translation by mourningmoor
A photo was posted on the official L.I.T SNS.
Jaewon, whose eyes were swollen from crying, is wearing a party hat and holding a large gift box in his hands.
The way he's smiling brightly, with tears still in his eyes, somehow looks pitiful.
#L.I.T #JAEWON #JJAN #MaknaeOnTop_Jjan #OurTeam_Energizer #HappySeventeenBirthday #NowThatYoureOlder_ListentoYourHyung
From the hashtags, it seems like the members took the photo and posted it themselves.
Then, comments started pouring in real-time.
Kyaaaahhh, happy birthday! (photo)
Our Jjan, happy birthdayㅠㅠㅠㅠ
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JJAN (photo)
Oh no, our crying maknae, who made him cry? My heart is breakingㅜㅜㅜ
└How can he even look cute while crying? Our maknaeㅠㅠㅠ
ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Why is our maknae crying? Did the hyungs bully him?
└He’s like a baby, scared of the worldㅜㅜ
In response to the fans' questions, another video was quickly uploaded.
The title read <L.I.T Maknae Jaewon Birthday Party>, with the thumbnail being that same touching photo from earlier.
As soon as the thumbnail was clicked, it led to a video on the L.I.T YouTube channel.
Oooh a video is up, is it Jaewon's birthday party??
└Click it right now!
I like that they didn’t just post a Happy Birthday photo on SNSㅋㅋㅋ Good job, Blade
The video started with Roa carefully cutting colored paper.
Roa's brow was furrowed tightly as he struggled with the scissors.
He was cutting out something drawn on fluorescent-colored paper, so focused that the scissors were shaking with each snip.
Then, he suddenly cut inside the black lines.
“Ahh!”
I’m surprisedㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Roa, what on earth are you cutting?
You didn't cut your hand, right Roa?ㅋㅋㅋ Ah, I got so surprised, I had to calm myself down
I thought our Roa could do everything, but can't cut with scissors, huh?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ The line’s all crooked
└Maybe if he's good at cutting scissors, they'll find out he's not humanㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋNo wayㅋㅋ Why is he focusing so hard on this?
At that moment, Roa lifted his head.
His expression, a mix of frustration and embarrassment, was quite cute.
Then, at that moment, a loud pop! sound rang out.
Roa turned his gaze towards the source of the noise and frowned.
“No, hyung-nim. How many balloons are you going to pop already.”
“You mind your own business. Is that even a straight line? It’s just supposed to be cut along what Ichan drew.”
The camera zoomed in on the voice's owner, Hanjoon.
Ah, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ What the heck, they ruined our leader's masterpiece ㅋㅋㅋ
What the heck are they even doing? ㅋㅋㅋ
└Seriously, I’m just curious what they’re doing in the first place. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
This is crazy ㅋㅋㅋ they're blaming each other, but both of them have clumsy hands ㅋㅋㅋ큐ㅠ
With a neutral expression, Hanjoon picked up a new balloon.
Siu, holding a cake, quickly passed by him.
“Yoon Siu, put the cake down and help blow up the balloons. We need to blow up six more.”
“Got it. Just a moment.”
“Huh? There’s one more cake?”
“Yeah, this one’s from the company.”
The camera once again focused on the birthday spread.
Three medium-sized cakes were lined up neatly. In addition, there was galbijjim, japchae, chicken, and pizza. It was truly a proper birthday spread.
As expected, our baby is loved wherever he goes.
As expected, Kim Jaewon, the center of L.I.T and my husband.
Looking for someone... Name: God Ichan, Age: Nineteen... A trainer with a cold heart...
└Ugh, leader, but seriously, where did he go?
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice urgently shouted.
“Guys. Guys. Jaewon is on his way.”
Then, Roa's face twisted into a frown.
“Ughhh, what should we do? We still have two more letters left.”
“Give it here, let's do it together.”
Managers who were out of the camera angle jumped in.
Their faces were pixelated, so it was hard to tell who they were, but the tall, big guy with a somewhat clumsy build was easy to recognize.
The person at the back is the Chief Manager, the one who handed out chocolates when we lined up for the M-Start recording, ㅋㅋㅋ.
└Right, they don't have a dedicated fan manager yet, so they're doing everything on their ownㅠ
“Turn off the lights, turn off the lights.”
“Ah! Wait a second. This tape got tangled.”
“They said the kids got on the elevator.”
"Uaaah, wait a second."
Out of the three characters—'축,' '생,' and '일'—the '일' character still couldn't quite settle into place and ended up leaning awkwardly.
At that moment, the lights went out.
The bustling footsteps and hushed whispers pierced through the darkness.
A moment later, the door opened, and a familiar voice was heard.
"Oh, what’s this? Looks like everyone’s gone?"
"Don’t tell me... turn the lights on first."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The moment the lights came on, fireworks went off from here and there.
That moment was captured vividly on the camera.
"Ahhh!"
Startled, Jaewon screamed and collapsed on the spot.
Behind him stood Ichan, still frozen with his hand on the light switch.
Then the members began singing a birthday song, and pushed the birthday cake right in front of the stunned Jaewon.
When Jaewon absentmindedly blew out the candles, the members all let out a cheer and rushed at him to give him 'birthday punches.'
Oh, ㅋㅋㅋ, this is too much, where does Jaewon even have a spot to be hit?
└Yeah, our Jaewon, the handsome one, was told not to hit even with a bean.
└22222
└33333333
└Isn't that a flower, not a bean?
So precious and important... guys, just one hit each.
Seriously, everyone is really going all out, hitting his back with a hand as big as a pot lid, ㅋㅋㅋ.
└Think about the size difference between Jaewon and the others, guys, your palm is a lethal weapon for him, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
Wow, as expected, Leader isn't hitting Jaewon.
└ Oh, damn, look at God Ichan’s expression. Isn’t that kind of like, ㅋㅋㅋ ‘Hey, only I’m allowed to hit him, why are you guys hitting him?’ ㅋㅋㅋ, something like thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
└The eyes are like "don’t hit my baby" with that strong expression, ㅋㅋㅋ.
└Kang Leader's gaze is so freaking intense.
Meanwhile, Joondaeng is lighting the birthday candles all clumped together, ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. I seriously thought it was going to catch fire and freaked out.
└I thought Hanjoon was fulfilling wishes by burning all the light bulbs.
“What is this? What’s all this?”
Jaewon, already with his big eyes wide open, looks like his pale brown eyes are about to spill out.
Jaewon and the smiling L.I.T members were all captured in the same frame.
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice echoed from the screen.
“You were feeling left out because we were pretending we didn’t know, right? We did it to surprise you.”
Still confused, Jaewon alternated his gaze between the words on the mirror, the birthday spread, and the faces of the members.
“This decoration was done by Roa, Siu, and Hanjoon, and the chicken and pizza were bought by Director Gong. The rest of the food is from the management team... Oh my, Jaewon-ah.”
It was then.
Tears began to fall from Jaewon's large eyes, like a bull's.
Quickly, Jaewon lowered his head and covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Ah, damn it. I was trying not to cry because I'm embarrassed, but I’ll cry just a little bit."
Jaewon, covering his eyes with his hand, looked just like a rabbit.
Through the slightly parted lips from crying, his neat and cute front teeth gleamed white.
* * *
"What is this? Posting a video like this."
Jaewon, who had just now seen the video that was uploaded last night, was in shock.
"Huh? Is that snot?"
He hadn't even noticed in his sobbing, and now, seeing his own ugly image, he was completely stunned.
"What kind of company manages their artist like this?"
It was a bit too direct, but it wasn't an ugly sight.
In fact, it was a great opportunity to add a slightly different image to Jaewon, who usually had a playful image.
First, Executive Director Gong Seokho made a fitting comment.
[Jaewon, the reason I scolded you earlier was so you'd be more touched during the surprise. Honestly, you do really well. Effort never betrays, and because you put in so much effort, you're doing great as both a main vocalist and lead dancer.]
[No, sir. I really couldn't focus during practice. I think I caused trouble for the other members, so I felt sorry, and that's why I cried.]
Jaewon, who had barely stopped his tears, didn't shy away and opened up about his feelings. Then, he took a step further and bowed his head to Gyuhyung.
[Gyuhyung-hyung, I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier.]
[It's okay. When did you get mad? You didn't get mad, so it's fine.]
[From now on, I won't whine and I'll work harder. Thank you, everyone.]
To Jaewon, Roa quickly handed him a gift.
[This is a gift from the fans.]
[Alright, alright. Let's post a verification photo. Smile.]
At the request to smile, Jaewon, with his eyes gently squinted, smiled brightly, embodying the true professional idol image.
With just this one video, Jaewon’s passion, concerns, immaturity as the youngest, cool personality, and more were all revealed.
He had grown from the busy, quirky youngest member into the main vocalist who was now properly fulfilling his role.
Still, he was saying something else.
"Ichannie-hyung, can’t we sue them for this?"
"Sue? Why would we? It was posted properly. It's cute. A bunny with snot running down its face."
At my answer, Jaewon pouted his lips, and this time, he slowly began reading through the SNS comments.
Then, he bit his lips and started laughing.
"Why are you laughing?"
As he was stretching, Roa quickly rushed to the youngest's side.
"Look at this. Ichannie-hyung's meme has popped up. A fan made it and flooded the comments with it."
"Where? Where?"
Before Jaewon could even take a look at his phone, Roa burst into laughter.
"That's funny. Even Ichannie-hyung has moments when he gets surprised."
What are they talking about?
I narrowed my eyes slightly, and the two of them rushed over to me.
While I was distracted getting my makeup done, they insisted on shoving my phone in my face.
Then, one of them casually tapped on a photo.
"This one. This one. It's totally hilarious."
The phone screen was filled with a zoomed-in photo.
It was a picture of me with my hand on the light switch, flinching at the sound of the fireworks.
"What is this?"
I had tried to act all calm when I walked into the practice room yesterday, but in reality, I almost lost my nerves from the fireworks noise.
If I had messed up, I might've accidentally cast an attack spell. But of all things, that moment got captured and turned into a laughingstock.
And what's with the caption? <Kangdeuljjak>? What even is Kangdeuljjak?
T.N.: the “Kang” part is from Ichan’s name, while Deuljjak is a playful sound or onomatopoeia mimicking an action, such as "startling" or "popping up." So it’s actually “Kang Startled!”
"There's more here."
"Ooh. Hyung-nim!"
Excited, Jaewon began scrolling through the comments with his finger, finding something, and Roa couldn't help but let out an impressed gasp.
Then, he showed me another photo.
In the photo, I was narrowing my eyes with a cold glare, clenching my teeth, and tilting my head slightly.
And the caption on that photo…
“‘Who keeps messing with my kid? You’re all dead.’ it says?”