The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

...More subjects?

Supplying more of them. What was that supposed to—

Before I could turn the meaning over in my head, Park Wonjin, beside me, cut into the conversation.

"Yes, Bureau Chief. Of course."

The corner of Park Wonjin's mouth twitched, twisted out of shape.

But a seasoned viper knew how to turn his own crisis into an opportunity.

"Since we're on the subject, how about holding a quarterly review?"

He shot me a glance and went on.

"After three months on the Director's new method, we can see with our own eyes — in the data — exactly how much the subjects have developed."

Chae Ganghyeon clapped his hands, clearly pleased with Park Wonjin's proposal.

"Now that's a fine idea!"

He clapped me heartily on the back.

"I'll be looking forward to the next review!"

Only after a few more lines of nagging about my health did he finally sweep out of the Director's office, satisfied, like a storm blowing through.

The door shut behind him, and the room was left with nothing but me, Park Wonjin, and a suffocating silence.

Handling Chae Ganghyeon had drained every ounce of energy out of me.

I waved a hand at Park Wonjin, my voice worn thin.

"...Get out. I'm tired."

Park Wonjin stayed still for a moment, then silently turned toward the door.

Just as I was about to let out a quiet sigh of relief—

Crrack—!

Park Wonjin rested a hand on the headrest of the sofa Chae Ganghyeon had been sitting on. The top-shelf sofa gave way under his grip and shattered with what almost sounded like a scream.

What—!

Th-that... a human being could actually do that?

Looking down at the ruined section, he spoke offhandedly.

"Oh dear. It was just sticking out a little more than the rest, so I set my hand on it — and it broke."

He brushed the splinters off his hand and turned a viper-cool smile on me.

"Everything, after all, has to know its proper place. Wouldn't you agree, Director?"

"...!"

"Don't worry about the review three months from now. I'll... make sure preparations are handled perfectly."

Bang—!

He walked out and the door shut behind him.

At that sound, the legs I'd barely been holding myself up on... gave out completely.

I staggered over to a nearby chair and collapsed into it.

...Ha.

I didn't even have the energy for a dry laugh.

An all-nighter of data analysis, Chae Ganghyeon's visit, and now Park Wonjin's chilling little show of raw strength.

All of that... in the last twelve hours? The difficulty on this is insane...

I felt like the last drop of vitality had been wrung out of my body.

I sat there for a long while... unable to get up.

Time crawled.

Ever since the Director had gone down under the bookshelf in Hayun's place at lunchtime yesterday, the children's world had ground to a halt.

Yesterday evening, this morning, lunch today.

The door still opened faithfully at each scheduled time — but all that came in were robots wheeling meal carts.

Every time the door opened, the children looked over hopefully — and every time the person they were waiting for didn't appear, they sank back into despair. Over and over.

After a gloomy lunch, Suho asked Sea-ah with a sniffle.

"Noona... is the Director not coming anymore?"

At those words, Hayun — one of the twins, who'd only just stopped crying — burst into tears again.

"Because of me... it's Hayunie's fault the Director got hurt... hnnngh..."

Lee Sea-ah pulled her younger siblings into a hug and patted their backs.

"No it's not. Don't cry. He's an important person here, isn't he? He'll be getting the best treatment. He'll get better fast and be back before we know it."

He has to come back.

Sea-ah thought to herself.

Not out of any concern for the Director personally.

What she was afraid of was what his absence would bring.

It was only after that man arrived that the horrific injections and experiments had stopped.

The warm meals, the soft beds, the smiles that had come back to her siblings' faces — all of it was because of him.

But if he disappeared... she didn't even want to imagine what would happen next.

"Really? Really, he'll come back... and stay with us, and watch us play again?"

At Suho's earnest question, Sea-ah bit her lip for a moment, then answered firmly.

"Yes. He'll definitely come back."

Sea-ah's firm answer left a small spark of hope kindled in the children.

But that spark slowly dimmed as time went on.

The artificial lighting on the ceiling shifted to an orange tone, signaling evening, but the door stayed firmly shut.

The twins and Suho had cried themselves out until they couldn't even sob aloud anymore, and Sea-ah was on guard with her whole body, as if bracing to protect her siblings from whatever worst-case scenario might come.

Sihyeok had crawled into the deepest, darkest shadow under a bed and wouldn't come out.

Last, Cha Yul. He was eerily still — no movement, no expression.

He just glared at the spot where the Director had fallen, as if he were looking at his sworn mortal enemy.

The dinner robot came and went, but the children's trays were left almost untouched.

Just as everyone was on the verge of giving up on everything, the firmly shut door opened again.

The children's heads snapped up on reflex.

There, in an unfamiliar black suit, stood a somewhat tired-looking man.

Chae Junhyeok.

"Don't tell me... you haven't had dinner yet?"

At my words, the children's wide eyes all turned to me at once.

For a moment the room was silent.

The children just stared at me with blank expressions, as if they were looking at a ghost.

The first to react was Suho.

"D-Director...!"

The moment his voice broke through, time began to flow again.

Taking that as their signal, Suho and the twins burst into wailing sobs and ran to me.

The instant those small bodies slammed into me and grabbed onto my legs, I forgot to breathe.

W-wait, Suho actually grabbed me?

These were kids who, even after recently starting to let me near them, had never once closed the distance themselves or leaned into me.

And now... those very kids had run over to me and thrown themselves at me?

Unlike me, frozen where I stood in emotion, the children were burying their faces in my legs and pouring out their grief.

"Sob — di-did it hurt a lot...? I should've healed you... hng, hnng, I was too scared..."

"It r-really... it really is the Director, waaah!"

The sound of them crying suddenly made something click.

I'd seen the children last night — but from their side, since the accident, it had been a full day and a half without seeing me.

Look at how swollen their eyes are. They've been so scared this whole time...

I wanted to pull them all into a hug and comfort them, but the most I could do was shuffle into the room with them still clinging to my legs.

I sank down to the floor and got level with them.

"I'm not dead. What are you crying for. Bad luck."

I'd meant it as comfort, but the children only cried harder and clung to my neck and arms.

I pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and pressed it to Suho's face, the closest to me.

"Ugh, seriously! You're getting drool all over my clothes. Enough crying already! Your faces are getting ugly."

Only after I'd carefully wiped the twins' tears too did the crying in the room finally start to quiet.

I looked at the trays laid out in front of the children.

Dinner, untouched, gone cold.

The children had done nothing but cry, and hadn't eaten a bite of dinner.

At this rate, if any of them collapsed—

To hide my worry, I made my voice even more brusque than usual.

"When your master puts food in front of you, you're supposed to eat it. Still starving yourselves at this hour? You're a handful, honestly."

Then I gestured at the serving robot behind me.

"Clear this away. Bring back something warm."

With new food on the way, I was about to head over to my usual chair in the corner.

But Park Suho and the twins — still sniffling — grabbed both my arms and pulled me toward the table.

"H-hic! Director too, hic! Eat with us here...!"

The sight of him unable to get a word out through his hiccups tugged at me, and I nodded quickly.

"All right, all right. I'll sit next to you. So eat first."

Only when I sat beside them did the children finally pick up their spoons.

I watched them eat quietly for a moment, then turned my head to Sea-ah and Cha Yul, both still not moving.

Sea-ah was watching me warily, and Cha Yul with open distrust.

"You two dolls over there. Not eating?"

I made a show of sounding annoyed.

"If we're playing house, dolls eat together. Eat while the food's in front of you."

Sea-ah hesitated for a moment at my words, then quietly came over to sit beside her siblings.

But Cha Yul didn't move.

"Hmph, suit yourself."

I shrugged pointedly.

"You starve, that's your loss. Stay a bag of bones for all I care."

The moment I said it, Cha Yul — who hadn't so much as twitched — sprang to his feet.

He roughly snatched his tray, walked to the farthest corner of the room, and started shoveling food into his mouth.

"You'll choke like that."

I clicked my tongue for show, but inwardly I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

It was the first time he'd ever touched food in front of me.

I had to work to hide the swell of emotion that came up over that one small fact.

Then I ran my eyes over the other children.

One, two, three, four... five.

...Huh? Sihyeok's not here.

"Hold on. Where'd one of them go."

At my question, Sea-ah quietly pointed to the bed in the very corner of the room.

Under that bed lay a particularly deep, dark shadow.

Looking closer, I could just make out a wisp of ash-colored hair sticking out.

Come to think of it, aside from the first day when he'd lunged at me, he was always hidden away in a dark corner like that.

Well, more precisely — only when I was around.

When I wasn't there, I'd seen him come out and sometimes even join the others.

The way he vanished the moment I showed up, like some sixth sense told him — it was clear I was still a stranger to him.

He's just like Jaeyun.

The memory of a boy from the Sunshine class came back to me — someone I'd forgotten for a while.

He'd had to switch kindergartens suddenly and struggled to settle into a new environment.

He grew up to be the boldest kid in the class, but back when he first arrived, he'd been just like this one — hiding beside the cubbies.

Dragging him out forcibly would only make it worse, so I just waited. Left a gummy at his hiding spot every day.

A week in, he'd started taking the gummies, and not long after, he was tugging on my hand to come play.

Right. This one needs time too. Slowly. Don't rush it.

"Tsk! What a handful, seriously."

I walked over to the bed and bent down; under the bed, in the shadow, was a small child pressed tight against the wall.

"Kim Sihyeok. Come out. How long are you going to stay hiding in there."

Instead of answering, the child pressed himself harder against the wall.

From experience, the worst thing you could do to a child who'd hidden away was try to bully him out.

Better to give him an excuse to come out on his own.

I straightened up, pretending it was nothing, and made a show of taking a big bite out of the bread in my hand.

The nutty aroma of the bread spread through the room.

I muttered loudly toward the underside of the bed, deliberately loud enough to be heard.

"Haah, it's so good — why on earth wouldn't you eat this~."

I made a show of chewing for a while, then furrowed my brow like I was full.

"Ah, stuffed. Can't finish this."

I tossed the rest of the bread down in front of the bed, as though I were throwing out trash.

Then, as if I couldn't care less, I walked back to my seat without so much as a backward glance.

A little while later, a very faint rustling came from over by the bed.

I didn't turn.

Instead I lifted my spoon and used the curve of its metal to catch what was behind me.

In the spoon: the small ash-haired figure had crawled out from under the bed and was carefully cupping the bread in his hands.

Then he sat down beside the bed and brought it to his mouth.

The corner of my mouth lifted without my meaning to.

By the time the meal was winding down, the air in the room had grown much warmer than before.

The children had stopped sniffling, and now that their stomachs were full, a little color was returning to their faces.

I stood up too, to head back to my quarters.

But the moment I did, I felt every eye in the room fix on me again.

"Huh?"

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