That uncomfortable weight settled in your chest the moment you unlocked your phone and saw dozens of unread messages waiting for you.

With furrowed brows and wide eyes (as if that would somehow help you see better), you opened the chat—only to be met with a flood of frantic, all-caps texts and… a picture of a child? Alongside a string of voice messages. Your finger tapped play, and you quickly lowered the volume, choosing not to risk ending up being deaf.

"This is a damn trap! They left me alone with this kid, and I have no idea what to do."

"I didn’t sign up to be a babysitter! Who’s gonna supervise me? Why is he looking at me like that? Why is he so weirdly quiet?"

"Where the hell are you? You can’t abandon a friend in need! No, seriously, he’s just staring at me with those big-ass eyes, like I’m supposed to do something. And he’s not talking! I know he can talk! But he’s just watching me. I thought kids didn’t care about people? Isn’t he supposed to be into, like, toys and iPads or something?"

"How did I get roped into this? I swear I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed! They said something about pork, and after that, I stopped listening and just nodded. You have to save me!"

"No, I’m serious! I’m so bad with kids. You need to get here and help me. Dongjin hyung knows you, they won’t mind. Please!"

The weight in your chest cracked and gave way to laughter, bubbling up at the sound of his whiny, dramatic voice. Annoying, yes—but just as equally entertaining. And warm. Too warm. But you weren’t ready to unpack that just yet.

You had just opened the keypad to type a response when your phone buzzed in your hands, the familiar name flashing across the screen. Smiling to yourself, you tapped the green button, bringing the phone to your ear—already fighting the giggles threatening to spill over.