Jaejoong looked at her dining table and wiped that imaginary sweat of her brow. She made blueberry pancakes and Belgian waffles for her son since he stood first in class…again. It’s nothing new for Changmin to ace his AP classes but this is special because it’s his tenth time in a row and he also got an offer from a top medical college.  

Oh how proud of her son she feels! She never regrets staying up those nights helping him through his studies and using her savings to buy him materials for his mind-blowing projects.

“Oh crap!” Jaejoong hurriedly wiped the strawberry syrup spilling on her favourite white table cloth. Her husband last week got promoted from associate professor to the head of the chemistry department. So she wants to give him a belated treat of his favourite crepes with strawberry syrup. However, the large stack of slippery crepes doused in syrup is threatening to fall over.

And it did….

“EEP!”

“ooooh! Mom, that’s sad.” Jaejoong looked up from the two sorry crepes splattered on the table and then at her son with a pout.

“if you and your father didn’t have such huge appetites I’d not have plates refusing to serve you over-capacity.” That only made Changmin guffaw loudly as he hugged his mother and gave her a morning kiss.

Changmin threw his uniform blazer on the chair beside him and sat in his designated place, already digging into the waffles while Jaejoong cleaned up the two crepes who abandoned their friends in the plate.

“thish ish sho gooood!” Changmin sighed blissfully already in food heaven. He swallowed the food in his mouth and starting cutting up a piece of pancake to eat. “Isn’t it a bit early for celebrating mom? There’s still another week.”

Jaejoong placed Changmin’s glass of orange juice in front of him. “You know what’s before it right?”

Changmin’s syrup-coated mouth was shaped in an ‘O’ remembering what’s today. It’s the anniversary of his parents’ first meeting. More than two decades ago, his parents had met on this day, their university’s opening ceremony. Years later, they married. Their wedding date, exactly seven days after their first meeting anniversary.

“anything special Mom?” Changmin wriggled his eyebrows teasingly but his face fell seeing the wistful smile on her face.

Before he could apologise or say something to make her feel better, another voice cut in. “Good morning…” Changmin looked at his father rushing into the kitchen with his briefcase, files and coat.

The man hadn’t even combed his hair and for God’s sake, when will he learn to make a tie. Changmin doesn’t need to look down to see the untied shoe laces but still he does.

Oh! slip-ons…. He wears slip-ons when he has a lot of standing around in classes. “Dad?” Changmin called when his father ruffled his hair in greeting. “are you working late today?” Jaejoong paused in making her husband’s coffee but continued right after.

“Yeah…. I have to stay back to tie up some administrative stuff. That’s how it’s going to be for a while now that I’m Dr Jung Yunho, HOD.” Yunho said with mock-pride. He looked at his favourite breakfast. Changmin prayed he noticed the special occasion behind it. “Oh wow! Strawberry!”  

Yunho popped a piece of cut strawberry in his mouth and took the plate to the kitchen island. To Changmin’s surprise, Yunho started filling the crepes in a Tupperware and put the box in his briefcase. Changmin’s never seen his father ‘not’ relish strawberry crepes in the peace of his dining table nor has he seen his father carry packed food from in five years, since he tended to skip lunch and bring back full lunchbox. Jaejoong stopped packing lunch for him because it was a waste.

“Jae, I want my coffee to go. early staff meeting.”

Changmin wasn’t seen when Jaejoong placed Yunho’s thermos of coffee on the table. She thought something is wrong when he returned.

But without saying anything, Changmin grabbed the thermos cup, scribbled something on it with a black marker he fetched and held out the cup to Yunho. Yunho cocked an eyebrow at the words ‘what’s the hurry?’ written on it.

“One black coffee, no sugar for Mr Pants-on-fire. Thank you for stopping my Starbucks, Jung branch.” Changmin sneered. His behaviour stunned his parents and when Yunho made no move to take the cup, Changmin harshly placed it on the table and stomped off again.

“whoa! The teenagers-acting-out thing is no joke….” Yunho made a big show of tugging at his collar but then realised he still has an untied tie.

Wordlessly, Jaejoong went over and tied it up. Yunho didn’t say anything as he looked at the ornamental mirror and fixed his hair. “I’ll skip the coffee I guess…Bye…” Yunho said and took his stuff and left without even a backward glance.

Jaejoong stood there till she heard the door close and the sound of the car driving off. She then turned to the last thing sitting on the kitchen counter.

The lone white bowl of caramel pudding sat there, gone cold by now. she was supposed to serve it after breakfast was done. It’s an odd thing to have at breakfast and the amount of sugar she’s already served the boys, but they have no other mealtimes with all three together lately.

The caramel pudding was the only thing they had on their first date. Being scholarship students from a normal family, they didn’t have a lot of money for a fancy restaurant date even if the two pooled it together. So, Yunho planned a romantic setup in the chemistry lab with store-brought caramel pudding. From then on, it was tradition for Jaejoong to make caramel pudding on this day…at least it was till it died down three years