The Principal's Coffee Delivery
"Good morning, Principal~"
"Principal…. Hello."
"Oh? Principal sir~ That apron really suits you! It's perfect for your personal color!"
"Hello there."
"Good morning, Principal."
The barrage of morning greetings hit Kang Beomseok the moment he walked through the door, leaving his head spinning.
It's been such a long time since I've seen a morning this full of life.
It felt worlds apart from the walking corpses of office workers he was used to seeing every day at his old job.
Maybe it came from spending their days with children, but everyone here seemed more energetic than their actual ages suggested.
Scratching his head, Kang Beomseok found himself greeting them back with a brightness he hadn't intended.
"Ah, hello! Good morning, everyone! Let's make it another hardworking day!"
……Was that too much?
"Ooh~ The Principal knows what's up! A kindergarten without spirit is just a graveyard. Fighting!"
"I don't know if it's because we have a new principal, but the whole place suddenly feels so much brighter, you know?"
So these were Teacher Park Edeun and Teacher Yoo Jinchae, was it?
For people to respond to me like this… I could cry.
The other teachers were no different. The quiet-looking Kwon Haeseong and Kang Sagwa had even personally brought him a kindergarten uniform and an apron, sized for him.
And then…. there was Na Hwiyeon.
"If anything about the work confuses you, just ask me or Teacher Yoo Jinchae. It's your first day — there's no need to push yourself too hard."
He treated Kang Beomseok like a generous, patient mentor might treat a protégé.
His manners were impeccable and polite, yet somehow, standing before him, Kang Beomseok felt as though he had been demoted to a junior hire all over again.
But Na Hwiyeon's concerns proved unnecessary, because the kindergarten's administrative work was nowhere near as difficult as expected. Well, naturally — Kang Beomseok had years of experience as an operations director at BOND.
It's all done already…?
Before he knew it, a full day's work had come to an end.
So this was what those years buried in paperwork had been for.
He couldn't speak for the other directors, but unless it was a board meeting he was legally required to attend, he'd rarely sat in on meetings in person.
And there was a simple reason for that….
There was simply too much work.
If he wanted to go home at a decent hour — no, even if he just wanted to eat lunch — he'd had to glue himself to his chair from the moment he clocked in and do nothing but work.
That was why Kang Beomseok had never known.
That two hunters from a field team active until just last year were working at this kindergarten.
As kindergarten teachers, no less.
And since he hadn't even known the company intranet existed, Kang Beomseok also had no idea that one of Bada Kindergarten's own teachers was currently the hottest topic on it — not merely sizzling, but fully engulfed in flames.
To his eyes, they were simply….
"Hey, Sagwa, this is straight-up delicious. The real deal."
"Oppa, that trend died ages ago."
"Trends really do move fast, huh~"
Young.
"There's more snack…. Please have some more too, Principal."
"Freeze-dried foods are all the rage these days. I figured they'd be better for the kids than regular chips, so I ordered some — turns out it was a good call."
And like nothing more than solid, dependable young men.
While Kang Beomseok was briefly out of the room, Kang Sagwa swept the surrounding humans with a grave expression.
"How did the Principal look? Any signs he might try to run?"
Park Edeun set down his half-finished drink on the table, his face hardening.
"I've been gently coaxing him with food for now, but… this isn't going to be easy."
The other two looked every bit as serious.
"……A normal principal is a first for us, after all."
"If we fumble it like we did with Hwiyeon, we might just spook him instead. Everyone, heads on straight."
Hold on a moment.
This wasn't wild-animal taming.
Why is this conversation going like this?
Narrowing my eyes, I nevertheless kept my chin propped on my hand and quietly listened in.
With Sagwa and Haeseong I could understand, but why are those two sitting there playing along?
"This time we're really going to do right by him. So much that he'll want to put down roots here for good!"
Kang Sagwa pumped her fist and shouted with a volume unheard of from her.
"M-me too…! Let's do it together, Sagwa!"
Haeseong's enthusiasm was no joke either.
Maybe it was because they were both young.
"Right, right. Let's just make him live here permanently, why don't we~"
"How about this — I'll turn myself into the principal and move my residence into the kindergarten."
Got it…. From where I was sitting, Park Edeun and Yoo Jinchae were just egging the other two on because they found their reactions entertaining.
I looked back and forth between the two firing themselves up and the other two enjoying themselves to death watching them, and reached a simple conclusion.
Half the battle would win itself if we just did nothing.
Still, I was a little worried in my own way.
Baek Cheonhyeong had said it himself.
I never should have taught that guy the smiling emoticon.
Either way…. the bottom line was that the moment Principal Kang Beomseok declared he couldn't do it, it was all over.
And if that happened, we'd have to hunt for a new principal all over again.
Finding a good candidate was no walk in the park.
My criteria were only three things: 'fast start date', 'good character', and 'likes children'.
But surprisingly few people checked all three boxes.
Which meant….
Regardless of Kang Sagwa and Kwon Haeseong's enthusiasm.
I casually hitched myself to their wagon, nodding along as I spoke.
"We must keep him here at all costs."
After all, I was in no position to be picky — I needed to grab hold of the principal's coattails myself.
Kang Beomseok stood before the door with five coffees fanned in one hand, taking a deep breath.
I've committed to this, so I'd better make a good impression.
And more than anything, he wanted to treat the teachers who toiled all day to at least one cup of coffee.
His first stop was the Jellyfish Class on the first floor.
He let out one more deep breath and opened the door….
"Look, Haesol made a cloud! It's super huge~! But Teacher's face is getting all damp, so maybe reduce the rain a little…."
Kang Beomseok doubted his own eyes.
Was that not a three-year-old child conjuring an enormous storm cloud directly above Yoo Jinchae's head?
……Wh-what in the world.
Had he seen it wrong? Was he dreaming right now?
Crackle. Crackle. When lightning flashed above Yoo Jinchae's head, Kang Beomseok shrieked in horror.
"AAAAAH!! Teacher Jinchae! Lightning! Over your head!!"
"Hm? Oh? Principal, when did you come in? Oh my~ And you bought coffee for all of us?"
That is not the point!
"Lightning! Lightning! There's lightning over your head!"
"Huh? Lightning? Haesol, sweetie, is it okay to crackle lightning over Teacher's head? Or no?"
"No way!"
Yoo Jinchae gave a light flutter of her hand above her head, as if shooing a fly — and amazingly, the cloud and lightning vanished as if by magic.
The tension that had bristled every hair on his body left his breathing ragged.
"Here…. coffee."
With trembling hands, he barely managed to pull out the coffee and hand it to Yoo Jinchae.
"Thank you so much~ Principal!"
……She's a tough one.
He had worked as a BOND director for quite a long while, yet seeing an awakener use their abilities right in front of his face was a genuinely rare sight.
He was an ordinary civilian, after all, and buried in paperwork as he was, face-to-face encounters with hunters had been almost nonexistent to begin with.
That was probably why, even after all these years, he still couldn't quite get used to scenes like this.
Moreover, Kang Beomseok was secretly startled by something else.
He'd nearly wet himself, but how many times has Jinchae lived through this to be so unbothered?
So it was true, then — every child in this kindergarten was an awakener.
Seeing it with his own eyes, he finally understood why BOND had built a kindergarten like this.
It was welfare meant to ease the childcare burden on employees with awakened children, doubled as an investment in the workforce of the future.
Even as a former operations director, he'd swiftly grasped the scheme hiding behind the benevolence.
Then they should have managed the place properly, at the very least!
Knowing the scheme only made him angrier.
Suppressing his disappointment and fury, Kang Beomseok headed for the next classroom.
The 4-year-old Turtle Class and 5-year-old Shark Class on the second floor were generally quiet.
Only a soft classical playlist, left on like white noise, tickled the ears.
Except….
"Why is the wallpaper all…?"
"Ah~ We have a student named Kang Munsu in our class — an absolutely adorable little curse-attribute awakener. His control is still shaky, so sometimes? When he's in a bad mood, the wallpaper darkens like that thanks to the curse. Not because of anything else."
"……Is it dangerous?"
"Only if you touch it! Ah…. but Munsu's in a bad mood today, so you could get cursed if you handle it. I wouldn't recommend getting close."
Staring at the jet-black wallpaper consumed by the curse made his head swim.
…Is any of this right?
But the questions didn't stop, they only kept coming. He barely managed to hand Edeun his coffee, and when he reached the Shark Class.
"Why is there nothing in here…?"
No tables, no chairs, not even the humblest clothing rack that every other class had.
All that was there was…. cushions and blankets?
"Both of our kids are awakeners with flight skills. If we leave furniture in here, they just keep crashing into it, so we've cleared out as much as possible."
Kang Beomseok was, for a moment, at a loss for words.
The cushions and blankets looked like nothing more than a stopgap measure, and without furniture, the ones paying double were the teachers, who had to become the children's hands and feet.
At the sight of Kang Beomseok's soul leaving his body, Kang Sagwa hurriedly began rattling off excuses.
"Uh…. th-they used to be on the bare floor, but Teacher Na Hwiyeon said laying down cushions and blankets would be safer, so we did it in a hurry! Thanks to that, the kids have barely gotten hurt lately…."
Good heavens.
Such…. abysmal conditions.
If Kang Sagwa hadn't been standing in front of him, Kang Beomseok would have clutched his forehead again and again.
He couldn't even remember what state of mind he'd been in when he handed Sagwa her coffee and walked out.
Forcing his wobbly legs to move, he made his way up to the Seal Class on the third floor.
"Ah…… Principal."
Kwon Haeseong was approaching, a small boy and girl trailing behind him.
Kang Beomseok widened his eyes and scanned the classroom for anything amiss.
Nothing looks broken anywhere.
No lightning! Wallpaper intact! Furniture all present and accounted for!
……Is this okay? Is it actually okay?
Taking his coffee, Kwon Haeseong stole a shy smile.
"Thank you for the coffee…. This is the first time I've ever gotten one."
……Good grief.
Like a child who'd just received a Christmas present, Kwon Haeseong's eyes sparkled as he carefully cradled the cup.
From Haeseong's perspective, it simply meant that he'd never expected to receive 'coffee' — something not even the previous director had given him once — from the brand-new principal….
But Kang Beomseok, his heart already hanging by a thread of pity, took it entirely differently.
They couldn't even afford coffee!
Passing around coffee was a basic ritual of office life. An older, senior-ranking man like Kang Beomseok had made a daily habit of buying coffee for the subordinates who worked under him….
Half his soul already slurped out of his body, he left the Seal Class. And at last, he headed for the final stop — the Dolphin Class.
It was there that he overheard a conversation among the children unlike anything he'd heard so far.
"This is all the snack we get today?"
"Seoro, it's a lot compared to normal. We'll just each share a little and make it last."
"I'll share mine too!! Sharing when times are hard — that's what friendship is!"
"Noah, sit still. If you move around, you'll burn energy and get hungry."
"I'm hungry too, but I'll hold it in!!"
Kang Beomseok closed his eyes at last.
Oh, heavenly Father.
What manner of trial is this, exactly.