The Manager Knows Best

By: Mokona-Midoki

Disclaimer: Let me think…nope! I don't own Safe Again Today!

Author's Note: This is a story for the Korean manga Safe Again Today! It has not been printed in the U.S. that I know of. It's one of my favorites.

You can read Safe Again Today here: one manga .com (Take out the spaces)

The plot centers around Choi Sera who works for a company called MS. She takes in aliens from other planets and teaches them about being human and how to live on earth. She is currently housing five aliens and one ex-alien hunter.

"Sera! Let's get ice cream!"

Choi Sera turned towards the two teenage boys who held out a large carton of chocolate ice cream in their gloved hands. These were Choi Seunghyun and Seungmin. To the general stranger they were rather odd boys. Identical twins in every way except that Seungmin's dark brown hair was shorter. This was due to the fact that Sera had finally gotten frustrated trying to tell them apart, and cut it herself. She had decided afterwards the Seungmin was the one with short hair. The twins went along with this decision because they themselves didn't bother remembering who was who. The whole concept of 'I' or the individual was rather lost on them.

"You want ice cream?" She asked.

"Yeah!" They exclaimed together.

Sera bit her lip. "Well, I don't know…"

"Please Sera?"

She smiled. "Well, alright. But we can't just get chocolate."

"Why not?" Seunghyun questioned, his mitten-covered hands firmly clamped around the carton. This was another odd thing about the twins. No matter the weather, temperature, time, or place, the twins always wore mittens. Even at school, they wore mittens. Sera had told the faculty that it was due to a fire that had occurred when they were younger. Believing this, they had never questioned it. Nobody knew that underneath the mittens the twins hands were green and had only three long fingers.

"Well," Sera began patiently, "Because not everybody's favorite flavor is chocolate. Remember?"

The twins looked at each other, then back at Sera. "No."

She sighed. They were honest to a fault. "Jae Min's favorite is vanilla, and Uemjee's favorite is choclate peanut butter." She began listing off her family's favorites. "Um, I don't know what Hanrim's…but I remember him saying he liked orange. And…Hyunwoo…" She paused and looked at them. "What do you think Hyunwoo likes?"

"Chocolate!" They chorused together.

Sera looked at them for a moment, and then sighed again.

--

It was quiet in the house when everybody was gone. That was the way he preferred it. Of course he didn't mind when Sera was there. She was warm and comforting, and always spoke in a kind voice. He didn't mind the twins either. As loud and boisterous as they were, they knew when to leave him alone. Jae Min and Uemjee weren't usually there, so he didn't mind them. As for Hanrim…well….he could tolerate the man…

Yes, it's true. Hyunwoo's favorite noise was the sound of silence. And so, when listening to his favorite noise wrapped up in a blanket in the corner of his room, the phone rang destroying that glorious noise, he was rather irritated. He decided to ignore it at first. After all, they had no answering machine so they would have to hang up soon. But after about five seconds of this, he couldn't take it anymore.

Standing up, blanket still firmly wrapped around his head, he made his way out of his room, into the hall, and over to where the phone stood ringing away. Staring at it, he reached out, and slowly picked it up. Holding it up to his ear hesitantly as he had seen Sera do, he waited for something to happen.

"Hyunwoo? Hyunwoo are you there?"

Hyunwoo promptly dropped the phone and backed away quickly from it, a look of horror and shock on his face. The thing was TALKING! After a few more seconds of staring it down, he faintly heard, "Hyunwoo? It's me…Hyunwoo, its Sera."

Realizing that it was indeed Sera's voice, he slowly reached out his hand and picked up the phone, still holding it half a foot away from his ear.

"Sera?"

"Hi Hyunwoo! You picked up! This is your first time using a phone, isn't it?"

The Aridun shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, yeah…"

He could almost hear her smile. "Good job!"

"Thanks." He mumbled.

"Oh right! I almost forgot the reason why I called. Hyunwoo, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah! Seunghyun, Seungmin and I are at the store, and we're going to get ice cream for everybody."

"I, I don't know…"

"Is there a certain flavor you would like me to get?"

"Um, not really…"

She paused, and once again he could imagine her facial expression. It would shift into a worried frown. "Well, alright. I'll just pick one, is that okay?"

"Yeah."

"Alright! I'll see you when we get home!"

"Uh, okay."

"Bye Hyunwoo!" There was a click, and then silence. She must have left.

Hyunwoo stared down at the phone he held. In truth, he had never had ice cream. So he had no idea what he was supposed to tell Sera. He shrugged. Oh well. Sera knew his favorite foods. She'd pick out something good. He turned back around to go to his room, and then realized he still had the phone in his hand. He then realized that he didn't know how to turn it off.

--

Sera unlocked the front door and opened it. The twins ran past her into the house, each carrying several bags of groceries.

"Ice cream! Sera got ice cream!" They laughed.

The manager of the MS Company Seoul area smiled as she watched her two youngest charges. They were so easily pleased with the smallest things. "Put the groceries in the kitchen, okay?"

The boys nodded, and ran into the following room. She trailed after them.

As she went past the phone, she noticed it was lying off the hook.

"Oh, Hyunwoo must have left it off…" She mumbled to no one in particular as she hung it up.

"Seunghyun, Seungnim!" She called.

The twins instantly poked their heads around the corner. "Yes Sera?"

"Will you take these to the kitchen for me? I've got something to see to."

They smiled and quickly relieved her off the bags returning to the kitchen.

As they rounded the corner, she made her way up the hall to Hyunwoo's room. She gently knocked on the door. "Hyunwoo? Are you in there?"

There was no answer.

She opened the door, and called softly. "Hyunwoo? I'm coming in, alright?"

Still no answer.

The room was empty, but she had been expecting that. Walking over to the closet, she knocked once. "Hyunwoo?"

Silence.

She slid the door to the closet open to find Hyunwoo lying on top of the bedding. He was wrapped in his blanket as usual, so she could only see his bright blue eyes. Sera smiled. "Hyunwoo we're home!"

He parted the blanket slightly so she could now see his nose and mouth.

"Why are you in the closet? You usually don't go in there until night."

The Aridun opened his mouth as if to speak, and then shut it.

A sudden thought occurred to Sera. "Were you lonely?"

He was quiet and then wrapped his blanket tighter around his head tighter.

She smiled again. "Hyunwoo, will you come help me put away groceries?"

He was quiet. "Okay."

--

That night the Choi kitchen was full. On one side sat Jae Min and Uemjee who had come for dinner on Sera's invitation, on the other sat Seunghyun, Seungmin, and Hanrim who had recently returned from his day out. He only sat with the twins because Jae Min and Uemjee had already claimed the other side, and Hyunwoo refused to sit anywhere but the end of the table. The hunter sighed as he tiredly smacked Seungmin's hand away from his plate.

"For the last time, brat, keep your hand away from my plate."

Jae Min smiled. "You know all you have to do is be direct with them."

Hanrim glared. He was tired, and Jae Min sat there with that all-knowing grin on his face. Okay, the Baelohdekahan was smart, Hanrim would give him that, but why did he have to act so infuriating all the time. "Just don't say anything Jae Min."

Uemjee grinned. "Oh? Did you have a hard day?"

Hanrim now focused his attention on the blonde. "Yes, as a matter of fact I did."

The Holahyee leaned closer, grinning more. "What happened?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"You're no fun, you know that right?"

Hanrim rolled his eyes. "You make the assumption that I care."

Seungmin's hand began to sneak towards his plate. Right before he could touch it, the hunter caught his wrist and glared down at the boy. "Don't. Touch. My. Plate."

Seungmin stared up at him with innocent eyes. Before Hanrim could blink, the Moomorhoochee's other hand shot up, grabbed Hanrim's wrist and applied pressure.

Hanrim let go cursing.

Seungmin now free, focused his attention on Seunghyun's plate.

Hanrim rubbed his sore wrist, his mood descending rapidly.

"So was it really that bad, Hanrim?" Jae Min asked.

"Well if you really must know, four-eyes, my shoelace broke this morning, I missed the train, got lost for two hours, dropped my wallet, and was attacked by an old lady on the train home."

Jae Min and Uemjee stared.

"Oh. And I stepped in dog crap. Twice."

"You were attacked by an old lady on the train?" Uemjee asked.

Hanrim leaned back. "The crazy hag started screaming about how I was the man who murdered her brother, and then proceeded to beat me with her purse."

"And you let her?"

"Hey look! She was like eighty! If I fought back I'd have probably been arrested for attacking the elderly or some stupid charge like that!"

Jae Min and Uemjee stared a bit more, and then burst out laughing.

This did nothing to improve the hunter's mood.

"Aw, shut up!"

"You, you got beat up by an old lady!!!" Uemjee choked out.

Jae Min just continued laughing.

It was at that moment that Hyunwoo walked into the dining room. For some, this was not a rare occurrence, but for them it was. Hyunwoo rarely ever came to dinner on time. Sometimes he didn't come at all. But there he was in all his blanketed glory.

Jae Min smiled. "Hello Tagaya."

Hyunwoo just pulled out his chair and sat down in it. After a few seconds he whispered. "Hi."

Uemjee, Jae Min, and Hanrim all looked at each other. Another rare occurrence. Maybe something was in the water?

Sera then entered the room carrying a large pot. "Hello everybody! Sorry dinner's a bit late!" She set the pot down, and took her place. "Please! Help yourselves."

They did so with gusto.

Sera's cooking was always good, tonight especially so.

Sera talked to Jae Min about his business, Hanrim continued his verbal battle with Uemjee, Seunghyun and Seungmin stuffed themselves silly, and Hyunwoo quietly ate his food, only talking when he was asked a question, and then sometimes not even at all.

As the meal came down to a close, the twins looked excitedly over at Sera.

"Can we have ice cream now?" The practically begged.

Uemjee looked up. "We have ice cream?" It was one of the Holahyee's favorites.

Sera laughed. "I'll go get it." She got up and disappeared into the kitchen. After a minute of her shuffling around, opening the fridge, and more shuffling, she came back in, her arms full of seven pint-sized ice cream containers.

Jae Min raised an eyebrow. "You got seven different flavors?"

His manager smiled. "Well everybody likes a different flavor. Except for Seunghyun and Seungmin." She handed him a small carton of vanilla. "Here you go!"

The twins quickly lay claim to theirs, as did Uemjee. Hanrim was a bit surprised to see that Sera had remembered that he liked orange, but thanked her anyway.

Hyunwoo looked up as Sera took a container that was green and brown and handed it to him.

He took it. It was cold. He read the label on the lid. "Mint chocolate chip?"

"Well you liked the mint candy we had, so I thought you might like that flavor."

He opened it, and dipped his spoon into the green substance inside of it. He took a bite. It was good.

"Do you like it, Hyunwoo."

He nodded and took another bite. He was right to trust Sera on the matter. Hyunwoo knew that no matter what, Sera always came through for him. "I like it."

Sera smiled, and proceeded to open her own container of fudge ripple.

Once more, the five aliens, their manager, and ex-hunter were safe again today.

THE END

Footnotes: Hello! Thank you for reading. Safe Again Today is one of my favorite series. This idea wandered into my head suddenly, I think it could have been better, but I like the final outcome.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Sera: Sera is the district manager of Seoul for the company MS. She is currently taking care of five aliens and one ex-hunter. She views them as her family, and loves them all dearly.

The twins: Seunghyun and Seungmin are actually clones and not twins. Their spieces of alien is Moomorhoochee, and their real names are Abu-Tas and Abu-Rochi. They always wear gloves because the company can't make human hands for them.

Hyunwoo-Hyunwoo is one of the last surviving Aridun aliens. His real name is Tagayaroon which can also be spelled Tahgahyahroon. The others call him Hyunwoo or Tagaya.

Jae Min-Jae Min is from the planet Baelohdekahan. He is very smart, and no longer lives with Sera though he visits her quite often. His real name is Aiqelle.

Uemjee-Uemjee is actually a guy, but likes the female human body better. Because of this he uses a female body. Uemjee is from Holahyee. He no longer lives with Sera but visits quite often. His real name is Ji.

Hanrim-He used to work for an agency which hunts aliens, but quit after living with Sera and the others. His current employment is a mystery!