“Wait, what do you mean that I only have one wish left?”

“Myungsoo, we’ve already been over this a month ago,” Yoomi said. “It means that you used up one wish already, so now you only have one wish left that you can use to boss me around.”

Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. “But you didn’t even do what I wished for you to do,” he said.

“But I did,” she said. “I keep telling you that I ditched him for a couple of hours and that I told him about me planning on going with you instead.”

“A couple of hours are not enough,” he said with crossed arms.

“But you didn’t tell me exactly how long you wanted me to ditch him,” Yoomi said. “And besides…” She shot him a look. “…you cheated to get those two wishes.”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Um… excuse me…”

Myungsoo and Yoomi briefly ended their argument as their attention went to the girl standing in front of them, with the counter in between.

“Um… I want to buy that,” the girl said while pointing at a piece of cake in the display.

“Sure,” Yoomi said, instantly putting on her brightest smile. She then grabbed the tool that was used to get the cake and placed the slice into a box. “Do you want anything else?”

The girl shook her head. Yoomi then told her the amount and she took out her wallet to get the payment. “Here,” the girl said.

“And…” Yoomi punched in the numbers into the cash register before giving her the receipt. “Here you go!” She then waved at the customer with a big smile. “Enjoy your cake!”

The girl nodded and Yoomi expected her to leave or go sit at a table to eat the cake, but the girl didn’t. Instead, she faced Myungsoo and looked at him nervously. “Um…” The girl looked a little hesitant as she fiddled with her fingers. “…are you free after your shift is over?”

Both Myungsoo and Yoomi furrowed their eyebrows at the girl, not knowing what was happening. “Um…” Myungsoo started. “Sorry but my shift ends really late.”

He then felt a little nudge against his ribs before letting out a yelp. “Ow!” he yelled as he turned towards the culprit.

“Smile,” Yoomi whispered while pulling the ends of her lips up with her fingers to indicate that he should do the same.

“Pft,” he said in reply. “And why should I do that?”

“It’s good customer service,” she answered.

“Like I care about customer service,” he muttered. He then felt another nudge against his ribs, but this time harder and more like a jab. “Ow!” He brought his hands up to shield his abdominal area in defense while glaring at her. “That hurts!”

Yoomi saw his overreaction and couldn’t help but to laugh. “Why are you laughing?” he asked. “That really hurts you know?!”

“Myungsoo…” She said while laughing. “You’ve got to man up. I didn’t even elbow you that hard.”

“You’re telling me to man up?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “I gave you a piggyback ride like 6 times already!”

“2,” she corrected. “You only gave me a piggyback ride twice.”

“But they were voluntary.”

“Not the first one,” she said. “The first time you gave me a piggyback ride was because you lost to me at an arm wrestling mat-“

He quickly pulled her over to him and covered before turning to the girl who was witnessing their conversation. “Don’t listen to her,” he said with a smile. “She’s completely lying. I didn’t lose to her in an arm wrestling match. Something like that never happened and she’s completely lying.”

“mmpf…” Was all that came out of Yoomi’s mouth when she tried to speak with Myungsoo’s hand covering it.

“And by the way…” He looked down at her face that was only inches away from his before flashing his usual adorable dimple smile. “…I smiled. I smiled towards the customer,” he said. “Are you satisfied now?”

Yoomi froze for a moment. Seeing his face up close and him smiling at her like that was… how do you say it… making her heart beat fast? Of course, she never knew why and was not in a position to even think about the reason since her mind went blank during that time, but she wasn’t the only one who was a victim to that. Myungsoo was also frozen while looking at her. He had the usual rapid beating heart, shortage of breath, and everything else that to other people, would be too cringe worthy and fluffy to even read. But at least for him… he knew why.

“Ahem…” the customer that was ignored for some time cleared to catch their attention.

Yoomi then finally snapped out of her daze before quickly pulling herself away from Myungsoo. “Um… sorry,” she said, blush creeping up on her cheeks.

Myungsoo also snapped out of his daze as he cleared his throat. “What do you need?” he asked the girl.

“Um…” She looked back and forth between him and Yoomi. “…are you guys dating?”

Both of them were taken aback by the girl’s question, but it was Yoomi who quickly denied it. “No, not at all,” she said, a little too fast – making him feel disappointed. “We’re not dating.”

The girl then smiled at the answer before turning back towards Myungsoo. “Then after your shift ends… do you want to go somewhere with me? Like maybe a café or something?” she asked. “I don’t care if your shift ends late. I can definitely wait for you.”

“Um…” Myungsoo glanced over at Yoomi and was delighted to see her biting her lip with a not-so-happy look on her face. He then smiled and turned his attention back to the customer. “Sorry but…” He went over to Yoomi and placed his arm around her shoulders. “…I have to take this person over here home since she’s an idiot that can’t go anywhere without me.”

Yoomi furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Hey…”

“Also, I’m not interested in going anywhere with you unless you’re willing to bring my friend over here along with us.”

Yoomi had on a shocked expression while the girl looked at him disappointedly. “Oh…” the girl said. “Then I’ll call you.”

The girl was about to write down her number and give it to him, but he said something that made her stop what she was doing. “Don’t call me,” he said with the most innocent smile on his face. “I don’t accept calls from strangers.”

The girl looked at him with her jaw agape due from the shock, surprise, and hurt from what he said. “Myungsoo, you’re being rude!” Yoomi scolded.

“I am not!” he retorted. “I’m just telling the truth.”

“It’s okay…” the girl said. “I understand.” She then gave them a small smile before quickly leaving the place.

“Look at what you did,” Yoomi started. “You just made her feel uncomfortable, so she left.”

“No, I didn’t,” he said. “I was just telling her that I couldn’t go out with her since I have you instead.”

Yoomi blushed, but still managed to disagree with him in the end. “No, you didn’t,” she retorted.

“Did too.”

Yoomi pulled his arm off of her before sticking out her tongue. “Did not.”

“Guys, guys, what is with this childish bickering?”

A familiar voice caught their attention, making them turn their heads towards the smiling boy and the others that were standing behind him.

Yoomi was the first one to speak up out of the two of them as she smiled happily. “Woohyun!” she said. She then looked at the rest of Infinite standing behind him with victorious smiles on their faces. “You guys found the bakery!”

“Yup,” Sunggyu said as he stepped up and stood next to Woohyun. “Thanks for telling us where it is.”

Myungsoo turned towards Yoomi with a disbelieved expression on his face. “You told them where we work?!” Yoomi nodded in response. “But I told you to not tell them!”

“Well…” She pointed at the others who were happily watching Myungsoo’s agitated state that was caused by their presence. “…they begged me to tell them and I couldn’t say no.”

“Ooohhhh!” Sungyeol excitedly pointed at a small strawberry shortcake on display. “That looks delicious!” he said. He then turned to Myungsoo. “Can you give it to me for free?”

“No!” Myungsoo immediately replied. “Get out!”

“Are you actually kicking us out?” Sungjong said with crossed arms. “I didn’t walk all this way for nothing.”

“Yeah,” Hoya agreed. “I was looking forward to eating some bread while I’m here.”

“No,” Myungsoo said in a firm manner. “Get out or I’ll kick you out; literally.”

“Hmm… let me think about that…” Woohyun looked up at the ceiling while tapping his chin with his forefinger for a few seconds. “No,” he finally said, a teasing grin plastered on his face.

Myungsoo let out a frustrated sigh. “Yoomi, fix your mess and tell them to get-“

He turned to his right where Yoomi was standing, or at least where she was supposed to be standing. “Wait, where did she go?” he questioned at the missing space that was occupied by Yoomi just a minute ago.

“And then Woohyun said that I looked like a dinosaur so I tried imitating one,” Dongwoo said, sitting at a table near the window. He then stood up and did his best dinosaur pose before letting out a loud roar.

He continued his imitation as Yoomi started laughing so hard that she was clutching her stomach while her face turned redder and redder by the second. “That… that was amazing,” she said, trying to catch her breath even though the laughter still continued. “10 out of 10.” She held two thumbs up before a fit of laughter erupted out of her again as Dongwoo continued imitating a T-Rex – which was surprisingly similar to the real T-Rex that she saw before it almost stomped on her. 

Myungsoo saw her and tried to catch her attention by calling her name. “Yoomi!”

He called her a few more times, but she didn’t even glance at him. It might have been because she really didn’t hear him or she might have just purposefully ignored him. He guessed that it was the latter since he called her name loud enough that most of the people in the café turned their heads towards him to see who the loud and obnoxious man that kept calling out his friend’s name was.

“How about half?” Sungyeol said out of nowhere. “Can you give me a 50% discount?”

“No!” Myungsoo replied. “Just leave! All of you!”

“Why do you want us to leave so much?” Hoya asked. “All we want is some bread.”

“It’s because you guys annoy me with your constant chattering about how all of a sudden, I decided to work part-time when I’m considered lazy.”

“But you are lazy,” Sungjong cut in.

“No, I am not!” Myungsoo retorted.

“How about 70%?”

Myungsoo looked at Sungyeol with furrowed eyebrows. “If I won’t give you 50% off then why would you think that I would give you 70%?” he asked.

Sungyeol shrugged. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I just thought that it was worth trying.”

Myungsoo let out a sigh before harshly ruffling his hair. “Aish, my peaceful alone time with Yoomi is now ruined,” he muttered, glaring at his friends who either were talking among themselves, looking at the displays, or imitating a dinosaur at the back of the café. All of which created a ruckus that made him want to kick them out that instant.

“Why did you tell them where we work?” Myungsoo asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because they begged,” Yoomi answered. “They were doing aegyo and everything, Woohyun especially.”

“And you fell for his aegyo?”

“No, I told them where the bakery was so that they would stop,” she replied. “That was the only way that I could make Woohyun stop shooting hearts at me like this.”

She formed a heart above her head with her arms before throwing it at him to show what Woohyun did, and as soon as she did it he couldn’t help but to smile no matter how much he tried to prevent himself from doing so.

Yoomi frowned at his reaction. “Don’t laugh,” she said. “I know that I fail even more than Woohyun at this. Aish, I shouldn’t have even tried to imitate him in the first place.”

She scolded herself and lightly knocked the side of her head with her fist before going through the gate towards the front door of the house. Myungsoo saw her reaction and chuckled to himself. He then caught up to her at the front door where she was unlocking it with the spare key that he gave her quite some time ago.

“By the way,” he said. “You didn’t fail at it. You actually looked rather… cute.”

Yoomi started blushing without realizing it. She didn’t know why, but these days she keeps blushing so easily when Myungsoo’s around and it frustrated her since she couldn’t even control the tint of her own cheeks.

“Stop teasing me,” she said, with embarrassment clearly heard in her voice. She then turned the doorknob and rushed inside with a plan to cool down her face with cold water for her cheeks to go back to normal.

“I wasn’t teasing you though,” he said, but it was unheard since she had already gone inside. “But why won’t you take me seriously when I say those things?”

He sighed to himself and stood there, lost in his thoughts, when Yoomi suddenly rushed back outside with wide eyes.

“Myungsoo!” she said. Her face looked nervous, shocked even.

“What?” he asked with a puzzled expression. “What happened?”

“Your parents are home.”

“What?!”

“So she’s a friend from school that came here this late at night, just to work on a project?”

“Yes,” Myungsoo answered.

The two middle-aged people sitting on the couch raised an eyebrow at him.

“Really?”

“Yes,” he replied.

His mother looked at Yoomi and examined her while Yoomi stood there, awkward and uncomfortable.

“What’s your name,” she asked.

“S-Song Yoomi,” she replied. “Um… It’s really nice to meet you… ma’am.” She then quickly bowed 90 degrees before standing straight up again.

“Come here…”

Yoomi looked at Myungsoo’s mother, who had an unreadable expression on her face, and gulped nervously. She then looked at Myungsoo and saw him gesturing for her to do as she says. She looked back at his mother again before slowly, in a cautious manner, walked over to her.

“Sit down,” his mother ordered.

“Ne,” Yoomi said as she sat down on the couch next to her.

“You…” His mom stared at her straight in the eyes before breaking out a motherly smile. “…have a really pretty name, and not to mention that you’re beautiful yourself.”

Yoomi widened her eyes from being surprised at her statement. “R-Really?” His mom nodded in reply with a smile on her face. “T-Thank you for the compliment.”

She gave her another bow while sitting down which made Myungsoo’s mom chuckle in amusement. “Also, you can call me eomeoni. I don’t really like being called ma’am. It makes me feel old.”

“Ne,” Yoomi said.

“So…” Myungsoo looked at the both of his parents. “…is the misunderstanding cleared? Am I grounded for life just because I was planning on diligently working with my partner on our school project?”

He knew that he was completely lying at the moment, but he wouldn’t take the chance of them finding out that Yoomi lives in the same house as him. Not only will he get grounded for life and would have to kneel in a corner with his hands held up in the air for hours – which is really tiring and very painful when your feet goes to sleep before waking up again to send thorn-like sensations to your soles – but they would probably also kick out Yoomi.

The latter of the sentence was definitely a reason for him to lie since Yoomi didn’t have any other place to stay, and he didn’t want to see, or even imagine, her walking down the streets while pushing along her weird time machine and sleeping out there in the nighttime. Nope, that was definitely not going to happen. He would not let that happen. 

“But why are you two working so late at night?” his father asked.

“Because… the project is kind of hard,” he answered. “And it takes a lot of time to complete it.”

His father nodded, looking like he bought the story.

“But what are the things in the guest bedroom?” his mom asked. “They look like weird, futuristic devices. Especially that machine with the wheels that looks like a person can get into.”

Yoomi widened her eyes at the explanation that described her inventions. “Eomeoni, did you touch any of those things?”

“No,” she answered. “I was curious, but I didn’t touch them.”

Yoomi let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good then…”

“Are those items important?” she asked.

“Ne, they’re like my one way ticket to get bac- I mean to get an award,” she quickly rephrased. “They’re… um… our science project.”

“Yeah,” Myungsoo joined in. “We’re working on a science project.”

“Oh…” Myungsoo’s mom said while nodding in understanding.

“But Myungsoo,” his father started. “I heard about your improvement in school. You even ranked the 31^st! I never even thought that you would rank anywhere near the top 200, but you were able to make it in the top 50!”

“Appa,” he said. “Did you underestimate me that much?”

His father shrugged. “No, my expectations just weren’t that high.”

“Appa!” he whined.

His father laughed a little before turning towards Yoomi. “And what about you Yoomi? Where did you rank?”

“Um…” Yoomi looked hesitant to answer him.

“Don’t worry about me judging,” he said. “I don’t mind if you don’t tell me, but I also don’t care if you rank really low in the school. I have my son to thank for that.”

“Appa!” Myungsoo whined again. “You’re embarrassing me.” He mumbled the latter to his father, but his father only shrugged in a carefree manner in response.

“Also, Yoomi doesn’t have to worry about anyone judging her intelligence,” Myungsoo said. “She’s ranked 1^st in the school. She’s pretty much… a genius.”

“Really?!” his mother said with surprise evident on her face. “I never thought that Myungsoo would have a friend that’s ranked first before. That’s really amazing, Yoomi!”

“Um… thank you,” Yoomi replied sheepishly.

After the talk, Yoomi ended up spending a lot of time with Myungsoo’s parents and getting to know them before pretending to have to leave when it was almost midnight.

“Goodbye, it was nice meeting you.” She smiled politely at his parents as she bowed.

“Goodbye, Yoomi. It was nice meeting you too,” his father said.

“And come back whenever you want to,” his mother added.

“Ne,” Yoomi replied with a genuine happy smile.

She then went out the front door and slowly walked while waiting for it to close. As soon as it was closed, she turned back around and looked at the house.

“And how in the world am I going to get back in without his parents noticing?” she asked herself. “So, my two options are to either find a way to sneak into the house or sleep on the streets.”

A cold wind blew by at the time, causing for goose bumps to form on her skin. “Find the way back inside it is,” she said while hugging herself in an attempt to stay warm.

She went to the back of the house and looked up to see the windows of Myungsoo’s bedroom and also her bedroom. She started forming multiple plans that might get her up to Myungsoo’s window in her mind, since she saw that it was opened.

“Yoomi!”

Yoomi turned around and saw Myungsoo running up to her. “Myungsoo!” she said in surprise. “How did you get out?”

“I told my parents that I wanted to get some fresh air,” he explained.

“Oh…” she said while nodding in understanding. “But it’s great that you’re out here. Now you can help me get up there.”

She pointed at his window which was not that far up from the ground, but she still couldn’t reach it since only somebody that is over 10 feet tall – which would be a giant – could get up there by themselves without help from any objects or people.

“Yup, that’s my plan also,” he said. “That’s why I opened it earlier when I pretended to go to the bathroom.”

“Woah… it seems like our Myungsoo is getting smarter these days,” she praised.

Myungsoo shot her a look. “Are you saying that you thought that I wasn’t smart enough to think about that?”

“No,” she replied. “I just said that you got smarter. Now crouch down and let me on your shoulders.”

He stood there for a moment, but then nodded before doing as he was told. She then took off her shoes and as soon as she got on and he stood up again, she started reaching as far as she could towards the window; but even with her fingertips touching it, it was not enough for her to place a firm grip to enable her to pull herself up.

“Myungsoo, I need to go higher,” she said. “I’ll have to use your head.”

Without even waiting for a reply, she instantly started standing up while using the wall to stable herself.

“Hey, what are you- Ow!” Myungsoo yelped a little when he felt her foot on his shoulder while the other was stepping on his head.

“Just a little more…” Yoomi didn’t even notice Myungsoo’s cry of pain and concentrated on getting herself through the window. After a few minutes of using Myungsoo as a human ladder, she finally got up and into the room.

“Are you in there yet?” he asked when he felt a sudden lightness on his shoulders and head.

“Yeah,” she replied.

He looked up at her and said, “Then I’ll go back into the house. When you hear a knock that sounds like a code or something, open it since it would be me. In the meantime, I already locked the door so no one can get in, but open it only when I knock; alright?”

Yoomi nodded. “Alright, I’m going now,” he said. “Remember to open it only when you hear something like this.” He picked up a rock and knocked it against the building, alternating the length of the pauses in between the knocks.

“Alright,” she replied.

He then took her shoes and warned her about what he was about to do before throwing them through the window, into his room. The shoes still almost hit her in the face, but she was just happy that it didn’t. He then left and a moment later, the same knock that he had demonstrated before could be heard at the door. Yoomi went over and cautiously opened it, revealing Myungsoo who quickly pushed her in and locked the door behind himself.

“Phew…” He leaned his back against the door before letting out a sigh of relief. “We did it.”

“But…” she started. “…how am I going to get into my room?”

“Oh… about that… you can’t.”

“W-What? Why not?”

“Because my parents are there right now,” he answered. “But don’t worry; I brought all of your murderous inventions over here before they slept there. They didn’t even see me use the shrink ray to bring your time machine over here.”

He smiled proudly while Yoomi had a look of gratitude on her face. “Myungsoo… I don’t even know how to thank you,” she said, her gratefulness clearly showing.

“Thank me by giving me a better explanation than the female clothing in the guest room’s closet is actually Sungjong’s since he likes to wear it when he dances to girl group songs when he’s over,” he said. “If I didn’t have a video of him actually doing that, they would have never believed me.”

Yoomi held back a laugh at what he said. “Really?”

“Yup,” he replied. “Anyways…” He went over to his bed, picked up some clothes that were lying there, and brought it over to her. “Here, I brought you your clothes. Go change.”

“Oh…” She took the clothes before smiling at him. “Wow, thank you Myungsoo. Who knew that you remembered to bring my clothes over?”

Myungsoo shrugged. “I just did,” he said, pretty happy that he could do something to help her. “Now go change.”

Yoomi looked around before looking back at him in confusion. “Where?” she asked.

Myungsoo realized what she said before looking around his room also. “Oh, the closet! You can change in the closet.”

Yoomi nodded and went in to change before coming back out, just in time to see Myungsoo set a pillow down on the ground as he lied down and laid his head onto it.

“What are you doing?” she asked while walking over curiously.

“Sleeping,” he replied. “You can sleep on the bed.”

“But I can’t,” she said almost immediately. “You’ve already done so much for me. How can I just let you sleep on the ground after all you have done?”

“I didn’t do that much,” he said. “So just sleep on the bed.”

It took 10 whole minutes of arguing before Yoomi was finally convinced to sleep on the bed, much to her dislike.

“At least take the blanket.” She was about to give him his blanket, but stopped when he spoke up.

“No,” he said. “It’s hot right now. It would be uncomfortable to sleep with a blanket in this type of temperature.”

“But it’s chilly,” she said.

“It’s chilly for you.” He then turned towards the ceiling. “Just sleep with the blanket. I don’t need it.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yup…” He then closed his eyes. “So sleep already; I’m tired.”

Yoomi took a moment before hesitantly nodding and walking over to the light switch to turn it off. She then walked back to the bed before climbing on and lying down. They both laid there in silence for a few minutes when Yoomi decided to ask a question.

“Myungsoo,” she said. “Did your parents come back because they wanted to celebrate your birthday with you?”

Myungsoo opened his eyes and turned his head towards her in surprise. “How did you know?” he asked. “They only told me that after you left.”

“I just guessed,” she replied. She then let out a small sigh that could barely be heard. “Your parents are nice; especially your mom.”

Myungsoo remembered what she told him before about her mom and suddenly felt his heart clench. He knew that she was hurting at that time and was most likely missing both of her parents, and knowing that only made him feel worse. He was the one that told her to pay him back over 500,000 won after all, and he also knew that she wouldn’t be able to pay it back until a very long time. He admitted it to himself. He was selfish. He didn’t even think about how she would feel.

“Yoomi, just think about my parents like they’re yours,” he said.

“Why?” she asked in a soft voice.

“Because I know that you miss your parents,” he said. “And I know that you always wanted to know what it’s like to have a mother.”

“So you’re giving them to me?” she asked again with an amused chuckle.

“Yup,” he replied while nodding, even though he knew that she couldn’t see it.

“Thanks…” she said.

Judging from the tone of her voice and the long silence that came after, he guessed that she was asleep. He then smiled to himself before he fell into a deep sleep as well. 

So this is only the chapter before Myungsoo's birthday is actually celebrated. But I promise that in the next chapter, there would be a celebration of his birthday somehow. And I hope that you guys liked this chapter!^^