Chapter 106
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Square Poop
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‘Ah. Did I eat too much?’
Song Ha-na thought to herself as she rubbed her slightly protruding belly.
She had originally planned to eat just a little because of her diet and stop there, but before she knew it, she had polished off an entire lunchbox.
Even though it had been 30 minutes since she ate, her stomach still felt full.
‘This is all that guy’s fault.’
Song Ha-na glared at Do-hyun, who was sitting next to her.
It was because Do-hyun was eating so deliciously that she had ended up devouring hers without thinking.
And on top of that, Do-hyun had cleaned out not one but two lunchboxes.
‘But what has he been doing since earlier?’
After finishing his meal, Do-hyun had been doing something nonstop.
Song Ha-na craned her neck slightly and looked around the bus.
Chae Si-hyun up front was the only one diligently working on something, while everyone else had their eyes closed, making the bus quiet.
Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Song Ha-na pulled out one earbud from the classical music she was listening to and asked Do-hyun.
“What have you been looking at so intently since earlier?”
“I’m writing an error notebook for the mock exam mistakes.”
Ah, startled me.
He was checking the parts he got wrong on the mock exam from two days ago.
There wasn’t much else to do during the ride anyway.
He wasn’t sleepy either.
He was just doing it because there was nothing else, but then Song Ha-na stared at him wide-eyed and asked.
“What? Why are you doing that now?”
“…Just. Nothing else to do.”
Song Ha-na was dumbfounded.
No matter how you looked at it, who makes an error notebook just because they have nothing to do?
And in the musical theater department of an arts high school, no less.
Song Ha-na half-stood up from her seat to peek at Do-hyun’s error notebook, but there wasn’t much written in it.
‘…Ha.’
Of course, she knew she saw it better herself.
She was always first in the class whenever they took exams.
But even she took private tutoring for every general subject.
As far as she knew, Lee Do-hyun didn’t even go to any academies.
He seemed to study only from what he learned in class, yet he got top grades.
‘Is this guy’s day 48 hours long or something…?’
Song Ha-na felt a threat to her ‘absolute top-grade’ position and glared at Do-hyun fiercely.
At that moment, Chae Si-hyun stood up from her seat.
“Everyone, wake up.”
At Chae Si-hyun’s words, the kids who had been sleeping soundly began to stir one by one.
Rubbing their sleepy eyes, they all turned their attention to Chae Si-hyun.
“I’ll pass out the scripts for today’s performance. Nothing difficult at all today either. It’s actually an even easier situational play than last time. Still, try to memorize as much as you can on the way there.”
The second-years distributed the prepared scripts.
I received one too as they handed them out.
Let’s see, the title is……
“Today’s play is the fairy tale Square Poop.”
‘Square Poop.’
It’s a fairy tale about the journey of the square-shaped poop from Australia’s cute animal, the quokka.
Since we were going to volunteer at a daycare with young kids, they had prepared a fairy tale suited to that.
“I’ve already assigned everyone’s roles. It’s written on the first page, so check it out.”
At her words, the club members immediately flipped to the first page and started reading.
Even though it was a script, they all read it quite seriously.
Then, Moon Woo-hyuk, who flipped the page late, suddenly jumped up in anger.
“Why am I Square Poop!”
Moon Woo-hyuk shouted, unable to hide his indignant expression.
But Chae Si-hyun maintained a poker face without a hint of concern and replied.
“It’s a bus. Sit down.”
Moon Woo-hyuk had stood up boldly, but he flinched at Chae Si-hyun’s single word and sat back down.
She could even handle Moon Woo-hyuk like that.
As expected of Chae Si-hyun.
“Don’t want to do Square Poop?”
“Looking at what’s written here, don’t I have to do makeup too?”
Moon Woo-hyuk nodded vigorously and pointed to the script.
“Yeah.”
“Why do I have to dress up as poop?”
At Moon Woo-hyuk’s question, Chae Si-hyun tilted her head and countered.
“It’s Square Poop, the protagonist?”
Protagonist?
Moon Woo-hyuk’s furrowed brow relaxed for a moment.
But soon, he protested again, as dressing up as poop still felt like a blow to his pride no matter how he thought about it.
“W-well, it’s still poop.”
At that, Chae Si-hyun looked at Moon Woo-hyuk with the most determined expression of all and said.
“It’s the most important role in this play. It has a clear backstory, so the character feels alive, and the emotional arc is delicate accordingly. That’s why I wanted you to take it.”
Chae Si-hyun spoke very seriously like that, then drove in the final nail.
“Why? Can’t you do it?”
There’s a huge difference between “I won’t” and “I can’t.”
Especially for someone with Moon Woo-hyuk’s personality.
That one-letter difference would hit him hard.
Sure enough, at Chae Si-hyun’s words, Moon Woo-hyuk froze in his seat without a word.
Chae Si-hyun really is something else.
She had already figured out Moon Woo-hyuk’s personality and tamed him.
“It’s a chance to become the biggest star for the kids at this daycare.”
At the word “star,” Moon Woo-hyuk started pondering seriously.
He usually had a bad impression and was big in size, so kids didn’t like him much.
It was true that he felt bad whenever kids cried just seeing his face.
So Moon Woo-hyuk didn’t like kids either.
To become the biggest star for those kinds of kids? Really?
He was honestly skeptical.
Even if it was the protagonist and could win over the kids, poop was still poop.
But in Moon Woo-hyuk’s dictionary, there was no “won’t do,” only “can’t do.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Good. Thanks.”
In the end, Moon Woo-hyuk nodded with a stiff face.
Surprisingly, Chae Si-hyun maintained her solemn attitude to the end.
“Kh-hm,”
Next to them, I was dying from holding back laughter thanks to the two of them.
My stomach hurt from barely suppressing it.
A quick glance sideways showed Song Ha-na in the same boat.
She had turned her head toward the window, her shoulders trembling.
Everyone was probably making the same face.
Fortunately, thanks to Chae Si-hyun’s efforts, no one laughed and they were all holding it together well.
Who would’ve thought Moon Woo-hyuk would become the club’s ultimate comic relief.
***
We arrived at Sunshine Daycare and everyone piled out.
True to its name, it was a small daycare with plenty of sunlight streaming in.
It wasn’t brand new, but you could tell at a glance that the facilities were kept clean.
“Before we go in, I know you all will, but be extra careful not to use weird slang or language that might make the kids uncomfortable in front of them.”
Chae Si-hyun hadn’t forgotten to give even this kind of detailed reminder in advance.
“Yes.”
After hearing the members’ responses, Chae Si-hyun took the lead and entered the daycare.
With high schoolers in a small daycare—and ones like the 180cm-plus Moon Woo-hyuk and me—the ceiling felt especially low.
The daycare teacher who ran over saw the club members and freaked out like celebrities had arrived.
“Oh my, oh my. How can high schoolers look so much like celebrities? I thought you came from TV!”
She was a very bright and cheerful teacher.
Her bright smile was so charming that you could imagine having so much fun with her.
It even lifted my mood.
“Then shall we go this way?”
Following the teacher’s guidance, we entered the sunflower class.
The kids were watching educational videos in another classroom for a bit.
This was our time to prepare.
We had to set up the stage and change in the meantime.
The costumes had been prepared by the daycare in advance and were neatly laid out on the floor.
“The kids love this play so much… We’ve done only this every year, and then the Cheongyeom Foundation just bought this whole set for us. So grateful.”
The teacher pointed to the organized clothes.
The huge, angular poop mask caught my eye first.
“Pfft, whoo. Whoo.”
Kim Sun-woo, who saw the mask, kept exhaling deeply to hold back his laughter.
I get it.
Even I, who had braced myself knowing there’d be a square poop costume mask, was struggling to keep a straight face.
“The size is big, so it should fit you perfectly.”
Song Ha-na nearly burst out laughing too.
But true to form, she held it in and spoke to Moon Woo-hyuk as if it were no big deal, all serious.
Moon Woo-hyuk nodded solemnly in agreement.
He usually didn’t get clothes that fit well when they were provided, but this poop mask was quite large.
A second crisis hit as Moon Woo-hyuk stared at the poop mask with utter seriousness.
Why is he being so genuinely serious?
“The kids love it bigger, so we got the extra-large size. Hohoho.”
Moon Woo-hyuk listened to the explanation and picked up the poop mask to examine it closely.
“Oh my. Square Poop role?”
The teacher said, slightly surprised to see Moon Woo-hyuk pick up the poop mask.
“Yes.”
As Moon Woo-hyuk answered a bit awkwardly, Chae Si-hyun quickly stepped in with a comment.
“He’s our club’s dark horse. Of course he’s the lead.”
At those words, Moon Woo-hyuk held the poop mask with his lips curling up slightly, clearly pleased.
Chae Si-hyun had mastered handling Moon Woo-hyuk now.
Well, with someone that straightforward, it’s easy to manage.
I knew it well from preparing for my vocal and dance test with him.
“Ohohoho. The kids are gonna love the poop being so big!”
At the daycare teacher’s words, Moon Woo-hyuk straightened up proudly.
Why was Moon Woo-hyuk acting so boastful already? His shoulders were held so high.
“Who’s doing the leaf role? Whew. You’re all so handsome and pretty, you look like flowers just standing there.”
The teacher laughed happily as she looked around at the club members.
Then, her eyes landed on Kim Sun-woo.
As if she had a hunch, the teacher cautiously asked him.
“By any chance, the leaf……?”
“Yes. I’m the leaf.”
Kim Sun-woo replied with a big smile.
Indeed, no one suited a fresh green leaf better than Kim Sun-woo, no matter who looked.
It was the moment Chae Si-hyun’s aesthetic sense shone.
Kim Sun-woo didn’t stop at answering; he put on a headband decorated with leaf props from the play set.
He even grabbed a few leaf pins.
“How’s it look?”
The teacher squinted her eyes as if tasting something incredibly delicious, then opened them wide, clasping her hands in感動.
“It suits you- so perfectly.”
Unable to lose out, Moon Woo-hyuk put on the poop mask right away upon seeing Kim Sun-woo.
The teacher didn’t hold back her applause at the sight.
“The poop suits you too.”
As expected of a daycare teacher—her reactions were top-notch.
“Then, before the kids come, could you hurry and get ready?”
And so, everyone found their roles and finished preparing.
Before the kids entered, we waited in the next classroom.
Crammed tightly in the narrow space, Moon Woo-hyuk’s expression in the poop mask……
Wasn’t his face way too serious?
It wasn’t even this intense during the tryout performance.
Was it just the contrast effect?
Like, wearing a poop mask made even a blank expression look intense?
“You aiming for Broadway or something?”
Song Ha-na asked, scanning Moon Woo-hyuk up and down.
So it wasn’t just my eyes seeing him as extra serious.
Soon, a faint knock-knock came from the closed door.
“Let’s start!”
With the signal from the assistant teacher, the club members began to move.
Slide-
The members opened the front door of the classroom where the kids were waiting and entered.
And at the same time, a thunderous wave of high-pitched cheers greeted us.
“Waaah! It’s poop, poop!”
“Sun-seng-nim! The poop is huge!”
It was cheers aimed straight at Moon Woo-hyuk.
As soon as Moon Woo-hyuk appeared wearing the poop mask over his head, the kids were screaming and laughing nonstop.
The kids went wild even though Moon Woo-hyuk just stood there doing nothing.
He had heard he’d become a star, but the unexpected intense reaction flustered him more.
He nearly flubbed his first line, but he managed to deliver it calmly.
“Hello. I’m Poop.”
At Poop’s single line, the kids screamed and lost it completely.
Moon Woo-hyuk’s greatest stage in life had begun.