Nineteen.

BOM

I promised to myself that on the day following my visit to Nanna, I was going to do something nice for Seunghyun. It was apparently brought about by my sheer gratefulness to him when he offered to help me find my sister, who I haven’t heard for so many months now.

Flashes of that night she stormed out of this apartment after our unpleasant spat harked back to my memory. But for once, surprisingly, misery and guilt didn’t turn up to ruin my mood. I guess I was that happy.

Ah, the effects of being in love.

Wait. Just for the record, I am not yet in love with Seunghyun.

I am not.

Okay, maybe just a little.

But going back to Operation: Do Something Nice for Seunghyun, the first thing I thought of was bake a cupcake for him.

Right. So it wasn’t probably the grandest idea in the world, but it signified something for me. It reminded me of the cupcake he gave to me a few weeks ago as his way of showing gratitude for making him feel welcome to Rosemary. In general, the cupcake I will bake for him will represent the same thing, only that I was being thankful for a lot of reasons. One was already for helping me out with Hana; then there’s for being sweet and caring; for being a friend; and for simply putting up with my disability.

He hadn’t showed any indication that he wanted to disappear every time he’s near me and I really appreciated that.

Anyway, since I couldn’t bake alone, and I haven’t had practice since Home Economics in high school, I sought for Mai’s help.

I took care of buying the ingredients this morning at the mini grocery store across the street, all I had to do was knock at Mai’s apartment and beg for her to help me out.

Without batting an eyelash, she agreed, taking the shopping bag that was sitting on my lap. I was using the wheelchair, by the way. I was supposed to use the crutches more often now but since it’s going to be difficult to bake using no hands, I opted for the wheelchair.

“Is this for Seunghyun?” Mai asked the moment she turned around to march to the kitchen. I followed her, thinking how she could read me so easily.

“Uhm, yes…?” I hesitated, and before she could have a tiny window of a chance to overanalyze, I added, “But it’s only to thank him. He’s helping me find Hana.”

Mai stopped at her tracks before twirling sharply around and darted me a surprised look. Shortly afterwards however, it transformed to a sincere happy one. “Really? Aw, that’s wonderful. Let’s get started with the cupcake then!”

While Mai was collecting the baking tools from one of the hanging cabinets over the sink, I described to her the cupcake I envisioned. “It would be chocolate with rum cherry filling, white frosting on top, and then sprinkled with dark chocolate peelings.”

“Wow,” Mai remarked, halting from what she was doing just to look at me teasingly. “That cupcake sounds special. Are you sure it will only serve as a token of appreciation for him helping you find your sister?”

My cheeks heated up. And although I have no mirror to catch a glimpse of my face, it was surely blazing the darkest shade of red.

So I may have turned a bit exaggerated with the cupcake, but really, it wasn’t as splendid as compared to what Seunghyun was going to do for me.

But then, this is Mai. There’s no reason to be secretive to her when it comes to Seunghyun.

“Well, when we went to visit Nanna yesterday, Seunghyun really took care of me. And I felt that it wasn’t done out of pity. It was because, I think, he really cares. ”

Mai’s attention may be diverted to measuring the flour by now, but her smile denoted she was still listening and pleased from what she just heard.

“Then when we were at Olympus Taste,” I went on, getting the other ingredients out of the shopping bag and placing them on the countertop,  “I happened to come across a high school friend who works there as a waiter. And Seunghyun…he was…I think…”

“Jealous?” Mai supplied.

I snapped my head up to her, shocked. “I’m not sure,” I replied undecidedly, bringing my head down and fiddled with my fingers. “I mean how will you even know?”

“Did he change from the gentle, nice guy to the fierce, fight-mode-is-on one?”

I cocked my head to the side with a faraway gaze in my eyes, trying to recall Seunghyun’s attitude yesterday. Surprisingly, Mai was right. When he’s with me, he seemed to be all nice and gentle. But with Yunho, and may I add Siwon, too, he did turn fierce, and yeah, it was like he was about to get on to a fight.

“Yes…” I answered quite reluctantly, disbelieved that I was agreeing with Mai’s assumption.

So Seunghyun was jealous?

Before I could even deny that very own thought in my mind, my stomach tied a knot. I flinched for a while before asking myself instead, ‘but why?’

“Because he likes you! Isn’t that great?!” Mai exclaimed, adding the rest of the ingredients to the flour.

Okay, I may have uttered the question out loud.

I shook my head. “No, he doesn’t. He’s an heir. I’m sure he has rich, gorgeous girls lining up for him.”

“Then consider yourself lucky,” Mai replied, mixing the now dark brown batter with a whisk. Then she winked at me for a second, stating, “you didn’t have to go through that.”

Her cheering me on put a smile on my face. Then again, deep inside, I was in a bit of a misery. I must admit I wasn’t truly convinced. Until I hear the words right from Seunghyun himself, I will never believe that he likes me enough to get jealous of any guy from my past. Or in the future for that matter.

While Mai was still working on the batter and pouring it onto the molding cups, I took care of the icing. Then, in about 30 minutes, the cupcake was finally done. Actually, the batter was able to make six; I only took one and left the rest for Mai and her family.

With the now lusciously-decorated cupcake placed on a saucer on my lap, I spun the wheels of my wheelchair out of Mai’s apartment and headed to Seunghyun’s.

He was dripping in sweat when he opened the door, and I found myself staring at him.

That’s it, I concluded. He’s not a human being. He couldn’t possibly be icky perspiring and then still ooze with smoldering hotness, could he?

Seunghyun wiped the layer of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand, breaking me out of my stupor.

“Uhm, I’m sorry,” he said, and I got that he must be apologizing for what he looked at the moment. But really, there wasn’t.

“No, it’s okay,” I assured him. “I just want to give you this.” I took the saucer with the cupcake on it and handed it out to him.

His eyes and lips widened in delight as he acquired it from me. “Ah, just what I needed after an hour of workout.”

Then he invited me inside, and inside I went in. I drove my wheelchair to the sofa where his fluffy white cat was lying, carefully took it to my lap, and pet it for a while. Thereafter I turned to Seunghyun, who was chewing vivaciously a huge chunk taken off the cupcake.

“This is heavenly delicious,” he praised as he ambled to the sofa and sat heavily on it, making us only about a foot apart from each other.

I giggled for a response. But not because I found his compliment to be funny. It was basically because of the dab of white frosting that smeared his cheek.

“Something on my face, huh?” he said, wisely noticing.

I nodded, still giggling. And then before I could stop myself, I reached out my thumb to Seunghyun’s cheek and gently rubbed the frosting away. Then I dropped my thumb and move it to Buffy’s mouth, letting her it off my finger.

I wasn’t even aware of the consequence of my deed. Only when Seunghyun began to cough, as if choking from the cupcake.

I instantly looked at him, alarm spreading across my countenance.

Oh, my. I planned on him enjoying it. Not killing him from it!

“Are you okay?” I asked worriedly, slightly bending forward to take a good look at his pained expression.

“I’m okay,” Seunghyun assured in between his coughs and forced grins. “I’m okay. Just let me go get some water to drink.”

When he came back from the kitchen to the sofa after about two minutes, the cupcake was no longer in his grip. He must have thrown it away or left it at the kitchen to rot. I didn’t know why my mind would come up with such negative thoughts, but after the choking it does seem reasonable for him to put the cupcake away.

And there was no denying the thought of it pushed me to the brink of sadness. Almost.

“It was delicious,” Seunghyun suddenly remarked with a big, heartfelt smile, underlining the last word like he really meant it. Needless to say, my downcast mood brightened up.

“In fact, I finished everything,” he added, thereafter darting a faint remorseful glance at his cat. “I’m sorry, Buffy, I didn’t leave even just a small bite for you.”

But who said Buffy was not included in this Operation: Do Something Nice for Seunghyun?

“It’s okay, Buffy,” I told her, her head all the way to her back. “I have something for you, too.”

I fished out a little mouse-shaped treat from my pocket, tear the plastic wrapper apart and gave it to her. Buffy took it with , and then with a poise and elegance akin to a regal princess, she stood on her four paws on my lap before leaping to the floor and cat-walked to her little comfy crib by the corner to munch on her treat.

“Thank you,” Seunghyun said, my attention swinging back to him. “On behalf of Buffy, and for the cupcake. Did you make it?”

I nodded. “With a lot of Mai’s help. I actually did it for you, for helping me find Hana.”

“Oh, wow, thank you.” Seunghyun appeared to be every bit disbelieved, like he wasn’t expecting I’d really bake a cupcake for him just to let him know how much I appreciate what he’d done for me. But if only he knew…

“No, thank you,” I countered. “You’ve given me new hope to see her again. It means a lot. Seriously.”

Then Seunghyun looked intently and deeply straight into my eyes, as though he’s searching for something in there. And I wondered what it could be. The pessimistic side of me would have thought of all the negative definitions of what that silent stare could possibly mean. But his lips twisted to a smile—that heartwarming, y smile that could have instantly turned me into a puddle of goo. And so the pessimism was held back. Then he slowly opened his mouth, about to speak. But for some strange reason he didn’t go on with it.

I felt disappointed. It seemed as if he was about to say something that would set off my heart to flip wildly. In a good way, of course. But I tried not to show the disappointment. In any event, I might just be hallucinating. I mean what could he possibly say that would cause my heart to flip?

He broke our eye connection, bowing down as he cleared his throat. Then he raised his head up and looked at me once again, his stare reducing to a slightly friendlier one. Not that I didn’t like that brand, but I would have preferred the one before that. Because the one before made me feel, I don’t know...I guess wanted...pretty...y...loved...

He said, “Speaking of your sister, I was able to finally talk to the private investigator who will handle her case. He wants to talk to you, gather everything he could about Hana to make finding her easy. When are you available?”

“Anytime,” I answered, thrill slowly creeping on my nerves upon hearing the update regarding the PI. “Is he okay tomorrow?”

“How about later?” Seunghyun suggested. “He’s thinking of dropping by here in the afternoon.”

My cheeks colored from embarrassment. “He doesn’t have to do that. I’ll just go to his office.”

Seunghyun chuckled. “It’s okay, Bom. He’s a friend. And he wants to visit me, anyway. I can assure you it’s fine with him.”

“Alright.” I nodded meekly. “Thank you so much for going through the trouble. I really, really owe you one. And I just wish I could return it with something…but since you’re an heir, you probably have everything already.”

I had the sudden urge to slap my mouth so hard it will bleed and bruise.

Oh, Lord, let him not hear the part where I said that he was an heir. Please, please, please, let him not hear that part!

“What did you just say?” Seunghyun asked, appearing to be deeply alarmed but was trying hard at the same time not to show too much of it.

“Nothing!” I squeaked, my voice undeniably sounding different from the normal. Sounding exactly like there was ‘something’, and not ‘nothing.’ “I should be going now, you know, prepare for the meeting with your friend-slash-private investigator later.”

And before he has anything to respond to that I stormed out of his apartment, drawing a huge relieved sigh when I made it outside.

Whew. That was close.

~*~

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