HYUN [ JJK ]

01

Few hours left alone with Hyun, Jaehwa learnt that he was rather easy to be understood. Different from what she thought when she first met him, Hyun wasn't the kind of baby who would throw tantrums every time. As long as she kept his diaper clean and fed him at the right time, that boy would be all smiley, letting out baby noises that made Jaehwa's heart melt like a chocolate being exposed under the scorching sun. When she was repacking the diaper bag—she just couldn't the urge to take everything out and rearrange them—, she did not expect to see a birth certificate of Hyun. Didn't want to barge into Jeongguk's privacy, she quickly shoved it back into the bag but her eyes managed to see the birth date. Turned out that Hyun would be turning 6 months in a few weeks.

Jaehwa craned her neck to see the clock hung on the wall, the needles showed that it had turned half past eleven. However, there's no sign that Jeongguk would come home soon. A sigh accidentally slipped out of her lips as she averted her gaze towards the sleeping little boy next to her, her hand silently made its way to caress his thin hair. She wondered if Jeongguk did this everyday—going out until late at night and abandoned his child like this—, wondered if he never thought about staying at home when Hyun was currently in the phase where he needed his father's attention the most. Putting that aside, Jaehwa's question about the mother was still left hovering in the air.

Reaching for her phone, Jaehwa stared at the screen of her phone for a solid one minute, hesitating her decision to call Jeongguk and ask him to come home right at that instance. However, she ended up throwing her phone towards the empty space next to her. She was just a babysitter and she was there, at Jeongguk's apartment, to look after his baby when he was away or not feeling like taking care of Hyun. As absurd as it sounded, Jaehwa chose to shrug those off since she didn't have any right to question Jeongguk for everything he had done. After all, she was just an outsider, so she should act like one. Remain silent and just focus on her job.

Lying on her side, Jaehwa looked at the sleeping baby for the nth time, a smile crept onto her face when the baby stirred under the thin blanket. She guessed that he must had taken after his mother a lot since she could barely see any traits from Jeongguk. Unlike his father who had a pair of doe eyes, Hyun's were rather small with monolids. His lips were plump but the Cupid's bow seemed to resemble Jeongguk in some kind of ways.

"When you grow up, tell your father to act like a man who already has a child." Jaehwa muttered under her breath, hand still caressing the baby's hair. "Did he even make any effort to play or spend some time with you?"

Just when Jaehwa was about to badmouth the guy again, she heard a key being inserted into the keyhole, causing her to sit up straight almost immediately. The creak sound produced by the wooden door was followed by the sight of Jeongguk standing at the door frame, dressed in a pair of black jeans to oppose the white t-shirt underneath the padded jacket. Now that he's dressed in that kind of outfit, it's safe for Jaehwa to say that he didn't look like a father at all. He reminded her of the boys she saw at the campus, walking around while carrying their backpack and books in their hands.

Jaehwa almost choked on thin air when Jeongguk averted his gaze towards her, their eyes bored into each other's but this time, his stare didn't hold any hatred. It was simply a blank stare, the one she always got from a stranger.

"You are still here?" Jeongguk spoke as he took off his socks, throwing them just next to the shoe rack.

As much as Jaehwa wanted to laugh at how stupid his question sounded, she ended up pursing her lips. "I can't leave Hyun alone." She saw Jeongguk nodded in acknowledgement, probably had came to realisation that he had someone—or to be exact, a baby—waiting for him at home now.

"Come here. We need to talk." Jeongguk said once he made sure that Hyun was asleep.

Jaehwa followed his steps towards the dining table before taking a seat across him, didn't realise that she was playing with the hem of her shirt to make herself feel occupied. Jeongguk's piercing stare once again crossed her mind, making her pray that he wouldn't insult her this time, especially when she was worn out from looking after his son for the whole day.

"Don't you have any manner?" His stern voice hitting her eardrums like a thunder, his heavy breath struck her like a lightning. "Don't you know how to look at someone's face when he's talking to you?"

Jaehwa inhaled deeply, forcing out a smile. God, this guy was really testing her patience. After what she had done for him, it was insane how he still could talk to her like she's some kind of person who's uninvited into the apartment.

"I'm sorry, Mister Jeongguk." Jaehwa looked up, only to find out that he was looking at her mockingly.

"Stop calling me that. Just call me Jeongguk. I'm just a year older than you, for your information."

Jaehwa had to look down at her lap upon what she just heard. He's just a year older than her, and that means he's only 24. 24, still living his university life but why did he choose to have a baby? Where on earth is the mother?

"Okay, Jeongguk." Was all she could utter as a reply.

"How was Hyun today?" It somehow made her happy that he actually cared about his son, and that managed to distinguish some bad impressions he had given to her since they first met today. Now that Jeongguk was out of his jacket and leaning against the chair, he looked more mature, his deep voice was laced with concern as he stole a glance at the baby sleeping in the living room.

"He was okay. Better than I thought." Jaehwa beamed, could not conceal the giddiness when she recalled the moments she had spent with Hyun today. "I found out that he actually likes to smile a lot, and loves attention. As soon as I disappeared from his eyesight, he would start crying but stopped when I came to him again." A soft chuckle accidentally left her mouth, causing Jaehwa to clear her throat to get rid of the awkwardness that started to fill the air. The fact that Jeongguk was looking at her with his eyebrow raised wasn't helping at all. "Uh... by the way, I have fed him before putting him to sleep but it's better to prepare his milk beforehand. Just in case if he wakes up in the middle of the night, you don't have to go to the kitchen." Jaehwa paused before she continued. "I let him sleep in the living room because I don't know where he usually sleeps at night."

Jeongguk tilted his head. "He sleeps with me. It's okay, I will carry him into the room later."

Jaehwa only nodded in response, the silence engulfing both of them was starting to kill her from the inside. All she could hear at the moment were the faint tick of the clock and Jeongguk's steady breaths, hated how the guy across him was more into staring instead of talking.

"I see." Jeongguk started out of nowhere. His eyes were fixated on somewhere Jaehwa couldn't decipher. "So that's why."

"Sorry?" Jaehwa knitted her eyebrows together, confused by his demeanour. Swallowing her saliva, she tried to follow his gaze, gasping hard when she found out that he was staring right at her chest, eyes not blinking for a minute. "Hey! What- what are you looking at?!"

"So breastfeeding can help a baby to fall asleep, huh?"