The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Beep. Beep.

How long had I been out?

Along with the steady mechanical beeping at my ear, my consciousness slowly floated up toward the surface.

When I forced my heavy eyelids open, what came into view was a familiar ceiling.

The smell of disinfectant, the familiar mechanical beeping. It was the infirmary I'd been in before.

I lay there staring blankly up at the ceiling — then all at once snapped alert and pushed myself up.

"Ugh!"

In that instant, every muscle in my body wrenched — screaming all at once.

A groan escaped before I could stop it, and I dropped back down onto the bed.

"D-Director!"

At my groan, Lee Jinwoo — who had been beside the bed — jerked his head up.

His face was gaunt, like he hadn't slept for days.

"You're awake! Thank god...!"

His relief lasted only a moment. The second Lee Jinwoo saw me trying to get up again, he panicked, rushed over, and pinned me back down.

"You can't just start moving! You've been in the regeneration tank for a full week. Please, please — just lie still!"

But his words weren't registering.

I grabbed his shoulders and asked, frantic:

"Sihyeok? Kim Sihyeok — is he okay?! He must've been hurt too."

"Kim Sihyeok finished treatment three days ago and went back to the containment room."

"You're sure he was properly treated? You didn't just slap some gel on him a few times and call it done?"

Genuinely wounded by my dogged pressing, Lee Jinwoo cried out:

"No! By the Bureau Chief's special orders, he was treated in the same top-grade healing factor tank you were — intensive care! Not a scar on him — full recovery! So please, calm down!"

If it was on the Bureau Chief's orders, that was reliable enough.

Only then did I let out a breath of relief and lie back down.

"Haah... thank god..."

The sigh came out on its own.

But watching me react like that, Lee Jinwoo's face went red with frustration.

"Would you please worry about yourself for once, Director?! Do you have any idea how much of a scare you gave us?!"

He unloaded on me.

"It was classified, so they wouldn't even let us in — we were pacing around outside like idiots — and then suddenly you and Sihyeok come out, both of you covered in blood!"

He shuddered, as if the horrible memory of that day was coming back.

"Especially you, Director — three of your ribs were completely shattered, there was a hole in your lung! The medical team said it was a miracle your heart didn't stop!"

...That bad, huh.

It sounded like a serious injury by any standard, but with no pain at the moment... it wasn't quite hitting me.

"Well, I didn't die. That's what matters."

"...Excuse me?"

"Whatever. Let's get to the containment room. I need to see the kids."

I'd heard Lee Jinwoo's report, but my mind still wasn't at ease.

He says Sihyeok's fully healed, but I need to see him with my own eyes. That he's really okay.

The moment I sat up, Lee Jinwoo panicked and moved to stop me.

"Director! Have you lost your mind?! You just woke up after a full week! The doctor said absolute bed rest!"

I ignored him and started to swing my legs down over the side of the bed —

Whoosh.

Every ounce of strength drained out of my body like a switch had flipped, and my legs buckled.

"Argh!"

I rolled off the bed with a crash.

"Director!!!"

"Ugh... what's... wrong with me..."

Lee Jinwoo, half in tears, propped me up from the floor.

"Try using some common sense! You've been in bed for a full week — of course your muscles aren't going to just start working!"

Even through his nagging, I tried to plant my feet on the floor and push up.

But my shaky legs wouldn't take any weight at all.

Seeing me being this stubborn, Lee Jinwoo finally gave up.

"Fine! If you're that worried, I'll bring them here! So please — just — stay still!"

With that, he rushed out of the infirmary.

Hah... I've got no strength in me at all.

Waiting for Lee Jinwoo to come back, I flopped down onto the bed.

When I closed my eyes, the image of that child from the last fading moments of my consciousness came back to me.

A girl with vivid orange hair.

...Was that really the girl from inside Sihyeok's memory?

How could she exist inside Sihyeok's shadow?

Did I see it wrong... or was it a hallucination?

I was turning her over in my mind — when it happened.

Bang!

The infirmary door burst open — almost torn off its hinges.

And an ash-gray something came flying in at bullet-speed and slammed straight into me.

"Guh!"

I toppled back onto the bed, catching the small object as I went.

When I finally got my bearings, there was a small child burrowed against my chest.

It was Sihyeok.

"Kim Sihyeok? What are you—"

That was the exact moment.

Crash — thundathunda!

This time it wasn't the door — the entire corridor shook, like an earthquake had hit.

Right after, Lee Jinwoo and the other researchers, and the rest of the kids on top of that, came pouring into the infirmary like an avalanche.

"Director!"

"Director!"

The infirmary turned into pandemonium in an instant.

"Waaaah! Director, we thought you were going to die!"

Suho and the twins clambered up onto the bed, each grabbed one of my legs, and started bawling.

"Director! Please, just lie back down! You're going to make it worse!"

Lee Jinwoo shouted, wringing his hands.

"Diiirector! I haven't even... properly... studied you yet... and I really thought you were goooooone...!"

...She's not worried about me at all, is she?!

I was speechless, but seeing Han Soeun's face — a wreck of tears and snot — I softened.

Then, from the middle of this chaos, I shot a desperate look at the three people standing a little way off, begging for help.

Help me!

But Kang Taemin, Cha Yul, and Lee Sea-ah.

The three of them, as if they'd made a pact, just quietly stared out the window at the distant mountains, faces plainly saying you caused this, you deal with it.

In the end, I had to sort the whole mess out by myself... sweating buckets the entire time.

It took a while, but eventually everyone calmed down a bit, and I moved to check Sihyeok's condition again.

But with the boy's arms locked around my neck and his whole body pressed tight against my chest, I couldn't bring myself to peel him off.

Fortunately, Lee Sea-ah caught on to what I was trying to do and came over first.

"Sihyeok's fine. We've checked everything."

Only then could I let out a breath of relief and gently stroke Sihyeok's back.

"Whew — good work, brat. You've been through a lot."

At my quiet praise, the boy's small shoulders trembled faintly.

Drop, drip.

Tears the boy hadn't been shedding a moment ago suddenly welled up and started soaking into my patient's gown.

...Oh no. I made him cry after all.

Then again, of course he'd cry.

That horrific public evaluation.

He'd had to face a hideous monster for the first time in his life, gone through an overload completely against his will, and taken serious injuries on top of it.

None of it could have been easy on a child that small.

I quietly looked down at the boy's small head, currently soaking my gown.

Still — thank god.

That after all of it, this small body was whole, not hurt anywhere.

The small, warm weight of him in my arms was, if anything, calming me down.

I said nothing more.

Just kept quietly patting his small back until it stopped trembling.

How long had I been sitting like that?

I suddenly realized the room had gone strangely quiet.

I raised my head.

And I saw it.

The researchers and the rest of the kids were all watching me with strange looks.

...!

"What?! What?! What?! The kid won't let go, what do you want me to do!"

But even at my flustered outburst, the odd silence held.

"..."

Did I look too warm? Better fix this — right now...

I deliberately dropped my voice cold.

"Whatever. Number Three. Status report. Everything, from the moment I passed out."

At the one line, Kang Taemin, face expressionless, spoke.

"As of today, exactly ten days have passed since the end of the public evaluation."

Ten days?

I was stunned.

That I'd been out cold in bed for a full ten days.

"The evaluation was a resounding success. Kim Sihyeok's peak instantaneous energy was on par with A-rank, and the possibility of a secondary awakening was even raised — but it was ultimately confirmed that his rank itself hasn't changed."

So... it ended well after all.

The pressure that had been crushing me for three months lifted in a heartbeat, clean as a lie, and every last bit of strength drained out of my body.

He must've felt me go slack.

Sihyeok, plastered against my chest, stirred and slowly lifted his head.

"Director... does it hurt a lot?"

I snapped back to attention.

I made a show of swinging my arms around dramatically.

"Ha! What are you talking about, hurt! Do you have any idea how tough I am! This is nothing!"

Then I roughly ruffled Sihyeok's hair.

"You were amazing! Do you even know you saved my life?"

At my praise, a bashful little smile bloomed shyly across Sihyeok's face.

The boy nestled back into my chest.

That was the starting shot.

Suho was the first to crawl up onto the bed, wriggling.

Voice on the verge of tears, he wrapped both arms tight around one of mine and whispered:

"Director. No more getting hurt, please. Okay?"

The twins climbed up right after, one taking each of my legs and clinging on.

"Director! You can't get hurt anymore! Promise!"

Hajun nodded along vigorously beside her.

Feeling the warmth of those small bodies pressing against me, I realized something without meaning to.

They've really changed.

But at the same time, I also knew it was an illusion — a mirage.

A passage came back to me from a child developmental psychology textbook I'd read back in college.

The blind attachment response children raised in abusive environments show toward the first adult who consistently treats them kindly.

It wasn't trust or love — closer to a survival instinct, a way of staying alive.

Don't ride the highs and lows of what they do. Just... do your job.

So that someday, once they'd escaped this place, they could live under their own power, without being hurt by anyone else.

And so happy they wouldn't even remember a hell like this had existed — or that a villain like me had ever been in it.

I just had to educate them, teach them, to that end.

And that... is something only the delinquent Chae Junhyeok can do.

With my resolve firm, I hid every last emotion away.

I ruffled each of their heads one last time, then dropped my voice.

"All right — playtime's over. Everyone except Number One, out."

The kids looked disappointed, but at Han Soeun's reminder that I needed my rest, they left the room without a word of complaint.

Click.

Once the door closed, all that was left in the previously noisy room was a heavy silence.

One way or another... it worked out.

The evaluation had ended far better than I'd expected, and the kids were safe.

But there was still one thing left to handle.

Park Wonjin.

I thought back to those Grizzly claws that had supposedly had physical force at zero, and the tearing agony of flesh I'd felt at the time.

It had to have been his scheme.

To kill me.

If those claws had hit Sihyeok instead of me.

Just the thought was enough to run every drop of blood in my body cold.

"What happened about the monster having physical force at the evaluation?"

At my question, a complicated look crossed Lee Jinwoo's face.

"Everyone involved was called up to the Bureau Chief and reprimanded, but... the official conclusion was 'the mistake of an overworked researcher in charge,' and that researcher was dismissed."

"Ha... what?"

His son had almost died, and it ended with firing one researcher?

"There's no way any of that adds up!"

As if reading my mind, Lee Jinwoo pounded his chest in frustration.

"You almost died, Director!"

He made a show of glancing around, then dropped his voice conspiratorially.

"That's why the whole institute is in an uproar right now. Word is the one who actually caused the accident was the Deputy Director, and the Bureau Chief covered for him."

Only after hearing that did the situation start to click into place.

The day of the evaluation, watching me get attacked in plain view and doing nothing.

An accident anyone could see was suspicious, and yet the flimsy excuse of "an overworked researcher's mistake" being accepted.

As it all began connecting into one thread, oddly enough, the first thing I felt was relief.

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