Pen and Paper Translations

The video Executive Director Park uploaded reignited the lately-fading “Villain daddy challenge.”

[ The real Villain daddy’s Villain daddy Challenge revealed! “Watch closely, kids. This is how dads fight.” ]

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Views 57,982 | Likes 7,007 | Comments 4,147

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In the video, Executive Director Park wears nothing but a white shirt about to burst and runs through poses reminiscent of a bodybuilder, then a call comes in from “My Treasure,” presumably his daughter, and, sounding instantly gentle, he answers the phone. The video ends there.

↳ I mean, could anyone doubt he’s the Villain Daddy—look at that frame, downright fearsome (Likes 1,294)

↳ Do people around HS all have some disease where they’ll die if they don’t wear that helmet…? (Likes 613)

↳ That helmet with that build, and he still answers his daughter’s call politely. Villain Daddy: romance approved. (Likes 379)

The reaction was explosive.

↳ We urgently need one Villain Daddy per household. (Likes 571)

↳ “Daddy” means he’s a married man… is it legal for a married man to be this seductive? (Likes 431)

↳ This is bad… I want to swap him with my dad… (Likes 311)

As a result, he was able to reclaim the No. 1 spot on the music charts that had been taken by Lee Hyoeun’s “to me” and Hyunseung’s “Only After the Flowers Have Fallen.”

[ TOP 100 ]

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1 Villain daddy – Moon Beomjae (Prod. HS)

2 Only After the Flowers Have Faded (Red Thread X HS) – HS

3 To me – Lee Hyoeun (Prod. HS)

4 Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人) – Lee Hyoeun (Red Thread X HS)

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8 letter – Jable X HS

9 Villain – Jable X HS (feat. Ahn Jiho)

10 fallen leaves – Ahn Jiho (Prod. HS)

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And that wasn’t all.

Whether it hit some algorithm or what, the Villain daddy challenge began trending overseas as well.

[My Treasure: good morning, ma Villain daddy! The challenge is so cool! That’s our dad all right!]

From his daughter, too.

[My Mini-me: I bragged to my school friends that my dad is Villain Daddy! They all want to see you in person! Can’t you come by just once???]

From his son, too.

For the first time, he could be a dad to be proud of.

Granted, within the company, anyone who needed to know already knew he was the voice in “Villain daddy,” so he did feel a bit embarrassed.

But that kind of thing would pass if he were only embarrassed for a moment.

More than anything, feeling just a little like a secret superstar, Executive Director Park tried not to show it, but his shoulders gave a tiny bounce.

“Two iced Americanos, please.”

Anyway, in the end, it had been a good move for the kid, for the company, and for himself.

“Thank you.”

As always after finishing his workout, Executive Director Park stopped by the café terrace and ordered coffee.

Then, wary of being seen, he picked up the cups and headed off somewhere.

Ding!

The floor he got off on was not the floor with the executive director’s office. He walked slowly down the long hallway, glancing around.

Because—

“Hey, open up already.”

The place he’d brought the coffee was the mouse hole… no, composer HS’s studio.

“I thought we were only seeing each other at the gym?”

The door opened, and Hyunseung stuck his head out and sniped.

He was remembering how Park had threatened the other day that they shouldn’t run into each other outside PT hours.

“Take this.”

Park thrust the coffee at him gruffly, then wedged himself through the gap in the door.

He crossed his legs and sat smack in the middle of the couch, then said,

“Wondered if you’d checked the charts today.”

At the swaggering question, Hyunseung shrugged, looking puzzled.

“Why would I check them?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“Isn’t that what the relevant department in the company is for?”

“I mean, that’s true, but…”

Park trailed off for a moment.

“But shouldn’t you at least check once? Thanks to my challenge, your song’s back at No. 1.”

He picked a fight, getting heated for no reason.

“Yeah? Then who’s at No. 2?”

“Huh? That’s yours too, but…”

“Then what’s the point of checking.”

“God, even your being obnoxious is No. 1.”

Hyunseung gave a thin smile and lightly waggled his cup.

“Feels like you came to make sure I knew Villain daddy hit No. 1 thanks to your challenge. Anyway, got it, and thanks for the coffee.”

“I didn’t come here to be thanked, okay?”

“Bet that tight shirt was worth it.”

“Worth my ass. I did it all for you.”

“Anyway, the response is scorching. At this rate you’ll debut as a NewTuber,* won’t you?”
* (i.e., YouTuber)

“Kid, me? No way…”

For a moment, Park indulged in a sweet fantasy of becoming a famous fitness YouTuber—an icon every man admires.

“Sir, the corners of your mouth are twitching.”

“They are not.”

“They really are.”

Park cut it off: “It’s nothing,” and reset his expression.

Then, with a brisk “Up we go,” he rose to his feet and added,

“Hey, my daughter arrives next month, so keep your promise.”

“Oh, the favor about letting her meet Ahn Jiho?”

“Yeah. She really likes that punk.”

When Hyunseung nodded lightly, Park put on a briefly serious face and said,

“But even to you, I’m better than that kid, right?”

“Sorry?”

“I mean, I’m more manly, and my build’s better.”

“You need to consider your age.”

A blunt truth that hit bone.

“Kh—ack.”

Swallowing wrong, Park hacked and coughed for some time.

“Seriously, watch the age talk.”

Hyunseung was about to add fuel to the fire with another jab when—

knock, knock, knock!

A precise tapping, followed by the clear chirp of the lock releasing.

“Hyunseung, you saw Executive Director Park’s challenge video, right? Heh, those buttons were about to—whoop!”

Chattering as he came in, Kim Woohyun froze, clapping a hand over his mouth when he saw Park standing there.

“What brings you here, sir…”

He looked at Park’s chilled expression and thought,

We’re screwed.

But if he fumbled any more here, it would all go to hell, so he needed to recover fast.

“It’s been too long… Have you been well?”

Ignoring the cold sweat trickling down his back, he put on a bright smile again.

“Thank you for helping Hyunseung, uploading that challenge video and all. Honestly, I don’t even know how to convey our gratitude… and you looked so manly and cool!”

Park dismissed the effort with a snort and walked straight out of the studio.

Thud!

Staring at the fiercely shut door, Kim Woohyun spoke with a dazed face.

“Hyunseung, I think Executive Director Park heard everything, didn’t he?”

“Probably.”

“Did what I said come off too mocking?”

“A little?”

“This is really bad…”

Scratching the back of his head, Kim asked,

“But why was he here in the first place?”

“It’s a guy-to-guy secret.”

“What? You made a secret with the executive director without me?”

“Yeah. Even if you’re ‘Dad,’ I can’t tell you.”

With that, Hyunseung clammed up.

Right.

He couldn’t exactly say an executive director had come to strut because his challenge put the song back at No. 1, could he?

Gotta cover for him.

But unaware of that, Kim narrowed his eyes and pressed Hyunseung.

“You seem kinda close with him lately, huh?”

“Close… let’s call it workout partners.”

“What? Workout partners? You work out together with Executive Director Park?”

“Yeah, that’s how it ended up.”

“No wonder your body’s gotten so much better lately.”

“I even play drinking buddy sometimes, so if you want to call it close, you could.”

At that, Kim dropped the phone in his hand.

He could practically hear a “du-dun!” sting by his ear.

Workout partner and drinking buddy—things he’d never been.

Come to think of it, he’d found it suspicious when Park’s narration randomly ended up in “Villain daddy.”

“W-well me!”

Kim suddenly shouted loud enough to shake the studio.

“What?”

“Why don’t you work out with me, or be my drinking buddy?”

“You never asked.”

At Hyunseung’s crisp, clear reply, his lips just flapped for a moment.

“You’ve never made a song related to me, have you.”

Hyunseung blinked, thrown. “Huh?”

Then belatedly grasping the meaning, he doubled over laughing for a long while.

“Ah, hah… my stomach.”

While Kim stared at him in silence…

“Y’know,” Hyunseung added calmly,

“The song‘letter’… I wrote that thinking of you, Director.”

Kim clapped both hands over his mouth.

Ahh.

Is this what they mean by having “raised your kid right”?

Right now…

Kim smiled a rapturous smile like he’d become the happiest “dad” on earth.

.

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Meanwhile.

Leaving the studio, Executive Director Park wore an extremely serious expression.

Trudge, trudge.

He walked the hallway, sighing deeply as if lost in heavy thought.

Trudge, trudge.

Then he stopped short, braced a hand on the wall like he was overcome with a sense of loss, and hung his head.

Then, barely audible, he whispered to himself.

“Maybe the tight shirt was overdoing it.”

Because Kim Woohyun’s teasing words kept echoing in his ears.

“The kids said it looked cool, though.”

He muttered, grumbling to himself for a moment.

“Kim Woohyun—that anchovy—what does he know.”

Then he checked himself: “Well, he’s not really an anchovy,” and nodded as if conceding the point.

Right.

From the time he’d joined the company, Kim had been broad-shouldered and tall, one of the gym freaks Park had always kept an eye on.

He just hadn’t taken him as a workout partner since he was on Director Choi’s side.

How much does that guy lift on the big three, anyway?

He walked on, thinking he’d give him a proper lesson at the gym someday if the chance arose.

Ding!

Stepping into the elevator, Park covered his face with a thick hand as a wave of embarrassment washed over him.

“Ugh.”

Apparently, if a single comment about his shirt could make him this embarrassed, a career pivot to “NewTuber” probably wasn’t in the cards.