Chapter 7
“What’s this?”
Saebyeok drizzled gochujang over Haram’s omelet rice, shaping it into a heart.
“What could it be?”
Haram drizzled ketchup onto Saebyeok’s omelet rice in return, forming a slightly squashed… heart shape.
“What on earth happened while I was running around the headquarters working myself to death?”
“What do you mean?”
Saebyeok asked with a mouthful of omelet rice, chewing happily.
Watching his fake wife enjoy the food he’d made, Dongbaek smiled warmly.
“You two seem to have gotten pretty close.”
“Mm… does it look that way?”
“Very much so.”
Perhaps embarrassed, Saebyeok lowered her gaze, and Haram kindly poured her a glass of water.
Dongbaek nudged his own cup forward with his fingertips as if asking for some as well, but Haram ignored him completely.
“It’s amazing. Now you two look at least like a lady of the house and her servant.”
“That’s a relief. Haram, if we try a little harder, maybe we can look like a distant mother and son.”
“I will continue to strive, Master.”
“Master?”
Dongbaek’s eyes widened in surprise before he broke into a mischievous grin, as if he had finally found something to tease.
“You brat, you still can’t say ‘Mom’? What’s so hard about it?”
“Ow.”
“If only your stubbornness were as soft as these chubby cheeks. Come on, repeat after me. ‘Mom, I love you~.’”
Love might be a bit much…
Watching Dongbaek pinch Haram’s soft cheeks, Saebyeok made an awkward face.
Haram desperately shook off his father’s hand but refused to back down.
“Master is way more amazing than a mom, you dumb dad!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“Y-yes! Master is a Doctor of Dinosaurs!”
“A… a doctor of what?”
Haram lifted his chin proudly.
From that moment on, the legendary tale of Dr. Ham Saebyeok, Dinosaur Scholar began spilling from Haram’s mouth.
For example, how Saebyeok had achieved a perfect score at lightning speed on the university-level dinosaur aptitude test included as an appendix in the Great Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs.
And how she could effortlessly recite the entire dinosaur timeline.
And even how fluently she could pronounce Epidexipteryx without stumbling once…
“She’s on a completely different level from a dumb dad who only knows Tyrannosaurus. Hurry up and bow down!”
“Well, well. At this rate you’ll tell me I’m not even allowed to eat at the same table.”
“Go eat outside with the raccoons.”
“You keep disrespecting this handsome dad, but just so you know, I now know about a dinosaur called T-Rex.”
“Um… Mr. Dongbaek, T-Rex is just a nickname for Tyrannosaurus.”
“Oh.”
Dongbaek had just fallen from ‘dumb dad’ to ‘hopelessly dumb dad.’
“I was thinking the three of us could go to an amusement park together once you two got closer…”
Declaring that he couldn’t risk catching the stupid virus, Haram scampered off into the living room.
Pretending to wipe away tears, Dongbaek looked at Saebyeok with genuine curiosity.
“You wouldn’t know from looking, but Haram has very high standards. How did you get recognized by a kid who spends all day memorizing dinosaur cards?”
“Skill, obviously.”
Saebyeok replied proudly, her confidence returning for the first time in a while.
After all, during her student-teacher days she had memorized dinosaur wiki pages and even the names of T-Ping characters just to get along with troublesome elementary school kids.
“That means we have nothing to worry about today either, right?”
Dongbaek set down his coffee cup with a gentle smile.
Today was the first day the staff of Beodeul School would officially gather.
The day was a brilliantly clear winter morning.
Walking along the lakeside, their breath turning to white mist in the air, Saebyeok finally loosened the scarf wrapped tightly around her neck as they approached Sansuyu Hall.
Unlike the eerie silence of the first day, signs of life could now be heard everywhere.
“This way.”
Dongbaek led confidently.
“The person we’re going to meet now is the vice principal. You could say he’s the leader of the practical staff.”
“What kind of person is he?”
“Someone who values principles and rules. He cares about the process just as much as the results. He’s not usually that strict, but when I visited headquarters the other day, there was a small issue.”
“An issue?”
“Apparently, before the foundation informed him about our assignment, the vice principal had already picked someone he intended to hire.”
How was that a small issue?
Before Saebyeok could even respond in disbelief, the faculty room door suddenly swung open.
Dongbaek waved both arms in greeting.
Behind his shoulder, the wide-open window was visible.
And perched on the windowsill was a massive bird of prey—
A bird of prey?
Saebyeok froze in shock.
Meanwhile, Dongbaek casually walked straight toward the window.
“Oh my, it’s been a while, sir. Have you been well?”
He held out his hand.
The enormous bird flapped its wings and leapt into the air.
Startled, Saebyeok instinctively reached for Dongbaek’s sleeve—then froze.
The bird that seemed to soar into the air transformed into a human being mid-flight and approached them.
“It’s been a while, Mr. Kim.”
The person shaking Dongbaek’s hand looked… difficult to place.
Their age and even their gender were unclear.
Their faded reddish hair had a mysterious quality, though the dark shadows beneath their eyes made them look somewhat sickly.
“You still look overworked. Did you finish the ginseng I sent you last time?”
“Yes. I boiled it into tea. You’re still as courteous as ever, Mr. Kim.”
Coughing lightly, the vice principal slowly returned to his seat.
Saebyeok quickly closed the window and followed Dongbaek to sit across the desk.
“I received the foundation’s notice. Thanks to that, our school has lost an excellent resource.”
“Oh, come now. Instead, you’ve gained an even more remarkable one.”
“A one-year contract teacher? That hardly counts as talent. The candidate I had my eye on was someone who could dedicate themselves to education for at least 174 years and 9 months.”
Definitely not human.
“And the purpose of your assignment is supposedly to investigate the frequent staff resignations at Beodeul School? If that were the case, they would have sent an auditor— not an investigator who shows up with a fabricated family.”
“….”
Dongbaek simply smiled.
“Such a flimsy lie. It tells me everything about how the foundation views this school. At best, we’re merely a convenient organ to use whenever they need to disguise themselves.”
“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“That’s not self-criticism. It’s a statement of fact.”
“If they wanted to deceive the school, they’d have done it more carefully.”
“Ah. Then they were trying to deceive someone else.”
Dongbaek merely shrugged.
No threat or persuasion in the world seemed capable of making that slippery tongue speak the truth.
“I swear my mission is for the eternal prosperity and development of Beodeul School. Please judge us with open eyes.”
“What exactly is your mission?”
“Classified.”
“And what will you be doing here?”
“Classified.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
Yet Dongbaek remained unfazed as he proudly introduced Saebyeok.
“Tada! Instead, we’ve brought you this brilliant talent!”
What?
Saebyeok, who had been shrinking quietly in the corner, jolted.
The vice principal’s icy gaze had already fixed on her.
“Look here! Our Teacher Ham’s shining résumé, self-introduction letter, high school records, and university transcripts! With credentials like these, most schools would be begging for her! Honestly, who knows when such an innocent, naive person might be lured away again!”
“Wait—what? No, no, where did you even get all this?!”
“There are ways.”
Before she could stop him, all the documents describing Ham Saebyeok were handed to the vice principal.
Saebyeok nervously twisted her scarf beneath the desk.
That self-introduction letter…
It looked exactly like the one she had uploaded to a part-time job site.
What had she written in it again? Had she told the truth? Had she even run a spell check?
“…Hmm. I see why you were so confident, Mr. Kim.”
After examining the papers through a magnifying glass, the vice principal glanced up.
“But Beodeul School is different from other schools. In addition to the basic qualifications of a teacher, one must possess extensive knowledge of the supernatural.”
“That won’t be a problem either.”
Dongbaek pulled out an envelope from inside his suit like a trump card.
The vice principal raised an eyebrow after opening it.
“A faculty recruitment test paper? How did you obtain this?”
“You think that’s the only thing we obtained?”
“We usually give applicants forty minutes to solve it.”
“Saebyeok solved it in twenty minutes. In a moving car.”
That was a test?
“Hard to believe.”
“Then test her right now.”
Dongbaek leaned back in his chair.
Saebyeok, who had been struggling to keep up with their conversation, suddenly found the vice principal’s cold eyes fixed directly on her.
“Very well, Ms. Ham.”
Lowering his magnifying glass, the vice principal asked in a hollow voice:
“What do you think I am?”
The faculty room door closed quietly behind them.
Dongbaek walked down the hallway with his hands in his pockets, chatting carefree.
“Ah, I can’t believe school’s starting already. My vacation hasn’t even begun yet.”
Meanwhile, Saebyeok looked half-dazed.
That was… an interview, right?
The principal earlier…
That had just been him threatening the man.
Today was the real one.
Which means I just… had an interview.
