Employee No. 999

Cool on the outside, passionate and devoted heroine × amnesiac, aloof, robot-like hero

[Blurb]

Noise is forbidden in the Central District. Everything is so quiet.

Muni has spent three years here as an insignificant cog, employee number 999. She keeps her head down and walks, never asking about tomorrow.

She planned to live this way until the day she died, until she saw the man who was supposed to be dead in the crowd.

The man who should have died three years ago walked past her in the uniform of a Central District elite, looking straight ahead as if they had never met.

The good news: Her first love, who died right in front of her, seems to have come back to life.

The bad news: He's the son of the Central District's chief inspector, and he's lost his memory.

The even worse news: Every day, he manages to corner her and ask why she's staring at him.

Muni just wants to say, it's not against the law, is it?

Well, he says it is.

Muni: Heh, that's a little hard to explain.

/

Sheng En may have forgotten their past, but his body remembers.

When he sees her, he wants to get closer, to hold her, to hide her away where no one else can find her.

That night, he dreamed of endless yellow sand and a girl beside him, constantly saying something.

Three years earlier, the Border District, the Unnumbered Zone

Muni was raised by her grandmother. In a place where water and food were scarce, life was hard for both old and young.

When Muni turned eighteen, a young man named Sheng En moved into her settlement. He had many skills, as well as precious supplies of water and medicine, so everyone saw him as their savior.

Muni went from suspecting him to trusting him, and then fell in love with him.

By the time his wanted poster was put in front of her, he had already died before her eyes.

/

Later, after the misunderstanding was cleared up, she learned that his amnesia hadn't been an accident. His own father had caused it. She saw him clutching his head and curled up on the ground, letting out anguished cries like a trapped beast. He was nothing like the poised, elegant man he'd been before.

Gold only shines brighter after being tempered in fire.

Muni is the same.

In that moment, she made a decision.

This time, she would be the one to protect him.

P.S.:

The setting is a world where technological progress stalled after the Third World War, borders are unclear, and tensions between social classes run high.

Theme: Never take anyone's sincerity for granted.