ᴄᴀʟʟ ɪᴛ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ

one

The pine floor creaked once, accompanying the sound of slippers sliding against it. The lights in the apartment were left switched on the previous night, making some sort of illusion it was early morning. But, still drawn back curtains and the one working clock on top of the sink said otherwise.

Still, there was nothing wrong with waking up in the middle of the night to quench that craving for soft drinks.

The refrigerator was swung open and soon that one litre of Coke was swigged down in mere seconds.

How odd, though. All the lights in the room were left on except for one, in the store room, just begging to be checked on by genuine curiosity.

The clothes in there were in a mess too, and Taehyung could have sworn he kept the unused clothes aside deep inside his closet. The lampshade was toppled over, and the small cushion looked like someone had just sat on it.

Taehyung quickly grabbed a pan from the conjoined kitchen and held it behind him, for self defence.

Then he noticed, that his laundry basket was the only object left untouched in the room.

"Bloody hell," Taehyung had muttered solely, thinking that this was the cause of one of his roommate's hangovers and let it slide. Until he realised his roommate had gone overseas and wouldn't be back until Spring.

Thinking of other possibilities, he took a peek inside the basket, expecting to see some kind of  animal which may have gotten in through one of the open windows when Taehyung had forgotten to close them.

But, the laundry basket consisted of nothing except for neatly folded laundry inside, (which Taehyung knows NONE of) and Taehyung grew frustrated.

He hated not knowing certain things, and his house seemed to be playing tricks with him.

Taehyung thought it all over, and concluded that all of this was the cause of probable extra caffeine in his drink, so he went back to bed.

Well, until he heard the bathroom sink turn on.

He stormed to the room, with the pan still in his hands and switched on the lights.

"Okay, whoever you are get the fu- !"

Taehyung stopped dead in his tracks, his hands clasping onto the plastic handle. He was in absolute shock. Perhaps his eyes were deceiving him?

But no, because clearly, from the bathtub, emerged a toddler, around four, squealing in surprise when the lights turned on.

"Hyungie!" He babbled, proceeding to climb out of the bathtub but only slipping and falling on his bum on the wet floor in attempt.

Taehyung was too lost for words to do anything. Heck, he thought he was about to be murdered on this night by an intruder who was playing games with his head, and instead getting a face-to-face encounter with a child. What on earth was a child doing in his apartment anyway?

It could be the intruder's child, Taehyung deadpanned in his mind. He continued searching up wild possibilities about how his death could involve a toddler distracting him while someone sneaks up from behind him and just smacks him in the head until he lies unconscious, but he never got the chance to go further, because the said kid was tugging at his pants, his weak attempt on trying to get picked up.

Taehyung tried to push away uncomfortably, but didn't get any further, as the child was already beginning to whine.

Now it wasn't that Taehyung wasn't good with kids, in fact he was wonderful with them. He had two nieces back in Daegu he cared for when they were infants and they loved him. He was the most caring when it came to caregiving. But in this situation, how could he openly show his care and affection over some child he found in his apartment?