Operation: Sneak the Teacher to the Hospital
His heart was pounding.
He gathered up Nabi at the kindergarten and hurried on his way home.
[ Oh? Your clothes changed? ]
[ Did you ditch the bug back there? Good job! ]
Nabi's chatter followed him the whole way, but he didn't have the strength to answer.
The moment he got home, he changed his clothes and collapsed face-down onto the bed. And then the day's events came flooding back, flashing past like a panorama.
"……"
Thinking about it again, it was still a godawful experience.
[ Sleeping already? ]
He wanted to answer that too, but the fog in his head was stronger.
'For now, let me sleep, and I'll think about everything when I wake up….'
He didn't fight his eyelids as they slowly slid shut, and let his eyes close just like that.
And at the same time, as his consciousness sank toward sleep, one realization flickered past.
'Damn it. I'm coming down with something.'
And he had work again tomorrow….
His throat burned and raw.
A cough wracked him, every joint ached, and a chill shivered through his whole body.
That's right….
"……"
He'd come down with a fever, after all.
He sat up in bed, picked up the phone sitting on his desk, and mulled it over.
'Should I take a sick day?'
…But the conclusion was already decided.
"Not happening."
At a kindergarten, one teacher being out without warning on the same day was an instant emergency. And his class had the most kids of any.
'If I'm gone, the other teachers will suffer twice as hard.'
So, making his earlier deliberation pointless, he clipped on a mask and headed straight out the door for work.
[ You're sick? ]
"Yeah, but I'm okay…. I think I'll be fine once I get home and rest a little after work tonight."
He'd taken medicine, so surely he could hold out at least for today.
When he arrived at the kindergarten, he headed straight for the staff lounge. As it happened, Yoo Jinchae—by far the earliest to arrive—and Kwon Haeseong, who had come in right on his heels, spotted him and asked at once.
"Are you okay? Nothing happened yesterday?"
"We were… worried about you."
Something did happen.
Something very worth worrying about.
'But…. I can't say it.'
He thanked his lucky stars for the mask today and gave a small nod.
"Nothing happened. He was quite courteous, actually."
"Really?"
"……Yes."
He suppressed the urge to unleash every curse he knew at Kang Howon and answered as calmly as he could.
Whatever that lunatic had done to him, the fact remained that he had helped get Elumis back home.
Besides, he'd been too preoccupied with sleep to think about it last night, but if word got out what had happened to him, it could put Yoo Jinchae in an awkward position—she was the one who'd introduced Kang Howon in the first place.
'Conclusion…. I'll bury it. That's what being a working adult means.'
But if it happened again the next time they met, he fully intended to show the man what dying together actually meant.
"……"
Yoo Jinchae and Kwon Haeseong didn't look entirely convinced, but they accepted it and let it go.
Then, after giving Kang Sagwa and Park Edeun, who arrived later, a rough account of how he'd returned Elumis home, he headed straight up to the Dolphin Class.
The moment he opened the door, the person who had been squeezing and wringing his heart for the past few days was the first thing he saw.
"Taejae."
"Hello, Teacher. Did you sleep well last night?"
"…No. Did you sleep well?"
"Yeees. I even had a dream last night."
"…Good. That's good."
Good for you, at least, for sleeping well last night. Teacher had nightmares.
The kind where some psycho bastard locks Teacher in a basement and tortures him, demanding he spill his secrets.
…Still, he smiled.
Because starting the day in tears would make it far too long.
And so the chaotic lunch hour passed, and it was only when free activity time came around that he finally realized it.
'This is not an ordinary fever.'
His eyeballs were rolling, and strength was slowly draining from his legs.
The willpower he'd been holding on with melted softly away, and his vision swayed with dizziness.
"Teacher!"
In the distance he could see Seora running toward him, begging him to tie her hair back….
But he collapsed before the child could even reach him.
No—he passed out.
"Gasp! Teacher fell down!"
That was how it began—Lee Seora's cry.
The children, each happily absorbed in their play, came darting over in a flash to check on him.
And sure enough… Teacher was lying on the floor!
Nam Taejae shook the prone teacher's shoulder.
"Teacher, Teacher, are you alive?"
His breathing was as rough as a wild animal's. But no matter how they kept shaking his shoulder, no answer came.
"Noah, do that thing."
"That thing?"
"Yeah. That thing."
At Nam Taejae's signal, Kim Noah threw his hand up in the air. Then he screamed at the top of his lungs:
"Hey!! Everybody gather round! I brought my bomb potion today~! Let's blow up the kindergarten!"
"……"
…Still no reaction? On a normal day, they'd have come running the instant Noah raised his hand.
Nam Taejae studied the teacher with a grave expression, then delivered his diagnosis.
"I think he died."
"He's warm, though?"
"People who just died are warm. I read that in Imagination Infonet."
Baek Cheonji, however, who had been quietly watching the teacher all this while, thought differently from the others.
"Guys…. I think Teacher's breathing."
He didn't seem dead—the breathing gave it away. They could see his chest rising and falling, over and over.
He can't be dead. That was what Baek Cheonji wanted to believe.
And Lee Seoro, who had been watching the whole scene with visible displeasure, crossed his arms and declared:
"We could just tell another teacher. I'll go tell them."
Crisp and decisive. His footsteps toward the door were unhesitating. The target: the class next door—Seal Teacher.
Seal Teacher was slow as a turtle and annoying to deal with, but right now there was no choi—
But Lee Seora planted herself in front of him, arms spread wide.
"No!"
"Why now?"
"…Are you deaf? Teacher said not to!"
At Seora's words, every mouth snapped shut. And when they all went still… went very, very still, and strained their ears, they caught a faint, faint murmur.
"…Secret…. S-, secret…."
Secret?
What was secret?
A shared question mark bloomed in every head. Then Baek Cheonji, who seemed to be the first to grasp its meaning, shot his hand up.
"Maybe Teacher's asking us to keep it secret?"
"Secret about what?"
"Th-, that he's sick? Teacher…. He looks really sick. I think I was like this too, when I had the flu."
At Baek Cheonji's timid guess, every gaze turned back to the teacher sprawled on the floor.
He certainly…. did look like someone sick with a bad cold.
His face was flushed red, he didn't stir no matter how they called him, and his breathing was so labored.
"Nam Taejae, can you fix it?"
"…I, I can't cure sickness."
Nam Taejae's ability, which only worked on physical regeneration and recovery, couldn't cure the illness their teacher had caught—not right away.
Then what were they supposed to do?
"What if we let Teacher rest like this?"
"No! What if he dies while we're waiting!"
"Then we take him to a hospital. I'll go get Seal Teacher."
"Seoro, no! Teacher said to keep it secret!"
As it happened, Na Hwiyeon was, at that very moment, continuing last night's nightmare. A dream of fleeing for his life from Kang Howon, who chased him down demanding he hand over his secrets.
But the children, who knew nothing of this, could only reach one conclusion.
"Oh! I got it! He's telling us to sneak him to a hospital where nobody will know! Super secretly!"
Kim Noah clapped his hands and bounced up from his spot.
And that was… the most sensible suggestion anyone had made so far. Every single child in that circle thought so too.
"Noah, I think you actually got it right this time."
"Kim Noah! Told you I'm smart!"
"Kim Noah is right, I think."
"Noah, that's amazing."
"But guys, there's a problem…. How do we sneak Teacher to a hospital without anyone knowing?"
Just as the mood among them was turning warm and fuzzy with mutual praise, Baek Cheonji quickly recovered his reason and brought them all back down.
And at his question, they began firing off whatever ideas came to mind.
Kim Noah proposed the "dismembered-limbs transport system"—somebody carries the head, somebody carries the legs, and off they go.
Lee Seora volunteered as the "human tow truck," declaring that she, the strongest, would carry him herself.
Nam Taejae suggested they all grab hold of his pants and drag him there together.
And Baek Cheonji….
"Hmm…. Should I ask our family driver?"
He offered a trump card that only Baek Cheonji himself could ever play…. and it was voted down.
The moment they told the driver, it wouldn't be a secret anymore.
And so, after a stubborn, drawn-out debate, the plan they settled on was Lee Seoro's.
"Simple. I'll carry him there with my power."
Bam. Decision made: Lee Seoro, possessor of telekinesis, would carry Na Hwiyeon.
"Then how do we do it secretly?"
"Cover him with a blanket."
"Oh!"
The children went straight for the blanket tucked in the corner of the room.
It was the same one they'd been using to build houses in the survival roleplay game they'd been hopelessly obsessed with for days.
They all piled on, tucking the blanket carefully and thoroughly over their teacher.
"……Hmm, but what if the blanket slides off on the way?"
"Tie it."
"Oh!"
Baek Cheonji immediately fetched a ribbon cord from the toy box. He wound it around the blanket, round and round, and cinched it tight.
"Is this good enough?"
"Looks good!! Let's go!"
When Lee Seoro gave a little flick of his fingers, the blanket-wrapped bundle holding their teacher floated gently up into the air.
"We just need to get to the hospital, right?"
"Yeah!!"
But here, a problem arose.
Not a single student of Bada Kindergarten, under the BOND banner, had ever been to a hospital in their entire lives.
Why? Because the BOND Emergency Center existed.
With treatment completely free for employees' children and top-rank healing awakeners practically living on-site, there was no reason on earth to visit an ordinary hospital.
So to the children of the Dolphin Class—no, to every child of Bada Kindergarten—
"Hospital" meant one thing: the BOND Emergency Center.
And so, with Lee Seoro in the lead, the five children walked straight out of the Dolphin Class door.
The hallway was quiet.
"……"
That was thanks to everyone staying inside their classrooms after lunch.
Pat. Pat.
All five children felt their hearts thudding, tightening in their chests.
We have to keep the secret! Nobody at the kindergarten can find out!
They passed the third-floor corridor and climbed down not one, not two, but three whole flights of stairs to reach the ground floor—and not a single soul spotted them along the way.
Then, bold and confident as you please, they crossed the kindergarten's main gate, passed through the headquarters lobby, and arrived at the Emergency Center without a single obstacle or hardship to speak of.
A truly flawless mission.
Having safely made it inside the Emergency Center, the children looked around.
A crowded, dizzying world.
Deafening noise, and glances flicking their way from all sides.
Even so, Lee Seoro calmly managed to grab hold of an adult who happened to be hurrying past him at that very moment.
"Hmm? Er…. Little one, what's wrong, are you hurt?"
The man, startled to find a child in an Emergency Center that only grown adults ever visited, asked in flustered confusion.
And to that question, Lee Seoro answered without so much as blinking.
"Our teacher is sick."
The flustered man's gaze traveled in the direction the boy was pointing.
At the end of it stood the other four children huddled close together… and a white, blanket-wrapped bundle with—w-, with human feet sticking out of one end…!