Hawk in the Photograph

Hawk fell silent again, listening to the dial tone from the phone.

The next moment.

His mind raced.

Hawk wasn't worried about Gwen coming to his apartment; instead, he was rapidly recalling if there was anything inappropriate for children, or anything Gwen shouldn't see, in his apartment.

Inappropriate for children?

No.

Let alone videos, he didn't even have a poster, much less magazines.

The reason? He was poor.

He was too stingy to even get a phone card, let alone those expensive and energy-consuming magazines.

In the past, when he had plenty of energy, he would usually go to the rooftop to punch the air until he was tired before going back to sleep.

As for things inappropriate for Gwen to see?

There didn't seem to be any.

He had the five Chitauri alien weapons wrapped tightly in a bedsheet and stuffed under the bed in his bedroom.

Gwen shouldn't find them.

So...

Forget it, let her do as she pleased.

Business was important.

Thinking this.

Hawk refocused, put away his phone, and the gentleness in his eyes from talking to Gwen vanished completely, replaced by an extremely cold gaze.

Little Black, whose mouth was covered, looked terrified.

Hawk savored the terror in Little Black's eyes, a pleasing curve forming on his lips.

"Now..."

"It's my turn to rob you."

After hanging up, Gwen shoved her phone back into her pocket and went directly to the fire escape stairs embedded in the outer wall of Hawk's new apartment, smoothly reaching the top floor.

Gwen moved aside the shorts, which, if looked at closely, seemed to be made from a pair of casual pants, hanging in front of the half-open window. Then, she climbed through the window into Hawk's apartment.

Looking around.

The living room wasn't large. A secondhand sofa and a secondhand folding table with a laptop on it took up two-thirds of the space.

But it was clean.

Not spotless, perhaps, but certainly tidy.

Gwen's first impression of the living room was that it felt comfortable.

She had never been to Hawk's previous apartment, and this was her first time seeing this one.

However...

As Gwen took out the envelope from Dr. Connors that she was supposed to give to Hawk, placing it on the folding table, her gaze was drawn to the closed laptop on the table.

It wasn't because she was surprised Hawk had a computer.

It was...

The stickers on the laptop's casing.

"This is..."

"So cute!"

Gwen chuckled at the girly stickers on the laptop's exterior, wondering curiously which girl had sold Hawk this laptop.

She didn't even consider that Hawk might have put the stickers on himself, nor did she think about which girl might have given him the laptop.

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Because no one knew Hawk better than she did.

She had no doubt that if she had continued talking to Hawk after handing him her phone, Hawk would have returned it to her.

So, just in case, Gwen hadn't seen Hawk for over ten days.

Gwen thought to herself, then withdrew her gaze, glanced at the envelope on the folding table, and turned to leave.

The moment she turned, her open sun-protection jacket brushed against something, creating a gust of wind that lifted the envelope on the folding table.

The envelope took flight and wafted unsteadily into the bedroom adjacent to the living room.

Gwen instinctively walked over, bent down, and picked up the envelope that was almost blown under the bed. The moment she stood up, a faint, eerie green light emanated from under the bed, which Gwen caught with her peripheral vision.

Her movement of picking up the envelope paused.

Gwen's gaze shifted towards the area under the bed.

A tightly wrapped bedsheet immediately came into view.

But this bedsheet was definitely not ordinary.

At the very least, it wasn't opaque.

The eerie green light, pulsing rhythmically as if breathing, shone through the bedsheet, flickering on and off.

But the light was dim.

Even though it was daytime, if Gwen hadn't happened to catch the light source with her peripheral vision, she definitely wouldn't have seen it.

What is this?

As Gwen squatted down to peer under the bed, she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sight.

While Gwen was thinking, just as she was about to grab the envelope she had just picked up and stand, her gaze shifted upwards, and she saw a slightly broken picture frame placed next to the nightstand.

A photograph was tucked inside the broken frame.

The background in the photo was Times Square, and the main subjects were a young man and woman, both around fourteen years old, with slightly faded clothes.

The man, Gwen recognized.

It was Hawk.

Hawk in the photo was smiling very happily.

Gwen had never seen Hawk smile like that in her memories.

But this girl in the photo?

Gwen frowned again, set the envelope aside, and picked up the photo from the nightstand to examine it.

This photo was probably taken when Hawk was fourteen, shortly after he started school.

Gwen looked at the photo, confirming the time it was taken in her mind.

Because Gwen recognized the pants Hawk was wearing in the picture.

They were the same pants she had just complained about, the ones Hawk had worn for three years, that were clearly too small but he was reluctant to throw away, so he had altered them into shorts.

Yes.

They were those shorts, still hanging by the window.

But who was this girl?

Gwen frowned, looking at the girl in the photo, whose skin appeared somewhat pale but who was also smiling happily, her arms tightly linked with Hawk's.

His sister?

But she had never heard Hawk mention her.

Gwen noticed the similarity between Hawk and the girl next to him in the photo, and a thought sparked in her mind.

But…

She thought carefully and realized Hawk had never mentioned anything about her.

Did she pass away?

Gwen considered the most likely possibility for why Hawk had never mentioned her. After a moment of thought, she put down the photo frame and placed it back on the nightstand. Then, she stood up and walked towards the outside.

As she walked back into the living room, she suddenly remembered something, slapped her forehead, and turned back.

She had forgotten to bring the envelope with her.

"Huh?"

"Where's the envelope?"

Gwen re-entered the bedroom, looked at the envelope on the floor that had disappeared again, and was slightly taken aback. Then, as if recalling something, she squatted down again.

As expected.

The envelope had slipped under the bed, possibly blown in by the slight breeze when she stood up earlier.

Gwen looked at the envelope that had gone under the bed and reached her arm in to try and hook it.

Soon.

Her fingertips brushed against the envelope.

And at the same time…

Her fingertips also touched the tightly wrapped bedsheet.

The moment her fingertips made contact with the bedsheet, a sensation like touching metal spread from her fingertips to Gwen's mind.