. S I X . 

"Hello?" 

Jihye's breath caught in her lungs. Yuki's dad- Lee Taemin- had answered. This guy she hadn't even met, who she hadn't had any interaction with at all outside of a computer screen, was on the other end of the line. Although she didn't know much about SHINee, simply knowing that she was speaking with a celebrity made Jihye stomach twinge with nervousness. 

Pull yourself together, Jihye chided herself. Be professional. This is about Yuki. 

"Hello, hi. This is Jihye, Yuki's babysitter."

"Hello hi Jihye, Yuki's babysitter," Taemin said with what Jihye could only describe as a sprinkle of amusement in his voice. An image of Taemin instantly appeared in Jihye's mind's eye. But that was the Taemin that was perfomance ready, with makeup, styled hair and a stage outfit. She briefly wondered how he looked on the other end of the line, if he was Taemin the Idol or Ordinary Taemin with sweats and a hoodie. Then she remembered that this was not the time to get lost in a fantasy. 

"I'm sorry to be calling because I'm sure you're busy, but I'm calling from the hospital-"

"What?" 

"Yuki's come down with a fever and I can't get in contact with Mrs. Park. The doctor said it wasn't a serious fever and that it's probably a stomach bug but obviously they need to discuss it with a legal guardian." 

"What hospital are you at?" He asked, his tone of voice dead serious now; the humour had evaporated from it completely. 

Jihye gave him the name. 

"I'm coming now, but depending on traffic it'll take me an hour." Some noise came from the background, but Jihye couldn't make out what it was. 

"No problem. Of course I'll stay with her in the meantime, and I'll try Mrs. Park's phone again, too."

"Thank you, Jihye."

Sometime later a man came storming into the children's ward. He was dressed from head to toe in black: black cap, black face mask, black shirt, black jeans. Besides that and the fact he was on the skinny side, Jihye couldn't make out any other detail. The only thing he was missing were sunglasses. 

There weren't that many people in the waiting room, and Jihye was the only one by herself, standing by the vending machine holding onto Yuki's jacket. For a second she saw him glance at her, then look back at the currently vacant reception desk. Seeing no alternative, he took a hesistant step towards her. "Are you Jihye?" He asked hurriedly, his deep voice heavy with anxiousness.

"Yes," she said. 

"Where's Yuki?" 

"She's asleep in one of the rooms along there. She was dehydrated so the doctors have her on a drip but they said they'll discharge her when she wakes up." 

Taemin nodded as he listened to her talk, and Jihye saw that he had very deep, very soulful brown eyes. Jihye immediately recognised them in Yuki. 

When a nurse returned to the reception, Taemin headed up to the desk, requesting to speak to the doctor in charge of Yuki's care. After the receptionist assured him that he'd be along as soon as possible, Jihye lead him to the room that Yuki was in. She was the only one in the room, soundly asleep in the dark. 

Taemin took the seat beside her, and looked down at her pitifully. "Yuki, baby," he mumbled, shaking his head. He took her small hand in his and started speaking to her in quiet Japanese. It went without saying that Jihye had no clue what he was saying. Since she couldn't understand the words, she paid attention to his voice. Even though he spoke in a soft murmur, Jihye was mesmerised by the tone of his voice, the rhythm of his speech. 

His phone started ringing, and no sooner had the first ring ended had he jumped out of his seat and bolted out of the door, careful not to wake up his daughter with the sound. When he reentered the room, he seemed to remember that Jihye was still there. 

"That was my mum," he explained, keeping his voice quiet. "She lost her phone and only just found it. She said she had all these missed calls from you and Yuki's school, and how you left her a message saying that Yuki was in hospital. I explained the situation, so it's okay now, but she was worried." 

Jihye wished she could see his face, so she could measure his expression. Right now, she didn't know what to make of him. 

"You can go," he continued. "You had to start early today, didn't you? I'm sorry about that. My mum should have been the one to pick her up from school."

"It's not a problem."

"But I'm here now," he went on. "So you don't have to stay. Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter so far. I know we didn't have a chance to meet until now, but I knew she would be in good hands since I trust Euisoo, and you're his niece." 

"I didn't realise people had a such a high opinion of my uncle." 

"It's hard to find trustworthy people in my industry," he said vaguely. "But Euisoo is a really solid guy."

"Well, then." Jihye placed Yuki's jacket at the foot of the bed. "I should head back. Goodnight, Mr. Lee."

He laughed, and quickly covered his mouth with his hand, casting a worried look at Yuki who was still soundly asleep. "You can call me Taemin, you know. How old are you, anyway? We seem to be around the same age." 

"Twenty four." 

"See? I'm twenty seven, so there's no reason for you to address me so formally," he said with a smile. "Just thinking about being called Mr Lee makes me cringe." He pretended to shudder. "But goodnight, Jihye." He resumed his seat beside Yuki's bed, and Jihye slipped out of the room. 

. x x x . 

"Okay, shut up!" Jihye groaned, rolling over to her side with her eyes still closed and slapping haphazardly in the general direction of her alarm on her bedside table. She had purposefully set it to the most annoying ring tone precisely so it would force her to wake up, and although it fulfilled that purpose, the bleeping sound was so grating that it immediately incited an inexplicable rage from somewhere deep within her, which was not the way she wanted to start her mornings.

She sluggishly made her way through her morning routine. An unappetising but filling breakfast, forcefully squeezing the last dollop of toothpaste out from the very bottom of the tube, shivering under the cold stream of the showerhead for five minutes before the slow working heating system finally produced the skin-burning temperature that Jihye usually liked, begrudgingly carrying out her five-step skincare routine although she really didn't want to, stuffing her stiff body into sweats and then plomping down on her desk so that she could at least try to complete the opening paragraph for this school essay. 

Except her laptop wasn't there. And her library books weren't randomly strewn over the desk as she last remembered them being. The charger cable, which was usually tangled up by her feet, was absent. And worst of all, her headphones had vanished into the ether. 

She pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingertips and made a pained sound in the back of before it all came back to her. She had been babysitting. Yuki had been sick, and while she had been sleeping Jihye had been trying to complete some work, but Yuki ended up being so poorly that she needed to be taken to the hospital. And there...there she had finally met Yuki's dad. The kpop idol.

Taemin. 

Jihye pressed her hands to her face and let out a high-pitched, muffled scream, all the while kicking her feet childishly underneath the table. And she wasn't squealing because she was a massive fan like that one time Euisoo had taken her to an SNSD comeback stage and she had sworn Seohyun had made eye contact with her in the crowd- that was entirely different. She was squealing because she was in total disbelief at how absurd this situation was. 

"How did I end up in such a crazy situation?" She asked the empty space around her. 

And then she had actually spoken with Taemin, but she didn't know what to make of the interaction when he had arrived at the hospital, or the phone call prior to it. He had naturally been worried about his daughter and dropped whatever he had been doing to come immediately to her bedside. Which was the behaviour of any concerned parent. But then there had been countless times when Yuki had been crying out for him. So where had he been then?

Jihye shouldn't be so swift to judge him. She didn't know his situation, she didn't know the circumstances surrounding it. All she knew was that from the outside, the whole thing looked very crazy. Maybe she wouldn't ever find out the truth. All she could do was her job: take care of Yuki. 

And speaking of taking care of Yuki, Jihye immediately took out her phone, went to the notes app and started making a list of grocery items she needed to pick up. She couldn't make soup yesterday, but she would today. She hadn't heard from either Mrs. Park or Taemin, so she assumed she was still on to babysit in the afternoon, but even if there had been a change in plan she still needed to collect her school things. 

She did her quick grocery shop, sticking strictly to the list, and then returned home to start cooking. She w