TBMRB 01

Chapter 01

The director of Root Orphanage alternated her gaze between the two children sitting in front of her.

Fourteen-year-old Kang Hae-jin’s hair was a complete mess from having been yanked, while dried blood remained around thirteen-year-old Kang Hae-jeong’s nose.

“Hae-jin is the older sister, so you go first. What happened?”

“I said I was just going to use the tablet for a little while, but Kang Hae-jeong suddenly grabbed me by the hair.”

The old tablet that had caused the fight was sitting on the coffee table.

Director Kang swallowed a sigh as she looked at one cracked corner of the tablet.

Meanwhile, the children started bickering again.

“It was my turn to use it!”

“I said I’d just look up one thing and give it right back!”

“Liar!”

“Keep messing with me just because you think the director will take your side.”

“Both of you, enough.”

Director Kang intervened before things could get completely out of hand, but both children were still fuming with anger.

If she sent them back like this, there was no doubt a Second World War would break out.

That couldn’t happen.

“When you’re angry, there are better ways to solve things than fighting.”

Both children’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Now that you’re both middle schoolers, I suppose it’s time I passed that method on to you.”

After finishing her ominous declaration without backing down, Director Kang rose from the sofa.

Whether or not the children looked at her suspiciously, Director Kang cleared enough space and assumed a stance, placing her feet about shoulder-width apart.

“Watch carefully. You just lower yourself like this.”

She had to tighten her buttocks while keeping her back as straight as possible at the same time.

“Your knees shouldn’t come too far forward past your toes. As much as possible… whew, you brace yourself by putting strength into your thighs like this.”

Director Kang crossed her arms and held the position for a moment, putting her weight on her thighs before controlling her breathing and standing back up.

Then she smiled at the two children, who were sitting there staring blankly at her.

“Now, both of you, get up. I’ll check your form.”

Thus began Root Orphanage’s unique method of reconciliation, otherwise known as squat hell.

The two children looked somewhat horrified as they faced the hellish punishment they had only heard about through rumors from the older brothers and sisters who had already left the orphanage—the infamous ordeal that supposedly began once you entered middle school and did something wrong.

However, Director Kang was the kind of person who, despite her soft and gentle appearance, absolutely refused to back down in certain matters.

“Hmm, Hae-jeong, your butt is sticking out too far. Bring it forward.”

“Tea…cher… This is too hard…!”

“You’ve only done ninety so far. Do one more set like this and I’ll let you go. Hae-jin, don’t put so much strength into your knees.”

“My thighs… they’re on fire…!”

“It’s fine. People don’t burst into spontaneous combustion that easily.”

What is she talking about?

Hae-jin and Hae-jeong screamed internally at the same time. They didn’t scream out loud. If they had enough strength left to scream, they had to save it and send it to their thighs.

Their thigh muscles trembled, their buttocks were pulled taut, and sweat trickled down their backs, which they were forcing to remain perfectly straight.

Beside them, Director Kang calmly held her squat position while counting.

“Five, six, seven… four, five…”

Our director can’t count past seven!

In the end, the two only managed to escape squat hell after completing fifteen squats—five more than the ten they had originally been promised.

By Director Kang’s counting system, that was 100.

By the universally accepted decimal system, it was 147.

“Now, do you want to make up, or do you want to keep fighting? Any child who doesn’t want to reconcile can be considered to still be angry and do another set of squats.”

“I’m sorry, sis!”

“I’m sorry, little sis!”

Before Director Kang had even finished speaking, the two orphanage sisters threw their arms around each other.

Perhaps because they had shed sweat hotter than tears, their reconciliation was much more passionate than usual.

Director Kang smiled warmly as she watched them.

Her palm gently stroked their damp hair.

“If you want to fight again in the future, you’re always allowed to. Teacher isn’t going to scold you just for something like that. Children grow while fighting with each other.”

“I’m never fighting again!”

Director Kang never hit the children or forced them to reconcile.

She simply made them do squats together with her.

Sometimes, the children complained that this was punishment, but most of them didn’t resist.

After all, Director Kang, who was over sixty herself, willingly did squats together with the children, and there was also the kind little remark she always added after they reconciled.

“From now on, whenever you’re upset or angry, do some squats first.”

Hae-jin, a second-year middle school student in the midst of the turbulent years of adolescence, pouted.

“It’s not like doing this is going to solve whatever pissed me— I mean, made me angry.”

“It may look like nothing is being solved right now, but strong muscles and physical stamina will help you greatly in supporting your emotions and your life in the future. I’m serious.”

Young Kang Hae-jin didn’t properly understand Director Kang’s words at the time.

She wouldn’t truly understand them until she became an adult, left the orphanage, and began living independently while juggling university and a part-time job.

In a life that was inevitably busy and difficult, the one thing that was always on her side was none other than her core muscles.

Making her a little less tired, a little less exhausted, and a little less depressed.

After graduating from university, she naturally went on to become a trainer at a rehabilitation exercise center.

So it would not be an exaggeration to say that her entire life owed a debt to the core muscles Director Kang had helped her develop.

—Hae-jin, sis, have you left yet?

After finishing her last PT session of the day, Hae-jin was wiping down the exercise equipment when she glanced at the clock and answered her phone.

“Not yet. I just finished my session.”

—If you arrive too late, you’ll have to climb the mountain right away without even getting any sleep, so it’ll be tough. It’s getting dark, too, so leave as soon as you can.

“Okay. You guys get the lodging first and go inside.”

—Yes, ma’am!

The caller was the leader of her hiking club.

The small club, formed by eight young people around Hae-jin’s age, went hiking regardless of the season.

Today, based on the weather forecast saying that the snow would completely stop overnight and tomorrow would be perfectly clear without a single cloud, the club members had prepared for a winter climb of Seoraksan.

After finishing up, Hae-jin went outside and started her car.

‘If I use a lantern while climbing in the dark, then see the winter mountain and come back down…’

As she left Seoul behind and drove along the open road, Hae-jin continued imagining the enjoyable trip ahead.

“Wheeeew.”

Hae-jin, who almost never drank alcohol for fear of losing muscle, let out a sound more befitting a severe alcoholic.

And then it happened.

As if shattering her happy imagination, Hae-jin’s car suddenly spun across what had appeared to be an ordinary asphalt highway.

Crash!

The car, having slipped on black ice, slammed straight into the guardrail.

Blink, blink…

She blinked several times, but her consciousness was gradually fading.

Something warm flowed down over her eyes.

‘Ah, what am I going to do about my members who still have PT sessions left…?’

That was the last thought of fitness fanatic Kang Hae-jin before she died.

“Ungh!”

Ralph, a kitchen servant employed at the Kallenberg mansion, let out a grunt as he lifted a sack of flour.

That made three.

Once he moved the final sack, the heavy lifting would finally be over for the day, leaving only some simple cleaning.

So let’s give it everything I’ve got and move it properly!

With that thought in mind, Ralph straightened his legs and bent only at the waist.

A thunderous scolding suddenly came from behind him.

“Don’t!”

“Huh?”

Ralph lifted his head while still bent at the waist, making a slightly dazed sound.

A small child came running toward him.

Mariella Kallenberg.

The youngest daughter of Leopold Kallenberg and Lucy Kallenberg, the masters of this mansion.

The three-year-old little mistress toddled over and promptly planted one hand on her hip as she looked down at Ralph.

“You’ll huwt youw back if you lift heavy things wike that!”

Even though she was making a stern expression, her chubby cheeks puffed out like freshly baked bread, so she wasn’t particularly frightening.

Ralph almost broke into a wide grin before barely managing to compose himself.

There was one thing that bothered him.

‘Lifting it like this will hurt my back?’

Ralph had been suffering from strange back pain lately, often enduring it every night, so he couldn’t simply ignore her words.

“Then how should I lift it, my lady?”

What could a three-year-old possibly know?

But she was so confident that he found himself asking the question before he knew it.

“That’s a good question. When you pick up something heavy from the floor, put one knee on the ground first, wike this…”

Mariella slowly lowered one knee toward the floor and bent her body closer to the ground.

Then she reached her hands forward to grasp the load and slowly stood up, using her legs to distribute the weight.

Ralph’s mouth fell open as he watched the natural sequence of movements.

“Does your back really not hurt if you lift things that way?”

“Uh-huh! Of course, if you wanna make sure you don’t get hurt, you should do core exercises normally and make your back stwong!”

“Core exercises? What’s that?”

Mariella stood there for a moment with her eyes wide open at Ralph’s question.

Then she tilted her head to the left.

“Oh. What is that?”

Ralph’s expression twisted into something utterly bizarre.

If you’re asking me that right now…?

The young lady herself had just told him about core exercises, and when he asked what core exercises were, she was asking him what core exercises were?

::Writing continues::