through the mirror

PART XII | the best presents are the unexpected ones

PART XII | the best presents are the unexpected ones 

It's the second week of March and despite her busy days, Freya finishes her work with a smile on her face. Today is special. Instead of going straight home, she passes by her favorite pastry shop.

She enters the beautifully lighted shop with festive summer decorations hanging around its four walls. The young man before the counter greets her with a lovely smile, a familiar glint in his eyes linger for a second. Freya's a regular customer, that's why. Just last month she came to buy cake for a co-worker and before that, she brought another for her older brother's girlfriend.

It made sense when the guy at the counter greeted her immediately with her name. "Good afternoon, Ms. Jung." She smiles that eye smile, captivating the guy even more.

"What do you like to order? The usual?" He asks, now by the display case showcasing their pastries of the day. It usually consists of their best sellers. Rows and stacks of delightful, soft, sugar sprinkled treats catch eyes, earning a bunch of customers more than the ordinary amount. But nothing compares to their Valentines special. That one was always a benchmark in their business.

Freya bows down to look at the pastries and confections made for that day. They have the fresh cream cake topped with spring flower candies and strawberries— the best seller. Beside it is the mujigae-tteok cake, or best known as the rainbow layered cake and the same cake she buys for her both older siblings. They loved to have all different flavors in one go. Her mom prefers the strawberry cream cake, which something they have in common. Freya has tons of love for anything with strawberry, but not really the person she's buying the cake for, so she lingers by the display case for a while.

"Someone special?"
"Hmm?" Freya stares up to meet the gaze of the guy on the other side of the case. He has a teasing smile on his face.
"You're buying a cake for someone special, right?"
"Why would you say that? I'm buying it for a friend." Freya obviously was flustered by his statement, which urges him to tease her more.

"You usually know what to buy your friends cake, Frey." He leans on top of the case and rests his chin on his wrist to get a better look of Freya's reddening face.

"Well I don't really know what to buy this person, so–"
"You'd go for our best seller. That's what you do." He smirks, before sucking in a hiss. "Like that time you were ordered by your boss to buy a client a cake, and that time you had to buy for a hospitalized co-worker who you really didn't know— what I'm saying is, you don't put too much thought on cakes over people you don't really care about."

"And I don't care about what you think Haru." Freya counters, which makes Haru act like he'd just been shot by a bullet to the heart. She rolls her eyes to this but laughs afterwards, she always finds him silly.

"I just want to give this person a cake they'd like, you know, their taste? They don't really like sweets." Haru returns his teasing smile as she says this.

"You putting effort in choosing cakes caught me off guard. But what does he like anyway?"

"He? Why would you assume he's a he?" Freya crunches her nose, finding his teasing absurd.

"She, then?" Freya gives him a blank stare. "He likes bitter things. Like black coffee. Ice americano." She says before whispering inaudible words to herself, scanning the cakes displayed before her. 

"I thought you go for girls for a second there." Haru chuckles. "Why don't you try this coffee flavored cream cake? It's sweet but kinda bitter. A little in the middle."

"Does it taste good?" Freya flicks her eyes from the said cake to Haru's.
"And I have a boyfriend, Haru."

"Yes, sure it does. None of my father cakes taste awful."

"So this is for your boyfriend huh? That kinda hurts. I thought I had a chance." He smiles toothily, smearing his face with grimace after.

Freya giggles, shaking her head. "He's not my boyfriend, and you're younger than me Haru. I wish you were born earlier, maybe you would've had caught my eye."

"Why are you spending so much time on a cake if it's not someone special?" Haru chooses to ignore the last thing she said and focused on the first one instead. He points the cake again and Freya sends a signal by showing a thumbs up.

"You don't have to be in a special relationship to call them special. He's a good friend and it's his birthday today." Freya smiles, looking over Haru's shoulder to look at the calendar— focusing on one date: March 9.