Chp.10| The Phone


“So you’re our the babysitter and you’re also my son’s new girlfriend? That’s good news,” Mr. Park said, displaying a wide smile, behaving as if his son has never had a girlfriend before.

I sat across from him, still wet from head to toe with a towel wrapped around my shoulders. “Y-yes,” I said in return, finding impossible to speak due to the clattering of my teeth.

He tilted his head to the side a little. “Are you cold? Do you want to change out of your clothes?”

I might be suffering from hypothermia, but I’ll managed. I smiled back at him. “It’s okay.”

“You’re very pretty. Your father was right about you.”

Under this circumstance, Lee Ji Won still looked pretty? I blushed amiably. “Thank you.”

“Well, let’s move on to more important matters. Ahn Na-Na. What do you think of her?”

“She’s a sweet kid.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“What makes you doubt me?”

“Her nanny tells me the opposite.”

The child was a little on the strange side, but she was still tolerable. “Uh, where is she now?”

“Na-Na?”

“No, her nanny.”

“She’s taking a break. She left to her hometown. That’s why you’re here.”

I looked around the room before I asked, “Na-Na’s parents. Where are they?”

Mr. Park’s smile faded. “She lost them two years ago.”

It was no wonder why she had looked so sad on the day of her birthday. She had cried because she missed her parents. Another reason why Park Jung Sang was so protective of his niece. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

I was beginning to like Mr. Park. How can a father and son behave so differently from his son? Whereas Park Jung Sang was loud and obnoxious, his father was calm and soft-spoken. Which made me wonder, how was his mother like?

“I’m really sorry that you have to see me in this sort of state,” I told him, slightly embarrassed.

Mr. Park waved it off with a shake of his hand. “No, no. Don’t worry about it. Teenagers these days are bound to be fooling around like that.”

Aigoo! “We weren’t fooling around. We were sort of arguing and then…”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to explain yourself. I understand.”

My gosh. This was bad. There was no way that I would want to fool around with PingPongBoy. Mr. Park was seeing this all wrong. “But---“

“Abeojii!” Jung Sang called, storming into the room like a raging bull still wearing his school uniform, except without the blazer. And I must say, he looked all right. Maybe a little better than alright considering that he had loosened his tie.

Mr. Park turned toward his son. “Yes?”

Jung Sang stole a glance in my direction before speaking to his father. “You can’t hire her. She .”

Why that arrogant son-of-a-b*tch! He was willing to do anything to see that I wouldn’t get the hired. If only he knew that Lee Ji Won doesn't give up so easily.

Mr. Park’s brow rose in question. “You don’t think she’s suitable? Why? Is it because she’s your girlfriend?”

Jung Sang opened his mouth to argue, but I was quicker. “It’s okay, oppa,” I spoke in my sweetest tone, “we’ll still have time to go to the movies and spend time together. Just now, we’ll have your niece taggin’ along with us.”



He pointed at me while directing his gaze at his father. “She’ll turn Na-Na into a demon child.”

“You mean an angel child,” I corrected him.

“She let Na-Na into the pool today,” Jung Sang continued.

I stood up from my seat. “Because I wasn’t informed. Some idiot neglected to mention it to me.”

“Na-Na’s head is swelling because of her!”

“It’s because of the wall!” I argued.

Mr. Park raised his hands in the air. “Enough. The both of you. My head is starting to hurt.”

We both looked at each other. I raised my chin higher to challenge him. He sneered evilly at me in return.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think the both of you are enemies.”

“We are!” we blurted at the same time.

When Mr. Park frowned, I quickly blurted out, “Not! We are not!” I went over to him and hooked an arm around Jung Sang’s arm, pulling him closer to my side.

His eyes widened once more. I glowered at him and then quickly smiled. “Oppa…please. It’ll be good for the both of us. At least now we can see each other every day,” I said, pinching him hard in the arm.

He neither flinched nor pulled away; instead he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and leaned in closer. Damn. Why did his arms had to feel so strong? “Fine, if that’s what you want Ji Won,” he said, reaching out to tousle my damp hair, plucking a few strands while he was at it.

I elbowed him to make him let go.

Mr. Park smiled at the both of us. “So, it’s settled then?”

We both looked at each other and gave him an underlying smile.

---


“Hai-choo!” I sneezed hard, and wiped my nose with the tissue, following Park Jung Sang down the street.

Jung Sang walked ahead of me, speaking on the phone. “What are you talking about, Tae Woo? I don’t want to go there ever again. I don’t want to remember her face. Yah! Don’t you giver my number you b*tch- punk!!”

My goodness, PingPongBoy didn't know how to lower his tone of voice.

“Alright. I’ll meet you there, after I walk the stray cat home,” he said, followed by a strange chuckle. “No way. I'm not bringing her along!”

I looked up in surprise. The in’ retard was talking about me. He called me a stray cat! I'll have his head for it. I hurried over to him and plucked the phone from his grasp, holding it behind me.

He tried to reach for it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“You called me a stray cat!”

“So?”

“I’m not a stray cat!”

He laughed in my face. “Have you looked in the mirror yet?”

I haven’t. And I don’t think I wanted to. I was afraid he might be right.

He stepped closer towards me as if he was checking me out for the second time. “Barbie has transformed into a beast. See, this is how you should really look like. Plain ugly.”

The tears were already forming in my eyes. I couldn’t believe he was this relentless with his insults. “I hate you!” I screamed, slamming down his phone against the pavement, causing it to shatter into pieces.

“Did you just do that?”

“Yes. I did!!”

“That’s it!” he said, throwing me over his shoulder and carrying me down the street.

I kicked and scream, demanding him to put me down. “Put me down!”

“No.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“My place.”

“Why?”

“Don’t ask why.”

"I'm not going."

My cell phone rang.

Jung Sang stopped and dropped me down.

I screamed when my rear-end hit the ground. The phone continued to ring.

“Give me the phone.”

“No.”

“Give me the phone!”

I quickly answered it, standing up. “Annyeong haseyo.”

“Ji Won. Is Jung Sang with you?”

The voice belonged to Kim Tae Woo.

“Err..no,” I lied.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m…at home.”

"So, you guys are not coming?"

I was meant to go somewhere with Jung Sang? "What?"

“Give me the phone!” Jung Sang interrupted, trying to snatch it from my grasp. I bit his hand, causing him to withdraw immediately.

I heard Tae Woo’s voice yelling from the other line. “Yah! Lee Ji Won, you lying b---"

I hung up on him before he could call me a b*tch.

Jung Sang was still nurturing his bitten hand. He looked up to me like a young child who had done nothing wrong to deserve it.

I stuck my tongue at him and said, “No one touches my phone.”

The phone began to ring again. I answered it. “ off, Kim Tae Woo!” I shouted.

The voice didn’t belong to Kim Tae Woo. It was my mother. “Who’s Kim Tae Woo? Your boyfriend? It’s getting late and Jin Hyung is still not back. If anything happens to him, I’ll hold you responsible, Ji Won.”

That stupid little brat wasn’t home yet? “Umma, don’t worry. He’s probably gotten himself lost or something. I’m sure he’ll find his own way home.”

Jung Sang seeing that I was talking to my mom on the phone decided to do something really stupid. He came over to hover over my shoulder. “Ji Won-ah! Help me out of my clothes. I’m all tired out from playing basketball!” he spoke loud and clear.

“Lee Ji Won! Just what the hell are you doing being in the same room with a guy? Is he your boyfriend?!” My mother shouted from the other line.

“Umma, it’s not like that---"

Jung Sang interjected, “Slowly. Slowy, Ji Won. You have to take it off slowly.”

I hung up the phone before my mother went crazy. I turned to face him, shoving on the shoulder. “Yah! Who do you think you are?!”

He shrugged carelessly.

“I’m going home. Don’t bother walking me home. I’m sick of seeing your face.”

“I hope you get sick. Sick until you rot away!” he yelled in my face.

“YAH! I hope you---AI-CHOO!” I sneezed in his face.

PUHAHHAHA!! Park Jung Sang just stood there with my snot and saliva plastered on his face.

I reached for a tissue and shoved it into his grasp. “Goodnight, oppa.” With that, I blew him a kiss and took off in a run down the street, hearing him curse and shout after me.