There Are Four Top Idol Uncles - Chapter 234

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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 60
* * *
“The sea!”
At Jeongyun’s cry, all the girls pressed their faces to the car windows at once.
Beyond the glass, waves rolled in heavy with the spring sun.
Yewon gasped without thinking—a genuine, delighted sound. It had been so long since she’d seen the sea with people she cared about, not for any photograph or assignment.
“It’s amazing. Seriously gorgeous. Can we stop here for just a minute and take some photos before heading to the lodging?!”
Jeongyun leaned forward between the driver’s seat and passenger seat to ask.
“Should we?”
Lee Doha glanced toward Eon as if seeking permission.
He knew well enough that Eon couldn’t stand any deviation from his plans, whatever the reason might be.
……
Sure enough, Eon’s face read clear reluctance. Eight more minutes and they’d be at the lodging anyway. Which was also right by the sea. Which would have an even prettier view. It was all the same ocean—why stop here of all places? The complaint was written plain across his features.
“Yes? Eon? Yes? Yes?”
But under Jeongyun’s relentless prodding, Eon finally nodded.
He’d always been weak to the combination of girls and children.
“Yes! Thank you so much!”
“So Eon’s soft for Jeongyun, huh? I’ll have to remember that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. If it’d been me asking, he wouldn’t have listened to save his life.”
“Uncle’s right. He only listens because it’s Jeongyun asking.”
Yewon nodded in agreement. If it had been Lee Doha, Eon would’ve already fired back something like, “Why are you such a scatterbrain? Just keep your mouth shut and focus on driving until we reach our destination.” But because it was Jeongyun, he yielded.
“Yewon, call Yeonho and tell him we’re stopping here for a bit.”
“Sure!”
He could have asked Eon, who was right beside him, but Lee Doha deliberately turned to Yewon instead.
He understood all too well the ordeal that Yeonho endured—juggling three boys and now Weon besides.
A small mercy like this was the least that man deserved for coming on this trip.
* * *
While Weon and Lee Doha circled the crowded public parking lot hunting for a space,
the girls and boys, along with Yeonho and Eon, got out and headed toward the shore.
‘It’s a bit cold…’
Yewon drew her coat tighter around herself. It was only March, but the sea breeze bit sharply.
“You’re cold, aren’t you, Yewon. Here.”
Before she knew it, Hyuk had closed the distance and draped his scarf around her shoulders.
“Oh, a scarf?”
He hadn’t been wearing it before, Yewon thought, tilting her head as she looked up at him.
“Yeah. I brought it because I figured you’d get cold.”
“But you’ll be cold too. You should wear it.”
Yewon, eyeing his coat with concern, refused gently.
“No, I’m fine—”
“I brought a scarf for Yewon.”
!
A massive shadow fell across both of them, and they spun around in unison.
There stood Yeonho, his expression solemn—or at least, his attempt at looking neutral—holding out a thick pink scarf.
…He was their uncle, but somehow a pink scarf looked so thoroughly out of place on him.
Yewon stared at Yeonho in bewilderment.
“You think we’d bring our girl to the seaside on a day like this without packing her a scarf?”
Yeonho said this and, before Yewon could protest, wound the scarf firmly around her neck.
The efficiency of his movements spoke to seven years of parenting experience.
“I’m really okay…”
“No, you’re not okay. I’ve got gloves too, so put them on. I brought a long padding jacket as well—if you’re still cold after all this, just say so.”
……
Yeonho busily began attaching heat packs—ten of them—to her coat as he spoke.
Anyone watching would think it was winter. This was overkill!
Yewon gave a reluctant nod.
Right, the others would be cold too. She turned toward the girls.
……?
There, Eon was already distributing heat packs and scarves while launching into a lecture: “Why aren’t you wearing padding? Do you think about your parents’ tears if you catch cold? Honestly. Why do you insist on ignoring modern conveniences? Is there another country that makes padding as well as ours?”
…It’s reassuring, at least.
What about the boys?
Yewon turned her gaze elsewhere.
Baek Yun had already been forced by Yeonho into a padding jacket and now stood staring at the sea with a sullen expression.
Yoo Eun-o, meanwhile….
“Yoo Eun-o went off alone down to the breakwater to take pictures. I told him to bring hand warmers, but he wasn’t listening, so I just tucked some heat packs into his coat before he left.”
True to Hyuk’s word, Yoo Eun-o was already standing at the breakwater.
The white lighthouse, Yoo Eun-o in a black long coat with his camera raised, and the brilliant blue sea made a striking composition.
“Why is he shooting so intensely over there?”
At Yewon’s murmur, Hyuk smiled wryly.
“Who knows. Yoo Eun-o’s always like that. To me it’s just the sea…. But I guess he sees something different through his lens.”
Perhaps that was true.
Yewon turned her gaze toward the sea, wanting to understand that “something different” that appeared in Yoo Eun-o’s eyes.
There lay a cool, serene blue where sky and water met, the boundary between them blurred into obscurity.
Yoo Eun-o was capturing that horizon in his camera—that opaque line he seemed unsure could even be preserved.
“Come on, Yewon.”
“Hmm?”
At Hyuk’s call, Yewon came back to herself. She turned to look beside her and saw hundreds of millions of grains of sand glittering where sunlight struck them, and standing upon them, a boy.
In the moment she saw Hyuk—shining brighter than those countless grains that must have flowed and tumbled through eons of time—Yewon blinked rapidly.
“Everyone wants to take a selfie together. Let’s go before Jeongyun gets annoyed.”
“Right.”
Yewon nodded at Hyuk’s words, and he laughed softly, offering her his arm with a casual sweep.
“If the sand gets too hard to walk through, you can hold on.”
“No. That won’t work.”
“?!”
Yewon jumped at the voice from the other side and turned her head sharply.
There stood Yeonho, his eyes clearly saying “Are you people not even going to look at me?”, and he held out a decidedly muscular forearm.
“I’ve been training so I could help at moments like this. I can’t just have these muscles go unused.”
…….
“If you really must grab someone’s arm, say the word, Mun Hyuk. I’ll personally give you some training.”
“N-no, thank you….”
Yewon felt suddenly mortified on Hyuk’s behalf.
I should have seen this coming….
But Yewon obediently took Yeonho’s arm. His remark had been delivered in an unusually gentle tone for something so blunt, and more crucially, she had an instinctive sense that if she took Hyuk’s arm instead, this trip would be anything but smooth sailing.
“Oh, shouldn’t we ask Yoo Eun-o to take pictures with us too? Maybe we should call him?”
“Yoo Eun-o? No, Yoo Eun-o never takes pictures with people. He only takes them—he doesn’t like being photographed. Won’t do selfies at all, and barely shows up for class group photos.”
“But why…?”
With a face like that, wouldn’t humanity suffer a tremendous loss if he didn’t let himself be photographed a hundred million times…?
Yewon asked with a serious expression.
“Hmm. I’m not entirely sure, but Yoo Eun-o seems to really dislike being noticed for his appearance.”
So he’s aware that his face is getting plenty of attention. Yewon stifled a giggle.
“Well, that could happen if you’re not an actor. Still, we should at least ask. He might feel left out if we don’t even invite him. Since he’s far away, you try calling him. I don’t have his number.”
“Oh, you don’t have his number? Then I’ll call him.”
For some reason, Hyuk’s face lit up as he dialed Yoo Eun-o.
She couldn’t fathom why the fact that Yoo Eun-o’s number wasn’t in Yewon’s phone was something to smile about…. She eyed him suspiciously.
Yoo Eun-o must have declined, because Hyuk hung up with an awkward shake of his head.
“Well, we can’t help it then. Let’s just take one with ourselves. And the uncles too.”
“Sounds good.”
At the words “with ourselves,” the grip on Yeonho’s arm suddenly seemed to tighten considerably, but Yewon desperately chose to ignore it.
I don’t know anything. I’m not aware of anything.
* * *
But there was one thing Yewon truly didn’t know.
From the moment Hyuk’s call came through, Yoo Eun-o had been photographing something other than the horizon.
He slowly zoomed in.
Starting from the sky and tracing his lens carefully across the low buildings below, he soon found the subject he was looking for.
Her smile was breaking apart like white sea foam.
But Yoo Eun-o knew.
Even if that smile dissolved into the sand, it would return again. Endless, like waves that never stop.
He should have brought a film camera. With someone like her today, even ISO 50 film—film that demanded every bit of light—would have been possible.
Concealing his regret, Yoo Eun-o quietly lowered his camera.
His father’s words echoed in his mind: that anyone who makes films will inevitably face the moment when they wish to capture reality itself.
And that your first step would be acknowledging you can never fully capture it—that no film is greater than reality itself.
Father.
You were right.
Yoo Eun-o murmured quietly to himself.
No matter what I do with photographs or video, I’ll never be able to capture him completely.

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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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