Chapter 34
First Time Meeting
"Director Song."
Han Ji-An bowed her head slightly, the respect in it visible and genuine.
Song Im-Hyun nodded in return, his mouth curving just enough to be polite.
"Thank you for your work, Researcher Han. These past couple of days couldn't have been easy. Please, rest — I'll take it from here."
Han Ji-An caught the meaning behind the phrasing immediately.
"I'm grateful for your consideration, sir. I'll wait just outside in case you need anything."
Another small bow, and she slipped out, pulling the door softly shut behind her.
Lucia was alone with Song Im-Hyun.
It didn't show on the outside, but she was nervous. Being alone with someone she had only known through phone calls and video screens — someone who, by all practical measures, held considerable power over her entire situation — was a different thing from anything she had dealt with before.
As if sensing her restlessness, Song Im-Hyun threw a joke out with complete disregard for the atmosphere.
"No need to be so formal with me. Just treat me like a neighbor's uncle. Or your own uncle, even — hahaha."
The dry delivery landed well enough. Lucia felt some of the tension ease out of her, and the memory of their earlier calls came back — he wasn't so different in person, really.
"Haha… I'd rather not, sir. But thank you — it helped a little." She smiled sheepishly, trying not to let the awkwardness show too much.
Song Im-Hyun put on an exaggerated look of surprise.
"Just a little? What would it take for you to relax completely? Hmm…" He paused, then shook his head. "I'm sorry — I think I've spent too much time in labs. My social skills are starting to rot."
"Alright, no more jokes. Come, sit down — then we can get to business."
Like flipping a switch, his expression shifted into something measured and composed. He led Lucia toward the couches near the large window, the easy warmth replaced by the quiet authority of someone who ran things.
Lucia sat down.
She felt better than she had a few minutes ago — but the faint pressure emanating from this man hadn't fully gone away. She had begun to think it was simply part of who he was. Every capable leader she had ever encountered carried something like it. Some people just had that quality.
Once they were seated, Song Im-Hyun reached beneath the coffee table and produced a file, setting it on top.
He didn't move straight to business. Instead, he asked a few opening questions — how she was feeling, her first impressions of the facility, whether she'd had any difficulties getting here. And finally, a question about her mental health.
Lucia answered honestly where she felt safe to. For anything that touched her personal space, she kept her answers measured. This man knew some of her secrets — but knowing some things was different from earning full trust, and trust was something she reserved for family and the handful of people who had already proved themselves.
"It seems you're doing well, Miss Lucia." Song Im-Hyun set aside the small talk and slid the file across the table toward her. "Here is your volunteer contract. Because your case is unique, there are a few additions and adjustments compared to the standard agreement. Please read carefully before signing."
Lucia took the file.
She read it the way she did everything important — word by word, line by line, without skipping a single clause or punctuation mark. Nothing hid from her.
When she finally set it down, it wasn't because she was done. It was because she had questions.
She asked about the penalty clauses for contract violations, the compensation terms, several rules that seemed to imply conditions not explicitly stated, and a handful of other specifics that most people would have simply signed past.
Song Im-Hyun found himself quietly impressed.
The nervousness from earlier had apparently been genuine — but so was this. She was thorough in a way that didn't feel performative. He had the distinct sense that her timidity and her sharpness existed in the same person without contradiction.
He answered every question in full. He wanted her to feel that she was welcome here — not just accommodated, but actually welcomed.
By the time her last question was answered, about half an hour had passed.
Lucia didn't notice the smile that had settled onto her face in the meantime — the genuine kind, the one that arrived without invitation when something had gone better than expected.
She picked up the pen from the table and paused.
Her expression went briefly blank.
'Wait… what do I sign here? What name? What signature?'
Song Im-Hyun, reading the hesitation easily, offered a quiet reassurance.
"Don't worry about that, Miss Lucia. You can put whatever you like — what matters is the fingerprint."
Lucia exhaled inwardly.
'Thank goodness. That could've been a whole ordeal.'
She wrote a simple, slightly stylized "Lucia" in the signature field, pressed her right thumb to the red ink pad, and transferred it cleanly to the contract paper.
Two copies. She did it twice.
When it was done, Song Im-Hyun extended his hand across the table.
Lucia took it and shook it once.
"Congratulations, Miss Lucia. Welcome to our family." The serious expression folded away, and the warm, ever-present smile returned as naturally as breathing.
Lucia smiled back, bright and genuine.
"Thank you, sir. Please take care of me going forward."
Song Im-Hyun nodded. "Of course. It looks like it's already lunchtime — I hope you enjoy your meal. I still have a few things to attend to, so I won't see you out."
Both of them rose from their seats. Lucia gave a small bow.
"Thank you for your time, sir. See you next time."
She left the room.
Song Im-Hyun remained where he was. His gaze followed her to the door, and after it closed behind her, he turned back toward the window. His expression had shifted into something quieter — thoughtful, unhurried.
"She really did put in considerable effort not to be led by the conversation." A quiet laugh. "I hope the arrangements don't end up causing her too many difficulties."
_____
The door clicked shut and Lucia found Han Ji-An waiting just outside, close enough to be ready if needed.
The thoughtfulness of it caught her off guard. She felt genuinely grateful.
Han Ji-An approached with the energy of someone who had been waiting to ask this exact question.
"So?!" She nudged Lucia conspiratorially, like a gossipy older sister who had been outside the whole time with her ear pressed to the wall.
"Handsome, right?! The first time I saw Director Song I became a fan on the spot — that face, and that physique! Rumor has it he has an eight-pack! So, Lucia — did your heart do anything? Even a little?"
Lucia didn't quite know where to look.
She had never even thought about any of that. Having to breathe without feeling quiet pressure in that room had already been luxury enough — there had been no mental bandwidth left for anything else. And as someone whose mindset was still fundamentally that of a man who appreciated women, the idea of her heart doing anything in response to another man hadn't crossed her mind once.
She could objectively acknowledge that Song Im-Hyun had a striking face. That was simply a fact. But it stopped there, cleanly and completely.
She redirected.
"Ji-An Unnie, how about we get lunch? I don't know where anything is yet — didn't you promise to be my guide? Let's go, I'm genuinely starving."
Han Ji-An studied the evasion with visible delight, coming to the immediate and entirely incorrect conclusion that Lucia was just too shy to admit it.
This only deepened the shy-and-adorable image she was building in her head.
"Come on then — the food court is in Building B, about five hundred meters from here." She started walking, leading Lucia toward the elevator. "I've always wondered why they put it so far from the main building."
"Maybe for safety reasons? I'm not sure." Lucia followed, then hesitated briefly. "Ah — by the way, should I keep calling you Team Leader Han? Or is Ji-An Unnie okay? I heard that's the right way to address an older woman in Korea."
Han Ji-An stopped walking.
She turned around with a face that had gone from composed to absolutely beaming in the span of half a second. Without warning, she pulled Lucia into a hug and made a series of soft, kitten-like noises against her shoulder.
"I love it! No more formality between us!"
Lucia froze.
Inwardly, she felt the familiar mix of warmth and bewilderment that Han Ji-An seemed to reliably produce in her.
She didn't dislike being close to someone who treated her with this much genuine affection. That part was actually nice. What she still hadn't found her footing with was the sheer ease of it — the way Han Ji-An linked arms, held hands, hugged without preamble, as though physical closeness between girls required no negotiation at all.
All of it was new. Not just as Lucia — as Lucius too. A healthy young man with sisters he loved, yes, but this specific kind of casual feminine closeness had never been part of his world.
And then there was the other thing she had noticed.
Before — if she had still had her old body — a beautiful girl pressing close like this would have triggered something very specific. A warmth. A quiet, rising awareness.
Now?
Nothing.
Not even the echo of it.
The hardware had changed. And before she had even noticed, the software had been quietly updating itself to match.
She didn't know how to feel about that.
Helplessly smiling, cheeks lightly flushed, she gave Han Ji-An a gentle push.
"Ji-An Unnie — food. I will actually starve if you keep doing this."
Han Ji-An released her with great reluctance, making a mental note that this was something she could absolutely get used to.
She linked her arm through Lucia's with cheerful authority.
"Alright! I refuse to let my new little sister go hungry. Just follow me — I'll show you every good thing in our canteen!"
"Let's go!"
They set off arm in arm toward the food court, Han Ji-An leading with her usual bright energy. Along the way, a steady stream of colleagues stopped to greet her — it became clear quickly that she was genuinely well-liked here, with the kind of warm familiarity that came from actually being a good person to work with rather than just a senior title.
Lucia returned each greeting with a smile and a simple hello, keeping her responses light and unhurried. She had decided early that projecting too much enthusiasm wouldn't sit right — it would feel like a performance, and performance was the last thing she wanted to maintain all day. A quiet, naturally introverted presence felt more honest, and more sustainable.
The food court, it turned out, was integrated directly with the second and third dormitory buildings — the ones that housed volunteers and lower-ranked staff members.
The first dormitory sat separately, built into the main building itself, reserved for high-ranking officials and more significant figures within the facility.
Lucia filed that detail away.
Taking in the full scale of the research facility for the first time, Lucia found herself genuinely surprised.
For a branch — a regional office, essentially — it was remarkably well-built. Nothing about it suggested a rushed project or a temporary arrangement. It had the kind of scale and solidity that took real planning.
Han Ji-An caught the look on her face and chuckled.
"Sorry — I forgot to give you the background. These buildings actually have quite a story behind them."
She gestured at the cluster ahead as they walked.
"This whole complex was originally planned as an urban rehabilitation project. The buildings in front of us were meant to house low-income families and individuals. The main building — the one that looks like a shopping center from the outside — was designed to be a central market and entertainment hub for the community."
"Unfortunately, the project was halted when a corruption scandal came to light. Someone had been selling the same properties to multiple buyers. It was discovered before construction was fully completed, which was lucky — but by then the damage to the project was done."
"Then the transformation phenomenon happened. The government moved quickly and repurposed the entire site for the MPTA branch. The original project was shelved and relocated to a different area entirely."
"That's why the facilities feel a little unusual — and why the main building looks like it belongs in a shopping district rather than a research complex."
Lucia nodded, taking it all in.
She found herself thinking about other countries. Japan, China, most of Southeast Asia — none of them had formally established MPTA branches yet, as far as she knew. Even a nation with China's resources would struggle to build something of this scale and quality in a short window. South Korea had simply gotten lucky — a near-complete complex sitting unused at exactly the right moment, complicated history and all.
They entered through the ground floor of the twin towers, which connected the two dormitory buildings on either side.
What opened up before them was an indoor courtyard — roughly a hundred square meters of open space at the center, with real trees planted throughout and a food court wrapping around the perimeter on three levels. The ground floor housed the restaurants and kitchens. The second and third floors were open to the courtyard below and dedicated entirely to seating.
It was lunchtime, and the space was already well-populated.
Lucia saw the crowd and felt the familiar premonition settle in her stomach.
Sure enough.
Almost every set of eyes in the vicinity found her within seconds.
She kept her expression neutral — indifferent, composed — which had the unintended effect of making her look like an aloof goddess surveying the room from a considerable height. The whispers started immediately.
"Hey — isn't that the girl from that video?"
"Wait, seriously? It is!"
"Where are her wings? Is that her transformation power?"
The murmuring spread through the food court like a slow ripple. Lucia felt the weight of it but held her posture, grateful at least that nobody approached directly.
Han Ji-An had already anticipated this. She kept her composure and hoped her position as a lead researcher would be enough of a social signal to keep the more adventurous curiosity at bay.
With their arms still linked, she guided Lucia toward a restaurant on the ground floor that served Korean fusion dishes — a safer starting point for an unfamiliar palate, she had decided. She could introduce more traditional food gradually.
They found a table, called a waitress over, and Han Ji-An selected a generous spread of shared dishes.
After settling in, she turned to Lucia with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about the attention. Don't mind them too much, Lucy. There was a leak — your video submission got shared internally by some people who had no business sharing it. They've already been identified and dealt with. They won't be a problem going forward."
Lucia blinked. "Dealt with?"
The phrasing had landed in a particular way.
Han Ji-An looked at her face and immediately read the expression.
"Ahh — wait, no! Not like that!" She waved both hands quickly, looking genuinely flustered. "I meant they've been reassigned to a remote facility by the higher-ups. No more promotions, no corporate ladder — effectively exiled from anything meaningful. That's all!"
She smiled sheepishly.
Lucia exhaled with a small laugh. "Hehe — for a second I thought I'd witnessed a famous movie silencing scene."
They were still smiling about it when a group descended from the upper floor staircase and made their way across the food court toward their table.
A group of young women — several of them notably well put-together, even by the standards of the room.
Han Ji-An recognized at least one face among them and smiled warmly.
The group reached their table. One of them greeted Han Ji-An with the easy familiarity of someone who knew her well, and a conversation broke out in Korean — which left Lucia on the outside of it entirely.
She didn't show it. She smiled pleasantly and nodded at their greetings, contributing what she could without language on her side.
Then one of the group — a girl with a noticeably cool, composed bearing — addressed Lucia directly in English.
"Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Choi Yerin."
Her voice matched her manner — clear, pleasant, unhurried.
Lucia looked at her properly and felt a flicker of genuine surprise. She was striking — the kind of beauty that didn't announce itself loudly but was impossible to overlook once you were actually looking. For a brief moment Lucia almost forgot to respond.
She caught herself and stood.
"Oh — I'm known as Lucia. I'm from Southeast Asia. Nice to meet you, Choi Yerin." A polite smile, genuine enough.
Choi Yerin's eyes registered something at the mention of Southeast Asia. A small, thoughtful murmur — barely audible — passed her lips before her expression settled back into composed attentiveness.
Lucia tilted her head slightly.
'What was that about?'
Han Ji-An wrapped up her conversation with the other girls and took a moment to formally introduce Lucia to the group. The introductions that followed were warm and enthusiastic on their end, and Lucia returned each one with her steady, courteous smile.
Not long after, their food arrived at the table. Choi Yerin said something brief to the other girls, offered Han Ji-An and Lucia a polite farewell, and led her group off to find their own seats.
Once they were gone, Han Ji-An turned to the spread with cheerful authority.
"Come, come — let's eat!"
Lucia looked at the table.
She recognized several of the dishes from videos she had watched online, and the sight of them in front of her — actually in front of her — was satisfying in a way that video had never quite delivered.
She picked up her chopsticks. She wasn't particularly practiced with them, but she could manage well enough not to embarrass herself.
The first dish she tried hit her immediately — fresh vegetables with a satisfying crunch, a gentle sweetness in the aftertaste, and underneath it all the distinct warmth of gochujang paste. Not aggressively spicy. Just present.
Then the beef — already having absorbed the broth through marinating, tender enough that it came apart with almost no effort. Her eyes narrowed slightly from the pleasure of it.
For the next twenty minutes, neither of them talked much. There was an unspoken mutual agreement to simply focus on the food and deal with conversation afterward.
When they finally surfaced, most of the dishes had been cleared.
Most.
One remained almost entirely untouched — and that was the one Lucia had pointedly not approached from the beginning.
Han Ji-An looked at it, then at Lucia's expression, and chuckled.
"If only I'd known you don't like intestines. Are there other things you won't eat? I should know these things in advance if I'm going to be your guide."
Lucia brought her index finger to her chin and frowned lightly in thought.
"Hmm… bitter melon, maybe. Other than that I'll eat most things. Any meat is fine as long as it isn't intestines or internal organs."
"Ho-oh." Han Ji-An nodded — then stopped.
Her expression shifted. Something behind Lucia had caught her eye, and whatever it was had drained the warmth from her face in an instant.
Lucia noticed immediately and turned.
Someone was approaching their table.
'Wait — isn't that the strange one from Ji-An Unnie's escort team?'
He stopped just within arm's reach of their table.
His chin was tilted slightly upward, his whole bearing radiating a confidence that sat just a degree or two past comfortable — closer to arrogance than ease.
"Hi. We meet again." His English was functional but effortful, delivered with a theatrical smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "My name is Jung Si-Woo."
Han Ji-An cut in immediately, her tone flat.
"Jung Si-Woo. Don't even think about starting anything." Korean — short, clipped, the displeasure in it unmistakable.
He gave no indication of having heard her.
He extended his right hand toward Lucia instead.
"Nice to meet you, beautiful Miss Lucia. I hope we can be friends."
Lucia read the room without difficulty. Something was wrong with the dynamic here — the way Han Ji-An had gone cold, the way this person moved as though the warning had simply not applied to him.
She kept her response polite and nothing more. A brief handshake, a neutral expression.
"Nice to meet you."
"I think you're done here." Han Ji-An's voice was the same flat register, still in Korean. "I have things to discuss with her. You can go."
Jung Si-Woo didn't acknowledge this either.
He held Lucia's gaze for a moment longer than necessary, then turned and walked away without once looking in Han Ji-An's direction — as though she simply wasn't a factor in any calculation he was making.
Lucia watched him until he had fully left the floor.
'What a hassle. That guy clearly has backing — he's not even pretending to care about what Ji-An Unnie says.'
She turned back to Han Ji-An.
"So… what exactly is going on with him?"