Jongdae circled another apartment advertisement in his newspaper. He still hadn't found a job, but that didn't mean he couldn't start looking for a place yet. And anyways, he had already applied to a few companies, but he still hadn't got an answer.

He was interrupted by his pregnant sister, who used her belly to nudge him. God, even the unborn annoyed him.

“Yah.”

“What?” He said, without turning around. He was rewarded with another nudge.

“Look at me when I talk to you, leech.”

Jongdae huffed, but turned to face Hyoyeon.

“What?” He rolled his eyes.

“I want to eat kiwi.”

“So?”

“We don't have any. Go buy some.”

He normally would have complained, but he didn't feel like hearing the whole 'I can use you like my personal slave because I'm letting you sleep under my roof' speech again. Jongdae knew he'd end up doing it anyways.

“Alright.” He sighed.

She handed him some money.

“Oh, and take Eun Chan with you.”

“What?! Why?”

“She can't stay at home all day long just because she's on vacation. And since my bladder needs to be emptied every five minutes I can't even take her for a walk.”

“Come on, you know I can't deal with her.”

“Not my problem.”

Jongdae swallowed down the 'how come it's not your problem, woman? it's your daughter!' and sighed, looking at his niece. She was hiding behind her mother's legs, peeking from the gap between them.

“Let's go, Eun Chan.”

Kids were weird and mean, but on top of that, Jongdae's niece was spoiled. Eun Chan was too smart for a five year old, and she could easily manipulate others into doing what she wanted. And if nothing worked, she could always start crying and screaming until she got it.

Which happened far too often.

“Eun Chan! I already explained, I can't buy that chocolate, your mother will scold us if I give you candy.”

Her cheeks were already red and wet with tears, and she started screaming even louder. The other people in the line looked at him disapprovingly. Jongdae sighed. He was almost giving up, weighting what was worse: Hyoyeon blaming him for Eun Chan's next case of caries or the shame.

They were already close to the cashier, so he thought that maybe the shame would be easier.

“I want chocolate!” She started stomping on the floor.

Alright, maybe not that easier.

“Shh, stop it.” He picked her up with the arm that wasn't holding the freaking kiwis, and she struggled a bit, trying to hit him. Then, she let her head rest on his shoulder, and kept crying right in his ear. There were still two persons in front of them. He was starting to consider just leaving without the kiwis, when suddenly, Eun Chan stopped crying.

And then she started giggling, actually giggling, and Jongdae thought that maybe there was a god, and that a miracle had happened. He turned his face to look at her, and then he noticed what was making her laugh.

There was a man behind them. He was making faces and cutely inflating his cheeks. It was indeed quite funny, and Jongdae unconsciously started smiling as well. But when the man saw that Jongdae was also watching him, he stopped, ashamed, and looked at the ground.

By then, it was already Jogdae's time to pay. He put Eun Chan down and picked his wallet from his back pocket.

“Thank you for your purchase.” The cashier handed him a bag with the kiwis.

Before leaving, Jongdae looked again at the man who had been making funny faces. He was still staring at the ground.

“Thanks.” Jongdae said, and he hoped that the man noticed that he was talking to him rather than to the cashier.

The man looked up, and gave him a shy smile. Jongdae smiled back, and grabbed Eun Chan's hand.

“Bye-bye!” She said, grinning and waving.

Jongdae thought he would finally be at peace when vacation ended and Eun Chan went back to school. But Hyoyeon had her huge eight-months belly and Enhyuk was practically buried in work, so the task of taking and getting her from the kindergarten was left to him.

“Yay! Let's go!” And she was weirdly excited about classes. But then again, she was a kid, and to her school was just meeting friends and playing.

“How come you're so happy about school? I don't remember it being this good.”

“It's because of teacher Baozi.”

“Who's that?”

“He's the new teacher.”

“Hm...”

“Teacher Baozi is great! He's soooo funny!” She giggled.

“Okay, we're here. Behave, alright?”

“Bye-bye, Chen Chen!”

She seemed to have developed the ability to give nicknames. Jongdae wondered how she'd come up with 'Chen Chen'. He watched as she entered the school, and then he made his way back home.

Jongdae had already chosen the best apartment option he'd found, so the only thing left was finding a job. He put on his best suit and went to an interview in a pharmaceutic company. He smirked as soon as he stepped into the room.

“Hello, Mr. Jongdae, please take a seat.” The interviewer was a woman in her mid-forties. She didn't have a wedding ring. He quickly glanced at the plaque on her desk.

“Thank you, Miss Choi.” Jongdae said, with his best seducing smile, the one usually reserved for cute boys he met at the pub.

It was a piece of cake. All he had to do was flirt a little bit, and soon she was giggling and complimenting his curriculum (which wasn't bad, by the way). It definitely wasn't because of lack of qualification that he still hadn't gotten a job until that point. Those were though times and he just hadn't had any luck previously. But now, it was solved. Soon, he'd be moving out of his sister's place to live comfortably in a good flat with his best friend, and it would be awesome.

Already out of the building, he lifted his arms, about to start his victory dance. But he was interrupted by a loud noise. In broad daylight, a flash of lightning struck in the middle of the street, accompanied by a loud thunder. That made a few drivers hit the brakes suddenly and the cars behind them crash with their rears, consequently. The street was filled with the sound of tires scratching and of metal being crushed and bent, aside from some honking and yelling.

With his arms slightly bent but still above his head, he stared at the burnt spot of asphalt and at the hot smoke spiraling up. Then he looked at the sun, high in the sky. There were no clouds hovering.

Unlike the local news, Jongdae didn't pay much mind to the unusual event. He bought himself some ice-cream instead, celebrating the accomplishment of his mission. His happiness didn't last long, though. He got a call from Eun Chan's school. She had gotten in trouble with a classmate. The exact words were 'your niece cut another girl's braids because she wanted to sew them with her own hair'. Apparently, that was a possibility for the unbeatable Eun Chan.

He tried calling Hyoyeon, but she didn't get the call. Then he remembered that she was at her breathing classes or some other pregnancy like that. Jongdae sighed. He didn't even bother trying to talk to Enhyuk, he knew he wouldn't be able to go. Jongdae was the only one who was free, so it was only logical that he went.

Eun Chan was sitting in a chair outside the director's room. She had a braid in her hands, and she was playing with it. Jongdae shook his head.

“I suppose we're gonna be scolded now.”

There were voices coming from the director's room.

She smiled, careless, and kept fiddling with the hair, as if Jongdae hadn't said a word. He sighed and sat on the chair beside hers.

“Are you seriously going to keep that?” He asked, staring at the braid.

“Yeah, I'm going to ask mommy to put it in my hair.”

“Alright then.” He would let Hyoyeon handle that.

The voices in the room got a bit louder, but he still couldn't tell what was being said. Then, a man stormed out of it.

“Just let me handle it, sir!”

Jongdae realized he was the same man from the market. He looked surprised when he saw him sitting by Eun Chan.

“Mr. Chen!”

Jongdae was so used to Eun Chan calling him 'Chen Chen' that he nodded.

“You are...”

“I'm Eun Chan's teacher, my name is Minseok, but the kids call me Baozi. I was hoping I could talk to you for a bit. The director got really angry, but I convinced him to let me take care of this. Well, sort of.”

“I...” Jongdae tried saying something, but Minseok interrupted him.

“I guess you could tell from what you've heard that I sort of forced my way through, but anyways. YoonJu, the girl whose hair Eun Chan cut, is here with her mother. I'm sure she'll understand that they are just kids, and that Eun Chan didn't really mean any harm.” He said it all in one breath, and Jongdae struggled to keep up with him.

“I'm sorry but...” He started, but the teacher cut him again.

“I mean, it's not like she knew what she was doing. Eun Chan is my most intelligent student, and I'm not just saying this, she really is. But she's also the most innocent one. Now, we just need to apologize to YoonJu and her mother and...” Seriously, where did all that breath come from?

Jongdae was the one who interrupted him this time.

“Excuse me!” Minseok finally seemed to notice he had something to say. Jongdae cleared his throat. “I'm not really in charge of Eun Chan, I'm just helping my sister out. Maybe it would be better to call her later.”

“Mr. Chen, I know you're just her uncle. But you're the one who takes and gets her from school, right? And she seems to be very fond of you. If we don't act quickly, there might be serious consequences, and then I won't be able to do much to help.” He said, more calmly.

Jongdae looked at Eun Chan. She had wrapped the braid around her head and tied it. When had she learned how to tie a knot? He looked at the teacher's pleading eyes, and then back to his niece.

“Take that off, let's go apologize to your classmate.”

“But I don't want to!”

“Yeah, well, you have to.”

“Why?”

“Because you took something that wasn't yours, and that's wrong.”

“I need braids more than she does!”

“Then you should have waited for your own hair to grow, stupid.”

“I'm not stupid! Stop being mean, Chen Chen!” She pouted, crossing her arms.

“Alright, you're not stupid. You're far too smart, actually. So you understand that you have to apologize, right?” She turned her face away, making an indignation noise. “Come on, you just have to say 'sorry', you don't even have to mean it. Then we can go home and your mother will put that braid on your hair, ok?”

At that moment, Minseok let out with a 'pff' the laughter he'd been holding back. Jongdae felt embarrassed, but he couldn't feel angry when Minseok smiled so cutely.

“Sorry, sorry, it's just.” And then he giggled a bit more. “You guys are so cute.”

As if he were one to say that.

“Can we go then, Eun Chan?” Minseok managed to stop laughing, but kept a kind smile on his face.

“Okay.” She said, with a bored tone, and then sighed.

While they apologized to the girl and her mother, Eun Chan held Jongdae's hand with a tight grip. But the woman wasn't that angry, and YoonJu seemed more scared than mad. Jongdae thought about all the bullying Eun Chan did without noticing.

He bowed, apologizing once again, and made his niece bow too, pushing her head down gently. Minseok also bowed and apologized countless times. He considered himself guilty for letting the incident happen while he was in charge of watching the kids.

The mother accepted the apologies without saying much. She just asked that they took care and supervised the children with more attention so that things like that wouldn't happen anymore. But before leaving, she told YoonJu to go ahead, and then confessed that she had been trying to cut her daughter's hair for a long time now, but YoonJu insisted on letting it grow. It was really difficult to take care of it now, and she was actually kind of thankful that Eun Chan had cut it. After that confession, she quickly left the room.

“Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?” Minseok crouched on the ground to pat Eun Chan's head.

“That's because teacher Baozi was here to help.” She said, grinning.

“What do you say, then?” Jongdae reminded her.

“Thank you!” Eun Chan hugged Minseok, and he giggled, returning the hug.

Jongdae felt something warm up in his chest, and smiled as well.

“Really, thanks for the help.”

“Not at all, it as my fault as well. In fact, I still haven't apologized to you, have I? I'm really sorry about this incident, I'll try not to make such mistakes again.” He got up and bowed.

“Please, don't. This was Eun Chan's doing.” Jongdae said.

“Mr. Chen, she's not to blame, I know she just needs to be instructed correctly. She's a good kid.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He shrugged. “But she can be a brat when she wants to, you saw that already.” He smirked.

“Oh, you looked so desperate that time!” Minseok laughed.

“Hey, are you free right now?” Jongdae asked. The teacher looked at his watch before answering.

“Yes, pretty much.”

“Would you like to have dinner with us? As thanks for your help.”

“I...”

“Yay! Teacher Baozi is coming with us!” Eun Chan started jumping, excited.

“Well, if it's not a bother...” He smiled shyly.

“Not at all. I still have to introduce you to my sister, so it will be a good opportunity.”

“Let's go, Chen Chen, let's go!” She tugged his sleeve impatiently.

“Alright, alright.”

“Oh, I just have to get my bag, could you wait for a bit, Mr. Chen?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Maybe taking Eun Chan to school wasn't so bad after all.

Hyoyeon made her famous pasta, aka the only thing she was able to make without burning the kitchen down. It was good, at least. Minseok had seconds and thirds, so he must have thought so as well.

After a round of apologies and thanks, they begun chatting amicably, as expected mostly about Eun Chan. But soon Jongdae discovered they had many things in common. He and Minseok had the same musical taste, and they talked about their favorite bands, and after that, movies, books and hobbies.

The talk was so nice that Jongdae almost forgot about the new job.

“Oh, right. Hyoyeon, I had an interview today.”

“Yeah?”

“Got the job.” He smiled.

“Finally! It was about time.” She smirked.

“Are you that glad to see me out of your place?”

“What? You're moving out?” Hyoyeon widened her eyes in confusion.

“Why would I stay here?”

“But who's going to take care of Eun Chan?”

“I don't know, get a sitter or something.” He shrugged.

“But... But...” She mumbled sadly.

“Yeah, that's right, my slavery days are over, .” He said jokingly, and snapped his fingers.

Minseok started giggling in the middle of a sip of soda, coughing and laughing at the same time.

“Hey, are you alright?” Jongdae, who was seating by his side, tried to help Minseok to steady himself.

“Yeah...” He paused to cough again. “It's just, you know, you guys surprised me. I don't have any siblings, so I'm not used to this kind of casual familiar behavior.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Not at all, it's quite amusing.”

Enhyuk came back, looking even more tired than usual.

“I finally put her to bed. God, that kid is an energetic one.”

“She got that from me, obviously.” Hyoyeon said, smirking. Enhyuk poked his tongue out and grimaced jokingly. She kissed his cheek with a big 'smack' in return, and he smiled, hugging her.

Eun Chan choose that moment to storm back into the room.

“I can't sleep, daddy!”

Enhyuk sighed. He looked expectantly at Jongdae, who rolled his eyes.

“Alright, alright.”

“Do you want help?” Minseok offered.

“You don't have to, you're a guest.”

“Don't worry, I'm used to this, after all.” He smiled, taking Eun Chan's hand. “Come on, little girl, it's late.”

They took Eun Chan to her room, and pink filled Jongdae's view as they entered it.

“But no one else has to sleep right now! I don't want to go to bed yet.”

“Teacher Baozi is also going to sleep now.” Minseok said.

“Really?”

“Yes, it's really late, I have to go home too.”

“Okay.” She said, yawning. Jongdae couldn't help yawning too.

“See, even Mr. Chen is sleepy.”

It was only then that Jongdae noticed Minseok was calling him that way.

“Actually, my name is Jongdae.”

“Really?” The teacher widened his eyes, looking worried. “But, Eun Chan always calls you 'Chen Chen'.”

“Yeah, I don't know where she got that from.”

“That's how mama calls you!” Eun Chan said hastily, not happy about being left out of the conversation.

“What? Your mother never calls me that, you little-” He started tickling her, and she giggled while trying to get away. Finally, Jongdae grabbed her by the waist and threw her gently on her bed.

“Now, say good night to your teacher.”

“Good night, teacher Baozi.” Eun Chan said, already closing her eyes.

“Good night, Eun Chan.”

Jongdae turned the lights off and they left the girl's room silently.

“I should be going now. Thanks for the dinner, it was delicious.”

“You're always welcome. Thank you for taking care of Eun Chan.” Hyoyeon said, smiling.

“I'll walk you out.” Jongdae offered.

“Good night, then.” Minseok waved his hand to Enhyuk and Hyoyeon.

“Good night.”

Jongdae lead the way to the entrance and opened the door for Minseok.

“Sorry about the name thing.”

“No problem. It was nice meeting you.”

Jongdae shook his hand. It was surprisingly cold, and it felt like ice pressed against his own.

“Man, your hand is freezing! Are you alright?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, it's just cold like that.” Minseok shrugged, taking his hand away and putting it in his pocket. “Anyways, I guess we'll meet again the next time you take her to school.” He said, raising his eyes from the floor and looking directly into Jongdae's.

“Yeah.” He shifted on his feet.

“This was really fun. I'm almost glad Eun Chan did that.” Minseok giggled.

“You shouldn't.” He said, but joined him, laughing.

“Don't tell anyone.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

They quieted down, and stared at each other in silence, still smiling.

“Good night, Jongdae.”

“Good night.”

Minseok left, and Jongdae watched as he went down the street.

He turned around.