a/n: i suggest u reread the last chapter to refresh your mind on what's happened so far bcs SOMEONE decided not to update for three (four? five? seven??) months!!
(i know right?? harry potter and the sheer audacity of this bitch!! #bringbackcancelculture2020!!)
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I'm ninety nine point nine percent certain I'm dreaming.
For one, my father is here. My father is never here, which is indicative enough that this isn't real. Yet there he stands beneath the bright red slide, present and sound, smile wide and hands hiding his eyes as he starts a countdown from thirty.
A gust of wind swirls around him, ruffling through his hair and clothes. When the wave of air reaches me, I feel nothing.
I feel empty. Hollow.
This isn't real.
The sun is brilliant. Blinding. In fact, everything is too bright: a foreign world of vibrant colours and unnatural hues that shock the mind and water the eye.
My head begins to spin. I'm so disoriented that I don't realize the counting has stopped.
"Ready or not, here I come!"
I watch my father whirl around in circles, scanning the desolate playground with a charming grin. My lungs seize when his gaze lands on me. I'm certain he'll react, start, do something upon seeing his only daughter.
But in this world, I'm made of glass and mirrors and smoke.
His eyes skip right over me.
I don't exist.
From the corner of my eye I catch the movement of a child. Her dark hair is in a disarray, her hands scraped, and there's a smear of dirt on her rosy cheeks. Even still, hidden within the darkness of a neon green tube, her eyes sparkle with stars of excitement, and theres a mischievous curve to her lips that hints at pure glee. Her laughter lilts and echoes through the stagnant air, no doubt alerting her seeker of her hiding spot. But I can tell she doesn't care. She doesn't care if she's found.
She wants to be found.
The sky suddenly shifts. Time passes faster then I'd thought humanly possible. The sun sinks like a stone in water, smearing the sky with streaks of mellow oranges, yellows and pinks.
And the girl still isn't found.
Her giggles freeze in the evening chill, brittle and unforgiving. The light fades from her eyes. Her smile dims like the setting sun, clouding her expression with storms. Glass tears mix with dirt, cutting trails of silver down her cheeks.
When I turn around, I discover why.
A young boy now races around the playground, laughing as he ducks around the swings and leaps over the teeter totter, chasing a battered soccer ball. A man wholeheartedly trails him, and as he grows closer, I realize it's my father.
My gut sinks.
My father is chasing the boy instead of the girl.
YOU ARE READING
The Babysitting Contract | j.jk
Fanfiction❝The only reason Kim Taehee agrees to help her sworn enemy Jeon Jeongguk babysit his younger brothers for three weeks is because of the fat paycheck that now sits in her account. It's definitely not because he's a good kisser.❞ [a jeon jeongguk fanf...
