Min Je also seemed perplexed, as his eyebrows twitched and danced.

“I can’t give something like that as a gift.”

As he spoke firmly, tears began to well up in the child’s eyes.

“I won’t receive birthday gifts for 10 years. No, forever from now on.”

“It’s still not possible.”

A sigh was buried at the end of Min Je’s words. Though he wanted to do even impossible things seeing Ji Hoo’s desperate expression, this wasn’t an issue where that was possible.

“Dad, you’re too much! Dad, I hate you!”

In the end, the child stormed out of his seat.

Damn, what should I do about this? Ha Yeon, who had frozen stiffly while holding her chopsticks, only rolled her eyes back and forth to gauge the situation.

There’s no way I can eat in a situation like this! I’ll just have to chug digestive medicine for indigestion.

“The child is still young, that’s why. I’m sorry.”

Min Je apologized as he rubbed his dry face with both hands.

The apology from the man who seemed haughty and prickly was quite unexpected, causing Ha Yeon’s eyes to widen for a moment.

“It’s okay. But I’m worried about Ji Hoo.”

Ha Yeon glanced in the direction the child had gone.

“Ji Hoo… seemed to be getting along well.”

“Ah, he’s a customer I met while working my convenience store part-time job.”

Ha Yeon explained her meeting with the child, laughing. Hearing this, Min Je raised one eyebrow.

“So that’s why he bought cola he doesn’t even drink.”

“What? He doesn’t drink it? Are you saying he deliberately bought cola?”

“If you don’t believe me, try opening the refrigerator.”

Min Je casually jerked his chin towards the refrigerator on one side of the kitchen.

Ha Yeon’s eyes wavered. She had cursed the child’s parents so much for seeing him buy cola…

With trembling emotions, she opened the refrigerator door. Though she didn’t want to open someone else’s refrigerator door under normal circumstances, somehow she felt she needed to see it with her own eyes to believe it.

One shelf of the well-organized refrigerator was completely filled with cola. These were the colas Ji Hoo had bought from the convenience store all this time.

‘I’ve been testing you all this time, elder sister.’

Ji Hoo’s words seemed to replay in her ears. What on earth was the child thinking each time he bought cola?

Suddenly, one corner of her heart began to ache dully.

Min Je silently observed Ha Yeon, who had frozen with the refrigerator door open.

‘Dad, I met an elder sister who’s good at drawing. And she’s really pretty!’

Ji Hoo’s boastful voice overlapped with Ha Yeon’s appearance.

The child didn’t open up to just anyone. The previous sitters were practically driven out by Ji Hoo’s own hand. It was the first time the child introduced someone with such an expression.

‘Has he opened his heart enough to want to make her his mother?’

With fine lines and a small face, and eyes, nose, and mouth densely packed in, her appearance looked quite doll-like. Wearing a loose shirt and jeans with her hair tied up in a ponytail, she also seemed somewhat youthful.

21? 22 years old maybe? As he tried to gauge her age, he exhaled a mock sigh. It was because he found himself ridiculous for subconsciously considering bringing her into the household after hearing Ji Hoo’s absurd words.

Even if finding a sitter to look after Ji Hoo right away was urgent, what could he trust about a woman he just met to have such a crazy thought?

“Then I’ll be…”

Min Je snapped out of his reverie at Ha Yeon’s words as she closed the refrigerator door and returned.

“Ah, the situation got a bit oddly twisted. I’d like it if you stayed for the meal, but if you’re uncomfortable, you can go now.”

But Ha Yeon’s response was unexpected.

“No, I’ll go to Ji Hoo’s room.”

Min Je’s expression changed subtly.

‘Is she worried about the child?’

Her expression seemed to say that the image of the child running out crying was weighing on her mind.

“Of course, you can go.”

“Ah, yes, thank you.”

Min Je watched with an intrigued gaze as Ha Yeon stood up, greeted him energetically, and went up to the second floor.

Knock knock knock, Ha Yeon carefully knocked on Ji Hoo’s room door. She waited for a moment, but there was no sound.

“Ji Hoo, can I come in?”

When Ha Yeon asked against the door, the child’s answer was soon heard.

“Come in.”

Ha Yeon slowly opened the door, listing 101 ways to comfort a crying child in her head.

But to her surprise, instead of crying, the child was drawing in a sketchbook on the desk.

“Are you… okay?”

As Ha Yeon asked while examining the child’s expression, Ji Hoo shrugged and said,

“If I keep crying, my stomach hurts.”

Ha Yeon chuckled at the tone that sounded like an old man who had mastered all worldly affairs, and sat across from Ji Hoo.

“Wow, Ji Hoo’s room is really awesome.”

It wasn’t just empty words. For a child’s room, it had simple decor without any clutter, and one wall was neatly lined with books, art supplies, and toys at precise angles.

“So what?”

The child’s lips pouted. It seemed he was still quite upset that things didn’t go his way.

How could she comfort the child to soothe his feelings?

“Ji Hoo, even if I can’t be your mom, I think I could be your friend. I could come visit your house, and we could keep meeting if you come to the convenience store, right?”

“That’s not enough.”

The child’s cheeks puffed out. I shouldn’t think a child looks cute when angry.

Ha Yeon swallowed her laughter with effort and looked into Ji Hoo’s eyes as she spoke.

“Then, I’ll be a friend like a mother. Is that still not okay?”

Hmm, after pondering for a while, Ji Hoo finally nodded. Ha Yeon burst into laughter at the child’s attitude of reluctantly accepting.

Min Je’s footsteps, which had been climbing the stairs, came to an abrupt halt at the sound of laughter passing unfiltered through the closed door.

Was the sound of laughter echoing in this house such an unfamiliar thing? He stroked his chin self-mockingly.

The longer Ha Yeon stayed in this house, the more Min Je felt he could somewhat understand Ji Hoo’s feelings.

After Ha Yeon left, the house was enveloped in an even more perfect silence than before.

Clatter, only the sound of dishes hitting each other during mealtime. Min Je slightly raised one eyebrow, feeling particularly stifled by the unusually quiet house today.

Originally, they weren’t the type of father and son to have warm conversations, but since Ha Yeon’s visit, Ji Hoo seemed to be holding back his words even more as if in protest.

‘I wonder who he takes after to be so stubborn…’

Tsk, Min Je clicked his tongue and then unconsciously had his attention drawn to the housekeeper Mi Ran opening and closing the refrigerator.

The cola still occupying an entire shelf of the refrigerator was briefly visible. The cola that would stay in that spot forever unless deliberately cleared out weighed on his mind like her presence.

“I’ll be busy preparing for the exhibition for a while. So I think we need to hurry and find an auntie…”

Min Je spoke to Ji Hoo as if trying to break the silence.

For now, Mi Ran was taking care of both the housework and Ji Hoo, but that was only a temporary measure. He couldn’t burden her anymore when she was already struggling with too much work.

“It has to be the elder sister, not anyone else.”

Ji Hoo stubbornly replied while gripping his spoon.

Huh? This kid is getting worse. Min Je let out a sigh.

Ji Hoo had never insisted on his own opinion so strongly before. That’s why Min Je thought it was strange, but couldn’t ignore the child’s opinion.

Well, he had already checked if she was a trustworthy person, so there shouldn’t be any problems. The only issue was that just because this side wanted it didn’t mean she would agree.

Then Ji Hoo wouldn’t be able to do anything about it either. With that thought, Min Je answered.

“I’ll ask her first. But if she refuses, you won’t insist anymore, okay?”

“Yes!”

Ji Hoo answered brightly to Min Je’s words, as if he had never acted otherwise.

Min Je groaned as he saw the child’s expression change like flipping a hand.

The next day, Min Je visited the convenience store to match the time Ha Yeon’s part-time job ended.

As soon as he entered, he ran into her face-to-face, as if she was just about to leave with her bag.

“Welcome…”

She had reflexively started greeting upon hearing the door sound, but her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Min Je.

“If it’s not too much trouble, could we talk for a moment?”

At those words, her eyes grew a little wider. Seeing her reaction of not having expected his visit at all, Min Je thought about what expression she would make when she heard his proposal.

As it was just entering May and the weather wasn’t cold, the two sat facing each other at a makeshift table outside the convenience store.

Ha Yeon fidgeted with her fingertips for no reason. She couldn’t believe she was sitting face to face like this with Kang Min Je, her favorite.

As she tried to suppress her gaze that kept drifting towards his face, Min Je spoke first.

“I’m not sure what you’ll think, but I have a proposal to make.”

A proposal? As Ha Yeon raised her head with a suspicious look, Min Je smoothly handed over a piece of paper.

“What is… this?”

Ha Yeon’s eyes wavered as she looked down at the document. The paper he handed over was a complex document, like some kind of contract.

“I was just looking for someone to move in and take care of the child. In exchange for providing appropriate interaction and all necessary care for Ji Hoo, and living in the room next to the child’s, how about this much?”

While Ha Yeon quickly scanned the numbers written on the paper, Min Je added an explanation.

“Ah, there’s someone else who does things like laundry and cleaning, so you’ll only need to focus entirely on Ji Hoo. The problem is that I can’t give exact days off, but you can spend your time freely when Ji Hoo is at kindergarten.”

Ha Yeon doubted her own eyes. This level of compensation was better than getting a job at a decent workplace. Moreover, it was questionable whether she, an art student for whom making a living was more urgent, would ever encounter better conditions than this in the future.

But there were many things that made her hesitant to accept the proposal blindly.

“May I ask why you’re making this proposal to me?”

Even she herself didn’t think she was a suitable person as a sitter. After all, a married woman who had raised children would be much more suitable as a sitter.

“I’m making this proposal out of respect for Ji Hoo’s opinion. That kid says it has to be you, Ha Yeon. I figured this would be better anyway, since if it’s someone I don’t like, they’ll treat him coldly and quit soon enough.”

Ha Yeon blinked for a moment at Min Je’s honest answer. How could such a sweet and cute child like Ji Hoo cause people who worked for him to not last long and quit?

Perhaps because she had grown quite attached to the child, she couldn’t quite believe those words at face value. Moreover, the child’s earnest eyes pleading for her to become his mother came to mind again, weighing heavily on one corner of her heart.

As she hesitated to answer easily and pondered, Ha Yeon suddenly came to her senses when she felt Min Je’s gaze quietly studying her eyes.

When that gaze, which seemed to read all her inner thoughts, overlapped with the face she liked most, her heart suddenly started pounding.

“I’m not asking for an answer right away. You can decide after thinking it over thoroughly.”

“I, I will.”

Ha Yeon nodded her head vigorously, trying to escape this situation for now.

When Ha Yeon returned home, her legs somehow felt weak and she slumped down. Then she suddenly came to her senses and took out the contract Min Je had handed her from her bag.

‘I didn’t see it wrong.’

After examining the contents carefully, Ha Yeon confirmed that her eyes weren’t mistaken and let out a short sigh.

For the first time, she who had been bouncing between various part-time jobs and living an unstable life was given the opportunity to get a stable job. Moreover, since they were looking for a live-in sitter, she could even save on the current monthly rent costs.

From Ha Yeon’s position, where savings were a dream after deducting living expenses and rent from her current earnings, it was an offer difficult to refuse.

‘Is this luck?’

Suddenly recalling Ji Hoo’s face smirking in an unchildlike manner, Ha Yeon agonized over whether she should accept this as luck or not.