The Brother

As a recent high school graduate, I’m just a regular girl, desperately searching for a summer job before my college classes start in the fall. I need money for clothes, for books, for fun & food, you know regular stuff.

My mom, always the optimist, says, “Jennie, you’ll find a great job, I just know it. Make good decisions sweetheart. Remember that good manners go a long way when you have no experience. Be kind, helpful, and willing to learn and someone will give you a chance.”

But nobody did give me a chance. My last hope was this babysitting job for some rich toddler. I love little kids so this shouldn’t be too bad.

It was hard to be as positive as my mom considering this was the tenth interview I had gone on in a week and nothing had panned out so far. I took her advice though. I dressed well, in my nicest dress and conservative pumps with just enough makeup to look polished and self-possessed. I pulled up to the address in a taxi not wanting to mess up my new shoes. “I better get this one.” I thought to myself, “cause I’m running out of money.”

The house was elegant and nicely appointed. I knocked on the door and a maid appeared. “Can I help you?” The nice young woman asked smoothing her perfect white apron.

I bowed slightly to her and said, “Is this the Min residence? I’m here for the nanny job.”

“Yes, come in. We were expecting you, Ms. Kim, right?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Follow me miss.”

Passing the elegant foyer and grand stairway, we entered into a formal living room that looked out of a magazine.

“Wait here miss,” she said gesturing for me to sit down on the plush sofa.

I sat up straight with my hands in my lap waiting for my interview looking around at the family photos. Suddenly I heard quick footsteps on the tile floor followed by yelling, not exactly what I expected in this household. I little boy covered in chocolate and holding a phone equally full of chocolate came running around the corner crashing into me. He turned his little head back in fear towards presumably the person he took the phone from. The handsome fellow, looked at me in horror, as if he had just witnessed a stabbing, he looked down at my now ruined beige and chocolate dress. The little boy screamed when the other boy grabbed his sticky arms.

“You’re gonna get it! That’s the third phone you’ve ruined and look at her dress. Apologize right now! Min Tae-Hwan!”

“Oongi et goooo!” Hwan shrieked

Great, the little monster is my charge. I better be nice.

“I wanna play wif it!” The little one pouted and I knew what was coming next. Anguished tears and sobs ensued adding to the mess already on my dress, he wrapped his arms around me not letting go and made a small whimpering noise into my dress.

“I’m sorry miss. My little brother is a tyrant. Don’t be fooled by his tears.”

I smiled, in spite of my predicament, at the scowl, the little boy was now giving him forgetting his crime and his tears.

“I wash it, Oongi!”

“No!” We both said in unison making the little one jump with fear.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” I said in a more soothing voice. I stood up and put my hand out and he immediately put his little chocolate hand in mine.

With a serious face, he looked up at me and said, “Sowwi.”

I couldn’t help it, my heart melted at his cute face full of regret.

“I know you didn’t mean to break it, Hwan. When we are young, we make mistakes cause we haven’t learned what might happen yet. Now you learned that you should be more careful with other people’s things cause we don’t want them to feel sad that the thing they like is broken. So you can’t take your brother’s phone anymore unless he says it’s okay. Right?”

The little boy nodded as if he understood.

“My name is Jennie. Want to be my friend?” Hwan smiled and nodded, not taking his sweet eyes off of me. “Now you can help me by showing me where I can get cleaned up.” The little boy pulled me to the bathroom as I handed the dirty phone back to his brother who stood there with his mouth open in disbelief.

Just then a well-dressed woman walked in. Both boys froze. “Mom look what he did!” The older boy said showing his mom the phone.

“Oh my, your phone again!” Then looking over at me with wide eyes, “I’m so sorry about your dress. I will have that cleaned for you. I’m Mrs. Min, it’s so nice to meet you, Jennie.”

She called the maid and asked her to lend me some clothes. After I got cleaned up, I came back into the room. Both boys looked very solemn like they had just gotten scolded.

“As you can see, I have my hands full with these two. My older son is too distracted to watch him even for a few minutes. I wanted you to meet my little boy at his best behavior cause he is a little darling but chaos ensues. You seem to have a calm demeanor though. Do you have any younger siblings?”

“Yes. I have a little brother that I babysit. This is my information and references.” I said handing my info to her.

“Good. I’m willing to give you a chance if you are up for it. You need a summer job, yes?”

“Yes, thank you!”

“Okay, then you can start tomorrow. Be here around 9 am. My older son Yoongi will help you when you need a break. Right Yoongi?”

Said Yoongi made a face still trying to clean his phone. “Yes, mom.”

“Well, then that’s settled. Come back tomorrow. Your dress will be cleaned by then. It was very nice to meet you, Jennie. Yoongi please show her out.”

Yoongi walked me out. His pretty eyes finally softening. “I hope you won’t regret this.”

I smiled at him and said, “You guys don’t scare me.”

“Is that a challenge?” He answered with a smirk.

“No! I sincerely hope this will work out. ”

“Yeah. I was just playing with you. Bye then,” he said.

“Bye.”