Chapter 159:
Chapter 159
Be nice to us.
The person who greeted the group that went to the market with Shin Soon-ja was Kim Joo-young, wearing rubber gloves. She was wiping the shoe rack floor and shamelessly welcomed them.
“You came early?”
“What’s with the rubber gloves?”
“Come in, it’s cold outside. Please, come in.”
Jo Tae-woong stared blankly at them. Shin Soon-ja also entered the house with a bewildered expression.
“What’s going on?”
The living room was even worse. Lee Joo-hyuk was sweeping the floor, Kim Hyun was wiping the shelves, and Park Jin-hyuk was tidying up the kitchen.
“You’re here?”
“Are you cleaning? Why did you do something I didn’t ask you to do?”
Shin Soon-ja whined, and the members who were cleaning flinched. Lee Joo-hyuk approached Shin Soon-ja and asked.
“Oh, don’t you like it?”
“It’s not that…”
Shin Soon-ja’s lips twitched. Lee Joo-hyuk smiled when he saw that.
“We tried not to touch your stuff too much.”
“Oh, you didn’t have to do this…”
“Please let us do this much since we’re going to stay here for a few days.”
“Geez… You’re wasting your time on this…”
Mrs. Shin looked like she didn’t know what to do with herself, but her face showed that she was very happy with her cheekbones raised. Jo Tae-woong went to Kim Hyun and Park Jin-hyuk, who were far away from him, and said.
“Don’t mind her. She’s always like that when she’s happy.”
“Really? I was nervous.”
Park Jin-hyuk sighed in relief. The kitchen felt a ton brighter, and it looked like they had cleaned not only the floor but also the walls.
“Who told you to do this?”
“Ian did. We owe him so much, so we should do this much.”
Kim Hyun answered casually. It was strange that both the person who told them to do it and the members who actually did it were strange.
***
The members gathered at the agency one by one when they heard that Ian was going to Jo Tae-woong’s grandmother’s house.
“Did you get her permission?”
“Yeah, I called her. She said I could stay for a month if I wanted to, but that would be too rude, so I’m thinking of staying for five days or so.”
Park Jin-hyuk whispered to Lee Joo-hyuk.
“How many days is five days?”
“Five days.”
“Oh, you’re different because you have a bachelor’s degree.”
Park Jin-hyuk raised his thumb. Kim Hyun shook his head at that sight. He asked Ian.
“But won’t the traffic be bad on Lunar New Year? Can’t you go any other time?”
“I don’t have any radio shows on Lunar New Year, so I think it’s okay.”
“I have a separate schedule.”
“Right. We have to record for the next group.”
Park Jin-hyuk and Lee Joo-hyuk were in charge of producing BHL Entertainment’s next group, and Park Seo-dam was the MC of a music show that was on hiatus due to the holiday special program. Ian had a meeting with Park, the director of the drama ‘Lady Hee-bin’, after Lunar New Year.
“So Lunar New Year is the only time we have.”
“Are you all going? Who’s going?”
Ian raised his hand. Then all the members who were there also raised their hands following Ian. Lee Joo-hyuk nodded his head slowly.
“See? I knew you’d all go.”
“It would be boring without me.”
“It’s not because you’d be left out if you don’t go?”
“That too.”
Kim Hyun and Park Jin-hyuk laughed soullessly.
“But if we’re going, we have to bring something for her, right? We can’t just go empty-handed.”
The members lost their words at Kim Joo-young’s words and turned on their phones. They searched for things like Lunar New Year gifts or holiday gifts and groaned. They didn’t want to give a common gift to an old lady who looked after Jo Tae-woong.
“Isn’t this too common?”
“What should we buy? I don’t know her taste.”
They could ask Jo Tae-woong about his grandmother’s taste, but without consulting each other, they had an implicit agreement that it was a secret from Jo Tae-woong.
They all looked forward to surprising Jo Tae-woong with anticipation.
“What do you think he’ll say when he sees us?”
“He’ll stand there stupidly and ask why we’re here.”
Kim Hyun answered coldly to Lee Joo-hyuk’s words. Park Jin-hyuk smirked and shouted.
“No, he’ll say this. You came to save me, bro!”
“No, I got caught too.”
“You crazy bastards.”
As soon as he said that, Kim Joo-young picked up Park Jin-hyuk’s words as if he had been waiting for them, and Kim Hyun tapped his forehead.
“Jeez, I’m the only one who ate seriously.”
Suddenly, in the middle of a conversation that went off-topic, Ian snapped his fingers as he was deep in thought.
“First of all, for the holiday gift, buy something decent like Korean beef that’s a bit pricey, and then there’s a way to make up for it with your body.”
“Make up for it with your body?”
The members who were joking and laughing looked at Ian. Park Jin-hyuk crossed his arms and grabbed his shoulders.
“How about we clean the place for you? We’re going to stay there for a few nights anyway.”
“Clean?”
“She said she lives alone, right? There might be some places that she didn’t get to clean. And it doesn’t seem like Tae-woong would take care of that.”
“Oh. That’s true…”
They had no skills to fix or do anything else. The easiest thing was cleaning. The members looked at each other as if they were enchanted by Ian’s suggestion.
“That’s a good and useful idea.”
“Yeah.”
“As long as we don’t touch anything without permission and just make it clean, it should be fine.”
“Okay.”
The members had satisfied expressions on their faces. They all had the personality to do what they were told, so it was decided smoothly without a single objection.
“But isn’t there a way to clean? What if we mess it up more by touching it?”
“We have him.”
Ian pointed at Kim Joo-young with a polite gesture. Kim Joo-young spread his thumb and index finger to make a V sign and brought it under his chin.
[He’s so full of himself.]
Kim Joo-young maintained an indifferent tone while acting confident.
“What am I?”
“Our group’s robot vacuum cleaner.”
“Can you at least call me something that’s not a machine… like a living creature?”
“Mamamson?”
“Jeez.”
Kim Joo-young let go of the pose he had held with some pride.
“You can just watch some videos on YouTube or something. They show how to do it well.”
“Really?”
“But how are we going to get there? By train?”
“…Bus?”
Of course, they didn’t really take public transportation. It was because Park Dong-soo grabbed their necks when they said they would take a bus or a train.
“How popular do you think you are? Bus? Train? On a holiday?”
“Seriously…?”
“That’s crazy, guys. Do you want people to swarm over you?”
There would be dozens of eyewitness accounts posted online and people nearby would flock to them. And then there would be all kinds of weird rumors about why Jo Tae-woong was missing from the six members. They would say he was being bullied or ostracized.
‘It’s not like we’re going to see Tae-woong or anything… We have no choice.’
Park Dong-soo had to give up his holiday break and take the wheel because he could already imagine the situation.
***
The cleaning mission under Kim Joo-young’s supervision took place while Shin Soon-ja and Jo Tae-woong were away.
Ian put his hand on Lee Joo-hyuk’s shoulder. They were originally going to do it together, but the four who were already there had cleaned it up quite well.
“You did it by yourselves? You should have waited for us.”
“The timing was perfect. Did anything happen at the market?”
“A little.”
“Yeah?”
Lee Joo-hyuk looked at Jo Tae-woong’s face. Jo Tae-woong looked around the cleaned house and then looked at Lee Joo-hyuk.
“Where’s Dong-soo hyung?”
“He’s in the room. He passed out.”
“Yeah? Well, driving must be hard… But he was fine when we had events, right?”
“I guess so. Maybe hyung is getting old too.”
The members looked at the door of the room where Park Dong-soo was sleeping with pity.
Shin Soon-ja, who had checked the kitchen, couldn’t help but laugh out loud. She could have just relaxed, but they went through the trouble of doing this for her. And the idea of cleaning for her was cute.
“Our grandson has good friends.”
“Right? It’s not easy to find friends like us anywhere else.”
“Yeah.”
The members turned their heads at the same time and looked at Jo Tae-woong. Their faces were full of pride.
“Hey, be good to us.”
“Yeah. Be good.”
“You know I have high standards, right, hyung?”
Jo Tae-woong was dumbfounded and let out a sigh. But he felt happy to see his beloved grandmother.
***
“Should we have cleaned up before doing this?”
“It’s okay, we have newspapers.”
The members of Awi started to make holiday dishes under Shin Soon-ja’s guidance. They moved the cooking utensils to the living room as she instructed.
“I always wanted to try this.”
“Didn’t you make it at home?”
“We don’t do ancestral rites, we just meet and eat.”
“Lucky you. My mom says she hates it, but when the time comes, she curses and makes it anyway.”
Park Jin-hyuk looked at Kim Hyun with a strange expression.
“Isn’t this your self-introduction?”
“What do you mean?”
“You also curse and do everything you need to do.”
Ian, who was listening next to him, laughed along with Park Jin-hyuk. Kim Hyun was the kind of person who nagged a lot but secretly took good care of others.
They followed Shin Soon-ja’s directions and prepared the ingredients. They had to chop garlic with only a knife because they didn’t have any tools.
“Look at Choi Ian. He’s good at cutting.”
“Isn’t he cheating?”
Jo Tae-woong and Kim Joo-young murmured. Ian chuckled. He wasn’t a chef-level expert. He was just a bit more skilled at handling a knife than the other members.
“What are you going to do with your knife skills as an idol?”
“Use them here.”
“Well… I can’t argue with that.”
Ian focused on preparing the ingredients again. Even with clumsy hands, they could finish quickly with many people.
“We can do this fast.”
Shin Soon-ja smiled contentedly. Fortunately, none of them lacked basic common sense and they could get through without any accidents.
“How about this? Dinosaur meatballs.”
Lee Joo-hyuk showed his creation on his palm. It looked like a weird slime rather than a dinosaur. Ian narrowed his eyes.
“Is it weird?”
“Hyung, take this and go do the dishes.”
Lee Joo-hyuk headed to the kitchen with a sullen face. Kim Joo-young, who was frying pancakes next to Ian, frowned at Park Jin-hyuk’s meatballs.
[What is that?]
‘I don’t know.’
Park Jin-hyuk pushed his meatballs, which had an unrecognizable shape, toward Kim Joo-young.
“How about this? Modern art.”
“Don’t play with food, hyung.”
Park Jin-hyuk clicked his tongue.
The trio who could cook decently in Awi. Ian, Park Seo-dam, and Kim Joo-young assisted Shin Soon-ja, while the rest of the members quickly cleaned up whatever they could find.
“Grandma, how is this?”
“Our Seo-dam is good.”
Shin Soon-ja called Park Seo-dam ‘our Seo-dam’ as if she was her grandson and liked her more than anyone else. She had a tomboyish look that didn’t match her personality.
Park Dong-soo gasped as he came out of his nap. He had been driving around since dawn to pick up the members, and he slept longer than usual because of the exhausting drive. He wasn’t used to having any events last year.
“You guys should have woken me up.”
“It’s okay, we did everything, hyung.”
“Wow…”
He watched the members work in a daze. The basket was full of holiday dishes made by Shin Soon-ja and the members. Park Dong-soo took out his phone from his pocket and took a picture of them. Lee Joo-hyuk, who came out after doing the dishes, looked at Park Dong-soo’s phone screen.
“Did it come out well, hyung?”
“Yeah, look.”
“Oh, it came out well. Can I post this on the fan cafe, hyung?”
“Yeah.”
There were many fans who were curious about Jo Tae-woong’s whereabouts. They thought it would be nice to share some news with this picture. Lee Joo-hyuk saved the picture that was sent to the group chat.
Read 𝓁at𝙚st chapters at (f)re𝒆we(b)novel.com Only