Nothing Scarier Than a Smiling Man Going Stern
Thankfully, I didn't have to go home in bloodstained clothes.
I pulled on the gray hoodie, a size or so too big for me, and spoke up, a little awkwardly. “You really didn't have to go this far. Thank you.”
But the other party just shook his head and smiled back at me. And somehow… he actually looked pretty pleased with himself.
“It's nothing. I'm just glad this much could help. Besides, I owed you big time again today, so it feels good to repay even a small part of that debt with something like this.”
Lee Seohyeok said this as he handed over the shopping bag holding my bloodied clothes. I took it, hesitated for a moment, then opened my mouth.
There was something I hadn't quite managed to ask those two team leaders…
“If I leave here now, is it going to get even more chaotic out there than it already is?”
Going by the rumors those two team leaders had passed along, I absolutely should not walk out of here right now.
Apparently there's even some nonsense going around that I might be a spy from another hunter corporation.
The implication was that if I threw back this curtain and strutted out into the lobby, all hell would break loose.
What scares me most is that I genuinely can't predict how people would react.
I was seriously debating whether I needed to find some hole in the ground to crawl out through.
“Hmm… probably not.”
“…Are you sure?”
I was completely serious here.
“Yes. There's also a rumor going around that you kept a blanket pulled over yourself the entire way up from the underground, from the dungeon to the emergency center. Thanks to that, anyone trying to identify you would have to go off your general appearance alone, and…”
“……Ah.”
Lee Seohyeok's gaze swept briefly over me, head to toe.
I was currently dressed head to heel in the clothes Lee Seohyeok had brought me—a complete change of outfit.
As long as only a general description had spread, no one would be likely to recognize me.
I can slip out of here quietly, then.
I yanked the hood of the hoodie down hard over my head, smoothed my bangs down over my forehead, and tucked every strand carefully inside.
When I peeked out past the curtain to check the emergency center, the commotion had at least died down compared to before.
If it stays like this, I can clock out without incident.
I let the curtain fall shut, turned around, and gave Lee Seohyeok a slight bow.
“Thank you for everything today—the clothes and all the rest of it.”
The moment the brief questioning with the field team leaders wrapped up, Lee Seohyeok had come straight to my bed, as if he'd been waiting for his turn.
He'd caught wind of everything late, and had come up to me looking frantic, head already on its way to the floor—I had thrown my whole body into stopping that bow before it landed.
He'd apparently believed his younger siblings had played a part in the incident, too.
Only after my desperate defense and a word from Moon Chaeyoung beside me did he seem to finally, barely understand what had actually happened.
Then he vanished without a word, only to come back hauling a bag full of his spare clothes for me.
“The twins are all right, I hope?”
“Yes. Thanks to you teachers, they came out without a single injury. I took Seora straight home with him.”
I heard that with things having turned out the way they did, the remaining teachers and children had no choice but to cut the field trip short and head home. And on top of that, the entire company had gone on alert, meaning every single employee today was looking at mandatory overtime.
Overtime, huh. Now I feel kind of guilty.
“Given how much of today was our side's fault, the company will handle everything in full. Also, the Awakener who was in the dungeon with you has been confirmed as a criminal and was taken into police custody—you don't need to worry about that. And as for contacting the children's parents, I've confirmed with the CEO that you don't need to worry about that either. He's recommended that you clock out as soon as you've recovered and take two days of rest.”
Like information being printed straight off a computer screen, Lee Seohyeok delivered the briefing smoothly, without a single hitch.
…Well, all right then. In that case, thank you.
I'd been agonizing over how on earth I was going to explain all this to the parents, so it was a relief.
Though I'll admit I was a little disappointed that my carefully scheduled, dignified conversation with that kidnapper bastard never came to pass.
But if he'd been hauled off to the Awakener-dedicated police division, then a conversation of an even higher caliber was probably taking place over there, so honestly, that was fine by me.
After all, if a conversation conducted with fists counts as a conversation, then it was a conversation.
“Then I'm the one who should be thanking you.”
I nodded, drew the curtain closed, and stepped out of the bed area.
I could feel passersby glancing our way two, three times, but it was bearable.
They're not looking at me—they're looking at Lee Seohyeok.
Only after I'd caught several blatant stares aimed at Lee Seohyeok—apparently the man was more famous than I'd realized—did I finally relax.
Time to slip home in blissful anonymity.
Come to think of it, I never got to ask the research department anything.
The thought surfaced belatedly now that I was actually leaving, but it wasn't urgent enough to matter right now, so I brushed it aside and picked up the pace.
And then, near the emergency center desk that led out to the lobby, I spotted a familiar face.
Kwon Haeseong?
…But why did the situation look so grim? A cluster of people had surrounded Kwon Haeseong, each of them taking turns getting a word in, and the atmosphere was anything but pleasant.
And why does that guy look so awful?
I slowed my steps further and drifted toward the door by the desk.
This doesn't look like my business to intrude on. Time to play blind.
But try as I might to ignore it, fragments of the conversation drifted over.
“Ha…. You didn't really think I let you go just so I'd have to see you like this, did you?”
“…Sunbae, just… just say you're sorry already.”
“Ugh, this is suffocating! What do you even do at that kindergarten?”
From the snippets I could catch, I had absolutely no idea what these people were even talking about.
But that one line—you didn't think I let you go just to see you like this, did you?—that one was a bit much…
Don't tell me. A love triangle?
Had Kwon Haeseong dated someone from headquarters back in the day?
“If this is how you're going to be, just quit the kindergarten. Do you have any idea how much it burns me up every time I walk past that place and see you there?”
Wow, that's harsh.
“Sunbae, honestly, it's embarrassing for me to watch too. A kindergarten teacher, hanging around with you?”
And now you're insulting his workplace?
“Hey! Did you put glue in your mouth or something? Why won't you answer?!”
Well, well. One of them had grabbed Kwon Haeseong by the shoulder and was shaking him back and forth for good measure.
I stopped mid-stride, my feet refusing to play blind after all.
“…Teacher?”
Lee Seohyeok looked down at me, his face gone pale.
More voices drifted over from behind.
“Chasing after little kids' tails—is that really what you want to do with your life?”
“It suits you perfectly! That huge body of yours—don't the kids get scared of you?”
“…Sunbae, just apologize already…!”
I exhaled, slow and even. Then I turned my steps around.
Toward that big bear cub who could do nothing but clamp his mouth shut and flounder.
“Excuse me.”
Wearing my professional smile as naturally as breathing, I wedged myself into the middle of the group. Lee Seohyeok trailed behind me, looking utterly at a loss.
When the startled bear looked up at my face, I simply kept smiling at him.
Cub, you really thought you could just sit there with your mouth shut?
Trash-talking someone's livelihood, in this day and age? Unacceptable.
“I'm sorry…? And, um, who might you be?”
“……Lee Seohyeok?”
“What— Team Na's maknae? What are you doing here?”
Their attention swung away from the suddenly appeared stranger—me—and landed squarely on Lee Seohyeok standing behind me.
Which meant I was free to walk, completely unimpeded, right up to Kwon Haeseong's nose.
“Teacher Kwon Haeseong, how are you feeling? Are you all right?”
Love triangles can stay love triangles—fine.
But mocking someone's job and trying to grind them into the dirt while you're at it? That's crossing a line, no?
Kwon Haeseong sat bolt upright on the bed, staring up at me with a completely blank face.
Reading the goldfish-gaping mouth of Kwon Haeseong entirely on my own terms, I began to narrate, as if providing a voice-over for him.
“Ahh. You say your body's fine. But sorry, what's that? You're tired? And it's too loud…?”
The entire area went dead silent in an instant.
“Hm? Oh, you want to leave? Your body's recovered? Of course it hurts after putting you through all that hell.”
Then I lifted the edge of my hood slightly and made eye contact, one by one, with the people standing closest.
The ones who'd been tearing into Kwon Haeseong.
One woman and two men, to be precise.
How did one love triangle manage to tangle in this many people?
I gave each of the ones I'd made eye contact with a little smile, one at a time.
Can't spit on a smiling face, after all.
“We looked after those kids with our lives literally on the line. You all did great.”
Then I grabbed Kwon Haeseong by the nape of the neck and hauled him upright.
I hid the looks being thrown our way by pulling the hood down deep again—and the moment I did, my smile snapped off automatically.
Too exhausted to keep it up a second longer.
“Let's clock out now. Everything's done, isn't it?”
Come along, Teacher Kwon.
Chop chop. Let's go home.
Kwon Haeseong's whole body creaked with bewilderment. All he could do was trail, dazed, after the back of Na Hwiyeon's head as it marched ahead of him like a machine.
What on earth just happened?
He'd come to on the bed, and somehow word had reached his former teammates, every last one of whom had come swarming over.
They'd surrounded him, one and all, dressing him down with worry threaded through every scolding, and all he could do was listen in silence.
He owed them far too much to do otherwise.
So the only thing he could do was listen quietly, without making excuses.
He knew perfectly well that for all their sharp tongues, they were saying it because they cared about him, in their own way.
“Haeseong, you know full well that 'injury' being the reason you quit is an absolute load of nonsense, right?”
The team leader had said it with a hand on his hip and a sigh.
The injury.
More precisely, a serious one—complete ligament ruptures in both wrists.
But in this industry, an injury like that didn't count as anything but an excuse.
“I knew it was nothing but an excuse, and I looked the other way anyway. Because it felt like there was some other reason.”
What might be a permanent injury for ordinary people simply wasn't, for Awakeners.
Kwon Haeseong looked down at his two wrists.
Beyond any doubt, they were perfectly fine. This level of damage was the kind that, for Awakeners, healed on its own within a week or so without even needing to see a therapist.
And yet two years ago, Kwon Haeseong had forced through his resignation, using the wrist injury as his pretext.
These were comrades who had crossed death's threshold beside him time and again until they'd become something like family—letting them go couldn't have been easy for them either.
But back then, Kwon Haeseong had been stubborn. Stubborn enough to shove away the colleagues trying to hold him back and walk out without so much as a glance behind him.
So he'd assumed he would never come back here.
“Ha…. You didn't really think I let you go just so I'd have to see you like this, did you?”
“…Sunbae, just… just say you're sorry already.”
“Ugh, this is suffocating! What do you even do at that kindergarten?”
And like an idiot, he had come right back here anyway.
Wearing an apron printed with a seal that suited him so absurdly badly, at a kindergarten owned by the company, no less.
And as if that weren't enough, he'd gotten caught up in a dungeon and been carried into the emergency center unconscious.
They'd run into him any number of times in and around the kindergarten, and every single time, they had diligently pretended not to know him.
But the moment word came that he'd collapsed, worry had dragged them here at a dead run, whether they liked it or not.
“If this is how you're going to be, just quit the kindergarten. Do you have any idea how much it burns me up every time I walk past that place and see you there?”
“Sunbae, honestly, it's embarrassing for me to watch too. A kindergarten teacher, hanging around with you?”
“Hey! Did you put glue in your mouth or something? Why won't you answer?!”
He knew he should get a grip on the situation, but Kwon Haeseong simply could not make himself stand up.
What was a little old affection, anyway? He couldn't bring himself to coldly turn his back on people who had run all this way for him.
“Chasing after little kids' tails—is that really what you want to do with your life?”
“It suits you perfectly! That huge body of yours—don't the kids get scared of you?”
“Sunbae, just apologize already…!”
Kwon Haeseong rubbed the back of his neck, agonizing.
I have to say something, anything…
And then.
A voice cut through the fog and jolted him awake.
“Excuse me.”
The face of the person who'd been circling his mind all this time appeared right in front of him.
Different clothes, hood pulled down deep—but there was no mistaking it.
…Teacher Hwiyeon!
“I'm sorry…? And, um, who might you be?”
“……Lee Seohyeok?”
“What— Team Na's maknae? What are you doing here?”
At some point, Kwon Haeseong had stopped hearing anything at all. Na Hwiyeon's appearance alone had thrown his whole head into chaos.
The questions he wanted to ask overflowed until they threatened to burst at the seams.
Are the children all right?
How did we get out of that dungeon and end up here?
Are you all right, Teacher?
Why did you change your clothes?
I was perfectly fine, I'm sure of it—so why did I black out partway through?
And what happened to that suspicious bastard?
And also…
“Teacher Kwon Haeseong, how are you feeling? Are you all right?”
But for some reason, the moment he saw Na Hwiyeon's utterly radiant smile, the words wouldn't come.
Uh, um… well, you see…
“Ahh. You say your body's fine. But sorry, what's that? You're tired? And it's too loud…?”
No, I'm not tired, though.
And it isn't loud, either…
He had clearly forgotten how to produce sound from his own throat.
Why— why won't any words come out?
“Hm? Oh, you want to leave? Your body's recovered? Of course it hurts after putting you through all that hell.”
That's… true, actually.
It really has been a long time since I pushed myself that hard.
“We looked after those kids with our lives literally on the line. You all did great.”
At that one line from Na Hwiyeon, Kwon Haeseong's head lifted without his meaning it to.
And he caught, faintly, the cracks forming across his teammates' faces.
…It was the look of people caught between 'wait, was it really that bad?' and a flicker of shame.
It looked as though another wave of worried scolding was about to burst from their mouths at any second, and Kwon Haeseong tensed.
So he opened his mouth to say something—anything—to reassure them…
…and swallowed it back down.
“Let's clock out now. Everything's done, isn't it?”
Because that was what Na Hwiyeon said, hood pulled low, wearing a face of absolute, unsmiling seriousness.
And so, even being carted off like some wild animal caught in a trap, he followed without a word of protest.
He couldn't hear a thing from behind him. His old teammates didn't try to stop him, either.
That day, Kwon Haeseong awakened, for the second act of his working life, to one crucial truth.
…There is nothing in this world scarier than the person who smiles all day, every day, suddenly going stone-faced.
I am never, ever messing with this man.