The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

"Who told you you could run off like that?!"

The Director's face was flushed red with fury.

"Do you not get how valuable you are, is that it? Do you have any idea what it costs me if you go and get hurt?!"

The cold venom came flying in and struck like a dagger.

Twitch.

The kids' eyes widened all at once.

Just now, the bridge of the Director's straight nose had moved — faintly, but unmistakably.

"Dolls like you, I can replace as many times as I want!"

Twitch, twitch.

The Director was shouting, but the kids could hardly hear his voice at all.

Their eyes were fixed on one thing only — the tip of his nose, dead center in his face.

Once, when he shouted "valuable."

Twice, when he raged about "any idea what it costs me."

And biggest of all, three times, when he said "I can replace you."

Like a broken lie detector, the Director's nose kept twitching.

"...Pfft."

The first to let a puff of air slip out was Suho.

That sound was the starting shot, and soft smiles like spring sunshine spread across Hayun's and Ari's faces too.

"Haha..."

"...What? What is it?"

When the kids broke into goofy grins in the middle of being scolded, the Director's eyes went wide, thrown.

"Does this look like a laughing matter to you? If you vanish like this without a word, do you know how I—!"

The Director furrowed his brow, trying to force an even scarier face, but not one bit of his shouting frightened the kids.

Liar.

It really was all a lie.

The instant they realized it, the string of tension snapped and a huge wave of relief came flooding in.

"Hehe... Director..."

Hayun toddled over on unsteady legs, eyes heavy with sleep, and threw her arms around his waist.

"You didn't hate us after all..."

"What? Hey, let go of that. Doesn't this arm scare you?"

The Director recoiled, aghast, and backed away, but it was already too late.

Suho and Hajun rushed him too, like little zombies, and latched onto his legs and arms like cicadas clinging to a tree.

"Thank goodness..."

"Director... I'm sorry I said I hated you last time... I don't hate you even a little..."

Reassured, Hayun's eyes slid shut, and she mumbled out the words she'd been holding tightly down all this time.

"So please... don't throw us away... we'll be good..."

The familiar, cool scent that came off the Director's body.

And a body warmth far greater than she'd expected.

The moment that warmth reached her, the drowsiness she'd been fighting down crashed over her like a tidal wave.

"Wake up! Kids!"

The Director's flustered shout reached the kids' ears like a humming lullaby.

The kids nuzzled their faces against his stiffly frozen body and sank back, dead to the world, into weary sleep.

Cradling the overwhelming relief that the love they'd thought was a hopeless one-way crush had turned out to be no such thing.

"Haah... what in the world is even happening right now..."

I looked down at the kids fast asleep and dead to the world in my arms, and dragged my hands roughly down my face.

Thump.

In the end I sank down onto the cold cement floor, the kids still clutched hard against me.

This vicious "midnight hide-and-seek" that had been dragging on since before dawn had wrung every last drop out of me.

How terrified I'd been.

It had been early morning, and I'd dozed off with the burbling of the teapot artifact — going on several days now — as my lullaby.

Bang, bang, bang!

"Director! The kids... they're gone!"

The instant I heard the researcher's scream, my heart felt like it dropped straight through my feet.

From that moment until now, honestly, I can't even remember how the time passed.

Composure? Reason? I'd thrown all of that to the dogs.

Not even registering that I was in pajamas, I tore the institute apart like a madman.

In case they'd wandered into some dangerous area.

In case they'd gotten hurt and were crying somewhere.

No — a far more horrible picture crept in and ate at my mind.

What if... Chae Ganghyeon got to the kids.

The moment that ugly thought hit, it felt like all the blood in my body surged backward.

"Basement three! We picked up the twins' psychokinetic signature in the B3 zone!"

The instant I heard the security team leader over the radio, everything went black.

Why the hell would they go there...!

That was where the robots stood on standby.

Cold and dark — the last place kids should ever be.

With no patience even to wait for the elevator, I bolted down the emergency stairs in one go.

My breath was jammed at the top of my throat and my legs were shaking, but I couldn't stop.

And after that frantic sprint, what I came face to face with was the kids sleeping soundly, snuffling softly.

They were a bit grubby, coated in dust, but thankfully not one of them had a single broken bone or injury.

The moment I confirmed they were fine, the taut string of tension snapped and deep relief washed over me.

"..."

I let out a heavy sigh and carefully stroked the hair of Hayun, cradled in my arms.

I get angry because I'm worried, and these brats laugh at me instead — and now here they were, latched onto me and asleep like my body was their mattress.

"You lot are really... going to be the death of me."

Holding my breath so the sleeping kids wouldn't wake, I shifted Hayun into a better hold.

"Take them."

"Ah, yes, sir!"

Han Soeun and Lee Jinwoo, behind me, hurried over and carefully lifted one child each into their arms, and Kang Taemin scooped up the remaining two and settled them securely, one in each arm.

Like a procession moving precious treasure, a quiet line filed through the dark.

Creak—

When I opened the door to the kids' room, Sea-ah and Cha Yul, who'd been pacing anxiously inside, came bursting out toward us.

"You guys!!"

"You kids!"

Sea-ah and Cha Yul went ashen at the sight of the kids draped limp in my arms and in the researchers' arms, and came closer.

"What is... what is all this...! What's wrong with them?"

At Sea-ah's trembling question, I made a show of shrugging like it was nothing.

"I don't know either. Right now they're all asleep."

At my indifferent answer, Sea-ah's eyes turned vicious.

Killing her voice so the sleeping kids wouldn't wake, she still lashed out, sharp, like she was spitting the words out.

"This is all your fault, Director!"

"...What?"

"They did this because they were anxious! They risked their lives going out just to see whether you'd come looking for them or not!"

Sea-ah's lips trembled as if she couldn't believe it, and she muttered, small.

"I kept telling myself surely not... I never thought they'd actually go through with it..."

"What are you even...! What are you talking about! Anxious, how?"

"You haven't shown so much as your face lately!"

Sea-ah must have had a lot built up, because she lashed out like she was pouring out long-pent grievance.

"Do you have any idea the ridiculous things those kids did just to catch one glimpse of your shadow? Leaving their food on purpose, practicing falling over... they even cooked up a plan to camp out in front of your office!"

Tears finally welled up, brimming, at the corners of her eyes.

"You said keeping a doll from breaking is the owner's duty! But now that you've lost interest you just leave them be? You're saying you don't even care about us!"

Sea-ah struck her own chest with her fist, pow, as if she couldn't stand it.

The excuses piling up to the top of my throat were a mountain.

Didn't you get scared of my arm? I thought not showing you was for the best.

I was afraid that if you knew how much I cared for you, Chae Ganghyeon would come after you.

But... there was nothing I could say.

In the end I had no right to make excuses, and the words I could throw out were already set in stone.

"How could I not care? You're all my expensive dolls."

"...What?"

"I must have told you until it was drilled into your ears. You're my dolls, and I'm the owner."

"..."

"Don't tell me you're hoping for something more than that — between an owner and their tools?"

At my heartless answer, Sea-ah's face flooded with shock and betrayal.

"You really...!"

Her lips quivered, as if there were no getting through to me anymore.

But unlike her, spilling out her rage, Cha Yul was eerily quiet.

He said nothing, just fixed me with a cold stare, relentless.

...!

Afraid of the look in the eyes of a mere ten-year-old, I glanced away and laid the child down on the bed.

"Tell them when they wake up. Not to get above themselves and start deluding themselves."

I said it short, spitting it out, and then turned to go, hurried, like I was fleeing.

"Director! Wait, Director!!"

Sea-ah's voice called after me from behind, but I pretended not to hear and quickened my steps until I vanished into the dark.

Wiing—

A red dot glinting in the pitch-black.

Only the red eye of a security camera glowed, chilling.

"Welcome, Sea-ah, dear. Not too much trouble getting here?"

Park Wonjin greeted Sea-ah in a sticky, doting voice, as if it had been dipped in honey.

A smile with the corners of his mouth pulled way up, as though to break down the other party's guard.

But Lee Sea-ah's reaction was cold as ice, enough to make that goodwill ring hollow.

"Why did you call me in on my own?"

"Haha, Sea-ah. Come to think of it, this is the first time we've talked just the two of us, isn't it? Good to see you. My name's Park Wonjin. I'm the Deputy Director of this institute."

He offered it as gently as he could, but Sea-ah ignored the greeting and studied his face.

Then she tossed out a flat, dry reply.

"I know."

"Hm?"

"You were standing behind them, watching, back during the experiments."

The first experiment... I only showed my face that one time. And she remembers that?

A single bead of cold sweat trickled down Park Wonjin's spine.

Her memory was sharper than he'd expected, and there was a murderous glint in those eyes that didn't belong on a child; inwardly, Park Wonjin swallowed dry.

But he soon composed his expression and let out a rueful sigh, as if he were the saddest man in the world.

"I'm sorry about what happened back then. But don't misunderstand. I was never assigned to the experiment floor after that day. If I'd known you were going through something so horrific, I'd have put a stop to it right away."

Not everything I'm saying is a lie. I wasn't on the lab floor, was I?

He'd only watched on a monitor, seated in a warm, comfortable control-room chair — he hadn't run the experiments himself.

"So what did you call me out here for?"

Sea-ah pulled a grease-stained scrap of paper from inside her clothes and waved it.

"Going so far as to hide a note like this inside a piece of bread and all."

On the note fluttering at Sea-ah's fingertips, a short line was written in ink-smudged handwriting.

〈If you want revenge on the Director, come to Training Room 4.〉

The look on Sea-ah's face as she waved the note was set hard as stone.

But even before that fierce, cutting glare, Park Wonjin didn't lose his composure.

Because he had something to fall back on.

Thank heavens I checked the security footage recently.

The scene in the security footage he'd gotten hold of a while back had been quite a spectacle.

The Director and Sea-ah had been going at each other with veins bulging, screaming at the top of their lungs like they might devour each other.

And from right after the Director slammed the door and stormed out, up until now, the two of them had been locked in a savage cold war, not exchanging a single word.

Can't even sweet-talk one little girl like that into line, and he's floundering. That Director bastard is as useless as ever.

Park Wonjin clicked his tongue inwardly and sneered at the Director.

At the same time, he cheered.

The rift between the Director and the child was a golden opportunity for him.

"Ahem. I hear you and the Director haven't been getting along lately?"

When Park Wonjin ventured the opening, Sea-ah's brow furrowed sharply.

"And what business is that of yours, Deputy Director?"

Even at the barbed reaction, Park Wonjin didn't back down.

If anything, he let the corners of his eyes droop and put on a sad face, as if he were the most kindhearted, most wronged man in the world.

"Don't misunderstand. I've been watching for a chance this whole time. For a moment when you might get even a little farther from that vicious Director's clutches."

He laid a hand over his chest, putting on a grief-stricken face.

"Because I wanted to save you from that hellish place."

"...What?"

"Hard to believe, I know. I understand."

Undaunted by Sea-ah's sharp reaction, Park Wonjin whispered in an even more sorrowful voice.

"The truth is, I wanted to help you from the very start. But... the Director's interference was too much. Every time I tried to reach out a hand to you, that man cut it off viciously and kept you utterly isolated."

"..."

Instead of answering, Sea-ah looked up steadily into Park Wonjin's face.

Black eyes that didn't waver.

A suffocating silence flowed, and around the time the corners of Park Wonjin's eyes began to tremble, faintly.

Sea-ah's lips slowly parted.

"But... the Director only took full control of 'Project R' a few months ago. Up until then, the person in overall charge of this project was... you, wasn't it, Deputy Director?"

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