The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

At mealtimes, Suho would nod off, spoon still in hand; his once healthy cheeks began to go paper-pale, more so with each passing day.

"Suho, are you sick or something? Your face is way too white."

Lee Sea-ah tried to press a hand to Suho's forehead, worry written all over her face.

But Suho flinched and dodged away.

"N-no! It's just... I haven't been sleeping well lately. I'm fine."

"Oppa... are you really okay? The circles under your eyes are super dark..."

The twins, faces on the verge of tears, asked too — but Suho forced a smile and only repeated that he was fine.

But one person.

Seated in a corner of the containment room, silently working through his meal, Cha Yul was the only one whose red eyes stayed fixed on Suho as the child wavered, precariously.

Then one day.

As usual, Hwang Dushik had set Suho up with a virtual training session and was making his usual deliberate detour to the bathroom.

Let's see. How much life-force will he have chewed off of himself today? I hope he really tore into it.

He cackled and turned the doorknob of the training room.

"Suho! I'm ba—"

That was the moment.

Whak—!

"Krh-uk!"

Along with the horrible impact, Hwang Dushik went straight down and rolled across the floor.

Clutching a jaw that felt like it might break, he barely managed to lift his head.

And what he saw was a pair of red, burning eyes.

Test Subject 01, Cha Yul.

"Hyung! Hyung! No! Stop!"

But Cha Yul did not stop.

Whak! Whak! Whak!

The dull sound of a small fist hitting flesh rang through the training room.

Suho, trying to stop him, finally cried out — voice cracking with tears.

"I... I asked him to do it! So stop!"

Only then did Cha Yul's fist stop in midair.

"...You asked? You, yourself?"

Cha Yul's face was full of disbelieving betrayal and a fury beyond words.

"You! Did you forget the penalty on your ability? Don't you know that when you use it, you eat away at your own life?!"

At that violent shout, Suho pressed his lips shut tight.

"...You. Come with me. Right now. You're getting checked."

"Hyung! Hyung, wait! Just a minute!"

"Don't want to hear it. We can talk when we get there."

Just as Cha Yul was about to ignore his little brother's resistance and drag him along by force —

Pak!

"I'm not going! I said I'm not going! I'm training more here!"

"Are you insane? Can't you see you're dying right now!"

At that sharp, edged bark, Suho flinched and locked up. But this time, he didn't back down.

The child glared, eyes brimming with tears, up at his hyung.

In that glare, there was something bigger than fear — resentment, and a grief he'd been holding in.

"You... you don't know!"

Suho wrenched Cha Yul's hand off and shrieked.

"You've never been thrown away, so you don't know! What it feels like to be thrown away for being useless... hyung, you don't know!"

That word.

The word thrown away snapped something in Cha Yul's head — tuk.

"I don't know...?"

His red eyes blazed with fury.

"You're telling me I don't know what it is to be thrown away?"

Slap!

Suho's small head turned helplessly to the side.

For an instant, time inside the training room stopped.

Park Suho didn't even think to cup his own swelling cheek — he only stared at his hyung with eyes gone wide with shocked disbelief.

"...Hyung?"

At Suho's dazed murmur, Cha Yul's shoulders flinched.

Cha Yul, too, was staring blankly down at his own hand — the hand that had just hit his little brother — as if he himself couldn't believe what had just happened.

He opened his mouth toward Suho.

"Suho..."

Just as Cha Yul was about to apologize, Hwang Dushik launched into a loud coughing fit.

"Kh-uhm! Khuk, khuk!"

"A-are you okay?"

Suho ran over in a panic, but instead of answering, Hwang Dushik cut the two of them off with an even more violent bout of coughing.

What a windfall.

Infighting among test subjects — and a full-on slap, no less.

If he played this feud right, he could smash the project apart cleanly.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to pour more oil on the fight —

Kwang—!

The training room door was thrown open hard enough to nearly break it, and the Chief Researchers came pouring in.

"What is going on!"

At the sight of the wrecked training room — Hwang Dushik sprawled on the floor, Cha Yul staring blankly at his own hand, and Park Suho crying with one hand cupped over a badly swollen cheek — they were beside themselves.

"My god... Suho! Yul! What in the world...!"

Han Soeun ran to the children in a panic, and Kang Taemin, face grim, hauled Hwang Dushik to his feet.

"All of you, come with us."

In the end, all three of them were led like prisoners to the Chief Researchers' office.

A little later, in the office.

"Explain to me right now what happened out there!"

Under the ice-cold edge of Han Soeun's fury, Hwang Dushik hung his head.

"I'm sorry... I have no excuse. I never thought Suho would go this far."

"You didn't think?"

Han Soeun's voice came out sputtering with disbelief.

"Suho was using his ability all this time and his dedicated teacher didn't know? Does that make any sense at all?!"

At which Hwang Dushik protested, wearing a wounded, wronged look.

"I really didn't know! He only used it when I went to the bathroom or stepped out for a minute — how was I supposed to catch that?"

"The biometric data! You weren't monitoring it?"

"Of course I wasn't! I assumed he wasn't using his ability — why would I bother checking that?!"

Hwang Dushik pressed his aggrieved case, driving the point home.

"I stopped him more times than I can count! I told him the Director hates it when he uses his ability, never do it! If you don't believe me, pull up the CCTV, pull up the logs, whatever! I care about Suho too — why on earth would I tell him to use his ability?!"

At his flawless performance, the Chiefs couldn't manage a rebuttal — and that was when it happened.

"...I..."

One cheek swollen and red, the child was trembling as if on trial.

"I... I did use it in secret. I'm sorry... it's all my fault..."

"Suho..."

Aching at the sight, Lee Jinwoo bent his knees and got down to eye level with the child.

"We're not scolding you right now. Why on earth did you use it? The Director said not to. You knew perfectly well it damages your body."

At which the tears that had been pooling in Suho's big eyes finally burst like a dam.

"But... but I want to be helpful too!"

"What?"

"I want to be useful to the Director too! Yul-hyung and Sea-ah-noona are useful, and even Hayun and Hajun are training! Only me... only I'm just sitting there doing nothing, falling behind!"

The child wailed and cried out, as if pouring out all the anxiety he'd bottled up.

"When you're useless... you get thrown away! I... I don't want to be thrown away! Wuuuh—!"

"You...!"

Beside him, Cha Yul started to speak, but Lee Jinwoo raised a hand to stop him.

"Suho. Why on earth would you think that. Nobody's going to throw you away. You know how much the Director cares about you."

But to Suho — thoroughly brainwashed by the virtual data — those words didn't land.

The child only shook his head, eyes wide with terror, and kept crying.

This... isn't going to be solved by words.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Lee Jinwoo let out a heavy sigh and got to his feet.

"Hoo... First off... you three, wait outside. Let us talk this over."

Tak.

The moment the door closed, Lee Jinwoo dropped down clutching his head.

"Haah... what on earth are we supposed to do here?! His biometric energy has already dropped so much!"

Han Soeun folded her arms, face tight.

"That's how badly he wants to use his ability. We can't exactly tie the kid down and watch him twenty-four hours a day."

She thought for a moment, then suggested:

"What if we just scrap all the virtual training Hwang Dushik runs?"

"No."

Lee Jinwoo shook his head.

"If we take away his chance to train, he'll only get more anxious."

He looked, aching, at the tightly shut door.

"He's already this scared about being thrown away — we have to at least keep him steadily learning medical knowledge. Otherwise there's no way he'll feel any better."

Han Soeun raked her fingers through her hair in frustration.

"The Director did say to make the children's own wishes the top priority...!"

She burst out, aggrieved.

"But their bodies come first! What good does respecting the kid's wishes do when he's dying?! You want to hold a funeral for the sake of his opinion?"

A dead end either way. Block his training, and he panics; leave it be, and he dies.

"Ugh, I'm losing my mind! Why is he suddenly this anxious? Is it because the Director's not here?"

That was when Kang Taemin, who had been listening in silence up to that point, opened his mouth.

"Let's call the Director."

"What?"

"We ask the Director whether we can authorize ability use."

At that clean, simple answer, Lee Jinwoo slapped his knee.

"Yes! That'd be the surest way!"

Without hesitation, Lee Jinwoo picked up his terminal and rang the number saved as Golden Lifeline.

[...Yeah. It's me. What.]

"Ah, Director! It's Lee Jinwoo."

[You've found it already?]

There was an odd note of expectation in the Director's voice.

"Ah... no. We're still working on the approach there... something else came up urgently, and that's why I'm calling."

[What is it.]

Lee Jinwoo swallowed hard and opened his mouth carefully.

"It's... Park Suho keeps... asking to use his ability. Saying it's for the Director. What should we do about this?"

After the question, from the other end of the line came no sound at all.

Silence.

As if the call had been cut off.

Just as Han Soeun and Lee Jinwoo were exchanging uneasy looks —

[...If he really wants it himself.]

A low, indifferent voice came through.

[...Then you have to let him use it.]

"What?!"

"Really?!"

Lee Jinwoo and Han Soeun were floored in unison.

[But.]

[Only if you find a way to let him use his ability without draining his life-force.]

"What? What are you...? There's no way that kind of method exists!"

[Which is why I said, don't let him use—]

Right then.

From the other end of the line, some old woman's booming shout cut his words clean off.

[Hey now! I told you that's not how you catch that one!]

[Ah — kh, khm!]

The Director wrapped up in a slightly rattled voice.

[I'm on a mission right now — busy. Hanging up.]

Tuk.

Nothing but stunned silence hung in the control room.

"..."

"..."

"Um... what the Director's saying is... in the end, don't let him use it... right? That's what it means, right?"

While the two of them sank into despair, Kang Taemin stood with his arms folded, silently studying Park Suho's data on the monitor.

"No."

At that flat rejection, Han Soeun and Lee Jinwoo turned to Kang Taemin in unison.

"It's not 'don't let him use it.' It's 'find a way to use it without draining his life-force.'"

"What?!"

He looked at Lee Jinwoo.

"What's the Director's goal?"

"To make the children the strongest in the world..."

"Right. The strongest in the world. And a powerful Awakened like Park Suho — just leaving him alone? Doesn't that seem off?"

Kang Taemin drove the point home.

"The basis and the heart of any raid party formation is the healer. He says he's building the strongest team in the world — and he treats a party's lifeline, the healer, as if he doesn't count, and lets it sit? That doesn't add up."

"That's..."

At the point driven straight through the middle of it, neither of them could find a rebuttal.

"It is strange, yeah..."

"And one more thing. The Director has always put the children's will first."

He looked at Lee Jinwoo.

"How many times has he said, like it's a saying of his: 'When you can, just go along with whatever those kids want.'"

Kang Taemin pointed at Suho's face on the monitor, crying out desperately.

"A man like that — when a child wants this badly to use his ability... would blocking it outright, on nothing more than the reason that it's dangerous, really be what the Director actually means?"

"But... if he uses his ability, he dies!"

Han Soeun pushed back.

"Right. That's the contradiction. He has to use it, he wants to use it, but using it kills him."

Kang Taemin's eyes settled, calm.

"That's why the Director tacked on the condition at the end."

[Only. Until you find a way to let him use his ability without draining Park Suho's life-force.]

"In conclusion — it's not 'seal his ability.' It's a homework problem: find a way to resolve that contradiction."

At the words, Lee Jinwoo's and Han Soeun's expressions turned, gradually, into shock — and then, into understanding.

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