The Babysitting Contract | j.jk

10 • basketball

"You know," I start dryly, an edge of sarcasm leaking into my tone. "People have told me I'm a great listener."

Jeongguk's laugh is biting. "What people? I know for a fact your only friend is Nayeon."

Touché.

"You wouldn't know them. They go to a different school."

"How convenient."

"But still..." I trail off awkwardly, tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. "If you need to... er, talk or something... you know I'm legally bound by contract to secrecy."

Rule number one of The Babysitting Contract: no one can know.

It's now his turn to study me, but as time wears on, some of my bravado fades into wariness. I'm not sure I like the way he's looking at me. His eyes bore into mine, sifting and searching until bit by bit, I feel my carefully constructed guard crumble.

I glance away.

Jeongguk sighs. "Tell you what."
​
He begins to stroll leisurely towards me, so slow it feels like he's teasing me. He stops a foot away and cocks his head, staring down at me like a parent would a child.

"If you tell me, I'll tell you."

I blink up at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit."

"I swear. Scout's honour."

Jeongguk rolls his eyes.

"Keep rolling your eyes, you might eventually find a brain up there."

His eyes flash. "I'm not an idiot, Taehee. Don't think I didn't catch your little zone out in the car earlier. And you're doing that thing with your eyebrows."

A harsh breath rattles through my lungs as I try to smooth whatever expression I have on my face.

"My eyebrows don't do a thing." Indignation flares in my chest as I scoff, desperately trying to maintain my high-ground. "And that was nothing. I was just daydreaming. About plotting your murder."

"See?" Jeongguk snaps with a sneer, lowering his face to my eye-level. "What makes you think I'll tell you jackshit when you can't even give me a straight answer?"

My hands clench at the haughtiness in his tone. The suppressed anger from this evening twists through my abdomen like a branding iron, intent on destroying me from the inside out until my heart is screaming at my head to let it out.

The overwhelming desire to prove him wrong consumes me, so as he spins on his heel to storm away, I burst out, "My father texted me."

Jeongguk freezes, slowly peering back at me. He looks gobsmacked, both by my revelation and the fact that I even bothered to tell him in the first place.

"Oh."

"Yeah." I watch my hand smack the basketball down onto the pavement. "He said he wants to have dinner."

"What did you tell him?"

A juxtaposition to his marble expression, Jeongguk's eyes are soft, gentle. He tilts his head, almost as if to coax me to continue, and the fact that he isn't looking at me like I'm a kicked puppy drives me to do just that.