Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 242

Hyung, Am I Cute? Episode 242

-Sihyuk’s Childcare Diary.

-Lee Sihyuk, 6 years old.

As Christmas approached, carols filled the air.

A song that people enjoy listening to during a specific time of year.

Surprisingly, I didn’t find the carols annoying.

It’s a song I’ve always heard, but it brings back Christmas memories.

Last year, I spent Christmas with Sihyuk, blowing out candles, and it ended with a less than joyful atmosphere.

I forced a smile, but I could see the sadness in my son’s eyes.

He’s doing better now, but he still tries to act more mature than he is.

It breaks my heart, and I want to tell him he doesn’t have to be like that, but he seems so fragile that I hesitate to interfere.

So, I decided to change my approach instead.

If the son is wearing clothes that don’t fit, the parents must also wear clothes that don’t fit [meaning, if the child is acting older than they are, the parent should act younger to balance things out].

They say children learn by watching their parents, so wouldn’t he eventually relax and act his age?

I want to see him be a little more carefree.

“Sihyuk, Christmas is almost here. Is there anything you want?”

“No. I just want to eat cake.”

“Really?! Okay. Let’s go buy a present.”

“No. I told you, I don’t want a present.”

“Really?! Let’s head to the toy section right now!”

“???”

Sihyuk looks confused.

I know better. Even if he says that, there’s something he wants. He’s only six years old, after all.

“Dad. We need to save money! That’s how we get rich.”

“Even if we buy this present, it won’t make a dent in our savings.”

Dropping a single drop of water into a sea of debt wouldn’t make a noticeable difference.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It means that Sihyuk, who will be seven soon, doesn’t have to worry.”

“Dad. I’m starting elementary school now! If I’m an elementary school student, I’ll be smarter and know everything.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lee Sihyuk has earned the title of elementary school student.

Does that mean something will drastically change? He’s still a kid, after all.

Well, I decided to enroll him in elementary school early because he’s a fast-year student [Korean system where children born in January and February can start school a year earlier], but I’m a little worried.

I’m worried that he might get picked on or something.

“If you’re an elementary school student, you’re all grown up, so you don’t need presents.”

“What elementary school student doesn’t need presents? Let’s go.”

“Agh!”

I grabbed Sihyuk’s hand and headed outside.

At first, he resisted, being dragged along, but he must have given up on changing my mind because he followed along willingly.

Let’s go to the toy section.

“Elementary school students don’t play with toys?”

“Don’t lie.”

“It’s true.”

“Then what do they play with?”

“They read books.”

“Comic books?”

“Difficult mystery novels.”

“Don’t lie!”

“It’s true!”

“So, what, when you become an elementary school student, you start with Sherlock Holmes, meet professors, and solve mysteries? And every place you go, an incident happens? There’s no such first-grade elementary school student in the world.”

“I didn’t say it went that far.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

Sihyuk makes excuses like that, but his eyes were already scanning the shelves.

He walked carefully and picked out a small toy.

“I just need this.”

“A palm-sized toy is a bit underwhelming, so let’s get this.”

“Ah, that’s expensive!”

“So what? It’s Christmas. Christmas means Lego.”

“???”

“You can play with this until you’re in the third grade.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Until the third grade, you’re in the lower grades, and from the fourth grade, you’re in the upper grades, so you play with something else.”

“!!!”

Sihyuk seemed to be making a mental note with a ‘was that so?’ expression.

You little rascal. You still believe your dad so easily.

“No! It’s expensive!”

“Don’t worry. You don’t have to pay full price. There’s something called point accumulation in the world.”

“Huh?”

“All the things you bought here to cook, right? They add up as points, and you can use those to buy this toy. It’s practically free.”

“Really? There’s such a thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. This place is doing good business.”

“Pfft.”

The mart employee must have overheard Sihyuk’s words because they chuckled.

But the points were actually used up as soon as they accumulated, so there was nothing left. It’s a secret from Sihyuk.

Huh. It’s so hard to buy a Christmas present.

Other people are struggling because they’re being asked to buy everything, but here, it’s the opposite.

Even if I offer to buy it, he doesn’t want it.

“Okay. At times like this, you say thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, you little rascal.”

I ruffled my son’s hair roughly and then paid for the toy.

My son, holding it in his arms, looks adorable.

“Ah. Right. Sihyuk.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you write a letter to Santa Claus with the present you want?”

Sihyuk suddenly looked at me with a pitiful expression.

“Dad. There’s no Santa Claus.”

“Why isn’t there? Huh? We met him last year.”

“I know it’s the gym teacher.”

Damn it. Gym teacher! Couldn’t you do the disguise properly!

Actually, I saw him last year, and Santa was sporting a tanned complexion as if he had just gotten back from vacation.

So, everyone figured it out.

“T-the one who comes every night is the real Santa.”

“I caught you. I saw you making rustling noises while putting it next to my socks while I was sleeping.”

“You saw that?”

It seems like the gym teacher and I messed up big time.

Destroying childhood fantasies.

Anyway, I’m planning to have a fun Christmas with Sihyuk.

Buying a cake, blowing out candles, and listening to songs.

Hoping that one day, we can reminisce about this day. Longing for it. Laughing and chatting.

‘You were like that back then.’ ‘Really?’ ‘I’m telling you.’ ‘No way.’ ‘Puhaha.’ ‘Hahaha.’

I hope we can create another memory of a normal family while telling stories.

I look forward to it.

More than any Christmas present.

***

I woke up in the morning and saw Siha.

Wide-eyed.

He was looking down at me from above.

Were you lying by my head and watching Hyung’s face? Without waking me up?

“Siha?”

“Hyung. Wake up.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”

“No. I was just about to wake you up.”

“Really? Then the timing was perfect?”

I got up and hugged Siha.

He’s wearing penguin pajamas and hugging my neck tightly.

I had a dream of listening to Christmas carols with my father after a long time.

I don’t remember what song it was.

I just remember the feeling of listening to a song in my dream.

“Siha. Christmas is coming up, and I always listen to something called carols then.”

“Caramel? Siha knows. Delicious.”

“No. Not caramel, but carol. It’s a song. Do you want to listen to it?”

“Ah.”

I should be busy preparing breakfast, but I want to take it easy today.

It’s nice to listen to carols while looking forward to Christmas.

-Merry Christmas~

The song plays.

Siha starts dancing to the beat from the morning.

“Hyung. Exciting!”

“Really?”

“Ah!”

He looks cute flapping around in his penguin pajamas.

I prepared breakfast while watching Siha sing along enthusiastically.

“Kurismasu!” [Japanese pronunciation of Christmas]

Of course, the lyrics are all in English, so he only knew the word Christmas.

Yeah. That’s great too.

I was watching Siha when I suddenly became curious.

Did he learn carols at daycare?

“Siha. Did you learn Christmas songs at daycare?”

“Siha learn. Seungjun funny.”

“Oh! Really? How was it?”

Siha pondered with a ‘woong’ sound and then suddenly smiled brightly.

It seems like he thought of something fun.

This is making me curious.

“What’s the name of the song?”

“Rudolph Uncle Nose.”

“You mean Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

I know this song too. It’s famous.

It seems like the teacher told him about Rudolph while talking about him.

As expected, daycare teaches you a lot.

But Siha shakes his head.

“No. Rudolph Uncle Nose. Seungjun tell.”

“Huh? Seungjun did?”

“Ah.”

This is starting to make me uneasy?

Maybe I’m the only one feeling this.

I can tell just from the title.

Seungjun told him. Then who did Seungjun hear it from? Of course, he heard it from Professor Oh Sanghwan.

“Can you tell me what kind of song it is?”

“Ah!”

Siha starts singing.

***

-The day Siha learned Rudolph Uncle Nose. Daycare.

“Everyone. Today, we’re going to learn a Christmas song. You remember Rudolph, right? Today, I’ve prepared a song called Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Shall we all listen to it together?”

Jongsu reacted to the teacher’s words.

“I know that.”

“There are friends who don’t know it, so let’s listen together. You know it’s more exciting if you know the song, right?”

“Oh? That’s right. It’s exciting.”

The teacher skillfully avoided Jongsu’s interruption.

Sometimes, I hated pre-learning.

Still, reviewing is always important.

“Okay. Then I’ll play it.”

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer~ Had a very shiny nose~

The song played.

The children nodded their heads excitedly, enjoying the rhythm.

After the song ended, the teacher slowly taught the lyrics.

It wasn’t very difficult, and the children could easily learn it.

But there was one person whose mouth was itching to speak.

Oh Seungjun.

The teacher sighed inwardly.

Seungjun’s father!!! No, has he not shown up yet?

It was such a natural association that I couldn’t help it.

Anyway, knowing that there was only one person who taught strange things, the reaction came out first.

“Ahem, ahem. Let’s sing it properly first! It’s really important to know the original song first.”

Not this time. There might be complaints that I’m teaching the kids something weird first. Right? Principal.

Teacher Yoo Dahee puffed out her chest and looked at the principal.

It felt like I could hear the principal’s inner voice from behind.

-Are you in a position to talk about others?

That’s exactly what the expression was.

Why! I teach the original well first!

I received a slightly unfair look, but I continued with the song.

The children are now familiar with the lyrics.

At this point, they won’t remember what Seungjun says.

“Seungjun. Fun song what?”

“Ah! Siha. Curious? Curious?”

“Ah.”

“Hana know!”

“You be quiet! Shh. Shh!”

Only after Seungjun silenced Hana did he teach Siha.

Other children were also curious, perking up their ears.

What Seungjun brought was always fun.

“Dad teach. Rudolph Uncle Nose!”

“Rudolph Uncle Nose?”

“Yeah. Rudolph has been around since a long time ago, but it’s a bit sad to call him grandpa, so he’s called uncle.”

It’s like saying to call someone ‘hyung’ [older brother] instead of ‘uncle’ when there’s a big age difference…

“But the song is the same, but it’s attached one by one. Okay. Listen carefully.”

Seungjun sang the song.

[Rudolph Uncle Nose. Booger!

Had a very shiny nose. Scab!

If you ever saw it. Pervert!

You would even say it glows. Lung!

All of the other reindeer. Beast!

Used to laugh and call him names. Fate!

Poor Rudolph. Rangs!

As lonely as could be. Fate!

Then one foggy Christmas Eve. Fly!

Santa came to say. Beggar!

Rudolph with your nose so bright.

Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?

Then all the reindeer loved him.

As they shouted out with glee. Fate!

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

You’ll go down in history. Niji.

You’ll go down in history. Niji.]

“???”

I understood everything else, but the children tilted their heads because they didn’t know what the last part was.

Siha said.

“Seungjun. Ri…….”

“Wait. Siha. Let’s skip Ri-something.”

“Why?”

“You shouldn’t say it carelessly. Let’s just know that there’s such a thing. Maybe uncle liked Ri-something.”

No. There’s no way Rudolph would do that.

Anyway, the Rudolph Uncle song seems to be right.

Something was arranged in small details while listening to it.

Seungjun’s father. He was a scary person.

“How is it? Fun, right? This is the Rudolph Uncle Nose. Everyone, it’s easy to remember because it’s the original song, right?”

“Ah! Siha remember.”

“Hana know!”

“Hey! Do you guys know that! This is called a chorus!”

“I think I saw uncle picking his nose. Fashion is important, but he wipes it on his clothes. Eww.”

“Eunwoo. Isn’t that like the rap you like?”

“Puhaha. There’s no way there would be such a terrible rap lyric. Puhaha.”

Eunwoo teased with a smile.

If Seungjun’s father heard it, he would have secretly shed tears.

“Okay! Okay! That’s fun. Let’s sing the proper carol!”

“Yes!”

But the children’s learning is so fast that they put in the chorus every time they sang.

The teacher thought.

Ah, I’m doomed!

Inevitably, I had them memorize that if anyone asked who taught them, they would answer that Seungjun taught them.

***

And now.

“…Niji!”

“???”

Sihyuk was speechless.

The memories of the carol that I know… are not like this!