CHAPTER SEVEN

2866 words.

 The trip to Jeju Island really gave Taeyeon lots of mixed feelings. First, she just got friendzoned just when she thought that their relationship was going well. Seriously, who was she to kid with? It was Byun Baekhyun after all, one of the most successful young entrepreneur and business man. She would bravely bet her monthly salary that this young daddy will never return her feelings, even when she’s already lying down on her deathbed.

 Second, she didn’t know whether she was just clueless or too ignorant when she discovered that friends can set the rules on who she can befriend with. When Baekhyun confessed that he didn’t like seeing Taeyeon being close to other men except for him, a part of her was sure that this guy was jealous, but a sane part of her immediately denied the stupid thought, saying that friends don’t get jealous; they’re just worried that she might be befriending the wrong person. But ‘Chanyeol is his own cousin, so why didn’t he let me getting close to him?’

“Baekhyun?” She called out, gaining the man’s attention. They were outside of the hotel, in the hotel’s backyard to be exact as they were having a barbecue party since it was already their last night in Jeju. The large swimming pool was glistening when the light from the colorful light bulbs’ reflected onto the water surface.

 She was reluctant to join the party at first because she wasn’t part of his company and also she needed to take care of Taehyun, but Mrs. Byun insisted that she’d take care of Taehyun and forced her to join the party. She wasn’t familiar with this kind of thing, and thankfully, Baekhyun seemed to sense that since he was sticking really close to her ever since the party started.

 The music that was played was really nice, creating a very serene but still lit atmosphere. “What?” Baekhyun responded, scooping some mashed potato onto the plate that Taeyeon was holding.

“Is Chanyeol a bad guy?” She asked hesitantly, almost like a whisper. Baekhyun stopped scooping the food and turned to Taeyeon, his face showing that he was confused. “J-just now, you told me not to get close to him. Is he a bad guy?”

 Baekhyun rolled his head in frustration once he got what Taeyeon meant and gently massaged his eyebrows, wondering why was this girl so stupid. Calling her stupid was a bit too much, but he was already starting to feel annoyed at how dense this girl was. How could her mind even fathom his words into that kind of meaning when he clearly gave her signs  that he was jealous. He admitted that he was a bit jealous. Just a bit, but this girl didn’t understand at all!

“No, Taeyon. He’s a very nice guy.” He said monotonously, focusing his eyes back onto the choices of food on the long buffet table. He glanced around and noticed that all of his employees were either socializing or grilling the food but he still didn’t catch any sight of his cousin.

“Yes, he is very nice and has an amazing personality too. I wonder how can a person be that positive and energetic?” Taeyeon complimented, her eyes gleaming when the so said man appeared out of nowhere, grinning widely when he saw the two. “Oppa, hi!” She greeted, chuckling a bit when Chanyeol reached out to ruffle her hair, but Baekhyun quickly slapped his hand away before he could even touch the top of her head.

“Hey, what was that for?” Chanyeol retorted.

Baekhyun shrugged and offered him an empty plate, demanding the younger boy to start filling up his plate so they could eat together. Well, he actually didn’t want to eat together with Chanyeol but he kind of felt bad to leave that poor guy alone, especially when he just got back from LA after staying there for almost 10 years. He turned to his side and sighed heavily when his plan to spend the night together with Taeyeon alone just vanished into thin air.

~*~

“Say, Taeyeon. How did you actually get to work with Baekhyun?” Asked Chanyeol while munching his sausage. Taeyeon took a bite of a freshly peeled shrimp that Baekhyun just placed onto her plate (he kindly peeled the skin off  for her, how nice of him!) and looked up, ready to answer his question but Baekhyun was quick to cut him.

“Finish munching your food first, Yeol.” Groaning, Chanyeol gulped his food down and looked at Taeyeon, waiting for her answer. Well, Baekhyun wasn’t really bothered by the fact that Chanyeol was talking with his mouth full since he was already used to that but the fact that Taeyeon was so comfortable with Chanyeol really triggered him. And she was quick to answer his questions too while everytime she talked to him, she would always hesitate and even sounded scared.

“My mum told me that her friend was in need of a baby sitter, and I am quite good with babies since I’ve been babysitting my baby sister before, so.. yeah.” She answered, smiling as she did so. Chanyeol let out a long ‘ah’ and the conversations continued between the two as they chatted about many topics, mostly leaving Baekhyun out of their conversations.

 After it felt like forever, Chanyeol finally excused himself to sleep because  he was very exhausted, causing Baekhyun’s mood to be lifted up again once the latter left. He invited Taeyeon towards the swimming pool and they decided to sit by the pool, their legs softly swinging in the water. Taeyeon was uncomfortable, especially when she noticed that almost all of the female workers were looking at her in jealousy. Well, who wouldn’t be jealous? She was loafing around with their hot boss anyway.

“Do you know that Taehyun is already speaking? I mean, not that kind of speaking like we adults do, but..yeah,” Baekhyun said, smiling a bit when he stared at Taeyeon’s side profile.

“Uh-uh, he started babbling about months ago, Baekhyun. His first word was eomma and that still made my heart broke. He must’ve missed his mummy so much that he thought I am his mum.” Taeyeon replied. She could feel her heart sinking when Taehyun kept crying and shouting at her, calling her ‘eomma’ while he was waiting to be picked up by her that day.

“Then why not?” Taeyeon cocked her brows in confusion and looked at Baekhyun, edging him to continue. “Why can’t you become Taehyun’s mummy? If I were in his place, I’d have thought that you were my mom too. I’d never seen a babysitter taking care of a baby as if it was their own baby, but eventually you did. You took care of him and loved him with all your life, so don’t stop Taehyun from calling you ‘eomma’. I don’t like it when you always stop him from doing so and ask him to call you ‘noona’ instead.”

 Taeyeon’s heart