1.1 | Desiderium ✓

40| forty

SooMin's mother had left the counter for a while, leaving the girl in charge. After a whole, boring week of wallowing in self pity and wracking her brains for homework, SooMin went down to her bakery's kitchen to make special items. She was yet to try making a matcha cheesecake when her mother called, "SooMinnie, mind manning the counter for an hour? I need to go out." 

"Sure…" SooMin's face scrunched when she had to part with her favourite icing tip and leave it all in the kitchen and go do the tedious job of serving the customers. Still, SooMin needed to learn all that if she ever planned to inherit the bakery as her own. Which she did, by all means. 

SooMin was a passionate baker. 

The sound of the wind chimes ringing when the door opened was always a pleasant one, and when SooMin craned her neck to look, there was a girl of no more than five winters trying to push her way inside. Her timid hands clutched the strap of her sling bag, and her wide, owl-like eyes gawked at SooMin. 

"Hey there young lady, what can I do for you?" SooMin smiled, her heart warming up at the sight of the little girl. She walked up, her feet waddling like a penguin and pressed her nose and both palms on the display glass. 

"You want cupcakes?" SooMin gushed, trying her best to not pinch the girl's cheeks. She was so occupied with the little customer, she didn't hear the wind chime ring again, nor did she see a boy come in. 

The tiny girl nodded, raising her head to look at SooMin. "Choco…" She pointed to the section where the large cupcakes were placed, cupcakes the size of a small cake. Those were the bestselling items of her bakery, for it tasted equally good as a cake, without all those decorations. 

"Chocolate? Then do you also like strawberries?" SooMin came on the other side of the counter and bent down to the girl's level to help her choose, totally ignorant of the boy staring at her with a play in his eyes. 

"Yes." The girl threw her head as far as back it could go and brought it down until her chin touched her chest. 

"I'll get you one, okay?" SooMin smiled, before going on the other side again and pulling out the one with the largest amount of chocolate icing and strawberries. "That will be 1200 won, sweetheart." 

The girl nodded once more and dug her hand inside the sling back on her shoulder, before pulling out coins and counting them on her palm. SooMin watched her, still ignorant of the boy. 

"But…" the child looked up, her face as sad as Eeyore. SooMin bit her lip when she realised that the child was short on money. Her mother would have driven the child out, but SooMin took a deep breath and smiled, "We offer special discounts to our cutest little customers. You only have to pay 800 won." 

"Really?" The girl's face lit up and she raised herself on her toes to empty all the coins in her palm on the counter. 

"Come again!" SooMin and the little girl waved to each other with a lot of enthusiasm, and the girl missed hitting the glass door on her way back because she was staring happily at SooMin while walking. 

"How may I help you Sir?" SooMin finally noticed the boy leaning against the counter, looking at the sweets with bored interest. He was a new face. Most visitors included old ladies, middle aged women and their children, high school girls and the only teenage boy who paid the bakery frequent visits was Tae Shin. 

The boy stared at SooMin for a rather odd time, saying absolutely nothing. His eyes were red half lidded, and for a moment SooMin feared he was a junkie. His t-shirt was plain black and probably not washed, considering the dust bunnies hanging off his sleeve. SooMin couldn't really stand people like those.