I may not be the perfect one

When you’re surrounded by perfection

But I have a heart

That is perfectly designed to have you…

A faint knocking sound filled the air, but was soon beaten by the louder sound of people walking around, chattering things that half made sense even though the other half didn’t. The sun hasn’t even fully showed itself yet, and many people were still snuggling in their beds with their warm pajamas and thick blankets covering their bodies. So, anyone should be able to conclude it; it was still very early indeed, yes, but the fact didn’t seem to have bothered anyone in the grand central of the popular shopping site in Gangnam district. In fact, the fuss have already begun since the last three or four hours ago, and it was still somewhere in the sixth hour of the day, so, do the math.

And same as those people, the knocking sound also didn’t seem to notice how early it was, or how its sound wasn’t even heard by others, and so it continued. Where did it come from? Quite an easy question to answer when you’re walking around the corner and were paying a close attention. Even from the street you’ll be able to see that the ‘thing’ making that sound was none other than a wooden plank hung by the window on the second floor of a three story building, ‘Chocolate Kiss Bakery’ written on the both sides of it, and it was knocking the pretty and shiny glass window that showed a few sets of wooden chairs and tables, and also the cozy and romantic interiors inside. The same environment could be seen through the transparent curtains hanging by the windows of the floor below.

Yes, it was a bakery. ‘Chocolate Kiss Bakery’ is practically the most popular bakery around the downtown, considering that people-especially couples-liked to visit the bakery a lot, thanks to the cozy and romantic atmosphere. Even when you were just standing in front of the door, you can feel the whole world melt behind you, and was replaced by the peaceful and romantic air created by the whole bakery. The building itself was an admirable work of art, with rosy-colored bricks as its walls, clear glass windows framed with mahogany woods, all the classic French theme decorations, the building stood out between the other buildings with plain walls.

A small bell rang melodiously as someone stepped into the still-closed bakery. It was one of the staffs, obviously, as she wore a pretty pink uniform that has become the bakery’s trademark ever since it was opened back in 2010, along with a long, white coat over it.

“sorry I’m late!” the girl that had just walked in shouted. Her breath was still a bit unstable, considering that she had just used her first strength of the day to run her way to the bakery. It’s not like the other workers mind, though, since they only flashed a smile and a soft ‘good morning’ to greet her, and then got back to their respectful chores.

The girl, also, only smiled and quickly walked to the cashier counter, the gateway to her work. Except for when she got to the counter, she was surprised by the sudden movements coming from behind the table.

“late again, Isy?” a male voice spoke to the girl-or Isy. Isy jumped out of surprise.

“o-oppa! Oh my gosh, you startled me!” she whined, earning an amused chuckle from the latter. He slid both his hands to his pocket before walking right to her direction, and bending his body down to match her height.

“it’s funny how you’re always late for work, but you’re always beyond early for TeenTop’s concerts or fanmeets. Ah, the power of the blossoming teenage love~… this oppa is growing jealous of that boyfriend of yours…” he said-more like teasing-, ignoring her previous complain. Isy’s cheeks grew pink.

“J-Joon oppa!” she yelled embarrassedly. All the other workers were already having a hard time preventing their laughter coming out, a different sight when it comes to Joon who has already laughed for quite a while.

“ah, get out of my way!” Isy, who couldn’t stop the humiliation, pushed her oppa aside before stomping her way to the kitchen, where she worked everyday. But after a few steps, she turned to Joon again.

“oh, I almost forgot. I’m throwing a small congratulatory party for Changjo oppa and the others for their comeback, so I’ll be leaving at two sharp,” she said without even giving a space to breathe. But as Joon parted his lips to say something, the younger cutted him

“oh, I’m also going to bake a cake for Changjo oppa, and I’ll be needing some ingredients from the kitchen to do that,”

“Isy-…”

“I’ve called mom, and she gave me a permission to do it, so you can’t do anything about it, okay?”

“Isy-…”

“and I’m gonna need your recipe books, it’s in your office, right?”

“Isy-…”

“tell me when it’s already 1, since I’ll have to bake the cake, and-…”

“ISY!!” Joon suddenly shouted. Isy, who was already inside the kitchen and was putting on her chef’s hat, or in her case, the patisserie’s hat, and started cracking eggs.

“oh, WHAT?!” she shouted back, annoyed. Joon crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned his body to the side.

“do you really want to bake the pastries with that new coat on?” hearing this, Isy realized that she was still wearing her white coat from before. Embarrassed, she pouted while hanging the coat on the coat hanger in the corner of the room.

“will it cost you to tell me just a bit sooner?” she mumbled, earning a giggle from the older.

- - -

“Isy, it’s one o’clock! You might want to get down with your cake if you want to make it in time!” a loud shout echoed through the kitchen Isy was working in. one shout and it was enough for her to know that it was her oppa’s voice, doing her a favor. And it didn’t take a second call or Isy to immediately get down to her business.

“okay!” she answered shortly. Her small feet rapidly took her to her oppa’s office, where all the recipe books are. Well, Joon was the head patisserie in the bakery, so that’s where all the recipe books should be.

With less than a minute, more than ten recipe books were already hanging about on the table. As the books were all more than five centimeters thick each, it’s kinda impossible for the girl to read all that and make a cake in an hour or less. But Isy was smart enough to do something about it.

She spread the books on the table, and returned the ones that aren’t about cakes to the shelf, leaving about five books left. Then she took out the books that contained recipes for children cakes and wedding cakes, leaving three of the books. And with a satisfied smile, she took the three books back to the kitchen. There, Isy started scanning the books, looking for the perfect recipe for a congratulatory cake for her boyfriend.

“strawberry cake? Ew, no. lemon cake? Umm… better not. Ginger bread? It’s more like for other special occasions. Vanilla cake? Too common. Ooh, chocolate cake with cream cheese filling? That’s more like it!” she smiled.

Opening the recipe book right on the page titled ‘chocolate cake with cream cheese filling’, Isy started running around the kitchen for the ingredients. Eggs, flour, dark chocolate, chocolate paste, butter, sugar, and even all the cooking utilities were all in a perfectly neat order on the table in less than five minutes, showing how professional Isy was.

She started off with the batter for the cake. Eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and all that, all mixed into one in a bowl. She the electric mixer and started spreading butter in the inside of the heart-shaped baking pan she prepared for the cake. She did all the work gleefully while singing TeenTop’s ‘Miss Right’. Not too long later, she realized that the batter she put under the electric mixer was ready, so she waddled her way to the machine and started taking out the batter, still humming medleys of TeenTop’s songs.

After that was ready, she took a big knife and a block of dark chocolate, and started chopping the chocolate into little pieces. Then she put all the small pieces of chocolate into a pan along with some kind of ingredient called cooking fat that will make the chocolate extra shiny. Because of her excitement, Isy the patisserie almost forgot that she can’t put the pan of chocolate right on top of the fire. Luckily, she immediately realized her mistake and quickly put another pan full of water underneath the chocolate. She stirred the chocolate until it turned into a nice, rich, shiny chocolate paste. Only seeing it made her smile. She took a baking paper, and started spreading the melted chocolate in an oval shape, and writing ‘congratulations on your comeback, Changjo oppa! ♥’ on it.

Meanwhile, an uninvited-and clearly unexpected-guest was casually walking into the bakery. The bell that was hung at the top of the wooden-framed glass door rang, making the cashier man for the day, which was none other than Joon, looked up. He smiled as he did so, as he thought that the guy who just walked through the door was a regular customer that he had to welcome with a polite manner and a smile. But his supposition was a complete mistake.

“welcome to Chocolate Kiss Bakery! May I… help… you,” he unconsciously decreased his words’ pace as he realized just who was the guy that he just thought was a customer. The guy smiled his ever-so-dreamy smile.

“Joon hyung!” he called, raising one of his hands in the air to greet the older. Joon could only wave his half-raised hand confusedly.

“Changjo…” he mumbled, but Changjo didn’t seem to care about him who was looking like he has no idea what he was doing in life. While turning his head in all the directions possible, Changjo asked

“where’s Isy?” Joon absent-mindedly pointed to the kitchen, remembering nothing about the referred girl trying to make a cake for a surprise party addressed to this certain guy that he just told where to find her. but the latter didn’t seem to realize any of that, either. Changjo pointed to the same direction Jon pointed, while saying

“in the kitchen?” Jon nodded, still not getting any recalls about the supposed surprise. It was too late when he did, then, since Changjo was already half-running his way to where his girlfriend was.

“w-wait… Isy is baking a cake for-… but he-…” Pulled back at the thought, Joon tried to stop the mess he has started from being an official disaster. “Chang-… Changjo, wait, NOOO!!!!” but as any of us know, it was too late. Joon’s knees grew weak at the sight of the younger male entering the supposedly ‘Changjo restricted area’, at the same time giving him a vision of his sister’s anger at him. Which was scary.

- - -

Changjo, who was having absolutely no idea on what his girlfriend was doing, managed to reach the door without making any sound, as he was planning to surprise the younger girl. He smiled slyly as he found her too busy on the thing she was doing that she didn’t recognize his presence. He tip-toed his way closer to her, while trying to keep himself behind her s she won’t see him. And when the time he felt right came, he literally jumped onto her, hugging her from the back.

“ISY!!!” he squealed. The girl screamed a high pitched “AAAHHH!!!!” before breaking herself free from the unknown hugger.

“oppa, what in the world are you doing here?! The music show aren’t suppose to end until 2, right?” she bombarded him with the questions. Changjo pouted cutely, almost making him look like a two years old demanding for his favorite cookie.

“I ran here right after my performance is done-not even waiting for the encore-to meet my girlfriend and this is the welcome I get?” he grumbled. Isy-who was gripping the white baking table behind her ever so tightly after Changjo scared her from behind (sure it was meant as a surprise, but she was completely terrified by him)-took off her grip to the table and walked slowly towards her boyfriend, trying to coax him.

“oppa, that’s not what I m-…”

“what’s that?” Chanjo, who-apparently-has seen his supposedly surprise cake, asked the girl who made the chocolate ‘congratulations on your comeback, Changjo oppa! ♥’ sign lying around on the table in front of him.

Isy’s face turned pale. Gotcha! She didn’t think of anything especially about hiding her surprise cake from him just then when he melted down her heart with the puppy-pout. Cold sweat started running down her forehead. What should she say now? she mentally cursed herself for getting the congratulatory sign done first befor everything else.

“Isy?”

“oppa… that-… that…“ more drops of sweat started running down her forehead as she tried to find a way to avoid Changjo finding out about what exactly she was doing.

“Isy, don’t try to hide it from me. It’s crystal clear, you know…” he started teasing her. Isy gave up, she couldn’t go against her all-knowing boyfriend.

“okay, okay, I’ll confess! It’s actually a-…”

“awww…. You made a cake to congratulate me for my comeback?” he concluded without even giving her a chance to say anything. Isy’s jaw dropped. Well sure his guess was correct, but still…

“look, oppa-…” she parted her lips to say something, but Changjo didn’t seem to let her do so.

“awww…. That is so sweet of you~... I love you Isy-yah~…” he said, fluttered. Isy rolled her eyes, witnessing the critically childish side of her boyfriend, the member of a hot boy group, TeenTop.

Without any warning, Changjo cupped both his girlfriend’s cheek in his hands before pulling her face closer to his for a sweet kiss. He did it unconsciously out of excitement, but it didn’t dismiss the fact that the girl who received the kiss was completely shocked and unprepared, proved by the fact that her eyes was widening as wide as those eyes could be. Because of their height difference, Isy had to tip-toe to reach his lips, but it didn’t make the kiss any less sweet and romantic. She finally closed her eyes as he started nipping her lips, trying to feel the soft and warm lips that he has been craving to feel against his for quite a while now.

As they part, both Changjo and Isy’s cheeks turned bright red. How would they not? It was their first kiss ever since they started dating!

“o-oppa… I…” Isy couldn’t find any words to speak, so instead she could only stutter. Changjo, however, decided to break the awkwardness. Sadly, in the lamest way there is.

“s-so… the cake would go to a waste if you don’t finish it. so… go finish it,” as he was just this close to leaving the door, he heard his girlfriend’s sweet and angelic voice calling him from behind.

“oppa, get back here,” Changjo slowly turned his head along with his body to her direction.

“what is it?” Isy smiled. That smile made Changjo’s heart feel like a big bucket of fresh, cold water was poured onto it.

“since you’ve already found out about the surprise, it would be fun if you’d help me with this…” she said. Changjo could do nothing but smile widely at her words.

“I’m not a good baker, but I think I’ll make a great patisserie when you’re the one to lead me,” his words made Isy blush, but she no time for that if she wanted to get her cake done in time the TeenTop members would be out from the music program.

Changjo walked beside her, and she started explaining the ingredients and what he should do. When she was done, he didn’t spare her anymore time to say a thing, and swiftly moved himself to her back, and placing both his hands above both of hers. Or in short, backhugging her. Isy blinked a few times, her eyes stuck to the pretending-like-there-was-nothing-wrong Changjo.

“o-oppa…” he looked at her, right into her glistening eyes.

“I’m more comfortable like this,” he reasoned, earning a soft chuckle from her.

“alright, alright, anything you say goes~…” she said between her chuckles. Changjo smiled sarcastically.

“then if I say so that we go for another kiss, then you shouldn’t refuse it, right?” he said cheekily.