The One Who Woke Up Last
By the time the overnight camp ended and I made it back home, it was already three in the afternoon.
Who knew I'd get such a deep sleep in that place of all places.
When I opened my eyes, the whole lot of them were sitting in a circle around me, snacking away.
It had honestly been a long time since I'd felt that particular feeling.
You know the one. Everyone's experienced it at least once.
That moment when you crash at your grandmother's house over Chuseok or Lunar New Year, sleep in till noon, and wake up to find every single relative in the room staring at you.
"Ah, he's finally up, folks! Teacher Na Hwiyeon crosses the finish line behind even player Baek Cheonji!"
"Come along now, Dolphin Class friends — our sleepyhead teacher has finally graced us with his presence."
Never in my life had I been more embarrassed.
In any case, I hurried to send the remaining children home, scrubbed away every trace of the overnight camp, and clocked out.
Fresh from a proper scrub-down, I leaned back against the sofa in the empty living room on a weekend afternoon.
Yuseong said he had a blind date, and my aunt left for a trip with her friends.
Which meant this house belonged to me and Nabi alone.
[ Wh-why didn't you take me with you! ]
Let me amend that. It belonged to me and a sulking Nabi.
Practiced as ever, I fetched an armful of snack bags from the mountain piled against the kitchen ceiling.
"I'm sorry. Consider it a peace offering."
I mean, was it really fair for him to mope like that just because I went on a midnight ghost tour without him? And how did he even find out about it, anyway?
"My head was all over the place, so I forgot to bring you along."
[ How could you? Is our friendship worth so little to you? ]
"Our Nabi... you've gotten quite talkative."
If he'd said that without his face buried in a snack bag, it would have been genuinely threatening.
But with that little black hand rummaging in and out of the bag and crunching sounds drifting up from the plush doll's back, I could relax against the sofa in peace.
"Yes, yes, I'm so sorry..."
[ Give me more snacks. ]
"Here, take it all. Every last one is yours."
[ Don't steal any. I'm not sharing today. ]
"I won't steal any."
I was slowly getting the hang of dealing with this Nabi fellow.
If he seems sulky, snacks and candy will usually smooth things over.
And when he was outright angry, wearing him out with play and attention seemed to do the trick.
Impulse control is the tricky part, though.
He'd dart off out of nowhere, or do things with zero warning — that had happened a few times now.
Not that I ever expected him to follow every rule just because we set them.
Just as my worries about Nabi were deepening another notch, my phone rang out of the blue.
Who is it?
There weren't many people who'd call me on a weekend.
But the moment I saw the name on the screen, I could guess the reason for the call before I even answered.
"Hello?"
"Good afternoon, Teacher."
It was Team Leader Moon Chaeyoung.
"I'm sorry to contact you on a weekend. We need to conduct an interview regarding the EX-rank dungeon. Would you have time tomorrow?"
A witness interview on a Sunday.
It would feel like working through the weekend, sure — but better that than burning a half-day off during the week.
"Yes, tomorrow works for me."
"Then let's meet in the company lobby tomorrow."
After wrapping up the short call, I went to my room and turned on Seora's digital camera I'd brought home with me.
The principal's video... had come out beautifully.
Audio's crisp, footage's clear.
Better yet, the recording date had been altered.
It now read as the day, one week before I joined the company, when the principal taped over the sprinkler.
Creepy in a way, but this actually meant less hassle for me, so I was more than happy about it.
I'd been racking my brain over how to edit the timestamp, anyway.
If anyone raised accusations of tampering, I could now respond brazenly and without a care.
Excellent.
I backed the video up to my computer and filed it away in the folder I'd been building.
Still feels thin, as far as evidence goes.
Hmm. I supposed I'd have to use that method after all.
It wasn't entirely without risk — but I couldn't very well stop here because of that, either.
I've already started, so I'll see it through as far as I can.
That much, I'd decided.
"As for Baek Cheonhyeong..."
Cracking my overworked knuckles with satisfying pops, I turned the thought over.
Baek Cheonhyeong and Baek Cheonji.
What kind of conversations do those two normally have, that a child ends up thinking like that?
"Did I... spend today productively?"
And I couldn't exactly overlook Cheonji's abnormal state, either — pretending not to see it felt wrong.
Excessive fixation on roles, obsessive focus on results.
Isn't that the kind of anxiety you'd expect from a fresh graduate just starting their first job?
Thinking it over again, the blame here lay squarely with Baek Cheonhyeong.
I need to set up guardian consultations, fast.
I added a name to the list of parent consultations in my phone's memo app.
- Lee Seohyeok (job-change recommendation and career counseling)
- Baek Cheonhyeong (emotional education and psychological counseling)
Then I went to sleep.
I'd need a well-rested brain to get through tomorrow's witness interview without a slip-up.
***
Late Sunday afternoon.
The interview for the EX-rank dungeon took place in Field Team Na's office.
"Your office is... quite impressive."
"See? The Teacher has a discerning eye."
Kang Howon shrugged smugly as he poured the coffee.
Aside from the handful of desktop computers arranged around a long wooden table, the space looked less like an office and more like a private workshop.
There was a classically styled sofa in the corner, an LP player, and hold on — wasn't that a projector?
As I squinted at the projector wondering if my eyes were deceiving me, Choi Unseong, seated across from me, laughed heartily and explained.
"I take it you've never seen another field team's office, Teacher? Ours is positively tame by comparison. There's a dorm twenty minutes' walk from the company, and some people haul their entire personal lives over here and set up shop."
"There's a guy named Lee Soohoo on Field Team A who brought in an induction cooktop. So he can make ramyeon every time he pulls an all-nighter."
"It doesn't violate any regulations, so there's no issue. Upper management has confirmed that as long as teammates agree, decorating the office however we like is permitted."
For the record, that last remark came from Lee Seohyeok, who was hurriedly tearing open a premium cookie set from the bottom drawer of his work desk and stealthily sliding it toward me.
"Thank you, I'll enjoy these. But... if you're working weekends, who looks after the twins?"
"On weekends, my grandparents take care of the twins in my place."
I see. What a relief.
Moon Chaeyoung, setting up her laptop across from me, remained as quiet as ever.
Aside from the occasional polite laugh at her teammates' jokes, she showed little reaction.
Meanwhile, I bore the full brunt of the team's culinary assault and interrogation.
"Teacher, I've got a ten-year-old cousin, and the little brat won't listen to a word I say. What do I do?"
I took a sip of coffee and gave Kang Howon's question a brief answer.
"Lower elementary kids are just like that... But if you absolutely must get a child under control, you need at least one of three things."
Third grade. Not exactly my specialty, but I had a cousin that age myself, so I knew the breed.
"Just three?"
Kang Howon stared at me wide-eyed.
"Allowance, silver tongue, patience. Those three cover everything... Either you bribe them with enough pocket money to keep their mouth shut, or you take on the elementary schooler with the ironclad conviction that you will win and dazzle them with sheer verbal firepower until their spirit breaks, or you simply hold your tongue, endure in silence, and wait until they wear themselves out."
"...Oh. As it happens, I have one of those."
"Allowance?"
"No. Silver tongue. This weekend, I shall defeat my cousin in battle and return victorious."
Well, good luck with that. I wouldn't recommend going toe-to-toe with a third-grader verbally.
I could already picture Kang Howon getting his soul crushed in the near future over a losing trade negotiation with a child.
[ Give me a cookie too. ]
I sneaked a cookie toward the white puppy plush doll in my front pocket.
[ Cookie! ]
Yes, yes.
[ Faster! ]
Yes, yes.
I even had to stop Nabi from fishing his own hand out of my pocket whenever the cookie took more than a second to arrive.
Answering questions, dispensing cookies — my brain was running on fumes.
In the middle of all this multithreaded suffering, one of the two threads finally stopped.
Moon Chaeyoung had at last begun the interview.
"Noah has already completed his witness interview, accompanied by his mother. Since he's a minor, apparently there are doubts about the reliability of his testimony, so it likely won't appear in the official report."
"I see."
"Yes, which makes your testimony the important one. That said, honestly, the dungeon's already gone, so my personal opinion is we should write this however suits us."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"There's our Team Leader for you. Go off, I guess."
"The dungeon research team is going to love hearing this~"
"...Teacher, kindly take my teammates' words with a grain of salt."
No, I think... my headache is actually getting worse.
"And anyway... there's quite a lot you're not in a position to talk about, isn't there?"
Ouch. Right in the soft spot.
Sad to say... she had a point.
Where the items I'd used at Candy Fiore came from, the circumstances of how I'd brought them along in the first place.
I had a plausible cover story ready, but...
"If there's any question you'd rather not answer, feel free to skip it. Shall we begin?"
When someone offers you a free pass, you take it.
"Understood."
And so the interview-style investigation ran its course, about an hour in total.
Throughout it all, Kang Howon — who had been listening in beside me, his face cycling through every shade of suspicion — finally couldn't take it anymore. He looked at the laptop Moon Chaeyoung was typing on and burst out.
"Teacher, be straight with me. Are you attached to some special government unit? Or are you an industrial spy? Why can't you answer these questions, huh?"
"......"
"Where did the nose-growing jelly come from? Are you perhaps manufacturing potion snacks illegally?"
No, it came through an MP3-shaped item called the SOL Jelly Store Phone that Manager Lee Wonwoo handed over as a discontinued prototype.
"Why did you ask whether our Team Leader has 1.5 billion won?"
That was because I needed the service fee for the emergency dispatch function.
And the moment I said I didn't have it, she gave up on the spot.
"And this one you did answer, but honestly, it's the answer I understand the least. You went to an amusement park alone on a weekend? Does that sound plausible to anyone?"
"...Why wouldn't it be?"
"It could happen."
"It can happen. Ignore this man, Teacher."
"Told you it could happen."
See? It can happen.
Kang Howon looked around at his teammates in disbelief, then turned back to me.
"Then explain why you were dancing in the middle of an EX-rank dungeon. I don't mean to be rude, but did you briefly lose your mind in the moment?"
"I didn't dance. I waved my arm a few times as encouragement, that's all."
I'd thrown out a few victory fists to cheer on the people climbing the stage.
How that got twisted into dancing, I couldn't say.
"That's somehow worse. Who on earth were you cheering for in that situation?"
I let my voice wither into a dejected murmur.
"I could cheer for people if I wanted... And I'm not a government agent or an industrial spy. The jelly's origin and the 1.5 billion won are... just not things I'm free to discuss on my own authority."
Please, just let it go at that.
I'm suffering here.
But Kang Howon's suspicion wouldn't wipe away so easily. And then, into the breach, charged Lee Seohyeok's flawless defense.
"Of course... how prudent of you. Thank you for your hard work. I only wish I could have helped you somehow back then."
Painting me as the prudent, tight-lipped type, was he?
Not that that isn't exactly what I was aiming for...
But then Moon Chaeyoung, apparently equally converted, gave a nod.
"Well... it's true every single person came home alive thanks to you. Who cares about the process? Results are what matter."
"Is that really the right takeaway?... Team Leader, is someone blackmailing you without my knowledge? That 1.5 billion won didn't come up for no reason, did it? Hm?"
Kang Howon whispered into Moon Chaeyoung's ear, but we were all packed shoulder to shoulder on one small sofa, so I caught every word.
I did not blackmail anyone. Truly.
Aside from Kang Howon, the rest of Field Team Na seemed perfectly willing to accept whatever answer I gave.
Lee Seohyeok and Moon Chaeyoung went without saying, and Choi Unseong was...
"Let's not bully a harmless kindergarten teacher, hyung. A man lives long enough, he's bound to pick up a suspicious item or two, and find himself cutting a rug in the middle of a dungeon. That's life for you."
...Apparently she was a firm believer in the old adage that fortune and misfortune trade places when you least expect it.
"Witness interview complete. Thank you for your time, Teacher."
"Huh? That's it? Really? Really? Am I the only one here who doesn't understand anything?"
Skillfully ignoring Kang Howon's protests, Moon Chaeyoung brought the conversation to a close.
Then, perhaps to ensure this topic would never resurface, she dropped a remark nobody saw coming.
"Let's all go get dinner together."
And just like that, I found myself heading out to eat with Field Team Na.
To the company cafeteria, naturally — packed to the brim with employees pulling weekend shifts.