HYUN [ JJK ]

08

Jaehwa had never got the chance to ask what Jeongguk's major was. It never crossed her mind until she saw Jeongguk leaving with a bag of camera, his other hand was holding something Jaehwa recognised as a gimbal. She could ask him but the latter seemed rushed when he literally shoved everything inside his backpack, not even saying anything to Jaehwa before he slammed the door behind him shut.

Now there she was, left alone with Hyun who seemed to have gotten used to her. It was only a few days since she stopped babysitting yet she could see so many changes in Hyun. The way he sit was more stable now, noticed that the little boy preferred watching the television while sitting instead of lying down on the mat like before. It amazed her how fast a baby could grow, amazed her even more to know that Hyun had shown many hints of his personality now. Jaehwa could see Jeongguk's colors in him—very reserved at times and very persistent. If Hyun chose to bite the remote control, there's no way Jaehwa could take the object out of his small hands, even the soft toys Jeongguk had bought for him would be thrown to the corner of the living room.

"Hyun." Jaehwa poked his cheek lightly, however the baby only spare her a quick glance before turning towards the television again. A stream of giggles would erupt from his pinky lips upon the cartoons he saw on the screen, would squeal hard when his favourite character appeared. Pororo had never been this captivating. "Hyun, you like Pororo that much, hmm?"

Hyun's eyes widened when the screen suddenly turned black, perplexed when the characters he saw few minutes ago were replaced by a roll of credits. Jaehwa raised both of her eyebrows when she saw his facial expression changed, his lips curved upward with a frown plastered on his forehead. Jaehwa could tell what's going to happen next, and just like what she expected, Hyun broke into tears, crying at the top of his lungs before turning around to face Jaehwa.

"It has ended." Jaehwa cooed only to have Hyun crying even harder. The boy's arm flailed in the air—as if he was trying to tell Jaehwa to play the cartoon again. Her heart sank upon the sight of his tears rolling down his rosy cheeks so Jaehwa pulled Hyun into her embrace, his cry turned into a mumble when he buried his face in the circle of Jaehwa's chest.

"Pororo needs to take a break too." Jaehwa stood up, swaying Hyun's small figure lightly. "He will come back after he eats his lunch. What about Hyun? Should we eat?"

Jaehwa sighed when Hyun cried even louder, knew that there wouldn't be a way for him to calm down other than bringing his Pororo back.

"Hyun..." Jaehwa trailed off. "Okay we will watch Pororo again after you eat, okay?" Ignoring his small sobs, she dashed towards the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, but Jaehwa did not expect to see an empty refrigerator in return. Her jaw dropped when she realised there was nothing in the kitchen apart from the ramen in the top cabinet, along with snacks which obviously weren't suitable for Hyun.

"Jeongguk." Jaehwa clenched her teeth and looked down at the baby cradling her waist. "Does your daddy even feed you? Don't tell me you only drink milk?"

Hyun blinked his eyes upon Jaehwa's words. She knew that the boy couldn't understand her but she chose to take his response as a yes. She honestly shouldn't expect much from Jeongguk, and this, knowing that the guy fed the 6-month old Hyun only with formula wasn't supposed to be so alarming.

"Once you can talk, tell your daddy to drink milk for the whole day and let's see what will happen to him." Jaehwa bent down to pull the drawer out, sighing at the sight of the empty compartment. No trace of food was left behind and it made Jaehwa wonder if Jeongguk even knew how to cook. "This is too much. This is why you should stop fucking around, Jeongguk. Why did you choose to have a baby when you don't even feed him properly?"

Jaehwa took a sharp inhale. She had no choice but to take the baby bottle out instead though she didn't have the heart to give Hyun only a formula.

That Jeongguk was so going to get a full parenting lesson from her.

_______

Jeongguk wasn't lying when he said he would have group discussions throughout the whole week, but the going-home-late part was obviously a lie. He had promised Hoseok to come along to the casino, just like usual days where they would spend the whole night gambling. There's only few weeks left before the last semester started and the boys wanted to spend the break as much as they could, and that also meant by going out at dusk and returning at dawn.

Jeongguk wasn't really keen with the idea of gambling before, thought that it was such a waste of time and money. He hadn't meant to step foot into a casino, let alone be encouraged to sit down for a round, which then turned into two, and eventually turned into more.

He had never foreseen himself to get so addicted to gambling when he had made it clear to Hoseok that the game was something he was too smart to spiral down into insanity for. However it started with one night where he finally got his hands on the deck, took him a few days to learn about the cards and all, took Hoseok days to explain to him how gambling works in general.

As cliché as it sounded, here Jeongguk was. In the usual casino at Gangnam-gu again for the nth time, and his just-giving-it-a-try eventually turned into an addiction. There were no longer empty and stupid deals—they were now replaced with notes of Korean won, the digit gradually increases as time went by. Jeongguk was just a student, and his economy as a student would never allow him to throw more than 150,000KRW to the centre of the table. But that was all before he realised what he would get in return if he won the game. 150,000 he had spent could be replaced by 300,000 or even more so Jeongguk had came to a stage where he no longer bothered to spend all his saving for the game, his sole determination was to win.

The flashes of light coming from the backlit board hurt Jeongguk's eyes in all ways possible, had to squint his eyes when he looked up to read Seven Luck Casino. The way the words gradually faded and almost transparent to his eyes somehow made him feel like they were mocking him, the memory of what happened almost a month ago surged into his mind in no matter of time. Hoseok who was standing next to him patted Jeongguk's back lightly, as if he knew what was playing on his friend's mind.

"Whatever you're planning, make sure not to kill someone tonight." Hoseok chuckled mockingly, as if he could see what would happen as soon as they entered the casino.

Jeongguk couldn't bring himself to deny what he just heard. Instead, he smirked, his face reflecting the spectrum of colors coming from the board before his eyes. A click of tongue was all he needed to prepare himself mentally, and a sharp inhale was the only action needed to make the courage seep into his being. Gambling was no longer a game for him now. It was life changing. It made him either lose something or gain something.

Or worse, someone.

"Remind me again when we enter."

______
a/n:
we are seeing someone uWu

happy new year! may 2019 be a better year for all of us! 💜