Weekends for Sung Gyu were the days of napping long and relaxation. He wouldn’t do any heavy work on these days, cook or carry down the laundry or vacuum the carpets; he wouldn’t even visit the bathroom unless it was really necessary to. Basically, on Weekends, Sung Gyu would be sprawled on the sofa in the living room, sharing an occasional bag or cornflakes with Sung Jae, both of them still in their pajamas until night, watching whatever goes on the TV or, if he’d feel very adventurous, walk over to the TV stand and re-watch one of their favorite movies. Sometimes Sung Gyu’s parents would come to visit (which were the worst kind of weekends in Sung Gyu’s opinion) and with much reluctance, he would have to drag themselves to bath and his mother would force him to go through Sung Jae’s school work until she cooked lunch for them. Once in a while his sister would visit too, but she wouldn’t complain; she was his sister after all and she was fairly accustomed to Sung Gyu’s idle schemes. It wasn’t like Sung Gyu was a bad daddy or anything. Sung Gyu was a cool daddy, he was the cool daddy of the coolest, most adorable and most charming little boy in the universe. (At least that was what he thought)

So one weekend afternoon, the coolest daddy and the coolest, the most charming little boy were doing their usual thing in the living room, devouring their third bag of chips dipped in a jar of cheese spread and watching some women’s show when Sung Jae suggested the most outrageous thing in the world, or possibly even the entire universe.

“Appa, let’s make those” Sung Jae said, putting up that innocent act of his. For Sung Gyu, Sung Jae wasn’t putting up a mere act, for Sung Gyu, Sung Jae was naturally adorable. However, Sung Gyu was confused by what the boy was referring to. He a dollop of cheese with chip crumbs from his fingers and looked down at the boy. “Make what Jae?”

“Those” The pointed at the TV where two Ahjummas were talking while one of them was mixing a white lump of something in a bowl. Sung Gyu tilted his head, definitely uninterested. “What’s that? Pancake?”

“No!” Sung Jae exclaimed, dropping his false cute act. “Appa, all the food in the world are not pancake!”

“Oh” Sung Gyu nodded, feeling proud that his boy was that intelligent. “But they mix pancake the same way?”

Sung Jae who was fairly frustrated climbed down the sofa and pointed at the screen. He couldn’t understand why his appa couldn’t see it. Their TV was very big and Sung Jae himself could read things on the TV from the kitchen. “Appa, it says its cheesecake!”

“Cheesecake?” Sung Gyu muttered, completely distracted by a chip which had fallen into the jar of cheese spread.

“Yes, Ahjummas are making cheesecake” Sung Jae said, and grumpily sat down on the sofa again. Sung Gyu who had successfully managed to retrieve his bellowed chip from the cheese jar gave the Ahjummas on the TV a serious look. They were now mixing crumbs of something in a bowl which he didn’t really care about, so he asked out loud to himself, “Cheesecake? They make cake out of cheese? Waah!”

However, Sung Gyu wasn’t noticing how his kid was literally losing his patience. Sung Jae was eight, and Sung Jae watched lots of TV too, and Sung Jae knew that Ahjummas do make cake with cheese. He couldn’t believe that his appa didn’t know it, his appa watched TV a lot too, and he was also a grown up.

“Appa is so stupid” He grumbled, folding his sticky hands on his chest and being grumpy. Sung Gyu who heard this felt deeply offended that he set the cheese jar on the stool and turned to his son.

“Yah, did you just call your appa stupid?”

“Appa don’t know that they make cake with cheese! That is very stupid!”

“Appa is a detective, not a cook!” Sung Gyu argued in return. “Appa solves crimes, not make cake with cheese!”

Sung Jae didn’t respond. He was mad and upset. He really wanted to cook food with appa. Although he was a very bad cook, appa was the only person Sung Jae had to cook together with. Some of his school friends always bring Sushi and bento boxes their mothers have made for them, and Sung Jae never get any, he had never even eaten from a bento box, he couldn’t help but feel very sad that he didn’t have a mother. So he really wished he could cook something pretty as bento boxes with his father too.

Sung Gyu noticed that Sung Jae still wasn’t done with being grumpy and he blamed it all on the two Ahjummas on the TV who was now cutting squares of some girly food of some sort. He decided that he hated cooking Ahjummas on the TV and changed the channel to some girl group dance.

“Ah, look, that’s Apink!”

Sung Jae wasn’t listening though. Instead he simply slid down the sofa and trotted out of the living room, still fuming on his own.

“Yah, where are you going, Kim Sung Jae!”

By then, Sung Jae had already gone to his room and plopped down in his bed with a couple of action figures in hand. He wasn’t mad at his father, he was just really, really upset. Maybe appa didn’t know that Ahjummas make cake with cheese, but he and Appa could have at least made something together. Besides Sung Jae had watched loads of cooking on his appa’s laptop computer when appa was too bored to tell him stories, and he knew that there were many food that they can cook together too.

Sung Gyu still didn’t understand why Sung Jae had to be so mad about him not knowing about cheesecake and stuff. With Sung Gyu’s job and busy life raising his child, he never really had time to follow any cooking recipes and such. He didn’t expect Sung Jae to be understandable because Sung Jae was still a child, he just hoped he could understand Sung Jae’s behavior more. Maybe he should really pay close attention to him.

He turned off the TV, still cursing the two Ahjummas, left the jar of cheese spread and the half empty bag of chips on the counter and walked to the kitchen. He thought Sung Jae would be in there having a little adventure of raiding the fridge or something, but he wasn’t. Sung Gyu just shrugged, washed his hand in the sink and lazily trotted over to Sung Jae’s room, only to find the kid lying on his stomach on the bed with two headless action figures in hand.

“Hey, Sung Jae-ah….” He called softly and sat on the bed on his side. “Hey, kid, are you okay?”

“No” Sung Jae answered honestly in a cranky voice.

“Eh, why? Because I didn’t know that they make cake with cheese?”

“No!” Sung Jae echoed and buried his face in his pillow.

“Then what?”

There was a moment of silence and Sung Gyu could swear he heard a soft sob coming from him. He was immediately concerned. “Sung Jae-ah…”

“I want to cook with appa” he said with the same cranky voice and finally sat up. His face was a little red, like he had been crying; Sung Jae hardly ever cried unless he was really upset, and seeing him almost in tears terribly stabbed Sung Gyu’s heart.

“Cook…with appa?”

Sung Jae nodded and looked down at his hands. “My friends at school always say that they make cakes and cookies with their Ommas, they bring bento boxes to school too, but I always eat from shops…I don’t have an Omma to cook with, I have only appa…appa can’t cook though…” Sob. “I want to make food with appa, because I don’t have an Omma to cook with, I want to…with appa”

Sung Jae’s innocent words stabbed Sung Gyu on and on like pointed icicles.  It was true, that though Sung Gyu tried his best to not to allow that absence of a mother to be felt, it wasn’t anything that he could stop completely. He had tried his best to be both a mother and a father for him, tackling his job and raising the child at the same time; there had often been moments where he wanted to give up everything and maybe even give Sung Jae up to adoption. But Sung Jae was his whole world, at that point Sung Jae was all he had, and he would give anything he could possibly give to make Sung Jae happy and lighten his little world.

He was on the verge of his tears when Sung Jae finally raised his eyes to look at his father. his eyes were red too, but Sung Gyu wasn’t going to let that break him into pieces. For Sung Jae, he had to keep his head up and be strong. So with a forced-out smile, Sung Gyu reached over and took the child into his lap, holding him close against him. “Hey, cool guys don’t cry! Crying is for girls!” He said, almost to himself as he swayed back and forth.

“I’m not crying” The child said, raising his head. “I don’t cry!”

Sung Gyu couldn’t help but laugh at his adorableness. Sung Jae definitely was his whole life. His mischief, his little bubbly traits were what which made Sung Gyu, Sung Gyu, and he was thankful that he was given this child.

“Of course you don’t! Our Sung Jae is the coolest guy after all!”

Sung Jae laughed and jumped off his lap.

“Hey where are you going now?” Sung Gyu asked, standing up.

“To watch TV?”

Sung Gyu looked down at the child, head tilted and pursed his lips. He was possibly the worst cook in the universe but Sung Gyu still was the best daddy in the world, and maybe he could try making up something if he go through the net and watched videos and such. He decided he should really try cooking something with Sung Jae. After all, he had the entire day, and he couldn’t allow it to go on waste. (Though the weekends had always gone on waste, Sung Gyu believed otherwise.)

“Jae, why don’t we cook something together, Hm?”

Just as Sung Gyu expected it, the little one’s eyes glimmered in delight. There was a huge smile plastered on his face as he jumped right into his arms.

“Really? We can?”

Sung Gyu laughed and got his son into his arms. He was a little too old to be carried around, but Sung Gyu didn’t mind. “Of course…though, why do you want to cook so much? We could have gone to the park or something”

“Nah” Sung Jae said, waving a hand in the air. “It’s cold and park is no fun…but really appa? Can we?”

“I just said we can?”

“Can we wear aprons?”

Sung Gyu frowned, tilting his head to a side. “Why do you want to wear aprons?”

“I don’t know” Sung Jae said with a nonchalant shrug and slithered his way out of his father’s hands and landed on to the ground. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Nah hah!” Sung Gyu mused, grabbing Sung Jae’s hand. “First we have to have a bath, and then we go grocery shopping, okay?”

Sung Jae’s face fell the slightest, but he knew he had no choice when it came down to having baths with his father, so he wordlessly agreed.

*

At the grocery store, Sung Gyu was having a total mental meltdown. He and Sung Jae finally had located a recipe  on the net for some sort of a cheesecake which the kid really wanted to make because it was pretty and all, and Sung Gyu watched a video too and found that it didn’t seem all that difficult to make it either. So he took a screenshot of the recipe on the phone and came to the grocery store downstairs at his apartment plaza but the task which sounded to him all too easy was currently giving him headaches of all sorts.

“Digestive biscuits?” He mused to himself, staring at his phone with a sore face. “What the crap? Aren’t all the biscuits digestive? That’s why people eat them!”

Sung Jae had apparently run off to somewhere and was running back to him with five packets of strawberry Jell-O.

“Five?” Sung Gyu asked, his headache getting worse. “Why five? You need only-,” He consulted the recipe in his phone. “One…”

“So we can make more?” Sung Jae asked, pulling out that adorable face of his. Normally Sung Gyu get easily convinced whenever he did that but at that point his mental breakdown wasn’t allowing him to.

“No, Sung Jae, only one” He said sternly and turned Sung Jae around with his hands on both his shoulders. “Go and keep the rest okay?”

“Fine…” With that, the boy had stomped off, and Sung Gyu was again complaining about the digestive cookies. He assessed the rack for a moment, looking for any kind of cookie which would be labeled as digestive and wondered if they kept those in the alphabetical order, so he started from the very beginning of the biscuits rack and tried again. Finally when he couldn’t locate any such type, he decided to resort to whatever the biscuits he’d like and loaded the cart with a packet of granny cookies while grumbling to himself.

Next in the line were items which are normally stacked in the refrigerator and when Sung Gyu rolled the cart to the right place, Sung Jae was already there, attentively staring at the racks in absolute concentration. Sung Gyu simply reached for a slab of butter and dropped it into the cart before turning to his son.

“Kid, what are you looking at?” He asked, lowering down to his level.

“Cream cheese. What kind Ahjummas used?”

Sung Gyu looked at the jars of the cheese spread they normally used and tilted his head. “Can’t we use cheese spread?”

“No appa” Sung Jae said, sounding like a calm school teacher trying to keep his patience. “Ahjummas didn’t use cheese spread. Cheese spread is for sandwiches”

Sung Gyu smiled proudly and looked around if anyone else heard Sung Jae’s intelligent remark.

“Then what kind, Sung Jae?”

The child looked around, up and down at the racks, silently assessing the items and suddenly stopped, pointing at the top most level of the rack. “That! The phedi…appa! That!”

He looked at what he was gestured at and found a few slabs of Philadelphia. Sung Jae was right, this was the kind the foreign Ahjumma in the YouTube video used. Sung Gyu couldn’t help but glow in utter pride. He really wished all those nosy ladies in the grocery shop heard how knowledgeable his eight year old son was. With a smile, he reached out and took a two-hundred-and-fifty-gram slab and dropped it into the cart.

The other items were a few miscellaneous stuff like gelatin and icing sugar and such, which he found quite easily after a walk around the store. The next item which came to him as problematic was the cake tray.

“Cake tray?” He asked, looking up at the roof. “There is such a thing?”

He decided that he really should have learned cooking and the like from his mother before he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and heaved a sigh. Maybe we have one of those at home…ah! There is that thing Omma used to make lasagna the other day...

“Done! Sung Gyu said, after he double checked the cart if he had everything they’d need. Sung Jae had added a few other things like chocolate bars, Churros,  a container of butterscotch Ice cream and a few bottles of banana milk. He didn’t mind that really, Sung Gyu was a fan of food after all. And the boy had magically produced a pair of blue aprons, one of his size, another of Sung Gyu. He didn’t mind that either; whatever to make him happy.

After he had paid for the items, Sung Jae and Sung Gyu carried the bags in hands and walked to the elevator. Their apartment plaza was quite classy, and basically saved him from boring trips to the market or the salon and such. Their condominium was of the kind that Sung Gyu wouldn’t have bothered to afford, but after he had decided to move out when Sung Jae was five, is parents bought it for him with their own savings because they wanted his son to live a luxurious life without having to bother about the rent. Sung Gyu too, just like his parents did, thoroughly believed that the place was totally meant for the two.

After they had finally reached the house, Sung Gyu simply started out with the cooking. Measuring the items was a piece of cake, and it was quite educational for Sung Jae too, so they did it together. Sung Jae wanted to put each item into separate bowls like the TV Ahjummas did, so Sung Gyu reluctantly followed. Then he had to boil a kettle of water, which he did; however, at that point he was thoroughly exhausted and had forgotten how they made it. Only Sung Jae was still enthusiastic about cooking. At one point or the other, Sung Gyu was sitting on the floor, head in hands, thoroughly beaten up, and then there was Sung Jae, relentlessly pulling onto his sleeve.

“Appa! Appa!! Come on!!!”

“Can’t Sung Jae, appa is tired!” Sung Gyu said, feeling like he’d collapse any moment now.

“Tired? But we didn’t even do anything!?!”

“We didn’t?” Sung Gyu echoed incredulously. “Yah, we had a bath, we went shopping, we measured the things and we boiled water! That’s a lot!”

“But we didn’t make the cheesecake!”

Sung Gyu sighed and rested his head on the pantry. “Let’s have lunch at least! I’m tired, hungry and sleepy…”

Finally they ended up sharing a packet of Ramen with kimchi his mother had brought the last time she visited, in utter silence. Sung Gyu didn’t want to cook anymore, and he really had decided that this whole cooking thing was a bad idea. He only wanted to do now was to leave everything aside and go to sleep. He didn’t want to tell that to Sung Jae and crush his little soul though, so after much pondering, he came up with a better idea.

“We’ll call Miss Jung!” Sung Gyu announced after they had finished having lunch. “She’s a lady and she can cook better!”

“But appa…” Sung Jae muttered, looking a little upset. “I wanted to cook with you…”

“I will help” He said, already proud of his brilliant idea. “I can whisk and stir things…”

Sung Jae seemed to ponder it for a moment and gave an approving nod. “Okay. And Appa can’t cook too... Babysitter cook really well…”

“Does she?” Sung Gyu asked, his eyes searching for Eunji’s number on the phone.

“Yeah…she cooks lunch and dinner for me, and they taste good too...”

“Okay” Sung Gyu nodded absentmindedly and dialed Eunji’s number. It had been a week since he had hired her and she wasn’t very bad either (Despite her very unnerving erraticism and her random stupid ideas and also her feisty attitudes…that’s a lot of bad, but at least she washed the cutlery and did carried the laundry and such), Sung Jae was fine with her too, miraculously. However, he didn’t think she’d work on the weekends although he was willing to raise her pay at that point. He believed that it didn’t hurt to try.

*

Meanwhile, somewhere in Ansan, Jung Eunji was busy putting up a fight with his brother in law. In Eunji’s opinion, her good-for-nothing brother-in-law really had nothing better to do other than nosing into other people’s businesses. He was a private investigator, and of course it was their job to nose into other people’s stuff and make records on them and such, but she didn’t find it least bit applicable when it came down to her affairs.

And for her defense, Eunji totally did not follow her Ex-boyfriend into a hotel last night; it was completely coincidental. Period.

“What the hell? Eunji screamed, throwing her hands in the air. “What part of it-was-coincidental did you not understand?!?”

“Oh! So you coincidentally put on a wig and sunglasses in the middle of the damn night and coincidentally changed your name and checked into the hotel, is it?”

Woohyun was persistent, and Eunji definitely didn’t like him at all. It wasn’t like she meant to Follow that guy into the hotel or anything, but when she got that inside news about him visiting that particular hotel that day, Eunji could barely hold herself back. She still loved him, and there was no reason for him to cheat on her because they had a very healthy, wonderful relationship. (Despite the occasional arguments, but then again he was always very understanding of her and such) She was certain he still loved her too, and was frankly suspecting it that that woman had, by nook or by crook, lured her boyfriend into it. And maybe that money hungry Cruella de Ville helped them too. She never was appealed of Eunji anyway. That was what she wanted to investigate, perhaps save that poor guy’s from the horrible woman too, but then Woohyun had to sneak in and simply drag her home against her will. And to make it worse, he had told her older sister about it, which led to worse chaos, resulting her to take Eunji’s phone away for the day. Woohyun was Eun-Mi’s puppy after all. Eunji had often wondered why she hadn’t married him instead.

“That’s not the point even!” Eunji exclaimed, totally frustrated. “I have to save him from falling into a-a big dark abyss! That woman is a living nightmare!”

Woohyun sighed and said in a lighter tone; “But that doesn’t say you should sneak in and get into Trouble Eunji…”

She couldn’t believe what he just said. “Sneak in? Who sneaked in? I didn’t!”

Woohyun really was such a dumb little idiot. Why couldn’t he understand that she was doing an investigation to save the poor guy’s life? She really wasn’t following him, she only wanted to help.

“Your sister is worried, you know…you really should stop going after that bastard, he broke your heart…”

Eunji was just about open and yell at him to mind his own business when Eun-Mi walked into the kitchen carrying the six month old baby in her hands. In her free hand was Eunji’s mobile phone which Eun-Mi handed over to her and smiled.

“Your boss called, that charming friend of Woohyun’s?”

Eunji frowned at the phone. “Why would he call? It’s Sunday…”

“Oh, he said he needed some help to bake his son a cake or something, so I told him that you will be there soon…”

“What?” Eunji almost dropped her phone at the revelation. Her days was bad as it was already after what with the stalking-slash-saving fiasco, and she really didn’t want her naggy boss to add to that. She’d rather make thousand runs around the house than going to see him on a perfectly fine Sunday.

“Yeah…he’s such a wonderful young man…poor lad, being a father at such a young age…” Her sister was saying fondly as she settled the baby in his eating chair. “You should go, Eunji”

“B-but…that’s not even the point! Why did you agree?!”

Eun-mi shrugged and pulled out a small jar of banana puree from the fridge. “Why, you don’t listen to me either…besides if you can disguise and follow that man to a hotel, what’s so hard about helping that poor Sung Gyu?”

Eunji groaned and fell lousily onto her chair. Why on earth did she have to pull the ‘You-don’t-listen-to-me’ card all the damn time? It wasn’t like she didn’t listen to her all the time, Eunji did. Eunji was one wonderful baby sister. She’d listen when Eun-mi would ask her to go shopping and attend parties’ behalf of her and stuff. It was so wrong of her to accuse all the time and lure her into doing things for her.

“Anyway, get ready…I’m going around there in a while, I’ll drop you off on the way…”

“Ah unnie!!” Eunji wailed, stomping her feet as she did. “Why!?!”

He Unnie was ignoring her though, and the only one listening to her was Nam Woohyun, leaning on the cabinet with a smug face, looking victorious as though he just did something incredible. He leaned over to her then, and in a low whisper he said all too casually; “Have fun…Jung Eunji…”

*

Thirty minutes later, the bell rang on the front door indicating someone’s arrival. Sung Gyu was sitting in the kitchen with Sung Jae and his laptop at that time, watching some cooking videos, and as soon as he heard the ringing, he put down the churro he was nibbling on, his ten fingers and walked over to the door.

The moment Sung Gyu opened it up, there was Jung Eunji, sporting the façade of someone who would murder someone the next instant. In was a candy of some sort and her eyebrows were raised just as usual, looking up and down at him as though looking for a minus point to give one of her judgmental remarks, with a shrug then she said; “Won’t you guys ever stop making my life miserable?”

“Err, hi?” Sung Gyu replied, raising his eyebrows in return and opened the door wider so that she could step in. “Come on in”

Eunji rolled her eyes as she stepped in and undid her shoes. She really wasn’t happy that Sung Gyu had dragged her to work even on one fine Sunday when she could have relaxed and had a good time with her friends before coming to work the next day, but she didn’t want to get into an argument and make the stay longer either. She’d just bake the damned cake and go home before long.

“Jae! Miss Jung is here!” Sung Gyu called out from the hallway, and a very delighted Sung Jae waltzed into the hall as though he was incredibly happily to see her. After a week of working with him, Eunji had already learned that the kid was one little deceptive sneak and she knew better of herself to not be deceived by his false bravado. So rather than actually acknowledging him, Eunji simply gave him a smug smile and made her way to the kitchen. The two followed suite.

“So what cake are we making? Let’s get started so I can go home” Eunji echoed from the doorway.

“It’s a strawberry Jell-O cheesecake” Sung Jae piped in, in a rather professional manner after he had returned to his place on the kitchen table.

“The what?”

“The strawberry-ugh!” Sung Gyu sighed heavily and threw his hands in the air. “Whatever, I’ve got the recipe…it’s just something Sung Jae wanted”

Sung Gyu handed her his mobile phone with the screenshot of the recipe; Eunji read through it without much enthusiasm and let out a sigh. “I’ve never made this before but whatever”

“Moneys to the swear jar!” Sung Jae mused from his spot and Eunji wanted to hit her head on a wall, repeatedly. Out of all the places, she had to end up working with a pair of complete nut jobs.

“Fine! Let me cook this and leave!”

“Fine, okay” Sung Gyu replied noncommittally and took a seat on the kitchen table. He was just too tired of sitting around after lunch with Sung Jae, watching all these videos with him and he really didn’t want to do anything that involves sitting, standing or moving his limbs at any cost. “My job is done”

But Eunji was convinced otherwise.

“What done? Yah! Get over here and crush the stupid biscuits!”

“Yah?” Sung Gyu sat up straight, deeply offended that Eunji was overlooking the respect. Sung Gyu was of the conservative kind, and he took that what about respect quite seriously and he would under no circumstances, tolerate that kind of behavior towards him.

But then again, he was too tired to argue back, he just wanted to get done with it and sleep. So he wordlessly trotted over to the kitchen counter and grabbed the bowl he had put the biscuits into. Then he took a wooden spoon and grumpily began to crush the stupid biscuits, cursing under his breath.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to put together the dessert with Sung Jae contributing not once (Though he was the one who was desperate about it, at the end of the day, all he did was watching videos and giving orders and eating the strawberries) and when it was the time to lay the thing in a cake tray, Sung Gyu had to raid the entire cupboard to fine that one his mother baked lasagna in. It was a little chipped on the corner owing to unsecured loading, other than that it was perfectly fine. To his utmost gratification, the thing was a cake baking tray after all. Then Sung Gyu had to read out the directions of laying the desert while Eunji followed with her new found patience. What went in first was the crumbled granny cookies mixed with melted butter and sugar, which she dumped in without much thought and spread out evenly on the tray. Afterwards came the cream-cheese-gelatin batter which had apparently come out in a lumpy, rather disgusting thing. Not that Eunji really cared either. She just simply dumped it in and asked Sung Gyu what came next.

“The strawberries…leaves removed, cut in half in…heart shapes?” Sung Gyu read out quite dubiously and frowned at his phone, wondering if he read it right. “Heart shapes?”

“Ahjumma in the video cut it in heart shape” Sung Jae piped in from his spot behind the laptop. “You have to do as Ahjumma did”

“Ah! Screw the Ahjumma, we don’t want the damned hearts…” Sung Gyu cursed and dumped the cleaned and washed strawberries into a bowl.

“Appa, two moneys into the-,”

“Okay fine!” He retorted, already on the edge of his patience. He loved his son and all that, but the whole making Strawberry-Jell-O-Cheesecake fiasco had already drained a considerable amount of his patience and energy, all he wanted to do right at that moment was to dump the stupid desert into the fridge and laze around like he usually did.

He had already removed the leaves when he washed the berries that he only had to cut them in halves, which he did in silence, and in turn Eunji had laid them in pattern on the lumpy layer of cheesecake. The thing looked nothing like the one the Ahjumma had made, but the hell Sung Gyu cared. He was already certain that Sung Jae wouldn’t eat a half of it.

After the strawberries were laid, Eunji poured in the cold Jell-O mix, which made bubbles and visible white lumps on the cheesecake mix. Sung Gyu was sure that the thing had already gone wrong, and he was halfway brazing himself to one of Sung Jae’s outbursts; besides it wasn’t like he had much choice either. After all three layers were made, Eunji dumped the tray into the de-freezer and wordlessly proceeded to clean up the mess.

“Uh, Miss Jung, you don’t have to…” Sung Gyu muttered, already feeling quite bad that he had asked her to work on a free day. He was the cool daddy, and the worst employer wasn’t a title that he was willing to take.

“Never mind” Eunji mumbled, sounding a little pissed herself. “Because I am getting a raise in my pay for this”

“Raise?” Sung Gyu echoed incredulously. “I didn’t-?”

Eunji dropped the bowl she was holding onto the cabinet with a loud thud and made an audible hiss before turning to her boss.

“Yah, did you really expect me to do all these with nothing in return?”

Sung Gyu looked quite confused for a moment, his fingers in his hair and all, staring blankly into a space. “Well…that…” Then it hit him. “Yah! Did you just call me yah?”

“Oh yes I did!” Eunji said, followed by a cruel laughter. “And if you don’t raise my pay for working on Sundays, I will call you ‘Yah’ forever!”

“What, that’s ridiculous!” Sung Gyu exclaimed in frustration. “And of course I don’t raise your pay if you don’t respect me! I’m older than you! I have a son!”

“Well, that’s not my problem!” Eunji returned, smiling smugly. “I did overtime, and you raise my pay. Or else I would go complaint to the civil affairs”

“Okay fine!” Sung Gyu said and his fingers through his dark locks. “I will f***ing raise your pay!”

“One moneys to the sweat jar!” Both Eunji and Sung Jae mused in unison.

*

Just as expected, the strawberry Jell-O cheesecake came out as a one big lump of wasted effort and disappointment. The Jell-O had mixed in with the cream cheese batter, and the whole thing had seeped into the granny cookie crumbles, making it one soggy mess. Thankfully the jelly and the cheesecake had set, the strawberries were barely visible too, yet they could cut the thing in cubes. But they hadn’t put this polythene thing into the baking tray that the desert was stuck to the glass. When they had taken out the first three cubes, it came out in a mixed disgusting mess. All in all, the strawberry Jell-O cheesecake came out looking nothing like the one that the foreign Ahjumma made on YouTube. Sung Jae wasn’t happy.

He was grumpily sitting on the table, hands crossed, glaring at the lump of food kept on the table before him. This particular lump looked fairly cube-like. It was the only piece that Sung Gyu was proud of. However, Sung Jae was definitely not buying that.

“It is not Strawberry Jell-O cheesecake” Sung Jae pointed out in that low, businesslike voice of his. “This isn’t what the Ahjumma made. This is an ugly poop”

“It is!” Sung Gyu said, lifting his portion in the air. “We just got it a little wrong…”

Sung Gyu knew that there was no point trying to make excuses with Sung Jae though. If he wanted something, he wanted it in the way he wanted it; he just wouldn’t have it in any other way.

“I know it is gone wrong! It looks ugly! Appa is the worst cook ever!”

“Wait, what!” Sung Gyu exclaimed in utter horror. “I didn’t even make that thing! I only crushed the cookies!”

The culprit who was namely the worst cook was idly the pudding off her spoon, definitely enjoying herself. Sung Gyu was in disbelief. How could he go through all the trouble for him and still get all the blame when the one who should be blamed is totally enjoying it? Life was completely unfair.

“It’s pretty nice to me” Eunji said, smiling fondly at the dessert. Sung Gyu was feeling nauseas. He just couldn’t understand what was probably wrong with every single one of them. Eunji was unbelievable. In his opinion, that girl really needed some mental help. But still her liking it, Sung Gyu decided to take it as a plus point to convince his son. He seemed to be fond of her and her cooking (Though Sung Gyu had no idea about their no goodness schemes) so he went ahead and said; “See? Baby sitter likes it too!”

“Still not eating” Sung Jae said, pushed the plate away and walked out of the kitchen. Sung Gyu was literally losing it. He kept down the plate he held on the table himself, took a brief yet an annoyed glance at Eunji and quickly ran out of the kitchen. “Kim Sung Jae! Sung Jae-yah!”

“I hate you appa!”

“Wait! We’ll-we’ll order take out!”

Sung Jae wasn’t listening, and he had already lost in the battle. So without bothering to try once more, he simply returned to the kitchen and fell into a kitchen chair and opened his laptop computer. Screw everything, he would just watch food videos himself.

“Boss,” called out Eunji after a while in a relatively small, girly voice.

“Hm?”

“Do I still get a raise?”

Sung Gyu slapped a hand onto his fore head in frustration. “Oh, shut up!”

Authors note.

This seems to be getting loads of love already so I think this would go on for long. I myself enjoy writing this, especially Sung gyu's character as well as the kids Sung Jae. Eunji too, the vitamin, so give them your love!
Shout outs all the lovely readers, commenters, subscribers and upvoters! I love you!
And Sung Jae is completely based on my experience of having two very young siblings. my sister is still nine, brotheer is twelve and i still quite remember how they were when hey were only eight. There are five kids in my family if you'll didn't know, haha! They were two little devils, they still are. I hope my knowledge is accurate.
I hope you guys will stick with me until long!

Loads of love,
Achini.

Ps; Bellow is the link to the Strawberry Jello cheesecake if you guys want to try making it. It looks so pretty, I'm going to try myself!