strings & bullets┃hajeongwoo (under revision)

〚 ch: fifteen 〛

it's still six am in the morning and jeongwoo's phone won't stop ringing, who's calling him at this hour? jio's now awake and frowning because his father is still in the bed snoring and not answering the phone

"papa, phone" the baby said, nudging jeongwoo's in his face, but he only turned his back on him and continued sleeping.

"phone papaaaa!" he called him again, this time crawling to jeongwoo's side and placing his phone in his ear.

jeongwoo groaned and turned to face the baby, who sat there with his arms crossed and brows furrowed, staring at him. he opened his arms wide and jio smiled as he scooted closer to his father. as he snuggled back into jeongwoo's neck to sleep, the baby handed him his phone.

it was yedam who's calling him, jeongwoo answered the call and closed his eyes again "good morning hyung, why did you call?" his mouth was open and a light snore left his lips after he answered

"good morning, just wanted to let you know that the babysitter will arrive at eight am" yedam quickly dropped the call after he said those words.

jeongwoo opened his eyes and stared at his phone, his mind didn't processed what the older said. he's still sleepy and he was half asleep when the older said something on the other line. he shrugged and placed his phone back on the side table before pulling jio closer to him and returned to sleep.

"jio, don't waste your food." jeongwoo sighed and went to the kitchen to clean up after the baby started playing with his food again.

when the doorbell rang, the two of them turned to face the front door.

"who's there, papa?" jio turned away from his food and asked him a question. jeongwoo wiped his hands with a towel.

"finish your food first baby." he told jio before going to the front door.

he's being extra cautious about allowing people into his home after reading the letter yesterday. he won't risk jio's safety even if he doesn't know anything about hiro's son. as jeongwoo peered through the peephole, he noticed a familiar figure of a man, but he couldn't see his face because he was looking down. jeongwoo, confused, cocked his head to the side and opened the door.

"hi, what brought you here uh?" he asked hesitant, the man then lifted his head to meet his eyes.

and when he saw the man's face, he was surprised and it seems like he was not the only one. the man's eyes were wide and mouth agape. they exchanged stares for a minute as their minds processed what they were seeing.

"haruto? what are you doing here?" haruto then scratched his ear and cleared his throat, refusing to look him in the eyes.

"yedam hyung told me to go to this address. and by the way, i'm the babysitter." haruto then stared at him, his lips pursed, as he awkwardly stood at jeongwoo's doorway waiting for the officer's response.

haruto bit his lips as jeongwoo closed his eyes and slapped his forehead, now wondering if jeongwoo was not pleased to see him.

"well, if it's not okay with you, i can just... go?" haruto gripped his phone tightly and took a step back. and he desperately wants the officer to say no, despite the fact that his reaction to him being jio's babysitter hurt.

why would haruto leave? jeongwoo thought as he opened his eyes and stared at the man who's eyes were solemn. he chuckled and smiled at haruto, "no, i'm sorry, i just didn't expect to see you here. you can come in now." he said as he opened the door wide to let haruto in.