Matchmaker: BOOK I [Y/N X KAI]

✨ Chapter 36 ✨

"It..wasn’t what I expected of you.." he adds in, a little uncomfortably. He's ashamed of his behaviour towards me earlier, he should be.

"Aww, you're actually a softie afterall!" I tap my chin.

"What? What are you talking about?" his eyes wide.

"You may seem like this serious, no-nonsense type. But I knew that deep inside, you're really soft-hearted and shy," I grin looking at his face that turns redder every second.

Gosh, shy Nini is the cutest thing to ever happen on earth, literally.

He turns away, in attempt of regaining his composure.

"Nini?" I call out.

He coughs, "Well, um.. That is to say.."

"You're adorable, you know that?" I grin.

"Niki!" he growls, but for the first time ever, it doesn't scare me.

"Don't get too comfortable. My expectations from you are as high as ever," he adds in, masking in the tough guy mode.

I swear, every time I think I'm getting somewhere with you Kim Jongin..and you do this!

Well, but at least, I seem to have gotten some brownie points for now.

"I told you, I'm not what you think I am," I smirk.

"Perhaps not," he laughs, "We'll see how the rest of the shower goes."

"About that.." I cross my arms, "I hope you understand now that I'm pretty serious about this job."

He nods, "I must admit that you're making good progress. But we'll have to wait to see how Aria enjoys it."

Try to make me hate you all you want, but I already like you. And nothing can change that.

"Now I have to actually write this speech. And you have a party to oversee. So, see you later?" he wiggles his eyebrows.

I nod in respond, "Yes, sir. Best of luck and bye!"

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Leaving Nini to his writing, I head back to the dining room. I'm about to help myself to what's left of the chicken when a woman comes in.. followed by a toddler.

I'm going to be managing this party with an empty stomach, aren’t I?

"Ripa eonnie! Good to see you! And how sweet of you to bring Samin with you, too! How you doin' bud?" Aria exclaims with burst of energy spreading all over from her.

I turn to the guest, "Welcome to the party. You can put your gift over here."

"Thank you!" the woman bows to me then turns to Aria in a rushed way, "Hello, Aria! Congratulations! And best wishes to you and your fiance for a happy married life."

"Thank you so much eonnie, come sit," Aria's respond enthusiastic.

The woman shakes her head in refusal and frowns, "As you can guess, I'm in a super hurry right now. I just came here to drop off the present. Our sitter came down and I couldn’t find a replacement so early. You know how hard things are in Seoul."

Okay, eonnie. I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here. But I'm pretty sure, that there's no way that Aria's gonna let you-

"That's nonsense, eonni. Both you and Samin are cordially welcome to stay!" she responds. Here we go, exactly what I thought.

The woman refuses again, "Oh, that's so sweet of you to say but no. You don't want a toddler in your party. And I'm not just saying that. You really don't!"

You know what you've to do, Niki. It's your job to keep people happy.

"Ah, don't worry about it. This restaurant's fairly kid-friendly. Why don't you just sit down and have a drink?" I suggest, even though when she said we really don't want a toddler here, I believed her to a hundred percent.

"Are you sure?" she questions. Nope, not at all.

"Yeah! Go ahead and enjoy yourself. I'll take care of him. I've got a hold of this, trust me!" I fake smile.

"You're the best thing ever, Niki!" Aria exclaims.

Ahem, remember this details about me when you do my payment and sign me up for the main event.

Ripa eonnie and Aria head for the tables, leaving me with Samin and this is the first time I actually look down to see his face.

Now, I don't have a lot of experience with actual kids but I've spent a lot of time looking after an oversized toddler named Lee Soo-man. And there's no way that Samin can be any worse than that.

"Where's Siren Head?" he yells.

Okay, still better than Lee Soo-man. I don't change my mind.

"I only have my head, not whatever head you're looking for. But, I do have, uh, games?" I say out of blue.

He seems to take a serious moment of considering my offer.

"What games?" he asks.

Come on, Niki, think fast.

Suddenly a bartender on the corner catches my eyes. I got an idea.

"Super fun games like eating this big bowl of maraschino cherries!" I exclaim and almost immediately slip over to the bar as stealthily as I can manage in these heels and swipe a bowl sitting by the corner.

"It's an emergency!" I whisper to the bartender. She gives me an understanding nod and I present the bowl to Samin.

I sit infront of him "Okay, samin, here comes the choo-choo train. Open up the tunnel-"

I hold up one of the cherries and pop it into his mouth.

"Yummy!" he exclaims.

Immediately, he takes another cherry and eats it. Then another one. Then another.

"Good job, Samin!" I say.

Perhaps, this isn’t a good idea to give a child this much sugar. But hey, maraschino cherry is technically a fruit, isn’t it? And fruits are always healthy.

Three kinds of hells slap the shit out of me when I notice that he has already finished the whole bowl and it hasn’t even been five minutes.

"You..ate all that?" I ask in surprise.

He nods proudly, "I want to be a hoho. Can you feed me wall?"

✨ To Be Continued ✨