리틀팍스

 "Devices-more!"

 Soon after the brief investigation-which my father did nothing except despairing at his own mistake, my father was back to himself. I, of course, stood near the corner of the room, watching the researchers working frantically. Minho and Min Young were with me-standing near the corner like outsiders.

 "Wonder what they are making?"

 Minho said. I remember of adding, "Or doing."

 "Why did Mr.Jang cry?" 

 Min Young asked, of pure curiosity, loud enough for my father to hear. I glanced at him, nervously. Fortunately he didn't seem to notice, paying all his attention on what he was doing, surrounded by four or five people, including Mr.Choi. Minho jolted, and signaled his sister to be quiet.

 "I dunno. Actually, I'm wondering about it too..."

 I answered, and let my mind wander away into deep thoughts, still watching my father in his project with the other researchers.

 He didn't seem to be wasting any time. Supposedly to make up for his 'mistake', my father didn't allow himself with any rest. The purpose of the project was roughly able to guess, even though my father never told me a word about it, nor that I could understand. To undo a global disaster which has already happened, wouldn't be an easy thing to accomplish to five or six researchers with only a spare room or two in an underground shelter. 

 Surprisingly, the project was finished the very day. 

 A group of researchers-although there were only three of them-walked out of the room, the tense ex-pressions they wore on the project loosened a bit. Mr. Choi and my father walked out of the room a little later. My father seemed to be satisfied with himself, and Mr.Choi was being-some kind of-cheerful.

 "All done! Not sure if we can destroy the chamber completely, but at least, we can stop it from erupting."

 He said to us(more like exclaiming), finally, completely back to himself I knew. I smiled without realizing.

 "Wait for an hour or two, then it will be all done, and the last thing to fetch will be the plan of the mineral detector."

 My father said. I almost nodded in agreement, when Minho shouted out-

 "Wait! Aren't we coming?"

 My father turned his head sharply, and glared at Minho.

 "If anything-a small thing-goes wrong, you'll be, INSTANTLY, burned into nothing."

 "But-you're as dangerous as we are!"

 My father didn't step back.

 "I'm not worth for you to worry, and Mr.Choi here volunteered personally."

 "What if I volunteer too-I want it too-"

 I shouted back, but the two of them just walked away, ignoring my words. Soon they were back, and entered, again, the room where they had been researching.

 "Hey!" I shouted

 The door slammed shut.

 Minho sighed, and Min Young was staring at the shut door, supposedly in a brief shock. I shook my head-for a reason which cannot be easily translated in words, I felt almost as if I were late for something more important than school at that moment.

 "Never thought that we weren't allowed to come this time-it was like, finding where the chunk is, and we set off, almost always all of us."

 Minho said.

 "It was only last time when we were truly allowed to go fetching the core with them-it was more like an accident, the other two times."

 "Yeah, and once they missed the discovery."

 There was a creak of a door. Min Young had opened it-the very door which Mr.Choi and my father entered. Minho firstly noticed, than ran to keep her from entering the room. I followed him, half terrified of what my father would say.

 There were no one inside the room.

 Apart from a desk, only three sets of ridiculous-looking costume was in there, each set looking remarkably like a spacesuit. 

 Min Young probably thought it was funny, for she had pleaded her brother to let her wear one. Minho and I helped, and once she was safely tucked in, I asked,

 "Is it all right? It looks too large for you."

 "Great!"

 She cried out in a muffled voice, but it didn't seem so-through the helmet I could only see the top of her head, and by the looks of it, she couldn't fit her arm properly into the arm part. 

 "It looks like as if we had imprisoned her in that suit." Minho whispered.

 Still, she was chattering away, being excited for the first time after we met("She's always like that when she gets excited," Minho said).

 "...Oh, and here's a button, near the helmet."

 "Hey, Min Young, don't touch-"

 Minho began, but he had that sentence never finished. Min Young was gone, right in front of his eyes. Only two sets of the costume remained.

-to be continued-