Love Next Door

the I need a child and I need your help chapter

In the middle of wrapping her scarf around her neck, Seri jumps at the sound of her front door opening and Jeong Hyeok coming in with a dry bowl of cereal in his hands. "Do you have any milk? I forgot to buy some when I was at the store yesterday," he tells her as a greeting and she waves her hand to indicate that there was a bottle in the refrigerator. "Great, thanks."

Remembering the promotional post that she encountered while scrolling through her favorite social media app, she waltzes over to where he was sitting and happily munching on his cereal. She doesn't dwell much into the context of her question and just blurts it right out. "I need a child, Jeong Hyeok," she tells her handsome neighbor with a hopeful grin. "Can you help me?"

He gives her a thoughtful look before swallowing the contents of his mouth. "Alright," he says with a casual shrug and moves to lift his shirt over his head. Her brain begins to malfunction at the sudden turn of events and at the sight of his abs. "Are we doing it here or in your room?"

"Wait, no! What are you doing? I meant as a companion for the ride at the fair," she quickly explains, eyes wide and almost scandalized. She shows him her phone screen. "They are in town for only three days, and there are certain rides that only children are allowed to ride. But! They can be accompanied by an adult if they want to, and I am going to make them want to."

"Why do you want to ride the ones meant for children?" he asks with a weirded out expression.

"Because, Jeong Hyeok, I was deprived of the fun things in life at a very young age. And now, I can actually do whatever the hell I want without thinking that there might be consequences," she answers him a bit too candidly. And so, she quickly reverts the conversation back to the actual subject before it got too serious between them. "So, will you help me out or not?"

He sighs, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Let me see if my nephew is available," he tells her as if it was the hardest thing he had to do that day. "I swear, the great lengths I go to for you."

She pulls his phone out of his hands, and he looks up at her crossly. "No, I don't want to annoy Mu Hyeok and Dan. They might be busy," she counters, ignoring his mutterings about her having no qualms about annoying him. "Oh, I know. Why don't we ask one of your students to join us?"

He stares at her like she had suddenly sprouted another head. "No normal child would think that it would be fun to hang out with their music teacher on a Saturday," he tells her, stopping her with a raised hand when she was about to argue with him. "And besides, we cannot just kidnap a kid for your entertainment. Ah, damn it, now my cereal is all soggy and gross."

"We are not kidnapping anyone," she replies. "We are borrowing the child. There is a difference."

"Not to the police, there isn't," he argues with his mouth full of soggy cereal. He receives a resigned expression, indicating that she was tired of their back and forth, and turns serious. "Okay, here's the deal. We will ask if Seon-woo is free, and then we can take him out for the day."

Seri hangs her head before confessing her problem, "You and I both know he hates me."

Surprised, Jeong Hyeok chuckles, "What? Seri, Seon-woo doesn't hate you."

"Then, explain to me why he decided my swimsuit needed a little sand in them," she challenges, crossing her arms over her chest. When he begins to laugh, she reaches over to thwack him in the head, which only makes him laugh harder. "I'm being serious! It took me forever to get all of the sand out. He hates me. No, you know what, he hates that I'm stealing his favorite uncle."

He laughs at the triumphant expression on her face and shakes his head. "You are being ridiculous," he tells her with a fond smile. "Here's what we are going to do. We are going to take him to the fair, and you will accompany him on the children's rides that you want. There, I will give you guys some alone time to bond. Then you will see that he does not hate you."