HYUN [ JJK ]

20

Jaehwa wondered if Jeongguk had the ability to read someone's mind when her phone vibrated against the pocket of her jeans. Today was the seventh day of her day off, and she could finally say that she was ready to get back to the part time job. She had been thinking to send Jeongguk a text message to let him know that she's feeling better now but the guy beat her to it. When Jaehwa unlocked her phone, she saw a text message asking if she's fine now, along with an attachment named as 'Hyun and Pororo the little duck'.

The name made Jaehwa chuckle before she pressed the play button, the smile on her face grew bigger when she saw a video of Hyun crawling towards the camera, his high pitch squeals and Jeongguk giggling in that breathy voice of his mixed together to form a tune that warmed Jaehwa's heart all possible ways. It was amazing how a 1-minute video could make her stomach flip in a way she couldn't describe but putting that aside, she was happy to know that Jeongguk was making progress and he seemed better at playing with kids now.

To: Jeongguk
Pororo is a penguin.

Just when she was about to put her phone on the night stand, her ringtone filled the air of the bedroom, startling Jaehwa a tad bit before she accepted the call.

"I deadass thought Pororo was a duck." Jeongguk's soft voice once again hit her eardrums. "No wonder the staff at the toy store gave me a look when I said 'the duck with a yellow hard hat'."

It was awkward to talk to Jeongguk normally but Jaehwa tried her best to conceal her shaky voice, had to wet her lips for God knows how many times before she could wheeze upon his confession. "If I were the staff I would do the same thing. Pororo is not even hard to remember."

"You sound fine now." Jeongguk blurted, catching Jaehwa off guard. "Have you watched the video I sent you? It was from last week but since you told me to stay away, I didn't send it to you until today. Thanks to your Parenting 101. It helps a lot."

Jaehwa could sense the sincerity in his voice, and that made her heart twist to know how Jeongguk was still trying to be careful with his words, could see that he was trying to be humorous so that the phone call wouldn't be too awkward. Maybe Yerin was right about him being a gentleman. Now that Jaehwa had wiped the fuck boy thought off her mind, she could agree with her friend that the guy was quite nice- no, he was way nicer that Jaehwa had thought.

Clearing her throat, Jaehwa let out a small hum, sitting on the edge of her bed before she spoke up. "Have you covered all chapters?" She paused when she heard noises coming from the other end of the line, followed by the sound of Pororo's intro song so Jaehwa guessed that Jeongguk was busy entertaining Hyun while he waited for her to say something in return.

"Uh- not really." This time she heard something dropped onto the floor, couldn't help but to frown a bit. "We decided to focus on the motor skills first before jumping to the communication skills. You know how Hyun is like. He doesn't like being pressured too much or else he will give up and cry. So we only did the crawling part since last week, but I think we can start the communication skills now. Hyun has crawled so fast now. Did you hear a thud just now? That's him pulling the wire of my game controller until it fell off the cabinet."

Jaehwa could imagine Jeongguk's pouty lips as he complained to her. But putting the mess she heard aside, it was amazing how he sounded like he actually wanted to look after the baby now instead of just keeping him alive, and it made her smile to know how Jeongguk had understood Hyun so much for him to become so considerate about the whole lesson thingy. It was definitely the best improvement, to the point Jaehwa had a hard time to believe that she was talking to the same guy who she met a month ago—the guy who stood in front of her shirtless, the guy who raised his voice at the crying baby in his arms. The old Jeongguk was a total opposite of this new Jeongguk. This new one was father-like, full of commitment, very considerate and very attractive in his own way. Now it wasn't his look that made him attractive as a guy. Now it was all about his manner, his dedication towards his responsibility and his excitement to learn new things from a 6-month old boy.