Thirty seven

It was late at night when she received a call from their neighbours. She ran to his side, seeming very excited. She told him the neighbours asked them to babysit their children, as they were forced to go on a one night work trip. He was really happy with the news. The both loved Sumy, their five years old daughter and their ten months son, Eun Sae. They always offered to babysit them. They were going to sleep in their house for a night.

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He ped his jacket. He was startled by a shrieking scream as soon as he walked in, followed by crying. it took a while for him to discover there was a pool of something slimy, right under his foot. There were several glittery butterflies, apparently glued to the wall. Several toys were spread on the ground. A flash waved in front of him.

“But you have to eat something!” she called out and he turned to look at her direction. He tried not to yelp. Her cheek was covered with what he hoped to be cereal and her clothes were a mess. “Oh thank god” she was always happy to see him, but that time she looked like she was rescued. “I need to shower.  Eun Sae is in the kitchen and Sumy is…somewhere” she ran into the bathroom in a single second. He expected that, in fact, he wondered how she managed not to have a seizure.

A blasting noise came from the living room. He recognized the lyrics to be something from a children program. He went into the living room to find Sumy jumping up and down to the very loud music. “Sumy…” he noticed the remote was in her hands. He tried to grab hold and turn the volume down when she ran away. “You can keep watching; just let me turn the volume down” She jumped on the couch. “Yah! If you don’t listen I’ll turn it off”

She turned the volume higher up. The music got on his nerves. He went toward the power and turned it off. That was a wrong move. He witnessed, for the first time in his grown life, a fully blown tantrum. She sat on the floor and proceeded to cry as loud as she could manage, tears went everywhere, along with her stomping and kicking.

“I’m sorry…I’m really sorry. You can watch the show. I’m really sorry”

“What’s going on here?”  He turned to find his girlfriend with dripping wet hair. She obviously just walked out of the shower.

Sumy ran to hug her knees. “He was being really mean to me!” she pointed toward his direction. He couldn’t believe it.

“I wasn’t!”

“It’s alright dear” she patted her back and gave him a disbelieving look.

“But I really wasn’t!”

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“He won’t eat. He just won’t eat” he had barely finished making up with Sumy when he found her trying to feed Eun Sae, to no avail. “It’s really delicious Eun sae. Look” she preceded to lift the spoon up again, having a taste of it herself. “Umm” she tried to convince the baby. She seemed a bit surprised for a second. “This really is actually delicious. Oppa come here” he gestured him to walk closer. She fed him a spoon.

She took another bite and he went over to the sink to get another spoon. Baby cereal was heavenly. They both gulped another spoon of the cereal. “This stays a secret” he told her in between the bites.

“Of course