Daehyun wakes up with a loud, guttural groan at the beautiful break of dawn, his long limbs sprawled all over mattress and his duvet kicked to the foot of the bed.

He aggressively lands a hand on his digital alarm clock and repetitively carries out the gesture until he is more or less slapping the inanimate object to a much-wanted silence. The obnoxious beeping stops and the undergraduate continues to groan, clumsily rolling right off the edge of the bed and landing harshly onto his backside with a dull thud.

After releasing some more noises from the depths of his throat, he lazily gets to his feet and pursues his usual morning routine by trudging into the bathroom, his rainbow hair blocking at least eighty per cent of his vision. Like always, he leaves the bathroom door open and does his business, excessively yawning and itching his back with his sight blurred and his eyes a puffy-but-adorable mess.

Today he is going to be babysitting a new child— not that he is particularly looking forward to it— called Choi Junhong who lives only 10 minutes away from him by bus. Daehyun hates working with kids. Absolutely hates it. But frankly, all of his reviews online from the previous families are pretty damn good, giving his profile full five-star ratings online, so he decided to stick with the job even though he completely detests having to deal with baby diapers, lost pacifiers and bibs full of puke.

Daehyun throws on a pair of ripped jeans, plain pink shirt and a leather jacket before swiftly exiting his apartment and locking up. He grabs a cinnamon bun and a latté for breakfast from a little coffee shop down the road and scoffs it on his way to the stop, relishing in the wonderful mix of cinnamon and sugar melting over his taste buds. Just as he boards, his cell phone rings and he answers it to hear a shrill voice belonging to none other than Mrs Choi.

“Daehyun-ah! Are you on your way?”

After a bite of his cinnamon bun, Daehyun replies “Yes, Mrs Choi,” upholding a sickly sweet tone between his chewing.

“Good, good! I’m on my way to work now. The key to get inside will be under the flowerpot by the door, is that okay?”

“I was hoping to introduce myself,” Daehyun politely counters, trying to sound disappointed.

“That could be done once I’m home in the evening, honey. Anyway! I left a list of Junhong’s needs on the fridge, if there are any problems then call me as soon as possible, alright?”

“Of course, Mrs Choi.” Daehyun says shortly before ending the call.

He proceeds to finish his breakfast and it doesn’t take long for his stop to arrive. Hopping off the bus, Daehyun meanders between roads until he is standing on Mrs Choi’s doorstep, preparing himself for the worst. He babysat many toddlers before and every single experience had been hellish. But Junhong’s profile seemed reasonable, so Daehyun agreed to it after Mrs Choi spoke with him over the phone a few days ago. She sounded some-what convincing when she said Junhong isn’t that much of a handful, whatever that meant. Plucking the key up from under the flowerpot as instructed, Daehyun enters the large home and looks around, dazzled by the rich interior and décor surrounding him.

It was a really beautiful home in comparison to all the others he has been in. For starters, there were no dirty fingerprints on the walls or play dough stuck between the fibres in the carpet. There was no clutter of toys in sight, and neither were there any signs hinting the presence of a toddler— everything was in pristine condition. After absorbing the new atmosphere, Daehyun strangely decides to indulge in wiggling his toes in the luxurious carpet instead of getting to work. When he least expects it, a 2-year-old is suddenly padding towards him in just a diaper, dribble running down his chin.

Daehyun stops his wiggling and looks at the toddler. The toddler looks at Daehyun and they put up a little staring contest until Daehyun decides to awkwardly introduce himself.

“Hey there, kid, I’m your new babysitter.”

“…”

“You can call me Dae…if you even know how to talk…”

“…”

“Well, this is going pretty well—”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Holy sh—!”

Scared out of his wits, Daehyun lands a hand on his chest and pants from the shock as the toddler waddles off into another room making a racket. Doing his best to gather his bearings, Daehyun stalks after the child and watches him as he waddles in one direction, his little unstable feet thudding across the floorboards in haste. Abruptly, the toddler ends up falling face-first onto the floor, eliciting laughter out of his new babysitter.

“Umpf!”

Daehyun muses vengefully at the little screaming blob squirming around, his pudgy arms and legs doing their best to get him off the ground again so he could proceed with his escape. Once he is back up on his two unsteady feet again, he is waddling away from his babysitter and entering what seemed to be the kitchen. Daehyun walks in after Junhong and finds the note Mrs Choi left for him under a magnet. It read:

Hello Daehyun! Here is your list of tasks for the day, if there are any issues, please don’t hesitate to call me or leave a voicemail.

1) Dress Junhong.

2) Make sure Junhong gets breakfast.

3) Give Junhong his toys to play with.

4) If Junhong gets bored of his toys, give him a Fish-Bit (one will keep him satisfied, if not then give him one extra).

5) If Junhong tries to eat all the Fish-Bits, put them on a shelf he cannot reach.

6) Check his diaper.

7) Give warm milk to Junhong.

8) Read to Junhong.

9) Put Junhong to sleep and let him nap for an hour or two. 

10) Watch TV with Junhong if you can’t get him to take a nap.

11) Take Junhong to the park for a few hours and let him feed the ducks.

12)  Don’t let the ducks eat Junhong. 

13) Check his diaper again once you return from the park.

14) Feed Junhong his final meal of the day.

15) Watch more TV with Junhong until I come home. 

Tip: Make sure Junhong is entertained under all costs. Or else you're better off screwed. Have fun! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Daehyun purses his thick lips into a line and folds the piece of paper until it fits into his pocket. He then makes his way upstairs, where Junhong’s outfit sat in one of the bedrooms. He carefully pushes the door open to one of the rooms on the first floor and catches his breath at the lavish view displayed in front of him. His prying eyes travel from the vermillion satin covers shrouding the round bed in the centre of the room to the tall ceiling littered in spotlights. He draws his attention to the modern standing lamp in a far corner of the room and the fancy bay window curtains inked in royal blue, his eyes wide in awe at the extravagance. The room was so big that it even had a grey wall mounted fireplace opposite the bed, giving the room a stylish touch.

Daehyun finally veers his attention to the small pile of clothes sitting on a footstool, evidently Junhong’s. He picks them up and exits the room, his gaze hunting for the crazed toddler. He hears a crash from downstairs and immediately swings around the banister to find the destruction, relieved to simply discover a small vase on its side without a crack. The babysitter stands it back up and turns towards the toddler whose fingers oozed with dribble.

“Right, it’s time to get you in some clothes, little guy.” Daehyun nervously mentions, inching towards the child. Junhong apparently knows what’s coming, and tries to run away but Daehyun swiftly catches him and plops him onto the couch, eagerly grabbing his clothes up from the floor and shoving them over his head.

Junhong endures endless minutes of Daehyun struggling to stick his limbs through his woolly shirt and bottoms, his lower lip jutting out and his eyes filled with tears. “There,” Daehyun huffs, ticking the first task off the list, “all dressed and ready to play!” 

Junhong grumbles in his baby language and proceeds to waddle away, ignoring Daehyun’s calls to come back. “Yah! I still need to feed you breakfast!”

Daehyun jumps off the couch and jogs into the kitchen. He ransacks the cupboards in search for Junhong’s morning meal and comes across a jar of mashed bananas and rice. Then he goes looking for the toddler again, who is nowhere in sight.

“Junhong?” Daehyun calls, looking into different grand rooms for the child’s presence.

Eventually, he finds his baby blob upside down— his head stuck in a dirty laundry basket. 

After sometime, Daehyun finally arrives at the stage of having to get Junhong to take an afternoon nap— the stage he has been looking forward to all day. So far, every task on Mrs Choi’s list had been accomplished with nothing but difficulty— Junhong being a right pain in the rear. Daehyun had just finish reading The Little Red Riding Hood when he gently tugged a blanket over Junhong’s small body. To placate the child, Daehyun gently smiles at the baby blob and his hair over his forehead, lulling him to sleep. As if everything finally fell into place for the babysitter, Junhong dozed off, his chest subtly rising and falling in peace.

Daehyun lets out a huge sigh of relief and falls back against the couch, slipping his eyes to a shut.

Until the doorbell rings.

Junhong wakes up immediately, his cries blaring through the living room and leaving Daehyun to groan in annoyance whilst storming towards the door to see who it is. Junhong’s screaming heightens and Daehyun internally cries, cursing whoever stood on the other side of the door.

“Special delivery for Mrs Choi?”

Daehyun’s left eye twitches at the sight of a delivery boy clad in a stupid hat concealing his pink hair and a stupid fleece jacket with the nametag ‘Moon Jongup’.

“She’s not here, but I’ll take it in for her.” He growls, his left eye twitching more from Junhong’s persistent screams in the background, the pitch only increasing to the point it could be considered deafening.

“Just sign here,” the delivery boy states, uncertainly handing over a clipboard at the sound of the toddler’s desperate cries. Daehyun snatches the clipboard and carelessly scribbles down his signature, seething the boy in the uniform.

“Was it necessary for you to come at this hour?!” he suddenly bursts, catching the shaken delivery boy off guard.

“Huh?”

“Do you know how much stress I went through just to get that kid to listen to a goddamn story about this stupid b*tch in red who can’t tell the difference between her grandma and a ing wolf just to put his baby to bed?!”

“Uh—”

“I finally got that barf-bag to sleep until you came along moments later and rang that goddamn doorbell!”

“Dude, chill, I’m just doing my job—”

“And I’m trying to do mine!” the babysitter wails, his colourful hair flopping over his eyes as if to emphasise the emotional and physical trauma he is currently going through.

He grabs the parcel and storms back inside after slamming the door in the poor delivery boy’s face. Junhong’s screams only seemed to intensify, and the babysitter was on the brink of tearing his hairs out of his head from the roots. He ditches the parcel on the kitchen table and storms back into the living room where the toddler had his arms and legs in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs.

“Please, please stop crying,” Daehyun begs, running around in search for the TV remote. As soon as he finds it, he flicks the TV on and points desperately at the screen chanting “Look! Look, it’s some idiot in a hotdog suit—”

Junhong still continues to cry, paying no attention to the children’s humour flashing before him. After a few minutes of flicking through endless channels and attempting to calm the child down, Daehyun runs to the kitchen and returns carrying the box of Fish-Bits. He’s running out of options.

“Fish-Bit?”

It was useless. There was only one more way to try and get the screaming blob to shut up.

Daehyun scoops the toddler into his arms and rushes towards the door where their shoes were placed neatly in the shoe rack. In haste, Daehyun sticks Junhong’s little feet into his sneakers and tugs on his jacket, relieved to find Junhong’s screaming have shrivelled down to quiet sobs.

“Pork?” he whispers, and Daehyun allows a small, relieved smile to melt across his lips at the minor mistake in his pronunciation of the word park.

“Yes, Junhong,” he breathes tiredly, “pork.” 

12) Don’t let the ducks eat Junhong

Daehyun watches carefully as the toddler threw bread crumbs at the ducks sitting around the pond. He leans back on his elbows and looks at the time on his watch, inwardly begging the time to speed up. Mrs Choi was going to be home in exactly 4 hours, and Daehyun had no idea how he was going to keep the toddler entertained until then, especially since it was going to get dark soon. Averting his gaze from his watch, Daehyun’s eyes nearly pop right out of his head when he sees no sign of his blob.  

He scrambles onto his feet and sprints over to the pond to search the water for the possibly drowning toddler. There were no bubbles floating to the surface, nor any glimpses of Junhong’s yellow shirt. Convinced that the little blob wasn’t drowning, Daehyun whips his head towards the ducks and closely inspects them, his eyes turning into little scrutinizing slits.

“Which one of you ers ate my baby?” he growls, squinting harder at a particularly greener duck. It quacks at the babysitter who immediately jumps back, feeling intimidated.

“I’m not done with you yet,” he seethes, holding eye contact with the duck and backing away. He breaks into a sprint and scans the park frantically, looking behind every tree and bush to find the child he is supposed to be looking after. Clearly, the title of a babysitter doesn’t really belong to this guy.

Daehyun was just about to lose hope when he finally found his toddler being lifted into the air by some hideous stranger. Panicked, the babysitter charges towards the two of them and defensively takes the stranger down with him, enraged that he had the nerve to steal his toddler away from him. The stranger loses his grip on Junhong but luckily, the little blob manages to plop safely onto a bed of grass and rolls over, giggling in amusement. Determined, Daehyun tackles the stranger and forces him onto his back before straddling his hips and wrenching him up by the collar, aiming his fist to his face.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing with my baby?” Daehyun interrogates protectively, staring the stranger directly in the face. He scowls at his bright orange hair and wrenches him harder, almost choking him.

“He’s yours?” the stranger mockingly asks, twisting his face into a cynical grin. Daehyun presses his lips firmly together, trying his hardest not to just punch the guy straight in the face. “I was only playing with him, since you were doing a job at keeping him entertained yourself.”

“Shut up” Daehyun spits, roughly shoving the guy against the ground and lowering his fist back down to his side.

“What kind of father are you to let your kid just run off like that? Luckily I’m not some weirdo, otherwise your son would have probably been in the hands of some e by now." The stranger continues, boldly ing the babysitter off his hips and dusting himself off. Daehyun scoops up his baby blob and rocks him in his arms, simply satisfied that he found him safe and sound.

“Do you ever stop talking?” Daehyun rudely mumbles, pressing Junhong’s head against his chest in a fatherly manner whilst patting his bottom.

“As a matter of fact, no.” the stranger deadpans, folding his arms and frowning at the older boy. Junhong begins to cry and Daehyun groans, rolling his eyes at the sight of his toddler reaching for the boy with the orange hair who in turn, sends the babysitter a pointed look. “Looks like your son wants me more than he wants you,” he says, smug.

Giving Junhong to the stranger, who he is somewhat beginning to trust, he runs his fingers through his rainbow hair and relaxes his shoulders a bit. “I’m not his dad, I’m his babysitter.” He informs tiredly, watching as Junhong lit up like a firefly in the stranger’s embrace who cooed at his cute giggles and pudgy hands.

“That makes more sense,” the other laughs, poking Junhong’s nose. “It’s hard imagining a guy with rainbow coloured hair and poor childminding skills to be the father of such an adorable little guy.”

“Says the one with bright orange hair.” The sitter retorts. “And just so you know, that kid is Satan.”

The stranger gasps and wraps a shielding hand around Junhong’s face as if to hide him from the threat standing a few metres away from them. “That’s not the way to address your clients’ children.” He says pointedly. “I’m Youngjae by the way, since you weren’t going to ask any time soon.”

“I’m Daehyun, and if you don’t stop with the sass I’m going to find a way to stop you myself.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

“Want to find out?”

“Please, I’m curious.” Youngjae states, putting Junhong down onto the grass, aware that things were about to get a tad bit messy. Both he and Daehyun are stubborn teenagers, and neither of them are willing to lose in a fight. 

Daehyun his head to one side and smirks, voicing a confident “Alright.”

In seconds, he has the boy with the orange hair in a headlock, the pair of them squabbling and stumbling like idiots across the grass until they’re both out of breath and on their backs beside each other wearing jubilant smiles. Junhong watches the pair of them, intrigued with his little round eyes absorbing the show. 

“Let’s become friends” Youngjae gasps, flopping his head towards Daehyun who lay panting beside him.

The older grins and turns so that he’s facing Youngjae. “I’d like that.”