. T H R E E .

"Wow, it's so nice of you to finally call me back," Jihye said sarcastically, brushing some of her hair out of her eyes. She was sitting in a secluded corner in the library, and kept her voice to just above a whisper so that she wouldn't disturb any of the other students working late into the night. 

"Don't start with me," Uncle Euisoo said over the phone. "I just called to see how things went with your interview the other day." 

"Hard to tell," Jihye said fairly. "Mrs. Park is a woman that's really hard to read, and so far she hasn't gotten back in touch." It had only been three days, but Jihye had been aggressively refreshing her email or checking her inbox for voicemails even though she didn't have any missed calls.  

"Yeah, I've met her once or twice. Hard to believe that a woman that serious could have a son that's such a dork," Euisoo said conversationally. 

"And who is this son?" Jihye pressed. "You let me go into that interview completely blind. What coworker is it that has a daughter that has to be hidden from the world? Do you have any idea at all how crazy all of this sounds?" 

"Yeah, it is crazy," Euisoo allowed. "But if you get the job, I'm sure they'll explain it some more." 

"Come on, just tell me," Jihye begged. "I won't tell a soul, I promise. You know I can keep a secret, otherwise you wouldn't have put me forward for the job anyway." 

"That's true, but none of it is really my business. Won't you have to sign some kind of document saying you'll keep your mouth shut?" 

"Yeah, but come on, I haven't signed the NDA yet. And you already know about the kid, so this is just between us. Even if I don't get the job, I won't breathe a word of it to anyone." 

Euisoo groaned. "I can't, Jihye. It's not even just about being professional anymore, but the father, he's actually become a good friend of mine. And this whole thing has been super stressful for him because he can barely take care of himself, let alone of this little girl. He really doesn't have a clue, but still, he's trying to do his best." 

"Okay, and what about Yuki's mother?" 

"I can safely say that she's not in the picture." 

Okay, Jihye was beginning to understand why the father didn't want anyone to know about the daughter. It sounded like there was some serious family drama involved, which Jihye could appreciate was a sensitive topic. She finally felt like she was getting somewhere. 

"What entertainment agency do you work for again?" Jihye asked, trying to keep her voice nonchalant. But she was dying to know so that she could look up the company website and look at the list of employees. And if that was no good, then she would browse LinkedIn until she found a promising lead. 

She figured the father was probably at least half Japanese.  Besides Mrs. Park's obviously korean name, she spoke korean excellently and Jihye hadn't detected an accent. But considering Yuki had a Japanese name and spoke Japanese primarily, it was safe to bet that this was a mixed race family. 

"Nice try," Euisoo said scornfully. "And as if you haven't figured that out by now. How do you think I managed to get you all that Girls' Generation merch when you were younger?" 

"I don't know, I thought maybe you had a dealer," Jihye supposed. 

"A kpop merch dealer? Like a drug dealer but for kpop?" The ridicule was thick on his voice. 

"I meant maybe you had a connection within the industry or something. Like a manufacturer or something." She shook her head, clearing her mind. "That's beside the point, anyway. Are you really not going to tell me anything?"

"It would be a conflict of interest." 

"Boo," Jihye said, sticking her tongue out even though Euisoo couldn't see her. "But no, I'm curious. Why did you recommend me?" 

"Cause you're a decent kid, and you've got experience with kids," Euisoo replied without pause, and then laughed. "Besides, no one would believe that someone as high profile as him would let some random student take care of his kid."

"Oh, so it's cover?" 

"Not really, I'm just kidding. Well. Kind of. They're interviewing a lot of people apparently, trying to find a good match. But like I said, the dad isn't just a coworker, he's a friend. And I wanted to help him out through a hard time by vouching for someone who he could trust, who wouldn't cause problems." 

"I appreciate your faith in me."

"At the end of the day, it's like any other babysitting job. At least she's old enough that you won't have to worry about changing diapers." 

Jihye sighed. "Yeah. That's if they get back to me. But if they don't, will you tell me who the dad is?" 

"Yeah, on your deathbed." Euisoo laughed that obnoxious laugh of his, said his goodbyes, and abruptly hung up the phone. 

. x x x .

Precisely a month later, Jihye received that long-awaited email. In fact, she had already gone through the stages of grief, thinking that she hadn't made it to the next interview and by extension hadn't gotten the job. And just like that, the craziest work opportunity to ever come her way had fallen through her fingers. Tears had been shed, her participation in daily life had waned for a few days before she realised that where one door closes, another one would open and all that. Her disappointment was a natural reaction, but even that would go away soon enough. 

It was only when she was rifling through her email to find the link to reset her password to something else when she clicked on her junk folder and found not only the email she expected, but another email from Mrs. Park. Sent that very morning!

The email was very forma