POSSESSED 1

On a bright, sunny day, I ended up dying from overwork. Too busy being buried in tasks to look after my own body, I suffered the very death by overwork that my friends and I used to joke about.

It was a miracle I hadn’t died sooner. My work-life balance had collapsed long ago, and a regular routine was something I couldn’t even dream of. My gradually deteriorating body simply accelerated my demise.

However, perhaps out of pity for the life of an ant who died while doing nothing but work, God gave me a new life. It was none other than possession. And of all things, I possessed a villain in a web novel titled <Devil Double>.

<Devil Double> was a web novel I used to enjoy. Just because I worked all the time didn’t mean I lacked small joys; reading web novels was my only hobby. It made me feel like I was earning money just so I could afford to read them.

The <Devil Double> I had been reading until the day before I died was a Hunter-genre novel with a proper blend of romance and childcare.

One might wonder why childcare would be in a Hunter novel along with romance. It was because the protagonist took over the upbringing of his nephew, who had lost his parents in a tragic accident. The nephew played a solid role as the cute supporting character.

Up to this point, there was nothing unusual. However, the genre of this novel was actually BL—a story where a man falls in love with another man.

The reason I, a straight man, started reading a BL novel was simple. While searching for web novels to be a ray of light in my desert-like life, I received a recommendation for this story from an acquaintance. The acquaintance, who later revealed it was a prank, expected a flustered reaction from me, but I actually found it interesting and kept reading from then on.

Thinking about it now, perhaps I had gone crazy from working too much. Or maybe, because I had searched for and read almost every other kind of web novel, I needed a different kind of fun.

Since I’m already dead, I don’t want to regret reading a BL novel. However, I do want to express my dissatisfaction with the fact that I possessed a character in this novel.

Why, of all the roles to possess, did it have to be the villain? Just an extra would have been fine.

The person I possessed was a villain. His name was Jang Taeyeon, and his age was 29, the same as mine. Jang Taeyeon was one of the villains in the novel and played a fairly troublesome role. Furthermore, he was the owner of a dubious and perverted personality.

Jang Taeyeon held no hatred toward Hunters. That was his point of differentiation and a peculiarity compared to other villains. If you were to ask why he committed such atrocious villainous acts, I would tell you exactly what I read in the novel.

To bring fun to a tedious life and to relieve the stress of work.

In other words, he was a total crazy psycho.

If there was one more peculiarity regarding Jang Taeyeon, it was that he possessed supernatural powers just like a lead character. What’s more, it was of the mental type. With abilities as troublesome as his personality, he was currently living as a civilian rather than a Hunter.

The occupation Jang Taeyeon chose to maintain his civilian facade was a daycare teacher. He was disguising his identity as a teacher at a daycare center that was linked to numerous Hunter guilds and prioritized accepting the children of Hunters. It was a result achieved by manipulating the director’s mind.

Not only a perverted psycho but a guy without a shred of fear. Should I be happy about possessing such a role?

I question whether God truly pitied my life every time I chew over the character of Jang Taeyeon. Perhaps he’s telling me to vent the sorrows of a life spent only working by living as Jang Taeyeon. And then, I suppose I’m meant to die according to the plot. Yes. The end of this role was death.

Jang Taeyeon, who eventually couldn’t find satisfaction even with ordinary evil deeds, later toys with the lives of the daycare children. Eventually, he even messes with the nephew of the main “Gong,” Baek Joomyeong, and with the added sin of deception, he dies in the most cruel and miserable way.

Even in my eyes, he’s a guy who deserves to die. But that was only when I was reading it as a novel.

Now that I’ve become Jang Taeyeon… do I have to die again? I hate that.

As someone who has died once, I don’t want to die again. I don’t want to do villainous things, nor do I want to do Hunter work. I just want to lead this life peacefully. Even if this body belongs to a perverted psycho, would the “extreme peace” DNA inside me just stay still?

Therefore, I have decided. I’ll quit being a villain and live only as a daycare teacher.

The Eden Daycare Center where Jang Taeyeon works has a relatively high salary and excellent welfare. Above all, there are many employed teachers, so they don’t suffer from a labor shortage. This also led to a guaranteed private life after work. It was very satisfying.

Living as Jang Taeyeon, I feel it all the time. How precious it is to go to sleep and wake up at the same time. How valuable a life is where one can prepare and eat dinner like a proper dinner.

So, I am going to live happily in this wonderful place with these rabbit-like cute children.

Why would I bother doing villainous things and leave this good life behind?

🍥

While the children of the Rainbow Class, made up of four- and five-year-olds, were taking their nap, I—one of the teachers in charge—began writing the daily reports.

At first, I had many worries about whether I could live as a daycare teacher. My confidence had hit rock bottom, but humans are creatures of adaptation. Once I did it, I got it done.

Besides, just because I possessed him didn’t mean I lost Jang Taeyeon’s memories. How he had worked until now was stored clearly in this head of mine. Thanks to that, I was living much more easily without getting lost.

The more I think about it, the more absurd it is. He must have been writing these reports with such care in front while going around killing Hunters behind their backs.

Clicking my tongue to myself, I picked up the last daily report. The owner of this report was Baek Yeonji, the only four-year-old nephew of the main “Gong,” Baek Joomyeong.

Before writing the report, I lifted my head and looked for Baek Yeonji’s face. She was a girl with exceptionally fair skin, so she was easy to find.

“Yeonji is sleeping well….”

Satisfied that the child was sleeping quietly without even a bit of tossing and turning, I opened the daily report app.

The report app was useful. You could record the day spent by the child who attended today, and you could also post announcements from within the center. You could take photos and share the meal plan as well.

The report was divided into a section written by the teacher and a section written by the parents. Since Yeonji unfortunately lost her parents, her guardian and the main “Gong,” Baek Joomyeong, was using the parents’ section.

“Oh? What’s this. He actually wrote one yesterday.”

[Yeonji is finding the daycare very interesting. She especially loves it most when she talks about her teacher. I am always grateful to the teacher for looking after the child.]

As soon as I discovered the trace left by Baek Joomyeong, I let out a muffled giggle.

Baek Joomyeong wasn’t able to maintain a consistent attitude with the reports. Some days he would send them full of typos, and other days he would write them out densely. I wasn’t particularly disappointed just because he wasn’t diligent. Rather, as a reader, I understood.

Baek Joomyeong loved Yeonji like his own child, but he was the type who found childcare itself difficult. Not only that, but he was a nationally famous Hunter, so he was constantly on the move. Since he was a Hunter so busy he didn’t have a moment to blink, it was only natural that he didn’t have the leisure to worry about the reports.

“Let’s be understanding. Hunter Baek Joomyeong says he’s always grateful. I’ll just pay even more attention to Yeonji myself.”

🍥

The children’s dismissal time was 4:00 PM.