“Babysitting. You’re babysitting.”

Baro gave me an apologetic look while trying to hold onto a 2-year-old in his arm. Behind him, three other little kids were running around, practically destroying everything in sight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d actually come all the way over here to check on me- HYUNSU, PUT THAT DOWN!”

Baro practically threw the 2-year-old in my arms before chasing after one of the kids who was running around, holding onto an expensive looking glass object.

I glared at the kid in my arms and resisted the urge not to drop him right there at the moment. I don't like little kids. They're annoying and a hassle to deal with.

“Hyunki, no! Get down from there! Taehyun, stop before you hurt yourself! Hyunsu, I said put that down!”

I watched as Baro ran back in forth, trying to stop the kids from doing whatever they weren’t supposed to be doing. As I was watching with pity, the 2-year-old decided that was the perfect moment to suddenly give me a wet willy.

You’re lucky that I didn’t just drop the brat on his head right at that moment, but instead gave him a really hard stare that almost made him cry.

Baro let out a groan of frustration before walking back over to me and grabbing the brat out of my arms. “It’s way past your bedtime,” he mumbled as the little brat giggling and slightly flared his arms a bit.

“What are you doing with these kids anyways?” I asked as the two of us headed upstairs to put the brat to sleep. I was a bit worried about leaving the other kids alone downstairs, but hey, they’re not my problem.

“My aunt dropped them off since she was suddenly called into work and her normal babysitter is out of town for some reason.” Probably trying to get away from these kids. I wouldn't blame her. “They’ve been here all day.”

I hummed in response and remained silent as the two of us entered a bedroom, which I assumed was his parents. I still didn’t understand why Baro was the one who has to watch them. Couldn’t they find anyone better? I doubt Baro knows how to take care of another human being. Hell, I doubt he can even take care of himself. “So wait,” I said when I began thinking about it, “When you called to hang out, you really just wanted me to help babysit, didn’t you?”

Baro gave me a sheepish grin and tucked the kid inside the bed, who was obviously displeased since he was showing us a big pout. “Not really,” Baro said, as he continued tucking him in, “I really did want to hang out. But my aunt suddenly came in and dropped her kids off, so I figured we might as well hang out and take care of the kids at the same time.”

“But you weren’t going to tell me about the kids until I got here, right?”

Baro just flashed me another sheepish grin.

“Alright, Jinsu,” Baro now whispered to the little kid, who was gently resting on the bed, “Time to sleep. When you wake up, mommy will be here to pick you up.”

But like I said, Jinsu wasn’t even close to being tired. So the moment Baro finished his sentence, he started to make this huge fuss, slamming his hands against the mattress and kicking his feet in the air.

At that same moment, a loud crash was heard from downstairs and screaming voices came afterwards.

Baro let out a groan of frustration and ruffled up his hair, obviously trying to hold in his anger and annoyance.

I wasn’t thinking too much about what could be happing downstairs. Like I said, they’re not my kids. But Baro was obviously worried about them (or more like worried about what they could be breaking).

Baro turned to me with wide eyes full of hope and desperation and I immediately knew what was going to come next. And I knew I wasn’t going to like it.

“Deullie, can you please-“

“No.”

“But you don’t even-“

“No.”

“But-“

“I know what you’re going to ask and no. I’m not going to help you take care of these brats so don’t even bother begging for my help.” I was ready to just turn around and walk out of that room, and out of that house, but Baro grabbed me by the hand and pulled me closer to him.

“Please,” he said, looking as though he was seconds away from bursting in tears, “I need your help. I’ve been stuck with these kids all day. I haven’t been able to rest even once.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to pull my hand away from Baro, but he kept a firm grip on it. “No.”

“I’m begging you. Please, just for an hour. Help me with them. And if you do, I’ll do anything you want.”

I stared at Baro, hoping he’d just give up on asking and finally let me go. I didn’t want to be in this house full of loud, annoying little brats and the last thing I wanted was to help Baro with them.

But with the look he was giving me, I knew there was no real choice. So, instead of just punching Baro in the face and running the hell out of there, I sighed. “Ok.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Baro so happy the moment that word left my lips. “Thank you!” he practically screamed as he pulled me into a tight hug.

“Whatever,” I said, my voice muffled out due to the hug, “Just don’t expect me to ever do something like this for you again.”

“Of course.” Baro let go and flashed me a smile before turning his attention back on the little brat in bed. “Alright Jinsu, Deullie is going to help you go to bed while I go downstairs and check on your brothers.”

Both Jinsu and I blinked at Baro in confusion, but for different reasons. “Wait,” I said, my eyebrows slightly furrowing, “Why do I have to put the kid to sleep?”

“Do you want to go downstairs and check the other kids instead?”

“Nevermind,” I muttered.

Baro chuckled and gave me a quick pat on the back for good luck before rushing out of the room before anything else gets broken downstairs. When Baro fully left the room, I turned back to the kid lying on the bed and frowned. “Now what do I do with you?” I asked out loud.

Growing up as the youngest child in the family, I have no clue when it comes to taking care of a kid. What the hell do you even do when you take care of a kid? Other than feed them and change thing. Like, what the hell does ‘taking care of a kid’ even mean?

The kid blinked up at me and I frowned. Well, at least he stopped making a fuss. For now.

We continued to stare at each other. More sounds of crash noises were heard and I could have sworn I heard Baro let out a high pitched scream.

I let out a long tired sigh before kicking the edge of the bed with a frown. "Sleep."

The brat just blinked at me instead.

This is why I hate kids.

I tired making a mental list of all the ways I've seen parents do to make their kids fall asleep. It was quite hard, since I've never been around a baby before and I have no clue on how to take care of them. So most of my resources came from movies I've seen in the past, which wasn't a lot.

One of the things parents would do is fattening their kid up. Apparently, once the kid is full of food, he suddenly becomes sleepy and would be easier to sooth to sleep.

I glanced down at the kid once again and frowned. I wasn't sure if Baro had feed him already or not, but I wasn't going to waste my time to go downstairs to make him some food. Too much work. Besides, I have no idea how to cook so I'd probably just poison him instead.

Another thing I'd see parents do is play with them until they get exhausted. But I wasn't going to do that either. The kid looks like he still has a lot of energy left in him and the only one who would get tired at the end would be me.

The last thing on the list was something I was hoping I wouldn't be forced to do.

Sing him to sleep.

I have a nice voice, I will admit. But nobody other than my parents has ever heard me sing before. And I was hoping to keep it that way. I take pride in my singing despite the fact that I don't want people to hear it.

In fact, that only reason I'm still going to that all boys-school is because of the singing lessons they give second semester. The school is known for having one of the top classes in the country, so being in it will help me improve by a lot. Then, maybe I'll let someone heard me sing.

But right now, I don't really have much of a choice. The sooner I can get this brat to sleep, the sooner I can get the hell out of here.

"Um, Jinsu," I tired saying in the calmest voice I can make, "I'm going to sing you to sleep, ok."

Jinsu continued to look up at me without saying anything. So I just took his silence as his approval for me to continue. But to be quite honest, I didn't know what I was going to sing.

I didn't know any lullabies by heart. In fact, I didn't know any at all. I was never sung to as a baby. Well, not that I remember.

Even though it took me some time, I finally managed to think of a good song to sing to the brat.

It was a song I’ve written a long time ago. I only made it in under an hour and I never bother to actually edit or improve it. It was just something that had popped into my head one day and I never bothered to look back at it ever again. It wasn't completely finished; just like all the other songs I've ever tried writing. I was never good with making my own music or lyrics but at least I tried.

And the song was slow and soothing enough to get the brat to fall asleep.

I slowly closed my eyes and let out a long slow air of breath. Something I always do before singing. I could feel the brat’s eyes on me and it was making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I was still not used to the idea of singing in front of someone else, even if that someone was a two-year-old.

I kept my eyes closed for a couple of more seconds before finally opening my mouth and letting my voice out.

It started out a simple a whisper, my stage fright slightly kicking in. But as I continued l, I could hear my voice getting slightly louder, but it was still calm enough for Jinsu to fall asleep to.

The singing didn't go on for so long, but eventually I started to feel more comfortable. Soon enough, I had forgotten where I was. I got lost in my own singing and I felt completely free.

It was half way into my song that I decided to open an eye, to check on the kid. And when I did, I saw that the brat had actually fallen asleep.

I immediately stopped and frowned at the sleeping kid. I didn't think he was going to fall asleep that quick. I couldn't tell if he fell asleep because my voice was that soothing or because he was just that bored by it.

I sighed and turned around, ready to head out the bedroom door and tell Baro I was going to leave. I wasn't going to stay in this house any longer.

But the moment my eyes landed on the door, I almost had a heart attack.

"What is wrong with you?" I whispered harshly, trying not to wake up the kid, while clenching onto my shirt.

Baro was standing at the door, a huge and creepy grin glued on his face. He had his arms crossed and was leaning on the door frame.

"Well, well, well," Baro said, that grin not leaving his face, "So it's true, Lee Junghwan is actually a pretty good singer."

"Whatever you heard, you better erase is from your memory or I'll erase your life."

Baro chuckled before standing up straight. "I don't understand why you didn't want me to hear you sing. Your voice is actually really nice."

"Don't make me kill you."

Baro chuckled again. "I'm just saying."

"Whatever," I muttered. I was kind of hoping that Baro would be the last person to ever hear me sing. I wasn't sure what kind of reaction he was going to have once he heard it so I was a bit surprised that he was being so calm. Then again, he's probably already so worn out from taking care of the kids all day. He must not have any energy left inside of him.

"I'm going home," I mumbled. But before I could manage to get past him and leave the room, Baro grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"But you said you were going to help me babysit."

"You don't really expect me to actually stay here all night and help you?"

Baro pouted and gave those damn puppy eyes that I can never say no to. "Please," he softly said, gripping harder on my arm. "I really need you."

I stared at Baro for a long time, not understanding what was going on. I felt my face slightly heat up and it was odd because the room didn't feel hot at all.

I bit my bottom lip before quickly shoving Baro off of me in annoyance. "Whatever," I muttered as I quickly walked past him; just to get away from those damn eyes.

It took us about three hours to get the rest of the kids to bed. During that time, I tried avoiding looking at Baro, just in case I ended up looking into his eyes. It was already past three in the morning by the time we got the last kid in bed, and I swear I've never been out of this much energy before in my life.

The two of us crashed onto Baro’s couch, both of us out of breath and out of energy. Finally there was complete silence in the house and it felt pretty damn nice.

"Look at this place," Baro muttered as he scanned his living room. I have to agree, this place looks terrible. It looks as though as tornado just came through here.

"What are your parents going to say when they see this?" I asked while looking around at all the broken objects around the living room.

Baro shrugged before resting his head on my shoulder and letting out a long yawn. "I can get the maid to clean everything up before they even come home and see all of this."

"You have a maid?"

"Yeah," Baro mumbled uninterested, "She comes at least three times a week or whenever we call her in. I can just tell her to come clean this all up once the kids leave tomorrow morning."

I didn't bother to respond back and I could tell from his voice that Baro probably didn't want me to respond either. We were both too tired.

Another hour passed by of us just staring at the walls in complete silence. My shoulder began hurting a bit because Baro's head was still resting on it but I didn't bother to push him off. Let's just say it was his award for dealing with four annoying little brats for the whole day.

"So what were you doing today?" Baro asked in barely a whisper. It seems as though he was going to fall asleep any second now but was trying to keep himself awake. “You know, since you couldn’t come and hang out with me.”

I remind silent for a few seconds before answering his question. "I was busy with something."

"Like?"

"Something."

Baro didn't bother to push any further and went back to remaining silent. It was then that a ringtone began playing. But it wasn’t my ringtone.

Both Baro and I glanced at each other before Baro reached into his pocket and took his cellphone. I noticed it was a new phone.

Baro glanced at the phone screen with a small frown, but it was immediately replaced with a wide grin.

I was a bit curious as to who was calling at four in the morning, but I wasn't going to ask. It was none of my business.

"I'll be right back," Baro said, now full of energy. He pressed answer on his phone before standing up and heading to the kitchen. But didn't miss it when he said the words, "Hey, Haejung,” into the phone.

It blinked and frowned once Baro completely left the room. Haejung? Why the hell is she calling at four in the morning? Shouldn't she be asleep at this time?

Thirty minutes passed by and Baro still haven't came back from his phone call and it was making me wonder what the hell they were even talking about at this time.

Boredom soon started to take over me and then annoyance quickly replaced it. It was rude enough for Baro to make me to pull an all-nighter with him just to help him babysit four kids I don't even care about. But to ditch me to talk to some girl at four thirty in the morning is too much.

I sighed in annoyance and sat up straight, hoping Baro would get off that stupid call if his and come back over here. Sitting alone in his living room was just creepy enough; I didn’t want to be bored either.

A few more minutes past and I could tell Baro wasn't going to come back any time soon. So instead of waiting for him for another minute, I stood up and left his house. It was already late and I wasn't going to wait for him to end his stupid call.

My parents didn't attack me once I got home for coming six hours after curfew. They probably assumed I was already asleep in bed, so they didn't bother to even check up on me. That or they let their stupid fight get to the point that they completely forgotten about their own son.

At least my father came back home, so hopefully things will start improving around here. If not, I'm going to soon explode out of annoyance and anger. I don’t think I can take another day of their stupid arguments.

-

Since I only had about five hours of sleep, I woke up earlier that day with a severe headache. I felt horrible and I knew I was probably going to get a fever soon. And the annoying vibration wasn't helping the headache at all.

-Wait, vibration?

I glanced over to my phone, which was sitting on top of the night table. I couldn't see the screen, mainly because my vision was still blurry from just waking up.

I was slightly afraid that it could be Baro calling. I wasn't in any mood to talk to him, especially after he ditched me for some chick. Knowing him, he’ll probably just give me a bunch of excuses as to why he chose a phone call over me and I wasn’t going to sit here and listen to them. Besides, he voice will just give me more headaches.

So instead of answering him, I just tucked myself back into bed and decided to get a couple of more hours of sleep. Thank god for Sundays.

But the vibrations noise wouldn't stop and it was staring to tick me off. I let out a groan as I sat up and reached for the phone. I swear, sometimes I don't understand why I do these kind of things just for Baro. Like choosing to answer his call when I can just sleep instead.

But once I placed the phone against my ear, I regretted it so much more.

"What the hell took you so long to answer?"

"What do you want?" I asked with a sigh.

"Let's go out."

"Shinwoo," I said with another sigh, "It's Sunday. You're supposed to sleep in on Sundays."

"Stop being so lame and let's go out. I've been stuck inside all week studying and I already tried asking everybody else, but they all have plans. You’re my last choice.”

Everybody? Does that mean he also asked Baro already? What plans does that brat have?

"So are we going to go out or not?" Shinwoo asked, obvious annoyance shown in his voice.

As much as I would love to stay in bed for the rest of the day, I knew Shinwoo wasn't going to leave me alone until I agree to go out.

"Wait. Since when did you ever study?"

"Shut up and let's go."

"Fine," I said after a long sigh, "but only on one condition."

"What condition?"

"I chose where we go."

--

I have to admit, I was quite disappointed in the fact that Baro didn’t bother to even check up on me after I left his house last night. It’s like he didn’t even care if stayed or not, or that I had to walked home alone at 4:30 in the morning on my own. The least he could do was check if I’m still alive or not.

But whatever. Baro had let that Haejung girl get to him last night and since he’s always talking about how much he likes her, I was going to let it slide this time. Only this time.

"Now tell me again," Shinwoo said besides me, as he looked around with a frown on his face, "Why are we going to hang out in a Deli?"

I glanced at Shinwoo and rolled my eyes. "We're not going to hang out her. We're just here to pick Jaehyun up."

Shinwoo looked at me in confusion. "Jaehyun? Isn't he that guy who screwed you over in middle school?"

"Yes," I simply answered before walking into the Deli building, leaving Shinwoo to follow right after me.

Like always, the deli was completely empty and it make me wonder how this business managed to run without any customers.

A middle aged man was leaning on the counter, reading out of a sports magazine. I automatically recognized him as Jaehyun's father. After two years, the only thing that changed about him was his hairstyle.

He noticed when me and Shinwoo entered the building and a smile was quickly formed on his face. I wasn't sure if it was because he actually recognized me after not seeing me for so long or that he was glad he actually had customers for once.

"Well look at that," he said as he eyed me up and down, his smile not once leaving his face, "It's been so long, I almost didn't recognize you there for a minute. Life sure has been treating you well, Sandeul."

I smiled in return and walked over to the counter. "It's nice seeing you too, sir."

"So what brings you here? I'm sure it's not to see my son, am I right?" he said with a chuckle, "I heard what he did to you back in middle school so I understand why you wouldn't want to see that boy’s face ever again."

"Actually, I did come here to see Jaehyun."

Mr. Jang raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised at what I just said. "You didn't bump your head or something, did you?"

"No," I said with a chuckle, "You can say that Jaehyun and I sort of made up a few days ago."

"Ah," Mr. Jang nodded his head and let out a loud laugh, "So that boy was telling the truth when he said that you two were going to spend the day together yesterday. I thought he was just using your name as an excuse to skip work. Wouldn't be the first time he tried tricking me."

"So, is Jaehyun here or..."

"Afraid not. Today's the boys’ day off, so he went out. But if you leave now, you could probably catch him at the old bookstore 'cross town. The boy loves spending his free time there. But now that you're back in his life, I'm sure that's all going to change."

Book store? Last time I checked, Jaehyun hated reading. He was never able to finish a book and would always just use the Internet whenever he had to do a book report. That or he’d convince me to do it for him.

"Well, thanks. I'll see you next time, sir." I said to Mr. Jang, before I began heading back to the exit with Shinwoo following right behind me.

"No problem, kid." Mr. Jang called back right as me and Shinwoo stepped out of the building, “Come back anytime you want. Everything’s half price just for you, kid.” I smiled and waved before fully leaving the Deli.

Shinwoo frowned as he turned to look at me. "Since when did you and Jaehyun become so buddy buddy again?"

"Don't worry about that," I mutter as I began walking down the street.

Shinwoo never really had a liking towards Jaehyun. They’ve only met a few times back in middle school, and on the first meeting Shinwoo told me he wasn’t too fond of him. I’m not sure why, but I never asked. I was a bit surprised at first, since the two seem to have a similar personality. I assumed they were going to hit it off the first time they met. But I was wrong. Maybe it was because of the fact that they had such similar personalities that they couldn't hit it off.

Then again, Shinwoo was never the best judge of character so I just figured he was just going to get over his dislike over Jaehyun sooner or later. You can’t imagine the stupid grin he had once he found out that I had stopped being friends with Jaehyun.

"And where the hell are we going now?" Shinwoo said in annoyance as he sped his pace up to catch up to my side.

"The bookstore." I simply replied. I could hear Shinwoo scoff beside me.

-

It wasn't long until we reached the book store. It was easy to spot Jaehyun, not only because the store was quite small, but because he was the only male customer in there.

Jaehyun immediately smiled when he saw me walking towards him.

"Deul, what are you doing here?"

"Your dad said we could find you here."

"We?" Jaehyun looked behind me and smiled brightly at Shinwoo. "CNU, strange seeing you here."

Jaehyun was well aware of Shinwoo’s feelings towards him, but he never showed it. He was perfectly alright with Shinwoo until he found out that Shinwoo didn't like him. Now they both have some sort of silent rivalry between each other. I’m alright with it as long as I don’t end up being in the middle of it.

"I can say the same thing about you. And with baby cousin," Shinwoo muttered under his breath before a couple of cute girls suddenly caught his eyes. "Excuse me," he said before quickly chasing after them.

I rolled my eyes at him before look back at Jaehyun. "I have to admit, it is strange seeing you in a book store."

"But not as strange to see that you were actually looking for me. Did you miss me that much?" Jaehyun teased.

I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder. "No. Shinwoo wanted me to come out so I figured I'd hang out with you too since you're the only human I know that can actually be considered normal."

Jaehyun laughed as he randomly grabbed a few books from a self. "Is that so? I guess being normal has its awards."

I chuckled. "I didn’t say you were normal. Just close to it. But really, why are you in a book store? Unless you're checking out the ography section."

"Don't worry, I'm going there next," he said with a smirk, "But does the fact that I have interests in books now seem that much of a surprise to you?"

"Yes."

Jaehyun rolled his eye with a chuckle. "Whatever. Just let me put these books on layaway and then we can get out of here. I don't think Shinwoo would want to stay here any longer."

"Are you kidding me?" I muttered, "This place is his heaven."

"How come?"

"Because it’s full of girls." I glanced over to where Shinwoo was, who was desperately trying to hit on a couple of older looking girls.

Jaehyun chuckled at the scene. "Well then, want to go to the back? There's a sitting area where customers can drink coffee and read or chat for as long as they want."

I thought for a second before smiling. "Sounds nice."