Brother, Am I Cute? [EN]: Chapter 396

“Hyung, aren’t I cute?” 396

Jong-su became the tagger, and the game of can-kicking began.

The children scattered and hid.

“I’m going to find everyone.”

Jong-su puffed out his chest, exuding confidence.

Si-ha had found everyone except Eun-woo previously. He wanted to do even better this time.

He especially wanted to catch Si-ha.

He was going to show off how cleverly he could find the kids.

He knew that there were predictable hiding spots when playing tag.

“One, two, three.”

Jong-su had a clever plan to catch all the children.

First, he would search near the playground without getting too close, and for the daycare, he wouldn’t go inside but would find something to climb on and peek through the windows.

That alone would likely reveal some of them.

And he had prepared something special for himself.

A plastic bag in his pocket.

When entering the daycare, he would put the plastic bags on his feet, so he wouldn’t waste time putting on his shoes when leaving, allowing him to make a quick escape.

That small advantage would create opportunities to tag the children.

“Eleven, twelve. Hehehe.”

He regretted wasting time putting on his shoes earlier.

But he had already learned from that mistake.

He remembered when he went into a building with his mom when it was raining, and they gave him plastic bags to put on his feet.

Jong-su remembered that well, so he came up with the bag idea.

This way, he could go inside the daycare with his shoes on!

“Fifteen, sixteen.”

Jong-su happily counted, imagining catching everyone.

Meanwhile, Si-ha and the children had all entered the daycare.

The playground was honestly too dangerous.

They could be easily spotted, and hiding on top of the slide would delay their escape, eventually leading to getting tagged.

After two rounds, the children were concluding that entering the daycare was the better strategy.

The children weren’t stupid.

“Should we all hide together?”

“???”

It was Si-ha who suggested this as the children were about to hide.

They blinked, not understanding what he meant.

Only Yeon-ju seemed to have an idea upon hearing Si-ha’s words, and she opened her mouth in shock.

“Si-ha, are you really going to do that?”

“Huh?”

“Wow. Awesome. That would work.”

The children didn’t know what it was, so they kept asking, “What is it? What is it?”

Yeon-ju explained in a way they could understand.

“First, when Jong-su comes, he’ll find us, right?”

Nod.

“Then Seung-jun and Yun-dong will hold Jong-su tight. And we’ll all run to kick the can.”

“!!!”

“If we all succeed in kicking the can, Yun-dong and Seung-jun are fast runners, so they’ll kick the can quickly.”

“!!!”

“Maybe that’s why Si-ha said to hide together.”

Everyone turned to look at Si-ha.

Si-ha had a clueless expression. He just thought it would be nice to hide together.

He hadn’t even thought of the plan Yeon-ju came up with.

“Let’s hide together.”

Si-ha answered that way, not knowing what was going on.

The children nodded and decided where to hide.

First, they decided to hide in the bathroom together.

There wasn’t much time left, so they had to hide quickly.

They rushed in together and hid.

It was the moment Jong-su’s plan was completely shattered.

“Shhh.”

The children held their breath and waited for Jong-su.

For a while, they couldn’t hear Jong-su checking anywhere or entering the daycare.

But the children didn’t bother opening the bathroom door to check.

Jong-su would open it anyway.

And time passed.

Squeak.

The moment the bathroom door opened, Seung-jun and Yun-dong’s eyes met Jong-su’s eyes.

“Whoa!”

Jong-su tried to run away quickly, but Seung-jun and Yun-dong swiftly grabbed him.

“Hey! What is this! That’s cheating!”

Jong-su struggled, his arms held.

The other children quickly put on their shoes and ran.

Seung-jun said,

“Everyone, go quickly! Quickly!”

Si-ha was about to follow from the back but changed direction and approached Jong-su.

He had seen the plastic bags on Jong-su’s feet as he was leaving.

“Jong-su, you have to take off your shoes before coming in.”

“Hey! Hey! Wait a minute!”

He took off the bags and the shoes.

Si-ha held both pairs of shoes in his hands, intending to put them in the shoe rack.

“Gotta put them in the bags.”

He put them in the bags Jong-su had prepared, put on his own shoes, and carried them out.

Jong-su shouted from behind.

“Why are you taking that! Hey! Lee Si-ha! You bad guy!”

“Jong-su, I’ll give it back when the game is over!”

“Hey! Bring it back!”

“Bye-bye.”

Si-ha waved his hand and ran towards the can.

Seung-jun chuckled beside him.

“Hey, Jong-su. You can’t go out without shoes, can you?”

“Ugh!”

He never imagined that the bag he had prepared would be used in such a way.

He had been completely outsmarted by Si-ha.

“Yun-dong, let’s go too. Jong-su doesn’t have shoes.”

“Okay.”

Now they left Jong-su and ran away after putting on their shoes.

Jong-su sat down on the floor, feeling dejected.

“No. My plan was perfect?”

But the kids weren’t at the playground, and even when he dragged a box and looked through the daycare windows, they weren’t there.

Who would have known that the children would all be hiding in the bathroom at once?

And he never expected that two people would unfairly grab his arms.

“It, it was definitely perfect?”

Jong-su looked at the remaining bag, feeling hopeless.

“Why?”

He couldn’t figure out where it went wrong.

Who came up with such a nasty plan in that short moment!

“Jong-su.”

“Huh?”

“It’s over. Here are your shoes.”

Si-ha brought Jong-su’s shoes.

“Hey! Hey! Lee Si-ha!”

“Jong-su, you’re still the tagger. Jong-su didn’t catch anyone.”

“Keuk! Ugh! Aaaagh!”

Jong-su ruffled his hair.

Si-ha only tilted his head, looking at Jong-su.

What’s wrong?

***

Si-ha came home and bragged about playing can-kicking.

He must have really enjoyed it.

It’s a game that adults don’t play often, so I hope he enjoys it to the fullest when he’s young.

“Uncle, Si-ha played can-kicking. Si-ha was the tagger. Si-ha did really well.”

“Okay, I got it, so can you move out of the way of the TV?”

“No. Uncle. Listen to Si-ha.”

“Tell Si-hyuk. Tell Si-hyuk.”

“Hyung [older brother/male friend] heard everything in the car. But Uncle didn’t hear.”

“Do I really have to listen to this?”

“Yes. You have to.”

The uncle hesitated for a moment, then got up from the sofa.

“I’ll listen later. Later.”

“No. Now.”

“Why?”

“Si-ha will forget later.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Uncle. Look. Si-ha used a *mangwonkyung* [telescope/binoculars] to find the kids. And went here instead of there. Uncle does it often. So I went there.”

“What are you talking about?”

Where is here and where is there?

The uncle didn’t seem to understand at all.

Well, I could roughly grasp what he was saying.

“Okay. You did great. Have I heard everything now?”

“No. Jong-su is left.”

“I only need to hear about your achievements as the tagger. How much more are you going to say?”

“I’ll talk about Jong-su too. I hid with my friends. But Jong-su came. Seung-jun and Yun-dong grabbed him. But Si-ha took Jong-su’s shoes and ran away. Jong-su couldn’t come out because of that.”

“Okay. Taking the opponent’s weapon is a very good tactic.”

“Not a weapon? Shoes?”

“Okay. Is it over now?”

The uncle flopped down on the sofa.

Si-ha shook the uncle.

“Uncle. Why are you like a can?”

“I heard everything, so leave me alone. Ah, but what do you mean by ‘like a can’?”

“Uncle. The can you kicked today. Crushed.”

“Are you dissing me?”

“No. It’s cool.”

“You’re lying! Are you making fun of me for being a loser?!”

“No! It’s real!”

“A loser?!”

Si-ha, be careful with your pronunciation. You pronounced ‘real’ well, but why did your pronunciation suddenly slur?

The uncle must have thought it wouldn’t work, so he changed his strategy.

“Uncle?”

“I listened to Si-ha today, so you listen to your uncle too. You know what I saw today?”

“What did you see?”

Si-ha seemed to be listening well, unlike the uncle.

As expected of my younger brother.

But I was a little uneasy. The uncle’s expression was exactly the one he made when he was about to play a prank.

“I watched a drama today. A penguin appeared.”

“!!!”

“The penguin died.”

“?!?!?!?”

“But the penguin lived?”

“Really?”

“And lived unhappily ever after. The end.”

“Why? Why? Why the penguin?”

“Because the penguin was kicked like a crushed can. It’s because it’s ugly.”

“No. Penguins are cute!”

Ignoring Si-ha’s words, the uncle continued the story.

“Another penguin appeared, and it ended with ‘lived unhappily ever after’ again.”

Usually, stories end with ‘lived happily ever after,’ but the uncle kept teasing Si-ha, so he ended it with ‘lived unhappily ever after.’

Si-ha seemed to not want to listen anymore and turned to go somewhere else.

The uncle grabbed Si-ha’s shoulder and turned him back.

“Let go! I don’t want to listen.”

“Your uncle watched a variety show this time, and a penguin appeared?”

“I don’t want to listen. I don’t want to listen.”

“But the penguin was told it was boring on the variety show and can’t be on TV anymore. The end.”

“Let go!”

“Hehehe. Listen to what else I saw.”

“Waaah!”

In the end, the uncle told Si-ha about penguins living unhappily, getting kicked off the show, not becoming idol members, and getting fired from the company.

After talking about that for a while, he finally let Si-ha go.

“Uncle. You’re a devil. A devil.”

“Hahaha! Listen to your uncle tomorrow too.”

“I don’t want to listen!”

“Uncle will watch penguins again and tell Si-ha about it~”

“Waaah!”

Si-ha patted the uncle’s leg with his fist.

The uncle looked at that and teased him, saying, “Oh, that feels good~”

I’m amazed at how many different ways he can tease him.

Actually, did he make people frustrated by teasing them like that at work too?

“Uncle. Si-ha is busy. I’m going.”

“I’m busy too!”

“Uncle is always playing.”

“Playing is the busiest thing! Si-ha is like that too.”

“Uncle. Si-ha has to draw and do YouTube. I’m working. Different from Uncle.”

“Hyung is editing all of that for you. You’re just drawing for fun.”

“Uncle. Hyung isn’t working.”

“What are you talking about?”

Si-ha put his hands on his hips and stuck out his stomach.

He said in a very confident voice.

“He’s playing with Si-ha!”

“???”

“Hyung likes doing this.”

“???”

“Now Si-ha is busy. Bye-bye.”

Si-ha went into his room and started drawing on his tablet.

He must have come up with a good idea today.

The uncle looked at Si-ha with a dumbfounded expression.

***

Si-ha recalled the can he had seen today.

The sound of a can being crushed.

The children said it was crushed and ugly, but Si-ha thought the can was rather cool.

What he said to his uncle was somewhat true.

The patterns shown by the crushed cans.

The way the folded parts were diagonally engraved was also cool.

The shining parts when the light shone on them.

The parts where shadows fell below the recessed surface.

The beauty of light and shadow caught Si-ha’s eye.

“Can. Can.”

So Si-ha was going to draw a can today.

Of course, while drawing Pepe too.

The first drawing was Pepe drinking the contents of the can.

The second drawing was Pepe crushing the can.

And from the third drawing onwards, there was only the can.

He drew the evenly recessed can pattern from top to bottom in a row.

When the light and shadow were expressed in color, the pattern began to look much more three-dimensional.

It really looked like the can was being crushed in a uniform shape.

“Like this. Like this.”

The fourth drawing was Pepe displaying the cans in a square container.

He also drew a trash can next to it, indicating that they should not be thrown away.

“All done.”

Si-ha was satisfied with today’s drawing.

He wanted to take it to Hyung and show it off.

He ran to Hyung and showed him the drawing.

“Wow. Cool?”

“Can is cool.”

“Yeah. It is. It’s really cool?”

“Hyung. What’s the title of this?”

“Huh? Title?”

“Yeah!”

Si-hyuk struggled to come up with a title to upload to YouTube.

After thinking for a bit, he said.

“you can be really cool.”

“???”

“You can be really cool.”

“!!!”

The title also included the pun of the can that Si-ha said.