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If Jungwon could go back in time and give advice to his younger self, he would tell five-year-old Jungwon to not make friends with that Sunoo kid who lived next door. Then he would shake, nine-year-old Jungwon by the shoulders until he understood that he should not talk to the new kid Riki from Kanto.
Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t be here right now, listening to the cries of a Pokémon that seemed to have no intent on stopping anytime soon. The other Pokémon in the Daycare threatening to burst into tears at any moment.
———
When Jake’s parents asked him to look after their Pokémon Daycare, while the three of them went on an impromptu holiday to Kalos, Seungmin was ecstatic. He already volunteered there two days a week, helping the family while also learning more about Pokémon, so he was sure he knew what he was doing.
However, Mr and Mrs Sim didn’t want him to run the entire place on his own, so they took it upon themselves to find two helpers for him.
Jungwon automatically assumed that they would recruit Heeseung and Jay, two responsible older members of his friend group, and as well as the two who had had the most experience looking after Pokémon.
So when Jungwon arrived at the Daycare at six-am, his Rockruff sniffing at the ground as it walked, seeing Sunoo and Riki was the last thing he expected to see.
My God, did they have to choose Sunoo and Riki?
———
There was only one hour left until they closed and Jungwon was so close to pulling out all of his hair and screaming at the top of his lungs.
Firstly, Riki had broken down with loud laughter at six that morning just because Jungwon showed up to the Daycare in his simple uniform, consisting of trousers, a white shirt and a pale green apron.
Apparently, it was hilarious.
So funny in fact that for the next ten minutes Riki wouldn’t shut up and eventually Mrs Greene, the old woman who lived next door to the Daycare, opened her window and shouted down about how she would get the broom on them. It was hard to take her seriously with the rollers in her hair.
Secondly, Sunoo ended up dropping two sacks of Poké Feed, and thus they had to spend the last few minutes before the Daycare opened, cleaning up the mess. Ensuring none of it had found its way under any of the furniture, where the baby Pokémon would be able to crawl and get to it.
And lastly, the duo had managed to trip over each other and in turn, make a little Cubchoo cry.
If Jungwon wasn’t so disappointed and mad, he would have laughed at their attempts at making the Cubchoo laugh, including, making funny faces at it, doing stupid dances and even bringing out Sunoo’s Gothorita to do some sort of magic trick.
In all honesty, Jungwon should have expected something like this. Both Sunoo and Riki are extremely clumsy when they want to be, and this isn’t the first time they’d made a Pokémon cry.
Jungwon still refuses to leave them alone with his Azurill after the last time he let them babysit his Pokémon, in which his Azurill ended up stuck in a tree after a game of ‘Parachute’ gone wrong.
Don’t ask.
“Jungwon,” Riki whined, walking over to Jungwon, taking exaggerated steps in order to avoid stepping on another Pokémon. “You have to help us!”
Jungwon sighed, placing the Pichu he had rocked to sleep, amid the loud cries of the Cubchoo, onto a sleep mat. Releasing a deep breath when the baby stayed asleep.
Suddenly, the cries of the Cubchoo increased and Jungwon turned around, finding Cubchoo sitting all alone, no Sunoo in sight.
Before he could question where the boy had gone, a hand grabbed his, pulling him into the staff room, the door closing behind him.
Sunoo was walking over to Mr Sim’s desk chair, sliding into it before slamming his head onto the table. Riki took one of the soft chairs that were in front of the desk. Leaving Jungwon to slide into the other one.
“We need a plan,” Sunoo mumbled into the desk, lifting his head and looking between the two boys, his eyes looked heavy, causing him to look like he had aged 10 years already.
And thus, Riki and Sunoo hopped into forming an elaborate plan, causing Jungwon to raise his eyebrow at the fact that they were coming up with a scheme in order to deal with a crying baby Pokémon.
Surely it can’t be that hard.
———
Turns out Jungwon was wrong for the second time that day.
Nothing the trio did even came close to stopping the Cubchoo’s cries. In fact, their attempt at doing a ‘punch show’ caused the baby to cry even harder - something they didn’t know was possible.
Even Jungwon’s idea of simply giving the Pokémon a bottle of milk did nothing but provide the baby with ammo, as Riki’s forehead sadly found out.
They were at their wit’s end now. All three of them were laying down on the floor, a plethora of Pokémon making their way over to them and laying on their chests.
They simply lay there for a few minutes, listening to the soft weeping. Jungwon cringing at the thought of the reaction of Cubchoo’s owner when they came back to collect it.
Then, the crying stopped abruptly.
The three boys sat up quickly looking over to where they had left the Cubchoo, the Oddish and Poliwag that had been resting on Jungwon’s chest, fell into his lap as he stared in disbelief at what was in front of him.
Jungwon’s Bulbasaur, who had been roaming around and helping all day, was using its vines in order to hold Cubchoo in the air, slowly rocking the Pokémon in the air. Cubchoo was now only slowly sniffling, staring at Bulbasaur with wonder.
Bulbasaur then started to sing a lullaby to Cubchoo, continuing to rock the baby, the other Pokémon started to gather around Bulbasaur listening to its’ song.
Jungwon looked over at the other two boys whose jaws were dropped and their eyes wide as they took in the scene.
The three of them looked at each other, before bursting into laughter. How could they forget how fatherly Bulbasaur was? He was the one to calm down Jake’s Togepi when said boy went on a day trip alone to Rose City.
Jungwon snorted at the sheer madness this day had caused, leaning back down onto the floor, his hands cradling his head, as he listened to the cheers of the boys and Pokémon when Bulbasaur’s song came to an end.