Chapter 16

Since it was the weekend, with nothing to do and not knowing what to do, Tiffany decided to go visit her in-law’s since she was home alone while Yunho went out.

"Tiffany, what do you think of this design? I designed it for Seoul collection's fashion show that's coming up soon." Eunji asked, showing Tiffany a designed she drew.

"This is gorgeous. I think this design will be extra flattering if it's a cream or silver color. What do you think?"

"You are so right." Eunji said, making some notes on her drawings before placing it on the coffee table, turning to looked straight at Tiffany.

"So, tell me, how is it? What's it like being married to Yunho Oppa?" Eunji asked, smiling.

"I don't know. It’s not easy that’s for sure." Tiffany replied, giving her a weak smile in returned.

Ever since Tiffany had known Eunji, she had always been honest in every talk she had with her. She feels that she can confide in her and Eunji wasn't the type that would defend her brother without any reasoning. As the days progress, Tiffany told Eunji about what has been going on and although they had been married for three months, their relationship seems to be getting worst.

"Tiffany, my brother isn't a bad person. He is actually a very nice and kind-hearted guy. There must be some misunderstanding between you two. All you need is to sit down together one night and talk. It seems that the lack of communication is the problem in your relationship." Eunji said, feeling sorry for Tiffany.

'Not just communication but love is also lacking in this relationship.' Tiffany thought sadly.

"Oppa was hurt once badly so he's very reserve when it comes to making himself vulnerable again. Please be patient with him? I can see that he really does care about you, regardless of what he may say or do." Hearing Eunji's sincere words, Tiffany smiled at her, glad to have such an understanding sister-in-law, hoping that what she said is right.

Suddenly, an idea pop into her head and a huge smile came onto Eunji's small, round face, "Do you know what? Oppa's birthday is coming up next week. This will be a great chance for you two to reconcile and mend any misunderstanding." Eunji said excitedly.

"Really? When is it?" Tiffany asked surprised.

Driving back to the house, Tiffany started feeling better as ideas after ideas flooded her head as to what she should do to celebrate his birthday. Maybe that would break the ice somewhat for them. Tiffany knows that her rejection of him that night had hurtled his feelings. Now, she wanted to do something to make it up to him, to show him that she really does care about him and their relationship. She really wanted to make it work as much as he did.

"How does it feel being twenty-nine, old man?" Jonghyun asked playfully.

Looking up from his work, Yunho gave him a sly smile, saying "I don’t know who you are calling old man when your twenty-nineth birthday is in two more months."

"So, any special plans tonight with you know who?" Jonghyun asked, resting his arms behind his head, not letting what Yunho said bother him.

At the mention of Tiffany, Yunho turned solemn as his smile faded away.

"Oh, come on, don’t tell me you don’t have any plans to celebrate it with Tiffany?" Jonghyun asked, sitting up straight, "Man, I would celebrate with you but now that you are married, I think you should celebrate it with your wife."

"What's there to celebrate? She doesn’t even know it’s my birthday today." Yunho said, going back to his work, "Your relationship with Tiffany hasn’t improved?"

"How can it improve if she doesn’t want to be in this marriage in the first place? All she wants to do is go out and party with her friends. Besides, she doesn’t care. I don’t know if what we have is even considered a relationship." Hearing what Yunho said, Jonghyun didn't know how to comfort his friend who had been very down lately, "Tiffany is a special girl, Yunho. I think you both are really compatible. What happened?"

"Marriage just isn't about being compatible, Jonghyun. There has to be love, trust and honesty, you know?" "Yunho, do you love Tiffany?" Jonghyun asked, suddenly turning serious.

Running his hand through his hair, he sighed before saying, "I don’t know how to classify my feelings for her. I do care about her but I don’t know why or when I started caring for her. There are times when I feel that she is sad, I just want to run up to her and hug and comfort her but for some reason, I can’t get myself to do it. When I go to the club and start flirting with girls, my heart isn’t into it anymore like it used to. Like I don’t even see the girls in front of me anymore. All I see is Tiffany's beautiful face looking at me with her sad bright eyes and being miserable as my wife. Just last week, I went home with this stunning and y..."

"What? You had an affair? Yunho! I can’t believe you would do that to Tiffany." Jonghyun said, interrupting him, "Shhh, do you want the whole office to hear you? Besides, let me finish before you jump to conclusions. As I was saying, I went home with this girl and as we were making out on her couch and things were heating up, all I could think about was Tiffany. Of how I wished she was the one in front of me. Suddenly, I felt really guilty for being there so I left right afterwards."

"Phew. I’m glad you didn’t do anything you will regret later on."

"Wait a minute. You are my best friend. Why do I have the feeling you are more on Tiffany's side than mine? She does have her own faults, too. She goes out and party all the time. Remember when we took Jasper to mansion? She was there dancing and kissing with some other guy. Can you believe it? She's a married woman."

"I went over to their table that night. Yunho, those are her friends from the US. Taeng told me that they weren’t going out that night but unexpectedly, received a phone call from them. Since their friends only came in town for only a few days, they decided to hang out with them. Nothing went on. The guy she was dancing with is their close friend. He lives in the US. Stop being jealous and ridiculous without finding the truth. Didn’t Tiffany explain to you?"

Yunho remembered that night how he refuses to hear Tiffany's explanation; he didn’t give her a chance. He didn’t want to hear her make up some lame excuses.

"Um...but she told me before the wedding that she likes to party and that she..."

"Well, I don’t know about that but from what I have seen and heard from Taeng, I think Tiffany is a decent and respectable girl."

"What? Taeyeon is her friend, of course, she’s going to say good things about her."

Getting upset since Yunho wouldn't listen to him, Jonghyun stood up from the chair he had been sitting on, saying "Yunho, there's no point in talking to you. You better do something before you regret it. I don’t know why you are so stubborn and wouldn't see that. Do you want to be miserable forever? Don’t you want to have a sweet and loving wife to celebrate your birthday with?"

With that said, Jonghyun left Yunho's office, leaving him at the desk, stunned at Jonghyun's sudden outburst. Sitting in her office chair, Tiffany try to figured out what to do for Yunho's birthday. She suddenly smiled to herself, thinking that tonight, maybe things will be different between Yunho and her that she didn’t notice that Victoria had come in.

"Tiffany, I saw that little grin. What are you smiling about?" Victoria asked, smiling.

"Victoria?" Tiffany said, surprised "Oh, its nothing."

"I know that look. I can tell that someone is in love."

"I don’t know what you are talking about." Tiffany said, hearing someone knocked on the door before it opened to revealed another one of their colleague, Choi Sooyoung.

"Oh, I just saw our general manager for the first time. Have you seen him? He's so perfect." Sooyoung said dreamily.

Not many employees get the chance to see Yunho so when someone have the opportunity to meet him, it was big gossip in the department. Since working there, Tiffany had seen many girls getting excited and gushed over their general manager.

"Yes, I have met him before. He is indeed a very passionate man but you know, it’s not easy being with such an admirable and rich man. There are bounds to be headaches."

"Um...why do you say that?" Tiffany asked curiously.

"Well, first of all, I’m sure he has very high standards so that means there are very little chance for us. I'm sorry girls." Victoria said, smiling at them, "Second, being y, his girlfriend is probably constantly worrying about him cheating on her. Don’t you think so?"

Tiffany thought about what Victoria had said. She never thought about that before. From what Eunji had told her, Yunho only had one serious relationship. Does that mean that since then, he dated around a lot but never had anymore serious relationships?

"Oh, look at the time. It’s five already. Tiffany, I have looked over your proposal and it looks really good. I will present it to our director tomorrow so see you girls later." Victoria said, and walked out of Tiffany's office, trailing behind Sooyoung.

Tiffany quickly packed up her briefcase and headed out of her office, wanting to the grocery store. As she walked into the elevator, she saw Yunho standing there, among several other staff member. She gave Yunho a little smile and stood next to him. Soon, it was only them alone in the elevator after everyone had left.

"Um...How was your day?" Tiffany asked, wanting to break the awkward silence in the elevator.

"It was okay."

"Are you going home now?"

"No, I have a meeting with a client then I will be home later."

"Um...Okay."

"It’s my floor so I will see you later tonight. Bye."

"Bye."

Going to a nearby supermarket, Tiffany bought all the necessary ingredients for the meal she had planned for Yunho. She also bought 'Happy birthday' balloons for Yunho, too. Checking to see if she got everything, she went to pay up and went home. Tiffany wanted to cook Yunho his first real family dinner and bake him a personal birthday cake. She had never cooked for Yunho since they got married. They either went out to eat or they weren't hungry when they came home so they never ate together in the house. Since she had never really baked anything before, this would be her first time baking a cake from scratch. After what seems like hours in the kitchen, she finally finished her meal and cake. The cake was harder to make then she thought. Looking at everything, she was really proud of the end result. Once Tiffany had set up the table with some romantic candles in the middle, she went around the house, tying the balloons.

"There, perfect." Tiffany said, smiling to herself as she looked around the house and then towards the dining table.

Checking everything one more time to make sure it was in place, she looked down at her gold/beige kate spade new york 'metro' round leather strap watch to see that it was already eight-thirty which means Yunho should be home soon. Pulling out the chair, Tiffany sat down at the dining table, waiting to surprised Yunho when he walked in through the door.

Unfortunately, Yunho didn’t get home until eleven-fifty. He had gone to meet his client but the meeting took longer than he had anticipated.

'What a way to celebrate my birthday. Sitting there and discussing business until now.'

Walking towards the front door, Yunho started wondering if Tiffany was home or out again. To his surprises, Tiffany was sitting at the dining table, asleep. Turning to looked around the house, he was shocked when he caught sight of all the balloons. Yunho walked towards the dining table and saw the cold steak and salad on the plates.

'Did she do all of this for me?' Yunho thought confused, even though he felt warm from everything he saw.

Slowly, he strolled into the kitchen to discover the big mess that his wife had made. Flours were everywhere and the pots and pan filled the sink. Opening the fridge, he looked inside to see the cake before a big smile spread onto his face. It was a simple chocolate cake with chocolate covering strawberries but the writing was what made his heart skip a beat.

'Why did she do all of this? Has she been waiting for me all this time? How did she know it was my birthday?' Yunho thought, and walked back out into the dinning room.

"Yunho Oppa?" Tiffany asked sleepily, starting to wake up.

"Um...I’m sorry I came home so late. The meeting took longer than I thought it would. Um...how did you know?" Yunho asked curiously, indicating to the balloons in the living room.

"I have my sources." Tiffany said, smiling.

Looking down at the food, Tiffany said, "Um...the food is probably cold. Have you ate yet?" Before looking up at Yunho.

Although Yunho had already ate dinner with his client, seeing all the effort Tiffany had put into his birthday dinner, he told her he hadn’t ate yet so that he wouldn't disappoint her.

"Wait here and let me go warm up the food for you." Tiffany said smiling, walking into the kitchen with the plates of steak.

For the first time since he got married, he felt a senses of warmth in the house. His wife had prepared a surprised birthday dinner for him and had baked him a birthday cake. Thinking about everything, Yunho couldn’t wipe off the grin from his face.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Yunho turned to see Tiffany bringing out their meals.

"Here you go." Tiffany said, setting one plate in front of Yunho, "I hope you like it but I have to warn you first. I’m not a very good cook." Tiffany added, giving him a warm smile.

"It’s okay. I’m not very picky. Um...why didn’t you tell me? I would have tried to come home earlier so you didn’t have to wait up for me." Yunho said, still staring at Tiffany tenderly as she sat down.

"Well, I want it to be a surprised. Besides, it’s okay." Tiffany said, still smiling.

With that said, they started on their dinner in harmony. While eating, they couldn't help but notice that this was their first family dinner together and how warm and homey it feels.

"Happy birthday Oppa." Tiffany said, handing him a black velvet box after they finished eating. Yunho was already surprised that Tiffany had done all of this for him but he was even more surprised that she had gotten him a present. Accepting the gift, he started opening the box to reveal a black/rose gold nixon 'ranger' chronograph bracelet watch.

"Do you like it?"

"This is really nice. Thanks. I...um, you shouldn’t have."

What Tiffany didn’t tell Yunho was that she had engraved her name under the watch. Hopefully he will like that extra surprises.

"I know, but I wanted to." Tiffany said, having no idea what those words meant to Yunho. He hasn’t felt this much happiness in such a long time.

"Oh, I almost forgot about the cake." Tiffany said, and went into the kitchen, bringing out the birthday cake.

"Don’t laugh. It’s my first time baking a cake. I hope it tastes good." Tiffany said, setting the cake down before putting in the candles.

'I’m sure it will be because you made it. Just for me.' Yunho thought happily, blowing the candles after he made his wish.

Throughout the whole night, Yunho and Tiffany enjoyed a peaceful and meaningful birthday together and for the first time, the grand mansion actually felt cozy and warm for the married couple.