The morning's baking had gone off without a hitch.  Now Seo-jeong was loading her van with the match profiteroles for Chez Lua while Suyeon watched her discontentedly.

"I could help, you know," Suyeon said.

Seo-jeong passed by with another armload of bakery boxes. "I'm sure you could," she called out, "but I don't want to take any chances."

"Putting boxes in a van doesn't require a lot of thought," Suyeon grumbled. "I could have helped."

"Maybe you could have," Seo-jeong said as she took off her apron and hung it up, "but I wanted to be careful, and anyway, it's all done now. So are you going to ride along with me, or do you want to stay her and sulk."

"I'm perfectly capable of going with you and sulking at the same time," Suyeon said as she headed for the van.

Seo-jeong grabbed her purse and followed along behind Suyeon, locking the bakery behind her. "But if you come with me and sulk, I won't stop for bubble tea on the way back."

Suyeon looked over at Seo-jeong as they climbed into the van, her eyebrows arched. "You really think you can bribe me with bubble tea?"

Seo-jeong nodded, smiling smugly, as she started the van and pulled out of her parking spot.

Suyeon smiled back at her. "Well, you're right. This time, at any rate."

Seo-jeong laughed. "It's good to see you smile," she said.

"I haven't had a lot to smile about, the last few days," Suyeon said.

"Well, it's just for a few more days," Seo-jeong said.

"Hopefully," Suyeon said. "I've got to go back for clearange next Tuesday. They could decide to extend this another week."

"I don't think they will," Seo-jeong said. "You're doing fine, so I can't imagine them extending your brain rest."

"Well, that should fix everything," Suyeon said. "When the doctor says 'Ms. Ji, we'll have to extend your brain rest another week,' I'll just say 'but my baker says I'm fine," and they'll be all "oh. well nevermind then.'"  She started laughing and after a moment of uncertainty, Seo-jeong joined in with her.

After just a few minutes they pulled up behind Chez Lua.  Sei jumped out of the van and went to the kitchen door. "Soo-kyung!" she called out. "Tell me where you want your profiteroles and I'll unload them for you."

"You'll do no such thing," Soo-kyung said as she came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. "That's what junior cooks are for. You two! Go unload the profiteroles and put them in the pastry cooler!" A pair of junior cooks scrambled to carry out Soo-Kyung's orders.

Seo-jeong laughed.  "I've got to get me some junior bakers to do stuff like that.  Someday. . ." She sighed. Looking toward the kitchen, she asked 'Is So-eun in?"

Soo-kyung nodded. "Yeah, right through there.  Is Suyeon out at the van?"

Seo-jeong nodded. "Yeah.  Good luck."  She walked off into the kitchen, calling So-eun's name.

Soo-kyung wiped her hands on the towel again, then tossed it in the laundry bin.

"Well," she said to herself, "it's put up or shut up time."  She walked out to the van, where Suyeon was standing leaning against the fender, watching the junior chefs unloading all  the pastries. "Hey Suyeon," she said, "how's everything?"

Suyeon shrugged. "Pretty good, considering I can't do anything."

Soo-kyung pondered this a moment.  "So. . . would doctor's orders stretch far enough to let me take you out to dinner tomorrow night?"

Suyeon looked up, surprised. "Don't you have to be here?" She pointed toward the restaurant with her eyes.

Soo-kyung laughed and shook her head. "So-eun's good enough to handle being in charge now, so I can have an occasional night off. Tomorrow's one of those nights off, and I'd like to spend it with you."

"Me? . . . I mean, I . . ." Suyeon sputtered for a moment before gradually regaining her composure. "I'd love to! Thank you!"

"If I pick you up at 6, will that give you time to get dressed?"

"You mean from my hard day of sitting around the bakery doing nothing? Yeah, I think I can manage to be ready by 6." Suyeon laughed, and Soo-kyung joined in with her.

Just then Seo-jeong came up behind Soo-kyung and clapped her on the shoulder. "Okay," she said, "all your pastries are unloaded. Now we'd better get going - I promised Suyeon a bubble tea, and we've got to hurry if we're going to get back to the bakery by opening time."

Soo-kyung stepped back. "By all means, can't have  you breaking a promise to such a lovely lady!" Smiling at Suyeon, she added "And I'll see you tomorrow at 6. Take care of yourself!"

As they drove off, Suyeon's eyes suddenly grew wide. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands to .

Seo-jeong looked over with concern. "What?"

Slowly bringing her hands down, Suyeon said quietly "Soo-kyung just asked me out. . . and I said yes!"

Seo-jeong smiled smugly as she parked the van in front of the bubble tea shop.

Suyeon looked over, her eyes still wide. "What do I do?"

Seo-jeong shrugged. "I wasn't there for the whole conversation, but based on what I did hear, all you've got to do is be ready to go by 6 tomorrow. I'd recommend you wear that new blue dress you bought last week."

"But what do I do about-" Suyeon began.

"You want a blueberry bubble tea, right?" Seo-jeong asked as she climbed out of the van.

"Yes," Suyeon managed to say as Seo-jeong closed the door, leaving the rest of her question unasked.

Jung Hae-rim carefully masked her feelings as she stretched before her bout, but on the inside she was dancing. On her phone, now securely locked and tucked away in her gym bag, she had managed to get pictu