It would be a big fat lie if Yoonji says she can’t wait for tomorrow to come after giving her phone number to Jeonghan. Throughout the breakfast, lunch, and dinner, she keeps looking at her phone that she brings to the dining table just in case she gets any message or call from them. That kind of annoys her parents evidently.

(“Yoonji, can’t you put away your phone for awhile? We are eating here!”

“Ah! Sorry, Mom.”

“If you keep looking at your phone while eating might as well throw it away,” her father simply says. She looks down at the phone in her lap in defeat.)

By the end of the day, she is still staring at her phone, waiting for any contact to come. Sure enough, she is very sleepy by now since it is midnight already, but she is quite persistent. If anything, she needs this so that she can escape an awfully boring weekend thoroughly.

Seven hours later find her suddenly jolt out of the bed, not even realizing she has fallen asleep with her hand holding onto the phone, and it’s already in the morning.

She immediately checks her phone, but nothing.

Yoonji sighs again for the second morning, and it’s the weekend. She thinks she shouldn’t stay like this, so she finally puts away her phone on the bedside table and proceeds to take some shower.

While she’s still in the shower, her phone vibrates for a moment, and an unknown number shows up on the screen. No one answering the call, the call stops eventually, and since she hasn’t even plugged the phone to a charger all day yesterday, her phone also dies from running out of battery.

When Yoonji goes to the kitchen, the aroma of chocolate and whipping cream immediately fill the air. So today is the day she makes the birthday cake. Of course, why would she even ask her to buy the needed ingredients the day before if it wasn’t for this?

“It smells good,” Yoonji comments.

Her mother looks from where she is putting cream on the cake. She chuckles hearing her comment.

“You should try baking too. It’s fun.”

Her comeback makes Yoonji a little bit flustered though. Yoonji really doesn’t have any passion in anything regarding cooking, and of course, baking. She doesn’t feel like she has the talent to do it.

“it’s good if you think it’s fun,” she replies instead. “Do you want me to deliver the cake?”

“Yes, of course! Your father is still busy with his work after all.”

“What? But it’s Sunday!”

“Sure, but he says something about finishing some reports due tomorrow... anyway, I’m also baking another one for us, so just wait.”

Yoonji just nods as she goes back upstairs to her room. She immediately goes to where her phone is located on her bedside table, and when she checks it out, she realizes that it’s dead.

“Oh! Where’s my charger?”

She looks around her room and sees the phone charger by her desk. After putting her phone in charging mode, she hears her name getting called again by her mother.

“Yoonji-yah! Come here quick!”

“Wait, Mom!” She wants to check if there’s any message on her phone or not, but her mother sounds quite urgent, so she just turns on the phone and leaves it.

The next moment, Yoonji is on a sidewalk with a box containing the birthday cake in hand with an unreadable expression on her face. She is waiting for the green light for pedestrians like her, even though in all honesty, she doesn’t feel like crossing the street at the moment. If it weren’t for her mother, she wouldn’t be here. Or maybe she should just try to go out by herself later on?

Right. She can just try to look around this neighborhood for a bit, trying to see if there is some interesting place that she can visit. She has some money in her pocket, she thinks. She can use it for non-expensive stuff, like snacks or small accessories.

She is so deep in thought that she only snaps out of it after someone bumps her by the shoulder. And another one. The double bumps make her lose control of her grips on the box, making the box fall on the floor with Yoonji herself barely successful in managing her balance.

When she just realizes what just happened, she looks at the box in horror.

“Oh no!” She immediately squats down and opens the box, and indeed, the cake, which used to be round with some pretty decoration on it, looks squashed. The decoration becomes a big mess, the word “Happy Birthday Our Son” on the cake barely recognizable. Yoonji is starting to feel her blood boiling in anger, as she turns towards the people who just bump into her.

She can see one of them trampled on the floor, with the other one sitting on top of the other guy. It seems like the guy on top is doing something to the other guy, and they certainly attract the attention of people around them. Yoonji is still angry, but she is also confused looking at the situation. She is sure that those two are responsible for the destruction of the cake, but whatever is happening between those two, she feels like she shouldn’t try to interrupt.

“Just wait, the police will come for you. For now, let’s stick like this together, huh?” the guy on top says with quite a deep tone in his voice.

“You crazy! Let me go!” the guy on the bottom screams while struggling to get out of the other guy’s grip.

Now that Yoonji heard their voices... one of them sounds familiar?

Not too long after, the police sirens can be heard, just like what the guy on top said. The police officers let out their cuffs and put them around the guy who got caught by the other. One of the officers also pats the other guy on his shoulder, probably trying to say good job to him? In the guy’s hold, there is a peach-colored woman’s bag. Now that Yoonji thinks about it again, the other guy must have been a thief who steals that bag from some girl, and the guy who just got praised by the officers went out to catch him.

By the time he turns around though, he immediately notices Yoonji looking at him. And Yoonji also recognizes who that is, visible through her gaping mouth.

“Jeon Wonwoo?” she whispers to herself.

Wonwoo lifts up a pointing finger tentatively at her while also mouthing something that Yoonji can’t figure out what it is. Yoonji then remembers that he is partly responsible for the ruined cake, so she changes her gaze from a shocked one to an upset one. Even so, Wonwoo still approaches her in curiosity.

“Yoo Yoonji? What are you doing here?”

Yoonji quickly turns even sourer as she points at the box of cake.

“While you were busy catching some bad guy, you and that guy bumped my shoulder. You know what happened next.”

Wonwoo looks at the messy cake inside the box with such a guilty look.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll pay for it then.”

“You can’t. It’s not mine. It’s supposed to be delivered to my mother’s friend.”

“Oh,” he looks even guiltier, but he is also thinking of a solution at the same time. “Then, how about I buy a cake similar to this one? You can still deliver it to your mother’s friend that way.”

Yoonji looks up unsurely, but she can see that Wonwoo wants to make it up for her. Still, she has doubts about it.

“Are you sure? My mother made this cake, so it’s going to be hard finding a similar one to this.”

“I’m pretty sure. I know a place around here where they sell some delicious chocolate cakes. I go there pretty often, so.”

Wonwoo gives a small reassuring smile in hopes that Yoonji will agree with his offer. With a sigh, she nods.

“Okay. Let’s go then.”

“Oh, thank you. Well, maybe you want to throw that away first.”

“Ah, right.” She picks up the box of cake and then throws it into the closest trash bin around there.

“Let’s go.”

While walking to the bakery Wonwoo was talking about, they barely speak to each other. In fact, Yoonji is so determined to walk a little bit behind him, so that it will be less awkward. Wonwoo also doesn’t seem to bother with the awkwardness around them, as he is focused on scanning the road to find where the bakery is, with a woman’s bag that he now carries on his shoulder. Yoonji would’ve asked whose bag it is if they weren’t so awkward with each other.

Once they reach the bakery, Wonwoo finally speaks for what felt like millions of years.

“We’re here.”

He enters the bakery first while Yoonji follows. The scent of bread and cakes is filling the small space of the bakery, which also provides mostly two-seater tables for the customers to sit and enjoy their bakery products.

“Look here. They’re mostly chocolate cakes. Just pick whichever you like.”

Yoonji looks at the glass display that Wonwoo pointed out, filled with neatly decorated cakes. Her mother’s decorating skill is not as good as the one who makes these cakes, so Yoonji is not sure whether her mother’s parents will believe it if she gives them a cake from this store, but then again, Wonwoo is paying, so she should at least be grateful he is willing to pay for the damage he has done. In the end, she picks the cake with some pretty whipped cream work, which looks the simplest and probably the cheapest, because she knows Wonwoo is still a high schooler like her and all.

“This? Are you sure you don’t want to pick the other ones? They are prettier I think.”

“Yes.”

Wonwoo is the only one who is not sure here, but he nods anyway.

“This one, please,” he says to the worker. “Oh, and please write ‘Happy Birthday Our Son’ on top of it.  Thank you.”

They wait for the worker to give the finishing touch to the cake, and that’s when they fall into awkward silence again. Yoonji keeps looking at the floor, while Wonwoo looks around the display. Suddenly, he looks up and says something to another worker in the bakery.

“Can I have five of these, please?”

Yoonji doesn’t know what he wants to get from the bakery since she’s mostly looking at the floor and the empty tables, but then she sees a plastic bag with a box inside in front of her vision.

“Have some macaroons,” Wonwoo says awkwardly with an awkward smile. Yoonji blinks awkwardly at him, before quickly looking down to the plastic bag.

“Oh, no, you don’t have to—”

“It’s also part of my apology. Just take it.”

Yoonji wants to say something else again, but she isn’t sure of what to say. Should she reject it, will she comes off as rude, since he says it’s part of his apology, then will he take it as her refusing his apology? She’s worried about it. So in the end, she accepts it.

“Thank you,” she says while awkwardly trying to smile in a friendly way.

Wonwoo’s smile though turns from awkward to a genuine one as he reaches out to ruffle her hair.

“I’m the one who’s thankful. I thought you’d hate me a lot.”

The sudden action brings her to a consecutive freeze. Yoonji tries to match her eyes with him, and it’s all so... magical. Like how she is suddenly aware that her heart beats a tad bit faster than usual, and how his genuine smile looks so beautiful all of the sudden. She never saw him smile properly before, so it’s probably the case. But what is this that she’s feeling, that makes her grip on the plastic bag even tighter, like her life depended on it?

As quick as she tries to look at his eyes, she quickly looks down to the floor. And then she sighs in relief when the worker who was working on the cake comes out of the working room, because Wonwoo’s attention shifts from her to the worker.

“Is it done? How much is it?”

She dares herself to look at Wonwoo’s back view, and she is suddenly aware of how tall he is, and that the long grey cardigan he wears at that moment looks good on him.

Wonwoo turns around again with the box of cake inside another plastic bag in his hands.

“The good thing about this bakery is that the box doesn’t have any logo. So your mother’s friends won’t suspect a thing at all.”

He is about to give the cake to her, but when she is about to accept it, he pulls it back to his embrace.

“Wait. You have a lot of things in your hand. Should I go with you to deliver the cake?”

“N-no.” , she’s stuttering again. “I mean, no. I can carry it just fine. You don’t have to go with me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure! Give it to me.”

Her hand is signaling him to give the box of cake to her, in which he reluctantly complies.

“Anyway, thank you for your help. I will get going now.”

Yoonji feels the need to get out of there very quickly, or more like the need to stay away from Jeon Wonwoo from a few minutes ago, and she doesn’t even wait for Wonwoo to say something, as she leaves the bakery as quick as a lightning. Mostly because she feels embarrassed. She doesn’t even know why she feels that way, but her steps are quick. It doesn’t even take that long for her to arrive at the house she is supposed to deliver the cake. And suffice to say, she is amazed.

“Wow, such a big house...”

She walks through the cobblestone path leading to the front door. When she arrives, she presses the bell, hoping someone will come out to accept the delivery. Thankfully, someone does, and it’s an elderly woman greeting her.

“Hello, Auntie.”

“Oh, hello! What makes you come here...?”

“My mother promised you to make a cake, so I’m here to deliver it!” Yoonji hands the box of cake with a bright smile.

“Oh, thank you. What’s your name anyway, Miss?”

“Ah, it’s Yoo Yoonji.”

“Oh, Yoonji. Thank you for delivering the cake. We’ll eat it well for sure!”

“Thank you, Auntie!”

With that, Yoonji leaves the house, although as the woman close the door back, Yoonji looks behind her, unable to hide her amazement at the palace-like house.

“Ah, I wish my house is like this...”

“I’m home!”

Wonwoo looks around the house with very limited lighting. He then rolls his eyes, already getting the feeling of what is to come after that.

He walks into the kitchen anyway, when the light is suddenly on, and his mother and father greet him each with a big grin. His mother is holding a birthday cake with lighted candles on top of it.

“Happy birthday, our beloved son!” they shout in unison before proceeding to sing the Happy Birthday song.

Meanwhile, Wonwoo can’t take his eyes off the cake, feeling a little recognition. Then he suddenly breaks out in a smile, and then looks at both his parents, joyfully singing the birthday song for him.

“That cake is for me after all,” he mutters to himself.

Hi guys! Sorry for being MIA for a few months, was busy with school... I am still busy with some school related stuff, but I can say I gained a little more spare time now? Anyway, to make it up, I made this chapter longer than usual... and also have decided on who will be the main lead! Here is the vote count:

Wonwoo - 9 votes
Seungcheol - 8 votes
Jihoon - 6 votes
Soonyoung - 2 votes
Jisoo - 1 vote
Hansol - ½ vote
Junhui - ½ vote

And so our male lead for this fic goes to Wonwoo! Woohoo~~~

Thank you everyone for the votes! And if your boy doesn't get chosen, I hope it won't discourage you from reading this fic, because I will still try to involve all the boys in the story. And for the next update, I won't promise it will come very quick, since I still frequently have writer's block... but I hope I can update real soon as well! ^^