Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Translator: Penny
Chapter 71
"What? You want to go out there?"
Is he out of his mind? The snow's piled up to the windows—how are we supposed to get out?
"Let's just film a stay-at-home special."
Despite Gyeon Hajun's protests, Kim Dobin remained resolute.
"But listen, Hyungs, and Jaehee. Are we really going to waste an entire day of our precious vacation like this?"
With a serious expression, Dobin explained his plan, trying to persuade us.
"The windows are sliding, right? So they can still open. If we dig out the snow right in front of the window, we can get out that way."
"What are we going to dig with? There's no shovel in the dorm."
"A dustpan. Doesn't everyone have at least one memory of digging in the snow with a dustpan on the school playground?"
"I do, but we only scooped up loose snow, never dug through packed snow like this. And did we even have a dustpan in the dorm?"
"True. We have a vacuum cleaner, but I don't think we have a dustpan."
Kim Dobin burst into his room and came back with a mini broom and dustpan set, the kind you'd use during elementary school cleaning time.
He detached the broom and tossed it onto the sofa before confidently raising the dustpan.
"Here you go."
Digging through this much snow with that tiny dustpan would take all day.
It would probably be faster to open the dorm's front door than to dig an escape route through the snow with that thing.
Still, while Kim Dobin was busy with his futile efforts, we wouldn't have to rack our brains for content—the broadcast footage would come naturally. So I didn't bother stopping him.
"Alright, just dig enough to get outside once. If you get tired, I'll take over."
I patted his shoulder lightly to encourage him, and as expected, Kim Dobin perked up and dashed to the window.
With a confident flourish, he flung open the window and began diligently scooping snow with the mini dustpan.
A blast of cold air seeped into the dorm.
"Brr... it's cold..."
"Just wrap yourself in a blanket."
"Come on, Hyung. The classic move here is to casually bring over a blanket and cover me up."
"Let's be self-reliant. I didn't raise you to be someone who can't even get a blanket yourself."
"Anyway, how are we going to clean this up?"
Seo Yehyeon, who had somehow managed to distribute four padded jackets to the members and wrap himself tightly in one, shivered from the cold as he pointed to the floor.
The snow Kim Dobin had shoveled was now piled up on the dorm floor.
"Ta-da! Let's build a snowman!"
"Isn't it supposed to be melting snow?"
Ryu Jaehee gathered the snow on the floor into a pile and tried to pack it into a snowball, but the snow melted in his hands faster than he could shape it.
The camera was focused intently on Kim Dobin, who was diligently digging through the snow. Meanwhile, the other members were sprawled out comfortably in the camera's blind spots, taking a break.
Exactly five minutes after Kim Dobin started digging through the snow blocking the window, he collapsed onto the floor, whining for a replacement.
"Change! I need a change!"
I sighed, watching him flop onto the floor, begging for someone to take over. I'd expected him to last at least ten minutes, but he couldn't even make it halfway.
Of course, the broadcast would likely edit it down to about three minutes, whether he'd dug for ten minutes or five.
The gap Kim Dobin had managed to create was barely big enough for a head, let alone a whole body.
"Ugh, that's why I suggested we just film a stay-at-home special."
Grumbling, I snatched the dustpan from Kim Dobin's hand and approached the window, starting to dig out the snow.
Since I offered to take over, I might as well keep my word.
Ten minutes later:
"Hey, someone bring a dining chair! I can't reach anymore!"
"Wow... Were you a mole in your past life?"
I had discovered an unexpected talent.
Seo Yehyeon stared in awe at the snow piled high on the dorm floor and the tunnel I'd dug, deep enough for someone to crawl in up to their chest.
"Amazing! If we keep this up, we might actually escape!"
"See? What did I tell you? This is all thanks to my brilliant idea, Kim Dobin's idea!"
"Come on, Hyung, don't get too proud. Honestly, if Eden Hyung hadn't dug so far already, I would've given up."
After digging for another ten minutes, I called for a shift change. Ryu Jaehee eagerly took the snow shovel, wanting to try it himself.
"Hey, Eden Hyung, how did you dig so much? It's way harder than I thought!"
"With the burning passion and determination to not waste a precious vacation day cooped up in the dorm."
After fiddling with the shovel for about six minutes, Ryu Jaehee declared he was too short to dig any further and passed it to Gyeon Hajun, the tallest member.
One by one, everyone took turns shoveling—or rather, snow-shoveling—until it was Seo Yehyeon's turn. Then, for the absurd reason that I was supposedly the best at digging, the shovel was handed back to me.
"Dobin-ah."
"Yes!"
"You should try... No, never mind. If you do it, we'll be here until dawn. Or the snow will melt first."
For a good twenty minutes, I'd been digging so furiously that I'd climbed off the chair and onto the windowsill.
"Freedom! Freedom!"
"Hyung, anyone who hears you will think we're breaking out of prison."
Finally, I managed to squeeze my entire body out the window.
"Wow, it actually worked."
"Let me remind you again, this was all thanks to Kim Dobin's genius idea, his meticulousness in bringing a mini dustpan to the dorm, and his preparedness—"
"Why are you conveniently leaving out the 90% of the labor I put in?"
After an hour of realizing we were trapped, I stepped outside and took a deep breath of the fresh air.
The air wasn't any different from yesterday's, but my mood was.
Ryu Jaehee suddenly poked his head out the open window and handed me a camcorder. "Eden Hyung, can you film this?"
"Eden Hyung, since you're going out anyway, could you do something about the front door?"
"Let me take a look first. From the photos Manager Hyung sent, I don't even want to touch it."
As I took the camcorder, Kim Dobin, who had climbed onto a chair and struggled through the snow tunnel to get outside, raised his arms and jumped up and down.
"Yes! Escape successful!"
"Don't run, it's slippery."
After giving Dobin a quick warning, I strode toward the front door, with Dobin trailing closely behind me.
Looking at the snow piled halfway up the door, I wondered how to clear it.
"Can't we just boil some water and pour it on?"
"Wouldn't that just freeze the snow into an igloo instead of melting it?"
"Even with hot water?"
"If you pour it from a pot, it'll just melt and freeze right back up. You'd need a water tank to melt all this snow in one go... Achoo! Ugh, it's freezing!"
"You came out without a coat in this weather? Great job. Get back inside before you catch a cold."
Kim Dobin whined about being too scared to go back in, afraid he'd slip and crack his head on the dorm floor. So, against my better judgment, I found myself shoveling snow with a dustpan again.
After clearing a rough path near the window, Kim Dobin finally scurried back inside.
"A dustpan's useless for this. We'd need a proper shovel."
As I crouched by the window muttering this, Ryu Jaehee scurried over and thrust his phone screen in my face.
"Eden Hyung, the community center is lending out snow shovels."
"Oh, right. I already cleared all the snow from the windows with that tiny dustpan, but I guess I should go get a snow shovel from the community center too. My younger brothers are determined to make their old hyung work, so I guess I have to go. Aish, I'm so miserable, I don't know how I'll survive."
As Yoon Eden lamented loudly, seemingly for Ryu Jaehee and Kim Dobin to hear, Ryu Jaehee rolled his eyes.
"Huh? By birthdate, Hyung, you're actually the third oldest out of the five of us."
Noticing the camcorder in Kim Dobin's hand behind Ryu Jaehee, Yoon Eden lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Youngest member, third oldest or not, let's just go while I'm asking nicely. Hyung's tired."
Ryu Jaehee flinched at my low, menacing tone and nodded frantically.
Standing on tiptoe and craning his neck, Ryu Jaehee whispered conspiratorially, "Can I drag Dobin Hyung along when we go to the community center?"
"Yeah, do whatever you want. But why are you asking me? You should ask Kim Dobin himself."
"He'd never go if I asked him, but if you tell him to go, he'll do it right away."
So you're going to use me as your authority figure, huh?
Regardless, Ryu Jaehee dragged the cautiously glancing Kim Dobin toward the neighborhood community center. Thanks to the Maknae Line bringing a camcorder, we were able to relax comfortably in the dorm during our break.
- Hyung, can we get calcium chloride too?
"How much are they giving out?"
- 25kg bags. They don't have smaller portions.
"Just come. That's more than enough to cover the whole neighborhood."
About ten minutes after the call ended, the Maknae Line returned with shovels.
We all headed to the front door and began shoveling.
Ryu Jaehee, being the youngest member, was exempt from shoveling, but he had to film instead, so he wasn't exactly resting either.
"This is really... uh..."
"Okay, Dobin Hyung. That's enough."
"We have 11? 12? years left—"
"Aaaah! Watch your mouth! Be careful what you say!"
"Guys, stop chatting and get back to shoveling."
After a long while, the four strong men finally managed to dig through the snow, revealing the buried stairs and front door.
"Wow, finally..."
"What's this? It won't open again? Hyungs, the door's stuck!"
"Maybe it's frozen? Should we go in through the window and boil some water? Pouring hot water on it might work... Hey, Yoon Eden! You're going to break the door!"
Seething with frustration, Eden ignored Seo Yehyeon's warnings and grabbed the doorknob, shaking it with all his might. The door rattled violently.
"Oh, it's open."
"What kind of strength..."
As the sun began to set, painting the sky with twilight hues, the front door finally swung open with a bang.
It was unbelievable that they had been at this since morning, still struggling as dusk fell.
Except for Ryu Jaehee, who had gone to return the shovel and drop off the camcorder at the community center, everyone collapsed onto the floor of the dorm, rubbing their aching arms.
"Dobin, aren't you going home?"
"I'm too tired to go..."
Kim Dobin lay sprawled in the middle of the living room, answering weakly.
It was ironic, considering he had proposed the plan to escape our isolated house precisely to go home.
We had wasted an entire day of our vacation digging in the snow. It was all thanks to that damn LnL for not moving us out of this wretched basement apartment sooner.
But today's ordeal finally forced them to schedule our move, which had been delayed under the pretense of avoiding "inauspicious days."
When I checked the date, it wasn't even an inauspicious day. Why had they kept postponing it?
Seo Yehyeon, fiddling with the camcorder, sighed in exasperation.
"I bet all our footage will get cut. All we filmed was us shoveling snow."
"But if that's the case, why did we even bother shoveling snow? Wouldn't a 'stay-at-home' special have given us enough footage?"
Gyeon Hajun, who had been advocating for a stay-at-home special from the start, spoke up. Lying sprawled on the sofa, he merely turned his head to reply.
"Who was the first one to suggest digging in the snow?"
Kim Dobin glanced around nervously before sheepishly raising his hand and muttering in a barely audible voice, "Should I do a headstand?"
"Anyone listening would think we're enforcing military discipline in the group, you idiot. Why would you do a headstand? We can fill the time with something else."
At that moment, none of us could have imagined how this seemingly pointless footage would later be used.
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny