"All right — the urgent paperwork's all done. So, what's the plan now, Scissor Gang?"
The moment I set my pen down and asked, the kids — who'd been drawing on the floor with their masks pushed up on their foreheads — startled and leapt to their feet.
Then, hurriedly straightening their crooked masks and clearing their throats, they pulled the villain dignity back on.
"Th-then we're kidnapping you now!"
Ari, the first to snap back into character, jabbed a dainty little finger straight at me.
"Twins! Go!"
"Yah!"
"!"
At the crisp command, the two silver-haired kids came over and clasped hands tight.
…they haven't got the faintest interest in hiding their identities.
Savoring the familiar telekinesis, I let myself be towed along quietly in midair, keeping pace with the kids' little strides.
"Um, Scissor Gang. I've got an important meeting at three, so I'll be safely home before then, right?"
"Wooooo—!"
"Let's gooo! Let's gooo!"
But my desperate plea was drowned out under the bright cheers, no trouble at all.
The kids barreled down the corridor in a clatter, hauling me along like a balloon.
"Oh my — they're kidnapping the Director."
"You go, kids~!"
Every researcher we passed stopped in their tracks and watched us, beaming.
Dangling there in midair, I quietly squeezed my eyes shut against the wave of shame rising up in me.
The final destination we clattered our way to was the all-too-familiar Sunshine Room.
Just what are they planning to do?
Playing my role as the well-behaved hostage, I waited quietly as the kids gently laid me down in the middle of the rug.
"Hostage stay put!"
Hayun's solemn warning delivered, the kids scattered and came back with all sorts of things gathered from every corner of the room.
A grubby rabbit plushie, some sparkly jewels, a wildflower pot, and a thick science book.
The way they arranged that wildly assorted loot in a careful ring around me had a distinctly odd feel to it.
The plushie at my head, the jewels and the flowerpot at my sides, the book at my feet.
Then Ari came over and neatly folded my hands together over my chest, and the strange feeling hardened into certainty.
…isn't this a burial?
Just as I was lying there arranged like a corpse, swallowing an incredulous laugh —
Someone carefully slid a plush pillow under the back of my head, and then, with a click, the room's lights went out completely.
Soon little voices began floating around my ears.
"Lullaby-lullaby-Director~"
"Sleep so nicely~"
A mess of a lullaby, pitch and tempo both all over the place.
But somehow that clumsy little chorus untied every knot of tension I'd been carrying for days, as if by magic.
Right… I have been having a hard time sleeping lately.
The warm floor, the soft pillow, the awkward, tender lullaby tickling at my ears.
If only for the sake of the kids, who'd gone to all this trouble setting the stage to put me to sleep — maybe I could close my eyes, just for a moment.
The instant I made that compromise with myself, my eyelids grew unbearably heavy, as if lead weights had been hung from them.
Like sinking slowly into a deep, warm pool of water.
Even as my consciousness blurred and faded out, I dragged the last scrap of reason from the tip of my tongue and mumbled,
"Kids… before three, you have to… wake me up… okay…?"
Whether anyone answered, I couldn't tell.
At the center of the small, warm breaths circling me, I fell — for the first time in a long time — into a deep sleep.
"Did we defeat… no, is he asleep?"
"Looks like it?"
Inside the darkened room.
The kids gathered in a ring around Chae Junhyeok where he lay on the floor and peered down, holding their breath.
There, a golden-haired man with deep dark circles under his eyes was sleeping soundly, a peaceful look on his face.
To check whether the steady, even breathing was for real, the kids were just about to wave their hands in front of the Director's face when —
"Shh! You'll wake him. Let's go outside first."
Sea-ah pressed a finger urgently to her lips and whispered.
At that, the kids nodded and, tiptoeing on the balls of their feet, slipped out of the room.
Click.
The moment the Sunshine Room door closed, the kids yanked off their stuffy masks and cheered.
"Puha! We did it! We got the Director to sleep!"
"They said he hadn't slept in ages! He'll sleep really good now, right?"
At last, satisfied smiles spread across the faces of the kids who had been so worried about the Director — pushing himself so hard he was even skipping meals.
"Okay, so now… we gotta call!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
The younger ones' bright, shining eyes all swung to Sea-ah at once.
Sea-ah sighed a small, "Haaah… I really don't know if this is the right thing to do," but pulled the handset Lee Jinwoo had given her out of her pocket.
Ding-ding — click.
Sea-ah dialed carefully, glanced around, and whispered in a small voice.
"…he's asleep, just like you said."
The moment the report ended, cheerful laughter burst out over the other end of the line.
Apparently a few more secret instructions followed, and Sea-ah nodded and answered.
"Yes. Yes. I'll do that."
Once she'd ended the call and tucked the handset away, the kids covered their mouths and giggled like villains who'd just wrapped up a scheme.
While the Director sank into a honey-sweet sleep, the kids' clandestine plot with the man on the other end of the line was growing deeper by the minute.
There's a horrific truth every working person can relate to.
You open your eyes in the morning, and unlike normal, your whole body is feather-light and your head is disturbingly clear.
You can even hear the birds chirping leisurely outside the window.
From my kindergarten-teacher days, that peaceful morning sensation was, nine times out of ten, the most reliable warning sign that you'd overslept.
And now, that same ominous familiarity was sweeping through me all over again.
What… why do I feel so refreshed.
The more my senses came back online, the stronger the wrongness got.
The surface against my back was cloud-soft.
Wait. I clearly lay down on the Sunshine Room floor. Where's this luxurious feeling coming from?
At the prickling premonition, I snapped my eyes open — and.
"…!"
The first thing to fill my vision was a pair of ash-gray eyes, watching me with amusement.
"Aaaaghhhh!!"
I kicked off the covers and scrambled backward, and almost tumbled clean off the bed.
Through my swaying view, hair red as flame swished in and out of sight.
"Wh-what, what, what…!"
I was so flustered I couldn't get the words out properly.
Watching me — face gone white with shock — the red-haired man let out a hearty laugh.
"Yo, buddy. Been a while, hasn't it? Slept so deep you wouldn't have known if someone carried you off."
Waving a hand cheerfully with that trademark impudent grin.
"Glad you look refreshed. Sleep well?"
"Why the hell are you here?!"
Clutching the blanket tight, I shouted, and Han Jewoon laid a hand on his chest and pulled an outraged face.
"That's harsh. Best friends, and that's the first thing out of your mouth."
"What best friends… anyway, that's not the point right now—!"
Just as my voice was rising in exasperation.
At the edge of my vision, an alien scene caught — one that had no business being in the Sunshine Room.
…clouds?
Beyond a small oval window next to the bed, an eye-searing blue sky stretched on and on, dotted with cotton-candy clouds.
Only then did the faint "wooong" of an engine humming softly through the space register as real against my eardrums.
A plane.
And more than that — a plane cruising steadily up in high sky!
"Ha ha ha! Didn't the kids tell you ahead of time? That we, the Scissor Gang, kidnapped you flawlessly!"
In front of my gaping mouth, Han Jewoon slapped a crumpled paper mask onto his face.
The same shoddy villain mask the kids had been wearing.
"Surrender quietly, Chae Junhyeok."
"So it was you!"
Bawi — meaning "rock" — and Scissors.
Only then did I fully grasp who had been behind the kids' kidnapping act.
Just as I was floundering in disbelief at the insanity of an adult-scale playpretend backed by a mountain of money and power —
Whoosh—
With a soft mechanical hum, the closed door slid open.
"Oh. You're up already."
It was Kang San, with a huge pair of headphones slung around his neck and enough flashy clothing and accessories piled on to hurt the eyes.
"Long time no see, Director! Ah, wait — you've founded a guild now, so is it Vice Guild Master?"
"…never mind. Just call me Director."
I pinched my throbbing temples and groaned.
"What is Bawi Guild even doing here? And more importantly — what about my kids?"
"Don't worry! The little ones are having a great time in the playroom with Sarang-noona and Juran-noona. Ms. Kim Sunja's with them too!"
"Huh…."
An involuntary sound of admiration slipped out.
A master bedroom, and a separate playroom for the kids on top of that? How big is this plane, exactly?
I'd been sidetracked into misplaced awe at the sheer force of capitalism, and I gave my head a hard shake to snap out of it.
"No, forget the plane's size! Why did you kidnap me?! Where are we going?! I've got a mountain of overdue paperwork, and the guild relocation on top of it!"
At my words Han Jewoon clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"That's exactly why the kids called me on the side."
"What?"
"Begged me to please, please make the Director stop working. Just how hard have you been running yourself into the ground, that the kids are sending me an SOS?"
Struck right through the middle, I lost my words on the spot.
I had been overdoing it lately, plenty of work stacked up.
But the thought that the kids had been worried enough to call up Han Jewoon — a total stranger to them — had never once crossed my mind.
"Look, I didn't figure the kids would actually kidnap you either. They said they wanted to let you rest, and I tossed it out as a joke."
"You're the ringleader here!"
At my aghast shout, he gave an easy shrug.
"Well, I'll cop to being the idea guy."
"Even so, you don't have to put me on a plane to kidnap me! If you'd just told me to rest, I'd have rested quietly. We could have driven out to a quiet countryside cabin somewhere!"
At my aggrieved protest, Han Jewoon snorted.
"Ha. As if you would've rested quietly."
He picked up a bundle of newspapers off the side table and tossed it onto my bed.
"And a countryside cabin? Guess you don't have a clue who the hottest man in Korea is right now."
"…!"
I looked down at the newspapers scattered across the bed and drew in a sharp breath.
Every front page had my face plastered on it, huge.
And it wasn't just the domestic press either.
In the center of newspapers printed in English, French, Japanese, and other languages from all over the world, my photograph from the hearing sat mounted on display for all to see.
"You still don't get how completely the words 'second awakening' have driven the world out of its mind. Step out anywhere with people in it right now, and inside half a day you'd be trapped, surrounded by reporters from every country, unable to breathe."
At Han Jewoon's flat verdict I sat there speechless, like a mute who'd swallowed honey.
Even though we'd put out an official press statement flatly denying the second awakening, the public's frenzy showed no sign of cooling.
"Haaah…. What am I even supposed to do."
I let out a deep sigh, buried my face in my hands, and slumped back onto the bed.
Then Han Jewoon came over and clapped a hand on my shoulder.
"Since this is how it is, just enjoy it. You clinging to your paperwork right now is only going to worry the kids more."
Not one word of it was wrong, and I couldn't argue back.
In the end I raised the white flag completely and looked up.
"So… where are we actually going?"
At my resigned question, Han Jewoon grinned with his usual leisurely, impudent look.
"An island."
"An island? What island?"
"Hmm… doesn't really have a name?"
"An island with no name? Don't tell me it's uninhabited?"
"Yeah. If you feel like it, why don't you come up with a name for it?"
"What is this, naming a neighborhood puppy? If I name it, is it actually going on a map or something?"
"Well — no reason it couldn't."
Han Jewoon gave a light shrug, as if I'd just asked something obvious.
"That island's mine. If you want, I'll register it under whatever name you give it."
"……what?"
Did I just hear that right?
For a moment my thought processes ground to a halt and I asked back blankly, and he broke into a genuinely sunny smile and cheerfully drove the nail home.
"It's mine. My private island. My money, I bought it, my front yard."
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