the next day, jihae was already in front of mrs. lee's house, a family friend, to watch over their daughter.

she's been doing this for a while now. everytime the family had something to do and couldn't bring the child, they called for the jeons.

at first, the siblings even argued about who should take care of it. jihae was sulking the first time she went to their house, but soon fell in love with the kid anyway.

this resulted her in volunteering to babysit everytime she got a chance. she was perfect of the job anyways. jungkook was to scary for the child because of how big he is, and soyeon, well, doesn't really like kids. their parents are way too busy.

jihae knocked on the door, and it almost immediately opened. "jihae eonnie!" a little girl greeted her, holding her arms up to be carried.

"hi, yeseul." she smiled as she picked the child up. "where's your mom?"

yeseul pointed to the living room where she could see mrs. lee putting on her high heels.

"jihae! i'm so sorry to call unexpectedly." the older women got up. "they held a rushed meeting."

"it's no problem, auntie. i always love hanging out with this ball of sunshine." she patted the head of the 6 year old in her arms.

"thank you again for coming. i'll be back before four." mrs. said as she kissed her baby goodbye and went out the door.

the girl put yeseul down. "so, what do you wanna do?"

"let's watch barbie!"

°

they were singing the songs and even dressed up as the characters of the movie.

their fun was cut short when the little girl suddenly asked if she could eat outside the house.

jihae knew what she meant. there was a convenience store not so far from their neighborhood and it had all sort of treats yeseul liked. the thing is, the area was always crowded since there was a famous coffee shop and supermarket near it.

the teen didn't see anything wrong with the request so she immediately agreed to take them out. she grabbed her handbag with the money she'll use to pay the food and they both headed out.

it took them about ten minutes to arrive there by foot, and yeseul instantly squealed in excitement.

jihae was carrying her the entire time, afraid the she might lose the child. the just let the little one point whatever she wanted and the sophomore would tell her if she could buy it or not.

soon, they gathered everything they wanted to buy, which was quite a lot from jihae's expectations.

they went up to the counter to pay as she put all the products down to be scanned. once the worker was finished and showed the price, the girl reached to her bag to get the amount needed.

she was having some trouble finding the money because she was still holding the six year old. she could tell that the cashier was getting impatient, so she put the kid down for a moment telling her not to go out of sight.

she grabbed the money and paid for the food, waiting for it to be placed in a bag. it took a bit longer because the worker was rather slow.

jihae was getting irritated as she stared at the cashier with dagger eyes.

when the final item was packed, she let out a sigh of relief and grabbed the plastic bag and turn to her side.

to her horror, she didn't see yeseul. "yeseul?" she called, getting nervous.

she looked around more, scanning everywhere. "yeseul?" she tried again, letting her anxiety consume her.

"excuse me, have you seen the kid i was with earlier?" she asked the cashier since, to her luck, there were no other costumers inside the store.

the cashier glanced around for a bit. "no, i'm sorry."

jihae started mumbling curses as she swept her hair up in frustration.

"ma'am. you can leave your number here, in case the child comes back." the cashier said.

the psychology major thanked her as they exchanged numbers. she went to the store, running, eyes wandering as she searched for the little girl.

she asked random people if they had seen a girl with short hair and had bangs, around six years old, only to get answers of denial. she was panicking.

if anything happens to yeseul, it's my fault.

she wanted to cry on the spot but figured that she needs to stay strong for her to find the kid.

-

when jihae put yeseul down in the convenience store, she saw a cat and she immediately became fond of it.

without thinking, the six year old went out of the store to follow it, only to get lost in the process.

she had no idea where she currently was. she always had her mom or jihae to accompany her whenever they were out. she was not familiar with the place she was currently in.

that meant she couldn't recall where the convenience store was because she was too focused on the cat.

now, that feline was nowhere to be seen and so was her jihae.

she walked around, hoping to find her guardian and started sobbing.

she wanted to ask for help but people looked scary to her. her mom always told her not to talk of trust strangers.

it wasn't until she saw a kind looking guy. he was very handsome and she felt like she count on him.

she shyly approached the male walking. "e-excuse me, oppa. c-can you p-please help me?"

-

seonghwa just got out of his favorite coffee shop. he was walking peacefully when someone suddenly tugged on his sweatshirt.

he turned around to she a little girl who looked like she just came from crying

"e-excuse me, oppa. c-can you p-please help me?"

the boy instantly felt sorry for the kid. he wanted to protect this baby.

he kneeled down to reach her eyes level and asked, "why? what's wrong?"

the kid's lips trembled. "i was buying food w-with my eonnie, t-then i saw a pretty cat a-and followed it. and now i-i don't know where i am."

the junior nodded in understanding. "do you happen to know your eonnie's phone number?" he asked, hoping she did to make things easier.

unfortunately the girl shook his head.

"what's your name?" he asked, hoping to make the kid less tensed.

"lee yeseul." the girl answered.

seonghwa smiled. "that's a pretty name. i'm seonghwa."

yeseul giggled at the compliment and held his hand.

he thought of bringing her to the police station but figured it would be scary for her. it also seemed like she wasn't missing for too long so he just decided to help her find her guardian.

"o-oppa. do you know where's the convenience store?" the child questioned. "maybe my eonnie is still there."

the boy smiled again. "is that where you were last with her?"

the girl nodded. "okay, then. let's go. hold on tight so that you won't get lost again, alright?" the cinematography major said gently making the little girl calm.

seonghwa was talking to yeseul about random things, from her favorite toys to her so called boyfriends at school. the child really liked the male. he was like an older brother she never had. the other brother she did have was always busy and never spent time with her.

"is this the store?" the boy carefully asked, praying they were in the right place.

the girl suddenly yelled in happiness. "yes! thank so much, oppa."

"of course, yeseul." he replied. "now let's go in and wait for your eonnie, yeah?"

yeseul enthusiastically nodded as they went in. the cashier noticed this, she especially noticed the kid.

"uh, excuse me. but do you happen to know where this child's guardian is?" seonghwa asked her.

she immediately took out her phone and pressed on the number the sophomore gave earlier. "miss, the little just came back to our store."

jihae was currently at the supermarket. "i'll be there in a sec! don't let her go anywhere, please."

"sure thing." the worker replied as she put her phone down.

"her guardian said she'll be here." she informed both of them.

seonghwa was still feeling uneasy, leaving this child alone while waiting so he insisted on staying. it's not like yeseul was willing to let him go anyway.

after a few minutes, the door opened harshly, revealing a panting girl and looking around frantically.

when she finally made eye contact with the baby she was looking for she ran to her, hugging her.

"yeseul! oh, my god. are you okay? are you hurt? no one did anything to you, right?" jihae scanned for any signs of injuries. "don't do that again. i was so scared."

the child hugged her back, burying her face in her eonnie's neck. "i'm sorry, jihae eonnie. i promise to tell you next time."

jihae let's out a sigh of relief. "you had me so worried."

"but eonnie, look." the little girl broke the hug as she pointed towards seonghwa. "i made a friend."

the psychology major lifted her head up, and her eyes widened at the male.

"hey." he chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. "so, you're the eonnie yeseul keeps talking about.

instead of saying anything, jihae
just held yeseul's hand in the fear of losing her again, and marched
toward the boy.

she gave him a one armed hug but that doesn't make it any less meaningful. "thank you so much."

seonghwa returned the hug, and gave her a pat on the head. "calm down now, okay? you found her."

"technically, you did." she mumbled on his chest which made them giggle.

they broke the hug and turned back to the kid. "let's go home now. we cam eat everything we bought."

as they were waving to each other, yeseul suddenly held seonghwa's hand as well.

"let oppa join!"