Jiyong sighs, again. In front of him, Ken is staring, smiling. Scattered around his feet are things he hastily pulled out from the bag Seunghyun gave him; a bottle full of milk, two coloring books, kids underwear, a Spiderman shirt, a pajama pants with Batman logos all over it, a yellow toothbrush, small tube of banana toothpaste, and a piece of paper which contains Daesung’s schedule like Seunghyun had said. Feeling stupid, he shakes his head. He had gone panic and rushed to find something to calm the toddler down when Ken rubbed his eyes and yawned again, spilling one more bead of tears.

Jiyong literally had to put his hand on his chest to refrain himself from groaning. The kid wasn’t crying. How could he forget that yawning can cause your eyes to tear up too?

“Samchon?”

“Yes?” Jiyong blinks and realizes that he doesn’t really know what to do. He’s not good with kids although he’s not that bad either. He’s just…shy? A person who knows how to lead a band but not spending a day alone with kids. Sure, he had moments where he was left alone with Ken, with some other kids, but never more than an hour or so. And their parents would be around just in case he needed something.

“Breakfast?” the boy taps his stomach, right on the Spongebob’s teeth. “Hungry.”

“Oh,” Jiyong squeaks. He doesn’t know what’s inside his refrigerator, let alone cooking food for someone else. “Right.”

“Can I have omelette?” Ken grins widely, holding his kangaroo –Brownie, Jiyong remembers Seunghyun told him the name –tightly. “Please?”

Jiyong prays that he has eggs somewhere in his house. He’s running out of cigarette, canned beers, and there’s no spare toothbrush in his drawer but maybe, just maybe, he is not running out of eggs. “Sure. I’m going to make you omelette.”

“Yay!” Ken squeals.

***

Well done, Jiyong, he pats himself mentally. Well done.

He would love to take some pictures of his creation –of the omelette –and probably boast about it to his mom because he can’t boast to Youngbae since his bestfriend is like a hundred levels higher than him in making food. He would like to congratulate himself for making it through the entire 8 minutes process of cooking.

“Ken, let’s eat!” Jiyong announces happily, setting the plate on the table.

The toddler climbs to the nearest seat and claps his hands. “Woah, samchon is great!”

Jiyong won’t let him know that he accidentally dropped a tiny piece of eggshell in it and took it out with his bare hands instead of the spatula, nearly cursed out loud when the heat bit his fingertips. “Of course!”

Ken nods as Jiyong hands him a spoon. “I like omelette.”

“Well, I hope you like this one too,” Jiyong smiles. “I don’t know what kind of omelette that you usually have.”

Ken laughs. “Daesung–appa and Seunghyun–appa always argue!”

“Over omelette?” Jiyong raises his eyebrows, curious. He had seen the two arguing over the silly things but he can’t imagine them arguing over omelette. It’s like one of the basic cooking ever, isn’t it?

“Salt,” the toddler shrugs. “Seunghyun–appa said Daesung–appa put too much salt.”

“Oh,” Jiyong squeaks quietly on his chair, realizing that he forgot about putting in some salt. “I really do hope you’ll like this one I made.”

Ken puts a spoonful of omelette in his mouth and Jiyong waits patiently for the review, counting silently in his head as the toddler chews on his food.

He raises a thumb up. “It’s good, samchon.”

Jiyong sighs in relief.

***

Jiyong doesn’t really have childhood memories. At least not one without list of things he should do. Now, as he rinses the dishes and Ken is having a mini tour in his living room, staring intensely at Jiyong’s possessions of paintings on the wall, he thinks of what to do next.

A kid Jiyong usually had schedules, things to learn about, or just studying his brain out.

He shakes his head and dries his hands with paper towels. Is he supposed to entertain the kid? Is he supposed to ask him what to do next? Or is he supposed to tell him of what to do next?

Seriously, how is he supposed to function around kids unpreparedly?

Jiyong wants to smack Seunghyun square on the head for throwing him the sudden responsibility. He has money, a lot of it and no, he doesn’t mind to spend some for toys, for a trip, for renting the whole Disneyworld for a day so he could properly take care of Ken. He’s been busy catching up with BIGBANG’s comeback that there are music sheets almost in every corner in his house and he started to forget to behave like a real human being, his mom had to snap and send him something to eat beside chips and cigarettes.

“Samchon?”

Jiyong approaches the toddler. “Hmm?”

“What is this?” Ken is holding a bottle of purple nail polish Jiyong had forgotten to put back in his drawer. “Glitters?”

“Oh, you know glitters?” Jiyong kneels beside him.

Ken nods. “Yes, they’re not stars.”

Jiyong frowns, confused by the explanation but doesn’t ask further. “It’s a nail polish. It’s for…coloring your nails?” Jiyong shows him his painted–blue, black, and pink nails. “Like this.”

Both Seunghyun and Daesung don’t really like having their nails polished or painted so it’s no wonder that Ken stares at Jiyong’s nails in amazed and lets out a soft oooh.

“Come on,” Jiyong stands up and reaches for Ken’s hand. “I’ll show you my collection.”

“Really? You have a collection?” Ken asks.

“I do,” Jiyong grins proudly.

Ken’s eyes shine with excitement as Jiyong opens his drawer to reveal his possession. “So many, samchon.”

“You like?” Jiyong makes a terrible Seunghyun impersonation and the boy laughs. As Ken shuffles through small bottles looking for a blue nail polish, an idea pops out in Jiyong’s head. “Hey, how about we paint your nails?”

“We can?”

Jiyong shrugs, thinking that maybe, he doesn’t have to be so anxious about plans and things to do. “Sure, if you want?”

“I want, samchon!”

 

Well, maybe it’s easier than he thought.

***