Yunho met up with you and Jaejoong from his middle school and you all continued walking together the rest of the way. Yunho’s birthday had just passed and you and Jaejoong were in a partying mood. Yunho shook his head at you two, he was tired from so much ~fun. He knew he couldn’t handle you two. “You two are so childish, start acting like twelve-year-olds.” You and Jaejoong mock saluted him together. You were still technically eleven.

“What type of cake do you want ------?” Jaejoong had been asking you everyday for the past month. You still couldn’t decide on what you wanted. When you reached your house you just waved him off.

“Surprise me!” He made a pout. He wanted to make it special, perfect, just what you desired. He sighed a little and shuffled to his home.

At home, Jaejoong went over the recipe books his mother kept. He had become a pretty good cook over the past few years and you loved to eat whatever he made. He continued skimming over the recipes until he found the perfect cake for you. “Umma! We need to go to the store for some of these ingredients!” He quickly wrote down the recipe and raced to the kitchen where his mother was.

“Umma?” She was sitting at the table, glancing at the clock every few seconds. “Umma, we need to go to the store.” Jaejoong said, a little softer. She looked up at him and nodded.

“So you finally decided on what cake to make. Well, let’s hurry; your father should get home soon. He is already late. I wonder if he was in a meeting…”

At the store Jaejoong quickly went through the aisles getting the things he needed for your perfect cake. He had one item left on his list. “Umma, I’ll be in the frozen food section.” His mother just nodded, she had gotten a phone call on her cell.

Jae looked through the glass freezers, searching for what he wanted. He saw it, cookies and cream ice cream, the perfect filling for your cookie cake. He opened the freezer and reached in. His hand was just to the handle when he felt something warm, not cold. He turned to see a girl, standing next to him, her hand on his next to the ice cream.

She stepped back apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to grab that one. You can have it, I’ll take this one.” She smiled and reached for the one next to the original. She was sweet, kind, soft, like Jae.

“It’s fine. I’m Kim Jaejoong. I just need this ice cream to make a cake for a friend of mine.” She giggled.
“I’m Lee Yooeun. I’m just going to eat this as a dessert.” She saw the list of ingredients in his back pocket. “Do you bake often? I like to cook, but sometimes people say I make too much. I hope to one day own a restaurant so I can cook as much as I want for a bunch of people.” She smiled angelically. Jaejoong felt his heart flutter. She was so cute. She had such a mature dream. She snuck into his heart.

He stared at her for a moment. “I would love to eat some of your cooking someday.” He was about to ask Yooeun to your birthday party when his mother came running over.

“Jaejoong, Jaejoong! We need to leave right now. Put that back and let’s go!” Jaejoong looked at Yooeun flustered and embarrassed but he did what he was told. “Appa was –Appa was in an accident.”

Push

Your parents were in the Kim’s living room. The widowed Mrs. Kim was crying and your mother was trying to comfort her. You and Yunho were in Jaejoong’s room doing the same. Jaejoong was curled up on his bed, his head resting on your lap.

Each tear that left his eyes made you wish that you could stop the drunk driver that had killed his father. You wished that you could make all his pain go away. Jae was hurting. Everything in his life was put on hold. He saw his world breaking like glass. Things were starting to crash around him. He was afraid of what was happening. He was afraid of being cut by the falling glass.

Yunho was rubbing his back. Jaejoong continued to sob on your jeans. His pain started to seep into you. Things had been going so perfectly. So well. What had gone wrong? Every year things just got better and better. Your birthday wish always came true. Nothing bad really happened. Nothing could have happened to you or Jaejoong. Then you remembered what Jaejoong said to you every year since you turned seven. “Don’t tell me, or it won’t come true.” He had been right. After five years of good times your karma ran out. Bad things were finally starting to happen.

“Everything will be okay Jae. I’ll make sure everything is okay.” You wanted to fill his heart with anything, anything that would make him smile. You needed to make him feel better. You had to make his life set in motion again. You would do anything for him. You loved him more than as just a mother or sister.

You didn’t feel like celebrating your birthday anymore.