a legal pickup."
"Then why did you use the word 'stakeout' yesterday?"
"…I retract that word."
Kiana huffed and didn't press it further.
But her shoulders stayed tight, her spine ramrod straight.
The parents' idle chatter and the kids' laughter blended into a noisy soup that made her temples throb.
She bit her lip and fixed her eyes on the ground.
Then—
A crisp dismissal bell rang.
The school gate swung open, and children poured out like a tide.
Su Yu scanned the flow and quickly locked onto a small figure.
Long pale-blue hair. Clear light-violet eyes. A tiny silhouette hugging a drawing board.
Griseo walked slowly—like a little ghost drifting outside the commotion—eyes empty, as if she were watching scenery from some other dimension.
Su Yu lifted a hand and waved.
The girl stopped. Her violet eyes shifted once, as if confirming something, and then she ambled over.
"Su Yu…哥哥," she said softly, as if her voice had floated in from far away.
"Griseo, school's out." Su Yu squatted down and casually ruffled her hair. "Kosma's obsessed with a mecha expo today. If he doesn't get that limited model, he's not coming home. So he asked me to pick you up."
Griseo nodded, showing no suspicion at all.
Or rather—this child could apparently tell people apart by their "colors." Everyone she recognized had a different color, and all of them were friendly.
So who picked her up didn't really matter to her.
Her gaze slid off Su Yu and landed on the figure behind him.
The hood hid most of the face, but the white tips of hair were striking.
"…This big sister," Griseo tilted her head. "Who is she?"
"Oh—introductions." Su Yu shifted aside. "My friend. Kiana."
Kiana lifted her head, the hood's shadow revealing those mismatched eyes.
She looked at the small girl in front of her—at those clean, unclouded light-violet eyes—
And a strange sense of dissonance rose in her chest.
A kid this pure… was really the grandmaster who drew that censored mosaic-level stuff?
"H-h-hi…" Kiana stammered, standing there stiffly like a student called on by the teacher. "I'm… Kiana."
Seriously—who could stay calm after seeing those drawings? This girl might be small, but for all Kiana knew, she should be calling her "Teacher."
Griseo didn't answer right away.
She simply watched Kiana in silence. There was no curiosity in those pale-violet eyes, no probing—only a kind of focused attention, like she was staring at a palette.
"…Big sister's color," she said softly. "Is very special."
"Huh?" Kiana blinked.
Griseo didn't explain. She reached into her backpack, took out a tiny sketchbook, and held it up toward Kiana.
"…Griseo wants to draw big sister."
"Uh…" Kiana instinctively looked at Su Yu, her eyes screaming, Help.
Su Yu shrugged, wearing an innocent expression that clearly said, Handle it yourself.
Inside, he was quietly laughing—so the pull between "materials" really did go both ways.
"…F-fine. Do what you want," Kiana said, voice dry, giving up resistance.
Griseo's eyes lit up for a flicker—then returned to calm.
"Thank you, big sister."
She tucked the sketchbook away again, then looked up at Su Yu.
"Thirsty."
"What do you want to drink?"
"Strawberry milkshake."
"Alright." Su Yu stood. "There's a tea shop up ahead."
He naturally took Griseo's small hand.
Griseo followed him a couple steps, then turned back to look at Kiana, who was still standing there.
"…Big sister isn't coming?"
Kiana's feet froze.
She could feel that stupid distance restriction tugging at her, forcing her to follow.
"Coming," she muttered, and hurried after them.
…
The tea shop wasn't crowded.
Su Yu ordered a strawberry milkshake, a cup of pearl milk tea, and an iced Americano.
Griseo sat by the window with her milkshake, slowly sipping through a straw, her gaze occasionally drifting to Kiana across the table.
Kiana sat beside Su Yu, both hands wrapped around her pearl milk tea.
She'd taken off the hood. White hair spilled over her shoulders, and her mismatched eyes looked especially clear in the afternoon light.
Scratch, scratch… scratch…
Across from them, Griseo lowered her head, pencil flying across the sketchbook.
When she drew, the emptiness in her eyes vanished—replaced by a kind of ardor, like she'd found the perfect model.
Kiana felt uncomfortable.
She could sense the little girl's gaze repeatedly landing on her face… her collarbone…
It didn't feel like she was looking at a person.
It felt like she was dismantling a structure—breaking down light and shadow.
"She keeps staring at me," Kiana whispered, shifting closer to Su Yu.
Because of the 1.2-meter restriction, they were sitting so close their thighs practically touched.
Her voice lowered further, awkward and stiff. "It's weird."
"Because she's analyzing you." Su Yu took a sip of iced Americano; the bitterness jolted his mind awake.
He watched the tiny figure drawing, a gleam in his eyes.
"To her, you're not just a customer. You're material she's never seen before."
"I've never been a model."
"Then start now."
Kiana shot him a glare, but didn't argue.
She took a sip of her milk tea, chewing the tapioca, her eyes drifting out the window.
Sunlight poured through the glass, scattering warm patches across the tabletop.
Outside were ordinary passersby—office workers, students, young mothers pushing strollers.
Everything was calm.
Normal.
She stared at those ordinary faces, and something she couldn't name welled up inside her.
In the world she came from, an afternoon this peaceful was already a luxury.
"Finished," Griseo said.
She stopped her pencil and turned the sketchbook around.
Kiana glanced over absentmindedly—
And instantly went rigid.
It wasn't a normal portrait.
In the drawing, she wasn't sitting in a tea shop.
She stood atop shattered ruins.
The lines were chaotic and feral, as if carrying the howl of wind.
Her eyes were no longer the lost, drifting look she wore now—there was a cold, steel-hard resolve to them, a stubborn strength that looked like the last card someone could play.
And behind her, lances like wings unfurled—
Void lances.
The shadow of the Herrscher of the Void.
"…How…" Kiana's pupils shrank violently.
She'd never told this child anything about her past.
"This is…" Griseo pointed at the heavy black shading across the page, voice still calm. "Big sister's color."
"Very sad. Very painful… but."
Her finger moved to the center of the drawing.
"Here… there is still light."
Silence.
Su Yu stared at the sketch, awe flashing through his eyes.
Of course.
This was Griseo—the girl who could paint the essence of a world.
....
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