Cake and Tears
"Seoha? Guys?"
No matter how urgently she called, no answer came back—as if they were all absorbed in some delightful conversation of their own.
She couldn't hide out in the bathroom forever.
Worse, she could sense a suspicious, conspiratorial energy wafting in from outside. Remembering what her friends had gotten up to on previous visits to the house, there was no telling what strange scheme they might be hatching.
She needed to get out there and see with her own two eyes that they were behaving themselves.
They were all girls. It wasn't like they walked around topless. What was the big deal about a bra under pajamas?
More anxious about what her friends might be up to than anything else, Yeoncheong hurriedly threw on her pajamas and bolted out of the bathroom.
"Hey! What kind of weird scheme are you guys plotting this time?"
"Us? We were just chatting."
Her friends sat in a cozy cluster on the floor, each browsing their own phones.
Faced with the picture of worldly calm, Yeoncheong scratched her head, embarrassed.
"Ah, uh, right?"
She tried to brush past it as nothing, but her suspicious attitude only made Hasol's eyes narrow.
"Anyway... 'weird scheme'? Don't tell me you thought we were up to something bad?"
"No... that's not what I meant..."
The moment the accusation struck home, the homeowner started sweating, and the other friends piled on.
"Yeoncheong. Do we really seem that untrustworthy to you?"
"Exactly. This isn't even the first time we've been to your place."
"I'm a little hurt."
She'd doubted them for no reason and gotten caught in the backlash, backed into a corner.
She wanted to snap back, but they were outmatching her by sheer numbers...
"Haah... Sorry. My mistake."
Her friends cheered at the surrender, delivered purely so she could escape the situation as quickly as possible.
Lesson learned: never doubt your friends. She etched it into her heart.
"I'm gonna go throw in a load of laundry."
Yeoncheong grabbed her rain-soaked uniform and fled to the back of the small room where the washing machine stood.
And then—
"Hey! Whose voice was the loud one just now, huh?"
"Yours, obviously. Yours is still the loudest right now."
Suyeon and Nayun grumbled at each other, voices kept low.
"Save the fighting for later, you two can brawl amongst yourselves. Anyway—Seoha, when did you say you'd get here?"
"Right after dinner? She said she'd bring it over early so it wouldn't be too late."
Hasol and Seoha continued their strange(?) conspiracy.
***
Yeoncheong lay on the bed while her friends sat gathered around it, waiting a good long while for the delivery food.
Nayun glanced at the homeowner as a thought occurred to her.
"Yeoncheong. Don't you think you've got it way too easy here?"
"Of course. It's my house."
What hardship could a homeowner possibly suffer in her own home?
But at that breezy answer, Nayun rounded on her.
"You... know exactly what I'm getting at and you're doing it on purpose, aren't you?"
"Who knows?"
A smile played at the corner of her mouth, belying the answer.
Realizing she knew full well and was dodging anyway, Nayun started whacking her friend, hard and fast.
It didn't hurt, exactly, but Yeoncheong had never cultivated a taste for getting hit, so her lips quivered.
"O-okay, okay. I get it. Make yourselves comfortable."
"Does that mean we can get on the bed?"
"If you want to get on, get on."
The truth was, she'd noticed the moment she'd come out of the shower.
Climbing onto someone's bed without the owner's permission was rude to begin with, and maybe because of the rain, everyone had just been sitting quietly on the floor, unable to even mention it.
Remembering how she'd been completely at their mercy on her birthday (100% her own fault), she'd simply chosen not to ask how long they planned to sit like that.
But watching Yeoncheong lounging up on the bed, they'd apparently reached their limit.
The moment the homeowner's permission landed, her friends began climbing onto the soft bed in a wave...
"H-hold on. Time out..."
"Ahh, this is nice. The floor was rock-hard AND the heating doesn't even reach it—freezing."
"No wonder they say other people's stuff is best. This bed is seriously plush."
Pushed back by their relentless advance, the bed's owner was naturally squeezed into the corner.
"Um, hello? Everyone?"
Just like in the bathroom, no answer came.
Determined not to let it happen twice, Yeoncheong launched her counterattack.
"Hey, you lot! Can't you hear me?!"
She kicked the blanket up and flung it over her friends' upper bodies. Five people on a bed that barely fit three lying down meant she didn't even need to aim. Then she threw her body on top to block any escape, and her friends' frantic squirming reaction was deeply, deeply satisfying.
"Kyaa!"
"Hey! Ha Yeoncheong!"
"Agh, jeez! Who is this?!"
"Me."
"Seoha? Sorry."
"Youuu... when you get out of here, you're dead!"
Yeoncheong wheezed and squirmed, holding down the escape attempt of four.
Having committed to the bit first, she was just starting to wonder how to wrap things up peacefully when—
The intercom screen lit up, revealing the delivery driver's face.
A perfect, heaven-sent window of opportunity.
"Oh, the delivery's here."
She naturally climbed off her friends and darted away.
The moment the weight pressing down on them vanished, Suyeon was the first to wriggle free, her lips curling slyly.
"Pffhaha. Ha Yeoncheong... so THIS is how you play it, huh?"
Someone fixed their hair. Someone glared at Yeoncheong. Yet another clutched the blanket, preparing vengeance.
Evading her vengeance-burning friends, she headed for the door.
The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs grew closer.
She opened the door right on cue, took the food hand to hand, and closed it behind her—silence fell.
Startled by the sudden hush, Yeoncheong looked at her friends.
"Why'd it suddenly get so quiet?"
Following the woman who'd broken the silence, Hasol asked back.
"Do you... usually receive deliveries like that?"
"...Don't you?"
She didn't order in that often. She'd never really thought about it, but probably, yes.
Why even ask something like that?
Before she could tilt her head, Nayun shouted.
"Hey! Who the hell opens the door to receive a delivery?!"
Yeoncheong flinched at the sudden rebuke.
Wasn't it obvious you had to open the door to get your food? You could hear them coming up the stairs, so you could go out and wait, then take it—
She couldn't figure out what she'd done wrong, but the scolding kept coming.
"Okay, fine, it's safe right now because we're all here. But what if you're alone and you just swing the door wide open out of nowhere? What then?"
"She's right. You live way too carelessly for a girl living on her own. You can't do that."
With Hasol chiming in to explain, she had no choice but to nod.
Every single word was right.
It was something she—someone who'd once been a man—had never once thought about.
"Sorry. I'll be careful from now on."
"Whew... better late than never. Now hurry up and eat."
School life had taught her a great deal, but in this particular area, it seemed she still had plenty left to learn.
***
Slightly deflated by the stinging lecture, Yeoncheong unpacked the food, thinking:
'Isn't this a little... not enough?'
She hadn't checked, assuming they'd ordered well enough on their own, but it did look like there might be a bit of a shortfall.
As she sat quietly pondering, Suyeon came up to her amid the friends who were now seamlessly, practiced-ly helping set everything up.
"What?"
"No, I was just thinking it might not be enough."
"There's one more. It just hasn't arrived yet."
Saying she'd ordered generously, Suyeon grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down to sit, so Yeoncheong figured whatever else had been ordered was just running a little late.
Her friends tore open the packaging and pressed a piece of chicken into their star's hand.
'Maybe it's because I haven't had this in a while. So good.'
Tearing into a drumstick—a luxury she'd long since graduated from in her frugal student diet—she completely forgot about the mystery food that still hadn't arrived.
***
The chatter stretched the meal out a little longer than it should have, but as expected, the chicken vanished in no time.
Only then did the thought that had been bumped down the priority list reclaim Yeoncheong's head.
"Suyeon, you said something else was coming. Did you actually order it properly?"
"Thaaat...?"
No answer—just eyes sliding sideways to check Seoha's reaction. Right on cue, the friend who'd just checked her ringing phone nodded, and Suyeon broke into a beaming smile.
"Oh, it's here. One sec."
Still refusing to say what it was, Suyeon and Seoha headed out together to receive it downstairs.
Hasol crept closer, wearing a meaningful smile.
"Yeoncheong."
"Hm?"
"Just bear with it for a second!"
And the moment she stole her friend's gaze, Nayun dragged the blanket in from behind and pounced on top of Yeoncheong.
She thrashed around, half-wondering if this was payback for earlier, but even two-on-one was anything but easy.
It really sank in that she was a girl too, and that earlier, her friends had clearly gone easy on her.
In the end, she gave up resisting and waited.
When the blanket suddenly whipped away, she squinted against the brightening world—and froze, utterly dumbfounded.
The house was pitch dark. When had the lights gone out?
A cake sat before her eyes, flickering candles wavering atop it.
Her brain understood the situation, but flustered, her mouth just flapped uselessly. No words came.
While her blue eyes were bewitched by the swaying candlelight, the friends surrounding her began to clap with a small, quiet cue—*one, two*.
Beyond the faint glow of the trembling flames.
"Happy birthday to you."
Nayun, lips moving shyly, gaze drifting aside.
"Happy birthday to you."
Hasol, meeting her eyes with a beaming, eye-crinkling smile.
"To our dearest Yeoncheong~"
Seoha, laying pointed emphasis on *dearest*, and Suyeon with her phone camera aimed straight at her.
"Happy birthday to you. Waaaah~!"
When was the last time she'd had this song sung to her?
Living alone with her father, she had no memory of it—so it must have been the last time her mother was alive.
An emotion she couldn't name, forgotten so long she could barely describe it now, wrapped itself around her.
The song ended with a cheer, and her friends urged her to make a wish. Her flustered, wordless mouth finally seemed to remember its purpose, and she blew out every candle in one breath.
As darkness swallowed the room, a familiar light clicked on and wrapped around them.
The cake sitting untouched, the candles with their extinguished flames—they made it clear this was no dream.
Suyeon came bouncing over, bursting with excitement.
"Well? The surprise event Seoha proposed and we all prepped?"
Seoha, catching Yeoncheong's eye, answered with a grin.
Apparently the event had been planned because Yeoncheong's household wasn't exactly in the habit of making a fuss over birthdays.
"It's been a while for us too, so we're a little embarrassed..."
"We had tons of other plans, but the rain really ruined them."
"We did the most important part, though. I'd call it a success."
As the others traded their own impressions, Yeoncheong alone kept her mouth pressed shut.
"Yeoncheong?"
Worried the event hadn't pleased her, her friends peered at her face—
"Hey, hey!"
"Where are the tissues?!"
Without anyone needing to say who went first, they all started hunting for tissues.
"Khff..."
She was sniffling, trying with all her might to hold it in—but the heavy tears welling at the corners of her eyes lost the battle and streamed down her cheeks.
"Don't cry!"
"I'm not—I didn't *tell* her to cry..."
They say tears come when you're too happy.
She knew this was the strongest reaction she was capable of producing, but actually shedding them left her flustered and exposed.
Yeoncheong scrubbed at her face and muttered.
"Ugh... this is so annoying..."
It was the same with her father, and it was the same now.
Should she blame the oversensitive heart that swelled at every little thing, or the tear ducts that seemed to be broken?
But one thing was certain—
"Hey, stop crying already. Now it feels like *we* did something wrong."
She couldn't blame the friends comforting her, or the friends who'd put this whole event together.
Birthdays had always passed lightly, unremarked, and it had never bothered her.
So she'd assumed she simply didn't care about birthdays—but somewhere deep down, it seemed she'd been starved for exactly this kind of celebration.
"Yeoncheong. We still have to give you your present. Eat something sweet and perk up."
As if to say this simply wouldn't do.
So saying, Seoha stabbed a piece of cake and fed it to her—and of course it was sweet, and of course it lifted her mood, which was almost infuriating.
"Okay, crying less. Let's feed her more."
The moment they confirmed the cake was working, every single one of them scooped cream onto a finger and brought it to her mouth.
"Nooo, I'm not... *sniff*... I'm not a *khh*... baby anymore..."
But eating everything she was fed even as she said it, she had zero persuasiveness.
"Eat and smile. It's a good day."
"Dom' bake my face allll distorded..."
Her pronunciation was mush from talking around the food, and her face was a disaster of tear tracks and cream.
Ridiculous in the moment, sure—but it would be a birthday she'd remember for the rest of her life.
"So... what did you wish for?"
"Ooh, now I want to know too."
"Nope. Not telling."
As if THAT alone was unbearable, Yeoncheong's blue hair whipped violently back and forth.
"Aww, come on~ tell us~"
"No. Way."
*I hope next year can be like this too.*
There was no way she could say that out loud—a silly, embarrassing wish swept up in a moment of pure emotion.
