She had been gone for a little less than two weeks, leaving her ‘bundle of joy’ with me. I’m calling bull on that, though; the boy was a nightmare. My once white walls were covered in hand paint and crooked smiley faces, and just the thought of trying to give him food that he liked every night made me want to pass him on to another relative. I had too much of a sense of responsibility, though, and could never find it in myself to do that. I couldn’t say I hadn’t been close, though.

“Uncle Jelly,” I heard from the bathroom, already dreading letting my eye off of him. “Come look, hurry!”

                I made my way into the bathroom, telling myself that if the boy dared to damage my toilet or sink then consequences would be given. I had already sent the boy to his room three times, ready for another as I opened the door.

“Look, look,” he said, flapping his arms. “I’m Cap’n America!”

                From the looks of it, he had gotten out red and blue paint and poured it in the tub. My tub was not only stained the colors of a super hero now, but the six year old I had been given was covered in red and blue paint that would be a hell of a job to get off him and his clothes.

Oh boy.

                First thing first, I absolutely did not volunteer to take care of this child. My sister, Hyosung, had her friend knock on my door one morning and push the boy in, a note attached to his suitcase. Along with a short explanation of her plans on vacation, she had five words written boldly by an astric: DO NOT LET MOTHER KNOW. I wasn’t stupid, my mother would kill us both if she figured out I was taking care of my sister’s child. However, I wasn’t too fond of having to skip around the subject when she called.

                This child, my nephew, was around 6, and was a nightmare to be around. His company, to me, was nice since I had been lonely living in an apartment without anyone. However, I had begun to think by the third day that I’d be better off without him. I knew it wasn’t the truth, but damn, was he hard to get to sleep.

                Since, I had high school most of the day, I’d had no choice but to get him a baby sitter who could pick him up from elementary school. He got out around two hours earlier than me, and I didn’t know if baby sitter even picked children up from elementary school, but they’d have to arrange it.

                After two hours of scrubbing Ji Woon down, the results were a ruined washcloth and a shiny six year old. As he ran off to play around again, I began to make my way to the phone. He began his first day of school, as did I, in three days and he was in desperate need of a baby sitter. I had already picked one out, a 22 year old named Bang Yongguk. I hadn’t, though, called or seen the man yet, so I picked up the phone and quickly dialed his number.

“Hello?” a surprisingly deep voice answered.

“Y-yes, I need a baby sitter for my nephew.” I stuttered out.

“How long?”

“Ah,” I hadn’t thought about that. “Can you give me a moment?”

“Sure,” he chuckled.

                After some rough calculating, I told him an estimate I had done and he gave me the price and what he would/wouldn’t be able to do for me. I thanked him afterwards, telling him the days he was needed, and hung up. Letting out a sigh of relief, I got up to check on Ji Woon. The boy, to my surprise, was already passed out on his floor, snoring slightly. A smiled adorning my face, I picked him up and laid him in his bed, putting his Spiderman stuffed toy in the bed with him and closing his door.

                The next three days went by super-fast, Ji Woon was normal and obviously had caused messes, but at least he wouldn’t have much time for them since he was going to school. We had already went shopping for his supplies and gotten his uniforms with the money my mother gave me, but he refused to get his hair cut. The ladies in the salon groaned every time we came in over the length of the three days, each one knowing how it would end by the second one. It had only been a little over two weeks since the boy stayed in my apartment, but it seemed that noona never cut his hair, it was a little above his shoulders and a curly mess.

                Two or three hours later, we managed to convince him to cut his hair, but he didn’t let it go. I woke up the next morning, about to get ready for school, when I tripped on a ing toy truck. To be precise, the exact same truck I had bought him for a welcome gift into my apartment. Smoke pouring off my skin, or so it felt like, I walked into the ungrateful boy’s room. To find him covered up in a fort of pillows and covers that was held up by random chairs, from the dining room might I add, and books on tables.

If you think that will stop me-

“Get out of there and get ready for school, Ji Woon!” I yelled under the pile of covers.

“No, you’ll punish me!” an invisible face yelled back.

After quietly searching for him, I located a red piece of fabric in all the white and gray. Sighing lightly, I pulled it, succeeding in hitting his head on a chair.

ing great job, Junhong.

                Sure enough, not two seconds later, I heard the boy start crying. I lifted up the cover and picked him up, bouncing him slightly while trying my best to come up with some Avengers joke to cheer him up. Unfortunately, none were registered by the crying boy in my arms.

“Woonie, please stop crying, I swear I didn’t mean to,” I said softly, aforementioned boy not listening. “I’ll buy you the Iron Man full costume.”

                Of course, this shut him up immediately, though he still rubbed the bump on his head. I sighed in relief, once again, and got him ready for school. Throwing his small notebook in his cartoon book bag, I put it on his shoulders and proceeded to getting me ready. It took a good fifteen minutes to shower and throw on my uniform, another twenty to curl my hair, then I grabbed my nephew and shot out the door.

                After a long walk to the elementary school, my skateboard rendered useless with two people, I decided that I would ask the baby sitter this afternoon to drop Ji Woon off. The elementary school was on a different path than the local high school I went to, so I could just manage to get onto school grounds within twenty minutes. Sighing loudly, I walked over to my usual group of friends who were waiting.

“You got here later than normal, what’s wrong?” Jongup, I had known him since kindergarten, asked.

                After telling some bull story about how I overslept and slipped in the shower while also nearly being ran over by some car on my way to the school, we all departed into our first classes. The school day went by slow, each class getting longer and longer, and by the end of my last class, it felt like night.

                Skating my way towards the baby sitter’s house was quite the adventure, might I say. He had only given me rough directions through email, and I didn’t exactly have internet on my skateboard. It was around five now and I had just managed to see Yongguk’s house through a patch of trees. His house wasn’t big, but enough to satisfy a family of four or five. However, after knocking, it became clear to me that only he lived there. There was only one car, even it was a bit dusty, and the only noise I heard when the door was opened was the TV set to a low volume. The only thing I saw was the baby sitter himself.

And damn was he hot.