The Villainous Director Is Raising a Child!

Her eyes curved with mischief.

Oh no, I thought, and stole a glance to the side, but luckily the little ones were too absorbed in guarding their last cookie scraps to have caught our exchange.

"A-hem! Ahem! What I mean is...! If you're running yourself ragged, it throws a wrench in my perfect game of house, so keep yourself in shape. Got it?"

Only then did Sea-ah answer, grinning wide. "Yes~ yes. Understood, Director."

Then she lowered her voice and asked.

"So what happened to that man? Did he really get hauled off?"

"He did. The government forces took him away themselves. You probably won't be seeing his face for a good while."

At my answer, Sea-ah hummed a little tune as if she'd been waiting for it.

"Hmm~ serves him right. Good riddance, really."

Just as her spirited manner had a laugh rising in me—

Scrape— clack.

The tightly shut medical-room door opened once more.

There stood the three Head Researchers.

"Direc-torrr—!!"

The moment the door opened, Han Soeun scrunched her face up on the verge of tears and came shambling over like a zombie.

"Don't ever make me act like that again, pleaaase. I swear I nearly had a heart attack."

Lee Jinwoo chimed in too, shaking his head as if thoroughly done in.

"Haah... I really do feel like ten years came off my life. How on earth do actors do this...?"

They looked so plainly wrung out and drained now that the tension had let go, and I tossed out a line.

"What? You were good at it, though."

At my not-quite-compliment, Han Soeun's brow crumpled hard.

"Don't compliment me! I really almost flipped the whole thing over!"

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and her fists trembled.

"Force-feeding the kids through tubes, sleeping pills... listening to that sorry excuse for a human being run his mouth... wow, acting be damned, I nearly kicked the table over and drove a high-kick into him right then and there — I only just barely held it in, pinching my own thigh the whole time!"

While Han Soeun kicked at empty air, unable to master her fury, I sank deep into my chair and spoke up.

"Anyway, thanks. Thanks to all of you, I fooled them perfectly."

I looked at Kang Taemin, who'd been standing there silent, and added.

"Number Three especially. You got Sea-ah scooped up and out fast at the evaluation, and that's why nobody caught on. Good work."

"I only did as ordered."

At Kang Taemin's level reply, Han Soeun steadied her huffing breaths too.

She smoothed a hand down her still-flushed face and let out a long sigh.

"Hoo... still, at least I got to watch that Park Wonjin get dragged off like a dog — otherwise I really would've keeled over from sheer rage."

Now that she was finally settling a little, the corners of her mouth quietly tipped up and her eyes sparkled.

"But really... thinking it over again, that plan of yours gave me chills, Director."

"Yeah?"

"Yes! Deliberately tanking the evaluation to step down naturally, then timing it so Park Wonjin gets nabbed by the government forces at that exact moment! Just like you, Director!"

Beside her, Lee Jinwoo pushed his glasses up and joined in.

"Honestly, I was stunned too. Right up until you told me the plan I was half in doubt, but... seeing the government forces actually storm in gave me goosebumps. How in the world did you know?"

Instead of answering, I put the leftover cookie piece Hayun had handed me into my mouth.

I could hardly say I'd made use of knowledge from the original, so I needed a passable excuse.

"Who knows. I've got a few channels of my own, you know."

"But I was practically glued to your side almost twenty-four hours a day... when on earth could you have...?"

"A secret, obviously. You think I'd just hand that over so easily?"

At my sly answer, Lee Jinwoo nodded with a grave face.

"Come to think of it... there's how you brought the retired Kim Sunja on board, too. You've definitely got some vast information network I know nothing about."

While Lee Jinwoo muttered away, lost in a delusion all his own, Han Soeun scooted in close beside Sea-ah.

"Sea-ah, are you all right? I knew it was fake blood, sure, but... the moment you actually collapsed in front of me, I thought my heart dropped clean through the floor."

At that heartfelt worry, Sea-ah smiled faintly and shook her head.

"Don't worry so much, Teacher. It all went according to plan, didn't it?"

"Still..."

"I'm really not hurt at all. Look. Not a single scratch — I'm perfectly fine."

To reassure her, Sea-ah rolled up her sleeve and showed off a clean, unmarked arm.

Watching the calm face of a child soothing an adult older than herself, the memory from a few days back came back to me on its own.

The memory of the night this kid decided to trust me.

Riiip—!

A page of the notebook tore roughly free with a scraping sound.

The words of apology I'd been pressing so hard into the paper right up till a second ago — I crumpled them beyond all recognition and hurled them into the trash can at my feet.

Fwip, fwid-dip.

Onto the paper graveyard already heaped up and about to spill over, another white wad tumbled limply down.

However many times I rewrote it, all of it came out sounding like excuses.

[But now you've lost interest, so you're just leaving us be? You're saying you don't even care about us!]

Sea-ah's tear-soaked cry from a few days back kept jabbing at one corner of my chest.

The truth was, I wanted nothing more than to rush over that very second and tell her, "I'm sorry. I did it all to protect you."

Protecting them from Chae Ganghyeon or not, was carving up the children's hearts like this really the best I could do?

Even if I can keep their bodies safe, what's the point if their hearts break first?

In the end there was only one conclusion.

Tell them. Not all of it, maybe, but at the very least I have to make them sure I'm on their side.

Of course, with the little ones, whose every feeling gets broadcast live across their faces, it was absolutely a secret.

But with Sea-ah or Cha Yul, it was a different story.

They were far sharper than others their age, and at times more remarkable than the adults.

Not sure it's right to load a burden like this onto kids who are only nine and ten...

Mind made up, I called Sea-ah out to the underground training room first.

"...An awful lot of people are coming to see me today."

Already there, Sea-ah stood alone in the cold training room.

That someone had already come and gone nagged at me for a second, but right now the apology came first.

"Sea-ah, that thing you said to me last time..."

"Hold on."

Sea-ah cut me off clean.

I flinched at the unexpected force and shut my mouth.

Sea-ah stared hard into my face, then threw out a question like an interrogator.

"There's no believing anything you say anyway, so spare me the excuses. Instead."

"...?"

"Just answer the questions I ask. Whether it's a lie or not — I'll be the judge of that."

How is she going to judge whether what I say is a lie or not?

The doubt came first, but Sea-ah's gaze was steady and unshakable.

"Number one."

"..."

"Did you keep your face away on purpose, to hurt the little ones?"

At that steely glare I shook my head urgently.

"Absolutely not. I have never once wanted any of you hurt."

She bored into my face, then threw out her second question.

"Then what's the reason you avoided us?"

I let out a short sigh and brought out the answer I'd prepared all night.

Not the hundred-percent truth, but not a lie either.

"...There's someone after you. The more interest I show in you, the more warmth I show, the more that person will put you in danger. That's why I had no choice."

Sea-ah shot back sharp, at once.

"And who is that?"

"That I can't tell you."

There was no way I could.

Once she knew the one behind it was Chae Ganghyeon, if she let even the slightest thing slip in front of him?

The Chae Ganghyeon of the original was not a man who went easy on those who bared their teeth at him.

If anything, he'd grind them down without mercy.

I'd expected her to dig in more sharply, but Sea-ah nodded, unexpectedly, without a fight.

"Is that so? Well, then..."

An attitude that seemed to wave it off lightly.

But the question that followed was far heavier than the last.

"Then what are you trying to do with us? Is playing house with us really what you want, Director?"

I could tell from the look in Sea-ah's eyes.

That this was the decisive question she'd wanted to ask.

Should I tell her honestly — that my goal is to raise you all well and set you free to stand on your own?

The thought flickered through for a second, but inwardly I shook my head.

It wasn't time yet.

No route out, no hideaway where the children could safely lie low, no guardian for them — with none of it in place, if things went wrong, the letdown would be more than they could bear.

"That's right. I'm doing it because of my game of house."

As indifferent and flippant as I could manage, I gave a shrug.

"I told you, didn't I? I'm a fickle guy by nature. I just want to do as I please, nothing more."

It was a cowardly answer.

But Sea-ah's reaction ran counter to what I'd expected.

"Ha! To think it shows this clearly..."

Sea-ah murmured something I couldn't make sense of, then stepped in one pace closer and stared me dead in the eye.

"Don't give me that game-of-house nonsense. I know perfectly well it's a lie."

"...!"

H-how did she know?

While I blinked, thrown, Sea-ah's voice dropped low.

"I don't know what your aim is... but promise me just this one thing."

Sea-ah went on, plainly, as if it were nothing.

"If you ever do end up abandoning us later, do it without the little ones knowing."

"...What?"

"Those kids... they really love you, Director. They're still little, so... they won't realize they've been thrown away. So when that time comes, give the word to me alone, ahead of time. I'll take care of it myself."

Thud—!

In that instant, my heart throbbed as if it had been struck with an iron hammer.

...She's living with the certainty she'll be thrown away.

To Sea-ah, my kindness was nothing but a whim with an expiration date, one that could be taken back at any moment.

What had I been seeing when I looked at Sea-ah all this time?

A dependable second child? A level-headed strategist?

You lunatic.

I swallowed the curse aimed at myself.

Fooled by the child's grown-up manner, I'd forgotten the most important fact.

She was, when it came down to it, only nine years old.

In an ordinary world she'd be a second-grader holding her parents' hands on the way to school, just now learning her times tables.

A child no bigger than that was living certain that she and the others would one day be thrown away without fail — and worrying about the wounds her younger siblings would take before her own safety.

Pathetic son of a bitch.

Of all people, I of all people should have known.

That the deepest-rooted fear a parentless child carries is 'abandonment' — I knew it more bitterly than anyone, and still.

Before I knew it, I'd sunk to my knees in front of Sea-ah.

For the first time since possessing this body, I cast off the shell of 'Director Chae Junhyeok' completely.

And I brought out the real feelings buried in my deepest place and laid them bare.

"I promise. There will never be a day I throw you away."

"..."

"And... once this is all over, I'll make you laugh so much, every single day, so sick of it, that a guy like me won't even cross your mind anymore."

My voice scattered into the cold air of the training room.

Sea-ah stared me down without a word of reply.

It was a dogged, piercing look, as if whether it was a lie or not were written right there on my face.

A breathless tension where one second stretched out like a minute.

I held out without looking away.

Afraid that if I turned my eyes here, this sincerity might somehow be mistaken for a lie.

How much time passed?

The force drained out of Sea-ah's shoulders, which had been pulled taut.

"Haha..."

A wry little laugh broke the silence.

"And that's supposed to be sincere too?"

"...What?"

"Making me laugh till I'm sick of it. Honestly... do you even know how hard that is, saying a thing like that?"

The tone was cutting, but the venom from before had gone out of it.

"That you won't throw us away... all right. I'll let it go."

"Thank you."

Swallowing a sigh of relief, I carefully went on.

"Only... like I said, there are eyes fixed on you, so... my attitude will stay the same."

"Hmm."

Sea-ah folded her arms and looked up at me, studying.

She was a kid with unbelievably sharp instincts.

"So — you're going to keep being an obnoxious, insufferable jerk, just like always?"

"Uh, y-yeah... well, can't say I can deny that."

At my feeble answer, she let out a small, incredulous snort of a laugh.

"Fine. If the little ones knew they wouldn't be able to hide it, so acting it out thoroughly is the better play. I'll play along."

It felt like a heavy stone that had been pressing on my chest slid right off.

I swallowed a private sigh of relief.

"Thanks for understanding."

Thank goodness.

At the very least, it seemed I'd gotten across that I wasn't their enemy, and that I wasn't some piece of trash who'd throw them away.

That's that, then.

Just as I moved to turn my back and leave the training room, heart lighter—

The offhand words Sea-ah spoke behind me shattered my relief in a single stroke.

"Oh, that reminds me — the Deputy Director came to see me earlier."

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