LOVE:ZERO

Jiyu, her fears of Hunter slightly tempered by the magical word library, was led by Rosa’s hand into the playroom.

Her eyes widened.

The playroom was the size of four of her rooms combined.

There was a monkey bar, a slide, swings, a zip line, and everything else you’d expect from a playground.

But that’s not what caught Jiyu’s eye.

Across the corner, I saw a giant floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that surrounded a window and was filled with books.

It even had a wheeled ladder at an angle to access the books at the top, like a library in a movie.

“Wow.”

A small gasp escaped Jiyu’s mouth.

In front of the bookshelf was a round bean bag chair that looked like it was big enough for three adults.

Jiyu smiled a small smile for the first time since she and Hunter started going on playdates.

Hunter leapt onto the round chair suspended from the zip line and sped across the room.

She dodged him, flattening herself against the wall and sneaking up to the window.

While Hunter hopped like a flying squirrel on the playground equipment, Jiyu burrowed into a beanbag chair and buried her nose in a book.

The peacefulness of being in the same room, playing separately, brought her peace, and she lost herself in the book, forgetting that this was Hunter’s playroom.

She wondered how much time had passed.

“Do you speak?”

Jiyu looked up, startled by the voice from out of nowhere, and then dropped her gaze as she met the piercing blue eyes and nodded.

“…Yeah.”

That was the end of the conversation.

Hunter trotted off toward the monkey bar, apparently losing interest in her again.

Jiyu sighed in relief and let her eyes drift back down to the lettering.

It was only when she heard a dull thud, followed by a grunt and a grunt of pain, that she looked up.

Hunter was sprawled out under the monkey bars, looking quite high up, and had fallen from there.

He scrambled to his feet as Jiyu watched in amazement, then crawled back onto the monkey bars.

The handles on the long pole were spaced at various intervals.

In the middle of the pole, there was even a handle that spun around, which looked quite challenging.

Hunter swung his long arms out to the handle and clung to it.

He swung his legs together, back and forth, and the handle creaked and spun half a turn.

He stretched out one arm that was holding the handle. The next time, the handle was at least five inches away from his fingertips.

He hung on to the handle with both hands again, rocking back and forth, and then jumped.

Ziyu, who was watching, let out a surprised “ahhh” sound.

Sure enough, just as his fingertips barely touched the handle, he fell to the floor with a dull thud.

Ugh~

After a short groan, there was silence in the playroom.

Hunter slammed his fist down on the thick matting, then gritted his teeth and jerked his upper body up.

Jiyu immediately lowered her head as soon as her eyes met Hunter’s.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him dust off his clothes, get up, and climb back onto the monkey bars.

Thud~

A sickening sound.

Gurgling~

As the similar sound continued to repeat, Jiyu couldn’t help but be curious and raised her head again.

‘Doesn’t it hurt?’

She wondered when Hunter would give up.

When he realized she was watching, he shouted in exasperation.

“I can do it!”

Stunned, she nodded and parroted his words.

‘Yes. I can do it.”

Hunter staggered to his feet and climbed back onto the monkey bars, then turned to Jiyu and ordered.

“You. Watch what I’m doing. Stop looking at the book.”

“…Okay.”

She replied, her voice cracking.

Hunter reached for the steering wheel again as Jiyu watched.

Grasping the handle, he brought his legs together and swung back and forth like a swing, making a whirring, wind-cutting sound.

Then he stretched his arms out and jumped.

The tongue. His palms slammed into the steel, and Hunter gripped the handle tightly.

Then he roared like an animal.

“Yesss!”

“Wow.”

A pure exclamation of admiration came out of Jiyu’s mouth as she watched.

From there, it was easy. With a flick of his arms, Hunter crossed his arms and reached the tip of the monkey bars in a flash.

Releasing both hands, he landed on the ground with a thud, then lifted his chin and grinned triumphantly.

When he realized that Jiyu had watched his success, he ordered again.

“I did it! Clap your hands.”

Jiyu did as he asked, clapping her little hands together.

Hunter was more terrifying than a midnight ghost, more terrifying than a horned monster on his head, but his smile was somehow dazzling, almost angelic.

Seeing him creeping toward the library, Jiyu quickly ducked her head and raised the book in front of her nose defensively.

Jiyu peeked over the top of the book as Hunter stood in front of the bookshelves, his hands flicking back and forth through the pages.

He stopped in the middle of the shelf and pulled out a chapter book, then came and stood in front of her, kicking the beanbag with his toes.

“You. Can you really read a chapter book?”

“…Yes.”

When Jiyu hesitantly replied, Hunter thrust the book in his hand.

“Then, read this out loud.”

The book he held out was Magic Treehouse.

I had read the first few chapters when I went to the library and closed the book because I was scared.

But compared to Hunter, the book was much less scary.

Taking the book, Jiyu slowly started to read it.

Hunter stood in front of her for a while, listening, then jumped up onto the wide, cushioned window sill and wiggled his legs as he looked out the window.

The book was scary when she read it alone, but today it was strangely not scary.

As Jiyu became more and more engrossed in the adventure unfolding in the book, her legs stopped wiggling under the window sill.

Hunter, who had been sitting still and listening to the narrator’s voice, suddenly jumped onto the beanbag.

“Ouch!”

Jiyu, who had been sitting calmly, fell backwards, still holding the book in her hands, as Hunter landed with a thud.

Luckily, this time, she landed on a fluffy beanbag chair.

Hunter snatched the book out of her hand and plopped down on the beanbag chair.

“Where were we?”

Jiyu, barely able to raise herself from the sinking chair, pointed her finger to the middle of the page.

“Here.”

“I’ll read it too.”

Hunter read a few words aloud, then reached out quickly and tugged her from her unsteady seat.

“Now you read it again.”

“…”

Jiyu whimpered and flopped down next to Hunter.

“Quickly.”

“Yeah.”

She focused her eyes on the print again and began to read aloud, calmly, steadily.

Hunter’s head tilted toward the book.

Lauren and Ae-Jeong wandered down to the playroom to make sure everything was going well and were surprised to find an unexpected sight.

The two children were lying face down on a beanbag, head to head, reading a book.

When Rosa dozed off in the chair in front of the door and tried to wake up in anger at the pretense of popularity, Lauren put a finger to her lips and settled her back down.

Worried that Hunter’s bossy behavior would upset the gentle child, Lauren shook her head in disbelief when she saw him bent over, peering into the book.

Hunter had never been interested in books.

He had learned the alphabet and phonics in preschool, but he was still a stuttering reader.

He also had too much energy to sit calmly in one place and concentrate, and even when she or Nanny read to him, he quickly lost interest.

Here he was, peering into a book, unaware that anyone had entered the playroom.

Lauren silently signaled with her eyes for Ae-Jeong to go back outside.

Not wanting to be intrusive, Lauren sneaked out of the playroom and led Ae-Jeong down the hallway.

“Ms. Ae-Jeong, does Olivia speak Korean by any chance?”

“Oh, yes, she understands everything and speaks it well, because I only speak Korean to her and Nanny is Korean too.”

She smiles affectionately.

Technically, Rosa was a babysitter who came twice a week, but Ae-Jeong called her “Nanny” because it seemed more appropriate.

“Haha, I should have, but it’s not easy to speak Korean to her because I’m more comfortable in English.”