11. elf

Sehun leaned back on a glorious chair and groaned, resting his throbbing head against the headrest. Finally, he thought. He finally had time to breathe after all these busy days of adapting.

Yes.

After passing the first throne to the older brother some years ago, his father had officially passing the second torch of the Oh Corporation to the youngest. Mr. Oh Senior would like to spend more of his days together with his wife and had decided to dethrone from his position earlier—although he was still in his fifty—to the youngest. The elder said that he would like his son to run the family business as early as possible so that the youngest could learn while the father was still able to keep an eye on the business—as reported on the newspaper on the day Sehun was inaugurated.

Sehun has been attending a lot of events, together with his father and his older brother—the one who has been running the Birmingham-based company. The proud family wanted to show Sehun off to every single relation they had, although he would only run the company in Seoul. Sehun couldn’t help but tailing after them wherever they go.

“Mr. Oh,” Sehun suddenly sat straight and turned his head at the sudden intrusion because he’s actually the one intruding someone else’s room. The guest only chuckled as he noticed that the younger tensed at his coming. “Relax a bit, brother.”

“You scared me, though.” Sehun letting himself shrunk back to the chair.

The latter just laughed, knowing exactly how the younger brother felt at a time like this. Yeah, been there, done that. He threw himself on the couch after taking a can of soda from the refrigerator. “So, what do you think? Tired already?”

Sehun shrugged. “Nah, piece of cake.”

“Tsk, you brat.”

“Father brought me everywhere before you were here, Hyung. I thought I was going to be stuck here forever. But Father knows best, right?” Sehun smirked at the older.

“Do you actually mean Father knows who’s smarter?” He laughed again before sipping his soda.

“Of course, you’re the best that’s why.” Sehun made a mocking face.

“You brat, stop that or I’m going to throw this can to that beautiful face of yours.” Earning a chuckle from the younger. Sehun stood up and walked to him before placing himself on the couch across his brother. He sighed. “You know you can do it.” The brother smiled affectionately. “Nothing’s easy, but we got Father on our back. You’re going to be fine.”

“I know.” Sehun planted his face on both his palms before, again, sighing, running his hands on his hair.

“So you’re coming back to Seoul. Tomorrow morning?”

“Of course. I should’ve taken tonight’s flight though, if I knew we would be finished at this hour.” The older brother only chuckled knowing exactly why Sehun said that. “You have no idea, Hyung.”

“Believe me, Sehun. I know very well.”

Sehun threw his gaze to the outside of the glass windows, taking in all the orange sky before letting out a small smile. “I already can’t wait to see my wife. I miss her so much.”

“I’m screwed.” The girl realizing the chaos she made in the kitchen while ruffling her hair frustratingly. “Ah, this won’t do.” She muttered to herself while trying to clean the mess.

The girl has been busy in the kitchen this evening. Starting from the morning she woke up, she had started to browse a lot of easy recipes, after noting them down on her phone, she drove away to the supermarket to buy all the things she needed for the execution. Someone was coming and she just had the urge to prepare a good feast for the comer after not seeing each other for a week long.

She just took out the muffin from the pan—still warm from the oven—and arranged it on a plate when she suddenly heard the front door dinged open. The girl gasped and quickly turned her head to the clock. It didn’t supposed to be this fast? She still had the flour everywhere on the marble desk. She hasn’t even washed the utensils that she left untouched on the sink. In short, the kitchen was still in a mess.

“Oh God.” She mumbled to herself, running back to the kitchen and started wiping the marble island quickly to—at least—get all the flour away first. Thank God she had already arranged the dinner table nicely earlier.

“Woah,”

She turned her head and found her husband standing there beside the dinner table, looking amazed at the bunch of plates presented there.

His wife was standing blankly beside the kitchen counter. Cutely, he needed to add. She’s holding a table cloth, obviously cleaning which somewhat looked like a mess on the island behind her. The girl had some streaks on her cheeks which looked like flour. Her hair was tied into a bun messily. There are a lot of stains on her apron which still hung and tied neatly around her waist. Did she prepare all these by herself?

“You’re not supposed to come this early?”

“Well I wanted to surprise you, but it seems like I was the one being surprised?”  And the man couldn’t help but smile, noticing her cheeks which slowly turned pink at his remark. He closed the gap between them and stood right in front of her. “Did you prepare this all by yourself?”

She nodded. “But you’re supposed to come later when I already finished everything, though.” The girl pouted.

The man just chuckled, couldn’t resist the cuteness he’s getting attacked with. “Hey, Mrs. Oh.” He rested his hands on her hip, slowly pulling her closer. Sehun ran his fingers, fixing her fringe before it went down to her cheeks, wiping the flour that smeared messily. “You don’t need to tire yourself like this.”

The wife quickly shook her head. “No, I didn’t.” She smiled sincerely, shyly sneaking her hands around his neck. “I enjoyed every single second doing it all.” But then the girl frowned. “Well, although I don’t really know how it would turn out. You know I really can’t cook.”

Sehun leaned down, nuzzling her nose with his affectionately. “It doesn’t matter,” He breathed. “You should’ve come with me to Birmingham, not seeing you even just a day seriously felt like a year.” He said, earning a crunchy laugh from her.

“You’re still so cheesy, Mr. Oh.”

“Only to you, though”

The girl braced herself, pulling him down and tipping on her toes before placing a shy peck on his lips. Sehun could only freeze. He was stunned. The man didn’t even dare to imagine a day like this would come after almost four months of marrying his wife. Sehun stared into her eyes, boring into her shining hazel orbs. Those shining eyes showed him honesty. And one thing Sehun knew, he just found one thing that shone above everything else.

It’s a spark of hope.

It’s the answer of every prayer emitted every night before he went to sleep.

A start. Baby steps.

It’s now Sehun who was leaning down and cupped her cheek. But he looked obvious that he was hesitating. Haneul could feel his minty breath lingering on her lips. When she nodded slightly, Sehun caught that as a sign that she wouldn’t mind. He smiled before finally capturing her lips into a gentle kiss. And yes, the girl kissed him back this time, making his heart skipped some beats, waking all the sleeping butterflies inside his tummy. Sehun pulled away to take a breath and looked into her eyes. She’s smiling. She was smiling. “I miss you… I miss you so much, Cupcake.”