There Are Four Top Idol Uncles - Chapter 181

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Episode 7
“Yeol…?”
“Yeah.”
To settle who was superior.
Yewon was flabbergasted.
From the very first meeting, he was brazenly declaring that he was her rival.
‘And who gave you permission to think of yourself as my competition…?’
He was tasting the broth before the rice cake was even served.
“Why do I have to settle this with you…?”
After first period ended, when Hyun Siu appeared again, Yewon asked him in a thoroughly bewildered voice.
“Because I think whoever wins fairly and squarely is the one who should inherit Haion.”
“…??”
It was true — when someone was too baffled for words, their words simply wouldn’t come.
Yewon wanted to argue every single point from the beginning, but seeing how genuinely earnest Hyun Siu’s face was, she just gave up.
Fine, really.
There was nothing wrong with the kid.
“Take it.”
“…What?”
“Haion. You can have it. I don’t care about it.”
With that, Yewon brushed past Hyun Siu.
“Wait.”
But Hyun Siu, clearly unconvinced, stepped into her path.
“You’re… not interested in Haion? Really?”
“No.”
Yewon said it again, pouring all her emphasis into the words.
To make clear that she meant it, she fixed her expression into a sharp scowl and crossed her arms firmly.
With an intensity born of determination that this sincerity would not be dismissed, she spoke with the most fearsome and threatening gaze she could muster.
“I have things I need to do. So take Haion and figure it out yourself, and don’t get in my way.”
“…!”
At that, Hyun Siu’s face went pale, then flushed, and then….
His head drooped forward with a soft sound.
Like someone who had surrendered completely.
“?”
What was that?
Had I really seemed that intimidating?
* * *
Though Yewon couldn’t quite explain what had just happened, she took advantage of Hyun Siu’s silence to slip past him quickly.
Originally, she had wanted to use the break time to get a little friendlier with her classmates….
‘But with someone that strange already planted in front of me like that, it’s going to be pretty hard.’
A strange rival suddenly attached to her the moment she enrolled?
She’d refuse that too….
‘Let me just lie low for now!’
So where was she going to hide….
Yewon’s eyes wandered for a moment before another friend at this school came to mind.
‘Oh, Mun Hyeok!’
Mun Hyeok went to school here too.
She could drop by to get his advice about the school and say hi after all this time.
‘I might even get some tips about clubs or teachers…?’
Not a bad idea.
Yewon hurried out and headed for the staircase.
First-years were on the second floor, second-years on the third, and third-years were… a bit further up, on the fifth floor, right?
The fourth floor was mostly practical training rooms.
Yewon recalled the classroom layout diagram she’d reviewed before coming to school.
Normally wouldn’t they give the third-years the lowest floor, for their comfort?
‘This school has a pretty unusual classroom arrangement….’
Yewon tilted her head curiously and quickened her pace.
She’d need to move fast if she wanted to get up to the fifth floor and talk to Mun Hyeok within the ten-minute break.
‘I wasted three whole minutes because of Hyun Siu!’
Just as Yewon was about to feel sorry for herself.
“!”
“Yewon?”
Thank heavens.
Mun Hyeok appeared.
“Brother!”
“What are you doing up on the fifth floor…?”
Yewon greeted him cheerfully, but Hyuk’s face went pale in an instant.
He glanced frantically around to make sure no one was watching, then gestured urgently at her.
“Get down from here. Don’t ever come up to the senior floors.”
“Huh? But why—”
“Now!”
Confused, Yewon followed his frantic urging and retraced her steps back down.
She made it to the second floor in moments, but even that wasn’t enough for Hyuk—he ushered her all the way outside.
He brought her to—
‘…The Wisteria Shelter?’
A quiet spot behind the school. Completely empty.
‘This place behind the school… isn’t this where those scary seniors hang out? Why are we here?’
Her unease only grew.
“Brother. What’s going on? Stop for a second.”
Yewon grabbed Hyuk’s wrist—still visibly anxious—and forced him to halt.
“….”
Only then did Hyuk glance around one more time, confirm that no one else was there, and finally catch his breath.
And for the first time, he looked at Yewon directly, really looked at her.
“…!”
Yewon, seeing him for the first time in ages, faltered slightly.
What…?
Why… why was he like this…?
“…It’s been a while, Yewon.”
He seemed like a completely different person.
Yewon stood there flustered, unable to greet him properly, just staring up at him.
The last time she’d seen him, Hyuk had only been about ten centimeters taller than her.
Now he stood nearly as tall as her uncles, radiating an unfamiliar presence.
Yewon felt suddenly awkward.
Back then, even though he was her older brother by two years, she’d never really felt that “older brother” feeling.
Compared to her actual age of fourteen, he’d just seemed like a kid to her—nothing more.
‘But now… he’s clearly my older brother!’
It was oddly embarrassing.
Yewon found herself staring intently at her own feet out of shyness.
“Yewon?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Hyuk asked again, his face etched with concern, and Yewon finally snapped back to herself.
This wasn’t the time for this. Right, focus.
“Brother. What’s wrong? Why can’t I go up to the senior floors? And why are you so nervous? Is it—”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Hyuk cut through the barrage of questions curtly.
“The thing about not coming up to the senior floors… it’s just an implicit rule here at our school.”
“!”
An implicit rule?
Yewon looked unconvinced, and Hyuk let out a long sigh.
“This school is… different. The discipline here is strict, and the senior-junior hierarchy is taken very seriously. That’s why seniors can go down to the lower floors, but juniors coming up is forbidden.”
Was that why they’d put the third-year students on the highest floor? So no one would accidentally go up there?
Yewon felt a quiet shock wash over her.
“The teachers also had so many complaints about the third-year students being threatening to the underclassmen that they separated us to avoid conflicts. Put us on the fifth floor.”
“…But you’re a third-year now?”
In other words: what right did kids who were second-years just yesterday have to boss around the juniors like this?
They’d been through the same thing themselves!
“Our year… we had a reputation even back in first year. A bit of a…”
“A bit of a…?”
What kind of reputation?
As Hyuk hesitated, unable to answer, Yewon was about to ask again when—
♩♪♬♩♪♬
The bell signaling the end of class rang out.
Oh no.
Yewon panicked.
Late to class on her first day!
“I have to hurry upstairs.”
Hyuk seemed equally flustered, because the two of them bolted toward the staircase at the same time.
Even as she ran, Yewon didn’t forget to leave one final word with Hyuk beside her.
“We’ll talk at lunch, okay? Promise.”
It was her way of saying: don’t you dare run off, and don’t forget to explain yourself.
“…Get to class already.”
Instead of agreeing, Hyuk gave her a bitter smile, pushed her toward the second floor, and quickly climbed the stairs himself.
The moment Hyuk disappeared.
….
Yewon, who was supposed to have entered the classroom, poked her head back out.
Something felt very off about this.
Yewon hesitated for a moment, then pulled out her phone.
Normally she would have handled it directly, but she had to get to class.
Maybe she’d ask for just a little help.
* * *
Having barely managed to shake off Yewon, Hyuk glanced back and, confirming that no one had followed him, looked up toward the third floor.
“…Don’t stand there like that. Come out.”
He directed his words upward.
Then a group of boys with their hands in their pockets, snickering, emerged from the upper floor.
“What, already caught?”
“We thought you’d be too distracted by the new student to notice. You’ve got sharp eyes though.”
Hyuk stared coolly up at the group that was grinning and spoiling for a fight.
“If you have something to say, say it straight.”
“We don’t have anything to say. What’s with you, telling us what to do?”
The shortest of the boys answered with a hardened expression.
“You came down to the second floor looking for me because you had something to say.”
“You’re the one on the second floor. We were on the third.”
This time, the boy next to him—the ringleader of the group—shot back mockingly. It was a petty, childish way of arguing, twisting his words for no reason. The boys on either side of him snickered.
“Shouldn’t we report Mun Hyeok for bullying underclassmen?”
“Right?”
“He’s the reason we even have that school rule, but he gets to break it?”
At those words, Hyuk’s face went cold as ice.
The boys flinched slightly at his reaction, but, emboldened by the group around them, they quickly started acting tough.
“Look at him, getting serious. The rule exists because of him, for real. Who in this school doesn’t know that?”
“What are you staring at, kid? That rule was created because you talked back to your seniors and got trampled hard.”
At the endless crude insults and mockery, Hyuk’s fists clenched.
Talked back, they said.
In their eyes, that’s all it looked like—talking back and getting crushed for it.
But my truth is different.
….
Hyuk stared quietly at the classmates who, relying only on their group, kept spewing mockery.
Then, toward them, he took one step.
Up the stairs.
…!
!
The group, which had been talking nonstop, fell silent in an instant.
Hyuk didn’t stop and took another step toward them.
With Hyuk advancing without pause, the boys exchanged glances with each other—as if asking what to do now.
But Hyuk, whether or not they averted their eyes from him, looked directly at them and climbed one more step.
Just as the tension was about to grow even more unbearable.
“What are you guys doing over there?”
!
Hyun Rion, beaming with a bright, innocent smile, climbed up from the first floor and called out to the boys.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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