It was extremely rare to move residences on the ship. Only the Captain had the authority to approve it, and even then, only under exceptional circumstances. I glanced at Lee Minha and my parents, eyes slightly widened.
“I heard from Yihan. Apparently, the Captain has high hopes for the project you two are working on and offered special support.”
Lee Minha cast a brief look at Min Sanghan as she added that.
“Ah, yes. But it’s still just in the planning stages.”
My mother responded with a smile. My father, seated beside her, turned to me with an awkward smile. He looked a little disappointed, probably intending to surprise me with the news later.
“We’re just grateful he’s looking on us so favorably.”
“You think it’s without reason?”
Wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin, Lee Minha gave a gentle smile.
“You two really are impressive. I’d say it’s something to be jealous of.”
“……”
A crack flickered across Min Sanghan’s expression. But Lee Minha didn’t stop.
“Heeseo and Jaejin both probably can’t stand it—what with you two likely to be promoted next.”
“Honey.”
“What? Embarrassed?”
Lee Minha looked at Min Sanghan with a smile, but her gaze was subtly cold.
“They’re friends—what’s the harm in being honest? Everyone knows you’ve been working hard to become the next director.”
“Come on… I never said I was jealous. What kind of way is that to put it?”
Min Sanghan denied her words like someone caught exposing something shameful.
“It’s something to celebrate, really.”
“……”
“……”
The clinking of silverware fell silent, and an awkward hush settled over the table.
My parents looked back and forth between the two, clearly flustered. I rolled my eyes over to check on Min Yugeon. He was staring silently at his parents, as if used to this kind of tension.
“……Ah.”
Lee Minha shifted her gaze to Min Yugeon, then slowly looked over at my family as well.
“Right. We should be happy for others when things go well for them.”
It sounded like a belated attempt to smooth things over. Though the ending felt awkward, the chill that had descended over the table lightened just a bit.
My parents forced smiles, trying to hide their discomfort.
“Well… Thank you for the kind words, Minha.”
“Think nothing of it.”
The conversation shifted to various topics. Stories about Min Yugeon and me weren’t left out either, and we answered the adults’ questions now and then.
Though Lee Minha and Min Sanghan didn’t show overt signs of hurt feelings, they didn’t speak to each other again. The atmosphere remained vaguely subdued until the meal ended.
After a light dessert, Min Yugeon’s family began preparing to leave. I had expected they’d stay until evening.
“You have to come visit me, okay?”
Maybe he’d remembered that Lee Minha had said she’d invite our family next time. Min Yugeon extended his little pinky toward me. I looked down at it silently, then nodded.
“Alright.”
“You mean it? Then it’s a promise.”
He beamed as he wiggled his finger.
“……”
I wasn’t used to making promises—not even with my parents—so I felt a bit pressured. But in the end, I hooked my finger with his. After all, unless the parents set a date to meet again, we wouldn’t be able to see each other anyway. Looking at that bright face, I couldn’t bring myself to say no.
“Are our babies really that sad to part? Once you’re in school, you’ll see each other every day.”
My father, now close beside us, affectionately ruffled both my hair and Min Yugeon’s.
The other adults, who had finished saying their goodbyes, watched us with warm smiles.
Embarrassed, we unlinked our fingers and stepped apart.
***
“Suho, how is it?”
My mother asked cheerfully as she held me in her arms.
“Do you like the new house?”
I stared ahead, feeling the warmth of her cheek pressed against mine. The clean, single-story house looked far bigger than our old one.
“Yeah. It’s clean and pretty. But…”
I looked around at the surroundings, decorated with artificial grass and trees. The sight of a single house standing all alone, without a single neighbor in sight, felt strange. Having just come from a densely packed residential area, the unfamiliarity was even more pronounced.
“Is this the only house here?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
My father, standing beside me, gently patted my back as he answered.
“Your mom and I are going to be working here. That means we have to live far away from where people normally stay.”
…Working from home? That must mean they wouldn’t be commuting to the lab every day anymore.
I fell silent and stared at the building. It looked like there was a monster inside. If that was true, then it made sense that the whole area would be under lockdown, just like my father said.
“You’ve all arrived early.”
“Hello.”
“Good afternoon.”
We took time to greet the soldiers stationed around the house. One of them looked at me with a particularly warm gaze. With his dark skin and easygoing demeanor, he seemed to be around my parents’ age.
“Hey there, kiddo. I’m Ji Chanwoo.”
Ji Chanwoo gave a rough but gentle pat to the top of my head. When I bowed politely, he laughed heartily and praised my manners. Then he began chatting amiably with my parents, mentioning that he had a child about my age. He seemed just as sociable as Min Sanghan.
Life in the new house got off to a good start. My parents busied themselves with work in the basement, which had strict security measures to keep me from wandering in by accident. Usually, if one of them was away, the other would stay behind to take care of me. I’d always been more comfortable with my parents than with a babysitter, so this setup made me feel more secure than before. Thanks to that, I was able to adapt quickly to the new environment.
A cozy home that also served as a facility for direct observation and study of monsters. For my mother and father, this house was the perfect place to juggle their research and parenting with peace of mind. Since the Military Beast Project demanded so much of their time, it was clear the Captain had arranged this with their concerns about me in mind.
Of course, I was too young to realize all that. I was just occasionally struck with bursts of curiosity about the monster that was supposedly right beneath my feet.
“…And then the monsters appeared! Raaaawr! They opened their jaws wide and tried to gobble up the people, but the people—shocked and terrified—ran away as fast as they could. They escaped to the very ship we live on now.”
One afternoon, as I stared intently at my father animatedly reading a historical fairy tale, I suddenly spoke.
“Where did the monsters come from?”
“Hmm. No one knows for sure… but it’s believed they appeared out of empty space, places just like this.”
He drew a circle in the air. My eyes followed the motion closely, which made him laugh aloud, saying it was adorable. But I was being serious.
“What if someone released them onto Earth on purpose? Like, to wipe people out by feeding them to monsters?”
“Oh…”
My father went quiet for a moment, thinking carefully about how to answer. He always took his time like that, but never once left one of my questions unanswered.
“That’s possible too.”
An honest reply eventually came from his lips.
“But even that’s uncertain, Suho. Whether some being unleashed them on our world, or if the monsters just appeared on their own…”
He stroked my face with a touch of regret, unable to give a definitive answer.
“What matters more to people is not really the reason why…”
My father trailed off. He didn’t finish, but I felt like I understood.
For the survivors, figuring out why or how the monsters appeared probably mattered less than learning how to fight them—or how to stay alive.
I looked down at the pictures in the fairy tale book. The colorful monsters attacking people were drawn in a cutesy, round art style. The final image showed the survivors smiling brightly inside the ship, safe and sound.
…Can this really be called a happy ending?
“Those people weren’t the only ones, right?”
The question I tossed out brought on a silence.
My father looked unsure whether the truth—that the dead vastly outnumbered the living—was something a child should hear. A faint shadow passed over his otherwise gentle expression.
“Yeah. Suho, your grandmother and grandfather also passed away during that time.”
At last, my father gave me an answer and lifted me into his arms.
“They gave up their lives to get Mom and Dad onto the ship. Thanks to them, we were able to meet… and now we have you, Suho.”
The sadness quickly faded from his face. His eyes, looking at me like I was the most precious thing in the world, were filled with warmth. His arms holding me close were gentle and full of love.
“Suho. Mom and Dad’s dream is to live on the surface with you someday.”
My father told me about his own childhood before the catastrophe—about the sky-high buildings, the crowded amusement parks, the ocean where he swam freely, the mountains that changed colors with every season…
Having been born on this ship, I found it all to be nothing short of wondrous.
I stared for a long time at the look of quiet yearning on my father’s face.
