The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Park Wonjin was watching me — face gone white, dry-heaving — with what looked like genuine enjoyment.

"Ah, Director. Your timing is perfect. That glass you smashed yesterday—"

Park Wonjin gestured at the body on the floor.

"This man was in charge of the facility. Making the glass separating the control room from the lab that flimsy — he deserved to die."

"...So you killed a man over that? Over one pane of glass?"

Park Wonjin answered my shaking question as though he'd handled the most obvious matter in the world.

"'One pane of glass'? That was no ordinary glass. It was the last line of defense between the control room and a subject going out of control. Managing a critical piece of equipment that shoddily — he deserved to die."

At that brazen answer, the last thread of reason I'd been clinging to snapped.

Ha... so this is what a real villain looks like.

Pure malice — the kind I'd only ever seen on a screen, only ever read as words on a page — was standing right in front of me.

"...You crazy son of a bitch."

It wasn't acting; it came up from somewhere deep in my chest, real.

At my words, Park Wonjin's eyes narrowed with something like interest.

He walked slowly up to me, stopped just short of my face, and met my eyes.

Behind thin glasses, eyes like a viper's seemed to see straight through me.

"Director."

He spoke in a low voice.

"Since yesterday... something's been off about you."

"..."

"The usual Director wouldn't have blinked at a sight like this. If anything, he'd have clapped his hands and said well done."

He took another step forward. His voice carried a cold suspicion.

"What on earth is going on with you? It's almost as if..."

His eyes gleamed unnervingly, like a viper spotting its prey in the dark.

"...someone else had crawled into your body."

A chill ran straight down my spine.

No — calm down. There's no way he could actually know.

Sure, Gates and monsters ran wild in this world, but even here, "someone's soul had been swapped out" wasn't a phrase that made any kind of sense.

If that was the game, I could play it back.

I forced my mouth into a casual smirk.

"Interesting take, Deputy Director."

I met his eyes head-on.

"So what are you trying to say? Chae Junhyeok isn't really Chae Junhyeok? There's someone else inside him? Been reading a lot of novels lately?"

At my mocking retort, Park Wonjin's eyes narrowed for a moment.

The very next instant, he shrugged as if he'd never had a menacing bone in his body and stepped back.

"Ha, nothing serious. It's just that this new side of you feels a little unfamiliar."

"..."

"Honestly, the Director I'm seeing now... I like a lot better."

He smiled as though bestowing a favor and went on.

"For the sake of this institute's future, shouldn't you and I be working together? I'll do my best to serve at your side."

Instead of answering, I let out a silent, incredulous laugh.

Just from the way the researchers were scrambling around him yesterday, it's obvious the real power in this institute is with the Deputy Director, not Chae Junhyeok... and he's talking about "serving" me?

The sheer arrogance behind the word was ridiculous, but at the same time I was thinking:

...I might actually be able to turn this around on him.

"Serve me, huh. Fine. Then hand something over."

"...Hand something over, sir?"

"Yeah. Tormenting the subjects was getting old anyway, and I want to try a different kind of game."

I jerked my chin at Park Wonjin.

"I'm going to be playing a little house from now on. The dolls in the containment room — I'll be managing them going forward."

The moment I finished, the smile disappeared from Park Wonjin's face.

He stared at me with those viper-eyes, as if trying to see through to what I was really after.

I took the heart-chilling look in silence, doing my best to look unbothered.

After a taut silence, it was Park Wonjin who spoke first.

"Of course, Director. As you wish."

He added, in the most obliging tone:

"But are you sure that's wise? Subject 03's simulated-monster response training is scheduled for this very afternoon."

A curse rose right up to the tip of my tongue.

Simulated-monster response training — it had come up in the original too.

The name dressed it up nicely, but in practice it was abuse plain and simple — throwing the children in front of monsters and forcing them to fight until they were nearly dead.

"Cancel that experiment."

"You mean today's, sir?"

"No."

I looked him dead in the eye and all but growled:

"Every experiment, going forward. All of them."

In that instant, Park Wonjin's face twisted into something ugly.

"Director. You don't seem to grasp this, but this is a research institute — we're here to produce results."

"..."

"How exactly do you plan to produce meaningful data without any experiments?"

"I'll handle that. Don't worry about it."

Park Wonjin gave me a look of disbelief, but soon something crossed his mind and he nodded.

"...Very well. Give it a try."

He returned to his seat and added a chilly warning:

"But if no meaningful results come of it... I'll have no choice but to report it to the Bureau Chief."

"Do whatever you want."

With that, I turned to leave — and as I did, my eyes landed on the body slumped right by the door.

A person still warm. Alive just moments ago.

Because of me.

The thought wouldn't leave my head.

If I... if I'd been a little wiser.

If I'd found some other way to save Cha Yul.

This man might not have had to die.

My breath caught in my throat.

I wanted to take care of the body — at the very least, close his eyes for him.

But I couldn't.

Chae Junhyeok wasn't the sort of man who would do that.

I couldn't bring myself to look at his face again, and swallowed a silent apology.

...I'm so sorry.

Then I forced my heavy feet forward, all but fleeing that horrific scene.

Park Wonjin pressed a button on the intercom on his desk.

"Take care of it."

Moments later, two researchers came in and disposed of the body with familiar, practiced efficiency.

As he watched, though, not a single thought about the man he'd just killed was in Park Wonjin's head.

His mind was filled entirely by one enormous variable: Chae Junhyeok.

Something's off.

Every move Chae Junhyeok had made today replayed in his head, in slow motion.

The insolent way of speaking, the mannerisms — those were no different from the delinquent he'd always been.

But... the critical details were different.

First of all, the eyes.

Those empty eyes, once devoid of any life and full of nothing but rage, had held a sharp, living spark.

And the way he'd handled the body.

The old bastard wouldn't have blinked if a corpse rolled up to his feet.

But today he'd looked like a man holding something back.

It was... strangely off.

Like a man in clothes that didn't fit. Like an actor desperately performing the role of a delinquent.

Yes — almost as though he'd become someone else...

But Park Wonjin shook his head.

Enough with the sci-fi delusions.

That left only one answer.

"He's putting on an act because he's up to something."

Park Wonjin let out a dry laugh.

Using some ridiculous "playing house" excuse to get his hands on the subjects — the heart of this research? Not even funny. This institute is already fully in my grip.

The move was so obvious it wasn't even worth being offended by.

He pulled an encrypted communicator from deep in a drawer and dialed a familiar number.

"It's me."

—...

"Right. The plan has changed."

—...

"...Don't wait — move in now. And I want a full report, down to the smallest detail. Miss nothing."

After my meeting with Park Wonjin, I visited the containment room every day.

Rather than pushing to get close, though, I just sat in the chair furthest into the corner, giving them the time it would take to get used to my being there.

It suddenly reminded me of my first day at the kindergarten.

Children awkward at the arrival of an unfamiliar adult, and a rookie teacher fidgeting helplessly, not knowing what to do about them.

The only thing I'd been able to do back then... was wait.

Watch from a distance, get a feel for each child's personality, and wait quietly until I'd become a familiar part of that child's world.

Remarkably enough, the children had slowly let me into their world.

I decided to try that same approach here.

The first week was, quite literally, a test of patience.

While I was in the containment room, the children froze as if on cue, and only started moving once I was gone.

So I spent half of each day inside the containment room, and the other half watching them from outside through the reinforced glass.

About a week in, I started to see the patterns in their behavior.

Cha Yul, the oldest, made no attempt to hide his hostility toward me.

While I was inside, the kid glared at me like he wanted to kill me.

That razor-edged look made me feel like the one being watched, and more than once I had to hurriedly drop my eyes back to my paperwork.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to have caught on that I was secretly watching the children, but the eyes drilling into my back were as sharp as ever.

Sea-ah was effectively the children's caretaker.

When I was around, she stayed on guard alongside Cha Yul, but the moment I was gone, she read to the younger ones, brushed their hair, and looked after them with real care.

Sihyeok, the ash-haired boy, was the hardest to read.

He was always tucked away in the shadow under a bed or behind a bookshelf, ghostlike, which made observing him difficult in the first place.

A few days back, I'd unwittingly wandered near him and been startled by how quickly he darted deeper into hiding.

He seemed to mix with the others once in a great while, but by default he'd chosen isolation.

The liveliest were the youngest, Suho, and the twins, Hajun and Hayun.

When I was away, the three of them stuck together like glue, playing with toys or huddling at the table to draw.

Suho especially seemed to have a thing for drawing — he always had a crayon in hand, sketching on every surface he could find.

It was so much like watching the kids from Sunshine Class that a smile came out before I knew it.

Another week passed like that, and the change began somewhere very small.

The ever-curious Hayun — with me still in the containment room, of all things — pulled a teddy bear out of the toy box and started fiddling with it.

Cha Yul saw and mouthed don't touch that in warning, but once curiosity was loose, no warning was going to stop her.

A little later, joined by Hajun almost without her noticing, the twins tipped the whole toy box over and started stacking blocks, giggling.

For the first time, the sound of children's laughter rang through the containment room.

The next day, Suho — who'd been watching hesitantly — inched over to the twins and started stacking blocks with them.

And the day after that, Sea-ah quietly got up as well, walked over to the bookshelf, and began looking through what was there.

Finally, even Sihyeok, who'd been tucked in the darkest corner, came out to sit somewhere a little more lit.

Only Cha Yul kept glaring at me with the same hostility and wariness as day one.

The tightly sealed world these children lived in was starting to show the smallest of cracks.

Another week went by.

By now, they read books or gathered at the table to draw fairly naturally, whether I was there or not.

A peaceful afternoon a few more days on: I was watching the children with quiet satisfaction, and glanced down at my paperwork for a moment.

That was when it happened.

A sudden chill ran down my spine.

What is that?

That ominous feeling I'd always gotten in my kindergarten teacher days, right before something happened to a kid.

On reflex, I lifted my head.

And I saw it.

Hayun, the older twin, halfway up the bookshelf, using its shelves as footholds, wobbling precariously.

And the bookshelf, unable to hold the combined weight of the books and the child, tipping slowly forward.

"Hayun!"

My body moved before my thoughts caught up.

I kicked off the chair, sprang up, and tore across the room toward her.

The world seemed to slow down.

The bookshelf toppling forward.

The child's wide, terrified eyes, frozen.

And my hand reaching out toward her.

Crash—!

Along with a roar that shook the whole room, pain like my spine breaking tore through my body.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!