A Deer in Distress.

God, Kai needed a summer part-time job and quick. He eyed his thinning wallet forlornly and sighed heavily. Kai didn’t think living by himself during high school can be this difficult. He chose a relatively cheap apartment, cozy enough to accommodate him and his dog (thank God they allowed pets here), and he wasn’t the type of person who went around and buy every nice things he saw, no. With an exception of one item though, dancing shoes. Yep, Kai was planning to take a dance major later when he get into the university and boy, he knew he was good in dancing. People in his school called him the Dance Machine for a reason you know. And that was exactly the reason why Kai sat slumped on his worn down bed, staring at his wallet as if its his dying dog. It was summer already and he was on his first week of summer holiday when he forgot himself and buy a brand new pair of dancing shoes he always had his eye on. It was only later he realized that he used the last money he got from his parents. Its only the first week, Goddamnit. His phone rang suddenly, breaking his thought.

“Hey Kai!” its was Chanyeol, one of his close friend in school.

“’ssup?” Kai answered with a hint of exasperation.

“ Hey, what’s with that tone? Anyway, me and Baekhyun have been thinking to ask you if you want to tag along with us and check out the new club that just opened this week?” Chanyeol asked, and Kai could swear he heard a background voice saying a faint ‘Yeah you should come Kai!!’. Probably Baekhyun, Kai snorted.

“I think I’ll pass.” He calmly said.

“Aww why man, you never pass this kind of offer usually! Don’t forget about the girls—“

“Chanyeol, you know I’m gay.” Kai stated, deadpanned. Then, he continued. “Besides, I’m not in the mood. I have to find a summer job, since my wallet is definitely not going to fill itself with money apparently.”

Kai heard a pained huff on the other line and a sound suspiciously like Chanyeol who was in pain.

“Oh? You need extra money? You should have tell me that Kai! My friend, aka Kyungsoo, said that high school students like us can get a lot of fortune on the rich side of the town!” the voice changed from Chanyeol’s to Baekhyun. He probably elbowed Chanyeol in the ribs to get hold of the phone. Ouch.

“Working as what? e? No way, I’m not that desperate, Baek.” Kai snickered at his own joke. Or is that really a joke?

“No, you dimwit! Of course the job is to do chores for the hot cougars there! The only danger working at their house is probably the erted stares you will get from them when they ogling at your tanned body. But the pay is worth it, I guarantee, no, Kyungsoo guaranteed that!” Baekhyun excitedly answered.

Kai contemplated in declining that suggestion. He refuse to be those cougars’ object, he meant ew. But he took a glance once again at his lumpy wallet. He sighed and he think he’s going to regret this but he really need the money. Screw this.

“I’m going to the rich neighborhood tomorrow, only because you say the money is worth it Baek.” Kai carefully said.

“ –Chanyeol, stop! Oh, um, sure Kai! I’m going to text you tomorrow. Bye—STOP IT CHANYEOL!” with that, Baekhyun hung up.

Kai put his phone far away from his ear and made a face. Ugh, gross. He tossed the phone carelessly on the bedside table and walked to his bed, where his poodle lay on it. He sighed once more and turned the lamp of.

“Wish me luck for tomorrow, Monggu-ah.”

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The next morning Kai woke up especially early in hope that the available jobs hadn’t been snatched up by other students. He took the bus since it was going to be a 20-minute journey. He put on his earphone and listened to the newest album of EXO, a rookie group he currently fond of. He’s been thinking of using one of their song called ‘Two Moons’ for his dance sequence for his audition at the dance club in the university. Kai nodded his head and moved his feet along with the beat and accidentally knocked the seat in front of him. A guy with a round face and even rounder cheeks turned his head and Kai apologized briefly and the slightly chubby guy nodded his head as a response. Kai shrugged and continued on listening to the music.

Kai dozed off unintentionally during half of the journey (which means he dozed off only for ten minutes) but fortunately managed to wake up on the right destination. He got off the bus. Along with another three passengers including the chubby guy from earlier. Kai stretched up while yawning widely and finally took in the sight presented before him.

Huge houses stood proudly, lining up the street in front of it. Most of the houses were designed like those beautiful houses at the Europe. Few mansions seen far ahead, casting a looming shadow that covered the slightly smaller mansion. Kai shuddered when he remember that these astonishing buildings you call a house belonged to cougars. He took a deep, calming breath and fastened the straps of his backpack and began to walk towards the street. Eyes wide open in search for a ‘wanted’ sign in front of the door.

He realized that the chubby guy from the bus walked toward one of the majestic mansions and Kai did not know why, but he followed the guy instead of finding way on his own. The guy seemed oblivious though as he kept walking without giving a glance to the back. Kai inspected the guy closely and found that the guy wore a some kind of uniform. A butler, perhaps?

After few minutes walking straight, the butler stopped in front of a massive mansion with a European style with a huge, huge garden around it, and fished out a key from his pocket. Geez, even the key looked antique Kai scoffed. One thing he noticed from the house, cough, mansion, is a large wooden plank that hung on one of the tree branches with ‘NEED A GARDENER/POOL BOY FOR THE WHOLE SUMMER.’ written on it. Jackpot.

Kai coughed a little to get the fumbling butler’s attention. The butler looked up and raised one delicate eyebrow at Kai, who got nervous all of a sudden.

“Um, the house need an errant boy if I’m not mistaken.” Kai pointed to the wooden plank. “and I want to take the job, please, if you don’t mind.”

The butler gave Kai a once over and surprisingly he nodded in approval. “Your body is fit for the job I see. You’re accepted. Come follow me”

Kai’s mouth gape open in disbelief. He did not expect to be accepted that easy, so this was a shock for him as he dumbly followed the butler inside. The interior of the mansion was really breathtaking as Kai spun his head round to see more. The front door was a huge mahogany door with the knobs lined with golden streaks. The room then opened up with two grand staircases cascading from both side, leading to more rooms upstairs. The butler introduced himself as Xiumin and he told Kai that this mansion is owned by ‘Young Master’ Luhan, who wanted to live separated from his busy parents. Wait, what did he mean by Young Master?

“ So, its not a scary cougar who own this mansion, thank God.” Kai blurted those words out without knowing. Realizing his mistake, he quickly covered his mouth with his hand and glanced at the butler. Thankfully, Xiumin seem to be amused with the comment as he throw his head back and laughed heartily.

“You can say that.” he said, eyes crinkled up in amusement.

They continued in exploring the mansion for Kai to be familiar with, since he was going to spend two months of his summer holiday here anyway and its not good to be lost during the first week. Xiumin showed Kai his room for him to sleep because ‘the journey from your apartment to this mansion is quite far’ Xiumin explained. Kai put his backpack on the soft bed and scanned the bedroom. It was quite big, it was a guest room, the wall was painted with a sapphire blue color with random twirls of golden streaks scattered beautifully among the sea of blue. The floor is draped with a velvety fake fur so it was soft to the feet. The room was filled only with a queen-sized bed, a large wardrobe, and a pair of identical bedside tables with one of the desk had an elegant-looking lamp on it.

“Young Master Luhan is at a friend’s place and will not be back until noon. Maybe after you get familiar with your room, shall we go to the pool? Young Master always want to go for a swim after he went out to a friend’s place. And your first job is to clean the swimming pool to get it ready for him.” Xiumin interrupted Kai’s thoughts and continued with a kind smile.

Kai nodded and then followed Xiumin to the back part of the house where a huge swimming pool is located. The pool itself was not adorned with many unnecessary details, as if it was really made only for swimming. But it huge nonetheless, and once again Kai had his mouth gaping open at the size. He had a reason okay, his job was to clean that pool. Kai mentally facepalmed and how the hell I manage to clean that by myself?

Xiumin seemed unfazed by the boy’s overwhelmed expression and showed him a small shack filled with gardening and other DIY tools. Kai spotted a tool used to filter the water in the pool and took it. Xiumin patted his back and wished him a good luck before leaving him standing dumbfounded at the side of the pool. His phone vibrated, indicating a new text message.

From: Byunbaek

Hey, whats up Kai? Sorry for hanging up abruptly last night. Chanyeol was being his needy self yesterday *giggles* so, I’m assuming you already at the cougar’s house? Good luck! Text me how is it going ok. Bye!

Kai rolled his eyes to the heaven after he read the text message, and did not bother to send a reply. Instead he put his phone on top of one of the table near the pool and start pulling of his white v-neck shirt so it would not get wet and start dragging the filter from one end to the pool to the other end. The sun glared viciously above, adding to Kai’s long list of misery. Thankfully he was not worried about getting a tan from his job anyway since his skin color was naturally tanned already. He wiped a streak of sweat from his forehead and squinting his eyes to get a better view of the mansion. It was going to be a long, long summer. And Kai wondered how this ‘Young Master Luhan’ looked like. To think about it, the mansion seemed empty save from a few other maids scattered in different rooms. Kai just hoped that the owner wasn’t some kind of psychotic-slash-emo kind of guy. Besides, how ‘young’ this Young Master could be? Oh God he hoped his boss is not a spoiled adolescent.

Oh just how close to the truth that last statement could be, if Kai only knew.