Ten Years Later

“Okay everyone, time to pour the batter into your cake molds,” Minjung guides her brood with a grin and follows her words with actions to demonstrate to even the youngest child – Minah.

Yunho and Jaejoong watch the annual family ritual from their ring side seats on the dining table. Jaejoong makes to get up when Changmin starts eating the cake batter from the mold, but Yunho’s tight grip on his thigh keeps him seated. He glares at his old-age partner who responds with a face-splitting grin. He sighs deeply and mutters inaudibly to Yunho, “I hope they have better results this time. Last year’s cake was a complete disaster, just like the years before. How could I have fathered a child who is a total failure in cooking?”

Yunho leans in and kisses his cheek to calm him and lend him silent support. But his next words, rub salt in Jaejoong’s wounded ego, “She can make simple sandwiches. Jinki has inherited my genes in the business department. Thanks to him we can sit and watch Minnie and miniature Minnies cook another culinary masterpiece.” Jaejoong scowls and kicks Yunho’s shin, making him wince in pain and pout.

Minjung opens their large oven and the children line up to hand her their baking molds. She quickly puts hers in, followed by six-year-old Minah’s, then eight-year-old Yoochun’s. She does not bother to clean up their molds which have the batter splattered on the walls, both in and out. Ten-year-old Jinri carefully hands over hers and then sighs in defeat when her mother roughly pushes the mold into the oven, almost sloshing the watery batter over the rim. She pouts and goes to sit with Jaejoong who pats her back in comfort.

Sehun, who is turning eleven next month, gives his patent sunshine smile to his aunt and insists on placing the mold into the oven himself. Having finished eating his batter, fourteen-year-old Changmin begins to harass Junsu, who is twelve, to let him eat the batter from his mold. Minjung waits with an open oven door, as Changmin chases Junsu around the work island. Junsu’s loud squeaks of protest can be heard in every corner of the house. The younger ones stand away from their race track and clap, cheering both their brothers at the same time. Getting tired of their running, Yunho puts one leg out and promptly trips Changmin who falls flat on his face. Junsu runs to the open oven and quickly puts his mold inside, with half the batter missing.

Minjung hands a cleaning rag to her oldest child who is busy looking daggers at Yunho. Knowing his mother’s tendency to continuously nag till she gets the cleaning done the way she wants, Changmin wordlessly gets to work mopping the cake batter from the floor. Junsu, Sehun and Jinri get busy cleaning the work island while Minjung attempts to wipe flour off the faces of Yoochun and Minah who had gotten into a flour fight. But, she has to give up as it’s not only their faces that are dusted white and brown. They are covered from head to toe in flour and cocoa powder.

Doorbell rings and in walk Amber and Junghee holding cookie boxes in their nearly eleven-year-old hands. Yunho and Jaejoong take the large boxes out of their barely controlled grip. The identical twins kiss their cheeks in gratitude and run to join the other kids.

A few minutes later, every nose in the kitchen and dining room begins to twitch. Jaejoong looks in horror at the oven which begins to spew out a thin stream of smoke. He rushes and turns off the oven and then stares at the temperature setting which is set at the highest. He is stumped when Minjung wails, “Dad, how can you turn off the oven? Now all our efforts are wasted as cakes will be raw. We can’t make a 7-tier cake unless it bakes properly.”

Her words have every child giggling. Her annual cake misadventures for Jinki’s birthday have become legend with family and friends. Even the children know that ultimately they will celebrate the birthday with a cake baked by Grandpa Jae. However, no one wants to dull the shine in Minjung’s eyes by telling her to stay away from cake baking.

Jaejoong inhales deeply to control himself and when he feels a little calm, he asks his daughter softly, “Minnie, I hope you can read the recipe clearly. It says gas mark 4, not 9. Don’t you know 9 is the highest temperature?”

Minjung takes the recipe book from her father and peers at it. “Oh, its 4. I always thought it was 9. No problem, I will turn it down to 4 and complete the baking,” She shrugs and turns to act on her decision.

Jaejoong halts her before she can restart the oven, “Minnie, I will do it. You go and bathe Minah and get Yoochun to take a bath as well. Jinki will be back home anytime and we don’t want to greet him this way, do we?” He picks up a lock of Minjung’s hair which is covered in pink batter.

His daughter gives him a blinding smile, “Make sure each one decorates their part of cake well and leave Chunnie’s and Minmin’s cakes bare. They will decorate them after cleaning up.”

Changmin, the brashest of her kids, does not spare her feelings at all, “Mom, are you sure we actually will have a cake presentable or edible enough to decorate?” Minjung’s eyes become watery and her lips quiver on hearing her oldest. Junsu and Sehun immediately pull Changmin to the floor and sit on him. Junsu covers his older brother’s mouth with both his hands while Sehun tries to console his aunt, “Aunt Minnie, don’t worry. We have worked very hard on the cake. It will come out very tasty. You just look after Chunnie and Minmin. How about taking a quick shower yourself? You have a lot of cake batter on your hair.”

Minjung looks at all the faces and when she sees them nodding in agreement with Sehun, she nods happily and smiles back, “Yes, we will quickly clean up and be down.” She adds for all the children, “Your dad and uncle will be so happy to see our cake. We will be making his thirty-fifth birthday special with our hard work.”

When she disappears up the stairs, Jaejoong quickly sets everyone to work. First, they have to solemnly take the oath to keep it a secret from Minjung and the youngest two. Once that’s done, Yunho cleans out the oven with Jinri, Amber and Junghee’s help. Jaejoong preheats the oven at the right temperature, then whips the batter and divides it for variations. As he takes out new molds, Changmin adds cocoa powder while Junsu and Sehun take care of colored and flavored portions. When the batter is poured in new cake molds, Jaejoong and the older kids carefully place them in the oven and the timer is set.

Everyone tastes the icing prepared by Minjung and, in silent agreement, throw it in the trash covering it with paper towels to hide it. Jaejoong begins to prepare new icing and Yunho sends Changmin upstairs to check on the bathing trio. When his orders are followed, Jaejoong smiles at him and winks. Jinri and Amber giggle loudly. All of them know, it is to keep Changmin from eating the new icing. Yunho continues his cleaning work with the help of Junsu, Sehun and Junghee. They throw away the half-burnt, half-raw cakes after wrapping them in newspaper, and pile up the molds in the dishwasher to hide them.

Jaejoong begins taking out smaller cakes from the oven, at regular intervals, to stop them from over-baking. By the time Minjung returns to the kitchen, all the cakes are lined up on the kitchen island, cooling and filling the air with mouth-watering aroma. Her eyes light up when she sees the cakes. She does an impromptu body wave in celebration of her culinary triumph. Jaejoong and Yunho high five out of her sight.

Though she is a disastrous baker, her cake-decorating skills are passable. She pouts a little when Jaejoong quickly grabs the cakes and piles them one upon the other to create seven tiers. Everyone sighs in relief, they know Minjung would have ended up with a lop-sided, almost-toppling cake layers. She waves away further help from her father and father-in-law, and begins singing Christmas songs while guiding children in decorating their layer of the cake. Peals of laughter ring in the house at Minjung’s version of the age-old carols. As usual, she converts them into rap songs. As one, the children pick up her cue and rap different parts of the songs, their personal favorite bits.

When Yunho tries to join the rappers, Jaejoong pinches his hard. Ignoring Yunho’s wincing, Jaejoong takes out his phone and calls their head chef to come in with rest of the kitchen staff and finish cooking dinner for the birthday party. While he is busy discussing the final preparations with the chef, Yunho cleverly guides him up the stairs and into their bedroom. As per his calculations, they still have an hour before their friends, Taemin and Jongin arrive. Jinki had messaged earlier, informing he is shopping for ‘thank you’ gifts for his wife and children.

Being a successful businessman, Yunho does not believe in wasting time. According to him, the best utilization of the next one hour is by having Jaejoong all to himself while the children are busy with Minjung.