Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 13

Hyung, Am I Cute? 13

Siha climbed down from Sihyuk’s arms and went back to playing with Seungjun.

They were having a lively conversation inside the daycare.

“You know, I have a younger sibling too!” Seungjun announced proudly.

“Ah ah.”

Siha pointed at Sihyuk and then at himself.

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“Hyung. Ah ah.”

Siha was trying to emphasize that he was Sihyuk’s younger brother, but Seungjun misunderstood.

“I’m not a hyung [older brother or male friend, used by males]. I’m an oppa [older brother or male friend, used by females]. Oppa! We were born together.”

“Ah ah.”

“But I came out first, so I’m the oppa.”

“Ah ah.”

“He’s probably playing with Dad right now. I like soccer, but my younger brother doesn’t like it that much.”

Something about the conversation with Siha felt subtly off, but the two children didn’t seem to notice or care.

They were simply engrossed in sharing their own stories.

“Ah ah. Hyung. Ah ah.”

“You really like hyung, don’t you?”

Siha made a gesture as if he was trying to explain something.

He made a fist and quickly jabbed with his hand, then drew a large circle in the air.

“Ah ah!”

He was trying to convey how cool Sihyuk was at KI Media.

That day, Siha had realized that other people also thought Sihyuk was amazing.

Seungjun nodded, seemingly understanding Siha’s gestures.

“Wow. Your hyung is so good at fighting?”

“Ah?”

“Awesome!”

“Ah ah.”

Dori dori [onomatopoeia for shaking head].

Siha shook his head, and Seungjun tilted his head in confusion.

“Can’t fight?”

Siha tilted his head, equally confused.

He didn’t really know how good Sihyuk was at fighting in the first place, and he didn’t even fully understand the word ‘fighting’.

Seungjun punched the air and then dramatically fell to the ground to demonstrate.

Only then did Siha begin to understand what fighting meant.

He pictured Sihyuk wielding a sword while explaining that he was a martial artist.

“Ah ah! Hyung!”

Siha put his hands together and mimed wielding a sword.

“Wow. Your hyung uses a sword too? So strong!”

“Ah ah!”

“I have a precious sword at home too, and it lights up!”

Seungjun stood up and used all sorts of grand gestures to describe his sword.

“So cool. It even has fire.”

“Ah ah!”

Siha was also getting excited by Seungjun’s description.

“Amazing, right? I’ll show it to Siha later!”

“Ah ah.”

It was a conversation that was slightly off-kilter, yet somehow connected the two boys.

Siha was bragging about his hyung.

Seungjun was bragging about his possessions.

It was a battle of boasts.

***

After playing to their heart’s content at the daycare center, Siha and Sihyuk returned home.

As soon as he took off his shoes, Siha ran to grab the tissue box.

Shoosh shoosh [onomatopoeia for rustling sound].

The sight of the fluttering tissues was, in his eyes, truly beautiful.

Sihyuk watched the scene with a smile.

“Let’s have a delicious dinner today.”

“Ah ah.”

Siha responded to his hyung and continued to scatter tissues.

He really loved watching them flutter.

Then he noticed a tissue flying further away than the others, and he spotted a water-based felt-tip pen.

Siha picked it up.

Dugun dugun [onomatopoeia for heartbeat].

Suddenly, his heart was pounding with excitement.

Siha remembered drawing on the paper that the head teacher had given him at the daycare center.

Pop [onomatopoeia for popping sound].

He pulled off the lid.

Looking around, he found something that resembled white drawing paper.

Siha went to the side of the refrigerator and began to draw a picture.

Round and round.

He drew a face.

‘Hyung.’

He drew another circle next to it.

‘Siha.’

He added eyes, a nose, and a mouth to each face.

The picture was gradually taking shape.

‘Ball.’

Suddenly, he drew the soccer ball he had been thinking about earlier.

He carefully drew the pentagons and hexagons that made up its surface.

Siha was satisfied with his painting.

The two people and the ball were all smiling happily.

“Siha, what are you doing? Huh?!”

“Hyung!”

Siha proudly pointed to the picture.

Sihyuk looked at the drawing with a troubled expression.

‘Hyung?’

Siha didn’t understand why Sihyuk was making that face.

“Siha, you can’t draw pictures here. I’ll let you off the hook today because you didn’t know, but you’ll be scolded next time.”

“Ah ah.”

Gloomy.

Siha felt dejected because his hyung hadn’t praised him.

Sihyuk noticed his disappointment.

“But you drew the picture really well! Is this Hyung and Siha? And there’s a soccer ball too? I can tell right away.”

“Ah ah!”

Siha was happy that Sihyuk recognized his artwork.

“I’ll buy you a sketchbook next time. No, I’ll buy you a very big drawing paper. You can draw as much as you want there.”

“Ah ah.”

Sihyuk stroked Siha’s head affectionately.

Siha loved this loving touch.

“Um. Let’s erase this now. At least it’s a relief that it’s a water-based felt-tip pen.”

Sihyuk wiped the drawing off with a wet wipe.

Siha also helped, thinking that he should help his hyung.

“You’re so kind, Siha.”

“Ah ah.”

Siha wiped even harder.

After cleaning everything up, Sihyuk and Siha ate dinner, and then Siha fell asleep.

-5 a.m.

Flash.

Siha opened his eyes.

He immediately checked to see where Sihyuk was.

‘It’s Hyung.’

He saw that Sihyuk was still sleeping soundly beside him.

Siha quietly got out of bed.

Sparkling.

He saw the box with the faint pink lights.

Thanks to Sihyuk lowering the box and not putting it up high, Siha was able to open the lid.

Clunk [onomatopoeia for a dull, metallic sound].

“Mom.”

The pink lights sparkled and enveloped Siha.

Siha reached out and touched the LCD tablet that emitted the light.

Tingle [onomatopoeia for a light, electric shock].

“Ah!”

Siha, shocked by the static electricity, fell backward onto his bottom.

Dizzy.

His vision blurred, and his head was spinning.

Feeling his body getting hotter and hotter, Siha called out to Sihyuk.

“Hyung…….”

***

I was dreaming.

Pitch-black darkness surrounded me.

I could only hear the sound of cars passing by.

‘No…….’

I knew where I was.

It was my father’s familiar car.

There was a yellow truck driving in front of us.

It was the same truck that had been captured on my father’s black box footage.

‘No…….’

The truck ran over something, and a leaf spring popped out from underneath.

The vision went dark.

Screech! Bang! [onomatopoeia for screeching and collision sounds]

I heard the sound of something colliding.

‘No!!’

I woke up from my dream, screaming, the scene of my father’s accident still vivid in my mind.

I rubbed my head roughly, feeling like gravity was pulling my body down with an unbearable weight.

Then I heard Siha’s faint voice.

“Hyung…….”

I jumped up, startled by the unusual sound of his voice.

Siha’s face was flushed, as if he had a fever.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?!”

I rushed to Siha’s side.

When I put my hand on his head, it felt as hot as fire.

Various symptoms flashed through my mind and disappeared in an instant.

[Bacterial dysentery, diphtheria, Japanese encephalitis, influenza, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, ascariasis]

“Ah ah…….”

Without even thinking, I scooped Siha up in my arms and ran out of the house.

I ran at full speed towards Kangin University Hospital, which was the closest one.

I pushed my legs as fast as they could go.

‘Please. Please. Please.’

I kept running, panting for breath.

Only the word ‘Hyung’ that Siha had called me occupied my thoughts.

Unpleasant thoughts that came to mind for no reason made my heart sink.

Children are weak.

I had been forgetting that.

Maybe I had overlooked it because he was usually so energetic.

It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.

‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’

I kept apologizing, not even knowing exactly what I was sorry for.

I was just sorry for everything.

I should have paid more attention.

I should have taken better care of him.

“Huff. Huff.”

The moment my breath reached the end of my throat, I saw the hospital in front of me.

I ran straight to the emergency room and grabbed a nurse.

“Huff. Huff. The child. Has a fever. So. Much…. Huff huff. Please.”

“Please calm down, guardian. Give me the baby.”

“Quickly. A doctor, please.”

“Calm down.”

“Do you think I can calm down right now?!”

“First of all, he has a high fever.”

The nurse calmly and quickly took his temperature.

Beep. 40 degrees [Celsius, equivalent to 104 degrees Fahrenheit].

“Let’s lower the fever first. Call Song-sensei [term of respect for a teacher or doctor], please.”

The nurse quickly took action.

I was about to follow, but another nurse blocked my way.

“Why?”

“Guardian, please calm down first. It could be a simple cold, or it could be a stomach bug. And…….”

The nurse looked down at my feet.

“First, let’s treat the guardian’s feet.”

I was barefoot, and blood was flowing from my right foot.

***

While they were treating my feet, I just wanted to get back to Siha as quickly as possible.

The doctor had passed by earlier, but I still didn’t know what was wrong with him.

“First, put on these slippers and fill out these documents here.”

“Yes.”

“Have you calmed down a bit?”

“Yes…….”

“Don’t worry too much. It’s common for people to rush in with their children like this. It’s usually either a cold or gastroenteritis. One of the two.”

“There are many diseases that cause fever.”

In the midst of all this, the data from translating medical papers unnecessarily flooded my mind.

I would have worried less if I didn’t know so much, but my knowledge was only making me more anxious.

“Even if it’s a cold, it could be the new flu or something, right? I heard the medicine is very strong, and if it has a bad effect on the child…”

“If he hasn’t been infected by other people, it probably isn’t. Have you been traveling a lot?”

“No, we haven’t.”

The only place I went yesterday was the daycare center.

The head teacher had said that they had already disinfected everything in advance for the children…….

“I’m really sorry to Siha.”

“What do you have to be sorry for? It’s not the guardian’s fault.”

I looked at the nurse.

“I’m sorry. Was I holding you back too much?”

“No.”

As I handed over the signed document, the nurse pointed to where Siha was and left.

I had calmed down to some extent.

It’s nothing. He’ll be okay.

Many people come in with a simple cold.

‘Let’s go.’

I have to hold Siha’s hand, at least.

I calmed my mind and went inside.

“The fever isn’t going down?”

“I gave him an injection, so let’s wait and see. Let’s put something a little cold on him…….”

My heart sank.

“Excuse me, Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“Is Siha very serious? What’s causing the fever?”

“Guardian, please calm down. Baby Siha will be okay.”

I’m calm enough.

But how can I be any calmer than this?

“Really?”

“Yes. Siha will be okay. So, believe that and stay by his side. How can he be okay if his hyung is so anxious when he wakes up?”

“That’s…….”

I barely managed to tear my eyes away from Siha and look at the doctor.

“But how did you know I was his hyung…….”

“I’ve heard of you. Sihyuk and Siha. I didn’t expect to see you like this.”

Big eyes with double eyelids, skin that looked even whiter because of the white coat.

The name written on her chest was Song Yena.

Only then did I realize that this was the doctor that the director had introduced me to.

“I know, right? I didn’t expect to see you like this either.”

“It’s strange that the fever isn’t going down quickly…. There are no other symptoms, so it’s hard to pinpoint the cause. It’s highly likely that it’s just a simple cold. By any chance, has he been coughing or anything?”

At those words, I thought back to Siha’s behavior today.

“Vomiting, convulsions, nausea, coughing… He didn’t have any of those symptoms. He didn’t complain of headaches, rashes, lethargy, or a stiff neck…….”

As I listed each of the symptoms in my head one by one, Song Yena looked surprised.

“You know so much, but you were making such a fuss?”

“His face turned red and his fever was so high that I panicked. How could I think straight when the child is as hot as fire? This is the first time this has happened…….”

“Ah. Because you’re his hyung. That’s understandable.”

“Now that I’ve calmed down, there’s no disease that matches his symptoms except for the fever.”

“Yes. It’s not a sore throat either. His throat wasn’t swollen.”

“He didn’t have a runny nose either…….”

As I was saying those questionable words, Siha called out to me.

“Hyung.”

“Huh?”

When I turned my head, Siha’s face looked much more relaxed.

And…….

“Cha [car] (Car).”

One more word had been added to his vocabulary.