novelraw Chapter 163: Company Daycare (3)
Chapter 163: Company Daycare (3)
After that, we ran all over the daycare with the children, who were now as energetic as fully charged phones.
I gained a newfound respect for daycare teachers everywhere. I couldn’t understand how they did this high-intensity work every day while maintaining such a kind and friendly demeanor.
I struggled to keep my patience in check with just five Spark members. Clearly, I still had a long way to go before becoming a truly virtuous person.
Still, it was a relief that the children had grown accustomed to our faces. We’d grown close enough to joke around with each other.
Some of the more daring children even experienced riding on Choi Jeho’s shoulders. Although Choi Jeho had to bend his knees considerably to prevent their heads from hitting the ceiling, they all successfully rode the 187 cm-tall human horse.
Watching this scene—Choi Jeho acting as a human perch while the Spark members surrounded him like a safety net—I turned to Jaeyoon, who was sitting quietly beside me.
“Jaeyoon, don’t you want a piggyback ride, too?”
Jaeyoon shook his head. He then snuggled up next to me and diligently read a picture book with barely ten words per page. It was a story about a cat and a child going on an adventure in an alley.
‘Is he shy?’
He seemed to talk to his friends sometimes, so I wasn’t sure. But with a sudden influx of adults, I figured he might be feeling overwhelmed, so I decided to stay quiet.The sound of pages turning softly filled the air, distinct from the noisy surroundings.
Then the sound stopped.
“Teacher.”
Jaeyoon called out to me. His finger pointed to a spot in the picture book.
It was an illustration of a tiny black cat, faithfully accompanying the protagonist on their adventure to the end of the alley.
“It looks like you.”
Jaeyoon smiled brightly.
It was a truly pure smile.
* * *
Even though I initially worried about how long this ordeal would last, the time to say goodbye came sooner than expected.
“Teacher, are you coming again tomorrow?”
A child holding a magic wand in one hand and a transforming car in the other asked.
“You have to say bye-bye to your teachers now.”
At the teacher’s words, the children’s eyebrows began to droop. Some even started to tear up.
“So, the teacher isn’t coming back?”
Taking that as a cue, someone started to wail. Choi Jeho picked up the crying child.
“Why are you crying? You promised to dance along when you see me on TV next time, remember?”
Did they make such a pact? Choi Jeho was really taking fan management to another level. No wonder he was the center.
After Choi Jeho patted the child’s back a few times, the child in his arms sniffled and stopped crying.
‘This… this is hard…’
Adults were used to brief encounters, but the children had genuinely accepted us. I felt a pang of guilt. I must have grown attached to them, too.
As we were seeing off the tearful children one by one, I felt a tug on my pants.
Jaeyoon was looking up at me.
“Jaeyoon, it’s time for you to go home too. Did you have fun today?”
Jaeyoon nodded. His quietness reminded me of Park Joowoo.
“I’m glad you had fun.”
I smiled as brightly as possible and buttoned Jaeyoon’s coat. Then he handed me something.
It was a crumpled piece of origami paper.
“It’s a cat.”
Jaeyoon whispered in my ear.
Then, holding his guardian’s hand, he quietly said ‘Goodbye’ and left the daycare.
I looked back and forth between Jaeyoon’s departing figure and the origami paper resting in my palm.
The black cat, whose form I wouldn’t have recognized if Jaeyoon hadn’t told me what it was, kept catching my eye.
Since starting this work, I felt like I’d only been on the receiving end.
It made me wonder how I could ever repay all this affection.
* * *
On the way back, we reminisced about the happy times we spent with the cute children.
“How can their shoes be so tiny? Did you see them all lined up in the shoe rack?”
Lee Cheonghyeon, your front hairline is more perfectly aligned than those shoes.
“I seriously thought they were toys. They were all so pretty. We just wear flip-flops.”
“Don’t tell me you actually wear flip-flops today?”
I turned my head sharply, and Lee Cheonghyeon in the back seat flinched and tucked his feet away. Fortunately, he was wearing bright navy blue Converse sneakers.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was worried you’d forget your idol duties and commit the atrocity of showing up wearing flip-flops.”
“You always make us stand in front of the full-length mirror before we leave for schedules, hyung.”
“There’s always the possibility of unforeseen circumstances.”
As I turned my head forward again, my eyes met Choi Jeho’s through the rearview mirror.
Yeah, I couldn’t leave him out of this conversation.
“Choi Jeho, you did well today.”
“What?”
“I said you did a good job. It was unexpected.”
Choi Jeho frowned. Why can’t that guy ever look happy, even when he’s being praised?
“Try getting sandwiched between older and younger siblings your whole life. You get used to it.”
At his offhand comment, the atmosphere suddenly grew tense. Seriously, when did my family situation become such a taboo topic?
While Choi Jeho and I, the accidental mood killers, shifted our eyes uncomfortably, Lee Cheonghyeon jumped in at just the right moment.
“Hyung, I’m a middle child, too.”
This kid—kind, thoughtful, and just too good for this world. If the world ends tomorrow, I’ll put you on top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Your face will be the only thing left for the satellites to see.
“Jeho hyung, are you close with your younger sibling?”
Kang Kiyeon asked. He probably couldn’t imagine it.
“Just normal, I guess.”
“Come on, you seemed pretty used to handling kids. You were like a seasoned instructor!”
Lee Cheonghyeon relentlessly exaggerated. Kang Kiyeon nodded in agreement without bothering to stop him.
“It’s because Choi Miho throws the biggest tantrums when she doesn’t get her way. I just go along with it to avoid the headache…”
“Your younger sibling too? Well, Jeong Seongjun…”
And then Jeong Seongbin suddenly joined in. As if possessed by some grievance, he began to spill the tea about Jeong Seongjun. It was like witnessing a classic K-drama about sibling rivalries.
“Still, at least Seongjun hyung and Miho are nice. The people in my family… sigh.”
“Have you even met Choi Miho?”
“Yeah, that time you didn’t talk for three weeks and Chanyoung hyung had to call me in to interpret for you.”
Something like that happened? This son a b*tch was truly hopeless.
“Why you didn’t talk?”
“Why else? He and Kang Kiyeon had another disagreement.”
“Why bring up old stories?”
“Yeah, it’s not even worth remembering.”
Choi Jeho and Kang Kiyeon grumbled at the same time. They were unbelievably in sync at times like these.
“But I understand how Jeho hyung and Seongbin hyung feel. I also have a younger brother, Kiyeon, who doesn’t listen and throws tantrums.”
“Why am I your younger brother?”
“Have you forgotten that our birthdays are almost eleven months apart? I’m closer in age to Joowoo hyung than you.”
Lee Cheonghyeon chuckled mischievously.
“Oh, our Kiyeon! Call me ‘hyung’! Come on!”
“If we ever have a casual-speech day in our team, you’ll be the first one I take down.”
Threatening remarks began to fly. Jeong Seongbin struggled to smooth things over, telling them to get along.
Meanwhile, I made eye contact with Park Joowoo in the passenger seat. He’d been watching the backseat commotion with interest, but when our eyes met, he simply grinned.
* * *
Even after pouring all our energy into the daycare, practice still awaited.
Jeong Seongbin, saying, ‘Everyone’s well-rested from their nap at daycare, right?’, reminded me of a drill sergeant.
Only Lee Cheong-hyeon and I hadn’t napped, making us the unlucky ones. As a result, we were drilled until the sky turned dark. I really needed to build my muscles back up quickly. I should increase my PT sessions.
By the time we wrapped up our practice and workout, most of the members were completely exhausted. The entire way back to the dorm, the phrase ‘What a long day’ echoed repeatedly.
Without a word, we headed to the bathroom in order of who finished preparing first. As soon as we were done showering, we dried our hair, finished our skincare routines, and collapsed onto our beds.
When I finally came out of the bathroom, the dorm was dead silent. I couldn’t even hear the rustling of blankets.
‘They must be tired.’
We had a packed schedule ahead of us. Spark’s calendar was full for the next three months.
Since there was no telling when we’d get to rest properly again, I turned off the kitchen and living room lights for the others, who’d forgotten, turned on Choi Jeho’s night lamp, and went into my room.
As I lay in bed, I could hear deep breaths from above and beside me. It was so peaceful, I felt like I could fall asleep instantly.
But I couldn’t sleep yet. My day wasn’t over.
I called up the system I had been neglecting for a while.
+
[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ completed.
▷ Reward: Memory Data (1)
+
My vision went white. If the surroundings were this dark, shouldn’t it automatically adjust the brightness to dark mode? My eyesight was going to deteriorate. What an outdated system.
‘More importantly, memory…’
I tried to predict what kind of memory the system would give me. I knew it wasn’t entirely malicious, but its motto of ‘as long as you’re alive, nothing else matters’ seemed unchanged.
‘Since it’s a reward, it should be related to my KPI, right?’
My current KPI was getting a first-place win on a music show. If my predictions were correct, this KPI would be achieved soon. I hoped this memory would provide some big-picture information.
Information directly related to my sister would be ideal, but I wasn’t optimistic. I had no idea how many KPIs I had left.
There was also a chance the system would screw me over. That was why I chose this time, when everyone was asleep, to open the data.
‘Or maybe it’s about what kind of medication Cheonghyeon takes, whether Choi Jeho’s father caused trouble in the past, or how Seongbin’s throat condition is doing…’
Every step of the way was filled with things I needed to know. I should ask for memory data packages next time.
‘But how do I use this?’
I inwardly questioned, looking at the brightly glowing ‘Memory Data (1)’.
Suddenly, everything went dark. My senses blurred, as if I were floating.