One Night Camp, One Ghost Story
I had been bustled around busily since the crack of dawn, eyebrows flying every which way.
And what exactly did that mean, you ask?
It meant that my morning had begun at seven sharp, setting up balloons the size of Kwon Haeseong's head at the kindergarten entrance, sticking on artificial flower decorations, and politely explaining to passing BOND employees what on earth was going on.
"Wow~ looks like there's a big festival at the kindergarten today. Can't I just clock in here instead?"
……Kang Howon of Field Team Na, was it?
This guy sure knows how to work an angle.
"We're running a two-day, one-night sleepover camp at the kindergarten today. Unfortunately, admission is limited to children only, so reporting for duty here won't be possible."
"Teacher, my heart is thirty-six months old. Can't you make an exception?"
A human being over 180 centimeters tall, thirty-six months old. Clearly his conscience had been sold off somewhere.
"No. Go make some money already."
Even after sending off the deflated Kang Howon, I answered a few more curious employees before slipping away to my duties. I filled the wading pool with hot water for the morning activities, then hauled every last piece of water-play equipment out of the storage shed and into the yard.
"So all that's left is the treasure hunt?"
"Yes…. We're doing that at the children's park nearby."
"You haven't hidden the notes yet, right? Then come with me and we'll hide them real quick."
"Yes, sounds good…."
By the time Kwon Haeseong and I returned from stashing the treasure notes around the nearby children's park, the other teachers had finished setting up the snack and safety booths and were greeting the arriving kids — more or less everything needed for the morning program was ready.
"Ba-ba-ba-BAM!! And who's the star of today's show?"
Park Edeun clapped on a pair of pink heart-shaped sunglasses — from God knows where — and grabbed a microphone.
Thus the event kicked off with a proper ruckus.
I put on the yellow lightning-bolt sunglasses he handed me with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
Why is it only you and me….
He'd given the other three perfectly normal pairs.
"Alright, alright! Kids, let's have a super fun day today!!"
"……."
"Do you know what our role is today, me and Teacher here?"
After shouting loud enough to reach the headquarters building, a small whisper followed.
I looked up at Park Edeun, standing atop a small box, through hazy eyes.
"……I couldn't say."
"We're clowns. Honestly, those people (Yoo Jinchae, Kwon Haeseong, Kang Sagwa) are hopeless at making others laugh. So today, of all days, when the children must be happy, it falls to us to defend their smiles to the very last."
Wow. A mission statement so noble it brings tears to the eyes. Noble, sure….
"I don't think the kids will laugh at us, though. Instead…. I'd say we're guaranteed to get some laughs out of a different crowd."
Through the windows of the headquarters building across the way, I could see employees clustered together, paper cups in hand, all facing our direction.
……Too far away to make out their expressions, but they looked like they were laughing. Or is that just my persecution complex talking?
"Huh? You're right? Look at that — our clown act isn't half bad, huh?"
Park Edeun waved at the direction I'd pointed. I, having surrendered all hope, waved along with him.
I don't even know anymore.
Please, just don't put these ridiculous snapshots on the company intranet.
And yet…. for one day only, even playing the clown didn't seem like such a bad gig.
Most of all, the kids look good today.
Excited, buzzing with energy — the children were visibly worked up. And right on cue, I spotted the very person who'd occupied the lion's share of my worries yesterday running toward me with a bright face.
"Teacher! I brought my camera!"
With that, Seora held up the little digital camera hanging around her neck.
"You brought it to take pictures?"
"Yeah! Oppa said I could!"
"Good job. For now, though, it's water-play time, so I'll hold onto it. That okay?"
"Okay! You hold it, then give it back later, okay?"
"Will do~ Now go play~"
"Okayyyy!"
Okay, that was loud. Condition: excellent.
Right away, Seora and Noah grabbed their water guns, and behind them came Taejae, drifting across the warm pool on an inner tube.
Seoro sipped a cool drink while egging on the water gun battle between Seora and Noah.
Hold on — where's Cheonji?
Eyes narrowed, I searched for the hard-to-spot Cheonji.
Then I found him at the far edge of the warm pool, kicking his legs with a look of grim determination.
His legs flailed back and forth like a wild thing — a kid clearly having the time of his life — but the look in his eyes carried every bit as much charisma as any member of a field team.
……I lifted Seora's camera and took a picture of him, just like that.
What's he plotting? Cute.
"Today's the day we sleep at kindergarten."
"Oh, so that's why you look so pleased."
Riding in the car on the way to the kindergarten, Baek Cheonji's heart pounded with nerves.
Good heavens. A sleepover.
Every night spent outside the house had always included an accompanying guardian from the family. But this time, it was properly, genuinely his own personal stay-away-from-home.
He would have to keep his wits about him and behave impeccably.
Baek Cheonji nodded firmly, gripping the seatbelt tight in the back seat of the car.
Medicine packed, no luggage left behind.
For someone born the treasured youngest of the family, Cheonji carried an unusually strong sense of responsibility to live rightly.
That probably owed a great deal to his much older, deeply respected brother.
Hyung said it recently, didn't he — that one must spend each day productively.
He'd chewed on those words for days.
What, exactly, made a day productive?
And after long, stubborn deliberation…. he found his answer.
Everyone has their own role to play.
And his role at the kindergarten could be summed up as "the mediator."
Folding down his five fingers one by one, Baek Cheonji reviewed his duties as "mediator" for the day.
One: keep watch so Noah and Taejae didn't cause an incident.
Two: stop Seora and Seoro from fighting.
Three: don't make things hard for Teacher.
Four: eat well and sleep well.
Five…. hmm, what else was there.
Just as he was wracking his brain over the missing fifth duty, the driver up front smiled and offered a hint.
"Wow, sounds like you're in for a whole day of fun. I'm jealous~"
That's it! Having fun to the fullest was also part of the "children's mediator" job description!
And so, with that resolution firmly upheld, the water-play hour passed without incident, and treasure hunt time arrived.
"What do you think the treasure is?"
"Nam Taejae, you don't know what treasure is? Shiny jewels, or a limited-edition Tibot doll, stuff like that!"
"Jewels? I could take or leave jewels. Grandma always said the best thing is whatever you can stash away. Savings deposits, fixed deposits, funds, stocks, that kind of thing."
"Deposits? Isn't all that basically gold?"
"……Is it? Then did someone bury gold?"
Nam Taejae and Kim Noah looked about ready to cause trouble again. Baek Cheonji planted his hands on his hips with as much gravity as he could muster and warned them.
"You can't go digging up the whole ground looking for gold. Understood? This is a place the residents all share."
"Yeah! Of course!"
"Got it~"
Whew…. a close call. Baek Cheonji secretly wiped the sweat from his brow.
Take your eyes off Nam Taejae and Kim Noah for one second and trouble follows — he'd have to keep a close watch.
"Lee Seora, hand over the magnifying glass. That one's mine."
"Since when does 'mine' mean yours? I brought this from the playroom."
"I set it on my desk first because I was going to take it."
"Too bad? I got here faster!"
"Give it!"
The instant Seoro's hand shot toward the magnifying glass in Seora's grip, Baek Cheonji nimbly wedged himself between them and blocked the way.
"No fighting. This place is way too big to search with just one magnifying glass anyway. And siblings are supposed to get along."
"……I don't have a brother like this."
"Me neither! I don't need a brother like you either! From now on, Baek Cheonji is my oppa."
……A little sister like Seora might be a tough order.
But Cheonji didn't let it show and simply nodded.
Accept it. Breaking up these two's fights was his role, after all.
"……Fine, Seora. You can be my little sister. And anyway, if you two don't find a treasure note soon, Noah and Taejae will find them all."
"That can't happen! The treasure is all mine!"
"Hey, Baek Seora — I'm going to find more treasure than you."
Watching the twins bolt into the grass, Baek Cheonji let out a quiet sigh.
Hyung really is something else.
If merely pulling off the role of "children's mediator" was this hard, how did he manage to run that enormous company as its CEO?
A productive day.
Roles.
Responsibility.
"So hard…."
For Baek Cheonji, age seven, of the Dolphin Class, these were impossibly difficult words.
Treasure hunt time came to an end.
And the lucky finder of the first-prize note was….
"Congratulations! To Nam Taejae~!"
Mounted on a small box, Taejae received the candy necklace and gave a deep, dignified bow.
"A word from our winner, please."
"Thank you for the first-place prize. It isn't a savings account, but I like it very much."
Along with his splendid victory, Taejae received a children's laptop loaded with all the latest features.
Then, looking none too steady on his feet, he finally clamped the laptop under his arm and trudged back to where his friends were waiting.
"Nam Taejae, I'm SO jealous!"
"Come over to my house and let's play with it together."
"Me too! Me too, Lee Seora wants to come!"
"Me too, Baek Seora will come with you."
"Taejae, can I come to your house too?"
Leaving the kids starry-eyed over the laptop, I headed back inside the kindergarten.
It was time to prepare the beds in advance.
Dinner and the stargazing activity were still on the afternoon schedule, but for a smooth flow of things, it was best to set up ahead of time.
Park Edeun and I entered the Dolphin Class — the largest of the kindergarten classrooms — to lay out the sleeping arrangements.
"Five from Dolphin Class~, two from Seal Class~, two from Shark Class~ — nine children in total."
"Right. Teachers can sleep split along the boys' and girls' walls."
"Ooh, I'm suddenly excited. It's been ages since my college MT retreat days~"
Has it? Perhaps because so few of my many group-sleepover memories counted as good ones, those words didn't exactly resonate with me.
……Still.
"We'll get to hear the children's true sleep-talking."
That much, I looked forward to a little. I'd abolished nap time the moment I started as their teacher, so I'd never once had the chance.
As a general rule, children are at their most adorable in the world when they're asleep.
This is an indisputable fact.
"Fair point~ Oh, that's right."
Park Edeun, arms full of bedding, suddenly straightened up from his stoop as if something had just occurred to him, and lowered his voice to a whisper.
His crescent-shaped eyes looked positively mischievous.
"Teacher, do you know the ghost story that goes around our kindergarten?"
"……A ghost story? At a kindergarten that's barely been open a year?"
Did ghost stories really spring up naturally that fast? Weren't they supposed to ferment for at least ten years first?
"The director told me about it. Of course, that's exactly why it loses some credibility…. everyone thinks he saw things while drinking, but the details are convincing enough that you can't quite dismiss it."
"Is it a ghost story, then?"
"No. To be more precise, it's a story about this strange kindergarten building itself."
Park Edeun deliberately stiffened his face and dropped his voice low. Holding a pillow in my arms, I listened quietly.
The more I heard, the more a certain thought nagged at me.
Haven't I heard something like this before….
A kindergarten building that turned strange at night. A tale that countless new doors appeared along its corridors, and that every one of those doors led to spaces that had no business existing inside a kindergarten.
It closely resembled the classic One Room urban legend.
"You know how strange phenomena are sometimes found near hunter corporation facilities, right?"
"I've heard of that. But I was told it isn't exactly common."
"Right, it isn't common. But it's not unheard of either, is it?"
Anomalous phenomena caused by multiple Awakeners using their abilities simultaneously.
They were said to occur mainly near hunter companies, where Awakeners were densely concentrated.
Experts claimed these anomalies arose when Awakeners used several abilities at once, temporarily tangling their wavelengths….
But the precise cause had never been properly established, even to this day.
What was widely known was this: these phenomena posed little enough danger that even ordinary civilians could handle them, and there existed a standard playbook for escaping and resolving them.
I remember seeing a few of those escape methods floating around the internet as forum posts myself.
"So personally, I think the director's story might not be total nonsense. Though Jinchae and Sagwa write it off as complete garbage, of course."
The incident the director claimed to have experienced went like this.
He'd had his usual drinks and fallen asleep at the kindergarten.
Then, in the middle of the night, he got up to use the bathroom — opened the door that clearly led to the restroom — and found a space that had no right to be there.
"He said it was the office he worked at back in his twenties. A company that had shut down more than twenty years ago, still sitting there exactly as it used to be."
"……."
"His own old desk, the ancient computer only they used back then, and he even saw the back of a coworker's head — a coworker who died in an accident ten years ago. He said the atmosphere was so eerie and terrifying that the alcohol evaporated from his system in an instant, and he bolted right then and there….
"You've noticed how the director leaps out of bed like a possessed man at quitting time ever since, even when he's been drinking and asleep, right? Seeing that, he must have seen something."
"Would it be dangerous to go inside one of those spaces?"
In the movies, going in meant you either disappeared or died.
Impressive restraint from the director, not stepping inside. A man of iron survival instincts, this one.
"Hmm…. I never thought that far. And well, maybe he just saw it wrong? Surely there's no chance something like that would happen to us?"
Hmm…. does he think? Though, in fairness, I once nearly bit into a bar of soap in a drunken haze, convinced it was rice cake.
"But Teacher Hwiyeon, you're not scared of these stories at all. Booo~ no fun."
"The only thing that scares me is my bank balance."
"Whoa."
With that, Park Edeun went back to hauling bedding, and just like that, my thoughts about the ghost story slipped my mind.
And that night, I got up to use the bathroom.