Cupcakes
Push and Pull
“The way to a girl's heart is to give her the whole package. Gifts, compliments, food, you name it.”
“I thought you said enthusiasm is a turn-off?”
“Listen, wooing a girl is a delicate balance of push and pull. You need to know when to be nice and caring, and when to be stoic and mysterious.”
“How exactly do you come up with these ideas?”
…
It was almost as if I had entered an alternate reality where nothing was right in my world. It was an early Saturday morning and I had woken up earlier than usual to the sound of people and clinking metal. I at least had the better sense, though this was honestly against my judgment, to actually get ready for the morning and change into something more presentable should we actually have visitors. Like I said, the moment I stepped out of my room and into the receiving area, six distinct voices made their way to my ears. I recognized each of them instantaneously, and already I was regretting even waking up that day.
“Yah, what do you think you're doing? That's not how you fold eggs into a batter!” Key shrieked. I couldn't see him, but I could imagine him wearing a silly pink apron with frills while flailing a spatula around. Did I mention I could totally see him with a matching head scarf too? Insert shuddering here.
“You do it then, hyung!” That was Taemin, and I assumed he just shoved the bowl, I'm guessing, of batter, whatever that means, into Key's arms, while Key just gave him the diva glare and pout combo.
Here I can imagine Minho just looking helplessly at the two other members, thinking to himself, why he deserved to be put in a group with these people. Jonghyun and Jinki would be hanging around the counter dipping their fingers into whatever else food was prepared and tasting everything, both of them secretly planning some prank. Kwangwoo would be there too, sitting, not knowing what to do next as SHINee took over our kitchen.
What were they even doing here?
I finally stepped into the kitchen and found my brother and the members of SHINee just as I had imagined them to be. The poor bowl was caught in between Key and Taemin's hands, but instead of Minho to the side, he was caught in between the two of them, trying hard to keep the contents of the bowl from spilling. Jonghyun and Jinki looked like two kids caught red-handed stealing cookies from the jar- it didn't help that they actually were stealing cookies from a baking sheet.
In all fairness, the kitchen actually smelled pretty good. Over at the table, a large picnic basket was prepared and scattered next to it were lunch boxes filled with rolls and wraps. I walked over to the table and picked up a kimbab roll with my fingers, Kwangwoo moved to slap my hand away, but I had already dropped the roll into my mouth. He scowled at me, and in retaliation, I snatched the uncut roll from his cutting board and bit into it, much to his frustration.
“Ate,” he growled, “why are you up so early?!”
I didn't answer his question, instead, I took another bite of the roll and made my way to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of my favorite grape juice. “Kwangwoo, don't forget to stock up on banana milk when you do the groceries tomorrow.”
My back was turned to him, but I knew he was about three seconds away from a frustrated cry and/or quite possibly some form of lesser violence, because honestly, I seemed to be the only one capable of it in the family. The SHINee boys didn't seem the least fazed by our little brother-sister interaction, they were probably used to it by now, which isn't so surprising, even the 2PM guys were used to it-
“Picnic basket.”
They boys turned to me, all with a curious expression on their faces. “Picnic.” I said again, “The SME picnic...thingy...that's today?”
The SME picnic thingy was this annual get together organized by a few of the elders as part of the team-building traditions for the whole company. The idols and trainees were invited too if they weren't busy- apparently SHINee was free for a little while. I had this inkling that Kwon Boa was too.
“Dad says you have to go.” Kwangwoo looked like he was going to have fun today. Fun because I hated picnics, and I hated company “traditions” and a whole lot of other stuff, but that's really for another conversation.
“Can't I pass?” I was aware of the looks I was receiving from the other occupants in the room. I didn't mean to offend them, I just really don't like social gatherings, especially when Taec and Jay weren't invited.
“You're such a hermit.” Kwangwoo muttered. Again, I chose to ignore him, until, of course, I noticed the small smile forming on his face. I knew it wasn't of endearment, and again, as always, curiosity plrevailed.
“I changed my mind.”
The brief flash of panic in Kwangwoo's eyes gave me such a satisfaction that even I knew I've just entered an all new high in torturing my little brother. I loved every second of it.
…
The picnic was everything I had expected it to be. Suffice to say the only thing that had me motivated to stay was watching Kwangwoo and his attempts at confessing his feelings for Boa. Keyword: attempt. I still have no idea what in the world would possess my brother (or any sane person, really) to even want to confess his feelings to his designated object-of-affection. Personally, it seemed like such a waste of time, a risk with an incalculable factor- and I hate calculations.
Right now Kwangwoo was setting up the picnic blanket with Jonghyun, Roo, the monster of a thing was yapping around, and I suppressed the urge to go over there and just kick the thing to make it shut up. I needed a distraction. The typical red and white checkered picnic blanket was giving me a headache, and I wanted to launch a series of intercontinental nuclear missiles just to ease my wrath.
Minho and Taemin were setting up their own blanket, as with other SM artists that managed to make it to this event. Why was this necessary? I saw the SNSD girls acting like the perfect angels that they were, and again, that urge to launch some form of weapon of mass destruction was gnawing at the back of my head. It was very tempting to just throw a rusty spork at them.
Finally, a distraction came in one phone call from Taec.
“I love you.” I said into the receiver.
“That bad, huh?”
“Dude, that's just scary.”
That was Taec and Jay respectively. How thoughtful of my friends to put me on speaker. “Save me, please.”
“Just think of it this way, future blackmail material.”
“I'm glad you know me so well Taec.”
“What are BFFs for.”
“Please don't ever use that word ever again. Ever.”
“Got it.”
“So how's Kwangwoo doing?” Jay asked.
“Uh.” I tried to make some sense of what my brother was doing, but his actions failed to make sense as he kept reshuffling the tupperware placements on the blanket. “I think he's trying to feng shui the food placements for good fortune.”
“That desperate, huh.”
“Looks like it.”
“Well, do you think we'd get a security out of the park if we crashed? You sound like you might need some back-up.”
“Ugh. You know I do, but...I'll be fine. I'll live. Besides, I've gotten you guys in enough trouble before.” I ended the call there and proceeded with my stalking. Was it still considered stalking when the person you were watching knew you were watching them?
As expected, Kwangwoo brought over his rolls and cake towards Boa's blanket. She was sitting with a few other stockholders discussing...stocks I assume. Kwangwoo looked like he was about to throw up and I leaned forward trying to get as much as I can of the scene. Minho and Jonghyun were right behind him, and inched even closer to hear their conversation.
“Hi noona, want some rolls? Kwangwoo made them.” Minho greeted Boa first, and the four of them exchanged polite bows and smiles.
“Noona, try the cupcakes too, Kwangwoo made them.” Jonghyun added.
Boa smiled and took a cupcake from the basket Kwangwoo had in his arms. I thought he might faint or something. Boa seemed to enjoy the cupcake as she took a bite, and both Minho and Jonghyun started eyeing each other and nudging Kwangwoo to make a move. This was definitely going to be fun.
“How is it noona?” he asked.
Boa smiled back and nodded, “I like it, its really good. Are you feeling better now? You looked like you were really stressed the last time.”
“I'm fine, noona.” Kwangwoo answered, he looked a little unsettled, and I figured it was because of the fiasco that was the last time Kwangwoo saw Boa. My brother offered the rest of the cupcakes to the elders who were on the same blanket- kkay, so they weren't old in the sense of it, but that's not really important, the point was Kwangwoo was being generous. He was never generous to me.
Fine.
By this point I was already aware of the state of my emotions, but that didn't mean I was going to do anything about it. In fact, I was going to let it override me completely.
I picked up my feet and dragged myself over to where Kwangwoo and Boa were, by the time I got to their blanket the elders have left for another picnic basket to attack. The two were facing each other and I sat myself at the corner. “You're being awfully nice Woo.”
A tight-lipped smile was his response, and I could tell he wanted to tell me off by the slight shaking of his fingers. “Did you need anything?”
“Not really. I just came here to chat.”
“Hi Hayeon, how have you been? I don't see you around the office a lot.” Boa said, interrupting the tension between me and my brother.
I frowned at the use of my other given name but I managed to fake a smile for her. “Yeah...I kinda have other obligations. Besides, I've no one to visit at the SM building like my dear baby brother here.”
Boa looked slightly confused, and Kwangwoo looked like he wanted to sling me over his shoulder again and drag me off somewhere no one would ever find me. Didn't matter. I've managed to learn how to get away from a fireman's carry.
“Kwangwoo loves baking, did you notice? Pink too. He likes pink.” Again with the same confused and irritated expressions. This was getting to be a little more fun than I had previously thought it would be.
“What are you doing?” Kwangwoo muttered under his breath. Boa didn't seem to hear, or if she did, she was being nice in pretending not to have heard.
I smiled a sickeningly saccharine smile, “I'm not doing anything.”
Because apparently my brother knew me better than I thought he grabbed my wrist and stood up, bowing an apology to Boa before dragging me away. Needless to say I tried to wrench away from his grip, physical human contact was not one of my favorite things.
“Yah Park Kwangwoo!”
“Shut up!”
At that instance I did.
“What are you trying to do? Are you really that hell-bent on ruining my life?!”
Yes I was, but only for fun. Why was he even being so worked up over it. “You know, you really should just calm down, you're just-”
“You're doing it again, stop that!”
Doing what?
“Stop trying to analyze me. I know that's what you're going to be doing anyway so don't even start.”
I shrugged, “I'm not. At least not consciously. And what is your problem anyway? You know you could have told me first! I would have been nice you know, if I didn't have to figure it out on my own I would have been nice, I would even help you!” The shocked look on his face would have been priceless had I been in the mood to taunt him, but this was serious now.
“You'd do that? Why?”
Well at least he's gotten past that one other issue. “Why not, you're my brother. Besides, what good advice would you even get from those boys? You even asked PM? That wasn't a very good decision you know.”
Frustrated. That was how Kwangwoo was looking, and with a deep breath he turned around and walked away.
…
“Look these ideas are a fool proof way to earning a girl's heart.”
“Look, I need you to stop basing all your so-called knowledge on women from my sister.”
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