How to Get on the Main Character’s Flower Path

 

“Kangyoo, come here.”

 

“Mmhm!”

 

Kangyoo seemed so happy that I gave him a name that he started following me even more.

 

The director seemed to have no intention of taking proper care of us, so I gathered what I had and started educating the children.

 

Even though it was called education, it was just about telling them what I knew.

 

“So Cinderella sued her stepmother and sisters.”

 

“Whoaaa—! Victory!”

 

After the noisy story-telling session, I taught the children some of the ways I knew how to play. Then the children rushed out to play, saying they would do as they were taught.

 

Except one person.

 

The child, who was a mixed dog beastman race , sat with his back to me. And,

 

“Name… Why don’t you give me a name? Ah, a name. It would be really nice if you gave me a name.”

 

Somehow… he started passively asking for something.

 

What is it? I became confused.

 

As if he had said everything she wanted to say, he turned around to look at me and ran towards the children. Fox, who saw everything, was holding his stomach and laughing.

 

“Don’t laugh.”

 

“I laugh because it’s funny.”

 

I spoke in a pointed tone.

 

“Do you know why she does that?”

 

He glanced at me and said with a grin.

 

“I’ll tell you if you promise to give me Kangyoo’s soup for dinner tonight.”

 

“Is the menu the same as yesterday?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then I’ll give it to you.”

 

“Great.”

 

Then Fox came up to me and whispered.

 

“Mixed beastmen basically have good ears. Enough to easily wake up from even the slightest sound.”

 

Ah.

 

“And the kid who just left, I mean… Yellow Dog longs for a name.”

 

I held my head. Then I hit Fox, who saw that and laughed again, on the back.

 

***

 

That evening. Fox sat next to us and drank all of Kangyoo’s soup.

 

The director came to us near the end of dinner time and praised Kangyoo, saying we could do it if we worked hard. Foolish.

 

And free time before bed. After confirming that all the children were gathered, I clapped my hands to get their attention.

 

“Now, Kang Nahyun’s Naming Center! We’re open for business today!”

 

“What is opening? Naming Center?”

 

“I mean, I started working. The naming cener… It means it’s a place where names are given!”

 

I laughed as I looked at the mixed dog beastman race.

 

Then the child suddenly ran towards me.

 

“Your name is… Kanghoon would be better.”

 

I petted the child, Kanghoon.

 

Then the other children noticed and gathered in front of me.

 

“Don’t put ‘Na’ in mine!”

 

“Put ‘Pretty’ in mine!”

 

“Yes, yes, I understand!”

 

In this way, the naming center was a success.

 

The children, who each had their own names, were excited and talked about their names for a while before falling asleep from exhaustion.

 

At that time, only Fox and I were awake.

 

I asked him playfully.

 

“Shall I give you a name too?”

 

He also responded playfully to those words.

 

“Not sure. I don’t think your naming skills are particularly good.”

 

“You wanna get hit again?”

 

“See.”

 

We had a trivial conversation and went to bed.

 

I looked up at the old ceiling and thought about the time I spent with the children today. I felt something warm rising inside me.

 

So I started laughing without realizing it.

 

The corners of my lips that turned up were awkward. As I played with the corners of my lips, I realized that I had been losing my smile for quite some time.

 

Ironically, of all the places I have lived since coming to this world, this place, which had the worst environment, was where I felt most at ease.

 

[Nahyun, Mom’s going to visit the lab for a moment.]

 

With those words in mind, I remembered the days when I was waiting for Mom, who had been at the research center for several days, leaving me alone.

 

Each time I said that I wasn’t a child. Because I wasn’t actually a child.

 

[Sorry, I’m busy. It’s to carry on your mom’s legacy. You understand, don’t you?]

 

So I understood what Choi Garam said.

 

The filter is a keepsake from Mom.

 

I knew that Choi Garam, who loved Mom very much and had focused her career and life through that filter, would once again focus her efforts on that item, which was no different from Mom’s memento.

 

But. Still. Perhaps.

 

Maybe I was tired of being alone.

 

I embraced Kangyoo, who came towards me and hugged me tightly again today. It was warm. Here, I was always surrounded by the warmth of people.

 

So even though I was kidnapped and arrived here, and even though I knew Choi Garam would be looking for me, I wanted to stay here.

 

It was quite a strange feeling.

 

The days at the orphanage continued like that.

 

***

 

The tragedy came suddenly.

 

One peaceful day, a loud noise rang out in the hallway.

 

I had a feeling that this wasn’t normal, so I went out into the hallway.

 

“Are you crazy?”

 

Immediately after that, I witnessed the director slapping Nahoon’s cheek. At that moment, it felt like a button was pressed in my head.

 

“What are you doing!”

 

I blocked Nahoon’s path. Then the director snorted and threatened to raise his fist as if to hit me.

 

“Well, are you going to take the place again this time?”

 

Now the director didn’t even try to hide his true nature.

 

He neglected the children all the time, and occasionally came to the orphanage and scolded them.

 

Fortunately, he rarely met children, so he didn’t have to beat them, but today was different. A mistake was made right in front of his eyes.

 

“While pretending to be nice!”

 

The director’s fist was pointed at me.

 

The moment I closed my eyes tightly, feeling the pain,

 

“HUAAGH!”

 

A painful scream came from the director’s mouth.

 

“Don’t bother Sister!”

 

“Don’t hit Sister!”

 

When I opened my eyes, there were many children clinging to the director.

 

I watched the situation unfold in a daze.

 

The director struggled and barely managed to throw the children away, biting and pinching him. He shouted and tried to beat the children.

 

“You can’t!”

 

I gritted my teeth and ran towards the director. Then the other children, who were dazed, also started running.

 

The director, who had been getting angry as he continued to throw away the endlessly attacking children, eventually huffed and shouted as if he was exhausted.

 

“You damn trash! Once I get out of here, I’ll see you again!”

 

And then he stomped out of the orphanage.

 

The children forgot their pain and cheered with joy.

 

“We won!”

 

“Victory! Today I’m Cinderella!”

 

Then they came rushing towards me and Na Hoon.

 

I was about to scold them and ask why they came out so carelessly, but then I realized that it wasn’t my point and I just checked to see if any of the children were seriously hurt. Fortunately, no one was injured.

 

Fox looked towards the door and said.

 

“He’ll crawl in later on his own.”

 

“I wish he would completely screw off.”

 

“But then you won’t get a citizenship card.”

 

That’s right. I kept my mouth shut.

 

After all the fuss, fortunately the day passed without any major incidents.

 

***

 

“It seems like getting them to sleep gets more difficult as time goes on, doesn’t it…?”

 

“Dunno…”

 

Fox and I put the kids to bed and sat next to each other, worn and exhausted.

 

Before I knew it, it was late at night. I looked up blankly at the clock with the broken windshield and felt thirsty.

 

“I’m going to go get some water and come back.”

 

“Ah, I’m going with you.”

 

We went outside under the cover of darkness, side by side. As I walked carefully, I saw a light coming on in the director’s office.

 

“I guess he’s back.”

 

The director was talking about whether he was on the phone with someone or not.

 

Fox and I made eye contact quietly. At this moment, our thoughts were one.

 

Let’s eavesdrop.

 

We leaned down and crept up to the door of the director’s office and put our ears onto it.

 

“Ah, so the hybrids! Uh, yes!”

 

The director was losing his temper because of what happened today.

 

I felt myself frowning at his choice of words. If he hates mixed race people so much, why does he have so many of them?

 

Then I heard shocking words.

 

“I need to sell them all quickly or something.”

 

I held my breath quietly. Selling them all?

 

No, more than that, what about the project run by the government?

 

“Huh? The project will achieve results. Don’t worry, we just need to send a few humans, right? We just happened to have a human coming in.”

 

I started to shake my head at the director’s words.

 

First of all, it seems to be true that research projects conducted by the government exist and that the director is responsible for completing them safely and producing results.

 

“I thought I could send her away and sell the rest. As you know, there are some people who like rare things.”

 

Only humans, you say?

 

“Honestly, where can I find a home that would adopt a mixed race? Just being sold enough.”

 

I could hear the sound of teeth grinding. I looked to the side and saw that Fox was barely holding back his anger.