Their dreams in their teenage years may have already been reached, but dreams don’t always end. They change with time and with you as a person. They become smaller and realistic, or be larger than life and seemingly impossible to achieve.

And their dream needed a change.

Piece-Of-Cake was reaching its four years and hadn’t been a disappointment. But business was business, she and Eunjung had planned for a whole year to rebrand, remodel and improve. They needed to be bigger and better, literally.

The work had piled up no matter how much they had tried to keep up. There was a construction work happening next door, and it wasn’t just any construction, it was an extension to their shop.

Jiyeon had to meet a lot of people for this to happen, paperwork to go over, and plans to keep on track.

They were just beginning to have the shop extended at the back to have a bigger kitchen. Originally they had wanted to extend the whole space and rent out the shop next door but the owner wanted to open his own book shop. Luckily that shop owner only needed a smaller place so he had rented out half the space, giving them more room to extend behind it.

Now, the kitchen extension was being made, here was Jiyeon reviewing the costs for it. She was getting a headache at the numbers on paper. She also had to check the final design for the shop upfront because other than a bigger kitchen, they were remodeling.

Their months-worth of planning will come into fruition and soon, they’d have a bigger kitchen and a better looking place.

A lot of their hard earned money would go to this improvement, and a loan had been filed just to make this happen. It was quite a space they’d be extending for, but it was worth it since they would soon have a bigger and unique display of not only pastries, but also bread.

That meant a larger working area for pastry chefs and aspiring chefs where they could work on the made-to-order cakes, while another sub-team was in charge of supplying the demand of pastries and bread for the shop up front. It was a small factory in the making.

With more orders they could take, and orders to dispatch, they had gotten a new truck for them to get bigger deliveries out. And that was something else they, too, have to pay for.

This was why the whole time they had tried to work on their marriage, still they couldn’t afford to slack around even if they wanted.

Plans had all been laid out in hefty documents which she needed to go over. Jiyeon has her hands full and it was literally all hands on deck for this project.

They are working with professionals; contractors, an architect and interior designers to make Piece-Of- Cake a better place, a bread and pastry haven, not only here in this city, but for this whole western country and the whole northern continent. And that was a lot of work to do to get it going.

Eunjung had been busy with this all this time hiring part timers. With the help of her original line of cooks like Taecyeon, Wooyoung, Areum, Krystal, and Suzy to train those who would be working in the sub-team in making pastries and bread for the shop up front while the higher line focus on creating cakes. And since they needed more people, they needed more equipment Eunjung recently conducted training for the new equipment that came in. Jiyeon had joined in on them just to have know-how to how the kitchen works.

Her end of the team was just as busy, as well as working closely with Eunjung’s team for trainings. Amber was promoted to be her right hand and assistant manager as she had been preparing her for all this time and she had re-hired someone who had worked in Piece-Of-Cake office before.

Hara, Dara and Luna were promoted to lead and supervise their respective shifts with the newcomers. The three worked ever closely with Eunjung’s team to improve on efficiency, skills, communication and even baking skills when they were needed.

To say she had absolutely a lot to do was understatement.

She and Eunjung had barely even had a breath of relief; the marriage had also taken a lot of their personal time when they were supposed to rest.

They actually had a lot more to do other than working on the marriage but that doesn’t completely mean that they didn’t try. After all, marriage is hard work.

But whatever she needed to ask Eunjung about that sudden camping trip had to be set aside much to her annoyance.

It may have been a bit of a consolation that the past few days, it felt like Eunjung was coming back to how she used to be before Hyomin came; random hugging and random hand holding. She wanted to believe it was something she had said, about wanting to have a family with her... But she didn’t want to over analyze some things.

It’s just hard to be in a roller coaster of how Eunjung treats her. Sometimes she felt like a wife, sometimes she felt like she’s just a friend. Worse, she sometimes didn’t know where she stood. Was she the wife today or was she just the friend, and worse, was she just the business partner?

She needed to know what she is most days…because how would she know this if she doesn’t have Eunjung.

Then again, she’s just glad she actually felt like a wife.

She had to give it to whatever happened with the talk her wife had with her father or Sean’s random outburst of ideas and the awkward baby talk in the car because Eunjung seemed to be a bit physically inclined with her lately.

Truth be told, Jiyeon liked being treated like the wife better than them having this blurry relationship of what seems to be just friendship disguised as marriage.

It wasn’t that bad. It just bothered her at times how they can’t simply be lovers for significant amount of time before they went back to how they were, as friends. She would admit, she felt giddy about it. Yet most times she felt nothing to it.

Ignorance may have meant that they took this marriage for granted. This is still a union in the works, just like their shop. The bigger their hopes and wishes came with their marriage, the more work, time and planning they needed to consume.

There was still the inkling of her missing something all this time. Eunjung wouldn’t have these shifts of uncertainty if something hadn’t happened.

What else could it be?

They were so certain. They were so confident and daring. Then, suddenly, it seemed like a bubble. If she weren’t her best friend before, would she have really guessed how uncertain Eunjung had become? Perhaps not, but she can read Eunjung like a book, which probably meant that it was a good thing and a bad thing all at once.

She let her phone ring on her other best friend, wanting some answers because somehow, it was just difficult in itself to ask a tired Eunjung. But Hyomin hadn’t answered any calls. Victoria doesn’t even say where Hyomin is and what’s been going on, keeping her lips sealed. She’s practically blind to the situation now. And these days, she was getting distracted in a bad way. Being distracted meant more time wasted and more room for mistakes. She could never afford a mistake in this crucial time.

Still, she tries every day.

Ever since they were children, Eunjung said being distracted is alright as long as it was the good kind. She could only hope she gets distracted in the good way. Good lord, did she want to have something to take her mind off things and just be the relaxed and happy Jiyeon for some time.

She’ll be willing to trade something for it; just not the money, money is crucial need for them these days.

So, what could it be, when she barely has the time to look for a good distraction anyway? Oh please, someone take me away from here, she begged to the heavens in thought.

Jiyeon grunts as she forces herself to get off her chair, leaving the pile of work untouched. She walks out to see her employees cleaning up in dim lighting; just in time for closing.

The shop owner quietly observes Hara wiping the counters, with Amber taking care of the final paperwork for the day. Smiling, she turns and sees Dara’s frenzied mopping.

“Damn it! What the hell is this stain?!” Dara exclaims, hitting the floor with her mop.

“Hey! Hey, calm down woman! Don’t hurt the mop,” Jiyeon calmly states, holding the poor mop.

Dara freezes on her spot, cowering at Jiyeon’s figure. They hadn’t seen their boss come out of the office. They almost thought Jiyeon would actually be buried in those work she needed to do. Though it may be a bit of relief to see her standing up for a change, it was hard not to fear a clearly exhausted temperamental boss like Jiyeon.

“Sorry boss,” she meekly says.

“It’s okay, just don’t murder the mop,” Jiyeon excused, giving back the battered mop to Dara much to the latter’s relief. She was beyond exhausted to even care about how much the mop costs if it’s destroyed right now, all Jiyeon wanted to do was to end the day on a better note.

Despite her being friendly and rarest of times, lenient, with her employees, she was still the boss after all. They both had to play the good-cop-bad-cop tactic, and obviously she was the ‘bad cop’. Eunjung was more of the happy one and she could barely be pretending to be mean, whilst she looked naturally mean. During the interviews, these girls almost pissed their pants when facing her.

Though that had been a long time since. If there was anyone who isn’t that scared, it would be the ever hopeful-for-Krystal, Amber.

Just as she was from day one, Amber was just a joy to be around as she laughs along with Hara from behind the counter. Dara’s frightened look was just so hard not to make fun of, teasing the latter even if Dara had thrown them infinite amounts of deathly glares.

With Jiyeon wanting the light atmosphere, the boss skips over to the counter, taking the papers Amber hands mindlessly with a small smile.

“There, inventory, done,” Amber says with a grin before leaving to help Dara with the stain.

Jiyeon laughs at Amber’s enthusiasm for her job, her eyes still on the papers before placing it down. “When you guys are done, you can go.”

“Would you like for me to close up?” Hara proactively asks.

“Yes, just close up the front. I think Eunjung’s staying behind, she’s making something new again. I’ll stay back with her again tonight,” Jiyeon tells her employees.

Her employees smirk at their boss, with Amber’s being the most irritating in Jiyeon’s eyes. And before Jiyeon could tell them off, Amber speaks up. “We’ve noticed some things lately.”

“What things?” Jiyeon asks, curious.

“Let’s see,” Amber starts, crossing her arms to let the other mop she got fall on the floor, ignoring the warning gazes Jiyeon gave.

But those warnings were ignored as Dara stops mopping, Hara stops wiping, all turning to their boss with their cheeky smiles.

“You know. Before, when Eunjung says she’s gonna stay back, usually you ask either of us to drop you off. You ask Wooyoung, or me or even Hara. I mean, I wouldn’t buy a car too if I had Eunjung picking me up and taking me home most of the time. But seriously, you haven’t asked any of us to take you home even if Eunjung stays back most of these nights as of late. You’ve waited for her.”

Jiyeon sees where this is going. It must have skipped their minds that they haven’t told the staff of their change of status yet. But she feigns ignorance to it, this would make for a good surprise