A Cake Full of Warmth
White cream on a white cake.
At first it had looked like a hill, but after using up an entire piping bag, Seia had shaped the cream into a square that filled about half the surface.
Then she crushed cookies and chocolate into tiny pieces, formed them into letters, and pressed them in place.
The letters made of cookie and chocolate were crooked, looking as if they might fall off at any moment.
In front of them stood a large person-shaped cookie and a small person-shaped cookie, holding hands in perfect harmony.
There was no need to ask. The big one was clearly Jungwoo, and the little one was Seia.
The wide, bright smiles on the cookies seemed to perfectly capture how Seia felt right now.
And the cake didn’t end there.
On the flat white area in front of Seona’s Restaurant, right where the teacher had helped her earlier, stood a snowman made of cream.
Until now, Jungwoo hadn’t paid much attention to Seia’s talents, but this cake gave him a glimpse of just one part of her gift.
Beside the cream snowman stood a tree made of cookies and chocolate. It looked just as precarious, like it might collapse any second, but it was easy to see what Seia had wanted to create.
…Come to think of it, winter will be over soon.
The days were growing colder. But that was exactly why the warmth they shared with each other felt even more precious.
Seia’s cake was much smaller than the one Jungwoo had made, yet it held so much more inside it. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it contained everything the two of them were.
“Daddy!”
“Yeah?”
“Seia finished it all!”
The look in Seia’s eyes as she gazed at Jungwoo was no different from usual. A soft, gentle happiness radiated from her, along with an endless love directed entirely at him. As a bonus, there was still a smudge of cream on the tip of her nose.
Jungwoo let out a small chuckle and wiped the cream from her nose with one hand. Seia winked at him with one eye.
“Our Seia, were you saving that for later?”
“Ah. Hehe…”
Jungwoo’s gaze kept shifting—first to Seia, then to the cake, then back to Seia again. The movement itself was proof.
Seia had done an incredible job on this cake.
“You did such a good job, Seia.”
“Hehe… really?”
“Yes. Much better than Daddy could have done.”
“Daddy did good too!”
Seia’s cake was perfect, but it had one major flaw.
How on earth were they supposed to eat it?
Because she had created a work of art instead of a simple cake from the very beginning, the idea of actually eating it refused to enter his mind.
At that moment, the letter in Seona’s Restaurant slid down with a soft shhhk and fell off.
It now read Seoa’s Restaurant.
The bright expression Seia had worn just seconds ago crumpled in an instant, her eyes filling with tears.
“N-no…”
Even that teary face was unbearably adorable.
“Seia.”
“Yes?”
“If something falls off, we can just put it back on. Right?”
“…Yes!”
Jungwoo was right. All they had to do was stick it back in place.
At his words, Seia picked up the fallen “”-shaped cookie piece and pressed it firmly back into its original spot.
“All fixed!”
“See? Nothing’s changed at all.”
Seia smiled and nodded at Jungwoo’s reassurance.
“How did it turn out?”
The teacher returned at just the right moment.
After finishing with her customers, the teacher first examined Jungwoo’s cake and showed a rather impressed expression.
“Oh my, you did such a wonderful job! You could sell this right now.”
“Haha… no, you’re too kind.”
“I mean it. Your hands are incredibly skilled. And our little one here…”
The teacher’s intrigued expression grew even more intense.
Seia hadn’t treated the cake like a canvas. She had simply seen it as a floor and built whatever she wanted on top of it.
“This is… Seona’s Restaurant?”
“Ah, yes. That’s the restaurant I run.”
“Oh my…”
For a moment, the teacher was completely speechless.
The two person-shaped cookies standing hand-in-hand in front of the restaurant. Anyone could tell what they meant at a glance.
On top of that, the adorable cream snowman and the tree made of cookies and chocolate struck the teacher as incredibly creative.
Of course, the level of completion left something to be desired.
Hmm… but it looks so unstable.
If they tried to carry it like this, there was no need to imagine what it would look like by the time they got home. Seona’s Restaurant would collapse, the cookies would topple or shatter, the tree would lose all resemblance to a tree, and the snowman would become nothing more than a lump of cream.
“By any chance, is there anything you’d like to eat?”
At the teacher’s question, Seia tilted her head in deep thought for a moment.
She had brought every kind of cookie and chocolate available, but she hadn’t been able to use them all on the cake.
“Umm…”
While Seia was thinking, the teacher gave Jungwoo a meaningful look and said,
“Sir, we have some new cookies in stock. Would you like to take a look?”
“New cookies?”
Jungwoo could tell the teacher wanted something from him, but he couldn’t quite figure out what. So he decided to follow her lead for now.
“Seia. Want to go see what else they have?”
“There are more cookies?”
“Yeah. She says she just made some new ones.”
“Okay!”
Seia, completely enchanted by the mention of new cookies.
While Jungwoo stepped away with her, the teacher quickly brought over one of the ingredients she had been using earlier.
“…What a beautiful heart.”
At first, it was true that she had simply been captivated by Seia’s appearance. She had never seen such a lovely child before.
But now she found herself falling for something else entirely.
When most children made cakes, they projected the things they loved most onto them. The most common examples were their favorite characters from cartoons they enjoyed or drawings of their parents.
But Seia had included the restaurant, her father, herself, a snowman, and a tree—all of it, packed inside the cake.
“So… her mother isn’t here.”
She had suspected as much. Having seen so many parents come through the workshop, her intuition had sharpened accordingly.
But she didn’t feel pity.
Because they looked happy.
The little girl she had met today seemed happier than anyone else.
“First, let’s secure everything properly.”
Using melted chocolate, she firmly fixed the tree, the letters, the cookies—everything that needed anchoring. Since the weather outside wasn’t hot, the chocolate wouldn’t melt again. The cake would keep its shape until they were ready to eat it.
If she could, she would have added more decorations. She wanted to make the rather plain-looking snowman prettier and turn Seona’s Restaurant into a proper signboard.
But she knew she shouldn’t.
This was the one and only cake in the world that Seia had made.
Just as cultural artifacts received minimal restoration to preserve their original state, she didn’t want to change anything about this cake. The teacher was satisfied with having only lent a helping hand where the bare minimum of repair was needed.
The result was satisfying too.
“Have you chosen your cookies?”
The teacher stepped out with a warm smile, and the first thing she saw was Seia pressed right up against the glass display case, staring at the cookies.
Those chubby cheeks—how much puffier would they get if they were filled with cookies or chocolate?
“Did you see everything?”
“Ah, yes. They all look delicious?”
“Hehe. Of course. I’m quite confident.”
“Seia seems to like them all. Seia, is there anything you want to eat?”
“Seia wants that one!”
What Seia pointed at was a honey bread piled high with cream and generously drizzled with caramel syrup.
“Would you like to try one?”
“Yes. Today’s a day we can enjoy snacks to our hearts’ content.”
When Jungwoo pulled out a card from his wallet, the teacher shook her head.
“This one’s on the house.”
“No, that’s alright. It’s fine.”
Jungwoo’s firm refusal.
Seia had turned out a little different from what the teacher had expected, and it seemed her father was the same.
Most people were happy to accept something for free. Some said it was okay, but they usually gave in after a few offers.
That wasn’t wrong. In fact, the workshop often gave small complimentary items to customers who used their services.
But Jungwoo’s expression was more resolute than she had ever seen.
“Hehe. Seia’s father, this isn’t just a free gift. It’s something we give to everyone who uses the cake workshop. Please don’t feel burdened.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Yes. In that case, let’s call it part of the cake workshop package instead of a service!”
Thanks to the teacher’s friendly nature, Jungwoo finally smiled and nodded.
“I’ll bring it out to you when you’re back in the room.”
“Thank you.”
When they returned to the room with Seia, Jungwoo paused.
“Hmm?”
Seia’s cake had changed in a subtle way. It wasn’t an obvious change that jumped out at first glance. But because this cake held great meaning for both Seia and Jungwoo, he had memorized every single detail. Now he noticed brown—or rather, black—things that hadn’t been there before.
Chocolate?
And beside them, melted chocolate that had been allowed to harden again.
“Ah…”
The teacher had perfectly compensated for all the cake’s weaknesses.
Just like before, these small acts of kindness were the driving force behind truly happy days.
“Seia.”
“Yes?”
“How was making the cake?”
“It was so much fun! The cream went like this and like that!”
He wasn’t sure exactly what property of the cream she was trying to describe, but it seemed Seia had simply found the cream itself entertaining.
Yeah. That was enough.
“Then shall we take a photo to remember Seia’s cake?”
“Yes!”
“Here, Seia, sit over here like this. We’ll take a picture of you with the cake.”
He naturally moved to the opposite side of Seia, but she shook her head.
“Daddy should be in it too.”
“Hmm? Of course. Let’s take one with Seia and one with Daddy together.”
Only then did she nod with a bright smile.
It was a shame there wasn’t a better way to express just how adorable she was.
After capturing the lovely Seia with her cake, it was time for a photo of everyone together.
The father and daughter stood side by side behind their respective cakes, as if proudly declaring themselves the creators. Jungwoo was adjusting the timer on his phone camera.
“Your honey bread is ready~”
The teacher appeared at the perfect moment.
The perfectly baked bread was piled high with cream. But there was more than just the honey bread.
An iced Americano and a pale green drink. It was immediately obvious whose drink was whose.
“And this is… not a service for leaving a good review, but maybe a bribe?”
“Haha… I understand. I’ll be sure to leave a glowing review. Though not because of this.”
Jungwoo shook his head with a helpless smile, as if he couldn’t win against her.
“Are you taking photos?”
“Yes. Could you take one for us?”
“Of course! I’m quite good at taking pictures too.”
At the teacher’s confident smile, Jungwoo tried to hand over his phone, but she shook her head again.
“I’ll use my own camera. It’s a pretty nice one.”
Before long, the teacher returned with a large camera. She checked the lighting and various settings, then nodded as if satisfied.
“Alright. Here we go. One, two, cheese!”
“Cheeeese~”
Seia’s bright voice rang out at the same time as the shutter clicked, echoing through the room.