Hawk listened to the busy signal on the phone and fell silent once more.
The next moment.
His mind was racing.
Hawk wasn't worried about Gwen going to his apartment; he was quickly recalling if there was anything inappropriate or anything Gwen shouldn't see.
Inappropriate?
No.
Let alone tapes, he didn't even have a poster, not to mention magazines.
If asked, he would say he was too poor.
He couldn't even afford to get a phone card, let alone those expensive and time-consuming magazines.
A few years back, when he was full of energy, he would usually go up to the rooftop and punch the air, only going back to sleep when he was exhausted.
As for items inappropriate for Gwen to see?
He didn't think so.
The five Chitauri Alien Weapons were wrapped tightly in a bedsheet and stuffed under his bedroom bed.
Gwen shouldn't find them.
So...
Forget it, let her be.
Business comes first.
After thinking this.
Hawk snapped back to reality, put away his phone, and the warmth from talking to Gwen vanished from his eyes, replaced by an extremely cold gaze.
The small, black figure with his mouth covered looked terrified.
Hawk admired the terror in the little black one's eyes, a faintly attractive arc forming at the corner of his lips.
"Now..."
"It's my turn to rob you."
"..."
After hanging up, Gwen put her phone back in her pocket and went straight to the fire escape ladder embedded on the outer wall of Hawk's new apartment and successfully reached the top floor.
Gwen moved what appeared to be shorts made from altered slacks that hung in front of a half-open window aside, then jumped into Hawk's apartment through the window.
A glance around.
The living room was not large; a second-hand sofa and a folding table with a laptop on it took up two-thirds of the space.
But it was clean.
Not spotless, but everything was in order.
Gwen felt comfortable at first sight of the living room.
She had never been to Hawk's previous apartment, and it was her first time seeing this one.
However...
Just as Gwen took the envelope from Dr. Connor out of her pocket to put on the folding table, her gaze was caught by the laptop on the table.
It wasn't because she was surprised Hawk had a computer.
But...
The stickers on the laptop's cover.
"This is..."
"So unbelievably cute."
Gwen couldn't help but laugh at the girly stickers on the laptop's cover, curious about which girl sold this laptop to Hawk.
She never thought Hawk himself put the stickers on the laptop or that a girl gave him the laptop.
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
No one knew Hawk better than she did.
She had no doubt that if she had kept talking to him after handing him the phone, Hawk would have returned it to her.
So to be safe, Gwen simply hadn't met with Hawk for those ten days.
Thinking it over, Gwen took her gaze back, looked at the envelope on the folding table, and turned to leave.
Just as she turned, her open jacket fluttered in the wind, lifting the envelope off the folding table.
The envelope flew off, swaying into the bedroom adjacent to the living room.
Gwen instinctively walked over, bent down, and picked up the envelope that nearly got blown under the bed. As she rose, a flash of eerie green light emanated from beneath the bed, catching her eye.
She froze in her action of picking up the envelope.
Gwen looked under the bed.
A tightly wrapped bedsheet came into view.
But this bedsheet was definitely not high-quality.
At the very least, it wasn't light-resistant.
The eerie green light pulsated like a breathing rhythm, flashing through the fabric.
But the light was faint.
Even though it was daytime, it would have been impossible to see if Gwen hadn't caught the light source in her peripheral vision.
What is this?
Gwen crouched down, peering under the bed to see the sight, raising one of her eyebrows.
As Gwen pondered, preparing to stand with the envelope she picked up, her eyes moved upward, noticing a slightly broken picture frame beside the nightstand.
A photo was wedged in the broken frame.
The background in the photo was Times Square, and the main characters were a young boy and girl about fourteen years old, their clothes looking a bit worn.
The boy, Gwen knew.
Hawk.
In the photo, Hawk was grinning happily.
Gwen couldn't recall seeing Hawk with such a smile.
But the girl in the photo?
Furrowing her brow again, Gwen set the envelope aside and picked up the photo from the nightstand to examine it.
The photo seemed to be from when Hawk was fourteen, shortly after starting school.
Gwen confirmed the era in her mind as she looked at the photo.
She recognized the pants Hawk wore in the photo.
They were the same ones she had just teased Hawk about - the pants he wore for three years, refusing to throw them away despite getting small, and instead cut them into shorts.
Yes.
The same shorts still hanging by the window.
But who was the girl?
Gwen frowned, looking at the girl in the photo. Her complexion looked pale, but she was also smiling happily, her arms tightly hooked around Hawk's arm.
A sister?
But she'd never heard Hawk mention her.
Gwen noticed the similar features between Hawk and the girl in the photo, pondering whether it was possible.
But...
She thought it over carefully and realized Hawk had never talked about this.
Could she have passed away?
Gwen considered the most likely reason Hawk had never mentioned her, put the photo back on the nightstand, and walked towards the door.
As she reached the living room again, she suddenly remembered, smacked her head, and turned back around.
She forgot to take the envelope with her.
"Huh?"
"Where's the envelope?"
Re-entering the bedroom, Gwen paused, noticing the envelope was no longer on the floor. Remembering something, she crouched down again.
Sure enough.
The envelope had slipped under the bed, likely blown in by the breeze when she stood up earlier.
Gwen saw the envelope under the bed, reaching in with her arm to grab it.
Soon.
Her fingertips snagged the envelope.
At the same time...
Her fingertips also touched the tightly wrapped bedsheet.
As soon as her fingertips touched the bedsheet, a metallic sensation transmitted from Gwen's fingertips to her mind.
...