HYUN [ JJK ]

02

"He's lucky that I'm lazy to look for another job or else I'm seriously going to twist his dick and quit babysitting his kid."

Jaehwa spat before she gulped down the plain water angrily, almost choking herself at the end. Yerin who's sitting across her burst into laughter upon hearing what her housemate just said, had to clutch her stomach to make her laughter die down. All she asked was how was your first day working as a babysitter, and she did not expect the girl to become that feisty.

"This is way more horrible than working with a creepy old man. God, now I understand why the mother left him. If I were her, I would do the same thing." Jaehwa scowled, the flame inside her grew bigger as she recalled what Jeongguk did last night. He just crossed the line, and even though his stare was just a blank one, she couldn't and wouldn't tolerate that.

Yerin took a sharp inhale as she wiped the corner of her eyes with the back of her palm hastily. It was so Jaehwa to be mad at things like this, knew that there's a possibility that that girl would really end up twisting someone's dick—though she hoped she wouldn't do that. "Come on, Jae. You told me he's just a year older than you. 24, hmm? Of course he would be staring. There's a reason why he's 24 and a father." Yerin explained, and what she got in return was a scoff from Jaehwa. "You act like men around you don't stare at your chest."

Jaehwa leaned her back against the chair, her face was painted with a deep frown just by thinking what would come next. Jeongguk was lucky that Hyun had stolen her heart, very lucky that she already made a soft spot for the baby somewhere in her heart. Jaehwa needed extra pocket money before her upcoming semester started, but if she had to face Jeongguk and his perverted ass everyday, she wouldn't give a second thought to quit her job.

"Jae." Yerin whispered as she scooted closer towards the dining table. Her grasp on her mug tightened as a weird grin etched onto her face. "Umm... what's his name again?"

"Hyun." Jaehwa huffed, uninterested to carry a conversation at the moment. She just wanted to throw herself onto her bed and lay down doing nothing until that pervert called her again and asked her to come over to his place.

"No no no." Yerin shook her head. "The father."

With an incredulous look, Jaehwa jerked her head towards the direction of her housemate, mouth hang open upon what she just heard. She knew that Yerin was quite a flirty girl, made sense as to why she probably knew all the popular guys in their campus but no, not Jeongguk. It was unbelievable for her to even have the interest to know who Jeongguk is when all Jaehwa did since she came home last night was cursing at that guy.

"You mean Jeongguk?" Yerin nodded furiously, her grin was replaced by a wide smile. "Cut it off, Yerin. Are you trying to tell me that you are interested in fathers now?"

"Hey!" Yerin interrupted. "I'm just asking. You are taking it way too far."

"Yeah right. Like I don't know you well enough." Jaehwa rolled her eyes, but then they shot back to Yerin when she started asking more about Jeongguk.

"He is only 24. He's young, and since you said you didn't hear a single thing about his wife, there is a possibility that he is a single father who's struggling to look after his baby." Before Jaehwa could scrutinised Yerin's face, the latter was quick to reach for her hand, gripping it hard to the point Jaehwa could see her angular knuckles turning white. "This is it, Jae! This is your chance! You like babies, and he has a baby."

"Then?"

"This is why you should read novels, Jae. Look, it is cliché but imagine you helping Jeongguk to look after his son, and after twists and turns, you two fall for each other." Yerin clasped her hands together, a weird noise coming out from her mouth as she looked up at the ceiling.

Jaehwa sent her friend a death glare, couldn't comprehend how her brain worked when it was more than obvious that she was annoyed with Jeongguk and the chance for her to fall for him was almost nonexistent. For some reason, Jaehwa wished she had the ability to slap some sense into Yerin's head so she could stop daydreaming, wished she had the gut to barge into her room and burn all those cliché romance novels of hers.

"That is so cute!" Yerin's high pitch squeal made Jaehwa flinch in a tad bit.

"You are aware that I hate fuck boys, aren't you?" Jaehwa raised an eyebrow, the change of her demeanour caused the latter to stop smiling, straightening her back almost immediately. "I don't want to judge or badmouth him any further but he's just..." Sighing, she continued. "... I did not sign up for this, Yerin. I want to babysit. I wanted to help, but in this case, I feel like I'm the victim. Like I am being used by him to look after his son whenever he doesn't feel like doing so." At this point, Yerin was no longer smiling. "Who does he think he is? Okay, he's done a good job by deciding to keep the baby but... what's the point of leaving his son behind and returning home when it was almost midnight? He even asked me why I was still there, Yerin! I just don't want to imagine what Hyun had gone through all these while. God, just the mere thought of this makes me fume."

The kitchen was filled with nothing but deafening silence to the point Jaehwa could hear her ragged breathing, her chest heaved up and down rapidly for a reason she couldn't point out. Maybe she had went too far about thinking about Jeongguk and it was too much for her to blurt all those things when she only had known him for just one day, but it couldn't be helped. Jaehwa had never free her thoughts about fuck boys to anyone, and that made Yerin, her housemate, as the first one to listen to her rants. She had been keeping it to herself all these while, and she had to admit that it felt nice to say them out loud, felt like a heavy weight just lifted off her chest.

"But, Jae..." Yerin trailed off, voice almost inaudible to Jaehwa's ears. "You just knew him. I'm not on anyone's side, but... look. Try putting yourself in his shoes. Try to imagine that you have a baby now. You have to deal with university and a baby at the same time. Maybe, maybe Jeongguk went out until late at night because he had a discussion with his friends, or part time jobs? There must be a reason why he hired you to look after Hyun. If not, I'm sure he can do it by himself."

Yerin's words left Jaehwa speechless, couldn't bring herself to deny what she just heard. At last, she ended up sighing. "I can't say that you are wrong."

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a/n:
the early chapters are a bit (read: so) boring and i hope you can bear with me ;;

i'm definitely making progress