Chapter Text
The thing about mad scientists is that they're, well, mad. Not right in the head. And because of this, they make silly mistakes. Ha Won-do is not an exception to this. In another timeline, his first try at the eternal serum on a human subject doesn't work as expected, causing rapid cell degeneration and leading to death. In this timeline, the earplugs he wears to block Ju-ran's influence - something he made just in case her doubts got the better of her - similarly, don't work as expected.
She gets the truth out of him. How he never really planned to cure his “children's” side effects. He actually expects that they will all die today and he doesn’t care if they do. As long as the chemical bomb reaches Haeseong City. As long as it gets him another eternal child.
When the Wonderfools infiltrate the Church of Eternal Salvation to rescue Chae-ni, they find zero resistance. The doors of the church are flung opened, freeing the formerly brainwashed citizens of Haeseong City. Un-jeong, Gyeong-hun, and Ro-bin discover all of Won-do's men already subdued, piled up in the makeshift lab. The Wunderkinder trio emerge from another room with Chae-ni and a brainwashed Won-do in tow. The girl waves at them excitedly, declaring, “We’re cool now!”
So in the end, the Wunderkinders help the Wonderfools stop the chemical bomb. Ju-ran forces Won-do to turn himself and all of his associates into the police. They have enough evidence to ensure he'll stay locked up for good this time.
The Wunderkinder trio also face judgement. Despite their cooperation, they still committed many serious crimes under Won-do's command. They barely manage to avoid jail time thanks to Chae-ni's grandmother's influence. She believes they can be reformed and proposes strict probation, consisting of community service and weekly therapy.
Additionally, she looks into developing a cure for the side effects from their powers. After learning just how much the three were suffering, she couldn't just leave them like that. But she's determined not to make the same mistake she did all those years ago. So she forms a small team to work on the cure and entrusts Jun-mo to supervise their operation. She personally asks for the consent of her granddaughter and the three kids to collect their blood in order to develop the cure.
Pal-ho is the hardest convince, despite being in the worst condition out of the three. He doesn’t trust that he won't be used again, suspecting that Jeon-bok will use the promise of a cure to manipulate him just like Won-do did. It’s a fair assumption considering what he's been through, but she still scolds him at the accusation. She tells him she has no illusions of grandeur. She just feels bad seeing him struggle doing his community service with that crippled arm of his. He still doesn’t fully trust her, but he does end up agreeing to the trial.
“Better than just waiting for death, I guess,” he says begrudgingly.
She then invites the trio over for dinner at Hearty House, but fails to mention that Chae-ni and the others would be the ones joining them.
“They have the super part down,” Jeon-bok tells her granddaughter. “But they desperately need help with the hero part. They need a good influence. Help them, Eun-ni.”
That's how Chae-ni gets roped into a dinner with the Wunder-kids. She’s glad her grandmother closed the place down for them because the tension is thick. It’s so quiet between the seven of them. No one dares to say a word, lest they start a fight. It's only when a whiny growl erupts from Ro-bin's stomach that the tense silence is broken. Everyone turns to look at him and he shrinks away from the sudden attention, but chooses to speak up anyway.
“C-Could someone pass the fish cakes?” he asks shakily.
The fish cakes sit directly in front of Pal-ho.
Everyone waits to see what will happen.
Un-jeong contemplates if he should just bite the bullet and float the fish cakes over to Ro-bin. However, before he can put the plan into action, Pal-ho scoops up the small bowl and delivers it to Ro-bin's waiting hands.
“Thank you, Mr. Boom,” Ro-bin says in a small voice. He starts adding other things to his plate, eager to eat.
Pal-ho grunts in acknowledgement and starts to gather his own food.
“Mr. Boom?” Ho-ran questions, one eyebrow raising above her sunglasses.
“Mhm,” Ro-bin hums mid-chew. He momentarily puts his chopsticks down. Ro-bin lifts his hands and holds one over the other, palms facing, mimicking Pal-ho's stance for when he uses his power. “And then he,” he claps his hands together hard and yells, “boom!”
Ho-ran gives him an odd look, but an amused smile breaks out on her face. “Yeah, I guess that is pretty accurate,” she says with a huff of a laugh.
Ro-bin chuckles. “Did he ever tell you what happened when we met?”
There's a sigh from Pal-ho and Ho-ran turns to see him rolling his eyes. And that makes her oh so curious. Because all he reported back then was that there were more "defects." But of course he wouldn't report anything that would make him look bad. "He didn't," she says, smile devious. She puts her elbows on the table and folds her hands together to rest her chin on them, leaning closer in interest. “Please enlighten me.”
Ro-bin doesn't hesitate to tell her - and the entire table by association - about the whacky encounter. How Pal-ho tried so hard to crush him, but only succeeded in making a sick beat of "boom boom pow!" It gets the whole table laughing and Pal-ho sinks down in his seat in embarrassment, absolutely fuming.
“Aw, don’t be shy,” Chae-ni teases him. “You've got a bright future ahead of you as a music producer! Ro-bin already helped you with your name. Or people love acronyms nowadays. Maybe... BBP?”
“Do you wanna die?” Pal-ho sneers.
Chae-ni just laughs, waves away the threat, and stuffs more food in her mouth. But in teasing him over his nickname, she realizes… “Speaking of names-" She wipes her mouth with her sleeve. “I don't think any of us actually got yours. Any of you actually. Wait! Come to think of it, do you even know ours?” She practically launches from her seat to stretch her hand, and most of her body, across the table to reach the trio from where she's sat. Un-jeong and Mr. Son rush to stabilize her so she doesn’t fall on the table and ruin the food. “I'm Eun Chae-ni,” she says with a big grin on her face. “These other losers are Kim Un-jeong-”
“Lee! It's Lee, you trainwreck!” Mr. Son interjects.
Chae-ni ignores him. “Son Gyeong-hun, and Kang Ro-bin.” She points back at them for their respective names. “Though I guess I already technically introduced Ro-bin earlier.”
The three Wunder-kids look at each other with equally concerned faces, baffled by her bizarre energy. Chae-ni, still hanging over the table, insistently stretches her hand out further.
“For the love of god! Can one of you please shake her hand so we can eat in peace?” Mr. Son pleads, him and Un-jeong still struggling to keep Chae-ni from taking a dive into the food.
“Seok Ju-ran.” The girl finally takes pity on the men and shakes Chae-ni's hand. “This is Seok Ho-ran and the music producer-” She smirks at the glare she receives. “-is Kim Pal-ho.”
“Nice to officially meet you all,” Chae-ni says, allowing the two men to help pull her back to her seat. “I'm glad we're not trying to kill each other anymore.” She stretches her arms out wide and grins. “Let’s all be friends, yeah?”
The declaration is met with silence.
“Colleagues?”
Several murmurs of reluctant acceptance.
She slaps the table in excitement. “Good enough!”
And so a somewhat amicable relationship between the two groups is established. They run into each other fairly often, the Wunder-kids frequenting City Hall to receive their community service assignments. It provides Ho-ran with numerous opportunities to fawn over Un-jeong, much to the disdain of Chae-ni. She's taken to staking out the conplaints office when Ho-ran is set to be there, ready to chase the witch away when she gets too close to her man. It easily makes her Chae-ni's least favorite of the three currently.
Chae-ni also sees them every other week when the research team collects more blood samples from them. It’s a shock when she gets her first look at Pal-ho's arm. It's no wonder he's so angry all the time. It looks so painful… It really puts it into perspective for her just how much they all must be suffering. Sure, she knows that they did bad things, but that freak Won-do got into their heads when they were just scared kids. He made them rely on him. Made them think they were family. Chae-ni herself isn't sure just how far she'd go for her loved ones so she can't truly fault them for doing what they thought would save their family. Still, she hopes they can turn things around and become better people.