"It's a sharp for fuck's sake, a damn A sharp."

Jihoon presses the key repeatedly in frustration (although it looked more like he was going to destroy that certain key) as he grumbles, wondering why on earth he decided to actually agree to have this job. The pay was good, amazing, even; but he never asked for a job where he had to suffer this much with a girl this terrible at piano.

Eunha raises her hand in defense, "Okay, whatever, I was bot born for music alright, now excuse me, Beethoven, I shall do more finger exercises." Jihoon was a little pleased at her response, although his eye was twitching at Beethoven (and the fact that her sentence sounded weird). Eunha (who, in his opinion, has a mental age of a five year old) was one of his best yet frustrating students he's ever had. She only plays the pieces that she likes well and leaves the rest beyond shitty level.

Well, Jihoon's not one to talk. He doesn't like playing classics.

"Tell me why I'm giving you classes in the middle of the night again," Jihoon sighs as he sat on the stool by the piano, sighing at his life choices. Eunha just shrugs.

"We both know you're never free in the morning. Especially with the amount of workload you tend to complain about," Eunha snorts, crossing her legs. Placing the music sheets neatly into a file that Jihoon had given her once, she looks at the older, waiting for his reply.

"I'm heading home early today. I have an essay to submit by five." Jihoon tells the girl who was just about to start playing the chords. Eunha pouts, and Jihoon knows she's going to start rambling over this is the exact reason why she never improves and that's because Jihoon keeps cutting down the time for their classes so he can do his work-

"It's not just any work, alright, it's a really important essay-"

"We all know you want to finish your painting, Jihoon."

Eunha's mother steps into the large living room, eyeing them from the door. Jihoon was flustered knowing that he's been caught red handed, but at least her mother understands. God bless her.

"I'll tell her to practice more often. Run along now." She gestures Jihoon towards the door and he thanks her for letting him off for a painting.

What was Jihoon's next piece about? Well he doesn't know either. He hasn't got any story behind it yet. There are times where he feels his stomach tingle and the inspiration flowing endlessly throughout his body, but he just doesn't know how to translate it into colors. He doesn't know what was this next painting's special trait was. This painting had to go into his portfolio, so he needed to do it with all of his heart. With a heap of emotions. This had to be his best painting, so without the right feeling, Jihoon's never going to get started.

This time Jihoon didn't paint on the easel, he experimented drip painting, which was done on the floor. In the mornings he tries so hard not to bump into the buckets of paint on the floor right next to his bed. He tries hard not to fall onto the painting and cause an unwanted mistake. Moreover, step on it. Jihoon might as well get his own studio after this.

It was almost midnight (he questions himself why he agrees to Eunha's piano class at this hour), and Jihoon lightly jogs to get back to his apartment. He almost missed his stop when he dozed off in the bus by accident, thankfully, woken up by tbe bus driver who seemed to remember his place; probably beacuse one; Jihoon's definitely a regular on the bus and two; the bus driver probably finds the boy amusing. Or something like that.

Jihoon runs into a few people he knew while walking back to his block; Seungcheol with Mingyu (probably discussing about something that's a million won worth wince they were dressed in suits), Minghao looks almost lifeless as he tries to squeeze out a bright smile while waving towards Jihoon, and Hansol with his usual red headphones again. He's seeing Hansol quite often these days; what has the boy been up to?

A tired sigh escapes his lips once he finally gets to sink into his beanbag, exhausted from almost everything. From the two works that he's succesfully completed to dodging Seungcheol and Mingyu's questions, Jihoon was one hundred and ninety nine percent sure he needed some rest. If possible, for the next few days too.

He decides that he can't sleep without a warm shower since he stank of sweat and old leather (probably from Eunha's sofa), so that's what exactly Jihoon did. He hops into the shower and comes out when the clock showed it was already one in the morning. Maybe that wasn't a quick shower. Nevertheless, he likes long showers. It boosts his sleepiness.

Jihoon was already grateful that he could lie down on his bed with a warm blanket and slowly doze off with relaxed breathing patterns. He did, eventually, only to be woken up by his ringing tone that he found annoying after what was like only three hours of rest.

"Noona?" Jihoon's voice was raspy from sleep and he could barely even make out his words but he was grateful enough that he was able to speak "if this is about your computer again no I am not coming it's three in the morning-"

"Jihoon thank god you answered! Listen, I have a flight in about two hours and I have to get back to America so I'm dropping Sora with you okay?" Jihoon could hear a few people talking on the other side of the line although they sounded like muffles, but they were talking about something important, he assumed "I'll be in front of your house in a jiffy just you wait."

"Wait what-" Jihoon's sister had hung up. There was a knock on his door.

Jihoon scrambles out of bed and reaches for his sweatpants and struggled to put them on while walking to his door.

"What's going on?" Jihoon questions, eyes landing onto the three year old girl that was sleeping soundly in Amy's arms. Jihoon feels a quease in his stomach. Not good.

"She doesn't have a passport, Jihoon," Amy puts a bag down by Jihoon's leg and shoves Sora into his arm. By instinct, Jihoon quickly took her in his arms, unable to let the child fall.

"Oh god please don't tell me-"

"Yes, Jihoon, you're going to take care of the baby for the next three days because she doesn't have a passport and I have a meeting." Amy fixes her coat and slips into one of Jihoon's shoes she sees lying on the ground (surprisingly, they're the same size) and sighs once she is out of those four inched pumps.

"Oh no. Noona you know I'm the last person you want to trust with a kid." Jihoon tries to escape, but Amy was already out of his home.

"Thanks, Jihoon, I'll treat you to dinner soon." Amy strides away from his apartment, Jihoon desperately trying to make her stay,

"But what if she dies?" Jihoon shouts.

"I know she won't!" Amy yells back, the elevator doors closing.

Jihoon stood there in the hallway for a solid ten seconds, trying to blink as hard as he can as he hopes that what just happened a few minutes ago, his sister, his stolen sneakers, and this real life two year old child that he was awkwardly carrying was not real. It must be a bad dream.

But no, Jihoon realizes it wasn't a dream when the child starts to cry from the uncomfortable way Jihoon was carrying her. Jihoon just doesn't know anything about babies and the likes of it, okay, and he doesn't want to; hes not interested. And now, he's in charge of one for like, three days. Jihoon gently shushes her but she only cries harder, thus he curses himself for not getting a good grade when he was in charge of the robotic baby project in high school.

Unable to think of calming her down, Jihoon frantically presses Seungkwan's doorbell several times, waking the poor boy up. His eyes were barely open when he saw Jihoon, but widened to the size of saucers when they landed on Sora.

"Holy shit, what is that?" Seungkwan asks, rubbing his eyes with his hands to make sure he wasn't dreaming too.

"What does it look like to you, stupid? A lizard?" Jihoon barges into Seungkwan's space, hand rubbing circles onto the girl's back "help me calm her down!"

"Hyung if you keep yelling like that she'll never calm down," Seungkwan quickly took the girl into his hands, and although still dizzy from sleep, he starts to pat the girl gently and cradles it around the room. Jihoon is still astonished. Either way, the baby isn't calming down.

"Do you know how to make her milk?" Seungkwan asks the older. Jihoon shakes his head. The baby ends up in his arms again as Seungkwan disappears behind the kitchen to quickly make some. Jihoon starts to panic as the young child in his arms cried even louder, and what the actual fuck is taking Seungkwan so long?

It was a miracle that she calmed down, although Seungkwan was the one who did most of the work (e.g; cradling her and feeding her and eventually succeed in making her sleep) and as soon as she quieted down, Seungkwan sat down with his legs crossed opposite of Jihoon, chin tilted slightly downwards so it looked even more like he was looking at Jihoon in the eye, an eye-contact way of saying 'What is the meaning of this?'.

Jihoon sighs. He himself couldn't find the right words. Heck, who on earth wouldn't be puzzled when your sister just knocked your door at almost 3am, dropping her child off and asking you, a terrible babysitter to look after the kid and expect she is all healthy and alive by the time she returns? Jihoon is definitely one of those people. So that's exactly what he tells Seungkwan, and the poor boy is shocked too.

"Could you like...help me with the kid," Jihoon asks without even looking directly at Seungkwan, because he sure as heck feels guilty, and the kid is in his senior year of high school, he shouldn't be asking for this big of a favour. Also, did Jihoon mention Seungkwan had school in about 5 hours? Yes. And its making Jihoon feel terrible. But he knows he can't surevive with that kid alone.

"Not in the morning, though, you know I have school and cram school." Seungkwan replies thoughtfully.

"So that means you're not free for the whole day then."

"You are pretty much right."

Then what's the point in agreeing? Geez. What the hell do I do now?

"You'll think of something, hyung. Now let's get our sleep before she wakes up." Seungkwan was snuggled up next to the baby on his bed, meanwhile Jihoon took the sofa and they dozed off.

+++

The wailing of a child was indeed a successful way to wake JIhoon up. Perhaps you should write that down in your manual of '101 ways to successfully wake Lee Jihoon up'.

It's not like you've woken Jihoon up before, but Seungkwan says there was a high possibility a child would wake him up. Waking up in a state of panic would make his eyes shoot open. Who knows. Seungkwan knows better as a neighbour and as a friend, so you might as well agree with him.

Before Jihoon could even get up from his lying state, the baby was already in your arms, cradled gently to get her back to sleep. Instead from getting up, Jihoon sat back down in a confused manner. Where am I? Who is she? And what is that? Jihoon eyes the baby in your arms, and back at you, and back at the baby, and then his eyes darted all around the room. Lee Jihoon was funny when he's in a clueless state of panic.

"You're at Seungkwan's apparently. The boy's off to school," You gently laid the baby back onto Seungkwan's bed, covered with the small pink blanket you managed to find in her bag, "I only have evening classes today, so here I am. Babysitting uh, your sister's baby."

Jihoon squints his eyes that were barely even open, or maybe his face was a little bloated, "Aren't you that girl who hung out with Seokmin?"

"Yeah! I'm surprised you remember me." You reply sheepishly, probably because you didn't expect this Jihoon man that you labeled as the 'don't-give-two-shits shortie' to actually have a memory of you somewhere inside his genius mind. Read; genius. Fine arts majors scare you. Maybe only this certain fine art major.

"So uh," he gets up from the sofa and awkwardly pulls his pants up, probably because the waistband was dropping and he didn't want to end up shaming himself in front of a girl he just met, of course, "how long are you going to be here?"

"Till three. Then Soonyoung's going to be here to help you with the baby." You reply, a picture of the 10:10 boy (just like how he introduced himself) flashing in your mind. He's got taekwondo classes that lasted till two, and when Seungkwan called to tell him about the current problem Jihoon was facing, he was more than happy to help. Probably because Jihoon was there, or maybe that was what Seungkwan said.

You swore Jihoon's face dropped a little, "Soonyoung? The call me soon dude?"

"Yeah! He was more than happy to help when he heard it was you."

Jihoon groaned.

"You're not close with Soonyoung?" you question. It was understandable when you recall his deez nuts joke that he pulled off so casually while you were waiting in line for Seokmin's muffins. Probably no one would ever want to talk to that boy again after that joke, and Jihoon was at the top of the list.

"No, the question is how did you even get close to him? With that deez nuts joke?" Jihoon raises a hand before you could open your mouth to reply, cutting you off, "He pulled that deez nuts joke on you when you first met him, didn't he?"

Soonyoung was fucking ridiculous, but you nodded.

Jihoon chuckles, "He thinks it's his best joke. That boy goes around Seokmin's newcomers and says that just to see their reaction. Almost got whacked in the head by a lady with her handbag once."

"Painful, but I'm not surprised." You laugh. Jihoon laughs too.

"So uh, I didn't really catch your name when Seokmin mentioned it the other day. What was it again?" Jihoon asks. You noticed he had dyed his hair black from the last time you saw him, and damn this kid must be that rich to get his hair dyed several times. But then again, we're forgetting Minghao's also done it countless times too. The last time you saw him he was with his swirly pink and blue hair, which reminded you of ice cream and it tempted you to treat him to some, but considering the dark circles under his eyes, it wasn't the best time.

"I'm Areum. I live next to Jisoo and Seokmin. Interesting neighborhood we've got here," You comment, and Jihoon laughs at that statement. You weren't exactly sure if he actually thought that was funny or maybe it was just a laugh to get rid of the awkwardness of that statement. Either way, Jihoon's laugh was funny, which made you laugh too.

Jihoon shrugs, "I guess you could say that. i thought it would be just another sketchy city apartment, but I guess with all the noisy ahjummas around I'd say I'm wrong." That was actually true. And the only reason why the ahjummas are noisy are usually to tell Soonyoung to shut the hell up in the mornings, or to complain to each other about that one balcony that's just filled with trash and old things that's causing discomfort to the neighbors due to the smell. Seungkwan says someone still lives there, but you also saw the sad look on his face when he said that. You wonder why, but Seungkwan looked like he didn't want to go further about that topic either.

"I like it here. Settled in just fine." You reply. On Seungkwan's dining table were a bunch of magazines stacked on top of one another, probably the ones he's already done reading. Is there a reason why most of these are tabloids? You picked one up and scanned it, scandals of artists on the front page to catch the reader's attention.

Silence fills the room for a brief moment, and Jihoon speaks up, "Could I, like, go back to my room for a second? I mean, it's right next door. To uh, shower and stuff."

"Sure! Go on, and bring some food." You tell him before he headed for the door, chuckling. Seems like he also agrees with you.

Putting down the tabloid, you crane your neck to see him off, "Hey fine arts major!"

Jihoon looked like he hated the name, but he answered, "what?"

"Show me some of your works!"

Jihoon grunts and the door closes. He didn't refuse, though.

+++

"KWON FIRE, EONJAENA FUCKING HIGHE-"

"There is a goddamn baby in this household," Jihoon cuts him off – well more like he didn't even cut Soonyoung off since the latter had already finished singing his ridiculous self intro song of himself. "If you're here to perform the so called title song of your album called 'H', there is the door, you may exit this room immediately."

Soonyoung takes off his coat and hangs it on one of the hooks that were stuck to Jihoon's wall, "Can't you at least chill for once, Jihoonie, she doesn't understand anything."

"Kwon Fire!" Sora squeaks, voice high pitched and giggly. Both Jihoon and Soonyoung looked at each other for a solid five seconds, before breaking into different reactions.

Soonyoung was beaming and laughing, "Did you hear that? This little girl is three and she knows my name!" Soonyoung runs to collect the baby in his arms, before Jihoon pushes him away, disapproving both Soonyoung near babies and Soonyoung talking near babies.

"I'm glad it was only kwon fire." Jihoon mutters, staring down at the little girl that was laughing at Soonyoung's funny expression. Funny how babies laugh at Soonyoung when he makes funny faces. Jihoon would laugh himself too.

"Come here to kwoN FIRE!!" Soonyoung starts screaming again as he takes the baby away from Jihoon's arms, swaying her around. Jihoon was aware of what was going to happen If he kept swaying around carelessly, since Jihoon's home space was mostly taken over by nothing but his large canvas lying on the floor and the several cans of paint that surrounded it. Anyway, nothing much, Soonyoung was just happily swaying Sora around in his arms as he gets closer to Jihoon's many cans of paints, and well, if JIhoon doesn't try to stop him now, he might as well spill one of them all over his canvas.

But then again, it was pointless to tell Soonyoung to stop since he was shouting Hurricane at the top of his lungs, ignoring JIhoon's plead for him to be careful.

As expected, this certain can of paint had spilled all over his canvas, and it had to be none other than a striking, nauseous yellow. Mind you, Jihoon wanted to mix that yellow with some brown since that yellow colour itself made him sick.

"Okay you know what," Jihoon sighs, probably giving up on life since he's already given up on scolding Soonyoung, even, "Just – be careful next time."

"M'sorry. And geez, Jihoon, put a cover on top of your cans if you don't want them to spill." Soonyoung tells the boy who was younger than him by a few months off. Soonyoung being Soonyoung, Jihoon thought, there was no use in arguing with him anyway. Thanks to him now, he probably had to buy a new canvas that would cost him a lot. Either that, or paint something over this sickly yellow.

"Hey Sora, did you know your name means the sky?" Soonyoung lifts her up, admiring the tiny, hcubby fingers of hers that were lightly brushing over the tip of his nose, "you're so soft and squishy, can I squish you?"

Jihoon snorts. It was like he was talking to a mirror.

"Hey Jihoon, where's her bag? You haven't changed her diaper, have you?" Soonyoung asks from his living space, and Jihoon almost chokes on nothing because he completely forgot that babies wore diapers.

"Uh- yeah. Sorry." Jihoon proceeds to make her milk. It was probably time for her to sleep soon.

"I'll just go and bathe her, yeah?" Soonyoung lifts Sora up and holds her in one arm and rummages through her bag in the other.

"The towels are in the lowest drawer," JIhoon mentions before Soonyoung disappears into the bathroom.

"Got it!"

+++

"So is there a reason why you're so good with babies?"

Soonyoung leaps onto the sofa, and Jihoon flashes a look of disapproval, but it quickly fades when Soonyoung scoots to give him some space, and both of them just sat there staring up at the ceiling for a second or two. Soonyoung almost forgets the question, but Jihoon knudges him with his leg.

"Me? Nah man, I'm just always ready to be a dad." JIhoon had already balled his fist to give a swing at the boy, but Soonyoung's desperate I take that back! Held him back from doing so.

"I'm just used to it. I've been taking care of Chan since he was a baby after all." Soonyoung says, staring up at the ceiling. Chan and him weren't related, but they lived as if they were long lost brothers of the same blood, closer than ever. Jihoon isn't really familiar with their stories, but he knows neither of them had parents, and they eventually grew up together after the landlady had offered the two a place to stay.

"Babies are cute and innocent y'know? I want to protect them. I must protect them."

"Oh and do I get a treat from Ailee noona too since I'm giving you a hand with Sora?"

"What the hell Jihoon – you're sleeping?"

+++

It was the seond day of Jihoon's unofficial babysitting career, and he was dead tired. After Soonyoung went home he had contemplated over what the actual hell he was going to produce from a big, neon yellow stained canvas. He doesn't plan to buy a new one of course, it was a little too pricey and he doesn't like to ask money from his parents (sinec they're also a little disapproving about his career). Plus, he doesn't have time to run to the art store near his uni since he's too lazy to.

So yes, Jihoon continues to lie down on top of his bed while thinking about whether or not he should take breakfast before he runs off to meet Seokmin for a while, and oh he also needs to think about how to bring Sora along and the first problem he is going to face, without any professional or experienced people with kids to help him by his side, was how the hell he was going to bathe Sora-

"Jiji!"

That is one odd name.

"Jiji!" the voice calls again, followed by a tap on Jihoon's knee. When he gets up, he sees a bright blue stain on his black sweatpants. There was a queasy feeling in his stomach, and he is confident its not hunger, but a bad feeling in his gut. Jihoon knew what happened, he was expecting this to happen.

Sora was in pigtails; probably something Soonyoung had done before he left, and she was wearing a cream coloured dress with splatters and handprints of blue, green and bright pink colours. But of course, they weren't the pattern of her clothes after Jihoon had discovered her face too was decorated with spots of blue paint.

"Please God, no," Jihoon groans, but allows his eyes to follow the pink and green footprints that led closer and closer to his canvas. He gets up and carries Sora in his arms awkwardly, and dear god he's forgotten how heavy she actually is, as he walks to get a closer look at his now even more destroyed canvas.

His canvas was a mess of blue, green and pink that covered the nauseous yellow.

But get this; it didn't actually looked too bad.

Over all of the dizzying whirlwind of the other three colours, there were hearts and small handprints and footprints in yellow.

"Pretty!" Sora points at the canvas, probably proud of her creation. This girl picks up words fast.

Jihoon looks at the painting one last time and breathes out a sigh, his frustration and anger swept away into a smile on his face.

"You're right," Jihoon says, nodding, "It does look pretty."

On the lower right corner of the canvas there was a wobbly drawing of two stickmen, one was shorter with pigtails and the other had an angry face scribbled on, and Jihoon knew it was him. They were holding hands, and there was an uneven shaped heart in between the two.

"Jiji and Sora!" Sora points at the taller stickman that was holding the girl's hand.

At that right moment, Jihoon felt like her dad who was proud of his little girl.

"I thought you ruined the painting," Jihoon laughs and puts sits down in the middle of cans of paint among all the mess, "It looks pretty, Sora. Thank you."

Sora suddenly sticks her hand onto Jihoon's hand, and soon he discovers a handprint of her small hands in blue on his cheek.

The little girl giggles mischieviously at Jihoon's face, "Jiji!"

"You know, I can't let you call your uncle Jiji till you grow up, so you gotta drop that name soon okay," Jihoon tells the girl, pinching her nose.

Maybe, Jihoon will name the piece 'Sora', and maybe it's the most pure and heartfelt piece he's ever seen in his whole life.

----------------------------------------------------

HELLO 

this chapter didnt have any music because i felt like it didnt need to

plus i didnt listen to any tracks as i wrote this lol

its hot at my place where's all the rain let me feel gloomy again i like the rain :(

anyway there's this channel on youtube that makes rly good 3d audios and i've been obsessed yo it feels like im in a concert and not all 3d audios sound like that but i rly feel like im in a concert wowzA

sooo apparently i dont celebrate christmas but umm i wanted to say this once

ARE YOU READY TO JINGLE YOUR BELLS

BYE

- cee