“Mrs. Kim, please listen to me. Can’t we-” Kyuhyun tried pleading once more to the person on the other side of the call line.

“No Mr. Cho I have had enough! Kindly give me my pay for last 10 days and find someone else to do this mad job, her demands are increasing day by day and I can’t tolerate anymore.” Mrs. Kim cut Kyuhyun off with her anger retort yet again.

“Please…I can talk to her and mayb-”

“You said the same thing two days ago and that ‘talk’ of yours clearly didn’t make any difference so I doubt it would do any miracle this time as well.” Mrs. Kim huffed out making Kyuhyun to sigh in exhaustion.

“I am sorry for the trouble Mrs. Kim. Rest assures I shall pay you tomorrow.” Kyuhyun replied back in a defeated tone making the person on other side to sigh as well.

“I am sorry too Mr. Cho but…” Mrs. Kim let her sentence hanging and Kyuhyun need not ask her because he was very well aware of what she was pointing at.

“I know Mrs. Kim and its okay. Thank you for your service.” Kyuhyun tried to disguise his voice with a tad bit of cheerfulness knowing that it was not the poor lady’s fault that his mother was an uptight and over sophisticated woman.

“Thank you for understanding, Sir.” Mrs. Kim said and a hint of sadness could be detected in her voice as she had indeed been happy to be serving a person like Kyuhyun but alas! “Goodbye, Mr. Cho.”

“Good Bye Mrs. Kim.” Kyuhyun sighed out in the receiver before putting the receiver back to its place with lazy movement.

Kyuhyun was exhausted and felt that all of his remaining energy was as well dripping out of his body and he couldn’t help the sigh that slipped passed his lips, making his co-worker Donghae to halt midstride as he was heading back to his desk after getting himself a coffee and a couple of donuts Siwon brought in today.

“What’s up Kyu?” Donghae asked as he came to stand in front of his tired looking partner.

Donghae was indeed confused to see the forlorn look his friend was supporting because just mere minutes ago the same guy was laughing with Donghae, or maybe AT Donghae, but the point being that the laughing face was supporting such a drastic change that Donghae could only frown in confusion now.

“Mrs. Kim quitted.” The sad guy offered the shortest explanation he could in his current state.

“But you hired her just ten days ago!” Donghae exclaimed.

“Tell me about it!” The sad expressions were changed to a roll of eye and sarcasm dripping tone.

“What happened?” Donghae questioned, ignoring the rudeness of his younger fellow.

“The same thing happened which happened to the last SIX maids.” Kyuhyun huffed out as he angrily ruffled his hairs.

“You need to do something about your mom.” Donghae gave out his suggestion as he walks toward his desk to put the coffee and donuts on it.

“Again… tell me about it!” Kyuhyun again sarcastically replied because he himself knew that he needed to do something about his too-much-meddling-in-his-business mother who had made it her hobby to chase away all the maids Kyuhyun hire and kept pestering him to find a fine lady to settle with. But after losing Seohyun, Kyuhyun couldn’t even imagine being with someone else.

“Maybe you should just listen to your Mom and-” Donghae started but quickly shut his mouth as he saw a harsh glare directed at him and just by some miracle Donghae was saved as the door opened and in came none other than the Chief, Choi Siwon, and their fellow inspector, Lee Sungmin.

“How is that babysitter case coming?” Siwon asked as soon as he entered but paused as he took in Kyuhyun’s miserable look and slumped shoulders. “What happened, Inspector Kyuhyun?”

“I need a babysitter… that’s how the case coming.” Kyuhyun replied back in inquire of his well being by his superior who suddenly looked lost at Kyuhyun’s comment.

“Umm… you mean you want to catch that ‘Thief’ babysitter?” Siwon asked with his elevated brows, referring towards the case at hand.

“No! I mean I actually need a maid for my baby.” Kyuhyun explained.

“But what about Mrs. Kim? What happened?” Sungmin in the conversation after abandoning some files on his desk.

“My Mom happened… so Mrs. Kim quitted and now I need to hunt for a maid again.”

“A maid won’t do what a mother can, Kyuhyun. Your child needs mother’s love. He is just six months old, he is young enough to get affix with any woman right now and call her ‘mother’ for the rest of his life.” Siwon gently advise the youngest member of their team.

“You sound like my mom… did she bribed you to say that?” Kyuhyun accused his superior with narrowed eyes.

“Hey! I am an honorable policeman… don’t insult me!” Siwon quickly tried to defend his honor. “But you know what I said is true.”

“True or not! The main point is that I can’t just replace Seohyun.” Now Kyuhyun started to feel a little pissed.

True! Seohyun was not the love of his life because that would only be Starcraft, the only reason why his mother took the matter of his marriage in her own hands and practically forced him to marry Seohyun. But he did share intimacy with Seohyun, he shared his joys and, at some extent, his sorrows as well and most importantly Seohyun gave birth to his child, but of course that was the only reason she was not with them now because it was after her pregnancy that doctor told them that Seohyun’s heart was weak and she could die in the process of giving birth to the child… but abortion was not a word in Seohyun’s dictionary so they went through the pregnancy and as predicted, Seohyun didn’t survived. But even after spending just a little more than a year with her, Kyuhyun could have sworn that he had started to fall for her and now no matter what anyone say he could not just disgrace her memories and get himself another wife.

No matter how lonely he felt, no matter how much he knew his son deserved the love of a mother but Kyuhyun just could not bring himself to enter in another forced marriage, even if his first turned out great. He might date in the future when Kyusung was a little bit older. And if he by some farfetched miracle was to fall for someone in the long run… then he might consider settling down again but let’s be honest here, this all had 0% of chance to begin with.

“Nobody can be replaced, Kyuhyun. But you can’t change the fact that Seohyun is gone and your child needs love which even you are not giving him. Hiring a fulltime maid is not good for that sweet baby of yours.” Siwon seemed in no mood to back down easily and Kyuhyun was ready to bet his mother has something to do with that.

“Fine I will just get a babysitter then. She can leave as soon as I return home so I get to shower my love on my little boy.” Kyuhyun was not called a brat for nothing if he couldn’t be as stubborn as a mule.

“If you need a babysitter then I can ask Saeun to help you out. She knows a lot of people.” Sungmin suggested.

“Really Hyung?! I would love you for that… please ask sister-in-law to do that.” Kyuhyun pleaded while giving a kicked puppy look to the elder.

“Hey! Just imagine Kyuhyun, what if your babysitter turned out to be the ‘Thief’ babysitter we are trying to find… wouldn’t that be awesome?” Donghae asked with excitement of his imaginary adventure clear in his eyes.

“Idiot Hae, snap out of your fantasy world.” Sungmin said with a laugh as he hit Donghae on the back of his head, making the younger to pout in dissatisfaction.

“And if she turned out to be that ‘Thief’ babysitter then that would mean I would have to search for another one and that is not acceptable.” Kyuhyun declared in the firm voice.

“Well now that we have finally arrived back to the case at hand.” Siwon spoke loudly so the three inspectors could give him their undivided attention. “We have got the testimony from Mr. Park as well and he has given us valuable information but only with a promise of not putting that in the case file.”

“Why won’t we put that in the case file?” Kyuhyun asked puzzled.

“Well…,” Siwon had a small pink hue on his face as he explained further. “Mr. Park has told us that, that girl had a mole on her left cheek but that is on the inner side so you can only see it if you part the bums.”

“But how did Mr. Park know that?” Kyuhyun wonder out loud as he scratched his chin and thought about it but the sudden silence around him had him looking up to see three pairs of eyes staring at him incredulously. “What?”

“Kyuhyun, Mrs. Park hired a babysitter because she was leaving the city for the night and when Mr. Park came home the babysitter had already put the children to sleep… does that rings a bell?” Donghae explained with utmost patience and then asked the question to the younger inspector.

“Umm… yeah isn’t it the statement Mr. Park gave us earlier?” Kyuhyun questioned back as his confusion increased by ten folds. Donghae face palmed himself so hard that Kyuhyun actually flinched.

“Come on Kyuhyun you had been married for a year, you can’t be that innocent.” Sungmin remarked with a roll of his eyes. “The babysitter had put the children to sleep so Mr. Park and she were all alone… so….”

“So?” Kyuhyun questioned but then suddenly it clicked on him. “Ohhhh…”

“Yeah, ‘ohhh’ is the thing we were looking for.” Donghae nodded in satisfaction.

“Now if you guys are done corrupting Kyuhyun’s innocent mind, can we proceed with the briefing?” Siwon asked with an amused dimple smile itched on his handsome face.

“Yes we can and FYI we are not corrupting his mind, we are only telling him what he needs to know to survive the world.” Donghae defended himself and Sungmin before the Chief could put their being a bad role model in their records.

Siwon just shook his head at the childlike inspector before saying, “Mr. Park has also allowed us excess to their security cameras but looking through them, Sungmin and I have come to the conclusion that the girl actually knew about all those cameras and took extra care to not expose her face to the camera. Here is a copy of those videos so, Kyuhyun and Donghae, you guys have a look at it too.” Siwon passed them a small USB to them as he went on. “On one specific time we saw her side profile and took a picture of it so we might have a general idea of her face.” Now Siwon opened the file to retrieve a small picture from it before passing it to the younger two officers. “Now that we have a general idea, we are going to show this picture to Mr. Kang and Mr. Shim too and if they said that this is the same babysitter that robbed them then that would mean we are dealing with not a one-timer-desperate thief but a professional one, who could most probably be associated with a gang for all we know!”

“And if she is a professional then I guess we need to capture her as soon as possible or else the commissioner would not be happy with us.” Sungmin put in his thoughts as well.

“You are right Sungmin… we need to solve this case soon enough.” Siwon declared while gaining nods from his team of inspectors. Kyuhyun again glanced back at the picture to try and remember if he ever saw her before but he came up blank…

*-------------------*

“Hi Kyuhyun!” Sungmin greeted cheerfully as he entered the office and looked at the younger inspector who had his head down on his desk but the lack of terrifying snores meant that he was not asleep so Sungmin deemed to greet in a loud voice. But as soon as Kyuhyun lifted his head up to greet the elder back, Sungmin was shocked to see the huge dark circles under Kyuhyun’s eyes. “What happened to you? Couldn’t sleep well?”

“Yeah… Kyusung kept me up most of the night; he just kept crying and wouldn’t tell me why.” Kyuhyun pouted as he told his mournful story.

“He is six months old Kyuhyun. He can’t possibly tell you anything.” Sungmin pointed out while laughing at the pathetic state of his younger colleague.

“Well he should! How else am I supposed to know?” Kyuhyun demanded in a whiny tone.

“Maybe he had gas issues. You got him to burp after feeding him milk, right?”

“Umm… I might… have… forgotten to do… that.” Kyuhyun admitted as he tried to desperately make him as small as possible under Sungmin’s wide accusing eyes.

Sungmin sighed out his anger before saying in a somewhat calm voice, “You should have let your mother take care of Kyusung for the time being.”

“No I won’t. He is my son and I want to take care of him myself… weren’t you guys saying that I should spend some time with him.”

“Yes but maybe you need to learn how to handle a child first since you had him dependent on maids ever since he was born.” Sungmin pointed out. “And that remind me, Saeun gave me this number to pass it along to you.”

Kyuhyun held up the small piece of paper with simple words;

Lee Hyukjae 010X-XXXXXXX

“That is the babysitter’s number.” Sungmin further explained for younger’s benefit.

“Oh right! But who is she?” Kyuhyun asked back because he certainly won’t be hiring someone who was not trust worthy.

“First of all, it’s a HE. Secondly, he is Saeun’s best friend’s cousin. He is a younger University student, looking out to earn some allowance. The good thing is his classes are in early morning and he can easily get free till 10am so I am sure that would be perfect for you.”

Kyuhyun nodded his head enthusiastically as he beamed toward his elder colleague, “Thank You Hyung, I love you! And tell Saeun Noona that she is my savior!”

“It’s okay my cute dongsaeng.” Sungmin waved away his gratitude.

Kyuhyun grinned in happiness as he quickly dialed the number and waited for the other party to pick up the call. Just then Donghae walked in like a zombie but somehow he acknowledged the small wave Kyuhyun directed at him until Kyuhyun was brought back to task at hand when his call connected.

“Hello?” A timid voice spoke.

“Umm… hello… is this Lee Hyukjae-shi?” Kyuhyun inquired.

“Yes this is.”

“Oh, Hyukjae-shi I am Inspector Cho Kyuhyun. I believe you have heard about me being acquired a babysitter and you are the recommendation.”

“Ah yes my Noona told me about it.” The voice from other side change from timid to a tad bit of excitement and Kyuhyun couldn’t help the smile that graced his lips as well.

“I am not exactly fond of holding interviews on phone so if you are free today then maybe we can meet for lunch and talk in detail?” Kyuhyun suggested in a hopeful voice and was glad when he was granted his wish. Soon he bid the other good bye and turned around to see Donghae’s huge swollen face far too near for comfort but by some miracle Kyuhyun held in the scream that was about to erupt out of him.

“I am also going on that interview because I wanna make sure my nephew is in good hands.” Donghae let Kyuhyun in on his thoughts.

“Whatever but don’t ever do that again!” Kyuhyun exclaimed as he pushed the elder’s shoulder roughly to get his personal space back.

“Why? Do I make your heart beat faster?” Donghae asked back with a teasing smirk decorating his handsomely swollen face.

“Whose wouldn’t after seeing that ugly face of yours?” Kyuhyun retort back but that only earned him bruised shoulder and arms.

*--------------------*

Kyuhyun and Donghae were seriously discussing the case of that ‘Thief’ babysitter as the two sat in a small restaurant in their lunch hour waiting for Lee Hyukjae to show up for his interview.

“Umm… hello,” A timid voice said making both the inspectors to snap their faces toward the owner of the voice. “Is one of you Inspector Cho Kyuhyun?” The newcomer glanced from face of one inspector to the other as he asked his question.

“Yes, that would be me.” Kyuhyun quickly replied with a small smile as he gestured Hyukjae to take a seat opposite from him.

The younger boy made haste to plant his on the offered chair but slipped a little because of nervousness. Hyukjae flushed pink as he finally got himself to be seated but kept his eyes fixed on the table. Kyuhyun found that display of nervousness cute to some extent. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but noticed how Hyukjae would muster up his courage to glance up but soon would look down again with the redness on his face increasing by minutes so glancing at Donghae beside him, he realized the elder was gawking at the university student with such big and scary eyes that all the things started making sense to him. Kyuhyun knocked at elder’s leg with his own and mouthed ‘Knock it off’ at him before bringing his attention back to the job applicant.

“I am Cho Kyuhyun,” Kyuhyun started formally as he offered a hand shake to other. “And that is my partner Lee Donghae.”

Hyukjae nodded in acknowledgement, “I am Lee Hyukjae and I am a 21 year old… umm… I am currently in university but this semester my timing are from 7 to 10am so I am pretty much free for the rest of the time.” It seemed like Hyukjae wanted to get through the interview as fast as he could so he gave all the description in one go.

“That is fine with me. My shift is from 10am to 8pm.”

“Oh but I won’t be able to get to your house till at least 10:30 since my class ends at 10 itself.”

“No problem, I can spare half an hour.” Kyuhyun assured with an easy smile gaining a smile in reply as well.

“Great!”

“But!” Kyuhyun held up a hand making the wide grin to fall from the younger’s face. “I need to warn you about my Mother.”

Hyukjae raised a brow in confusion as he looked at Kyuhyun for a better explanation.

“My mother likes to pest a lot. She likes to drop by and order you around… like she will ask you to do one thing but in next second she would scold you for doing that and will never admit she asked you to do that in the first place.” Kyuhyun told the other with an embarrass chuckle leaving his mouth.

“Umm… is she… is she alright?” Hyukjae asked in concern making Kyuhyun to laugh out loud.

“Oh yes she is perfectly fine, no mental issues if that’s what you mean.” Kyuhyun quickly assured. “She just wants to get rid of all the maids and she had been successful so far with my last seven maids.”

“What?” A wide eye Hyukjae couldn’t believe his ears. He had been so looking forward to get this job but now he was having second thoughts.

“Please Hyukjae at least give this a try.” Kyuhyun desperately pleaded. “I wanted you to be warned beforehand but I am in desperate need for a babysitter.”

Hyukjae looked at the poor guy who looked like he need a good 24 hours sleep judging by the deep dark circles under his eyes and he sincerely felt sorry for him and that might be the reason why he found himself nodding at others request and soon he found himself bidding goodbye to his new boss, who promised to call Hyukjae later and fill him up about other details.

“So Hyung, what do you think?” Kyuhyun excitedly asked Donghae as soon as Hyukjae left the two alone but Donghae could only glare at Kyuhyun with his eyes narrowed.

“Cho Kyuhyun, please don’t tell me that you honestly did not see that guys face!” Donghae exclaimed with a hint of anger.

“Huh?”

“Seriously Kyu?! Didn’t you notice that his face resembled the ‘Thief’ babysitter?” Donghae questioned as he quickly opened the file beside him and took out the picture Siwon had handed them the other day. “Look!”

Kyuhyun again looked at the picture and suddenly he could see what Donghae meant… the small side profile they could see from the picture did somewhat resembled the guy who was sitting in front of them just mere minutes ago.

“Hyung, why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Kyuhyun asked. “We could have arrested him!”

“At what grounds?” Donghae asked back with a roll of eyes. “We can’t arrest anyone just on impulse.”

“So what do you suggest we do?”

“You hire that guy and then we can monitor him and if we find something funny about him then we arrest him.” Donghae gave his idea.

“I am not letting a thief near my son!” Kyuhyun declared and he couldn’t believe Donghae had suggested something like that.

“Oh Kyuhyun, it’s not like the thief is a kidnapper… she or he, whatever, had already been to three houses and we haven’t heard a word about the children being harmed in anyway, she only steal their valuable things, money and some jewelry, right?”

“Yeah but still Hyung…”

“We can put hidden cameras in your house and monitor them all the time.” Donghae tried to persuade the young father. “Just imagine how we would be praised if we were the one to capture the thief rather than that goodie-two-shoe Sungmin, who is always solving all the cases with his so-called wittiness.” Donghae rolled his eyes at the last words.

“Well, Sungmin Hyung is very witty.” Kyuhyun commented offhandedly.

“And I am not?” Donghae asked back.

“Well… not exactly-” Kyuhyun stopped short as he received a glare. “I mean, Hyung he is my son! I can’t do this.”

“Just trust me Kyuhyun, Kyusung would be safe and I would do anything to make that happened.” Donghae again assured. “You just hire that kid.”

“But Hyung, Hyukjae is a guy and the ‘Thief’ babysitter is definitely a girl. All the victims testified to that.”

“Oh come on Kyu, how hard is it to cut your hairs and pretend to be a boy? Kids now-a-days pick things from dramas easily and majority of K-Drama’s are showing that.”

Donghae was convinced that they had found the culprit and Kyuhyun did agreed with him but the fact that he had to throw his son as a bait did not set well with him but he knew Donghae won’t let him live in peace anyway so finally he agreed to his Hyung’s nonsensical plan.

*-----------------*

Kyuhyun knew he should be feeling worried but after talking to Saeun Noona, who had just kept going on and on about how great Hyukjae was, he just didn’t. True! She did not know him personally but apparently Saeun Noona’s friend had been admitted in the hospital after her first delivery because of some complications so her cousin Hyukjae had been the one to take care of her baby for a couple of months and she had assured Saeun Noona that Hyukjae knew about handling small babies better than herself and that alone had Kyuhyun at ease because a small part of his brain had told him that maybe just maybe Hyukjae had a resemblance with that ‘Thief’ babysitter by mere coincidence. But that still didn’t stop him from planting at least 10 cameras around the house.

Kyuhyun was installing the last camera in Kyusung’s room when the bell chimed outside. Kyuhyun gave a small glance to his peacefully sleeping son before leaving to answer the door.

“Good Morning!” Kyuhyun was thrown back with a flash of big gummy smile offered with a cheerful morning greetings.

“Umm… yeah… good morning to you as well.” Kyuhyun replied with a nervous chuckle because this morning had not exactly been good for him since he had woken up late and had a shower in a mere minute then later he realized that he had no clean ironed shirt in the closet so he had to wear the un-ironed one and since he needed to install the cameras so he hadn’t had any breakfast and the clock on the wall was glaring a 10:26am at him right now… which indirectly meant he was late.

Hyukjae chuckled as he entered the house after Kyuhyun had opened the door wider for him, “I am sorry. I usually wake up at 6 in the morning so I am pretty bubbled up by this time but I suppose same does not go for you.”

“You got that right.” Kyuhyun admitted with a chuckle of his own.

“You have a really nice house Mr. Cho.” Hyukjae complimented as he looked around the plush living room.

“Ahh… thanks I guess.” Kyuhyun said as he looked at Hyukjae with narrow eyes because he was not sure if the younger had been looking around the house like any other stranger would do out of curiosity or if he was actually that ‘Thief’ babysitter and was trying to eye the valuable things he find in the house. But Kyuhyun knew he would find none since he had already put all those things in his bedroom and locked the room itself.

“So where is the little angel?” Hyukjae inquired.

“Oh, he is sleeping.” Kyuhyun replied as he heavily sat himself on the sofa to tie his shoes so he could leave for his work. “You go ahead and make yourself at home until Kyusung wakes-” Kyuhyun’s dialogue came to an end as a loud cry was heard from down the hall. “I think he just woke up.”

“Let me get him.” Hyukjae quickly said making Kyuhyun to stop from getting off the sofa, as he excitedly walked toward the room he detected the sound of cry from.

Kyuhyun sat there frozen for a few minutes until he realized that it was 10:40am already so he got down to tie his shoes up so he could leave soon.

“Umm… Mr. Cho?” Kyuhyun heard Hyukjae’s timid voice and snapped his neck to look at the younger boy with an elevated brow. “I thought you said you had a son but…” Kyuhyun moved his eyes toward the baby all cuddled in a pink night shirt and a cute pink headband on the head. “I don’t think it would be wise for me to babysitter your daughter… I mean I am not a e but still I am sure you know it’s not appropriate to let a guy be a babysitter of such a small girl.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t help the laugh that slipped pass his lips as he got off the sofa after tying his shoes. He looked at the confuse face of the babysitter and wanted to coo at him but thankfully stopped before he could actually do that embarrassing deed. Kyuhyun went to Hyukjae and took the child out of his embrace and secured him in his arms before planting a big kiss on the chubby rosy pink cheek.

“This is Cho Kyusung, who is most definitely a boy.” Kyuhyun said and again laughed at the disdain look he received from the younger boy. “My wife liked surprises so she asked doctor not to tell us the gender of the baby and my mother wanted a girl so she went ahead and bought all girly things she could, mind you ranging from one day old to one year old as well, now she doesn’t want to see her efforts go to waste so I had been ordered to make Kyusung wear them all.”

Hyukjae burst out laughing at the explanation before saying, “Your mom is weird.”

“You are calling her weird when you haven’t even met her. I wonder what you would say once you have met her.”

“Crazy?”

“Most probably.” Kyuhyun admitted with a laugh which maybe irritated Kyusung who sneaked in his small fingers in his father’s hairs before pulling harshly.

“Aren’t you getting late?” Hyukjae inquired as he glanced at the clock.

“Yes I am.” Kyuhyun said as he handed Hyukjae his little angel, who still had his little fingers gripped around Kyuhyun’s hairs and the strong grip nearly plucked out his hairs from the root if it weren’t for Hyukjae coaxing the baby to let go.

Kyuhyun thought, Kyusung had been through so many hands in these three months of time that he had not even comprehend the warmth of hand’s of your loved ones so he found it easy to go to strangers without crying or maybe he was too young to know that the other was a stranger and as soon as his senses starts developing he might be a crying, whiny baby who refuse to leave the arms of his mother figure which most probably would be his babysitter, whoever might he/she be at that time.

“Bye bye Da