These days, Hyunseung had picked up a small new routine.
Namely, occasionally helping with Dohee’s pick‑up from daycare.
“Flame Mask Man!”
“Kiddo, I told you not to yell that loud out in public.”
Before anyone could see, Hyunseung quickly buckled Dohee into the passenger seat, then came around to the driver’s side.
“Seat belt first.”
He fastened the belt snugly himself and double‑checked it.
Of course, the daycare van normally dropped her right at the house anyway.
“Agent Dohee, have you told anyone I’m going to play you the children’s song, or not?”
“I didn’t tell!”
“Really didn’t? Not even your family?”
“Uh‑huh! For weals! Oppa kept poking and poking, asking if I made some kind of secret with Flame Mask Man, but I didn’t tell!”
He was just giving her the occasional ride as part of keeping the secret tight, that was all.
“From here on out, I expect you to keep up strict secrecy, Agent Dohee.”
“Yessir! Flame Mask Man!”
Seriously.
Absolutely.
It was not because he found the kid cute.
“So, in that spirit… how’s this bear fellow look?”
Hyunseung showed her a screen with the baby bear from the Peekaboo Family character sheet he’d gotten from Lee Jin‑wook.
“If you put a pwetty wed wibbon on the ear here, it’d be so nice!”
“A red ribbon? And what else?”
“Uh‑huh! And the eyelashes too. Like this, make ’em nice and pwetty!”
The moment she saw the character, Dohee’s eyes sparkled, and her little lips chattered away without a breath. She was about to run out of air.
She could take her time, you know.
Ah, just to repeat, he absolutely was not personally ferrying her around because she was cute.
Right.
Since the character sheets had come out today, he merely wanted a child’s opinion to see what might read differently.
Tap, tap.
Hyunseung typed every one of Dohee’s babbled comments into a message window and sent them off.
“Just wait about a week.”
“A weeky‑week?”
“Yup. You just have to go to sleep and wake up seven nights.”
Dohee started bending one tiny finger after another, counting out loud, “One, two….”
“Uhh?”
Then something seemed to occur to her, and she cocked her little head this way and that.
“If I sweep and wake up seven nights….”
“Mm? What is it?”
“That’s the day I was born…my birfday?”
“What?”
Hyunseung, about to ease off the brake to pull out, stomped it back down hard and asked again.
“Why are you only telling me that now?”
Meanwhile his hand was holding Dohee’s tummy steady.
“Did… Did I do somefing bad…?”
“No, that’s not it.”
His reaction had startled her; she looked up, nervous and skittish. Hyunseung glanced at her sidelong and went on.
“Kiddo, are you having a birthday party that day?”
“Birfday party? What’s that?”
“You stick candles in a cake and celebrate with your friends or family.”
“Nooo, I don’t have friends. Oppa’s always busy, and Mom’s legs hurt so she can’t go anywhere. So I don’t do fings like birfday parties.”
“Do you want to have one?”
“I dunno, never had one.”
Dohee swung her head toward the window and answered like it was nothing.
“It’s okay if we don’t!”
But just the way that plump mouth stuck out into a little duckbill was enough to make it certain. She was only pretending not to want it, out of consideration for her busy brother and sick mom.
The world is so… cruel that it makes a little kid learn how to hold herself back first.
No wonder.
Watching her, he kept seeing his kid sister from long ago. Probably why she kept weighing on his mind.
Looks like he’d have to push the song for Jo Gyeong‑mi and her daughter further down the queue.
Right. He was going to be very busy for the next week.
Poke, poke.
As he poked the white pillow of Dohee’s cheek, Hyunseung spoke.
“But hey, Dohee.”
“Mm‑hmm?”
He smoothed back her hair with a gentle hand and asked,
“Why do you kinda… slip into talking down to me?”
Flustered, Dohee let out a sheepish giggle.
“When did I?”
“You just did.”
“No, I didn’t!”
Hands on her little hips, she lifted her chin with brazen confidence. And why was her belly sticking out along with it?
“Heh.”
Finding it cute, Hyunseung chuckled and turned the wheel lightly.
Ah. If only he weren’t driving, he would have snapped a picture on the spot.
“See? You just did it again.”
“I did not, I tell you!”
“Di‑not, I tell yooo—.”
“Why are you copying me—!”
“Why are you copying me—!”
“Whatever TV!”
“Whatever TV.”
If Manager Kim had seen this, he would definitely have thought:
“I hate you, Flame Mask Man!”
—What a pair of overgrown Dumb and Dumber babies.
Manager Kim was completely hooked on the children’s song Hyunseung had made.
Even if it wasn’t just for Dohee, other kids were definitely going to enjoy it.
Above all, even as an adult he found his own mood lifting while listening. He had a hunch this children’s song was going to be a hit too.
What is our golden boy bad at, exactly?
Granted, given the nature of a children’s song it didn’t pile on a lot of fancy musical technique, but one thing was clear:
It was ridiculously catchy. Even right now, sitting on the toilet, the melody kept looping in his ears.
“Big brother bear loves baby bear too.”
Humming the lyric, Manager Kim stepped out of the stall only to run right into Team 1’s Kim Dojun coming out of the next stall.
“Manager… Kim?”
“So your girlfriend’s pet name must be ‘baby bear,’ huh.”
“N‑no.”
“You’re sweeter than I thought, Mr. Big‑Brother Bear.”
A very odd misunderstanding had just been born.
“Embarrassed, are you? Man to man, I’ll keep your secret.”
“It really isn’t that….”
He couldn’t bring himself to say that what he’d been humming was a dedication song Hyunseung had made for Dohee, so he shut his mouth.
Oh, whatever. So what if that rumor spread a little?
Yeah.
If a rumor went around that he was sweet, maybe some of the female staff would make a move on him.
That would be just perfect.
Manager Kim was standing at the sink lost in that silly daydream when right beside him, Kim Dojun was washing his hands and spoke.
Shhhh—
“Manager, I’m sorry to trouble you, but could you please pass along my thanks to the composer?”
“Not our golden boy… HS? Thanks for what?”
“It seems he’s been helping with our Dohee’s pick‑up now and then lately.”
“What, him?!”
Manager Kim shouted. His voice echoed off the bathroom ceiling like a bell.
The guy… he’s more earnest about the kid than I thought.
“Dohee loves it so much. I really want to thank him, but he’s hard to catch. Could you also tell him he really doesn’t have to overdo it?”
Manager Kim nodded, still wearing a face that said he couldn’t believe it.
“Y‑yeah… I’ll tell him.”
“Thanks. Have a good one.”
Flicking the water off his hands, Kim Dojun gave a brisk bow and left the bathroom first.
Left alone, Manager Kim splashed his face with cold water, then watched the drops fall from his hair and muttered,
“Our golden boy….”
He isn’t about to get married, vanish into child‑rearing, and retire, is he?
“N‑no way….”
He slumped in front of the sink as if the world had collapsed, shaking his head.
Sure, outsiders would call it nonsense, but from where Manager Kim stood, it was entirely possible.
Given the current value of Hyunseung’s copyrights, he could retire right now and have no trouble living at all.
Tap, tap.
Manager Kim shot off a text to Hyunseung.
[ Just in case you’re wondering. ]
[ Men can take parental leave too. ]
[ …Just saying. ]
Lately Lee Jin-wook had been plagued by auditory hallucinations.
—Clap, clap, clap!
Thunderous applause from executives reviewing a report labeled “HS Project” with his name on it.
—Happy, my family!
—행복해요, 우리 가족!
—幸福吧，我的家人！
The children’s song in three language versions that HS had sent over.
And the icy, relentless voice of HS all jumbled together, buzzing in his ears.
—I’ll say it once more: one week.
What to call it?
A side effect, a temporary post‑traumatic symptom born from the crushing pressure alongside a powerful premonition the song would definitely be a hit?
It couldn’t be helped.
On the third day after their call, the completed audio files arrived, and HS called again.
One more week.
The call ended with a warning‑ish reminder that the video content needed to be produced and released in one week.
Since then, five days had passed, and Lee Jin-wook and the video team were still pulling all‑nighters.
At first it was overwhelming.
But by now, the media’s big skeleton was more or less complete.
Ping!
[Could you add a red ribbon to the baby polar bear’s head?]
Ping!
[And could you give the baby polar bear’s eyelashes some volume and curl…]
HS did throw in the occasional puzzling request, but they were all within reason to implement.
This has to be the daughter’s request, right?
Truly, what a remarkable dad. He had to be insanely busy, and still he was preparing to compose and release a children’s song for his daughter himself. That was rare.
All the more so when that dad was the nation’s top hit‑maker, and a world‑class soprano, the center of a girl group that swept Korea, and a beloved “2D oppa” star voice actor were the ones singing that children’s song.
Honestly, if it weren’t HS, it would be impossible. What is this person, really?
And see, since he’d said not to use HS or the singers’ names for promotion at all, he clearly didn’t want to trade on fame.
From Yellow Pong’s standpoint that clause wasn’t exactly welcome, but putting himself in the shoes of a dad making a song purely for his daughter, he could understand.
Ahh. Instead of thinking, I should work harder so I can be a dad my daughter can be proud of, too.
Huh?
Wait a sec….
Sensing something off, Lee Jin‑wook restarted the nearly finished animation from the top.
—Mama bear loves baby bear.
Right, that was it.
—Big brother bear loves baby bear, too.
In the rush of production, he’d missed it.
—Baby bear loves Mama Bear and Big Brother Bear best in the whole world.
He’d finally identified the source of that persistent dissonance.
Why… is Dad missing from the family lineup?
Wasn’t this supposed to be a children’s song for a daughter? If not, why leave Dad out?
Not knowing HS’s personal circumstances, it was a mystery that nagged at Lee Jin‑wook.
Surely…
HS can’t be a woman… right….
Even as new misunderstandings and speculations piled up.
Whatever. As long as the song is great, that’s what matters.
The moment was drawing near when HS’s “Peekaboo Family” children’s song would be released to the world on Yellow Pong’s channel.
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