“Please, come again,” I said to a customer as I gave a hand to open the door for her. I was still standing there, smiling and waving to her. I turned my back, “Nara eonni, it’s time. We should close the shop now,” I said while looking at her. She was wiping the tables. She just nodded. I flipped the ‘open-close’ sign that was hung by the door to ‘close’. After everything had settled, we went out of the shop. I quickly locked the door and we walked to our apartment which was situated not too far from the shop.

While we were waiting for the elevator to get to our apartment, a guy came and stood next to me. I looked at him, “It’s Cha Baro”. He’s a guy who I’ve been eyeing since 3 years ago. I admitted that I like him. But too bad, he already had a girlfriend. He noticed that I was looking at him. I was startled and he just gave me a smile.

He greeted Nara, “Annyeonghaseyo, how’s the Cake House today?”.

“Nae, it’s daebak, just like usual,” she answered and smiled.

“Ah, geurae?” he then changed his view again to his phone and he kept pressing it. It seemed like he was texting someone.

The elevator reached the floor and all of us went into it. Since he lived next to us, we ended up stopping at the same level.

As we entered the house, I saw Gongchan fell asleep on the couch with the tv was still on.

“Aigoo, just look at him. Who watches who now?” Nara said while walking to her room.

I tried to hold my laugh, looking at Gongchan’s sleeping position. But he looked so cute though. I took out a blanket from the room. I approached him and put the blanket on him, “He’s tired…”. But then I saw Gongchan’s eyes were opened.

He stared at me in blank. He then brushed his right eye using his point finger, “You guys are home?”.

“Oh… Get up and sleep on your bed, don’t sleep here. Turn off the tv and lights before you enter your room,” I said, leaving him behind and I entered my own room.

I stood by the window and looked outside. To think of it, I’ve been living here for so long now. My parents left me behind when I was 3 years old because of some financial issues. Nara and Gongchan’s parents had raised me since then. When I was 10 years old, I followed Nara and Gongchan to Seoul and left the hometown. I’m in the same age as Gongchan but I made up my mind to help Nara with the Cake House and just ignored about my study. So far the Cake House business was not a disappointment.

All of the stars twinkled so beautifully, filling the wide sky. I went to bed and hoped that the next day would be a better day.

♥♥♥♥♥

“Mworago?! Is he okay?! Hmm…… Let me think first… I will call you back,” Nara then hung up the phone.

“Wae geuraeyo, eonni?” I asked curiously. A worried look was clearly seen on her face.

“It’s about my father… Mom said he got sick for a sudden,”

“Jongmal?!”

“Oh.. If I leave, who will look after the Cake House?”

“Are you kidding me? Eonnie, you’ve been training me for years now. Don’t you trust me?”

“No…it’s not like that,” she looked at me.

“Now, pack up your things. I’ll take care of everything here,” I created a smile on my face to cheer her up.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” she asked.

I nodded, “Yeap! Now, hurry up!”

“But……what about Gongchan?”

“It's better to let him know when he gets home,”

Nara then went to her room to pack up her things. Meanwhile, I was getting ready to go to the shop and to start the business for the day.

The time passed and it was the time for me to close the shop. Like I was expected, doing everything on my own was not easy. I was so tired.

I reached home safely. As I opened the door, I saw Gongchan was looking for her sister.

He realized that I was there, watching him, “___-ah, where’s nuna?” he looked at me.

“Umm…actually, Nara eonnie went back to our hometown. Your father fell ill,” I explained.

“WHAT?! Why didn’t any one of you tell me about this or at least give me a call!” he started to get angry.

“I…...”

Suddenly my phone rang. It was a call from Nara eonnie. From the call, I found that her father was just fine after she brought him to the clinic. Nara eonnie will come back to Seoul after her father’s condition got better. I also managed to tell her that everything here was just under control.

Gongchan who heard my conversation through the phone with her sister seemed had calmed him down.

“I’m sorry, Gongchan. It’s not like I didn’t want to tell you about it. I thought it’s better for you to know it after you finished your class,” I said to him, feeling guilty.

“It’s okay. Nuna said he’s fine, then he is fine. There’s nothing else to worry about. She’s there for him,” he said.

“Chan-ah, do you want to eat ice cream?” I asked, trying to cheer him up. I know that he still worried about his father.

“Hey….! Do you wanna cool down my anger by treating me ice cream?” he said, followed by laughter.

“I'm just asking since I'm craving for it. If you don’t want, it’s okay~~” I said while I slowly turned my back to him.

He grabbed my shoulder, “Okay! Okay! If it’s on you, I won’t refuse it,” he smiled.

So, both of us went out to buy the ice cream. We then ate it while walking back to our apartment. As we entered the apartment area, there was something that stopped me from continuing my steps. For sure Gongchan also saw it. There were Baro and his girlfriend. They were fighting. I heard the girl was yelling and so did Baro. The girl then left the place, leaving Baro behind. Baro just ignored his girlfriend and walked to the elevator.

I was quite shocked after watching the scene.

“It was that Baro guy right? The one who lives next to us,”

“Yeah..” I gave a short answer. 

He looked at me, “Why do you look so shock? Wait a sec……You like him? Right?!”

I tried to hide it, “Mwo? Aniya…”

“I've been living with you for so long now. So, I know how you will look like when you fall for someone. Snap it out! I’m better than him,” he said as he finished his ice cream while walking to the elevator.

Again, I got shocked hearing those from Gongchan’s mouth. “What did you say?”

“You didn’t hear it? Too bad…” he said and smiled.

“Mwoya…” I laughed.

♥♥♥♥♥

I opened the Cake House like usual. Everything happened like usual. Until there was a man who came to the shop to buy a cake. It seemed like he was rushing. He quickly left the place and left his wallet on my counter.

“Jeogiyo..!!” I shouted while running to him. I left the Cake House, with the door opened. Without turning left or right, I crossed the road. Never in my life that I would imagine to experience this kind of pain. It was really painful. I got hit by a car. My body was lying down on the road. I could see some people were gathering around me but I couldn’t hear anything though. I saw that guy as well, the guy who I ran after just now. He was there next to me with his panic look. I was holding tight his wallet. Before I could give him the wallet, my view started to black out.

To be continued...