Work Text:
The front door slams open as Jagae’s entering the house in a cheerful mood as she’s moving along to the beat of the song she’s listening to (Deceptacon - Le Tigre). She slips out of her converse and goes upstairs to her room and sets her backpack down on a chair by the door.
She changes out of her school uniform and changes into a white oversized shirt and black shorts and just as she’s about to check her phone, she’s interrupted by her father calling her to come down for dinner.
“I’m coming…!” She groans as she takes her headphones off to pause the song, then setting her phone and headphones on her clean and organized desk and heads out of her room.
Later on during dinner, Jagae’s just staring at the plate in front of her. she sits with one of her legs up and resting against the table and uses her free hand to tap on her other leg out of boredom.
“Jagae, please put your leg down.”
“Mhm…” she muttered as she adjusted her position, putting her leg down and starting to tap her foot on the floor beneath her feet.
“So… the new family that moved here last month needs a babysitter—well, 2. Would you like to babysit their 7 year old son?” Her father asked, trying to talk to his daughter.
“I think the kid’s name is Custard III. He goes to Crispia Elementary. The elementary school near your school.”
“Sure. I can babysit him.”
“I already told the family that you’d be babysitting for them anyways.”
“What?”
“They want to meet with you tomorrow after school at 6 PM to discuss rules and so you can meet the kid.”
Suddenly a day passed and now it’s near 6 PM. Jagae stands on the porch. She rings the doorbell and as the door opens, she’s greeted with a warm gentle smile.
“Good evening, Mrs. Lily. I was told you were expecting me.” Jagae smiled as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear.
“Good evening to you too, Jagae. I’m glad we can have someone we trust to babysit our son. Come in!”
As Jagae enters the house, she looks around at the clean organized rooms and follows White Lily to the living room.
“I haven’t seen this house in a while, it looks lovely, Mrs. Lily.” She sits down on the couch as she watches White Lily gracefully sit down in an armchair next to the couch.
“Thank you, Jagae. We’re really grateful to have someone sweet like you watching our son.”
“No problem, Mrs. Lily. I promise I’ll watch Custard III and keep him safe.” She takes out a small notepad so she can
“Great! We’ll normally be out until 7 PM. Your school is nearby Crispia Elementary so I hope it doesn’t trouble you to go walk there and wait until he gets out of school and walk him home. Since we have another babysitter, he’ll be helping and watching Custard III too.”
“You will start… Tomorrow. Sound good?”
“Yes Ma’am. Don’t worry. We’ll watch over your son.” Jagae sets the notepad and pen on her lap and puts a hand on her hip while pointing at herself.
“Alright, I’ll lay down some rules.”
A few minutes pass and as White Lily finishes the rules, Custard III runs into the living room to his mother.
“Perfect timing! Custard, meet Jagae. She’s going to walk you home and babysit you everyday after school, okay? Say hello.”
“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Custard III.” she waved her hand with a smile.
“Good evening to you, my faithful servant!” Custard III said waving a toy wand in the air with a hand on his hip.
“Cute kid.” Jagae chuckled
“I might have to head home right now. I’ll see you tomorrow, Okay?” Jagae stood up, waving to White Lily and Custard III.
“See you tomorrow! Get rest!”
The next day after the final bell had rung, Jagae picked up her backpack and went to find her friends in the hallway.
“-No one told me there was a test!”
“Maybe because you were dreaming about your ‘boyfriend’ when the teacher announced it.” Caramel Arrow nudged Crunchy Chip’s shoulder.
“I-I was not!”
“I bet he was!” Jagae cheered as she ran up to Crunchy Chip and Caramel Arrow.
“Jagae!” Crunchy Chip exclaimed, trying to hide his flushed face with his hands.
“Haha! I’ll give you my notes, don’t worry!” She put her backpack down and started searching her bag for a notebook.
“You’re a lifesaver.” Crunchy Chip sighed as Jagae handed him the notebook and slinging her bag back onto her shoulder.
“Want to hang out at my house today?”
“Sure! I’ll come. Can you help me study?”
“I don’t see why not! Jagae, you coming?” Caramel Arrow glanced at Jagae
“Sorry, I have to watch the neighbor’s kid.” Jagae shrugged her shoulders and shook her head
“That’s alright! Do what you need to do.” Crunchy Chip held 2 thumbs up
“See ya’ll tomorrow!” Jagae exclaimed, parting with her friends while waving goodbye to them.
Later after picking Custard III up from school, Jagae and Custard walks into the house and set down their bags and take their shoes off. They walk together to the living room.
Then Jagae notices a familiar figure leaning against the side of a couch looking down at a phone in their hand. They look up and make eye contact with the girl in front of them.
“…so you’re the neighbor the couple was talking about.” It was Manju, Jagae’s rival.
“You’re the other babysitter?!”
“What’s going on..?” Custard tugged on Jagae’s skirt, looking up at her.
“…”
“…”
“I.. I’ll get a snack for us, stay in the living room with Manju, Custard III.” Jagae turned around and started to walk to the kitchen.
“How do you know her?” Custard sat on the couch next to where Manju was standing
“She’s my rival…” Manju hissed at the thought of her and put his phone in his pocket
“So you hate her?” Custard tilted his head, looking at Manju
“Yes.” He answered immediately
“Why?” Custard tilted his head the other way
“Let’s get you a snack” Manju avoided the question and picked up Custard III and started walking to the kitchen.
Jagae saw the 2 coming into the kitchen and as Manju sat Custard in a chair, Jagae came over to them and gave Custard a bag of Cheez-Its and tossed another bag at Manju and he almost dropped the bag on the floor. He glared at Jagae then opened the bag and started eating the Cheez-Its.
Not long after, Custard III finished his Cheez-Its so he hopped out of his seat and went to throw away the empty bag.
“Let’s go play!” He exclaimed, raising both of his hands in the air.
Jagae and Manju glared at each other for a moment and then Manju got up from sitting on a chair to throw away the empty bag and walked towards Custard III and grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the playroom upstairs.
Jagae rolled her eyes and got off the counter she was sitting on so she could throw away the finished bag of Cheez-Its and then went upstairs to the playroom.
As she walked down the hallway, she heard giggling from the room in the middle of the hallway. The door was slightly open so she peeked through the door and saw Custard III playing with a couple of toys and Manju sitting next to him playing along with the kid.
“For someone so sly and insufferable, he’s… pretty sweet” She thought.
Jagae knew how much of how hard it was to read his expression and emotions. Seeing him genuinely happy and smiling made her feel like she had a soft spot for him…
No. Her? Having a soft spot for her rival? There’s no way she’d let her walls down for a rival. At least that’s what Jagae thought at the time. She shook her head to get back to her senses before walking into the room to join them.
She opened the door and sat on the couch next to where Manju sat.
“Having fun while I was gone?” She chuckled
“Jagae! Yay you’re here! I want to show you both something so stay here!” Custard jumped up and bolted out of the room, leaving the 2 confused rivals alone.
“He’s such an energetic kid…” Jagae muttered
“Yep.” Manju took out his phone to check the time and put the phone back in his pocket.
“…I didn’t know you had a soft spot for kids. Or a soft spot at all” Jagae brushed some of her hair behind her ear as Manju turned and puts his hands next to where she was sitting and lied his head in his arms.
He looked into her eyes and muttered “Didn’t know you had one either.”
“…”
“…”
“I heard you-“
“Thank you for waiting for me! I have something to show you both!” Custard announced, holding up a Hamster with white fur
“How about we go put that away and we can play.” Jagae stood up and put her hands on Custard’s shoulders and redirected him to his room
A minute later, Jagae dashed into the room with Custard III on her back giggling
“Again! Again!” Custard III chanted as Jagae sat on the edge of the couch to let go of Custard III
“Maybe some other time outside, Okay?”
“Okay!” Custard III got off the couch and started to search for toys they could play with
As Jagae watched Custard III look for toys, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Manju staring at her… or rather, into her eyes. So she looked back at him.
“Oh! Uh-You wanted to ask me something earlier…?” Manju asked, shocked that she noticed he was looking at into her eyes
“Oh. That… I-If I’m not mistaken, you recently broke up with your girlfriend… Right?”
“Yeah that’s true.”
“How come?”
“I didn’t know this until a while ago but she would cheat and I guess we would just keep quiet about it” He turned his head away to avoid eye contact
“…I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. I’ve been told she wasn’t the one for me. Besides, I’m fine staying single.” He turned his head back to face her and tilted his head as he smiled. He seemed happy
After Custard found the toys, they all played for a while until White Lily and Pure Vanilla came home. The couple thanked the 2 babysitters and gave them their payment.
Day after day, Manju and Jagae would walk or race each other to Custard III’s school to pick him up. Their rivalry stayed the same at school but when they were together watching Custard III, it seemed like they put their rivalry aside for the sake of Custard III and he noticed it.
One day, Jagae and Manju were taking Custard III to a playground. Jagae was walking next to Manju and was carrying Custard III on her back and they all started talking to each other about Custard III’s day and played with Custard III on the playground.
At some point while Manju watched Jagae pushing Custard III on a swing, He saw a group of 3 girls whispering to each other and it seemed like they were looking at him, Jagae, and Custard. Manju felt off about it.
“Manju? You alright? What’re you looking at?” Jagae looked at him. Her eyebrows furrowed and the corners of her mouth curling into a bit of a frown
“…It’s nothing. Nothing to worry about.” He then looked away from the group of girls and glanced at Jagae for a moment before looking at Custard III
The next day during 7th period, Jagae was writing notes then someone passed her a paper. It was from Crunchy Chip.
“Haven’t you noticed how everyone saw you while you were walking through the halls today?”
Jagae quickly wrote something down on the note before passing it back to Crunchy Chip.
“No? Wdym? Why?”
“So you haven’t heard…”
“Haven’t heard what?!”
As Crunchy Chip was writing the message, he immediately stopped so he and Jagae wouldn’t be caught passing notes to each other.
Later after the final bell, this time, Jagae looked around her and saw a bunch of groups talking to each other then whispering. Jagae knew something was up so she went to her friends.
“What’s going on?”
“I already told you.”
“No you didn’t, you didn’t pass the note to me.”
“Righttt…”
“Can you just tell me what’s going on?” Jagae shifted her weight to her left and put a hand on her hip
“Sheesh! Calm down! I will!” Crunchy Chip held his hands out like a shield in front of him
“Crunchy Chip, stop. Just tell her. You don’t need to say anything else.” Caramel Arrow placed a hand on Crunchy Chip’s shoulder
“Okay. These 3 girls spread a rumor that Manju ditched his girl to be with his rival. His rival being you.”
“Where are they even getting that from?”
“They must’ve seen you and Manju both run or walk to the elementary together. Those girls probably don’t even know that you and your rival babysit the same kid.”
“Guess they’re going to just make a rumor out of everything they see…” Jagae started to rub the back of her neck and started to walk alongside Crunchy Chip and Caramel Arrow.
As the friend group walked outside, Jagae noticed a group of 4 girls and they seemed to notice that Jagae were looking at them so they all put on a smug grin and whispered to each other. Jagae tried to brush it off and then split paths with her friends so she could walk to the elementary.
“…”
“…”
“…Boo!” Manju suddenly put his hands on her shoulders
“-SHIT! You scared me! I thought my heart was going to burst through my chest…!” Jagae reached over her shoulder and squeezed one of Manju’s hands
“…So you heard about the rumor?” Manju took his hands off of her shoulders and slung his arm around her shoulders
“Where are you getting that from…? Ugh, yes. I did.”
“They’re just trying to make a rumor out of everything at this point…”
“That’s what I said.”
“Great minds think alike.”
“…Let’s not talk about the rumor, we have other things to do other than to listen to that bullcrap.”
Later as the 2 rivals and their kid walked to his house, Custard wanted to go to the playground again so they all set down their bags at the house and went to the playground. While Custard III was going to sit on a slide, Jagae was talking to Manju and was helping Custard III slide down.
But just as Custard was about to slide down a second time, Jagae saw a familiar group of girls standing a bit far away with their phones out, recording them. As Custard slid down, Jagae immediately picked him up and had his back facing the girls so they wouldn’t record Custard III’s face.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Recording you! Obviously!”
“What makes you think you can record us without consent? Are you sick?!”
The group of girls just stood there staring at Jagae and the kid she was holding, not putting their phones down as Jagae hopelessly stood there stunned trying to make sure the girls wouldn’t record Custard’s face.
If Jagae wasn’t holding Custard III, she definitely would’ve swiftly pinned one of the girls onto the ground and started beating her up. Then as one of the girls took a step forward, trying to place her hand on Custard, Jagae moved before she could think and slapped the girl, making the phone drop to the floor.
Then Jagae grabbed Manju’s wrist and ran out of the playground and went back to the house. A few minutes later as they’re all eating a snack, Manju saw Jagae leaning against the wall behind the counter she was sitting on and staring out of the window.
“Those nosy snobs are going to post that video, aren’t they?”
“Maybe, but who knows? Maybe everyone else will be on your side.”
“And if they aren’t?”
“…Then we’ll figure something out.”
“We?” Jagae questioned as she turned her head to look at Manju
“I mean… I’m sure you’re going to need help. I got your back!” Manju held his fist out in front of him
“Then I’ll get yours.” Jagae mimicked Manju’s fist bump thing and they air-fist bumped into an air high five.
The next day, Jagae sat outside, anxiously kept checking her phone for the video during lunch. Then when she was sure it wasn’t posted, she put her phone back in her pocket and saw Crunchy Chip and Caramel Arrow walking to her so they could sit together.
A few minutes later, Crunchy Chip was playing games on his phone while Caramel Arrow talked to Jagae.
“Wait, there’s a video I want to show you!” Caramel Arrow pulled out her phone happily and searched for the video she wanted to show Jagae until she saw something concerning catch her eye.
Caramel Arrow furrowed her eyebrows and slowly frowned.
“You alright?” Jagae grabbed the phone from Caramel Arrow’s hands and Caramel Arrow instantly grabbed onto Jagae’s wrists before she could see what her best friend just saw. Jagae broke out of Caramel Arrow’s grip and looked at the phone and made the same expression Caramel Arrow had made.
It was a video with an edited thumbnail of Jagae and the channel was the school’s official channel. Those snobs must’ve sent the video of them in the playground to Manju’s snobby ex, Heather and she somehow got the school to post the video.
Later during the day, it was raining so Manju and Jagae were sitting on the couch in the living room, talking to each other while Custard was taking a nap, resting his head in Jagae’s lap.
“So, Heather’s girls posted that video.”
“Yep…” Jagae sighed as she brushed some of her hair behind her ears
“And spread misinformation about both of us.”
“What do you think we should do about it?”
“Fake date so everyone will drop the rumor once they see that we’re ‘together’”
“Is there another option?”
“Uhh… No. That was the first thing that came to mind.”
“No one’s gonna believe us.”
“They’re gonna believe us.”
“I can’t believe they believe us.” It was suddenly the next day and the first day they were fake dating.
Jagae had absolutely no idea what fake dating would be like. Especially with her rival. Actually, would Manju still be her rival? Because right now, they’re dating according to the school’s gossip and they definitely don’t talk to each other like they’re rivals whenever they’re together watching Custard.
Jagae shook her head again to get back to her senses.
“How does everyone just believe it? We’re just walking right next to each other.” Jagae whispered as she looked around seeing people whispering excitedly.
“Like you said, they’ll believe in everything they see.”
And Manju was right about that. Even though they did normal things like getting a snack from the vending machine for her, tying up her hair for her so it wouldn’t get in her face. Handing his jacket to her so she doesn’t get cold. Finishing his drink because he couldn’t finish it.
After a little while of fake dating, Manju came up with phase 2.
“-we’ll ‘break up.’ The school will then forget about it. And we’ll go back to normal.”
“Which is going back to being… rivals…” Jagae rubbed the back of her neck and tried avoiding eye contact with Manju though he was lying next to where Jagae was sitting on the couch, resting his head in her lap.
For some reason Jagae didn’t feel happy going along with the plan. But why? It’s not like she actually liked being Manju’s “girlfriend” and sometimes forgot they were faking it… right? Now it seems like she was just romanticizing the casual moments of them together and thinking it’s real. That it wasn’t an act.
the day after Manju explained the next phase of the plan, They pretended to get into a nasty argument and “broke up.” The plan had worked and everyone forgot about the rumors and Manju and Jagae went back to being rivals. They still babysat Custard III but that was between Jagae, Manju, Caramel Arrow, and Crunchy Chip.
Now instead of both of them chasing each other to the elementary to pick up Custard, only Jagae would pick him up while Manju walked to the house and waited for them. For some reason, even though the argument and break up was staged, it still felt too real for Jagae. She still felt hurt from the fake words Manju yelled at her during their “argument.” But she had no idea why she felt that way.
“Jagae, are you okay?”
“Huh? Oh, Yeah. I’m-I’m fine.”
“Damn it! I lost again!” Crunchy Chip yelled as he threw a controller on the ground
It was a last-minute sleepover at 9 PM on a First evening at Caramel Arrow house.
They were all having fun playing a few videos games and talking and watching Crunchy Chip yell at the tv screen whenever he lost a game.
“Are you sure? ‘Cause you’ve been acting off ever since you and Manju ‘broke up.’ Aren’t you happy that everything’s back to normal?” Caramel Arrow placed a hand on Jagae’s shoulder
“No… I don’t know how I feel. For some reason, the fight felt real. The break up felt real. Everything did! What’s wrong with me…?!”
“Just face it. Manju’s just some boy that you like then.” Crunchy Chip subconsciously muttered
“If you like him, tell him. Easy.”
“No it’s not! It’s not like him to be with someone he doesn’t like.”
“I’d rather suffer in silence and see him happy than to have him as mine and see him unhappy.”
“Jagae, just tell him. I’m sure he’ll understand how you feel.”
“Hmm… I’ll think about it.”
The next morning after everyone woke up and ate breakfast, Jagae’s phone rang and she answered the call.
“-Jagae, last minute request. Can you please come over and take care of Custard III? He has a fever and I have to go to work and his father’s out of town.”
“I’ll have my friend drop me off at your house. I’ll start heading there, Mrs. Lily.”
When Caramel Arrow dropped Jagae off at Custard’s house, Jagae thanked her and unlocked the house with a spare key and got into the house and bolted upstairs to Custard’s room.
He was lying in bed with a wet towel on his forehead and saw Manju crouching next to Custard’s bed, taking care of him.
“Mrs. Lily told me she left a pot of porridge on the stove. Can you get a bowl for Custard?”
“Got it.” Jagae went downstairs and scooped some of the warm porridge in a bowl and went back upstairs to feed Custard.
“I have a fever…”
“I know, it must suck.” Jagae said as she crouched next to Custard and fed him some of the porridge.
Later when Custard went down for a nap, Jagae sat and sinked into the couch as Manju lied on the floor not too far from the couch in the living room. After a moment of awkward silence, Jagae broke the silence.
“Custard must feel awful right now. And… truth be told, I do to…”
“Hm?”
“Ever since the fake argument and the ‘break up…’ I… It didn’t really feel fake, you know?”
“Yeah, I feel you. I felt awful, maybe worse after that. It was like it was all real. Heh… sometimes it felt like we weren’t pretending…”
“…Like we were actually dating.” They both muttered out at the same time. They both sat up and looked at each other.
“I…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ Jagae tried to hide her blush with her hands
“It’s alright.” Manju smiled at her
“Manju… I’m tired. I’m tired of pretending I don’t like you… I don’t feel like you’re a rival to me.”
“If you don’t feel the same, it’s fine… I’d rather suffer in silence and see you happy than be with you and see you unhappy.” For a moment there was more silence. It was so quiet yet so loud. Until…
“…You stole the words from right out of my mouth” Manju chuckled and got up and crashed into the couch right next to Jagae and loosely wrapped his arms around her neck and they both sat there together and laughed for a little while.
Eventually, they told the truth to the whole school and life felt better for the both of them after confessing to everyone. Manju and Jagae were happily together this time, they still raced each other to pick up Custard everyday after school and sometimes Custard would proudly announce that Manju and Jagae were together to a bunch of people.
Manju and Jagae eventually didn’t care about all the attention. All that matters to them now is the fact that they finally get to have their happy ending together. And nothing was going to break or tear them apart.