metal straw | ast. cha eunwoo

thirty five

Surprise, surprise. The two friends finally sat together as Soyeon presented him with a cake. It was a small slice of fruit cream cake with a short message 'happy birthday' written.

When Eunwoo picked up the spoon, he was half-expected to see another spoon beating him to it. He was surprised to see the other spoon didn't move and neither did she.

"You aren't eating," he spoke in a questioning tone.

She shook her head. "Go ahead, this is just for you."

She was speaking like a quiet mouse rather than a chatting dolphin, and she was only maintaining her gaze on the cake and only the cream fruit cake.

He didn't speak his mind, however, and did as she told him to. He took one bite of it, it seemed like Soyeon held her breath for this moment, but Eunwoo's first bite came with an odd reaction. He covered his mouth as he discovered something from the bite of the cake.

"What's wrong? Is the cake okay?" The sight of him drained all the colours from Soyeon's face and she turned pale.

He frowned. "It tastes different."

Hastily, Soyeon gripped the second spoon and swallowed one scoop of the cake. She remained motionless, expecting to taste something foreign. She was baffled when she tasted only sweetness.

"It tastes fine to me."

"It's fine?"

She nodded. "The cake tastes good."

"Try this side." Eunwoo spun the plate around so that his side of the cake faced her.

Like before, she took in one small bite and her face showed tension. But like before, she was puzzled to have tasted nothing strange. "It still tastes good, though."

Then, Eunwoo smiled, it was almost endearingly. "Okay then, have some more."

Soyeon was quick to catch on to what had she done. She slowly put her spoon down and faced him head-on. "You didn't get to eat the cake from last time, I finished it without leaving you some..." Her voice trailed off.

"It doesn't matter," he uttered, taking another bite this time without a sour look, "we could always have more."

He found himself smiling after watching her pick up her spoon again and begin to eat the cake with him.

"How'd you know?"

"You have a lot of fans." She smirked playfully. "And I saw the marked day on your phone the other day."

"Thank you for this," he expressed, "But I hope you stop running away from me after this. I don't need any more surprises."

"Actually..."

She placed her spoon down and turned to rummage through the bags she carried earlier. Meanwhile, it took Eunwoo by surprise at how quickly the cake vanished right before his eyes.

"I have one more suprise for you." She took out a small but long box and placed it right in front of him.

"There isn't Baby inside here, right?" Eunwoo joked, bringing up not-too-old memories.

Instantly, Soyeon shied away. She covered her face in embarrassment at the mention of her pet turtle and shook her head as if trying to shake away the memory that shot from the back of her head. "Just open it, please..."

Eunwoo chuckled at the sight. With a racing heart, he opened the gift and he couldn't help but laugh. He took out the long and hollow cylinder tube from the box along with more in various sizes.

She flashed him a knowing smile. "I figured you can't keep using mine for too long."

He admired the blue metal straws bought just for him. As he did, he noticed markings inscribed on each one of the straws. The closer he looked, the clearer the markings were. 'CHA EUNWOO.' They were his name. The gifts were custom-made.

That wasn't the only surprise he got. Right below the lid of the box, there was a message. When he read it, he couldn't help the smirk moving slowly onto his face.

"Girlfriend, huh?"

"What?" Soyeon stared at him confused.

Eunwoo passed the lid for her to read. Her face showed no reaction at first but close to the end, her eyes widened and her jaw fell fast before she could blink.

The message revealed a birthday greeting, most presumably written by the employees of the store. Right below the message was the person who bought the gifts; 'Your girlfriend, Kim Soyeon,' was written.

"This... This wasn't me, the employees wrote this!" She tried to clarify, all while trying to calm down her blushing face. "I just told them to write happy birthday..."

"Kim Soyeon..." Eunwoo grinned amusingly. "Is this your way of asking me to be your boyfriend?"

Now, that sent her into a frenzy. It was as though the poor girl shuddered to a halt and stopped functioning altogether. Red was the only colour on her face.

"Is it working?"

The tables have turned. She wasn't the one going through a short circuit this time. Despite the cool aura he was giving off, Eunwoo could never control how red his ears were becoming.

"What do you think?"

"I hope so."

"Then, yes."

End <3

this brings to the end of my first book, metal straw !!
thank you everyone for reading until the very end, i didnt expect to have so many readers to come across this book so i appreciate it so much.
im so sorry i kept vanishing from the earth and stopped writing this book. i was never planning to put this book on hiatus bcs i really wanna see the end of it.

thank you again !!

🌟

arohas, i hope you're doing well. this year so far was not friendly to us. its been a few weeks now, more than a month and i still have days where i cry until my eyes stop working. but at the end of the day, i always find joy in their ddocas, their songs, their vlives and everything, so i hope everyone does too.

take your time to heal and stay safe.
lets stay with astro until the very end.

keep a look out of the sky, binnie might send us a message <3