Eggnoid | a Bbangsaz Story

9 - Identity

Everything about this moment was ruining Hanni's mind. She tried her hardest to focus on the screen in front of her, but doing that wasn't exactly the easiest when you have another person trapping you from behind.

Earlier, Hanni had thought of enrolling Minji in her university, but before she could do that, she was going to have to make a false identity for the Eggnoid. She did her research and even called her friend, Nayeon -- who sold dead people's hair follicles to make a living -- to help her search on the dark web. It wasn't an easy thing to do, especially not when she had always played the Good Girl role all of her life. Not only was it damaging her laptop's system, it was also damaging her morals.

Nayeon completely understood Hanni when she told her to keep this a secret between them. Not because of anything, but because of the fact that Hanni knew something about her that could pretty much earn her at least ten years in jail. The two weren't even that close to the point where Nayeon would tell her such a thing. Rather, Hanni found that out when they had a human biology project that they decided to do at the blonde girl's place.

Hanni thought that Nayeon was a really cool person to hang out and do projects with because of her efficiency and intelligence. Until one day, she was waiting for Nayeon to come back from the kitchen with drinks and snacks. Hanni didn't intend to invade the girl's privacy by looking at her computer, it was just that she couldn't help but take a glance at the already opened screen. Unfortunately enough for her, the sight left her traumatized.

For some unknown reason, the blonde girl was on a strange looking website with pictures of extracted follicles and the heads of where the follicles were extracted from. It was like a nightmare for anyone who had trypophobia. There were dark red holes on the head and a piece of plastic full of what Hanni assumed to be hair.

Hanni immediately excused herself to go home after witnessing such a thing, but Nayeon who quickly realised her mistake of leaving her computer on, begged Hanni with her life to stay so that she could explain herself.

Quite frankly, there was nothing to be explained, and there was no explanation that Hanni needed to hear. At that point, she just wanted to throw up and run away. Who was she going to tell, anyway? Just by recalling the incident, gave her a sick feeling in her stomach.

Until this day, she still felt a little disturbed whenever Nayeon was around carrying her laptop. Although the girl had her reasons such as: trying to pay for her fees, helping out family members, and paying for her dog's treatments, it was reasonable for Hanni to feel uncomfortable after what she saw. Sometimes, she'd even dream about Nayeon pulling out her hair strands one by one and selling it at the black market. Thus why she started praying to God every night to not give her such a nightmare ever again.

"What you want to do now is to put the person's fingerprint in." Nayeon told Hanni through the call.

Hanni paused, did Minji even have a fingerprint? "Is that necessary?" She asked.

"Well, yes. Otherwise, how is it going to register?" Nayeon stated the obvious.

"Hold on," Hanni said before muting the call. She turned to Minji who was silently observing Hanni and whoever she was talking to through the device, from behind. Hanni was met with Minji's familiar eyes, blinking at a slow pace as if she was waiting for something -- which, she was. Since the Eggnoid was less than an inch away from Hanni, -- practically trapping her with her arms on the table, in front of Hanni, who was sitting in her work chair -- her scent was obvious to the robot's sense.

Since Hanni had already smelled Minji's scent, now it was time for Minji to do the same. Minji tried to keep her breathing slow and steady so that the girl in front of her wouldn't notice. It soon got disrupted when Hanni took Minji's hand, observing and caressing it, looking for any signs of fingerprints.