Technically she was rich. Krystal’s father was the CEO of a known restaurant chain in Korea, and even in the US nowadays. Krystal was only 18, however, and still in her last year of high school so her father refused to give her access to any funds. She couldn’t really blame him of course, but nonetheless, like any teenager, she liked to spend a little money here and there on clothing and other “necessary” things. Her father hadn’t budged one bit when she had asked for some extra money and so she ended up looking for a part-time job. It would only be a few months until she graduated anyway. Afterwards she would leave for the US to join her sister in studying Management like her father had planned for the both of them since they were born.

Krystal didn’t mind, however. She didn’t really have any ambition, any dreams. She might as well walk in her father’s footsteps and live comfortably instead of taking the hard way.

Krystal sighed when she finally reached the top of several flights of stairs. The babysit advertisement had failed to mention the fact that the apartment in question was on the top floor of an apartment building without elevator. Luckily Krystal was the type of person who was always early. She checked her expensive silver watch, a present from daddy of course, before establishing she was exactly on time.

She tentatively lifted her hand, knocking softly on the door. She waited for about ten seconds until she let out a frustrated sigh. She had never been a babysit before. Nor had any other job for that matter so she was unsure of how to proceed. She looked to her left and right before finally settling on knocking again, somewhat harder this time. This time she could hear some stumbling coming from behind the door and sure enough, it quickly opened.

“Oh, hi! Sorry. I lost track of time. You must be Krystal.”

It wasn’t as much a question as a statement and Krystal just nodded. The woman in front of her was quite a bit taller than her and were it not for the toddler on her arm, Krystal would have thought they were about the same age. “Come in,” she stepped aside, leaving a small space for Krystal to worm through, “I’m Victoria and this big man is Onew.” She ran a hand through the toddler’s hair before closing the door. Krystal had not expected to immediately be in the Livingroom, but that’s how it was. Or she thought so anyway. The space was very small, barely enough for a small table and some closets. She was unsure if it even deserved the title ‘Living room’. “Please, sit down.” Krystal looked around for a couch until she noticed Victoria was pointing at the floor. Krystal briefly contemplated running away, but she figured she should probably see through what she started. After shooting the floor one last doubtful look, she sat down.

“I’m so grateful to have found someone to babysit Onew on such short notice.” Victoria had sat down on the floor too, the toddler firmly pulled onto her lap. “Yeah, sure. No problem.” Krystal said, shooting the woman a quick smile. She noticed the woman’s eye nervously fall upon her watch before she caught Krystal’s gaze. “Sorry. I don’t have that much time left before I need to go.” She put Onew next to her and surprisingly the boy just stayed put. His eyes shot from his mother to Krystal in curiosity.

“I made a list of what he likes to do, when he needs to eat, when he needs to sleep and all that.” She handed Krystal the paper and Krystal raised her eyebrows. It was a short list. Sadly. Krystal had never really spent any time with children so she would have definitely felt more comfortable with more information. “I have to admit I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be back.”

“Your advertisement said 9 pm…” Krystal began and she saw Victoria nervously bite the inside of her cheek. “I -think- I will be back around that time yes,” she must have seen the corners of Krystal’s mouth turn down slightly, for she quickly continued, “of course I’ll pay you extra if it turns out to be later.”

Krystal supposed it would have to do. Her job hadn’t even started yet and she was annoyed already. An awkward silence followed for a while. “Do you mind… If I go get ready for work now?” Krystal shook her head and Victoria got up to make her way towards one of the only 2 doors in the small apartment.

Krystal didn’t think it possible, but once Victoria was gone everything became even more akward. Two large eyes were focussed on her and she suddenly felt extremely self-conscious. “Hi there… Onew, was it?” The toddler just kept looking at her and it was only then that Krystal realised she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do with this kid. Her eye fell upon the list still lying on the table in front of her and she quickly grabbed it. ‘Toys in the second drawer of the closet next to the bathroom door’

“Do you want to play?” A little smile finally covered his face and Krystal almost felt relieved. She stood up, crossing the entire room in a mere four paces. She opened the drawer and for a moment she wondered whether she had opened the correct one. There was a boring flower puzzle in it, a box of honestly prehistoric toy cars and a few teddy bears. That was it. This was possibly the saddest thing she had ever seen. She looked back over her shoulder only to find Onew staring at her in anticipation and she eventually settled on the box of cars.

“How about we play with these for a bit?” His eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly. Krystal didn’t know much about kids, but she doubted most were this easy.

She set the box on the table and was just about to sit down when the door opened and Victoria came out in a hurry. “Sh-, I’m running late.” She frantically looked through some closets until she apparently found what she was looking for. Krystal let her eyes take in the woman fully for the first time. She was wearing a casual pair of jeans and a wool sweater which looked pretty decent at first glance. Upon further inspection Krystal quickly noticed the outfit was pretty cheap. The materials looked flimsy and the sweater was partly out of shape already. Of course Krystal was pretty into fashion, she doubted “normal” people would notice.

“Are you going to be okay here?”

“Yeah. We’ll be okay.” Krystal shot a quick smile at Onew.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Much to Krystal’s surprise the weekends didn’t turn out to be as horribly awkward as she had initially thought. She blamed it all on the actual angel that Onew turned out to be. It honestly blew her mind how a toddler could be as kind and sweet at that age as he had been to her. She probably felt more comfortable talking to this five year old than to any other adult, although that could just be her distant self talking. Even though she often heard she was beautiful and all that, people rarely took the time to actually get to know her. Not that she blamed them, she was pretty introverted and the fact that people usually only talked to her because they wanted to get something out of it, didn’t help.

It was only because of that, that Krystal didn’t really complain about usually working ‘till later than 9 pm and it was only because of that, that Krystal agreed to actually work and evening during the week after school too. She knew her parents would never approve of her working late during a school week, so she had told them she was staying over at her friend’s place to study. It surprised Krystal they went for it, since Krystal NEVER stayed over at her friends’ places.

She hadn’t been able to decline the offer, seeing how desperate Victoria looked. “I can cancel it if I can’t find anybody to babysit Onew… But I’d rather not since it’s a well-paying opportunity.” It always surprised Krystal how blunt Victoria always was about needing money. Most of the people she knew would try to hide it if they were not really well-off. “And frankly, I’d rather not look for another babysit since Onew really seems to like you.” It was mostly the latter part that immediately convinced Krystal. She didn’t even care about the fact that she would get payed more than usual. She hated to admit it, but she had grown fond of the toddler in only a few weekends.

The Tuesday she was going to babysit Onew again, she was packed to the bone with both schoolbooks and things she would need when staying over at Victoria’s place. She had initially planned on going home afterwards, but nor her parents nor Victoria had stood for that. She supposed they were right though. She was only 18 after all.

She briefly noted she was no longer out of breath when reaching the top of the stairs to Victoria’s apartment before knocking on the now familiar door. Within seconds the door got pulled open and she was once again greeted by Victoria with a happy Onew on her arm. It was heart-warming, but nonetheless Krystal felt it sting in her heart a little every time. It’s true that she had an amazing youth as in she didn’t have to worry about not being able to afford stuff. But it felt like she paid for that in terms of getting less affection. She shouldn’t complain though. Her life was good.

She smiled at Victoria and ruffled Onew’s hair before going in. Strangely enough her shoulders only started burning when she actually put her backpack down on the floor with a dull thump. “Are you okay?” Victoria asked when she no doubt saw the discomfort on Krystal’s face. “Yeah, just brought a little too much probably.” The corners of tipped upwards only slightly but Victoria seemed to already know it meant she was smiling. She smiled back apologetically. “I’m so sorry to have dropped this on you so last-minute. I swear I’ll make it up to you.”

“It’s okay.” She went towards Victoria with her arms forward and Victoria lifted Onew off her so krystal could take him. “I brought you something.” She whispered in the boy’s ear as he clung onto her. The boy looked at her with big excited eyes and all Krystal could think off was that it had definitely been worth the extra weight in her bag.

Also, just because Onew didn’t seem to tire of playing with the same toys over and over, didn’t mean Krystal didn’t. If she saw that flower puzzle once more, she was sure she would flush it through the toilet.

Victoria studied the two of them with a faint smile on her face before Krystal addressed her. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready?”

The woman blinked a few times as if she needed some time to process the younger’s words. “Oh, right.” She disappeared into the small bathroom again and Krystal put Onew down in favour of freeing her hands to open her bag. She got out a large package wrapped in green and yellow striped paper. It wasn’t nicely packed, since she had been in quite a hurry and the wrapping paper at t