The first day of her babysitting job happened to be surprisingly easy for Jung Eunji. She wasn’t the hard working kind anyway, and Kim Sung Gyu, the very incompetent boss of hers was just so bland and easy to work with. He had said he and the kid needn’t breakfast that morning, and he himself dressed up the kid, still donned in his ridiculous bathrobe (His hairy foot-ball player legs carrying him about the place was fairly distracting though) and dressed up himself before leaving her with a spontaneously written list of things to do and the pass code of his condominium. For the rest of the day, Eunji was alone at home.

She decided that Kim Sung Gyu was either trusting his friend’s sister in law too much or he was too stupid to realize it that he was leaving the spacious condo in the hands of someone who could be a potential criminal. Eunji could live with that though, she could live with stupid as long as it doesn’t land her in trouble. Besides being alone for a while was quite relaxing; after what with horrible relationships and being thrown out of work places, it was exactly what she needed.

Jung Eunji was twenty eight and previously worked at a daycare Centre which her ex-boyfriend’s mother owned. It wasn’t like Eunji was particularly fond of kids or that she was brilliant in handling them. Eunji wanted a job, and something which didn’t require much brain power (because she at Math and stuff), just something to do to earn her daily living expenses. The pay was good at the daycare Centre and the labor wasn’t as difficult. Her boyfriend was one good lad too though his mother was quite the stuck up woman, too obsessed with her moneys and such (The word was that she had the country’s biggest handbag collection) but Eunji didn’t really mind, until that one day when this other woman turned up at the daycare Centre and it turned out that she was working there too, and also that Eunji’s boyfriend had been cheating on her with her. So this may or may not have led to a fight with punching and rolling on the floor involved, at which point the boyfriend took the other woman’s side (The ungrateful bastard) and in consequence, Eunji was thrown out of her job by the Cruella de Ville of a mother. Eunji sat down on the kitchen table and sighed at her bitter memories. There won’t be any boyfriends or Cruella de Ville around here now. Eunji glanced up at a photograph stuck to the refrigerator door with a magnet. There were only the father and the son. She could definitely live with that.

Just as expected, the list was short and stupid. There were like five things needed to be done, so she supposed he expected her to laze around and enjoy the rest of the time. That came to her as a brilliant plan, but the dismaying state of the single father’s condo definitely needed some tending. The kitchen smelled so foul; she was sure the food containers in the kitchen sink were as old as the child. She looked at the list first and decided to get the work in the list done as a start.

“Carry the laundry down to the launder” Eunji read the first task on the list out loud. He had briefly explained where the place was and what she needed to do and such. Eunji decided her boss wasn’t as stupid as she thought. The tasks were very clearly explained though it was all so spontaneous. She walked around the house and finally located the two bedrooms. Sung Gyu’s was a relatively small room which was surprisingly cleaner than the rest of his house. The walls were pale white with classy modern furniture. There was a walk-in closet and a spacious attached bathroom with all his belongings strewn about. The bed was made, shoes neatly put up in a rack and though Eunji actually expected to have the clothes thrown about, they were remarkably kept, neatly folded in the closet as though they weren’t once touched. Eunji was quite impressed at how the room didn’t take up the aura of one of a bachelor, a single father at that. Eunji decided the room didn’t need any tending after all.

Sung Jae’s room, in comparison was an unbelievable mess. Eunji could hardly tell the floor and the walls apart. The bed was a mess, comforter lying on the floor on a pile of potted paint; there were poorly drawn paintings thrown about and boyish toys all over the place. There were paintings stuck on the pastel blue walls too, and about every single one of them were of the father and the son. On the clean side of the wall was a massive framed photograph of Sung Gyu and a younger Sung Jae; the man holding the child so lovingly like he was the world to him. Eunji looked at the pair and sighed. They seemed like a pair that Eunji could definitely live with.

She located the laundry baskets in the so called laundry room. There weren’t many clothes in the baskets so she figured the rest were in the rooms so she raided them once more. She ended up cleaning Sung Jae’s room half way in the process, and once she had located all the articles of clothing in the house she decided needed washing, Eunji strutted down corridor carrying the baskets down to the launders.

“Cook lunch for Sung Jae” Eunji read aloud the next in the list under her breath. She had finally gotten her work done and was in the kitchen, sitting up on the kitchen cabinet. With her lips pressed into a line, Eunji assessed the kitchen and looked at her watch. It was still ten in the morning, Sung Jae’s school would end at one thirty in the afternoon. So she decided she still had time.

“Hm, I’ll just clean the mess up then” Eunji mused to herself and proceeded to tend to the dirty containers in the sink. She managed to wash up what appeared to her for about three months of dirty plates and containers in record time, and she was laying them in the racks when she noticed quite a massive glass container placed on the kitchen cabinet. It was quite as big as a family jar of  marmalade (Those which last for about five years that one would find in grandma’s house) and was labeled as ‘The swear jar’ in girly cursive writing in English. It was half filed with what appeared to her as coins. She recalled back to her earlier encounter with the two that morning, it didn’t take much to remember the bit where Sung Jae so innocently mentioned a swear jar. She drew in a long breath and leaned down to take a closer look; inside there were tones of one won to 500 won coins.

“Tsk, the kid is only, what, eight? And he swears? Terrible parenting”

She reached over and took the jar in hand. It was heavier than she thought; Eunji swore that she just heard her tissues tear in her arms. “Dammit” She swore softly to herself, and then it occurred to her; “Wait…do I have to put in coins too? Damn…”

She realized she just swore again, and annoyed at herself (Though nobody really mentioned that the swear jar got anything to do with her) and placed the jar back onto the counter. She returned to placing the plates on the rack then, however, unaware to her, something supremely terrible had just happened. Jung Eunji was oblivious, of course. You could say that she was the most oblivious person on earth.

*

Sung Gyu was at an important meeting with his team (Regarding something or the other about another money laundering at a salon chain) that afternoon when his phone began to vibrate in his pant pocket without a stop. He hated his phone, he had considered million times about throwing it down the drain for good, and if it wasn’t going to stop now, Sung Gyu might as well do it right that instant. The meeting had been going for quite a while now, and his team leader Howon didn’t seem like he’d stop any sooner either. He was guessing that Woohyun was again giving him the trouble of all seven seas; but no, Woohyun was sitting right across him on the round table, seemingly falling asleep. He didn’t care whoever called him or why. In fact, at that point with all his pent up frustration, all he wanted to do was to pick the damned thing up and yell at them to leave him ing alone.

Howon took another good fifteen minutes talking to all the five members of his team, and once he was done, he cordially placed both his hands on the table and called out; "the meeting is adjourned". Once he had walked out of the hall with a rather feminine looking secretary (By the name he was Sung Jong) right at his feet, Sung Gyu flew right back into his personal office and pulled out his phone. It was still ringing and on the other end of the line was an unknown number.

“Unknown number?” Sung Gyu stared at the phone, head tilted, wondering what he could possibly be doing with a number he had never seen. “Was it Sung Jae’s school teacher? Has he gotten into trouble again?”

He refused to believe it though. In Sung Gyu’s opinion, his Sung Jae is a perfect little boy. Sung Jae never did any wrong. He was Sung Gyu’s little boy, and his little boy could be nothing but a charming little lad.

His conscious couldn’t be too sure though; thus, expecting the worse, he picked up the call.

“Do you or do you not want me to pick up your boy from school Mister Kim?” Came a rather clear yet a fairly unfamiliar voice from the other end. He was quite confused for a moment, all because he didn’t remember it himself, telling anyone to pick Sung Jae from school. And then it occurred to him. He almost slapped himself on the forehead. “Ah, Miss Jung…is anything the matter?”

“Everything is the matter!” Eunji said a little too loudly through the phone that Sung Gyu had to keep it away for a moment. “I am lost and you don’t bloody pick up the phone! Where’s the damned school?”

Sung Gyu sighed and ran a hand through the dark locks of his hair. In his honest opinion, this Eunji girl was a little too feisty for his liking.

“Just-just calm down and tell me where you are…”

Eunji seemed to be taking a moment to get her nerves under control, and Sung Gyu looked at his watch to realize that it was already past the time Sung Jae’s school had ended. “Miss Jung, where are you?”

Eunji drew in a long breath on the other side and proceeded to describe to him her surroundings. Sung Gyu had no trouble figuring out where it was since, after years of being a parent, he was all too familiar of where the school was and being as patient as he could, he slowly recited the correct directions to Sung Jae’s school. Thankfully, after ten minutes of grumbling and complaining, Eunji had managed to find the place.

“I hope you will be fine from there” Sung Gyu said, finally falling back into his seat. At that point he was frankly too tired to do any work.

“Well, yes. I’m not that stupid; but pick the phone up when I call you! What if we get murdered on the road or something? You wouldn’t even know-!”

Sung Gyu let out a reluctant sigh, pressed his head onto the backrest and closed his eyes. He really was tired, and it was still after lunch. He didn’t know whether it was even humanely possible for one to be so fatigued. He blamed it on his hormones and managed a reply. “Miss Jung, I’m at work…I’m hanging up now.”

“Wait listen!”

He just couldn’t care less so he simply cut the line off, threw the damned phone to somewhere on the pile of strewn papers and simply proceeded to get his much needed nap.

*

On a scale of one to ten, dragging Sung Jae into Eunji’s vehicle was the most difficult task she had ever encountered, the difficulty level raising up to a good fat, well, ten.

“I am not going with you!” Sung Jae screamed so loud that she was sure the entire vicinity could hear, his tiny hands grasping tightly onto a road sign on the pavement. Eunji had handled all sorts of kids. The mean, the quiet, the troublesome, the feisty; but she could swear that no one had ever been so difficult to her in her entire babysitting life.

“Just get in the stupid car!”

“Let me go Kidnapper!!!” Sung Jae was still screaming persistently, and sobbing even; Eunji simply could not understand what was wrong there.

“Kidnapper?” She echoed as though it was the most outrageous thing she had ever been called. “I am no kidnapper!”

Sung Jae suddenly stopped sobbing and throwing his relentless tantrum; he was just standing there, grasping onto the pole and his chubby little feet firm on the ground. There was a strange little smile on his lips; it was so weird that the kid had changed his personality completely and Eunji was almost convinced the kid was possessed until he held out one flabby little hand.

“I want to call appa”

“Eh?” Eunji went, taking a step back for good measure.

“I want to call appa” The kid repeated, not once changing the tone of voice, thus, with much reluctance, Eunji dialed Sung Gyu’s number in a haste and pressed it onto the little palm. The two waited, carefully listening to the beeping until the line got picked up. Meanwhile, on the other end of it was Kim Sung Gyu napping soundly while he tried his best to ignore the incessant vibration which shook his entire table.

“Damn it” He groaned, blindly reaching for his phone. He located it exactly where it was lying after he had thrown it away, and without even checking the ID, he picked it up and uttered out sleepily; “Quit it lemme sleep”

“Appa?” Came Sung Jae’s voice so unexpectedly that he almost fell off his chair. He checked the caller ID then, only to realize that it was the same unknown number. The new baby sitter had probably picked Sung Jae up already, and by the authoritative tone of Sung Jae’s voice he could say that Sung Jae wasn’t really being the charming little boy whom Sung Gyu thought he were.

“Appa. I don’t like the baby sitter”

A smile curved up on his lips as he stared ahead into the blankness. Of course after being Sung Jae’s father for eight years, he knew the child all too well; and if he said he didn’t like someone he never really meant what his words would imply. For some reason Sung Gyu realized that the new baby sitter was definitely a keep.

“Oh you don’t?” Sung Gyu said, playing along with his son’s antics. “Mmmm…appa would have come to take you home, but appa is really busy right now…The baby sitter is a good person. Go home with her for today, okay?”

The boy hummed softly on the other end, implying that he was pondering all his options before he replied. “Okay, appa…but you have to bring me something”

Sung Gyu almost laughed but realized that he really should stop the kid from doing this. After all, Sung Gyu was the coolest daddy ever and Sung Jae was the most charming, modest little lad anyone can ever think of. (Or he would be, one fine day, and nobody will have anything to complain) so he said in quite an authoritative daddy-like tone which he was sure might have shaken up the child a bit;  “Yah, are you asking appa to bribe you to go with the babysitter?”

“Bribe?” Sung Jae echoed quite innocently. “Moneys to the swear jar?”

Sung Ran a tired hand through his hair and let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, Sung Jae. Whatever do you want?”

Then Sung Jae simply proceeded to list down a whole lot of personal preferences that Sung Gyu almost got a headache at how his wallet began to hurt. He knew he really had to stop pampering Sung Jae so much, he really had to stop doing this; but he had no idea how else he could possibly convince Sung Jae into doing things. He refused to believe that Sung Jae really was a difficult child. Sung Gyu was terribly convinced that this was possibly how all the eight year old boys all around the world behaved; but his conscious knew that it was otherwise. Sung Jae was always a little too ahead of all the typical boys of his age and it really should garner his concern, but he was reluctant to believe so.

After Sung Jae had completed the list of all the things he needed (Which included just about thirty items in count) Sung Gyu had them barely noted down on a stray sheet of paper and laid his head down among the papers. He knew that there had to come a time when he would believe that Sung Jae really was quite a problem child and seek for help; but he knew that now wasn’t it.

“Done?” Eunji asked from her spot, leaning against her car. Sung Jae looked up, still a scowl planted on his face and handed over her phone. “Okay” he said then, rather businesslike and approached the car as though he hadn’t thrown a relentless tantrum just a moment ago. “Take me home”

Eunji was in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that the eight year old just asked his father to bribe him just to go home with the baby sitter. Sure she had seen all sorts of outrageous things, but she certainly hadn’t witnessed anything close to this. With a sigh and muttering to herself something about bad parenting, Eunji simply got into the car and belted up. For her amazement, Sung Jae was already seated and belted up and was staring ahead with a smug face as though he was waiting for his driver to drive him home. She couldn’t believe this. How on earth had his father brought him up?

 She scoffed loudly, hands planted on the steering wheel and called out; “Yah, Kim Sung Jae”

The boy turned to look at her, and sure enough, on his face was etched the epitome of innocence. The kid was only eight years old for god’s sake. How did he really manage to pull out the double personality stunt?

“Look at me kid”

He did as he was told, eyes widened innocuously. Eunji felt like running circles around the road. She restrained though, and pointed a finger at herself. “Do I look like I like you any better? I hate you too, as much as you do, so we better come to an agreement and do our thing so you get your work done and I get my money, you get it kid?”

Sung Jae didn’t look like he had so much as understood whatever his babysitter was getting at so Eunji just let out a frustrated sigh and drove off to the direction she came on. The first day had already given her quite a good impression on how the rest of her days will be, and she knew that if not for the more than reasonable pay she received, this would have been the last day she would work for them.

*

Eunji had prepared a simple dish of a Korean delicacy before she had gone to pick Sung Jae up; however after she had heated it up and placed on the dining table, Sung Jae was already in the living room, being an pain and switching through the TV like nothing matters in the world.

Do I have to bribe to get him to eat too? Eunji thought as she made her way into the living room.  Sung Jae had settled to watching some sort of variety show where there are men being thrown into pools of mud while the rest died in hysterics. She looked down at the sofa where the kid was buried among the cushions and carefully called out with much doubt.

“Hey, Sung Jae, having lunch?”

For her utter surprise Sung Jae simply stood up, turned the TV off and trotted over to the kitchen, looking so much like the innocent little person his father was so busy trying to portray him as. Eunji was completely thrown, watching him as he soundlessly sat down at his chair and began to peacefully devour the food. She wondered if she should talk to his father about taking him to a child specialist or something. Sung Jae definitely had the multiple personality disorder. She could tell that much with her remarkable experience of child caring of two years.

But first, she decided she should take the matters to her own hands.

“Sung Jae-ah?” She called out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“The food is nice” Sung Jae commented, not really answering the question he was asked.

“Really?” Eunji said, delighted that he could finally find something good in her. She had thought he was really going to hate her forever, and it wouldn’t have been fun if she was hated by the kid and constantly forgotten by the father; if she couldn’t fix both of them, she could at least fix one of them.

“Appa can’t cook. His food is terrible”

“Is it?” Eunji prompted smiling. She could almost quite guess that one herself.

“Halmeoni can cook, but Halmeoni doesn’t visit much, so appa and I eat from shops”

Eunji suddenly felt a stab on her heart. So the kid hardly ever get a home cooked meal? She had heard from Woohyun that Sung Gyu’s girlfriend had left him with their love child, but she really didn’t think of all the trouble Sung Gyu was probably going through, being a single father, let alone how much it affects the child.

So she made a mental note to serve the two with homemade meals much as possible.

Ah, that is why he eats the food without a nag, she thought as she watched the little one devouring the food in delight. She was quite happy that she was able to do this much for them, if it was the least of what she could do.

She was deeply engrossed in this particular thought of hers that she didn’t even realize that Sung Jae had actually gotten down the chair and was pulling onto her shirt sleeve. When she finally noticed him, staring up at her with worry filled eyes, she followed his gesture and let out an equally horror filled gasp of her own.

The swear jar, the bloody swear jar had magically shattered into pieces on the kitchen cabinet, the coins spread out in a melting mountain. She could swear it was perfectly fine when she lifted it that morning, she could swear that she had left it in one piece; then why was it shattered into three thousand pieces?

Only one thought occurred to her that moment, and that literally set her head on fire.

There in the glass jar was money, and money attracted burglars. The jar was broken, so there had been a burglar in the house.

This was her moment of goodwill. She had read it somewhere that every person had a moment to become a hero, and Eunji was gravely convinced that this was it.

“Quick, Sung Jae!” She said and grabbed the kid’s hand. He was confused, innocently blinking up at her and tilted his head. “The swear jar has broken?”

“Yes, yes!” She said and dragged the child to her side, standing up. She carefully assessed her surrounding, searching for any traces of a burglar. She wasn’t sure how one could have broken in, and those expensive condos had maximum security and such, but one couldn’t be completely sure after all.

“I think there had been a burglar! Quick! Let’s hide!”

“Burglar?” Sung Jae blinked, still confused. “What is a burglar?”

“It’s someone who steals money and kill people! Come on, we’ll hide!” Eunji quickly explained, already looking around for something to keep for defense.

“So they will steal our moneys and kill us?” Sung Jae innocently inquired.

“Of course! Sung Jae, we have to hide!”

Still confused, Sung Jae complied. It wasn’t like he had much choice anyway, and he better believe the grownups. He didn’t think there were any people stealing their moneys in the house; his father had told him that people who steal their moneys can’t come to their house, but he just did as he was told.

So together Sung Jae and Eunji ran into the living room and ducked behind the sofa. She found all sorts of historical artifacts there, which she made a mental note to clean up when she had time, but now the burglary had more precedence than dirty Sofa backs had. They waited for a moment, hiding in silence and Sung Jae looked so much into it, pressing tiny fingers against his lips and all, until they suddenly heard the beep of the front door and it being clicked open. Eunji looked at her wrist watch. It was still two in the afternoon and her boss was said to return very late, so she was sure this was the burglar who had magically figured out the passcode who was returning to grab whatever he could get. Eunji was the Kim’s loyal new babysitter-slash-housemaid, so she decided it was a battle between life and death, so she told Sung Jae to stay put and tip toed from behind the sofa. She located an umbrella on the doorway, which she grasped in both her hands, and screaming her lungs out, in hopes it would scare the horrible burglar, she dashed into the living room, swinging the umbrella with all her might.

“What the bloody hell?” Yelled a voice all too familiar for her and she dropped her so called weapon onto the floor. There was no burglar; it was only her boss returning home early. She was glad that it was him, she could finally breath regularly now. There was a tinge of disappointment too, but then she supposed her moment of becoming a hero wasn’t coming around any sooner.

“What the hell is going on!?!” Sung Gyu yelled, outraged. He had had a bad day at work and had decided to take a sick leave and come home to have a peaceful nap now that he had a housemaid to run the errands for him, but the first thing he got upon arriving home was a mad woman trying to murder him with an umbrella. So much for a peaceful sleep.

“Oh, err…I-,” Eunji tried to bring up a suitable explanation, but she really couldn’t think beyond the burglar who had apparently broken the swear jar.

“Appa! Appa! A burglar!” Sung Jae came just at the moment, running in a haste carrying one of those toy cars which could really kill a man by one hit. “A burglar had broken the swear jar!”

Sung Gyu was having a great difficulty of putting two and two together. “What burglar? What are you talking about?!?”

Without a stop, Sung Jae grasped his father’s hand and dragged him off to the kitchen counter where the dismayingly broken Swear jar remained, the coins pooled around like a mountain of melted iron. Sung Gyu stared at it for a moment, trying to think of how it could possibly have happened and how a so called burglar could be involved. It took a moment for him to finally realize things; and the apparent burglar whom they were talking about, the culprit was just there, standing on the doorway.

He looked at her, back at the broken glass and let out a sigh.

“The bloody thing was full, haven’t I mentioned that it would break if you lift it, that's bloody common sense!?”

“But-! Eunji stuttered, and realized he was right. Of course, with all the iron inside, it could have been cracked, and her lifting it would have certainly broken it.

“Oops?” Was all she could manage in the end?

“So no burglar appa?”

Sung Gyu sighed and rested both his hands on his hips, staring up at the roof. There he was thinking that bringing up one child was hard enough, and then there was the addition of another. Could his life get any more difficult?