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To make matters worse, Rosa had left for a long vacation in Guatemala, and the carefully selected babysitter had quit without notice, leaving them in a very difficult situation.
[I saw your name on the Aster School babysitter list and was actually planning to ask Ae-jeong about you.]
Aster School allowed high school students who wanted to work as part-time babysitters to register on the school website.
Parents trusted them because they were students from the same school, the children felt proud to know the "cool" high school girls they looked up to, and the students received nearly 100 dollars for just three or four hours of work.
While it was mostly students receiving financial aid who registered, there were quite a few like Jiyu who did it for the experience.
[While Rosa is in Guatemala, could you walk her home from school and read to her for just one hour until I get back? I think Daisy would struggle if we had to bring in another new babysitter in this situation. But please, don't feel pressured. I understand you're in 10th grade and probably very busy.]
After thinking about it for a moment, Jiyu nodded.
[Sure, I'll do it until Rosa returns.]
Having seen Daisy crying sorrowfully, it was hard to refuse the request. Moreover, there was a certain meaning in using money she earned herself to take a fairy tale writing class.
The fact that it was Hunter's house weighed on her mind, but he was busy with tennis anyway, so he rarely came home early.
Having thus become Daisy's temporary babysitter, Jiyu said her goodbyes to the two of them and stood in front of the elevator. Seeing the elevator stop at the family floor just in time, she opened the safety gate without thinking.
And she ran straight into Hunter, who was about to step out.
It felt as if time had frozen.
While Jiyu could only blink, the elevator doors began to slide shut. Then, with a thud, Hunter pushed the closing doors back with his hand. She flinched.
[What are you doing? Get in.]
Holding the door, he gestured with his head for her to enter quickly. Though she had caught glimpses of him from a distance once or twice since the Spring Fling, this was the first time they had faced each other so closely.
Jiyu's eyes darted side to side, searching for a place to escape, but realizing she was in the Hamilton residence, she reluctantly stepped into the elevator. She then pressed the 'Open' button firmly while ignoring him. Her plan was to press the 'Close' button and bolt the moment Hunter stepped out.
However, Hunter didn't get off; instead, he pressed the button for the lobby.
Startled, Jiyu glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was looking down at her with a furrowed brow, as if something was bothering him.
Who's the one who should be angry here? Jiyu fumed inwardly and looked away.
[Hunter, I'm busy with an assignment. Can you just let me off quickly?]
While the waves in her heart were swirling like a storm-tossed sea, she liked how her voice sounded calm and cool on the outside.
[Let's talk.]
Hunter's voice was deeper and lower than usual. Surprised, Jiyu looked back at him.
[...Talk about what? I have nothing to say.]
Hunter brushed her hand aside and pressed the 'Close' button hard. Before she could press the 'Open' button again, the doors shut and the elevator descended.
[It'll only take a moment. Go to the tree house.]
[......]
Jiyu let out a loud sigh, making sure he heard it. A suffocating silence, like a thick fog obscuring the view, settled inside the elevator.
Should she follow him or not?
After agonizing over it until they reached the lobby, she concluded that she should at least hear what he wanted to say.
As she walked silently along the corridor leading to the courtyard, Hunter followed closely, maintaining a distance where he could grab her if she tried to run.
Opening the courtyard door, Jiyu glanced at the tree house and sat down on an iron bench that was as cold as ice.
It was late November, the end of autumn, and the days had grown noticeably shorter since daylight saving time ended. A chilly wind, like a preview of winter, whipped fiercely against her bare legs exposed beneath her school skirt.
[Why are you sitting here? I told you to go to the tree house.]
[...Talk here.]
Hunter had grown taller since she last noticed. On the other hand, Jiyu's growth had recently stopped. He now looked almost the same height as Dmitri.
Regardless, Jiyu had no intention of being alone with Hunter in a cramped space. She felt that if she did, she might get swept up in something she would later regret. It was trauma from the photo booth incident.
A biting late autumn wind swept in a circle around the courtyard. Wearing a cardigan over her short-sleeved school shirt, she crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders.
Whether she was trembling from the cold or from nervousness, she wasn't sure.
It wasn't easy to maintain a peaceful mind with the man who had insulted her immediately after kissing her standing right in front of her. Though she didn't want to admit it, that fact had significantly chipped away at her meager self-esteem.
Just then, something dropped onto her thigh. It was Hunter's school blazer.
She grabbed the collar to push it away, insisting she didn't need it, but then she paused. The warmth of the blazer against her bare legs calmed her trembling slightly.
'...It's true that it's cold.'
She thought it wouldn't be so bad to let Hunter feel the cold while she wore the blazer. However, Hunter, standing in just his shirt with both hands in his pockets, didn't seem particularly cold.
He's so annoying, seriously.
[If you have something to say, say it quickly.]
Hunter stared down at Jiyu. As the wind blew, yellowish fallen leaves rustled beneath their feet.
As if watching the shriveled leaves was far more meaningful than looking at him, she kept her gaze lowered and didn't give him a single glance.
Her chest stung, and she felt like shit.
In his heart, he wanted to grab her chin, lift it, and demand that she look at him, but he held back, knowing she would surely run away if he did.
After the Spring Fling, Jiyu had vanished from his life as if by magic. Even as a child, she had a knack for hiding. She would disappear quietly without a sound, and just when he gave up searching, she would suddenly appear from somewhere.
It was only now that he realized the strange presence of Jewel Parker, whom he had taken for granted because she was always within sight. Since the person who disturbed his mind was gone, he felt relieved for a while, but as time passed, a strange restlessness set in.
By the time she had been gone for over two weeks, he found himself lingering in front of Aster School at dismissal time, like a stupid, loyal dog waiting for its owner.
He was lucky to have eventually heard that she was staying in temporary housing while her new home was being renovated.
It felt as if a piece of built-in furniture, which he had assumed would always be there without needing to look for it, had disappeared.
He thought it didn't matter whether it was there or not because he rarely used it, but once it was gone, it was unexpectedly inconvenient, and no matter what he put in its place, it never felt quite right.
That was more bothersome than he expected. His condition remained consistently poor.
Jerard had been right.
If it hadn't been for the 'frank conversation' they had just before the Spring Fling, he would have been genuinely confused. He was told that since hormones run wild at this age, his body would react just at the thought of kissing.
That was probably why it was so easy to be mistaken.
Kissing Jiyu at the party and subsequently getting slapped was a shocking event. Perhaps that was why she often appeared in his dreams since that day. She would be wearing the short dress she wore to the party, with glossy lip gloss on her lips.
On the days Jiyu appeared in his dreams, he invariably woke up to a shameful morning.
He let out a cynical snort.
Fuck. It wasn't just the mornings.
While doing homework. While exercising. While lying down to sleep, suddenly.
The feeling of those soft, supple lips, the sweet scent of strawberries, the slight touch of mature curves—the moment those memories surfaced, his body reacted instantly. He couldn't stop the vivid imaginations, to the point where he feared someone might look into his head.
Every time that happened, he had no choice but to run into the bathroom to relieve the urge.
And afterward, the self-loathing that followed like a tail severely eroded his pride.
There were only two things in the world that didn't go his way: tennis and Jewel Parker. Tennis was the only thing he loved, and Jewel Parker was...
When she was beside him, she was somehow irritating, and he wanted to torment her until she burst into tears. But when she wasn't before his eyes, that was unsettling and unpleasant in its own way.
It was the same now.
Seeing her sitting there primly, not giving him a single glance, made him feel stifled and annoyed to the point of bursting.
He wanted to get angry and rage, but at the same time, he wanted to pull her up, hug her until she broke, and kiss her once more. He wanted to feel the sensations he had felt inside the photo booth again.
Hunter's mind was a tangled mess.
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