UAI Chapter 49

Episode 49

They eventually decided that everyone would have mango bingsu and called over a staff member.

After taking their order, the staff left, and soon another employee came in to clear the table.

A moment later, a bowl of mango bingsu was placed in front of each person.

Just looking at the finely shaved milk ice topped with bright yellow mango and a cute sprig of mint made their eyes sparkle with delight.

Sejin scooped up a big spoonful of bingsu and put it into his mouth.

The moment the rich milk and sweet mango entered, it melted away before he could even chew a few times.

Because it was a dessert, the portion was small, so Sejin quickly finished his and licked his lips in disappointment.

Smiling at the sight, Hajin pushed his own bingsu toward Sejin.

'Here. You can have Uncle's too. But if you eat too many cold things, you'll get a stomachache, so just eat this one, okay?'

At his uncle's thoughtfulness, Sejin beamed brightly.

'Mm! Thank you, Uncle! I love you!'

'Hahaha! Yeah. I love you too.'

Sejin picked up his spoon again and began eating the bingsu Hajin had given him.

The members, who were eating their own portions, watched the scene with warm smiles.

'I could give up my bingsu too, you know… Would Sejin tell me he loves me if I do?'

Roy teased.

Hearing that, Sejin lifted his head and saw all the uncles staring at him with eager, expectant faces.

'Sigh… I don't even need them to say it to know exactly what they want. Fine. I'll give them a service after a long time.'

Sejin put his spoon down on the table, lifted both arms over his head, and pressed his short arms together to form a heart.

'I love all my uncles! Thank you for always treating me well, buying me presents, and… playing with me!'

Everyone burst into laughter at his gesture.

'Yeah. The uncles love Sejin too!'

'Oh my. Why do I feel like I'm about to cry?'

'We raised him well. My baby.'

'Sejin, you know I'm the one you love the most among your uncles, right?'

Shaking his head at their dramatic reactions, Sejin picked up his spoon again and resumed eating his mango bingsu.

At that moment...

Knock knock.

'Yes, come in.'

The door opened, and a young woman in her twenties wearing a suit stepped inside.

'Hello. I'm Assistant Manager Jang Sena from Cheongsong Hotel's Food & Beverage Team. Did you enjoy your meal?'

At her introduction, Jaewon spoke on behalf of the group.

'Ah, yes. We enjoyed it very much. But… what brings you here?'

'We came despite the discourtesy because we heard that the members of B-One and Lee Sejin visited today. To explain briefly, CS Mart, which you visited not long ago, is a subsidiary of our Cheongsong Group. Thanks to your visit that day, not only did our sales increase, but we also gained significant promotional benefits. Out of gratitude, I came to personally express our thanks. And this is a dessert we prepared because we thought Lee Sejin would like it.'

Assistant Manager Jang signaled to the staff member who had entered with her.

The staff quickly placed a plate full of various desserts in front of Sejin before stepping back.

'It's not much, but it's something we prepared with appreciation, so we hope you'll accept it.'

'Oh, really, you didn't have to…'

As Jaewon stammered in flustered surprise, Assistant Manager Jang replied with a firm yet pleasant voice.

'Honestly, we didn't want to charge you for your meal. But we thought that might make you feel too pressured, so we decided to offer desserts instead. Please don't refuse them. This isn't my personal decision, it's an order from above. If you decline, it puts me in a difficult position.'

With that clear explanation, the group could no longer refuse and expressed their thanks.

'Then… we'll enjoy it. Thank you very much.'

'Thank you!'

Sejin's polite greeting made Assistant Manager Jang Sena smile softly before she left the room.

'Wow! How is it that whenever we're with Sejin, we always end up getting extra stuff?'

'Right? Same thing happened at the mart last time…'

Hwan and Roy laughed as they remembered the mart incident.

Sejin looked down at the plate set in front of him.

On the large plate were various cakes and desserts from Cheongsong Hotel's bakery.

They looked so delicious that his mouth watered, but having eaten two bowls of mango bingsu a little earlier, his stomach was completely full.

'Hing… Uncleee…'

His voice trembled as he called for Hajin.

Startled, Hajin quickly wiped the tears gathering at Sejin's eyes.

'What's wrong? Does your stomach hurt?'

Sejin shook his head.

Ever since he ended up in a child's body, he found it harder to control his instinctive emotions. Maybe because of that, even tiny things felt upsetting today.

'N-no… I'm full… so I can't eat this… sniff…'

Hearing that, the others, who had been watching him worriedly, burst into laughter.

'Pfft-, oh, seriously!'

'Hahaha! Our Sejin really does have quite the appetite!'

Feeling wronged when he was being serious, and yet his uncles kept teasing him, Sejin finally sulked.

'Hmph! I hate you uncles! You're always teasing me!'

Seeing his pouty nephew fuming, Hajin gently patted his head to soothe him.

'I'll ask them to pack it up for you. Then you can take it home and eat it later. Okay?'

'Really?'

'Of course. So don't be upset anymore.'

'Mm! Hehe.'

Trying not to laugh again at Sejin's adorably quick mood swing, Hajin called a staff member and asked for the desserts to be packed.

After a little while, the employee returned with a large shopping bag.

'Huh? The shopping bag is really big…'

The staff member smiled and explained.

'Our assistant manager prepared some extra items for you to take home as well. We packed everything together in the same bag, so please don't worry and take it with you.'

'Ah… then, thank you so much. I feel bad accepting all this…'

'She also asked us to pass along a message, she would be grateful if you visited again next time. Well then, I'll take my leave.'

'Yes, thank you.'

After a moment, the members gathered up the large shopping bag and helped Sejin before leaving the private room.

Minsu, who had gone ahead to settle the bill, approached to take the shopping bag.

'Hyung, give it to me. I'll carry it.'

'It's fine. It's not even that heavy… If you're done paying, let's go.'

'Yes. Hajin hyung, here's your card.'

'Mm.'

Putting the card away, Hajin took Sejin's hand and headed toward the elevator.

'So in the end, Hajin paid for everything today?'

'Yeah. From the shop to the restaurant. You must've spent a lot, huh?'

Hearing his hyungs worry, Hajin laughed as if it was ridiculous.

'Hyungs, seriously? You're worrying like I don't have enough money to cover something like this?'

Feeling embarrassed, the members let out awkward laughs.

'No, that's not it… It just feels weird having the youngest treat us.'

Everyone nodded at Roy's words.

'Oh, come on. It's not like it's the first time I've treated you. And you all buy me things all the time, so why is it such a big deal only when I pay?'

'Haha. It's just that we still think of you as the 15-year-old kid we first met.'

'Yeah. You even look exactly the same.'

'Come here! Let's see if the rest of you grew any!'

As the hyungs teased him, Hajin dodged away before eventually laughing along with them.

A little later, their elevator arrived. The group rode down and walked out the hotel entrance to the car waiting for them.

After several dozen minutes of driving, Minsu pulled up in front of their residence.

'Hyungs, we're here. You can get out.'

'Alright. Thanks for your hard work today, Minsu.'

'Ayy, this is my job. Oh, right. You heard from the manager, right? About the meeting with the VTM production team on the 5th?'

'Yeah, we know.'

'I'll come by at 7 that day. Your salon appointment is at 8, so we need to leave by 7:10 at the latest. It might get congested since it's around commute time.'

'Got it. We'll be ready.'

'Yes.'

After finishing their conversation with Minsu, the group stepped out of the car.

As Hajin was preparing to get out, he handed the shopping bag to Roy.

'Hyung, can you hold this? I think I need to carry Sejin. He's fallen asleep.'

'Ah, sure.'

'Give Sejin to me first. It'll be harder for you to get out while holding him.'

Jaewon, who had gotten out first, received Sejin from Hajin.

Hajin, the last to exit, thanked Minsu before closing the car door.

'Hyung, give him to me now.'

'It's fine. We're right in front of the house anyway, I'll carry him. If we keep passing him around, the kid will wake up.'

Holding Sejin gently in his arms, Jaewon headed toward the house.

Once they arrived inside, they laid Sejin down in his room and stepped out.

'Isn't it hot? Want me to bring you something cold to drink?'

The housekeeper asked as the members returned from their outing.

'Oh no, it's fine. We can get something ourselves.'

'Auntie, did you eat lunch yet? We brought some dim sum from the hotel's Chinese restaurant. Please have some.'

'You didn't need to bring all this… I'll enjoy it though.'

'Yes, enjoy!'

While Joomin and Hajin went into the kitchen to prepare iced coffee, the others changed into comfortable clothes and gathered in the living room.

'Here. Have some coffee.'

'Yeah. Thanks.'

'You and Hajin should change clothes and come sit down too.'

'Okay, got it.'

Once Hajin and Joomin also changed and returned, everyone gathered around the sofa.

'Last night, I used a program to review Jiwon's recorded audio.'

'Oh, already?'

'Yeah. It was definitely manipulated. The results came out.'

Everyone's faces lit up at those words.

They finally had evidence to clear Jiwon's misunderstanding.

'I sent the result to Jiwon through messenger too. He must've been so anxious…'

'Good. You did well. Even if he knew it was false, it must've been so frustrating when no one believed him.'

'Yeah. He was really happy.'

'I also talked on the phone with Seongjun hyung for a bit this morning.'

'Really?'

'Yeah. I told him the basics about Jiwon, and for the investigation part, we agreed to stick to what we talked about yesterday.'

'Good. Nice job.'

'Then let's plan to visit the office next Wednesday.'

Just as their discussion was wrapping up, Joomin turned to Hajin.

'Oh! Sorry, but can you ask Seongjun hyung to resend the email so that it arrives next Tuesday?'

'Huh? Why?'

'Because we need to make it look like we received the email on Tuesday, so that going to the company on Wednesday makes sense. So go delete everything in your email. It's the shared inbox, Cheolhwan hyung and the managers can access it. Since we agreed to match our stories, we need to be thorough.'

'Ah!'

'Oh, he's right! As expected of Joomin hyung!'

With that, everyone scattered to their rooms.

Before deleting his email, Jaewon printed the contents and stored it neatly in a file on his bookshelf.

While all the members were busy cleaning out their inboxes, their outing from earlier that day had already become a hot topic on fan cafés and online communities.

They hadn't been photographed at the salon, but since they exited through the hotel's main entrance, more pictures were taken than expected.

Among them, what especially became a highlight were the matching pink tops worn by the B-One members and Sejin.

[The Pinkies. LOL.JPG]

—So cute!! ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

—Whose idea do you think that was? LOL

—Bet it was Jaewon oppa, haha.

—But their hairstyles all changed? Did they go to the salon?

—Looks like it. In the photo from the mart before, Sejin had a bob cut, but now it's shorter and he has permed bangs.

—Sejin looks even cuter with a perm!!! >,<

—Thanks to Sejin, they go outside way more nowadays. Otherwise, they would've stayed home like the homebodies they are.

—Yeah, lately I've seen them out walking with Sejin and Bbokdol pretty often. Haha.

—I like seeing these everyday-life moments, but I really want to see them on stage again soon. ㅠㅠㅠ

—Same, same.

—If not a stage, then at least another program!!

While fans were reacting in real time, the staff of Ain Entertainment's Team 1 were monitoring the posts and laughing among themselves.

'Wow! If people find out they're doing a variety show, the fans are going to lose it.'

'Of course. Ever since Hajin's sister's accident, they've only done small individual schedules, so this is the first time the whole group is doing something together.'

'Exactly. And with our little cutie Sejin joining them too! Ahhh!'

'What's this? Assistant Manager Kim, I think you want to see Sejin more than the members themselves.'

'Oh come on! Aren't the rest of you the same? Am I the only one who misses our Sejin?'

'No way! I also miss our soft, squishy rice-cake Sejin!!'

At the new female employee's loud declaration, everyone burst into laughter.

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Hi~ If you enjoy the translation and would like to support me or access advanced chapters of this novel, feel free to visit my ko-fi by clicking here~. Advanced chapters available:
𝟱𝟬-𝟱𝟯 [New, Dec 23]
𝟱𝟰-𝟱𝟳 [New, Dec 23]

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