The Babysitter

“Ugh! Whatever!” I hear someone exclaim as I make my way down towards the stairs.

Even before I made it down below, I found the babysitter, Minju sitting on the couch. Her arms were crossed, her phone on the table and her face, her usually beautiful and angelic face frowning as she looked down on the floor. She seemed disappointed of sorts. Clearly, something was up.

“Is everything alright, Minju?” I called out to her. I quickly got her attention as she looked back at me.

“Yeah,” she replied with a light smile. “Everything’s fine.” She added. That did not sound convincing to me though. I thought to myself.

“Are you sure, Minju? Your eyes are telling me something different…” I tell her as I sit with her on the couch.

There was clearly something going on with the girl. She looked like she wanted to talk about something but just couldn’t for some reason.

“Come on, Minju… I can’t have you like this while you’re at work… You can tell me what’s wrong…” I encouraged her.

She looked at me with a bit more seriousness in her eyes. I could tell that she needed to unload whatever it was that she was thinking about. It was clear from the look in her eyes. She just couldn’t bring herself to say it though.

“I really don’t want to bother you with this, sir…” She responded looking down at the floor again.

“You already are, Minju…” I replied to her.

“I can’t have you like that if you’re going to watch over my daughter…” I included, reminding her of why I got her here in the first place. It takes a significant amount of time before the girl finally replies.

“Well, The thing is…” She started. She paused, taking her time in finding words for the next part of her sentence.

“Well, I guess I’ll just say it…” She decided.

“Say what, Minju?” I asked her.

She didn’t answer right away, instead, she took a moment to think about what she was saying. She had the air of being unsure. Unsure whether or not to even tell me what she was trying to say. She took one last deep breath before she looked right into my eyes and said exactly what I’d been suspecting all along.

"I just broke up with Ben…” She confessed.

"Oh, I see…” I told her.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping but, I can’t really say that I’m surprised, Minju. You seem tense everytime I hear you mention his name…” I give her my confession as well.

“I knew you two were not going to last long… I just didn’t think it would be right here, on the phone…” I concluded as I closed the gap between us. It only took a couple seconds for the girl to respond.

“You mean you knew too?” She asked me.

“Pretty much…” I admit.

"I mean, it’s just that I really loved him, sir… He was such a great guy… Everything about him was so amazing…” She continued talking as she started to cry softly. Tears start rolling down her cheeks as she bawls a little more.

“It hurts so bad… Where did I go wrong?” She added. I try to comfort her as best as I can.

“Sweetie… Let me assure you, you didn’t do anything wrong…” I told her.

“I asked myself the same thing when I ended things with Mijoo… I thought our daughter would bring us closer yet she still chose that Goalie over me…” I continued.

“There was nothing you could’ve done differently… I gave you as much time as you could to work things out with him on your leaves. Yet he still chose to cheat while you were here at work. You were not meant to be with a guy like that. You deserve better. A lot better.” I concluded as I continued to console her.

She sits there for a few minutes without saying anything. All she does is nod slowly every now and then.

“Thank you, Sir… I actually feel much better now…” She says to me,

“That's good to know…” I replied back happily as I parted her hair. My action clearly takes her aback, yet the girl showed no signs of discomfort. As a matter of fact, I think I might have even seen her blush.

“Hehe, now there’s that beautiful smile…” I couldn’t help but compliment her.

“Do you have any idea how pretty you are when you smile?” I added. She let out a small giggle.

“Why thank you, Sir…” She replied as she opened her mouth and let out a cute chuckle.

“It means a lot coming from you…” She added as her giggles continued.

“That’s good to know, Minju…” I replied back softly.

I had my hand on her thigh at this point. I’ve been holding on to her bare flesh throughout our conversation. I don’t know if the girl notices this, yet she seemed to be unaware of my gesture. I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t want her. I’ve wanted nothing more than to be in bed with this cute girl. It pains me to think that someone else has been taking her for granted while she was taking good care of my daughter. I couldn’t thank her enough for all that she has done for me.

I would love to repay her in kind in the best way that I know. But I was not just going to pounce on her like this, not after we just talked about her ex. I had to set the mood up.

“Now tell me, is Rachel asleep?” I inquire about my daughter.

“Yes, sir! She should be sound asleep right now. She usually doesn’t wake up anymore at this hour.” She casually replied.

“That’s good… Would you like to watch a movie together?” I offer.

“Sure thing!” She answers back eagerly.

This instantly brightens up my night. I bring her close with me as I take out the remote and turn on to Netflix. I already had a movie in mind and it never fails to entertain anyone.

“Notting Hill?” Minju suddenly asked.

“Yes. Have you heard about it?"

"No, sir… What is it about?"

"Well, it’s a nice romcom from back in the day… It was the best movie during its time…” I simply replied, not wanting to ruin the surprise or spoil the plot.

“It says 1999. That’s before I was born!” She uttered.

“Hehe, I guess so…” I simply replied. And with that, I made ourselves comfortable on the couch and pressed the play button.

The opening credits started to roll as the intro music played. Gosh, I still can’t believe this movie could still look a lot better than it already is. The streaming platform’s high resolution quality makes the film look a lot younger than it actually is. For a movie that was 25 years old, the high resolution made the characters look like they were the same age as were. Julia Roberts was looking a lot more beautiful like she was still 32 years old in the movie and Hugh Grant was still as charming as ever.

I let out a sigh of satisfaction as I began to enjoy the movie. Each scene had a special meaning to me. Mijoo and I used to tease ourselves with some of the script’s lines. We used to watch this movie so much you might think we actually memorized it from word to word.

I look down to find Minju resting comfortably on me. Her head laid down on my chest while my arm wrapped around her waist comfortably. Her eyes stay glued towards the screen as the scenes unfold. She seemed laser-focused despite being a bit drowsy. Her eyes partially closed and partially opened throughout the film as she tries to stay up.