Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 324

Siha and Seungjun’s team secured first place, resulting in a generous pool of funds.

Jongsu’s team, unfortunately, landed in last place.

After a good stretch of games, lunchtime arrived.

The head teacher signaled that the food was ready, indicating it was time to eat.

The teacher clapped her hands once to get everyone’s attention.

“Alright everyone, are you all hungry?”

“We’re hungry!”

“Lunch is served! The cost is 10,000 won per team.”

Thanks to their participation in numerous games, every team had earned well over 10,000 won.

Even the team that came in last, in 4th place, had managed to accumulate 7,000 won.

If we exclude the thief-catching game, each team possessed at least 14,000 won.

So, even after purchasing lunch, they would still have 4,000 won remaining.

And if they pooled their individual money, they’d have an additional 6,000 to 10,000 won.

In any case, the children would have plenty to eat.

“Okay, hand over 10,000 won from each team.”

The teacher collected 10,000 won from each team and went to retrieve the lunch.

Since it was a pajama party, she had prepared a spread of delicious side dishes.

There was nostalgic pink sausage omelet, sweet and sour vegetable salad, stir-fried fish cakes, rice, and clear beef soup.

And for dessert, yogurt.

“Wow, that looks amazing!”

The children devoured their food with gusto.

Watching them eat with their cheeks puffed out was like observing a group of busy squirrels.

Thankfully, they finished everything, leaving no leftovers.

Siha licked the yogurt lid clean and then smeared it on his nose.

Oblivious, he continued eating diligently.

“Siha, you’ve got yogurt on your nose.”

“Ah?”

Siha wiped the yogurt off his nose with his hand and promptly put his finger in his mouth.

He was sucking his finger, something he hadn’t done in a while.

The teacher, unable to locate the wet wipes quickly enough, couldn’t stop him.

“Siha, here’s a wet wipe. You need to clean your hands.”

“Thank you.”

“Next time, don’t eat it; just wipe it off.”

“Rice grains can be saved for later, but you can’t leave yogurt.”

“???”

So, he was contemplating saving the rice grains for later?

His nonsensical response was somewhat amusing.

“But Siha, rice grains get hard if you leave them out for too long, so you can’t eat them.”

“!!!”

“So, you have to throw them away.”

“Then do they turn back into rice? If the rice hardens and becomes rice again, can you cook it again and it becomes rice?”

“Huh?”

What was he even talking about?

I had never pondered that question before.

What would happen if you put hardened rice back into the pot and steamed it?

“I don’t know. But it’s better to just throw it away.”

“Why?”

“Because it gets dusty and dirty. Yucky.”

“!!!”

Siha nodded, finally seeming to understand. But then, a realization dawned on him.

He covered his mouth with both hands and exclaimed.

“Ah! Siha is in big trouble. Siha ate dust.”

“Pfft.”

“Ate yucky stuff. Have to go to the hospital!”

“You don’t need to go to the hospital for that. Eating a tiny bit won’t cause any harm.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The teacher found Siha’s reaction incredibly endearing.

After lunch, as everyone began to feel sleepy, it was nap time.

Despite it being a pajama party for the night, sleepiness had already set in during the afternoon.

They spread out their bedding and settled onto their pillows as if it were a routine.

Snore-

Everyone quickly drifted off to sleep.

Siha was sleeping with Pepe’s face nestled against his blanket, while Seungjun used his soccer ball cushion as a pillow.

Hana hugged her cat pillow tightly.

Everyone looked like angels in their slumber.

Only Jongsu was frowning and making ‘ugh’ sounds, as if he was trapped in a nightmare.

I wondered what he was dreaming about.

“Now I can finally catch my breath. Ms. Dahui, why don’t you rest your eyes for a bit too?”

“Ah, should I? Hehe. What about you, Director?”

“I don’t need sleep, especially these days.”

“I see. Then I’ll take a short nap.”

The teacher grabbed a pillow and lay down as well.

In the quiet stillness, soft breaths warmly enveloped the room.

It was like listening to a gentle lullaby.

***

The children’s energy had been replenished.

The teacher blinked and rubbed her eyes, feeling less refreshed than the children despite having slept alongside them.

As expected, children are bursting with energy.

“Siha, let’s fold the blankets.”

The children folded their blankets in their own unique ways.

Seungjun was the type to simply fold them haphazardly.

“Seungjun, you have to do it like this. My older brother taught me.”

Siha meticulously folded his blanket the way his older brother had shown him.

He carefully aligned the corners and folded it neatly.

“I’m just going to fold it roughly.”

“Okay?”

Siha didn’t bother trying to correct Seungjun.

As if telling him to do as he pleased, he focused solely on perfecting the corners.

He seemed like he would excel at folding blankets if he joined the military.

“Oppa! You’re folding it sloppily again. Mom will make you refold it, right?”

“Mom’s not here, so it’s fine.”

It seemed like Seungjun was rebelling against his mother’s nagging.

Hana sighed and refolded her brother’s blanket.

She was the type who thought, ‘It’s easier to do it myself than to have someone else do it wrong.’

Observing them, it seemed like Hana was the older sister, not Seungjun the older brother.

“Yeonju, I’ll fold your blanket for you.”

“Then let’s do it together.”

Jaehui offered to help Yeonju fold her blanket.

When you have feelings for someone, these kinds of interactions often occur.

Jaehui seemed like the type to give his all, while Yeonju seemed accustomed to receiving, perhaps due to her attractiveness.

She didn’t refuse his help. But suggesting ‘let’s do it together’ instead of ‘then do it for me’ might be what makes people’s hearts flutter.

She might be a master at playing the game of love.

“Jaehui, you have to fold the blanket from the long side.”

Jongsu seemed like the type who had to follow the rules precisely.

“Puhahaha. He said you have to fold it from the long side! Puhahaha!”

Eunwoo, a free spirit, was already rolled up inside his blanket.

Eunwoo, are you planning to fold it like that and get trapped in the blanket cabinet?

“…….”

Yundong unrolled Eunwoo and spread the blanket out again.

He was the type to work quietly and efficiently.

“Woohoo hahaha. This is fun. Yundong, do you want to join?”

“No.”

“Puhahaha. He said no. He said no. Is it already done?! Puhahaha.”

Eunwoo couldn’t understand what was so funny.

Yundong smiled faintly.

It seemed like he was laughing not because it was genuinely funny, but because it was absurd.

Watching the two of them, it was questionable whether they were truly close, yet they also seemed to get along surprisingly well.

“Okay, everyone, let’s clean up quickly. The next game is ready!”

“Yes!”

The children eagerly folded their blankets, anticipating the next game.

They neatly placed them in the blanket cabinet and turned their attention to the teacher.

“Next up is a mystery fairy tale that I created! Listen carefully and try to guess the culprit.”

Siha immediately raised his hand.

“Siha knows!”

“I haven’t even started the story yet?”

Siha knows everything. No, that’s not right! What does he know?

“Ppa-ba-ba-bam. Ppa-ba-ba-ba-bam. Ppa-ba-ba-ba-ba-bam. Ppa-ba. Ba-bam!”

Suddenly, a familiar melody from a certain cartoon filled the air.

The children, recognizing it instantly, began to sing along.

Yes, they know it! The teacher knows it too! That famous detective cartoon!

“Ahem. That’s right. Today, you will all become child detectives.”

“Yes!”

The teacher held up a sketchbook.

[Title: Who Changed My Fried Chicken from Boneless to Bone-In!]

A child wearing a detective hat orders chicken on their phone.

They select [Leave at the door] on the app.

And they receive a text message confirming that the chicken has arrived.

But the child was too engrossed in watching TV.

“I can’t miss this scene!”

Once the exciting scene concluded, they opened the door and brought in the chicken.

They tore open the bag and opened the box, and guess what!

“Huh? Why is it bone-in chicken instead of boneless?!”

The child was so shocked that they immediately called the chicken restaurant.

The owner answered.

“We prepared it with boneless chicken and sent it out. Our restaurant doesn’t make those kinds of mistakes!”

“But Mr. Owner, what arrived here is bone-in chicken.”

“Can’t you just eat it?”

“How can I do that? Boneless is 1,000 won more expensive!”

“We sent it as boneless. We even have proof! We took a picture!”

The owner had indeed taken a picture of the boneless chicken with the delivery receipt attached.

Their alibi seemed airtight.

“Sigh. I have no choice! I have to find the culprit!”

The child seeks out the security guard to review the CCTV footage.

“I need to know who switched it to bone-in chicken!”

“Okay, let’s find the culprit! I don’t order bone-in either because it’s annoying to deal with the bones!”

The security guard became invested in the case as if it were his own.

“Oh no! The CCTV in front of the elevator is broken? Only the CCTV at the apartment entrance is working?”

“Wow! It’s going to be harder to find the culprit.”

They were left with no choice but to examine the individuals who passed through the Gyeongsan Apartment entrance.

In the CCTV footage, a total of 4 people passed through the first floor in an 8-minute span.

[Delivery Rider, Security Guard on Patrol, Overweight Man Clutching His Stomach, Nimble-Fingered Beautiful Magician]

The child’s eyes widened as they looked at the security guard.

“You’re one of the suspects! Why were you at the entrance?!”

“I was on patrol. I was also checking the elevator.”

“Suspicious!”

“What’s suspicious?!”

The security guard seemed suspicious.

The child decided to interview the suspects one by one.

First, they approached the delivery rider who had passed by.

“Excuse me!”

“What is it? I’m busy making deliveries! Do you know how much I earn per delivery?”

“I’m a child who lives in Gyeongsan Apartment. My chicken was switched from boneless to bone-in. Could you be the culprit?!”

“What are you talking about? There’s no way I would do that. I have to make as many deliveries as possible to earn money. I need to deliver even one more in that time.”

“Suspicious!”

“What’s suspicious?!”

The delivery rider seemed suspicious.

Next was the overweight man clutching his stomach.

“Why were you holding your stomach back then?”

“Me? I was just really hungry. So I came outside holding my stomach.”

“Suspicious!”

“Huh?!”

Finally, the nimble-fingered beautiful magician.

The magician was practicing card tricks with impressive sleight of hand.

“Hello.”

“Oh my, aren’t you the child who lives next door?”

“Did you happen to see my chicken when you went outside?”

“Yes, I did. It was boneless chicken.”

“No! How did you know it was boneless?”

“Ah! The smell was so tempting that I peeked inside. It was sealed tightly, but my hands are incredibly fast.”

“You switched it to bone-in chicken!”

“No, I didn’t. I would never do that.”

“Suspicious!”

Everyone seemed suspicious.

Could they all be the culprit?

Who on earth is the real culprit?

“Okay, everyone. Now it’s time to guess the culprit. Who among the four is responsible?”

The children began to ponder seriously.

Seungjun jumped up excitedly.

“The culprit is the delivery rider! He must have switched it to bone-in chicken during the delivery!”

“Siha thinks so too!”

But another opinion emerged.

It was Jongsu.

“The culprit is the overweight man with the protruding belly. Why else would he be clutching his stomach? It’s because he switched the chicken and hid it in his stomach. The child even suspected him.”

Indeed, it was a sharp deduction worthy of Jongsu.

He truly deserved to be called a brain.

“Siha thinks so too!”

Hey, Siha. Didn’t you just agree with Seungjun?

Another opinion came from Yeonju.

“It could be the beautiful magician. With her nimble fingers, she could have switched it in a flash. She probably hid the chicken in the large hat she was wearing.”

“Siha thinks so too!”

Jongsu became visibly frustrated.

“Hey! Lee Siha, you’re agreeing with everyone!”

“All right, all right.”

“Even if everything seems plausible…”

Jongsu thumped his chest in frustration.

Eunwoo chimed in from the side.

“Puhahaha. The culprit is the security guard.”

Jongsu tilted his head in confusion.

“Why?”

“He has to eat rice for lunch. The security guard doesn’t patrol when the sun is up. Puhahaha.”

“How do you know if the security guard patrols when the sun is up or not? Did you see him not patrolling?”

“No, I’m at daycare. Puhahaha.”

“What? Really!”

Siha added his two cents.

“Siha thinks so too!”

“Hey, Lee Siha! Just pick one!”

“Jongsu, if you choose everything, one of them has to be right, right?”

“Huh? That’s true… Siha, you’re being unfair!”

The teacher thought to herself after hearing those words.

Is he a genius?